Inviting the Sisters Out to a Meal

One of the women journalists writing for the Catholic Times gives us a glimpse of Catholic life in Korea. She mentioned that as is the custom in Korea, she made the rounds visiting relatives and friends giving the saebae, (low bow),  wishing those so greeted with the best for the New Year.

In the parish to which she belonged lived  sisters who attended daily Mass. She, also being a daily Mass goer came in contact with them often. For some time, she wanted to do something more than pay her respects but also to  invite them  out to a meal.   She had wanted to do this for some time. That Sunday after Mass, they were seated close to  her,  she quickly wrote a note giving  her telephone number and asking them to call her at their convenience.

As soon as she reached home the call came from the sisters. She asked them if they would be free sometime during the week to accept her invitation to a meal. The sister said she would bring the invitation up with the superior and let her know.  That afternoon the call came from the sisters, since they would be busy during the week,  that  evening would be fine.

She drove her car to the convent with a box of tangerines and was ushered into the house. She had a chance to look around and then when the sisters were ready they went to the restaurant that she had picked. They had a pleasant conversation and a good meal at the end of which a gentleman kept on looking into  the  room, since the  door was slightly ajar. The journalist thought it was  someone whom the sisters knew but the gentleman then opened the door and came in.

"Sister, I was so happy to see the sisters that I came in. My father's sister was a religious sister who loved me greatly;  she died a few years ago. Seeing  sisters was like seeing my aunt again and without notice came in. I have been busy these days, is the excuse, but seeing you has made me very happy and also sorry for not being faithful to my religious practices. Please, I want to take care of the bill for your meal."

The journalist stood up and told him that was impossible,  since they were her guest and the meal was on her.

He grabbed the bill in front of her plate and ask that she understand and acquiesce. The sisters also sided with him, so she gave in but gave him her notebook asking him for his name and address.  He said no, but she  implored and he responded that he has a public office and doesn't randomly  give his address. The journalist said she wants to pray for him and at least would he gave his baptismal name and his aunt's name.

She told the sisters, after he left,  she wanted to do something for the sisters, and it was taken away from her. However, the superior said  they enjoyed the time together and the meal was wonderful,  at the   same time the gentleman did something very nice; what  he did was a great consolation to him--sisters all agreed with her.  Her good deed was taken away from her, but she was left with a good feeling and will be praying for John and Bernadette.

Pirates Enabled Him to See the Marginated Differently

A  priest had watched the film 'Black Hawk Down', which was based on a true story about the efforts of an elite team of U.S. soldiers to capture two subordinates of a Somalia war lord. The movie goes into detail on the efforts of the U.S. military. It was his first interest in the country of Somalia.

The second incident about Somalia was the  pirate attack on a Korea ship. He was angry at seeing a group with guns and knives kidnapping a boat and asking for millions in  ransom for the men they kidnapped. These young men could be working, and they spend their time capturing  foreign ships  and asking for ransom. He dreamed of the Government sending a special military team to get rid of them from the world's oceans. Being a priest he doesn't want his feelings known. And when that actually happened he was overjoyed. They will leave the Korean ships alone.

When these pirates were imprisoned in Busan the writer was surprised how  they accepted everything so naturally. The food was 'good, good', 8 of their compatriots were killed  yet they had no difficulty sleeping,  and they showed a happy face. This brought tears to his eyes. How bad must have been life in Somalia to make their stay here in a foreign country as criminals so easily accepted? What was it that allowed them to enjoy the food and the sleep in the prison with  the naturalness that they showed on Korean TV? He wanted to know more about the country.

He started surfing the Internet to get information on the country. Somalia was in the North East part of  Africa with a  population of 10 million, an  independent country since 1960 with an average life span of 49 years. The GDP  is 600 dollars, a poor country, devastated by a continual civil war for over  20 years. What  he learned from  surveying the history, changed the way he saw the country: a lost country, people without hope, "I am not able to give them words about morality in the condition they are in."

He listens to curses and screams of the children playing on the field of the welfare center, students attending the study program. These students are always dealing with anger.  At home, at school, on the street, you meet them all over. We stare at them with sympathy and with a cold gaze, these  children in turn look at the world with a cold heart. The writer with  his knowledge of Somalia enabled him to see the pirates and the children whom he sees daily in his work with different eyes. He hopes others will be able to make the same leap.                         

Accountability and Evaluation in the Church

In a small country town, a church association of men between the  ages 40 and 50 meet regularly to direct  the functions of the parish. Named after the first Korean martyr, the association has been a great help to the Church. Besides the work of the Church, they often get together to eat and drink; so much so that the families of a few of the members complained because they stayed out late to drink, neglecting their families.

Frequently, the group would get together to fraternize without  any special purpose. When a parish event or finances were involved, there would be good attendance and lively discussion. However, when it  came to Gospel values or their mission as Christians, they said little. The place of the Church in the greater society and what the signs of the times demanded of them were not part of their discussions. A priest from the diocese deals with this problem in the bulletin for priests this month.

This past autumn  they had their parish field day;  they used the  neighboring grammar school grounds. The men's group took responsibility for the event and did a good job. It was the men who were involved, the women and the older people were mostly spectators. And again this year there were complaints for making too much noise with the speakers.  At the end of the day they got together for a meal and drinks.  There was a great deal of talking about what happened but no critique of what they did or what changes would be necessary for the future. Rarely would there be an evaluation of any event to improve if for the next time.

It is  good to have a successful event and to enjoy it, but at the same time it's important to see if the religious purposes  have been accomplished: To see what was boring, what was well done, what has to be changed. Were all able to participate? Did they leave any  out  at the event? Did all behave in the proper way during the event?

Although the Church has many events and activities, the writer feels  we have little evaluation to determine how successful they have been.  It is for this reason that despite the events and activities their effect on faith life, on our way of living, and on our society has been negligible. There is a need to have programs to alert us to what the possibilities are, to see and learn from others. Instead, we listen and do what we are told and follow age-old habits--that's easy. But gathering those involved, examining what was done with new eyes, evaluating and being accountable--that  does not come easy.

Dippping Into History Unwisely

Occasionally, we hear of people dipping into history to persuade others of the correctness of their position. Surprisingly, this has been attempted in a recent article in a Catholic publication discussing the invasion of Korea by the Japnanese in 1592. Such articles, often seen in the West but in Catholic matters rare in Korea, are usually attempting to ridicule the actions of those who are "conservative" in thinking.

History is filled with serious failings of Catholicism to live up to the teachings of Jesus. This is a fact no one wants to deny, but at the same time it is necessary to see the context of that history in order to make a fairer judgment on what happened; not to white wash but to make sense of what was done.

The article mentions that  in the invasion of Korea in the Imjin War under Hideyoshi, one of the Generals, Konishi Yukinaga, the first General to enter Korea, was a Catholic with a large force of Catholic troops. He was an 'outstanding lay person' (said in an effort to emphasize the point being made) and important enough to ask the Jesuit superior in Japan to send him a chaplain for the troops. The Spanish Jesuit Gregorio de Cespedes (1551-1611) was sent, the first European attested to in history to have set foot on Korean soil.

The article mentions that at the height of the invasion there would be more than 2,000 soldiers attending  Mass each evening. In later years, when Konishi  returned to Japan, he was Catholic enough to refuse to commit suicide after being defeated in battle and was willing to accept the humiliation that came with his refusal, which was worse than death.  He finally was decapitated.

Konishi  was a  very zealous layperson, who during the daytime  would be out slaughtering  the innocent Koreans and in the evening going to Mass. There was also a quote to this effect from a popular historical  novel of recent  times. The article admitted that few today would see him as an example of what a Christian should be. It was not the likes of Konishi that brought the faith to Korea, the article goes on to say,  but  young scholars who went to the poor with  open hearts.

The point is  that here we have a very zealous Japanese  layperson following the Church's teachings and yet killing thousands of innocent Koreans. There must be a better way of making this point without going back into history, forgetting  the context and  cultural values of the time, and using a person's Catholicism to show 'hypocrisy'.                                                        

Many  of us do not live up to the teachings of Christ even though  in our daily lives we try to follow what our religion teaches. Most often our thinking is influenced by the cultural values of our society. There is no need to  go back into history to find examples of this; we have plenty of them in our own day, which clearly show  a failure of religious maturity,  of understanding  and a weakness of character. We can be seen as hypocrites by those who are not seeing the effects of  culture, life styles and values  on our thinking and actions. It is not honest to dip into history, without seeing history in context, to find examples to revile those who are trying to live what they deem to be the guidance of  their conscience in today's world.


 
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A Korean Parish for the Blind

A sure sign that the Korean Catholic Church is  on the side of the marginalized is the latest  effort of the Seoul Diocese to start a parish for the visually impaired. This is the second parish in Korea that will be exclusively for the handicapped, the first, a  parish for the deaf  in the Incheon diocese.

The Seoul Diocese did have  programs for the blind, and a place where they met on Sundays. 500 were registered at the mission, and on  Sundays about 100 attended. It was served by diocesan priests who would take turns saying Mass at their  auditorium.

An editorial in the Peace Weekly mentions how difficult it is for the blind  to live their faith life. The Church has given them the opportunity of offering Mass and studying the catechism, but there was always something missing, lilke not having their their own pastor, and priests would have little time to spend with them because of their other duties. The new parish will change all that and be a catalyst in the pastoral care of  the handicapped.

The registers of the  Catholics will be at the new parish, helping  to form this new  communty. A priest will always be with the community, giving it life, with plenty of time for the members to interact, and accessing  the sacramental life with less rushing. 

The ideal would be to have the handicapped associate with the  non-handicapped in the areas where they live,  but the parishes are not equipped for this role so it was decided to have the  handicapped together in the same parish. They will then  relate easily with other community members and feel less alienated than they would be in a territorial parish. The priest Director of Culture and Information feels that this will encourage the diocese to become more involved in other special pastoral endeavors in the diocese.

Faith Is Not in Externals

In the Catholic Times, a columnist discusses the problem which can arise when some spend too much time in prayer, too much time in  service to others, and filling their  homes with religious articles. They  can become so infatuated with a desire to experience God that they can be a disruptive influence on members of their family, and often turn them against religion. If it goes to an extreme, it becomes a religious delusion.

In these cases, they need medical help; with the proper medicine, they can find peace again but the underlying cause remains, a blindness that can return to rupture the relation they have with family and friends.

They mention that in their prayers and dreams, they often experience God. From such experiences, they try to live their lives. Faith  experiences, are very personal, they are  beyond our  ability to verbalize them or even categorize what was experienced.  The writer mentioned that he has visited with a couple of people who thought they were God, having received a message in their dreams. When he meets them, he asks if they are faithfully taking their medicine. They have told the doctors, but since the doctors don't believe them, they mention it to the columnist in a whisper. They say that they have not made this known but everybody in the hospital knows.

Belief is not something one understands only as an experience. What is experienced is not the totality of faith. We know this to be true for the disciples, who experienced our Lord right up until his death on the cross, and yet were without faith. If we are to have a healthy experience, it is necessary to have a correct faith life.

When we have the correct life of faith, we are able to understand  God correctly. When we have the proper relationship with God, we have the proper relationship with ourselves, with family and with others. It allows us to see ourselves as we are: joyful, humble, and knowing the meaning of life. It is this mature faith that allows us to have joy in our lives and to bring this joy to others.

Korean Catholic Attempt at Theater

The Catholic Church of Korea in recent years has been trying to get more involved in the cultural aspects of the country, and one important aspect of  culture is the theater. A priest from Jeju-do has started a theater company and is presently preparing the script for his forthcoming play on the life of Cardinal Kim, " Cardinal A Fool."  It will be presented at the end of the month to commemorate the second anniversary of the Cardinal's death on Feb. 16.

The company was started in 2008, with the musical on the life of St. Paul: "Imago Dei" (lmage of God). It had a successful run with over 126 performances and over 27,000 spectators. Their second production, "He Gave his  Heart," enacted the life of St. John Vianney. This production went to 80 parishes, with 135 performances and 35,000 spectators, a response beyond the world of the Catholics.

On the company's first anniversary, the priest founder mentioned the difficulties of starting a theater company in Korea:  Catholics were skeptical, some not knowing that the play was being performed in their parish, his fellow priests offering little or no encouragement, and the members of his team disappointed by the  lack of interest. The priest and his team, however, are not put off by this general disinterest; they feel that the Church needs their entry into the theater culture of Korea, to provide another voice in spreading the Gospel.

The problems they will encounter will be many. The finances necessary to put together a team to stage one of these productions is staggering. But it's obvious, also, that those willing to get involved in this kind of enterprise are seeing the benefits for the Church, which empowers them to put up with a great deal of misunderstandings and non-cooperation. The Korean Church has progressed to where she can think of other ways  to proclaim the  message. And efforts in music, literature and theater have begun. The hope is that these cultural excursions of the Church will bear fruit, and in time be a force for good in our society.