Avarice— Psychology and Cure

The rector of a Catholic University writing in the Kyeongyang magazine introduces us to his thoughts on avarice and its cure. He begins by telling us of Freud's  'anal character': parent's excessive concern with the child's toilet training, in time developing into obstinacy and parsimony—a desire to amass money. The opposite was noted by Freud with those who did not receive the training and defecated anywhere—they were the wasteful types with money.
 
The study of money and our emotional life began in the second part of the 20th century. Giving us much information on the way it affects us. Goldberg and Lewis with money we have security, power, love, and freedom. With money, we decrease uncomfortableness —security. Money adds value, superiority, and control—power. Money gives expression to affection and its alternatives—love. Money gives us the  means to achieve what one wants— freedom. Obviously making for a close connection with our emotional life, our mental state and what we do.                                
Forman divided the pathology of money into five types: Miser—hoards money;  spendthrift— compulsive and uncontrollable in their spending; tycoon—totally absorbed with making money; bargain hunters—searching for bargains; gambler—feels exhilarated and optimistic in taking chances. Outside of addictive gamblers and shoppers, the other three are not considered abnormalities.
 
How does one go about having the right relationship with possessions? We hear often from the Scriptures the vanity of pursuing the material. Jesus tells us we can't serve both possessions and God. There are Christians who speak about the problem with possession and yet are possessed by them.
 
The Church Father, Clement of Alexandria, has shown us the correct connection with the material. We are not to be wasteful with what we possess. Having material goods is a value, we can do things, of value and work for justice. God made the material for us, so we need to use the material things correctly. The responsibility rests with us.
 
Material goods make our lives fuller and with greater value. Our faith life tells us where these possessions have come from and how they are to be used. St. Paul tells us "We brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it, but as long as we have food and clothing let us be content with that (Tim. 6:8).
 
According to St. John Chrysostom the truly rich person is not the one with much but the one who has no avarice and is satisfied with what he possesses and the poor person is not the one who lacks possession but who is full of avarice and not satisfied with what he possesses.
 
For a person not to fall into the sin of avarice it doesn't mean he is not to desire anything, but a person who is content with what he has. We need to be thankful for what we now have but we can have a desire for more. Granted this is not something easily achieved for most.
 
Our first Christians showed us this way of life they held everything in common. They did not use the words: mine, my. Consequently, all had enough to eat. They recognized who was the owner of what they had and were not slaves to what they owned.
 
There is a saying that if we don't have control over money, money will control us. We need training in this in how to share what we have. We need to be in charge and not become the slave of the material.

Vanier's 10 Rules for Life

In a bulletin for priests, one of the diocesan priests has taken the 10 rules for life that Jean Vanier has composed and has spoken about and was released on a YouTube video and translated them into Korean. Listed below are the rules back in their original English.
 
Jean Vanier is a Canadian Catholic, philosopher, theologian and humanitarian. He founded L'Arche for persons with developmental disabilities and later co-founded the Faith and Light movement which works also with the families and friends of persons with developmental disabilities. He continues to live with members of the community in France.
 
1) Accept the reality of your body  
One needs to be at ease with his body. We are born in weakness.  I am ninety. I am not fifty, or forty this I have to accept.
 
2) Talk about your emotions and difficulties Men have difficulty speaking about their emotions.
 
3) Don't be afraid  of not being successful 
You have to discover you are beautiful as you are regardless of whether or not you are successful.
 
4) In a relationship, take the time to ask "How are you?" Has he married his success in work, or has he married his wife? What is the most important? Is it to grow up the ladder in promotion?
 
5) Stop looking at your phone. Be present!  To young people he says, "You are people of communication." But then he asks, "Are you people of presence? Are you able to listen? To be human is to know how to relate."
 
6) Ask people "What is your story? 
Vanier emphasizes the importance of relating to people and listening to them. He says, "To meet is to listen: Tell me your story? Tell me where your pain is? tell me where your heart is? What are the things you desire? I need to listen to you because your story is different from my story"

7) Be aware of your own story 
"You are precious. You have your ideas: political, religious, non-religious, you have your vision for the world, your vision for yourself," says Vanier. He acknowledges that when we fear our identities, worldviews, and cherished opinions are being taken away from us we are liable to become angry. He adds, "we have to discover where our fears are because  that is the fundamental problem."He asks, "Maybe in your story, there is a story about fear?"
 
8) Stop prejudice: meet people 
“The big thing about being human is to meet people.” We need to “meet people who are different” and “discover that the other person is beautiful.”
 
9) Listen to your deepest desire and listen to it
“We are very different from birds and dogs. Animals are very different.” He says that unlike with animals there is a “sort of cry of the infinite within us. We’re not satisfied with the finite.” He asks, “Where is your greatest desire?”
 
10) Remember that you'll die one day “I’m not the one who’s the king of the world and I’m certainly not God,” says Vanier. “I’m just somebody who was born ninety years ago and will die in a few years time and then everybody will have forgotten me. This is reality. We’re all here, but we are just local people, passengers on a journey. We get onto the train, we get out of the train, the train goes on.”

"Charged with the Grandeur of God"

In the recent issue of Bible & Life magazine a priest reflects on what a sabbatical meant for him. During the year he made the walk to Santiago de Compostela; an 800-kilometer trip carrying a backpack of 10 kilos and walking for 20 to 30 kilometers a day, it took over a month. If asked what did he get out of the trip he answers with one word—happiness.
 
He has never considered his life to be a happy one. Occasions of happiness were present but it was his choice of life and he worked hard in what was required, with little time for anything else; happiness was not part of his consciousness. The pilgrimage to Compostela was not easy but he wants to shout out loudly and has done so often, he was happy.
 
In early morning he would wake up in one of the hostels for travelers; begin his daily walk, at night go to the hostel to sleep. Each day was spent in the same way but each moment was one of great joy. Each morning he would wonder what gift would be awaiting him. Nothing special these gifts that came: a beautiful blue sky, sunbeams on the fields, the view of the outstretched road ahead, the forest and trees, flowers, the weeds at the edge of the road, the evening sky—moon and stars...and all the people he met in the villages, talk with fellow travelers, the visit to the village churches, simple prayers.  All that we do every day was filled with great joy.
 
We have heard that God is hidden in the daily tasks of each day. We are surrounded by the presence of God. Jesus did not spend most of his time in the Temple but in the boondocks of the country area of Galilee. We in faith are living in God's world in the here and now. St.Paul expresses this with few words:  "In God we live, move and exist" (Acts 17:28).

The writer thinks we are so familiar with the depravity and redemption dichotomy we forget we are to be filled with joy and happiness. All the universe was made with the outpouring of God's love. The reign of God is with us now.
 
Father William A Barry in his book Finding God in All Things reminds us to find God's goodness and beauty and respond to the wonders with praise and gratitude, which should fill our hearts.

When it came time to compare God's kingdom to what we know, one of  the metaphors the writer found the most moving was the comparison of the kingdom to a mustard seed. Hidden in our everyday life with small acts of love—sacrifice,  forgiveness, encouragement, caring, a word of kindness— without our knowing becomes a big tree with the birds coming to rest in the branches.
 
Our lives he compares to a trip to Compostela. Difficult but with great consolations. We have lost the ability to see the hand of God in creation. We have lost the capacity to see the splendor all around us. We are so taken up with the 'doing' that 'being' escapes us. He concludes the article with a quote from St. John of the Cross in which all of nature was his beloved: "mountains, valleys, strange islands, sonorous rivers the whistling of the air, the peaceful night, the quiet music, the sound of solitude..."
 
"God is love, and whoever lives in love lives in unison with God and God lives in union with him."  When we walk with the beloved, all of life becomes living in God's kingdom.

Maryknoll Missioners in Korea

The Catholic Times had an article on the first foreign mission society established in the United States for Americans in 1911—The Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers. Father Gerard Hammond, the local superior of the Korean unit, in an interview with the newspaper, gave his impressions on the work of missioners.
 
"You must fall in love with people who you come to serve. This love should begin with understanding their religion and culture and looking at their needs through dialogue; we should give unconditional love to people in mission fields with patience and enthusiasm."

In particular, "We should not compare the culture of the mission field with the culture of the missionary's home country. Instead  of trying to inject my culture, we should try to accept good things in the religion and culture of the mission field." He is there to bring Christ and not his home countries' culture. The missionaries need to make an effort to see what the people need, rather than only what they want to give, he is not sent to be a 'lone ranger'.

On the other hand, he pointed out that for the evangelization of Asia, there should be an interest in Asia on the part of the believers. At the time of the founding of the Maryknoll Society, efforts were made to inform American believers of why they should be engaged in Asian missions.
 
To advance our relationship with North Korea, this has to be done getting all involved with a desire for unification and making efforts for its realization with continual interchanges and contacts. The evangelization of Asia requires the same type of interest, extended to the seminaries, to create an atmosphere for Asian evangelization.
 
Korea has been blessed with many vocations for the clerical and religious life and with an intelligent laity, they should be a leader in the evangelization of Asia. In Korea the days of Western missionaries have passed. Koreans are similar in appearance to other Asians and there is a common Asian culture with Confucianism and Buddhism. With the history of the church in Korea, the martyrdom of so many for the faith, this should help vitalize the church in its missionary outlook.
 
He prays that they will have some of the zeal of their ancestors in the faith to continue the efforts for the evangelization of Asia.

Do not stop, move forward. Do not be afraid. "

A committee member of a unification research team in the Diagnosis of Current Affairs column of the Catholic Peace Weekly gives us three words to spend some time on: Dialogue— Peace —Change.

# 1 Dialogue: A Singaporean scholar mentions the gift given for the Korean peninsula on June 12, with the North Korean and  American Summit. It was on that date in Singapore that Kim Jong-un and the Trump Summit was held. On the memorial stamp for the occasion the word "Sentosa," was written in the Malay language, which means peace and tranquility. The  Singaporeans, felt pride that they played a role as peace mediators. For Singaporeans, the conversation singled peace.
 
# 2 Peace: On the Korean peninsula, peace cannot be guaranteed by dialogue alone. From spring to autumn in 2018, seven historic summits were held on the Korean peninsula, which shook the terrain, all talked about peace.
 

However, residents of North and South Korea are still hesitating at the entrance to peace. Where we stand in the year 2019 is not the place of stable peace but on the  border of an uneasy peace.
 

Stable peace can only be achieved if no consideration is given to the use of force as a means of resolving conflicts. There are two ways to do this. The first is a political commitment to the abandonment of military use through peace treaties. The second is to bring about 100 American businesses to North Korea  and 100 businesses from North Korea to Washington. Then common sense tells us that conflict brings about self-destruction. Both journeys to stable peace require fundamental changes in the thinking, awareness, and behavior of the leaders of the three countries.
 
# 3 Change: The key to controversy over denuclearization is whether North Korea,  under the leadership of Kim Jong-un, will change. Denuclearization skeptics say that Kim Jong-un has not changed and will not change and has shown no sincerity in concerns for  denuclearization. Negotiators, on the other hand, assess that North Korea in the Kim Jong-il era and North Korea led by Kim Jong-un are different. They believe that Kim Jong-un wants to become a leader of a wealthy nation even if it means giving up nuclear power. Consequently, Kim Jong- un should be  provided with the opportunity to change.
 
There is only one person who knows the mind of Kim Jong-un and that is Kim Jong-un. He is the only person who attended all seven summits of 2018. He would have arranged his thoughts by now. 

The United States and China have agreed on a three month truce on the trade war. We are presented with a few months in which Pyongyang and Washington have the opportunity to negotiate. At the beginning of the new year we have this hope and prayer for a stable peace on the Peninsula.
 

The dialogue efforts that the leaders of the three countries of North Korea, South Korea and America have accomplished in 2018 were working towards peace. Now is the time for the leaders to show change in thoughts, understanding and attitudes. The message that Pope Francis gave to  President Moon Jae-in is hopefully remembered by the leaders: "Do not stop, move forward. Do not be afraid. "

Clergy Renewal =Parish Renewal

In the recent issue of the Catholic Peace Weekly, an online survey by the Catholic Pastoral Research Institute, showed some interesting information and areas that need to be addressed. The survey was far from scientific, with only 886  who responded, but can be judged to be the most interested in church, knowledgeable and devoted believers.

The questions asked were direct: What is urgent and necessary for the Korean Church renewal and growth in the Gospel life of the community? Secondly what needs to change in the way the bishops, priests, religious and laypeople have lived their lives.

Bishops: a need for dialog 59%, self-righteousness and authoritarianism 52%, lack of concern for social justice 50%,  too much concern for material things and results  48%, living the easy life 47%.

Priests: self-righteous and authoritarian 73%, dialogue and comunication73%,  more concern for sermons and Mass preparation 66%, extravagant hobbies and interests 65%, lack of pastoral vision and leadership 65%.

Religious: immature language 42%, the narrowness of vision 38%, lack of prayer and spirituality 32%, authoritarian and self-righteousness 28%, lack of concern for the poor 26%.

Laypeople: factionalism 63%, conflicts with others 61%, lack of prayer and a spiritual life 57%, lack of sincerity in their spiritual life 48%, associated with the wealthy 48%.

Overall one sees rather quickly that the laypeople want to see a change among the clergy. They want more communication between the clergy and laypeople and less self-righteous and authoritarian behavior.

There is a saying that 'church renewal depends on clergy reform. Clerical authoritarianism blocks communication and hinders the church from fulfilling its mission of evangelization. In a survey conducted in another diocese recently, believers answered: "I feel the joy of living the faith when a humble priest  treats believers with sincerity and love."

A New Paradigm for the Family

Last year family committees in the parish councils had problems deciding what to call the retreats being prepared for the parishes. In the past, they would be called couple retreats but times have changed. So begins the column in the "Eyes of the Believer" of the Catholic Times.

Today it is necessary to include other types of families: divorced, separated, bereaved, nonmarried and even the 'goose families'. (Families separated for the education of the children in foreign countries— mothers only return seasonally reuniting the families like migrating geese.)  The scope of the retreat was expanded and promoted with the title of "family retreat". Often over half of the participants registered alone. The content is not limited to marital relations but includes communication and human relationships.

May is Family Month when marriage renewal ceremonies were carried out in many parishes, today no longer welcomed. In parishes the number of married couples is small and programs are not able to keep up with the changes in society.  A new family pastoral paradigm is necessary otherwise efforts will miss the targets.

Homes of the 21st century are undergoing rapid change. The number of households is increasing due to the increase in the single-person households, low fertility rate, divorce, and remarriage etc., if the church continues to adhere to the traditional 'normal family' then all others will be excluded.

Moreover, even though today all households are greatly influenced by changes in social structure and systems, the existing family pastoral approach seems to remain in the past and the individual or family differences are bypassed, limiting the problem of the family to the private domain. The church still has a patriarchal family problem, so the unequal structures in society in which women are alienated and suffer are not treated as an issue, and the reality of discrimination continues.

This year's parish pastoral direction for the diocese is the foundation for mission;  emphasizing the family community—highly anticipated because it focuses on pastoral care. It offers a variety of family programs for the spiritual growth of the members, communicating the heritage of the faith in grandparents, parents, and children with specific pastoral activities, daily household prayer, and weekly gospel sharing in the home. There are, of course, programs that take into account changes in the times, but the impression is that they are mainly focused on homes made up of couples and children.

The way the pastoral care of the family can be combined with culture is infinite. He hopes the diocese will put money and personnel into the research to make this the future reality.