Korean Office of the Dead

In Korea when one enters a large  funeral home,  you have many grieving families in their own rooms greeting the mourners. The Desk columnist of the  Catholic Times tells us it is easy to find the  Catholics because of their  singing the prayers for  the dead--'yeon do'.

November is the month of the  liturgical year in which we remember the dead: the  last month before the new year of Advent. Catholics during this month will have the occasion of  remembering the souls in purgatory by reciting the 'yeon do' in groups, according to their traditional melody and rhythm. A large group would be divided into two 'choirs' that alternate  with the responses.  It is something only seen in Korea.

The meaning of the two words  'yeon do' means prayer for the souls in purgatory. The columnist tells us that many think that the 'yeon-do' is a translation from prayers of the Western Church, but this is not correct. Those who have made a study of the issue say it was part of the early Korean  Church. Prayers of the Church were set to their own music and in a special order by the Korean ancestors in the faith.

The 'yeon do' is a very important part of the Catholic rites for  the dead. Since in the beginning Catholics did not follow the ordinary Korean rites for the dead the 'yeon do' helped to take the place of the traditional rites. After religious freedom was declared the purgatorial societies had a big role in helping  the grieving families.  After the Korea War with the introduction of  the Legion of Mary they also played an important role in helping the mourning families.  It is well known that this help to the grieving families was  instrumental in spreading Catholicism.

There are many who have been moved greatly by the response of the Catholics in  the help given the  families when someone has died. With the 'yeon do' and the service to the bereaving families this has moved many to see Catholicism in a different light. 

To show their respect for the dead, which many in society thought was missing from Catholicism, and one of the reasons for the persecutions, the Catholic ancestors devised the praying of the 'yeon do' for the deceased which in later times became a means of spreading the faith. This gives us plenty of matter for thought.


                                                                           

The Meaning of Prayer

The Catholic Times has selected the author of the Introduction to St. John of the Cross for recognition. The author has a doctorate in Spirituality, and besides teaching in the seminary is also the  pastor of a parish.

In an interview with the Catholic Times, the author said, " In the process of imitating Christ the  obstacles we face are personal faults, desires, attachments, the capital sins. Spirituality is detaching ourselves from these obstacles. We have to discern when and how we do this. We use the Scriptures and  Church teaching to achieve this goal.  Our Catholics have read the Scriptures with their heads, and now it is time," he stressed, "to examine how the words are to change our lives.  St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross show us how this is to be done."

The study of spirituality has not been a strong point of the Korean Church. The theologians of mystical theology talk about our feelings about God and those who have not experienced contemplative prayer find their words difficult to understand. These theologians are not only telling us how to approach God but how to get rid of everything that is preventing this union: when we go deep into meditation and rid ourselves of all desires, we can experience God. God gives us a taste, so to speak, for something more, a taste for extra- sensory phenomenon.

The author introduces us to a case in Korea concerning a woman who was said to have experienced  extraordinary phenomenon.  Most know that what she maintained was incorrect but few know why, this being the work of the mystical theologians.

To understand the mistaken notions about prayer and meditation, it is necessary for Christians to read and understand the books of these mystical theologians. 

Prayer, he concludes, "Is the changing of myself. However, many Christians believe that it is pestering God to do what they want. Before they despair in dealing with God, they should check to see if they have the correct understanding of prayer. The more I pray correctly the more I will be imitating Jesus and become like him."

Violence in the Name of Religion

The 25th anniversary of the Peace Meeting in Assisi was a time to  reflect on the frequent violence in our society and on the meaning of religion and faith in these turbulent times.

The Pope invited the leaders of other religions and those of no belief who are in search of truth to reflect on the place of religion in our world, and what the leaders should be doing to enhance the effectiveness of religion in bringing about a better world. Throughout the world, there are many conflicts influencing our different cultures, which often develop into armed conflicts. What should we do, asks a recent editorial in the Catholic Times, to change the violent climate we live in?

Here in Korea we do not have to go to the Pope's words to know that we are also exposed to this violence in the name of religion. There are those religious groups which  use methods of spreading their beliefs with pressure, those who use force in their programs in their schools and organizations, use of  illegal ways of development and investment, pressuring people to donate and to give offerings, these are all premodern ways of using violence to achieve one's ends. These methods sometimes unbeknownst to those  perpetrating these acts can also be found in  the Catholic Church.
   
In a recent survey made by the Chongye  Buddhist Research Center in Korea dealing with culture and religion the results were not favorable to religion. Protestantism influences society the most with 53.2%, Buddhism with 23.7% and Catholicism with 17.6%.  When it came to determining which religion was considered the most trustworthy (5 being the highest rating) Catholicism received  4.11, Buddhism 4.5,  Protestantism 3.34, Won Buddhism 2.31, and Islam 1.20.
 
The trustworthiness of religion, in general, was lower than the trust given to the medical establishment, civilian society, the academic world, and  big business, all of which rated more than 3. Religion  received 2.89, which was slightly better than the banking community, mass media, the federal government, local government, the  National Assembly and the political parties.
 
This is a stigma religion has brought upon itself. Since society does not have much trust in religion, it is a good reason why it is necessary to have the different religions get together and try to act in a way that doesn't  give  a lie to what they are preaching. It's time for religion to be the instrument of peace to the world.


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Difficulty in Forgiving

A high school student riding his motorcycle kills the fiance of the movie's main character in a hit-and-run  accident. This is the core plot of the movie Today. Is it possible to forgive such an act? This is the question the movie asks.
 
The director and screenwriter was asked why she  deals with such heavy material, and she answers that she wants to correct the commonly accepted understanding of forgiveness. The Peace Weekly journalist interviewed the director of the movie following its release in Seoul.

Our society expects the families of victims to be understanding and to forgive. She wants to examine what it means to forgive.
 
The heroine of the movie visits a church where she meets the priest and a religious sister, and is told to forgive the student for it is all God's will. She signs her name to a petition asking forgiveness for the student, but struggles with conflicting emotions and wonders if forgiving the student is the proper attitude. Why should she forgive? she asks herself.
 
The director says there are too many like the heroine of the movie in our society.  When a family loses someone because of some criminal act, there is no place to  complain about the injustice; everybody seems to believe that we should forgive. She recalls reading an article that said to forgive can at times be a sin, that we can't force forgiveness and shouldn't forgive indiscriminately.

It took her five years to write the scenario, and as time passed she became more convinced of what she wanted to say. She tried hard to  understand another way of seeing the issue but found it difficult. We tend to use, she says, the phrase, It's God's will, when bad things happen, making it easier for most of us to forgive and to convince others of the necessity to forgive. She explains that knowing that her religion wants her always to forgive, makes her uneasy. "I visited," she said, "with a priest who told me that 'forgiveness that does not have justice as a foundation is an evil'; this was a great consolation to me."

She intended the movie to ring an alarm to religions; before the scars are healed in the family of the victim, she believes that religions need to go slower in recommending forgiveness. The wrongdoer should have time to reflect on the result of his act, which will give time to the victim's family to start healing the  wounds.

That the director wanted to treat an important subject in a movie was laudable. Whether it can be dealt with dispassionately in this way is open to question. 'The will of God' is a phrase we throw around rather easily, but it is presumptuous to think we know God's will, and it should not be used to console another person. We as Catholics use the word providence, which skirts the question of God's will in any specific case. When it comes to forgiveness, more important than the forgiveness itself is to have the necessary disposition enabling one to be forgiven. In many cases, the forgiveness even if proffered can't be accepted because of a lack of sorrow and an unwillingness to change ones life.

Educating for Happiness

"When safety precedes happiness, maturity is hampered," according to an article in the Kyeongyang magazine. The writer, who is involved with Catholic cultural programs, considers most parents as being overly protective of their children, even though they don't want studies, among other things, to interfere with their children's happiness. However, they worry about their children being bullied at school, and also worry about the safety of young girls going and coming from school.
 
More knowledgeable parents know that this excessive concern for security limits the happiness of the child. What is happiness? he asks. We don't have to go back to the Romans or Greeks for an answer. Happiness, he says, is knowing who you are and conforming to this awareness in daily life.
 
Parents say they want their children to be happy even though knowing this emphasis on happiness may interfere with their education and lead to a difficult time getting a job later on. But being familiar with the many psychological and social scars that children routinely encounter growing up, they want to protect them. This is the dilemma with which they are faced.

This  happy life that we are talking about is relating with others--all kinds of others, which is the way we enlarge our vision and get to know ourselves. The time we  spend with ourselves, important as it is, we have to find time to spend with others. He goes on to talk about the boundaries between the world and religion, ourselves and others, money and meaning, desire and value. When we have the right balance between them, we will have happiness.
 
It is precisely in this area, however, that we have problems. For in desiring security for our children, we reduce the happiness they should be enjoying. In school and society, we keep the children away from that which is unknown and strange. In certain areas of a large city, those with similar lifestyles live together, which means the experiences will be similar. They become used to relating with others who have the same sensibilities and use the  same words.
 
To mature means that your world has become larger. And to adjust to this expanding world means that I am maturing, which is the foundation for my happiness. Consequently, without the child's desiring it, to overly protect the child from contact with the strange  is not wise. Better to encourage and instill in them a courage to meet the new.

Educating our children by expanding their experience of life with travel and on-the-spot programs, as important as they are, doesn't compare with allowing them to encounter the unexpected occurrences in daily life. When we make it difficult to be open to what's new and strange in life, our world becomes smaller, we become smaller, fixed in place by the old and familiar world of our past.

Changing Oneself

 Writing in his weekly column on spirituality, the columnist goes back to the time when, as a young religious working as the chaplain in a mental hospital, an incident at the hospital helped turn his life around.


The head male nurse came to him and asked if a bicycle could be provided for the patients. He told the head nurse he had recently received  two bicycles for patients in the process of leaving the hospital, and were outside in the yard.  The nurse responded: "Father, not that  kind of bicycle but the kind that can be used in the hospital."
 

I asked if it would be possible to use those bicycles in the hospital. "How can we use those bicycles in the hospital? he answered sharply. "I'm talking about the kind of bicycle that you use for exercise." Still not understanding, I then asked the nurse, "How about taking the bicycles and attaching them to  the wall of the hospital so that they can be used for exercise?" The nurse left, laughing.  It was only later that he realized the nurse was talking about training bikes used in health clubs.

He goes on to say that it seemed his head was even more confused than was the mental state of the patients he was counseling; he admits to being easily flustered by the demands of the new work. He thanks the patients for being a great consolation to him during those early years, during which he covered up his feelings of incompetence by pushing himself to appear as a responsible and capable person.
 
With the passage of time his relationship with the patients became closer.  He laughed and cried a lot listening to them. He heard about their struggles in regaining health, and watched their slow and graceful  manner of relating to others. They interacted with him without reservation, and they said Mass together. Seeing their simplicity, he reflected on his own bluster and uncontrollable human desires. Gradually, he felt the surface froth of his spirituality subside and finally disappear. The experience helped shed his impetuosity. He got over the desire to impress others, and began to have greater trust in others.
 
In the beginning of the work in the mental hospital, he felt he was there to help them, but on looking back on those years, he realizes they helped to heal him. He summed up his experiences by saying that when we give ourselves in earnest to help others, we are ultimately helping ourselves.

Why the Lack of Interest?

In the recent election for mayor of Seoul almost  49 percent voted, a large number compared to results from previous elections, but the priest-chairman of the  peace and justice committee of the diocese,  writing in the Catholic Times, would like to know why more are not voting. The answer, he says, apart from lack of interest and the distaste for the whole process, can be found in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.
 
From the Compendium: "The overcoming of cultural, juridical and social obstacles that often constitutes real barriers to the shared participation of citizens in the destiny of their communities calls for work in the areas of information and education. In this regard, all those attitudes that encourage  in citizens an inadequate or incorrect practice of participation or that cause widespread disaffection with everything connected with the sphere of social and political life are a source of concern and deserve careful consideration." (191)


"Among the obstacles that hinder the full exercise of the right to objectivity in information, special attention must be given to the phenomenon of the news media being controlled by just a few people or groups. This has dangerous effects for the entire democratic system when this phenomenon is accompanied by ever closer ties between governmental activity and the financial and information establishments." (414)

The priest-chairman  says we have to examine how objective, ethical and honest is the information we receive from the mass media, and that includes the religious media. Without objective, honest information we can't make the right decisions and the common good is harmed.

He reminds us of the time under the Japanese occupation when we were flooded with all kinds of propaganda, and again, not more than a few decades ago, when  a past government, using dubious information, swayed public opinion. Can any of us affirm, he asks, that even today we are not being swayed with misinformation?
 
How we face the crucial issues of life now and in the future will affect our dignity and the common good. This will not be easy. The issues are often too technical and complicated for us always to know the facts, and even to know whether the issues themselves are being honestly reported. Not infrequently the mass media is controlled by small groups that influence the way news is reported. Lack of honest news coverage may also occur when the media, apart from defending vested interests, is incapable of presenting objective, honest news, having lost touch with the perennial truths of life.
 
We are reduced, he maintains, to being passive, unquestioning consumers of the information we receive. And as passive consumers, we are opening the way for a few people and groups to take control and manipulate the politics, the finances, and the media of the country. This situation harms not only the efficient operation of our democratic institutions but works against human dignity and the common good.