The Passion Narratives

Twice during Holy Week the passion Gospels are read, the first reading on Passion Sunday and the second on Good Friday. The passion narratives are filled with a great deal of information that helps us to understand what we do at Mass each day.

The Salt Pot of Bible Life magazine divides the persons in the passion narratives into three groups: the religious leaders and their hypocrisy; the Roman politicians and their indifference and avoidance of responsibility; and the crowd with their selfish and fickle religiosity, first welcoming and then turning completely against Jesus, and wanting his death.

There are also persons in the passion narratives who showed great strength and helped support Jesus in his trial. What distinguishes this group of sympathizers from the other groups is that they were not the ones considered by the establishment as the  saner and stronger segment of society. They did not follow the crowd, or do the  diplomatic thing. They were the women who gathered at the cross, those who wept  for him, the Roman centurion, the condemned man hanging on the cross next to Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea--the Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin that condemned him--and the other Pharisee Nicodemus who anointed his  body after his death, and Simon from the country who helped carry his cross, though unwillingly.

Those who should have been at the cross were not, and those we would not expect to be there were. That is a lesson that gives us much to think about. The paradoxes in the life of Jesus that can teach us about life are easy to see on reflection.

Today, Good Friday, is the only day of the year without a Mass. To allow us to meditate on the reality of what happened on that day, without the usual support of a commemorating Mass, is the reason we read the passion, meditate on its  meaning and venerate the cross. We have the Liturgy of the Word today and participate in the communion rite from the Eucharist consecrated on Holy Thursday.

In Korea as in most parts of the Catholic World, we call the day Holy Friday, which does not need an explanation as does the word  'good' in "Good Friday," the term normally used in the English-speaking world. Paradoxes stand our strongly during this day's liturgy. God in the person of Jesus became man, and yet lacked all that the world of the East considers important for happiness.The Koreans have the expression 'five blessings' which names what the tradition considers necessary for earthly happiness; this was also true of the Israelites of the Old Testament. Jesus didn't possess even one of these blessings. This is a good lesson for us to bring to mind when we see what society presents to us as the great values of life.

The Medium is the Message

The need to communicate has been a part of life from the beginning of time, from the first word-of-mouth exchanges to the written messages of more recent times, and from our even more recent television, Internet, and smart phone culture of today. Any individual with the use of an electronic device can now either set up a personal blog or access the growing number of interactive social media to wield the same, and sometimes greater, influence globally than many giant media corporations have in the past. This expanded, sophisticated use of mass media will play an increasingly important role in our world, with potentially detrimental consequences, according to a scholar on the media who spoke at a recent meeting of the Korean bishops. He discussed how the porn industry has taken advantage of our enhanced mass media to distort and sensationalize sex in efforts to reach our most vulnerable citizens, our younger people who are always on the lookout for new experiences and delving into rebellious behavior. It is an area, he warned, that requires serious pastoral concerns.

The media has influenced not only how the porn industry operates today but how many other areas of life have been affected, including, he reported, the recent downtrend in priestly vocations. What would be the most effective measures to deal with the overall media problem? he asked. The morally healthy intentions of our hearts are fostered by what comes in from the outside, he said. So the suggestive images that flood the mass media are going to influence our young people.

The bishops at the meeting agreed and began a discussion of how to deal with the  situation, especially with an internet culture liberally sprinkled with lewdness and the sensationalizing displays in the media of mindless hedonism within society itself.

However, despite the obvious problems there is little that has been done by the Church to deal with the problems, no education provided for making us more media-savy, and not any great advances in the sex education of our young people. Without allocating  personnel and finances to help solve the problem, the Church can do little to compete with the way the mass media  has infiltrated and influenced society, the scholar said.  

The young people who have been influenced by the mass media to accept a distorted value system are not going to be open to accepting the teachings of the Church. Since our young people's understanding of sex and morality is often formed by the media's distorted value system, governed by the always present financial bottom line, this is where our efforts have to be applied. Like the effort made under the dictatorship  to maximize and monitor the influence of the government over its citizens, the same effort needs to be made, he said, to restrain the power of a disturbingly secular culture and mass media. Educating our citizens to this reality should not be limited to a one-time approach but be ongoing. A sister working in this area says we should have the same concern for the increasingly polluted social environment the mass media has created that we have for our natural  environment.  One priest said that the number of abortions and suicides is influenced by popular culture and that the Church, according to the priest, has said little on the influence of the mass media on this matter.

In teaching the social gospel, we should not limit the topics to politics, finances, and social problems but deal also with the values of popular culture, both the good and the bad values. Discerning one from the other should be an ongoing educational priority for society and, especially, for the Church. 

                                                                                    

A Deeply Moving Experience

Have you ever been moved deeply by an unexpected encounter in your life? A Catholic Times' columnist raises the question, but he doesn't mean seeing a beautiful landscape, an inspiring movie, play or painting, or meeting some extraordinary person. He means having such an experience in circumstances least likely to create such an experience--on an ordinary day in the presence of an ordinary person.

An elderly religious brother came to the columnist's room and said he needed to drink some beer; would he go out and buy two cans of beer for him. The columnist knew the brother had been sick with a cold and fever, and to hear him ask for beer was startling. Dumbfounded, he gently asked, "Brother, you were very sick for a number of days, will it be alright to have a beer?"

The brother quickly answered, "If I have some beer, all will disappear." The brother went back to his room, and the columnist put on some clothes, went to the nearest store to buy the beer, and brought them to the brother's room. He was sitting in a chair in his long underwear, a blanket wrapped around him, his face showing the effects of the cold and fever. He thanked the columnist and gulp down the first of the two cans of beer.

Though the columnist knew that drinking a can of beer and getting rid of a cold had no reasonable connection, he saw the brother, after drinking the beer, get up from his chair, go to his cassette player and insert Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water." He turned the room light off, clicked on the small light by the bed and, slightly bent over, stood on the floor mattress which became his stage. "The reason I asked you to buy the beer," he said, "was to sing this song."  With a broad smile, he began lip-synching the song with all the mannerism of the singer. Finishing the song, he inserted two other pop songs and similarly sang them with lip movements and body gestures, mimicking the pop singer.

The columnist was teary-eyed seeing the old religious on his makeshift stage, lip-singing the songs. He didn't want to be a burden on his fellow religious and had found a way to overcome the body's indisposition by willing himself well so he could give what had to be the world's smallest musical performance. And the columnist was there, as an audience of one, in the best seat in the house. When he returned to his room, he was so overcome with feeling at what he had witnessed that he could not go to sleep. 

What other activities--despite the obstacles that normally are present to frustrate those activities--are we capable of, we might ask ourselves, if only we would bring to our desires the same commitment of will as did the religious brother.

We have to Change First

"Our modern culture is an obstacle to the religious life but it is the reality we have to face." This was the headline on the write-up on one of the participants to a symposium sponsored by the research center of the bishops on religious education in our present environment. The Catholic Times reported on the results of the symposium.

A predominantly secular culture, the sole reliance on science to uncover the truths of life, and capitalism were among the major challenges to the new evangelization discussed by participants to the symposium. The article considered secularism and the scientific world view  the result of a capitalistic way of life. This gave birth to problems, he said, like despondency and suicide, and the resulting emphasis on the need for a healing culture, separate from that provided by religion.

The first talk by a seminary professor explored the problems that come from a secularism devoid of the religious, the ascendency of atheism, the functionality of religion, and the scientific mind cast that evangelization has to face. The professor suggested that nothing is gained from continuing to see the culture we live in as the enemy, and to be satisfied in merely criticizing that culture.

Paradoxically, this culture enables many, he said, to see the value of the material creation and its sacredness, the importance of living fully here and now, and seeing all of nature and the universe with different eyes, eyes with more self-awareness.

Modern culture is not to be seen as the enemy of the Christian culture but to see Christianity as existing within this modern culture. We need to avoid, he added, the objectification of culture, calling it secularism and then criticizing it. He wonders if within the Church itself secularism is not the bigger problem. He wants to know how do we profess our Christianity within this secularist culture and make it vital. If we don't analyze and reflect to discover ways to live within this culture, our criticism will be either empty or hypocritical, he said.

In conclusion, the professor wants us to work with the methods Jesus used, as we search for new programs to implement the new evangelization. Criticism alone is not enough, he said. The Church has to change itself before we can change the world. Church renewal has to come first.

Home Mission with Catholic Podcast

"Welcome to the San Diego Korean Catholic Podcast! This is a not-for-profit program intended to promote the good words of Our Lord and share the songs that praise His name-- brought to you by two hosts, Cecilia and Jini, and their technical supporter Fred, who are parishioners of the St. Columba Catholic Church in San Diego, CA." These are the words that two young women introduce their Podcast, They are second generation Koreans who live in California and are using the internet as stay at home  missioners. There studio is their car, house  and bureau drawers.

The Peace Weekly has an article on the work  of these two young  women who have their Internet radio podcast that can be reached at (www.sdcatholic.com). They are second generation Koreans who want the whole world to experience the love of Jesus. Each broadcast lasts for 20 minutes and in preparation they are not limited by time or place for with their smart phones, they are able to record and upload to the Internet at will. Both are updating  twice during the week.
 
The contents of the podcast: the life of Korean Catholics  in the States, Catholic news, questions and answers, hymns, English expressions that are interesting to the Korean audience. They are able to explain many State-side Catholic customs to the listeners throughout the world.

They began in August of last year and have had 45 broadcasts, which are now listed as part of the Catholic media. Both had been working at a radio station and decided to use their talents to do God's work, the beginning of the Korean Catholic Podcast. Surprisingly, they were given a gift of a portable music recorder,  and another person gave them a broadcast editing  program, this they considered affirmation from God on the direction  they were taking.

Everything is done very simply; they have problems with voice and background music because of lack of equipment, but it has not been without  benefits for they have grown in grace. They have worked from nothing to something, a lot of work, reading the scriptures, spiritual books, preparing the scripts often working through the night: frustrations but done with joy.
 
Cecilia is a housewife and the mother of two children. When she hears her children humming some of the hymns from the program, and at Church some of the Christians say they were moved by a special broadcast, she feels that God is pleased. Jini was only a Sunday Catholic but in this work she has gained  a greater knowledge of her faith and with interviews and developing the podcast she has deepened this faith, and hopes they will get more listeners and continue to participate in building  God's kingdom.

Preparing for Holy Week

Lent is coming to an end. This Sunday is Passion Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, the climax of the liturgical year. Both Catholic papers prepare us for our own renewal and rebirth. One spiritual writer explains the need for the forty days. We need the time to reflect on what God desires of us, obeying, being reconciled with others and  showing mercy.

When we visit the Blessed Sacrament, attend Mass,  read the scriptures, we are always open to receiving directions for our life. We have to prepare the receptacle remembering the words of St. Thomas: "Whatever is received is received according to the manner of the receiver." Which means that we can do much to distort the message we receive with our personal receiving set. 

The spiritual life includes all of life, everything we do all the time. The writer mentions that to become proficient in mathematics you have to start with something like the multiplication table; to learn English you need to know vocabulary with these basics you begin the mastery of your subject: the same is true in the spiritual life.
 
There are those that say you don't need a religion to be good, to love your neighbor, to be humble. Yes, but without a rock-like  foundation, he says, all will crumble. We have to know why we are to be good, be humble. It is when we know the answers that when the rain comes we will not be overcome.

With the rock foundation, we are changing every day. Every day is met with freshness, and hope. There are so many who meet the new day, he laments, without meaning. They are fools he says.
 
With a mature spiritual life, each day is full of great joy and expectation we can enjoy to the full; the morrow  is momentous and precious. God has put everything that we need inside of us. We are programed to follow God's blue print for us. Those who have done this know the joy that comes from this kind of life.

Working for the Common Good of Northeast Asia

Land disputes and North Korea's nuclear aspirations are just two of many issues causing tension in Northeast Asia. Japan's move to the political right, the weakening global influence of the United States, and China's increasing influence in the region are being watched closely.

Writing in the opinion column of the Catholic Times, a Jesuit professor of sociology sees these developments as having a great impact on Korea. Because of the geographical location of Korea, her future--political, financial, cultural--will be influenced by Japan, China, and of course by North Korea, and as always by the still substantial economic, political and military outreach of the United States.

Historically, the influence on Korea in the first half of the 20th century was wielded primarily by Japan; in the second half of the century by the United States, and it now is obvious to many that China will be the big influence on Korea during the first half of the 21st century. If this turns out to be the case, the Church, with its concern for peace and the common good of Northeast Asia, will also have to prepare for the changes to come. Though the threat of instability that this shift in influence suggests, desiring peace for our country alone, the professor says, is a short-sighted goal without the possibility of success.  If there is a head-on collision between China and Japan, as in the past, Korea will be involved so the Church needs to be concerned with the problems of the region.

The social doctrine of the Church (unfortunately not well-known) should be propagated in every way possible, he says, to mitigate the likely negative effects resulting from shifting geopolitical influences in the region. By emphasizing the need to search for  the common good, the reduction of armaments, the solidarity of humanity, and the other universal principles in its social message, the Church, he believes, should be working to  spread its message throughout the Northeast Asia region, making the evangelization of the region one of its priorities. The 16th century Catholic Church did not hold back on the personnel sent or the monies it spent in evangelizing China and Japan, but despite all the efforts and resources the results were small, and Catholicism in these two countries is still considered a foreign import.

Korea on the other hand did not receive the personnel nor the financial help given to China and Japan, and yet the results in Korea are far superior.  The Church after the Second Vatican Council was involved in trying to solve the  many social   issues that Korea faced which he feels contributed to  the development of Catholicism in Korea.

He wants the  Church to  transmit this learning experience to Northeast Asia.  Cardinal Stephen Kim often said that the Church does not exist for itself but for the world. More important than personnel and monies, the learning that the Korean Church has garnered from its experience should be given to the churches of these countries. He hopes the religious leaders of Korea, China and Japan will continue to meet often to deepen this learning experience and their understanding of their common mission in the region.

The professor sums up his thoughts by recalling how, after liberation, the Korean elite were educated by America, and he fears that there will be a similar educational move by the pro-American and pro-Chinese  factions within the country, if the common good is ignored, that could lead to conflict. This is reason enough, he says, to use the social doctrine of the Church to educate our future leaders to work for the common good of the region.