How Would You Spend the Last Day On Earth?

We have all heard the answer of what Spinosa, the European philosopher, would do if he knew the world would end tomorrow. He would plant an apple tree. What would you do if you knew that today was the last day of life on earth? A university sociology professor asks the questions of the readers in an article in the Kyeongyang magazine. 

The professor introduces the book: Tuesdays with Morrie, a memoir by Mitch Albom on visits to his former sociology professor as he was dying of Lou Gehrig's disease. The former student asks Morrie if he had 24 hours of complete health what would he do. Morrie replies very simply: he would do what he has done on an average day, eat lunch with friends, and go for an evening walk.

Mitch the former student asks again how about something classy like a trip to Italy or having a meal with the president, something of that order. He responds: "No, that's it." He only desired the ordinary daily life that he lived. 

That was the whole point. And the writer would like also to have the same desire and she reminds us that Morrie was a sociologist. What do you say? Would you change being with your loved ones to have a meal with Warren Buffett?

Most of us would agree that on our last day we would desire our ordinary daily life. The wisdom tells us what is closest is often the most important and we miss them for one reason or another and the thought remains to bother us.

The coronavirus has made us think. As it spreads throughout the world it changed our daily lives. Many have confessed that it enabled them to see the preciousness of life. It's like the many things we have received gratis and carelessly let them disappear into the past without appreciating their value and look back with regret.

It is difficult to bring to mind the things that have hurt us. Let us recall the Sewol Ferry disaster and the parents of the students that died. What are the things that the parents remember the most vividly? They remember the children's laughter, preparing their lunches, the times they scolded the children. On the 6th anniversary, parents said they would so much want to open their eyes to see their child. They desire to hug their child and tell them how much they loved them. Hearing the parents speak of their children brought tears to the eyes of the writer.

With time we forget. We live as if we will live forever and although we know what should be done frequently we don't do it. If we want to diminish the future regrets we have to work to see the preciousness of our daily life and take time to experience deeply what we are doing. 

When we go on a journey we usually enjoy what we are doing because we know the limitation of time. Life is also a limited time to enjoy what we are doing but we often end up postponing. We take for granted that we will have another day until something that has been put off needs to be done and we panic. We should be living our lives as if we were on a journey.

Did you spend the day without being affected in any way? Did you fail to see anything of beauty today? Did you spend the day without learning anything? Did you pass the day without once saying thank you? According to the professor if the answer was yes you need to have some training on how to appreciate life. You need the ability to enjoy what is found in our daily life. It just doesn't happen automatically. Think about today being the last time you will be doing something.

We can think this way without seeing death as the end which is a great privilege. If we see spring passing too quickly and feel regret is it not that we have not lived as we should? And she concludes by telling the readers to fill their lives with more gratitude and beauty.

Why Small Things Matter

The coronavirus pandemic has made clear that we are all connected. A virus far away in another country has upset the whole world and has most of us wearing masks and distancing ourselves from others. Writing in the Catholic Peace Weekly a team leader of the Christian Life Community of Korea gives us some thought on the subject.

When it comes to being sensitive to the environmental problems Korea would be up there with the best. Laudato si was a best seller in Korea. We are called to adopt a new ecological lifestyle, one that is more communitarian. Compared to some other countries, Koreans don't have problems with efforts made to take care of our common home.

Not long ago, the writer was shopping at a large mart and at the paying counter he saw someone buying a huge amount of disposable items at a cashier next to him. Because of the Corona 19, he was possibly buying disposable plates, cups, cutlery, wooden chopsticks, and plastic bags in large amounts.

The writer always tried not to buy products with excessive plastic packaging and felt tremendous helplessness at what he saw next to him. Of what value were his efforts when others are making such a huge amount of garbage?

Originally, as a young man he dreamed of a life like Scott Nearing, who lived a harmonious life in nature. Nature is good, and he hoped to live in a way that did less harm to nature. He wondered if it would be too self-serving for him to live like that, maybe he should live a life that preserves nature beyond just enjoying nature.

At the same time, he thought to do research to help the world's socio-economic system shift to a less destructive environment. So, after thinking about it, he went to graduate school, earned a doctorate in energy climate change, and did what he wanted at the related research institute. With the dream of contributing greatly to solving environmental and climate change problems around the world.

But it didn't take him long to realize that changing the world wasn't going to be easy. Changing national policies and social systems requires tremendous effort and time. It was a study that started with a dream but turned into a study on how difficult it is to bring about change. He was overwhelmed by what he saw.

He was faced with helplessness and frustration. Although he wanted to live in nature, he studied hard to learn about nature and develop his expertise, but he felt too weak to bring about change. He grew skeptical in his efforts to protect nature. Does that change the world, can it protect nature? He felt that he could do very little and no expectation that it would help achieve what he intended.

One day the same thoughts and feelings he had shopping came to the writer. He had time to reflect on God and creation: sadness,, frustration, and emptiness were again felt. This time his reflection was a great gift that came to him without cost.

Suddenly, he felt how a parent would feel treating a sick child. When a child has a serious illness, Mom and Dad never give up. They will try and do anything to treat the child. God's heart for humans and nature is of this type. Is it not God's desire that humans treat each other and nature with the same mind.

Is it possible to say that there is no hope for the nature that God has given us freely and that the actions to care for it are meaningless? The sunlight continues to shine, the wind blows, ants crawl, and the butterflies fly, but with gratitude, at the preciousness seen, should he not do whatever is possible to preserve it. No need to determine what is accomplished or to measure results.

He concludes the article with quotes from Laudato si 211,212—
 
"There is a nobility in the duty to care for creation through little daily actions, and it is wonderful how education can bring about real changes in lifestyle. Education in environmental responsibility can encourage ways of acting which directly and significantly affect the world around us, such as avoiding the use of plastic and paper, reducing water consumption, separating refuse, cooking only what can reasonably be consumed, showing care for other living beings, using public transport or car-pooling, planting trees, turning off unnecessary lights, or any number of other practices. All of these reflect generous and worthy creativity which brings out the best in human beings. Reusing something instead of immediately discarding it, when done for the right reasons, can be an act of love that expresses our own dignity.

We must not think that these efforts are not going to change the world. They benefit society, often unbeknown to us, for they call forth a goodness which, albeit unseen, inevitably tends to spread. Furthermore, such actions can restore our sense of self-esteem; they can enable us to live more fully and to feel that life on earth is worthwhile."

Gaslighting the Church

In a diocesan bulletin, a priest writes about the way 'gaslighting' is used in the religious world. A word in vogue in present society and used often in the political world.

'Gaslighting' is psychological manipulation, a word that originated from a mystery novel written by a British play writer. In the play the husband causes the gas lights in the house to flicker and when the wife asks why he tells her it is all in her mind, causing her to doubt what she sees. It is abusive behavior but not necessarily always something the perpetrator does with evil motives as above.

Within Christianity, it appears when pastors, theologians, and churches use methods similar to brainwashing rather than teaching. But more frequently by those who ridicule religion seeing it as myth, and abuse of believers, deceiving them with the pie in the sky approach to reality. Disdainfully getting the believers to doubt themselves and their beliefs.

In the world of ideas, religion is a controversial topic, but most agree that the freedom to believe or not is an important value of democracy. However, believing in something that is not true is not helpful to the individual or society, and giving reasons for not believing is valid, respecting those with whom they disagree.

It's a fact that religion can rationalize almost everything. In large segments of the population, religion has justified almost all the evils seen in the world. With Christians, this happens when we close our eyes to the teaching of Jesus because of greed, pride, selfishness, fear, and ignorance.

Truth is what we all seek. As Christians, we believe the truth will make us free. Not all would agree and ask: What is truth? However for Christians, God is the truth, and the search gives joy.

There are those in society who call the Catholic Church a cult and show great animosity towards its teaching which they find offensive and express this strongly. They dislike the institution.

The church does see itself as an institution, an organization, and not only as a way of life or spirituality. Many have difficulty with this. Catholicism believes Jesus established a structure with a leader and members and gave them a job to do.

This community with its leader, 11 inner circle members, and disciples began the writing and selection of what is now called the New Testament. The infant church only possessed the Old Testament and it was not until centuries later that the community accepted the 27 books of our present New Testament and it was no easy task to decide what these books were to be. Is this not why many Catholics say it is the authority of the Church by which they accept the New Testament and not vice versa?

It is well, for us to remember that Jesus spoke Aramaic and the New Testament was written in Greek. The first community spoke Aramaic.  The 'Holy Tradition' was passed on at first in Aramaic. This gives us something to think about.

Because of the controversy associated with religion and institutions, many like to see Christianity as a way of life, a spirituality, it is that but much more. Christianity began as a structure, an organization, an institution, grounded in history, open to the eyes of all—faults, sins, corruption, violence, and embarrassments galore is all there to easily see. It is a human institution that Jesus promised to be with to the end of time; he didn't promise purity and righteousness in everything: it's made up of humans, not angels. A community of believers always reforming, asking for forgiveness, and hoping to become holier.

Those who don't have the Church as their Mother don't have God as Father. This kind of thinking comes from the respect the church has for 'Holy Tradition'. How does one forget that it was this Holy Tradition that gave life to the church for at least 20 years but actually for much longer? History easily accessible to all keeps the church from becoming a cult.

In the digital age anyone who desires to find the facts and willingly spend time separating the likely from the unlikely and motivated by truth no matter what, will not necessarily be changed by what they find but have little reason for gaslighting the institutional church. Happy Birthday!

Political Neutrality and the Truth

This year, the Korean Catholic Church celebrated the May 18th "Gwangju Democratization Movement" on a massive scale. At the Cathedral of the Gwangju Diocese, the archbishop said a memorial Mass which was attended by bishops from all over the country. It is the first time that so many bishops have gathered at the May 18th Memorial Mass, and it is the first time the Cardinal has attended. So begins an article in the Eyes of the Believer column of the Catholic Times by a college lecturer in journalism.

Why did so many bishops come to the memorial Mass in Gwangju this year? This is not because of the chronological significance of the 40th anniversary. To put it bluntly, it was because they hadn't done so in the past.
 

There was no deep interest, so they paid little attention to the anniversary. But right now, the Democratic Party is firmly in power, and May 18 is proudly taking root in the Korean soil. It has become 'the trend'.

Guarding the truth is the duty of the church, but the Korean Catholic Church was more conscious of the 'trend' than the truth 40 years ago. Even though the military's human rights abuses reached an extreme in Gwangju, innocent citizens were brutally abused, democracy likewise fell to the ground.
 

At that time, most of the Korean Catholic churches outside of the Gwangju Archdiocese turned away from the truth and pain of Gwangju. At the beginning of the protest, the archbishop of the diocese testified to the truth to the bishops but only silence was returned. 

The first public opinion of the church on the 5/18 tragedy was the special letter of the Archbishop of Gwanju: "I believe in the victory of the resurrection through the cross." On June 1, the Gwangju priests prepared a document called 'The Gwangju Incident', highlighting that the cause of the incident was due to the ruthless oppression by the martial law forces and sent it to all the parishes in the country.

The Gwangju priests, who struggled alone, published a statement "Our resolve to meet the second anniversary of the Gwangju Revolt" on May 18, two years later, and specifically elaborated the truth, asking for the release of prisoners, compensation for the injured, and censure of the responsible persons. Another two years later, the protests that had been called 'Gwangju Incident' are now the 'Heroes of Gwangju'.

However, even in the 1990s, most of the dioceses besides the Gwangju Archdiocese and Jeonju Diocese didn't seem too concerned. On this occasion, the  Justice and Peace priests published: "Our Confession and Prayer," on May 18, 1990, and criticized the Korean Catholic Church that ignored the truth and pain of Gwangju. It was a rebuke of the bystander attitude of the hierarchy of Korea. It wasn't until 1997 that the national lay council held a memorial Mass with the Gwangju priests. It was not easy for laypeople to reject the thinking of the hierarchy and act on the judgment of the priests of Gwangju since clericalism in the Catholic Church is strong.

We learn that telling the truth and acting for the truth is here in the present time. Perhaps that is why the martyrs are so wise. Nevertheless, the church often procrastinates, it 'will do' instead of 'now presently'.  (Of course, the achievements of the democratization process in the late 1980s were great.) 'To maintain political neutrality' is the reason given for the reticence. And it has become a practice now to confess and reflect on the 'error of the past' decades, or hundreds of years later.

After the Sewol ferry accident, many priests and religious prayed and were concerned and served individually, but the parishes remained spectators. This was also because of 'political neutrality'. At the time, Pope Francis when he came to Korea, was asked to remain neutral on the Sewol disaster. He answered: "There is no neutrality in the face of pain." After the change of government, the churches changed toward the Sewol ferry disaster.

The politics of 'political neutrality' was also mobilized in anti-Korean behavior during the Japanese colonial period. Although it was the Catholic Church in Korea that deserved to lead and proclaim liberation, it prevented believers from participating in the Independence Movement, participated in the Japanese war of aggression and acquiescence to visits to shrines

Yes, today, the reason why our church follows the 'trend' rather than the truth and looks forward to the future instead of the present, is because it wants to be 'politically neutral' on the outside, but it is actually because of 'security'. Is this true? If the church wants to exchange the truth and suffering of the times, for security why would the church exist? Is that the identity of our Korean Catholic Church?

Social Responsibility and the Corona Virus

On March 30, the Pontifical Academy for Life published a statement: "The Global Pandemic and Universal Brotherhood" in connection with the Corona 19 situation. The Catholic Peace Weekly, Diagnosis of the Times column gives us some thoughts to ponder.

"All humanity is being put to the test. The Covid-19 pandemic puts us in a situation of unprecedented, dramatic, and global difficulty whose power to destabilize the plans we have for our lives grows daily. The pervasiveness of this threat calls into question aspects of our way of life we took for granted. We are living painfully a paradox we would never have imagined: to survive the disease we must isolate ourselves from others, but if we were ever to learn to live isolated from one another, we would quickly realize how essential for our lives is life with others."

The statement reminds us that it is as urgent as researching medicines and vaccines to painfully reflect on the value and meaning of 'humanism' in overcoming this situation. 

At the beginning of the Corona 19 outbreak, the attitudes of developed countries were arrogant, as if science and technology could stop a global epidemic of this size. So they didn't care how vulnerable their systems were. The current situation is a completely new situation in which science and technology cannot optimistically predict, and the whole world is feeling instability and limitations in our knowledge.

On the other hand, even though the whole world is vulnerable, we cannot miss our interconnectedness. The epidemic spreads very quickly from one country to another, and what happened to one individual has a big impact on everyone. 

Academy of Life emphasizes that we are now moving beyond simple interconnection to choose solidarity for coexistence. This change is already reflected in the dedication of medical staff, giving everything freely at the risk of their own life or health to care for patients around the world. However, some countries are trying to solve the current situation with the shortsighted and futile logic of 'national interests'. The Academy of Life statement urges us to have a broader perspective on international cooperation.

Most of all, we need to overcome this emergency with the antibody of solidarity. Technical and clinical research to prevent the spread of Corona 19 should integrate the achievements at the international level for the common good and should prevent the benefiting of the privileged or neglecting the vulnerable— dependence on income, political views, and age. 

This last consideration urges us to pay a great deal of attention to how we talk about God's action in this historical crisis. We cannot interpret the sufferings that humanity is going through according to the crude scheme that establishes a correspondence between the divine and a 'sacred reprisal' undertaken by God. The mere fact that in such a scenario the weakest would suffer— precisely those whom He cares for the most and with whom He identifies (Mt 25:40-45) forestalls this possibility.

The Coronavirus is showing us what few things have in our history that we are are all united and need to help each other to overcome our difficulties. Let us not forget the other disasters of the weak: refugees, immigrants, those who suffer from conflict, war, and hunger.

Corona19 is challenging us to be socially responsible for the lives of all. Our government and the people have successfully faced this challenge. 'Social responsibility' is difficult to realize without a community spirit of emotional bonds (empathy) and interdependence. The social responsibility emphasized in the statement by the Academy of Life has now become a common responsibility worldwide that cannot be shouldered by only one country. 

During the Sewol tragedy, [Ferry Tragedy] we shared our sympathy, interdependence, and social responsibility, and learning from this, we have also worked to overcome the Corona 19 situation. The writer hopes that the Korean government's efforts to actively share the social responsibility with the international community, as demonstrated by the Korean corona response model, will help us overcome the difficult times and unstable future.

Corona 19 a Sign of the Times

Because of Corona 19, the whole world is distressed. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that "the world before Corona 19 will not come again." Corona 19 swallowed up our daily lives, and even the most important daily life of the believer, the reception of the Eucharist, stopped.

The fear of the invisible virus interfered with our communion with our Creator. Our church reminds us of the duty to identify the signs the Corona19 has brought to our attention. A priest working pastorally with the farmers of a diocese writes of the problems we are facing in a Bulletin for priests.

Pope Francis said, addressing God: "It is not the time of your judgment, but of our judgment: a time to choose what matters and what passes away, a time to separate what is necessary from what is not. It is a time to get our lives back on track about you, Lord, and to others." This is not  God's punishment, but the result of human activity. It is time to correct our ways and choose a new life.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change under the United Nations (IPCC) was established in 1988 and has published several reports. Earlier in the report, the effects of global warming predicted that various weather events would become more frequent and powerful and that epidemics would emerge. If we don't do something now in 2040-50 they warned that it will be too late to change.

In fact, these things happen every year globally, and more people have been sacrificed and devastated than the casualty in war. Meteorological anomalies occur locally, but epidemics quickly spread around the world due to globalization, leading to greater threats. The World Health Organization (WHO) said that since 2001 there have been more than 118,000 epidemics worldwide and can develop into a pandemic in a matter of days.

AIDS, Ebola, MERS, SARS, Zika, Coronavirus, etc., are transmitted from wild animals to humans show that our ecosystem is in critical condition. This is not the fault of the animals, but the fault of the humans who cut the forests and extend the industrial activities and make the path easy for animal microbes to enter our space. Corona19 is a message on the way we treat our planet and other species and tells us that we need 'reconciliation' with them.

Ironically, the coronavirus tells us that all beings in the world do not exist alone and are interconnected (one law of ecology). Community isolation was used to break the chain of viral transmission. Such efforts are only temporary and not effective enough to eradicate the virus. This is because the spread of viruses depends not only on eradication but also on socioecological relationships with other species. The better your relationship with other species, the greater your chances of survival.

The ecosystem needs an equilibrium of the ecosystem. Equilibrium means the proper relationship between one species and another. Unequal relationships, such as the dominance of one species to another, create ecological obstacles that can occur in a variety of problems, including deadly viruses. The arrogance that man is the master of the world and the pinnacle of creation caused ecological obstacles.

Human health and well-being, interconnected by the web of life, are ensured by protecting the diversity of the ecosystem and preserving the order of creation. This is faithfully fulfilling God's mission in creating man. It is God's providence that loves and takes good care of all creation (see Genesis 1,26-28).

The Corona19 situation in which we are in brings to mind the encyclical Laudatio Si in which Pope Francis prophetically teaches we need to take care of our common home. It is a task that we all need to be concerned with slowly and painfully.

Old Age is Not a Disease

Korea is one of the world's fastest aging societies and the population growing at the slowest pace ever. This brings problems the government is working to remedy. Korea is an 'aged society'.

Confucius in the Analects 2-4 said: "At fifteen my heart was set on learning; at thirty I stood firm; at forty I was unperturbed; at fifty I knew the mandate of heaven; at sixty my ear was obedient; at seventy I could follow my heart's desire without transgressing the norm."

Down through the ages, Wisdom was considered a gift of old age but as we know they don't always go together. Confucius' experience in old age can be very similar to what St. Agustine said many centuries later: "Love and do what you will." Meaning love will give us the wisdom to do the right thing. In an article in the Catholic Digest, a medical doctor wonders if society is helping the old to grow in wisdom and asks: "Is getting old a disease?"

As we get old the 'hardware'  begins to break down. This is readily seen as the normal reality of aging. However, many still find this difficult to accept: "My body is not what it use to be, what can I do to get back what I lost?" Aging is seen as a treatable disease.

The overwhelming information on health and the pharmaceutical companies'  propaganda does a good job of bewildering many. They see the symptoms and conclude:  "this must be it." We are seduced into a hypnotic state. The advertisements aimed at the elderly are overly abundant.

Society doesn't have the necessary experience of what it means to grow old and the old are not familiar with the natural changes that come with age and are in search of medical help and waste a lot of their twilight years on pilgrimages to doctors. Society needs to teach the changes that came with age and the old need to learn.

As we grow older our organs weaken and our vitality decrease. The muscles of our breathing organs become weak and the amount of the oxygen we can inhale is limited so that just running a few meters we are out of breath. The tiny air sacks in our lungs no longer work efficiently, a normal stage of growing old. So we try deep breathing and continue to exercise.

The swallowing muscles become weak, and food or impurities can enter, a cough is a sign that the body is reacting as it should. The stomach and the organs are sluggish, the pancreas and liver operations have decreased and eating less at one time and more frequently is a help. The possibility of not enough enzymes may make milk products difficult to digest and bean milk can be used instead. If constipation is a problem make sure food fiber is on your menu. The hearing will also be a problem, have your family members speak louder although hearing aids will be a help.

In old age, one has to be careful since the liver is not detoxifying as it once did, medicines which are supposed to help may not. We are interested in anything that may help to give us health but it is good to remember that there is the stark fact that adverse reactions do appear. Processed and refined foods should be few. Natural foods eaten often is the best policy. Our genes have recorded what has to be done. Live in harmony.

Eat evenly not too much, drink enough water, exercise, and know what is necessary for health, rest, when you rest— everything in moderation. The genetic factors will be active and keep you healthy for a long time.