Deo Gratias

 

A pastoral bulletin has an article by a priest on happiness. He tells the story of a teacher who was always laughing and one of his disciples recalls he never showed any signs of sadness. Nearing death the disciple asked him what  was the secret of his happiness. 

"You are facing death, how is it that you can laugh about it? Without doubt there have been times in life when things have been unpleasant and you have experienced sadness, how come you  never showed that in your demeanor?"

The teacher quietly responded: "I met my teacher when I was 17 years old. I already knew sadness and suffering, and always felt depressed. My teacher was always laughing and I asked him the secret. 'Why are you always laughing?' He answered: 'I was like you for many years, overcome by sadness. One day the thought came to me that I was in charge in the way I was to live my life. From that time on when I woke up in the morning I would ask myself what would it be today? Would I be happy or unhappy?' "

Happiness is something that I will have to choose. Are we  walking with God or not?  Saints are those who have made the decision to walk with God and they are our example of a life well lived. This requires 'metanoia' -- change.

Every morning when we awake from sleep which is like death, we are born again to a new day. We like the saints are living a life of 'metanoia' and walk with God. It is my decision to make, and we know that we have the help that we need so life should be one long  'Deo Gratias' (Thanks be to God).

Paul Bourget (1852-1935), a French thinker said: "One must live the way one thinks or end up thinking the way one has lived." A person who is always walking with God will even at death be able to thank God for his life. 

Every morning  when we open our eyes, we give thanks. Our life is one of change and each day we are giving another chance to walk with God  which elicits from us a heartfelt: Deo Gratias.

Educating for Maturity

The Catholic Times had an article on how the Catholic Philosophers want to solve the problems of  our competitive society.At an academic conference the philosophers considered the evil in society that came to light with the Sewol tragedy, and our response. 

Participants discussed why do we have evil, and what to do about it?  Noted was a close connection of evil with money matters, and our insensitivity and lethargy to suffering and evil. Mentioned was the place of education in bringing about a change.

The Sewol tragedy was not just an accident but showed corruption and evil.The participants made clear that to keep silent is to be negligent, lack love for neighbor, and in the process end up doing evil.

Two of the participants asked was it possible to find some good in the evil of suffering? Does society see evil and make it known? Does our education contribute to eradicating evil? Does society criticize evil?  Absence of political ethical values promotes the  culture of death.The ways of God and human responsibility were all subjects for the talks. 

After the Sewol tragedy the existence of our indifference urges us to change. If the evil that continues to spread is to stop, and we want to change course and make suffering a reason to establish the good, we need to  seek the reasons for pain and make them known. In this way we will avoid future pain that the families of the victims had to experience with the tragedy.

The word accident was changed to tragedy in the mass media because they saw the workings of evil.  We have been educated for success in our economic life. We have not worked to create capabilities to oppose evil, but educated for competitiveness which has entered the education system and into society.

We need to  integrate our life and knowledge for maturity. In conclusion there was a desire to put an end to the stereotypes in our text books and look at the problems, worries the students face in their daily lives and come to grips with them and work through them to form the whole person.

Pleasure of Writing

A celebrity blogger said that with the passage of time his personal life began to get complicated and ostentatious. As the readers began to increase he began to feel uncomfortable in reading his own blog. In the beginning it was like a diary and pictures were added, but he did not feel free and was overcome with discouragement.

A Salesian religious sister who has a degree in media ecology and conducts retreats writes about the benefits of writing in her column in the Catholic Times. Many who have blogs use them as a diary: an open diary for all those connected to the  Social Network Service. What is written for the viewing of others usually has more concern for the audience than for inner integrity of the person doing the writing. When this is repeated, she says, the danger is to have it intoxicate one.

The more a person uses Facebook and the SNS sites the less of an appreciation they have of their own  self-worth. The  sister reports a psychologist discovered this in his investigation. Many are looking for approval and praise from those with whom they are in  contact. Another psychologist in his experiments found those who excessively make known information on their blog do not have a good feeling for their efforts. The friends they make on SNS are only virtual friends, and their real friends, with the overload of information, makes their relation with the blogger more difficult. 

Moreover, using the SNS diary pages the intense feelings of elation one feels makes the gentle communications with family and friends unappreciated. SNS becomes a means of showing our pictures and writings and making our self known on an event page.

How about getting back, she says, to a paper diary that we have forgotten? Especially in the  digital age going back to the pencil and paper diary has a lot of meaning. We put aside for a time the digital equipment and with pencil and paper concentrating on what we write, we become intimate with ourselves. Stress, outside noises, our business concerns are put to sleep, our emotions subside, and as we write in the diary our inattentiveness becomes regulated.

She remember the years during overseas study when she had to deal with a new language and culture; her diary writing helped her solve many of the difficulties she faced. She has never forgotten the help she received from the writing and the closeness she felt to God.

She concludes with the words of a novelist who said that when he picks up a pencil to write, the body is pushing the pencil. This feeling is very important to him, without this feeling he would not be able to write even one line. Wouldn't it be wonderful, she asks, if we all had this feeling when we pick up a pencil?

Results of Pope's Visit to Korea

After the visit of the pope to Korea we have been looking to see what sprouts have begun to appear within the Church. A recent seminar wanted to know what we can expect from the visit as seen by a priest, sister, and a layperson. An article in the Catholic Times gives a synopsis of the talk of each of the participants.

The priest mentioned the centrality of the clerical in the make-up of the Church: this needs to be addressed for a reformation. The original understanding of Church,he said, was for the pope and bishops to  deepen the faith life of the Christians, giving them hope and to energize them for renewal of the world in which we live. The aim is to extend the kingdom of God, to spread the faith and not a place where we make our last will and testament to pass on our treasures. We want to have a deeper relationship with God: sharing among ourselves, a desire to learn, question and resolve our doubts; the lack of communication is a problem .

Justice and mercy are two concerns of  our Christian  life but there is no reason to discuss which is prior, for they are tied together. To be only interested in love and forgetting justice is a  temptation we face.  Without concern for justice, he says, and thinking love is all that is  necessary, we deceive ourselves.

The renewal of the Church requires a change in the structures of administration and culture. Secondly, make our Catholic identity clear, a need to  change our discipline to achieve unity. Thirdly, a need to deepen our religious life, which will require effort from our leaders and more openness. He feels there is a need to change the culture of our priests to a more Gospel based culture.

The sister reminds us that without a change in the way we looked upon a great many of the habits of the past in our religious life we will not have change.When the  religious orders in the past were faced with a crisis they  were able to change:  because of the strong impact this made on the religious. Religious were not under the organizational system of the Church which gave them more freedom. When difficulties arose the religious walked with God as their companion which was the hallmark of the religious.

Religious are the first to face the crisis and react to it. They are the prophetic voice against the unhealthy individualism, and against the accommodation with the times, and open to a greater courage to overcome the difficulties.

The layperson mentioned the Church has not been concerned with the poor but with external growth. We have become a middle class  community for fellowship which makes change difficult. He looks around and sees much that goes contrary to the image of the Church that the pope stressed in his visit.  The lay people are by far the largest segment of the Church and wants them to take the message to heart and work for its implementation.

Affective Literacy

Korea still values marriage greatly, but there is much  talk about the single life and cohabitation.  Marriage being what it is in the world today, people in small groups very openly discuss whether it is not better to live alone, and if one wants a relationship to have one without commitment that allows one to leave when desired.

Because of necessity those who have to live alone, do hear words of consolation, but those that oppose marriage are self proclaimed progressives. There is not just one way of talking about the single life and cohabitation for they take many different forms. Some have chosen the single life and others have not, some are temporary and some are not.

Cohabitation likewise concerns those with the intention of marriage; or those wondering if this is the future mate or not. Some are living a common law marriage or in a long  term relationship: an option and choice of life style.

A seminary  professor of ethics  writes about these issues in the  Kyeong Hyang magazine. He uses the book Agony of the Eros by Han Byung-chul a philosopher living in Germany for some of his ideas. Professor Han maintains many see the 'other' only as the mirror of one's own Ego. The 'other' is only an instrument for pleasure. "We" is a concept that militates against my growth and fulfillment.

The 'other' is like a commodity displayed in a department store. We can buy and return it for something else: a commodity and little else. I am what is important the 'other' is for my use.

The word love is not a word that we can discuss for it is only a commodity. There is a new type of person being born. The refusal to take upon oneself the burdens that come with the 'other' is considered the new wisdom, but what is forgotten is the way we came into the world. Before I was able to see the 'other' I was in the eyes of the 'other'. When they saw my naked body they laughed. Before I was able to see the pupil of their eyes I was groping for the breast of the 'other'.

The writer admits that his faith life has a lot to do with the way he sees the 'other' and himself. His celibacy is for God's reign and for the 'other'. It is because of the 'other' he can dream and  give himself to the vocation that he has chosen. Both the single life and married life requires austerity. The married are drawn to the union of the male and female, their intellects and wills fine tune the relationship so that they can find happiness in the life-long commitment to each other.

A person living alone who denies the attraction of the 'other', and those who are cohabiting and deny the goodness of the 'other' are affective illiterates. They are not seeing the hope that comes from our human nature they are deliberately fostering a life without goals and empty: a life of idleness, boredom and without festivity.

For a Christian the cross has great meaning for us. The single person and those cohabiting need to rid themselves of their self-centered ideology and begin a new way  of seeing the 'other'. He finishes the article by telling them to forget about romance and marry.

Living with Empathy

A Religious Sister, the head of a Research Center and a college lecturer, writes  In View from the Ark of the Catholic Times about mirror neurons. She mentions when watching a movie or a drama we are moved by the  same emotions the  characters express: crying or laughing. Why are these emotions, she asks, transferred to us?

Giacomo Rizzolatti an Italian doctor and his team noticed that when a monkey placed a peanut in his mouth the motor neurons would react, and this would also be true if the researcher put a peanut in his own mouth, the same neurons in the monkey would respond, and these were called mirror neurons. This was discovered with electrodes placed in the brains of the monkeys. She mentions that in California, scientists in 2010 discovered that humans have the same mirror neurons.

At sport events the spectator watching the athletes can have sweaty hands, be anxious, and when the athlete receives  a medal the spectator can experience the happiness of the  athlete. This emotional transference is called the mirror neuron. True not only with joy but also when one sees or hears about someone in pain. We are affected by the pain: empathy without the intention, comes to one automatically. 

Sister mentions a talk she heard by Daniel Goleman a psychologist. He talked about an experience he had when leaving work and going down the steps to a subway. A man was lying besides the stairs, without a shirt and not moving. People where oblivious of him and walking over him on their way to the subway. Golman stopped to see what was the problem and six other people came to where Golman was standing. The man had been walking the streets without anything to eat and fell because of weakness. He knew no English, was a foreigner, and had no money.Quickly a person in the group gave him something to drink and eat, someone called the police. Within a short time he got up and started to walk.

This little act on the part of Golman drew the attention of others to express their empathy for the man. All Golman did was stop beside the man; this gesture was enough to gather people around him. Latent empathy in these people was released by the action of Golman. 

Sister mentions  a study that was made by two scientist who said for every happy person you know, happiness increases by 9 percent, and for each negative person you know there is a decrease of 7 percent. We all know from our own lives that happiness and sadness are contagious. When a person smiles at me I am uplifted, when I see a grimace I am dejected. I need to remember I am a  person able to energize the communities to which I belong.

We learn strategies for survival, living in our capitalistic society where survival of the fittest is the norm. What allows us to maintain our life is not competition but sharing what we have, having sympathy and cooperating with others. We can hope for a consensus because of the mirror neuron.

She concludes the article by reminding us when we are only concerned about ourselves, and lack the leisure to go out to others, we will become a society without empathy. Feelings for others is not something exceptional, but simply words and gestures we use daily: a word of care for another, a smile, showing sympathy. She wants us have the leisure to make this part of our life.

Taizé Community in Korea

"Today, the Taizé Community is made up of over a hundred brothers, Catholics and from various Protestant backgrounds, coming from around thirty nations. By its very existence, the community is a 'parable of community' that wants its life to be a sign of reconciliation between divided Christians and between separated peoples.The brothers of the community live solely by their work. They do not accept donations. In the same way, they do not accept personal inheritances for themselves; the community gives them to the very poor." Words about the Taizé movement found on their web site.

On Oct. 4th over a hundred young persons, freely, gathered together in a small Protestant Church in Seoul: hearing about the gathering on Facebook, other Internet portals or by word of mouth. Catholic, Protestant  Anglican young people met together to pray and praise, making a temporary Taizé village. These young people prayed late into the evening with short hymns repeated, with prayers, silences, meditations, and sharing their faith with one another.

What makes these young people come together for no particular reason, despite their busy schedules? "They came to a place where they could pray freely."
"They are attracted to the Taizé way of praying... they wanted to share the allure of the Taizé method of praying with the Korean youth."

The origin of the Taizé prayer is from a small village of Taizé in France where 10s of thousands of young people gather every year. Those with faith and those without faith gather: 2 or 3 days if short, and if long for 2 or 3 years. They  remain in the village taking care of  their  personal needs for clothing, food and lodging, very simply, and giving praise to God.

One of the brothers who has been a member of the Taizé community in France has come to Korea on five different occasions. Brother Sin Francis, led the prayers on one of the days. This year has been a difficult year, he said, for Korea, China and  other countries of Asia, prayers are needed. They want to spread the spirit of Taizé in all of the countries of the world. They recall Brother Roger who over 70 years ago started the community with the love he showed to the refugees of the Second World War: Jews, prisoners of war, and many others who suffered. They were consoled with the prayers and the love they received within the community. 

Much time has passed but still the young people are attracted with the simple prayer life they experience at Taizé. Writing in the Peace Weekly about the community, the journalist, sees the strength that comes from prayer in the faces of the youth, and reports what he learned at the gathering.