Making Our Lives a Poem

In the Taegu diocesan bulletin a priest introduces us to a poem by  Sister Lee Hae-in:  "May my prayer to you be like a  poem/ May all my days by resting in you/ become more pleasing with the passage of time/ like the words of a poem/ At times unsuitable words were used/ May I  have the courage to get rid of them/replaced by the beautiful words of a poem I want to live by."

From a very early age, the priest has been attracted to poetry. Reading poetry was, for him, he says,  like taking  a bath, his spirit was refreshed. It was like washing away the  accumulated dirt on the soul, his head and heart becoming clear. His desire is that his life be like a living  piece of poetry.

The Korean poet Ku Sang said "Poetry has to be  part of society." Khalil Gibran, a Lebanese artist, poet and writer (1883-1931) had this to say about poetry "There are beautiful poems given to us / When we are able to sing those poems / we have God's sufficient protection." The paralyzed Korean poet Lee Sang Youl said in one of his poems "Let  Brahms' music flow in our lives/ and let us fill our lives/ with the paintings that show/ the passion and leisure of Gauguin." There needs to be poetry in our lives, the priest says. When we are able to live like a piece of poetry, we will have the leisure and passion to live a more fulfilling life. Poetry is beautiful, aromatic and gives light; it charms and has zest. Is there anything better than that?  he asks.

At the ordination of priests in the diocese he had the occasion to be present at one of the ordination ceremonies.  In his talk to the priests he used the poem of Sister Lee and  told the priests to make their lives like a poem: as beautiful and as fragrant as a poem, and to get rid of anything that is unnecessary in presenting the beauty of our lives.  He asked them to be like a poem: simple, with nothing unnecessary. It is then that we will have a beautiful piece of poetry, often having to become small and poor, sitting in the last place. The best living poem, the one with the most fragrance. has been the life of Christ as given to us in the Gospels.

The article concludes with his hope that this ideal will also be the dream of all of us: to become a living poem as  Christ has been. There are many who are living, he believes,  this kind of life in the world today. He wants Christians to hold this up as an ideal. We don't want to be giving off the aroma that comes with an improper attachment to the world, but the aroma that comes from a closeness with Jesus and the Gospels.

Jesus came to give us extraordinarily high ideals: "Be perfect like your heavenly Father." You can't beat that as an ideal. We all fall short, obviously, and the solution is not to jettison the ideal, but to keep on working and expecting help from the one who loves us and gives us help. As Catholics, the ideals are high but the mercy shown can be described  as equally high,  provided we don't give up on our ideals. And we should not forget that the results  wash away the dirt, giving a new fragrance to the  gift of  life we  have been given.

Catholicism as Seen by Society in Korea

Polls,surveys, and questionnaires are not always the best way of knowing how a particular group, society or organization is seen by the public but it does tell us something which is of value.

Catholicism is still seen by the ordinary Korean  as the religion which has the most trust.  A Protestant research group made a survey of a thousand citizens according to the percentages in which they are in society. Of the 1000, 10.1 percent were Catholics, Protestants numbered 22.5 percent, Buddhists, 22.1 percent, and non- believers 48 percent.  The number of Catholics had the lowest number of participants but the Catholics had the highest number of those who found Catholicism trustworthy, because 32.7 percent of the non-believers gave Catholicisms high marks.

What some found of interest was that 13.3 percent of the Buddhists and 11.9 present of the Protestants thought Catholicism most worthy of trust. 88.7 percent of the Catholics  considered their religion  the most trustworthy of the religions, the highest of any group. Protestantism was 75 percent and Buddhism was 69.5 percent.

Catholicism did come out as the religion with the most trust but  there was a drop of 11.9 percent from 41.1, compared to 2009.  During  this same period of time the Protestants rose 1.3 percent.

Recently the question of religion and politics was acute and 74 percent of the respondents were against the religious  participation in politics. Only 23.1 percent were in favor. Of the Catholics 76.7 percent were against participation. The professor responsible for the survey said one of the reasons for the decline would be the Catholic priests disputing the Northern Limit Line ( NLL  the maritime waters that separate the  North from the  South). The survey was taken shortly after the the opinion of the priests was made public.

The religion that has been most evolved in service to the public was Protestantism with 35.7 percent.  Catholicism was 29.3 percent and Buddhism was 13.2  percent. Catholicism dropped from 37.9 percent in 2010  to 29.3 percent.  Protestantism stayed pretty much where it was in 2010.

The whole idea of what is meant my participation in politics is not clear, but what is clear is Catholics either do not understand what it means to participate in society or they do not like the way it is done. Since you have such a high number of Catholics who do not appreciate what they see is reason enough to try to make some distinctions so that work for justice remains more than praying for justice.

Dealing With Difference of Opinion

Differences of opinion have always been part of the world scene, and Catholicism has not been spared. From the time of Jesus there have been plenty of verbal clashes, some of which have developed into great crises for the Church. We should not be surprised at this or see it as abnormal, but work always toward finding unity. To succeed in this difficult endeavor requires a willingness to communicate with those we disagree with. The Church, over the last 2000 years, has learned that lesson well. 

In a democracy, there is the freedom to express our opinions peacefully,  and expressions of conflicting opinions are all protected by law. What should not be condoned are acts of violence.

A journalist for the Catholic Times reports on two Masses that were said during which priests and lay Catholics gathered together to show dissatisfaction with the interference of the government with the presidential elections of 2012. Catholics, members of conservative civil groups, disrupted the Mass by yelling and fighting with those who were attempting to have them stop. At one of the Masses, when they began to interrupt the sermon, a fight broke out at the door of the church.  Chaos developed and, using abusive language, one of the group grabbed  the collar of a priest who was trying to break up the squabble and spun him around.

There are many ways of living peacefully with others, engaging in dialogue, trying to search for the truth together, the journalist noted, is one good way. Such communication is understood by all to start with a willingness to accept  truth and abandon prejudices and ignorance whenever they are clearly shown to exist in the process of communication. This will require humility and sincerity from everyone, which we should expect from Christians.

There are many who work with conflict resolution and transformation. In this age of enlightenment and the widespread dissemination of knowledge, it would seem that we should be open to ways of working toward a common understanding of truth, while decreasing the areas of conflict. But this requires engaging with others in searching for the truth. Religion may be one of the few areas where we have begun to speak to each other with respect, as we search for a better understanding of each others' position.

We are all familiar with the quote from Pope Paul VI, who said "If you want peace work for justice." Many of those who have difficulty with Catholicism go back in history to select events where the Church did not act in the way she wants to act today. Violence was a part of history and the Church was a part of that history. The Church has also learned a great deal from history and today it speaks forcibly about the need to desist from violence. The disruption at a Mass by Catholics, the journalist points out, is an affront to God and he hopes the Catholics responsible will come to see that such actions have no place in an ordered civil society, especially when perpetrated by Christians.            

Overcoming Difficulties

On the opinion page of the Peace Weekly is a column by the four-fingered pianist Lee Hee-ah (Hyacintha), who writes about how she copes with physical disability and discrimination.

I love baby Jesus, she begins, because, like me, he is small. He was born in a manger so all could  touch him. The angels sang: "Glory to God in high heaven, peace on earth to those on whom his favor rests." God was not loving those who live in palaces, she points out, but the shepherds in the  fields.

Some months ago a writer from a Korean TV station came to see me, she says. Years ago when I was in elementary school, he made a documentary about me titled: "I Can Do It." The documentary moved the hearts of  many. This time he is writing a book about what people would like to have inscribed on their tombstones. The inscription I would like is "I am small but happy." Usually, journalists who interview me ask: what makes me sad.  Though six of my fingers are missing and I'm short and have low intelligence and people make fun of me--all of which is true. I have not once been sad because of those things.

Because my mother has 6 more fingers than I do is no concern to me.  I thank God for the two fingers on each hand that I have.  I wrote in my diary, when I was in the third grade, that those four fingers were my treasure.  Because I do not have any legs and am small of stature does not make me sad.  My best fans are the children I can look at face to face, and share my love with them, which gives me great joy.

Because of my low intelligence, I can't use figures well, but that isn't a problem. I have other ways of handling that issue. When I go overseas with my mother, she has difficulty with jet lag, but since I have no interest in numbers, when I finish the performance, I go to bed and wake up at dawn. I thank God for this.

Since my features are different from others, they call me an alien, a monster, scissor-fingers, crab hands, but when children make fun of me with these names, I do not become upset. Children are honest; they express what they  see.  My appearance is unique, which draws  attention, but I am thankful for what I do have, for I am able to make God better known.

I have been given the ability to love myself with a joyous heart; I am happy for that. I have a beautiful voice with which I can praise God  and transmit his words; I am happy also for that. Since I am small like baby Jesus, people can easily approach me to hug me. I am able to deal with  pain  and endure the difficulties that come. And I give thanks to God that those who come to see me play only because of my disability may often leave encouraged to accept more willingly their own difficulties. 

Each day at three o'clock I  pray the mercy prayer, and thank sinless Jesus for the passion that he suffered, which enables me to endure all the difficulties I have experienced because of his great love.

Jesus, the  light of mercy, has taken this small pianist, Hyacintha, as his bride. I take you, the baby Jesus, as the one who loves me, who being small, and I being small can more easily share our love for one another. With my small body and soul, I can offer everything  to God, my father. This gives me joy and happiness.

Making the Truth Known

The freedom to express ourselves freely in a democratic society is taken for granted. Also often taken for granted is the freedom given the mass media to portray sex, love and romance in any manner it pleases, which, according to a  specialist in the field, frequently means indulging in outright lies. He presents his views in a recent issue of the Inchon diocese Catholic bulletin. 

Though there is no way we can censor or force our opinions on others, nor should we want to, he says what we need to do is have the necessary  knowledge, maturity and  courage to distinguish between what is good and what is bad, what is for the common good of humanity and what is not. Because the mass media has such a great influence in modern societies, we need to be especially careful, he says, in making judgments based on what we see, hear and read.

The way the mass media handles matters of sex is obviously creating problems for faithful Christians. Seeing sex as only a tool for pleasure  is very strong in our society. There is a desire on the part of many for more education on sex which today often means: pleasurable and safe sex, using all the tools necessary to prevent pregnancy. "Isn't everybody doing it" is the common refrain; are we are not, many are saying, living in the new age?

The methods used to convey this message are top of the line: contents are beautifully constructed, well explained, and the contexts are  made attractive, which explains the success of this lax and false mindset concerning sex for the last 50 years. Our specialist would like more help available to young people, particularly by educating for media literacy. Ways have to be found, he says, to teach young people the truth about such an important matter.

He refers to a movie popular some years ago, Speedy Scandal. The movie tells the story of a high school student, an unmarried mother with a son, who is a piano prodigy. She herself has dreams of being a successful vocalist, and when finally achieving her dreams is shown as supremely happy--all of it entertainingly presented.  Over 8 million Koreans saw the movie. But is this how it is in real life? he asks. Is this what most of the unmarried mothers experience in our Korean society? Isn't it more of a lie than it is a truthful representation of life?

It is easy for our young people to see the merely physical aspect of sex and to internalize what they see. The attractive person on the screen had an easy and successful time with her unmarried state and her life with her son. This is the message that is conveyed, but the truth has to be done in a similarly attractive way, which is not easy. The way to deal with lies is to tell the truth. What happens to those who become pregnant in middle and high school has to be conveyed.

He mentions that he finds this kind of movie sinful because they are doing much harm to society. The commercial world of images is not the world we live in. The re-constructed world they present in movies, dramas and music videos often only show us the intentions, goals and values of their creators. Educating for media literacy would show the difference between this world of fantasy and the real world. The fantasy world of sex in the media needs to be exposed and this task, he believes, is the mission of our age.

Power of Words to Change Hearts

In the editor's column of the Peace Weekly, a member of the editorial staff reflects on his work as a writer, which includes reading the articles and columns of others; they give him, he says, an appreciation  of much good, useful and stimulating writing.

Often the readers of the Peace Weekly are also the writers he reads. We have a natural tendency, he says, to believe that good articles are written  by good people.  However, it is not rare that those who write good things are not doers of the good things they write about. This is seen most often in journalists who make their living by writing, he says. To put it simply, those who write are often not living in the manner they encourage their readers to live. The writing is one thing; the life they lead is another, neither one having much influence on the other.

When writing an article, he admits that there have been not a few times that he felt uneasy and even embarrassed by what he wrote, but he gave himself high points for the quality of the writing. His excuse? He says he was at least trying to live in the way he wrote.

The Peace Weekly, in a contest for its readers, asked them to submit articles on their faith experiences. 125  were submitted, all of which he read. These were for the most part not written by competent writers,  and much effort was needed in reading them; the expressions were awkward, the line of thought did not always follow coherently, nor were they expressed smoothly. The writers were for the most part amateurs at writing. He realized, however, that writing was only one means of expressing what was felt inside, and the lack of ability to write did not prevent them from expressing what they felt. Truth gave them the strength, he says, to attempt to express what even the best of writers would have difficulty in expressing. 

There were more than a few pieces that caused him, he said, to bow his head, tears coming to his eyes. It was a lesson that clearly showed  him that what is written can mirror the heart and mind of the person writing. There was one common note in all the different pieces, he said. It was the experience of pain, either of the  body or the soul.  They accepted it as if directly from God and through the pain they were able, they said, to encounter God, and by faith to overcome the pain. Whether they  recovered from the sickness or not was not their biggest concern. Their encounter with God was what was important. The encounter was healing for the soul, even if it never manifested in the body.

Granted that this is true, there are few people who want the physical pain.  The columnist said he received much consolation from reading the submitted contest articles.  In his own life there would be little usable material, he says, for a story about a faith experience. His life has gone along rather smoothly, for which he is thankful. In the future, if he is faced with suffering, will these difficulties, he asks himself, be shortcuts in meeting God?  Can't we consider them a grace?  He doesn't know when this will come, if it ever does, but he feels he has received a form of immunization by his reading.

The readings have helped him to see that God is closest to those in pain. He thanks all who have submitted their stories and for allowing him to see in their material how another's faith experience, when expressed from the heart, can bring the one reading in closer contact with his own heart, with his own spirituality. 

Confucian Civility

The columnist in the Peace Weekly writes about an unnerving event that occurred recently in an elegant hotel. She had invited someone to join her for an evening meal at the hotel dinning room. Everything was proper, the waiters looked and acted appropriately, when suddenly, within this atmosphere of elegance, a woman entered the room leading a child by the hand and dressed in pajamas. The columnist confesses that at some level of consciousness she was concerned about the impression this would make on her dinner guest. The woman who came into the dinning room with her nightclothes was giving, she felt, a distorted image of the Korean culture, though the  possible affect on the persons in the dinning room, apparently was of little concern to the woman. 

Considering the cultural standards of our country, can we be unconcerned, the columnist asks, about the  clothes we are wearing? Should we be unconcerned, for instance, if we see someone riding in an elevator, with a bucket of garbage, dressed in pajamas, or walking in their pajamas in the  corridors, or climbing the stairs, smoking? We have a tendency, she says, to overlook the connection of civility with the clothes we wear.

In Confucianism, the Chinese character 'Ye' 禮 (On the left is the icon for heaven and on the right a container on a table filled with food from the harvest which is being offered to heaven) has many English expressions: social custom, manners, courtesy, rites, propriety, politeness. (I would also add 'civility'.) In Confucian philosophy,  'Ye' refers to an important means of keeping order in society. It is the strength that supports society and guarantees support for our  place in society. Confucius, the columnist says, stressed the importance of 'Ye'  to his son. A person, he said, that does not know 'Ye' will find it difficult to put down roots into his society.  'Ye' is the stepping stone that keeps us rooted firmly in the relationships in which we find ourselves.  It is the way we practice 仁: the character for benevolence. ( A man on the left, two  on the right, the relationship between human beings, in other words, humaneness.) 

She tells us that Confucianism teaches children from an  early age that what is not 'Ye' should not be seen, heard, said or done. She does say that this seems difficult to do but the intent is to bring all our behaviors under the guidance of 'Ye' wherever we may be.

In society a person who only considers himself is not going to be liked. Basic to 'Ye' is to have a concern for others, which also includes, she says, being concerned about how the clothes we wear in public will affect others. The columnist feels that this concern should be a  duty of all adults in society. The clothes we wear are going to determine, she believes, how we will be received by others. She hopes adults    will explain this to the younger generation. 

This kind of talk is not easily understood outside of an Asian culture, for informality is for many a virtue, and in the West we like to show our creativity by not following the customs we have inherited. Civility is another area of life that an Asian would be more sensitive than those in the West, but this is changing; the influence of the West has already done much to change the thinking of many in Korea.

The influence that 'Ye' has had on Catholicism is  easily seen by attending a Mass in a Korean Church. Understanding  'Ye' as etiquette and civility and as an example of the Golden Rule are all part our Christian heritage.  Pope Leo XIII is quoted as saying: "Civility and urbanity in customs strongly predispose minds to attain wisdom and to follow the light of truth."