What does it mean
to be obedient to the will of God? We have a tendency to exaggerate what
we mean by the word 'obedience' and compare it to the obedience shown
by the Blessed Mother when approached by the Archangel Gabriel. The columnist writing on spirituality for the Catholic Times discusses what the word means to him.
Most of the time we obey, he says, when we believe nothing will be lost by doing so or when it is profitable to us. It can be obedience to impress another, or to see ourselves as a good person, or to surrender one's will to a greater
authority. However, it need not be seen as a tremendous and difficult
act. When God made us, he put the seeds of obedience in us, and we are
to let them grow and harvest them. There are times that we irresistibly
obey the natural events we encounter in our lives by responding to these natural stimuli appropriately. When it is cold, we either put on more clothes or go where it's warmer; when we
are sick, we go to the doctor. We are, in a sense, programed to obey
the laws of nature. This is living in agreement with the will of God.
When we
acknowledge our human frailty, we can choose to bow our heads and walk the way of the
virtues. This is the first step on the path of virtue. The columnist mentions his time in the
States where he met a man who became successful as a
farmer in Korea. He was in the States for a cancer operation that he hoped would be more successful than the one he had in Korea. It was not, and he died soon after, having spend all his money on the operation. Making money was no longer important, he was now called to surrender to the situation in which he found himself.
Our schooling and place of work, the columnist says, are not of primary importance.The person that I am, with all my frailties, and my attempts to understand the life I have are important. Jesus came to us living as a beggar. What is important is to
have a correct focus on life.
We have two pillars on which all
is based, he says: our frailty and the transcendence of life. We have to
bow before natural disasters, but at the same time there are many
rewarding possibilities we can explore to expand our life experiences. They allow me, he says, to look over my weaknesses at the same time that I see possibilities opening to me, and
to work to realize them. To understand both my weaknesses and my
transcendence is better than being first in what I do, he says. If the
first button (of a buttoned jacket) is not in the right place, our future actions will not go smoothly.
He gives us the example of a famous Japanese entrepreneur who when evaluated from a purely human perspective lacked what it takes to succeed in the business world: without even a grammar school education, having a frail body, and brought up poor, he succeeded because, as he said often, these weaknesses were his gifts. Because he was poor, he worked hard to overcome poverty. Because he lacked an education, he was always trying to learn from others. And because of his bodily weakness, he took care of his health. The key to his success was knowing his weaknesses and working hard to achieve the potential that lay hidden in those weaknesses.
Many have hit bottom but realizing their weakness have been opened to the will of God. This does not mean, the columnist is quick to say, to become small and give up. It does mean that because a person knows his
limits, he continues to pursue with even more energy a desire to study,
to understand and, without embarrassment, to keep asking for answers.
It is because of this that he will receive energy from God and others to
keep on his quest. That would be putting the first button in the right
place.
Understanding, a
desired result of communication, is for one reason or another not always
present. The frequent ad hominem attacks and the deliberate distortions
of the opponent's position that so often are publicized in our media
should embarrass all of us. But apparently there is an attraction in the
effort to take another person's words and make them say what we find
easier to deal with. The columnist in the open forum of the Catholic
Times gives us his ideas on what may happen when a person is not able to open his heart to another.
There
are many in our world who firmly close the door to their hearts; the
world to them seems dreary and lacks beauty. They do not believe the
good will of the other and they are filled with doubts. They are, the
columnist says, like the bird that, refusing to spread its wings, does not fly.
Humans that refuse to reveal their hearts will not be able to love.
When we do not open our hearts to the other, the other is likely to do
the same, and we have no communication.
When meeting another, the
biggest sadness
is not being able to speak to their heart. Although "heart speaking
unto heart" are precious moments of true communication that can bring
great happiness, the inability to open their hearts brings great
sadness. To receive a gift from a friend or from nature, I have to be
directed to that gift and open my heart. Whatever prevents the opening
of our hearts has to be removed before the gift of the other can be
received.
Life is a series of encounters: meeting parents,
brothers and sisters, relatives, friends, teachers, co-workers. The
nature of the encounters will bring change into our life and help to
decide its direction. Our religious life is also an encounter, and the
most important since it opens us up to God. This begins with a call. We
have to be open to this call with our spiritual ears. This will open us
to his grace and mission. Many of us have the same difficulty in
opening our hearts to God as we have opening our hearts to others.
Opening
ourselves to God means allowing ourselves to become approachable,
getting rid of our defenses and being vulnerable. This attitude brings
happiness and success and helps us to be an influence for good. With our
hearts open, we will receive what God wants to give. This is another
way of saying we are in an attitude of prayer with an affirming, humble
and loving heart. It is our task to prepare our hearts to be always
open. Isn't this a task that we should gladly take up daily?
Character education is a phrase we hear often in Korean society. The reason is simple; school programs need to focus more on educating the whole person, and less on preparing a student to do well in exams and to succeed in the business world. This narrow view of the educational process, so destructive to the future success of many students, has been the prevalent model.
The new president of the Catholic University of Daegu hopes to work against this trend. "A loving person willing to serve others is the person we want to form," he said during an interview carried by both Catholic papers. "More
important than the score in the international test for English is
character education. Your score in the international test for English
may be considered the necessary qualification for success, but it is not adequate. The society we live in is asking for people of character."
The
president, close to seventy, laughingly said that he should be with
his wife and grandchildren in the country, but that he accepted the office of president, hoping to make character education and creativity his motivational starting point for his term in office.
His experience in education is extensive, having been president of
other universities. He is hoping all will participate in his efforts to
make communication and harmony the atmosphere of the university. His
door will be open, he said, to all who want to speak with him. He
will spend all his energy and all he has learned over the years to
developing the Daegu Catholic University, which is the largest Catholic
University in Korea.
"The students of the university are mostly
from the middle class. They will be easy to teach, for the expectations
from society and their families are not high," he said. "For this reason, they will have their own expectations for life and the job of the university will be to help them realize these expectations. The opportunities for employment at the present time are few. But while they were students in high school, they had the protection from parents. Now we will be there to help them look for new fields."
The
president mentioned that the schools not in the capital metropolitan
area are having difficulty with enrollment, but said that he's going to
take on this challenge and work to make the distinguishing marks of the
Catholic University of Daegu better known throughout the country.
He
wants the students to remember that in our society, it is necessary to
be open to adventure. There are all kinds of opportunities for this to
happen, he said. In his own life the books he read in college in
character formation became his own flesh and blood for life.
The new job he has undertaken at his age
is a challenge, he admits, but he will do all he can to make the university distinguished in three areas: build character by resting it firmly on Catholic principles, establish an
education-orientated university, and educate within an atmosphere of
creativity.
All priests of the
Seoul diocese recently gathered together for the first time to discuss
the problems facing the diocese. The more than 540 attendees, including
those who were retired, were divided into 44 groups for detailed
discussion and reports made later in the general
meeting. Both Catholic papers gave an extended report on the meeting.
Fr. Yu, responsible for the proceedings, said the
priests met together to communicate with each other on the future
direction of the diocese. It was the beginning, he said, of an on-going
exchange. More than showing an
interest in solving specific problems, the primary intention, said Yu,
was to meet and talk, expressing heart-felt opinions on the current
problems facing the diocese, with the expectation that the diocese will
in turn listen carefully to what had been discussed.
All
deliberations were recorded, which will be handed on to those who will
follow in years to come. Having the older retired priests meeting
together, eating and praying together, with the newly ordained for two
days has great meaning, he said. If anything could be said to have been
missing during the meeting, it would have been not having sufficient
time to discuss all the issues that came before the group. The
suggestions that were raised, Fr. Yu feels, will be the chief concern of
the diocese, and will guide its future direction.
The two most
important issues discussed can be summarized as communication--arriving
at a mutual understanding among those present--and dealing with the
prolonged period serving as an assistant priest, which could include
rethinking the retirement age of priests and considering a partnership
approach to pastoral work, with a name change from assistant priest to
assistant pastor to indicate the added responsibilities.
The priests as a group pledged, first, that before fellowship with one another, they need to
be close to our Lord; second, to respect and obey the bishop; third,
to accept and respect the assistant as a brother and to help him carry
out his responsibility when the need arises, and in turn the assistant
priest needs to respect a pastor's suggestions that often are based on
many years of experience as a pastor; fourth, to work for the growth of
the body of Christ-- the community of the faithful--to recognize and
encourage the initiative of the laity in the mission of the Church, with
a special concern so none will feel alienated from the work of the Church; and fifth, to work to make this year of faith one with meaning for all.
The
hope of many was that the example of the Seoul diocese will spread to
the other dioceses throughout the country. Efforts will be made to improve the communication among the priests in the dioceses of the country. As the number of priests increases, the breakdown
of communication is a strong possibility. Hopefully what the Seoul
diocese accomplished in their 2-day meeting will be seen as a worthy and
successful attempt to avoid the discord resulting from faulty
communication, and will lead to improved understanding within the diocese.
A religious
sister tells us of her childhood visits to a close relative who later
became an actor. Those visits, she recalls, were fun-filled times.
However,
years later after he had become a famous actor the connection with
family and relatives ended. When he married, all the entertainment
celebrities were there, but the family was not. His family,
understandably, was upset, but they ceased seeing him as part of the
family, she said. He was now seen more as 'capital' (a source for
personal profit).
According
to the sister, capital should not only be seen as money but as
contacts, capabilities, qualifications, trust, power, prestige, honor,
attention and the like. When one of these begins to increase, the others
also increase. These activities and states of mind are all capital,
according to the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, who considered
cultural and social activities and values as capital in much the same
way as we view economic capital. Both influence society and have their
affect on our tastes and lifestyles.
The actor, once he became
successful, began to amass wealth, contacts and honors, which allowed
him to have some influence in society and to live in an area were the
elite of society congregate. He was no longer the person, the sister
said, that lived with his family and related with others. Which prompted
her to ask herself the questions: Who am I? What do I consume? Both
questions, she suggests, have similar answers. Our tastes and our
ability to discern truth from error, she believes, may often depend on the things we possess and consume, which then give rise to our values and world view.
She
mentions a number of scholars who have described most of us as having turned ourselves into commodities being sold in the
various markets of society. Our success then becomes dependent on how successful we are
in marketing ourselves. Are we concerned, she asks, on exactly how to package
ourselves to more easily sell ourselves? The social networking world especially, she is suggesting, have turned their members into capital--selling them to advertisers, for a price.
However,
the principle problem that lies behind this use of the consumer, as she
sees it, is that the person I am, that God has made me to be becomes changed and distorted by what we possess and consume.
Using a line picked up from a poet that "we are all originals and we die
copies," she urges us not to catch the 'desire for riches disease', and
succumb to the mass hypnosis of society and lose who we are.
But
who am I? Really? What is my identity? How do other people see me?
God made me according to his image. He wanted us to
cultivate and take care of this earth. And sister hopes that we will
always keep this identity we have been given. Each of us is an original
and should not give it up for any copy, no matter how temporarily
alluring and economically profitable it may be.
Catholics should be living the teachings of the Church, says a
professor at the Incheon Catholic University, even before the Church formally declares those truths as essential in living a fulfilling life. Writing in Kyeongyang
Magazine, he says the magisterium of the Church is the protector of
these teachings
that have been handed down to us for our spiritual good. But where does
this authority to teach come from and do we have to obey? he asks.
He begins with some historical background.
There was a time when the Church was an important part of the culture,
and if you did not follow its teachings, you would be punished. This is
obviously no longer the case in our secular world, where religious life and faith is no longer considered of primary importance. And many
Christians also feel that when the Church does not echo the teachings
of the society they live in, there is no need to pay attention to Church
teachings.
In Korea, we have the case of Naju, where the Church has made clear its decision about the events that have reportedly occurred there, but many Naju believers think the Church is corrupt and has overstepped its authority by stating its position on Naju, and so they refuse
to obey. And when the Church speaks about certain matters of life,
environment, labor and human rights, there are those who say the church
is becoming involved in politics. And when it comes to matters of
morals, there are many Christians who find the teaching difficult: no
sex before marriage, no abortion, no artificial contraception or artificial insemination, no euthanasia, and the like.
In the history of religion there there was always more concern to maintain that authority of the Church than the authority of the teachers. According to the Church, its authority comes from Jesus and the apostles, and the teachers of religion, now as always, are the instruments of this authority. The Church strives to keep this inheritance it has received from not deviating or falling into error.
However, throughout history there have been times when the Church has
not been free from the conflicts that have shaken societies, and in
matters not of faith and morals the Church has fallen into error. Pope John Paul II, in 2000 at the beginning of
the Jubilee Year, acknowledged these errors: responsibility
for divisions in Christianity, persecution of the Jews and other
religions, oppression of women, violence against aboriginal peoples, and so on. The
Holy Father asked God for forgiveness for these offenses, including
also the injustice of the Inquisition, the Crusades, the trials of the
so-called witches, and the Galileo affair.
The Holy Spirit's guidance of the Church, the professor reminds us, is
limited to matters of faith and morals. It is when the Church speaks
universally and not locally that this protection is given to the Church.
He quotes from the Constitution of the Church (#12): "The body of the faithful as
a whole, anointed as they are by the Holy One, cannot err in matters of
belief. Thanks to a supernatural sense of the faith which characterizes
the people as a whole, it manifests this unerring quality when, from
the bishops down to the last member of the laity, it shows universal
agreement in matters of faith and morals."
The
obedience that is wanted is not blind obedience. We are on a journey of
faith, together with others, discovering truths, living them and
expressing them in our lives with knowledge and assurance that the Church will not
allow us to fall into error.
Our leisure time can be spent in many ways, sometimes useful and sometimes not so useful. Taking up a hobby is a useful way to develop
our potential talents creatively, to grow spiritually, mentally,
physically and socially. There is no way we can separate what we do in
leisure time from what we do in our working hours. Whatever is done, in leisure or working time, is sure to nurture the self, says a graduate of an engineering college.
Writing in a diocesan bulletin, he recounts how he spent 15 years working for his company when he suddenly at the age of forty had the desire to draw. From the time he was in middle school, he had never indulged this desire, but now felt the need to express his gratitude for all that he had been given by bringing what he had been given to life by the skill of his hands.
There were no teachers of art where he was living; if he wanted lessons he would have to travel to an art school, which would be difficult with his busy work schedule. So he found an easier way to start. He went to a department store, bought a beginner's book on the subject, a notebook, a drawing pen, and began drawing.
He
began by drawing the simple things he found around him, often no bigger
than the size of his hand: his wallet, identification card, hand phone;
objects he had once used daily without much interest were now of interest.
Improvement at first was not noticeable, but he did not demand much of
himself and did not compare himself with others. His only competitor was
his own past works.
After about 100 hours of effort, he noted that he could move his hand more easily to carry out what his eyes were perceiving. At that time, he began to draw the objects that meant so much to him from his past: his desk, a small child's hat, a T-shirt, the shoes his wife had bought him. After drawing for 18 months he gathered all his drawings and made a book of the drawings, exhibiting his work in a bookstore. The drawings were his way of appreciating and sharing the beauty that is in the world, especially as it is found in the ordinary things of life, which he now saw as gifts.
If you want to be happy, he says God will help you in your quest. There is no need to ask for gifts. We need only ask for enthusiasm and the will to persevere to find what it is that we enjoy and then to share it with others. True happiness does not come by possessing but by doing and sharing. He hopes that his talent will help make God's joy, as he is experiencing it, better known through his drawings. His constant prayer is that he will be thankful for the gifts he has received, and that God will use him in any way he desires. He only wants to be his tool.
