Searching for what is Important

Clothes do make the person, we say, and most of us don't think it should, but the reality seems to be saying that it does. Writing in the Catholic Times a professor reflects on the subject and is not pleased with what turns up. 

He notes that violence among students has surfaced in the mass media for some time. It is not a new reality, but in the past it was confined to taking money from students; now they take brand clothes. The clothes the students wear will indicate, in most cases, their social status. The professor feels the adults have passed along this way of thinking to the young.

He shows us examples of this in our society, where those in leadership positions have family members whose clothes and watches show their position in society. It is understood that those who are wealthy have the freedom to do what they want, and he doesn't want to interfere. But in a society where we do have people with serious financial problems it would not be out of place, he says, to respect this reality by those who are our leaders in our society.

In a  recently publicized incident, a famous writer was criticized by the media for having a very expensive brand handbag. She had succeeded in doing what 99 percent of people just think about, and just one percent actually do, the media reported, sarcastically. Although the writer denied that the handbag was a luxury item, the interchange points out the kind of social climate that now exists in our society.

This form of conspicuous consumption is particularly evident in the selling and buying of watches, handbags and clothes that are priced in figures that most would consider not only expensive but grossly expensive. The eyes of the materialistic sector of our society are focused on these luxury items, motivated perhaps by our tendency to judge a person by their appearance. The professor sees this tendency to judge ourselves by what we have on the outside as an on-going problem for society. Instead of real accomplishments, he believes we may be tempted to indicate that we have made it in society by displaying the worth of our material possessions. What is worse, however, is that this image becomes important for succeeding in the political world.

The professor wants us to become less interested in our attempts to embellish the exterior and to look inwardly and see the potential we all have to show our self worth--without material props.  Making this interior reality, the inner beauty, our primary value will make the world a brighter and better place to live in.

Today in the Catholic World we begin the season of Lent. A time to look at what is important in life and we begin it with the ashes on the head. We remember the values that don't change and make the effort to live these values now and every day of our life.

Joy of the Natural Life

"A journey from bread mixed with tears to natural farming" is the title of an article in a Catholic magazine. The writer starts with a story of his days in grammar school and repeats the phrase: "Don't discuss life's problems with a person who has not eaten bread dampened with tears."

In  3rd year grammar school, a classmate would not eat with the other students in the class room but would surreptitiously move outside with something wrapped in a newspaper. All the others, poor as they were, had a lunch box. One day when classes ended early he invited the boy to his house. At home he asked his mother if they could eat together. While the mother prepared the meal, he went outside with the boy and very delicately asked what he had in the newspaper wrapping that he took to school every day. The boy took the newspaper out from his book bag and opened it to show a number of  'hot breads', now no longer hot. They were the ones left over from those that the mother would sell in the market to eke out a living.

He never forgot this, and tells us that he always  wanted to be on the side of the powerless. These ideas naturally moved him  to want to change society and for his efforts, he was given a life-prison term. This happened during the difficult days of martial law and concern for the security laws of the country in the 80s. It gave him time to read and think about life's problems.

His efforts to help the powerless against the powerful, he concluded, had little prospects of success with the current structures of society. Instead, he believed that working to have a better relationship with our environment will do a great deal more to redress the imbalance between the two groups, who were, he came to see, both victimized by the values that guide our present world.

In prison, he planted medicinal and other herbs in the prison yard for his own use. With these efforts, his thinking and philosophy and view of life changed. Finally he came across a book by the Japanese farmer from Fukuwoka, Masanobu, from which he derived many of the ideas that appeared in his own writing.

He was released from prison after some 13 years and has continued his search for living in harmony with nature. He feels our distancing ourselves from nature has brought on the many problems we face today. The problems between the powerless and the powerful he now believes are secondary; once we go back to nature these problems will be solved.

His motivating themes are now:  self-sufficiency in food, peace in life, solidarity in love, and a spiritual community. The road mapped out by Masanobu, he says, is not easy, and occasionally he's tempted to give it up. But the joy and intense happiness that has entered his life  have come with this new relationship with nature. There is no dream, he says, that can take its place.





           

Miracles,why are they so difficult to accept?

"If we do away with the miracles in the life of Jesus," a columnist in the Korea Times writes, "we have the flower without the perfume." Followers of Jesus need to have the freedom of heart to accept the miracles. A miracle is something we can't explain and, according to the columnist, is often misunderstood.  

When we can explain a miracle it is not a miracle. He is surprised to hear so many drag down to our level of understanding what Jesus did in his miracles. We even have priests who do this in their sermons. The famous Catholic Japanese writer Shusaku Endo has also done this.

Most often this is done with the miracle of the loaves and fishes. The miracle is explained away by having Jesus move the hearts of those present to share the food they had brought along. The columnist considers this a clever explanation that deserves a medal for ingenuity. We admire the skillfulness, he says, but we lose the sense of Jesus' authority. After his prayer to God, Jesus' majesty, mercy, and power suddenly vanishes and in its place there is merely an exceptionally good orator. 

Shouldn't we either accept or not accept the miracles instead of using these subterfuges? There are two miracles, he says, that we should not put any conditions on: they are the birth of Jesus and the resurrection.  And to accept these miracles we have to have the heart of a child.

Obviously, there are many things that can't be explained. He uses the example of Uri Geller when he came to Korea. He appeared on TV and told the watching audience to take a spoon and tell it to bend. The columnist took stainless steel chop sticks in his hand and standing before the TV set: "bend, bend"  he said, and before his eyes, they melted 4 or 5 degrees, and he has those chop sticks to prove what happened. He adds that Geller did not come to him for help in doing this trick. He is not able to explain what happened, he is not concerned whether Geller is a fraud or not, whether it was   preternatural or some strange power, all he knows is  those chop sticks did melt in his hands, and he has no way to explain it.

Why do we have so many problems with accepting the miracles of Jesus? Life is full of mystery and miracles; life  acquaints  us to the many facets of love. Miracles come from love, and Jesus was a bundle of love. He did not use tricks. Why should it be difficult to accept the miracles?

Survey of Catholics

The Lay Catholic Apostolic Council recently reviewed in its white paper its last 40 years as an organization and, in a supplement to the paper, revealed the results of their survey of 35 parishes, with a total membership of 3100 Catholics. It was an attempt to determine the condition and problems of lay people in the Church.

A brief article in the Seoul Daily on the survey, which was taken among the more devout of the Catholics, was headlined: "95 percent of Catholics live with a consciousness that they are Catholic." Although Catholics have an idea that they are the Church and live with this idea, according to survey results, the article pointed out that the survey also showed that the average Catholic's understanding of moral issues and their willingness to do something about it is lacking.

The first question of the survey: Are you conscious of being a Catholic and living like one?  56 percent said they are always conscious of their Catholicism and live it. 39 percent said that they were partially conscious and living the life.  About half, 46 percent, thought that those who were in lay apostolate leadership positions were doing their work with  the right dispositions, while 35 percent thought they were very  authoritative in their dealings with the Christians. To the question, who are the first to be changed in the Church?  58 percent thought it would be the lay people; 25 percent, the clergy; 4 percent, the religious; and 13 percent didn't know.

Concerning the moral issue, the survey indicated that abortion was considered murder by 56 percent of the respondents but 25 percent thought it should be allowed when it involved rape or incest; 8 percent would allow it when the parents did not want another child. On euthanasia, 44 percent  would give limited permission when serious pain is involved; and 16 percent would  allow it when the financial situation is difficult. And only 31 percent would be definitely against any kind of euthanasia. It shows a big discrepancy from the teaching of the Church.  

40 percent of those who participated in the survey said they attend Mass weekly. 45 percent go to confession four or five times a year, 53 percent say prayers daily, and 48 percent said they read the Scriptures a little when the thought comes.

An editorial in the Catholic Times also commented on the white paper, pointing out the issue many consider the most serious: the poor no longer find the community welcoming.  Many surveys and studies have shown that most of the Catholics are middle class and unknowingly make the poor feel uncomfortable in community gatherings. What is required, the editorial stresses, is not only helping the poor with their material needs, but working together with them, encouraging them to participate in the decision-making process of the pastoral councils.
 

First Baptized Catholic of Korea: Yi (Peter) Seung-hoon

The first baptized Catholic of Korea was Yi (Peter) Seung-hoon. The Incheon Diocesan Bulletin profiles the martyr in the recent issue. He was born in Seoul in 1756, baptized in 1784, and died by decapitation in 1801; his grave is in Nam Dong Ku, Incheon. A Mass will be held at the grave site, which was recently restored, by Bishop Choi of Incheon, on Feb. 25th.

Yi Peter is considered one of the founders of Catholicism in Korea, and the reason he was given the baptismal name of Peter. After martyrdom his body was buried beside his two sons in Incheon. In 1981 the grave was opened, and parts of the remains were moved to Chon Jin Am, considered the birthplace of Catholicism in Korea.

Yi's father was a well-known scholar, and Yi Seung Hoon was  born the first son. He was  the brother-in-law of Dasan, Jeong Yak-yong an outstanding Korean philosopher and his mother was the older sister of Yi Gahwan, another scholar who died in prison.

Yi Peter began his studies to become a civil servant, passed the exams and soon met Yi  Byeok  from whom he learned about Catholicism. On Yi Byeok's advice, Yi Seung-hoon joined his father on the father's official  mission to Peking. During the 40 days in China, he went to the Catholic church in Beijing, continued his studies, and was baptized by Fr. Louis de Grammont, a Jesuit priest. 

When he returned to Korea, he brought with him religious books, crosses, rosaries and holy cards and remained absorbed in the study of Catholicism. Not long after, he baptized Yi Byeok, giving him the name John the Baptist, and together began to spread the faith among the middle class. By the year 1789, he had baptized as many as a 1,000 and notified the priests in China of what was happening in Korea. He became the leader of the first Christians here. 

This history of the Catholic Church of Korea is well known, and we can see how conducive family relationships were in the early spread of the faith. Yi Byeok, in his role of John the Baptist, helped bring others to Jesus despite the objections  of his father. 

Below is a letter by Fr. Jean Mathew de Ventavon, sent to his friends in Europe, that relates the story of the 1784 visit of Yi Peter to China: 

You will be gratified to learn of the conversion of a person whom God has perhaps raised up to spread the light of the Gospel in a kingdom where it is not known that any missionary has ever penetrated it is Korea, a peninsula located to the East of China. The king of this  country sends ambassadors to the emperor of China every year, for he regards himself as his vassal. He loses nothing by it, for if he goes to considerable expense in sending him presents; the emperor gives him much, or more in return. These Korean ambassadors came they and their suit, at the end of last year, to visit our church; we gave them some religious books, The son of one of these nobles, aged 27   and a very good scholar, read them eagerly. He saw the truth  in them, and grace working in his heart; he resolved to embrace the faith, as soon as he had received instructions. Before admitting him to Holy Baptism, we asked him many questions, all of which he answered satisfactorily... Finally, before his departure to return to Korea, with the consent of his father, he was admitted to Baptism, which Louis de Grammont administered to him, giving him the  name of Peter. His surname is Yi. He is said to be related to the royal family. He declared that on his return, he wished to retire from public life with his family, and devote himself to his salvation. He promises to send us news every year. The ambassador also promised to propose  to the king that he should summon  Europeans to his lands. From Beijing to the capital of Korea is a journey of about three months. For the rest, we can communicate with the Koreans only by writing. Their writing and that of the Chinese is the same, as regards appearance and meaning, but the pronunciation is quite different. The Koreans put in writing what they want to say; on seeing the characters, we understand the meaning, and they also understand the meaning of  what we write.

Internet Savvy Public

The Catholic Times Desk Columnist, returning from three and half years of study in the United States, recounts his difficulty in becoming comfortable with the smart phone culture of Korea. He experienced how the non-established media  plays a big part  in conveying  the news by way of the internet. The established media continues, of course, but the internet media is a serious threat to its dominant role in society. One motivation of the internet news programs is a distrust of the established news media, but its attempts to provide accurate reporting, although often immediate, is also often incomplete.  

News delivered by internet requires little equipment. It's revolutionizing the delivery of news and breaking down the boundaries between the  makers of news and the receivers.  Now everybody can be a maker of news. The receiver of the news can also become the purveyor of the news. Anyone can now set up a 'newspaper' and  'broadcasting station,' the established media no longer being the sole gatekeeper of the news.

This online communication  has also changed the discussion within the church concerning the news makers and the recipients of news. The content of the traditional teachings  was controlled by the  leaders and clergy  of the Church. This was to be expected since the content of the faith is something  received, but the new media has changed the way this  teaching is communicated.

In the modern age, the invention of printing had a great deal to do with the advancement of learning of  the general public. This  threatened the monopoly that the clergy had in the past. This is now happening again by the new flow of information.  Something to be noticed is that the automatic authority and  trust that accompanied what was reported in traditional media are not transferred to online reporting. Online authority is more dependent on the nature of what is being reported. 

The content of what the authorities of the Church present online is reinterpreted and evaluated by Christians online, who are not only the receptors of the news but also by their interpretations of what they have received become, when sending out their views of what has been received,  producers of news themselves.

This new way of communicating, the columnist says, presents the Church with a dilemma.The horizontal means of communication that the Second Vatican Council recommended is a good thing. But, at the same time, how can the Church teach what it has been given to a society that has accepted relativism as an important value?

Adding more applications to the smart phone, the columnist says, is not going to solve the problem. What is necessary is a fundamental reevaluation of this new media, discerning what has taken place in the thinking of an internet-savvy public, and finding ways to deal creatively with this new reality in order to keep our traditional values intact.                                                                                                 

Special Works have their Own Attraction

Catholicism in Korea has enough priests and religious to help solve some of the problems in our society, reports a columnist for the Peace Weekly. Many of them are in mass media, the maritime apostolate, working with the handicapped and migrants, providing assistance in overseas Korean communities, and in many other activities. The columnist, assigned to the worker's apostolate in his diocese after  returning from pastoral work with a Korean parish in Vietnam, reflects on what this has meant to him.

The work with laborers in Korea has a high priority and his assignment, coming  unexpectedly, left him dazed. He had spent two years as an assistant priest before going overseas for work in the Korean parish in Vietnam. Parish work is varied and challenging, and he envied his classmates when they talked about their parishes.

As an assistant he was busy with a very tight schedule: preparing the liturgy and sermons, visiting with parishioners, lecturing, interviewing; he  felt he was not always in control of his time.  

His special pastoral work has many different aspects: going to an office, having to follow a work-shift--all this going and coming were strange experiences for him. Sitting at a  desk was awkward, and the number of Masses and meetings were few. He was physically comfortable, but there were many restraints in  the work which bothered him. He was not busy like  a parish priest, and though he could go mountain climbing, if he wanted, on Saturdays, being creative in his work did not come easy.

Unlike working in a parish, he would interact not only with Catholics but with activists from the  different segments of society, which was often awkward. They did not always see the  problems facing the workers in the same way he did. His values, justice and love, were not always their values, but when he could meet the workers in their place of work and talk with them, all changed. This gave him great satisfaction in being able to bring the concern of the Church to these poor and alienated workers.

When he saw the acute difficulties that some of the workers were facing, he felt helpless and wanted to run.  However, in these painful circumstances of injustice the laborers had to face, he knew he was not only representing the Church but could act in a pastoral way as a priest.

Looking over his new assignment, quite different from a parish in which he was always busy and pressed for time, this opportunity to be in control of his time, while being of service, had its own attraction.