My God vs Our God

"I made our God into my God" are the first words of  an article in a diocesan bulletin by a TV writer.

When she was young she was a Sunday school teacher in her parish  community. A work she found extremely enjoyable and would not consider it anyway as a task.  Her attachment was like a person with a new car. Attachment  gave birth to selfishness and from there she said she became arrogant and wanted to do everything her way. When we get our way, she says, results are not always good. Leaving her teaching also came with a lot of pain. Looking back, numberless times, and reflecting on what happened,  she knows that it was her selfishness that brought about the unwanted results.

Whether it was fortunate or not she moved her parish register to another parish. She began anew with another community and got involved as a volunteer with a scripture study group. But here also she had problems. Here again under the mask of devotion,  her selfishness was quite different from those with whom she met.  She was intent in overcoming her fault but it disappeared only to appear in another guise, and to destroy everything she was trying to achieve. Unkind words were spread, and not intended, feelings of hate were past on to others and received, and she again removed herself from the  community.

The real problem,however, came following on this:  "I am a person that causes disorder in community!"  With this thought in mind  she felt it best  not to be part of the community which would be doing what God would want.  So from then on she quietly prayed, studied and went to Mass, and in doing so she felt closer to God than she did when she was part of the community.

However, with the help of grace she made the Cursillo and again experienced community. She realized at that time how foolish were her thoughts that she had  living the solitary life of faith. Fear you might sin, and consequently doing nothing is not what we are called to do. Far better is to be sorry for you faults, and continue to work to grow and mature.   

God does not want us to make him 'my God' but wants us to make him 'our God'.  Jesus has told us:  "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst" (Matt. 18:20). 

Joy in the life of a Christian.

A columnist in the Peace Weekly writes about  hope in the Lord.  He mentions how he had cold hands and feet even before the beginning of winter last year, and went to the hospital where he was told that he had poor circulation. They gave him some medicine but it was no help. Spring was  coming and all would return to normal. Hope gave him strength and in fact he felt that his feet and hands were not as cold. Hope, he marveled, was curative in itself.

Hope is not always certain like spring following winter. Many of our dreams we change from the unrealistic to a dream which gives us hope. When  we hope for something to happen that may seem impossible, the impossible often happens.

Yang Gyecho (1873-1929) a Chinese thinker spoke of hope as strength. Those who hope always expect a better future, and go in search of this future.

Last year when Pope Francis visited Korea the columnist remembers  his words: "Hope is God's greatest gift to us." There are those that use the gift, but many who don't, which is a great sadness. 

Life after death is our last hope. Many are those who do not have this hope but Catholics do, it is our greatest hope. One of our well known sister poets was on a talk show with a Protestant minister, which the columnist had seen on the internet.
Sister is quoted as saying that life is not a goal but a place of pilgrimage. Many of our saints have written on the subject, telling us earth is our temporary abode. Our home is to be with God.

There will be a big difference in those who make this world their end, and those who see this world as a place of pilgrimage. Christians see their stay in this world different from those with only this world in mind.

Christians believe that God is with them during their life, and drawing us to himself, and hope to be with him for all eternity. Christians' hope in this reality should be like the certainty that spring will follow winter.

Even those who have no belief and see it all as childishness, have to admit this hope, as strong as the hope of spring following winter, will give  great joy to life. The great tragedy is we don't see much of a difference in the joy that Christians have and those who don't believe.

Education Begins in the Family

"In the past he was very docile."  "When I am ready to talk, she refuses to listen."  "I am afraid of my child,  he no longer acts like my child." These are some of the comments that a teacher working  in the education of teachers receives. She writes about it in the Kyeongyang magazine.

Children with emotional instability are not  only difficult to discipline, but also to rear. Children who have control over their emotions find it a help in their school work, and in relating with others. Many parents do not realize this often depends on the educational methods used by parents.

Parents give the education of their children over to others, and make known they are sacrificing to  earn the money for this to happen. Parents educate by  giving the children what they need, giving spending money, taking them to the academies and schools,  preparing them for marriage, buying their house and taking care of the grandchildren. Nothing is demanded of the children who stand aside with  hands folded. Dialogue is not included but orders instructions, and scolding.

What are your ways of dealing with the children? Learning to respect the children's emotions is important; need to familiarize yourself with the disposition of the child. 40 percent of the children are  passive: they  obey readily  and don't complain but often they have internal problems such as stress, and depression because of the pressure and control of the parents. 10 percent of the children are  anti-structural, and are a problem for the parents, but here also a need to understand them,and work in their development. 15 percent of the children are slow. Watching and waiting, they are slow to do  anything at first, but once they start they stick to it.  

In Korea two hospitals that do well are  those dealing with cosmetic surgery and children with mental  problems. Children that are not able to say what they want, and those whose emotions are not respected will have mental problems; to prevent this from happening the need to get close to the children and allow them to express their feelings. Parents need to understand the children's emotions, sympathize with the children, help them to express their emotions and resolve them.

She concludes the article by noting that  children do not need the parents to do everything for them or to give their educational responsibility to others, but to do things together. More time at the table and by the bed to learn the children's way of seeing the world.  This prevents revenge towards the parents by the children. Parents should be travelers with the children, help them find their motives for action, and be a trusted follow traveler.          

We are All Called to be Saints

View from the Window of the Catholic Times, a priest columnist tells us about a theological research  center run by lay persons.  All theological subjects are treated but the lay person's place in the Church  is naturally a subject of study. One of the few in the Catholic world.

Many of the movements in which the lay people are involved, and we have many in Korea: Legion of Mary, Marriage Encounter, Cursillo etc. leave the laity with a feeling of inferiority in their spiritual life  as a married person. They believe their spirituality does not reach that of the clergy and religious, which thinking has to be changed.

Priest columnist mentions a priest writer who says in the West the numbers going to Church have decreased greatly but those interested in spirituality have increased. People want a spiritual life but not a church, they are happy with questions and  don't want answers,  they want truth but not obedience. They are dreaming of a new world of values. 

The columnist sees Korean Catholics in a completely opposite way. They want the Church but not spirituality (faith life);  answers not questions,  liturgy not piety, obedience not truth, and he says this with sadness. They are not concerned with what is going on in the world but, to an extreme, only in what is happening in the family. There is not an appreciation of mission and social responsibility.

Clergy, religious and lay people to live a holy life  need a mature spirituality. Not only to  experience God but enable us to go out to our brothers and sisters and the world in which we live. We need balance in our spirituality.

The theological research center in the diocese is not just educating but equipping their graduates to go out and work in society with the social gospel. We see this in  many other dioceses of the country. This is a need in the society to which we belong, and the Church needs to offer it to the members

Even though there are many things we don't like in the direction the nation is going, we don't just complain without any Gospel reasons but use what is happening to internalize the Gospel, unify our way of thinking, and be on fire with our mission to change the world.

Community Life

Living with persons with the same values is a great joy, and we seek their company. However, even in this situation we experience hurt feelings often over trifles. This happens even in the family. Living with others is not easy. So begins the first paragraph of an article by an author writing in With Bible, who introduces himself as a person who studied for 25 years, taught for 25 and now reads and writes.

Catholics look upon those in the religious life, and admire and often envy them. Because of this magnanimous evaluation and expectation, laity 
are hurt by their foibles and get upset. However, very likely, religious who live in community probably are faced with more hurts with their encounters because of their desire to live a holy life.They don't have the freedom of lay people to avoid those with whom they have problems.

In the community of the Church we have conflict and  anguish. It may only be a small hurt but it greatly upsets us and criticism makes us angry. When it gets to a point where we are all knotted up insides, it is not infrequent that many leave the church. At these times he goes back to the disciples of Jesus and learns a lesson from their response to conflict.

Life of Jesus' disciples was weary.The writer sees their life as harsh and cold. The death of Jesus left them completely shocked, and with great mental pain. With the news of Jesus' resurrection peace and a feeling of victory came to them, but Thomas was  not impressed and told the disciples he needed to see the holes in Jesus' hands and side. The writer has a  special  interest in Thomas who threw cold water on what the disciples believed, and told them he would have to see the holes in Jesus' hands and side. On his part he would have been strongly opposed to Thomas and been tough on him, but the disciple had no problem with him and even tried to protect him. 

Disciples did not criticize or blame Thomas, and the reason, he says, was the joy they had with seeing Jesus again. The joy of the resurrection was so great that it overcame everything else. The betrayal of Peter and the weaknesses of the disciples helped to make for a strong community of love and understanding.

When we fail to distinguish between criticism and blame we give and receive scars. In the Church community we can feel these scars  easily.When we take a person's  small faults and make much of them  and blame, we are pushing the person out from the community. In a community we try to learn to accept each other to work for unity and wait.  Without this understanding we are only a make-believe community. The first community waited for Thomas to change we also in our communities need to wait and be patient. Is this not the  way we will grow in faith and wisdom. 

Of course their is always the question of how much deviance is allowed in community. Ideally we would hope that the belief we have of the presence of the Holy Spirit and the teachings left us by our Lord would be sufficient to keep us together as community and to instruct us when we have crossed the line. Should not this be the hope we have living in a community? 

Understanding Death to Live More Fully

Death puts an end to earthly life, a big event. Some deaths have great ramifications on society and often give great shock and sadness to others. The aftermath, however, is limited, generally, with the passage of time we forget. Death does not remain in life. We all know that life ends in death. Knowing that we are going to die influences the way we live.                        


Death makes life important; we can't separate them. Philosophy is the field concerned with understanding life and death. These words begin an article in the Peace Weekly about  a philosophy professor at the Catholic University. Ku In-hei  who teaches  at the  university and  has written the book: Study of the Philosophy of Death.

Death and life are two sides of a coin. She goes  through the history of the different philosophers and their treatment of death. They begin with anxiety about death but life is the preparation for death. 

In the time of the Greeks  death was both an enemy and a friend. At times seen as a sweet sleep and  described as a gloomy subterranean world. In a word it was seen as a world of contradiction.  At the times of the Renaissance  they made an effort to ignore it. The author calls this the time of forgetting. The  atmosphere of the times determines  the way we look upon death Each philosopher had their own way of seeing death. Without religion each used their intellect. What was the way the Christian looked on death? They saw beyond death and stressed love.

Christians believe in God's love which is eternal when  we live in that love we are already going towards eternity and overcoming death. Love is the reason for our creation and the  hope that  overcomes death. Love has the strength to transcend death.

Professor Ku concludes, we do not fear or avoid death but make our greatest effort to prepare to  pass through death with  peace. When we live our life completely the anxiety and fear of death has no possibility of coming into the picture.

Without a real understanding of death it is difficult to live life well, she maintains, and hopes the book will help us to have a better understanding of death.    

Suffering in Asia

Life as an immigrant is difficult. Leaving one's home  brings hardships. Coming from a country with a low wage scale, and living in one with a high wage scale  needs preparation-- they are often looked down upon and feel ostracized, and the disadvantages and hardships are not just a few. Two articles in the Peace Weekly addresses the situation of migrants  in Asia. One article treats the FABC (Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences) recent conference in Thailand on the issues.

In Korea as in other countries the Church does work pastorally with the immigrants. In Korea they are now addressed as guest workers which is an attempt to be more welcoming. One article says that it reflects on the citizens when our attitudes and behavior are not considerate of their difficulties.

Pope John Paul II in his apostolic exhortation Ecclesia In Asia says: "At the present time Asia is   experiencing an unprecedented flow of refugees, asylum  seekers, immigrants and overseas workers. In the  countries to which they come, these people often find themselves friendless, culturally estranged, linguistically disadvantaged and economically vulnerable. They need support and care in order preserve their human dignity and their cultural and religious heritage." This was written 16 years ago and in Korea the situation has got worse.

In Korea with the large number of migrants, we also have the need for helping them to integrate. This is a concern for both the Korean Church and FABC. 

There is the need for the  pastoral care of the immigrants. In Japan we have many Filipino women who have  come to Japan to work in the country areas and most of them would be Catholic, which is a concern because of the small number of Catholics in Japan. One Japanese bishops considers them a gift to the Japanese Church. 

Secondly there is a need to protect the dignity of the migrants. The treatment of illegal immigrants is a problem. Trafficking is fought against but the efforts are few, illegal immigrants are the victims of trafficking, men are  used as slaves on vessels at sea,  women are sold into prostitution,  and  children become the victims in pedophilia, and there are those from whom bodily organs are extracted. 

No one can remain indifferent to the suffering of the countless children in Asia who fall victim to intolerable exploitation and violence,not just as the result of the evil perpetrated by individuals but often as a direct consequence of corrupt social structures. The synod fathers identified child labor, pedophilia and the drug culture as the social evils which affect children most directly, and they saw clearly that these ills are compounded by others like poverty and ill conceived programs of  national development. The Church must do all she can do overcome such evils, to act on behalf of those most exploited, and to seek to guide the little ones to the love of Jesus" (Pope John Paul II).

The article on the FACB ends with  the need for prayer and to get involved in the problems the continent faces. The Church needs to hear the cry of those who are suffering in Asia.