We hear many words about democracy, begins the column in the Catholic Times, by a priest working in the labor apostolate. For some democracy is too much talk, and only brings division, some see it as a return to a dictatorship, and some find it as no big deal. All living in the same county and with the same system of government, and yet we have this difference of opinion on the same subject.
There are few words that have such a difference of opinion. The way we understand democracy is going to determine very clearly the degree of maturity and level of implementation. Our standard of democracy is going to be different in Germany than in Korea. Generally speaking, we say a democracy is one vote per person, at regular times, for parties that discuss and debate among themselves and the opposition looking for the best way to govern a country, and citizens voting for the party and candidates they prefer. With this understanding of democracy than Korea is a democracy, but this is why we hear the citizens' lives are not improved by this system of government.
Tocqueville the French political thinker, and philosopher said it was not the voting procedure that was important but the conditions in society. The means of voting is not central to a democracy but rather the intelligence, virtue, and culture in which the voting is done. For this reason, the democracy of Germany and the European countries would be different from Korea.
Catholic teaching as found in the compendium of the Social Gospel would say the same. "An authentic democracy is not merely the result of a formal observation of a set of rules but is the fruit of a convinced acceptance of the values that inspire democratic procedures: the dignity of every human person, the respect of human rights, commitment to the common good as the purpose and guiding criterion for political life. If there is no consensus on these values, the deepest meaning of democracy is lost and its stability is compromised" (#407).
Democracy goes beyond the system and procedures and considers the dignity of the person, human rights, and efforts made for the common good. The Second Vatican Council stressed the reason for the existence of a country was for the common good, and we can evaluate the degree in which this is accomplished by the concern for the common people.
Looking at the 10 biggest conglomerates for the last ten years we see that the money in their possession has increased over twofold, and yet the number of the poor that are able to leave their poverty continues to decrease. No matter how hard they work they find it difficult to make ends meet. Korea in the polarization between the 'haves' and 'have nots' is comparable to Mexico, and the number in poverty would be similar to Turkey.
These statistics show that the common good has not always been considered in governing the country. A sign, the columnist concludes, that democracy has not been effective.
Temptations are a part of life. A seminary
professor in the Kyeongyang magazine introduces us to fetishism:
excessive attention or attachment to some object, and for him this makes you a slave of that object. He very astutely uses the word slave in Korean which is made
up of two syllables 'No' and 'Yeh' (noyeh). A slave, according to the
professor, is one who when he should say no says yes.
In this case, you are acknowledging the control over
oneself of something outside, external to oneself, which makes you a
slave. He mentions three reasons for the slavery: attachment to material goods,
sexuality and greed and the antidotes are the evangelical counsels:
poverty, chastity and obedience. God is the ultimate meaning of the
counsels. According to the columnist, the strongest of these is our
attraction to the material, and when this is the object of our worship, it becomes our
fetish.
When Israel left Egypt and were in the
desert, they were fed up with the manna they were receiving daily, and
wanted to return to slavery and a decent meal. They also wanted something that was more
material to express their worship, and made the image of a calf: another throwback to what they possessed when slaves in
Egypt.
We have evolved in our day. We camouflage our
thinking: living well is another way of saying we have money.
Excessive accumulation of material goods is something that we envy and
consuming becomes a virtue. Instead of paying attention to the words of
Jesus and the apostles we go to the early years of the Scripture where
we see the blessings of material goods and possessions, and
forget that "Jesus had no place to lay his head."
Even
tithing is often considered a way of getting more blessings instead of a
way of sharing and becomes an investment in future blessings. We see
this method of thinking in the story of St. Nicholas in his sharing, and
St.Nicholas (Santa Claus) becomes an idol to promote consumption.
"One cause of this situation is found in our relationship with money,
since we calmly accept its dominion over ourselves and our societies.
The current financial crisis can make us overlook the fact that it
originated in a profound human crisis: the denial of the primacy of the
human person! We have created new idols" #55 of Pope Francis in Joy of the Gospel.
From
the beginning of Christianity, there has been no time where wealth has
been exalted like the present. We have become slaves of money. We forget persons are what are important, and that politics, economy, society and culture all exist in our
environment. Doing harm to the environment is not benefiting us in the long run and will come back to harm us in the future. Creation is God's gift to us, and we need to care for it. When material goods do harm to our environment we need to learn how to say "No" when a "No" is our only answer if we want to be free and caretakers of creation.
Many are the signs of a society that is far from healthy. One of the columnists on the education page of the Peace Weekly paints a bleak picture of the kind of persons we find in society. From an early age, we see young people with abnormal mental traits with which they have to struggle. In many, feelings of lethargy in an uneasy society, confusion about identity, extreme lack of self-worth, social awkwardness, selfishness, greed, no concern for the virtues, frequent violence against the body, lack of communication, addicted to the material, and a paralysis in the emotional life.
Some of these traits we see in the adult society in which we live, among our leaders and the famous: maintaining one's image, searching for power, wealth and fame. Many are addicted to drugs, liquor, eating disorders, killing the person they are, with cosmetic surgery, to resemble the stars. We have the government, federations, education and leaders in religion who don't see how our environment makes our life possible, and we remain as children.
Men dream of success, and women for the ideal male hero with whom they can
spend the rest of their lives. Women also dream of the woman hero,
corresponding to men's ambition. We are like people lost in the
wilderness not knowing where to go. We wait for God or some magic being
to save us.
Westernization of our society has introduced us to sexual maturity, independence, individual fulfillment. We have no inkling on how to discover the spirit and the larger world of nature beyond the self. A few centuries ago, we got rid of the vitality in our lives by our traditional rites of passage, and considered our inner life like so many skins that we could throw off. Today we see what this has done to our young people in the culture we have given birth.
A healthy childhood requires roots in nature and family and in much of our culture, we find this missing. The young have become sexual objects. We are failing in the formation of queenly like women, and instead from an early age, we celebrate beauty pageants.
However, if the youth with an understanding of mental and spiritual adventure: remember why they were born, what gifts they have to give to the world, and the sanctity that rests within, they will know the road that is laid out before them. Characteristics of hope and potentiality will do much to integrate the culture with our natural environment and be a beacon to all.
There are many events in which no invitations are received but people
attend. Writing in the
Peace Weekly a columnist mentions a recent event in which lay people
were outside the church in the hot sun, and remained there during a
sudden down pour in which they were soaked, but remained silent and in
place, thankful for the relief. Most of them were elderly.
There
should be no discrimination for those attending the table of the Lord
but at these big events those who are invited are the 'somebodies' in
society. Those who have nothing but their faith find it difficult to
enter the door.
Last year after the visit of the pope
to Korea everybody in the Church were using the words: 'solidarity with
the poor'. These words signify our concern for the poor. We are concerned with the weak outside the church but
we forget the weak, the 'nobodies' within the church.
For
many Christians the threshold of the church is still too high.
When a parishioner comes to the parish office often they are asked:
Where are they from? what parish area, have they talked to the
district leader, have they made an appointment with the priest, are some of the questions by which they are greeted. Those who would like
to have some time in the confessional to speak find it difficult, and
those who are handicapped have to size up the situation every time they
attend Mass.
Why is this the case? The columnist feels the customs have hardened, centered around the clergy and religious. " We have always done it this
way." Group lay leaders accepted this kind of
thinking, which makes it difficult for the ordinary person to be
comfortable within the community.
We have in Luke 6:32,
"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even
sinners love those who love them." Could it be that those who are no longer coming out to
church found a parish atmosphere which did not permit them to
ask priests, religious and lay leaders to share a little bit of their
love?
Pope Francis makes it a point to accept warmly all those
he meets which is the reason for his popularity. He welcomes all the weak to center stage, and this sincerity is seen which comes from
mercy based on humility, and the reason for his concern for others. With a
little bit of warmth from the priest, a word of greeting, a
handshake, can bring about great change.
At the last
Mass in Korea, Pope Francis was in a sense inviting all those who were
the weak of the country as special guests to the front rows, and our
columnist would like that to be the case in all our Masses. Clergy
need to have this understanding of their pastoral role and have this pastoral discernment when relating with the community.
The story of a baseball player, Tim Burke, who retired from baseball to be with his family, made the Korean Internet and was used as an article in the bulletin for priests. He retired from baseball at the age of 34, well before the need to retire, giving up a salary of over 2 million dollars to be with his wife, and adopted children who were all in some way handicapped.
He played for the New York Mets as pitcher, and left baseball very quietly to be with his wife and five handicapped children. His eldest daughter, Stephanie, was born prematurely in Korea with a hole in her heart and was rejected by her parents. He took care of the operation that was necessary and adopted the child.
The second child was from Guatemala, Ryan, who had a thyroid problem and mental illness. The third child, Nicole, also was born in Korea without a left hand, had a heart problem, and epilepsy with repeated seizures each day, and was abandoned by the parents. They heard about the child and adopted her. The fourth child, Wayne, had an impaired leg, a Vietnamese child, who was abandoned by the parents. The fifth child is a girl born in Guatemala like Ryan. She had a cleft lip and after adopting the child had the necessary operation. In order to adopt more children, they have built a house with nine rooms.
The reason for leaving base ball was the child Nicole. She was in the hospital at that time for treatment of her heart condition. Tim received notice of his trade to the New York Mets from the Montreal Expos while in the hospital. It was this incident when he had to walk away from his daughter before undergoing open-heart surgery that decided his future.He realized that his place was not in the ball park but to be with his wife and children. The family was more important to him than the cheers of the fans, popularity, money and baseball itself.
He told the journalists who came to interview him: "baseball will continue very well without me but my children need a father. I am the only one that can do that." His wife who was beside him also spoke to the journalists.
"Our children were not wanted. Someone has to care for them. We are able to do that with a warm heart. We helped change the future of these children. Without help, these children would have died. We also have been changed by our children. These children have learned from us gratitude and happiness and we all by overcoming our difficulties realize what it means to be a Christian."
A religious sister writing in the diocesan bulletin recalls the great
strides Korea has made in the last 50 years, and the
growth of the Church in Korea with over 10 percent of the population
Catholic. This reality is envied by the Church of the West for the
dynamism and progressiveness of the Korean church--the number of women,
according to recent statistics, numbers 58.2 percent within the Church.
However,
with the economic growth of the country after 1990, interest in
religion and the zeal of the Christians has decreased.
With the economic improvements, the democratization of the country
and the entrance of women into the work force we are experiencing
the problems the Church in the West experienced after the Second
Vatican Council.
The church is concerned with the poor,
the weak, the abuses of nature and the oppression under patriarchal
thinking that women have endured. We need to return to the original
beginnings of creation when all was in the correct order. For the Church
to respond to this call we have to change the structures of injustices,
and distance ourselves from them with counter proposals.
"
Each one of you is a son of God because of your faith in Christ Jesus.
All of you who have been baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves
with him. There does not exist among you Jew or Greek, slave or freeman,
male or female. All are one in Christ Jesus" (Gal.3: 26-28).
Equality was a hallmark of the first communities, all worked for the building
up of God's kingdom according to their ability. We are all members of
the body of Christ, this is our mission and we listen to Jesus on how to do it.
There are many in the Church,
especially women who see the discrimination within the Church and are
dissatisfied but they don't want to speak about it for fear they
will be a headache to others. This fear of
bringing up the subject is one of the customs we face. The reason
we don't see any change is that we are afraid of conflict,
but without it how can we change?
Women have to get involved. In decision making in parishes and meetings, women's voices need to be heard. In parish events we can have the
women and the men take turns preparing. We have to start in small things
in breaking down the stereotyped thinking that we have. This will make
for a more vibrant and active community.
The society
in which we live has many problems. We are God's children; men and
women need to pool resources, share and cooperate to make one
living community. Together as equals we can do much to heal the problems
we have in creation. This common vision of equality, sister concludes, is necessary for a
correct order in all of creation.
A recent survey of 1000 citizens from high school up to those in their 50s on the degree of heat in their hearts, was publicized in the Korean press-- understood as psychological warmth or hope in the future. The average response was 14 degrees below zero. Fourth-year college student response was the lowest at 24.2 degrees below zero. Difficulty in finding work, and the competitive society in which they live was the reason.
Today in Korea, we celebrate the feast day of 103 martyrs: Sts. Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasan and Companions. In Korea, we no longer have the fear of the knife and torture in practicing our faith life, but the coldness of our hearts does prevent many of us from finding joy in life and wanting to extend this joy to others.
Not only in Korea but in many parts of the world, the numbers leaving the community of faith continue to increase, and without any external force, no knives and no torture; subtly and not so subtly, the influence of society continues to work very gradually on the thinking and feelings of many of this generation.
The readings for the Feast present us with a number of issues we may tend to forget: reasons we are followers of Jesus. We are reminded often that to become a Christian for what we will receive is not the way it is presented to us by Jesus. We are told in today's Gospel, Luke 9:23, the first step is to forget our-self, second, to carry the cross daily, and thirdly to follow Jesus: clear and precise explanation of the mission we have been given. Looking over the examples of those who followed Jesus to the cross we are given the other very necessary requirement.
At the cross those who were looking for some material recompense for their devotion to Jesus were no longer with him when he needed them most. Those who were present were the women who were not following Jesus for any earthly rewards, expecting a place in his cabinet in the earthly kingdom, as did the apostles. They accepted his love and that was sufficient, and helped him with their funds. The only other one present, of his inner circle, was the one who accepted Jesus's love. All of us who feel the love of God in our lives are present there at the cross with the beloved disciple.
Those who do not experience this Love are at a great disadvantage and why that should be the case certainly has something to do with our environment and those with whom we associate. God's love is a given, and we are programmed to receive. According to the survey at the beginning of this article when one is cold one looks for heat and when it is the psychic and the spirit that is cold it is a different type of warmth needed. The recompense is there, but we have to remember it is a by-product and not the direct results of our actions: a distinction with great meaning.
