Alienation between Faith and Life

Many Christians  distinguish between church and life.  Church is holy and spiritual while daily life is secular and non-spiritual.  However, the Church exists right in the center of the world; Jesus loves the world and came to live in it. Our goal and the way it is realized makes the world either holy or merely secular, writes the desk columnist of the Catholic Times. 

This disparity among Christians between our life and our faith he considers a serious problem. Life is lived in many cases in the same way by those who believe and by those who don't, and those who believe possibly even at times with more dishonesty and worldly ambitions.

Looking at the faith life of Christians, many see it as a thoughtless habit: believing in God but refusing his influence in life; a disciple of Jesus but refusing his directions:  Christian but having no influence on the world. Christians without any strength, a perfunctory belief; not a belief that seeks the will of God but uses God to gain their own will.

External acceptance of church life as the way of having a correct relationship with Jesus is a serious misunderstanding. Jesus wants us to know him, to understand why he came to earth, to follow his teaching and understand what is necessary to live in this way.

Surveys show that Christians feel that there is a natural  alienation between faith and life. Most also sympathize with this position but the columnist does not. Faith they see as a good but daily life is where there is a  problem. He doesn't want the Christians to limit  their faith life  to the church. Many see a zealous religious life as going to  Mass and being  generous to the church. But it is much more than this, and wonders if this alienation does not, in fact, reflect the Korean reality.

The religious life, the columnist says, should manifest itself in the family, in the way the children are raised, in the workplace, the way monies are used. Also in present issues of life:  environment, children's education,  and the like. In these matters Christians are no different than others. If we accepted  God's graces, we would not have the discrepancy between our religious life and daily life, for they would be one. We would understand that we are to live in the world as Christians. We would be walking in the steps of Jesus, who came into the world because he loved the world and wanted to change it. We are being asked nothing less than to follow in his footsteps.

Seeking Catharsis

Vengeance seems to be a very natural feeling that we can understand but as Christians hope to avoid.  Writing on the  opinion page of the  Catholic Times a columnist, though not a great fan of TV soap operas, does admit to watching a Chinese soap opera that deals with revenge in the Chinese  kingdoms of  the 5th century before Christ.

One of the kingdoms was made to surrender to another under with very humiliating conditions; the desire for revenge on the part of the defeated kingdom is the story line.

The columnist explains to us what he feels got him hooked on watching the series. He looks upon our life as having two aspects, the real and the imaginary. In watching a drama, we see the reality of the drama played out in our own life and also in the world of our  imagination. Sometimes there is harmony between them, and sometimes we have to struggle with them and play around with them in our heads.

This situation is called by some as receiving vicarious satisfaction from what we experience: a form of compensation. The columnist is not too happy with this way of describing what is happening. Can we receive satisfaction vicariously? he wonders. He would prefer using the word from Aristotle: cathartic. When we can identify with  some  tragic experience of our hero, there is a cleansing and a purification of our inner world that gives us a sense of freshness and relief.

How is it, he asks, that something tragic can cleanse our spirit and elevate us to another sphere of beauty? He admits that this is not readily answerable.

Getting back to the soap opera story: when one kingdom overcame the other, the victors took all the vanquished, along with  the queen and all the retainers, and made them slaves. Our columnist surmises there  would be few who would not be in sympathy with the losers and view the victors with indignation and antipathy.

The victors, vain, proud and cruel in their victory; the vanquished, pitiful in their plight. He has little doubt where his readers would stand. Aren't the just often the losers--the ones most of us would find sympathetic and attractive? We have a lot to learn, he says, from the patient suffering of the losers.

Jesus has asked us to love our enemies. We try to return love for hate; to desire revenge is prohibited. However, when watching the serial drama, the columnist did not find it strange to want to see justice done. It is precisely this desire to see the proud victorious king subdued, getting his recompense, which keeps our columnist coming back to the TV.

Saint from the Common People

Was Saint Andrew Kim, our first Korean priest and martyr, a member of the Yang-ban class or a commoner? Such is the way the Peace Weekly begins its review of a scholarly treatise by a university professor of Korean history. A matter of not much importance,  but it will tell us much about our saint and his life and times.

Korea during the Joseon period was socially divided between the Yang-ban class and the commoners. The Yang-ban can be briefly described as comprising those who had passed the civil servant exams and held positions of authority in the government. All others would be considered commoners. Descendents of the Yang-ban were awarded the status of nobles during the Joseon Dynasty period (1392 to 1897).

St. Andrew Kim was generally thought to be of the Yang-ban class of Korean society. It has been recorded, following an incident when his  boat was confiscated, that he had asked how can a Yang-ban's boat be confiscated?   From these words, it has been accepted that he was of the Yang-ban social class by many who have studied and written about the issue.

The professor mentioned that there are several problems that arise from this understanding of the matter. The Paris Foreign missioners who lived at the time of the saint considered him a commoner. Bishop Ferreol wrote:  "Andrew Kim and members of his family belonged to the lower social class; they were not members of the nobility." Bishop Dabeluy was of the same opinion.

The boat incident, the professor says, bears little relevance to the saint's place in society but was probably a way of evading the problems he was then facing. His statement can be understood as referring to a family background with a strong faith life and a history of martyrdom. There is little proof that his family belonged to the Yang-ban class. 

The professor feels that the efforts of some scholars to make the saint a member of the Yang-ban social class are misguided. It adds nothing to his life and actually makes it more difficult to understand the saint's faith and life.

A Special Kind of Clinic

There is a hospital in a poor area of Seoul called St. Joseph's Clinic. It is a three-story brick building where those who are ill can come for free medical treatment. Begun in 1987 by a doctor,referred to as the father of the poor and recently deceased, it seemed the hospital would have to close because of the passing of its founder, but another doctor, Sin Won-sik, replaced him. He is a well-known doctor in the field of contagious diseases and a professor at the Catholic Medical School.

The journalist interviewing the doctor recalls the peaceful and joyful presence of the doctor. He learned, he said, to laugh from the heart and give thanks. The word Dr. Won-sik hears most often now is 'thank you'. When he worked and taught in the college medical hospital, it was, he said, a word he rarely heard.

He mixes daily with those who come to the hospital to volunteer, to clean and prepare the patients for examinations and treatment, many of whom come to the hospital drunk and disheveled, often alone, street people, travelers, and always the poor.  Never has the doctor heard any volunteer say it is difficult. Many of the patients have been scared by life and are welcomed by the staff; returning to society they leave behind numberless 'thank you's'.

One volunteer, the doctor says, comes often to bathe the patients. On one visit, he came with a patient whose body was partially paralyzed. There was such a stench  from the patient that the thought of cleaning him was just too much to bear. But the volunteer washed him thoroughly, especially his legs and rectum area, and it seemed to the doctor that the volunteer was not conscious of the smell. It took about one-half hour. The doctor recalls this as one of the most beautiful moments, among others at the hospital, that he recalls seeing; he was embarrassed at what this was saying to him.  

The doctor's father, when the son became a doctor, told him, "Difficult as your studies were to become a doctor, be of help to others in your life." Whether these  words of his father were the reason for his decision to do all he could to help those most in need of medical care, he doesn't know. What he does know is that he did not want  to finish his life as a professor. Although no longer young, he does have six years years before retirement, and he wants to spend it at the side of the poor.

Reality May Not be so Favorable.

A Buddhist Research Institute  recently published a report indicating that by the year 2044 Catholicism will have the  largest number of adherents, predicting a Korea with  25 million Catholics, 56 percent of the population.

The Peace Weekly in their review of the report mentioned several interesting items: for the last 10 years there has been stagnation or a decrease  in the number of Buddhists and Protestants, and the report sees this trend continuing. The National Statistical Office in 2005 reported that the number of Catholics to be 11 percent, Protestants 18 percent, and Buddhist 23 percent.

The report used the numbers from the Office of Statistics, which shows a yearly increase in the number of Catholics.  Government surveys every ten years, going back to 1985, also show the increases have been steady, and in 2005  there was a 74.6 percent increase, other religions showing no increase.  The  future, if the conditions continue without any major changes, will see, according to the report, Catholicism with 56 percent of the population in 30 years.

For Catholics the response, as expected, was positive, but it carried a cautionary note that it was unreal to overlook the possibility that successful efforts in the past will not necessarily continue.

The Peace Weekly, using the information from the Religious Study Department of Seoul University, attributed these past results to Catholic solidarity and integrity, justice and human rights activities, flexibility in being present at the ceremonials of life, openness to other religions, and the efforts of individual Catholics.

However, starting in 2000 we have seen the weakening  of these dynamic forces, resulting in stagnation of spiritual vitality--in some measure because of our aging Catholics--a drop in Catholics attending Mass and an increase in the number of tepids, and a less aggressive evangelizing of  society. The lack of effort in evangelizing, especially, may have been the major contributor to a slow down of Catholic population growth in 2010 to a 1.7 percent increase.

With  materialism, secularism and atheism on the increase, it is difficult to see the future with much optimism. But the encouraging news for the future of Catholicism, that it is seen favorably by so many, as indicated by the report, should make our outreach to society easier.

This year, starting in October, we will begin the Year of Faith. If the Church continues to work on improving its methods of evangelization, it will be able to take advantage of the favorable conditions in society.

Speaking the Truth when it Hurts

Transparency is a beautiful ideal, seen most often as just that, a beautiful ideal. There are many reasons for not speaking the truth, and for a Christian, charity certainly has high priority. However, truth  is always a big issue when it comes to a free press,  that is unbiased and propaganda-free. Many citizens feel frustration in not hearing the whole truth but hearing only partial truths that distort our reality.

In the  lead article in the Kyeongyang Magazine, a religious responsible for the editorial policy of the magazine introduces us to the popular South Korean podcast "Naneun Ggomsuda." In recent months this name has been mentioned repeatedly in the news. Downloading the podcast, millions have made it a point of discussion throughout the country.

The article sees this as a response to media that is seen by many as pro-government and that routinely slants the news. One of the four who hosted the podcast is serving a term in prison for, the charge was, spreading false rumors. The podcast is seen by some as raunchy,  vulgar and not truthful. It is satire and parody and not all they say is completely verified, but what makes it popular is the frustration of many of the citizens toward the mass media, which the media refuses to acknowledge. And so the pot continues to boil.

To speak the truth is often dangerous. There are too many who go along with the administration and say yes when they should be saying no. Because of vested interests, news is often contrived to satisfy these interests.  There are also those who would like to exert similar control over the use of this new media.

Humans are obviously the only ones who have the use of money and the press, a gift of God that  allows us to communicate. However, the control of money and the media is most often in the hands of the powerful. They buy and sell conscience, and sacrifice family, society and the future in the process. There are many leaders in society that should be speaking the truth even though it may incur a cost to themselves, but they are not doing so; they are like salt that has lost it saltiness.

Religion should also be transmitters of the truth, helping to break down the generation gap, overcoming the polarization of our citizens, and bringing us closer together. Communication, at its finest, should be a sharing of truth for enhancing the lives of all of us. The mass media along with religion should be trusted transmitters of a reality we can trust and believe in. 

The writer leaves us with two questions:  Am I a communicator of the truth?  Or am I following power and the road of least resistance so as not to harm my self-interests?

                                   


           

Last Days of a Community Member

The last days of any person are important but to a Christian it should be even more so. It signals the completion of a life of faith and the beginning of eternal life. Because of this, we have in Catholicism the sacrament of the sick to prepare for death, prayers during the last moments of life, the funeral Mass, the office of the dead, and the prayers at the grave.

A priest writing for priests mentions that in his  pastoral work he has felt uncomfortable by the way death is seen in the parishes. Death is not seen as having a connection with the community, but is considered as involving only the death of a family member. When mostly family, relatives, and friends of the deceased are involved and not the larger community, how can we, he asks, call our parishes communities?

In the article, the priest is not happy to see the responsibility for preparing for the funeral and burial in the hands of the parish purgatorial societies. He would like the parish council to take the responsibility. The head of the pastoral council should be, he believes, the first to express condolences to the bereaved family on behalf of the parish community. In addition, the different committees of the parish council should offer their services to the family.

Why, he asks, do we have the choir very much concerned with marriages but not with funerals?  Each parish council member should get involved. Those responsible for  small communities within the parish should notify all the parish members of the times for the office of the dead. In short, the funeral should be a community event and not only a family concern.

With the parish council involved, the community as a whole can participate more easily. And we will most likely see the end of the difference between the rich and the poor that often becomes displayed in these services. This will also encourage us to become more aware of what community life in Jesus means; we will be living the teachings we have received.

Implementing this change doesn't only depend on the Christians. It depends also on the pastor who offers the funeral Mass, consoles the family, and is present at the office for the dead. This has not always been the case. We might ask ourselves, is there anything more important  for a pastor to do than be involved in the ceremonies at the death of a community member?