We Are More Than Capital

A religious sister tells us of her childhood visits to a close relative who later became an actor. Those visits, she recalls, were fun-filled times. 
 
However, years later after he had become a famous actor the connection with family and relatives ended. When he married, all the entertainment celebrities were there, but the family was not. His family, understandably, was upset, but they ceased seeing him as part of the family, she said. He was now seen more as 'capital' (a source for personal profit).

According to the sister, capital should not only be seen as money but as contacts, capabilities, qualifications, trust, power, prestige, honor, attention and the like. When one of these begins to increase, the others also increase. These activities and states of mind are all capital, according to the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, who considered cultural and social activities and values as capital in much the same way as we view economic capital. Both influence society and have their affect on our tastes and lifestyles. 

The actor, once he became successful, began to amass wealth, contacts and honors, which allowed him to have some influence in society and to live in an area were the elite of society congregate. He was no longer the person, the sister said, that lived with his family and related with others. Which prompted her to ask herself the questions: Who am I?  What do I consume? Both questions, she suggests, have similar answers. Our tastes and our ability to discern truth from error, she believes, may often depend on the things we possess and  consume, which then give rise to our values and world view.

She mentions a number of scholars who have described most of us as having turned ourselves into commodities being sold in the various markets of society. Our success then becomes dependent on how successful we are in marketing ourselves. Are we concerned, she asks, on exactly how to package ourselves to more easily sell  ourselves? The social networking world especially, she is suggesting, have turned their members into capital--selling them to advertisers, for a price.

However, the principle problem that lies behind this use of the consumer, as she sees it, is that the person I am,  that God has made me to be  becomes changed and distorted by what we possess and consume. Using a line picked up from a poet that "we are all originals and we die copies," she urges us not to catch the 'desire for riches disease', and succumb to the mass hypnosis  of society and lose who we are.

But who am I? Really?  What is my identity?  How do other people see me? God made me according to his image.  He wanted us to cultivate and take care of this earth. And sister hopes that we will always keep this identity we have been given. Each of us is an original and should not  give it up for any copy, no matter how temporarily alluring and economically profitable it may be.

Assurance in Our Faith Life

Catholics should be living the teachings of the Church, says a professor at the Incheon Catholic University, even before the Church formally declares those truths as essential in living a fulfilling life. Writing in Kyeongyang Magazine, he says the magisterium of the Church is the protector of these teachings that have been handed down to us for our spiritual good. But where does this authority to teach come from and do we have to obey? he asks.

He begins with some historical background. There was a time when the Church was an important part of the culture, and if you did not follow its teachings, you would be punished. This is obviously no longer the case in our secular world, where religious life and faith is no longer considered of primary importance. And many Christians also feel that when the Church does not echo the teachings of the society they live in, there is no need to pay attention to Church teachings.

In Korea, we have the case of Naju, where the Church has made clear its decision about the events that have reportedly occurred there, but many Naju believers think the Church is corrupt and has overstepped its authority by stating its position on Naju, and so they refuse to obey. And when the Church speaks about certain matters of life, environment,  labor and human rights, there are those who say the church is becoming involved in politics. And when it comes to matters of morals, there are many Christians who find the teaching difficult: no sex before marriage, no abortion, no artificial contraception or artificial insemination, no euthanasia, and the like.

In the history of religion there there was always more concern  to maintain that authority of the Church than the  authority of the teachers. According to the Church, its authority comes from Jesus and the apostles, and the teachers of religion, now as always, are the instruments of this authority. The Church strives to keep this inheritance it has received from not deviating or falling into error.

However, throughout history there have been times when the Church has not been free from the conflicts that have shaken societies, and in matters not of faith and morals the Church has fallen into error. Pope John Paul II, in 2000 at the beginning of the Jubilee Year, acknowledged these errors: responsibility for divisions in Christianity, persecution of the Jews and other religions, oppression of women, violence against aboriginal peoples, and so on. The Holy Father asked God for forgiveness for these offenses, including also the injustice of the Inquisition, the Crusades, the trials of the so-called witches, and the Galileo affair.

The Holy Spirit's guidance of the Church, the professor reminds us, is limited to matters of faith and morals. It is when the Church speaks universally and not locally that this protection is given to the Church. He quotes from the Constitution of the Church (#12): "The body of the faithful as a whole, anointed as they are by the Holy One, cannot err in matters of belief. Thanks to a supernatural sense of the faith which characterizes the people as a whole, it manifests this unerring quality when, from the bishops down to the last member of the laity, it shows universal agreement in matters of faith and morals."

The obedience that is wanted is not blind obedience. We are on a journey of faith, together with others,  discovering truths, living them  and expressing them in our lives with knowledge and assurance that the Church will not allow us to fall into error. 

Developing Oneself Creatively

Our leisure time can be spent in many ways, sometimes useful and sometimes not so useful. Taking up a hobby is a useful way to develop our potential talents creatively, to grow spiritually, mentally, physically and socially. There is no way we can separate what we do in leisure time from what we do in our working hours. Whatever is done, in leisure or working time, is sure to nurture the self, says a graduate of an engineering college.

Writing in a diocesan bulletin, he recounts how he spent 15 years working for his company when he suddenly at the age of forty had the desire to draw. From the time he was in middle school, he had never indulged this desire, but now felt the need to express his gratitude for all that he had been given by bringing what he had been given to life by the skill of his hands.

There were no teachers of art where he was living; if he wanted lessons he would have to travel to an art school, which would be difficult with his busy work schedule. So he found an easier way to start. He went to a department store, bought a beginner's book on the subject, a notebook, a drawing pen, and began drawing.

He began by drawing the simple things he found around him, often no bigger than the size of his hand: his wallet, identification card, hand phone; objects he had once used daily without much interest were now of interest. Improvement at first was not noticeable, but he did not demand much of himself and did not compare himself with others. His only competitor was his own past works.

After about 100 hours of effort, he noted that he could move his hand more easily to carry out what his eyes were perceiving.  At that time, he began to draw the objects that meant so much  to him from his past: his desk, a small child's hat, a T-shirt, the shoes his wife had bought him. After drawing for 18 months he gathered all his drawings and made a book of the drawings, exhibiting his work in a bookstore. The drawings were his way of appreciating and sharing the beauty that is in the world, especially as it is found in the ordinary things of life, which he now saw as gifts.

If you want to be happy, he says God will help you in your quest. There is no need to ask for  gifts. We need only ask for enthusiasm and the will to persevere to find what it is that we enjoy and then to share it with others. True happiness does not come by possessing  but by doing and sharing. He hopes that his talent will help make God's joy, as he is experiencing it, better known through his drawings. His constant  prayer is that he will be thankful for the gifts he has received, and that God will use him in any way he desires.  He only wants to be his tool.

Korean Religious Sisters

Globalization can include the less publicized idea that we are coming closer together, not only economically, but by sharing our thinking and acting in other areas of life. This increasingly smaller world of ours is influencing us for good or ill. And this merging of cultures will exert its influence, knowingly or unknowingly on each of us, depending on the values we hold. A daily secular paper refers to this particular 'globalizing influence' as possibly contributing to the recent lack of women entering the convent in Korea.

A sister, in her sixties, meeting the wife of her brother, laments, "We don't have any young sisters anymore. Not having younger sisters available, parish work is no longer going as smoothly as in the past, she said. One sister said that her community in recent years has had no prospects.

What we have seen in Europe, where Catholicism was once strong, we are beginning to experience here in Korea. In the year 2000, 318 sisters entered the order; in 2013, 112 entered.

Although the number of Catholics has increased, the number of vocations to the religious life has decreased. Those who have studied the issue believe that the changing, more secular values of the younger generation and the change in family life are mainly responsible for the lack of vocations.  A religious sister teaching in the religious studies department of the Catholic University says the more open a society becomes, the fewer are the  number of vocations. Today, women have easier access to the workplace, and more opportunities to develop themselves in the way they want. This greater freedom in the workplace for women will make it difficult for them to choose the restrictive lifestyle of the convent.

Devout Catholics, for the most part, have looked upon a vocation to the religious life as a blessing. And even though the desire for grandchildren was strong they were willing sacrifice for what they considered a greater good. Today, with many families content to having one or two children, this way of thinking is disappearing.

With less sisters available, the work in the parishes is taking a serious blow, as well as the welfare work of the church. In the 60s and 70s, the sisters were working with orphans, nurseries and day-care centers. Now they are working with unmarried mothers and the elders--perhaps the clearest sign of the changing values of our society.

A seminary rector said, "This is not just a Catholic thing; we see this happening in most of the religious world." What is not easily seen, he went on to say, is overlooked by society. One sister said that the values of society, materialism and pleasure seeking do not fit in with the values of the religious life. One sister who has worked in the medical field feels that if this trend continues, the future prospects of Catholic hospitals will be jeopardized.  

Another opinion was expressed by a sister who said that the religious were doing the work that society should have been doing all along. Now that the government has gotten involved by providing the necessary personnel and finances, the work of the sisters is no longer necessary. She believes there is no need for concern.

We All Want to be Happy

St. Augustine said, "All persons want to be happy and no one is happy who does not have what they want." An obvious fact, perhaps, but a layperson writing in the Seoul diocesan bulletin believes that what we want must not  be influenced by our moods or by any particular environment we find ourselves in. It must be based, he says, on something more permanent than these transient things.

He recalls his days in the military, in his early 20s, at which time he received word that his mother had died in an accident, and a few years later his father  died following an illness. 

His whole life changed in the coming years. He had to work part-time while going to school, and for a number of years, he was faced with both mental and physical problems, which he said were difficult to describe.  Some years later, he met his future wife, became a Catholic, and started a family. He now considers himself a very happy man and is able daily to find meaning in life.  He feels this was all arranged in God's providence: the call we all have received.

As a family man, a worker, and a Christian, the value he considers primary is happiness. For this reason, he has as an aim in life to help others find happiness. We all have been created to be happy, he says. Our loving God wants us to be happy, having sowed the seed of happiness within all of us. Only those who want to be happy will be happy, he says;  those not happy can do nothing to help those who want to be happy.

Happiness does not come to us as if it's separate from our daily lives. It's always there: On our way to work, at the workplace, in the family, in our meetings with others. Happiness is nurtured with politeness, attentive listening, and caring conversation. Sharing happiness we increase it, not only with material things but by our visible concern and by our smiles--whatever will serve to show our interest in the welfare and happiness of others.

Happiness also comes by acknowledging a certain personal lack. It does not mean to have more but to be interested in what we presently have. We have many things right now but are we taking an interest in what we have?  Balance and  leisure are necessary; living in the fast lane will not bring us lasting happiness. How much of the 24 hours that we have each day is set aside for God? he wonders. Pope John Paul II before he died said,  "I am happy; you should be, too." What did we do today to be happy? 

Resignation of Pope Benedict

The coming resignation of Pope Benedict at the end of this month did not generate much sympathy in the mass media of the West, according to the desk columnist of the Catholic Times. The media generally saw the resignation as resulting from the clerical sexual abuse scandal, from the so-called Vatican leaks and the infighting within the Vatican itself.

Although a well-respected journalist writing on the Vatican says it's difficult to say these problems had nothing to do with the resignation, and another journalist, quoting a Cardinal, believes the Vatican Leaks probably did have something to do with the pope's decision, our writer believes it's necessary to see the issue with a little more impartiality.To say these problems were the only reasons for the resignation, he says, is to deal in sensationalism and exaggeration. That the Vatican is in need of purification  and reformation is nothing new. The Church is not a community of  angels but of human beings with all the faults that come along with being human.

Are the problems faced by the pope  any different from the scandal of worldwide poverty? Of abortions? The frequency of local wars and terrorism? The relativism and secularism that threaten religions? Are they really any different from the scandals in the Vatican? Can one say with any certainty that Vatican-related problems had more to do with the resignation of the pope than the problems that threaten the stability of the whole world?

Most likely the reason for the resignation, the columnist imagines, is the pope's desire to see someone replacing him who is younger, with the vigor and enthusiasm that comes with youth, and thus better able to deal with the present crisis facing the Church and the world. There is no need to look for worldly motives, or to look at the resignation with gloom as something full of intrigue. He believes it was simply the humble move of a pope who, because of age and health problems, decided that what the Church needs now is someone who would do a better job than he's capable of doing at this point in his life.

Small Basic Christian Communities

In January of this year,  an Intercontinental  Symposium was organized by Adveniat, Missio and the University of Tubingen. The general manager of the Bishops' Committee for Small Christian Communities, who attended as a representative from Asia, reported in the Catholic Times on the 3-day meeting.

In attendance were about 240 pastoral workers, theologians and students of theology, ranging in age from 20 to 80. The theme of the symposium was taken from  I John 1:3, "What we have seen and heard we proclaim," which was to be an overview of how the teaching of Vatican II was implemented, a preview of the possible direction the Church would take in the future, how the different continents have fostered the small basic Christian community movement, and what they have learned over the years. Europe is having great difficulty in  continuing  the ways of the past. Old and in crisis, it is searching for new ways of being church.The lack of priests and vocations, the closing of churches, and the aging population of Christians were the reasons given for the increased interest in moving toward Small Basic Christian Communities.
  
A Sister from South America talked about their small communities which were working for justice and peace in order to establish God's  kingdom of love. They passed through difficulties and opposition, she said, but because of the laity's enthusiasm and creativity, they were able to persevere, and the communities have thrived. A professor from the Philippines said there is a tendency to see the small community movement as a special program or organization rather than, more accurately, seeing it more as a vision for the future Church.

A professor from Germany told about the help that was given to Germany by the LUMKO Research Institute so that the Scriptures could more easily be shared with one another. Since 2000, the German Church has been looking for ways to make the Basic Christian Community fit into their culture.

Each continent will have to find ways in which the movement will best find a home in  their culture. The effort is to meet Jesus in the word that he has left us and  to experience the fellowship  of being together with others, especially the poor and those  alienated from society; our efforts will thus be channeled in the direction that Jesus wants us to take in these difficult times. The Korean Church has put much effort into developing the movement.  There has been problems but they continue to see the importance of educating the participants for greater understanding and  efforts made  to increase the numbers participating in these basic communities.