Gutenberg Bible or Buddhist Meditations?

Out of great love, many people spend a whole life time, without any recognition in a work few will ever hear about. Dr. Park Byeong Seon (Lugalda) was such a person until she discovered the oldest extant book, made with movable metal type, in the French National Library.The Catholic Apostolic Lay Council has just recently presented Dr. Park with a plague and monetary award in recognition of her many years working on Korean antiquities in France.

Before she left for France for further study, one of her professors asked her to keep her eyes open for books taken from Kangwha during the French occupation of the island in 1866. In a previous blog we mentioned the sack of Kangwha by the French naval fleet in retaliation for the killing of 7 French missioners and the burning of the royal achieves on the island. One of the books taken was the first printed book with movable type: a very precious part of Korean history. A book that was classified with other Chinese books until Prof. Park's discovery in 1975.

The book is referred to as Jikji printed by a Buddhist monk in 1377. It is an anthology of the teachings of Buddhism for meditation. There were two volumes, one in the French library is the only one found. Prof. Park proved that it was printed 78 years earlier than Gutenberg's Bible printed in 1455. Besides this one volume she discovered the 298 volumes dealing with the rituals and protocols of the Royal Court.

Prof. Park is now battling terminal cancer. She received no help from the Korean government during over 50 years of work in France; it was her work of love for the country and doesn't want any sympathy. She is having difficulty paying her hospital bills and the country is beginning to pitch in to help her during these difficult days. She would like to have one more year in France to finish what she has started but she knows it is in the hands of God.

It is a fact of life that we know a great deal of history written by those with power and financial backing. To the victors belong the spoils and one of the spoils is to tell the rest of the world what they think happened. The Gutenberg Bible is considered in the West to be the first movable metallic type printed book but the Koreans have a Buddhist work of meditation that precedes that by many years.

The attempts to get the books back can be attributed to Prof. Park's persistence. International support is now shown to countries whose cultural treasures have been pillaged. The Korean government will also become involved with the many other citizen groups working for the return of these priceless items. It would be a fitting end to Prof. Park's scholarly life to have this one year in France and see the return of these books to the country in which they belong.

Happiness in the East and West

As children we often concluded that the East was the East and the West the West: two different ways of looking and thinking."Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet." This of course, is not exactly what is being said, but before the exchanges and the globalization there was a certain laziness and ease in believing this to be true. Human nature, however, is pretty much the same wherever you find it.

We have in Korea those who address their problems very much like those in the West. A Seoul diocesan priest does this with his own website from which topics are selected to appear in the Catholic newspaper. The questions he receives he answers from a Korean perspective.

On a question dealing with happiness, we have to first understand what we mean my happiness, if we are not going to get side tracked. It is easy to think that if we have the material things that we desire, we will be happy. Efforts to better ourselves are healthy but we have to be careful not to think it is everything. In life when we depend on material things to make us happy there will always be something better and this will ultimately bring sadness.

According to the writer the unanimous opinion of those who have studied happiness find that it comes to those whose existence is important to others and secondly is loved and is accepted by others.

The writer mentions that he often gives lectures and asks those in the audience how many are happy with things as they are; very few raise their hand. How many would like to change what they have been given and almost all the hands go up and finally how many have the capabilities of changing what they have, and no one raises their hand.

In conclusion we should try to change what we can change but what we can't change we should try to see it with a different set of eyes and with a more positive attitude, if we do, we will not be filled with unhappiness and even though it be a small amount, happiness will begin to enter.

The writer being a Catholic priest would certainly have a great deal of his attitudes formed by his faith, education, the books that he has read and his experience. This would be true of all of us. The world is becoming one and the mix is such that it would be very difficult to try to keep the East or West as two different ways of seeing life and the world.

Is Western Influence on Korea Ending?

In the study of Korean, as with any foreign language, there are many surprises. The similarities to our mother tongue are welcomed, not expected, puzzling on the first encounter, but this is after all the Orient.

When hearing the Korean words for the planets they were just that, Korean words for the five major planets: the words that appeared on the calendar from Tuesday to Saturday. Why they were there I didn't know, but was shortly to learn. They were the same as the Latin names of the week. How did this come about? Who borrowed from whom? They dispute the way it came into the country but the 5 elements which are important in Korean thinking: fire, water, wood,metal and earth were the names given to the major planets: Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn and these in turn became the days of the week.

The ancients had the idea of the seven luminaries: the sun, moon and the 5 major planets that can be seen by naked eye. The Korean word for Sunday as in the West, is taken from the word sun, Monday from moon, Tues. from Mars, Wed. from Mercury, Thurs. from Jupiter, Fri. from Venus and Sat. from Saturn.

The 5 elements that Chinese society considered important are from Taoist thought, they have a prominent place in Chinese medicine, divination and other areas of life. In Chinese Metaphysics these 5 elements make up the matter of the universe, and with the yin yang form an important part of Chinese and Korean thought.

Korea did not accept the 7 day week until the last part of the 19th century. They had a ten day week and the change probably came through the introduction of western science by the Jesuit presence in China and the influence they had at that time. How it all came about is disputed but it was not coincidence.

It is difficult to judge how much the East has taken from the West. The Internet and globalization will continue to increase the interchange. These days it is common to see English words in the papers without any explanations of their meaning. Yes, the influence of the West on Korea is great, but China will probably surpass this shortly and we will be advancing to the days of old. Korean students studying in America exceed the numbers in China; now that China has become a super power this will very likely change as will the relationship of Korea to China.

What in the World are Name Days?

In my early days in Korea I learned among the Catholics their name day was more important than the birthdays. The name day is the feast day of the saint whose name one is given at baptism. I never actually averted to my name day until I came to Korea. It was thanks to the French missionaries that the custom started and was very strong among the old Catholics. Even today the priest's name day is celebrated with some fanfare.

The Peace Weekly has an article in which a parish priest has made this a part of church life. He felt that it wasn't right just to have the priest's name day celebrated and ignore the many parishioners who also have a name date; so in the parish each first Sunday of the month was a day to remember those commemorating their name day during that month.

The parish would send out cards to all those whose name day would be celebrated during the month and invite them to attend the main Mass on Sunday. They would sit in the front seats and
receive communion under both species. At the end of Mass the priest would give each one a rose and a blessing. The choir would sing a song of congratulations.

There are always 30 roses that are prepared in the front of the altar for those that might attend.
In this parish the custom started right from the beginning of the the parish back in 2005. The invitations are sent out to all those who have a name day coming up during the month even if they are not coming out to church. The pastor mentions that there have been many who attending the name date ceremony have used that occasion to join the community after having left it years before.

The younger Catholics do not have the same attraction to their name day and it is with traditions like these that will see the custom of remembering your name day continue in the Church of Korea. It is a good custom because it is also a time to renew your acquaintance with your patron saint, meditate on his life and recall the mission that we were given at baptism.

The Tragedy We Face Daily In Christianity

On Monday the 18th we will begin the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Last year we celebrated the first hundred years of its inauguration. The Octave will conclude on the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul on the 25th of January. The 'how' and 'when' of unity depends on God, the 'why ' we know, the desire and efforts depend on us.

Last year Cardinal Nicholas Cheong of Seoul said in celebrating the Octave: "I feel inexpressible happiness at this moment. Now we recognize each other as brothers and sisters, confessing the same Christ...We can have different clothes and different ways of worshipping our God. However, our God, whom we praise with one voice , and the Gospel cannot be separate."

The Church in Korea is taking Ecumenism seriously. The bishop in charge is showing great concern to work with others in getting rid of distrust and prejudice among Christians and to work together in witnessing to the Gospel. The bishop wants us to stress the positive and work together in the common mission we have from Christ, which is more important than all that separates us.

My feelings are that the bishops are more concerned in this area of ecumenism than are those in the parishes, priests and lay people. Last year the Korean Christian representatives had the responsibility of composing the prayers that were to be used during the Unity Octave throughout the Christian world.

At the end of last year the different Christian representatives, Protestant, Orthodox and Catholics went on a pilgrimage of unity. They had an audience with the Pope and shared their concerns with Cardinal Kasper, who is in charge of matters to do with ecumenism in the church.
From there they went to England and talked with the Anglicans, the Salvation Army and Methodists. The bishop said they learned a great deal but what was most important was the feeling they were relating with each other as brothers in Christ.

The whole area of ecumenicism is fraught with all kinds of difficulties and misunderstandings. It seems like an impossible dream. The problems within the different Christian communities are not just little squabbles but areas of great concern, life and death issues.This is probably the areas we will have to work with, if we are to see any progress in becoming one in a larger context.

Manuscripts Taken from Korea by France

In the year 1866 seven French Missioners were martyred, two were bishops, along with over a thousand Catholics. This was the last persecution of Catholics and was the the persecution that provoked the French naval forces to invade Kangwha as a punitive measure against Korea. The French forces attacked and occupied the island for about 6 weeks in the autumn of 1866 and burnt down the royal achieves that were kept on the island. They took back to France some of the manuscripts that were in appearance of better quality; these are now in French possession and they refuse to return them. They are called the Oekyujanggak manuscripts: Having to do with the protocol and rites in the Joseon Dynasty.

The Peace Weekly had an editorial on this dispute with France. Many civilian groups are working for the return of these manuscripts and the weekly is asking the government to keep pressing France. The editorial mentions there is a great deal of double talk on this whole issue on the part of the French.

The news reports say the French government admits that the books were confiscated by the French while occupying Kangwha and that it was an "unfortunate confiscation," but the French government can't return the books because they are now part of France's national assets.

The books were found in the French National Library in 1975 by a Korean professor, living in France, who was working in the Library . Up until that time France wasn't even conscious of their existence.

The Catholic Church in Korea does feel a responsibility to show concern for the taking of these manuscripts by the French and is hoping that they will accede to the requests of Korea.The reason for the occupation of Kangwha was because of the persecution of the Catholics and the killing of 7 French citizens, members of the Paris Foreign Missionary Society. The Paris Foreign Missionary Society has given all their material they had accumulated during the many years of persecution, to the Church in Korea and without any conditions on their part. The German Benedictines also did the same. France has agreed to digitize the books but the return of them is more to the point.

Korean Table Culture

The process of eating is a very important part of life, both of the body and spirit.Koreans can eat what in other cultures you would not dream of eating and not even think it possible. This over the years develops into a culture of eating and a way of behaving at table.

Is it that they enjoy eating so much that they can eat even those things that are not eatable? They eat insults, fright, age, money, their hearts, heat, cold, effort, great loss, points in a game, goals in soccer and many other things.

I have always admired the eating habits of Korea for the table is set up in a way that no housewife is embarrassed if more show up than were invited. You have all kinds of side dishes placed on the table with the ever present eating utensils--chopsticks. So with a rice bowl and your chopsticks you are ready for the common table.

Yesterday the men in the mission station wanted to send off the pastor of the parish, who is being assigned to youth work in the diocese, with a farewell meal. We went by our van and picked him up and went to a raw fish restaurant overlooking the ocean.

We all sat down at a table that was prepared for us with common dishes of all kinds of sea food, both raw and some cooked. This was the appetizer followed by strips of raw fish. Each would have a small dish with some condiments, mustard and pepper sauce, in which to dip the strips of raw fish. At the end of the meal there is another common dish, a fish stew, boiled on little stoves set before us and eaten with the rice that finishes off the meal. Of course this is taken with Soju the preferred drink for Korean males. It would be comparable to the Japanese Saki.

The meal takes about two hours to finish, with a lot of talk and sharing. The comradery is shown in pouring the drinks of our table mates and making sure the glass is never empty. This is one areas I would like to see changed to our American style of pouring one's own drinks but the eating from the common table has a meaning that our western way of individual dishes does not. The talk is more intimate and conducive to a bonding that for me is missing in the western table manners. The drinking of course does help.