Understanding the Paradoxes of Life

Where are all the college students? A priest begins his article in a diocesan bulletin with this lament. He remembers working with the youth back in the last years of the 70s and the  early years of the 80s: busy giving retreats, workshops and going to the different colleges for Masses and involved in many programs for the students. From those years we have many who are now ministering  in the Church and are leaders in society. What happened?

Except for a few parishes the college students are no longer seen in the parochial communities. At one time there was even talk of having a parish just for the youth of the diocese. Those days have past. He wants the Church to consider work with the youth as a  primary concern. They are the future of the Church and of society.

However, we have those who do not see the young people alienated from the church but rather looking for spirituality outside of the parish setting. Many college students prefer to associate with their fellow students in a  college environment, in Catholic prayer groups, student groups, diocesan programs located where they are.

Students in the West have shown  signs of alienation from the Church which is not  as pronounced in Korea. The culture is still very protective, and traditional morality still influences much of society.  Just  recently, the courts decriminalized adultery. We are not dealing with young people  that have opted for the ways of the West. The students are acquainted with the  West but many accept the traditional ways; a youth subculture,however, does exist.                                     

Many are searching  for a mature spirituality.  Pope Francis in his talk to the 6000 young Catholics from  23 nations last year warned about the "spiritual cancer" of materialism from the affluent countries. "We see signs of an idolatry of wealth, power and pleasure which come at a high cost to human lives." Korea has shown signs of needing a different spirituality from  the one received. There is an emptiness and despair that shows in the number of suicides and as a world  leader in cosmetic surgery.

When the newly baptized  are asked why they have become Catholics the majority answer to find peace. It is true that a mature faith life will bring great joy and peace but it is not the response desired: a guarantee we are not prepared to walk in the way of Jesus, but to satisfy our needs. Peace and happiness are the results, the  consequences, a by-product of the life we live, and not the aim of our life.

Explaining this is far from easy. Ignoring the search for authenticity: the true, good and beautiful and expect peace and happiness is not going to do it. The search for spirituality is a sign that this is understood even though unconsciously.  Emptiness is experienced and with the young and old alike  the stress on the paradoxes of Christianity, which they also have in their own religious heritage, is a need in our educational programs.                          

Relationships and Happiness

Korea is in the top ten of the  economically developed countries, but one of the lowest in the index for happiness. This uncomfortable fact motivates many to  express their opinions on the subject; a religious sister writes on the issue in a diocesan bulletin.

Sister teaches the mothers of children who are preparing for First Communion, and one of her questions for the mothers: Are you  happy?  When she asked this question one mother began to cry. Why was she crying? asked the sister, it was the first time in her life she was asked the question. Sister tells them that on a scale of 1 to 10, where would they be. If it is  low she  recommends  they take a  trip  like Hector in the novel: Hector and the Search for Happiness.                                                                                                                                      
Hector is a psychiatrist who finds that he can't do much to help people who come to him and he himself is not happy with the situation. Hector takes a trip around the world to learn what makes people happy.  

He made a list of  what he found during his trip that added to happiness. The first on the list is not to  compare yourself with others. 7) Be with those who want to be happy. 13) Feeling that you are of help to others. 20) A special attitude towards life. 23) Interest in the happiness of others. 

When the doctor returned home he began living out what he learned. He realized how happy he was, and enjoyed sharing what he had learned, which gave him more happiness.

Sister, made her own list of what makes her happy and what doesn't. She  doesn't judge  others for their failures; doesn't compete or envy another, and makes an effort not to  hurt another, and when she does, she apologizes.

We are  made to live in community because we are created after the image of God: the community which is God--Trinity. It is in relating with others that we  will find happiness.  We have been made to partake in the life of the Trinity here and hereafter: our aim and purpose in life. How we relate with God and others is important.

We are not on this earth to be a maverick;  to do things our way without concern for others. God wants us to relate in the way he relates. When we confess the Trinitarian  Godhead, and live its teaching, we find happiness.

Why Did He Do It?

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.                                                     

Finding True Happiness

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).

Women's World: Pontifical Council for Culture

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."

Discrimination is not Easily Abandoned

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.

Dreaming An Impossible Dream

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.