Problems in Believing

In a diocesan bulletin, a spiritual director mentions the many ways people lose their faith and leave their community. Sometimes it is a sudden tragedy, the death of a loved one, a sickness of a devoted believer, economic loss. That's not supposed to happen. You have problems with pastors and religious, the spiritual life is filled with darkness, no consolation so they leave. These are scars that arise from feelings, our emotional life.

Modern times and the young, their loss of faith may have more to do with the head than the heart. Scientific knowledge keeps increasing, the faulty ways in which the Scriptures are understood, the failures, sins, and crimes of believers and especially the leaders of these communities, and the hypocrisy that the media has made known is too much for many to deal with. We shouldn't however, get rid of what is true because there is some falsehood mixed in with it. We discern, keep what is true, and get rid of what is false.

All these problems should help us to deepen our faith. Look deeper into what we thought the Scriptures were saying and find out what they really are meant to convey. The Scriptures are not a history or science book but a book on how to live. If we have accepted misinformation as truth than one has to change the way we look at Scripture. The truth in Science is not denied by Scripture but my understanding of what I thought was the truth may be denied.

The society in which many of us live is secular and it can't help but influence us. The unseen world is hidden, the eyes of the heart are not activated, the meaning many found in life has no place for religion. They prefer to ask what and how rather than why? God is no longer meaningful in their lives.

The faith life that a Christian tries to live, the spiritual joy, vitality, darkness, emptiness, doubts, and conflicts in community and the fellowship are all part of a process trying to identify with Jesus. We are imperfect human beings on a journey with other imperfect human beings trying to better ourselves by identifying with Jesus in our thoughts and actions. A believer has trust in God's grace that enables one to overcome the difficulties that will arise if we don't put up barriers and harden our hearts. He is the Way the Truth and Life.

Life is full of mystery and the atheist as well as the believer can't deny what is seen. There is too much beauty, too much that is noble, good, pure, too much that we love and honor, virtuous, and worthy of praise to be attributed to chance. At least the doubt, at times, has to arise for the unbeliever.

In our process towards Jesus we grow in wisdom, and discover the meaning of love. When we encounter persons, situations that offend or confound we don't avoid the situation but try to understand. What is God saying to me here and now? It is an opportunity to get closer to God. Spiritual life is the process and tool in growing in love; we are not blinded by what is before us but use it to grow spiritually.

Can Our Society Give Us Meaning for Life?

Korea recently has had one case after another of famous people killing themselves. This has puzzled and saddened the public and made them reflect on their situation and reflect on their own death. A university professor in the sociology department gives us her thoughts in an article in the Kyeongyang magazine.

These reports of suicide leave us with scars large or small, especially those who are familiar with those who have died; we ask ourselves what is the meaning of life and death what makes us continue to live?

Death is a part of life we don't know when but it is our destiny but some try to advance the date. Like life, the varied manifestation of the way it is lived is also true in the way some persons choose to end their lives. The reason to continue living is not found because of poverty, loss of employment, sickness, betrayal, loss of face, etc. When a person is not able to determine a reason to go on living are they not bothered with such thoughts? Why am I here?

Humans like animals have a strong survival instinct. The increase in the number of suicides is a problem for society but in our history, we have not seen any society with an endless number of suicides. It is precisely because we are human that a person can go against a strong instinct for survival. What makes a person overcome this strong survival instinct? The writer feels it is meaning. When a person has no meaning in life this is fatal.

Consequently, the means of decreasing the number of suicides, in theory, is simple. It is to give persons a reason to live. Before the modern era, this was not something that needed to be done for we had family, clan, tradition, the nation, religion, ideology, and the like which gave a person a collective reason and meaning to life. There was little reason for the person to look for individual meaning.

However, in our day do we have readily available a collective meaning, a social ideal, a common ideology, and the absolute to which to give ourselves as those in the past? Where do we go, to whom do we go to get the meaning of life and the assurance of its value?
 
We need to succeed in finding meaning in life. It's not something everyone can do by wanting to. This she feels is especially difficult in Korea. In society, it is to be recognized by others which gives one value. It is a business card. Those with this value system need the approval of others without something to show, nothing is achieved and the effort continues and the person loses freedom.

Today each person has to find their own meaning and values in life that will enable them to live a fruitful life. The world we are born into is different from the past because of the thinking of Nietzsche and those of the same school.  

This duty is beyond one's capabilities. In a world where everything is relativized and left without an absolute standard, many are walking a dangerous tightrope between different standards? What is the right answer to why we have to live? With our social structure, it is natural that society has a hard time convincing its members of a reason to go on living.

We always had to be something and reach somewhere. You are now in front of a completely different task. Learning that life can be full even if it doesn't work, even if it doesn't reach somewhere. Life has meaning but is always exposed to the "sea of meaninglessness" in much of society.
 

New ways of support and solidarity are needed for this era. First of all, each individual has their own burden in life that must be carried, but it is the interest of all of us to see whether individuals can survive this task well. The meaning of my life also hangs there.
Meaning is the product of relationships and communication. Each person has to live, but no one is the maker of one's own meaning alone.

Leisure of the Heart

 

In one of the diocesan bulletins, a seminary professor recalls seeing a quote of Ludwig Wittgenstein which made him think. "Religion is, as it were, the calm bottom of the sea at its deepest point, which remains calm however high the waves on the surface maybe." He goes on to explain his thoughts on the subject. 

 

This he says gives some objectivity to the concept of religion. However, this is not the way believers will choose to describe their faith life. To express one's belief as religion is awkward to most believers. The common way is a life of faith.

 

When the word religion is used we are talking about a system, the cultural aspects of our faith, and its role in life. When we speak about faith life we are speaking about our relationship to community, our inner life, an encounter with God, and our response. 

 

Religion has little to say about the paradoxes of life experienced by believers. Living faith life is not readily seen nor measured. On the other hand from a religious point of view the study of the believer's way of life, the life in society, community, the believer's actions, attitudes, and virtues can objectively be scrutinized.

 

Society can give answers on how they objectively see the church. Wittgenstein was not a believer but had great respect for religion and worked seriously to understand the mysteries in life, his words should be taken seriously.

 

Our society is now extremely confused, it seems all are suffering from a form of hysteria and responding accordingly. The media also has lost a great deal of its reliability and the writer feels is promoting conflict in society. 

 

Society should help to integrate, bring together, condole, and care for the weak but those with this mentality are difficult to find. We who are religious and members of the Catholic Church should be desiring this internal quiet, peace, and gentleness. This genuine peace and gentleness do not come with extreme concern only for one's safety, well being, and benefits. It arises from those that have within them a stillness, leisure, in Latin the word Otium describes this attitude well.  

 

Augustine used this word otium often to describe an inner quiet that allows the virtues to grow, easy inner leisure that allows a contemplative outlook on life. This is the background to our Sunday obligation. This is also time away from making a living for the family to enjoy life, free oneself from selfishness, and to work towards the building of character. We can say it is time to give ourselves over to the movements of the Holy Spirit.

 

We who have been born for the eternal, this leisure and peace are what is desired of us so as to give it to others.

What Makes a House a Home?

 

A priest in charge of the Justice and Peace activities in a diocese writes in Bible & Life of  the feeling he has when traveling, seeing the many apartments that continue to be built. It seems that there is always a lack and they go on building one after the other. He fears the country shortly will be a country of  apartment buildings. 

The housing supply rate in our country has surpassed  100% for some time. Consequently every family should be able to have their own home but the reality is that only about half do. There are many who  have two or more. 

The apartments that we continue to build will they  be going to those without  a house? The chances are no. The houses are bought to be resold which continues to polarize society into those who have and those who don't.

Policy change will not solve the problem for those who make the  policies are not those without homes. The problem is the wrong understanding of the purpose of a house. At present for many, it is a profitable investment for the future and not a place where people make a home for  their family. It is not a place taking up so many meters of space,  made with this kind of  material, in this area of society, but a place where a family lives.

A house with all kinds of precious stones, adorned with  expensive marble but inhabited by thieves it is no more  than a den of thieves. But if it is only a thatched cottage that leaks but is the home of a king than it is a palace. The palace of a respected king and one who is despised will be completely different. A home is made valuable  by the persons who live there. 

If a home is made by those who live there is that not what we  should be about. In Luke's Gospel  the story of Zacchaeus is a good object lesson. Jesus tells him that salvation has come  to this house today. His house was transformed because the  occupant was transformed; his house became a temple.

Jesus sent his apostles out to fill them  with fullness of peace, Matt. 10:11 " As you enter the house, salute it, and if the house deserves it, let your peace descend upon it; if it does not, let your peace come back to you."

This invitation of our Lord if accepted will make all the houses a place fit for living and not a place  where persons are busy with their calculating machines determining how much a house is financially worth.

 

 

A Letter to the Priests of Korea

A couple who have been very active within the church community, teaching catechism and living as active Catholics expressed their feeling on the condition of the church published in a bulletin for priests. They were often comforted by what they saw, proud but also disappointed and frustrated by the church community but recently they have seen the very existence of the community fading in society. They expressed their feeling in the following ways.

 

1. The church should prioritize protecting and supporting the poor and weak who suffer. In particular, to actively present alternatives to the COVID-19 problem.

2. Jesus was always present to the people, explained his teaching with easy parables, and helped the little ones. The priests' sermons are not speaking to the Christians: schematic and formal. In "The Joy of the Gospel," Pope Francis tells the priests to be concerned with their preaching and tell the believers what they need for life.

3. The media, such as church broadcasts and newspapers, must be radically reformed and used as a tool for the social community. At present, the church press is nothing more than consumables, decorations, nothing important to see or hear. They spend a lot of money paying labor, maintaining buildings and equipment. Both the subscription and the listening rate are poor. Even believers are not attracted by the programs—they are not worth seeing, listening, or reading. Even if evangelization was the purpose, it has failed. Compared to other religious broadcasts, it is a truly embarrassing heartbreaking situation.

4.The proud history of the church community with educational materials for adults, including youth needs to be examined. The church in our youth when as a couple attended college, took pride in being a member of the faith community, confirming what the "Catholic Priests' Association for Justice" inherited from the martyrs' teachings, served as the lever of Korean society.

5. The way the structure of the church functions is closed, assertive, and inefficient.

 

The many laws and structures that have been made according to the needs of the church cannot be ignored. Even when we understand and accept this fact as a believer, our church community is unnecessarily authoritative and oppressive. We must move away from organizational management, obey God, and have a way of behaving that serves the members of the parish community and society.

6. The life of the priests should be an example to the faith community. It requires temperance and simplicity. In his lecture, Cardinal Kim Soo-hwan quoted a worker who said: ''We are to be the salt of the world, but we have turned it into a preservative." The cardinal said it is very doubtful that the Korean church is playing the role of light and leaven to illuminate this society. 

They spoke of the sadness for the church community that they have seen and felt for over 40 years. 

 

The main contents of this article were extracted from the guidebook <Proclamation and Volunteering> published by the Institute for Pastoral Joy and Hope. This is an appeal and encouragement from a couple of believers to our priests.

 

Looking Back On the Past With Nostalgia

  

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, universities are continuing non-face-to-face classes this semester. A professor writes in the Peace Column of the Catholic Peace Weekly of her feelings on the subject.

Most of the professors and students miss the human bond that they enjoyed in normal classes. The university lecture hall is a space where professors and students experience unseen bonds and empathy and share different thoughts on the same subject. No matter how advanced the technology, there is a limit to what can be transferred in virtual space.

When she asked a student a few days ago about the non-face-to-face class last semester, the answer came back: "I hate it because it's so convenient." Naturally, the question of 'what is the essence of university education?' came to mind.

If you exclude the laboratory work there are quite a few convenient aspects of online lectures. When she first experienced online she was surprised that it was much better than she expected. The technology in cyberspace allows for certain advantages such as hearing again what may have been missed the first time and skipping other sections. The students are relatively free from the restraints of the classroom.
 
It sounds ironic, but some point out that communication was more active in non-face-to-face lectures. In the classroom, students who were timid and reluctant to speak, actively express their opinions in the online chat window. Some see that the structure of the lecture has improved. This is because, online small talk, temporary silence, off the subject asides are inevitably awkward, professors have to fill their time on subject. All these advantages can be summed up with the concept of efficiency.

By comparison, past lectures were often ineffective. Professors sometimes spent time on subjects that had nothing to do with the topic at hand and bored students with foolish jokes. Some teachers say what they have to say by simply looking around the classroom silently. Students interfere with class by incoherent answers to questions or with overly difficult questions.

However, all these ineffective situations are an aspect of learning. Through glances, gestures, silence, and a bit of gibberish, both professors and students experience communication. We learn that there are things in life that cannot be explained with words and that there are truths that cannot be reached by scrutinizing or analyzing. It is also learned that humans cannot be tailored only by rational standards.
 
Non-face-to-face classes are here to stay. Some predict that the educational paradigm will change completely. However, as long as universities exist, and as long as humans do not cease to be humans, the essence of face-to-face instruction will remain. She looked through the history books, and couldn't find any examples that pandemics radically changed human nature.

We will eventually realize the preciousness of person-to-person, face-to-face encounters through the coronavirus and find a balance between face-to-face and non-face-to-face classwork, efficiency, and inefficiency. When the relationship between the teacher and student is reduced to the relationship between the content provider and the consumer the university will disappear.

Salience Bias

 When given an object, we often drop it. What is the cause of the fall? Who is responsible? The person who handed us the object may have been careless, but the object may have fallen because of my inattention. With these words, a university professor gives us her understanding of 'responsibility in the media' in the Current Diagnosis column of the Catholic Peace Weekly.

 

 According to the 'attribution theory', when an event occurs, we try to find the cause of the event: finding the cause from internal factors or finding the cause from the external factors beyond individual control. For example, if you think that the object fell because of your carelessness, you are attributing it to an internal cause, and if you judge that the object fell because the person who handed you the object was careless, it is an external attribution. Attribution in this sense means the process of inferring the cause of words and actions to oneself or others.

 

Attribution is important because it doesn't just identify the cause for it influences the behavior after determining the cause. It is my responsibility if I make an internal attribution for falling objects because my hands aren't steady so you can blame my carelessness.

 

In the above situation, it is enough to pick up the fallen object again, but the process of solving various problems experienced in real life, where various interests are intertwined, is not as simple. In general, multiple causes may have contributed to the occurrence of the problem, and when the cause of the problem is unclear or diverse, it is difficult to determine who is responsible. 

 

One of the important roles of the media is to identify the causes and responsibilities of problems that arise. Evaluating the cause of the problem is necessary to determine responsibility. In this respect, the influence of the media's attribution on behavior is large. The more prominence the media gives to a particular case, the more important we value it. The frame used by the media in the process of interpreting the cause of the incident affects the interpretation in which we view the incident. and responsibility.   

 

There is a risk. This phenomenon is called 'salience bias'. (Salience is how noticeable or observable something is while a bias is a prejudiced way of thinking or perceiving) In particular, if there is a lack of experience or information necessary to comprehensively understand an event, the possibility of a perception of the event in a biased manner according to the direction of media coverage increases. When the public understands an event, they tend to make judgments based on information that easily comes to mind. When we think of an event that is difficult to experience in our daily life, the first images that come to mind are likely to have been given by the media.

Numerous events happen in a day; any event may have various causes. Therefore, the media needs to provide information on the various 'contexts' to the public. Even if a conclusion has been finally reached, there was a lot of information to consider in reaching that conclusion. It is necessary to provide an opportunity for the citizens to examine the kinds of interpretations that can be made around the problem, the basis for the interpretation, and whether the basis is valid and reasonable. It would be a great opportunity in showing the neutrality of the media.