In the Bible and Life magazine a priest begins his article: "Tears came to his eyes" recalling the meeting of the two leaders at Panmunjom. From deep inside he felt great heat rising up. "Our desire is unification." Korea to be again one, overcomes us with emotion. The words of our Lord are the prayers of many: ...So that they may be one just as you and I are one" (John 17:11).
What does this 'oneness? mean? This is what we should be working and desiring in life. In Korea we all desire unification: some want dialogue, cooperation, but some shout 'Red', we need to overcome them and put them in their place. All want unification but the meaning of the word is different.
For some unification means all the same—uniformity. North and South both with the same structure, way of thinking, lifestyle no difference. It's like going to a Chinese restaurant and asking for an order of noodle and bean sauce for all. Is that what is meant by unity? Is that even possible?
We have been separated for over 70 years. The North and South have gone their own different ways. Is it possible to give it all up to become one? We are asking each to give up what they have become. When we shout out North/South Unity— 'Unification Jubilee', we are asking the Communist North to disappear for an iron-fisted type of unity.
What is the unity that is possible? It is not the unity without differences but a oneness that accepts differences and yet lives together as one nation. This is the unity of the Trinity. Different but understanding one another, respecting each other, patiently influencing each other, compromising, and living together as one nation.
We have not been able to do this for over 70 years. The reason is the way we understand differences. Differences bring about uncomfortableness. At times fear arises. Different thinking, appearances, personality, different behavior, which at times becomes a threat. Consequently, some see this as wrong and when it comes to living together with the North it means the absence of Communism.
So what is demanded is both the North/South accept the differences. Jesus showed us the way in his life. He had no difficulty mixing with all kinds of people: the sick, poor, possessed, tax collectors, sinners, Samaritans, foreigners, etc. To the Jews, they were not different but wrong. Jesus saw what was different and what was wrong
and separated what was not according to God's will and accepted what was different and joined them and gave them life and did this with love.
The love that we need is being separated by the 38th parallel in our hearts. This has to be removed and find ways to begin talking. God is calling us to do just that. "We are ruled by the love of Christ." (II Cor. 5:14) When we can do this all the barbed wire that keeps us separated with disappear and we will be one people again.
A professor of political science gives the readers ot the Peace Weekly some ideas of the problems Korea is having with Japan. What is a rational response to the economic retaliation by the Japanese government? This is expressed in various ways depending on the viewpoint of the conservatives and progressives and the political intimacy with Japan.
Korea's countermeasures vary depending on the political and social climate. At times with retaliatory or appeasement policies in light of the long-term relationship with Japan. All the political parties emphasize the so-called 'diplomatic' solution, through a kind of political compromise rather than endless confrontation.
What is the "diplomatic solution" that politicians of all stripes, and scholars desire? How is the Korean government attempting diplomatic solutions when the Japanese regime is refusing diplomatic dialogue? In the current Korea-Japan relationship, there is no reason for a passive, humiliating relationship hoping for a diplomatic solutions.
In order for a true diplomatic solution, both regimes must simultaneously express their positions clearly and at the same time concede what can be conceded and compromise. However, if diplomatic means are not used as a means to a solution the shortsighted approach to ending the current conflict will produce other serious problems. We have to find a cool-headed diplomatic solution.
First, multilateral diplomacy must be planned to publicize and support Korea's position to the United Nations and other international organizations. It is necessary to find and share common goals with friends who can actively inform and sympathize with the international community about Japan's tendency to glorify its colonial rule and overlook their mistakes unlike Germany. The professor looks forward to the keynote address of President Moon Jae-in to the 74th UN General Assembly.
Efforts should be made in diplomacy outside of Japan. Japan should make known unbiasedly the harm down to Northeast Asia's security and environment. Fukushima's release of radioactive pollutants should be made known, and Korea should be in the vanguard of democratic forces actively responding to the delusions of the rightwing Japanese government to revive colonial imperialist remnants in the 21st century: allowing the use of of the rising sun flag for the Tokyo Olympics. (This was a symbol of Japan's imperialist past and reminds the Asian countries of the pain of colonial rule. Similar to the swastika in Nazl Germany).
Korea should stand in solidarity with the democratic forces of the Asian countries who actively accept and align with the common sustainable development goals and norms common in the international community.
True diplomatic solutions are not simply achieved with one-dimensional restoration of diplomatic channels. We must summon democratic civil society at home and abroad and solidify the democratic civil society in Japan. Abe's most feared political group is probably the politicization of anti-Abe civil society in Japan. Therefore, it is important to restore a social climate which allows Japan to brake the right-wing way of thinking that will allow the open communication between Korean and Japanese civil society.
These fights are likely to continue in the short term, until the end of Abe's regime, or in the long run until a true sense of democracy finds a place in Japanese civil society and politics. On the part of Korea first of all, the social consensus of the Korean people must be achieved, unnecessary internal conflicts settled, and Korean society united in the way we see the Korea-Japan issue.
Korean churches have piety but no spirituality. This was the subject of the Peace Column in the Peace Weekly this week. A subject that is well worth looking into not only in Korea but in the rest of the religious world.
The writer mentions how this was a topic often heard when discussing theological and pastoral issues in the Korean Catholic Church 20-30 years ago. The Korean church is active and energetic but lacks something, which we call spirituality.
What is 'spirituality'? The Korean dictionary describes it as 'spiritual character or temper'. In the Korean Catholic Dictionary, spirituality is with many words expressed as "a living expression of the faith of a person or group of people who, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is open to the love of God, oneself, neighbors, and the world through Jesus Christ." Not easy to understand. Eliminating the long modifiers it can be reduced to "a living expression of faith"—living out the teachings of Christ in our daily lives.
Forgetting the dictionary definition, the writer personally understands spirituality as the "fragrance of life". Just as a coffee shop smells like the scent of coffee, and when you enter the butcher shop, it smells like a butcher shop, so a person with faith has a unique scent. A devoted Buddhist believer should be filled with the fragrance of the Buddha. The fragrance of Christ is what should be emanating from a devoted follower of Christ.
But this fragrance of life doesn't come overnight. With the passage of the years, it gradually develops linking one's heart, thoughts, and actions together. When this happens we have the spirituality of the person.
If someone has lived as a Christian for thirty years and one does not smell the fragrance of Christ in that person, he is a Christian believer, lived the Christian life but not internalized. In the same way, if one was a Buddhist believer for 30 years and the fragrance of Buddha is not experienced one has lived a life other than that of of the Buddha. So spirituality is a measure of a person's life.
Spirituality is often used in a religious sense, but it's not limited to religion. All areas of human life are connected to spirituality. External manifestations that are not connected to the roots of one's life are unrelated to spirituality. If the fragrance of life soon disappears or changes, it's not the fragrance of true life, true spirituality.
The writer hasn't heard much lately, on the topic of piety and spirituality. He doesn't know if it's the writer's lack of knowledge, whether the Korean church has grown spiritually, or whether there is no interest in this topic any longer within the church.
The writer has been a Catholic believer for 30 years, as well as a Catholic media reporter. What kind of fragrance did the articles and columns he wrote in the 'Catholic Peace Newspaper' emit? He hopes the scent wasn't bad.
Christianity talks a lot about voluntary poverty and detachment. This is the other side of attachment to God. In the recent Catholic News Weekly, a counselor of a psychology center gives some answers to the problems that many have with possession and our relationship to them in the spiritual life.
She introduces the readers to the YAWNS: Young and Wealthy but Normal, a movement that was introduced to the public in the British press in the 2000s. It refers to people with great wealth but who do not live extravagantly but a frugal life and donate to charity and are socially responsible. They are in their 30s and 40s, made the money with their own efforts but pursue ordinary life.
On the other hand, you have also acronym YOLO (You Only Live Once), which means making the most of the one life that we have. The slang word was made famous by the Canadian singer Drake in the 2011 song 'The Motto'. This has spread all over the world. Those mainly in their 20s and 30s value money to increase the quality of life. No one should hesitate to spend money on traveling, hobbies, expensive eating, shopping, etc., present happiness is what is important and without sacrificing for the future or for others.
Whether you belong to the YAWNS or YOLO group the writer feels that young people are more concerned about spending money in the here and now. Even the YOLO family are not spending money foolishly. We no longer have images of those who become rich overnight. The young have found a way to satisfy their desires with what they will receive from their parents. Since most will find it difficult to be rich in reality they may have come to an understanding of what the future will hold for most of them. The job market looks bleak and this will have a great deal to do with the way they look at the future.
She relates the Grimm tale 'Happy Hans'. The hero Hans has worked for seven years and receives payment for his work with a lump of gold. He begins his journey back to his mother and puts the gold in a handkerchief and becomes tired. He sees a man riding a horse and decides to exchange his gold for the horse. Happy with the exchange he gets on the horse and rides off. He falls off the horse and exchanges it for a cow, but the cow does not produce what he thought and meets a butcher who gives him a pig in exchange, and this time exchanges the pig for a goose and later the goose is exchanged for a grindstone. He is now short of money for food and thirsty he stops to drink from the river and the grindstone falls into the water and is lost. He is happy to be rid of the heavy grindstone and free of all trouble and returns to his mother telling of his great fortune. Moral of the story—happiness comes from the mind, not the possession.
Of course, we know how unreal this story is. But if Hans hadn't changed the lump of gold for a horse and what followed he might have ended up losing some really precious things and not being happy. The last vestment we wear after death has no pockets.
If we know the true value of money, it's time to think about how valuable it will be in life, rather than focusing on its ownership, of the material itself. Regardless of how much you earn, isn't it how we spend it that makes it truly mine?
A priest writing in a bulletin for priests, mentions a talk given by a professor to a group on Christianity in Korea. He cited the worship of idols as a problem in the Korean church. According to a Christian Yearbook, the largest church congregations in the world many of them are Korean churches.
Growth in the materialization of the church does not find a place in the teaching of Jesus. The bigger, the more the better are not necessarily Christian values. Also, the issue of handing down the leadership of the church to the relations is a problem we see appearing in Korean Christianity. This is said to be the practice in over 300 churches and mostly in rich churches. Idolatry of the golden calf instead of God. No matter how developed the economy, materialism does not bring happiness, and the less developed, with true Christian values pursued, a good society will come, said the professor.
One of the Apostolic Delegates of the past pointed out the lack of a spirit of poverty as a major problem of the Korean church. Cardinal Kim Soo-hwan said that the Korean church is like the rich man in the Bible. It is about a young man who refused the call of Jesus because he was rich.
If you are tied to matter, you cannot follow Jesus. In fact, the church is far from the poor in society. Surveys show that the percentage of farmers and poor people coming to church is very small. The situation of the poor is difficult, the church doesn't intentionally alienate them, but they are alienated. Poor people may be blamed, but the church lacks the spirit of poverty and instead of feeling comfortable within the church they feel burdened and alienated.
In many of the churches in the West, we see the numbers decreasing. There are many reasons for this, but it is important to keep an eye on this process of alienation. In the course of the decline, the poor and workers left the church first. Then the intellectuals left criticizing the church, and finally, the believers left, emptying the churches.
It is a real problem that the poor can't find their place within the church and are leaving. Jesus sought out the poor and was with them and since the church is not finding room for the poor is this not telling us that something is wrong with the way we are living the Christian life?
Throughout the Bible, we are taught not to worship idols. And from the beginning of history, one of the biggest idols has been riches. Even now people keep on racing towards materialism. Years ago statistics showed that 85% of Koreans set their standard of happiness on wealth. Finding God in such a climate is difficult. Material matters are precious and necessary, however, believers are never satisfied with the material but need to go beyond the material to our brothers and sisters and God.
"How happy the poor in spirit; theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5, 3).
A religious sister who writes a weekly column in the Peace Weekly tells the readers about her experience a few days previous, teaching a class of middle school children about the spirituality of the young. They were all happy to see her and listened with great curiosity and attention. They seemed to be concentrating on her talk and nodding their heads to the sister's words. She was very happy with the presentation and gave the students an activity assignment at the end.
The problem appeared after the talk. When the group instructors asked, "What did you learn?" "What activity did you receive?" They had a blank stare on their faces and to questions, understood little of what the sister said. Another Sister, who accompanied her, found the response of the students weird for the students seemed to be following the talk, asked good questions and worked hard at the activity. What in the world happened? One person said: "There was no test to follow no reason to remember." "Aha," the group nodded.
This is sad but the reality. The gap between meaning and meaningless is enormous, the difference in doing something with meaning and without meaning has tremendous consequences. Neuroscientists say that seeing things without meaning activates only part of the occipital lobe responsible for vision. The memory does not work at all. But when you listen, see, and read something with meaning, your brain opens up new pathways and doubles or triples your brain's neuronal activity, extending one's memory.
They answered wisely in class and worked on their workbooks, but they couldn't extract anything from their memories. No, rather nothing even entered their memories. At that moment they are understanding just by feeling. No reward was expected, nor was any test envisioned, the talk was for the moment. But if you think about it, is that not true of all of us? She listens to many sermons at Mass and some are very good but she remembers very little of what was said. Memory of the priest's expressions, gestures and, a good feeling from hearing the sermon remain but later looking back at what was said it was bottom-side up.
She remembers William Stafford's verse, "I closed my book, and I left my head in the book." One may read a book very zealously, enjoy the book but little will remain unless the information is translated into meaning.
Moreover, in the screen world in which we have entered, when you ask 'what is it?' the hand is quickly on the smartphone. No need to think or remember, your smartphone will take care of it for you. We are leaving our heads in the computer.
Without memory, there is no past or present. "I have a memory of the past, so I have a present, and I am conscious of my existence." But her memory capacity is getting smaller and she is somewhat nervous. A distracting media environment makes continuous attentiveness to what we are doing difficult. Nothing is remembered by itself. More urgent than ever to process interpreting what we read, see and hear trying to perceive and recognize its meaning to us and others.
How much do we remember from the experiences of today, what we have heard and read today? It would be very painful knowing that the temporary memory system is all that is operative like our middle school children.
What is the Church's understanding of its existence? This question, more than in the past, is a question she asks very seriously these days. A university professor who received her doctorate in Rome in dogmatics gives us her thoughts on how we are to walk in the way given us at Vatican II with an article in the Kyeongyang magazine.
In 1789 the French Revolution caused a great upheaval in Europe and brought great changes in the relationship of the world and the church. The world no longer wanted to be controlled by the church and wanted her own autonomy. The world wanted to be ruled by the power of reason, and the call of freedom was the reason for the collision with the church which had other priorities. The Church needed to clarify for itself what was her place in this new understanding of the world.
Obviously, the Church's understanding of the problem did not begin in modern times. In the 14th century began the full-scale study of the pope's authority and that of the emperor because of the conflict that arose which helped to clarify the authority of the pope. But this understanding did not extend to the whole church and in these circumstances, the church had to face the Protestant Reformation. The authority of the emperor confronted the pope and the ordinary understanding of the hierarchical order with Luther's concept of the 'priesthood of all believers' was a big challenge. The Catholic understanding of the priesthood as coming from Jesus was denied very clearly and gave rise to a new church.
Catholicism and Protestantism consequently were working with two contrary ecclesiologies. Protestantism was lead by the Holy Spirit, living with the word of God within a hidden church. On the other hand, the Catholic Church in reaction emphasized the visible hierarchical church and the structure which came to its climax at the first Vatican Council.
Consequently with this view of Church, the clergy and religious were seen as church people and the laity as passive obedient followers that connect the church with the world. The understanding of the common priesthood of the laity had almost disappeared from the church—a great part of the problem. The common priesthood was very much part of the Scriptures but because of the reaction to Luther almost disappeared. This was influential in forgetting the roles of the laity within the church and helping to make a division in the ranks.
Since the church considered itself a perfect society and received authority from God than this made for an increase of the division within the church and divided the church more into classes. It was precisely this problem that the Second Vatican Council attempted to bring back to a right balance. The church is not controlled by a small minority but is made up from bishops to the laity of all the baptized who make up the people of God. All the baptized have received the mission and all are to be active members. From the Council's teaching, we are all the people of God, with different roles. We are all equal members of the church. All kinds of varieties within the community of the church but not divisions and exclusions.
"By divine institution, Holy Church is ordered and governed with a wonderful diversity. For just as in one body we have many members, yet all the members have not the same function, so we, the many, are one body in Christ, but severally members one of another. Therefore, the chosen People of God is one: one Lord, one faith, one baptism; sharing a common dignity as members from their regeneration in Christ, having the same filial grace and the same vocation to perfection; possessing in common one salvation, one hope, and one undivided charity. There is, therefore, in Christ and in the Church no inequality on the basis of race or nationality, social condition or sex, because there is neither Jew nor Greek: there is neither bond nor free: there is neither male nor female. For you are all 'one' in Christ Jesus" (Constitution of the Church # 32).
We have all at baptism been anointed with oil and the Holy Spirit and joined to Christ and share in his threefold mission as a prophet, priest, and king.
The Church is not in the hands of a few but is the work of all. Each has a special calling to work toward the common goal. This is the answer to the question of what does the church think about itself. We are all walking the way of Christ together. We are the Church the body of Christ.
