On the spiritual page of the Catholic Times, the columnist recalls a visit he made to a priest doing pastoral work on an island. The time spent with him was always very rewarding. His words about the spiritual life never left time to be bored. While they were talking, a bird flew into view, and he interrupted the conversation looking intently at the bird. And again when a bird in a near-by tree began to chirp, he listened carefully. The columnist surmised that he was very much concerned with the world of birds.
That evening at the meal one of the side dishes was chicken. And the columnist without much thought asked: "Father, how dumb must birds be since we often hear: 'he has a birdbrain'?" A serious expression appeared on the face of the priest, and he answered: "Father, the heads of birds work very well. Just think of the thousand of miles that they travel to and from in their migration all without a GPS (Global Positioning System). It certainly is not a lack of brain power." "Very true, Father, you must have a great love for birds."
He then retold the columnist the following story. "Some years ago a group of specialists on migratory birds came to the island to study the birds. I was interested in the equipment they brought along, and became a spectator. On one occasion, I had the opportunity to spend time eating with the group. I asked the head professor since he is so interested in God's creation shouldn't he become a Catholic. Hearing my question the professor responded with laughter and asked me: 'Father how many names of birds do you know?' I could list the names of 12 different birds. He in response: 'Father since you know only about 12 species that is an extremely small number of God's creation. If you loved God wouldn't you know more than 12 of his loving creation? There are over 7000 bird species. When you learn the names of at least 500 of his creation and their characteristics, then I will think of the possibility of becoming Catholic.' Hearing these words was like a slap in the face. Once you love someone you want to know all there is to know about the person. I began the study of birds and their characteristics and began to see the differences between them. I see a great deal more than ever before. When I see a bird flapping their wings or hear their song I can tell pretty much what specie it is. The study of birds has become a hobby. Whether the professor becomes Catholic or not is not the issue, but seeing the variety and the preciousness of God's creation leads me closer to the creator and to appreciate the preciousness of all creation."
Hearing what the priest had to say was of great interest. In making the study of birds a hobby has enabled him to appreciate God's creation in a way he never did before. The columnist found this aspect of the pastor as strikingly beautiful.
The poet farmer writing in his column in the Catholic Times recalls a question he asked the children at a Catholic 'Our Farm' movement event. "What is of greater importance eating or what we wear?" One girl, he thought was in third-grade elementary school, shouted: "food is always in the refrigerator when we open the door. Clothes are what are important." When even the children, he laments, consider clothes more important than food the future of the country does not look bright.
He wants parents to ask their children this evening a couple of questions. What do you think is most precious, parents or money? What is more important, the food we eat or the clothes we wear? He wants us to ask ourselves what do we search for in life. Not an exclusive search for money, is it? We do not believe that money solves all our problems. And yet, we study to make money; we go to the workplace to make money; we marry to make money; we buy a house to make money; we meet people to make money....
Our farms, the bosom of our mother, with the passage of time are collapsing, our environment is being polluted. The reason is that children, and adults are not in search of truth but for comfort and money. No matter how important when faced with discomfort or the opportunity to make money truth is of little interest. If we look around us, we can quickly see the most important things are not bought with money.
The heavens, air, wind, sun, moon, ocean, clouds, rain, fog, earth, wood, grass, flowers, earthworms, bees, butterflies....We forget their importance in life. This is the reason we have sickness both of body and mind. We live with anxiety no matter how much we increase our possessions, power and honor, because, he says, we have distanced ourselves from the earth. We need, all of us, to return to the earth.
The Catholic 'Our Farm' in Korea continues to influence many to join the natural farming movement. Organic farming has become an ideal for many of the small farmers. The farmers know the price they are paying in using high technology in their farming methods. The farmers need to make a living for their families, and organic farming is more difficult than the scientifically proven methods. Using pesticides and chemical fertilizers are much more lucrative. The education of the consumers is necessary for when the housekeepers go shopping and begin to avoid the good-looking fruits and vegetables and are willing to buy the more naturally looking fruit and vegetables at a higher price, the farmers will be making the changes in their methods of farming.
In the diocesan bulletin a priest responsible for a pastoral research institute for the young tells us a tale from old India. There was a boy whose strength was such that no one could compete with him. One day the king was riding on an elephant and the boy from behind grabbed the tale of the elephant and stopped the advance. The soldiers went to the front and pulled but to no avail. The king, angry, told his retainers to find some way of overcoming the boy's strength.
A wise man came forth and suggested a way to subdue the boy. He invited the boy to come to the temple and told him that he would get a gold coin for the candle that he lit. The boy curious did light a candle and was given a gold coin by the caretaker. Everyday he would appear, light a candle and receive a gold coin. One day he lit two candles and like in a dream, received two gold coins. Overcome with greed he began to light more candles and received more gold coins. The wise man hearing this said that the boy's strength had disappeared. The Herculean strength that the boy possessed did disappear. The peace, simplicity, and innocence of the boy also with the advent of covetousness faded away. The energy and passion that he once had all disappeared with his avarice.
Young people are the future of the country. Within the innocence and simplicity of the young we have the potential and the possibilities that are waiting to be energized for the good of the country. But like the young person from India without the control over their craving the potentiality of our youth will weaken. The young people of this generation, says the priest, are the victims of a consumer society that we have made.
The mass media weakens the way we judge, feeds our desire to consume, and our vanity. The media are no help in forming good judgements and in searching for the meaning of life. This is actually more of a problem with the older generation. The elders are giving the example to the young of a distorted craving for consumption which affects the way the young look at society and contaminates their thinking. This wrong emphasis on the culture of consumerism inflicts our young people with psychological wounds.
This desire for material goods is pushing to the edges humans who should be at the center of history. At the center of this consumerism is success, honor, power and money. With this desire we are forgetting the young and not giving them their rightful place in society. Families should be teaching the children to beware of the excessive cravings for the material and help them to make judgements on the way we have formed the culture and the need to criticize the culture. In order to do this it is necessary that the adults become aware of the situation in which we live.
Writing or speaking about a tragedy is always done with difficulty. The columnist of the Peace Weekly reminds us of this fact in his article on the Sewol ferry tragedy. No one can give an objective account of what happened. Human it is to avoid talking about such disasters but because of the seriousness of the events, it cannot be overlooked. This is the dilemma that a writer has to deal with. He prays for all those who have died and are missing and for their families. Many of those writing or speaking about the tragedy have to deal with these feelings.
There are many ways in which we look upon the disaster. There are surprises at the tragedy, we look for reasons, a desire for the missing to be found, a feeling of loss and despondency; guilt and grief over the young students' lives lost, compassion for the families of the dead, anger and distrust of those responsible, and a feeling of despair over the incident. Why did it have to happen? This is the foundational question that leads to all the other misgivings about the disaster.
After the tragedy there has been all kinds of talk on the reasons. However, as we know causes are not easily uncovered. The Roman poet Virgil said: “Fortunate are those who know the causes of things” (rerum congnoscere causas). This has become the motto of not a few universities. Many specialists have written about the causes of the tragedy; however, when done individually and independently there are problems.
When we single out a certain area of concern, it is like focusing our camera on one object, the other areas become fuzzy. This is true for a tragedy like the Sewol, when we focus on one area, we ignore others. He gives us the example of blaming the captain and the crew for their thoughtlessness and incompetency, and forgetting the poor conditions in which they were required to work. When we pick those who were involved in the rescue operation and blame them for their inefficiency and incompetence, we can forget the reason for the accident in the first place. Placing the blame on the company's unreliability and the owner's irregularities, there is the possibility of not seeing the problem of the maritime service responsibility in overlooking the safety regulations and their lack of concern. When we blame the bureaucrats in the anti- calamity headquarters for their lack of responsibility, we forget the office of the president. However, we can't properly point our finger at the president. Is it not possible that the answer is spread out a little among all of them?
Another part of the picture that has to be seen is the lack of respect for life that we have seen in the other tragedies in our history. We have developed very quickly as an economically strong country, but also are infected greatly with mammonism, results at all costs, contempt for processes and procedures, enamored with speed, and seeing humans as means and not as ends. These are all ways of fostering disasters.
In conclusion, the columnist says we are all in some way involved in the tragedy of the Sewol. We all need to look at the values we give to life, and the respect that we have for life. It is required, he says, to examine what we consider important, and have a change of heart, otherwise we will have more of the same in the future.
A
columnist in the Catholic Times remembers a song she sang often as a
high-school student: "Tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree." She
liked the rhythm, but especially the touching lyrics. The song
expressed the feelings of a man who had received his freedom from prison
and wanted to know from the woman he loved whether she was willing to
take him back. He would be taking a bus to the town, and if she welcomed
his return, to tie a yellow ribbon on the oak tree in the yard. As we
know the tree was filled with yellow ribbons
This
was based on a real-life story, she mentions, and was the motivation for
using yellow ribbons to welcome back those from war and hostages who
were released and returning home. In Korea, the yellow ribbons are being
used to remember those who have died in the sinking of the Sewol Ferry,
and hoping that among the missing, they will find some alive. We find
the ribbons appearing on the social network, at schools, and in other
parts of society. The ribbon has appeared in parishes and
in religious houses as a sign of condolences and prayers for the
families and those who have died and are missing.
We
are not
able to deny that this tragedy was man-made. Money was put before
people, Greed was everything. To save money an old ship was bought; to
carry more passengers, they unreasonably added another deck,and for the
sake of money they ignored safely regulations and overloaded the ferry.
19
years ago, we had the largest peacetime disaster in South Korean
history because of a poorly constructed building: money put before
people. The Sampoong Department Store collapsed killing and injuring a
large number of shoppers. 20 years ago, we had the collapse of the
Seongsu Bridge over the Han River. Here was another case where bribes,
breaking of the law and immorality was overlooked for reasons of
profit with the loss of many lives.
The
mass media and the citizens lamented the lack of a concern for safety
and urged a change in our moral consciousness. 20 years later with the
Sewol tragedy we have not seen much change. What is the reason for this
failure? The columnist wonders if it is not, our 'frying pan
disposition', quickly changing from when on the fire and when off
the fire. We Christians, she says, have much to reflect on. Many
question marks are appearing in her thoughts.
She
mentions having met an ethics professor who said: materialism, egotism,
secularism are values that we have not been able to cope with.
Christians have much to think about. He is overcome with embarrassment.
She hopes that we will not need to use yellow ribbons in the future.She
concludes the column with the condolences of the pope for the loss of
so many lives. He is quoted as saying: "Hopes the South Korean people
will take the Sewol tragedy as an occasion for moral and spiritual
rebirth." This she hopes, we believers need to take to
heart.
The Catholic media have examined the statistics for the past year and have seen the red light. When one looks at the figures the future does not look bright. Catholics who are devout continue to diminish.
The numbers of adults baptized in 2013 were the lowest since 1985. It went under 100,000 in 1995 with 97,079 and last year the lowest with 87,088 baptisms. The Mass attendance has continued to decrease from 1995 when it was 35 percent. Last year it was only 21.2 percent attending Mass.
The number of parishes increased by 4. There are now 1,668 parishes: 4,901 priests, of that number 170 are foreigners. The total number has increased by 113. Diocesan priests have increased by 77 and the religious by 21. There are 1,463 seminarians studying for the priesthood. This has decreased by 70 from the previous year. There are 165 religious groups in Korea, and the total number of religious is 11,737: 1,564 are men, and women number 10,173. Religious women have increased by 830. The men in preparation have decreased by 17 percent, and the women saw a 48.9 percent decrease. The numbers of those in the foreign mission have continued to increase from 554 in 2003 to 979 last year. The number of diocesan priests on the mission decreased from 94 to 82 last year. There has been in the last ten years a continual increase in the numbers of diocesan priests.
Age of the Catholics continues to increase. Catholics over the age of 60 are over one million 200 thousand. The aging of the Church is at a faster rate than in society. We also see that many parents are not passing on their religious faith to their children. The numbers of those attending Sunday school programs continues to decrease. Not only is the low birthrate responsible, but many parents are not sending their children to catechism classes.
Catholicism continues to maintain the external numbers, but examining the practice of the faith in the numbers going to confession and attending Mass; we see a different picture.
Efforts are made in the different dioceses to energize
the communities and with some success. South Korea is a small unified
country with one language and basically the same culture. One of the recent editorials mentioned the recent meeting of the bishops and their 'common pastoral directive' hoping to give life to the Sunday Masses and the reception of the Sacraments.
There is a desire to break away from emphasizing the obligation and stress more the joy that should be coming from the attendance at Mass and the reception of the Sacraments. This will also, the Catholic Times' editorial mentions, require that the priest make more of an effort to make the liturgy more inviting and a better preparation of the sermons.
The paschal mystery is basic to our life as Christians. Life comes after death, not only physical death but the many other kinds of death that we experience. This paradox is accepted both in the East and the West. Not all that we accept as good is good nor is all that we see as bad is bad. We are not surprised by these words. The 'happy fault' of our liturgy brings to our attention the birth of Christ. We die to ourselves to be born in Jesus. "Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (Matt. 16:25).
In the liturgy, we meditate on the passion, death, Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord. We learn that new life comes from death. Nature shows us the way life comes from death. There is a light in the darkness. Even the daily sleep of death refreshes us for a new day. We are reborn every day. I am not the same person I was yesterday. This is a recurring theme in many of our works of art, our literature our movies and daily lives. We read about this and enjoy the excitement that comes from the results of something as negative as death. We can find meaning in tough times and are restrained in our joy in the best of times. We are enabled to go out to others and show compassion.
The Catholic Times gives us two examples of this death to life journey in two articles commemorating the Easter Feast Day. Stephen tells us of his experience of death."With the sound of the beep, I heard the doctor say, 'he has died'. My wife was crying, and I heard my close friend's words as he was sending me on my way."
Twenty years earlier on his way home from work he fell unconscious and was taken to the emergency room of a hospital where he was pronounced dead and taken to the mortuary of the hospital. He doesn't remember how long after hearing the words in the emergency room of the hospital, but he woke up and walked out of the mortuary on his own.
He does remember opening his eyes in the mortuary and beginning to breath and feeling the cool air in his lungs and realizing that he was alive. When he went to find the nurses, the hospital was in an uproar. His doctors and family came rushing to where he was. They gave him a Ringer's solution which Stephen felt was bringing about a paralysis of the body, and he cried out. They removed the solution, and he was transferred to a hospital bed. He experienced a miracle. He never returned to his work, and has continued as a volunteer helping others in hospice and in other volunteer works.
The second article tells us the story of Angela, who worked in a place of pilgrimage to Korean martyrs. She was living the middle-class lifestyle when three years ago everything came crashing down. Her husband planning to expand his business borrowed money to buy some land and everything took a turn for the worse. They were in great debt. They had to sell everything to pay the debt even the house in which they lived. It was a hopeless situation, and she desired death. There were cliffs on all four sides. If this happened when she was young it would have been different, but now she didn't know what to do.
She remembered the martyrs who got rid of everything and moved to the mountains to live. This idea that God was working through her difficulties to a new way of living began to take hold. This reflection on the martyrs enabled Angela to see life in a new way. She began to see her situation with different eyes. The family became closer together than ever before, they became more concerned for each other, and she found work to help the family along. She realized that not all the possibilities had been blocked. She was born again.
