Changing Old Habits

The older we are the harder it is to change and the more difficult it is to tap into the great potential within us. The situation is often compared to the proverbial pauper who lives and dies as a pauper, never realizing he is carrying in his pocket a priceless jewel. While the precise nature of this "jewel" has been debated, most explanations would include the ability and willingness to change. "To live is to change," said Cardinal Newman, "and to be perfect is to have changed often."

Avoiding change, because of our habits, is all too often the preferred behavior for most, even when circumstances clearly indicate something different needs to be done. "Sometimes," in the words of one popular saying, "you must do the thing you think you cannot do." Most of us would agree, but when habits are life-long, we easily find reasons to justify our habitual ways of thinking and doing--the change is too unfamiliar or threatening, too uninteresting, a waste of time or money, or both; I'm not capable; I'd rather play it safe.

Having convinced ourselves that our habitual ways are right, at least for us, we spend a great deal of time living passively: watching TV, listening to music, or whatever else does not require our doing anything differently. By sticking with this robotic lifestyle, we fail to see the many opportunities that would uncover our potential in doing something different, doing more, doing better. The learning experiences that then would become available would help us grow into that potential that lies buried within us. An especially important learning experience can be found in cooperative doing; working with others in any joint venture builds community, and everyone is strengthened in the process.

Our mission station community recently decided, with some hesitation, to take on the responsibility of remodeling the community bathroom ourselves; a contractor would not be hired. Today twelve men came to work on the project. The women were also involved, both in the work and in the kitchen. Not only are we remodeling a bathroom together, but we are coming together as a community of partners, and learning something about ourselves and each other that we did not know before. We should be a better community for this shared doing. When the project is completed, we can take satisfaction in having done something difficult but worthwhile. Not only was money saved, but the cooperative effort brought to our awareness some of the unexpected potential within each of us that normally lies hidden from view.

A Not So Easy Life

His job was to clean the large parking area in front of the rest stop. Feeling like a chipmunk circling around in a cage, he would move from one end of the area to another, sweeping with his broom. When that was done, he would clean the men's lavatory, and then back again to the parking area--a routine that lasted from 8 in the morning until 8 in the evening. He was not used to physical labor. With his back hurting and quickly feeling exhausted by the routine, he often wondered, as he rested and munched on his walnut cookies for energy, whether he could go through with the plan.

He was a priest who had decided "to go among his people" and live as the poorest among them had to live. Because he had entered the seminary right out of middle school and had no work experience, he felt he might have missed an important learning experience--an experience that would help him in his ministry, especially with those having work-related problems. So, during his sabbatical leave, he applied for the parking lot job. After one day on the job, he wanted to quit and realized that what he was feeling must be what many others feel every day of their lives, when working at something they dislike. He did stay for the one month he had agreed to, but he also knew, unlike those who have to stay on a job to feed their families, that his days as a sweeper were coming to an end.

After being called "Father" for 27 years, he was getting used to hearing "Uncle," a word that refers to a middle-aged man in Korea. What he found difficult to accept was not being given the respect every person is due simply because of our shared humanity. He learned, in a deeply personal and painful way, how others on the low-end of the economic ladder are often treated. He remembers seeing a woman standing in front of a coffee machine, complaining that the coffee came out so thick she couldn't drink it. He bought her another cup. The woman thanked him, but the words that still echo in mind were the words telling him he could have the coffee she couldn't drink.

Though the priest did not want anyone to know of his unusual work, the story was reported by the press, and was sent to me with the thought that the story would help me and others working in ministry to deepen our understanding of the difficulties many laypersons face in raising a family and living a Christian life.

Thinking back over his experiences, the ex-sweeper and now again functioning Catholic Priest wonders how long his monthly wage as a sweeper of slightly more than a thousand dollars would sustain a man and his family. He also thinks of the T-shirt costing a hundred dollars he once was given. He feels differently about it now. He also feels differently about the sermons he gives, about those who come to hear them, about those who don't throw cigarette butts on the ground and don't litter public places. The word love isn't so abstract to him anymore.

To Market Or Not To Market The Faith

Living in a capitalistic system, we should not be surprised that we fall into temptations that commercialize the Church, a writer argues in this month's Kyeong Hyang Catholic Magazine. A need to build churches, to evangelize, and to help the poor requires money, and the more skillfully we manipulate the economic system the more money will be available for spreading our message. However, there are unfortunate consequences, the writer makes clear. The logic of faith and the logic of commerce, although very different, tend to come together in the lives of many Christians, with the commercial interests becoming more important.

A young theologian, William Cavanaugh, sees this dilemma in a positive light. Production and selling when done cooperatively can be a way of following Gospel thinking. One example can be cited to illustrate how this cooperation has worked to resolve a problem here in Korea. Those looking for more and cheaper organic foods have been put in touch with organic farmers. This direct contact has led to agreements between producer and consumer avoiding the big companies and problems with the market.

The need to build churches, to develop places of prayer, to evangelize, to help the poor requires money and to achieve our goal, we go to the principles of the market.
However, the writer insists that this does have an effect on the way we live as Christians. We try to increase our numbers by using the consumer principles of the capitalistic system. We have a product that is better than the competition, and we try to sell it to the consumer. Brand names are very important in the commercial world, and we have a brand that we want to sell on the open market. Catholics have two stars, Mother Theresa and Cardinal Stephen Kim, and we try to use them in moving the consumers to take notice. A problem that inevitably arises with this way of marketing is that we are working with externals and not with what is important. The capitalistic system tends to turn everything into a sales figure and everyone into a share of the market statistic. Instead of working on the message we become absorbed on how to sell what we have to give.

Our world has been described using many metaphors. One of the most accurate and useful comes from Cavanaugh. We live, he says, "at the intersection of two stories about the world: the Eucharist and the market." The stories mostly clash though the plot lines are similar--desire for "the good." Whether a temporal or a lasting good becomes the focus of our lives will depend on the choices we make each day. Choices that will be guided by either an ever-changing market economy or the unchanging truth of the Eucharist.

The Capitalistic system swallows everything up within itself. Even though it is very successful in doing what it is meant to do it is not the message that we have been given. To be salt and light are we not required to live in another way?

Separating Facts From Opinion

The tendency for the media to mix opinion with fact, to editorialize while reporting the news, is commonplace and was the topic discussed recently in the Catholic Kyeong Hyang Magazine. A member of the Korean Bishops Advisory Committee and a former editor on a daily newspaper spoke out about the importance of reporting any event--earthquake, political infighting, anti-government rally--by a strict adherence to the facts, and if there is commentary it should be presented in editorials and opinion columns. Facts should remain facts as far as they can be known.

Newspaper regulations do provide guidelines on handling this sometimes murky area separating fact and opinion but failure to comply results in nothing more serious than warnings, so there is little compliance. It's in this grey area of what is known that easily results in distorted news reporting. The news will either be slanted, in one way or another, depending on whether the news is seen as favorable or unfavorable to the media's editorial policy.

The signs of this subjective approach in the guise of factual reporting are readily seen: the placing of news, the space given, the words describing the event, and what persons are interviewed and quoted. Often, a news item on a product turns into an opinion piece, pushing the product or company with exaggeration and distortions. A more serious abuse, and probably more pervasive, is the use of supposedly factual news items to push the editorial policy of the paper. We then have not only the problem of morality but a loss of trust in all media. Instead of helping to build a strong community to better understand itself and its place in the world, media divides and breeds discord.

According to the writer of the Kyeong Hyang article, our media are primarily interested in getting its readers to accept their particular position on any issue. They are interested in facts only when they coincide with their opinions. In effect, they are saying that the two are one and that this approach will lead to a better society for all. However, the writer makes clear that only when we maintain the distinction between fact and opinion can we have a vibrant and strong society that will ultimately make the right decisions based on facts honestly reported.

Compassion In Action

Unlike most Korean dramatic portrayals of Alzheimer victims, which emphasize erratic and often bizarre behavior, a recently concluded soap opera did the opposite. The woman with the condition, played by a well-known actress and acting teacher, was portrayed sympathetically, more like a child needing love and support than as an aging and bothersome adult. When she died at the end of the drama, there was an unexpected outpouring of sadness from many viewers. It's not surprising that the actress selected to play the lead role had a doctorate in the psychology of acting.

After returning from the U.S. with her degree, she began to teach, emphasizing the importance of knowing the lives of the persons actors would have to portray. For her, just as important was to get to know and to help many who were in need of help: those with mental difficulties, unmarried mothers, poor children needing scholarships to continue their education, and in recent years becoming the spokesperson for keeping homeless children from being sent overseas for adoption, encouraging their adoption here in Korea. She was written up recently in the Catholic Peace Weekly as one with great compassion. Difficulties such as these are such that if resisted, persist; if befriended, end--words that well sum up a life dedicated to helping those in need.

In our Catholic tradition, there is a phrase often used to express compassion in action: "Contemplata aliis Tradere." (To hand over to others what we have contemplated.) When we live deeply with awareness, there is much that we can hand over to others as she has done, and continues to do. Passing along what we've learned is certainly important, but she reminds us of what is more important: better than sharing is doing it jointly with those you try to help.

What Leaders Does the Church Need?

A priest from the neighboring diocese, in a newsletter, had some sad words about the partnership movement in the Catholic Church of Korea. In recent years we often hear: team ministry, partnership, common ministry, cooperative ministry, collaboration -- working together as sisters and brothers in the work of the Church, but not infrequently it means only sharing responsibility with other priests. The priest mentions a religious sister who said at the start of the collaborative ministry in her parish, the laypeople of the parish became 'cold rice'-- not needed. The writer of the article sees problems with the understanding of collaboration, team ministry, in the Korean Church.

Talking about collaborative efforts is a healthy step, but it should not only stop with the talk. Not understanding what is expected of a parish priest in partnership with the laypeople is a serious obstacle in moving ahead. If the priest sees the work as his exclusive responsibility he will not be planning to share this responsibility with the laypeople. If the pastor because of work , worries, and the loneliness of the work requires the help of other priests and considers the laypeople only as his object of concern, the whole movement is in for a great deal of trouble. The parish is not only his responsibility but the responsibility of the whole parish, and working only with other priests can distance himself from the laypeople.

Change has to be from the priests doing all the worrying to sharing the worry with the laypeople. If the idea of team ministry only includes other priests we are not getting any closer to where the whole community becomes responsible for the work.

What does the priest do if you take away what he thinks he was ordained to do? For many this may be a problem, but only if the idea of leadership is always being out in front. That type of leadership is at times needed, there is also the type of leadership which walks hand and hand with those led, and you have those who are leaders who lead from the rear. These leaders who lead from the rear are helping to form leaders and in this present world they may be the ones we need.

These are some of the problems we have working together in ministry. We have different meanings for what collaborative ministry entails. In Korea at present, there is a great deal of talk about priests working together, but if it just stops there we are no closer to true team ministry which should include all the disciples. That is the mission we all have been given at baptism. Working together with fellow priests is important; it should not stop there, however, but should include all the baptized in a common mission. The world needs leaders who can inspire and energize a great flock of fellow workers. The priest in partnership with his fellow disciples is one who can do that, and since the Catholic Church is the largest and oldest organization on the face of the earth once the whole community that is Church works together as one, it will be light and salt to the world.

For One Who Believes All is Possible

Today's Diocesan Sunday Bulletin has a short article by one of the Incheon priests who has a daily blog and wants us to know that with the help of God all is possible. He is a parish priest with a busy parish, but because of the blog his own name is not as well known as the blog's name 'Bbadaking'. (http://www.bbadaking.com). Every morning at 5:00 am for the last 10 years he has a meditation: "Starting the morning with Father Bbadaking."

He started the blog on June 14, 2001. When he started he wondered how long he would be able to continue. He had no gift for writing and was not one with much patience. He had a problem getting his sermons ready every week and here he was working on a daily meditation. He considered it a rash decision on his part.

However, it is now 10 years later and he is still with it. He wonders if he decided not to continue would he be the person he is today?

Ten years ago he could not image the person he has become. A person who could not write or speak is now someone quite different. He has written 6 books, and finds himself invited here and there to give talks. He feels a person with faith has to avoid using the word --I can't. There is nothing that our Lord can not do. The problem is with us. Because we think we can not do it, we shut our hearts to what the Lord wants to give us.

It can be done. He concludes the article by telling us since we believe in God he will help us do what we deem is the right thing to do. We are working for one who can do anything, and we should not forget this reality.

There is another priest Fr. Oh Kyeong-hwan who has retired, but is still giving lectures and writing. We gave some information on Fr. Oh in one of the earlier blogs (click). You can find the information to his blog by going to the previous blog. His blog deals with evolution and existence of God. Both of these blogs are in Korean; I am sure there are other personal blogs in the diocese dealing with Catholicism and faith. The Incheon Diocese is active on this important stage in cyberspace.