Why Do the Poor Make Us Feel Uncomfortable?

In Korea, says the bishop writing on religion and economics in the Korean Times, we need not go back beyond one generation to see the poverty that was experienced. 

We all know that there were many more poor people a few years ago than we have now. Rag-pickers would be rummaging through the dumps, aimless people would be wandering the streets, beggars would be everywhere. But they were our neighbors and our friends.  We went to the same schools, played marbles and cards with them in the streets. When a grandmother would leave her house with a heavy load on her head, someone from the community would soon appear to offer help.

There were times when someone from the community would  beg for food. They would not be turned away even though it was giving them some cold rice.  It was unheard of that anyone would die of hunger or freeze to death. Sharing was one of our values and compassion was shown to those having difficulty making their way in life.

How is it today? To start with, we don't even know our  neighbors. Not too long ago, we considered that near-neighbors were  better to have around than distant cousins, but today we are likely to study the expressions on our neighbor's face before engaging them in conversation. And it is not uncommon to have serious fights over trifling matters. 

The problem, many believe, is the impact of our highly competitive economic system on our human value system. Up until a few years ago we didn't classify people by what they possessed nor would it determine how we would react with another person. What was it that changed the way we responded? What caused us to see them as non-persons? The hungry, the thirsty, the poorly dressed, the vagrant, the prisoners, are routinely seen as non-persons, as surplus people, as burdens to society, and even seen as public enemies.

Because of the feeling of uncomfortableness they were making others feel,  a few of the poor would hide their whereabouts  from the rest of us. Even the ordinary folk without realizing it were influenced by this kind of thinking, and came to see the poor as a burden to be shunned and ignored. The poor, feeling the stigma, began to look for out-of-the-way places to live, often winding up in the darkness of ghettos. 

Was it that suddenly the personalities and genes of many of our citizens changed?  Why was it that those we considered our neighbors were no longer seen as such but were considered burdens, useless and surplus people? This was not only true in society at large, but we have seen it also in our churches, which has brought many tears to our eyes.

During the time of the International Monetary Fund relief, many of our neighbors disappeared from sight. We all remember those days. We have to reflect if we should accept some of the blame for their leaving our communities. When we do not see the poor who are living among us, it is a sure sign the world is not getting better, but a sign we are not living close enough to the love that Jesus came to show us.

What Is Success?

He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much; who has enjoyed the trust of pure women; who has gained the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task;who has left the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a  perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who has never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty or failed to express it; who has always looked for the best in others and given them the best he  had; whose life was an inspiration; whose memory a benediction.
-Bessie Anderson Stanley, "What is Success" (1904)


This poem begins an article in the Kyeongyang magazine by a professor in English studies at a Korean University. She introduces herself as a person who lives with the words that enhance the lives of others.

The Indians in the Americas also had their ways, she says, of using life-enhancing words. Describing the month of March, some called it the baby Spring, a month even slower than February; others called it "the month that moves the heart."

The poem she places at the beginning of her article is written by an unrecognized poet. It was written for a contest to answer the question: What is Success? and Bessie Stanley won, receiving a prize of 250 dollars, which in 1904 was a lot of money. It is often attributed, she says, because of its lofty sentiments to Ralph Waldo Emerson. The poem came to mind because of a meeting she had with one of her students.

Her student had been dreaming of becoming a college professor; she was a very good student, who spent no time socializing. The professor asked why she had picked the humanities as her major. To be a success in her field was her answer, and to enjoy the material benefits that would naturally result. The professor told her that if that was her dream it would be better to change her major. She admits that she was very careful in the way she approached the subject, knowing she was dealing with a young person's dream.

The professor does not want to consider whether the student's ideas about success were right or wrong, for these thoughts are very common, but they brought to mind Stanley's poem "What is Success." 

She laments that neither God nor any of us are the masters of our society; money appears to be, she says, setting the standard of what is to be valued in our society. What moves our hearts, however, in most cases is not material reality, she points out, as much as what seems insignificant: sincerity, virtuous acts, and even our shared laughter.  The Indian parable can be quoted to summarize the professor's thinking in this area: "When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money."

March, for the American Indian, was the month for leaves to burst forth, the month of the whispering breeze. And under the earth, though we can't see them, sprouts are soaking up the rays of the sun and the cool breezes, preparing to make their appearance on earth.

What moves us? she asks. Is it laughter? Love? Doing our best? Sharing? Are we walking, more than yesterday, with a better attitude? Are we responding to the ways our hearts are being moved with joy? Are we relating with those we are with? If we can answer yes, then our lives, she says, would be filled with inspiration, filled with the only success that matters. This is being blessed.  

Learning How to Forgive

The words "forgiving" and "forgetting" were the focus of an article in a Pastoral Bulletin recently, using the example of a woman who, after the marriage of her children and living alone, began to feel depressed. This caused enough of a problem for her to seek professional help.

She remembered the beatings she had received as a child at the hands of her stepfather. And with counseling, she was able to bring this period back to her memory and felt prepared to resolve it.

She asked herself if her remembering was a way for her to reflect on the beatings, to get angry. lose her peace of mind, and not to forgive. Or was it a way for her to open to the grace of God, find the strength to forgive and find peace? This was the decision she had to make, and not an easy decision. Though the person who caused the problem was dead, the point of the story was to stop being a victim and look forward to the future with a healthy, positive  attitude.

There are, of course, many who make matters worse by the way they handle such problems. They continue to deepen their pent up feelings of anger, which further damages their personality. Even when one forgets the past hurts, the pent up feelings that remain have to be dealt with. Otherwise, we will hurt others and continually have need for repentance.

To get rid of these feelings is to look deeply into ourselves and realize the damage they are doing to us. The goal is not to forget the event but the hurt that surrounds the event, and this is done by forgiving. Many find the forgetting difficult and the forgiving impossible. Forgiving is the crucial decision, an act of the will which is motivated by our decision to love.

A proverb from England says we are all in the same boat and suffering from seasickness. We are inflicting our emotional scars on others and receiving them back from them. There is no need to overlook the hurt we have felt but to look for the motives that caused the harm.  A person trying to live the Christian life fully, when faced with these difficulties would look at the cross, at the one who suffered much though having no guilt of his own. His response was to ask God to forgive those who were killing him, for they did not know what they were doing. 

Jesus understood their lack of knowledge, their limited sight, their damaged personalities. And understood also that the hurt they had received in the past was showing itself. He understood all these things. If we also try to understand the other, the pain we feel will be lightened in the some way. This can be done by looking at the cross, and bringing these things to mind. We will be doing this often during Lent.

Teachers of the Future Generation

"Leopard of Mt. Kilimanjaro" was a  song that a teacher remembers memorizing and singing when he was an 11-year old  elementary school student. At that age he didn't understand what the song meant to say, but hearing it so often on TV, the words have stayed with him for these past thirty years.

He left the teaching profession--troubled by the number of girls absent from class because of their decisions to have abortions--to begin a full time study of sexuality and other life issues.  He knew he was exchanging a field for which he had spent years in preparation for a field that offered no  guarantees in earning a living, but he felt that was his calling and made the change. The lyrics of the song were a great help in giving him the confidence to make the move.

Have you ever seen a hyena
walking at the foot of the mountains in search of food?
Those hyenas in the mountains
scavenging for rotten meat?
I long to be the leopard, not the hyena,
that climbed to the top of the mountain and froze to death.
That leopard of the snow-covered Kilimanjaro.

Overnight a great man, overnight a nobody,
for now I rest in the dark corners of earth.
The city is full of ambition,
and nowhere can I be found
in the middle of this city,
among its many bright lights,
completely abandoned.  But why should that matter? A man named van Gogh lived a more miserable life than I.

                                                                                       
In  our competitive society we are easily puffed up and just as quickly become anguished because of the situations we find ourselves in:  "overnight a great man, overnight a nobody." Leaving the security of a school job to try something new did  pose a problem for him, he admits, but remembering the words of the song was a great help. The song recalls the time that van Gogh went to a mining village with all the zeal of the Gospels to become a great painter.

Though the song's lyrics made an impression on him, he laments that the lyrics of today's songs have little in common with the songs he remembers as a child.

Prime-time TV, when many of the young will be watching, have musical performances in which the lyrics of many of the songs  have little positive value for the young, and these vocalists are the ones that become the idols of our young. Their parents know that the lyrics are not what they want their children to emulate but there is little they can do. Unfortunately, these vocalists are becoming the teachers and role models of our young. They are determining the thinking of the next generation.

Women Taking their Rightful Place in Society and Church

On March 8, 1908, in a textile factory in New York, a fire broke out killing all 129  women workers. They had complained to management about the working conditions of the factory and had been locked within the premises.  News of the incident spread quickly and became the rallying cry throughout the world for improving the working conditions of women everywhere. It was the start of International Women's Day, which sought to make known to the world the deplorable conditions under which most women were forced to work.  

A woman member of the Bishops Committee for Research on Pastoral Problems writes, in her article in the Peace Weekly, of the continuing problems women still face in society. She mentions Rosa Luxemburg, a Polish socialist and revolutionary who began the movement so the world would not forget the women who died in that textile factory and the problems women continue to face in the workplace. In Italy, men give yellow mimosa flowers to women, wanting to show solidarity with the working women throughout the world.

Korea also has problems with issues surrounding women. Women workers on average earn about 63 percent of what the men earn. And 70 percent of women workers are getting less for difficult work and holding temporary jobs. They face discrimination, sexual harassment, mistreatment on a regular basis, which sometimes is so outrageous that it makes the news. 

And still unresolved is the issue surrounding the treatment of Korean sex slaves for the Japanese troops many years ago. However, in other countries the news is getting around and will  put pressure on the Japanese government. These problems are not only of the past but today, in different parts of the world, we continue to see the suffering that women have to accept.

In Papua, New Guinea, a news story emerged of a woman, falsely accused of being a witch, being burned alive. The writer mentions that there is no effort made to bring those at fault to justice, and this is not, she says, a unique incident.

If care is not taken to right the wrongs being done to our working women wherever they exist, she believes the future of the  weak in society, the old and the young, will also be jeopardized.

Pope Francis has shown a willingness to get more women involved within the Church. In his Address to the Italian Women's Center, in January, he said "I too have considered the indispensable contribution of women in society. I have rejoiced in seeing many women sharing some pastoral responsibility with priests in accompanying people, families and groups, as in theological reflection, and I have expressed my hope that greater room can be made for a more capillary and incisive female presence in the Church."   She expresses her hope that the women of Korea will also be able to take their rightful place within the Church of Korea.

Continuation of the Liturgy of the Mass

Six months after ordination, a priest writing in the Bible & Life magazine recounts what happened to him at a morning weekday Mass. The pain in his stomach was so intense he could no long ignore the pain, and after the Gloria and the Oration he left the altar. On the intercom-phone he called the priest in the rectory, who came to finish the Mass for him.

The writer mentions that from his time in the seminary he has been troubled with health problems. He had a number of operations on his stomach but the problems continued. The intestines were so sensitive that when he ate something disagreeable he would have to run to the  toilet. He had gotten into the habit, he said, because of the stomach problems, of fasting for a number of days.  On one occasion he fasted for 40 days.

His cook would be concerned about his health and took extra pains to make sure he was getting what he needed and avoiding certain foods.  However, this did not prevent him from being diagnosed with malnutrition.

While in the  seminary he stayed away from liquor. Eating in restaurants was always a problem. And meeting people in the parish was always problematic since these meetings would often end up with eating and drinking, and the possible recurrence of his stomach problems. However, one day these thoughts came to him.

Jesus was called a glutton and a drunkard by his enemies. Didn't this mean that he was meeting people very easily, drinking and eating and spreading his message while at table? If we transpose this way of life to the present, wouldn't we say he was talking with laborers, the women of the streets, and various other members of society, eating  and drinking with them in the numerous sidewalk stalls of the city?

What was his situation?  he asked himself. When talking with those he would meet during a typical day, he would tire quickly and excuse himself. Drinking was always a problem for him and eating with people was like sitting on a  pin cushion. He wanted to be another Jesus but this seemed impossible. He began to think that he was not made to be a priest, and the thought bothered him.  Would it not be better to leave the priesthood, he wondered, if he could not live his life as Jesus had lived his?

One evening after the young people's Mass on Sunday, there was the usual talk of going out to get something to eat. As was the custom they would go to some inexpensive  place, and after a brief time being with them, he would return to the rectory.  But this particular evening, while with the young people and hearing them talk, as they enjoyed the light-hearted bantering on many issues, he suddenly and surprisingly recalled the incident at Emmaus, where Jesus was thought to be a a pilgrim and invited to the house of the two disciples to eat.  Wasn't his time together with the young people, he wondered, like the continuation of the Mass?

As he sat there at the table, looking at the boiling stew pot in the middle of the table and the young people putting in their chop sticks to pull out something to eat, he saw the empty glass of the person opposite him and filled it, and put his own chopsticks into the stew to eat.  Wouldn't this be what Jesus would have done?

From that time on, he became a changed person. He began to drink a little, and being with others at table no longer was difficult. The times that he had problems with his stomach were greatly reduced. Recalling that Jesus' first Mass was at an ordinary meal, he came to the realization that the time he was at table, sharing with others, he was also continuing what he had begun at Mass.

Growing Old Gracefully

A research  professor writing in the Catholic Times reflects on what  it means to grow old gracefully. Riding the subway recently she noticed that some of the elderly men were behaving in ways she found very strange, not like the elders of our society normally behave. It made the other passengers feel uncomfortable, she said. There appeared to be no  understanding  of how their actions were being received by the other passengers. They seemed to be men from another part of the world. 

As is widely known, our society is getting older and we have fewer young people to take care of the elderly. The numbers of those older than 65 years of age continue to grow and  the younger generation, who are expected to take care of the elders, continues to decrease. Complicating the problem even further, our society is developing technologically at an even faster pace, which makes it difficult for the older generation to keep up with the changes.

Under the name of restructuring, many of the young people are losing their jobs in industry.This situation  magnifies the feeling of the  older generation of being useless and a burden on society; often overcome by a sense of shame and helplessness. For some time now the older generation, with a smile on their faces, have been saying that whatever they have, much or little, they will keep their possessions until they die in order to get the treatment they deserve from their children.

Do we need to look upon these words and behavior of the elders as a display of strength, as something healthy? she asks. She wonders if it is not society that is bringing about these changes of skepticism and depression that frequently cause the elderly to take their own lives. As the elderly get older the rate of suicides among them increases. At the same age, the number of men committing suicide is two to three times that of women, an indication, she says, of the helplessness felt by many of the older men. She feels that our society and many of our families make those who feel dependent and unproductive lose their sense of worth and honor in society.

While our society is extolling the efforts of the nation in becoming more prosperous and developed like other first world countries, she wonders if it is at the expense of losing our traditional values and destroying family life. Without a safety net in place, those who will suffer the most are the sick, the young and old, she says.

It is often said that a noble attribute of the old is their wisdom. They have lived through the difficulties of life and have learned a great deal and have a lot to teach the young and middle-aged adults. But because one has aged does not mean they will automatically receive respect. With age it is natural to become physically weaker, but effort should be made to keep their mental faculties and the relationship with others as healthy as possible.  She hopes that the younger generation and the  middle aged adults will realize they have a great deal to  learn from the older generation.