An Example of Love Wthout Pretence.

In the liturgy of Holy Week we had the chance to understand the motivation of a number of characters that appear in the Gospel stories. Some were not examples to imitate. Others like Mary of Bethany did something extraordinary; she was reprimanded by Judas but accepted by our Lord.

What is, and is not, worthy of being imitated? An article in a Catholic newspaper recently addressed this question by describing a small child who wanted more than anything else in the world to be pretty. Whatever someone said was pretty she would imitate. If someone had a pretty hair permanent she would spend the whole day putting her hair up with pencils. If someone said that a short dress was pretty she would cut her dress. A person with makeup that was considered pretty would get her to spend all day using her mother's make up on her face.

Once when she heard that a mother was the most beautiful thing in the world, she ran to her mother and told her that she wanted to be a mother. The mother, smiling, asked her why she wanted to be a mother so early? The child said that a mother was the most beautiful thing in the world, so she wanted to be a mother. The mother, knowing of her daughter's recent habits, answered that she does not have a hair permanent, does not use makeup, and does not wear a short dress. The child answered: "How can you be the most beautiful in the world?" The mother, taking her child in her arms, told her that it was because she loved her so much.

This was the writer's way of introducing his belief that too many of us are like this child, doing what we know others will like and what others like to see. When a child acts in this way we can understand. When grownups do the same, his response was clear, we need to be concerned.

It is a fact that many of us only behave in ways we think others will approve. As a result, we become locked into an unhealthy concern with our exterior selves, the pretence becoming at times so real to us that we mistake the show for the self we really are. When others do not see me as I see myself, how do I react? Do I become anxious and upset? What is beautiful is to be the self we were meant to be, to express this in the way we act and speak, and to love ourselves for being who we are. It is with this attitude that we will be open to loving others, and seeing others as valued as we see ourselves. It is the naked Jesus hanging on the Cross that shows us the way to be.

In Monday's Gospel it was Mary who was the one without pretence, and conscious only of Jesus. It was Judas with the pretence. In our own lives it is not always easy to be truly ourselves, and willing to accept the problems that this may bring into our lives.

Life of Saint Luke Hwang Sok-tu

Robert M. Lilly, a Maryknoll Priest who worked in Korea for many years, discovered the body of St. Hwang Luke in one of the mission stations of the parish in which he was working. "I was fortunate to find the ancestral burial ground of the Hwang family in a mission station of my parish," he said. " My desire to find out more about his role in the growth of the Catholic Church in Korea evolved from that discovery."


In this Holy Week edition of Magnificat magazine Vol. 12, No.1 the life of the saint is briefly recounted. Knowledge of the Saint getting out to the rest of the world makes Fr. Lilly very happy.


"At the age of twenty, Luke Hwang Sok-tu, of Yongp'ung, Korea, a pagan nobleman's son, set out for Seoul to participate in his country's national scholastic examination. Stopping at an inn along the way, Luke met a Catholic whose words about his faith deeply impressed him. Luke quickly acquired several Catholic books. After becoming a Catholic himself, he persuaded his wife to enter the Church as well. Luke's father was infuriated by his son's conversion. Finding that his words seemed only to provoke him father to blaspheme, Luke took a vow of silence, promising to God that he would not speak again until his father was converted to the Catholic faith. After observing this silence for over two years, he was rewarded with the conversion of his father. In later years, Luke served the missionary priests as a language tutor and catechist and assisted Bishop (Saint) Antoine Daveluy in compiling and editing books for Korean Catholics. On Good Friday, March 30, 1866, Luke was beheaded together with Bishop Daveluy and four others during a major persecution of the country's Catholics."

A Difficult But In Retrospect a Wonderful Experience

A priest from Inchon wrote up his experience on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James of Compostella in Spain. A tradition that goes back to the 10th century, the walking trip usually starts from one of the several towns in France and lasts for a month or more, covering a distance of  about 800 kilometers.

The priest was moved to make the trip by reading a book on the subject and, liking mountain climbing and walking, decided on doing the pilgrimage before getting any older.

He chose to begin his walk within Spain; it was 400 kilometers long and took him 18 days to complete. When he arrived at the starting place of the pilgrimage, he was nervous and uncomfortable, not being able to communicate in either English or Spanish. Before leaving Korea, he was warned about  pickpockets who liked to work among the Koreans. This fear added to his uncomfortableness.

In Korea his every need was filled but here he was all by himself with a whole new experience to contend with. In the places that were set aside for sleeping, there were men and woman together, which was something that he didn't have to deal with in the past, so he went to an inn, where he stayed for the first ten days. However,this made him feel even lonelier. He finally decided,for the last part of the trip, to join the others in the common sleeping quarters and found this much more to his liking. He could hear about the trip and what was ahead. He met many from Europe, the Germans being the largest group; in some years, he learned,there would be as many as 20 to 30 thousand Germans making the pilgrimage.

Toward the end of his stay, he could   drop his concerns for his bodily comfort and safety and found the peace of mind he was looking for. Though there were not many moments of joy during the trip, in retrospect he was able to view the pilgrimage as a wonderful experience and even was thinking of doing it again; next time, he promised himself,he would be better prepared.

St. Paul helped him to see what had been demanded of him. "I do not say this," said Paul, "because I am in want,for whatever the situation I find myself in, I have learned to be self-sufficient. I am experienced in being brought low, yet  I know what it is to have an abundance. I have learned how to cope with every circumstance--how to eat well or go hungry, to be well provided for or do without"(Phil. 4:11-12).

Understanding Horrors of War Together

Bishop Lee, the retired Bishop of Taegu, started a youth group in 2004 which he named with the four Chinese characters (如己愛人) that mean "Love Others Like You Love Yourself." Knowing that the youth are the future, the bishop had decided to work with them for peace in the world, following the example of Prof. Paul Takashi Nagai of Japan (1908-1951) who was a strong advocate of loving others as ourselves, a belief he put into practice during the aftermath of the atomic explosions.

When the atomic bomb exploded in Nagasaki, Dr. Nagai was at the medical college where he worked as a radiologist. He saw the destruction and the deaths of his students and his wife. Working among the rubble, Dr. Nagai began a relief effort, putting to use his knowledge of radiation sickness to help the injured, but his efforts to provide healing were not restricted to medical care. He built a hut on the site where his house had stood and spent the rest of his life there praying, writing, meeting with visitors and working for peace. Many in Japan consider him a saint.

The bishop is sponsoring a contest that will select the best book reviews of one of two books by Dr. Nagai. Those who are selected will get a 4-day trip to Nagasaki to visit with other Japanese youths and spend time visiting the museum and being on piligrimage. One of the books selected was the "Bells of Nagasaki," which is the most popular of his books and gives a vivid picture of the destruction of the city and the relief efforts immediately after the explosion.

The bishop hopes that this will help conscientize the young people to the horrors of war, and enable many to actively take part in on-going efforts to make Dr. Nagai's example of love for others a reality for all.

A by-product of this joint exchange between the youth of Korea and Japan should be a greater understanding of each other, overcoming some of the results of a long history of animosity between the two countries.

Apostasy or Martyrdom, a Difficult Choice?

The Japanese Catholics suffered much for their faith over a century before the persecution of the Catholics in Korea. Although martyrdom is an act most of us will never have to face, what would we do in such circumstances? Is there something in life that is more important than life?

Let us suppose you were told that all you had to do was to step on an icon of Jesus, not even well made, and you were told by your captives that it had nothing to do with your convictions, that it was merely a formality, that you would be doing it just to save your fellow Christians from their cruel torture and suffering. What would you do? Wouldn't Jesus be pleased that you would be doing something out of love to save your fellow Christians from horrible torture and death? Jesus lived and died precisely to show us how much he loved us. Wouldn't he look upon such an act as meritorious, even if those who heard about it would be scandalized?

This is the plot of "Silence," a historical novel written by the Japanese writer Shusaku Endo. It deals with the persecution of the Catholic Church in Japan in the 17th century and a Jesuit priest who was sent to find out what happened to the superior of the Jesuits who had stopped sending letters back home concerning his mission. There had been news that he apostatized when captured and tortured.

A monodrama, adapted from the novel, is being performed in parishes here in Korea during Lent, presenting a heady mix of faith and doubt, of love and despair, which will give us much to think about before the beginning of Holy Week.

There is only one actor who takes the part of the priest who went to Japan to get word about the Jesuit superior and finds himself confronted with the same choice of apostasy or martyrdom as the superior, who chose apostasy. But the choice is not a simple one for the priest to make. In the silence that follows his every prayer for guidance--for himself and for the Christians who are being put to death each day because of his refusal to apostatize- he finally hears the God who chose to share human suffering by his passion and death on the cross. "It is to be trampled on by you that I am here." "Trample!"

The play presents you with many questions and the Koreans who see it will have much to think about from their own history with apostasy and martyrdom. The conclusion that Shusaku Endo
presents to us would be considered heretical by many and meritorious by others. There are many that are faced with similar dilemmas in life. It is impossible to see reality as God would; most of the time we see a partial picture and the one that strikes us strongly in the here and now of history.

Patriot Ahn Seen by Japanese and Koreans

Today, the 26th of March, is the 100th anniversary of the death of Ahn Jung-geun--a patriot to most Koreans, a terrorist to most Japanese, who hanged him for assassinating (Oct. 26, 1909) the first resident-general of Korea, Hirobumi Ito. At the time of the assassination, Ahn was viewed as a terrorist by many Koreans, including his bishop who condemned the shooting. However, Fr. Joseph Wilhelm, who had baptized Ahn, did visit him in prison, said Mass and gave him the last sacraments.

Over the years, there has been a gradual shift in how Ahn is regarded by the vast majority of Korean Catholics, including many Chinese and some Japanese. He is now seen as a hero, a freedom fighter fully justified in killing Ito, who masterminded the push to colonize Korea and the Chinese territory to the north, and as resident-general of the country was responsible for the torture and killing of thousands of dissidents. Killing Ito was, for Ahn, a duty--"It is the duty of a soldier to give his life for his country" (from his calligraphic collection of sayings). He did not consider himself an assassin but a soldier at war with an enemy intent on subjugating his country. What he did was, in his view, what a soldier is required to do--protect his country.

The Church, reversing its original position, now considers Ahn a great patriot for peace, an example of what it means to be a soldier in the army of justice, and close to being a saint. The late Cardinal Kim called the killing "a heroic deed of self-defense." Although the Catholic Church has not made any doctrinal statements on the morality of removing a tyrant by force, St. Thomas and many others have concluded, "He who kills a tyrant (i.e. a usurper) to free his country is praised and rewarded."

He was born in North Korea so now the return of his body will have to bring in China, North Korea and South Korea, and Japan has no desire to bring this to an end that will please all. Japan still does not see the justification for what was done, and allow this chapter of history to be concluded with a happy ending at least for the Koreans.

For those who can read Korean, the website (hero1909.chosun.com) will have a great deal of information on Patriot Ahn Jung-geun.

Problems With Korean Ancestral Rites

The ancestral rites, performed a number of times during the year, is a very important cultural event in the life of many Koreans. The Catholic Church looks upon the rites as a beautiful custom and hopes this form of respect and prayer for the dead will continue. However, for many it is not always performed without problems.

At the time of the rites, ancestors are believed to be again present to their relatives, who gather from different parts of the country to remember what the ancestors have bequeathed to them: their last words, their wisdom, the family precepts, their good works--all becoming part of the family reflection.

In the old Korea, a distinction was made between the Ordinary Koreans and the noble classes in the practicing of the rites. Up until the change of the social status system of Korean society, the common people would have the rites only for their parents. After the change all were free to observe the rites going back four generations Considering the efforts required to do this, we can more easily understand the value of filial piety for the Korean.

Because of the many religions that have come into the country, the Confucian rites for the dead have not always gone well. The financial condition of the household and the long hours spent preparing the meals are part of the problem, but the most serious problem occurs when family members have different religious beliefs. Some consider bowing to be idolatry; others will not eat the ceremonial meals. Because of these difficulties, a family that comes together to honor the dead, expecting an atmosphere of peace and harmony, will often find, instead, a family in conflict.

A writer, recently commenting on these difficulties, criticized the behavior of those who see the rites as a form of idolatry. It should be a time of harmony, remembering the dead, and renewing the bound of family, but when anyone in the family group has difficulty in participating, everyone in the family suffers.

The Catholic Church has made the move from opposition to acceptance, and the writer wonders what more can be done so that all can participate in the rites to strengthen the family bonds of love and unity.

It was suggested that scholars of the different religious groups in the country could get together and work out ways to help all to participate in these rites. The Catholic Church could do it, and it would be a blessing if some of the other groups that have difficulties with the custom could work to remedy the problems. Families would then be able to come together and celebrate the ancestral rites in an atmosphere of harmony and peace.

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