All Works Together for the Good!

 Since Korea has lived within the Chinese Cultural Sphere, Chinese character words are well known in the citizens' daily lives. They often use four-character idioms or idioms derived from historical events with four syllables. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in these idioms at job interviews or college entrance exams. A priest who writes regularly for the Catholic Times gives the readers a look into a few of these maxims and uses a story from the Bible to illustrate one of the better-known maxims— 'saeongjima' (塞翁之馬) which means that fortunes and misfortune are difficult to predict because life changes so often.

The good things are often mixed— the fly in the ointment— (好事多魔), and disasters are changed to good things— Blessings in Disguise(轉禍為福) are the words used frequently. It is often said that life is a changeable and unpredictable phenomenon. He goes into detail with (塞翁之馬) and exemplifies it with the life of Joseph of the Old Testament. We have our own 'Felix Culpa' (Happy Fault) from the Easter Saturday Liturgy at the Exultet.

(塞翁之馬)

An old man had a horse — the horse represented all his assets and very valuable to him. One day, the horse ran away, and all the villages expressed their sorrow for the loss, he however,  simply answered: “Who knows whether that is good or bad?" Some weeks later the horse returned, bringing with him another horse, and thereby doubling the riches of the old man. The villages rejoiced for the old man, but he cautioned: “Yes, this is good, but sometimes bad comes with good.”

Afterward, the man’s only son tried to ride the new horse and was thrown from it, breaking his leg. Once again the villages commiserated with him, but the Old Man was calm and reminded them that even in a turn of bad luck, there may be the seeds for good. Within a few weeks, a regional war began which included his village, and all the able-bodied young men were drafted, and many were killed in the conflict. But, because he had a broken leg, the son of the old man was spared being drafted, and recuperated at home, safe from the war.

There is much that will happen to us throughout our lives.  Almost everything that might happen to us has seeds both for good and bad within it. It is up to us to see those seeds for what they are: opportunities, in the case of good things, and warnings and lessons, in the case of the bad.

Truly we must appreciate all the good in our lives, but we must also seek out the deeper truths that might be warning to us of the less desirable things that may come our way and be prepared.

Conversely, in the bad which will be part of our lives, there is a path outwards that leads to the good — and that path many times brings us to a good much greater than the “bad” experienced.

The columnist thinks the character in the Bible that fits these idioms well is Jacob's son, Joseph. In a word, he lived a life full of dramatic twists and turns. Jacob openly favored Joseph, born from his relationship with Rachel, whom he loved. Naturally, the other sons were jealous of Joseph and hated him. The result of monopolizing their father's love eventually became a cause of pain and suffering for Joseph.

One day, the other brothers took the opportunity to sell Joseph into slavery to Egypt. However, it worked out well for Joseph, and he eventually became the prime minister of Egypt. Joseph’s brothers came down to Egypt to seek food because of the famine, and when they were questioned as spies, they met Joseph again, but they did not recognize him. When his brothers finally returned home and brought Benjamin with them, Joseph confessed everything, hugged them all, and cried and reconciled. His life journey was like riding a roller coaster. But it all ended well.

Joseph never got disappointed or blamed God at any point, but kept his faith. Joseph realized that no matter how well a person plans, it is God who accomplishes it. The strength that sustained him through the hardships and despair he experienced in his life was his faith. That faith was a great legacy inherited from his ancestors. When we look at the lives of believers, many elements cannot be called coincidences. God is the one who plans and leads our lives. God uses hardships, failures, and even sins to produce good fruit. If we learn from Joseph’s faith, we can see that if we keep our faith in God without being overjoyed or depressed, we will eventually produce good fruit.

In all situations, no matter what pain or difficulty comes, we must not let go of our faith in God.