In a diocesan bulletin, a university professor gives us a human interest story with a good moral lesson. A young woman who planned to marry and with all preparations made, received out of the blue notice from her expected husband that the wedding was off.
At the time when she was to be the happiest, she received word of the worst kind, leaving her with a feeling of despair. The problems that came to minds were not a few and the biggest was the wedding party that she was to have for the guests.
The money for the banquet had been prepaid over 30 thousand dollars and there was no refund. What she decided to do was to invite all the homeless in the area to a banquet. She made a list of 170 of the homeless and sent all of them a personal invitation, prepared them suits and dresses and the means to attend the banquet.
It was the first time in their lives that many of them ever received a personal invitation to a party and attended with great warmth in their heart. Dressed not in a wedding dress but in the formal dress, the no longer bride was there to greet all the guests and made the day memorable for all.
The writer mentions this is what happened recently in the United States. What was done was a difficult step for the young woman. He wonders how many in such a situation would have thought of such an alternative plan.
When sad making others happy is a way of healing one's own sadness.... This was the young woman's lesson to all of us. In a community, if we tried to make others happy the joy of the efforts would reflect on the life of the community.
"We can boast about our suffering. These sufferings bring patience, as we know, and patience brings perseverance and perseverance brings hope, and this hope is a not deceptive because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given us" Rm. 5:3.
Relax, travel, healing... to modern society these are sweet magic words. Those who are running ahead aimlessly and are tired in both body and mind, understand.
Korea has for some time been interested in economic progress and has achieved remarkable results from the efforts. We can be proud of the results but in the process, became infected with a materialist mentality: money can do everything. A member of the Catholic Artist's Committee gives us her impression in a Diocesan bulletin on the direction we are going.
She mentions that for Korea to become truly an advanced country in this transitional period it's important to work to advance our cultural assets besides pursuing economic progress. Because of the Japanese occupation and division of the country, Korea has not developed fully its spiritual and cultural resources.
For a long period of time seeing the advances of western culture, Korea was overcome with a great feeling of inferiority and a yearning to imitate, we did this without reservation. Imitation is the start to every beginning. However, it's time for Korea to begin as a developed country in the 21st century to recover our proper Korean culture and aesthetic history. This is the work of the artistic community but the government and public organization need to give us the wings to go ahead with the search.
France, known as a cultural giant has a department of culture, she would like Korea to go in that direction. As we transition as a developing country she is sure the department would do much in achieving cultural growth.
Art is the product of a precious spiritual culture that acts as a mirror of the times, through deep self-reflection and insight into society. Art is not rigid and heavy but the way of discovering what beauty is, and for those in modern society searching for meaning in higher values and quality of life. It's a thrilling medium that brings joy to people.
"Art is long, life is short" reminds us of the great power of art to give vitality to life. It's time to abandon the dichotomous thinking of black and white, left and right, good and bad, high and low, and to search for a middle course. In the East, the middle road is normal.
While in college she wondered if the way of art was a proper goal. Did God see this as a beautiful goal? Was it just a personal selfish desire? She wondered about this for some time but since it was a strong desire she felt it came from God. She is now certain of this and screams out: the beauty of art witnesses to God's love, a beautiful tool which introduces us to the fragrance of God's love.
Did Jesus discriminate against women? This is the question an article in the Catholic Peace Weekly wants the readers to examine. Looking at the lists of names in the New Testament it is easy to draw this conclusion. However if we look at the whole of the gospel and in depth, Jesus respected women and valued them highly.
Women had an important place in the life and work of Jesus. Like everybody else, he was born from a woman. Mary's role was important and among the saints holds the place of honor.
Women were his disciples. Mary Magdalen is an example of this group. They traveled together with him and helped him financially. She was one of the few who was with him at the crucifixion.
In the gospels, he was very open and warm even with those who were considered sinners by society. The church helped to change the attitude towards women in many parts of the world.
Women have passed down the faith over the years.This was seen from the time of the early church. St. Timothy is a good example of this having received his faith from his grandmother and mother.
In the Mass, we have the names of many women. Many are the women who have been declared saints, women who have devoted themselves to work in hospitals and schools. He gives us the example of Maria Gaetana Agnesi a woman who was the first to have the position of a university professor of mathematics and a woman who devoted a great deal of her time to helping the sick and poor. And we have the great number of religious sisters who have devoted themselves to the marginalized in society.
However, the question does come up often: why did he limit the Apostles to males only? Often we hear that it was the custom of the times and the culture in which he lived. Jesus, however, did not follow the customs of the times in his actions. Was it not Mary Magdalen who was the first one to receive the message of the resurrection and the first to bring it to the disciples when society considered the woman's witnessing less than that of the male. She was considered the Apostle to the apostles.
From the time of Jesus, the descendants of the apostles have been men. From the scriptures, we can see clearly that both the male and female were considered both equally important, but also not the same. The male connotes fatherhood and the woman motherhood, and he calls each to follow with their own charisma.
In God's eyes, they are both equal, but different. They are to mutually complement each other in the mission he has given to the church.
Most likely the reality we see in the church is what makes the clerical state attractive to certain segments of the community: one in which authority and power are possessed by the clergy. This could change which would make a difference in the way the male presence in the church is seen.
Confucius in his Analects gives us his understanding of growth with these words: "At 15 I set my heart on learning, at 30 I know where I stood, at 40 I have no more doubts, at 50 I knew the will of Heaven, at 60 my ears were attuned, and at 70 I followed my heart’s desire without crossing the line.”
Confucius in his own life without any Christian teaching knew that something happened to him by living the virtuous life. He was moved to live in harmony with nature and as Christians understand, an answer to grace.
A university professor in the Catholic Peace Weekly writes about Jesus' method of teaching. A representative example he gives us is the woman caught in adultery brought to him by the lawyers and pharisees.
He is presented with the law in which such a person was to be stoned but Jesus did not directly answer but told them that those without sin can start the stoning. In this short story we have the philosophy, the psychology, and the social aspects of education which is to understand. Jesus didn't want to teach but wanted them to grasp the truth. This is the role of an educator.
When we teach, people forget, when we grasp something, understand what is being said, we don't forget. In English the word educate means to draw out from inside to the outside. God has already placed in us the capacity we are to bring it out in our lives. Socrates considered this as working as a midwife to bring the new birth out to the light.
We all have this duty as educators to help bring out what God has given each of us. Mary Magdalena when she recognized her teacher called out Rabboni. Her teacher she could never forget.
In Titus 2: 11-12, "You see God's grace has been revealed, and it has made salvation possible for the whole human race and taught us what we have to do..."
In Korean the word for church and education both have the same Chinese character in its first syllable which is the mission of the church but with the methods of Jesus.
To buy we need to sell. Economics studies the way we provide ourselves to live, the means and consequently what and how we need to sell to buy. So begins an article in a diocesan bulletin by a seminary professor. When we examine what we buy and sell, products that in the past weren't even imagined as products of commerce are now traded.
Water is today a common product for commerce and can be bought at any convenience store. A bottle of water costs 900 won, the same size bottle of gas would cost 700 won. Strange that in a country without any resources of oil, a bottle of gasoline is cheaper than a bottle of water. Our senses tell us that the world of economics has its own system and rationality and the bias we have picked up accepts it as being indifferent to the problems of morality and ordinary common sense.
In the social gospel of the Church, this kind of thinking is confronted face on and we are asked to examine our place and role in the economic activities in which we participate.
Frederic Beigbeder a French writer is quoted as saying that our society when it comes to economics has thrown aside common sense and morality and with humor shows the distortions.
"The poor to buy a pair of expensive sneakers will sell drugs and the rich will sell expensive sneakers to buy drugs from the poor." This French writer makes clear that we are nurturing a monster in economics that has no connection with what is important. Consequently the more developed we become in financial matters the more hard-hearted life becomes for many. This is the reason the social gospel recommends that we look carefully at what we buy and sell.
With the increase of wealth, we see also the increase of deprivation in the lives of many.The social gospel asks us to reflect on what we buy and sell. A moral element is involved and we need to see it. We are at the center of commerce.
The Pope in a message to the prime minister of England in 2013 stressed the ethics of truth. "This includes, first and foremost, respect for the truth of man, who is not simply an additional economic factor, or a disposable good, but is equipped with nature and dignity that cannot be reduced to simple economic calculus. Therefore concern for the fundamental material and spiritual welfare of every human person is the starting-point for every political and economic solution and the ultimate measure of its effectiveness and its ethical validity."
Many authorities speak with complicated theories and many fancy words. What is important is that the economy is for the welfare and justice of all. The economy that is not for all people is stealing from the poor. Should we not be conscious of this when finances are used for vanity and exorbitant luxuries?
Just as a tree turns to light, all life forms have a unique orientation: life has a direction. However, this direction is not achieved by its own power. If directivity is the ultimate inclination it must have already been present. Nothing exists by itself. To maintain its own existence the help of another is needed. To be dependent on another being means to have a sense of existence and direction given by another being. Different beings relate with the conditions of existence that each requires. If this relationship is balanced without distortion peacefulness can be expected. This is the first paragraph of the View from the Ark by a professor at the Catholic University.
Human life like any other has a unique orientation. However, human life requires a lot of external help in comparison to other beings. The frailty of a child requires the cooperation and closer bond with the community. This shows the special quality of human life. The weakness of children and elderly shows this more clearly. Here we have the law of mutuality at work, a win/win situation.
The law of life is not simply giving and receiving. The law of co-existence begins with discovering the meaning of relationships. As we see a different depth of life a new relationship develops and a deeper meaning. At the natural level we think about each other's survival but at the social level, we think about the value of life. Furthermore, we enter the religious and moral dimension and we begin understanding what perfection in life means.
It's like the seed of a tree when planted and reaches maturity it gives peace to those who are looking for shade. Peace is the fruit of life and we are meant to extend this peace to one another in a win/win situation. Each in their own way without confusion. Peace is not silence and the absence of work but the ultimate harmony. It accepts differences and a fuller harmony. True peace is dynamic.
Peace does not come to those who simply wait. God comes to us in his infinite love and in the seeds he has planted in us of resurrection that overcame the sufferings of the cross.This is the promise of future peace. Those who experience this joy in life have a great gift.
Loss of the value of life is epidemic in society. We hear the tragic news of terrorism, war, the loss of innocent lives and the destruction of our Eco-system because of human greed. Loss of life due to injustice is the loss of peace. Seeds of life can not sprout in the dry earth. Without the correct understanding of the situation we have no hope. The world needs to be a place of harmony and mutual growth. Another being is a mirror that helps me know myself. We need to give glory to love, peace and the Lord who lives within us.
Depression is a common malady. An article in the Catholic Times treats the need for humor in our world today. 1 out of 4 persons in life is faced, for some time, with a type of mental problem because of the harshness and overly competitive society in which we live. We have lost the ability to laugh.
In Korea, the people's traditional culture can't be explained without understanding the place of satire and jokes. Satire shows the irrationality of much of what we see in life and opens it up to mockery. An example would be the Bongsan Mask Dance in which the degenerate life of the aristocrats was exposed. The audience relaxes and gets the strength to endure reality. Laughter rather than the criticism gives a feeling of compassion to the objects of the laughter.
A director of a counseling center says: laughter helps us bring positive emotions out of the negative and these positive emotions make us happy.
Since 2001 the Ministry of Health and Welfare in its survey of the mental health of the country excepting the related diseases from nicotine and alcohol, depression was predominant.
In service work, we hear about the 'smile depression' on the outside a kindly smile but on the inside depression. A problem with those who are always dealing with the public.
A priest who works in counseling mentions that people in modern society, especially in Korea, are faced with political anxiety, recession, job hunting, job insecurity, polarization etc. which requires living in constant tension and stress. The development of the healing industry reveals this reality.
The clinical effects of laughter are well known with professional verification. A professor at Stanford University defines laughter as mental jogging. It clears the circulatory system, stimulates the digestion, lowers blood pressure, relieves muscle tension and stress, increases endocrine secretions.
In the Bible, there is no mention that Jesus smiled or laughed but Jesus who lived with all our human attributes would have laughed like everybody else. Jesus did give us the Beatitudes.
The French writer Didier Decoin went through the Bible verses for a book and showed where Jesus would have laughed: Jesu le Dieu qui riait. It is the laughter of Jesus restored by the imagination of a writer but it explains the validity of the context. A priest wrote a theology of laughter and argued for a need to recognize God's sense of humor and include it as an attribute of God.
The article concludes with the words of a priest who has worked in counseling for many years. "The Catholic Church has tended to focus on suffering and death in the whole of our religious life, including the liturgy. We must make the believers feel the joy of the gospel."
True laughter is only possible for those who hope. Laughter is another name for hope and for Christians always associated with the glory and joy of the resurrection. The 'Joy of the Gospel' when this is shown in our lives and we express this by our joy and laughter we are helping to overcome the frustrations and despair we see all around us.
