The Power of the written word.

In the first years of the seminary, the spiritual director would give us a book to read and on the following visit would ask for our opinion. Our level of spiritual maturity was judged by how we responded to that question, and would determine which book was assigned next. This method may not have been always accurate but few would doubt that what we read is a good indication of how we will think and act.

April 23rd was World Book Day, a tribute to books and their authors, which encourages everyone to discover the importance and pleasures of reading and to support the publishing and distribution of books. Begun by UNESCO in 1995, the event is now the biggest day of the year for bibliophiles and is celebrated in more than 100 countries.

The Catholic Church in Korea is also doing its part as it tries to motivate Catholics to become readers. Not an easy task, since the typical Korean is not a reader. In the Catholic Times, a Religious Sister of the Bishops' Mass Comm Committee has written that Koreans spend only 8 minutes a day reading.

In our mission station, with its small library, we have tried to get our parishioners, during the winter months, to spend more time reading but few show any interest. Without the habit of reading, it is very difficult to begin, especially when there are so many distractions. We seem to be, these days, in perpetual motion with little inclination to slow down enough to enjoy the moments of doing nothing. If we will allow those moments to occur without feeling threatened by the inactivity, we can begin to make friends with books.

If one can get into the habit of reading, the excuse of a lack of education would not be important. In the early days, many of those who came into the Church were not able to read; by participating in the catechumenate they became readers. The step from non-literate to literate was for many of them as important as the entrance to the Catholic community. The Catholic newspapers are giving the movement publicity. Hopefully, we will soon see results.

Maryknoll Sisters' Gift to Korea

A small group of Maryknoll Sisters came to Korea in 1949 to work with the sick and needy in Pusan. When the Korean War started, they had to leave Korea and wait in Japan until they received permission from the United Nations to return and begin medical work.

Their clinic became the Maryknoll Hospital of Pusan, starting out as the first charity hospital in Korea. It will celebrate its 60th anniversary this year.

In the beginning, it was an unfriendly environment in which to work but that made the work all the more challenging. They had no easy access to medicines, people were hungry, space was limited and over-crowded. And because of the fighting in the north, Pusan was overrunning with refugees who needed extra care.

Besides the needs of the body: mostly tuberculosis, cancer, typhoid and diphtheria, they also had to deal with many social issues. Over 2000 patients were attended to each day, testifying to the urgent need for such a hospital in Pusan. It was during this period that they received aid of food and medicines from the States.

The Maryknoll Hospital was the first Catholic hospital in Pusan and on April 15th a Mass celebrating the event was held, which will be followed by many more events during the year to commemorate the beginning of the hospital. There are many who remember the good that was done during those difficult years. In 1969, the hospital was turned over to the Diocese of Pusan.

Since then, the Maryknoll Sisters expanded their ministries and locations in South Korea, opening other clinics and hospitals and a nursing school. The first Credit Union in Pusan, which soon spread to the whole country, was established by a Maryknoll sister. Other ministries included Peace and Justice Movements, counseling workers, defended abused women, worked with the poor and in pastoral ministries in difficult areas.

Because Korea is much better off now than it was after the war, many of the Maryknoll Sisters have left Korea, deciding that other countries needed their services more. However, their inspiration remains behind with the many that knew and worked with them. Those who now work in the Maryknoll Hospital will have their example to emulate.

Seeing Virtue from Another Angle

A columnist in Our Daily Life and Our Spiritual Life has an interesting and different from the ordinary understanding of the word "vice." In Korean the word translates as '악덕' ( evil virtue), a characteristic of certain behaviors that can appear to be virtuous to some and not to others. However, the word "virtue," in Korean as in English, is always seen positively, meaning to follow a middle course. Too much or too little could be a problem, but to be virtuous is generally understood to be a good quality to have, both for oneself and for the other. It helps us to see the significance of life and tends toward joy.

The writer describes "'evil virtue" as anything done for another that we think is good but is experienced by the other as less than good and, more often than not, as something annoying. In our own minds, we are acting charitably, virtuously, but the person on the receiving end sees it differently: not as charity but as an unwanted intrusion. This is what the writer considers "'evil virtue."

Typical examples: a person doing something that he thinks is motivated by love and the person receiving is probably thinking: "For heaven's sake, please desist." When we are trying to help others, those receiving the help may consider it irksome, preferring not to have the help. There are times when someone may be sacrificing to be of service to others, and those helped are saying to themselves: "When is he going to stop and go home?" The person offering the help may be thinking it's valuable advice, but it may be seen as just empty prattle by the other--virtuous to one, "evil virtue" to the other.

Many of those caught in the receiving end of this situation see such "help" as an imposition, and not the help it was intended to be. Things done in the extreme are often more of a problem than leaving things undone.

The writer persuasively concludes that virtue taken too far is not really a virtue--too much love, too much helping , too much sacrificing for the other, too much advice--all these can become "evil virtue." Virtue, rightly understood and made a part of our lives, frees and comforts all of us. It is well to reflect on this when we are trying to do good.

Leopard will lie down with the kid-- Isaiah 11

In the early years in Korea, a woman, seeing a foreigner on the same street with her, would tend to fear for her safety. This was partially due to the increased presence of soldiers after the Korean War and the distressing stories circulating at that time involving soldiers. However, these days foreigners are no longer a problem but rather other Koreans. A columnist in the Korean Times mentioned that when he had been out late one night, riding his bycycle and had stopped to check his head light, a woman walking in front of him quickly started to run, thinking the writer had some evil intentions.

The topic of his column was the lack of trust in Korean society. The problem, contrary to what one might expect, has nothing to do with national security or similar issues requiring a high level of trust but simply citizens trying to know the truth of what is being said and what is not being said. A South Korean Navy patrol boat sank in the western sea following an explosion on March 26th. There was no confirmation on what happened so all kinds of rumors circulated to fill the vacuum-- in this case, understandable but another sign of lack of trust.

The signs of public distrust are many: there is little trust that our faucet drinking water is pure enough to drink, so the use of bottled drinking water continues to increase. When at the supermarket, shoppers do not always find it easy to select foods without doubting their quality. Patients don't trust the doctors, students don't trust the teachers--and sometimes for good reasons since both doctors and teachers, it has been reported, have lied about their credentials.

All this uncertainty adds even more stress to what is normally present in a typical day. When we cannot easily accept what others are saying at face value, we feel compelled to work at not being deceived. Society then becomes a burden, not a help as it should be in living a joyful and productive life. Even in contemporary novels, it is difficult to find warm and genial situations depicted. Instead, we have writers who focus almost entirely on distrust, betrayal, lies, deviancy, and addiction to sex.

Is it impossible to expect a different kind of environment? We expect lack of trust in the animal world: the lamb fears the leopard, the calf the lion. It is only in the world of humankind that we can expect something different: going from distrust to trust. The writer takes the word 신 (sin) with three different meanings: 神 meaning God, 信 meaning belief and 新 meaning renewed. If we believe in God then we will be renewed. The world will be changed.

What We Feel Does Affect Others

In the Winter Olympics, the Koreans had been heading for a sweep of the medals in the short track 1,500 meter skating event when the favorite to win, a Korean, crashed into another Korean--also expected to be a medalist--overtaking him on the inside and taking him down with him, the eventual gold medalist just missing the crash.

A columnist in a recent article in a Catholic newspaper referred to this accident as an example of what greed can do to any of us at any time. He described how upset he was at the skaters for ruining the opportunity Korea had to sweep all medals in that particular event. He admitted to feeling greatly upset and cheated by the accident and the failure of the skaters to sweep the medals.

He mentioned this to a friend on the day of the crash. The friend said that God had given him a great topic for meditation. Greed is not a personal problem but a problem that can give pain to others. His friend told him that by meditating on how he felt at the time of the crash, it was useful in revealing habitual attitudinal patterns of behavior in his own life.

He soon realized he was upset at the players for not bringing glory to Korea. It was a manifestation of his own greediness--wanting, in this case, an all-Korean sweep of the medals. His friend's "spiritual take" on the event made him rethink his way of responding to things in the world over which he had no control. As he thought about his unjustified anger at the skaters, he was overcome by a feeling of embarrassment.

How we react to anything in life will often depend not on what is being reacted to but on who is doing the reacting. People see the same event and the responses can be quite different. It depends on the way we have in the past reacted to similar events in our life that will influence how we will react to them in the present. When things don't go the way we want, we don't have to respond with complaints, irritation and anger, spreading discontent to those we are with. We can accept whatever happens, no matter how distasteful, without being upset, knowing that in most cases we could not have made a difference in the outcome.

Koreans did hope that it would be an all Korean victory. Confidence and desire to have the Koreans do well in the Olympics was a feeling shared by many, and the writer's feelings about the accident was undoubtedly shared also by many; it was a natural response to the accident but his friend's words were also proper. What we have done to grow spiritually will tend to appear in all aspects of our daily life, enabling us to see reality more completely. A reality where greed is naturally replaced by a spirit of generosity.

Activity to Contemplation Very Difficult

Living a more contemplative life in today's world, with its many interesting and often useful diversions, is far from easy. In a recent Catholic newspaper, a columnist tells us that if we are to discover who we are, we need to spend more time alone and sacrifice some of the many enticements that surround us, especially the most alluring from the virtual world: the internet, with its world wide web, its email, its Facebook and Twitter, putting people in touch from around the world; the mobile phone, which in only a few years has evolved from cell phone to smart phone, with each new model being replaced by an even "smarter" phone, combining most of the new technologies in one magical package: music, images, email and text messaging, camera, and web browsing. This virtual environment is mindboggling and addictive for the inquisitive and for those searching for something more satisfying than what they are now experiencing.

Spiritual growth may be what they, unknowingly, are looking for but for this to happen time alone is a prerequisite. The habits of the past and supposed needs of the present, however, are always there encroaching on our limited time. To determine what most people did when alone, the writer received the following answers to his question: They are gathering information on the internet, sending text messages or talking on the telephone. To the question "What do you do after that?" Typical responses were: “Isn’t it strange to be by oneself? We have to live with others. Those that like to be by themselves are selfish and introverts." Obviously, the youth of today do not think that being alone is a good thing.

And yet, if we are to know ourselves in the deepest sense, attaining wholeness as the person we were meant to be, periods of silence, of being alone, have always been considered important in Catholicism. Even in society at large, there are all kinds of programs that recommend finding some quiet time during the day to meditate.

By spending time alone, we come in contact with the person God made in his image. Knowing the person we really are, getting deeply in touch with the stillness--the still presence we share with everyone ("Be still and know....")--allows us to know and to live harmoniously with others because of that shared awareness.

A help in maintaining a sense of this harmony and closeness was the extended family, a tradition now largely replaced in Korea by the nuclear family--parents and children. This has brought loneliness to the Korean family that was not there in the past. When familial ties are broken as we chase after temporal and ever changing material goods of the world, believing they will satisfy us, instead of looking within and, in silence, finding true satisfaction by heeding the inner voice, there is bound to be a disappointment. The rate of suicide is a serious problem in Korea, and loneliness and severe depression will continue to be a problem for many Koreans who once lived in large intimate families. The Korean society, no less than western society, places great importance on doing rather than on being. It's a doing focused on possessing and enjoying the things of the world, rather than being focused on a more rewarding contemplative life. It's a journey we all need to take.

Nature Helping Us to Grow Spiritually

Ecology is a topic that is very much a part of the world culture we live in. We see not only the harm that we have done to nature but to ourselves. Apathy and evasion are no longer acceptable responses. A priest with a degree in the Theology of Ecology reflects on the topic in the recent Korean Catholic magazine.

Most of us are familiar with Wis.13: 5, Job 12: 7-8, Rom.1: 20, and Eph. 4: 6 but less so with the thinking of the Fathers and Saints of the early Church on Nature.

St. Antony, the dessert Father (250-356), could not read but with his study of God's creation, he could come to knowledge of God and a healthy spirituality. The philosophers visiting him asked how he spent his many lonely hours, since he couldn’t read. "My book is the creation itself," he responded. "Whenever I want to read that book it is always at hand."

"It is the divine page that you must listen to; it is the book of the universe that you must observe. The pages of Scripture can only be read by those who know how to read and write, while everyone, even the illiterate, can read the book of the universe," wrote St. Augustine.

Pope John Paul in the Encyclical Fides and Ratio #19 tells us, "A first stage of divine Revelation is the marvelous “book of nature”, which, when read with the proper tools of human reason, can lead to knowledge of the Creator."

The author of the article, using the traditional three steps of spirituality, suggests: First, the way of purification: Moving from seeing creation as instrumentality, to opening our hearts, to seeing the divine within nature.

Second, the way of illumination: Meditating on nature to discover God’s attributes: wisdom, goodness, beauty, and omnipotence. "Look at the birds in the heavens...." (Matt. 6:16-28).

Third, the way of unity: Contemplation in unity with the Triune God. To see nature with the eyes of God and to see the world with the eyes of nature.