Finding the Right Frequency In Which to Dialogue Is Not Easy

A columnist writing in the Catholic Times on spiritual themes reminds us that  failure to communicate well is often a failure in accepting and sharing what another brings to a conversation--a failure that is sometimes described as not tuning in to the "right frequencies" the other is projecting.  It is similar, the columnist believes, to what happens when an impatient child plays with the dial of a radio, going back and forth rather frantically, and when not finding what he wants, becoming frustrated.  Getting just static, the child feels defeated and turns off the radio.  A bit later he again turns the radio on only to be greeted with the same static; the columnist asked what he was trying to do.
"I can't find what I want anymore, the boy says." Finding out what station the child wanted, the columnist slowly turned the dial to the number of the station the child wanted--and without the static.

Frequency is not only part of the world of radio but also necessary in our conversations.   Deep and satisfying conversation requires the correct  frequency otherwise you may have  static and frustration. When a person is  concerned  about  the right or wrong, and the other with  the good and bad,  dialogue is difficult.  Also what  is good can be  seen as bad to another; what is wrong can be seen as right, and the right thing may not be considered the loving thing. Often one can't  accommodate a firm commitment to justice with the emotion of love.

This is the dilemma we are faced with in much of our interactions with others. Even in families, where we would expect it easier to tune in to a common emotional frequency, the experience of many tells us that it is, not infrequently, more difficult.  But honest, deeply shared dialogue wherever it occurs can foster a deeper relationship with others. It is an art that some have learned and many have not; when it becomes part of how we live in the world, it can give us comfort, inspiration and great joy. However, achieving  this heart-to-heart dialogue is not  easy. For Christians our prayer life  prepares us for sharing at the deepest level what we all share in common by virtue of being Christians. It should guide us always into earnest and frank dialogue.

Commication problems, as we all know, are part of life and cause much anguish. Many times it is the non-verbal frequencies that precede the verbal that sometimes are so loud that our words are not heard. We forget that our personal experiences also have a great effect on what we hear or fail to hear. McLuhan's message that the "medium is the message"  has something important to teach us.  Faith as a medium should help us to tune in to the right frequency more times than not. Once we rest in this medium of faith as the primary message, all other messages that are exchanged will be seen as contained within this primary message. Efforts to go to a deeper level in our conversations  are worth all the  time and energy that we can muster.

King Sejong's Great Gift to the Koreans

Today, Hangul Day, honors the creation of the Hangul alphabet by King Sejong in 1443. It is celebrated each year on January 15th in North Korea and on October 9th in South Korea. Koreans are justly proud of their script: The literary world has given them reason by recognizing its greatness as a writing system, some placing it among the most original and scientific of all alphabets and one of the easiest to learn. It was the intention of Sejong to devise an alphabet that would help all Koreans to become literate. And today Korea is close to having a literacy rate of 100 percent, one of the highest in the world. 

 A columnist on the opinion page of  the Catholic Times  goes back to when she was a teacher. At the beginning of each new term, she would ask her students who they thought was the most respected person in Korean history. After they began to give their varied opinions, she would interrupt and say: "Repeat after me, King Sejong. After that you are free to say what you want."

The script  combining the vowels and consonants  can make about  70 thousand different sounds. With one symbol, they can express one sound without  any other phonetic sign.  It is  considered by many linguists one of the greatest achievements of humanity. There is no other alphabet that is  philosophically, rationally,  and scientifically constructed and so easily to learn. Korea is close to having a rate of literacy of 100%, a great achievement. The praise that is  heaped on the  Korean script is truly exceptional. It is also considered by many to be a reason for Korea's  great achievements in recent history
 
A unique feature of the Korean script is the correspondence  of the way the script is written and functions. The shape of the consonants and vowels are not only different,  but they in some way are associated with the  way we make the sounds with our lips  tongue and mouth. It is a unique way making an alphabet. However, that is just the beginning for  even belief in the unseen world came into the formation of the alphabet. Each one of the vowels and consonants are a Ying or Yang, and the five basic consonants  represent the five elements. Those who enjoy  studies in linguistics   have an unlimited field  in which to work.  It is a complicated way of composing the alphabet with joyful results  for the efforts.

It was the King's compassion, she says, for the common people who could not read that prompted him to create this easy-to-learn script. It is for this reason that he receives the respect and gratitude of all Koreans.
 
The UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize, created in 1889, is given to those who have helped foster literacy in the world.   Just recently an island in  Indonesia with a spoken language but no script has imported the Korean script for their 60,000 inhabitants--yet another export of Korea.

The writer concludes her article by telling us that when she goes to the center of Seoul and sees the statue of the Great King Sejong she bows deeply in front of the Statue  thanking the king and God for this marvelous gift to  the Koreans.

Centering in on Personal Hurts Will Not Solve the Problems.

It is difficult to accept the truth that what we do will have consequences, especially when the consequences are not to our liking. Our thoughts, words, and actions willl have consequences that will affect both ourselves and others.

On the spirituality page of the Catholic Times, a columnist tells us about a man he was acquainted with who asked if he and his wife could have a talk with him. The day before they had a serious argument, and though they lived under the same roof they were far from being husband and wife. When they arrived, they didn't even look at each other.

The columnist sensed right from the beginning that both were trying hard to win him over to their side of the argument, to prove that the fault for their disagreement belonged to the other. If the columnist could only grasp this 'fact,' so each of them thought, then all would be settled.

Although with age, our memory is less reliable, both were able to state their grievances noting exactly the month, the day, and even the time of  day they had the argument, and what happened before and after the argument.

When couples are fighting or not talking to each other it is wise to seek out specialists to  help resolve their problems. However, knowing what to do with the head and not getting rid of   preconceived ideas will shortly return them to where they were. The  columnist  recommends they both go to the interviewer extraordinaire, our Lord, before they precede to the specialist. When they are able to change the thinking from their own hurt to the   hurt they have inflicted on the other the columnist feels the interview will be successful,

It  is always good to remember that our actions can have profound consequences that influence, for good or ill, not only ourselves but our children, those we associate with, and the society we live in.

Poverty Not Always Easily Seen

 A country pastor writes in the  Kyeongyang Catholic magazine about poverty and how he sees it, living a middle class lifestyle. Even  those  who are trying to live a life of poverty, when it comes to consumption, most of them would fit more accurately in the middle class.


Priests  rarely  come in contact with the very poor in parish life. There are those who need  help for the  basic necessities of life, but it is a small number. Members of the parish who partake of community life have to have at least the bare minimum of economic freedom for the leisure required for community. This means, for practical purposes, that priests can be unconcerned about the poverty that afflicts many in society. Kyeongyang  Magazine

He considers poverty under three headings: absolute poverty, relative poverty, and subjective poverty. Absolute poverty refers to those who need help to meet the daily needs of living and this help usually comes  from the government.  Relative poverty refers to those who have incomes lower than the average, and gives rise to the discord between those who have and those that do not--the working poor. The conflict between these two groups  enables the government to be less concerned about those in absolute poverty.  Subjective poverty refers to those who feel they need more.

The Church has  declared  a preferential option for the poor.

"All things considered, this is also required by “economic logic.” Through the systemic increase of social inequality, both within a single country and between the populations of different countries (i.e. the massive increase in relative poverty), not only does social cohesion suffer, thereby placing democracy at risk, but so too does the economy, through the progressive erosion of “social capital”: the network of relationships of trust, dependability, and respect for rules, all of which are indispensable for any form of civil coexistence (Charity in Truth #32).

 Korea  has a living standard that is the tenth in the world. According  to the statistics, we have over 3 million working poor. This does not include those who live by themselves, the handicapped or the young who have the responsibility for supporting their family. The working poor have difficulties because prices keep going up but their income does not keep pace, making it difficult to pay for rent, education, and food.

The priest ends the article by discussing the place of the Church in the fight against poverty. The Church does budget money for the poor and works with the St. Vincent de Paul society and other groups in the parish to help them, but he feels there is not enough being done.

The Church needs to set a good example in fostering labor with dignity. Care must be taken that we treat fairly the employees involved in parishes,  hospitals and schools and that we do not have relatives of Church leaders in jobs that militate against fairness in hiring. The Church has to examine itself continually to make sure she is living up to what she proclaims, if she wants to be listened to.

Lessons Learned From Matteo Ricci

This year, the 400 anniversary of the death of Matteo Ricci, Jesuit (1552-1610) has seen a number of events, seminars and  academic meetings on this  extraordinary missioner to China. He never entered Korea but influenced the life of early Korean Christians through his books. The importance of Ricci's contribution was discussed during the recent International Academic Meeting here in Korea, with excerpts from the talks appearing in the Catholic Times. A summary of the talks follows.

Ricci not only introduced  European knowledge to China but also introduced Chinese religion and philosophy to Europe. Ricci's method of evangelizing, according to one scholar,  can be briefly stated: He introduced European knowledge and Renaissance culture to the educated Chinese, respecting Chinese customs and rites and adapting  them, what we now call inculturation. He pursued the road of friendship with the educated and started a new way-- working from the top down. In 1773 the Jesuits  were disbanded by the Church partly because of the problems in  their accommodation in the Rites Controversy. The influence of Ricci, however, continued to have a  great impact  on the educated classes both in China and in Europe.

One Scholar described the mission work of Ricci as based on friendship. According to this scholar, his death at the rather young age of 57 was precisely because of this ability to make friends; his openness to them meant that he had a steady stream of visits from the learned which brought a great deal of fatigue into his life. The scholar believes this was the reason for his early death.  Valignano was Ricci 's mentor and was  considered the father of the missions in China but our scholar thinks  Ricci deserves  the title.

Another scholar points out that Ricci did not follow the usual missionary example in the 16th century, where missioners followed  the sword, but  he fashioned a peaceful accommodation to the culture that was very successful; it was the dialogue approach to mission.

One of the participants  mentioned  the mission life of Giulio Aleni, a talented and learned missioner whose life of  Ricci became his textbook.  He was a second generation Jesuit in China, who  followed the way of accommodation and even complemented  some of Ricci's methods.

Credit was also given to Alesandro Valignano, a Renaissance man and humanist, who was directly under the Jesuit Superior General  in Rome. It was Valignano's approach to mission that Ricci espoused in China. His approach, one scholar said, was a foretaste of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council 400 years later. Based on the theology of St. Paul, his understanding of mission moved him away from stressing the authority of the Church and persuaded him to place, instead, more emphasis  on the people they were dealing with, which was quite a change from the thinking of the previous generations.
 
When Valignano became aware that many missioners in Japan weren't even able to give a sermon to their own Christians, he required  two years of language study; not surprisingly he  noticed a big difference in what the missioners could  do.

    
It is from these early missioners that we have received a wealth of information. Today,  missioners follow in their pioneering footsteps and are thankful  for making working in another culture  much easier.  

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Trip to North Korea with the Eugene Bell Foundation

 Father Hammond , Maryknoll Local Superior, e-mails an account of his recent trip to North Korea. Besides his duties here in the South, which are  many and varied, he  is always ready to make the exhausting trip to the North with the Eugene Bell Foundation. His first person account follows:

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Public Health invited a delegation of 5 members of the Eugene Bell Foundation to visit North Korea from September 7-14. This was my 45^th trip to North Korea in 15 years.

The purpose of the trip was to visit 5 Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis Care Centers in North and South Pyongan Provinces, and a Pediatric ward, also in Pyongyang and one in Nampo.

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The following was the schedule.

Schedule of “Eugene Bell” Technical Mission

7-14 September 2010

Date	AM	Activity	PM	Activity	Stay
09/07/10 Tue			15:50 19:00	Arrival Briefing with MoPH	Potonggang Hotel
09/08/10 Wed	10:00	Departure for Shinuiju By Train	14:00	Sonchon MDR TB carecenter, N. Pyongan	Apnokgang Hotel
09/09/10 Thu	15:00	Departure for PY By Train	19:30	Arrive PY Station	Potonggang Hotel
09/10/10 Fri	10:30	Songsan MDR TB carecenter, S. Pyongan	15:30	Pediatric ward, S. Pyongan TB Hospital	Potonggang Hotel
09/11/10 Sat	09:30	Kangso MDR TB carecenter, Nampo			Potonggang Hotel
09/12/10 Sun	13:00	Mass at Polish Embassy	14:00	Ryongsong MDR TB carecenter, PY	Potonggang Hotel
09/13/10 Mon	10:30	Sadong MDR TB carecenter, PY	16:00	Debriefing with MoPH	Potonggang Hotel
09/14/10 Thu	09:00	Departure for Beijing

l  MoPH: Ministry of Public Health         PY: Pyong Yang

After the Mass on Pentecost Sunday, May 23, in the library of the Swiss International Aid Agency in Pyongyang, I met  the Polish Ambassador to the DPRK. He invited me to offer Mass at the Polish Embassy the next time I would be in Pyongyang, so I contacted him on Sunday, September 12, that I would be in Pyongyang. The Ambassador made all the arrangements for a 1 PM Mass at the Polish Embassy. A Mass booklet and hymns were printed for those attending the Mass.

Over 52 people attended the Sunday Mass, including 8 children. An altar, with candles and flowers, was prepared, and I brought the vestments. After Mass all were invited for brunch in the Embassy garden. It was a grace-filled time to be with those that needed spiritual help and to be speaking to such an alert and enthusiastic group of worshippers. They represented over a dozen different nationalities. Everyone seemed reluctant to leave after the Mass so I remained at the Embassy till 6 PM.

The Ambassador hopes that when I return in the last two weeks of October that I will be able to offer Sunday Mass on October 24 for the diplomatic community and UN personnel. Clearly, a deep spiritual hunger had brought these people together under such difficult circumstances, and I felt blessed to be able to minister to them even for such a short time. God willing, I will be able to do this again soon as we are tentatively scheduled to return for another visit in late October.

The Legacy of St. Francis

Today the feast day of St. Francis is a good time to reflect on his life, and what he left as  a legacy.

In the October issue of the  Kyeongyang magazine, a priest who studied ecology and represents an ecological spiritual research group, brings to our attention the criticism of many: the  failure of Christianity in not doing a better job of taking care of creation.

He mentions the historian Prof. Lynn White, who gives a great deal blame to Chrisitiantiy for the ecological  problems in the West.  We  have taken the words of Genesis (1:28) as the rationale to conquer and subdue creation, White says, as if God's grace was only there for us.  He  criticizes Christianity for being the most  human-centered  of all religions and believes that St. Francis would be a good antidote to this way of thinking, which is also the belief of the priest. He  does not accept all the criticism of the professor but, along with White, thinks that Christianity has now the responsibility of undoing the harm that was done.

St. Francis was one of the saints who made all of creation his brothers and sisters. He is the patron of all those who are working in the field of ecology. We all are familiar with his canticle to the sun in which all of creation are members of the family of God. The human body is similar: When we prick one of our fingers doesn't the whole body feel the pain?

The problem comes when we think the rational life is the standard by which all of creation should be judged. With this thinking, how are we to think of those who have mental difficulties and of those who are not functioning well in their old age? Are they not also to be respected and given their human rights? Isn't all of creation to be respected?

Scripture makes this known to us in many passages. Pope Benedict tells us in his Peace Day message that if we want peace, we need to be concerned with creation. In the documents of the II Vatican Council, we are told of the need to take care of creation. St Francis knew how to do this.

He cared and respected the water he used, the creatures he found along the paths he traveled--everything in the world he considered family. He believed not only that we have to love creation but acknowledge the mutual relationship between creation and God. We have to rid ourselves of the man-made obstacles that keep the natural world separate from the supernatural. When we embrace God's creation, we are embracing God.

He concludes the article with an examination of the ecological  spirituality of Francis. 


Sorrow:  For the way we have exploited creation in  searching for the comfortable life.


Poverty: A willingness to accept a more uncomfortable lifestyle  and be less of a burden on the environment.

Humility:Remembering that non-rational creation is also  family, and living a life of  thanks instead of greed; trust instead of exploitation.
 

Mercy:  Acknowledging  the blessings of creation are for all  humans and all organisms; understanding that indiscriminate development destroys part of who we are; and recovering a sensitivity to the hurt that our environment suffers.