Japan —Close but a Distant Land

It's difficult to see the whole picture of any single issue that we face and Japan and Korea's relationship is one of these; the reasons are many. As is well known Korea and Japan have had a complicated history. They were at war off and on for hundreds of years.

In 1910 Japan annexed Korea making it their colony. In the late 1930s, it mobilized for war and forced Koreans to work in factories, enlist as soldiers, and sent many women from Korea to work in brothels to service Japanese soldiers, these victims became known as comfort women. In an article for a priest bulletin, a writer expresses the feelings of many on the situation between the two countries and what he sees as the right-wing in Japan.

At the center is South Korea's demands that Japan pays what they consider to be appropriate reparations for atrocities committed during the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945, particularly the use of forced labor.

But Japan considers the issue to be settled since they gave Korea at the time of President Park Chung-hee hundreds of millions of dollars in loans and grants; Japan considers this to have settled the matter.

Japan is the country that modernized our country. Japan is an important country for Korean security. It is also important economically. We are grateful to Japan for giving Korea money. We need to emulate Japan. Why are you fighting against Japan and criticizing the Japanese administration? This is not what pro-Japanese seniors say, but young people in their 20s and the writer finds this shocking. Of course, not all of their words are wrong, he admits.

He wants to analyze whether Japan contributed to our modernization. Elementary school children also know that the various facilities installed by Japan were not for the development of Korea, but for the use of Korea as a base for entering China. Far from modernization, the Japanese right-wing is afraid of our development and just wants Korea to remain a subcontractor.

Also, Japanese rightists want to use our country. This is because the South will serve as a defense against the communist state only when the division continues.

The Japanese right-wing has a deep unconscious fear that the two Koreas may reunite and retaliate for the harm done during the colonial period. Therefore, they instill a sense of inferiority in our people. In particular, brainwashing with words that hurt Korean national self-esteem.

To host the Tokyo Olympics, the government is pressing residents to return to Fukushima, which is still polluted. Nevertheless, the majority of the people suffer from the tyranny of the right-wing government because they do not have a sense of social consciousness or history. Moreover, it is said that the phenomenon of hiding Japan's unique inner thoughts is making psychological problems worse.

I think it is the job of our young people to help Japanese citizens break away from their feudal past and make Japan a democratic society. The young people of Korea should be wary of the vague envy, admiration, and glorification of Japan's colonial era as it sympathizes with the Japanese right.

Spirituality/Personality

A priest columnist working in the field of spirituality gives the readers of the Catholic Times his understanding of spirituality.

For a long time, the writer has been obsessed with the subject of what spirituality is. He met many different religious people, and visited many holy places in different countries to find answers. When it comes to spirituality, many think it's something sacred, something completely different from the ordinary life of people. It's something special, for people who live in the deep mountains or remote areas of the world, living very strict lives. 

As a result, many are the unfavorable social side effects of this thinking; the appearance of religious people who  wanted to attract people's attention—religious hypocrites wearing shabby clothes and a strict prayer life, as if they were transcending everything in the world.

By teaching fake spirituality, fake humility, and fake poverty they helped make many believers neurotic. Of course, believers had no choice but to serve them as pseudo-religious leaders. When he met such persons, he knew something was not right but it wasn't easy to determine the problem.

However, during his field consultation, he found the answer: spirituality is the making of a healthy  personality. This was the result of  listening to the stories of people who suffered psychological damage such as religious depression and anxiety over salvation.

There are many who  pray a lot, well educated  with high positions in society but whose character is greatly damaged. There are also people in our church who exploit people by turning them into spiritual slaves to gain respect by using their lives as weapons, They are wolves who are masked as sheep.
 

No matter how long a person has lived the faith life, no matter the degree of knowledge, those who have not matured properly have a messy personality. They are not able to relate properly with others.

 
Even though they are dressed in priestly or monk's clothes, some people don't want to approach them because of their personality. That's why the writer  acquaints spirituality with personality/character.

When he was a seminary student, he worked for a few days at at a garbage dump site, which is now a park. A few nuns were living with the residents there, they were covered with briquette dust, and they invited us to have a cup of tea.

The nuns laughed and were happy living in this environment. Most of the furniture in the house, even the teacups, were found in piles of trash, broken and cracked. It made him think: 'They had  to be spiritual to live with joy in such a situation when most people would be faced with irritation.

No matter whether a priest or monk, a scholar or a high-ranking person, if they are cynical, don't appreciate the humor in life, their spirituality is at rock bottom. It's best to avoid them because it's easy to get hurt if you get too close.

Corona19 and the Common Good

In a diocesan bulletin for priests the writer expresses his ideas on the common good and solidarity.

We have been trying to overcome the coronavirus for over a year with little success and rather than unifying us it has scattered us in our daily life. Keeping our distance from others and wearing masks has made the environment heavy, gloomy, given us mental fatigue and made us appreciate what has been lost. 

Getting together to pray and say Mass without any conditions was a great joy. To meet to have a meal, to laugh and enjoy each other's company was an important part of our life. To leave my quarters and to freely move around to other parts of the world and cultures gave great joy and we look back on those days with nostalgia.

The corona virus is a contagious disease that is raging throughout the world but somethings are not changing. The government and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency are daily trying to put an end to the pandemic, the results are one of the most successful in the world. However there are those in society who unconditionally are there to undermine what is being done. The political opposition and part of the media and others in society who are wedded to the past.They see the government winning points from the citizens for their efforts to control the contagion and search for ways to undermine the efforts with false news to bolster their position.

The common good is according to Catholic teaching:  the whole network of social conditions which enable human individuals and groups to flourish and live a fully, genuinely human life, otherwise described as integral human development. Solidarity is about valuing our fellow human beings and respecting who they are as individuals. 

These two principles need to be seen in our common battle against the virus. This is no time to try to win points for our side at the expense of the others who need our support in the common fight.

Recently in buses, post offices, banks you see printed material with warnings to the effect that any behavior that is disrespectful, bordering on the violent towards the one who is serving can be punishable with a fine. There is a lot of anger within society because of the virus and the resulting consequences. This is one example of how lack of civility in dealing with others appears in our daily life because of the virus.

It is always easier to tear down than to build up. We are familiar with these words. Criticism comes easier than words of praise. In our society many do not see those who are hurting, the poor, the marginalized who have a more difficult time than those who are well established within society and are not bothered greatly with economic worries.

The virus has done great harm to society and to many individuals. Is it not time to work together for the good of all? Korea has handled the situation with great success and we should  be thankful for the freedom from drastic lock downs that other countries had to endure. Hopefully we will be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel as the warm weather begins to lift our spirits and the appearance of the vaccine. Happy Lunar New Year!

Want to be Happy, Walk

 

To be happy, walk. There's no reason not to walk, we save both ourselves and the Earth. So begins the featured article in the Catholic Times.

 

Everyone wants to be happy. One of the first conditions for happiness is health. It is the health of the body, mind, and earth in which we live. 'Walking' is one of the surest ways to bring about these three areas of health. 

■ Walking Craze 

 

"When you walk correctly you don't walk to find peace or happiness for the peace and happiness is the very walk itself" from the meditation on walking by the Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hanh.

 

A decade ago, the "walking" craze began in Olle Jeju, Korea, and spread throughout the country. Since the first course opened in September 2007, Jeju Olle has led the nationwide walking craze, reaching a total of 26,425 kilometers from the first course to the last regular course in 2012, and is visited by over 1 million people every year. In the Jeju language 'Olle' is the word for the narrow path that leads to one's house.

 

Earlier in 2006, Camino de Santiago, a Spanish walking pilgrimage route, was introduced to Korea through travel essays, and the "warm sensitivity" of walking began to captivate people. Travelers who were familiar with the speed of travel and the business of taking pictures were fascinated by the 'walking', reflecting on themselves at a slow pace and meditating on life and nature.

Walking was originally a way of human life. However, after the Industrial Revolution, machines replaced walking, and the end of walking came. High competition, gray concrete buildings, and speed wars have moved many to rediscover the value of 'walking' moving slowly and looking inside ourselves.

■ Walking for the health of the body

By several studies, no longer theoretical knowledge, the full-body exercise of walking helps physical health. You can do it anytime, anywhere regardless of time and place. If you release the bodily tensions and get rid of greed you can protect your health without any other exercise. Walking burns fat and prevents obesity. It is also effective in preventing diabetes. 

■ Helps mental health

The walking craze, motivated greatly by 'well-being', began as a means of physical health. However, at the same time, the yearning for a slower-paced life, and tired of the 'rat race' may have been the greater motivation. At the same time as trying to regain a healthy body, it was a desire to slowly reflect on the meaning of life and the awe and beauty of nature. No pilgrim walks the Camino de Santiago only because of health.

People go on pilgrimage often when their hearts hurt or long for eternal values and freedom— those who face barriers in their lives, who want to find a new "me," who want to go beyond the pain of life. At the end of the road, they dream of their own recovery.

On the religious level, the original form of pilgrimage was walking. Jesus Christ walked up the hillside of Golgotha carrying a heavy cross. An expert in pilgrimage spirituality said in his book "The Pilgrimage Spirit" that "To make a pilgrimage is to reproduce both internally and externally the image of Jesus Christ, the pilgrim who is the example of our lives."

Like the people of Israel, who were led by Abraham to the promised land, Christians walk their whole lives toward the kingdom of God. We reproduce the journey 'in and out' as a walking pilgrimage. Thus, pilgrimage as an act of walking is a restoration of broken relationships and renewing the souls of believers.

 ■ For the restoration of damaged natural ecology

 

Walking is not only a cure for the body and spirit but also a powerful way to revive the global environment and ecology. The Earth breaths again while humans stopped working with Covid-19 in 2020. Fine dust has decreased and warming has decreased.

Today, the most pressing issue regarding ecological environmental issues is the climate crisis. Each country's commitment to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which accounted for the largest proportion of greenhouse gases heating the Earth, is firm but has not achieved much.

The University of Leeds in the U.K. analyzed 7,000 existing studies to identify 10 effective ways not to leave "carbon footprints" (the total amount of greenhouse gases emitted directly or indirectly), the best of them was to refrain from using cars.

■ To be happy, walk

In conclusion, we need to use the material benefits of civilization at a minimum and use more often the simpler things in life such as walking and riding bicycles. These are ways to benefit the body, spirit, and natural ecology.

Korean Holidays and the Corona Pandemic

 

In Eyes of the Believer's column of the Catholic Times the director of a theological research center explains how the Corona 19 pandemic will change the way, the Lunar New Year and the holiday celebration will be spent this year.

In the past, articles about the holiday syndrome appeared frequently in the media around the holiday season, but after the Corona 19 pandemic, it is rarely seen. To prevent the spread of the contagion, the number of people spending non-face-to-face holidays is increasing thanks to the government's recommendation to refrain from visiting their hometowns and relatives.

Recently, a media survey was conducted on the subject of "Do you like New Year’s Day with its non-face-to-face aspects?" 84.1% said that it is ‘good’. Except for teenagers who were not able to receive their customary handsel, (money gifts from the elders), most of them welcomed the non-face-to-face New Year's Day. However, the reasons for each age group was slightly different. Many respondents in their twenties answered: it is good not to listen to questions related to employment and marriage at the gathering of relatives during holidays. Married women responded it is good because they don't have the table for the ancestral services, while those in their fifties don't have to give the money gifts.

 

It seems that there are two main types of holiday stress. One is the psychological burden that is felt with conversations with relatives they have not seen for some time. They speak of their economic and social successes or failures. If you are a student, you should study well and go to a good university, and if you are a young man, you should get a good job, get married, have children and buy your house. Many people are uncomfortable because they are evaluated and compared to others. 

Another is the physical and emotional stress that married women often experience. Nowadays, the web drama Daughter-in-law is extremely popular among the younger generation. The writer introduces a few of the holiday episodes drawn in this drama. During the holidays, when the whole family gathers, men enjoy watching TV and drinking alcohol. However, women cannot leave the kitchen continuing to prepare food and wash dishes. 

The protagonist, the daughter-in-law who is newly married and is on her first holiday, is struggling in preparing the food. Before she came to her in-laws, her husband promised to help her in preparing the food. She has never seen one of the ancestral rites before however, at a holiday with the whole family present her husband couldn't even be near the kitchen. The atmosphere of the in-laws, kitchen work was regarded as the woman's job.

The daughter-in-law barely endures her difficult holiday and is ready to go to her own family but her sister-in-law is coming soon, and the mother-in-law asks her to wait for her to come. The mother-in-law tells the daughter-in-law, in the future, to go to her own family before coming to the in-laws. She found this sad and upsetting.

After returning to her house, she is exhausted and is trying to rest, when her mother-in-law calls to come for dinner, she believes to be told to cook again and wash the dishes, and the daughter-in-law refuses. After the broadcast, there were a lot of comments on the bulletin board saying that she was probably the same as her in-laws and that she should not have married. This is a common experience of many young married women.

Thanks to the Ministry of Health and Welfare this year the holiday stress has been greatly reduced because of the Corona19 pandemic. Even after the situation has stabilized due to the spread of vaccines and treatments, she wonders if large families gathering in the future will have the stressful conversations and the holiday appearance of only women making food in the kitchen. 

The writer wonders whether she is talking only about an occupational disease. 'Will the holiday landscape change after Corona? What about the church?’ The church has changed a great deal during the pandemic and is it unlikely to change after the coronavirus pandemic? Would it not be a challenge that requires active change like an uncomfortable holiday scene?

A Theology That Reads the World

 

In a featured article in the Catholic Times, the director of the Catholic Culture and Theology Institute gives the readers some reflections on how theology is 'reading the world'.

The task of theology is to explore what we believe and how we believe. Theology is to look into how faith is practiced in the here and now of our life. Is the church community to which we belong living according to the Gospel message?

 

What is the theology that reads the world?

What can and should theology do? What role does theology play in understanding the content of faith and maturing it? Is theology actually working in today's church? How does theology function in the formation of church communities and in the performance of church mission? Does theology provide practical and concrete help for believers in their daily lives?

Academic teaching can be hard and boring. Of course, the boundaries between theology as a systematic academic discipline and theology as reflection are not always clear. The two often overlap. However, I would like to focus on theology as religious reasoning and reflection as much as possible. 

 

Theology to explore faith

Traditionally, the task of theology is to explore the origins and contents of faith; to study the process in the formation of doctrines, and to explore the truth contained in the tradition of faith and doctrine and its present meaning. Theology is always closely linked to faith and doctrine.

We believe in God in a Catholic way. It means that although I believe in God, the way of faith is Catholic. The task of theology is to explore what we believe systematically. Theology explores what revelation and faith are, how Christianity has understood God, how God's creation proceeds, who Jesus Christ is, what is the essence and mission of the church, the meaning of sin and grace, why in Catholicism the Seven Sacraments are important, and the meaning of holiness.

This search is the basic framework of theology. The question is whether theology is actually affecting us today. The writer honestly wonders: he reads many theology books but doesn't feel he is getting to know the contents of faith more deeply. What is the problem?

It may be because theological statements simply are over-represented as abstract concepts and propositions without honest consideration of where the readers are. For example, consider the proposition "Trust in God and be saved." When this statement is made what do we think and imagine? Does believing in God just mean that I accept and agree to the doctrinal proposition of God? If you think about and say the concept of God, does that mean you believe it? What do we imagine when we hear the word 'saved'? We don't bother to delve into what the word means in detail but accept salvation as a word we habitually hear without much thought. Theological reflection can help us uncover what we believe. 

Reading the world with the eyes of the gospel and faith is also a task of theology and mission.

 

 Theology that reflects on the church.

Theology is introspective. Reflection is always self-reflection. Theology should help change and reform the church. As the people of God, the body of Christ, and temples of the Holy Spirit, the church is beyond visible reality. On the other hand, the church is a realistic and concrete reality consisting of a religious system and various institutions. What is seen must be constantly directed at what is invisible. The real church is on a pilgrimage to completion. Reflections on the real church are also the tasks and mission of theology. The task of theology is to ask questions, reflect on whether today's church reality is truly evangelical, whether many norms and institutions in the church properly reflect the meaning of the gospel and faith.

Theology that reads the signs of the age 

 

God is with us in our thoughts, in the church we live in, in our daily lives, and in our society. Theology should be able to talk about God in the world. It is theology to ask, reflect, and explore whether my daily life is evangelical, whether my heart, behavior, and attitude resemble Jesus in my family, neighborhood, and work, whether today's social phenomena and reality are desirable in terms of gospel and faith. Our theological quest cannot be buried only in our reason and within the church. Reading the world with the eyes of the gospel and faith is also a task of theology and mission.

Faith and church aim beyond the world. But at the same time, faith and church are always in the world. The theology of reading the world refers to the theology of exploring faith, the theology of reflecting on the church, the theology of reading the signs of the times. Theology includes exploration, reflection, and reading. and building relationships.

Doing theology is to explore what you believe in, its actual content and meaning. It is to identify whether the church you belong to is evangelical and to reflect on what efforts you are making to form this community. It is a reflection of how faith is expressed, confessed, practiced, in the home, workplace, and in society in which we live.

Anger with Health

The Catholic Peace Weekly column of a priest teacher of spirituality gives the readers some thoughts on health.

An 80-year man who came for a physical exam surprised the doctor, his body seemed 20 years younger. He was able to maintain the health of a middle-aged man. The doctor curious asked him what was the secret to his good health. The elder replied: "I have never eaten any food or medicine that was considered healthy in my life. Isn't it just a case of good luck?"

The doctor asked again with an expression of disbelief. "You are living a life differently from that of other people your age to maintain the health you have." The old man, reflecting for a while, replied: "I got married 50 years ago and made a promise to my wife. When I get angry because of my quick temper my wife will remain silent and when she gets angry, I go outside and take a walk in the woods. After that, I got used to the walk in the woods every day so that may have been good for my health."

Is it possible not to be angry? He explains: anger is an emotion and emotion is energy so anger never goes away. Energy can only be converted to another energy or into a different emotion.

What does it mean to say that anger can be converted into different emotions or different energies? This means that anger can move on to feelings of revenge, another negative emotion, but in some cases, it can change to positive emotions such as love and compassion for oneself or others. It also means that anger can be sublimated into the creative energy that changes one's life, not destructive energy that harms one's health. As in the case of an 80-year-old man mentioned above.

When Joseph and Mary got married and got angry with each other, they promised to address each other with honorifics, and then to fight. This is because they were well aware of the fact that when a conflict occurs, they could be more offended by each other's expression of words than by the content. At first, this promise was not kept. When angry the honorifics would not come out. But one day Joseph put it into practice.  When he felt angry, Joseph immediately honored his wife by attaching the word "nim" (Korean honorific) to her name. Then, curiously enough, his wife began to calm down. He felt he was under the spell of language.
 

Another couple promised to wake up in the morning and bow to each other the next day after the couple had a fight. But the promise was never kept until a child was in elementary school. One night the couple had a big fight over their children's education. The husband had to go to work, they didn't even come to a conclusion, he verbally abused his wife and went to work and that night to bed. The wife, who stayed up all night in another room, could not understand her husband who went to bed without any words. The next day ready to go to work he carefully opened the wife's door and went in. And without saying anything, he bowed to her and left the room. She felt the emotions accumulated all night disappear like snow.

In what ways are we dealing with stress and negative emotions every day? Just as money is needed to live in the world, we need our own emotional secrets to love and be loved as human beings. How good it would be if we could be mentally and spiritually healthy even when angry.