Living Fully In Old Age

The Korean website Catholic News Now/Here has an article by a religious sister, a Professor Emeritus, of the Holy Names University. She gives the readers some important areas to review in life.

They say it snows a lot in Korea, but in Alameda, California, where she lives, it has been raining hard for several days. Sitting in the corner of her cozy attic and feeling the wind blowing hard makes her happy but also guilty. She thinks of the people who are homeless and the many undocumented immigrants who are hiding in fear of being deported. She feels sorry and wonders how to protect their humanity and dignity.

There is a sense of anxiety in the hearts of many due to the current chaotic and worrying behavior of President Trump. In this context, Spiritual Directors International held a special meeting on what we should do for those angry and afraid in the face of recent executive orders. In particular, how we should respond to the reality that our purpose of embracing diversity and difference may be threatened (in fact, one of the Trump administration’s executive orders was to cut off federal support for DEI programs, which stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and many who want a just society by embracing diversity have been hurt). 

We gathered on Zoom to share our feelings and listen to each other.  We talked about how we cannot give up our values ​​no matter the situation and how we should create as many situations as possible to embrace and listen to people's anger and fears. 

While talking about this, we felt some new energy. Someone said that the message that this series of violent situations is forcing on us is that we feel powerless, so it seems important to continue to make small gestures that we can do as resistance, like a flying bird flapping its wings. I nodded strongly, and the other people in the meeting did the same. Then, we started to break free from the tense atmosphere and laugh a little.

The daytime moon in the blue sky comes to mind. Sometimes, God’s calling is so unnoticeable, so gentle, and it seems like he’s by my side, so I feel even more grateful and thankful. 

Thinking about it, even though we have difficult times, in the end, a spiritual person, and therefore a person who pursues a human life can continue to laugh. In fact, we see an abundance of humor in many saints. On a cold winter night when her whole body felt frozen, Saint Teresa of Avila, struggling to pull up a carriage stuck in a puddle, said that God doesn’t have many friends because he treats his friends so badly. We are also familiar with the stories of saints who, seeing themselves as old and infirm and unable to move well, called themselves old donkeys and laughed at themselves.

In fact, living as a person of the Lord in today’s secularized world, one has to be cautious when dealing with many difficult and disturbing things. Perhaps that is why Isaiah’s confession, in which he groaned, “Oh, I am ruined!” when he saw his unholy and sinful existence while facing God, lingers in her mind. If God came to her and called her as he did  with Isaiah, she would respond like the prophet:  “Oh, I am ruined!”

Thinking about it, she confesses having caught many fish because she cast her net where she was told to, just like Peter in Luke 5. All her work, teaching students, writing books, and providing spiritual guidance, was nothing more than casting her net where she was told. 

Today, she returned after a meeting with a desire to live a deeper community life with her community of nuns. Many nuns are now going to nursing homes, and we have promised to work hard to build a smaller but deeper community of love.  She hopes to live anew with a humble heart and focus more on God.

The sight of the nuns who will soon be scattered and leaving the Bay Area, to which they have grown accustomed, is sad and beautiful. We are people destined to sing about how we have always lacked love and our desperate hopes to become fishers of men from now on. So today, as we finished our meeting, we shared a delicious chocolate cake. And we whispered blessings for each other’s old age. Ah! Until yesterday, we were ruined. So, from now on, let’s fish for people and love.

Living The Contemplative Life

Some years ago, the Catholic Peace Weekly had an article on "New Seeds of Contemplation," a book that deals with ‘contemplation’ and in which the reporter summarizes chapter 1: ‘What is contemplation?’  Those who have read the book will agree that its contents are difficult. The reason for this is that contemplation is not something that can be taught to anyone, and it cannot be fully expressed in human language. However, it is something we should all try to attain.

Christians hope to see God and enjoy eternal happiness with Him. Merton’s contemplation is to taste true happiness with God in advance in paradise, the original place of mankind where Adam was. Merton viewed contemplation as God’s grace that mercifully completes the mysterious work of creation hidden within us.

“Contemplation is the reason God created us. Through contemplation, we know and love Him as the ‘God who is", and we come to know Him through a deep and vivid experience that our nature cannot comprehend… All who have reached the purpose of creation will become contemplatives in heaven. However, God has made it possible for many to enter this supernatural realm and experience a new environment while they are still in the world.”

To understand Merton’s words, we must realize the purpose of creation and its completion. As we can see in Genesis, God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day, and the completion of creation is precisely this ‘rest’. Eternal rest and peace with God is the ultimate purpose of our human creation. To put it another way, this is heaven, the kingdom of God. “All who have reached the purpose of creation will become contemplatives in heaven.”  Heaven has already come among us through Jesus. When Jesus proclaimed, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand,” he taught that “the kingdom of God is already among us.” And he accomplished this kingdom of God through his death on the cross and resurrection. In other words, Jesus himself is the kingdom of God and heaven. When we unite with Jesus, we live in heaven here and now.

In this context, Merton teaches us that contemplation is precisely the ‘restoration of the original life of man’, the ‘restoration of life in paradise.’ “Amid the anxiety that arises when we stand alone before God in our own nothingness, we must stand naked, without any explanation, without any theoretical system, and we must entrust ourselves completely to his providence, and we must earnestly seek his grace, mercy, and the light of faith. Because true contemplation is not a psychological technique but a theological grace.” 

Adam was naked before God in the Garden of Eden, but he felt no shame. However, after committing a sin against God’s will, he felt shame and hid from God. Jesus Christ, the new Adam, was crucified naked on the cross. He forgave Adam’s sin and all of our sins and restored paradise. Merton saw contemplation as becoming one with Jesus’ nakedness. He describes contemplation as entering paradise, the original place of human beings, where there is no longer any need for shame, even if naked before God.

Merton wrote in a letter to a friend in 1963: “For me, the contemplative life is a search for truth and God. This is discovering what is truly important in my life and finding my rightful place in God’s creation.” 

Living with God in paradise is our original place as humans. And contemplation is restoring that original place. However, we often fail to respond to His invitation of love and hide. It may be because we lack the courage to show our shameful selves as they are.  However, just as Jesus hung naked on the cross, let us entrust ourselves to Him as we are and enter His paradise. And let us remember this. Restoring life in this paradise is not a completion but a new beginning.

The Church of Hope

In the Preciousness of Faith column, a priest in the  Catholic Peace Weekly, embarking on a pilgrimage to Italy for the Jubilee of 2025, reflected on the  theme of the Jubilee, "Pilgrims of Hope." The Jubilee of 2025, a significant event in the Catholic Church, is a time of spiritual renewal and reflection, marked by pilgrimage and prayer. This theme contains two words the Church must remember. 

First, "hope." Pope Francis explained the purpose of the Jubilee: "The coming Jubilee can greatly contribute to reviving the atmosphere of hope and trust that will give us a foretaste of the renewal and new birth that we so desperately desire. This is why I have chosen the motto of the Jubilee as "Pilgrims of Hope."

When the Pope visited the Korean Church for the beatification ceremony in 2014, he also asked the Korean bishops: "Please be guardians of memory and hope."

The Pope emphasizes hope because this era is desperately looking forward to hope. There is no sign that war and violence are disappearing around the world. Countless are the victims of famine, infectious diseases, and natural disasters. The economic and political crisis is causing chaos not only in our country but also throughout the world. Many young people are despairing. 

The works of Han Kang, the first Korean to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, have received worldwide attention probably because she has drawn empathy by meticulously depicting the violence that appears in human life, the trauma and wounds that result from it, and the fragility of life, and has searched for humanity beyond that. In short, her writings have comforted people because she has not given up hope.

It is clear that this era, where hope is threatened, is in crisis, but this can also be an excellent opportunity for the Church. This is because the Church holds a greater hope than what humanity desires. In fact: "In hope we have been saved" (Romans 8:24). Furthermore, the Church has always sought hope and testifies to the hope it has found. "Always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you about the hope that is in you." (1 Pet 3:15). Today, we are called to bear witness to that very hope.

A church that does not hope, does not dream together, and cannot bear witness to hope has nothing to offer the world. Fortunately, the Church continues to witness hope through the Holy Spirit's work and the believers' efforts. It sheds light on the dawn of hope in many places worldwide.

However, hope is not given on its own. That is why it must be a 'pilgrimage'. Hope is a dawn that comes only to those who seek and reflect on it. Just as the Magi set out again to find the star they had lost and the star rose again (cf. Mt 2:1-12), Christians are pilgrims who set out again to find hope.

The characters in the Bible are people who overcame trials and lived with hope. We who set out on a pilgrimage to find hope are the world's hope. This is why we must begin the Jubilee of 2025 with hope. 

The word "hope" reflects an undeniable dark shadow in human life. The crises and trials we must endure, and the solutions that humans themselves cannot find... But it is precisely there that hope shines. Hope starts from our reality but directs us towards something beyond ourselves. 

The figures in the Bible were those who overcame trials and sought hope, and all church members were pilgrims who followed in their footsteps to find hope. Therefore, "pilgrims of hope" is our very name. And we, who embark on a pilgrimage to find hope, are the hope for the world.