Living a more contemplative life in today's world, with its many interesting and often useful diversions, is far from easy. In a recent Catholic newspaper, a columnist tells us that if we are to discover who we are, we need to spend more time alone and sacrifice some of the many enticements that surround us, especially the most alluring from the virtual world: the internet, with its world wide web, its email, its Facebook and Twitter, putting people in touch from around the world; the mobile phone, which in only a few years has evolved from cell phone to smart phone, with each new model being replaced by an even "smarter" phone, combining most of the new technologies in one magical package: music, images, email and text messaging, camera, and web browsing. This virtual environment is mindboggling and addictive for the inquisitive and for those searching for something more satisfying than what they are now experiencing.Spiritual growth may be what they, unknowingly, are looking for but for this to happen time alone is a prerequisite. The habits of the past and supposed needs of the present, however, are always there encroaching on our limited time. To determine what most people did when alone, the writer received the following answers to his question: They are gathering information on the internet, sending text messages or talking on the telephone. To the question "What do you do after that?" Typical responses were: “Isn’t it strange to be by oneself? We have to live with others. Those that like to be by themselves are selfish and introverts." Obviously, the youth of today do not think that being alone is a good thing.
And yet, if we are to know ourselves in the deepest sense, attaining wholeness as the person we were meant to be, periods of silence, of being alone, have always been considered important in Catholicism. Even in society at large, there are all kinds of programs that recommend finding some quiet time during the day to meditate.
By spending time alone, we come in contact with the person God made in his image. Knowing the person we really are, getting deeply in touch with the stillness--the still presence we share with everyone ("Be still and know....")--allows us to know and to live harmoniously with others because of that shared awareness.
A help in maintaining a sense of this harmony and closeness was the extended family, a tradition now largely replaced in Korea by the nuclear family--parents and children. This has brought loneliness to the Korean family that was not there in the past. When familial ties are broken as we chase after temporal and ever changing material goods of the world, believing they will satisfy us, instead of looking within and, in silence, finding true satisfaction by heeding the inner voice, there is bound to be a disappointment. The rate of suicide is a serious problem in Korea, and loneliness and severe depression will continue to be a problem for many Koreans who once lived in large intimate families. The Korean society, no less than western society, places great importance on doing rather than on being. It's a doing focused on possessing and enjoying the things of the world, rather than being focused on a more rewarding contemplative life. It's a journey we all need to take.
