Lent has begun and Christians prepare for the arrival of Easter in their liturgical journey, living the paschal mystery. Attending daily Mass, many hear the readings and sermons preparing us for a new understanding of our place in God's kingdom, we entered at baptism, and make present in our lives.
A
bulletin for priests explains to the readers how often non-believers
are mystified by the attitude of Christians, when death comes knocking
at the door. He mentions the words he heard from a medical worker who
attended many religious and clerics on their death beds. Many found
going to heaven more distasteful than the ordinary Christians and
non-believers.
"They speak often about living in God's kingdom and the joys of life with God but when it comes time to go, they do not like the idea." Priest writer found these words of the medical worker disturbing. He believes we don't have an experiential understanding of living by faith in God's kingdom, united with Christ, in the here and now. He mentions the life of the Little Flower, St.Teresa, who had a strong desire to be with Jesus, rather than in the world.
A president of a purgatorial society in one of the wealthiest areas of Korea is quoted as saying that the wealthier the dying person was, the more difficulty in leaving, and it showed in the face. Was not this the reason, he adds, we hear in Luke 6:20: "Blest are you poor; the reign of God is yours."
St. Paul tells us to rejoice always, never cease praying, render constant thanks; such is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Is this not a sign of already living in God's kingdom? St.Catherine reminds us of this truth: "All the way to heaven is heaven, because Jesus is the way."
He concludes the article by reminding us to live daily as members of God's kingdom we entered at baptism. With this understanding of life, we are joyful, thankful for what we have, prepared for battle, and ready to leave in peace.
On the first day of Lent we received ashes on our forehead, a reminder of where we are headed, prepared to
stare death in the face, overcome its terror, begin living with more
passion and more fully, instead of just existing and forgetting our
dignity as members of the Body of Christ: disciples already in his kingdom.
Unwed mothers who choose life should be encouraged and supported instead of discredited. This was the title of an article in the Peace Weekly. Unwed mothers are the women who have children without benefit of marriage. Many are the reasons for the situation but the common element is the courage in not opting for abortion, and accepting the gift of new life.
Their choice and courage should be acknowledged and supported, however the world sees it quite differently and in most cases even the families do not welcome the child, and they end up going to some institution.
In the article we hear about Miss Kim, 27 years old, who when she notified the parents they told her to abort, and if she chooses to have the child she was on her own. She had the child and cried. She did think of putting the child up for adoption but while nursing the baby she changed her mind, and decided to raise the child. Her future, however, was far from bright.
When her boy friend heard about the pregnancy that was the end of the relationship. At her place of work she was not able to tell her boss she was pregnant so she quit.
A survey of unmarried mothers showed that 33.9 % of them find economic problems the most difficult. 26.6 % mental confusion was an issue; 11.2 % the child's future, 10.7 % family concern, and 17.6% listed other issues. Lack of concern and support of the family of the girl is the main reason for the difficulties.
Most of the families: 38.2% want the girl to terminate the pregnancy. 20.7% tell the girl she is on her own, 16.9 % of the girls are asked to get the boy friend to marry, 35 % want the girl to have the child adopted. Instead of accepting the child most of the families of the girl try to avoid the issue and refuse to accept the situation. This is an indication of a cross section of how society looks upon unwed mothers.
One of the priests working in the Seoul diocese with these new mothers would like everybody to drop the term unwed mothers, and treat them all as mothers and help.
Koreans have difficulty adopting children because of the strong emphasis on bloodline, and the history of Confucianism and the way it has influenced society. In the past it was one of the largest exporters of children to families overseas. This has changed greatly in recent years, and most of those adopted are the children of unwed mothers. There have been efforts to change the thinking on adoption and promote domestic adoptions. Adoption to families overseas is more difficult than in the past, and hopefully time will see a change in the numbers adopted domestically.
With smartphone use so widespread, it's not surprising to hear so
much talk about the digital world, and what it is doing to society.
There is much good from the advances in technology and the abuses are
many, and yet we need to remember the old adage: abuse does not take
away use.
However, the abuses of the smartphone are numerous, and need to acknowledge the reality society faces. Often, the very person we speak to intimately is interrupted because of a call received. We become blind to those with whom we live and associate. The real world ceases to exist, and we become lost in the digital world. Not surprising to hear about the number of people with attention deficit disorders, and people who have difficulty distinguishing the real from the false.
A series of articles in the Catholic Times notes problems associated with the sexual culture that continues to grow with aid from the digital world. The article shows readers the many ways children and young people are being bombarded with lewd telephone calls and lewd pictures; exposed to an understanding of sex that is far from the holiness and beautiful encounter of husband and wife in the sexual embrace.
The article mentions a number of aberrations that are pervasive in the culture. One of these are lewd telephone dating. Companies fostering this kind of interchange are springing up like mushrooms after rainfall. You are charged so much for every ten minutes of time with the person you are talking, and not difficult to see the addictive attraction of this for some, and abuses that follow.
One of the deceptions is to have the women over the telephone suggest talking in the nude. This phishing acquires sensitive information, which is used to blackmail the person and threaten to notify parents and make known what transpired during the encounter, and asking for money.
Young people have no way of protecting themselves from these schemes and malicious intentions of these efforts to make money from sex. The number of the young people with smart phones is close to 4 million: only 26.4 percent have the possibility of intercepting these lewd calls and pictures. Many started with the means to intercept lewd information but discontinued.
Government requires
phones have the possibility of intercepting these lewd pictures and
telephone calls. Companies selling these mobile phones are to notify
the children and the guardians of the responsibility, and need to
check to see if this is being done.
In 2015, a government survey determined 90.2 % of high-school students have smartphones, 86.6% of middle school children, and 59.3 % of elementary school children, Since this is the case it is easy to see how the children have access to adult content. One of the studies showed 38.3% among children, and young people viewed sexting positively. The article concludes with hope parents will be more concerned in educating children to have a healthy understanding of sex.
On the opinion page of the Catholic Times, a priest recalls the speech the late Cardinal Kim gave in the Philippines. He stressed the Church should be for the world (Ecclesia pro vita mundi) one of the great teaching gifts from the Second Vatican Council. This statement to Asians at that time came as a surprise, for many understood the Church as concerned for itself: growth in numbers and size. (Eccleisa pro se ipsa).
Most of the organizations and groups in society are interested in preserving, and expanding their lives. This is also true with the individual. Consequently, we have the ever-present competition to deal with in society, and Pope Francis sees this unfettered competition as a social evil: success is succeeding in competition with your competitor at all costs.
Church is not immune from these market and worldly values, instead of evangelizing the world we are being changed by the world. We hear often, instead of the Church worrying about the world; the world worries about the church.
“Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival
of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a
consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized:
without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.” (Pope Francis)
Church is the bride of Christ, disciples of Christ, and exists for the world. In Scripture, it is described as salt, yeast, light. In an ancient document, a letter sent to Diognetus the Church was described as: “What the soul is in the body, Christians are to the world.”
Externally the Church enters the world but internally remains different from the world if it is to succeed in doing its work. "They are not of the world, any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them by truth- Your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world...John (17: 15-17).
This is the attitude the Church needs. Holiness of the Church is prerequisite if it is to do its mission correctly in the world, and not be compromised, and mission jeopardized.
We can't go back into the past, writes the Peace Weekly journalist, in Word and Silence,
and contemplates the beautiful picture of the earth taken from the
Apollo 17 trip to the moon that appears like a precious jewel: blue
marble. Difficult to image the wars, hunger, pain and sorrow that
continue to exist on this beautiful planet earth, he laments.
Is
our life that beautiful? Many look back into the past with fond
memories. We forget the pain and the difficulties, for suddenly they are
healed. We look back with the eyes of a poet.
The curtain has dropped on the drama of the 1980s. Nostalgia remains for much of the styles of dress, cosmetics, songs, etc.. In 1988, we had the Olympics, also the beginning of the Peace Weekly newspaper. How did we live at that time? Was it a time we want to see returned? In recent years, we have had many movies and dramas that bring back to us those years: television series on life in those years, young peoples' dreams, romance and close family bonds....
The future appears as a cold biting wind, a serious depression, and many entering a gloomy tunnel. Young people see it as 'Hell Chosun''; young people half joking, see life being destroyed, and fathers of families are hiding their tears in being asked to voluntarily put in for early retirement.
People who are suffering from the cold are looking for the warm spot on the floor. When did we have the warm spot on the floor? Are we able to return to the times when as children, we went fishing? No, this is impossible. Going back to memories is no more than seeing a mirage. Nostalgia is only temporary. We have to find the answers in the present. In these barren times, we have to make the roads and dig the wells today. Tomorrow we begin Lent, a time of renewal and living each day more fully.
"Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the desert, I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers" (Isaiah 43:18-19).
A seminary philosophy professor writing for the Catholic Times'
opinion page recalls eating out with an older priest friend and laughing
at his humorous story about a grandmother who was making it known that
when she dies she wanted to have her ashes scattered from the roof of a
department store. She spent so many pleasant hours there with her
friends, shopping, eating, talking, drinking coffee making many
things possible for her. Sadly, he says, this thinking is a self portrait of our
present reality.
Enjoyment and happiness are so
interwoven in our lives it's difficult to distinguish between them. It's true
that enjoyment can be a part of happiness, however, unfortunately few
have little idea of what Aristotle considered necessary for happiness:
virtue and contemplation is what satisfies.
Shopping is enjoyable and doesn't harm anyone and can be done alone; a
way for many to unload much of the stress that comes with daily living.
Consumerism is a way of exhibiting property and values of society. He
uses the words of a French philosopher who considers production
of goods not as important as consumption. In our
present society consuming is a symbol. For many, what they buy is
not what they need but a means of drawing attention. We need to buy brand
names, expensive, but the reason to buy them. This gives one
pleasure and a reason to separate oneself from others.
In
the consumer society it is not the use of the product but its
symbolic value determining our place in society and the standard of
happiness. When others have that sign in their possession and we don't
we feel like outcasts; not able to follow the crowd we feel downcast.
Possessing
these symbols we provoke the envy of others, moreover, with these
symbols we have the illusion that we are happy, and have joined the class
of the elite and are now the envy of all.
Koreans up
until a few years ago, more than material wealth considered sharing
of affection, warmth with neighbors and family in society of great
value. Sacrifice was not considered an aberration; tenderness was not
considered foolishness. To fight for truth was considered noble. We
remember these times in the recent past but now only a nostalgic
longing.
Devotion arising from our religious feelings is no longer
common. True happiness is not related to contemplation, and the
propensity to have it slide in the direction of enjoyment and
consumerism is only natural. Members of society are raising up temples with department stores. He concludes the
article asking the readers to again recall the true
values that God has given us, and begin following them in the new
year. Happy Lunar New Year.
Even among Catholics we still have about one out of four who have
participated in some superstitious practice, and close to one of
three who have no problem with fortune telling. President of a Catholic
College writes in the Kyeongyang magazine on the way he sees the issue
and what has to be done.
In the Catechism of the Church
#2116: "All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan
or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to
'unveil' the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading,
interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance and
recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history,
and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to
conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and
loving fear that we owe to God alone."
'Begging for blessings' is a type of religious faith that those who indulge in superstitious practices find attractive. Many who have studied the issue have made known the problems and reasons for them.
First,
we have little Christian understanding, lack of trust and reliance on God, and no identity and confidence. Secondly, the
feeling of loss in an insecure society, Church's failure to
present mercy and consolation, and to speak about the the harm of superstitious practices, are reasons for their prevalence.
Our writer
finds reasons for the continuation of this fortune telling culture as
related to Christians' understanding of being led by the Spirit. Koreans
see divination and looking for blessings as their
search for elegance and elation. Buddhism, Confucianism and Christianity
have as their bed rock shamanism.
Koreans in their religious feeling believe something is moving them. Theologically, we Christians, call this the Spirit. The writer feels that more than wanting to know
the future those that go to fortune tellers are seeking to be led by
truth and the Spirit of God.
It is not easy for a Korean
Christian to experience God and following Jesus they always feel
something missing.They want to be led by the Spirit and truth and they
do not find this experiencing of the Spirit so they substitute it with
fortune telling and asking for blessings.
He concludes
the article by suggesting the way to lessen the hold of divination and
looking for blessings is to deepen the faith of the Christians in the role of the
Spirit in life by prayer.
