A medical school professor, finished forty years as a teacher and retired; he writes a column in the Peace Weekly on Hansen's Disease, his field as a researcher and medical practitioner.
His life has been his work, and apologizes to those who have worked with him for being stubborn and slow to listen. He, unconsciously, both in word and action has hurt the feelings of many and asks for forgiveness.
In his plea for forgiveness he uses a phrase from Confucius εθδΈε, which translated freely: being at peace with others does not mean that we think the same. This is a sign of a wise person while the small-minded person wants the other person to be of the same mind if there is to be peace and harmony between oneself and another. The doctor admits that he was slow in understanding this and is sorry.
For the doctor one of the hardest situations to deal with was the way leprosy is used in the Scriptures as a punishment from God. Every time he hears these words it hurts him greatly. The word leprosy appears 83 times in the Bible. It appears both in the Old and New Testaments. When Moses received the mission to liberate the Jews in Egypt, he was given leprosy and cured by God to rid himself of his doubts.
In the English Bible in Leviticus, the word leprosy is used but in the Korean Bible, it is malignant skin disease. In Leviticus chapter 14, we have the purification rite for leprosy. Since 1943, we have the discovery of medicine that cures the disease. In a period of one to two years, the disease is cured. In one year in Korea, there are less than ten with the main symptoms, and they are of an ordinary infectious disease.
St. Luke who was a doctor mentions in chapter five verses 12-16 the cure of a person with leprosy. In the Old Testament, it was a sign of uncleanness and ungodliness, and here we have a cure. The doctor remarks that the understanding of punishment that was present is no longer true in the New Testament because of Jesus.
We are in New Testament times and hope that the readers will never use the word leprosy as referring to sin and punishment. Hansen's disease used in place of leprosy is an effort of many to disassociate it from the term leper.
Writing
in the opinion page of the Catholic Times a professor in the humanities
department of a Catholic University leads us on a journey of thought
that she had in reading the book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
by Yuval Noah Harari.
She begins the article talking about her walks with her sister-in-law along the river bank of the Han River. In the evening, she sees many walking at sunset with their dogs, and she wonders at times who is leading whom. You have Chihuahuas, Finish Spitz, Poodles walking with their owners, and she was struck with how the dogs have no problem in being attracted to other dogs of different breeds, much larger or smaller than themselves and enjoying each others' company. However, she doesn't recall in the same house where a dog has fallen in love with a cat or vice versa.
The
book she is reading on Sapiens (homo sapiens) is one that a Christian
may have much to criticize but she found something that she has
overlooked in the past that was brought to her attention by the book.
We have the cognitive, agricultural and scientific revolutions Sapiens has encountered, and Harari wonders whether our ancestors, the hunters and gathers, were happier than our own modern Sapiens. We have had more people who have died from suicide than all the deaths that we have had in wars from the beginning of history. What is the reason that we are now working more hours than the hunters and gathers in our ancestral line? Will our world of cyberspace and genetic engineering bring us more happiness or grief?
What she liked about the book was the reason Sapiens could overcome all the other hominids. It was because of Sapiens cognitive powers. In this section, he explains the difference between mating theory and replacement theory.
Sapiens did not live in harmony with the other hominids but in time showed antagonism and competed with Neanderthals and Erectus (although there may have been interbreeding), they did not settle down with them but even were responsible for their reduced numbers and eventually extinction. We have no place in the planet today where we can find any remnant of where Sapiens and the hominids interbred and remained as a distinct tribe, or species. We have overcome our different facial appearances, colors, cultures and religions, but we were not attracted to the non-Sapiens.
We are drawn to God, we can't see, understanding our history as made in the image of God, and the attraction that he has put in us for himself is what keeps much of human kind looking for ways to fill our desire for him, by the way we live. St. Augustine expressed this feeling very succinctly and beautifully: our hearts are restless until they rest in you.
After the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, the war between Protestantism and Catholicism continued with a fight on reason and religion.
Humanity was seen negatively by Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679). Our condition: "was a war of every man against every man." A philosophy professor in the theology department of a Catholic University, in his column in the Catholic Times, believes most of his readers would have difficulty understanding Hobbes.
He mentions the humidifier sterilizer problem Korea experienced that included fatal chemicals, the cause of death and disease, and took many years to come to the attention of the public: an example of money coming before justice and public good. A society where money is necessary for certain jobs, a society where a small mistake made while driving is returned with revengeful acts; a person's feelings slightly hurt by another's action, will respond with violence; a society where the poor in the educational system end up dropping out and becoming losers, and we blame it on them; a society where we don't work for the common good but for the few. Hobbes' understanding of society is not without reason.
According to Hobbes, our natural desires are not decisions on good and evil, or concern for the virtuous life but maintaining personal security. This kind of situation makes for a very unstable society. For Hobbes the human condition of mankind was: "a state of violence, insecurity and constant threat." Is this not part of the feeling that many have in our society?
When our desires control us, and without any examination of our situation, we go in chase of our desires are we not falling prey to the thinking of Hobbes and being controlled by it?
Meaning of our daily life is not success and great deeds but little acts of concern for others and a virtuous life, which begins by looking into ourselves. Examining ourselves, we listen to the small voice that is always speaking in us. It is then we recall our vocation.
We need the belief that we are called to heal the sickness of society. It is not the picture given to us by the mass media, but the reality that we experience daily: facing it positively and objectively.
Trust in our working for the healing of society is not something that comes without a price. We are faced with these many varied desires that come to us daily, and we examine them for their meaning, and continue working for the common good. This requires effort and a fighting spirit.
In the Peace Weekly the head of a spirituality counseling service deals with a question received in his column in which a writer asks: is religion just a question of experience? Every time the questioner brings in theology he is made to feel his faith life is misunderstood and considered infantile. Faith needs experience he acknowledges but is faith only a matter of experience?
Priest Columnist answered his question, and calls these experiences a strong feeling of being one with a transcendent being. A person's very self is seen at the center of their being, and gives a person a vision of what life should mean. "The man who learns in solitude and recollection, to be at peace with his own loneliness, and to prefer its reality to the illusion of merely natural companionship, come to know the invisible companionship of God." Thomas Merton is quoted as saying we are spiritual beings and not material existences. A person with this kind of thinking can expect to have an experience of oneness with God.
He mentions St. Thomas Aquinas, who is considered one of the greatest theologians of the Catholic Church, who had an experience of God while at prayer. After that experience, he gave up writing and devoted himself to prayer: Scripture and the cross were all he needed.
Care must be taken, he says, with these experiences. They are not to change us completely but change the direction of one's life. However, we have those who think that what they experienced has changed them into another person, and gathers others to follow them. They expand the way they see themselves, and are under the illusion of being God like. They often leave the church they belonged, and start their own movement. This divine experience becomes the beginning of a personal quest for marketing their own religion.
Second problem is addiction. They become so overcome by the experience it's like an alcoholic who feels he is living only when he is drinking and continues, for everything else seems futile. Often they leave family, and work in search of this addiction.
Our hearts are like a rubber band. We expand and return to normal. No matter how large the experience we will return to normal. It is at that time that our response is important. When thanks are expressed to God for the experience, all is well, but with those who do not want to return to their daily life. we see many aberrations.
He concludes the column with the example of Peter, who experienced the transfiguration of Jesus and wanted to build three tents; he wants us to reflect on Jesus' response.
What we hear often bothers our consciences. A religious sister adds to the burden with her words on the opinion page of the Catholic Times. She recounts her encounter with a homeless woman who she helped. She fed her and gave her a place to stay on church property without notifying anybody, and sent her off with bus fare.
Results were that she returned repeatedly, strongly asked for food, a place to stay, and a job. When the sister told her she would find her a place to stay, she said no; she didn't want anyone to notify her family. She refused to leave, which put the sister in a difficult situation. The church grounds had many different rooms, classrooms and facilities, but it was difficult to find a place for a homeless woman.
Church property is not a public welfare facility. It is not a place where persons can stay for any long period of time. This fact she knows well but whenever we are required to turn our backs on those looking for help, she finds it difficult.
Churches are not used during the week as they are on Sundays, and she who gives many talks finds it awkward using Jesus' words about what we do to the least we do to him, and when she finds herself saying no to those in need: homeless, the elderly, children, these words come to mind. All could be welcomed to use church property.
She mentions how Pope Francis has asked that they open the religious houses in Europe to the migrants and refugees which gave her great joy. How would Jesus look upon the way we use our facilities in Korea? In this year of mercy are we using our facilities to express this mercy?
Many are those who remember using the church's buildings and playgrounds as children. Neighborhood children can use the parking lots of the churches as playgrounds. Young people can come to use the basket ball courts and ping pong tables. Migrants and foreign workers can use the rooms for meetings and celebrations. Those who have for one reason or another not had a marriage ceremony can use the churches for these activities. The homeless can find rest from the rain and a place to rest in rooms set aside for this purpose.
She concludes her article wondering if this is only a dream. Is this kind of thinking unrealistic, impossible?
All societies have structures, pecking orders, 'caste systems' a good example would be the military. Korean society is patriarchal and hierarchically strong. Age is an important element in society: elders first, consequently, the need to determine the age when meeting others.
These words begin an article in With Bible, written by a man of letters, with a background in teaching. He describes himself as a person who spent 25 years studying, 25-year teaching and now hopefully spending 25 years reading and writing as a free person.
The Second Vatican Council he says emphasized the place of the laity in the Church, but the Church in Korea is still centered on the clergy: one of the deformities of the Korean Church. Power of the clergy is not small, and he blames the laity for the problem: lack of knowledge of theology and scripture. Laity, consequently, rely on the authority of the priest and the bishop in all they do.
On the Korean Bishops' ad limina visit, the pope said to the bishops: "I ask you above all to be servants, just as Christ came to serve, and not to be served. Ours is a life of service, freely given, for each soul entrusted to our care, without exception." Pope Francis reminded them: "Korean Church is built upon the thrust of the laity and the blood of martyrs." He asked them not to forget their roots as they enter the future. The pope also asked the clergy not to follow the easy life and reign over the laity.
He sees many good clerics but also those who by their words and actions are proud and self-righteous, many believe they are living according to the words of the pope, he says, but are not. Change will not be easy.
'To be on the side of the weak' has lost all meaning, polarization has become a reality in Korean society. The weak are now the majority.
The
role of the prophet is not only to criticize those in authority but to
read the signs of the times and to warn about the wrong directions
society is taking. This is the work of the Church and its members. We
find few who are doing this and often criticize those who speak out and want change, and
call them heretics.
The president of the Bishops Conference is quoted as saying that as society is getting more worldly and materialistic, we in the church are becoming middle class, and our faults are exposed. Our interest in the poor is disappearing, clergy and religious are becoming more worldly, bureaucratic, young people are leaving the church and lay people are distancing themselves from the sacraments and religious life.
Why haven't the senior citizens left the church like the young people? Devotion and a strong faith life are reasons, but also they are more interested in hope, consolation, and compensation while the young want hope, proposals and plans. The Church has not seen the problems of the young and countered only with empty words. It is no surprise they are leaving.
He concludes the article with gratitude that the bishops have decided to put aside money in a 'Good Samaritan Account' to help the needy but there is also a need to reduce the numbers of the needy, which is a work of the whole church and what service means.
On the opinion page of the Catholic Times, a religious priest writes after the manner of Thomas Merton on his own revelation gained in his mature years.
During one of his recent trips to the market and hearing the traditional Korean music blasting away on the old speakers, he was not hearing it as a saucy young man but with strong feelings that brought tears to his eyes.
"You don't know me/ How would I ever know you?" These were the beginning words to the song. His feelings on hearing the song were not positive: "Even if you knew me how much would you know? I don't know you either." And to his surprise he finds himself singing the words without reason, often to himself.
However, going back a year before, while riding a bus, he heard this song after many years, and it brought to mind the reason it made such an impression in the market. The word 'You', and 'I' are very similar in sound, and he is from a province where they don't ordinarily distinguish between these two vowels. Consequently, what he heard was: I don't know myself how am I to know you?"
We are on a journey to God and in prayer, I am discovering God and myself in the process. We are made in the image of God who is the foundation of who I am. "After all, you have died! your life is hidden now with Christ in God" (Colossians:3:3).
We can all say we don't know who we are. We have the image of God in us and are consequently, related. This reminds him of the insight Thomas Merton had at the corner of Fourth and Walnut in Louisville.
"In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people,that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers.It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world.... If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred,no more cruelty, no more greed...." (Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander Thomas Merton)
Individuals and groups when separated into different camps, says the columnist, either assimilate or continue division. I don't know myself how would I know you? Knowing the meaning of these words would allow us to bow before all those we meet.
(Tathata) is Sanskrit for a title of Buddha: ''the ultimate inexpressible nature of all things" and the name of the song.
