Humor and the Good Life

A Catholic Times journalist confesses in his column that he is  solemn in disposition and taciturn, and although not pious, he gives that image to those who know him. He tried to give the impression, he says, of gravity, but it was a pretense. He sees now how profound and warm a light hearted demeanor can be, and how a little unpredictability can enrich life and expand one's mental faculties. He came to this understanding by reading the book Keys of the Kingdom.

Fr. Chisholm, hero of the novel, was a stubborn, pious person not noticeably distinguished in any way. He understood that his stubbornness was a fault, and though he admitted to having no talent or charm, he was in the eyes of God, a humble person. But he was also, without knowing it, says the journalist, a humorous person to a very high degree.

The journalist saw in Fr. Chisholm's seriousness, the possibility of humor, and in his piety the leisurely attitude that gave his comments the unpredictability that could bring belly laughs. The secret of this improbable mix was his humility and love.

 "Jesus, in his his humanity, was not a quiet and proper person. Even as a child he did the unexpected, going to the temple to teach the elders without telling Mary and Joseph. Grown up, he continued to cause his parents headaches. Especially difficult to understand was his behavior during the incident with the woman caught in adultery. He writes on the ground, lifts up his head and tells those without sin to start throwing the stones, and goes back to writing on the ground.

What was he writing? Was it to get more time to think? Evading the issue? Was it to show them he didn't think what they were doing was worth the trouble to be concerned? Trying to figure out the reason is no longer his concern; he now finds it humorous.

A few days ago, Korea entered the semifinals of the Olympic soccer competition, beating England. Seeing an unfair call by the referee, the journalist said that it was interesting to observe the behavior of the coach.  With a serious demeanor, the coach used a vulgar expletive directed at the English team that completely relaxed the team, and they went on to win.

Not being alert, we can be very formal and serious in our thinking when we consider what we do as always right. Fr. Chisholm, Jesus and the coach of the Korean soccer team were not afraid to act spontaneously. Because there was humor in what they did, it was not seen as a serious deviation from acceptable behavior.

To Fr.Chisholm, the greatness of God meant everything to him, so believing himself to be insignificant seemed the only natural attitude to have in life. And with this mind set, it was easy to be unpredictable and humorous. It gave him the confidence and the ability to love. Before God, he was humble and wanted to do only what God wanted. He knew that when that is not the case, we tend to do things formally and by rote, succumbing to pretentiousness and distancing ourselves from the simple joys of life.

Evangelization in Korea

Evangelization  a topic much discussed in Korea, should be preceded, says a priest in his Peace Weekly column on "Happiness," by an important preliminary activity if evangelization is to be successful. We now have 5 million Catholics and only about one-fourth of them are going to Sunday Liturgy. What is the reason they are not going  to church as they once did?  With annual  income now over 20,000 dollars a year many believe the churchgoers now want service. But the Catholic Church is not servicing them, and ignoring the crucial step in the evangelization process-service. To support this assertion, he cites the book: Jesus, CEO: Using Ancient Wisdom for Visionary Leadership, an old book that stresses that customer management, serving the customer, is basic in satisfying customers' needs.

The word 'service' is used in many different ways. In the Church, it is not easy to find satisfaction in service rendered which in most cases means attending to the needs of the laity. Catholicism calls a follower of Jesus, "a person who believes."  Protestants say,  "holy people" and the Buddhists' a "son of Buddha." The Catholics have a vertical relational  structure and the others a horizontal structure.

Jesus' method of operations was service: "Anyone who wants to be great among you must be your servant" (Matt.20:26). Jesus came to serve  others. The present culture within the  Church does not easily permit this kind of service. The Christians, the columnist says,  serve the priests and sisters, and the priests serve the bishops. A vertical system of communication.  Those outside  the Church will find the vertical system, knowing of Jesus' command to be of service to others, difficult to understand.

Jesus washed the feet of the apostles. He served his disciples as a lowly servant. Service is what the Church is all about.   The Church has to serve the Christians. If  we want to be successful in evangelizing  we have to move the hearts of our Catholics. More than getting out in the streets to evangelize it is necessary to embody service in our lives. When the Catholics are happy, it is easy to build a church,  When we are inspirited, we inspire others. We have a virtuous cycle that stimulates the Catholics to give of their money and services to the community.

A spirituality of joy is what is needed, God wants us to be happy. "Always be joyful; pray constantly; and for all things give thanks; this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus" (Thess. 5:16-18).

The Protestants tend to express this command  by using such words as thanksgiving, praise, glory, amen; Catholics more often hear the words repentance, liturgy, confession, stations of the cross. Which verbal expressions are more important is not the issue, says the columnist. What is important is the image Catholics and all believers, have of their faith. Is it a gloomy or a joyful spirituality?

We should never forget to be thankful for the graces that we have received and, as the columnists notes, to remember that joy is the essence of our faith life.  The issue he wants us to consider may not have been expressed, within the space limitations of a column, with the subtlety and comprehensiveness that such a topic warrants, but we can't miss the intent and truth of what was said.

Confucianism

The Peace Weekly, in its feature article on Confucianism, mentions that the various religions of Korea, in an attempt to promote better understanding of each others beliefs, are having what are called "Stays" for two or three days at their places of worship. Many in Korea, including many Catholics, do not think of Confucianism as a religion; for them it's part of the traditional culture. To get a first hand account of the Confucian experience, a bishop, president of the Religious Peace Conference of Korea, along with members of the Conference, visited the Confucian Scholars Cultural Center this past month.

They heard a lecture on Confucius (BC 531-479), which explained the basic teachings of Confucianism, emphasizing the importance of being fully human and loving toward one another. The Chinese character ( 仁 ) expresses this well: a person relating with two others. How Confucians and Christians view this relationship, however, is different.  For Christians, love includes loving one's enemies. Confucians would reserve love for those who have treated them well, and would  treat their enemies according to the rules of justice.The lecturer also noted that familial obligations are serious matters in Confucianism, and that life belongs not only to the individual but to ones parents and ancestors as well.

Catholics no longer have a problem with observing in the home the Confucian rituals for ancestors. But at the introduction of Catholicism in Korea, there had been a great deal of conflict, with Catholics being persecuted for not following the rites. The controversy was settled in 1939, when Pius Xll announced that the Confucian rites  are not superstition or idol worship but a cultural tradition.

A particularly interesting and important element of Confucian etiquette, a form of politeness the Koreans have been brought up with, is the ritual bowing. In the rites and in meeting people and for different occasions, there are different ways of bowing, and also a difference in the way women and men bow. The Peace Weekly noted that before Confucianism became the traditional culture and discipline of the country, it was a religion, though today not as well known as a religion,

Deeply interested in how to live properly in the present moment, Confucianism says nothing of the next life or of God,

How many Koreans are Confucians? There is no way of knowing. There are no rites of acceptance, they don't register their followers, and they have no clergy or religious; anyone who follows the teachings of Confucius can be considered a  Confucian. Their rites are held in Hyanggyos, the Confucian temples--there are 234 in the country--on the days of the new and full moon.

The scholar representing the Confucians wanted those who were "staying" at the Confucian Scholars Cultural Center, to see and appreciate Confucianism less as a culture and more as a religion.

Happiness of the Elderly

The 21st century, only 12 years old, is being called the century of the "new old." Increasingly, the global elderly population is outnumbering all other age categories. In France, it took 120 years to arrive at this point; in Korea only 26. The economic implications of this new social reality are troubling, says a priest in his Peace Weekly column on "Happiness."

Growing old gracefully in Korea is going to be more difficult than it has been in the past, he says. Many Korean parents are not setting aside enough money to provide for their retirement and old age, spending most of their earnings on an expensive college education for their children, and giving them whatever is left over. The accepted belief is that if children are raised well, the parents will have an easy time of it after retirement.

The harsh reality is that graduating from college requires a great deal of money and those that graduate are not guaranteed a job. Over 1 million young people in their 20s are unemployed and skilled labor jobs go begging, In Germany, the columnist notes, skilled labor jobs are prepared for by students while they are in middle school, the children deciding, according to aptitude and preference, to prepare either for college or for a trade.

Another troublesome reality: When we get old the body begins to break down, and though many parents will turn to their children for help, the  children often show little concern for their sick parents. Children tend to be close to their parents until age 10, the priest says, and then gradually begin distancing themselves from them.

Another problem is the lack of friends. Korea leads in the number of suicides among the developed countries. In Japan, the reason for suicides is loneliness  but in Korea it is mostly money concerns. Being old and without money decreases confidence, which makes it more difficult to socialize with friends.

However, the priest feels the biggest problem is adjusting to living with the personal idiosyncrasies of your partner, especially after many years of marriage--unless you have built up a reservoir of love. In their 20s, if couples don't feel well matched, the priest says that in their 30s they will work at being more compatible. And in their 40s, they will work on the weak points so that in their 50s they will truly become lovers.

Working toward this type of compatibility takes a great deal of effort. In France, around the Champs-Elysee, you find the older people drinking wine and going to restaurants.  In Korea, the older people will be found at Pagoda Park, while the young, using their parents' money, are dining out at good restaurants.

It is said that when the root is strong, the tree will be strong and the fruit will be plentiful; the elderly are the roots of our society. However, in these troublesome times, the happiness of the aged has become an important topic of conversation. According to a ranking of countries based on the level of happiness within the country, out of the 179 countries surveyed, Korea ranked 102,

This "unhappy" situation should be a concern to all of us, beginning with a rethinking of the financial support usually given by parents to their children. Without sufficient thought being given to the future needs of the parents when they are old, not only will the happiness index of the country not improve, but the happiness index of our elderly will suffer even more.  

Reconciliation and Peace

In the era of globalization one country alone is not going to solve the many problems it will encounter, says Seunghoon Emilia Heo, who was in Korea recently to promote her book Reconciling Enemy States in Europe and Asia. Her reason for writing the book, she told The Peace Weekly, was to study the political science aspects of reconciliation, and the  concomitant humility and courage that inevitably are involved in any successful reconciliation. 

In the history of conflict, words such as coexistence, alliance, cooperation are often mentioned but the word reconciliation is rarely heard. There are those who believe, says Professor Heo, that the  absence of war is a sufficient reason for the existence of peace and reconciliation, the need for reconciliation not being seen as necessary, and is not as popular a topic of discussion today as is talk about global warming and terrorism.

However, without true reconciliation, Heo says, peace treaties are not going to generate friendly relations between nations. And ever present terrorism, natural disasters, multicultural and religious conflicts will also need to be addressed with everyone engaging in efforts of reconciliation.

Her book, a development of her doctoral dissertation at the graduate school of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, goes into detail about who is to reconcile and how this can best be accomplished between adversaries, showing the various aspects of reconciliation as they have been used both in Europe and North East Asia.
 

In a speech congratulating Heo on publishing her book, a professor at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies said, "In her book she treated the main subject of reconciliation between countries but also examined the multidimensional causes of conflict and the  cultural factors, race and religion. In doing so, you could sense her commitment and religious faith."

Professor Heo graduated from Seoul National University, went to France for her masters and to Switzerland for her doctorate. She is now a professor at the United Nation University in Japan, teaching and doing research. Rebuilding relationships between enemy states is not easy, but the professor has given us some insights on what  can be accomplished  by efforts of reconciliation. Hopefully, world leaders will ponder her message.

 

Survey of Catholics In Seoul Korea

A survey was made recently of Catholics in three areas of Seoul, Korea: 10,784 from nine parishes. The main reason for the survey was to determine what changes had occurred in the makeup of the diocese since the Diocesan Synod was held ten years ago. The results of the survey would provide an objective criterion  to plan for the future. The questionnaire sought answers to four main areas of concern: spirituality and community life, small Christian communities, religious education, and participation in society.

Briefly summarizing the results: the older the Christians in the parish the higher the  numbers of  those attending Mass; the younger the parishioners the less attendance at Mass. But those younger would be more involved with support groups in the parish and participate more in society. The percentage of those interested in scripture, spirituality, and liturgy was 68.8 percent; those interested in evangelization and the social gospel was 28 percent. This shows a need to integrate the way the two groups see the life of faith. With the survey figures affirming that the number of the young attending Mass is decreasing, it was seen as imperative that there be more programs for them or face the prospect of having even less young people going to Church. With respect to attending small Christian community meetings, 45.2 percent have never attended one, 13.4 percent have shown little interest in doing so, 14.9 were active participants, and 12.5 percent were slightly interested.

The Seoul diocese has a goal of  20 percent of the population of Seoul being Catholic by 2020, but the questionnaire showed that 77 percent of the Catholics have not brought anyone to the Church in the last three years. Of the respondents, 1,388 brought at least one person, 616 brought 2, and 234 brought 3. 175 brought 4-10, and 24 Catholics brought more than 11. The reasons given for not evangelizing: too difficult (42.3 percent); feeling not good enough examples of Catholic living (28.8 percent);  and did not know how (609) .  516 did not participate in any educational program; 12.9 percent participated, and 35.6 percent rarely did.

The area in which the young excelled was participating in society: 53 percent of those in their 40s actively participate, 47.9 percent of those in their 30s, and of those in their 60s and 70s, 26.4 and 29.4 percent respectively. The survey was written up in both Catholic papers and should help the other dioceses to plan for the future.

No Peace Without Dialog

The Peace Weekly is beginning a series in August on the religions of Korea. The wise words of theologian Hans Kung  introduces the series in the  editorial "No World Peace Without Peace Among Religions: No Peace Among  Religions Without  Dialog Between Religions." In Asia, many ethnically different people are living together, some having been nurtured by quite different cultures and traditions with different religions. Although we have one culture and mostly one basically homogeneous people, Korea has  a department-store-mix of religions co-existing,

Korea is a country where religions live together without conflict. Sociologists explain that this is so because of the balance and number of religions. But insiders say that if we look more closely, we will see a continuing need for reaching out to each in dialog. At anytime a dispute on some crucial issue--religious, social or political--can ignite conflict, now dormant.

An example would be the inauguration of the present government administration, and the conservative Protestants becoming  a religious power, which led to serious conflict with the Buddhists. Another  issue would be the defacing of Catholic statues.

Religions have organizations, structures, teachings, established identities, and in certain areas can't help but be exclusive; this is no reason for bigotry, intolerance and to behave self-righteously, for this isolates religion and harms society. That is why we have to meet and speak with each other.

It's not only important to know and respect other religions. We must learn to see other religions in a new way. Seeing another religion with more understanding we can reflect on our own and see it differently, making it more fruitful. The past president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, Cardinal Arinze, said that others could learn from us, and we can learn from them. An example would be the way other religions acculturate their rites into a different culture; such learning would help us to do the same.

The meeting of religions can do much for national unity and peace. All religions are similar in their regard for the poor and in condemning discrimination and violence. To follow this golden rule requires that we meet and talk together, sharing ideas on how to implement these moral concerns within society. There is no reason to see this dialog as difficult. In our neighborhoods and communities, we need merely to open our hearts to others and be welcoming, and in the parishes on Buddha's birthday, to send messages of congratulations to the nearest temple.