When different groups in society can agree to work together for the common good we have something all can celebrate and encourage. Articles in the Catholic Weeklies have reported on the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Seoul City and the Catholic Archdiocese of Seoul.
According to the understanding the Seoul Archdiocese
will increase generating solar power via the roofs of its parish
buildings and on church-owned land including parking lots. It will also
encourage parishioners to install solar generators in their homes.
The Mayor of Seoul wants to produce enough energy to replace one of the nuclear power plants by 2022. Waste that follows the operation of our nuclear power plants is a positive talking point. Mayor's aim is to decrease the use of fossil fuels and reliance on nuclear energy with the increase of solar power in the city.
What would happen if all the roofs of the Seoul Buildings had solar panels? If 45 % of the roof space of our buildings were used there would be a 25% increase of energy produced. Seoul City has
inaugurated this plan for the new year and will be asking other organization to participate which the Cardinal did for the Seoul Archdiocese.
Seoul City has worked in the past to reduce the consumption of energy which it did achieve and now they have turned to the production of energy. They will invest a great deal of money on this project and mobilize the public to participate.
The Catholic Church has been been a leader in the anti-nuclear movement in South Korea. Fukushima in 2011 was a reminder of the risks that come with nuclear energy. The earthquakes we had last year in Korea helped the anti-nuclear movement but the citizens are still concerned with the price of electricity and the abandonment of nuclear power which is a money maker for the country. The majority are ambiguously for the continuation of nuclear energy.
Korea is the fifth largest user of nuclear power with over 20 nuclear reactors scattered throughout the country. The new government and the the desire of the President to follow the will of the people gave the president little room but to go ahead with the construction of the the nuclear plants that were under construction. His desire clearly is to abandon nuclear energy in the future and hopes the people will come to embrace this position.
Decreasing fossil fuels and increasing renewable energy is the movement spearheaded by the Seoul City. Seoul Archdiocese is not only opposed to nuclear energy but wants to do something concretely to show its willingness to work to together with Seoul City to produce renewable energy and our dependency on nuclear energy.
In a column of the Catholic Times, a priest university professor, brings to the attention of the readers the understanding of time from ancient Greece: Chronos and Kairos. Chronos was quantitative, the time we count with our watches and clocks, physical, chronological time by which we are surrounded. Kairos is a special time, qualitative time, opportunity, the moment in experiencing God together. It's becoming part of God's history in time.
How do we meet the Kairos moment in 20l8? Kairos is the kiss from eternity and a movement of grace in the here and now. We need to step away from the Chronos clock that controls all our movements.We live in a time of compulsion to improve our comfortableness. 'Time is money', a record that continues to play in our heads. Necessary if we are to make life comfortable for the elderly so we believe.
The candlelight processions of last year brought big change to society. The evening prayer of Mary the Magnificat became the desire of many of the citizens. Candles illuminated the darkness and leaders were removed.
We need to reflect humbly on where are we going? Do we want the wealth and glory of the past? Is it a time we feel the presence of God but not completed presence? Christians are never captivated by the glories of the past but move on to the eschatological future. We are invited to live by looking at the new heaven and earth where the will of God is unfolded. Not satisfied with our life of yesterday and today. Politicians, business people or religious people who are bound by their own vested interests are not able to accept God-centered time.
According to the writer, we have been living with a struggle to break away from the colonial days but are still tied to the Japanese ways. We need to go in a qualitatively different direction.Conversion of the heart is first and most important but the structure also has to change.
We need to remember the lesson of the Sewol Disaster and our recent government problems. If our lives and safety are to be replaced by vested interests namely the maintenance of political power or the means of earning more money we are moving away from God's time.
Let's build a society that welcomes God's time in the poor.Those who are wounded and marginated by social exclusion, those excluded from our church community; we want to get out of the pressure of Chronos, let 's go to the place of life of the alienated, there we will meet Kairos the time of God which is full of life.
Despite the long-term economic downturn, North Korea's nuclear development, the sad dictatorship and the tension in East Asia do not be afraid to ask for God's grace to go in a different direction. As a Jesuit he finishes the article, using the words from the Spiritual Exercises: For both me and our world, God is sweating and constantly laboring (#236).
Recently, Koreans use the words gold spoon and earth spoons to describes a person's upbringing with plenty of this world's goods or their lack. Are you happy? Is it because of a comfortable lifestyle or happiness despite the difficult life lived?
An article in Bible and Life by the leader of the 'Handanfamily' Happiness Center reminds her readers that it is not easy to match those who are happy in life with the material comfortableness they experienced in growing up or its lack. Her experience in counselling has shown that wealth and honor does not make life easy for many. They grumble and struggle. They resent their parents, hate their spouses and are pessimistic about life. What in the world makes their life so difficult? It's all somebodies' fault. They are wealthy but their emotional life is a mess.Often it was trying to fill the wishes of the parents never achieved, and in the process damaged was the attachment to the parents.
Many have been brought up with the earth spoon but they are not upset by the surrounding environment and have a peaceful disposition and a positive outlook on life. They have experienced the attachment to their parents and an empty bankbook does not disturb their enjoyment of life.
Countless studies have shown that it's not what we are born with but the way the child faced life that makes all the difference. Attachment to the parents is what goes beyond time and space and is the tie with the parents that make the difference. The writer mentions 5 things the child needs to receive from the parents: a love nest, care, naturing, support, direction. When they are not received you have damage to attachment. Today we have parents subletting their tasks to others.
Science has shown that it takes about 4 people to raise a child.With the break down of the extended family in Korea, we no longer have those who can help raising the children. This is what will determine the happiness and direction of a child. Many are motivated to raise a successful, bright, famous personality and forget the most important attribute is joy of life.
The writer concludes her article by mentioning that she believes all children have the seed for happiness at birth. Parents are there to help the child develop this bud. They are helped in this by relationships within the family, with contacts outside of the family but the important element is attachment. She wants all the children to have a gold spoon emotional life. This comes with attachement. Attachment is the beginning of love and the beginning of happiness.
In the recent Kyeongyang magazine, the rector of a Catholic University graduate school, with a degree in psychology, revisits the place of the capital sins in Catholicism. The listing of the seven capital sins: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, anger and sloth, are no longer as familiar to us as they once were. We see daily in the news how these are so much of the life that we live here and now.
In this past year, we had a student who asked for his grades and was told to take an exam. The student in anger sent the teacher a home-made bomb by home delivery service from which the teacher was burnt. Also, we have the recent incident of a man who was sexually mistreating his wife and abducted the daughter of his friend, killed her and abandoned her body: the results of lust.
Anger can make us all murderers. lust makes us rapists, jealousy can make us all criminals. When we surrender to these capital sins we deface our human dignity, and the spiritual life becomes difficult. They are very much part of our daily life. They increase immorality by their many by-products: lust give rise to a pornographic culture, gluttony, the abuse of drugs, envy in the use of terror tactics, anger begets violence, sloth predisposes us to be unconcerned with the pain and despair of others, avarice a lack of sharing, pride breeds coldness and disregard of others. We are all in small and big ways influenced by the society we have made.
We can give undue concern to the negative aspects of life but the writer feels the concern for the virtuous and the ethical has been abandoned by many. Self-centeredness, materialism, hedonism, individualism, has been espoused by many in academia and especially in some schools of psychology, with their theories have begun living a relaxed moral life and seek to rationalize it.
We have the two extremes in the way morality is seen. Even if we are not a member of either group we can not be at peace for there are many who do not have the proper understanding of the harmony that should exist but see it all mixed up.
Many are those who when examining their consciences only see the results of their actions and not the cause of the wrong act. I fought with someone, I nagged, I was angry this is good but more so is the reason behind these actions to uncover the roots of our actions. To find the root of our action is important not only for our spiritual life but our mental health. The integration of the psyche and the spiritual is necessary for mature growth.
Capital sins were a stable part of our preaching and spirituality but over time it became encrusted with theological talk that made the whole issue difficult and separated from life. Even priests began to use other language instead of the seven capital sins. There are parts of the psychological language that is not in harmony with our teaching but a great deal is.
These seven capital sins have deep roots in the Catholic Tradition. They go back to the 4th century and were introduced to Europe by St, Cassian and have merited many studies and used for the examination of conscience to understand our inner life and the way it impacts society. They still separate many of the believers from unbelievers for many have no understanding of sin but only right and wrong acts that bring about harm to others. However all our acts leave footprints, often forgotten.
Recently North Korean missiles and experiments with nuclear weapons is not only a concern for South Korea but the whole world. This advance in scientific knowledge, mathematics, physics, and technology leaves a science professor emeritus sad. He writes in the Kyeongyang magazine on the subject.
South Korea's pursuit of material well-being gives him pain. After the destructive Korean War, efforts were made to develop our scientific knowledge and education for development. All participated in the construction of a new society and we saw the miracle that followed with pride. However, with the rapid process of development, we have done harm to our educational programs in an excessive pursuit of material improvement.
In 2015 we have indications that things were to change. In the Character Education Promotion Act, briefly: "character education is to educate students to develop a well-balanced and good inner state and to nurture the personalities and competencies of human beings needed for harmoniously living together with others in communities and with nature." Probably the first such act ever promoted by any country.
However, will this be the reality in our schools? How do schools go about realizing this ideal? Is it the task of principals, teachers, the placing of placards on premises? Implementation of the ideas expressed will not be easy. We are familiar with various ideals in our educational history: forming scholars and not to dirty one's hands. A desire for knowledge, harmonized with practicality, hands with the head has enabled the west to leave behind many scientific achievements. Imitation of the west is going on but changing the face of our present climate will not be easy.
God's creation is not fickle, it's orderly and beautifully spread out around us. Many look for miracles but all nature working together in an orderly fashion is a miracle, what more is necessary?
Adults have the obligation to give the younger generation the right understanding of reality. However, we see lies and deception the inside and outside are different. We see the untruthful words of politicians, conflict between industrialists and workers. What are the young people seeing? We are not a good example of what kind of education can be transmitted.
Integral, holistic education is not only for the young but for all. Among the Korean saints, we have nobles, those with much education, nobodies, a court lady, farmers, storekeepers, the handicapped and those who weren't able to recite the Our Father or Hail Mary. They were persons in pursuit of God and the practicing of the virtues. A true human is to live in silence and find time to reflect on death.
Study of natural science requires according to our writer the need for a foundation in holistic basics of education. Developing of nuclear armaments and the training of technicians without concern for the object of their study and use is wrong. We are created to continue our studies until death and develop and grow in practice of virtue. The two of them go together.
The last night of the year and dawn of the new year begins with an ardent prayer. A time that can't be ignored by anyone. It's a time to look deeply into oneself, reflect, examine the past and resolve for the future. A time of hope.
Korea has experienced a great change in society over the past few years. Modern times have been tumultuous and Korea understands. The editorial in the Catholic Times reminds the readers of what we have undergone recently in overcoming the adverse conditions faced by society.
Citizens with the same dream, with candles in their hands, took to the streets to resist the absurdity and irrationality they saw all around. Many small flames opened up a new chapter in citizen's democracy and brought about change in our way of doing politics and a new hope.
Now in the new year, many are the tasks that are piled up in front of us. The North Korean nuclear issue raises tensions between the two Koreas. World powers surrounding the peninsular continue vying for control and we continue to ask urgently for international cooperation for Peace in East Asia.
Conflict and stress follow the efforts to remove social abuses. We have the challenges of national economic growth and polarization of society into the haves and have-nots. Urgent are efforts to find work for our young people and concern for our aging society.
The church also has many challenges to face. Church statistics show clearly the participation in the life of the church continues to decrease, the vitality of the believers is lukewarm. Young people are leaving in large numbers, a sign the future is not bright.
Secularism blossoms in Korean society. Loss of faith and attraction to the material is hardly something new but more so than in the past, results are depressing. Secularism does not give a person what they think they need, it's an emptiness that the mass media has fueled without good results. We have articles in the news on the numbers mentally ill that continue to grow. The results of losing meaning in life is a disaster with repercussions too many to number. Korea leads the world in the most extreme of the results: suicides and even among the young.
As we celebrate the new year, believers are willing to work together on a new evangelization effort. Jesus assures us of hope. His disciples are not frustrated by adversity.
We begin the New Year with a new resolution. We make a decision for the common good beyond personal interests for the future of the community, the region, society and the nation.
What we dislike in others we dislike in ourselves and when we recognize this in ourselves the shock is great but our eyes are opened. A priest writing in the Catholic Digest tells his readers how this happened in his life.
His father was a diabetic and exteriorly looked healthy but the writer only remembers him lying in bed. He was bothered by his father's inability to get up and live a natural life. Was it from that time on he doesn't know but he always had a strong dislike for laziness. In his thinking, persons who wanted could do anything they set their mind to do.
His own life was busy with many things and he felt good about the life he was leading. He was busy with pastoral work, working with musical groups and with radio and saw no problems.
Last year, however, he was told on a visit to the hospital that he had to rest. He was diagnosed with hormonal imbalance. He was tired and his emotions were affected he was burnt out. His immunity was not functioning and looking at him nothing seemed out of order but even a few steps would tire him and he had to take a period of recuperation.
As soon as he began the whole body began to ache and he had to go to bed. For some time that was the only relief that he had. He even didn't want to get up to eat. When he decided to do some exercising it would last only for a few minutes before he was overcome with fatigue. His father's situation came back to him, people like his father are not lazy they are sick. It was at this time that he began to go back in time and remind himself of the way his father would interact with him. He was always kind in his dealings with him not once does he remember his father losing his temper. He remembered his father taking him out to the ball field to play. Just as he was beginning to enjoy the play after about 30 minutes the father wanted to return to the house and he remembers hating his father for stopping the fun. And now he found it difficult to exercise for 10 minutes. His father wasn't lazy but a father who loved his son and tried to overcome his body to be with his son.
A few days earlier he receive a telephone call from a young man who everything he tried had failed and called him to complain. If this had happened in the past he would have told the young man give it all you have, it will be all right, but mentally he would think that he was just lazy. However this time he listened carefully to the young man and responded differently: "You have really worked hard. You have really tried to overcome your difficulties. Take a rest and try again" his tone had changed. The young man thanked him for the consoling words. He put the telephone down and started to cry remembering the times he could have been more understanding of his father.
He resolved to respond to complaints he hears in the future in a different way from the past and understand the person who is speaking and his or her feelings and give them strength and encouragement. He had learned an important lesson. Isn't this a good way to begin our new Year?
