When the economy is stagnant, many find their livelihood jeopardized. Debts keep piling up; businesses fail; work places close, not a few people are faced with a bleak future. A diocesan bulletin gives us the thoughts of a woman who underwent such an experience, and writes about it very frankly. The title is: 'God, give me money in exchange for my husband'.
She was married for 20 years, and their world fell apart. They moved out of their parent's home. The parents moved to a small house, and they moved to a basement rented room. She liked the basement room. It was the first time in 20 years she had the freedom to do what she wanted. However, within a week, the rice container and the purse were both empty.
She always dreamed of living independently. Shortly, she realized that leaving the homestead she also needed to have financial independence and childlike, those thoughts came later. She felt helpless and with her husband started working in cleaning services.
Her husband was not accustomed to manual labor. When she dragged him along to work, that evening his whole body ached. He would lie down and grown with pain. She was not able to understand him nor did she want to understand him. She was angry and kept herself from being overcome by anger and hate. She prayed to God, and although she didn't want accolades for being a dutiful daughter-in-law for 20 years: why was she in such miserable straits? She couldn't overcome her indignation, and she started to cry.
She cried more during this time than in the previous 20 years. Her whole being was hurting, and the dislike for her husband continued to grow. Than one day in prayer, she cried out: "God, give me money in exchange for my husband. I no longer need him, give me money instead." When we are moved by greed, she says, there is no standard to the kind of words we may use in prayer. This is what she heard in reply.
"I am with you." Hearing these words a cold shiver passed through her. She recovered her composure and saw her husband. In her mind, she was the only one having difficulties, had grievances, and was desperate, that her husband was going through the same thing never entered her mind. She admits that her husband was the person she married 20 years before. What had changed was her way of looking at life. When all was well, there was never a problem but when the financial difficulties came she began to see her husband as incompetent. The problem was not with her husband but with her. The anger and hatred came not because of the husband, but because of her desperation.
She was yelling and desperate; her husband was without words and enduring it all with patience. When she realized what was happening, she was overwhelmed with shame and wanted to hide. "God, forgive me."
A seminary moral professor, writes in the magazine: With Bible, on a need to see the world with different eyes. He mentions the book by Kevin Perrotta on James: Put your Faith to work. When we believe in Jesus, we can't accept discrimination. He begins the article with the passage from the epistle of James 2:1-4-- "My brothers, do not try to combine faith in Jesus Christ, our glorified Lord, with the making of distinctions between classes of people." Do I spend a lot of nervous energy on deciding what clothes to wear or am I surprised at the tastes others have for clothes?
The writer mentions when he was in middle school one of his friends was wearing a crocodile logo T-shirt with pride. The group of boys began to argue about whether it was genuine or fake. The writer showed his socks to the group which had the crocodile logo, but the tail of the crocodile logo was going in the opposite direction. Although he said nothing, it was taken for granted that his friend had a fake logo and within seconds, his friend's situation looked shabby. He asks, was it the logo that was important or wasn't it something inside both of them, they wanted kept hidden, and were trying to express with the brand name? They were showing off, wanting to be seen better than they were. When he recalls this incident, he is embarrassed.
He introduces us to Merleau-Ponty (1908-19610) a phenomenologist and his book The Visible and Invisible. The body is what interacts with our environment: without the body, we cannot communicate with the world, and we can't explain our lives. In our present world not only is the body considered important but the way we express our sexuality, and it surrounds us everywhere. The mass media makes much of this sexuality and makes it a commodity.The result of this emphasis prepares us to see only with our eyes and foolishly miss what is invisible.
With a belief in Jesus, we can't at the same time, discriminate among persons. Jesus is the example that we follow. He had no concern for the person's place in society or fame; he loved them all. In the words of Perrotto when we associate with those who are well dressed we are dealing with someone important and expect some good to come, but with another person dressed shabbily being considered a friend is something we avoid. To judge only by a person's exterior is a fault. We are judging like the world and not a follower of Jesus. When attracted only by what we see, we will not be attracted by what we can't see: and that means God and the things about God.
He admits that even today when a person is shabbily dressed and well dressed comes to church the way he relates with them is different. He still does not want to be treated like an ordinary person. He knows that this is not what it should be for a follower of Jesus. He realized that to see what is impossible with the bodily eyes needs the tempering by belief. And reminds us of the words of Jesus to Thomas: "You believe because you can see me. Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe."
In Korea, Youth Sunday is celebrated on the last Sunday of May. Pope John Paul II started the Youth Day in 1984 for Palm Sunday, and the Korean Church in 1989 moved it to the last Sunday of May: wanting to fortify the young peoples' desire for fellowship, justice and peace.
This year is the 29th Youth Sunday, and one of the two editorials in our Catholic papers mentions that the pastoral work with the youth is blurred. The numbers of the young people at the Sunday Masses continue to decrease. In last year's statistics those under 19 years of age numbered 650 thousand; this number has decreased 20 percent from ten years earlier. The numbers of those that go from elementary to middle Sunday school dropped 10 percent. When the young people are not coming out to church, there is little that can be done.
There is a need to be concerned. All those who have made a study of the situation are agreed that the big problem is parents. All depends on whether parents are naturally able to bequeath their religious faith to their children. This is where the first interest and concern of the Church should be in addressing the problems with the youth.
The bishop president of the committee for youth in his message for the Youth Day mentions three points: remember the importance of our faith, read the Scriptures and pray before the Eucharist, and thirdly, look at the world with a larger vision and prepare for God's kingdom.
Pope Francis will be in Korea, August 14-18, on the occasion of the sixth Asian Youth Day. The theme of the event is ' Asian Youth: Wake Up! The Glory of the Martyrs shines on You.'
There is the hope that the visit of the pope to Korea will be a help to kindle a new fire among our Christians and his presence at the Asian Youth Day as an occasion to lead our young people to a more mature faith life.
In recent years, education and the philosophy on which it should be grounded has been discussed repeatedly. The Catholic Church has shown a great interest in the need for a new pattern in educating our children, and has begun this in many of its institutions. The results of our present educational programs have educated for the society in which we live: education to get ahead, get a good job and make a lot of money. However, this has to be for a select few, and the many others are left with a feeling of being losers, and many of those who succeed lack the humanity we need in a happy and mature society.
A priest, in the diocesan bulletin, writes about the need to revamp the way we teach catechism to our children. The problems in our Sunday School programs are not what we see in the secondary educational system, but their problems are influencing the way the parents and children see religious education. Most of the students in the 12 years of primary and secondary education have not read the complete Bible. Do they really have a Catholic world view, Catholic values? In his opinion, there are very few. And bluntly states that it has been a repetition of what they learned in preparation for First Communion. The Reading of the Bible is not of course all that is necessary for a Catholic, but with a program in our catechism classes, he stresses, that doesn't have this goal is missing something important.
This may have been the unexpressed goal for decades in the teaching of our children, and yet we have failed. He puts the blame on the lack of vision by those involved in the education of the children: parents, teachers and clergy.
He feels that the parents do not see the need for a holistic approach to education, and do not consider the teaching of the catechism as equal to what they are getting in their educational programs in schools. He mentions 'The Duke of Edinburgh's Award' program. He feels that some of these principles should find a place in our catechism programs: non-competitive, available to all, voluntary, flexibility, balanced programs, progression, record of achievement, value of progress, marathon not a sprint and enjoyable.
Parents have to see a need for the education of the whole person and not see education as a means of succeeding in society. This is a big order and the reason why a change in our catechism programs will not be successful until parents see education in a new way. Holistic Education is of the head, the heart and the body. Nature, community and humanitarian values are important. However, in the society that we have made parents will see this approach as beautiful and noble, but not what the competitive society that we have made wants or needs. Consequently, parents will continue to feel without the academic rigor their children will not find employment and have a hard time adjusting to our society. That is the dilemma of parents: to educate for happiness or for worldly success. A hard decision to make, but shouldn't be for a Christian.
What are Catholics saying about the Church in their daily lives? What do the Catholics find enjoyable about their lives? In order to have the answers to these and similar questions, we need a way of listening to what Catholics are saying, and a good way is the new media; simply put, going to the Internet. These are the words of a priest who is an authority in the study of media, and writes in the Catholic Times on the new media.
One of the research groups in the United States reports that during 2013 those who visited Pope Francis' Twitter account, 84 percent reacted favorably to what they read. Indirectly, he says, we know there are people who in their daily lives are interested in what the Church is saying and are happy with the leader of the Catholic Church.
Important as it is to have a theological blue print of what is happening, likewise, necessary is to know what people are saying and feeling about the goings-on in the Church. With this information, we are able to prepare the nourishment and make it more digestible. It is precisely this need that will make it easier for the Church to convey its inexhaustible treasures in a way persons will be open to receiving them. This requires a need to know where to listen and to examine what is being said. The traditional media: radio, television, newspapers and the like are communicating news; their interest is not recording what people are saying but to explain and circulate information. It is here that the SNS (Social Networking Service) is of value.
From the SNS, we learn how people relate to things religious, what they find helpful and what gives them vitality; the way they relate to Jesus and how they experience him in their lives. We learn what they expect from the Church. These are all very important answers needed to understand what the Church has to do to address the problems people have in society.With the new media, we hear the voices of the people and their witnessing within the Church and become acquainted with what they feel and need for living the spiritual life.
The new media as with all of life, there is a need to discern what is of value and what is not. Since the voices are many, it requires patience and good judgement to determine what is of help and what isn't. There are still many who use the new media without any desire to inform: negative, disparaging, and participate in less than human ways. This can be seen in some of the responses to the Pope's Twitter account. Since most of the responses are positive, we are thankful, but that is the price we pay for a free Internet. The criminal use of the Internet is illegal and when done authorities are notified and legal steps are taken, but there is a lot between the very bad and the very good that is of little worth.
A chaplain of a prison community writes about his experiences for a pastoral bulletin. The community is a very interesting one, he says, for the officers are elected by the community and are taken from the members with the heaviest sentences: it is only these members the community will follow. The president is the one who has a life sentence.
On Layman's Sunday, the prisoner president of the Catholic community gave the sermon, and his topic was the Ten Commandments. No problem with the first three, when he arrived at the fourth commandment, there was a change. He asked the congregation: "Who has obeyed their parents?" He asked them to raise their hands; nobody did. Since we are all in this place, he said, we have not been obedient.
When he began talking about the 5th commandment, he mentioned this was not easy, for as everybody knew he was in prison because of a killing. The priest lowered his head and kept himself from laughing. Why in the world would he pick such a topic? He couldn't understand. From the fourth to the tenth, in one way or another, they were the reason they were in prison: lack of filial piety, murder, fraud, sexual crime, theft, crimes against families, etc.... They did not raise their heads during the sermon nor did the priest, but the reasons were different. Those in the congregation didn't raise their heads because of shame, the priest looking at them was overcome with compassion as if the commandments were only for them and in no way related to himself and others. In his thoughts, he wondered: Were the commandments only for these prisoners? He really never considered himself a sinner. Although we continually say before God, we are all sinners. He has not committed any serious sins so for him the thought of confession was not welcomed.
Compared to them, he asks, is he a just person while the prisoners are sinners? Was he not like the Pharisee in the temple praying to God? He was embarrassed that his standard of judgement on what was sinful were the written laws of the country.
Time spent in faith sharing and discussing passages of Scripture with the prisoners, he sees their resolve not to sin again. At this time he appreciates why Jesus seemed to enjoy the company of the tax collectors and sinners.
When the prisoners are released the parting greeting is: "Let us not see each other here again." Discharged from prison they are not going out to a welcoming world. They will have to overcome the scornful looks of many. Society will look on them as outcasts and shunned. When they fall into sin again they will hear: "It is what we expected." Is it because people knew they would sin again that they shunned them? Is it not rather because they were shunned, they turned to crime?
