Sadness is Unavoidable

There is a museum dedicated to the life and work of the Catholic Japanese novelist Syusaku Endo in the Sotome district of Nagasaki overlooking the ocean. On the monument to 'Silence', there are inscribed the words: "Humanity is so sad, Lord, and the ocean so blue."

A priest writing for a pastoral bulletin introduces us to his thoughts on the Japanese novelist. The novelist asked for two books to be buried with him when he died. The books, Silence and Deep River were two of his favorites and dealt with  the theme of sadness. This sadness is  not the kind that you cry and with the catharsis,regain your composure and are refreshed. He is not talking about  the emotions. He is talking about the existential sadness that faces all of us in life with the accompanying agony through which we go in search of salvation, a pilgrimage of inquiry.
 
Humanity in seeing the difficulties of life that await, and the weakening of our human response, we face the  limitations imposed upon us by the present reality. Since we  cannot fight against the future, our weaknesses bring  sadness. However, when we don't deny the sadness and accept it, we are able to deal with ourselves as we are. Syusaku says when we work to purify and heal the sadness that is in us, and accept it then we will meet the person we were meant to be and happiness. 

Persons who do not feel sadness are not healthy. The article goes into detail on the issue. You have those who have no conscience and no feeling or remorse in hurting another. You also have another type who is charming and uses another for their own ends. This person also says the writer, has as no feelings for another's sorrow. He distinguishes between the Psychopath and the Sociopath.

The article concludes with the response seen in the mass media on the death of so many children in the Sewol  tragedy. While most of the citizens were in deep sadness in seeing the drowning of so many children and feeling with the families, you did hear some strange responses to the tragedy: feelings expressed  were improper; we must look at the accident. We have to get rid of the primitive feelings of sorrow. Why did the children of the poor  go on such a luxurious trip to Jejudo by boat when they had many places to go on land? 

If in  deep sorrow we are not able to meet the persons we are and discover our nobility we will not recover the persons we are meant to be. When we are not able to feel sorrow we are like a dog who eats the food given and in loyalty wags its tail.

A Renewed and Reformed Church

Pope Francis will be coming to Korea in August, and  Korean Catholics are  enthused  partially due to the star quality of  Pope Francis. The priest writing in  a bulletin for priests mentions how the Vatican religious goods stores are selling from 70 to 80 percent more than usual thanks to the pope's popularity.  This popularity  hopefully will  translate into having more  people  interested in the Church and gain more respect for the Church in the society. However, more importantly will be for the Church to understand the meaning of the  pope's words and actions and bring about renewal and reform within the Church.

The pope will  be attracting our attention in  unfavorable circumstances to an appreciation of the joy of the Gospel. 'Joy of the Gospel' shows us the importance of evangelization but it is not just to increase the number of our Catholics but an evangelization inviting all of humanity to the Trinitarian  intimacy and  the love in unity.  The washing of the feet of a Muslim child is a sign of this vision. Jesus  wanted all humanity to accept the Fatherhood of  God, and this is the vision that Francis want us to have. He continues the article  showing some of the other aspects of the renewal and reform.

Pope Francis wants us first, to be  a poor Church.  "This is why I want a Church which is poor and for the poor. They have much to teach us"( #198). How do we go about being a poor Church? We cannot  have renewal without becoming a poor Church. Operations  with an eye for  profit and big welfare projects, there is more  lost than  gained. Making the Church vital requires that  we  deepen our spirituality of poverty. In these times of greed, the spirit of poverty is the means of healing. We have to train workers to be friends to  the  poor. The poor  evangelize us to be a Church of the poor.
 
The Church, secondly, needs to be prophetic. "Yet if he does not take time to hear God’s word with an open heart, if he does not allow it to touch his life, to challenge him, to impel him, and if he does not devote time to pray with that word, then he will indeed be a false prophet, a fraud, a shallow impostor" (#151) These words of Francis  will open us up to be opposed, but that is our glory.

Thirdly, we need to leave our comfort zone, be open and be a Church that goes out to others. This, says the writer, the pope mentions on a number of occasions in the Joy of the Gospel. We need to be interested in the needs of the people. We need to leave the sacristy to be with the people. This needs to be part of the daily life, visiting homes, the sick and  weekly giving of the sacraments to the sick.

There is a need of hearing the cries of the people, their pain, their complaints and being with them. They will make known their inner desire and be open to the answers from the Gospel. We have to show them the Gospel life. "We do not live better when we flee, hide, refuse to share, stop giving and lock ourselves up in own comforts. Such a life is nothing less than slow suicide" (#272). When we go out to others it will seem at times that we are facing death, but we will be refreshed and concludes, be walking on water.

Why Does the Church Exist?

The recent Sewol tragedy generated much reflection on the part of the citizens. The death of such a large number of children was due to human error. Why was there such a dereliction of duty? A priest writing in Biblelife had difficulty keeping the many negative thoughts from overcoming him, especially, when in his mind's eye, he kept seeing the Coast Guard life boat come to the sinking ferry and taking the captain and part of the crew off the ferry, and leaving the many children behind.

The Church is also imagined as a boat an ark. Is it the kind of boat that we can call for in a rescue?  Can I trust the boat to carry my precious children? Is it really different from the other boats and vessels, the nation and our trust in money, with which we are familiar?  When people are in crisis, he laments, the  places which are willing to extend a helping hand are disappearing. The responsibility of the Church to save the sinking world in which we live has to be continually examined and be ready for marching orders.

During the 4th century, the monks living in the city began to leave for the desert. At this time, the persecution of the Church ended. The Church became favored, churches began to appear in the public squares of the empire, and the monks did not like what they saw. The Church was not able to function as it was meant to by the orders of the  founder. The monks were seeing all the evils in the big cities and the way the Church was being influenced by the national state and wanted to leave the muddy and gloomy environment for the peace of the desert.

The article introduces us to Ivan Illich (1926-2002) who took great pains to point out the many problems in the relationship of the Church to the World. He used frequently two Latin words: 'the corruption of the best is the worse' and the 'mystery of evil'. Difficult he says to understand the horrible things that have happened only with the intellect.

"First, the evils of modern technology can't be compared with any of the other material cultures. Secondly, it is necessary to know the historical waste and luxury in society. It goes against all the Gospel teachings of Christianity and overturns them. The actual condition of humanity is a deformation that has come from Christianity. All our systems and structures in society are a distortion of Christianity."

The problems that we have in society, Illich said, are because the Church was not acting Church-like, and it is not far from the truth to say the thinking was too close to the thinking of the world. The reason for many of the evils was a distortion of the Gospel message. What are we to make of such an assertion? Jesus' desire and plan for the Church was the salvation of the world and when we recall the mission, we have to nod our heads in assent. Salvation was the object and target of the Church.

In Conclusion, he returns to the monks in the desert. The hermits were not leaving the cities to abandon the Church but the opposite; they wanted to save themselves, prepare a base camp, and have their feet on  solid land, so they could throw the rope to those on the sinking boat of the world. They wanted to save the world, which like a ship full of holes was sinking.

If we want to have the same energy that the hermit fathers had in the desert and help our fellow human beings and those who will come after us, we need to find solid ground where we are able to stand tall. Where is that base camp? We have to study to find the virtues that we have not been attentive to, and  return to the desert to practice these virtues.

Abandoning Our Volition

He was in first-year middle school and in the art class, the teacher put a vase with flowers on her desk and asked the class to paint what they saw. The priest writing in Biblelife recounts the experience as a child who thought he was a gifted artist and the lesson he learned.

They were given two hours to work on their masterpiece and many of the students who had no taste for art, found the time boring; he relished the opportunity to show his genius. He finished the painting in a little over an hour and felt very pleased with his efforts. He was ready to receive the exclusive attention of the beautiful art teacher for his achievement. The painting  was in his eyes perfect he had no regrets. He was another Vincent Van Gogh.

The teacher walked up and down the rows in the class, stopped at his place and began to look carefully at what he had painted. He was humbly ready to hear words of praise for his masterpiece; however, that was not the case. It was more a  critique of what he had painted than praise.  'Wonderful', 'extraordinary', 'exceptional', 'great', were not the words he heard, but 'too much', 'a little more',  'this would have been better,' and the like. As he was trying to figure out what the words of the teacher  meant, she took the brush and began to change what he had painted. The priest said he was completely befuddled by it all.

The white vase became yellow; the leaves became purplish. He was ready to cry out in protest. His creation was being destroyed, and  he didn't want to see any more, and closed his eyes. The teacher:  "Are you sleeping?" " No,"  he answered, and opened wide his eyes, and gazed at his painting. The colors stood out, and the composition heightened; he was excited and proud of what he saw.

A new understanding came to him: erasing and correcting made an  unfinished  painting  complete. Whenever there is cancelling, erasure, change, loss, we have wounds to deal with, for I have to give up something, and I am asked to embrace a loss. How many people on the face of the earth are able  to accept loss and are not afraid of wounds. This he says is the way of love.

He concludes the article with the first pages of the Bible. God made Adam and  said it was not good to be alone; he needed a helpmate. A great sleep overtook Adam, and a rib was taken and God gave it flesh; she became his helpmate.  Adam had to lose part of himself to gain love. Love is not given without cost is the message of the article. A masterpiece is made with deletion, modification, loss, abandonment; total love also requires loss, abandonment, death, the process of being scarred, and time, to come out of the dark tunnel.

Dreaming of Making Gyodong a Neutral Peace Island

Here on the island of Gyodong from June 13 to 15, we had Ganghwa-Gyodong Peace Leadership Camp sponsored by the Saeurinuri Peace Movement, Young-Ai Kim (Theresa) is the movement's representative. They received financial aid from the Inchon City government for the three day program.The camp had parts of the program both in Ganghwa and Gyodong  for three days of study and training. The participants were middle and high-school students from 12 different schools and students from multiple cultural backgrounds.

June 15th was the 14th anniversary of the North-South Joint Declaration that was adopted between the leaders of the North and South. As a result of the talks in June of 2000 there was the meeting of separated families. The movement for peace would like to see more of these steps to  improve the relationships between the two Koreas.

The program included talks by  specialists on different aspects of the peace movement: war, conflict, emotional  involvement in our present environment, co-existence, and preparing future generations of  leaders.  Especially with the recent Sewol tragedy and the shock to the young students, healing programs were used to give confidence to the participants.

The displaced persons from the North now living in the South expressed their feelings on their being forced to leave their homeland. The students were again introduced to the scars and results of war. Students listened carefully to the talks of the older citizens, and were determined to do all in their power to help them  realize their dream of returning to their birthplaces.

At the end of the month we will have the opening of travel on the bridge that unites the island of Gyodong with the mainland. The traffic from the island will be made easy and inexpensive, and the movement for peace thought it would be a good time for the peace camp. The new world peace movement has prepared a 'memorandum of understanding' to entice the UN International Youth Council to make Gyodong a peace camp to train leaders. The island is at the mouth of the Han River, and with geopolitical meaning would  be an ideal place for the peace island.  They have  worked in getting the support of the citizens of Gyodong and will present their proposal to the government. To prepare for unification, we need education for peace, and helps in resolving the  discord for reconciliation. Gyodong would be a model in realizing this ideal.

At the cease-fire agreement on July 27, of 1953 both parties agreed to allow civilian vessels to navigate at the mouth of the Han River. This was not like the (DMZ) Korean Demilitarized Zone or the (NLL) The Northern Limit Line, a disputed maritime demarcation line in the Yellow Sea between North and South Korea. This was meant to be a neutral zone. For 60 years,this was the case, without any confrontation between the North and South.Kim Theresa says this  is one of the reasons we should make Gyodong the Neutral Peace Island.

Vulnerability

Vulnerability: allowing ourselves to be hurt. The word comes from the Latin able to be wounded. In the bridge card game, the situation of vulnerability gives one the chance to make more points or increase the chances of being penalized. When we continue to wear  armor that prevents us from being hurt, we seem to be at peace, but possibly we are missing the opportunities to grow and be more human.

A priest in the Catholic Digest writes about an experience he had while in the army. He was responsible for the store at the shooting range, and  for the goods bought and sold. One of the biggest sellers in the army stores is usually raw rice wine. It was the custom to add water to the wine which increased the profits of the store and selling wine with less alcohol  was good for those who  bought the wine. However, his conscience would not allow him to do it. Actually, it was not a big item in his unit for outside the army base, there were all kinds of wine shops. He sold matches to take care of the losses he incurred.

One of the soldiers in his company always seemed to be out of money, whether he had accidents that he was paying off he didn't know, but he would pester him to  sell on credit. He had a serious exterior appearance, although he had been in the army for some time, rank was low, he was a loner and not one to go out to others. In order to avoid confrontation the writer would just laugh. The soldier would get angry, but in time the anger would cool, and he would withdraw.

One evening the soldier came into the store asking for credit, and he responded with his customary forced laughter. The soldier continued pestering him and finally with his fist hit the table and yelled: I am down in the dumps and all you do is laugh, and he began crying. The writer mentions how surprised he was and began to apologize, and they began a deep conversation. The soldier felt so shunned and empty that he was looking for a fight with anyone who would  break the loneliness he felt. He wasn't able to find anybody. His outrageous behavior was to engage another person, and he was greeted only with laughter, which made matters worse, and he continued to cry.

Dealing with the soldier in the way he did he felt great shame and sorrow. In the future when he came the laugh was from the heart. They  came to be good friends. His serious demeanor also was appreciated as his dignity. He was transferred to another army base, and the writer found the address and continued corresponding with him. Even after discharged from the army the friend visited him.He concludes the article telling the readers he doesn't know what happened to him, but in his heart, he remains a friend.  

This experience the priest had during his army days would remain with him and the lesson that we all know so well, when we take time to reflect, not all is what appears on the surface. If we had the patience and good will to see other possibilities than those, we are programed to see, we would be better for it, and be an instrument for peace and reconciliation.

Burn-Out for a Christian

Burn-out is a word we hear often. In Biblelife, a priest with a doctorate in spirituality and now  studying counseling writes on the topic. He uses the phrases he found on the Internet to begin the article.

"The burn-out syndrome-- one starts out full of passion why does it end  spiritless? How do we break out of the situation? Not only lacking  passion but becoming despondent. Three ways of breaking out of the malaise. Test for the symptoms of burnout. It is not easy to cure."

The above words leave one with a very negative feeling about the situation. There are many different ways to judge and cope with the person's burn-out. One of the easiest ways to illustrate the case of burn-out is to use the example of fuel for a car. When the car has fuel, it runs well,without fuel it stops. If you continue trying to move the car, you will harm the engine. When this happens even after you put in the fuel you have problems with the engine. This is also true with burn-out, without finding the reason for the problem, we can do damage to the psyche and even our bodies.

When we are without fuel, we have to understand the situation. 'Why am I having this trouble?' This is not working for myself but for others why so lethargic?' These should not be our thoughts. It is not the time to put more effort into what you are doing but to rest. There is a need for the person to be loved and to receive help from others. The person needs to know his limits and humble enough to accept them, and as a believer to entrust oneself to God.

We have to search for what is missing. When we feel burn-out working in service to others, does that mean we need more prayer in our life? Does that take away our feeling of lethargy? When a person works from morning to evening for others, doesn't eat, is hungry and is utterly exhausted, do we tell such a person to pray, and they will regain strength? What good is that? They need to rest and take care of their health. They have to examine themselves and determine what the problem is. Back to the example of the car, if the engine needs oil, and we think it needs gas the car will not move.

When dealing with a machine, we can solve the problem easily, but we are not machines so the example can go just so far. Finding the cause is not easy, and even if we know the cause not everything goes back to normal once we know it. So what is necessary?

We have to remember our hope is in God. As people of faith, we have to return to God. We have to rest in God. Once we know what we need we have to find out what God wants to give us and ask for that. It is not prayer for a return to a relationship with God: vague and sentimental, but a prayer that is concrete and humble, giving myself to God and asking for help in the relationship we want. We need to surrender to God.

Our trust is in God. When the object of our services are only the persons we want to help we are going to have trouble. When we reflect on the love God has for us and his care for us we will not have burn-out.