Holy Family Sunday

Today is Holy Family Sunday and the sermon in the Seoul Bulletin wants us to see an aspect of family life we overlook. A celebrity who because of some irregularities was absent from the limelight for some time made an appearance on the stage and told the audience: "When I was in trouble it was only my family that gave me support and strength." When the priest hears these and similar words he feels uncomfortable. Often we reduce the meaning of family to suit are special understanding of what a family is. It becomes a shield to protect ourselves and to exclude others.  

From whom do we get our biggest scars?  The hurts usually come from those that I know best, from those nearest to me. Those who are not close to us, even if the words are meant to inflict great harm, they don't do much damage. We have little difficulty in ignoring them. But it is different with those close to us: violence in the family, conflict between the parents, indifference to the others in the family is another matter.  Violence in the family is so embarrassing one is not able to speak about it. Many psych themselves to say it is no serious problem but the scars that are inflicted, contrary to what we may think, are many.

Not far in the past we had many families living together in rented homes in the same building. Provided the owner was a decent person, they would all live in harmony concerned with each others needs.

Today with the advances that have been made, many of the needs have disappeared.  But the members of the priest's generation remember those days and how the families lived harmoniously with one another.

We have become independent of others with the  technological advances. Neighbors have disappeared. We have become oblivious of our surroundings. We are only concerned with ourselves and our families. When we watch the news the problems of others have no connection with ourselves. He concludes the sermon wondering if we are not just interested in taking care of the  needs of the family and all else is immaterial.

We  call this the feast the Holy Family. Confucianism has influenced our society to a great extent and the virtues of humanness and etiquette have helped to make the family strong. Filial piety was strongly emphasized. Christianity has introduced God, and his providence, by remembering we are members of many other communities helps to make our families holy.                                                                                                                                       

Reading for Meaning

Reading with the eyes only is not reading. Likewise seeing an image only with the eyes is not to see. The Catholic Times' column:  Electronic and Book World  wants us to reflect on the meaning of these words.

What we see, read or hear requires an effort to interpret the meaning. We are living,  buried in an avalanche of information and when it gives no meaning to our lives it is of little value. There is much reading with little understanding which makes us functionally illiterate. She quotes Alvin Toffler who said that  modern illiterates: "no longer want to learn and are not able to read the information they receive."

When I read something and remember it there is some meaning. The difference between meaning and no meaning is vast.  When we read or see something this should not be a  simply  act of reading but with perception we gain knowledge and  meaning by the process of interpretation. This requires the activity of the mental and spiritual dimensions of the person.  A research team at Washington University in the  science of the mind, she explains, discovered  when something was see without any meaning only a small area at  the back of the brain was activated but  when the same thing was see and given meaning new channels were opened. The moment meaning was added to the reading more neurons in the brain were activated, two and three times more. When we perceive and interpret, our mental world  can't help but be changed.

Don't we say we see the world with the personality  we have developed? We perceive and act according to the meaning we have given to what we have seen, heard and have become aware. When we stay at the level of seeing and hearing and don't enter the process to find meaning, we have no hope of changing the way we live. What we see is not the real, but we make it real by our awareness and  interpretation. It will depend on how much meaning I can give to what I read that will make the world come to me. Daily we have to ask ourselves are we encountering the real world?

Daily, in the subway, walking, in the work place when we are fingering for words, images and sound are we just seeing and enjoying the superficial world in which we are in, and live without meaning as a wanderer and illiterate?

Funeral of Fr. James Sinnott Maryknoll Priest

Today the Maryknoll Family in Korea with many other priests and a large congregation said the the funeral Mass for Fr. James Sinnott  who died on Tuesday Dec.23. The Mass was offered in the Church of Repentance and Atonement in Paju, 50 kilometers northwest of Seoul. The Church was built with the help of both North and South Korean artists. The mosaic on the left is the work of the North.

Father Sinnott came to Korea in 1960 and after language study was a assigned to the diocese of Inchon where he worked in pastoral work, built a hospital for the sick, and showed the love of Jesus to the alienated in society. The funeral sermon mentioned the prophetic role that Fr. Jim was forced by his own loving heart, and inability to accept injustices, to work against the injustices he saw. 

During military rule eight innocent persons were condemned in 1975 for being members of the so called "People's revolutionary Party" and after torture and their 'confession' they were  executed the day following sentencing. Fr. Jim with a Protestant missionary George Ogle were deported because of their  activities in opposition to the execution. In a retrial in 2007 all eight were acquitted and the families received a large compensation. This injustice which Fr.Jim saw made him sensitive to injustices in society. He was invited back to Korea and in retirement began painting and  giving his paintings to others in his outreach in love.

Below is a poem by Fr. Jim Sinnott written for his 80th birthday and read on the  visit of the families of those who were executed, and came to celebrate the day with Jim. We included this poem in a blog in 2009 and recopy it for today.

Write it down
Before it goes away:
Eleven people sitting round a table
Out on a lawn under a tree
Here where I live now,
Remembering the things we did,
Attempts against some things
Happening here in South Korea
More than thirty years ago:
Men falsely accused, jailed unfairly –
One of them, eight years imprisoned,
Sitting next to me and
The widow of another
Sitting at my other side.

We are gathered here today
Because I’ve just turned eighty,
A thing impossible to dream of
In one’s early years,
As impossible as the events
That happened here in South Korea
More than thirty years ago,
Events that knit us into one,
An inseparable fabric
Labeled by security police
The “In hyek dang”
The Peoples’ Revolutionary Party,
That phony dictator’s concoction,
That lie that changed our lives
And made widows of these women
As well as years-long prisoners
Of twenty other men.
Eight men were hanged
One early morning, an evil solstice
More than thirty years ago, nine April,
When for us the sun stood still,
A day declared “Black day
In the history of jurisprudence”
By the lawyers of the world;

A day etched in the memory of my guests today,
Gathered round this table
On the lawn outside my house
For an eightieth birthday celebration,
An occasion no young person
Of my generation gives much thought to,
Anymore than one would plan
To be involved with
Murderous judicial decisions,
Torture of the chosen victims
Who were innocent of any crime,
As an apologetic nation
Finally admitted -
Thirty years too late.

And so we gather at this table
And reminisce
About the ways we tried to fight
Those terrible decisions
And we sing again the songs we sang
As we paraded on the streets,
Breaking the “peaceful order” laws
Of those dark times of martial law;
Eleven men and women sitting at a table,
On this day, this summer solstice,
Remembering, together,
Before we also go away.

James Sinnott, MM

A Blessed Christmas.

Christmas is here, a pastor writing for Bible & Life helps us to meditate on the words of John's Gospel: "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us" (John 1:4).  Jesus is the Word a very  meaning-filled  'nick name'  that fills us with awe. Poets often use metaphors in their  poetry and here we have a metaphor that is more than a metaphor.

"In the beginning was the Word; the Word was in God's presence, and the Word was God. " This is the way the Gospel of John begins. A very mysterious existent being who was with God  before the  creation of the world.  "Through him all things came into being, and apart from him nothing came to be."  God had an assistant  at the Creation of the world. We accept this being as Jesus Christ.  "He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creatures. In him everything  in heaven and  on earth was created" (Col. 1:15-16). In I Cor. 8:6, " For there is one God...and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom everything was made and through whom we live."  Jesus is called the word and we can see this prepared in the Jewish Wisdom literature.

In Proverbs 8:22, Wisdom is of divine origin. It existed before all things.  In Sirach 24: 3-9, we have Wisdom coming from God and is distinct from him.  In the Book of Wisdom: God of my fathers, Lord of mercy, you who have made all  things by your word (Wis. 9:1). And in Revelation 21: "This is God's dwelling among men. He shall dwell with them and they shall be his people and he shall be their God..." The writer continues in this vein but at the end says it is perfectly alright to forget this complicated explanation of the Word in the Wisdom literature.  God's Word. God's Son, God himself came to the earth.

Sufficient it is to remember that God became a human because he loved us. We should never forget this. God found a resting place among us. Humanity was overjoyed  and is there anything that expresses the meaning of Christmas more clearly.

In the history of humanity there have been all kinds of words uttered about God many of them empty words.  Jesus came as the definitive Word of God and we need to indelibly inscribe this on our minds and hearts. A word that does not include God, a word that doesn't come from God, a word that only remains a  word with no flesh are all empty words.

Jesus was the one in which life and wisdom were united. He is the one that told us openly to eat him. Empty words are cheap and are scattered every which way when troubles come. Only Jesus the true man and true word came to embrace us.  A Blessed Christmas

Power of Words

A priest in the Seoul Diocese who is responsible for the pastoral care of the  deaf and dumb, and is himself handicapped, writes in the Bible & Life Magazine about the words that have  encouraged and energized him.

He lives in a home with priests who are working in special ministries. He is the only one with a handicap. Community life, he says, is not easy for he can't hear or speak. While eating he sees the other priests talking and laughing, he is not able to participate and it makes it difficult to get close to the priests, and he remains alone in his eating. He tells himself he is not alone, and comforts himself with the thought that Jesus is always with him.

When the estrangement gets deeper, even when he has something to talk about he does not go to his fellow priests. When this continues for any long period of time the relationship with his brother  priests becomes awkward, and his identity as a diocesan priest becomes weak.

Fortunately at one of the seminars there was a priest who knew the sign language and was able to translate for him. That day he was able to communicate with all his fellow priests. One of the priests approached him and said: "Father Park, a priest is not a loner, you have to be one with us!" These words he said with force. They were like a  small light coming into the cave in which he had enclosed himself, and enabled him to come out of the cave, and relate with his brothers. His fellow priests did not treat him as handicapped but warmly and with hand signs communicated with him as fellow priests.

During free time many of the priests who liked soccer were preparing for a match and he was  going  mountain climbing. An older priest seeing him, called him to join them in the match. He didn't have the proper shoes and it was somewhat difficult but he joined them, and was thankful to the priest who called him. Shortly after a priest gave him a pair of soccer shoes. The gift meant a great deal to him.  

One day before a Mass for sponsors he was praying before the tabernacle when a parishioner got his attention and asked to go to confession. He told her that he was not able to speak or hear but she insisted that she go to confession. He explained that it would have to be with written words and she agreed. After the confession he saw her tears and he was thankful that she insisted for he realized that he could also hear confession without the sign language with which he was  accustomed. He looked upon the parishioner as an angel.

When he is in low spirits it is these encounters that bring him out of the cave. "Father Park! you are one of us, when you have some difficulty less us know, we will help you, take courage!" These and similar words have given him strength, and is grateful. He is thankful for  words of encouragement  and for the many who  continue to support him and bring joy into his life. At this time of Christmas it is good to remember how just a few words of encouragement  can inspire and give strength.

His First Christmas

The columnist in the Peace Weekly recalls an incident that happened back in the 80s. Unexpectedly a friend asked if  he was interested in going to the home of a student for a meat meal. They walked along a back street for some time before they came to a small room where he prepared the table with pork belly slices.

They were both college students and teaching  in an  evening school for workers. Many of these  types of schools at that  time were located in Seoul. This particular school was managed by the Church. He himself was a half baked materialist but it made no difference in being hired.

His friend bought the meat with his savings, and they had plenty to fill their stomachs. On the way back he asked his friend what was the occasion for the party. The friend said the student had TB and with the medicine, he needed some good protein to help in his recovery. What his friend  said left him flabbergasted. His friend would go once a week to the room of the student to prepare a meat meal. They were both the same age;  he respected his friend but what his  friend was doing impressed him greatly and he wondered what enabled him to be so altruistic.

He leaned later on his friend was thinking of the priesthood. Wanting to be a priest was all strange to the  columnist but  it gave him an answer for his question. He became curious in what motivated his friend. At that time the Church was speaking out about justice issues in society. He later became a Catholic and his friend went on to become a priest.

No one with words  lead him to the Church, he said,  it was the example of his friend that  aroused his  interest. At that  time he went to his first Mass at Christmas. Later, with his camera, for twenty years he has taken pictures of places  were Jesus was being experienced by many believers. He became director of the TV work and has not always been pleased with what he has seen, his weak faith has hit bottom and he has returned. Often in the darkness all around, he cries out: "Where in the world  are you?"  And yet he fortunately has  been able to return to the time with his friend and his Christmas Mass. At that time he left his atheism and because of his friend saw another way and he returns to the warmth he experienced there like returning to the homestead.

The disciples of Jesus after the trauma of the crucifixion and resurrection wanted to return to their first days with Jesus in Galilee. This was the land of their first Christmas and they remembered the warmth of those days. He will be trying to do this  during these days of Christmas with programs  prepared for the Christmas season for the Peace Catholic Television Channel. 

Returning to Nature

He was was born and lived in a little village surrounded by mountains, both in front and back, left and right. The sky was less visible than the mountains. He grew up without any toys for it was the mountains and fields that were his playground, nature was his plaything.

A diocesan priest writing for a bulletin for priests reflects on what this has meant for him. As a child his spiritual life was composed of going to the mission station Mass against his will. The 14 stations of the cross on the wall only made him fearful. The mountains also caused fear in his young heart but when he was hurt he would climb the mountains;  they received him graciously which gave him consolation and  peace, and for this feeling he was thankful. The mountains were like a father to him.  Even today when he prays the Our Father and says the words heaven he sees the mountains of his childhood.

There was talk of turning this village into a dam and at that time he was responsible for the justice and peace work in the diocese so he worked together with the citizens to revoke the plans. During this time he began to see the need for the Church to get involved in preserving our environment. The plan for the dam was cancelled and he began to study the theology of ecology.

Living in the city and growing accustomed to the life  he realized that he was becoming alienated from nature. The emptiness he was feeling was the estrangement from the natural, and dreamed of walking the earth and fingering it again as he did as a child. The chance came suddenly when he was given the work to  head the Catholic Farmers Association in the  diocese.

Since he was responsible for the work among the farmers he decided he would have to spend time getting acquainted with farming and spent a whole year full time farming. The association had an old school building that was used to educate farmers who were returning to the farms, and a school for ecology. Being again close to the mountains he remembered  his own dead father. He walked again the earth barefooted, it  felt so soft and comfortable. The work was hard but there was great satisfaction, and he regretted not having done this earlier.

The Free Trade Act has opened the market to all the countries which will bring hardships to the farmers. He feels strongly that this was a lack of responsibility on the part of the government and repercussions will follow in the life of the nation. He also sees this affecting our spiritual life. His work he sees as sacramental in being one with the old people, and helping them to continue on the farms.