The Culture of Life

Working to make a culture of life is an important mission for all, and as Christians we hear a great deal of how this can be accomplished. The columnist writing in the Culture of Life column in the Peace Weekly discusses how this can be accomplished when seen from an Asian perspective.

In her columns, she criticizes the narrow type of education offered to our students, which prepares them primarily to succeed in the marketplace. It's self-interest at the expense of others, she says, and shows a lack of courage to educate the whole person, being content to fashion the limited human beings we are now sending into the world. What is needed, she says, is "more doors and empty spaces," more access to one another. In her last column she considers our copy-cat type of life, the way we're conscious of what others possess, wanting more possessions for ourselves, and becoming enslaved by our possessions in the process.

One of the reasons for suicides in our society, she says, is not the loss of something one feels is necessary to live, but feeling the pain of that loss. "One can put up with an empty stomach but not with the pain in the belly", as a Korean saying puts it. The tendency to become despondent, she says, results from our dependence on possessions for making our life worthwhile.

In the above Korean proverb, the pain mentioned is of two kinds. The first comes from a desire to live, while the second comes from a desire for possessions. Which is made clear by the Korean saying: "When my cousin buys a piece of property, my belly hurts." This kind of hurt follows when we are not able to satisfy our desire for possessions, and is psychological in result.  Pain from an empty stomach is remedied by the first good meal, but the second hurt is only relieved by emptying oneself.

She mentions hearing an interview with a woman refugee from the North that clearly refers to what the columnist is saying. In the North, the woman said she was hungry and had to use all her energy to stay alive. In the South, she had plenty to eat but did not want to live here. No matter how rich, you eat only a limited number of times a day. The difference in how the rich and the poor satisfy their desires for existence, she says, is not obvious but is usually indicated by the possessions they have.

She mentions a politician who spent an extravagant amount of money for the care of the skin and was criticized by the media for it. For a certain segment of society, the appearance of the skin is a barometer of their place in society. Possessions and appearance are able to attract the gaze of others; life and death issues hold little interest for the vast majority.
 

In the 12th chapter of the Tao Te Ching,  we are told not to esteem the eyes over the belly. The word 'belly' is called by Lao Tzu the seat of life. In order to promote life, we have to fill the belly. If we only use the eyes, ears and tastes to gain the attention of others, we become slaves to the demands of our senses. As Lao Tzu says:  

 

                    
                   The five colors make the eyes blind; 

                   The five notes make the ears deaf;

                   The five tastes injure the palate;

                   Riding and hunting make the mind go wild with excitement;

                   Goods hard to come by serve to hinder progress.

                   Hence, the sage is for the belly

                   Not for the eye.

                   Therefore the sage discards the one
                   and takes the other.

 

She finishes the column with the words of Confucius: one can study to express what one has in the heart or one can study to please others and to succeed in life. The one who picks the latter will always be looking for affirmation of the other and will have no peace. Those who want to grasp honors and material goods will have people swarming around them like bees, but when they lose what they have, people will leave them like the ebbing tide. To realize the self by acquiring possessions is a futile effort. When we begin to educate the whole person and give expression to our true nature, we will have set firmly in place the foundation for a culture of life.

 

                 

Helping to save a Marriage: Retrouvaille

During the past year Korea had 143,000 divorces. The overall divorce rate, which is the number of divorces among the population during a given year, per 1,000, has been decreasing since 2003, reported an article in the Catholic Times. However, the number of divorces for those married over 20 years is 26 percent of the total divorces, and this continues to increase. Divorce of those in their twilight years is 2.4 times what it was ten years ago. Those married less than four years have 24.7 percent of the total divorces.

The article introduces us to the Retrouvaille (rediscovery) Movement website, which is the second time this blog has treated the Retrouvaille Movement.The Movement provides a program that begins with a weekend for married couples, followed by post weekend sessions. The program is prepared for those who are having difficulty in their marriage and want help in overcoming the obstacles that are preventing healthy communication.

Retrouvaille began in Canada in 1977 and has been enthusiastically received since then throughout the world. Their primary objective is restore the ease of communication between spouses that has been lost during the trials of a difficult marriage. A main reason given for divorce is the inability to deal with personality differences, resulting in misunderstanding the needs of the other and stifling communication.

The programs, although started under Catholic auspices, are open to all regardless of belief. Saving their marriage is upper most in the intentions of those present during these weekends, which are concerned with restoring trust and the willingness to forgive, the first stepping stones for many of them to a new way of communicating between husband and wife. All is accomplished without personal revelations to others; the privacy of each couple is preserved.

Even the newly-wedded are seeking to enroll in the weekends. However, this creates a problem because there is currently not enough supervising couples and priests to oversee the running of the weekend.  The next program will begin in June, with the hope they will have more volunteers willing to supervise the weekends.  The archbishop of Seoul, in his talk to the representatives of the Retrouvaille team, expressed the hope that they will be able to expand the programs to include other religious groups, and even society at large.

Are You Happy?

"Are you happy now?" The writer begins her article in the Seoul Diocesan Bulletin with  these words. Surfing on the Internet, these words in English perked her curiosity. It was a lead-in to an advertisement for a diet plan, claiming that fat people can't be happy. The diet promised that its diet will not only help users to lose over 5 kilos, but help them regain happiness. Isn't this preposterous? she asks. That you can't be happy if your fat?

The reason the writer was so agitated was that she recently saw a TV program whose theme was happiness. Over 40 percent of Koreans, when asked what was the number one condition for happiness, said it was money. The program mentioned that earning up to 4,000 dollars a month would cause the happiness index to go up. Earning more than that and there are problems. Spending additional time making money often disrupts family life and relationships with friends.  

It seems that happiness, she quips, has an expiration date. Is there no long-lasting happiness here on earth?  she asks. The writer believes there is. But it's not the happiness you want to show off to others. It's the happiness she wants for herself. Daily, she gathers and puts together, she says, the small moments of happiness in her life.

To the ad's question, "Are you happy now?" she does not hesitate to answer 'yes'.  Not because she is not fat but because of those moments of happiness, such as her daily warm cup of coffee and milk first thing in the morning, as she gradually becomes wide awake and in action mode. She has been in the habit of doing this from her early twenties, when she was mountain climbing, and has been doing this for over 30 years.

Another moment of happiness takes place in the evening. Before going to  bed, she writes in her diary, has a glass of wine, which the doctor recommended for improving blood circulation, and listens to music. It's the time she uses to look over the events of the day, and to enjoy a relaxed feeling of satisfaction for a day well-spent.

The third thing she does is to read poetry out loud. She has a habit of speaking fast so she began to do this from the time she was in high school in the hope of slowing down her speech. She reads the poems carefully with a loud voice. This has allowed her to memorize a number of the poems, and has been helpful in selecting words which she uses in her writing. She would like us all to find out how many of these small birds of happiness we currently have in our own hands but have not yet allowed them to spread their wings and fly.

Today is the feast of Pentecost and the day on which we remember to give thanks for the knowledge of the gift of the Spirit. We have a Comforter internal to ourselves that is not influenced by what is external to us.  We are temples of the Holy Spirit. This gift of gifts allows us to be open to the many  joys of our lives, once we rid ourselves of our self-imposed obstacles.

Need for Saints

Catholic Statistics for the year 2012 have recently been published. The number of Catholics remains steady at 10 percent; the number of priests has significantly increased and the number of male and female religious has increased slightly, but the devotion of our Catholics continues to weaken.

There are currently one Cardinal, 34 bishops, 4578 Korean priests and 176 foreign priests. 54.3 percent of the priests are in parish work; the number of priests working overseas has increased by 19 percent from last year. The number entering the seminary has decreased by 9 percent from the previous year, which is an alarming trend.  The number entering male religious orders has decreased by about the same (9.3 percent), and the number of women entering female religious orders has decreased by 44.4 percent, an ominous sign of what the future will be like.

10.3 percent of the population are Catholic, though the numbers entering the Church has decreased by 1.8 percent from the previous year there still is an increase in the total number of Catholics, but those going to Mass are decreasing. The Seoul diocese has the largest percentage of Catholics with 13.8 percent.

The Catholic Times editorial found the statistics on the present state of sacramental life of our Christians a serious matter of concern. The numbers attending Sunday Mass and going to confession is a good index of the spiritual life of our Catholics. Statistics comparing this year with last year have shown Mass attendance down 1 percent, and the number of confessions down 4.6 percent. These two sacraments of the Eucharist and Confession are a barometer of the life of our Christians, and of the relationship we have with the church community.

Attendance at Mass is not only a sign that one is serious about their faith life, it goes beyond that; it is the essence of what it means to be a Catholic. And Confession is the way we continually renew our faith life and prepare to be more zealous; it also tends to have an immediate effect on the faith life of the community. The editorial points out that when this is missing, it's no exaggeration to say that a mature faith is also missing.

This is not something new but has been the case since 1990, and has been noted repeatedly. Efforts have been made to turn this around but little has improved. Programs that have been established are usually attended by those who are already zealous in their faith life, and not by those who would benefit the most from them.

During this Year of Faith, efforts are continually made to stop the trend that is emptying the pews. What is happening in the West is beginning to appear also here in the East. Programs, retreats, talks, better sermons, a more meaningful liturgy, a more sensitive clergy and many other possible solutions will not stop the erosion of faith that is taking place until the life of Christians becomes less influenced by the values of a materialistic society and more influenced by the example of Jesus. Simply put: we need more saints.

A priest, newly assigned to head the JOC (Jeunesse Ouvrière Chriétienne, Young Christian Workers) writes in a bulletin for priests that he went to a Maryknoll priest who held the position before him, Fr. Michael Bransfield, for advice in taking on his new work. The priest relates that Fr. Michael, who died in 1989, came from wealth but in his work in Korea he lived simply and always saw the world with the eyes of a worker.

The writer reminds us that living with workers and hearing what they have to say changes the way you see the world, and there were, in fact, many changes in Fr. Bransfield's life.  If we are to know how truth and justice functions in the world, he believed we needed to see the world from the perspective of the marginalized and the suffering. He has left many words and pictures showing us the hardships that are endured daily by those having to live such a life. 

When the writer went to Fr. Bransfield for advice on how best to interact with the workers in his charge, he said Fr. Bransfield took a few moments to think about what to say and then responded with two suggestions: speak little and listen long; secondly, work with them. The priest writer said he didn't always follow the recommendations, but they have registered with him and never left, and in time he came to realize they were the words of the Gospel.

He describes, in his article, a worker in his sixties, who lived a life of poverty, never married, and was generally not recognized by others. He became interested in the Church, began to study, and was baptized. One day he was seen walking back and forth in an alley by one of the Catholics, his face expressing great joy, which was not his usual manner. The woman asked what made  him so happy. He had a  meeting with a priest, he answered, and told him about his life. "You have done well, you have had much trouble and  have overcome many difficulties," said the priest. This is what made him happy, he told the woman.

Those who have much and are respected by society often are the ones who monopolize the words of the mouth and what is eaten. The poor often do not have the same opportunities, having to be content to say little and eat little. 

Jesus often went to the alienated of society to speak and eat with them, and to listen to what they had to say. We know that he opened the lips of many who couldn't talk. Those who were alienated and were overcome with a feeling of inferiority were liberated with the love that was shown.

The Mass, with its many different meanings, is also primarily a sign of that love which is shared by all. We daily share Jesus' words and the 'bread', as did the first Christians when they shared their experience of the faith and what they possessed. It was their answer to solving the problems of the marginalized and those who suffer.

Attraction For the Free Gift

A religious order priest was recently embarrassed by an incident in his life, and so upset at what he felt it said about him that it became the subject of his Catholic Times column on spirituality.  Admiring Pope Francis for his simplicity of life and love of St. Francis, and his own religious call to  poverty, he remembered vividly straying from this intention.

One day while he was on the way to the barbers, two young men standing outside a van by the side of the road called out that they were giving free rice noodles at a near-by building. Always attracted to what was free, he said he could not let this opportunity pass. Since he had time to spare, off he went to the building, where there were others waiting for the gift. However, it was not a quick and done deal. The men gave those waiting a black plastic bag, containing about 10 tora seeds, and spoke of how good it was for the eyes. Impatient for the rice noodles, he wondered when the free gift would be handed out. But they brought out another black bag, and began explaining  the health benefits of ginseng.
 

It soon became evident what the men were up to. They were marketers, he said, publicizing the benefits of red ginseng from Korea, touting its superiority over Chinese ginseng. But he was not interested; all he wanted was the free rice noodles. Many of the others, realizing what was happening, quietly left but he remained, intent on getting his gift. And then another black bag was passed around, containing a bar of soap made with rice. Finally, a well-dressed man took over and tried to sell the Korean red ginseng at a reduced price.

He did finally receive the bag of rice noodles, the priest said, but he felt deceived, though leaving the scene with the four or five black bags, headed for the barber shop and then returned to the monastery. On reflection, he realized that the free rice noodles were not free. He said that his hope to get something for nothing had led to his wasting three hours of his time. It was a surprise to him, he said, that despite his resolve to abide by Pope Francis' example, simply hearing the word 'free' was enough to change this intention.

That evening he had a late evening rice noodles snack, tora tea, washed his face with the rice soap, and went to bed. The habit of spiritual poverty made him use well what he had received. But at the same time he resolved to act differently in the future.
                           

Service in Love for 33 Years

"It is with the heart that you learn what love is and not with the head," says Dr. Kang, an 82-year-old dentist who for 33 years treated without charge the dental needs of patients suffering from Hansen's disease. The interview on the occasion of his retirement, carried by both Catholic papers, noted that he had been given a plaque in gratitude for his many years of unheralded service to the Hansen Disease community. His  free service extended to over 15 thousand patients. In receiving the plaque, he quoted the words of Cardinal Stephen Kim: It took him 70 years for love to go from the head to the heart. The doctor knows of what the Cardinal speaks, although humbly saying he only knows what is meant in a superficial way.

Those he has  served over the years arranged the presentation with a party in his office. His hearing loss and age made it necessary to stop his dental treatments, begun in 1979, in the different Hansen settlements throughout the country. He would leave his own practice and travel without receiving help from other groups or organizations. He also would take the molds necessary and make the dentures himself, not needing a dental technician, saving a great deal of money. He did charge for the materials used and would donate the money to the groups working with Hansen patients.

Emma Freisinger, an Austrian nurse who has worked with Hansen patients for over 50 years, was hoping to have a doctor who would take care of the dental needs of her patients, and when Dr. Kang appeared it was too good for words, she said. Patient's with Hansen's disease (once known as leprosy) even if cured would have difficulty being accepted back into society. They would have difficulty not only going to a clinic or hospital, but riding a bus, going to a restaurant or finding a place to sleep. It is easy to see why Dr. Kang's services were enthusiastically received.

Over the years, because of the doctor's work among the forgotten ones of society, he has been asked for interviews by newspapers but has always refused--until his retirement this year. He hopes that others will be open to this kind of service to the poor and sick of our society.

In the early days of his service to the Hansen patients he kept it a secret even from his family, knowing they would be opposed. But in time his wife and family were very supportive of his  volunteer work. He is also well-known in Seoul for the dental help given priests and seminarians over the years at his clinic, all gratis.

A volunteer working with Hansen patients said that what Dr. Kang did for over thirty years means he must have been doing it with a joyful heart, otherwise it would never have lasted that long. There is a need for this kind of service in society, and thankfully, we do have it. Dr. Kang is an example to the  younger generation of what it means to find a place in their own life for this kind of service to others