Recently one of the internet sites had a poem written by an
elementary school girl with an illustration of the mother on the floor
and the child by her side as a vampire with blood on her lips.
Description of the caricature, even now, is difficult to express in
words, and easy to understand the response of those that saw the site. The child wanted the mother to know how much
she hated going to the private academy for more study after school.
Complaints
were so many and so critical of the site that the publishing company
apologized and withdrew all contents, Children are not as conscious of
what others will think, but honestly and simply express their inner
feelings-- in this case difficult for adults to accept.
A
college dean writes about the problems faced by the children in our
educational system in the View from the Ark of the Catholic Times. He gives us another example of an essay written for a daily paper
by a child who expresses the stress that students experience and wants
the parents to know this is the reason for the suicides, and laments
that the children are like sponges, made to absorb repeated stress.
Children
who frequent these private, after school academies, face a continual
barrage of slogans that make the time at the academies stressful and
fuel the competitive spirit in learning. Each day they are
exhausted by the studies and repulsed by what they will continue to
face, and a reason they turn to their smart phones for relief. Fear of
being a drop out in our society is present, and a reason for suicides.
Our columnist tells us the day of the
geniuses has come to an end, and we are in the time of the creative
thinker. No matter the conditions, they are prepared. They can
accept failure and frustration with their fighting spirit. They can
adapt to any situation and become close to any person. Education you
see, considers marks important but the education you don't see fosters leadership, creativity and sacrifice. Competition is one form of
violence. Extreme competition instead of motivating for success will
foster frustration.
Competition fosters academic cliques,
and ranking in society, an evil that militates against harmony. The educational system we have instead of fighting against the
evils in society has helped to increase the structural evils.
Development of society requires the mutual help of citizens and not
the elite of society acting as individualists.
Recently
we have more talk about the good results of play even in
theological thought. We are able to stimulate our senses, memories
are helped, language and emotional life, creativity and social
life is fostered. Before criticizing children for their behavior, we should give them a
place to work on liberating themselves from the demands made on them.
Since our teaching of religion has a goal to speak to the whole person,
and develop mature human beings-- this makes for a strong nation and church. Is there any pastoral work that is more important than this?
In Korea we have close to 30 thousand refugees from the North and 70 percent of them are women.
Many of these women were married in the North and have left family to escape the hunger. Circumstances, and the whirlpool of life in which they were involved was the reason for the life they now have in the South.
Loneliness
and
missing their families are their biggest difficulties in the
South. Hunger which they faced was their reason for leaving, but
the longer here the more they miss their families, and feel guilt for
having left them, although they now have escaped the hunger.These are
the words of a refugee from the North who has a column in the Peace
Weekly.
As
time passes many prepare to build another nest here in the South and
end up marrying a South Korean. Marriage
Information Companies they have established, and family members introduce
them to mates, hoping to overcome the loneliness with marriage.
Compared to men in the North, who she describes as unsocial, the men
in the South leave the women with an impression of intimacy and
kindness. After marriage, for a short period of time, they are happy
but shortly the difference in culture and thinking begin to
appear, and misunderstanding follows. Marriages,
occasionally, don't even last a year before divorce.
Personalities
and money matters are often the issue. Women in the North have been
under a dictatorial government and in fighting the evils in society,
in order to live, have had to endure much. This has made their way of
speaking coarse, and even in small matters they fight to resolve their
problems. Men here in the South are quiet and introspective and facing
this demeanor on the part of the wife is difficult to understand.
Women
feel it is their job to handle the money of the house. In the
North this was the women's work. In the house to have money that is 'yours' and 'mine' is not
understood. With this kind of thinking we have a lack of trust and women despair.
We have the separation of the two
Koreas and in marriage we find the difference so pronounced that living
together as husband and wife is difficult. Is this not a lack of care
for the other? Men need to understand the women's scars and make
allowances; women need to understand how the man looks upon the use of money and see her husband as a
partner for life.
Problems defectors face in the South and especially those married to South Koreans should be used as a blueprint to work towards unification. Without serious efforts to help the defectors adapt to life in the South, our approach to achieve unification will lack honesty and be a pipe dream.
"Do you know the reason why young couples are reluctant to have
children?" "Not Like their parents, they are not confident in taking on the sacrifice required, and weren't especially happy
as a child."
We have the lowest birthrate in the world. Something
has to be done: reeducation, change in thinking, and change in society. These were some of the thoughts that came out of a seminar on
family and media, sponsored by the Korean bishops. An article in the
Peace Weekly gives us a brief account of the contents of the seminar.
One
speaker said that half of the high school girls have no thought about
marriage, and children. Word circulates that college girls will discuss family planning with their neighbors, not something we can easily laugh about. What is meant is they want to know how
much money it will cost to have a child? Parents need to show how
important life is, and raise the children to find happiness, and we will
see a change in the birthrate.
Children do not
consider the grandparents as part of the family, and this is easy to
see. Increase in longevity will see four and five generations living
together, and require healthy mature parents to help educate
children for this reality.
One of the presenters, a
commentator on our popular culture, shows the readers how difficult
it is to see a healthy adult life portrayed in TV dramas. Usually
one out of three dramas has a secret with a birth of a child, these embarrassing details makes the life of the child difficult. We don't have dramas in which the tired, exhausted young people
show trust, and follow with expectation the example of the adults.
She
does give an example of some programs that give a positive
understanding of the lives of the elderly and she mentions how the
drama received a popular response from all the viewers across all the
generations. She makes a plea for more of this type of drama which will bring change to the thinking of the viewers.
Another presenter showed the importance of dialogue in the family. The professor
talked about communication within the family, and the results from it. Communication allows for intimacy, self respect,
and raises the satisfaction of family life. This becomes the motivating
force for a healthy family life: listening, encouragement, reminisces-- basic elements of communication. He concludes his
remarks hoping the many different kinds of families will begin using
this kind of communication.
One of the diocesan bulletins has an article by a priest responsible for the pastoral work with families in the diocese. He lists five ways in which couples fail to understand each other. Give and take between husband and wife is distorted by serious misunderstandings.
"Francis has a cold and fever and is in bed. He asks his wife to come home early from work to be with him. The wife answers that she has some important work to do and will not be able to leave work early. Francis believes that Clara doesn't love him, for she thinks nothing of his request. Francis thinks this will always be the case. Clara's deficiencies all come to his attention. He has lived with her for 20 years, and she doesn't understand his feelings. He will not be able to trust her, and is overcome with anger."
He calls the first way of misunderstanding the catastrophic response: a great obstacle to communication. This happens when a simple word or action brings an extreme response. A spouse comes to an unjustified conclusion-feels attacked, hurt and angry.
A second misunderstanding is the black and white or all or nothing response. If it is not now it will never be. The words always and absolutely are often used. We have an inability to nuance what was said or see extenuating circumstances: not able to see the gray.
Tunnel vision is seeing only one side of the issue, and usually the negative. One is prevented from seeing the larger picture, and the other's good points.
Often one comes to a conclusion not warranted by the facts. One jumps to a conclusion with flimsy facts.
The fifth misunderstanding is to think the other person is a mind reader and not bother to spend time discussing the issue. Not understanding we are a failure at mind reading, we give all the blame to the other. "Living with the person for 20 years is it necessary to bring it up. I know what the answer will be." This kind of thinking is only going to make the problems more serious.
These misunderstandings are made with husband and wife in mind but often the same problems occur in our failure to understand the other. We think it is the other person's fault and fail to make the connections that would allow us to see our own responsibility for the lack of communication.
View from the Ark of the Catholic Times, a priest columnist, tells
us about a theological research center run only by lay persons. All
theological subjects are treated but the lay person's place in the
Church is naturally a subject of study. One of the few in the
Catholic world.
Many of the movements in which lay
people are involved, and we have many in Korea: Legion of Mary, Marriage
Encounter, Cursillo etc. are made up of married members. Their spirituality, they falsely believe, as a married
person, does not reach that of the clergy and religious, which leaves the
laity with a feeling of inferiority.
Columnist mentions a priest writer who says in the West the numbers
going to Church have decreased greatly, but those interested in
spirituality have increased. People want a spiritual life but not a
church, they are happy with questions and don't want answers, they
want truth but not obedience. They are dreaming of the restoration of a
new world of values.
He sees Korean
Catholics in a completely opposite way. They want the Church but not
spirituality; answers not questions, liturgy not piety,
obedience not truth, and he says this with sadness. They are not
concerned with what is going on in the world but, to an extreme, only in
what is happening in the family. There is not an appreciation of
mission and social responsibility.
Clergy, religious
and lay people need a mature spirituality to live a holy life. Not only
to experience God but to enable us to go out
to our brothers and sisters and to the world in which we live.
The theological research
center in the diocese is not just educating but equipping their
graduates to go out and work in society with the social gospel that they
have learned and working with different groups. We see this in many
other dioceses of the country. This is an answer to what the society to
which we belong needs, and the Church needs to be prepared to offer it.
Even
though there are many things we don't like about the direction the
government is taking, we don't just complain without any Gospel reasons,
and do something foolish. Instead we use what is happening to internalize the message, and come to an unified
way of thinking about what we are called to do.
"I made our God into my God" are the first words of an article in a diocesan bulletin by a TV writer.
When
she was young she was a Sunday school teacher in her parish community.
A work she found extremely enjoyable and would not consider it anyway as a task. Her attachment was like a person with a new car. Attachment
gave birth to selfishness and from there she said she became arrogant
and wanted to do everything her way. When we get our way, she says,
results are not always good. Leaving her teaching also came with a lot
of pain. Looking back, numberless times, and reflecting on what
happened, she knows that it was her selfishness that brought about the
unwanted results.
Whether it was fortunate or not
she moved her parish register to another parish. She began anew with
another community and got involved as a volunteer with a scripture study
group. But here also she had problems. Here again under the mask of
devotion, her selfishness was quite different from those with whom she
met. She was intent in overcoming her fault but it disappeared only to
appear in another guise, and to destroy everything she was trying to
achieve. Unkind words were spread, and not
intended, feelings of hate were past on to others and received, and she
again removed herself from the community.
The
real problem,however, came following on this: "I am a person that causes
disorder in community!" With this thought in mind she felt it best
not to be part of the community which would be doing what God would
want. So from then on she quietly prayed, studied and went to Mass,
and in doing so she felt closer to God than she did when she was part of
the community.
However, with the help of grace she
made the Cursillo and again experienced community. She realized at that
time how foolish were her thoughts that she had living the solitary life of faith. Fear you might sin, and consequently doing
nothing is not what we are called to do. Far better is to be sorry for
you faults, and continue to work to grow and mature.
God does not want us to make him 'my God'
but wants us to make him 'our God'. Jesus has told us: "Where two
or three are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst" (Matt.
18:20).
A columnist in the Peace Weekly writes about hope in the Lord. He
mentions how he had cold hands and feet even before the beginning of
winter last year, and went to the hospital where he was told that he had
poor circulation. They gave him some medicine but it was no help.
Spring was coming and all would return to normal. Hope gave him
strength and in fact he felt that his feet and hands were not as cold.
Hope, he marveled, was curative in itself.
Hope is not
always certain like spring following winter. Many of our
dreams we change from the unrealistic to a dream which gives us hope. When we hope for something to happen that may seem impossible, the impossible often happens.
Yang Gyecho (1873-1929) a Chinese
thinker spoke of hope as strength. Those who hope always expect a
better future, and go in search of this future.
Last
year when Pope Francis visited Korea the columnist remembers his
words: "Hope is God's greatest gift to us." There are those that use
the gift, but many who don't, which is a great sadness.
Life after death is our last hope. Many are those who do not
have this hope but Catholics do, it is our greatest hope. One of
our well known sister poets was on a talk show with a Protestant
minister, which the columnist had seen on the internet.
Sister is quoted as saying that life is not a goal but a place of pilgrimage. Many of our saints have written on the subject, telling us earth is our temporary abode. Our home is to be with God.
There will be a big difference in those who make this world their end, and those who see this world as a place of pilgrimage. Christians see their stay in this world different from those with only this world in mind.
Christians believe that God is with them during their life, and drawing
us to himself, and hope to be with him for all
eternity. Christians' hope in this reality should be like the certainty that spring will follow winter.
Even those who have
no belief and see it all as childishness, have to admit this hope, as
strong as the hope of spring following winter, will give great joy to life. The great tragedy is we don't see much of a difference in the joy that Christians have and those who don't believe.
