Finding Saints to be Mentors

Mentor and mentoring are words we hear often. Taken from Greek mythology, the words refer to Odysseus' old friend Mentor, who was to be the guardian and tutor of Odysseus' son while his father was away. Used now, the words commonly refer either to the person who counsels a less-experienced  person or to a situation that provides a young seeker of knowledge the opportunity to learn from an older and wiser person.
 
The editor of  Catholic Publishing recounts, in the Catholic Times, her efforts in finding a mentor. Her father was her first mentor; his death, when she was in first-year high school, came as a great shock and left her struggling about the meaning of life.  Though living her faith life as a Christian, she was filled with doubt; it was as if God no longer existed. She had no place to turn to ask for help.
 
In her years of schooling, she respected many of her teachers but was not able to find anyone who could serve as her mentor.  Seminary professors were also possible mentors; she respected them as well, but  they were too busy with the seminarians to have time, she thought, for her and her problems. And she also didn't want to bother others with her problems, and soon started to walk around with her head down as if looking for a coin, which prompted others to give her a nickname alluding to this habit.
 
Where she is now in life, she says, requires someone as a mentor, but she lacks the capability, energy and charity necessary to find one, although the need is all the more present.
 
However, everything recently changed when she came upon the book, "My Mentor and My Saint." A book her publishing  company has translated from the English.  Written by the Jesuit writer James Martin and titled in English as My Life With the Saints, the book introduced her to her mentors. In the book, the  Jesuit listed a number of saints, those canonized and those who have lived saintly lives.  The Jesuit has used these saints as mentors in his life, friends who  have influenced him.  The  columnist has finally found her mentors she will be living with during this new year.

Beginning Anew

Beginning the new year we make resolutions, knowing that most will not be kept.  The effort does make us feel better since we  hope and dream for something different and better in the future. In the bulletin of a mission station, a writer reminds us of the often-used Spanish proverb: When the first button is not buttoned correctly, there is no place left for the last button.

It is the time to bring determination and resolve into our lives, he says.  So beginning the new year he is determined to start off correctly by doing whatever comes along, no matter how seemingly trivial, to the best of his ability.

Buttons are a very small and insignificant part of our clothing but when we miss the first hole then all the rest are incorrectly inserted, and we destroy the overall appearance, which eventually makes us go back to the beginning, to start over again.
 
The author confesses that he often has 'not correctly inserted the first button in the correct hole' because of inattention and apathy to the task before him. However, this year he resolves to examine all that he does with full attention and interest.

The problem for him seems to arise when he is in a hurry or impatient. When this is the case, he loses time and has to spend more effort to remedy the situation. This also happens in life when the foundational first steps are not carried out correctly.

When one  knows the first button is in the wrong hole and  goes ahead and ignores the  mistake, out of carelessness or a lack of responsibility, one only postpones the inevitable.  In time, what was done must be undone by going back to the beginning.  This is basic and a first principle.

Similar to a fork in the road, one going West, the other East: If one wants to go East and takes the one going West, the quicker the mistake is realized the better. Being an Asian he will have a chance in just a few weeks to live his resolve for the new year as he prepares for the real New Year, the lunar New Year.
 
The opportunities, however, are not only limited to a time on the calendar; every new day is a chance to start over and begin afresh. The only problem we might have is the lack of a desire to begin anew.

Wonderful Life

Kyeongyang Magazine has an article by a woman who for  seven years has interviewed famous celebrities in Korea. She begins by noting how members of the Masai tribe in Africa answer when asked how many children they have. They don't give a number but say the name of each of their children. She considers that a very telling way of reminding us what unique individuals we are and that numbers are not able to do that.

So far she has interviewed more than 80 people and mentions that there are times when those close to them are not familiar with what they have revealed about themselves. During the interviews she is learning about  humanity and doing a lot of loving. If she doesn't have an attraction for her subject, she finds it difficult to write up the interview.

She has discovered that the persons being interviewed fall into certain categories: those who find it easy to talk, those who show their importance, those who exaggerate, and those who are very introspective. But she has no difficulty with the many different ways we use to look back on our life. Most start off with the high points, but the failures remain very strong in the retelling. 
 
She reminds us that the interview reveals what the person remembers of his or her life and what she wants to bring to our attention. It is not her life as such, but the way the person being interviewed sees their life.
 
She mentions the Japanese movie Wonderful Life in which the souls who have just died have to be processed before entering heaven. Each one has to give a memory of their life that for them was the happiest or most significant. The team doing the processing make a movie of the incident and return to show it to the person waiting to go to heaven. They see it and disappear with that one memory into eternity.
 
What, she asks us, would be our memory of the happiest or most significant moment in our life? She asks this same question of all those she interviews, both for amusement and interest. If we do not have happy memories and are not satisfied with our memories, she believes we should spend the rest of our years preparing to give an answer that would satisfy us.

Culture of Life

The priest who is the Executive Director of the Culture of Life Committee  writes, in the Peace Weekly, about the importance of not lying to those who are dying.    Lying is forbidden, but it doesn't mean that the doctor dealing with those who are dying should speak all the truth no matter the condition of the dying patient. The doctor has the obligation to speak the truth, and this precedes all medical and human considerations since it is dealing with eternal life and justice. 

The efforts to be loving and to give comfort to the individual and the family by lying is not permitted. When is the proper time for the doctor to tell a dying patient the truth about his condition? That's for the doctor to decide, but the truth has to be given and not hidden behind wordy subterfuges that tend to keep the full truth from the patient. It is difficult, but this is no reason for not doing it.
 
All have a right to know the facts of their medical condition in order to assess their  earthly situation and to do what is necessary to prepare to meet God. No one has the right to take this freedom away. What therapy to use must also be the choice of the patient, and this obligation is not satisfied by discussing this with someone other than the patient.
 
How this obligation is handled by the medical staff depends on their judgement, wisdom and sensitivity. It doesn't mean that all has to be done  objectively but it should be done with love and kindness. Also important is determining the best time to make the situation known so that it will be accepted by the patient and taken to heart. This will require  wisdom on the part of the medical team.
 
What is most important is the rapport between the doctor and the patient. In the ideal situation, death then becomes not just an inevitable fact, a painful ordeal, but rather when the truth is given the patient, he  will not despair because the truth has allowed him to share  intimacy with others.
 
The patient facing death is no longer alone but feels understood and loved, has a peaceful and personal  relationship with others, and comes to an  understanding of death, with optimism and transcendence.

Korean Culture Corps

One of our very outspoken elder priests, 86 years old, who has been president of the  Catholic University and a professor at Sogang University, was interviewed  by one of the Korean dailies on the present situation of the  country. Though the priest was not enthusiastic about either the past or present political conditions  in Korea, the interviewer said he would always end up on a hopeful note. 

He gave his opinion on the state of affairs with the North. The regime in the North, he feels, will not last long. We had the tyrannies of  Mao Zedong and Stalin and our own tyrannies of past dynasties. But 29-year old  Kim Jong-eun, who has studied in Europe, will have difficulty following in the  steps of past dictators and keeping control of  the country.  Once the internal structures are in place, the priest believes that Kim Jong-eun will be open to giving his people more freedom. Having learned and seen a lot outside of the country, he will try to realize these dreams by changing the way the country is governed, the priest said. 

He reflected also on our recent Seoul mayoral contest between candidates from the two major parties, neither one getting much support from the voters.  The non aligned candidate  for the presidency next year  is very  popular with the voters. The young especially are showing distaste for the two  major parties, and the  government has made little effort  to reach the young people. The reality of  the current situation is that Korean college graduates are not finding work or are underemployed, and that the suicide rate for the young is high. Some of the younger people, the priest  said, are members of the '88 Generation' because they are taking jobs for an average of less than a thousand dollars a month, a very low salary for a college graduate. 

Korea is a small country, and it is impossible  to put all the college graduates to work. His solution is to send them overseas like our Olympic ice skating queen Kim Yuna. If the young are kept in the country, he believes it will foster the leftist philosophy of our future leaders.
 
His solution is to create a Culture Corps. We have learned a great deal from the time of the Korea War, he said. It is time now to help other countries by sending our graduates where they are needed: to eradicate illiteracy, to help schooling the disadvantaged, and to setup medical projects.  At least 200,000 workers will be needed and should be given from 2,500 to 3,000 dollars monthly, a very attractive salary. It will be a great drain on the country, he admits, but he believes it will all come back to us when they return. This will help alleviate the conflicts between the younger and older generations and be a  good example to the rest of the world. 

He points out that they will not be going out as workers with specialized skills but simply as persons intent on helping others live a better life. Is there any other work that will have so many good benefits? he asks.

That we will ever see this happening is not very likely. But to  have one of our elders thinking these thoughts may inspire others to do the same, and in time maybe what now seems unlikely may become reality.

Bishop Chang Bong-hun's Message

The congratulatory message delivered by Bishop Chang Bong-hun to mark the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Maryknoll Society

 1. I congratulate Maryknoll on the 100th anniversary of its foundation. I think it is a great joy and a great honor to offer this Mass of thanksgiving in the cathedral of the Cheongju Diocese.

The entrance of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers into the land of Korea in 1923 came at both a turbulent and painful time in the long history of Korea. This is greatly recorded in the secular history of Korea and in the history of the Korean Church. We give praise and thanks to God for the great blessings He has bestowed on the land of Korea through the Maryknoll Society over the last 88 years.

Especially in the Cheongju Diocese Maryknoll laid the foundation; and in providing a base for the present-day flourishing of the Cheongju Diocese, it made a great contribution.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, let us give a round of applause to show our gratitude to Maryknoll for setting the stage for evangelization in the Chungbuk area.

2.In 1953 the Maryknoll Society received the mandate to evangelize in the Chungbuk area and came here for the first time. Later in 1970 the responsibility for ministry was transferred to the Korean priests, and those 17 years were truly a period of great blessings.

In 1953 when the Maryknoll Society came here, the land of Korea had been devastated by the Korean War, and the Chungbuk area in particular was behind and in a very poor and desperate situation.

At that time for the people who were hungry and suffering from sickness, rather than just teach them the word of God, preaching the gospel was to give food and clothing to them and relieve their suffering from sickness. The Maryknoll Society started relief work, giving food to the starving people and providing clothes for those who suffered from the cold. Health services, especially the Maryknoll Sisters Clinic in Jeungpyung and the Free Medicine Service Centers in Okcheon and Boeun offered relief to many ailing people and brought dying people back to life.

The Maryknoll Society also planted the seeds of hope in the remote and desperate rural areas of Chungbuk. It established and managed credit unions in the churches and developed pig cooperatives in the country areas, filling poor people and farmers with hope.

Over the 16 years from 1953 to 1979 the Maryknoll Society secured 25 sites to build new churches, built 80 mission stations, and laid the foundation for evangelizing in the rural areas of Chungbuk Province. It also worked to develop vocations and actively cultivated Korean priests, especially by managing the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) and running church libraries. Upon this foundation the Cheongju Diocese grew up and today we have evangelized 11 percent of the Chungbuk residents, making this diocese third in the rate of evangelization among the 16 dioceses of Korea. The Cheongju Diocese is bearing the fruit of the efforts of the Maryknoll Society. The Cheongju Diocese is a diocese established by zeal for evangelization and the devotion of the Maryknoll missionaries. Once again I give deep thanks to the Maryknoll Society on behalf of the people of the diocese.

3. The Maryknoll Society is a society of apostolic life established for evangelizing in Asia, Regrettably, however, vocations have decreased rapidly and now it cannot send missionaries to Asia. On this meaningful 100th anniversary of its foundation, the Cheongju Diocese has renamed the Saint Hwang Seok-du Luke Mission Society, which was established by a priest from the diocese, as the "Saint Hwang Luke Seok-du Foreign Mission Society." From now on the Saint Hwang Seok-du Like Foreign Mission Society will carry on the unfulfilled dream of the Maryknoll Society to evangelize in Asia. Also on this meaningful 100th anniversary of its foundation, two priests of our diocese have volunteered to evangelize in China and North Korea.

The Cheongju Diocese will not forget the contribution of the Maryknoll Society. We will make every effort to carry on its founding spirit and passion for evangelization. Again I congratulate Maryknoll on the 100th anniversary of its foundation, and I ask the mercy of God for the deceased Maryknoll missionaries, and I wish the Maryknoll Society the blessings and love of God.

A More Complete Examination of Conscience

In all  seasons in the Catholic churches of Korea you will see lines of people before the confessional, preparing for confession. The desk columnist of the Catholic Times reminds us how strange this would seem to unbelievers. It is one of the  ways Catholics receive forgiveness after Baptism. He reminds us of the blessings of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
 
Confessions of devotion are confessions in which Christians want to know themselves better, to open themselves up to the  graces of the Sacrament, and to receive forgiveness for their small offenses. The confessions of obligation are made by those who have sinned in a serious way and want to return to the life of grace. At this time of the year you will find both lining up before the confessional. It is a desire to be reconciled with God, with others, and with oneself. A sacrament that gives joy and strength.

It is not the penance given that is the important part of the Sacrament but the sorrow for the sins in one's life. Without sorrow for the sins we have committed the Sacrament becomes a lie. To receive forgiveness in the Confessional is a great event and those who experience it know what is meant. He mentions  that since Buddhism does not have any deity there is no forgiveness like a Catholic believes he receives in confession. Retribution will have to come for the  offenses in this life.
 
There are those that look upon the Sacrament of Reconciliation as a rite of passage. This is not seeing the Sacrament correctly and is a good example of the way the political world chooses to uses the word confession. When the hard-earned tax money is stolen by politicians, there is the so-called general public confession, and the word Catholics use for indulgences is misused to mean forgiveness of sin as if all that is necessary is to receive a bill of forgiveness. The columnist mentions that we are all tired of hearing this when  used in the media.
 
Confession has mostly dealt in the past with offenses against the love of God and neighbor. Is there now a  need, the columnist asks, to  include  offenses against God's creation? He concludes by asking us to reflect on the ways we have done harm to God's creation, along with our usual examination of conscience we have been accustomed to doing in the past.This would be a great addition to our concerns for the New Year.