Living Fully In Old Age

The Korean website Catholic News Now/Here has an article by a religious sister, a Professor Emeritus, of the Holy Names University. She gives the readers some important areas to review in life.

They say it snows a lot in Korea, but in Alameda, California, where she lives, it has been raining hard for several days. Sitting in the corner of her cozy attic and feeling the wind blowing hard makes her happy but also guilty. She thinks of the people who are homeless and the many undocumented immigrants who are hiding in fear of being deported. She feels sorry and wonders how to protect their humanity and dignity.

There is a sense of anxiety in the hearts of many due to the current chaotic and worrying behavior of President Trump. In this context, Spiritual Directors International held a special meeting on what we should do for those angry and afraid in the face of recent executive orders. In particular, how we should respond to the reality that our purpose of embracing diversity and difference may be threatened (in fact, one of the Trump administration’s executive orders was to cut off federal support for DEI programs, which stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and many who want a just society by embracing diversity have been hurt). 

We gathered on Zoom to share our feelings and listen to each other.  We talked about how we cannot give up our values ​​no matter the situation and how we should create as many situations as possible to embrace and listen to people's anger and fears. 

While talking about this, we felt some new energy. Someone said that the message that this series of violent situations is forcing on us is that we feel powerless, so it seems important to continue to make small gestures that we can do as resistance, like a flying bird flapping its wings. I nodded strongly, and the other people in the meeting did the same. Then, we started to break free from the tense atmosphere and laugh a little.

The daytime moon in the blue sky comes to mind. Sometimes, God’s calling is so unnoticeable, so gentle, and it seems like he’s by my side, so I feel even more grateful and thankful. 

Thinking about it, even though we have difficult times, in the end, a spiritual person, and therefore a person who pursues a human life can continue to laugh. In fact, we see an abundance of humor in many saints. On a cold winter night when her whole body felt frozen, Saint Teresa of Avila, struggling to pull up a carriage stuck in a puddle, said that God doesn’t have many friends because he treats his friends so badly. We are also familiar with the stories of saints who, seeing themselves as old and infirm and unable to move well, called themselves old donkeys and laughed at themselves.

In fact, living as a person of the Lord in today’s secularized world, one has to be cautious when dealing with many difficult and disturbing things. Perhaps that is why Isaiah’s confession, in which he groaned, “Oh, I am ruined!” when he saw his unholy and sinful existence while facing God, lingers in her mind. If God came to her and called her as he did  with Isaiah, she would respond like the prophet:  “Oh, I am ruined!”

Thinking about it, she confesses having caught many fish because she cast her net where she was told to, just like Peter in Luke 5. All her work, teaching students, writing books, and providing spiritual guidance, was nothing more than casting her net where she was told. 

Today, she returned after a meeting with a desire to live a deeper community life with her community of nuns. Many nuns are now going to nursing homes, and we have promised to work hard to build a smaller but deeper community of love.  She hopes to live anew with a humble heart and focus more on God.

The sight of the nuns who will soon be scattered and leaving the Bay Area, to which they have grown accustomed, is sad and beautiful. We are people destined to sing about how we have always lacked love and our desperate hopes to become fishers of men from now on. So today, as we finished our meeting, we shared a delicious chocolate cake. And we whispered blessings for each other’s old age. Ah! Until yesterday, we were ruined. So, from now on, let’s fish for people and love.

Living The Contemplative Life

Some years ago, the Catholic Peace Weekly had an article on "New Seeds of Contemplation," a book that deals with ‘contemplation’ and in which the reporter summarizes chapter 1: ‘What is contemplation?’  Those who have read the book will agree that its contents are difficult. The reason for this is that contemplation is not something that can be taught to anyone, and it cannot be fully expressed in human language. However, it is something we should all try to attain.

Christians hope to see God and enjoy eternal happiness with Him. Merton’s contemplation is to taste true happiness with God in advance in paradise, the original place of mankind where Adam was. Merton viewed contemplation as God’s grace that mercifully completes the mysterious work of creation hidden within us.

“Contemplation is the reason God created us. Through contemplation, we know and love Him as the ‘God who is", and we come to know Him through a deep and vivid experience that our nature cannot comprehend… All who have reached the purpose of creation will become contemplatives in heaven. However, God has made it possible for many to enter this supernatural realm and experience a new environment while they are still in the world.”

To understand Merton’s words, we must realize the purpose of creation and its completion. As we can see in Genesis, God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day, and the completion of creation is precisely this ‘rest’. Eternal rest and peace with God is the ultimate purpose of our human creation. To put it another way, this is heaven, the kingdom of God. “All who have reached the purpose of creation will become contemplatives in heaven.”  Heaven has already come among us through Jesus. When Jesus proclaimed, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand,” he taught that “the kingdom of God is already among us.” And he accomplished this kingdom of God through his death on the cross and resurrection. In other words, Jesus himself is the kingdom of God and heaven. When we unite with Jesus, we live in heaven here and now.

In this context, Merton teaches us that contemplation is precisely the ‘restoration of the original life of man’, the ‘restoration of life in paradise.’ “Amid the anxiety that arises when we stand alone before God in our own nothingness, we must stand naked, without any explanation, without any theoretical system, and we must entrust ourselves completely to his providence, and we must earnestly seek his grace, mercy, and the light of faith. Because true contemplation is not a psychological technique but a theological grace.” 

Adam was naked before God in the Garden of Eden, but he felt no shame. However, after committing a sin against God’s will, he felt shame and hid from God. Jesus Christ, the new Adam, was crucified naked on the cross. He forgave Adam’s sin and all of our sins and restored paradise. Merton saw contemplation as becoming one with Jesus’ nakedness. He describes contemplation as entering paradise, the original place of human beings, where there is no longer any need for shame, even if naked before God.

Merton wrote in a letter to a friend in 1963: “For me, the contemplative life is a search for truth and God. This is discovering what is truly important in my life and finding my rightful place in God’s creation.” 

Living with God in paradise is our original place as humans. And contemplation is restoring that original place. However, we often fail to respond to His invitation of love and hide. It may be because we lack the courage to show our shameful selves as they are.  However, just as Jesus hung naked on the cross, let us entrust ourselves to Him as we are and enter His paradise. And let us remember this. Restoring life in this paradise is not a completion but a new beginning.

The Church of Hope

In the Preciousness of Faith column, a priest in the  Catholic Peace Weekly, embarking on a pilgrimage to Italy for the Jubilee of 2025, reflected on the  theme of the Jubilee, "Pilgrims of Hope." The Jubilee of 2025, a significant event in the Catholic Church, is a time of spiritual renewal and reflection, marked by pilgrimage and prayer. This theme contains two words the Church must remember. 

First, "hope." Pope Francis explained the purpose of the Jubilee: "The coming Jubilee can greatly contribute to reviving the atmosphere of hope and trust that will give us a foretaste of the renewal and new birth that we so desperately desire. This is why I have chosen the motto of the Jubilee as "Pilgrims of Hope."

When the Pope visited the Korean Church for the beatification ceremony in 2014, he also asked the Korean bishops: "Please be guardians of memory and hope."

The Pope emphasizes hope because this era is desperately looking forward to hope. There is no sign that war and violence are disappearing around the world. Countless are the victims of famine, infectious diseases, and natural disasters. The economic and political crisis is causing chaos not only in our country but also throughout the world. Many young people are despairing. 

The works of Han Kang, the first Korean to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, have received worldwide attention probably because she has drawn empathy by meticulously depicting the violence that appears in human life, the trauma and wounds that result from it, and the fragility of life, and has searched for humanity beyond that. In short, her writings have comforted people because she has not given up hope.

It is clear that this era, where hope is threatened, is in crisis, but this can also be an excellent opportunity for the Church. This is because the Church holds a greater hope than what humanity desires. In fact: "In hope we have been saved" (Romans 8:24). Furthermore, the Church has always sought hope and testifies to the hope it has found. "Always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you about the hope that is in you." (1 Pet 3:15). Today, we are called to bear witness to that very hope.

A church that does not hope, does not dream together, and cannot bear witness to hope has nothing to offer the world. Fortunately, the Church continues to witness hope through the Holy Spirit's work and the believers' efforts. It sheds light on the dawn of hope in many places worldwide.

However, hope is not given on its own. That is why it must be a 'pilgrimage'. Hope is a dawn that comes only to those who seek and reflect on it. Just as the Magi set out again to find the star they had lost and the star rose again (cf. Mt 2:1-12), Christians are pilgrims who set out again to find hope.

The characters in the Bible are people who overcame trials and lived with hope. We who set out on a pilgrimage to find hope are the world's hope. This is why we must begin the Jubilee of 2025 with hope. 

The word "hope" reflects an undeniable dark shadow in human life. The crises and trials we must endure, and the solutions that humans themselves cannot find... But it is precisely there that hope shines. Hope starts from our reality but directs us towards something beyond ourselves. 

The figures in the Bible were those who overcame trials and sought hope, and all church members were pilgrims who followed in their footsteps to find hope. Therefore, "pilgrims of hope" is our very name. And we, who embark on a pilgrimage to find hope, are the hope for the world. 

Personalism in an Impersonalistic Society

An article in the Catholic Times on the Community Movement in Korea showed it to be an excellent tool for realizing synodality and suggesting that clericalism must be addressed simultaneously. The Church needs these small communities living the synodal theme —Communion, Participation, and Mission.

The Church worldwide has given synodality a great deal of time and effort with great expectations of what it can do for the world. One of the problems always present is how words are used and the meaning we give them. What is necessary is the need to define the words being used, but this is not always feasible.

One such word is personalism, which focuses on dignity and rights. This concept we hear throughout the Vatican document Gaudium et Spes. It was expressed theologically: "Man is the only creature on earth that God willed for its own sake, and he cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself."

For John Paul II, the "personalistic norm" states that a person should never be treated as a mere object to be used but rather as someone who deserves to be loved and treated with inherent dignity and worth, meaning the only proper attitude toward a person is love, which constitutes a mature and fully developed relationship with them. 

Often, issues we face become more important than the persons involved. Not difficult to do. There is always a need to connect synodality and personalism— communion and unity with open dialogue and listening to one another. 

Pope Francis has strongly promoted both synodality and personalism in his papacy, emphasizing the importance of a Church that "walks together" and truly values each person.

"Imago Dei" spirituality refers to a theological concept— Humans are created "in the image of God". We possess inherent dignity and value because we reflect certain qualities of God, such as rationality, creativity, moral capacity, and the ability to love and relate to others, setting us apart from the rest of creation; essentially, it emphasizes the unique worth and responsibility that comes with being human as a reflection of God's nature. 

What has to be overcome is the desire for efficiency and emotional support in an impersonal society and the willingness to continue with our ideals. We live with many impersonal structures, but nothing prevents us from relating according to personalistic norms and seeing other humans not as objects but as subjects. 

East and West's Prerequisite for Happiness

In the past, we heard the traditional Chinese New Year greeting: "May you and your family enjoy the five blessings."  These come from the Book of Documents in the Classics of Confucianism and are also called the "Five Happinesses" or "Five Good Fortunes." 

The five blessings are health, wealth, long life, love of virtue, and peaceful death— elements considered necessary for the good life. The one that may surprise the modern age is the love of virtue, but not for the pre-Christian East or West. Not only did Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism emphasize virtues, but the ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle and Roman Stoics all believed virtue was necessary for achieving happiness.

Our society is polarized for many reasons, depending on how we examine our reality. In ancient times, most would agree that certain values should guide our reasoning and behavior, understood as natural laws. 

Natural law is a theory in ethics and philosophy that understands humans possess intrinsic values that should govern their reasoning and behavior. These values are inherent in people and are not created by society or court judges. In our society, conscience is the word used to describe and indicate this inner guide. 

In Confucianism, "natural law" is understood as an inherent order within the universe, which guides human behavior towards social harmony, acting as universal principles embedded in human nature, discoverable through reason, and expressed through social relationships and virtues such as benevolence and propriety.

Confucianism gives us Five Virtues: Benevolence, Righteousness, Propriety, Wisdom, and  Trustworthiness. These virtues are the fundamental values needed to live a moral life. The five virtues were important in determining who was a ‘true gentleman’— the wise person. In the Analects, Confucius said: “By three methods we learn wisdom: First by reflection, which is the noblest; second by imitation, which is the easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” 

The fourth of the five blessings is 'Yuho-deok' (攸好德), which means enjoying virtue and doing it well. This is a good example showing that our ancestors considered doing good deeds for their neighbors a blessing. In particular, our ancestors believed everyone had to do some good deed from the first day of the new lunar month. 

The Chinese character for benevolence— "仁",  is composed of two parts: "人",  meaning "person", and "二", meaning "two." Benevolence is about the relationship between two people and the importance of empathy and understanding in human interactions within a social context; it represents caring for others and acting with kindness towards them. 

In his Description of a Gentleman, Saint John Henry Newman (1801-1890) presented the wise and cultivated person of the pre-Christian Philosophers of both East and West as the benevolent person. 

Happy Lunar New Year!

Living Wisely

Philosophy of life is again the subject, taken from the column in the Catholic Peace Weekly. Philosophy literally means Love of Wisdom." Philosophy is an activity people undertake when they seek to understand fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live, and their relationships to the world and to each other.

The ancient Greeks called the highest activity of the human mind wisdom. To them, wisdom meant theoretical knowledge encompassing theory and practice and practical knowledge as practical virtues directly related to life, enabling true belief or knowledge.

Everyone thinks and acts based on their own beliefs. When these beliefs do not correspond to truth or facts, they become presumptions and falsehoods. Therefore, we must consider whether our beliefs are true or desirable before acting. The philosophy of loving wisdom is a journey of thought that finds the basis for true and desirable beliefs in life. Today, philosophical counseling as a philosophical practice is a new discipline that pursues wisdom of life, not stopping at theoretical knowledge, through ‘philosophizing’ (using verbs rather than nouns to emphasize action rather than speculation) in everyday life.

Philosophy begins by looking around us in the world. Humans are the only animals in nature who think.  As soon as they are born, humans look around and constantly try to understand the unfamiliar things they encounter for the first time. This is the unique cognitive act humans perform as thinking beings when born into the world.

Our cognition is based on conceptual thinking. Therefore, having no concepts means that we cannot perceive and understand and cannot grasp things around us. Human thinking goes beyond simple knowledge to understanding our surroundings, and our place in the world. Philosophy can be said to be a kind of ‘dwelling in the world’.

Dwelling is where customs and habits (habitus) are formed. All of this is based on our cognition, and the basic elements of this cognition are none other than concepts, ideas, and vision. These are based on perceptions such as forming relationships with objects in the world, their positions, and assigning values ​​and meanings. The worldview we usually have is a comprehensive framework of these things. Clearly, these elements are very important and make up our lives.

However, when we become accustomed to them without knowing it, ironically, we become distant from our inherent nature of philosophizing. A life without philosophizing will likely become fixed and lose its vitality. Due to the rigidity of thought, we become disconnected from our surroundings, relationships become distorted, and due to its exclusivity, we encounter various problems and suffer from limitations. And eventually fall into a routine. 

German philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) warns that this routine is how most live. When we cannot escape from it, we not only fail to obtain our own originality but also fail to exist as ourselves. In today's rigid life, 'philosophizing' is required more than anything else for self-liberation and change.

Humiliation of the Last Century 'Eulsa Year'

In Asia, the Lunar New Year will be starting on Jan. 29th. The Korean Zodiac follows the Chinese, and this year, the 12-year lunar cycle will begin with the snake and the associated element— wood. We have  12 animals and five elements in the 60-year cycle, complicating the reading.

The Eulsa Year of the last century was a humiliation for our people. A journalist for the Catholic Peace Weekly reminds the readers of some memories that bring sadness to Korea.  In 1905, we lost our diplomatic rights through the Eulsa Treaty. In 1965, there was only a 500 million dollar grant and loan with no direct compensation for the victims through the Korea-Japan Claims Settlement Agreement.

Resentment still remains. When the journalist was studying abroad, a Japanese friend told him over drinks that the compensation issue was “just a diplomatic relationship between Korea and Japan” and that “the distribution of compensation should have been the concern of the Korean government.” Seeing that even ordinary Japanese people accepted this was painful.

This year, the first Eulsa Year of the 21st century, there was no diplomatic humiliation, but the trauma from the short-lived martial law of last year is still a concern. The fear that democracy could almost be trampled by military boots does not easily go away. Economic shocks such as a stock market crash and a sharp rise in the exchange rate are lurking. Many are complaining of mental concerns, fearing chaos will strike again.

Nevertheless, people do not give up hope. The people who have risen without fail amid the pain of history have once again taken to the streets. Last month, we could feel the warmth and outstanding civic consciousness on the streets before the National Assembly in Seoul. Thousands of cups of coffee were given away for free, and hot packs were distributed everywhere. Even at the protest site, they maintained order and calm.

This year is a jubilee year. Pope Francis declared the jubilee on December 24, emphasizing that “even in a dark world, hope is not dead, but alive.” Our history also proves there is light at the end of dark times. The journalist prays that this year will be one in which we overcome despair, share hope, and care for one another.