Spirituality that Brings Joy, Enthusiasm and Meaning to Life

The Catholic Times  has an article about three priests of the Seoul Diocese who decided to begin an academy for spirituality in 2009, called Wellspring. The number of Catholics in the country now exceed 5 million and yet there's much talk of a lack of spiritual and inner maturity. There is a desire on the part of many to go deeper in their faith life but the Church has not been able to satisfy this thirst. The Academy intends to address this need by exploring the spiritual treasures of our tradition and  helping  the Catholics  incorporate them in their daily life. For those who desire to fill this lack in their spiritual life, the program will be an oasis to invigorate  the beginning of a new life.

The academy is not an effort to give a theory of spirituality but to connect spirituality to daily life, to see life and the world through the eyes of the Church, and to live in the manner Christ has taught us, enlightened by his word, examining and discerning what to do day by day.

The programs have  been favorably received; over 450 have taken the courses. The program is in two sections: basic and advanced. The basic course is divided into three sections: Meeting the real me, Meeting the real us, and Meeting God. This will lead into the advanced program. They will also have internet programs and home programs in the future.

The leaders of this spiritual academy know that there are many retreats and programs in Korea addressing these same goals. They are popular programs but the priests feel  they are not connecting our Catholics more closely with faith-inspired daily living, which is the ultimate goal of the academy programs, penetrating and shaping the lives of the Christians.

Effort will be made to imitate Christ in the world of consumerism and competition we live in, building confidence to face the challenges of daily life. Those in their 40s and 50s have been so busy with work and their families that they have not had time to be concerned with their inner life. They will be asked to find themselves, putting happiness and courage into their lives. This second journey in life will demand a  breakthrough that opens them to a new way of living in their spiritual and mental lives.

We do not need more talks on how to live the virtues but to be one with Jesus. The Catholics are proud of bringing the faith into the country without the help of the foreign missioners. We need a little more of this passion of our ancestors in seeking to deepen the faith that we have received.

"Driven to Kill Oneself"

The guest column in the Catholic Times revisits the problem of suicides in one of our elite schools of learning, causing many to question whether the teaching atmosphere at the school inadvertently leads students to take their own life.

The writer mentions several possibilities that have been suggested by many: the teaching methods, the stress on getting good grades, the way of determining tuition, the teaching in English. How are we as Catholics to see the situation? What should be our response?

For us, it is self-evident that life is precious and should be seen as such. The Church has always looked upon taking  one's life as immoral. God has given us the gift of life, and we should not  violate what we have been given. Life and death are under God's control. Suicide is going against the instinct we have to preserve our life, and also against the love we should have for ourselves.

There is also something else we have to consider. We can readily understand that suicide is an individual act, an act  that results from personal dispositions and reasons, but it's also influenced by the society we live in. A document from a  meeting last year in Japan on suicide concluded that using the word 'suicide' to describe the killing leaves the impression that those who kill themselves are to be blamed. The document suggested replacing the word with the phrase 'those who are driven to kill themselves'. The word used in Korean also should have less of a feeling of finding fault.

Many who have made a study of this subject agree that it is  primarily a feeling of helplessness that takes over, which often happens when we are not able to compete successfully with others. Communicating with others then becomes difficult and the person with the helpless feeling is left to deal with the feeling alone. They are not desiring to die, says the writer; within the distorted thoughts of death is still a desire to live--if only....

The competition that is especially hurtful is the kind that encourages us to win at any cost, the kind that turns others into tools to be used for our success. In contrast to the often ruthless competition of the marketplace is the competition in good faith, which helps personal development and brings about progress.

The proposed reasons why the students and the teacher took their lives should cause us to reflect on the kind of society we are building. Changing our thinking from "making it alone" to relating more with others should guide our actions. We need each other to become what God intended. The law of the jungle, where the weak are exploited by the strong, should have no place in our society.

Catholicism and Equality of Women

The Catholic " Now Here News Site" gave an account of a lecture in Taegu on the influence of the Catholic Church on the lives of women. It's a series of talks by professor Kim Theresa: "Women  Encountering  the Catholic Church: The reason for the enthusiasm  of the women of the  Joseon Dynasty."

Why were the women of the Joseon Dynasty enthusiastic about the Catholic Church? The professor starts by telling us the  advice given to  women going to live with their husband's family: to act as if deaf, dumb  and blind for three years. They were not able to live an independent life and be respected as an individual in that society. Coming in contact with the Catholic Church was truly spreading the Gospel--the good news.

Progress was being made in every area of life when the Church entered Korea, but even though the thinking remained the same, society received a new concept of equality. And, in addition to welcoming the material progress, there was the intellectual satisfaction experienced by those who accepted the Church.

During the liturgy, both men and women answered the prayers together. In the marriage preparations, both men and women were asked the same questions. However, more importantly, the Church did not allow concubinage, which shocked many. The culture had no difficulty with the practice, since widows were not allowed to marry, this fostered the practice.                            

This change in the thinking of women came at the close of the 19th  century, when the Catholic Church was gaining acceptance by large numbers of Koreans. The professor makes clear that not all recently baptized Catholics understood the faith as presented in the catechism of the Church. Even before the entrance of Western material civilization, there was the influence of modern thinking in society through the Church. Women were given responsibility in the Church and were asked to respond to this responsibility which was not readily accepted by Korean society.  

The professor mentions that all these reflections mean little to us today, but if you go back into history the acceptance of Catholicism  required a great deal of courage to overcome the cultural difficulties. The efforts of women to enter the Church were more difficult than it was for the men, but the men also believed, evangelized and practiced their faith.  It's easy for us to consider this insignificant, not knowing the difficult times they lived in.

The article concludes with the professor expressing her hope that women turn their dream into reality by helping to free us from our conflicts and lack of communication, and, ultimately, to change  our society, so all can enjoy the benefits of the equality of the sexes and of all humankind. Also, to make clear that God is giving his grace to all, desiring that we spread this love to all--just as the women ancestors in the faith did so well.

Love Should be a Verb not a Noun

A columnist in the Kyeongyang Catholic magazine writes on the importance of leisure in our lives, and urges us to find time for leisure and to enjoy it now. Written by a member of the Seoul Diocesan Office for Family Matters, he quotes Tolstoy: "The most precious time is now, the most important thing is what I am doing now, the most important person is the one I am talking to now.

The columnist would like to change the words of the quote somewhat to: The most important time is the time with my spouse, the most important thing is working with my spouse, and the most important person in my life is my spouse.

Most would agree with this assessment but finding time to put it into practice is a problem. From the time of Aristotle we have heard that to live most fully is to be fully at leisure.  We work to make time for leisure. The columnist points out that the origin of the English word 'school' comes from the Greek to the  Latin word 'schola,' meaning leisure. The word was used to describe the relationship of the teacher and student in the learning process, which was to be done in an atmosphere of leisure.

He divides time into work time, family time, and leisure time. When they complement each other we have, he says, the best situation: harmonious relationships. Spending quality time with the family and spouse is necessary for a satisfactory family life. It is also a great help in living a healthy life, more so than exercise or going to a health club.

The columnist feels that one of the first things to be done in order to spend more time with your spouse is to control the time watching TV.  We can cheaply watch drama, sports, entertainment, news, education, among other things, but  concludes that with TV the bad points exceed the good ones. We are ignorant of the negative points, he says, because we are not familiar with the long range  studies of  the effects of watching TV.

Koreans spend, on average, slightly more than 3 hours watching TV. Which means that persons living, let's say, 80 years would spend 10 years watching TV. To increase the love in the family, he recommends not watching TV while eating, when in bed, and when talking to family members.  Love is not a noun, he says, but a verb--the doing of something. We do not need a ton of knowledge to know love and its effect on our lives, only a gram of action would be sufficient.

Korean Foreign Brides

Korea, in its text books for grammar school  children, describes the country as racially homogeneous.  This is disputed by many, even historically, but the emphasis on this homogeneity is done with eyes on the North and future unification. The immigrant's  transition to a new life in Korea is made difficult by  this  reference to  their Korean oneness.

A religious sister in this month's Kyeongyang  Catholic magazine revisits the issue of  foreign brides in Korea.  These young women have come to Korea for marriage. This started back in 1970 with the importing of foreign labor. In 1990 the Unification Church, with its international marriage ceremonies ,turned the attention of the people to these marriages. Because of the unequal development of the farming and fishing parts of the country, importing of brides became a part of life. It started with the ethnic Koreans from China, and then the Chinese, the Vietnamese, the Mongolians, among others. With the lucrative possibilities of this new trade, business enterprises got involved and this has increased the numbers and the problems.There are now over 130,000 foreign brides in Korea. 

The sister mentions that even in the best of marriages there are difficulties of personality, environment, and thinking, which couples try hard to overcome. With international marriages they have to overcome also the problem of language and culture, made worse by the marriage brokers who  are interested only in being paid for their services.

In their advertising, these marriage brokers emphasize the obedience and faithfulness of the foreign brides, and use fantasy to entice the Korean men with sexual and  racial stereotypes. The men, for the most part, feel that because they have paid money to buy these women, they have earned the right to consider them their possession. 

There have been many sad stories of some of these marriages in our society. These women, unlike the men, have their backgrounds in another culture, and will be giving birth to second generation Koreans with a new way of being Korean. The ministry of health and welfare has reported that half of these couples live in poverty.

At present, 2.5 percent of the population is from another culture.  Koreans  are not conscious of this reality because of the  racially homogeneous and "pure blood line" thinking handed down from the past. This is making these new immigrants the newly alienated in society.

The sister ends the article by telling us that plant life needs only  0.2 percent of the sun's energy to live. Humans, she says, need just 0.2 percent of a dream to live. What is this dream?  She says it is hope. That is why these women came to Korea. The time that they will be living in Korea is longer than the life they lived in the country of birth. And the reason that we want them to realize their dream  is that they will be mothers in Korea.

A New Beginning In the Taegu Diocese

As we know, because of circumstances, environment, education and personality and many other factors, everyone tends to see the world differently. Members of the Catholic Church are no different. There is  always the dream that with our common Scriptures and Tradition we will have unity in essentials, freedom in accidentals, and charity in all things. But what is essential seems to elude us.

For  many years, the issues of justice and peace have been put on the back burner by some; others want you to see little else. While the teachings of the Social Gospel are not in doubt--they are an integral part of the message we have been given--there have been disagreements over the place and importance of justice and peace issues in our teaching.

To celebrate its 100 anniversary, the diocese of Taegu inaugurated a Justice and Peace Committee for the diocese All the other dioceses have in some form a Justice and Peace Committee. Taegu was the last to join, celebrating  with a Mass and  by reading a letter of congratulations from the head of the Bishops Justice and  Peace Committee. Below is a summary of the letter.

Congratulations on the beginning of the Justice and Peace committee in Taegu, and thanking God.  He thanks the ordinary of the diocese and all those connected in some way to  the committee. The Church with the  Gospel message  and mission to spread this message does so in a variety of ways but the justice and peace committee is an official structure for working  in the light of the Gospel.  Taegu in many ways has  promoted the Social Gospel but now with the new structure they will be more active in this area.

This new structure began under the prophetic leadership of  Pope Paul VI in 1967. It was during his visit to South America and seeing the poverty and injustices there that he  decided to begin  a Justice and Peace Committee  at the Vatican, and have it spread  throughout the Catholic World.

The Catholic Church in Korea, under the leadership of the Pope, began in 1970  its own Justice and Peace Committee. Gradually this spread to the different dioceses and during the  totalitarian rule of the army  these committees worked for human rights and democracy. These committees also worked in  areas of labor, finance,  politics, community, environment, life issues and international issues. They also taught the Social Gospel and gave them a means to judge the morality of what they saw in society. In 2004 the Church published, in Korean,  its Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.

The bishop goes on to say in his letter that he  hopes that with this new start there will be more study of the Social Gospel and implementation of its teachings, helping our Christians not only to rest in their individual  piety but to  consider the common good, justice, and our solidarity in life as Christians.To be the salt and light of the world, he said, much is being asked of us.  And he again congratulates the diocese of Taegu, and prays that their efforts will be blessed by God.                                                                                         

Living the Paschal Mystery in Our Daily LIfe

A Catholic Times columnist recounts an incident that happened recently on a shopping trip to a market with his family. He told the children he would buy them the toys they wanted. But one of the children would not part with the toy when they arrived at the cashier counter to pay for them.

The older girl had no problem in giving the cashier her toy so she could see the bar code, but the younger son would not part with his no matter how they tried to convince him. They finally had to lift him onto the counter where the cashier could take the reading.

The child was afraid the toy would be taken away from him, prompting the father to reflect on his own problem in this area. To give up something we have now for something better is not always easy. Jesus, from the beginning of his life, gave up everything to become one with us. Kenosis is a word we often hear that expresses this emptiness. It is a prerequisite for us to be filled with God's gifts.

The columnist tells us that the Greeks have three important elements that teach them about life. The first is the railroad station where they learn there is a last station. Secondly, the ocean reminds them that there is a world out there bigger than the one we know.  Thirdly, when they see flowing water it reminds them not to get attached to things of this world.

He wants us to reflect on whether we are holding on to something too tightly. It could be my experience, my management of life, my knowledge, my record and results. We should practice, he says, putting them down. This should be our habitual practice to make a place for what God wants to give us.

In this season of Easter, living the  Paschal Mystery again becomes the perspective with which all is seen.  We have the example of our Korean ancestors in the faith who did not fear death but hoped for a new beginning. This is the rhythm of the Christian life. The mystery of all mysteries: to die so we can live. No Easter without  Good Friday. We die daily, practicing for the last death that is the transition to a new life, getting  rid of something so we can grow to greater maturity. This is the life Jesus showed us, and we renew it in every Mass we attend. This is the way of metanoia, this is the way of freedom and joy.