The Power of True Love

 

"I love you" these words are heard even on a telephone to the client from the store where a purchase was made. The writer of an article in Bible and Life magazine on the topic of love was flustered for a few moments when he heard these words but did say thank you. 

 

Is not the word love one of the noblest and most used? Present in conversations of those in love, at the beginning of counseling sessions, frequent in poems, songs, and dramas; the whole world is filled with the word. It is the first of all the commands of Jesus but is it realized in our lives? No, it's not. The word is heard often but those loving and those loved are far from being the same. It is often a word that has lost its meaning.

 

However, in this world, there is a love that nobody can deny, and that is the love of parents for their children. Jesus called God his father and the love between them is the love that Jesus taught and generally the love of parents for their children is the expression of this love which is representative of all love.

 

But is the love that parents have for their children always a good example? There is a Korean film directed by Bong Joon-ho that was released in 2009— 'Mother'. Briefly, it is the story of a son who was accused of killing a girl and the mother works alone to save him from what she thought was a false accusation. However when she realized that her son did kill the girl the mother then kills the only witness and allows an innocent young man who was suspected of the crime to go to jail instead of her son. 

 

This love was cruel and violent a love that was directed only to her son a very narrow love. Is this kind of love only seen in the cinema? The writer mentions several similar stories that have been in the news recently showing a similar distorted love for their children.

 

This kind of distorted love is shown in different ways and degrees—love for oneself but harmful to others: fear of low rent homes and facilities for the disabled in one's neighborhood, dislike of those who are not from one's part of the country, and those that speak differently, a deep patriotism that leads to animosity and hostility to the North. This is not all! The weakest of all human beings are fetuses which are threatened with death and religions that consider love as their greatest goal terrorize and are violent to other religions and persons.

 

The problem is not that our love is small but rather narrow. Jesus reminds us: If you love those who love you, what thanks can you expect? Even sinners love those who love them... Instead, love your enemies and do good... (Luke 6:32).

 

Jesus' love extends from oneself to family to all those around us and even to the enemy. Many who hear these words may want to answer: "I have problems loving my family and asked to love my enemies! Is that possible?"

 

He concludes the article with the statement that we are made to love. We are to imitate the God who made us. Unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest. The love we have needs to go out to give life to the world (John 12:24 reference)

'Platform Workers' and Human Rights

The second Sunday of Advent is Human Rights Sunday in Korea and the week following is devoted to becoming acquainted with the Social Gospel. An article on platform workers was featured in the present issue of the Catholic Times, along with an editorial. Platform workers are individuals who use an app or a website to connect with customers, to provide a service in return for money.

In particular, it should be noted that amidst the social upheaval driven by the corona-virus infection-19, human rights are being taken away in a new field that has not been seen before. One of them is the case of people engaged in labor through these "digital platforms".

This is a blind spot for human rights in our day. Respecting human beings and promoting human rights are principles the gospel requires of believers. The value of human rights in many fields has increased as our social democracy has been restored and developed. However, we must never forget that there are still people who are suffering from economic logic and are deprived of their human rights.
 
Delivering food, booking accommodation for travel, and using smartphone apps for taxis have become routine. It is an era where you can receive items from the other side of the world with just one finger at home. In the aftermath of the 4th Industrial Revolution and Corona-virus 19, the demand for "platform workers" has risen sharply.
 

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the platform market has increased by 26% annually and is expected to continue to grow in the future. "You can work as much as you want. You can work when you want to work, and you can rest when you want to rest." These are sweet words promoted by the platform industry. And the fact is the number of workers continues to increase due to the low entry barrier.
 
According to an analysis of the Korea Employment Information Service last year, there is a maximum of 540,000 Korean platform workers, which are estimated to be 2% of all workers. The World Bank estimates that there will be 120 million global platform workers this year. This year, more and more people are looking for platform labor in the aftermath of Corona 19.

Consequently, because of the pandemic agencies that would deliver all kinds of goods such as food became popular and workers appeared to do this kind of work since many were not able to continue in their previous occupations and were happy to have a job.

The legal or human rights protection for them is poor compared to the demanding workload. This is because the existing Labor Standards Act cannot protect them, and our society is not making efforts to improve human rights  of those in a society blind spot.
 
One of the workers was quoted as saying that it's not as easy as the industry makes it out to be. A delivery driver from Company A, also known as a 'rider' fell from his motorcycle while delivering two cups of coffee. Wearing a helmet did not lead to serious injury, but he reported the situation to headquarters. The answer that came back was what happened to the coffee. The conversation ended, charging the rider for two spilled coffees. It shows the reality of platform workers with responsibility but no authority.
 
Pope Francis emphasized the importance of human rights in a speech in November, saying, "We must realize that the image of God is engraved in everyone, including the poorest and most despised." Believers must protect human rights and be concerned with the practice of social teaching. Let's not forget that others are suffering in a corner of society, where the corona-virus crisis continues.

Living in the Back Road of Life

From ancient times the road in front of a village was called the main-road, the road between the houses the alley, the road behind the village that received little sun, and when the snow came you would see the piles of snow on the edge of the road was the back road.

A priest scholar in the psychology of the spiritual life expresses his opinion that life is for may similar to these three roads. In the springtime of life, this majestic main way is wide open to the future. However, in middle age after the many trials of life and failures, one begins to walk solitary the alleys. In old age, it's the back road looking back on the life lived.

In the fall of the year, nature gives us the harvest and asks us to prepare for the new year—our old age in the life cycle. A time when we try to put things in order and for Christians prepare for the afterlife. What feelings come to mind when we reflect on the life lived?

We have those walking the unknown alleys of life spotted with its sorrows and difficulties. He wonders how many of those looking back would opt to choose a different path if they had the chance.

A study was made of those facing death in old age and asked if they had a chance to live life over again what would they choose to do. They were a varied group: many successful in wealth, prestige, honors, and those who considered themselves failures. It didn't matter in the answers that were given.

He lists in the order of those with the greatest number of responses. The first was living their life as they thought it should have been lived. Second, a desire to live in harmony with everybody. Thirdly wanting to share. In the first place was not living to please others but happiness required they live the life they wanted—obvious but often forgotten.
 

Also with those, we are in a loving relationship often it is a love/hate relationship. Looking back many are sorry for the scars inflicted when in many cases it was not of great importance. Because of the conflict separation often follows.

When death approaches it is said we are the most truthful and genuine. If we could live every moment of life as if it was our last moment our relationships would be much more tender.

Our need to share comes to the fore. We came into the world without anything and we will leave without anything. Words that come from the wisdom of the world, and yet easy to forget. Often the material closes our eyes to sharing and loving relationships, losing the meaning of life.

Listening to the words of those who have left this life what are the values of those of us who are still living? We need to ask ourselves and give an answer.

Fight Poverty Not The Poor

Poverty is painful. Difficult even for people with strong mental powers. Many are broken in spirit dealing with poverty. Few people want such poverty. So they try to break out of poverty with all their might. So begins the column by a humanist scholar in the Catholic Peace Weekly.

Our parents were poor consequently the relative deprivation may have been less than now, but it was unbearable for even the children suffered from that poverty.  The new generation worked without a break. They didn't pay attention to what they ate and what they wore, they wanted to end poverty. They pushed their children in their schooling for they knew it was necessary to get out of poverty. And thanks to that, Koreans now live in abundance.

No one will deliberately choose this kind of poverty. Many hope to get rich. But reality doesn't make that dream come true easily. Despair in the face of social contradictions makes escape from the fetters of poverty, despite the efforts expended, almost impossible.

Will many young people give up, saying: "I am a loser in this life." Many people who are not lazy have fallen into the 'swamps' of poverty because of structural contradictions and limitations. Society needs to decrease the numbers of these by providing better and more opportunities.

However, reality goes in the opposite direction. Rather than creating jobs, they take away the jobs of those who cling desperately to what they have. Rather than giving opportunities to the poor, a society that does not reproach those who live with greed at the expense of the poor and take from their already thin wallets is a very sick society.

A proper society should fight 'poverty', not the 'poor'. Millions of people wrongly think of themselves as middle class and talking about fighting to get rid of poverty brings a frown to their face as if they are being pushed them into socialism.

In the US presidential election President Trump in a mean and lowly campaign said that if the other party came to power, we would have socialism. There was a fear of leveling all down to poverty. It goes without saying that this is the same thinking in the Republic of Korea.

The Gospel is not simply comforting the poor and weak and encouraging them to work harder to become rich. Even if they are poor and live a difficult life they do not give up their character and values, do not hate one another, but give each other courage, and resolve to work to overcome the social contradictions and conflicts.

It is not a blessing to eat well and live well by myself. This kind of faith is cheap and shallow. But to my shame is the faith that rests only on good luck and material blessings given to me and to turn away from the social structural contradictions that lead to poverty.

Faith is not just an ideological ideal, memorizing Scriptures, going to Mass, and saying empty prayers. We are to practice our faith and the Gospel is the way. We are to fight to defeat poverty.  That is the duty of faith and the calling of the church. We must criticize a society that creates structural poverty. It is Satan who does not fight poverty but fights the poor. It's not what we should be doing.

The Mountain Is Not There Only For Me

 

A lawyer writing in the Catholic Times in the Eyes of the Believer column recalls what he has learned about himself over the years.

Every time he went mountain climbing in late autumn he would see the dust rise from the earth. The leaves looked like they were colored, all dried up and shriveled. Still, because of the pandemic, people were frustrated with the lack of activities and now appeared on mountain trails bothering him. The path up and down the mountain was crowded. He didn't like what he saw.

However, this mountain does not exist for him to enjoy solitude alone. His selfishness was revealed. 

Looking back, he remembered something similar when he went to morning Mass every day a long time ago. He went to church when it was 10 degrees below zero in the dark, and one morning a person was sitting where he always sat. Even at the very moment he gave up his selfishness and begged to love someone else as much as he loved himself, but when he sat down he was upset at the person who had taken his seat. Didn't St. Paul say, "I do the things I don't want to do?"

"He makes His sun rise on the wicked and on the good, and on the righteous and unrighteous." Jesus taught this in the Sermon on the Mount that begins with "How happy are the poor of spirit." The wicked, the good, the righteous, the unrighteous, all are children of God. So we are all brothers. 

Huayan school of Chinese Buddhism contains similar teachings. (理), the reason for all things means the God of Christianity. And the objects of all things in this world are all related. It makes us aware of the intricate and fragile interconnections that exist among the phenomena in our world.

Modern science has the same explanation. 13.7 billion years ago, a big bang occurred in 'absolute nothingness', elements were formed, and the elements came together to form stars. And since the Earth was formed around 4.6 billion years ago, one of the first organic cells appeared and evolved over 3.5 billion years ago. 

Those leaves are my brothers, those pitiful street cats that go through the winter mountains in search of food are my brothers, and those people who are in the way are my brothers. At this time, the word 'brother' is not just a metaphor, we are related we actually share blood or even a gene. 

As long as we separate from the oneness of all and live as individuals in this world, we will have difficulty living with other entities. Still, since these individuals are all related, share the same blood, we all come from the same God, we are simply working hard to treat others as brothers while living in this world trying to overcome our feelings. 

It is a very difficult fight to deal with. That's right. It's not like the mountain wants me to enjoy it alone and the seat in the church is there alone for me to become holy. This is a good thought to have on the beginning of a new liturgical year. Happy New Year!

Reliable News, Received as Reliable

In the Catholic Peace Weekly, a university professor writes in the Diagnosis of Current Events column on the reliability of our news.
 
According to the  "Digital News Report 2020," the reliability of Korea's news was the lowest among the 40 countries that participated in the survey. Only 21% of the 2304 Koreans who participated responded that "I can trust most news most of the time". This is a 1% drop from last year. It is noteworthy that compared to the low credibility of news, the percentage of respondents who answered "I prefer news from my perspective" (44%) is significantly higher than the average of other countries (28%).
 
News trusted by the public must be accurate, objective, fair, and balanced. We are not sure that "news with my perspective" is necessarily reliable. This is because subjective requirements, such as personal beliefs, attitudes, and opinions, must be reflected regardless of the quality of the news.
 
The problem with low credibility in news is seen as the false and manipulation of information.  'YouTube' was seen as the most likely platform to contain false or misleading information and yet YouTube continues to increase.
 
Trust is the basic foundation for the smooth operation of society as well as the development of relationships between individuals. Trust in the news and public opinion are essentially related. The low credibility of the news causes difficulties in providing information for the public and fulfilling their role as watchdogs.
 
To restore the credibility of the news and the media, self-reflection, and self-correction must take precedence over everything else. Reporting based on the interests of the media, such as specific political factions or commercial interests needs to be avoided, faithful to the verified facts treated from multiple perspectives.
 
We need to be concerned with the role of the media, but equally concerned with our usage of the media. News users need to pay attention to the "hostile media effect", this occurs when supporters or opponents of an issue perceive identical, balanced news coverage of that issue to be biased unfavorable to them.
 
User biased information processing occurs in accessing and interpreting news when public opinion is clearly divided, and also in people who have a strong tendency to use factional news.
 
The tendency to perceive that media coverage is biased in a direction favorable to individuals or groups with a liberal tendency is called a liberal bias, and the tendency tilted in the direction of supporting conservative opinions is a conservative bias. This biased use of information is more likely to appear more frequently in those who tend to use their political orientation as an important criterion for determining social reality than those who do not.
 
Citizens need to look beyond the preference for a specific political party or politician but see rather the present reality, values, and world view. The polarized use of news and credibility of the news is a social issue that limits political tolerance, the core value of democracy. The news must be trustworthy and the citizens must be able to discern the truth, this is why both the media, the news, and citizen have to have this as their goal.

 

Need to Live in the Present

Each year at this time we come to the end of the liturgical year. We have been changed in some way for better or worse. Hopefully, as Christians, it has been for the better. God is always loving, giving his graces and his Spirit wants to abide with us but we often have not made him welcomed.

This coming Sunday is the beginning of Advent and the new liturgical year. In Korea, the last week of the liturgical year is Bible Week and a time to prepare ourselves for the New Year. This month we pray for the dead and bring to mind our own death and how to prepare for the inevitable end of earthly life—the meeting of Our Lord.

A priest working as a pastoral minister for the sick in a diocese writes in a parish bulletin on what he has learned over the years about death and how it is met by the many patients he has ministered to. The writer has been at the bedsides of those dying and has given the subject a great deal of thought.

When the pronouncement of cancer or some other terminal disease is made, some deny and refuse to accept what they hear for they considered death to be far away. In some of the cases with medical help, the patients return to health but others have to deal with the approach of death. Some get angry and depressed while others accept the situation in which they are in.

When the sick person gets the word that death is near many emotions arise and many of the sick are overcome by the turbulence. The person looks back on their life, sorry for the things they did or did not do. They are taken up with the past to such an extent that they forget the present that they are now experiencing. 

He asks the readers: Have you thought about death? Death is near, we are rehearsing for death every time we go to bed. Death is close.
We need to prepare. The best preparation is to live each day fully and faithfully. This will enable us to meet death with internal peace even though the pain and anguish may still be there.