Learning from the Old to Prepare for the New

In the Catholic Times the Desk columnist  presents us with two Korean maxims which he wants us to reflect on  as we come to the end of our calendar year.  "Time to see the old year out and the new year in." And secondly: "Find a guide into tomorrow by taking lessons from the past." The second maxim we need to follow at all times, but fail to do so because of laziness. 

These two maxims he says should work together. The first one has to do with a government official who has been changed and a new one has arrived. When the new person comes there is a new environment that begins. But at the same time we remember to learn from the past so we wont make the same mistakes in the future. Whether it was failure or success, we learn from the past and with the new knowledge and understanding  we begin again. History becomes a way of learning for the future.  

With the new year we throw to the winds the hurts of the past. We don't want to tie ourselves to the frustrations and despair of the Sewol disaster. We learned from the disaster to guide us during the new year. The new allows us to say goodbye to the old, but we also learn from the old how to live in the new.

Pope Francis  approached the parents of the victims of the tragedy not because of some teaching of the Church, or some ideology or political position, but because they were hurting. He was showing mercy and concern. 

This mercy was shown in the  way the synod was recently conducted and the way next year the discussion on the family will continue. Pope Francis is following the method of changing what needs to be changed to be closer to the  teaching of the early Church and the apostles. The elements that do not serve the purpose he wants to discard and those that help us to be more Christ-like he wants to retain.

We Christians with the experience of baptism and the cross rid ourselves of worldly values, and recover the values of the Gospel. We work for our personal reformation in which we throw out the harmful, but also learn from the old to prepare for the new.

Accept the Waiting In Life

Life is the repetition of waiting, meeting and leave taking. We wait for the right mate, for our children and grand children. We wait for the subway to arrive, workers for lunch time, waiting for the telephone to ring. The farmer for the rain, the student for graduation and a job, and the one who bought a lottery ticket for the windfall. We wait with joy and anxiety in our hearts, with hope and expectation which fills the passage of time. With these words, in the Peace Weekly, a columnist reflects on the waiting for 'Advent' and for God.  

While in elementary school he remembers going to the streetcar station to wait for his mother. She was not in the first or second cars and continued to wait until late in the evening with all kinds of thoughts entering his mind. The waiting at the home would have been the same kind of waiting, and he doesn't remember why he went to the station. He was worried and when his mother finally arrived he was at peace and happy.  

While in college and waiting for the girl that became his wife he recalls the same feelings. During the day remembering the date with his fiance, the work became heavy, and the whole day was filled with expectation. When the promised hour for the  meeting had passed, and she was not there, the same complicated thoughts that he had as a child entered his mind. 

Even though we are waiting for the Lord, the waiting  for his mother and the girl that became his wife are not the same. The history of the Jewish people was a waiting of 4000 years for an 'Advent'. The Christian hope is a hope for all people, and we wait for the coming at the end of time. Come Lord Jesus: (Marana tha), the last words of the New Testament.

In the liturgy of the Mass we have two expression for this waiting. In the Nicene Creed: "We look for the resurrection of the  dead, and the life of the world to come." After the Our Father: "Deliver us, Lord, from every evil, and grant us peace in our day. In your mercy keep us free from sin and protect us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ."

We are all waiting for God in our own different ways. He mentions one of the most beloved novelists Choi In-ho (Peter) who died last year and according to his daughter who asked her father has the Lord come yet? Answered "No". This was repeated on three different days and on the last day, the day of his death he answered: “God is here. I saw him. Okay. Let’s go,” these were  Choi’s last words, according to his daughter Da-hye.

On our last day of life will this be the way we will be waiting for God. Will my last days waiting for the Lord be filled with irritation and regret? If the Lord does not come what will happen to me?

Peace is the Realization of Justice.

The new liturgical year has begun, and we are now waiting to begin another calendar year. Sadness was evident during a great part of the year, not only the loss of 304 victims in the Sewol tragedy but also many other incidents and a social environment that has left many of the citizens with a heavy heart.

The columnist on the opinion page of the Peace Weekly reminds us of the plight of the irregular- workers (working by contract and without a full time job). This situation is getting worse. The leaders in our society by their words and actions dishearten many in our society. Surprisingly, they  blame those who speak out against  injustices and  corruption as hurting the peace and security of the nation. The press and those enforcing the law are  protecting those who blame the ones speaking against the injustices of society. However, he asks, if those speaking out remained silenced would we have a  more peaceful society?

Many of the Documents of the Church we hear repeatedly that  peace is the realization of justice. Peace is not just the absence of war. Nor is it  maintaining a balance between two hostile forces. St. Augustine in the City of God spends time showing how it was the corruption in the Roman Empire that led to its downfall: lack of justice in the society. For Augustine justice was to give every person what was due. When this is not followed the persons should be punished.

God in creation has given us an abundance of resources, plenty for all to eat and live and when this is monopolized by a few we have an injustice. When we merely follow the supply and demand principle and allow the  growth of the irregular workers we are increasing the numbers who are being driven to live inhumanly, and what they should have is being taken away. St. Augustine in Book IV of the City of God cries out that a nation without justice is like a band of robbers.

We don't lose hope concerning our own situation says the columnist. We are never going to get the peace we want on this earth. Augustine accepts this as given. We call this  among Christians original sin. Once we forget this we will be faced with much anguish and frustration in life, but we continue working to search for the ideal and never give up, but the complete peace will only come in the here after.

For a Christian our strength comes from God. In John 14:27 Jesus says: "Peace is my farewell to you, my peace is my gift to you; I do not give it to you as the world gives peace. " He concludes the column my asking us to accept the peace we have received and  have the courage of love to make it present wherever we are.

Computers an Extension of our Minds

Computers are becoming our minds, and we are living without our heads. The religious sister in her weekly column in the Catholic Times wants us to consider why we are  becoming more intellectually lethargic. She recalls her trips on the fast trains, less time consumed but was more tired at the end; and wonders if this is because we are not following the natural rhythm of life.


In our technological advanced society, we are going at a faster rate than our bodies have been programed to function: riding in cars, cleaning the house, washing the clothes, all helped along with machines. Marshall McLuhan said: "we shape our tools and afterward tools shape us." According to McLuhan, machines are the extensions of the human body. 

She admits that when she sits down at the keyboard of the computer the thoughts come to her much faster than the way she used the pencil in the past. No need to look for information, knowledge, understanding, or remember it, for it is all in the computer, the computer has become part of our central nervous system.

Scholars have shown that many of our children are intellectually lazy, and there are some who lament the situation. Many students are non-rational,  fragmented, and haphazard in their search. All they need do is go to the computer and search, no need to  memorize. They read quickly but the time they have to concentrate is little, and they  find it difficult to overcome tediousness in their studies.

She quotes a poet who wrote: "I found that when I shut the book I left my head inside." She feels this is  all too  true for many of us. No time, but I wanted to do  something, and started reading a book, and when I closed the book I forgot all that I had read. The same is true with a search, after reading all is forgotten. The computer becomes our brains and making us lazy and stupid.

With a plethora of information we lose our desire to use our brains. We are under the impression we know it all, and can find anything we want with ease;  this paralyses the body and mind. When we search for knowledge and make it our own we are alive with the meaning, and with the joy that comes with the process, and we are filled with satisfaction. 

She finishes her column by reminded us that instead of trying to impetuously try to keep up with what is going on in the world, might it not be better not to know all, be slow and enjoy the lack of what we think we should have. We need the leisure to enjoy this lack. The multiplicity of the  equipment of the  digital world will continue to increase, when we try to keep up, precious time will be lost. Amid all the changes, should we not be concerned with what  does not change?

Confrontation Over a Christmas Tree

Aegibong is a mountain that faces North Korea. In the Peace Column of the Peace Weekly we are told the  historical significance of the name. Back in the time of the Sino-Korean War the governor of Pyeongyang province, to escape the invasion of the Qing forces took his mistress and fled. He Hoped to cross the Han River but was captured by the Chinese forces, and taken to the North, only his mistress was able to cross the Han River. She continued to look at the Northern sky waiting for her lover. When she died she wanted to be  buried on a peak which overlooked the North.

In 1966 Park Cheong Hee, the president, visited the mountain, and understood the  feelings of the mistress towards her lover were much like the anguish of the families separated by the division of the two Koreas, the peak was named Aegibong.

Using the  telescopes on the observation platform of  Aegibong  one is able to see many of the villages of the North and the displaced persons now living in the South can look for their villages they had to leave.

Most of the citizens know Aegibong as the place they light the Christmas Tree. The lighting ceremony makes the  news but as in the past it is surrounded with much commentary. Right after the Korean War in 1954 they began decorating a pine tree with Christmas decorations. In 1971 they erected a 30 meter tower which was decorated with Christmas lights. The Protestants prepare the tree for Christmas and have a lighting ceremony. The ceremony is to celebrate  the birth of Jesus and to pray for the peaceful unification of the country. However, North Korea considers the setting up of the tree, that can be seen within North Korean territory, as a subversive act and an incitement to war and oppose it.

Back in 2004 when the two Koreas were talking to each other at the request of North Korea the South stopped the Christmas lighting ceremonies but they resumed in 2010. The tower that was used in the past for the decorations was considered old and dangerous and was torn down; in its place a 9 meter temporary tower was erected by the Protestant Christian Confederation with the permission of the Ministry of National Defense.

The North Korean Religious Council considers the tree a vile psychological tactic that incites to war and is putting pressure to prevent the ceremonies to proceed.  The villagers also who surround the area are very much concerned because of the threat of the North to not stand idly by if they have the lighting ceremony.The villagers say they will use physical force to prevent the lighting of the Christmas tree. They are afraid of the bombing of the area and the danger to the villagers.

The columnist ends up with a question for the rest of us Christians. Christmas is a time of peace and we have a situation that forebodes confrontation. How would Jesus look upon the situation?

                                                                                                     

Doers of the Word

During the liturgical year we have many reminders of where our attention should be directed, and today in Korea we think of the poor in our society and share what we have with them. The third Sunday of Advent is Almsgiving Sunday in Korea,  and also Gaudete, (Rejoice Sunday) reminding us we are to live with joy in our hearts.

We have a message from the head of the bishop's welfare committee that reminds us of the many poor in our society. There are about 4 million Koreans who are living in extreme poverty. Families with three members that do not have the minimum that the government has determined a family needs to live.

In the bishop's message he mentions that in a recent survey made, 86 percent of the Koreans find living difficult. The quality of life in Korea is one of highest in Asia, one of the economic strong countries in the  developed world, and yet many of the citizens consider life difficult: they work hard and have little time to rest.

There is good reason for this when we remember that Korea is a divided country, and with all the talk of war, nuclear armaments, and occasional belligerency, the ordinary Korean is not without serious worries about the future. The country is surrounded with three giant countries which have not always looked favorably on the South.

The top 20 percent of the citizens are earning 6 times what the lower 20 percent are earning. Neoliberalism is a strong economic philosophy that influences a great deal of society. The philosophy has helped Korea progress very quickly in the ranks of the economically strong countries, but also at a great price. The students are well educated and have shown this in comparison with other countries but here again the competition is unrelenting, and for the losers a cloud that remains with them for life.

Christians, the bishop reminds us, can't  separate the love of God from that of our neighbor. We have all heard that even a nation cannot eradicate poverty, it is the work of all of us. We need to participate in improving the way of life for all the citizens, and to help all live in the manner fitting a human being. Joy in life should be a given for all;  sharing what we have with those who have less than what they need is to be doers of the word and not only hearers.                                                                                                                        

Social Gospel of the Church

The Desk Column and the editorial in the Catholic Times presents us with thoughts on the 'Social Gospel Awareness Week' which follows Human Rights Sunday, the second Sunday of Advent. 

The columnist mentions the respect he has for a friend who  graduated from one of the three premier colleges in Korea, SKY: Seoul National University, Korea University and Yonsei University. Not only graduated from one of the best schools but is a member of a  well known Protestant Church, and lives in one of the better areas of Seoul. However, he has been labelled a follower of the North (meaning for many with Communist sympathies).

He is not overly concerned with this turn of events and found some encouragement from Pope Francis' words while in Korea concerning the North. He feels that his friends just don't understand him, and still has a bright disposition.

There are many who have a wrong understanding of what the Social Gospel is all about, and think that it should not be our concern. This he says is not understanding what Catholicism is all about, for it has to do with the ten commandments, and living them in our daily lives.

The teaching of the Social Gospel appears in the Catechism of the Catholic Church in part three:Life in Christ. When we refuse to accept this teaching we are abandoning what it means to be Catholic. The popes  in their exhortations, encyclicals, pronouncements have made this our formal teaching. We are able to see life in society, politics, economy, labor, peace, the environment, life, human rights, and many other issues with the vision that comes from the Gospels.

The Church is like a boat making its way on a rough  ocean. We  need a compass to find the way.The Social Gospel is the compass that shows us the way. When we refuse this direction we are only accepting half of what Jesus has given us. Can we call this  a mature faith life?