The Status Quo Does Not Benefit All

When we are too concerned with the details to see the big picture, we may be told "You can't see the forest for the trees." This tunnel vision can mar the historical record when we select some incident and think we know what happened without understanding the background of the incident. the society, and the mind set of the people living in a different culture than our own.  Sister Im Keum-cha of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Community has written a historical novel, " Break," which intends to show that the entrance of Catholicism in Korea was not only a Catholic thing but affected all of society.

The novel centers around the years 1830-40, as seen through  the eyes of its two protagonists, who are not Catholic but are able to see the problems of the society from having traveled widely and benefited from the status quo. They realized that this stratified society of  privileged and disadvantaged citizens has to be be broken; this goal to break the status quo gave the novel its name.

Catholicism brought into Korea a belief system that spoke about the equality of all. This thinking was not absent in Korea but Catholicism was showing how this could be achieved by putting into practice its beliefs.  It was because Catholicism was breaking down the status quo that brought about the persecution.

Sister has a doctorate in oriental philosophy,  studied in Taiwan and has taught in universities here and in the States. Her intention in writing history packaged in a historical novel was to make available her more academic works in a genre that would be of interest to all. She did this by introducing to us two protagonists whose primary concerns where not for themselves but for all of society. They could  see the world as bigger than their own life situation.

Both Catholic papers reviewed the book, one review quoting the words of one of the protagonists, who at the end of the novel whispers to his son: "Those who adhere to only one way will not allow for  change. But when we don't have change only a few will live well and the rest will live with anguish and without meaning. Change means to look for a new way. That is the way you should go. It is the  way to find meaning in life." It is this message the sister wants to  leave with the reader. (The word used in the title of the novel is the word I  translated as change in the above paragraph.)

Educating the Whole Person

Korean students do well in competition with students from other countries, and the percentage of high school students who go on for higher education are second to none. And the number who go on to  study overseas would also rank high. Embedded within the culture is the belief that success in life depends on education. This desire for knowledge is remarkable but there is a dark side.

Most parents realize that this desire  for the benefits of education may lead to separating the head and the heart. But the pressures of society are such that it's difficult for them to protest. School studies are often supplemented with private tutoring, which is a financial strain on the family, but when other students have these opportunities, parents find it difficult to do differently.

There are efforts being made, however, within the educational system to place less emphasis on academic brilliance and more emphasis on educating the whole person. And just recently a priest, recently installed as president of a Catholic school in Seoul, indirectly alluded to these problems in his inaugural speech. Although admitting to having little background in education, he said he will  be learning by teaching, and quoted a Latin phrase in support of this intention. He does have a great deal of experience in the field of human growth, having received a doctorate from the Gregorian in spirituality.

Here are some quotes from the inaugural address, showing the direction he will be taking:

"Since the students have not established their own values they look upon  their grades  as something absolute, so if they receive low grades they consider themselves failures." He wants to nurture students that have the soul space to grow in their lives: "Persons who have the values given by Christianity as their foundation can face failure when having the soul space that allows them to see more than the failure....I hope students will have the same concern for their dignity as persons as they do for their studies." He wants students to pose ultimately important questions and to search diligently for the answers. "Like Don Quixote, in the words of Cardinal Kim, push like a fool toward the windmills, where the head and the emotions are not in conflict."

There are many, like the president of the Catholic school, who see the problems but solving them in a society that views success in good grades and winning in competition  will be difficult. It is very satisfying for a nation to be  number one in its efforts to educate its citizens, but when the standards are not helpful in cultivating a spiritually healthy human being, then the nations must consider changing the standards that have been set. This thinking  will have to become part of our common educational  legacy if we don't want to see more dropouts from society.

Wanting to Live a More Meaningful Life

There have always been persons who want to live the Christian life more fully by cultivating an interior life. Many join a religious order or society and some join  lay  communities of men and women, which are often ecumenical, sometimes have a religious orientation, and sometimes have no beliefs. But most persons who join these lay communities want to share their life and material goods with others. Though the communities may be composed of Catholics, families as well as individuals, they are not formally recognized by the Church. The one thing they have in common is their dissatisfaction with the ways of society.

We are introduced to such a  community, the Community on the Mountain, in the recent Kyeongyang magazine, by a priest who works on the pastoral committee of the Seoul diocese. He begins by telling us that  society is made up of  all kinds of innovative minds that continually  surprise us with their discoveries: today we have smart phones, robots, cosmetic surgery, even the possibility of changing men into women and women into men.  No one knows what surprises will come tomorrow.

The Community on the Mountain has over 30 members and is working on two  projects that the priest describes by posing two questions that the community is in the process of answering: "Can we, without working for money, discover the art of being  happy? And can we, without  competing with one another, find success?"  When the answers to these questions have been found and put into practice, he says the earth will shake, and the first signs of the change will likely be that we will lose interest in having the finest education possible, or getting the highest paying job possible.  He then relates a few of the things that  the group thinks important to reach their goal.

Children in the community are required to work, besides going to school. They have to feed the animals, clean the chicken coops, and help with the many tasks of the community. In the past, learning and labor were not separated like they are today, where children are not to work but  study. The writer feels that for a person's mature growth work is required.

In Japan, one of the communities that required the children to work was featured in a TV program that accused the community of abusing children. The journalists had no idea of the value of labor for helping to nurture creativity and spirituality. They saw working with the hands as something lowly and for those without education. Without work, the priest says,  knowledge does not have  soul.

Another point he makes is that the children eat only after the adults have eaten. This surprises visitors to the community, but the priest explains that in our society children often consider themselves as being the center of the family, which is not the way it should be.  If we are truly to respect our children and help raise them to be responsible adults, we have to show them they are part of the human family. If they do not learn that lesson they are easily spoiled and will be difficult to discipline.

He finishes the article by contrasting what parents would say to a child leaving for study abroad: "Let us  know immediately when you need money." And what a Christian would say: "You should be in search of God's justice and  practice justice yourself." Teaching  our children the art of true happiness is the first principle behind education for a person of faith, which means becoming the person God wants us to be, a  complete human being. As expressed in Luke 2:40, "The child grew in size and strength, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him."

A Hypothetical Korean WYD

The recent World Youth Day in Spain, attended by well over a million young people without serious problems, prompted a journalist for the Peace Weekly to imagine what  a WYD  would look like in Korea in 2020. He imagined a new pope who would be taking his first trip to Korea for the event. Although Brazil will host the next WYD in 2013, the journalist wanted to take a look at the difficulties of  hosting a WYD in Korea.

For the Church to host an event of this size without  government help would be, he believes, impossible. Finding appropriate meeting places and sleeping facilities, and making the necessary travel arrangements would be obstacles difficult to surmount. The Church did host, in 1984, the 200th  anniversary of the beginning of Catholicism in Korea, and the 44th Eucharistic Congress in 1989, but these events were, for the most part, internal to the country, and foreign visitors, even for the Eucharistic Congress, numbered only about 7000. With an expected 300,000 visitors coming to Korea for WYD for a stay of about a week, the journalist wonders how the citizens of Seoul would  react to the noise, the regulating of the transportation, and the disruption of city life--all to accommodate one religion.

In a country like Spain, where 90 percent of the population acknowledges Catholicism as their religion, this inconvenience was accepted, but what would be the reaction in Korea where Catholicism numbers just over 10 percent? If we did  have a WYD in Korea it would  be hosted in a country that would  have, in comparison with other host countries of the event, the fewest Catholics.

It would be necessary, the journalist says, to get the permission of the citizens to accept the inconveniences, and also of the  other religions.  In Madrid, even late at night, there would be young people singing and playing the guitar, and causing a commotion in the subways. In Korea recently, a young foreigner who was making a loud noise while on the subway was told to keep quiet, which started a fight. This small incident would very likely  be multiplied thousands of times during WYD because of the large number of young people.

Even if the week were arranged as well as could be expected, there would still be the difficulty of having enough varied  programs to keep everyone interested.  In Madrid there were over 300 different programs available. WYD would also be an opportunity of introducing the Korean Church to the rest of the world: a Church that began without foreign missioners, nurtured with the lives of the martyrs,  and developing into a dynamic Catholicism, in which we take much pride.

The majority of the attendees in Madrid came from Europe, and many others came from Central and South America, attracted by the short distances and fewer expenses.To attract the young people to come to Korea will be an even bigger task.

To come to Korea from the West would mean a plane ride of over 10 hours and an expense three or four times that of going to Madrid from the West. The first time they had the WYD in the Orient was in the Philippines. And most of those who attended were from the Philippines, which made the image of a worldwide youth event  questionable.  Total expenses for the Madrid WYD was 72 million, 63 percent from registrations, 33 percent from sponsors, and 4 percent from donations.

The journalist seems to be rather pessimistic on the ability of the Catholic Church to host such an event, believing that the conditions necessary for a successful WYD would be outside the control of the Church. Although the organizational ability of Koreans is exceptional, organizing a WYD would be the least of the worries. 


  

Free Will And Dante's Divine Comedy

"Before me things created were none, save things
Eternal, and eternal I endure. 
Abandon all hope, you who enter here."

The Desk Columnist of the Catholic Times begins his column with the words written above the gate to Hell in Dante Alighieri's  Divine Comedy. He read the poem when he was in middle school, and it left a lasting impression on him. He reflects on the poem in his column.

Dante, at the age of 35, in the evening of the day before Good Friday, was wandering in a dark forest. The next day at dawn he came to a hill which he tried to ascend and  met three wild beasts and his guide, who was like a father to him, the Roman poet Virgil. The poet leads him through Hell and Purgatory, where he meets Beatrice, who will be his guide to Heaven, where his eyes will be opened to the love of God.

The poem begins with sadness but ends with joy. The columnist mentions that the part that bothered him the most in middle school was to see the large number of clerics Dante had placed in hell. He was able to come to an understanding of this later in life:  Dante was showing his disapproval of the corruption of the Church of his time.

The columnist wonders if Dante would see the problems we have in the world today as representative of the hell he described: divisive feelings among people and nations, wars, jealousy, greed, hatred, etc. Our free will choices have been harmful to ourselves and others, as Dante makes clear, especially in the first book of the Divine Comedy: The Inferno. Free will is a gift of God, a faculty that allows  us to accept or refuse what is good or bad according to our reason.

The cantos of Purgatory have a great deal to do with philosophy and free will. It is our choices that will determine the road we will be taking, leading either to happiness or to misery. Dante considers free will the greatest of the gifts we have received.  And when we use it to make the right choices we will meet our Beatrice, who will lead us to heaven.

It is easy to have doubts about our freedom. However, as Christians our freedom is beyond doubt. We can limit our freedom by the  way we live, acting from instinct and habit, influenced by others and losing the ability to love, which only can be an act of a free person. The columnist wonders if hell is the place where we lose all our freedom.             

What Will Happen at the 200th Anniversary?

When Korea became a Vicariate Apostolic 180 years ago, it entered officially into the Catholic world. In 20 more years we will be celebrating the 200th year of the the Vicariate that developed into a Church operating autonomously in 1962 with its own dioceses; no longer could Korea by considered a mission country.

Reflecting on the history of the Church in Korea, a retired history professor, interviewed by the Peace Weekly, expressed surprise that not much attention was given to celebrating the 180 years as a Church. We were different from many other countries in Asia, he said, because the French foreign missioners, unlike the Spanish and Portuguese missioners, felt it important to train the Koreans for the priesthood, which  stimulated the growth of the Church.

During the recent past the efforts of the Church in working for justice for everyone strengthened its relationship with society, contributing to its growth and helping the country to transition to a democratic society.

The professor says that the work of the Church in evangelizing the culture has enabled its numerical growth and  maturity. However, he sees a problem developing today: few young people are in the forefront in  efforts to evangelize the culture. Convincing the young to participate more in this endeavor continues to be an important concern of the Church.

Evangelization is best done when the  Christ  we see and have in  our hearts is the Christ with which we want to evangelize the culture. By inculturating the Church into the culture, we integrate justice  and love throughout society, as we devote ourselves to working for the common good, which requires, says the professor, that we work for the reconciliation of our country.

Thirty years ago, at the age of 37, the professor was involved with the preparation of the 150th  anniversary of the formal  beginning of the  Catholic Church of Korea. At that time, he said that the young, the middle-aged and the old people of the Church were involved. He looks forward to that being true on the 200th anniversary.

Importance of Volunteer Work In Society

The society we live in presents us with the many challenges that come with change.  We are members of society and are building the future. The correct understanding of society has to start with ourselves in love and harmony with our neighbors. A correct understanding of community will come when we have this love and harmony with others. There is no greater value in life than this.

A columnist in the Catholic Times starts her article with the above words and tells us that of the more developed countries in the world Korea ranks fourth as a country with internal discord and in the amount of money allocated to resolve the discord.

This discord is seen most clearly by the increasing disparity between the rich and the poor, a decreasing middle class and, not mentioned by the columnist, inter-religious discord, regional prejudice, and the injustices and indignities faced by non-Koreans living in our society. Removing the discord requires, she believes, a change in all facets of our society. She  wants to see more sharing and voluntary service to the community by all citizens, and more concern expressed and put into practice by the leaders of our society.

The columnist feels that the concept of noblesse oblige in our society is not practiced to the extent that it is in other developed countries. She mentions that in 2001 the UN proclaimed the International Year of Volunteers. Working without recompense has been a  part of all civilizations, contributing to the welfare of others locally and in the larger society.

Volunteer work can begin with mutual help, then taking on more difficult tasks such as coping with crises and relief assistance, and dealing with the myriad problems of poverty; this work has many faces and is not confined to the boundaries of any one country.  We know that it is not only a  sharing of God's word but also a sharing of the talents we have received. This will require educational programs to get people more involved with others, increasing the prosperity of society and the happiness of  all. The columnist feels that the sharing of talents will be the catalyst that will change and humanize society, fostering dialogue, building community, providing a sense of mission that  will  contribute to living fully human lives. The light of this effort will brighten the  dark places of our society with love, and she feels confident that when this effort is joined together with others doing the same, we will have lit the torch that will illuminate the whole world.

She concludes the article with the words of Pope Benedict in his encyclical God is Love. "Significantly, our time has also seen the growth and spread of different kinds of volunteer work, which assume responsibility for providing a variety of services. I wish here to offer a special word of gratitude and appreciation to all those who take part in these activities in whatever way. For young people, this widespread involvement constitutes a school of life which offers them a formation in solidarity and in readiness to offer others not simply material aid but their very selves" (#30b).