A religious sister writes in View from the Ark, of the Catholic
Times, on thoughts she had hearing about the young man who left Korea
to join the Islamic State military forces. Why did he do it? She began
to reflect on what the mass media said about his being alone for long
periods of time. He dropped out of middle school, stayed home most of
the time, and only conversed with his brother, and had little contact
with his parents.
Here was a young man at an age
where dreaming about his future life should have been attractive and shared with others; without consulting anybody, in contact
with the virtual world of the internet, he made his choice to join the
Islamic State.
If he had been relating with others and
hearing their beautiful dreams would he not have made a different
choice? The passage from Genesis 2:18 came to her mind: "It is not good
for man to be alone." Pope John Paul II gives an answer why being alone
is not a healthy choice: one is not able to realize the fullness of
one's personality. Relating with others we get to know who we are, and
by loving the other we ourselves become happy.
In these times
there are many who are living like isolated islands. Pope Francis
mentions in his Lenten Message: "Today, this selfish attitude of
indifference has taken on global proportions, to the extent that we can
speak of a globalization of indifference. It is a problem which we, as
Christians, need to confront." We no longer see others as brothers and
sisters but as objects. We have become the slaves of fashion, power,
money, and even distorted religious thinking. We have emptied our
humanity and replaced it with shackles of violence.
There
is always the danger of forgetting God, those who surround us, and
the world in which we live. We need to be listening to the weak voices
that come to our attention, and be ready to open the doors of our
hearts. It is only then that we will have joy and peace.
We
need to be open to all those who come close to us and make known the mercy
of God. We are all members of the body of Christ. "If one member
suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members share its joy" (I Cor. 12-26).
We have no idea what prompted
the young man to join the Islamic State but there are many similar
cases where not only the young but people of all ages and cultures decide
to leave the known and familiar to join a movement and begin a way of
life that is completly opposite to what they had been accostomed.
This should make us think deeply and see the possibility that
everything we say or do has ramifications for good or bad that we will never know in
this world.
A seminary professor in his column in the Peace Weekly, mentions how he is uncomfortable watching the daily news. Repeated reports of brutal crimes, violence, corruption of public servants, preventable accidents, leaves him feeling angry and miserable. News that leaves a smile on his face, and a warm feeling in his heart are not easily found. In this kind of world the meaning of our existence is not helped by what is seen and heard.
With economic development our life expectancy has increased but also problems that we did not have in the past; prosperity is not able to solve the problems that arise with the increase in the numbers of the elderly. Our fathers and mothers are often being ignored by their families, and society, and left to live their last years in loneliness.
Foreign workers are here to help their families in their home country. Their lives in dealing with very inferior lodging, difficult working conditions and environment, makes their time in Korea far from happy. Our children also with the competition they face jeopardizes their relationship with their classmates, which doesn't bode well for the future.
The more material goods we have don't bring happiness. Life may be more comfortable but happiness does not come with comfort. We lose the meaning for our existence. The more we have the more we want, the more we enjoy the more we seek to enjoy. We learn that possessions are not what gives meaning to existence.
The professor as a member of the human race has the same problems. As a child he dreamed of becoming a priest: working for the poor and the alienated in society. He can now look back on 20 years of priestly life. What he is doing has little to do with the dream he had as a child. After one year as an assistant he went to Rome to study. Coming back to Korea he very happily was a pastor of a parish for one year, and then returned to the seminary to teach. He is now not teaching seminarians but ethics to the laity, and is responsible for the administration of the seminary.
Rather than being sent to preach the Gospel he is working with logistics and rational issues as an administrator. He can't help but ask himself is he happy in doing what he is doing. He thinks of all those without any belief system, who are dealing with the same problem: trying to figure out the meaning of their existence.
Catholicism, he says, "To these basic questions
about the meaning and purpose of human life the Church responds with the
proclamation of the Gospel of Christ, which liberates the dignity of the human
person from changing opinions and ensures the freedom of men and women as no
human law can do. The Second Vatican Council indicated that the mission of the
Church in the contemporary world consists in helping every human being to
discover in God the ultimate meaning of his existence. The Church knows well
that 'God alone, whom she serves, can satisfy the deepest cravings of the human
heart, for the world and what it has to offer can never fully satisfy it'
Only God, who created man in his image and redeemed him from sin, can offer a
fully adequate answer through the Revelation wrought in his Son made man. The
Gospel, in fact, 'announces and proclaims the freedom of the sons of God, it
rejects all bondage resulting from sin; it scrupulously respects the dignity of
conscience and its freedom of choice; it never ceases to encourage the
employment of human talents in the service of God and of man, and finally, it
commends everyone to the charitable love of all' (Compendium of the Social Gospel # 576).
True happiness for a Christian comes from the belief in Jesus. We are changed by this happiness, which motivates us to want to change the world. "No, we shall not be
saved by a formula but by a Person and the assurance that he gives us: I am
with you! It is not therefore a matter of inventing a ‘new program'. The
program already exists: it is the plan found in the Gospel and in the living
Tradition, it is the same as ever. Ultimately, it has its center in Christ
himself, who is to be known loved and imitated, so that in him we may live the
life of the Trinity, and with him transform history until its fulfillment in the
heavenly Jerusalem” (Compendium #577).
An article in the Catholic Times reports on the recent meeting of the
Pontifical Council for Culture at which meeting one of
the Korean bishops participated. The article gives us an insight into
what transpired. The meeting reflected on women's culture and the place of women in society.
Women's generativity, and particular values need to be understood and made
known. The women's movement is part of the
Christian cultural movement. Bishop Lee reminds us that women's
values have to be respected and become part of our culture and movement
for life, and inculturated in our theology.
The subject matter can be divided into 4 brief statements:
1) Between equality and difference-- the quest for an equilibrium.
2) "Generativity" as a symbolic code.
3) The female body:between culture and biology.
4) Women and religion: flight or new forms of participation in the life of the Church?
Bishop Lee mentioned that in the meeting, the generativity of women was
considered symbolically; they divided it into four moments: desiring,
bringing into the world, looking after, and finally letting go. Women
have a great deal to do with this generativity but it is not only the
woman's work but also the man's: both in the beginning
and end of the generative process.
One of the big obstacles to this generativity is the materialism of our life style.
Another social evil is the commodification of the women's body: plastic surgery, so prevalent in society, is a good example.
The
bishop mentioned at the meeting the exaggerated importance of appearance, and the
need to address this in our moral teaching and education. The bishop reported the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery says Korea is the Cosmetic Capital of the world. The
percentage of citizens with cosmetic surgery are the highest in the world. “Plastic
surgery is like a burqa made of flesh.” These are the words, one person used to describe the cosmetic surgery being performed on women.
Young people don't even know why they are having the surgery; they
are moved by the positive popular feeling about the procedure. Even pastors have nothing to say about the surgery. "The body
expresses the being of a person, more than an aesthetic dimension
closed in on itself; how can we avoid a purely functional approach to
women and their bodies (seductive, commercialization, marketing)?"
"Women and men in their personhood are equal but have different values. These values should
be at the center of the women's culture and we need to understand them.
Men and women complement each other and this should
be made known in our programs within and outside the church."
Koreans want the best educational programs for their children and will sacrifice a great deal to achieve it. A professor writing in
the Peace Weekly doesn't like what she sees. In one district, parents
did not want their children to go to the same school with children coming from rented homes. You have parents moving to an area where the
teaching is of a better quality, and you have the 'goose dads' who are
living alone because the mother is with the children in some oversea
country. Our professor wonders if the parents understand what a good
education should mean.
She mentions meeting a
European student studying Sanskrit in India so as to read the ancient
texts. Students from England and Europe are in Africa studying the
primitive languages. In Bangkok, Thailand we have the Chulalongkorn
University where many students from the States and Europe are
majoring in Asian studies. The professor feels there is a one sided
understanding that education has to concentrate on learning English. Other areas of the world want to tear down the walls that separate us from one another: a desire to be more open
to cultures different from our own.
While
in California for a workshop, on a bus was a Swiss intern at
their Embassy, when the bus stopped for a red light, he saw a grandmother
in tattered clothes carrying a big bundle crossing the street. He
quickly left the bus to help the woman cross the street and returned to
the bus. The passengers, where on an educational
exposure trip on American Democracy. Another member of the group that
morning had taken a banana from the table and put it in her purse to
give to the first beggar she met. Concern and sensitivity to others was
evident.
One great difference from the traditional society and our modern
society is the breaking down walls surrounding social status. More
important than the status at birth are the efforts that people make that
are valued. We have moved to equality under God and under law: from monarchy, in a circuitous way,to a colony of Japan, to the
Second World War, and Korean War to a commonwealth and a constitutional
democracy. We had sadness and consolation: we put aside
the nobility and commoner division and the male and female servant
divisions. Our common experience with empty stomachs and common background
allowed us to become one nation, but in retrospect we did not work sufficiently to maintain our unity.
Allowing discrimination to appear by the kind
of homes that we have, is not a sign that our education has been doing
its job. Nelson Mandela in South Africa was able to do away with
apartheid, (the separation of the races) and received applause from the
whole world.
We have the pope opening the Vatican to the homeless for showers, free haircuts,
and umbrellas distributed on a rainy day. Discrimination and exclusions that
nurture conflict and scars make us see clearly problems in the
world village. Discrimination between our children and
those living in rented apartments is sending a harmful message to our children. In the present society it is not easy
to make known our discrimination for it's a throwback to another
age, and she wants those who think this way to jump out to the front,
and surprise everybody.
A diocesan priest relates his experience in trying something new with
the community welfare center that was entrusted to him to manage. The
city and the board of examiners' vision for the center was a home for
the handicapped and non-handicapped living together without
discrimination. This is the motto that is used with the community
welfare centers that are established, but in fact there is little
difference in the way they are run. Each facility has a way of
expressing their special work.
During the latter part
of last year the staff of the community center began to think about its
direction, and programs that needed to be implemented.
They met with some volunteers from the area, and decided to begin a
musical ensemble with the handicapped and non-handicapped. They
made plans for the new year and assembled a group with 17 youths who
are mentally handicapped and 20 who are not handicapped to make up the musical ensemble.
In his article in a pastoral bulletin,
the priest admits that many will see it as an unrealistic dream that
will not go far. The members of the staff see it as a dream that will
go on for ten years. Music as the medium, they hope will allow the interaction among the young people that will have an impact on the city
and the families of the handicapped.The handicapped will make friends
with the non-handicapped who will, in turn, be learning some new values.
This
November they are aiming to have the inaugural performance of the
ensemble. They have already met as a group on three occasions, and
private lessons have begun. Each week they will have a meal together
after practice. At this time each of the teachers will express their
hopes for the group very circumspectly.
They are already thinking of the invitations they will be getting to perform in
different parts of the country. However, not all has been without problems. One mother didn't like the idea of her son practicing with the
handicapped, considering that her son was being asked to serve and
sacrifice for the handicapped. This caused some ill feeling among the
mothers. Changing thinking is not easy.
Not all was
negative for he saw on one occasion where one child sat down by the
side of a handicapped child and began helping him. In the beginning
there was some hesitation but they both began reacting with each other
as friends. The teachers and mothers were greatly pleased with what they
saw.
The priest himself has bought a cello and will
join the group.His desire is to regain the heart of a child. He has
no idea how this will work out, but hopes for the best. No matter
what, he feels that the encouragement it will give the families of the
handicapped, in this unfriendly environment, is worth all the trouble and has great meaning.
Parents in Korea have often in the past given all of their
possessions to the children before death. Buying a house for
the son, when marrying, was frequent and helping a son to begin a new business venture
was common. Parents in other societies would often do the same, but in Korean society parents often become penniless helping their children.
This is changing and parents are not as quick to give all of their
savings to the children before death.
Parents feel an
obligation to pay for their children's expenses long after their
off-spring have become adults. This results in parents needing to be
dependent on the children.Not uncommon is to see grandfathers and
grandmothers with little energy, and dreams, precisely because
they are dependent on the children.The following story in a diocesan
bulletin is helping to educate parents on what they need to do in their
retirement years. Stories of this type we see often, which is bringing
about a change in the way parents prepare for
retirement.
A father had educated all his children and they all were married and had left the family home. The father was
diagnosed with a serious decease, and called all the children and their
mates to the house.
"I have raised you and sent you to
college and took care of the expenses for marriage and all that was
necessary. You know I am not in good health, and not able to work, and
I went into debt to educate the four of you. Here is a piece of paper
to write down what you can repay."
The children stared vacantly at each other. The second son who was
not in the best of circumstances wrote down 50 thousand dollars. The
other children were, as at an auction, deciding what to write. The
oldest son wrote down 20 thousand, the third son 15 thousand and the
daughter 10 thousand.
There were no visits to the sick
father or telephone calls. He called the children again to his bedside
and this time only the children came.
"I don't want any
fighting over the inheritance after my death, and bad feelings
among the four of you, so I have prepared everything with the help of a
lawyer. You will all get 5 times more than you wrote on the pieces of
paper. After this is deducted there will be about 3 million dollars left
which will be given to charity."
Hearing these word
they were all struck dumb, and their faces turned deathly pale.
"Why do people promise to meet at the first snow? Why so
happy at the first snow? Maybe because those that love are waiting for the first snow."
These are the words of a Korean poem that the columnist uses to
introduce his column: The Wisdom we can learn from Bhutan. The
columnist a university president writing on the opinion page, of the
Catholic Times, believes Bhutan has something to teach.
There is something romantic about the
first snow fall. And in the small country of Bhutan,
with 700 thousand citizens, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas,
the fairytale-like land proclaims a national holiday at the
first snow. National income is 2,300 dollars per capita, and yet 97
citizens out of 100 consider themselves happy. One of the happiest
countries in the world.
In 1972 the government
considering their culture and environment has made it their philosophy
to enhance the life of the citizens with a just distribution of the
wealth. This progressiveness relates not only with economics but
also with the environment; they are determined not to do
anything to destroy the ecology of the country. The point of reference is the happiness
level of the people not the amount of money each citizen has to spend. They will find ways to make education
and health free for the people in their constitution. Bhutan is the
first country in the world that has made
Gross National Happiness (GNH) as their point of departure instead of the Gross National Product (GNP).
The
columnist feels our present economic model is not person orientated and
builds a culture of death. We are destroying our environment and our
traditional communities. The polarization of the "haves" and "have-nots" is
getting larger and society less secure. Our 'new-liberal'
social structures allow many of the poor to get caught in a
trap from which they can not escape.
In 2011
the young people fought against the economic insecurity and corruption by
occupying Wall Street. A movement that spread worldwide. The strong American
welfare safety-net began to disappear, and tragedies followed tragedies in the use of guns and killings. The United States is a super
power but not an advanced society, according to the columnist-- a nation exists
for the happiness of the citizens.
Pope Francis has
attacked unfettered capitalism as a new tyranny. A model in
opposition to the dignity of the person, and producing the culture of
death. Capitalism is one of the biggest revolutions in the world, and a
challenge to Christianity. We need a new paradigm that will have
happiness for the foundation in the use of money."I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation."
These words of St. Paul should fill us with a feeling of gratitude. We who have received an abundance from Jesus should be able to live in the spirit of poverty. Would not
this be a rightful understanding of the blessings received? Happy Lunar New Year!
