Joy in the Pursuit of Learning

Writing in the Peace Weekly, a permanent member of the Bishops Pastoral Research Committee, with a doctorate in theology, reflects on the educational system in Korea. She received an e-mail recently from a teacher who would like help  in encouraging students to petition the government to stop the proposed changes to the college curriculum and to spread the word to as many people as possible.

The education ministry is changing and merging many of the subjects currently offered by the university curriculum, many of them from the humanities curriculum. She doesn't care for the criterion that the education ministry uses to determine the support they give to the colleges. At present, the percentage of those who graduate and find jobs and the number of students that they enroll are used to determine the amount of support given. The students know there are deceptions and expedients being used to the students' disadvantage. They want the humanities and the art schools to be exempted from these standards.

The professor introduces us to the thinking of Zhu Xi, a Neo-Confucian who lived a millennium ago. In his writings, he said at the age of eight, children should be taught moderation, etiquette, music, archery, elementary mathematics, and how to use words and phrases from the classics. At 15, students should study the laws of nature, possess a right ordered heart, be taught moral and mental cultivation, learn to govern themselves and prepare for citizenship.

She would like to know what precisely are the goals of our educational system. The subjects that help build character have been pushed aside, and the subjects that prepare one to enter a capitalistic society are considered more important, which tends to foster competition. Our schools are becoming, she says, like military schools with one overriding aim: to win in the competition for the best jobs.

These problems are not recent, she maintains; they have been with us for quite awhile. Chronic desire for growth and trying to adapt to the requirements of the capitalistic society have required many policy changes, and we have seen the negative effects on society, she says.

In the Catholic tradition of the middle ages in Europe, education in the moral values was considered important. The religious orders often served to provide that education, and they also brought in free education. After the Renaissance, one of the leaders in providing education to the general public was the Jesuit order.

She introduces us to Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, the chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, who intends to bring together students from schools around the world to promote understanding and solidarity, and calls his project the "World School Network for the Encounter." It will be an effort to prepare the young to be citizens of the world and to live at peace with others and in solidarity with the poor.


The professor wonders whether we in Korea are prepared to show our curriculum to the rest of the world. We do not yet know what should be mandatory and what should be elective, she says. And the thinking on possible changes to the college entrance exams is confused.

Students do not know the joy of study, only stress with little hope of succeeding in a competitive environment. She is waiting for the day when, during summer vacation, you will see students taking a novel along with them, and when leaves turn color in the Autumn and begin their leisurely fall to the earth, you will see students opening a book of poetry.

Fooling Ourselves is not Difficult

When men get together for some drinking and lighthearted bantering, one sometimes hears spoken by those who are partying: "For me, it's fun and romance, when others do the same thing it is immoral." While this saying is spoken in jest, it deals with some of the more private areas of our daily life. The Catholic Times columnist uses the saying to remind us of what we may tend to forget.

In the past, when romance was not part of our culture, we would tend to hear: "Bringing water to our garden," meaning " taking care of our own needs, being selfish and narcissistic."  The modern way of saying the same thing would be to use the more expressive and suggestive references to romance and immorality.  In any event, both point to our self-centered thinking, the columnist says. We can easily contradict ourselves to our benefit, using duplicity to achieve what we want.

This kind of thinking gets us into trouble, for it often goes against sound reasoning. Some scholars believe this thinking arises because of an innate desire for survival, seeing our surroundings as benefiting oneself, content to live with this illusory observation. Children, he says, often are caught up in this type of thinking: What they can see, they believe others can see, what they can't see, they believe others can't see. However, this is not only limited to children, the columnist says; adults also can think this way.

He sites a study that found that pleasure arises from the same area within the brain whenever a person speaks about himself or food or money or sex, and there is the tendency to want to reinforce this with repeated actions. Because this reaction is so natural, he admits to having reservations about faulting the behavior, but there are other factors involved, he points out, that add some clarity to the situation.

As an adult, we have to put away the things of a child. Mother Theresa was a saint, so she did what she did because she was a saint; what has that to do with me? he asks. Isn't going to Mass and hearing sermons really of little value for we will not change?

Rules for the good life which we openly defy, we all see differently, so the yardstick of justice and love we tend not to apply objectively. The standards change with the time, the place and the situation, we often think, so they have little to do with our being people of faith or Christians. When we see the life of faith one way and our daily life in another way, we become stuck at the infant stage of life, he says.

As Christians, if we see--according to our interest, as the maxim goes--the truths of faith, at one time, under the  romantic aspect and, at another time, under the immoral aspect, it would be because one or the other suited our particular disposition at the time, the columnist says.  Isn't this even worse than living without belief and doing whatever we feel comes naturally? he asks.  With this way of living  the only two sins we will be dispensed from are lying and hypocrisy.

North Korean Martyrs

On the front page of the Catholic Times is a picture of Bishop Francis Borgia Hong Yong-ho, the former ordinary of the Pyongyang diocese. Born in 1906, ordained a priest in1933, and made a bishop in 1943, he was kidnapped in 1949 and officially listed among the missing in1962.  And now with the Vatican declaring him officially dead, it allows both the Church to appoint a new bishop and  to work for the beatification of Bishop Hong and 80 of his companions.

Before and after the Korean War,  the communists were persecuting the Christians in the North, and the Church selected those for which they could find evidence of martyrdom, which is now called the cause of Bishop Hong and his 80 companions. In this group are two bishops, 48 priests, three seminarians, seven sisters, and 21 lay Catholics. The Pyongyang diocese had the largest number of martyrs, 24. Among Bishop Hong's 80 companions were a number of foreigners: 12 Paris foreign missioners, seven Columban missioners, a Saint Paul de Chartre sister and a Belgium Carmelite. Two Maryknollers were on the list: Bishop Patrick Byrne, the Apostolic Delegate to Korea, and  Maryknoll sister Jang Jeong -Eon (Maria Agneta).

The Benedictines also began the process for beatification of thirty-six martyrs from North Korea in 2007. The martyrs are listed as Abbot Boniface Sauer and his 36 companions. They include Benedictine monks,  Benedictine sisters, clergy and laity of the diocese of Hamheung.

 
A missioner who dies a martyr while working in a foreign country is considered a saint of that country. Besides the recent martyrs of North Korea, there is also a list of 133 the Church is working on from the last years of the Joseon period. This list begins with John the Baptist Yi  Byeok and his 132 companions. There is ample reason to understand how the spirituality of many of the Koreans is influenced by the lives of these martyrs.

Currently there is no official recognition of Catholicism in North Korea, according to those most familiar with the situation. There is a Catholic church in Pyongyang but possibly more an effort of the government to show their idea of freedom of religion than a truly Christian community. This is true for Protestantism, Buddhism and the other religions that are in the North. While the government acknowledges freedom of religion in its constitution, it interprets this freedom differently than other countries have done. Most observers would consider North Korea the most serious violator of human rights' issues in the world.

What Makes for Happiness?

"Happy are you poor; the Kingdom of God is yours! (Luke 6:20). In the Catholic Times' column View from the Ark, a priest would like us to meditate along with him on "poverty." The word keeps coming back to him like something caught in his throat that he can't get rid of. His mission over the years has been with the poor and he has now been given the responsibility for working with the poor in the diocese.

Everybody wants to eliminate poverty, he says. What is good about poverty? we tend to ask. Is there any reason to voluntarily live the life of poverty? Living with the poor and seeing how they live, he says, has affected how he sees his own life.

Many who work with the poor remember the words from the Puebla documents of 1979 that there should be a preferential option for the poor. For what reason can the poor be considered happy? the priest asks. Why did Jesus use these words? Why is this an important part of our social Gospel? We talk about Gospel poverty, the spirituality of poverty, voluntary poverty and the like. Why did Jesus say the poor were blessed?

The priest lets his thoughts go back to his childhood, during which time the family moved many times and ended up in a house that seemed like a palace to him. It was the home of his maternal aunt and he doesn't  remember why they lived there, but it was a five room two-story house, with a room for each member of his family of five. It had a big yard where he could play soccer and baseball, and even a small pond. However, in time, it felt strange to him, as the family began to scatter. While in the house, you would often feel alone for the whole day, he said. Going and coming,  there would be the usual greetings, and after that he would go to his room. It was not like living in a family, he said. Would it have been better to have lived in a larger house?

His second recollection from the past was when he became an army chaplain. He had decided, when he became a priest, not to have a car, but when he learned he was to be a chaplain he quickly got his driving license. As a matter of course, there was a vehicle at his disposal. It took him over twenty minutes to drive to the chapel for Mass, and when the vehicle broke down and was being repaired, he walked or took the bus to get around.  The experience turned out to be very positive: he met many different people and had experiences that he would not have had with a car.

Citing the words of Jesus once again: "He made himself poor, though he was rich" (2 Cor. 8:9). Why did Jesus live poorly, with no place to lay his head? Was it not that money and material things do not help one find happiness and are in the long run obstacles? the priest asks.

When we talk about poverty, the first thing that comes to mind is the pain or discomfort of not getting what one wants. However, when most of us go on vacation or travel, we are leaving the comfort of home and generally undergo some discomfort in the process. Isn't this an effort to be close to nature and to experience inner peace? the priest asks. Are we not at that time, he says, going in search of poverty?

The countries with the highest index of happiness, as is generally known, are the poorest.  It is not that the world lacks material abundance, he says, but rather that we are not sharing it with those in need. Is this not a sign, he says, that we should all be living a poorer and simpler lifestyle? Would it not, he concludes, tend to bring us closer to living a happier life?
 

Catholic Priests' Manifesto

A manifesto by the Catholic Priests of Korea have charged the National Intelligence Service for illegal involvement in  the elections for president last year, as reported by the Catholic Times. And for releasing the transcript of the 2007 inter-Korean summit even though it was classified in order to promote their candidate for the presidency.

There has been a great deal of dissatisfaction in the way much of the media distorts the issues in their coverage of the news . Although the Catholic Press is also biased, this is understood by the public, but this should not be the case with secular media, which should report the events as objectively as possible and not distort the facts for partisan purposes. Biased and deceitful reporting does not help to form a mature democracy by educating the citizens to correctly assess the current state of the country.


The article mentions that one diocese, which has never publicly disapproved of the government, has joined the other dioceses with  its statement.  In this case, the association of priests has gone on record with a statement that criticizes the government agency for their involvement in the presidential election, which shows unanimity in understanding the Church's teaching on social issues and that this understanding should be expressed whenever there is a flagrant violation of justice. 

The Catholic response covers several positions; the editorial examines two. One position believes the Church should not be involved in politics. Priests and religious should not speak out against or for government policy. The other position believes the Church, as a member of society, and according to the social teaching of the Church, should speak out against injustices and work to make a just society. Consequently, criticism of the unjust acts of the government and expressing this publicly is the only proper position, according to the Times' editorial.
 
The editorial sympathizes with the intention of those who hold the first position, acknowledging a danger exists of an unwanted side effect leading to discord and division within the Church. Those holding to the second position feel that when we see injustice and  immorality, it is the duty of citizens to work to change the situation. The Church, it is understood, has to stay clear of partisan issues. However, that politics and the Church exist in two separate worlds, with two different premises and thus should be completely separated is  a distorted idea of what the separation of Church and State means, says the editorial. This kind of thinking has no validity in the thinking of a Catholic.

There is the hope that the what was done illegally and immorally in the past will be acknowledged by the government agencies, and public apologies issued, but this may be wistful thinking--transparency is not one of the values that society considers important.There have been sporadic candlelight processions to express the public's outrage, but they have been infrequent, with few participants. Moreover, with the media showing little interest, the chances are that the public's indignation will disappear with time, unless something extraordinary happens.

"The Theresa Effect"

The desk columnist of the Catholic Times refers to a recent discussion on the Internet on what being a member of the middle class means for the French and for Koreans. For a Korean, a middle class life means having no debt, living in an apartment with more than 1000 square feet, a monthly salary of over $4,466, a car with an engine of over 2000 cc, money in the bank, and the leisure to go overseas once a year. For the French, it means having the ability to speak one foreign language, to participate in at least one sport, play a musical  instrument, be able to prepare a special dish for guests, respond with righteous indignation at seeing evil in society and work to change it, and to offer freely your services to others.

The columnist points out that for a Korean what is important is financial success, while for the French, it is quality of life, the writer being especially attracted to their desire to be of  service to  others.

Some years ago, on a visit to Lourdes, she remembers meeting a doctor who was staying with his wife and child at the same hotel where she was staying. They had come from Paris to the pilgrimage shrine for two weeks on vacation, and were there to volunteer their services to the hospital.

Recently we have seen, she says, an increase of individuals and of industry taking an interest in volunteer service.  The office of statistics has published the results from their survey, which sees an increase from 14.3 percent in 2006 to19.8 percent in 2012. The columnist, however, doesn't see this all positively; she feels that some of the increase comes from those who are trying to improve their marketability in the work force and to get points for college.
 
There may be a lack of the proper attitude on the part of  some who are looking only for the  quantity of hours of service. The formation of a consensus of what volunteering should mean is still a work in process, she says.

In 1998, a professor at Harvard University talked about the "Theresa Effect." A  group was shown a movie about the life of Mother Theresa and, after the viewing, were checked to  determine the change in their immunity antibody count.
 
Usually when a person is under stress or has worries, the antibody count goes down, but for those that saw the film, the index increased. This was not because of any work of service that was actually done, as you would expect, but only because they watched a film of one whose life was dedicated to service. After this study, changes in the mental, bodily and societal effects resulting from service to others has been called the "Theresa Effect."

For a Christian, service to others comes from our Lord's saying (Matt 22:39): " You shall love your neighbor as yourself." The columnist hopes this desire to help will increase and that the "Theresa Effect" will become second nature in our society.

Are You Happy Now?

An essay on happiness by a Catholic priest appeared a few days ago in the Chosun Ilbo, with the provocative headline "Are you Happy Now?" It tells the story of a woman born with cerebral palsy. He got to know her while he was a parish priest many years ago. She was not able to move on her own and had difficulty speaking clearly. Unfortunately, her parents tried to keep her condition hidden, so she spent most of her time in a room behind the house. The only association she had with others was the monthly visit by the priest and parishioners, who would make the rounds visiting the sick of the parish. On one of these visits, the woman managed to express the following:

"Father I see my life as insignificant and of little worth. I am a burden on all and am full of resentment. I have thought of suicide often but because of my condition this is not something I can do. I have always felt bitterness against God and my parents. In this world, everything has a meaning  and in my prayer all I do is ask God what is my reason for existence? However, this morning on the occasion of your visit my thoughts changed and were replaced by a new understanding of my pain. I understood that because of my pain, I am better able to respond sympathetically to the pain of others. I feel that I am able to serve those who are having pain in life. That is the reason for my life and the way I will find happiness in life."

The priest on hearing these words from the woman was greatly moved. Most people try to get rid of their pain but here was a woman who came to the realization that she could  serve others because of her experience with pain. The woman came to accept her situation and see it as a means to help others. She could see the positive side to the pain she was experiencing, which the priest considered very much like those who have dedicated their lives to a religious vocation. She no longer wanted to be hidden but wanted to face the world, and she did so with confidence; you could see in her demeanor and the way she moved her troublesome body.  She soon began to work among young women who were released from prison.  Although many years have passed, he believes she is still working to help others and a happy person.

The priest refers to a survey that was made among teenagers who were asked what they thought was the most important thing in life. Over half considered money the most important. There is no reason to find fault with this response, he said, for there are many who feel that with money all problems can be solved. Even happiness, many believe, can be bought. Money, which is no more than a piece of paper, is worshiped as if it were God-like.

We are all in search of happiness. Can we say that life is a journey to find happiness? the priest asks. What we know for sure, he goes on to say, is that we can't say what will bring us happiness or unhappiness. We have seen happiness and unhappiness change very quickly. Happy people can quickly forget their unhappiness of the past, and when unhappy they can quickly forget their past happiness.

We have often seen persons that have all the so-called conditions to be happy, but they are not happy.  Happiness is not something objective but is a subjective state.  Conditions for happiness are not necessary. We are happy, he says, when we think we are happy. In a word happiness depends on our wills  and attitude towards life.
 

No matter how insignificant something seems there is nothing in life that is insignificant; it is only we who see it as worthless and insignificant. If we open our eyes  and our hearts a little more, we will see this, the priest says. Everything has a purpose. We should be able to find joy in small things. Even if our lives seem miserable to others, if we acknowledge the worth of our lives and importance, we will choose happiness and be victorious in life.

We can see many people who give of themselves to bring light to the world. We should reflect on that. Are you, he concludes, really happy now?  Let us ask ourselves: "I am breathing, for that I can give thanks, and enjoy it to the full, this happiness...."