The Call of Love

The Catholic Times'  column on  Love in God's Plan, written by a member of the Missionary Congregation of the Handmaids of Christ, offers some theological background.

Resurrection, the power of the living God, and the encounter with Him that reveals Himself. 

Jesus concludes by saying to the Sadducees' understanding of the resurrection: “You are greatly mistaken” (Mark 12:24.27). The catechetical texts suggest that no one before Jesus had ever proclaimed a clear teaching on the resurrection of the dead, and the implications of Jesus' answer are profound and accurate.

Jesus' words about the resurrection speak about a dimension of history commensurate with God's wisdom and power, not human knowledge and ability, and of the fact that human beings are bodies alive with God's life. 

In the Old Testament, Israel rejected many mythological gods. Over a long period, it gradually transmitted a worldview derived from faith in God, with different expressions in different places. The resurrection comes from the power of God, something beyond death, and the logic of the world as we know it is insufficient. We have to ask, “What does this mean for me?”

When a human being faces death, his or her very existence becomes the great question. Meet Job, who asked the classic questions “Who am I?” and “Where did I come from and Where am I going?” in the face of his suffering. Job was a righteous man who had not committed any great sin and was wealthy and powerful. 

The first test he received was about his possessions, and the second was about his existence after he became ill. Job was not shaken when he lost his house, livestock, and precious children. He praised God with each loss, saying, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return. You gave me and you have taken away; blessed be your name!” (Job 1:21). 

After losing everything he owned, he became ill. Now he was faced with his existence, not his possessions. The incredible pain he feels gives him despair, and he blames his life: "Why did I not die at birth, come forth from the womb and expire?" (Job 3,11). His friends, who come to comfort him, tell him to ask God for forgiveness because, according to traditional teachings, suffering and misfortune are punishment for sin. But Job doesn't accept their advice and doesn't kneel down anymore, but questions God. “Why?” The pain of his illness becomes a doorway to a new relationship with God. He realized that questions about his existence could only be asked of God and that only God could answer them. "Why am I dying, and where am I going?"

God speaks out of the storm, as if he has been waiting for Job to ask these questions. “Where were you when I founded the earth?” (Job 38,4b). This means, “Where were you when I formed you, and what have you done? The wise Job understands the meaning of the question and confesses. “Now my eyes have seen you.” (Job 42,5) ‘To see’ means to be in personal communion with God. The question he asked with his whole being in the face of his suffering was a call to God, the author of existence. He called, he met, he knew, and confessed that he had come out of love and was returning to it.

The Sadducees' error was that they tried to understand the Bible from their own world and language. Like Job's friends, they mistakenly thought it depended on their merit. Resurrection is an encounter with the power of the living God and the life given.

Treating the Disabled Wisely

 

In the Current Affairs Diagnosis column of the Catholic Peace Weekly, a diocesan priest and director of a social welfare research institute shares his thoughts on an aspect of welfare work for people with disabilities in Korea.

Recently, he heard a professor in the social welfare field express concerns about the Catholic Church's opposition to the deinstitutionalization policy. He also heard many comments criticizing the Catholic Church's position on the government's 'Act on Support for Community Independence and Housing Transition of the Disabled'. On April 6, the National Coalition for the Disabled Against Deinstitutionalization staged a protest at the Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul.

Expressing your opinion is a right we all enjoy.  However, is it okay to occupy the cathedral and cause trouble just because one's opinion is different? They even reported the absurd claim that the Catholic Church opposes deinstitutionalization, community independence, and housing transition because it operates many residential facilities for disabled people. 

It is truly unfair and insulting to hear this kind of talk. ‘Deinstitutionalization’ became an issue in the field of disabled people’s welfare, and we cannot standardize things just because they seem good without considering the type of disability. However, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, national policy agencies, and deinstitutionalization support groups are currently accepting the appeal of the words ‘independence’ and ‘deinstitutionalization’ without a broad understanding of them, and are treating facilities as ‘social evils that must be eliminated.’ They are also branding those who speak of the need for facilities as outdated groups or groups obsessed with protecting their own interests.

In August 2021, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced the ‘Deinstitutionalization Disabled Community Self-Reliance Support Roadmap’  The core content of this roadmap is to close residential facilities for the disabled within 10 years and provide public rental housing to all disabled people living in the facilities, except for about 2,000 disabled people whose disabilities are so severe that they cannot live alone. 

What exactly is the standard for 2,000 people who can remain in the facilities, and what is the basis for the target period of ‘10 years’? Despite this, the government conducted a pilot project for deinstitutionalization from 2022 to 2024. However, some of the severely disabled people who were hastily transferred to the local community without sufficiently reflecting their wishes died because they did not receive timely treatment, or their nutritional and sanitary conditions deteriorated significantly.

According to the results of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s comprehensive survey of deinstitutionalization, only about 700 of the approximately 1,200 disabled people who were deinstitutionalized had their residences confirmed. Among the 487 people who participated in the survey, 281 people returned to their homes after being deinstitutionalized, 136 people were discharged by others, and 24 people died within 4 years of being deinstitutionalized.

Since before the term “social work” existed, the church has seen organized acts of love within the church community as its essential mission. The church's treatment of the poor and marginalized, including people with disabilities, can be one of the first times in human history that they were respected like everybody else. This is why the church has pointed out the dangers of the deinstitutionalization policy and the community independence and residential support project for people with disabilities currently underway in Korea.

The columnist is not opposed to support for independence in itself, but the need to discern between those who can benefit from independent living and those who continue to need help. We are not opposed to different types of housing. What the Catholic Church is opposed to is the unfortunate reality that people with disabilities are victimized and their lives are jeopardized by narrow-minded and less than pure intentions. It is time for a more mature and in-depth approach to disability policy.

Dealing with Anxiety

In the Catholic Peace Weekly's 'Philosophy Talk' column, a Jesuit professor offers readers some help understanding anxiety in their lives. 

Modern society is called an ‘anxiety society’ because people feel anxious for various reasons. In "The Malaise of Modernity", Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor (1931~) argues that anxiety is caused by the ills of modern society: ‘rampant individualism’, ‘dominance of instrumental reason’, and ‘loss of freedom’. 

German philosopher Han Byung-chul (1959~) also characterizes modern society as filled with anxiety in 'The Burnout Society' and argues that its fundamental cause is ‘loss of hope’. Psychoanalysis and psychology diagnose the anxiety symptoms felt by modern people as a pathological phenomenon of humans and a disease that must be treated.

Is anxiety really a disease that must be unconditionally eliminated from life? According to philosopher Karl Jaspers (1883~1969), who was a psychiatrist and psychopathologist, anxiety is a very painful emotional feeling that frequently appears in humans. Still, it cannot be resolved by removing particular objects. Rather, it is a fundamental condition of human existence that cannot be avoided. 

Regarding this existential anxiety, the philosopher who had a deep insight on the subject before Jaspers was Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855). In “The Concept of Anxiety,” he says that anxiety is “an expression of the perfection of human nature.” According to Kierkegaard, unlike “fear,” which has an object-oriented characteristic, anxiety has the characteristic of “indeterminacy,” which has no object. This means that anxiety cannot disappear by finding its cause and eliminating it. Anxiety is based on the freedom of the human spirit and a chance for humans to acquire a reason for their own existence. If we try to avoid this anxiety, it may even harm us.

To become our true selves, we need to decide freely.  Still, humans facing infinite freedom cannot help but feel dizzy, and Kierkegaard called the “dizziness felt in front of freedom” “anxiety”. Imagine how anxious we would be when we stand alone and responsible in the face of the pure possibility of unpredictable infinite freedom! Paradoxically, the more limitless the possibilities of choice are in the face of uncertainty, the more difficult it becomes to decide. It is as if we are standing before ‘nothingness’ as pure possibility. The moment we decide on something is also the moment when all possibilities disappear. Therefore, not turning away from anxiety but facing it directly means courageously standing in front of the pure possibility of freedom and facing it.

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) defines anxiety as the ‘situational nature’ of human existence. As long as humans exist in the world, they are fundamentally caught up in an atmosphere of anxiety, and they can never avoid it. Anxiety is clearly revealed in death, which absolutely and finally nullifies all possibilities of its existence.

However, the important thing is that without being conscious of anxiety, we not only do not ask about the meaning of our own existence, but we also do not make efforts to advance toward our possibilities in life. As anxiety is an opportunity to find our original self, we need to learn how to live with anxiety rather than reject it. 

Social Connection And Happiness

The Korean secular press's coverage of the World Happiness Report provided readers with insights into countries around the world and the levels of happiness they experienced. Korea ranked very high in the number of deaths from despair—suicides. 

Eating with others was a positive aspect that promoted happiness and connection. Family bonds and size were crucial to one's happiness. 

Social connection improves the happiness level of young adults. Social behavior reduces the number of deaths from despair. Trusting others, helping others, and being kind do a great deal towards overcoming unhappiness. 

Korea ranks 2nd in the world for deaths of despair. The conclusions of the UN's 'World Happiness Report 2025', released in March, suggest that the world is a kind and pro-social place. 

Many countries saw an increase in social isolation and deaths of despair due to alcohol, drug addiction, and suicide. 

This report showed that sharing meals with others is a factor in life satisfaction. Korea was a country with a high frequency of eating alone. In particular, the average number of times a week that people ate dinner with someone was under two times, ranking 135th out of 142 countries. Even including lunch, people shared meals only 4.3 times a week.

Eating alone and loneliness are directly linked. In the group that answered, they shared meals more than 12 times a week, only 1% reported feeling lonely the previous day. However, in the group that answered they ate alone all week, the percentage jumped to 38%. The report stated that “the number of times you share a meal is as strong an indicator of ‘quality of life’ as income or unemployment rate,” and that regardless of age, gender, country, or culture, people who eat with others showed higher life satisfaction.

The research team also noted the finding that “countries with more kind behaviors have fewer deaths due to despair.” According to the report, the percentage of people who answered that they had “performed prosocial behaviors such as helping strangers, donating, or volunteering in the past month” increased from an average of 63% in 2017–2019 to 70% in 2022–2024. On the other hand, the number of deaths of despair decreased in 75% of the 59 countries surveyed from 2000 to 2019.

However, Korea showed a different movement here. Among the remaining 16 countries, the country with the most significant increase in deaths of despair was the United States, with an average increase of 1.3 deaths per 100,000 people per year, followed by Korea and Slovakia in second and third place. 

The research team focused on comparing the United States and Korea with Finland, which has been ranked the “happiest country in the world” for eight years. Both Korea and the United States had high numbers of deaths of despair and a steep increase. On the other hand, Finland’s number of deaths of despair itself was similar to Korea’s, but showed a downward trend of about 0.9 deaths per 100,000 people.

The critical difference was that prosocial behavior decreased in the United States and Korea, but increased in Finland. 

Socializing plays a key role in making people feel less lonely and abandoned, and it creates an inclusive society where help is readily available. Consequently, prosocial behavior plays a key role in preventing unhappiness and suicides. 

Korea has implemented suicide prevention strategies,  such as pesticide restrictions, emergency room follow-ups, and media safety guidelines, successfully reducing suicide rates among older adults. However, since 2017, youth suicides have increased, which means serious gaps remain in the present policy. Suicide prevention continues to be a challenge for society, and the need for all of us to be messengers of hope to the world.   

 

Thinking Of Pope Francis

In the View from the Ark column of the Catholic Times, a Seoul parish priest shares his thoughts on Pope Francis's death.

The Pope, who lived as a disciple of Jesus for 12 years, showed many people the life of a true disciple. The path Jesus walked during his 3-year public ministry and the people he met were very similar to those of the Pope, who lived as a servant of servants for 12 years.

The sick who no one cared for and who had given up on themselves, the foreigners who were not treated as human beings, the abandoned people who had lost their homes and jobs and had nowhere to go, the people who were treated as dirty and lowly… These are the people Jesus met. They were people who had been robbed of the world by those who moved it, so they had to be cared for to survive. The hand Jesus extended to them was support and solidarity for them to live as the protagonists of the world and as beloved children of God.

The Pope visited those who had crossed the Mediterranean Sea on small boats as soon as he became Pope. Those who had not been able to endure, to bury their comrades, and children who had died, and those who had no future.  It was a message that put God’s order of creation first, saying, “Human life and the well-being of creatures are more important than anything else.” A rebuke of the cowardly behavior of the great powers who used the logic of power, saying, “The one who wins is on my side.”

In this way, Pope Francis was an unpalatable figure to some people. How many politicians and businessmen were shocked by his criticism that “the media, which ignores the homeless dying on the streets, is so sensitive to the fluctuations in stock prices,” his criticism of an exclusionary society, his statement that “labor exists for the sake of humanity,” and his declaration that “the great powers that invaded them are responsible for poor countries.”

How many religious people were perplexed by the words, “The church should become a field hospital and go out into the streets.” And the obvious statement, “You should not proselytize but respect others' beliefs?”

Amid constant division, Jesus's stern teaching that “there is no neutrality in the face of suffering” was a signpost for those who could not find their way on the road. So, it was bound to be an unpleasant sight for those who could not read the signs of the times. It was no different from how Jesus was unwelcome to the ruling class of his time, such as the Pharisees and the scribes.

However, to some, those unpleasant words and actions were a rich taste like milk and sweetness like honey. To others, especially those whose lives were filled with suffering, they could endure the painful days and straighten their tired legs with comfort. They were a navigation system for pilgrims who could not see even an inch ahead, a hope for young people, and a place of refuge for immigrants.

The Pope is described in many ways,  ‘the saint of the times’ and ‘the saint of the poor’. They are all true. However, the columnist does not want to glorify or heroize him. He wants to leave him as the kind-hearted uncle who lives next door. I am worried that we will think of him as a different kind of being and build a wall between us, which will be why we cannot live like him. This is even more true if we remember his words: “Become the saint next door.” 

Now, I would like to greet the person who returned to the house of God in the language of each generation. Hello, Grandpa Jorge! Peace, Uncle Francisco! Go well! Spring is coming soon! Jorge Mario Bergoglio! Our friend!

Living the Transcendent Life

The Catholic Times Sunday Chat columnist offers readers some thoughts on the duration of inhalation and exhalation and how grateful we should be for the air we breathe.

As a middle school student, he had a rather unusual experience being buried in the ground and then dug up by those around him. It was such a strange incident that some people misunderstood and made more of it than what really happened.

That year was unusually dry, and the fields of the island village where he lived were filled with parched rice paddies. Since the school was closed temporarily, the children were instructed to help with water supply work instead of attending school.

His family worked on extending the water channel to the village pond. If you dug deep into the sandy ground, you could find a vein of groundwater to expand the water supply to the pond. With others, he found a vein about 3 meters underground. When the ground was hit with a pickaxe, the disturbance and resonance of the sound shook the ground on both sides of the dug hole's wall, and the mud and dirt covered them instantly. The movement of the earth that he felt is still vivid; he could feel the pressure increasing as it filled the space between his neck and limbs. He tried to breathe, but even though it was sandy soil, the air didn't pass through as if blocked by plastic.

They said it took us about 5 minutes to dig our faces out of the dirt with our hands, and he realized how much of a blessing it was to inhale and exhale.

When middle-aged and quit smoking cigarettes that he had smoked for years, this memory came back to him and made him think. To mix this blessed air with smoke and inhale it into his body…

It was the same when he was watching his father's bedside when he was dying. His body, with several hoses connected, was struggling to extend his time on earth; inhalation was difficult. He watched helplessly to see if the exhalation could lead to another inhalation or vice versa. The sound of breathing in the darkness was like a snail crawling across a tidal flat. That’s how he understood the meaning of ‘the time of one breath’.

He heard that Usain Bolt, the world record holder for the 100-meter dash, breathes little from the start to the finish line. He is said to be doing anaerobic exercise for about 9 seconds, during which he must tense his entire body and release explosive energy. It is said that even veteran female divers on Jeju Island can stay underwater for about 5 minutes with a single deep breath. Let’s leave the argument that the gap between inhalation and exhalation is the minimum unit of time a living organism feels, and is unique to each individual.

In the midst of all that is going on in our lives, slowing down to breathe is not an easy task, but it is a time of resurrection for people of faith, a time when all our values and preconceived notions are regularly checked against a new standard. Let's reset our time units and connect the things we see and evaluate in the visible realm with the things beyond. Inhale and exhale, break up the units of time, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, carefully cross the thresholds of daily life, pondering what transcendent life mechanisms God has designed just for me.

God Working In Cultures

 

Korea is often mentioned as the most Confucian country in Asia, a statement that many understand and accept. Confucianism is a way of life for millions of people of the past and today. 

Neo-Confucianism was introduced to Korea from China in the 13th century and became the nation's ideology during the Joseon Dynasty, which lasted from 1392 to 1897. The Korean Empire lasted from 1897 to 1910. Buddhism came to Korea in the 4th Century CE, but when Confucianism became the dominant state ideology, Buddhism faced many restrictions. 

Some see Confucianism as a secular belief based on Natural Law with natural ethics, a philosophy that focuses on moral behavior rather than worship of the Deity. The early Jesuits who went to China in the late 16th century had this understanding of Confucianism and sought to integrate much of its ethics, social harmony, and virtue as compatible with Christian teaching.

Other missionary groups that worked in rural areas and mainly with the uneducated would have a different understanding of Confucianism than the city-dwelling Jesuits. This was one of the reasons that, for many centuries, there was a serious controversy over the question of rites within Catholicism. The Jesuits believed the rites practiced were civil and social, not religious, and could be tolerated within certain limits, allowing the Chinese to continue their practices when becoming Christian.

During the past centuries, up until 1939, we had bans on the rites for the veneration of the dead. These Confucian rites would be accepted, and then permission rescinded; even debate on the issue was forbidden until 1939. After two centuries, the Holy See re-assessed the issue. Pius XII issued a decree in December 1939 authorizing Chinese Catholics to observe the ancestral rites and participate in Confucius-honoring ceremonies. This came as a great blessing to Korean Catholicism.

A good example of what the Jesuit missioners were impressed with was the Analects, a compilation of the sayings of Confucius and his disciples, written centuries after his death. One maxim that would have shown sensitivity to the Natural Law and the virtuous life,  was: "三人行必有我师" literally, "When three people walk together, there must be one who can be my teacher.") This saying emphasizes that one can learn from everyone around them, regardless of status or knowledge. It reflects a humble attitude towards learning and acknowledges that everyone has something valuable to teach. 

This humility in Confucian teaching would have made a lasting impression on these first Jesuits in China and made it easy to understand Confucianism's positive and virtuous approach to life.

At the Second Vatican Council, understanding inculturation made another step. It understood the Gospel message taking root and flourishing in different cultures, allowing these cultures to enrich the church's life and teachings. 

This perspective encourages people to approach different cultures with respect and understanding. It recognizes that God may work uniquely within each context and continues to lead people to a fuller understanding of the movements of grace in our lives.