Community and Relgious Life

The writer this week in the Desk Column of the Catholic Times admits that the internet could keep him interested  a whole day. However,  there are many in the society who need the off-line  camaraderie: sitting down with others with a drink in hand feeling the warmth of  body and soul  with  human relationships. This will be more of a concern as  we get  used to the analog way of living.

This is true also of our religious life; it is not an individual or private affair. Some may think that they  stand  alone  before God but Christian teaching tells us that God is interested in the liberation of his people as a group. Christianity is a community. It is like the fingers of a hand if one gives trouble all feel it.

In the West which  has become secularized, the danger is believing without belonging tendency. The  religious heart is still there but lack of desire to belong to any institution; an individualization and self-interested  spirituality are in vogue. They consider themselves Christians but not interested in the Sacramental life; Mass attendance not considered a duty, there is no thought about community.

How about the Korean Catholic Church? The individualization from the West has entered Korea, but   Koreans have an understanding of a group orientated society; the  belonging has not disappeared from our thinking. We still have  cliques and problems with divisions, but  we  do not prefer the  independent or    the individual  approach over community.   We  still believe that the spiritual life is one in communion with others.

The problem for us, he says, is the belonging without believing. The teaching of the community does not affect our daily life. We desire to belong without following the teaching of the community. And this is especially seen in our understanding of the morality of life issues. In all the surveys that have been made, we see the big discrepancy between what is taught and what is done. The Catholics pick and choose what they want to follow.

The Church has to deal with this issue. The numbers of catechumens are not dropping off; the churches are crowded with parishioners; vocations are not decreasing by much and the friendly faces of  the parishioners  seen by the priests does not diminish the crisis that we have. To think that we need to go back and give programs that will help educate the laity is an illusion. Thought has to be given why the Catholics are not completely following the teaching of the Church. If we think, we know we will not be searching for answers.

The Church has to deal with this issue. The numbers of catechumens are not dropping off; the churches are crowded with parishioners; vocations are not decreasing by much and the friendly faces of  the parishioners  seen by the priests does not diminish the crisis that we have. To think that we need to go back and give programs that will help educate the laity is an illusion. Thought has to be given why the Catholics are not completely following the teaching of the Church. If we think, we know we will not be searching for answers.