You look much younger than your age is always welcomed and gives joy to those hearing these words, be they elderly or young. So begins an article in a diocesan bulletin preparing for the New Year by a college professor.
Many are those who work diligently to look just one year younger. Basic is to take care of the skin; trying to keep the face—wrinkle free. Consequently, the use of all kinds of lotions and programs to achieve this.
He doesn't exempt himself from the efforts for he has used face creams, face packs to keep the wrinkles away. Watching TV has shown him the ways. However, there is a time that what worked at a younger age ceases to be effective. External methods are of no avail.
He began to look at the faces of those who uniquely stand out as looking much younger than their age. They were not using creams, toners and the like but their facial expressions were the secret for their youthful looking faces. Even faces with wrinkles when they laughed they looked much younger. And the opposite was true with those who had little facial expressions or looked angry.
In Korea there is the expression:一笑一少一怒一老 meaning the moment you smile, you become younger and the moment you anger, you become older. The professor finally understands what was being said with this well know the phrase.
We are beginning a New Year and he hopes that we will take these words to heart and make this new year one of much laughter. He mentions the words of Pope Francis in his exhortation: Exultate and Gaudete (Rejoice and be Glad).
St. Paul in 2nd Corinthians 4:16 tells us:"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day." Our bodies are getting older and there is little we can do about it but there is no reason why the spirit should grow old. Happy New Year!
In her column in the Catholic Peace Weekly, a religious sister introduces us to three cowardly phrases which are often heard.
The first she experienced herself recently. She met Mr. B, who she had known for some time. They exchanged greetings when suddenly an uncomfortable memory about him returned. The wound had not healed. She doesn't remember the exact situation but the gist of what came to mind: "some people say" introduced his complaint about her in the words of others. She was young at that time and felt an excessive sense of responsibility and did not give him the consideration he deserved. The feelings on meeting him brought back memories, resentful of his act of 'gossiping' and raising the level of the attack by anonymity.
There is a saying that "gossip kills three people": the speaker, listener, and the object of gossip. However, delivering the "gossip" directly to the object of gossip is an act of killing twice.
She lists the three most cowardly words. The first is Mr. B's way: "Someone doesn't think too much of you" and goes on the attack. Second are the words that come after the gossip—"actually I was not going to repeat this but...." These words are not only cowardly but mean-spirited. 'I am not the person who tells you this'—defending themselves and at the same time, blaming others.
The third type of gossip tears down another's personality and then says: "Of course I don't believe this..." These are not my words, but someone else is saying this. This is the only way they say what they want to say and escape behind anonymity. They shoot the arrow and hide.
Jesus tells us not to murder, but also not to injure our neighbors with our words (Matt. 5: 21-22).
Many are the ways we can kill another and words do it fairly well. Pope Francis is quoted as saying:
"Gossipers are terrorists because with their tongues they drop a bomb and then leave, and the bomb they drop destroys reputations everywhere." He also said: “I am convinced that if each one of us would purposely avoid gossip, in the end, we would become a saint! It’s a beautiful path!”
It's difficult to have a face to face fight with another but being attacked by an unidentified person when defenseless, inflicts a bigger wound. Online it is easy to hide behind anonymity— cowardly and maliciously making gratuitous comments and using them as tools of attack.
Today with the internet we are bombarded with false news, distortions, satire difficult to discern, yellow journalism, exaggerations, sensationalism, ideology disguised as news and a plethora of opinions masquerading as truth. Gossip may be even true but that doesn't mean there is a need to make it known to the whole world without good reason and in a manner that is unnecessarily cruel.
We don't realize the power of the words we use. If we don't have something good to say, better to say nothing is not the ideal, but unless we are absolutely sure of what we utter it is only just and honest to make this known to the listeners and not to pass it off as certain truth. Transparency in what we say is the ideal, and when it comes to having an uncomfortable feeling about another we need the courage to face the person directly and to convey our thoughts and feelings instead of speaking behind their back.
It was late in autumn after a meal and watching the movie Bohemian Rhapsody that a priest reminiscences in a bulletin for priests on his life after retiring.
He recalls the question of one of his fellow priests who asked: What do you plan to do after retirement? This sudden question caught him by surprise and left him embarrassed. He answered that according to the doctor's recommendation, if he takes care of himself in his seventies, he will in his eighties be able to briskly walk for about 9 years. Later he gave a hearty laugh and thought something was missing in this reply.
About a month ago he gave up an apartment in which he lived and moved to a joint retirement home prepared for by the diocese. Before the move, he tells the readers about his housekeeper who worked in the kitchen for 25 years. She told him that she was thankful for the opportunity to work doing the same thing every day for 25 years.
"Everyday I wake up thankful for the joy and happiness to do the same thing like a machine preparing three meals each day for an elderly priest which gives me great joy and fills me with gratitude. I am given a new day in the God's kingdom. How can I not be filled with joy." The priest on hearing these words felt that he was hit in the back of his head with a blow of a hammer.
Yes, priestly life in retirement is to get the strength to live the same 24 hours of each day in a new way in God's kingdom. What a great blessing filled with thankfulness to live in God's kingdom. When he looks back on his past fifty years of pastoral life, he is sorry for not feeling the joy, pleasure, and happiness of God's kingdom even though by saying the daily Mass daily, he was living this liturgically, condensing the life of Jesus and all that he came to give us.
Living his community parish life with his coworkers he was oblivious to the joy and happiness of living the kingdom of God with the parish community taken up with the duties of his office. Anyway, even if he didn't feel the joy of living God's kingdom in his ministry, now after retirement his plan is to live as his housekeeper expressed so clearly with joy. Each day will be to meditate on the life of Jesus through the daily sacrifice of the Mass and to realize each day as he wakes up that he is in the kingdom of God with all the sacrifices, happiness, joy, and thanksgiving of the Kingdom.
The priest has come to an understanding on the great gift he has received to live each day which is the same as yesterday but in the kingdom of God; grateful for the strength to be a part of the kingdom but now in faith. He has no idea how long he will be helping to build up this kingdom. It's his plan to live with gratitude for the joy of life.
Whenever we say the 'Our Father': "Thy kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is in heaven" he prays that all of us experience the love, joy, happiness, and thanksgiving of the kingdom.
It was a holy birth, (literal translation of the Korean word for Christmas). A baby was born in a remote place, not at home, in a stable, a baby's birth called holy. Why? Because it is the birth of the Son of God. So begins a meditation on Christmas in the Peace Column of the Catholic Peace Weekly.
Why did the Son of God become a man? Why did the Creator who created the universe become a creature? The Bible speaks of love for the sake of salvation. "God loved the world so much that he gave his only son so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life" (John 3:16).
Was there not another way to save humanity? God could with a word abolish all the evil of the world. With a word, could have transformed all the wrong ideas, words and deeds of human beings completely, why would he choose to become a creature, born as a newborn baby in a shabby stable?
The writer found the reason in 'love at eye level' or 'communication' which is desperately needed in all ages. Love needs to match the eye level of the beloved. If not, the object of love can't acknowledge the love or understand it. The best way for the Creator God to communicate and have this love realized by his creatures is to come down and be one with them.
But the question arises: true love does not need to reveal or announce itself. Why was it necessary for God to become one of us to make known his love? Was it not to communicate at eye level with the one loved. Communication is not unilateral, not one-sided, not orders or instruction. Communication is interactive. It's reciprocal. So, if you do not open your mind and heart to the other, you are not communicating.
But there are many times when communication does not exist between people because of walls, ranks, and discrimination. The strata of society you belong to will determine who you will be communicating with. Those in the higher levels of society speak to their own and so with those in the lower levels of society. The most effective way to break this reality is to have the person on the top come down. Not to rebuke and direct, but to open up and to come together. Was this not the reason God came to the earth as a baby to be one with us?
But why do you want to communicate in this way? Communicating brings about a meeting of minds and hearts. Communication that does not do this is not true communication. By forming a sympathetic bound with one another, the motivation to share goals and work to realize them is achieved. The vitality for this comes from the inside. Without true communication, a union is not formed, we lack goal consciousness and motivation.
Is this not the reason why the Son of God came to the poorest as a helpless baby? His life is the most vivid example of the way and purpose of true communication. He has showed us that all are God's beloved children and that every person is made noble with the power given to us by his love.
So the birth of a baby born in a stable 2000 years ago is still the greatest message on the meaning of communication. The Christmas message of communication is a need of our age. A blessed Christmas to all.
A university art professor in the Catholic Peace Weekly writes in the current affairs column on an assignment he gave the students to write about what they considered the best example of art education both at home and abroad. Reading the reports he was amazed since all the students had graduated from high schools in the humanities.
The professor went through all the papers and the overall impression was the students in high school felt a thirst for art that was never satisfied. Art and music were elective subjects. College entrance subjects such as Korean, English, mathematics pushed out the art subjects. They asked their teachers to make the art subjects more available but that was not possible because of college entrance preparations.
Hearing the voices of the students he was quick to make a club for those interested in music where they were involved in making a musical. In six months 20 of the students working together presented their musical which gave the professor a great thrill. He was overcome with emotion, after all, that is why they came to the art school.
There are many regular courses related to art. In the case of elementary school we have: 'joyful life', 'physical education', 'music' and 'art'; in middle schools: 'physical education', 'music' and 'art'; in high school: 'sports for health', 'sports and culture', 'sports and science', 'music and life', 'music and career', 'art creation', and 'art culture'. Also, courses such as 'drama', 'movie', and 'literature' are included in many curriculums. However, these subjects have been lost due to entrance examinations; students are suffering from cognitive, emotional, and physical development due to lack of the arts.
The results of education in the arts are just too many to count. It develops harmoniously the body, intellect, and spirit. It greatly relieves stress, gives one confidence and self-esteem; develops independent thinking and problem-solving skills; develops communication and creative expression skills; leading to a larger world. Also, according to medical experts, art education is very helpful for improving cognition, emotional development, and empathy in adolescents. Abandoning education in the arts is like giving up on the future of students.
The professor reminds the readers of the movie 'Dead Poet Society'. The first scene is the entrance ceremony at a prestigious high school academy, in America. The calligraphy on the banner that was hoisted high at the ceremony was engraved with four lessons: 'tradition', 'honor', 'discipline' and 'be the best'. All teachers, along with the principal, teach according to these lessons for good order. However, Mr. Keating from this school teaches in a different way. He teaches that love and friendship are more important than Latin grammar. Students realize the meaning of "Carpe Diem" (enjoy the present life).
One of the students had a role in A Midsummer Night's Dream.The audience applauded repeatedly. He was great in the role. However, the father was against his son taking time out of his studies to be in a play. He decided to transfer him to a military school. That night, the boy takes the father's hand gun from the desk drawer while his parents are sleeping and commits suicide. When the father sees his dead son, he wept uncontrollably over the body. The cry is still ringing in the ears of the professor.
Schools should not take away students' dreams like the academy in the movie. Art education in schools should be essential, not optional. Schools should never become a 'dead poet society'.
The environmental problems both in Korea and all over the world are constantly being reported in the media. Pope Francis, in Laudato si, his second encyclical: "On care for our common home" asks what is happening in our shared home? He mentions various environmental issues such as climate change, energy, waste, water and consumption.
A member of the bishops' environmental committee outlines some of the concerns faced by the church and society.Whenever she thinks about environmental issues she remembers the words of Cardinal Kim Soo-hwan: "Do you know where the longest journey in the world is? It is from the head to the heart. The second is from the heart to the feet." First of all: What we know to be true with the head has to be realized and felt with the heart and descend to the feet and practice.
Here in Korea almost everyone knows we are dealing with global warming, and climate change. But why don't we act? Why is it so difficult to move from the head to the feet?
Recently, China has been suffering from a waste disaster and began restricting garbage imports. Korea among the world nations started the separation of trash early on and is trying to reduce the generating of garbage by enforcing a waste disposal system. If the garbage is recycled, it will not be a problem, why did it begin to export garbage?
The first problem is that we make too much garbage. The annual amount of garbage generated in Korea is about 16,000 tons per day for municipal waste— 1.01kg per person per day— approximately 369 kg per year. Among the OECD countries, the output and consumption of plastic is the highest.
The second problem is the misconceptions and expectations about recycling. Korea's recycling rate was 86.1% in 2013, 93.6% in 2014 and 88.5% in 2015 according to National Statistics. These statistics are calculated as the amount of recycled material brought into the recycling facility and not the amount recycled. This is an error in calculating the separation rate as a recycling rate. Even with waste plastics alone, the actual recycling rate is only 14%. Trash has to be reduced.
The biggest cause of the problem is excessive garbage, so this has to enter the heart. The beautiful earth is not going to be destroyed right away, so my practice for the environment may feel that it is not so urgent. However, the plastics that we throw away become micro-plastics and penetrate almost everywhere, including fish, shellfish, bottled water etc.
In addition to the whale's belly, plastics, including vinyl, were in the seafood caught in our country. For our family's health now, environmental issues also require great effort. Of course, there are many things that need to be solved such as distribution and related laws as well as excessive packaging at the production stage, but if consumer's perception changes, the manufactures and distributer's will change.
Let's think about what I can do first. We Catholics remember the words: mea culpa "my fault my most grevious fault movement" that was wide spread among the believers for some time. This needs to be remembered and brought back into our lives.
Koreans remember the oil spill on the Taean Sea and was thought it would be difficult to solve within 10 years. The people wiped the oil up within a year with the use of hands and towels.
Carrying along with us a shopping bag, taking a tumbler and not using disposables. Let's practice eco-life (minimal life). Is it not the time for us to go on that long journey from the head to the heart and to the feet so that our descendants can live well in the earth God has given us?
The early monks and Church Fathers hearing the teaching of the Bible considered avarice not different from pride as their biggest obstacle in life.
A rector of a Catholic University writes in the Kyeongyang magazine on the place of avarice in the lives of many. Not really relevant, we might believe, to the monks and the Church Fathers but it was a sin that one needed to be on the watch, for it prevented one from approaching the virtues. Evagrius Ponticus, also called Evagrius the Solitary, considered avarice the vice that prevented one from joy, and pushed them into darkness and a life of sadness and anxiety.
St. Basil the father of monasticism in his sermons often mentioned: "I will tear down my barns" (Luke 12:18) as his talking point in sermons on avarice. He considered the avaricious person not satisfied with enough. They feel a great lack with enough. Pope Gregory I, mentioned the 7 daughters of avarice: betrayal, fraud, lying, falsification, apprehension, violence, apathy towards the poor. They all serve avarice.
St. Augustine sees avarice as the root of all evil. This was not limited to the material but in all areas of life where temperance was not in control.This applies to all our cravings which breaks the order of love. He introduces the two words 'frui': to enjoy— to love something for its own sake contrasted to 'uti' to love something for its use. God should be the object of our joy. The objects of possession (uti) are temporary, relative, limited. When exposed to these we have the break down of love followed by unhappiness which distances us from the virtuous life.
Avarice always wants a little bit more. The Latin word for pitiable, misery is 'miser', in English the derivitive is miser a skinflint—they were considered unhappy and miserable.
In Dante's Divine Comedy he put in Purgatory those that squandered their possessions and those who kept their possession and didn't share with others. They seem to be opposites but they are the same in their attachment to the material. Both in the Scriptures and in world history kings and servants, believers and nonbelievers, those with material goods and those without them, all can fall into this manner of life.
Avarice is the path to anxiety and feelings of inferiority. In society many are afraid of being fired, not carrying out their work well, losing their health, fear of old age, family members and friends leaving, these thoughts when they become chronic make them feel miserable. This, in turn, makes for creating a God that will get them through the difficulties felt.
The second problem is the feeling of inferiority that is nurtured. In a capitalist society, a person is judged by the money he has and when one falls short one is absorbed with its possession, not easily dispersed. This is why in the ten commandments we have the 9th and 10th to control this appetite. The craving for honors and material goods can give one the impression that happiness is there. But often behind the mask, we have frustration, depression, and loneliness This can be both a punishment and the means to leave this way of life.
When one sees life through the lens of profit, the workings of the community or the bigger society will always be seen passively or with apathy and life becomes more like an island.
