Using Our Leisure Time Wisely

In the Seoul diocesan bulletin, a person working in the field of communications writes about buying  a smartphone about a year ago. He had a feeling of satisfaction in having become one of the smart ones and used the phone in a variety of ways. He could send messages without cost, listen to music, and keep up with the news. This small instrument no bigger than his hand was giving him a lot of pleasure.

Waiting for a bus or an elevator, he would be bent over the smartphone toying with the keyboard. Seemingly, he was using his spare time wisely, but the reality was very different. The number of books he was accustomed to reading decreased by one fourth.  He was always busy and concerned about such matters as how much battery time did he have left. Even when he was with his family, he would be busy at the small monitor of the smartphone. The day would start with the smartphone and end with the smartphone.

According to the ads on TV, having a smartphone was being chic and happy; according to the writer, it was just the opposite. What was unnecessary to do he found himself doing diligently and smartly. What was happening to him? he began to wonder. He came to feel that he wasn't using his smartphone; his phone was using him. At the beginning of the New Year, he resolved not to use it during weekends and after work hours.

This was done not to distance himself from the digital world but to bring more balance into his life. When the smartphone was turned off no catastrophic change came into his life. He was able to spend time reading, meditating and praying, and was able to spend precious time with his family, and to appreciate the beauties of creation. The time between the busy and slow times in his life were now opportunities he used to make them creative, restoring the balance in his life that he had lost. 

Time is God's precious gift. We are like a container, prepared to receive many precious seeds but we can also fill the container with bad seeds. We should be  vigilant in discerning what we are filling our container with. Avoiding the so-called "smart" commodities that we are being induced to buy, may in fact be the smartest thing we can do in our aggressively commercialized  society. 

Partnership Within the Church

Most pastoral workers, including priests, would like to see more cooperation among workers who have been entrusted to care for the parish community. Writing in a bulletin for priests, a pastor discusses the difficulties of activating the Gospel message of love and unity within the community setting.  But when this does become the common responsibility of all Christians, the pastor said, the attraction of Jesus' message is made visible for all to see.

Even though many pastoral workers have this ideal in mind and work diligently to achieve a viable community, knowing it was Jesus' intention in sending his disciples out  in pairs, we know, said the pastor, that working together with others is  difficult. It requires planning together, drawing up the steps to be taken, and going ahead together to promote the work. It's a painstaking process that often brings disharmony, and a reason many are tempted to do it alone; it's much easier and the results come more quickly--but at the same time, the community becomes less vital and less important. 

The difficulties of working together are easy to understand: the Korean family structure is patriarchal, shaped by the Confucian culture that influenced the society for hundreds of years. It's the reason many give for explaining why priests tend to push ahead with projects on their own, not knowing how to work well with others. Living alone, a priest does not find it easy to work with others, and the longer this is the case the more difficult it will be for him to leave the comfort of doing it alone and work with others.

Despite these difficulties, the pastor stresses the necessity for a priest to periodically discuss matters important to the community, to hear various opinions and then decide together how best to proceed. It is during this process, the pastor said, that we receive encouragement, face challenges and are able to acquire wisdom and experience.

There are many cases, however,  where the priests, assistants, religious, and laity are working together but do not find satisfaction nor are they happy in the results of their efforts. The pattern of working together is there but the expected satisfaction is missing. There is often an unfulfilled need for feeling more at ease when expressing opinions, especially when they don't agree with those of the priest, and a need to create a more enthusiastic and creative working environment where everyone feels like an equal participant.

The priest should be able to ask everyone he's working with--his assistant priest, the sister, the president of the pastoral council, all those involved with managing the community affairs--Are you happy working together? At first, they may not speak from the heart, but with time, knowing the sincerity of the question, they will have an honest answer to give. Jesus was always interested in what people expected from him. The pastor feels that another good question to ask those working in community is, What is it that you desire? The answers to both questions could help define the future direction of the parish community.

Selecting One who is Wise and Holy

With the disappearance of the last moth the chapter on small white caterpillars appearing on the kitchenette ceiling of the rectory came to an end. Some two months ago each morning the ceiling would be crawling with caterpillars. Each morning an effort was made to rid the ceiling of  the  unsightly creatures and  figure out where they were coming from.

Faced with the daily appearance of the larvae, I took a few of them and showed them to the Christians. They surmised that it could be some animal  that had died somewhere about the ceiling. It looked like the larvae you would find in a bag of rice, they said,  and recommended looking for the dead animal, or fumigating the house.

After a few more days of ridding the ceiling  of the larvae I called the community to the  rectory after Mass. About 10 of the Catholics came to the rectory and starting examining the area. Some looked for places that would allow the caterpillars to come down from above and one woman, in particular, started opening all the cabinet doors and checking the contents.  This had been done many times before without results. Suggestions were coming from the group when the woman took a box of oat meal  that had never been opened: took off the top and   showed us the origin of the larvae. They had eaten most of the contents.

Without doubt the discovery would have been made before efforts at fumigation or looking for dead animals. The  woman who made the discovery was  working from  personal  experience, knowledge and natural wisdom, sure that it was coming from below rather than  above. The  caterpillars disappeared gradually from the ceiling and in their place the  moths.

In this situation everyone knew the woman had found the reason for the larvae. There was no argument only acquiescence  at the discovery. Most of our problems however are not of this type but opinions without the possibilities in most cases of a  clear and unequivocal answers.

And  yet the wisdom of the past both in the East and West  acknowledged that  certain persons were better adept in judging and giving solutions. In most cultures they were the  wise  and holy people, standards that were not always the same. These person were for one reason or another persons you went to  for help.

Money, numbers, sympathizers and the mass media, for good or bad, are what seems to move us and take the place of the 'enlightened' ones of years past. As bad as the system may be,  many believe it  still is  the best available. However, the Cardinals will be getting together in a few weeks to select the new pope. Each of them will, in effect, want to select a person who for them is a wise and a holy person. They will pray that it is the choice God wants at this time and trust they can do it with simplicity and humility.

The Beauty of Life

A farmer and his son are on their way to the  market in a distant city to sell their harvested crops. A Jesuit priest tells the story of that trip, 68 years ago, that changed the course of the son's life forever.

They left early in the morning and, according to the son's calculations, if they walked without resting would arrive at the market early the following morning. The father, however, wanted to give the ox time to rest and was not too concerned with the calculations of the son, who wanted to arrive at the market early to get a better price for their products. While the ox rested, the father got on the cart for a nap himself. After the rest, he took the reigns from the son and coming to a fork in the road took the road on the left; his son reminded him that the road on the right was the shorter way. The father agreed but said the other was more scenic.

"Do you have no appreciation of the value of time?" the son asked. "That's not true," his father replied. "I have a keen awareness of time, that's why I want to take time to see the beauties of nature." That night the son was so upset he paid no attention to the beauty of the sunset or the scent of the flowers by the side of the road, which were of so much interest to the father. Let us rest here for the night, said the father, and have the ox share our rest. The son told the father he was not going to join him at the market because he thought more about  the flowers and the sunset than in making money. The father with a smile on his face went to sleep; the son was so upset he couldn't sleep.

Next morning they came across a farmer whose oxcart was stuck in the mud. The father insisted they stop to help the farmer, even though the city was still quit a distance away. It was then that they saw a lightening-like flash in the sky and heard what sounded like thunder, followed by the whole sky beyond the hills being engulfed in a rain of ashes. The son sullenly reminded the father that if they had not rested they would by this time be on the way home with the money from the farm products in their pocket. The father told his son that his life as a farmer was not for only a few years but for a lifetime. "You should be enjoying every moment of it," he said.

When they came to the road leading down to what was once the city of Hiroshima, they stood in uncomprehending silence as they viewed the scene before them. The son, turning to his father, said, "I now understand what you were saying." It was the morning of August 6, 1945. 

Life for many, said the priest, is a constant search to do more and at a quicker pace.  Is that what life should be? he asks. He would like us to take seriously the words of the father to his son: to appreciate the beauty of each moment of life and when standing before the throne of God be able to say, "How beautiful all life is!"

Enemies of the Culture of LIfe

The Seoul subway system is probably the world's most extensive and because of recently installed platform screen doors--the only subway to do so--one of the safest. With this change, the number of those who have committed suicide by jumping in front of an on-coming train has declined dramatically. Suicides of those jumping into the Han River, however, have increased, with most taking place at the Mapo Bridge. In an effort to change the negative image of the bridge, colorful pictures and life-affirming words can be seen posted around the bridge to dissuade future suicides.

The Culture of Life column of the Peace Weekly once again reports on this suicide problem in Korea, suggesting that several causal factors may be responsible for the increase: the rapid change to an industrialized society, the difficult experience during the IMF period, and the advancing age of the population.

The column notes that in 2010 there were 15,566 suicides, an increase of 19 percent from the previous year, and three times the average of the OECD countries. One person's death by suicide affects, the columnist says, at least 6 people. And for every suicide the conjecture is that 10 times that number have attempted suicide, and 10 times the number of attempted suicides have considered suicide. She comes up with an overall figure of about 5 percent of the population that have been directly or indirectly affected by the problem.

In New York City there are 5.5 suicides per 100,000 people, in London 9, Hong Kong 18.2, Tokyo 23, and in Seoul 26. What are we to make of these numbers? she asks. Why is New York City so low?  She believes that because of the 9/11 terror attack, New Yorkers have become more sensitive to the needs of fellow citizens and this concern has spread throughout the city. And the city government has also helped by setting up a city-wide aid system.

In Korea the older the person the more likely the suicide. For those over seventy, the rate of suicides per 100,000 is over 100. In all age categories, the men have a higher suicide rate than the women, except for men in their twenties, where it's the same as it is for the women. The reasons generally given for the country's high suicide rates are many, but usually include the increasing divorce rate, childless marriages, the number of those living alone in the country, the lack of family time together, and an insensitivity for those unable to thrive in our competitive society, because of age or lack of skills.

The columnist believes the main reasons for suicides are 'being alone', being out of work, the loss of a loved one, a mental trauma, dependence on alcohol, and despondency--perhaps the most important factor contributing to the high rate of suicides. Many with serious diseases are also vulnerable to suicidal thoughts when a feeling of helplessness takes over. 
 
What may be needed to prevent suicides, the columnist suggests, may be no more complicated than for each of us to become more compassionate, more sensitive and empathetic to the suffering experienced by many in our society. When these problems arise we need to provide opportunities for those who are struggling by offering them ongoing assistance until they can help themselves. And the mass media should do their part by publicizing the available programs, such as the Gatekeeper program, which intends to make us more sensitive to those who are struggling to make it in our society. But even without these worthwhile programs, we must remember that all of us have a mission to further the culture of life and to bring hope to those who have lost it.

Complementarity of Science and Religion

Science and its remarkable technological achievements in recent years have influenced the lives of all of us and raised doubts about the religious understanding of life. Believing that religion and science  are mutually antagonistic thought systems, with religion relying for its truth on subjective, unverifiable experience, and science relying on objective, verifiable evidence, science now gives us their standards by which to judge truth, and even the existence of God,  Two scientists writing in the Catholic Times refuse to accept this understanding; both science and religion are necessary, they say, for a complete understanding of the truth.
 
They cite the principle of complementarity of Niels Bohr, one of the founders of the new science of quantum physics, who said that our views of the nature of things are often inconsistent and contradictory because whatever is viewed is viewed from any of many possible and valid points of view, depending on the nature and background of the observer. Ultimately, however, Bohr said these views must complement each other, and are required for a complete understanding of the truth. 

According to the article, belief without science can become religious fanaticism and superstition. Science without belief can become a closed-ended hypothesis, neglectful of the possibility of the transcendent dimension. There is both the search for truth using the inductive methods of science, and the search for truth using the intuitive wisdom that speaks to us directly from our experience of life.

Religion can transcend the intellect, but it can't be opposed to the knowledge that comes from our intellectual pursuits. When it refuses to accept them, fanaticism, superstition and pseudo-religion are likely to follow. Since we are intelligent beings, made in the image of God, it is imperative that we  follow the dictates of our  intellect.

One of the scientists mentioned a well-known philosopher who said that those who believe in Christ and think  themselves physicists are quacks. If that is true, the scientist said he considers himself a quack. Sadly, he says that years ago there were many Christian scientists; today this is no longer true. Even within the Church, one has the feeling that if you get too  involved with science, you will lose your faith, so they stay away from it, he said.  However, he added, when we are threatened and yet overcome the threat, we become stronger.

He gives us an example from his high school years when a teacher said that Christians believe in predestination. That was not his understanding so he asked his parish priest and was told that Christians believe in freedom of the will. It was at that time he read a book on Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. In contrast to Newton's deterministic, static principles of physics, he read that if you shot a gun and later shot the gun under the same conditions you may not hit the same object. This was his introduction to the anti-deterministic physics of quantum theory, and confirmation of the underlying freedom present within nature.
 
In graduate school he noticed how many had left behind their Catholicism. He believed the reason was a lack of a mature spiritual life. Politics, the culture, and the desire for money had something to do with it, but for him he placed the blame on a spirituality that was not able to provide guidelines to overcome these difficulties. The article ends by telling us that humility needs to be part of the way we look at science and religion and the  search for truth. There are limits to any search for truth, whether scientific or religious. As noted in scripture: "Now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror...."
  
                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Understanding the Church in China

Both Catholic papers carried  the story of a Chinese priest invited by the Cardinal Kim Research Center in Seoul to discuss the current condition of the Church in China and its prospects for the future. Reliable accounts are difficult to find because Catholicism there is split into two factions: the patriotic (approved by the government) and the so-called underground Church. The government diligently guards against all interference from outside the country and everyone is told (including religious persons) that their country must come first before all other considerations.Those who have refused to accept this mandate are what has been called the underground Church.

In his speech the priest stressed the importance of having men like Cardinal Kim in the Chinese Church, which needs organizing around the metaphor of the circle rather than the more traditional structure of a pyramid. He also pointed out that the Catholics of China do not have a strong evangelizing spirit, but leave this task to the priests and sisters. This problem can be solved, he believes, if the Church is seen more as a tightly knit community, with members sharing their beliefs and putting them into action in the community setting (the circle metaphor), instead of relying on the pyramid metaphor: seeing the Church as a loose collection of members waiting for instructions from the top of the organization before taking action. Although the Church is ultimately responsible, he said, for its weak position in Chinese society, with few capable leaders, a lack of good formation programs for seminarians, and little ongoing education for priests, he explained that the materialism and hedonism of the society stifles whatever message the Church succeeds in publicizing. 

There are about 6 million Catholics in China, recognized by the government, and about 6 million more, he says, in the underground Church. The government recognizes five religious groups: Buddhists, Protestants, Muslims, Taoists, and Catholics. In 1949, with the inception of the Republic of China, there were 3 million Catholics and about 700,000 Protestants in the country. The tendency of Buddhism to stress blessings,  and the strong missionary efforts of the Protestants have made these two religions the largest in China. And today, many Chinese holding influential positions in society are converting to Buddhism.

Catholic vocations are few, and the formation of seminarians is poorly done and, as expected, the underground church is struggling. The one-child per family decree has added to the problem but the example of the priests on the young, he says, is not one the young want to follow.

After the talk, a Korean priest of the Foreign Missionary Society of Korea said he had a problem with how the circle and pyramid styles of the Church had been explained. He agrees that the ideal way to understand the metaphors is to give the Pope his rightful place within the circle; he felt that China has opted for the  Anglican model of Church.  It is this model, the Korean priest believes, that the Chinese government wants all religions in their country to follow. If successful, this approach, he says, could be used by the government to making Catholicism independent of world Catholicism. Which is exactly what has happened.

The Chinese priest, in his final remarks, said he was glad to receive the invitation to speak. And Since China had a great deal to do with bringing Christianity to Korea, he sees his invitation as a call for mutual help between the two countries. He hopes that his country will eventually have many men like Cardinal Kim, a man who had great love for his country of Korea, and was a great example to his people.