One of the capital sins is sloat—laziness. Catholic University rector, whose field is psychology, in his article in the Kyeongyang magazine shows the readers how close the early desert fathers were to the thinking of our present-day psychologists. Many are the reasons for lack of energy, listlessness, which have little to do with attitude: genes, environment, psychology, physical and spiritual conditions all play a part in much of our lack of energy and 'quiet desperation' felt by many.
The second type is a compulsion that enters into our lives. This can be an improper understanding of what we are about, coming from society or religion—an incorrect attitude about life. Burnt out and depression are signs of this condition. The writer mentions there are those in the field of psychology who recommend a person with these problems to do nothing—be lazy. This is not to make light of the situation but showing that many in society do not understand the difference between laziness and leisure/rest.
Psychologically laziness has much to do with anxiety. The habit of procrastination, and not doing what we know we should, brings lethargy and depression. The habitual delay caused by anxiety can cause depression and a variety of non-wanted behaviors. We have work for work's sake, addiction to work, and little energy for anything else. This is not necessarily depression.
The antidote to sloat from the Christian tradition is very much like the advice coming from the psychology of today. He mentions the Praktikos of Evagrius Ponticus and the teaching of John Cassian, they both recommend working with the hands. Work, prayer, reading, and fasting influencing their daily life. In our present knowledge of depression, we are recommended to move the body as an important healing procedure. Since the motive power to move is missing, more than trusting their feelings and thoughts, they need to move the body.
This is not only true of the depressed but of many others who find movement difficult, requiring forceful effort on their part. The teachers of Christian spirituality have considered the awakening of the body as the awakening of the soul. This brings about the awakening of one's ardent desire and in search of the good.
In the parable of the good Samaritan, Jesus tells us to stop before those who are in need of help. In our present world environment of individualism and narcissism, this is not something easily achieved. To listen to others and be concerned is annoying but is a great help in overcoming our laziness.
The desert fathers considered sloat a disease of the soul: "When we are oppressed by the demon of listlessness, we should tearfully divide our soul in two, making one part encourage the other, showing good hopes in ourselves and singing David's words, ' Why are you depressed my soul, why do you disturb me? Hope in God, because I will praise him, the Savior of my person my God. Ps 41:6... we should persevere and valiantly tackle all comers, particularly the demon of listlessness, which is the most oppressive of them all, and so particularly bring out the quality of the soul. Running away from such conflicts and trying to evade, this teaches the mind to be helpless, cowardly and fugitive... The monk ought always to be ready as if he were to die tomorrow, but at the same time, he should use his body as if he were going to live with it for many years to come. The first approach cuts back the thoughts of acedia and makes the monk zealous, while the second preserves the body and keeps its self-control balanced." (Praktikos 27-29)
Carl Jung the Swiss Psychiatrist, said after 35 all our emotional problems are spiritual problems about the meaning of life. The Austrian doctor Victor Frankl, said one of the big problems in mental health is the loss of meaning. Finding meaning is the return to health.
The 'why of life' is the important question in overcoming listlessness. According to Evagrius tears of repentance are necessary to return to values and the meaning of life. This is the beginning of a new life.
Everywhere news is titillating; makes turning on the TV and reading the newspapers embarrassing. Money and power clash, greed and pleasure embrace. Truth and falsehood, rumor and speculation are all in the air. Sexuality is beautiful and precious. In the arms of love bright and warm, connected with money it gives birth to degradation and crime. With power, it will produce corruption and lawlessness. Catholic Peace Weekly in Word and Silence gives us these thoughts for Lent.
Money, Sex and Power meet at the table with liquor. Drugs and violence meet together with the clanging of glasses. Hospitality, bribes, gifts, entertainment, appeasement, and concealment appear. Famous entertainers, police officers, high ranking officials and business people present. Although there are many different situations they are essentially the same: pursuance of money, covetous of power, meeting under dark lighting. Desire and pleasure come together in hesitation.
"Look at him, pregnant with wickedness, conceiving Spite, he gives birth to Mishap" (Ps 7:14).
Rumors abound, truth is drowned, distrust drives the Internet, suspicion seeps into the cell phone, lists appear and videos make the rounds. I'd rather look away. I want to block my eyes and ears. Embarrassed, flustered, I still can not take my eyes away. It stimulates curiosity and voyeurism—disgusting and ugly.
The world is muddy but we can't leave it. We live in it. Sodom and Gomorrah are not mythical cities. Present in the brilliant lights of the city and in our desires. Easy to scold others; difficult to do what we should. We often blame the world but the world is me and we are many. Stepping back a few steps we can see ourselves as we are, in need of sympathy and mercy. We make the turmoil and clamor grow by our attention and consumption.
Coming to the end of Lent we meditate on the Passion and Death of Jesus. I recall the ashes on my forehead and my return to dust. I fast and abstain going through Lent with repentance, prayer, and temperance.
Fasting is necessary. I want to cut myself off from sundry world news. I want to shake off my thoughts, words, and actions that conceive sin. I want to step away from pleasure and desire, run from wealth and power.
It's not aversion or escape or indifference to the absurdities of the world. It's not that I don't want to see what is unlawful, unjust, but rather to help in some little way to bring light and beauty to the world.
Silence is the answer when the world is noisy. It is no use crying out. The sound becomes another noise with echoes. It's rather silence we need. Silence creates silence and the world becomes calm.
The world becomes joyous when we become joyous. You can brighten the world by becoming light. As we become light the world becomes brighter. The more I change and become concerned, darkness will decrease. As I become warm, the world will be filled with gentleness, peace, and warmth.
During Lent, I want to live the life of silence more intensely. I want to pray for a world that is floundering and staggering. I want to believe that the power to save the world is not in shouting but in the humble prayers of the silent ones.
A college professor working in quantum science writes in the Kyeongyang magazine an article titled: Humility. He recalls reading a few years ago that half of the Catholics who leave their religion, mentioned science as the reason. During the 20th century, the results of science and technology are overwhelming. Religious belief made little sense with this new reality, it was close to superstition.
Talking about science in a religious context seems to be dangerous and in the world of science, silence or opposition to religion is expected. Einstein said religion without science is blind and science without religion is crippled. Einstein was a Deist and did not believe in the afterlife. Pope St. John Paul II said faith and science are two wings in search of truth.
In the Bible, according to the writer we have the word wisdom appearing 522 times in the OT and 67 times in the NT. The word love appears 285 times in the OT and 296 times in the NT. In the OT times until the appearance of science, we had the search for God in nature. Ecclesiasticus 1-1, " All wisdom is from the Lord, and it is his own forever." They believed that the laws that govern nature were made by the creator. Today, no need to go to God, does that mean that God does not exist?
We contrast intelligence and faith, science and religion, both in search of truth. Intelligence and science are looking for the 'how' and faith and religion are looking for the more basic 'why'.
Over half of the scientists consider themselves atheists. Richard Dawkins is one of the militant ones and is hostile to all religions they are all leading us to evil and gives the example of the tragedy of 9-11. Many are Deist: accepting a creator God but after creation is not interested in the creation and lets it run according to natural laws of evolution and life.
Many Protestant churches oppose evolution and insist on creation. Many accept the creation story literally and deny what the scientists propose. People like Dawkins think they bring ridicule on themselves. According to our writer, 'creation science' has changed the packaging and call it 'intelligent design' but he considers this pseudoscience. Catholicism has no problem with evolution.
Francis Collins a director of the Human Genome Project in his book: The Language of God, creation science and intelligent design are both not science. Like Pope St. John Paul II, there is the acceptance of evolution and at the same time the providence of God in Biologos (God instigated evolution). Dependence on intelligent design is dangerous for when that fails our faith also will be harmed.
For a Catholic, God created the world and no matter how much science learns it will never destroy this belief. In faith, with great peace, the church desires the search for scientific truth with all eagerness, only in its application is there a need to consider God and morality.
Quantum physics, indeterministic unpredictability (chaos), Gödel’s incompleteness theorems, are some of the ways in which science shows its limitations.
In society, politics, and finances we have Arrow's impossibility theorem that operates in social choices when there are three choices or more to chose from. It's impossible to make a rational and fair choice. We can be overly credulous. Science has given us much but limitations are there, consequently, the need for humility.
This is also true with those of faith and religion, humility is necessary. It's an important part of our faith life.
Are you still wearing that yellow ribbon? A question from a person who saw the yellow ribbon pinned to the clothes of the writer— remembering the Sewol ferry tragedy in which over 300 drowned. The priest writer is working in peace and justice issues and writes in Bible And Life on the need to see pain face on.
People don't like to have painful thoughts come to mind; they have to face the original pain again. But strangely this kind of acute painful memories are often brought to mind and deliberately so. The yellow ribbon for the Sewol tragedy, the yellow butterfly for the comfort women, and the dates that are the signs of pain: 4.3 (Jeju Massacre) 6.25 (Korean War) 5.18 (Gwangju Uprising) 4.16 ( Sewol Ferry Disaster). Why do we want to remember these incidents? Why do we insist on remembering?
We do it to stay healthy. Carl Jung is quoted as saying: "the foundation of all mental illness is the avoidance of true suffering." When we avoid facing the terrible memory of pain and we cover it over, close our eyes to its existence, pretend otherwise, it will just give rise to bigger pain. Don't we say those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it? As believers, we know this from our tradition. The Israelites journey in the desert and Jesus' passion show us how facing pain, examining and reflecting on its meaning for us, we participate in our own resurrection.
Moses required the snakebite victims to gaze on the bronze serpent for some time. The Korean proverb: the person startled by a terrapin is also startled by a kettle lid.—Once bitten twice shy— What scared us in the past continues to scare us in the present. When they gazed on the bronze image of the snake that bit them they remembered their lack of trust in God, their murmuring, ingratitude and the love of God reentered their thinking and gave them strength and healing.
When we gaze at length at what gives pain as Christians we remember the meaning of life. We see beyond pain and suffering beyond death to God's love, and find the answer in the paschal mystery. Death is the unavoidable memory of pain: social, mental and spiritual.
Gazing on the cross of Jesus we see the pain and suffering that Christ endured. Suffering and pain is a great obstacle to belief in God and attempts at answers are many but few speak to the heart and to those in pain. We need to gaze at the pain and as Christians remember that life has meaning and in silence allow God to speak to us.
The movie "Schindler's List" (1993) is the story of a Nazi businessman, far from exemplary, a member of the Nazi party, but rescued 1100 Jews from the Holocaust. He hired Jewish prisoners from the concentration camps as employees of his military plant. Though he had to give his whole fortune to accomplish this he became a lifesaver for many. A professor of spirituality in a Catholic University writes on the subject for the Catholic Times.
A survivor who did not go to the gas chambers because of Schindler, made a ring from the gold of one of his teeth inscribed with a phrase from the Talmud: "Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world" and gave it to Schindler in gratitude. But Schindler said he didn't deserve the ring. He laments that he spent so much money on pleasure and was not able to save more people. If he had sold his car he would have saved ten more. The gold in his Nazi badge would have saved two more he said with tears in his eyes.
Schindler believed that it was greater happiness to save a person's life than to keep his property. Human behavior is determined by what we believe brings happiness. And we invest everything for that belief. Schindler believed saving lives would make him happier.
Jesus said giving, brings greater happiness than receiving (Acts 20:35). So when you believe in Jesus, you will "act in love" (Gal 5,6). However, do I think I am becoming a fool in this world because of love? These are the trials of faith. They come when we think other things make us happier than the practice of love. Living in this world, our faith will always be in crisis.
It's happiness for the farmer to see seeds scattered in the fields germinate, develop stalks, and fruit. This joy keeps him going out to the field daily. Our faith is the same. The fruit of faith is seen at the end but the joy comes daily in seeing the growth.
The church says: Faith allows us to anticipate the joy and light of the beatific vision, the goal of our pilgrimage on earth. The evidence comes when we become a bit happier because of faith.
In order to live and grow in faith, and come to our end we must raise our faith in God's word and in the Lord. Faith needs to grow. When a seed falls onto a field, the field not only keeps the seed but helps it grow. Likewise, faith must grow.
The Church says, "Faith allows us to anticipate the joy and light of the beatific vision the goal of our pilgrimage on this earth. The evidence that faith grows can be found in my feelings that I am becoming happier because of faith. Schindler was able to devote all of his money because of the joy that came from saving one person from the gas chamber. Faith can grow with happiness as we grow closer to our goal.
'Post-humanism', with the development of science and technology, people are going beyond humanism— the human qualities of life— and following our desires, changing the meaning of what it means to be human and in the process harming the body.
Where are we heading and where should we be going? An article in the Catholic Times reports on the recent conference with the theme: 'Human Desire and the Body'.
Participants pointed out 'desire' itself is not the problem but the excess. One professor of philosophy said: "Desire gives meaning to life, to destruction when overdone." Pornography as an example: Does not liberate one from sex but makes one a slave of desire for stronger sexual pleasure.
Stephan Kampowski a professor of philosophical anthropology from Rome said: "Desire has a limit, and even though we are finite human beings we desire the infinite." Consequently, we think it good to have a little more of whatever it is we possess. We need to get rid of this way of thinking. "Sexual desires are not just for physical satisfaction, but a promise to friendship."
He alluded to the recent videos of well-known celebrities whose sex lives were illegally filmed and circulated, a basic lack of awareness of the meaning of marriage.
Sexuality is not shared with a person who is not a spouse before marriage but shared with a spouse to complete love after marriage.
Professor Kampowski, said marriage is a system that can legitimately serve society, but often criticized. Marriage is a pledge for a 'common life' where men and women are responsible for all aspects of childbirth and education. He then emphasized that sexual desire based solely on feelings or marriage without any responsibility could lead to a 'disorganized sex life'
We need to discern what we desire if not we enter the world of biotechnology as a means to transcend our human condition and eventually design children to have better children and to acquire for ourselves better abilities and so forth. He has advised those in attendance to work against this direction and hopes the desire is strong enough to do so.
"Human beings cannot be happy without desire, but their desires can also make their lives unhappy," said one of the participants. Human beings should seek desire only to the extent that leads to harmony in life.
The Cardinal in the initial speech said: "When human beings are totally committed to love, true happiness will follow." In the development of science and technology, he hopes that it will lead to a truly human life together.
Today, politics are often as muddy as the Korean fine dust problem. Confucius said that politics is doing what is right. Let's think about the true nature of politics and the way God would see it. A priest sociology professor begins his article in Eyes of the Believer in the Catholic Weekly with the above words.
Politics refers to the way in which power and control are used by humans. However, 'power' is not only a matter for the National Assembly and the 'Labor Struggle' but also in conflicts between the married, dialogue with children, in churches and communities.
The concept of power that modern social science discusses can be broadly divided into three categories. Max Weber's point of view: "the power to carry out one's will despite the opposition of others." This perspective, which focuses on 'powerful individuals and groups,' is a good analysis of real politics, but there is also a danger of justifying every kind of dominance, dictatorship, and corrupt hierarchical system.
Secondly, it refers to the power realized in a collective network, a view widely shared in the modern network era. This strengthens the capacity of collective intelligence to freely communicate and empathize within each other's interconnected networks. These networks are being actively developed in joint projects between companies. The network of open communication does not work in bureaucratic or closed hierarchical organizations, and there is a risk of pursuing only the interests of the group.
Third, from the perspective of Jesus in the Bible, the source of power is God, where power is not meant to rule but to serve. 'Good power' guards against the power of the Herods of the world and promotes relationships that enable the 'poor and powerless' to regain the dignity God gave them.
However, power is not only connected with election and votes but is revealed in everyday decision-making processes. In the process of deciding something in the community, home, workplace, church, etc., you know by reading the tone of voice, expressions, the drift of the conversation and silences where the discussion is going and who is in charge.
On your child's birthday you decide on what you are going to eat by listening to what the child wants, is it not? The father doesn't take the child to his favorite 'beef intestine' meal for the child's birthday. It's easy to see what is meant my good power. When a child goes to college, why does the desire of the parents take preference over what the child wants? When one thinks himself always right, just and pushes, without reflection, the temptation to dominate grows like a wild mushroom.
Surrender, is an important step in the spiritual life, not just flowery language, abstractly explaining the place of God. One tries to recognize in our present situation the way the Holy Spirit is at work within our consciousness—who am I, my ambition, desires, and direction of life have to be identified. Also, as long as it relates to power and decision, what is to be done is always a very practical and political decision needing discernment.
Persons who have authority over others, need to have concern for the poor and weak, listen to their needs and work to realize them. When not sensitive to the movements of the Holy Spirit and one does not walk in the path of Christ with the cross, even if one goes to higher positions you are caught in a "trap of power," and in God's eyes are at the bottom.
In Lent, the leaders of the church, in particular, must seek the grace of conversion and understand the role of service and not of reigning. Politicians in addition not to forget their role as civil servants in a democratic society. If you are tied only to the tactics and interests of the party, corruption will follow. Lies, factions, division, and deception of the people will follow you into history. Politicians and government officials need to fear history and God among his people and seek 'good power' based on the common good.
