Addiction and Freedom

A Religious Sister, writing in the Kyeongyang Magazine, recounts observing at Mass one morning a Catholic who was obviously drunk and yet wanted to receive communion. He was prevented from approaching the altar by others who escorted him outside, she said. They did not believe he was in the right frame of mind to receive communion, but she asked herself: What would Jesus have done? She believes it's a question not easily answered. We know that addiction takes many forms: the constant use of smart phones, internet searches, pornography, gambling, to name just a few. When these less obviously addicted persons come to Mass, she says we have no idea of their addiction. 

 

We find it much easier to censure those who abuse tobacco and alcohol, but can we say there is no problem with the abuse of the smart phone and the internet? When there is drug abuse, we consider it a disease and usually recommend that the victim seek help. However, there are many who are addicted without any outward signs of their addiction, often without knowing they are addicted. Is addiction to alcohol and gambling less harmful than the addictions to pornography and watching videos nonstop? she asks.

When spirits are low and we are dealing with painful emotions, we can be tempted to abuse alcohol and drugs. Similarly, when bored and lonely, we can have recourse to smart phones, pornography and videos to escape the boredom. When this occurs, aren't we also, she asks, during harm to ourselves, to our bodies and our minds? 

The dictionary describes addiction, she says, as the condition of being habitually or compulsively occupied with, or involved in, something. It is like descending a hill in a car without the breaks working. Living in a troubled society, we are all exposed to addiction, she believes; none of us is safe from being infected.

Can we say that substance abuse is any different from addiction to the smart phone, internet surfing, and many other common addictions we hardly are conscious of?  Studies have shown that not only substance abuse but all addictive activities show the same affect on the brain--principally, the loss of self restraint, with an excessive release of dopamine. Using brain scanning equipment, researchers have established that all addictions can be traced to dopamine-induced expectations.
 
Addictions become more serious, she believes, when indulged in secretly, usually because of embarrassment. For instance, she says that while eating too much is sometimes the normal occurrence during a family get-together, eating secretly to excess is a sickness, as are all addictions that are secretly indulged in. 
Watching a drama with the family or watching pornography with some friends is one thing but  staying up all night and watching something on the computer or smart phone is something else, she says. But when it's done and someone comes in and you cover over what you're doing, this is a sign of a possible addiction, and if it continues, there will be lies and more effort to hide what is being done. As a result, the relationship with the family is hurt, as well as our relationship with others. Overall, our interior life becomes weakened, confused and miserable.

When we do continually what is embarrassing and shameful we are lying in our hearts, and darkness grows.  We have to break this to return  to health. Addiction starts from escape from uncomfortableness and pain. We have to have the courage to fight against these feelings.

We should write down our habitual addictive actions honestly.When do we get absorbed with pornography, Internet shopping, etc.? What kind of emotions do we have at that time? Look directly at our feelings of shame and embarrassment and look for the underlying loneliness, fatigue, pain that we have buried.  How lonely how much love did I want to  receive? Acknowledging this and asking help from God is the first step to health.

What are the Dreams and Hopes of the Young?

The Olympics for the "Deaf and Dumb," recently held in Sophia, Bulgaria, received little coverage from the mass media, which, as we know, does not cover news they consider of little interest to most of the public. And learning the names of the winners, even with a great deal of Internet browsing, is not easily done. 
 
Writing in the Catholic Times, a columnist on the opinion page tells us that Korea came in third with 19 gold medals, 11 silver and 12 bronze. This lack of interest in these Olympics games is in marked contrast, he points out, with the interest in entrance exams in Korea. The columnist mentions one Korean who placed first in three of the shooting competitions, and explains what he used to help him concentrate, blocking everything else from sight except the target.

Korean third-year high-school students have been told that July 30th signaled the beginning of the 100 days before college entrance exams. Students, like the shooter in the Olympics, have their eyes on their target, the exams, and blinders for everything else. Both students and parents have that as their number-one goal, the reason the students have worked hard on their studies for twelve years.

What are the dreams and hopes of our students? the columnist asks. What is the reason for studying so hard, for doing well in school? They answer they give without hesitation, he says, is to get into college. Their happiness or misery, they believe, will depend on the college and curriculum they select.  What the students want and would like to do in the future is of little interest.

The students' aptitude and specific intentions are on the back burner, the only interest right now is to get high marks in the entrance exams. What students would like to do later in life is outside the scope of their interest. They have put blinders on, he says. The target is doing well in the exams, so they can get good jobs and big salaries.

The columnist compares the blinders the students have been given by society to the blinders the shooter used to win his gold medals in the Olympics. In order to achieve his dream and goal, he freely used blinders. In both cases, blinders are being used but there is a world of difference, the columnist says, in the motivation for the blinders.

Our young people must respect their freedom of will, the columnist insists. They are immature and don't understand all that is happening in society, but they know very well what their dreams and hopes are. The older generation, with their blinders, does not see the real dreams and hopes of the young, he says, but believes that entrance into college and a big salary is what life is all about. The blinders that society is imposing on the aspirations of our young is infringing on their capacity to freely choose for themselves what goals they will have in life, says the columnist. This freedom is sadly lacking in our society today, and he quotes, in support of this view, from the Catechism of the Catholic Church #1738.

"Freedom is exercised in relationships between human beings. Every human person, created in the image of God, has the natural right to be recognized as a free and responsible being. All owe to each other this duty of respect." This respect is what is missing, he believes, when society unduly influences the life choices of our young people by encouraging an unnatural concentration on doing well in the entrance exams, and neglecting all other aspects of life.  

Silence of God

A columnist of the Catholic Times remembers a time during her second year of college, when a professor referred to Shusaku Endo's novel Silence. She doesn't remember the context, and it had nothing to do with her major, but even today, she says, when she hears the novel mentioned, the words spoken by the professor come to mind: "Trample! Trample! I more than anyone know of the pain in your foot. Trample! It was to be trampled on by men that I was born into this world. It was to share men's pain that I carried my cross!" These words of Endo, which he believed could have been spoken by Jesus, to console the torment of the undecided protagonist, and as a summation of the incarnation mystery, made a big impression on the columnist.

She was captivated by the novel, with its 17th century background, during a time when members of the Church, because of the persecution, had to forget God to survive. This was the dilemma the characters of the novel had to face, and the portrayal by Endo is detailed and vivid.
 
During the reading of the novel, the question that kept coming to mind, she said, was: Where is God when humans are confronting pain? Would we side with God or deny him, as the protagonist of Silence had done? she asked herself. Would she have the strength of faith, she asks repeatedly, to remain with Jesus, despite the recurring doubts? Thinking deeply on the meaning of martyrdom, as a personal option--should the opportunity ever present itself--was one of the results of her reading, she said.

We should be hearing about the beatification of 124 Korean martyrs, she goes on to say, whose petitions have been presented to Rome. This official presentation was made in 2009 and there is a chance that a resolution will be forthcoming next year. The Korean Catholics have this as one of their intentions in their communal and private prayers.
 
There are still many who have to give up their lives for their faith, but today more people, she says, are called to be "white martyrs" in contrast to the "red martyrs" who have given their lives for their faith. Tertullian (155-230 AD) is quoted frequently:"The oftener we are mowed down by you, the more our numbers grow; the blood of Christians is the seed of the faith." In Korean, the spirituality of the martyrs has given birth to a lively Church.

In the world today, as we are confronted by materialism, secularism, relativism, individualism, and the like, what is required is the strength of the martyrs to overcome the onslaughts of these troubling "isms" that challenge us daily.  The virtues that our ancestors in the faith have shown us by giving up their lives, we, the white martyrs, should manifest, she says, by living our lives with courage, self-sacrifice and love. The example of the martyrs, she hopes, will enliven our faith and the faith of all the Catholics throughout the world, blessing us with a new fruitfulness.

Cooperating in the Work of Creation

A priest writing in the With Bible magazine reflects on a recent return trip to the Lerins Islands, off the French coast close to Cannes. Returning after 20 years, he still marvels at the beauty.

On the island of Saint Honorat, there is a magnificent monastery inhabited by 22 monks, who continue the monastic life that began in the early 400s. He recalls the beauty of the surrounding fields, and the dedicated life of work and prayer of the monks, as they tend the fields and vineyard.

He goes back to our Christan understanding of creation, which places humanity at the summit of creation and as its goal. Deep ecology, which sees, he says, all of creation as equal worth,would have difficulty with this Christian understanding of creation. The Jewish interpreters of the Genesis account make it clear that God made humanity in a different way--in the image of God, and the priest wants to help us understand what is meant by using the interpretations of the Jewish teachers.

"Let us make man in the our image, after our likeness" (Gen. 1:26). We have the use of the 'us' which for the Jew of that time, he explains, did not refer to the editorial 'we' of our times. Who was God referring to when using the word 'us'? the priest asks. We can't use the Trinity to explain it, of course. So how can it be explained? 

There are many different interpretations, he says, and he presents two of them. One possibility: God had in mind the heavenly court of four of his angels: Truth, Justice, Love, and Peace.  Peace and Justice, so it is explained, were against God creating humanity, for they feared that destruction and lies would enter creation. Truth and Love were for the creation of humanity. God decided to create and use humanity to  spread these four values throughout creation.
 
Another interpretation was that God discussed the creation with humanity. Humanity was a partner with God, and God wanted to embody all of creation with these four values of Peace, Justice, Love and Truth. God made humanity after his image, the Jewish teachers taught, so he could work in partnership with his creation.

French bishops said last year very much the same thing; that God wanted humanity to work with him in his continuing creation. In Gen.2:15, we are told that humanity had the task to care and cultivate God's gift of creation by being made the stewards of the earth. To say that humanity is a co-worker with God might at first be thought to be an exaggeration, he says, but when Eve gave birth to Cain, the first born, it was with the help of God (4:1), who accompanies humanity throughout the creative process.  We were given intellect and will precisely so we could participate in this task. Though this task has obviously not always been carried out wisely, there is no reason to believe, he says, that this will always be the case in the future.

Importance of Korean Catholic History

By studying history, we can discern God's message to the world. Justice is made present to us. Those who experienced this history use it as stepping stones to convey to us their wisdom. The study of history is the effort to understand this reality. So begins an essay in the Catholic Times on the Catholic history of Korea.

Recently, a group of scholars who have worked on  Korean Church history met together to discuss their field of work and reminisce on the giants of the past. There have always been persons who  have seen the  importance of this study, and thirst for what they know they can find and  dig their own wells to find it.

The glorious history of the Korean Church was seen from the beginning:  The Silk Letter of Hwang Sa-yong (Alexander), the prison letters of Yi Suni, the "Catholic History of the Church" by Dallet,  letters of  missioners  to the home country telling about the lives of the Korean Catholics. The story of St. Kim Tae-gon (Andrew), and Father Thomas Choe Yong-eop waiting to enter Korea, were all a part of this precious legacy that captivated the early historians.

Catholicism entered a society that was completely different from what it came to teach, and yet it sent down its roots and it blossomed. Changes were so many that even during the lifetime of the early Christians there were  many changes in the language of the prayers and the liturgy.

History is the study of the incidents of the past up to the present, and uncovering their connections and  value. This requires the emptying of oneself and  strict judgments, which can open up new experiences for those who make history their special study. The study also requires discipline, a method, and a philosophy that has to be mastered. Even though it is a study with many requirements, the environment in which it  is pursued is not friendly. There is a  need now for young people to devote themselves to this study.

However, there should be a change in the way it is done. There has to be an embracing of the society in which the Church is  found. The understanding of Church history has to be done within the larger  Korean national history. In a country were only one in ten is Catholic, the study of Church history has to be done in a way the other nine can understand. The tendency to speak only to Catholics has to be overcome, which will foster evangelization. This will also include  those who come to the Church in the future.  Christians live in the present but try  to understand the environment in which they live. We have to see the importance of this study and should have more concern for those working in this field.

Understanding the Problems of Students

Dropping out of school is a serious problem in Korea. According to one recent news report, over 280,000 school-aged children are not in school, which amounts to 4 percent of total students. Aside from this regrettable statistic, schools do an excellent job in preparing students for college, which makes Korea, according to the International Student Assessment Program, one of the highest ranking countries in the world for providing quality education to students. .

Since the Korean educational system does such an excellent job in comparison to other countries, it is easy to see why they do not want to jeopardize their well-deserved  reputations as educators. The price for this excellence is high in terms of the number of students who are not able to keep up with the expected pace, and dropout. To offer some measure of relief for those who find the competition too demanding, the government has permitted the diocese of Taegu to begin program for these students.

The editorial in the Catholic Times, and an accompanying article, recounts what the diocese of Taegu has decided to do to help these students. The Ministry of Education has approved a program for one of these schools in Taegu."Seedbed for Dreams" is the name of the school, which will open in September. They will be given students who find it difficult to make it in the government schools. And they will continue as members of their school classes, getting full credit for their studies, and will be allowed to graduate with the other members of their regular class.


The special classes will be limited to 15 students.  The editorial mentions that a big problem for these students has been a lack of concern for them, with no one showing an interest in their problems. This will change with the small classes and with individual attention. 

Students will cover the same subjects as they would in the government schools, but in an alternative school fashion. They not only will be concentrating on the texts provided but will be free to study the subject by moving beyond the written material, exercising more freedom and creativity than normal.

The alternative curriculum will offer human development subjects: art activities, city farming; and scouting activities such as sports and hiking, do-it-yourself arts and crafts, computers, and SNS subjects. For students living in circumstances filled with conflict, they will have the opportunity to take courses in music and art therapy, which will help in developing an optimistic view of  life.

Korea is proud of what students have been able to accomplish. And the Ministry of Education is trying to reach out to those who have problems with the present educational methods by making the curricula more humane for all, allowing students more opportunities to enjoy the learning experience and restoring their ability to dream of a successful future life. 

A New Way of Being Korean

Korea has many foreign workers living and working here. For the ordinary citizen, this was a change from what they were accustomed to. The homogeneity and comfort level of their cultural sameness was breaking down and required a new way of being Korean.

Becoming a Korean citizen is not an easy process for those who desire it, unless the immigrant marries a Korean. Because of the country's need for workers, many have come here to do the work ordinary citizens  avoid: the difficult, dirty and dangerous work. Most come as temporary workers and will have to leave unless marriage changes their status.

Korea, once known as the hermit kingdom, was proud of its traditions and culture. Christianity probably helped to break down the isolationism of the past despite the persecution. Isolationism and the homogeneity of the culture were trademarks of Korea, one of most homogeneous countries in the world, with one language and culture.

In recent years, there has been a change to a multicultural society but for the average citizen the past is not easily discarded, and discrimination and prejudice is not uncommon.

The Catholic Times, with the help of the Buddhist  Research Center, has made a study of the different groups in society and their degree of friendliness to the immigrants. Catholics showed the most favorable response of the four groups studied, the others being Protestants, Buddhists and non-believers. The article shows us some of the details of the study. 

Are you able to be a friend to a foreign worker? was one of the questions asked, and 45.3 percent of the Catholics answered yes; Protestants 39.4 percent; Buddhists 38.0 percent; and non-believers 36.8 percent.
 
Responding "Yes" to whether they preferred not to be close to foreign workers, non-believers 5.6 percent; Buddhists 5.5 percent; Protestants 3.5 percent; Catholics 1.2 percent. The article gives the reason for the more positive Catholic showing to the movement for life that stresses the dignity of all life, and the love and respect for all persons.

The articles mentions that the Protestants have shown the greatest concern for the foreign workers, with 600 facilities dedicated to helping the foreign worker. The  Seoul diocese has 146 centers for the care of foreign workers. And society as a whole is taking more interest in the care of those who are trying to adapt to a Korean way of life. The mass media is also doing their part to help break down the strangeness of encountering so many foreigners in a land that only recently saw very few of them.