All Depends on our Attitiude.

Writing in his weekly column in the Catholic Times, the poet lets his thoughts play with the way God deals with his beloved creation. He sees the beauty and harmony in nature, the mountains, lakes, trees, flowers, the rice plants moving in the gentle breezes, and then he looks on the fishing village and sees the tsunami sweep away thousands into the sea.

Nature seems mysterious and unrevealing. Some are ready to stress the favorable, and others the unfavorable relationship between God and creation; sometimes it's benevolence and other times non-benevolence.  Which one is the correct view? The relationship of heaven and earth is sometimes this and sometimes that. Can we call it fickle? A great abyss of separation?

Inanimate objects don't speak so we interpret. To interpret, according to the dictionary, means to explain and make objects known. Seemingly very easy to do, but when philosophers get involved it becomes complicated. It also has to do with our attitude towards the object. Whatever is received is received in the manner of the one receiving.

In prayer, God sometime gives what we want and other times not. How should we interpret this situation? The columnist gives us St. Paul's answer (1Thessalonians 5:16-18): "Be happy at all times; pray constantly; and for all things give thanks to God because this is what God expects you to do in Christ Jesus."
 
How many of us have this as a guide, a teaching or a goal in our lives? If we took this to heart, Paul reminds us, we would be persons of virtue, extraordinary human beings.  Many times we pray and get the opposite of what we prayed for, which breeds resentment. But the answer, though not what we wanted, did come. Here, our attitude and free will come into play; we can accept the answer as being at this time the correct answer. 

We learn early on that God's standards are not the same as ours. When we give thanks and have joy in all things, then we consider God's mercy and interpret all with thanks in our hearts. It all depends on our free will; that is why it is such a precious gift.

How Advent was Spent in Past Years

Recently reported in the news was the generosity of an elderly man who put the equivalent of a hundred thousand dollars in the Salvation Army Red Kettle. The anonymous donor hoped the money would be used for underprivileged senior citizens. It was the single largest gift the Salvation Army has ever received in their Christmas campaigns in Korea since the campaigns began 83 years ago. There are warm lights aglow, a Catholic Times' writer tells us, in our sometimes cold world.

But he reminds us that in the Catholic world the warmth that came with the preparations for the big feasts in Korea has disappeared as older cultural ways have been replaced by newer ways. He goes on to explain that for a time in our Korean Catholic history, there were private meetings with all the Christians of the parish before the big feasts of Easter and Christmas. Priests would interview individual Catholics or entire families during the Advent preparation period to determine how well they knew the catechism; being able to answer correctly was a requirement in order to receive the sacraments on Christmas.
 
This custom began during the persecution of the Catholics. Fearful of living in large villages with non-Catholics, they gathered together in small hamlets, which in time became mission stations. Because there were few parishes and many mission stations, the priest would make the rounds of these stations to celebrate Mass and administer the sacraments for the two big feasts. He would also check to see if they had been faithful in their prayer life, spiritual reading, and in the study of the catechism. 

The visit of the priest at these mission stations would be reason enough for a holiday celebration. All would put on their best clothes and prepare holiday meals, and those who had left the village for work would return to celebrate the visit of the priest and to go to Mass. It was a joyous time even though the catechism exams did create some stress. 

Usually, the family would appear before the priest, knowing before the visit what questions would be asked. If the children did not answer to the priest's satisfaction, their grandfathers and parents would be reprimanded. It would be hard to imagine this happening today, the writer said. The custom no longer exists and he laments the change. He believes that the difference it has made in the life of our Catholics has not been all for the good. 

Taking the place of the oral exams in many parishes are written questions distributed to parishioners who are interested, and prizes are given to those who have the highest marks. All the burdens have been taken away. The parishes are much larger and the priests are busier, which is part of the reason for the change. And yet, there is something lost, he feels, in the disappearance of this tradition: perhaps less community involvement and less serious preparation for the big feasts of the Church.

Mission Stations In Korea

Mission stations--areas of a parish without a priest living with the Christians-- are an important part of Korean Catholic history, with more than 800 mission stations currently established in the country. In the early days of Korean Catholicism most of the country would have been  mission station territory, and the priest would come to visit once or twice a year.Today with good transportation the mission stations would have frequent visits, and many would be weekly visits. In some mission stations they would even have the Blessed Sacrament reserved in the chapels. The catechist in charge of  the mission station would be responsible for the liturgy on Sundays and Holy Day's of Obligation, and if the Blessed Sacrament is reserved, also distribute communion.

A woman missioner, writing in the Incheon Diocesan Bulletin, gives her impressions of life in one of these mission stations when she served as the person responsible to the parish for the running of the station. A priest visiting the station asked her, "How long have you been here?" She answered, surprising herself with her answer, "20 years." 

She was originally a Seoulite and lived the ordinary parish life when she met a young man who had graduated from the school of theology. After romance and marriage, they became a missionary team, living in a mission station far from any city, in the backwoods of Korea. And were soon to wake up from the dreams they had of the romantic rural life.

The first night they arrived at a place without a house. The Christians hastily found an empty room in the village to put their luggage. She was so upset by the situation, flustered and fearful, she wanted to return to Seoul. The room, having been empty for so long, had the smell of mold, dampness and tobacco; liquor bottles were strewn all over the floor. How was she to live in such a place? was the only thing she could think of. That night she cried, feeling resentment toward her husband, who expressed his sorrow for bringing her to such a place. That night she began to see what the life a missioner would be.

Missioner is still understood by most Koreans as  foreigners working in the country. Lay persons doing missionary work are few; because they are so few, knowledge of them would be rare. She mentions a group of over 30 who have graduated from the Seoul Catholic School of Theology; they come together to encourage and to help each other.
   
Lay missioners do not have any security, official recognition, or status like the clergy or religious, for they  take the work upon themselves.  Wouldn't  they be fools for Christ? she asks.
 
Most of these missioners worked in the remote areas of the country and in difficult surroundings. Today they are found in the cities, working among the poor in resettlement areas and welfare facilities. 

An epilogue would not be out of place here explaining the difficulties that lay missioners, like our husband and wife team, have had in Korea because of the status of clergy and religious sisters in the country. Our lay missioner was too kind to mention that the lack of preparation at the mission station was possibly due to the unwelcoming  mindset of the Christians there. Often, after the mission station has been run for many years internally, there will be resistance to the arrival of an outsider taking charge.  Change from the benign control of the pastor to the daily hands-on control of  lay missioners is no easy transition for many to accept.

Family Culture

Writing in the Diocesan Bulletin, the director of the Family Cultural Center in the city of Incheon says that the name of the Center does not make clear what she is doing. Consequently she is always ready to answer the question, what do you do? by replying that family culture is a way of keeping some of the values of the extended family alive in the nuclear family.

Now that Korea has settled into a 5-day work week, the word 'leisure' has entered the daily vocabulary, and an attempt is being made to have harmonious relationships between work, leisure, and family.

She asks, what do families spend most of their  time doing? In one survey, watching TV was first, and for the last ten years nothing has changed.  When she asks for the reasons, she is told that it's because of work and fatigue, and because most families are not familiar with anything else. The dictionary meaning for 'family leisure' would be that the family as a unit uses leisure time to communicate with one another: father, mother and children reacting to the needs and wants of each other. Communicating with the TV would not be an acceptable option.

She gives the example of a family getting together on a spring day. They prepare together the rice balls for the picnic, bake the cake together, but just not any cake; it is a cake with the face of a bear, and all participate in trying to make it a masterpiece. Another good way of bringing families together: Camping together and volunteering as a family for some Church or community function.

The more we relate with one another, she says, the more opportunities we will have to bring about intimacy, communication and bonding at a different level. Parents are always trying to find something that will fit the level of where the children are, and this interrelating will help them to grow in virtue and emotional maturity, especially today when studies play too prominent a role in the lives of Korean children.

To strengthen family ties that are getting weaker, she recommends that families have a weekly family day in order to spend more time together. It could be anything; going to a movie or museum would be enough. We have children addicted to video games, staying by themselves as latchkey children, being bullied,  and many other ways that society is playing havoc on children's emotional maturity. She recommends that parents take a cue from the Christmas scene, and use a blanket to keep the family members warm, together.

Inculturation and Evangelization

A research institute here in Korea had an academic meeting on evangelization and inculturation in China, Japan and Korea. The Peace Weekly gave a brief summary of the meeting. 

Priest-professor from China said that China continues to work to reform and be open. The issue of religious freedom remains about the same, with the government still in control. The rapid economic development of China has widened the gap between  rich and poor, giving rise to corruption and many other harmful side effects. Unfortunately, these are also seen within the church.

In many areas of the country, the Church functions differently. In some areas preaching is allowed even in the streets; in some farming areas they can have processions once or twice a year; in certain dioceses the young are volunteering for church work; and in other areas you are not allowed to do anything outside the church building.

Progress of the Church in China will depend on bishops and priests taking a more active part in evangelization; the Christians have to be awakened to become more active; the different groups in the parishes have to get involved in their work so the surrounding society will take notice; and the Church has to become more involved in helping the poor in society.

The professor from Japan said that the Church in Japan is not expected to grow very much. The structures of Shintoism and esoteric Buddhism permeate all society. Catholicism is seen as a cult, and as a foreign religion. 

Traditional Japanese see it as something outside their world of interest, and many have a negative feeling toward all religions, seeing them as aggressive and corrupt, and using brainwashing techniques to gain members, according to the professor.

Acculturating, making use of the Japanese culture, and having a non-verbal approach to evangelizing is what is demanded. Although the Catholic presence in the country is weak, we will have in ten years a Japanese theology. But 30 years from now no one knows what the situation will be--the Church may even be extinct in the country.

In Korea, the priest-professor mentions some of the problems facing the Church: Authoritarianism of the leaders in the church; large parishes and little contact with the Christians; poverty of the spiritual life, lack of inner maturity making for non-practicing Christians; the alienation of the poor; the lack of efforts in  inculturation and the emphasis on getting more people into the church and not enough concern for the evangelization process. The we-can-do-mentality is in vogue; it is more important than making plans and study. Evangelization means to give the message to others but there is also the personal evangelization of the self. There is a need for an integral harmony in evangelizing, sharing not only material goods but the spiritual gifts as well.

Doing More Important than Saying

After Vatican II, educational visual aids were disseminated to the parishes to educate the Christians on some of the changes that were proposed by the Council. We are all familiar with the pyramid and circle symbolism; pyramids denote structure and circles community.  Lay people "not only belong to the Church but are the Church, under the leadership of the Pope and bishops" (Pope John Paul).
  
Here in Korea one particular visual aid was a wagon that was being pulled by the bishops and clergy, and pushed by the sisters while the lay people were on the wagon, singing and praying. It was a dig at the situation in the church. This was mentioned in an article for priests in a pastoral bulletin.
 
Lay people have been generally seen as objects of pastoral care by the leaders in the Church and not as fellow workers in the vineyard. This has reduced lay people, in many cases, to a passive role in the Church. Pope John Paul II said, in his Post Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the Vocation and Mission of the Lay Faithful: "In particular, two temptations can be cited which they have not always known how to avoid: the temptation of being so strongly interested in Church services and tasks that some fail to become actively engaged in their responsibilities in the professional, social, cultural and political world; and the temptation of legitimizing the unwarranted separation of faith from life, that is, a separation of the Gospel's acceptance from the actual living of the Gospel in various situations in the world."

Much of what we read and hear today concerning spirituality has to do with behavioral and affective approaches to truth. We know that many of us Christians do not behave any differently from those who do not believe. Many have been exposed to the Christianizing process but are not interested enough in applying it in our daily lives; they have everything but the heart for the work.
 
The article mentions the need for the ministerial priesthood to work together with the priesthood of the faithful. The layperson's vocation is to the world, to live in it, and to work for its sanctification. The lay people are on the front lines and the ministerial priesthood are there to educate, encourage, inspire, give meaning to their work and help them participate in the work, joyfully and with a sense of mission.
 
When the ministerial priesthood and the priesthood of all the laity work together in communion then we are a true sign of the oneness that we are in Christ. This sign is not readily seen so it will be the way we live this in our lives that will be the message that is conveyed--working together as equals, in community, to carry our Christ's mission that was entrusted to the first community. Working together is the message that we have been called to give. Isn't it more important than what we have to say?

Unmarried Mothers

Incheon, like many other dioceses, has a home for unmarried mothers. The sister in charge of the home told the Peace Weekly, in a recent interview, that over half of the 20 soon-to-be-mothers are in their teens. In their early pregnancy, they had been told by many that if they have an abortion, all will return to normal, a clear example of the cruelty and coolness of society toward unmarried mothers. There is nobody to rejoice with them, she said, on becoming mothers.
 
These young mothers, at great cost to themselves, have chosen to be mothers, leaving behind all other concerns. One mother, brushing tears from her eyes, said her mother wanted her to abort, but remembering her first year in high school when she saw a video of an abortion, she decided she didn't want anything to do with that. She is very happy with her decision. 
 
Sister says that their work at the home is to help the girls with healing and reconciliation so they will be able to greet the baby with joy in their hearts. Before coming to the home these girls had to deal with conflict, pain, and many emotional scars, which the sister hopes, with much counseling, to heal.
 
The home has received permission to serve as an alternative school, and there are mothers who are  taking the middle and high school courses; two mothers even took the college entrance exams and are waiting for the results.
The sister mentions how depressed these girls were on coming to the home. Many had a sense of guilt, fear, embarrassment, anxiety, and a concern for the future. The sisters at the home work to change these thoughts. 

The sister mentions that when they see the tears of these mothers, they feel both sorrow and pride, knowing that they have helped make a difference in their lives. And it's not uncommon to have the boy who abandoned the girl, and the family of the girl, come to the home asking for forgiveness for the way the girls had been treated.
 
A few years ago the average age of unmarried mothers was in the twenties; now most are in their teens. It is difficult to find where the necessary sex education is being given; it's mostly limited to information on contraception. And praise for the unmarried mothers is rare; blame is all that is heard. 

Sister knows that society doesn't change overnight but she hopes there will come a time for praising these girls who had an easy way presented to them but, wanting to  do what was morally right, refused to take the easy way out.