A Blessed and Joyful Christmas

In the monthly newsletter for December a priest of the diocese had a meditation on Christmas and those who first met Jesus in the Gospel.

The shepherds were the first to encounter our Lord. They were the the 'nobodies' of that society.Their life was not one of hope but pessimism, they saw no way of ridding themselves of their fate. They were led to the stable and meeting Jesus they received great joy and a new life. A new meaning to what they were doing.

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone. (Isaiah 9:1)

The second group who met our Lord where the Magi. They were in search of truth, the true light of life. They strived all their life to find it and were left with dryness.They were forever in search. One night they saw something they new was different and they followed it to find Jesus. They had difficulties on the journey in following the star. They went to the King for help, and with the help of the learned of that society they resumed their journey.The Star appeared again and led them to Jesus. With great joy they returned to their homeland.

The journey of the wise men is our journey. Some times we have the sparkle of light in our lives but it disappears.We have doubt and skepticism enter and we hesitate on our way. If we continue with others and make the effort, the star will again appear.

The next to meet our Lord were the two old people in the temple. Simeon and Anna. They were old and their bodies were giving them trouble. They did not have what they wanted they were also searching for the light. Simeon took the child Jesus in his arm: "Now , Master, you can dismiss your servant in peace; you have fulfilled your word. For my eyes have witnessed your saving deed displayed for all the peoples to see..." (Luke 2:29)

The Gospels have many stories of people in darkness meeting our Lord and leaving with great light and happiness. We try to reflect the light that we have received and make it shine on those that we come in contact, bringing joy into their lives, especially those on the fringes. A Blessed and grace filled Christmas.

A Grandmother's Christmas story.

"While they were there the days of her confinement were completed. She gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the place where travelers lodged." (Luke 2:6)

Some years ago this Christmas story was retold by the pastor of the parish in which a grandmother named Martha gave the Christmas sermon. She was over seventy and lived most of her life as a farmer.What follows is an account of her Christmas sermon written up in the Pastoral News letter by the pastor of the parish.

Martha was married to a poor farmer. They lived in a rented room of a farm house. Martha was pregnant and coincidentally, so also was the woman of the house. They were both to give birth the same month. Superstitiously, if two babies were born in the same house it was believed that one would die so the owner of the house asked Martha to leave until the baby was born. It was the month of December and very cold. Her unfortunate circumstances were for her almost too hard to accept. Embarrassed, and not able to find another house she found a shabby stable and that is where the child was born without the help of a midwife. The labor pains were such that she lost consciousness.

After some time,when she regained control of her senses, she felt something leaning on her and turned around to see an ox. She pushed the ox away but it came back leaning on Martha's back, and giving her heat. Martha thought that the ox was commiserating with her condition. The baby not able to overcome the cold seemed to be dead and she blamed her poverty. She took the baby and went back to her rented room. The heat of the house was enough to bring the baby back to consciousness. This is the story that Martha gave on that Christmas Evening. (This account happened after the Korean War when life was quite different from the Korea of today)

The baby grew up and has become a mother she is the director of the parish kindergarten. She sang that evening in the choir. Her daughter, Martha's grand daughter, was the accompanist and her grandson, the altar boy at Mass.

The priest mentioned in the recounting of the Christmas Story he doesn't feel moved by the events of the first Christmas because of the rich life style that we are living. Poverty is hard to understand unless you have lived it. The story of Martha was helpful in seeing the first Christmas in a new light. Yes, Jesus was born in a stable 2000 years ago.

The Korean Four River Project Controversy

A large part of the Catholic Church in Korea is on record in being against the Four River Project that has been started by the government. There is a great deal of controversy and the country is lining up in camps for and against.

The project got started last month, an attempt to remake the four longest rivers in Korea: the Han, Nakdong, Yeongsan and the Geum. The project is to control flooding and improve quality and supply of water and build new tourist attractions along the waterways besides giving work to many for years to come.

The project will cost $ 19.2 billion dollars. Those who are opposed see it is an ecological disaster. The Catholic movement against the project sees many problems and does not believe it is well conceived. The government did have a plan to build a canal to Pusan that was dropped because of the opposition of the people and many feel the Four River project is a copy of this canal project.

The editorial in the Peace Weekly mentions what the government is saying about the project is not straightforward, verification of the feasibility studies are not known, the opinion of those opposed to the project have not been studied, and the basic itemized cost is not known by the public.

The Church has made clear they are not opposed to human development and good use of natural resources but desire the use of God's creation in a mutually benefiting way, resulting in harmony in the development. Human greed and the principle of economics first, without sufficient reflection, is not in harmony with the Creator and his Providence.

The editorial ends mentioning that one of the reasons for the controversy over the Four River Project is distrust of the government. If this project was truly for the good of the people and the country as the government stated, then even though it would take time, an attempt should have been made to persuade public opinion for the project and get the citizenry on board.

The Bishops of Korea have made this point a number of times before. The government does little in considering the people as educated and entitled to know why a project is deemed necessary and helpful to them and the country. It is top down.The government knows best and goes its merry way. This can also be the way in many other areas of Korean life and is not infrequently found in the Church.

The Sad Trend In Korean Family Life

The editorial in the Catholic Peace Weekly lamented what the Korean Health and Family Welfare Department found in its 2009 report. In 2005, unmarried men who said they plan to get married was 82.5% in 2009, it went down to 75.7%; for women it was 73.5% and went down to 73.1%.

The average age of men marrying in 2005 was 31.8, in 2009 it was 32.1; for women in 2005 it was 29.7 and in 2009 it was 30.6. The men in 2005 who said children were important 54.2%, it went down to 24.3% in 2009; women went from 42.1% to 24%. Only one in four want children.

What was evidenced in the survey was that the families with the larger monthly income have less of a desire for children. It was suggested that they want to educate their children well and the expense is too much for their income, and so the desire to forgo children.

To change this trend means there has to be a movement against avoiding marriage and marrying late. The editorial stressed the understanding of family life has to change . The young people have to understand the importance of family life.

This is a strange development in Korean life in a very short period of time. The editorial ends with a quote from Pope John Paul's Apostolic Exhortation, Familiaris Consortio #14: "Thus the couple, while giving themselves to one another, give not just themselves but also the reality of children, who are a living reflection of their love, a permanent sign of conjugal unity and a living and inseparable synthesis of their being a father and a mother."

Dissenting Voices in Korean Society

Democracy is new to Korea and they have come a long way in a very short time. The interest in government and what is going on is minimal: interest is on what will benefit the individual, family or the area? The idea of the common good is still not part of the vocabulary.

There was an opinion piece in the Chosun Ilbo where the writer expressed his dismay on the many disputes on projects that have been started by the government and the lack of ethical standards and moral sensitivity on these issues.

There is the usual deploring of problems: North and South, East and West, black and white, left and right, men and women... and no way out of the impasse. The writer says Germany was able to find a third way of acting. They were able to find a way to unite. He blames the Koreans for not understanding the problems they have and failure to come to some understanding of them in their own minds.They keep on looking at the government to solve the problems and do not see where their responsibilities are in these matters.

He concluded much is made about the inequality of educational opportunities but those who speak this way continue to send their children to private schools and overseas for graduate studies. This he feels is speaking out of two sides of the mouth: it is lying and phony.
What one can not do is asked of another. To criticize another for lack of virtue that one doesn't have, is cowardice. In a word he sees hypocrisy at work and this is doing damage to one's true self.

My reading of the article was that he was hoping Korea would come to a way of acting the Germans have made their own, thanks to Hegel. He would see differences evolve to a third way, after discussion and compromise. It is a dream that worked in Germany which he feels was a polarized country.

The article doesn't add much to the discussion on how to get people to agree. There are too many who are interested in their own personal needs and find it difficult to break out of this self imposed confinement. Much of the blame should be with the past and present governments. This is a reason the bishops and many priests have difficulty with some of the recent activities of the government: the government's interest in material development at the expense of the poor, without any efforts to persuade the citizens of the rightness of their projects.

In a recent editorial in the Catholic Times: "starting from the president there has to be an openness to the country and the people. The very meaning of the word 'president' signifies a chairperson, one who works to unify and balance the different opinions and claims. We have learned from our history, without communication, let alone harmony we will never proceed even one step forward. This is the time to humbly listen to the wishes of the people and with a humbler attitude to walk with the citizens."

Korean Martyrs of Japan

It is known that in the invasion of Korea in 1592 the Japanese brought back to Japan many Koreans some of whom entered the Catholic Church. Totus Tuus websiste has a good introduction to this period.

In 1862, 26 Japanese martyrs were canonized, in 1867, 205 martyrs who died during the years 1597 to 1637 were beatified. In 1981, 16 martyrs were beatified and in 1987 were canonized, just last year 2008, 188 companion martyrs were beatified in Japan.

In the years from 1597 to 1637 there were known to be 13 Koreans who died as martyrs in Japan and now they have discovered two more to add to the list. According to some documents in 1594 there were about 2000 Korean Christians in Japan. In 1610 the Koreans had a Korean Church in Nagasaki.

The Peace Weekly had an article on the finding of two more Koreans in the list of Japanese martyrs by a Korean Sister who is working in Nagasaki. She received help from many to help her work with the documents and gave the results to the the archbishop of Nagasaki who told her to make the results known to the bishops of each country. Those who know some of the history of the Korean Catholicism in Japan feel that there are more to be discovered in the coming years.

The martyrs of Japan are considered to have been killed in the cruelest possible ways and some would say crueler than the early Christians and the martyrs who were killed in Korea. We do have martyrs in this age but at least its seems some of the cruelty has been mitigated. Possibly a sign that we have been sensitized in some way to the dignity of humanity.

Another Alternative Medical Practice

Some women that I knew in a previous parish came for a visit recently. They came to visit public health centers to introduce their
capsicum (an extract from peppers) plaster (PAS) treatment for medical problems. They gave me a demonstration of the possibilities for treatment putting a very small half inch square patch of capsaicin on different parts of my arms and face. The thinking of those who use acupuncture is that in our bodies there is the flow of energy (Ki) and if the Yin and Yang is not in balance things will not be right. Working with these points that relate with different organs they try to get the (Ki) to flow correctly. These women were using the same points used for acupuncture but with the small patches at these points.

In Korea acupuncture was in the past the first method of treatment for many ailments. There was a development to hand acupuncture (needles in the acupoints of the hand), moxibustion (heat in these same points ), acupressure ( pressing these points), and now according to these woman a non invasive way with no bad side effects by using hot PAS patches on the meridian points.


It is very inexpensive for with a package of PAS, cut up into small one half inch squares, you have enough small patches to last you for over a year. I have seen these small patches on the hands of many of our Catholics but now I know what they signify. If I knew the meridian points that relate to the different organs of the body I would know what ails them.

There are many alternative ways of dealing with medical problems in Korea. Some of them are harmless but the medical profession would see some of them as harmful for they keep the person from going to a doctor when something could be done and medical remedies prescribed.

Despite all the years I have been in Korea not once have I been treated with acupuncture. I do not like anything which I think is invasive. When you get sick and are in a doctor's care that thinking is forgotten. The ladies left me a package of capsicum PAS and the next time I get a plugged nose I will be using a couple of those patches.With this kind of treatment for a head cold there is little that I would find objectionable. Before they left they did mention that I have to believe in the effectiveness of the procedure; acting on that suggestion if there is good results, I will never know if it is the hot patch or the placebo effect.