When we are sick we divide the world into those who are sick and healthy.
What kind of world do we have when we overcome this kind of thinking? We acknowledge that we have the sick and healthy but we go beyond that, and it doesn't influence us. This is being recollected.
A Jesuit priest commented on this word in his Lenten sermon that was written up in the Peace Weekly. 潛心 are the Chinese characters for the word we could express by 'recollection'. Knowing, but not necessarily having the knowing influence us would be his definition. During his talk all kinds of coughing was heard, but recollected (attentiveness) means that it didn't distract those present from listening. Those who are taken up with the coughing are captured by it.
When we pray we have many worldly thoughts that come to mind. 'Recollection' means we are able to empty ourselves.
Our aim in prayer is to be one with God. We know what God wills for us, and we work to implement it. We do not try to get God to do our will. Often our oneness with God is of the type where we want to control God, which comes from pride.
Believing in money we are controlled by money, believing in power we are controlled by power. We are controlled by what we believe. Jesus should be our hero. We listen to the words of Jesus and make sure they are his words, and not our words.
What is happiness? Is it possible to speak about happiness to those who believe that no matter what they do they will not be happy? We often decide what happiness means for us: mentally deciding what is happiness and what is unhappiness. But is unhappiness really unhappiness? A person who fails the exam for college has just taken the first step in a new world that wasn't even suspected.
We need to become attentive to what will bring true happiness. God, Jesus lives in me, how can I not be happy? Even if poor or not healthy, Christ lives in me. This for a Christian is mind-boggling.
He concludes his talk with the ways to achieve this attentiveness. First: God gives us only what is good. Secondly: need to understand the will of God. Thirdly: carry out God's will. One of the biggest distances we have in life is the distance from the head to the heart, and the distance from the heart to the feet is even greater.
One of the Korean proverbs similar to the English: once bitten twice shy--- once we have had a bad experience we are careful not to repeat it. Very difficult to abandon completely what we have experienced in the past. Being recollected is one of the ways we go about doing this.
Without effort this is not accomplished. We want prayer to be easy, and we want to approach God without effort-- not caring about what he desires. Is this not being interested in what the spouse wants, and desiring only what I want?
We need to know what we are thinking. It is in this recollection that we have attentiveness and we come to an understanding of God's will. The priest's desire was for us to to be recollected as the topic of choice for Lent.
-
- Catholicism considers the family the basic unit
of society, and society will only be as healthy as the families. We hear this often in our teaching on the family. When
family life is strong a society can overcome all kinds of difficulties.
However, divorces continue to increase, and presently Korea has one of highest rates among the developed countries of the world.
-
- The reasons for divorce are many: difference in
personality, financial problems, infidelity, domestic problems.... There
is also an increase of those who divorce even in old age. A fact
that we tend to forget is that the more children in a family the less
likely, divorce.
- We have many problems with marriage, and many in our society have
no idea what Catholicism teaches about marriage and family life. The
Synod on the Family which began with the Extraordinary Synod in Oct.
2014, will continue with the General Synod of 2015. The desire is to help families live their Christian family life in our present
world reality.
- In
the Peace Weekly is an article on the mentoring program for those
that will be marrying and for our young people. The Diocese of Jejudo
is the first to begin such a program and have recruited 85 couples that
have been recommended by the parishes. The program will last for 9
months with a meeting once a month. The participants have completed a
course in Catholic teaching, completed a course for parents, and have
been volunteers in the Marriage Encounter Movement.
- Topics discussed and talks given will include: when the wife
speaks I will open my ears; family finances, and labor; children's
education; wisdom in family squabbles; independence from the family
members of the husband and wife; and the common goals of husband
and wife in their preparation for old age.
-
- The
bishop in the inaugural talk to the group mentioned that when all is well in the family, society and the church will be healthy. He hopes they will be a help in helping the newly married and young people in the
diocese to have a new appreciation of married life.
-
- We
do have programs for the young and engaged but this program will be
mentoring the young and those who will be preparing for marriage. The
problems that the young have to face in our society makes living the
married life difficult. Many of the young
do not see marriage as a good and delay it, and many of the women seem
to be more interested in their development which militates against
marriage.
-
- Koreans because of their Confucian values, and manners in
society have a respect for their traditions and would not be as
quick to jettison what they understand married life to be, like areas of the West. However, the late marriages are one of the reasons for the low birth rate and we have more opting to stay single which is a big change from the past.
The representative of the Bishops' Committee for the reconciliation
of the country is impressed with the refugees from North Korea who are
here in the South. In his Catholic Times' column he mentions that with events in which the
North and South are present, he marvels at the positive outlook of the refugees.
When you ask them
to sing they respond with grace, and pick their song; asked to
dance, they extend their hands like a butterfly and fluttering their
hands begin to go around in a circle getting everybody involved, and in a
short time we have everybody in the group in a joyous mood. When all is
over they are the first to begin the clean-up.
To get
the Koreans from the South to sing is quite a feat. There is a lot of
talk, back and forth, before they acquiesce but to get them to dance,
requires more difficult steps for results. At the conclusion of the
event those of the South look around to see how the group is behaving,
we do not make the first move, and quietly move towards the
exist. The columnist knows where those from the North got their mature
and positive attitudes.
The columnist reminds us of the 2003 Universiade in
Daegu. A bus load of North Korean cheerleaders coming back from an
archery competition, and returning to Daegu, saw a placard that was put
in place by the farmers of the areas to welcome the cheerleaders.The
placard showed Kim Jong-il and Kim Dae-jung shaking hands, the two
leaders of the North and South and that time. It was raining and the cheerleaders from the North saw this as disrespect for their leader and
complained. They stopped the bus and after lamenting with loud cries at the
disrespect for their leader, they took the placard back with them to
their sleeping quarters.
We, hearing what happened, are
greatly surprised at the reaction of the cheerleaders.
We see only a placard but for the cheerleaders it was like a religious
image and more so. Do we have anybody cleaning the picture of
Jesus or the cross every day? In the North each house has a portrait of Kim Il-sung and his son in a prominent place. Each day
they would take time out to show devotion to their leaders by cleaning
the portraits with special cloths.
Their devotion to their leaders would be similar to a religious act on our part. This is the kind of training
they receive from their earliest years, and continues for life. Their
motto is always be ready. The leaders are like the sun for the
country. This is the brainwashing they have received, and worship of
their leaders is the natural outcome.
All their acts have loyalty as their foundation and the way they receive political trust, and the reason they concentrate on heroic actions. The closer they are
to the leaders the more envied by others and makes them ready to do every thing spontaneously and quickly.
Kyeongyang Magazine has an article on marriage in the different
cultures of the world, written by a professor of cultural anthropology.
She goes to the different types of marriages that we see in the world
today: monogamy, polygyny ( having more that one female as a mate),
polyandry ( having more than one male mate at the same time) We have
also same sex marriages in the society.
Polygamy, is the
marriage of a spouse of either sex with more than one mate at the same
time. In recent years this has changed in many cases to marriage to
one person at a time: brought about not always easily but
because of the changes in the cultures, the laws of a country, and
economic conditions.
Because of
the frequency of divorce we have serial monogamy. In many of the cases
the children are relating to the parent who has left, and is helped
financially, and the relationship continues, which is not much
different from polygamy.
Recently many of our young
people no longer feel that marriage and the raising of children is the
way they will find happiness, but will only hamper their personal
development. They have seen in families the conflicts between husband
and wife, and with children: abuse, violence, abandonment and even
murder. Communication in the family is difficult; and they see the number of old people who die alone.
When we see the problems families have, we need to ask ourselves what is a family?
The family is no longer what it is meant to be. The families relate
with each other without love and with indifference. The need
to relate with each other with love, understanding, concern, giving-in, will change the mentality and enable the family to overcome the difficulties they will face.
The message of religion for the family is
not the systematic formalities they have learned, but love,
respect and equality of the members in relating with each other with the
practice of the virtues. Each member has to remember that their best
intentions, no matter how noble and beautiful, and worthy of praise, the
body will not permit their implementation without a great deal of effort
in their cultivation.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic
Church the virtuous person does what is good consistently, easily, and
joyfully. Koreans hear the proverb: a habit at 4 years of age
will be with the person when he is eighty. The effort to rid ourselves of the bad habits will require many repeated actions to undo the hold that bad habits have on us.
She concludes the article by wanting the Church to not only emphasis the teachings of the Lord, but to work to change the
unhealthy conditions families face in society.
"It is rare to see someone reading a book, while riding in a subway or train." A nun, who writes a column in the Catholic Times, on Media Ecology, begins her column with this observation, and attempts to verify it by
peeking at those using their smart phones in her travels. Most of the
time they were watching drama, or playing a game, on occasions reading text, but the speed was such, she wondered if
it could be called reading.
She mentions studies
that showed readers of paper books had more retention than those
reading e-books, easier to remember what they read, and able to give a
decent report on what was read.
The tendency with
the screen text makes it faster to read but at the same time understanding and attention problems arise: words
are simply passed over. In one elementary school the difference between
the reading from a book and the electronic medium-- mistakes in
understanding were three times more likely to happen.
Electronic
books are appearing much more often today. We have
ten times the number of e-books in our society compared to 3 and 4 years ago, and this will continue
to grow. In California they are already saying paper books will disappear. In our own country the government has shown a desire to quicken this with their policies.
She
reminds us that reading is not only to search for knowledge but
especially these days we need training to concentrate, and efforts made
to develop endurance. In the 18th century with the reading revolution, it required the working together of the body and mind to do the
difficult work of reading. The work required a change to our body
and mind, and helped to develop the thinking process.
Books
were not only the containers of knowledge. Paper books were
uniting the sense of sight to that of touch, that conveyed the
connection of these dimensions of the person. When we fingered the
pages we had the touch of hand and the sound of the turning of the page,
the scent, the leisure between the turning of the pages, weight of
the book, which added to the satisfaction. Is this possible, she asks,
with the electronic media?
Here we have another example
of technology and the great improvement in our way of living but at the
same time we also should be conscious of a loss. The word Luddite in certain quarters has taken on a new
meaning from the term used with those that found technology taking away their
means of livelihood. However, for the modern Luddites, they see some of
the negative aspects of our development.
Would it not be a sign of our wisdom to acknowledge the possibility,
and do what we can to prevent some of the harm that comes with technology?
"We need to hear stories of the poor and sympathize with their
experiences. We need to gather these stories and understand the meaning
of poverty, and work to change the structures that permit it."
Catholic Times has an article on the director of the Jesuit Research
Center for Advocacy and Solidarity and above is a quote from the
director that begins the article. The center works for the advancement
of the rights of the poor and their property rights. The director maintains the Church has to be in solidarity and relate with them
on an equal footing.
Society
has developed but the number of the poor continues to increase. Faces of the poor are many and different: the sick, those because
of accidents can't work, those looking for work, irregular workers,
foreign workers....
We have
abolished absolute poverty but our development has brought in another
type of poverty caused by a lack of technological skills and
resources. At present poverty means being handicapped
financially. The need for both husband and wife to join the work force is an indication of the change.
One
example of this situation would be two students in elementary school.
One student is going to an academy after school and goes traveling with
parents on vacation, the other child does not. This child will feel
deprived in comparison, and the parents feel a burden.
The International Monetary Fund's entrance into Korea decreased the middle class. And those living in poverty increased. A graduate of an
engineering school lost his job and began working as a taxi driver. He
was a member of the middle class but his life style changed. We need to move from support for big industry to a win-win
society for the workers: concern for the unemployed, irregular workers
and daily workers and work for their betterment.
The director mentions the problem with structures of poverty and the
gap between the rich and poor which we have also in the church. In many ways she helps the poor but the poor don't find it easy to approach the church because of time and financial burdens. They feel more at home in a large Church
community than a smaller and more active one.
To help the poor in parishes, industry and organizations, he concludes, is not simply raising funds and sharing it with the poor. The Church needs to be in solidarity with the poor, be one with them and speak together with them of the joy of the Gospel.
A music
professor writing in a diocesan bulletin recalls a time he was
satisfied in the way he was saying the rosary until he heard a priest
talk about the rosary; his whole mental way of thinking was turned
upside down. He learned the way he was saying the rosary left a lot to be desired.
His
meditations on the mysteries, he doesn't remember when, all very
quickly disappeared. He began to work with a new set of meditations.
However, they did not develop in the way they were supposed to. He read
books on the meditations of the different mysteries, but there was no
progress and began to feel there was something he was doing wrong.
How
can we meditate on the same mystery over and over again? The first
sorrowful mystery: "Jesus shed tears of sweat and blood." How
painful this all must be, was the extent of his meditation. He moves to the
second mystery with the same thoughts, and gradually another thought
enters and he moves to the next mystery. Each day he says the sorrowful
mysteries how can he have different thoughts for the mysteries? This in itself is a mystery, he laments.
In
life there are times, because of need, we are faced with
repetition, and we endure. He remembers as a child the piano lessons
and the need to practice over and over again the same music which he
disliked.
Those who become performers know the repeated practices and overcoming the boredom, enabled them to appreciate the beauty of the music. As performers, they have not stopped doing the repetitions.
Before the performance they practice again and after the performance
they feel there was something missing and they return to practice.
Even years later they will return to the music, and are moved to another
level of appreciation.
This
is not only true of music but many other endeavors. When we love what
we are doing there is no boredom but just joy. The writer is not a
performer but he can go back to a piece of music and repeat it often
and with joy.He discovers something different each time. The joy comes because he loves the music.
He realized that in his saying the rosary he did not find satisfaction because he did not have an affection for the mystery on which he was meditating. The need to go back to the Scriptures and read again the details of the mystery are important, but to have passion for what you are doing is more important. Developing passion for the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary is his aim for Lent. The word ardor, suffer and endurance come from the same Latin word--- passion.
