A discussion with refugees from the North and knowledgeable persons of the current situation of North Korea was transcribed for an article in the Peace Weekly in a question and answer form.
Q. How is the situation in North Korea at present?
A. With the advent of Kim Jong-un life has become more difficult; not because of problems in not having enough to eat. The ones leaving the North are looking for a better life. In the past if unification were to come they wanted it with the leadership of the North, today there is a desire for unification and they don't care who takes the lead, they want unification for a better life.
A. Living conditions in North Korean are much better than in the past. Even the poor can have three meals a day even though it may be corn gruel. However the difference between those who have and those that don't is getting larger, and the poor are having more difficulty.
Q. South Korea is sending food to the North. Is this getting into the hands of the poor people?
A. The bishops have sent food to the North and the priest responsible for the support that is given has been on the spot and certifies that it is delivered to the people, and not sent to other countries for income. The rice we send is going to feed the North Koreans.
Q.The difference in understanding between the North and South is great. Among the citizens in the South there is dissent with helping the North. If we don't solve this problem, even if we have unification the future looks dark.
A. This is a serious issue. There is little effort being made to improve the situation. The Church should be doing something about the rift between the North and South, and foster understanding but the polarization within the South is also the same polarization within the Church. The issue with the North should not be one between the conservatives and progressives. We have to get rid of this ideology. We need to learn about the North and understand them.
Q. What do we need to do to make it easy for the refugees from the North to feel at home in the South?
A. One of those who left the North and for 6 months traveled to Laos, Myanmar and Thailand before finally arriving in South Korea answers: "The help given by the South Korean Government is greatly appreciated. There are many who find it difficult to adapt to the intense life here in the South. Support of the government, and the warm welcome of the churches is a great help.
At the time of the
Sewol tragedy,a group of college students planned a festival and the religious sisters in charge wanted to
change the program to one for reconciliation. In the column on the Electronic and Book World in
the Catholic Times, the columnist wants us to use this situation to
reflect on the word perception and its meaning.
The
sisters asked the 180
students what they wanted to do considering the disaster the nation was
dealing with. They told those who wanted to continue with the festival
to go to the basement auditorium.
They were hoping to see little movement, at least only
half, one third .... They were mistaken for without hesitation almost
all left for the basement. Only about 20 remained. And of those
20 were some that didn't enjoy the prospect of singing and dancing; this
group spent time in silence, conversation and meditating. While the
others enjoyed singing and dancing in the basement auditorium.
The
sisters alternatively spent time with each group coming and going, and
were able to determine the spirit of each group. Surprisingly, they
found the faces of the smaller group seemed to have more joy. They
were entering into themselves, hurting and sad but at the same time
showed great peace and joy. The students that were singing and dancing
also were enjoying their time together but
their joy was stimulated by something external and different in
kind from the other group. Dancing and singing, money and honor can
bring only temporary joy. Persons can be in pain, and sad, and yet can be at peace and have joy.
Perception in all these cases makes the difference.
Perception grasps the totality of the situation, knows what is
important, puts order in thought and comes to understanding. She
quotes one of the famous Korean philosophers of the past who maintained
perception was at the center of our mental faculties. We are able to
distinguish all the stimuli that come from the outside. When we hear,
and see, our faculty to perceive uncovers what is important. We look for
reasons and results, examine our
experiences, and express our emotions. When we read we
don't assign the knowledge to the store house but respond with
perception and emotion that becomes part of the basis for the way we see life.
Consequently,
when we hear a lecture or read a book one person is energized and
another person finds it boring. We are not all living in the same kind
of world. We respond to the same stimuli in different ways. How did the
students receive the news of the Sewol tragedy and perceive what
happened? Was it only news? Does having the festival mean the young
people will not have time to grieve? Or are we dealing with a
situation in which the young people see so many atrocities, and natural
disasters that they have become unfeeling?
Perception is
something more than reading and seeing the news and having knowledge of a
situation. Perception is the meeting of sensation
and our experience, giving us meaning and understanding which
becomes the bases for our introspection and
contemplation. Perception does not mean to look upon the world as an
object of our perception but to meet and have direct contact with the
world. Isn't this why, she concludes, we say real experience is the experience of perception?
"Few souls understand what
God would
accomplish in them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to
Him and
if they were to allow His grace to mold them accordingly." St. Ignatius
Loyola's words would take a life time to understand, and for most of us,
even then, their meaning would escape us.
God
only knows how to give without conditions, this is grace: free and unmerited gift of God. We are not
able to receive because we do not allow him to embrace us. In the Seoul
Bulletin a poet writes about the light that entered her life. In the
most difficult of situations there has been the flicker of light that
she was able to see and has given her hope even when hope seemed
impossible. Complete despair does not exist for a small flicker of light
will make its appearance. No matter how difficult it is to believe she
continues to believe. She has the flicker of light and her belief which gives her life.
Searching
is a trait that we hear a lot about these days. We have the search for
'well being' for 'healing', a spirituality without religion which will
fill the needs of the searchers. Those who have had the time to look over their lives
and those of others quickly realize that we don't achieve happiness
with what is external, no matter what it is. Happiness comes
from inside oneself. And even the young people understand that without
a minimum of self discipline they will destroy themselves, and harm
those they love. Searching is an important part of life, but for a
Christian we know that God searches for us, seeks to embrace
us, and to give us of himself. Our answer is the 'fiat'.
We
go in search for answers to our angst, while God's grace is wanting
to fill us but we do not understand. Today is the Feast of the Epiphany
and we have the three wise men who were searching, and found what they
were looking for by following the light and willing to be led.
They were humble, opened to ask questions, and wise enough not to trust those unworthy of trust. The story of the Epiphany has meant a great deal to Christians from the very beginning because of the message that it has to offer. Those who had the opportunities to see the light did not, and those who did see the light were moved to follow. All is grace, and one of our greatest tragedies is not to realize this very central truth of Christianity. We go in search for something that we should already possess, one of the great paradoxes of life.
Recently the word toxic parents is seen often in the press. The
columnist in View from the Ark in the Catholic Times recounts a personal
incident that he recalls from the past in his days as a principal of a
high school.
In making the rounds of the class rooms
he saw a student fighting with another student. The student that
initiated the fight, out of the blue, asked the principal: 'Is what I
have done reason enough to call my mother to come to the school?" A
question which surprised the principal. You would think that he would
ask for mercy, but rather it was with the expectation that he would have the mother come to the school over the
incident.
The principal was curious and looking into
the issue found out that the mother without consultation had
registered him in five academies after school. This proved to
be a problem with the son. Fortunately the father was on the side of the
son, but the mother was adamant. The son hoped the fight would bring the
mother to the school and solve his problem.
They
decided to have an encounter with the student, parents, and teachers. They never had a case of this type so the principal was present. At the
first meeting there was great conflict between the mother and son. On
the way home the three of them walked their separate ways.
On
the second meeting the mother crying said she had no other way of
behaving because of her situation. Her husband's brothers all attended
prestigious schools and her husband went to another college. Fortunately
a cousin was accepted at the school that her husband attended so
if her son doesn't get into college all will think that the children
did not have the right mother.
The son seeing his
mother crying and hearing her words said he would work hard to get
into college and give all the glory to his mother. The fight between
them ended. The husband also was sorry for his behavior. All gave in to
the mother and acquiesced to live with the toxic smoke emitted.
Not
wanting to pass on to the children the mother's weak points she was instead passing on her toxic behavior. This type of nurturing of the child will pass on the toxicity to other generations. What
this generation needs is creativity and autonomy to solve their own
problems. Because of what the son has seen it will be difficult to expect an openness to the life of virtue.
The Chinese
character for closeness (intimacy) has three parts: standing on a tree, and looking
around. This is the understanding that he wants included in the process
of nurturing of children and to be wary of controlling every aspect of
a child's life. He hopes the new year will see many more children
enjoying the school years, and parents finding satisfaction in their
family life without the pressures from society.
We talk a lot about happiness these days says a religious sister who
writes and teaches in the field of spirituality. Her article appears on
the opinion page of the Catholic Times.
She wonders
whether the reason for this interest is the leisure many have found.
Talking about the subjective elements of happiness is not easy. To speak
about happiness objectively, and try to measure the degree of happiness
is also difficult, and to compare the degrees of happiness with other
countries doesn't really make much sense, however, in one of the
comparisons with developed countries of the world, Korea comes out near
the bottom. Korea's economic development has improved greatly, but the
happiness index has not kept up with the material development. Why not?
she asks.
She uses the study made by a college professor
who feels that a lot has to do with the factors surrounding a Korean's
desires. A Korean world view has a great deal to do with family,
present day blessings, and a fusion of worldly blessings and recompense
for the hardships of working in the competitive world in which we live.
The blessings are worldly blessing.
At the start of a
New Year we are wishing others good fortune and what is being wished is
different for each person, but the professor believes good fortune
would be wealth, honors, good health and the like, not internal qualities. Consequently, in our society with excessive competition and a
culture which considers order and rank as important, we have many factors that militate against happiness.
We who are Christians are born in this society and can't help but be influenced by the culture. The desire for worldly blessings should not be our only desire. We
have to appreciate the mystery of pain and difficulties of life.
Difficulties in life can make our life more fruitful.
Where
is the person that can go through life without problems? We all have
different ways of accepting the joys and sorrows of life. We need the wisdom to accept serenely the pain and difficulties of life for it will be the key in finding happiness.
We
already know, she says, that happiness and unhappiness co-exist. There
is a time to be happy and to be sad, a time to cry and a time to
laugh.... She gives us two maxims that express the idea that we really
don't know whether success is success or failure is failure until we look back in retrospect. Our attitude is all important.
She
wants us to begin the new year with a trust in providence. Open to accept all the variety of things that may come our way: mature
Christians asking God for the grace to be born again at the start of this new year.
Eul-Mi New Year, begins today. Eul is from the second of the
Heavenly Stems, and Mi, the Chinese character for sheep, the 8th
animal of the Earthly Branches. This is the beginning of the year of
the sheep. In the 60 year cycle we are in the 32rd year which began in
1984. Each year is calculated with a term (Chinese character) from the Heavenly Stems
which number 10, and another character from the Earthly Branches which
number 12, making 60 different combinations. This is not the solar
reckoning, but the lunar calendar which is transferred to the solar calendar for convenience sake.
Both
Catholic Papers had an editorial for the readers on the hope we should
have for the new year. Of the twelve animals in the Asian Zodiac, Christians would have great sympathy for sheep because of the place they have in our
Bible. Right from the first book of the Bible we see that the Israelites
began as shepherds and kept that love for the life of the shepherd.
The
sheep is a gentle animal, it lives at peace with other animals and does
no harm to others and provides us with food, milk and wool. Jesus is called the lamb of God and we know how full of meaning that is for us,
Each
year at this time we begin the New Year with hope in our hearts. In
fact, it is just like any other day but the sentiments that come with
the New Year allow us to think of a new beginning which is always
healthy and gives hope. When hope is missing there is no new
beginning, and even if the thought should be there there is no
meaning. Hope is what supports our life, and
the motive force that keeps us moving forward. This is true not only
for those who have hope but those who have despaired and lost hope
we pray that they regain the hope that will allow them to begin again.
To make
sure that our hope is more than a mirage but a hope that gives joy and
vitality there are some conditions. We have to remember the past, examine our life, and have a change of heart. Necessary is to see what
was done well, and what was not. What was not done well we need to make a
firm resolve to change. We have the example of the Sewol tragedy, the
many accidents and evil practices that bring us much pain and help us to be
motivated to change what needs to be changed.
We
also have many good things that we can be thankful for in the past
year. The pope's visit to Korea gave us reasons to hope for a better
future and the ways to achieve it. Happy New Year to all.
On the spirituality page of the Catholic Times the columnist mentions meeting with a priest only a few years younger, who still had his youthful looks."What is the secret for staying so young?" he asked with an inkling of jealously.
"Thanks, for thinking so. There is no secret, I am living with a community in which we are sharing happiness and for that I am grateful."
"You must be busy in the parish work?"
"All is very ordinary. By the way, interestingly, at the last pastoral council meeting we did make a big decision."
"What was that?"
"In the area of the parish, because of poverty, many have registered their marriages but have never had a ceremony. The parish decided to take care of all the expenses for the marriages."
"Are you saying that it will be completely free for those who want a marriage ceremony?"
"Yes, for those who can't pay for the photographer we will take care of even that expense. We have arranged for the guests to have a meal at a restaurant close to the parish that serves a beef soup with rice, and is very tasty. However, if they find that a burden the parish will feed them a noodle meal at the parish hall. We will be responsible for all the expenses, for the flowers and the use of the facilities. It will be simple but all free. Even one of the Catholics who has a large beauty shop has offered to take care of the preparations for the make up and the hair dressing needs for the bride. We are taking pride as a community to be able to help those in need."
The columnist hearing what his friend said remembered the words of a parishioner he heard some years before. They were looking for a beautiful parish Church with a large parking lot. But when they went to ask about the ceremony, the expenses were such that it was impossible to think of having the ceremony in the Church. The poor are not welcomed.
The columnist on saying good bye to his friend before he took the bus to his parish offered to preside at the services if necessary. His friend laughed, and got on the bus. He was proud to see a pastor do something about the problems with marriages in the Church.
