The End does not Justify the Means

In a recent criminal case, the judge sentenced an industrialist to three years in prison, although what he had done he considered a good thing. The judge said he could not justify unlawful means to achieve a good end. In the words of the editorial in the Catholic Times, echoing a well-known moral principle: The end does not justify the means.

This is a basic principle of Catholic teaching on morality. If the means to achieve a goal are not good, no matter how good our intention may be and no matter how good the end to be achieved may be, the means to achieve that end is morally not permitted.                                                     
 
We often see many cases where we justify what we do by the good end we hope to achieve. A Korean proverb states: Earn your money like a dog and spend it like a prime minister. This seemingly puzzling advice can be understood in at least two ways. Positively: No matter how humble the work you do to earn a living, spend it wisely. And not so positively: It doesn't make any difference the way you earn your money but spend it wisely. This second interpretation is the way many understand the proverb and justify the use of questionable means to achieve their goals.

This understanding can be seen by the way we look upon life issues and the influence on our thinking of a materialistic mindset. That the judge affirmed by his sentence that the end does not justify the means is a good sign for our society, and should be highly commended. Not to be concerned with the means we use to achieve a goal is not a sign of a healthy society. The end, no matter how worthwhile it may be, does not justify a means that disregards the moral code, and we as citizens should be working to see that this principle is upheld in society.

We are bombarded with all types of theories that often justify any action, provided that our intention is good. This is a reason for many of our problems in politics, education and religion. As long as our focus is only on the perceived good end, ignoring the morality of the means to achieve that end, we know what is likely to result from acquiescing to this way of thinking.  With some serious thought, forgetting the self and thinking of the common good, we can arrive at a proper understanding of ends and means that would easily clear up the confusion surrounding this sometimes contentious issue.

The Fruits of Trust

A priest writes in the Catholic Digest how he wanted to meet the teacher he had in first-year grammar school. He was told he could find the teacher by going to the I love School website, but learned that the teacher had been retired for many years and no other information was available.

He was convinced he would find her because of his great desire. A woman he knew, whose husband worked at the department of education, after a week of searching gave the priest the address and telephone number.

The teacher, surprised at the call, was happy to hear from a student she had taught some 43 years ago. Eager to find how he had fared during all those years since first grade, she agreed to meet him.

The reason he wanted to meet the teacher came from a talk he had heard.  The lecturer said we all want to receive trust, which is often the reason we need to show trust toward others. He told the story of a famous convict, who after many thefts, prison stays and escapes, ended his life in prison.  As a child the convict one day did not bring crayons to school, and the teacher told him that even if he had to steal them, he should have brought crayons to class. This was the reason, the convict said, that started him on his road of crime. Not once did he ever receive a pat on the back during his schooling. The story reminded the priest of his own experience with crayons.

His  family was very poor, he says, and he too did not have have any crayons for art class. He would always have to use the crayons of the student seated next to him in class. This was alright for one or two times, but he didn't feel right doing it continually, so he asked his mother for money to buy the crayons. He  was shy and during art class always felt stressed, he says, so he decided to handle the situation by telling his mother that without the crayons he was not going to school.

What mother would not buy crayons for their children? he asks. Though knowing she had little money to spend for such things, he did not go to school the next day, which prompted his mother to give him a good flogging. That night he cried bitterly at the unfairness of it all. Besides not having the crayons, which he thought he should have, he was now being beaten for making this simple request. When his mother made it up to him by putting medicine on his legs and consoling him, his anger subsided but he was still fearful of going to school the next day.

How was he going to explain being absent? And how would the teacher react? he kept wondering.  He went to school with a heavy heart. The teacher, seeing his awkwardness and dispirited attitude, quietly hugged him. At that moment, he said, he was freed from fear. The trust from the teacher made all the difference, and he returned to his cheery self.

From that time on, he had a great deal of trust in teachers. If he had not received that affirmation, he wonders what would have happened to him and whether he would now have a correct outlook on life.

Trusting another is a sign of love, he says. If you are only trusted when you do the right thing and not trusted when you do something wrong, that is not a sign of love. It is especially when you do something wrong, and someone still shows trust in you that you will be affected, often leading to a new and more trusting way of life.  This, he concludes, is what the teacher did  for him.

A Moment Never to be Erased

Every other week a dentist travels to the St. Joseph Clinic to help the homeless and the poor who need dental work. He writes about this voluntary service in a recent issue of the Korean Catholic Digest. Offering to help the poor did not come easy, he said. He felt ill-equipped to provide such care. His life was unexceptional, and a few years before, he had lost almost all of his possessions, which made him lose confidence in himself. How could he even attempt to help others, he asked himself, when he could not manage his own life.

He was also plagued by the question that kept coming to mind: How could all those who volunteer their services do it for free? He found it difficult to understand; he knew that even a charity hospital has difficulty providing free service. Thinking there must be an explanation, he checked out the clinic using the Internet. And while reading what he could find in other media, he learned of the death of the founder, who began the clinic in 1987. He was a well-known doctor with an exceptional personal history. He had given up his private practice, his possessions and even marriage, to work full-time at the clinic--helping the sick who could not afford to pay for medical treatment--until his death by cancer. He felt embarrassed by the negative thoughts he had about the clinic.

He soon offered his services to the clinic and was surprised to learn of the uncertainty that life holds for so many people who must live without financial security. Some of his patients were orphans from the very beginning of their lives; some because of sickness or accident were separated from their family; some because of the immorality of a spouse left home. Even eminent persons in their fields of endeavor, such as presidents of corporations in difficult straits, were forced to come to St. Joseph's or similar clinics. He would reflect, he said, on how circumstances could get so bad that we end up in such straits. He even wondered, at times, if he came to the clinic to help or to learn about life.

Working late one evening he heard the music from a Mass being celebrated in a room separated from his only by a folding partition.  Hearing the hymns being sung he said it felt as if he were somehow in heaven while working on his patient on earth.  

On one occasion, planning to operate on the socket  of a tooth of a patient who was not able to eat because of the pain, he noticed from the X-rays a tumor next to the tooth he would be working on. He removed the tumor and then worked on the socket of the tooth. Profuse bleeding soon filled the area of the mouth he was working on, which brought to mind past experiences that proved to be difficult, so with a heavy heart he checked all vital signs and continued the operation. At the same time, a Mass was beginning in the adjacent room. After the final suturing he had a desire to receive communion; all the worries now gone, he was at peace.  

One of the dental assistants opened the folding partition, and he entered the room where Mass was taking place, approached the altar and received communion. The feeling he had at that moment, he said, has never been erased. 

Acquiring Specs for the Soul

"Let us collect the 'specs' necessary for the soul" says a Jesuit priest recently interviewed by the Peace Weekly. Specs, a code word, refers to what society considers necessary if college students are to find good-paying jobs. Addressing this issue, the priest wrote Where Am I Now?--a book intended to help young people learn not only with the head but with the heart. The Korean word he uses to convey this idea is 'maeum.'  It can be understood, he explains, as our deeper self, variously described as combining heart, mind, soul, spirit.

The interviewer felt that the book was permeated by a feeling of sadness concerning our young people. Although the priest says he admires what they have accomplished, many of them having studied overseas, speaking several languages, learning to handle various tasks equally well, and even contributing to society by volunteering their services, he yet wants to know how much have they looked into themselves. It's more important, he says, to pile up specs for the soul and spirit than piling up specs for their future work.

Our society seems to think cerebral knowledge is everything. This was not true, he says, of our ancestors. For them knowledge was meant to educate without differentiating between head and heart.  Knowledge today has been reduced to getting a good-paying job in a big corporation. We have forgotten our 'maeums', he says, and have turned our deepest inner self into a wasteland, strewn with suicides, bullying, corruption and all kinds of wrong doing. We have relativized the good and the bad to match our personal views of reality, forgetting we are living with others.

What does it mean to learn with the 'maeum'?  Getting in touch with our spiritual dimension, he says. Seeing it with religious eyes, we would have more meditation and contemplative prayer, more cultivation of the habit of reflection. Knowledge that the head seeks remains in the head, while what the 'maeum' seeks is the whole person, which will lead us to an intuitive grasp of our existence. How do we become truly human? What is the meaning of existence? It does not come just by prayer, meditation and reflection, he says, but by living with the 'maeum' clearly in our awareness. 

However, it does take time and effort to learn with the 'maeum'. When we trouble ourselves with the difficulties that normally appear in every life, and are confronted with serious doubts, we can be sure, he warns us, that something is wrong. It's a sign that study of the 'maeum' is necessary.

The interview ends with a question about healing. The healing we usually talk about, the priest says, does not have much to do with the spirit. This talk usually is about the psychological and intellectual dimensions of healing, which he believes are merely first-aid treatments. It may seem that healing occurs, but for true healing it's necessary, he emphasizes, to go deeper, to go into the 'maeum'. Without such contact, he says we are likely to be fatigued and depressed by life's demands. If we want to change this distortion of life, we need a new awareness of life, an awareness that can only come from the 'maeum'. The choice is up to us, he says, and we need to begin now.

Stealing the Hearts of the Grandparents

Many ethnic parishes still exist in the States, and the Korean parish would be one of the more recent. The Korean pastor of one of them recounts, in the Korean Catholic Digest, what he heard about the trip of Sarah and Taihyoun, who spent their summer vacation with their grandparents in Korea.

There are  many Korean children in the States who not only speak English perfectly and obey their parents, but also speak Korean fluently. When they speak among themselves, they use English; when they speak to their pastor it's in Korean, as a sign of respect. Sarah, a beautiful child, and Taihyoun, mischievous but likeable, are two such children. Their parents are exemplary parishioners, and the mother a paragon of what charm is meant to mean, said the pastor.

During the children's stay in Korea, something very unexpected happened. The children "stole the hearts of their grandparents," was the way the pastor put it.  They would be constantly holding on to the apron strings of the grandmother, he was told, and going wherever  she went. And in the evening they massaged the aching legs and arms of the grandfather. Although a special room was prepared for them, they preferred to sleep with the grandparents. He was surprised to hear this since Korean children usually shun older people because of the body odor. But Sarah and Taihyoun were different, they wanted to be near their grandparents at all times.

Hearing that the children spoke Korean, even though born and raised in the States, made the pastor feel proud of being Korean. Sarah remembered some of the meals her grandmother had prepared during previous trips and begged her to prepare them, which she always did with great joy.

When it came time for the children to return to the States, the grandparents wondered how they would get along without them. Hugging the children and crying, it seemed as if the whole village were joining the grandparents as they shed tears on the departure of the children. Soon after, the grandfather called his son and  thanked him for raising such wonderful children. And not much later the father received a letter from the brother of his wife, a teacher, who explained that he tried to inculcate in his students some of the traits he saw in the children, but with little success. Having seen the way the children behaved with their grandparents and feeling embarrassed at his own failure as a teacher, he asked in his letter how they had managed to raise such wonderful children.

The children, of course, had no idea of the impression they were making on the grandparents and villagers. Just looking at their faces, the brother-in-law said, you knew they had no idea why they were being praised. They were simply enjoying themselves, eating and playing and just being themselves, oblivious of the effect they were having on others. A state of mind, perhaps, that more of us should incorporate into our daily lives.

Christian Responses

On the open forum page of the Catholic Times,  the columnist explores a troubling matter that has bothered him since middle school: when is behavior a conditioned response, one that is learned; and when is behavior unconditioned, not learned, but the natural response in the presence of stimuli?

Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), in his experiments with dogs, discovered that though a dog's unconditioned, natural response to food is to salivate, it can be made to salivate to a stimulus that does not normally cause the secretion of saliva. The stimulus he used, as many may know, was the ringing of a bell which the dog would hear whenever food was given. After this was done on numerous occasions, the dog would salivate whenever the bell was rung, even when no food was present. He also was able to show that by manipulating stimuli the conditioning could be changed: increased, decreased or erased completely.  

The writer states that since everybody basically has the identical unconditioned responses to stimuli, he finds the conditioned responses more interesting and recounts his own experience playing in a reservoir, when he almost drowned. His fear of the water from that moment on kept him from learning to swim. He doesn't know exactly what happened, but remembers that his feet lost contact with the ground, and he panicked, fearing he would drown. Since then, even in a bathhouse, whenever his foot goes into the water the memory of the near drowning returns, along with a swooning sensation. And this happens not only with water, he explains, but also in tunnels, subways, and in cable cars. 

The conditioning present in our lives is not that simple or that obvious, he points out. In his own case, he says the drowning incident has affected not only him but has affected in some way those he comes in contact with. Mindful of this possibility, he recommends that we strive to be conscious of what  stimuli we are unknowingly reacting to in our daily lives.

We should be aware of the reflex reactions that others see coming from us. Are we like  the dog who was conditioned by the bell  to salivate and then not given the food? There is a certain conditioning that has taken place in our lives as a Christian. There are expectations that others have of us: are we  disappointing those who expect a Christian response from us and not receiving it? He concludes with the admonition that we not be like a bell heard by the dog without the appropriate response.

New Korea of 2050

The U.S. firm of Goldman Sachs has published information the columnist of the Catholic Times' View from the Window uses to prophesy that Korea will move up to second place as an economic power in 2050. He wonders how many Koreans would agree with him. But there is a catch, he admits, the Goldman Sachs report said a unified Korea would surpass the economic power of France, Germany and Japan in gross domestic product, and do so because of the mineral riches of the North.

Unfortunately, there is a lack of optimism for unification. And judging by the present political climate, with the North threatening nuclear war, unification seems impossible. But the columnist relates another unlikely scenario that turned out well. In Numbers 13-14, Moses sent twelve scouts to the land of Canaan to reconnoiter the land in preparation for an invasion. Ten returned with a negative report, seeing themselves as grasshoppers compared to the giants in the territory. Only two saw the possibility of success. Here, says the columnist, we have the image of a great leader who did not simply follow the suggestion of the majority. Instead, after weighing the merits of both sides, he chose to heed the advice of the minority and went on to victory. 

Today, a greatly improved economic life for all the Korean people is possible, the columnist assures us, despite the obvious difficulties, if unification becomes a reality.  Less than 10 years ago there were trips to the North to visit family and the popular destination Diamond Mountain.  Now our deteriorating relationship with the North is like riding a roller-coaster; no one is comfortable with the relationship.

To see meaningful change, he says, we will need leadership like that shown by Lincoln during the American Civil War.  After the defeat of the South, the North showed respect for the South. The Korean North and South must also respect each other, as well as improving the negotiating skills on the part of the South and encouraging the belief among all Koreans that unification and peace is possible.

Obviously, negotiating with the North is a very delicate matter but the results of a rapprochement, he insists, will affect the whole region, leading to a peaceful North East Asia. But regardless of our most hopeful plans, we have learned in the last 50 years that we can lose it all if we resort to war to solve our problems. The columnist presents his own scenario for the next 50 years.

By 2020, enter a peace agreement with the North and agree to provide economic assistance. Work on the highway from Kaesong to Sinuiju to Chongjin. Construct North-South factory districts and complete the rail line to Siberia. Agree to unrestricted family visits, both in the North and in the South, and facilitate cultural and educational exchanges. By 2040, significantly reduce the income differences between the North and the South. And by 2050, we will have, he believes, the birth of a great nation--a united and prosperous Korea. 

Is this only a dream? he asks. It is no exaggeration to say we may need a  leader like Lincoln or Moses to realize the dream. But he wants us to think about the possibilities, and to remember that what is finally achieved will depend on God.