Happy Easter! Today we celebrated the holiest day of the liturgical
calendar, the one with most meaning, the day on which the powers of
death have been conquered by the hope given by our belief in eternal
life. Death is the end for all of us but the death and resurrection of
Jesus allows us to participate in the new life he has promised--here and now. The
Catholic Times editorial reminds us of this meaning for Easter.
More
than any time in the past we are faced with despair, and frustrations. We endured the First and Second World Wars, our Korean civil war and
we are still fighting in our world village; uneasy about terrorist attacks, and the fear of tragedy.
Destruction of our environment and ecosystem is
putting into danger our living space. The spread of materialism,
worldliness, relativism, and unlimited competition is making the life of
the poor more difficult.
Korea is not an exception
with these problem. The young have difficulty finding work, our
situation is not much better than the times when we received relief from
the International Monetary Fund. The gap between the rich and poor
continues to grow, the dignity we should have for life is being trampled
by the culture of death. Many of our citizens are living with despair. Last years Sewol tragedy shows us how slow
our society has been to see the contradictions and immorality rampant
in society.
But no matter the problems,
we still have hope for the future and we should never lose that hope.
Christians have the example of Christ on the cross. We both participate in the despair of the cross, and in his resurrection. Despair like
that of death is overcome by the hope of the resurrection.
Resurrection is not only the possession of the Christian, but is the
message for all humanity. We have the Gospel message of the good news which is the word of hope to the whole world. Let us always be messengers of this hope.
On the front page of the Peace Weekly we are told that 220 years ago in the Korean Church, after many years without any priest, they had their first Easter Mass on April 5th of 1795. Chu Mun-mo the Chinese priest who entered Korea at the end of the previous year celebrated the first Easter Mass in an area of Seoul.
The Mass was a moving experience for all those present and the alleluia was their expression of joy in a language not their own. That Mass was the fuse that brought about a new persecution that began in that year. Han Yeong-ik a newly baptized Christian was the informer that made know the whereabouts of the new priest and the efforts to find him. He finally gave himself up to the authorities to save the lives of the Christians who were being detained, tortured and killed. He was martyred in 1801.
Each year we come to the climax of the liturgical year with the Easter Vigil Mass the same Mass celebrated 220 years before without the ceremonies we are accustomed to at the Vigil Mass.
The bishops of Korea each year have their messages for the Christians of the diocese and the key words for Easter: light, hope, courage all have a predominant spot in these messages.
The liturgical calendar is filled with all manner of visual aids for our participation and renewal. This evening we start with the new fire and light that spreads from the Paschal Candle to the congregation, and from there to the whole world.
The Peace Weekly editorial reminds us that it is the Resurrection that has given us the Church, and our joy in life. Without this meaning the suffering and death has little to offer us. The Resurrection gives all that precedes meaning.
We are living the resurrected life here and now which is the message of the liturgy. The world in which we live has much to depress us, and it is getting more difficult to see the good which still surrounds us. We are not only to find this good but to add to it with our lives filled with light, sufficient to overcome the darkness we see.
The number of Catholics in the world are numbered at 17 percent. A large number, but sadly the light that should be given is not focused but distorted. The light that should be emanating from this sizable number of Catholics should be of great help to those who are looking for a way to follow, but the light we have received and celebrate on the Vigil of Easter is dispersed, not focused, and what we did in symbol loses meaning when we leave the church.The candles we held in our hands remain merely an external rite without any meaning for our lives.
A seminary professor
in the Kyeongyang magazine gives us a meditation on the words of the
the crowd to Jesus in ridicule: "Now come down from the cross and save
yourself!" Pope Francis uses these words at his talk at the conclusion
of the Synod as one of the temptations that we face in life. "The
temptation to come down off the Cross, to please the people, and not
stay there, in order to fulfill the will of the Father; to bow down to a
worldly spirit of purifying it and bending it to the Spirit of God."
We
are faced says the professor with this temptation when we are
concerned only with the things of this world. Depending on who defines
the word we will have different understandings of secularism. A
secularist sees improvement of life by material means and science, and
working for the good in this present life,which most Christians would
agree, but there are transcendent values which materiality and science
cannot give us, and we only have to look at the world that we have for
the affirmation.
In the Korea of 2015,
says the professor, we are losing the values and capability of religion
in life. A Gallup Survey showed that since 1984 to 2014 there has been
great change in the way the people see religion. In 1984 those that
considered religion as important was 97 percent, in 2014 this decreased to 81
percent. Thirty years ago,the influence that religion had on society was accepted by 77
percent, in 2014 it decreased to 48 percent. This shows a big change in
Korean society. The values of the holy, transcendent and the eternal
have been replaced.
Children
are more interested in their computer monitors than going to
church.Churches are no longer the leaders in giving aid to the poor
replaced with many social welfare programs. Our citizens want more
improvement in the quality of life than in the past, and in many cases this does include the spiritual.
We no longer like
talking about carrying the cross. When we talk about sacrifice we like
to put it all aside, and follow the flow of society. When we go to
church we fold our hands in prayer and talk about justice and love but
in our daily life we are only interested in number one, ourselves.
The priest professor
admits in conclusion that he is not free from this temptation. He sees
himself seeking success and honor and is looking out for results. We
are not interested in what hurts because of the good that results. "Without the pain we don't have glory without death we don't have resurrection."
At the end of life
we will not be judged
by how many diplomas we have received
how much money we have made,
how many great things we have done.
We will be judged
by 'I was hungry and you gave me to eat,
I was naked and you clothed me,
I was homeless and you took me in.'
Hungry not only for bread
---but hungry for love.
Naked not only for clothing
---but naked for human dignity and respect,
Homeless not only for want of a room of bricks
---but homeless because of rejection.
Mother Teresa
These
are the words that an article in the Kyeongyang magazine written by a
university professor wants us to reflect on and asks how many points we
would give ourselves. What we do in life, if it doesn't leave the world a
better place what good is it? Is life only in search of my needs, but
what meaning does that have? To the very last what is important is to
share our love, care, understanding, and dignity with others, and
especially to find those on the edges to embrace them. This would
decrease the wretchedness in the world.
When not
sharing love, caring for values and human dignity we will not be living,
but life will be like death.
Today is Holy Thursday; we meditate on
the love that we have received from Jesus. The washing of the feet of
the disciples is a sign of what this love should mean. Love is not
receiving but giving, not possessing but sharing, it is the wanting the
good of the other even if if it means sacrifice on the one loving.
We
who live the liturgical life of the Church and attend Mass frequently
should have a deep understanding of what the central message of the
liturgy is. God has shown us his love and we live in gratitude for all that we have received. Jesus has become our food and we become the food for
others.
In the liturgy of the hours yesterday we heard the words of St. Augustine: " If we are to give true meaning to our celebrations of their memorials, (the blessed martyrs) to our approaching the Lord's table in the very banquet at which they were fed, we must, like them, provide the same kind of meal."
An educator working as a lecturer and consultor writes in the
Kyeongyang magazine about the hopes of the teachers and parents of
children graduating from elementary school. At a recent graduation she
mentions how she was responsible for the teaching on morals and
character formation of the sixth grade children.
On the
day of graduation she was most interested in Hyong Ki, whose ability
remained at the 2nd year level. His family circumstances didn't allow
him the necessary preparatory material, and he came to school mostly
for the free meal, and would often be absent. He tried his best but was
not able to overcome his shortcomings, making it difficult on the
teacher, frustrating her best efforts. She new he wanted to eat some pork belly slices, and gave him money to buy what he wanted, he bought
some and gave the rest of the money to his mother which indicated the kind of boy he
was.
What she thought would happen, did. Hyong Ki did
not come to the graduation. She had prepared a bouquet of flowers but
he did not show up. She went to his home, called his name and he came
out, his hair disheveled. He led the way to the school. They were late
and she sat beside him on the seats prepared and she whispered in his
ear: "It is good we came isn't it?" He nodded in agreement. They ate
at a college cafeteria, and as they left he said to the teacher: "Many
of the students left a lot of food on their trays, it was tasty, why did they do that?"
On the way home she bought some bread for
him to share with his two siblings. She also left him with these words
and doesn't know if they registered. "Hyong Ki, middle school is
different from elementary, you will probably be on your own. You will
have to be your own boss. Don't take a bad road. When you get into high
school you can get a part time job and help to pay your way, after
graduation you can find work and live in the way you want~!" Sadly,
there are many children who say all the parents did was give them
birth.
In the past those who were studying to be
teachers were bright but came from a background of poverty. This is no
longer the case, she says, and in fact studies show that presently they come from wealth. Are they going to be able to
understand the children from poverty? One educator said, teachers
in the past had an inferiority complex; she would agree.
She
was given the task by the board of education to give a lecture to those
who will be teaching the 5th and 6th grade. In her lecture she asked
that since they are beginning anew, they look with new eyes on their students: not to judge the students by their family background or by the
filtering done by the teachers in the past, but to work with the
objective personality type tests taken.
She
wants the teachers not be concerned with the students who do
well in Korean, Math and English, but on all the students--those who
have different talents and abilities. She wants the teachers to look on
them all with a merciful eye.
She concludes her
article by wanting the mothers to remember that when they send their
children to school their expectations are high, but not to forget what most educators make clear, that 90 percent and more of
the education of the children is done in the home.
A refugee from the North, living in Korea, was in his living quarters overnight when below he heard loud noses that disturbed his sleep. He went out
to the veranda and looked into the room below and saw a number of
persons who were in a heated dispute. They were discussing the present
government, the president's policies, capabilities, the directions of
the government and the like, and were bitterly critical of the present
situation. He called the police and reported the reactionaries in the
apartment below. The columnist in the Catholic Times, a representative of the Korean Bishops' Committee for Reconciliation mentions this incident in the Catholic Times, and had a good laugh in the process.
The
refugee found the situation a serious one. Coming from North Korea,
and hearing the criticism of the president was untenable. Hearing that kind of talk, after many years
of living in a society quite different from our own, his actions are easily understood.
In the South with refugees from
the North, if respect is not shown to Kim Il-sung, you are not giving a
good impression to those from the North. These deserters from the
North still have an idea of their leader that saw him as almighty and
deserving of their respect. His diplomatic capabilities, the
respect he received in every nation that he visited, his humility: he was always the first to extend his hand for a greeting, made a favorable impression on the citizens.
During
his time as their leader, the Communist stores were filled with
clothes, and all kinds of fish they could buy cheaply. Their verandas had pollack always ready to be eaten. At the birthday celebration of the leader during the spring, all kinds of visitors
from other countries would be present which showed how well respected he
was to the rest of the world.They were very happy.
In the 1960s when South Korean nurses and miners were going to Germany
for work, North Koreans thought that if it wasn't for Kim Il Sung they would be
doing the same thing, and were thanking heaven for
such a leader.
From the time in the public nursery schools, before the portrait of Kim Il sung they would
thank their great leader for what he had done for the country. They all
learned about his life in school and they all new the names of his
parents and even a three old child would know his birthday-- April 15.
In
all the provinces of the North there is a museum dedicated to the
exploits of the great leader and where they learn about him. His whole
life was devoted to making the life of the citizens better and died
doing this. Almost all believed once he saw the
difficulties of the citizens he would act to alleviate the
problems. We in the South, the columnist concludes, have a long way to go before we can
understand the feelings of those in the North.
Learning the truth about any issue that is disputed is difficult. We
make a distinction between what is fact and what is opinion, and opinion
is always easier to accept-- we are not allowed to make facts. This
makes the reporting of news in many cases the opinion of the writer and
the facts are selected or ignored to bolster one's opinion. Knowing this
does require judgement on the part of the hearers: facts are often not
welcomed, opinion is less threatening.
In the
Peace column of the Peace Weekly we hear about the father of one of
the children who died in the Sewol Tragedy ( ferry that sank on April
16, last year, 304 died and most of them were students). The father of
one of the students was baptized by Pope Francis when he came to Korea
last year with the baptismal name of Francis. Wednesday of Holy Week
will be the first anniversary of the tragedy, just two days before Good
Friday on which we recall the death of Jesus.
Christianity
promises us eternal life, but the families of those who died remain
on earth and are fighting against 'forgetting'. The father has started a
trip from the pier at Paengmok Port near where the boat sank to
Gwanghwamun in Seoul. He walks three steps and bows, known in Korea as
the Buddhist practice of sambo ilbae.
This is an effort
of Francis to keep the memory of the Sewol alive, it remains a 'pain
point' for many: more value given to mammon than human life. The number
of the irregularities involved are hard to determine and the natural
response is not to want to know, saving us the embarrassment that often
follows. Forgetting will not bring any change from before to after
the tragedy.
The National Assembly, after much bickering has agreed to a new
investigation into the deadly ferry accident, but
nothing has changed. The fear of the parents of those that died is that
nothing will be done to prevent accidents of this type from happening
again.
The Church is involved in trying to keep the memory of the tragedy in the minds of the citizens.
The issue has been politicized which leaves a distaste among many of
the citizens. On the recent 'ad limina' visit of the Korean Bishops to
the Vatican, the first thing Pope Francis asked the bishops was the
Sewol problem. Prayers continue to be said throughout the church to find the truth behind the tragedy. The columnist ends with assurance
that the church will continue to help to keep the memory alive, and to
search for truth, and wants Francis to take care of his health.
