Living with ideals and trying to make them a reality is a big order and not something that we commonly see. The two Catholic papers give us a good example of those in the Seoul Diocese who are trying to do just that.
In First, Corinthians (6:1-11) St. Paul says: "How can anyone with a case against another dare bring it for judgment to the wicked and not to God's holy people?" The Seoul Diocese will begin a mediation board that will help in resolving the problems that Christians have with one another without going to the court of law.
This Catholic Reconciliation Mediation Board (Tentative title) will work by mediation to solve with dialogue and negotiation the problems between Catholics. The hope is that this will also spread to the larger society. Squabbles and conflicts that are brought to civil litigation are difficult both for the plaintiff and defendant because of the long drawn-out process of litigation. Especially the one who loses there is much mental and material grieving after the verdict. With arbitration and the hope of reconciliation, the expenses of the litigation and the mental stress is reduced greatly.
With mediation there is no winner or loser. The winner in the court of law reaps the fruit of his victory while the loser drinks from the cup of bitterness. Mediation enables both to win. There is negotiation, compromise, and reconciliation without this we do not have a win, win situation. There is a need for mutual consent and respect for each other, and a desire to understand.To mediate there is as need to remain neutral and refrain from judicial judgments and remain the mediator between the two parties.
In the present Church because of negligence in forgiving and reconciliation we have a crises in many areas. With mediation lay persons will have a way to solve their problems in a Christ-like way. One of the Justices said that our society as it becomes more complicated there will be more incidents and conflicts that will make for a litigious society unless we work to have other ways to solve our problems-- necessary for a mature and developed society.
There will be over fifty members on the mediation board from the world of law, education, the media and other suitable persons. These members will be registered with the government and receive legal approval. Besides the solving of problems between believers, they will offer their services for legal aid, and continue to study methods of arbitration and mediation to be of greater help to those that come. The Protestants have been giving these services to believers for some time. This attempt to follow the teachings of the Scriptures as an incentive to work to forgive and to work for reconciliation can only have good results, and hopefully we will be humble and Christ-like enough to take advantage of the opportunities.
Surveys and questionnaires continue to analyze our society. Within the Church, we have the recent survey on marriage and the family to prepare for the October 2014 meeting in Rome of the Synod of Bishops on the topic: Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the context of Evangelization. Some of the results that the mass media has presented to the public show that in many parts of the world, it is a minority of the Catholics who live and practice the faith.
One of the priests in the province of Chungcheongbukdo, in the central part of South Korea, had for his dissertation a survey of college students within the province on their position on life.The Catholic students on euthanasia, capital punishment, abortion and the like were higher on the side of life in their responses than the other groups.
Eleven Colleges and 703 students in the province were the recipients of the questionnaire. Catholics represented 13.7 percent, Protestants 17.1 percent, Buddhists 9.8 percent and non-believers 52.8 percent. These are the numbers that represent their place in society. The following are some of the questions that were asked.
"Parents have a situation where the sick person has been in a vegetative state for five years, the doctors recommend euthanasia, what would you do?" 34.9 percent of all the respondents said they would not follow the doctors' instructions. 55.8 percent, would have to be there to judge. 60.4 percent of the Catholics would not follow the doctors' suggestion. 32.5 percent of the Protestants, 21.7 percent of the Buddhists and 31 percent of the non-believers would not follow the doctors instructions. As a whole, 11.2 percent were against euthanasia while 83.2 percent would accept it in certain situations. 39.6 percent of the Catholics would not want it to be legally permitted, which was the highest; 10 percent of the Protestants, 1.4 percent of the Buddhists and 6.5 percent of non-believers would be against making it legal.
21.9 percent of the respondents were against capital punishment while the Catholics numbered 55.2 percent against. Protestants 33.3 percent, non-believers 12.9 and Buddhists 7.2 were against capital punishment.
If you had prenatal life, and you knew it was deformed or a case of cerebral palsy what would you do? The total number of respondents who said they would give birth was 39.5 percent. Catholics: 69.8 percent, Protestants: 51.7 percent, Buddhists: 31.9 percent and non-believers 29.6 percent. To the question what to do if one is pregnant before marriage: 32.1 percent of the total would not have an abortion. 60.4 of the Catholics would not have an abortion. 35.8 of the Protestants, 29 percent of the Buddhists, and 24.8 percent of the non-believers would not have an abortion.
The results show that the teaching of the Church has made an impression on many of the Catholic students, and yet there is much more that needs to be done. The priest sees a need for more programs on life issues, networks to spread the teaching and to reach the families with the teaching.
Do I know who I am?
Are we the person others see us to be? Our identity is the person who we
think we are, not who others think we are. The columnist in the 'View
from the Ark' in the Catholic Times, a member of the bishops' committee
on women's issues, wants us to reflect on these ideas. This also, she
says, can be said not only of ourselves but of the identity of the
group to which we belong, or the nation. Important it is to determine
the personal relationship we have with the nation and the society in
which we live.
How
do we look upon ourselves as Koreans? For an answer, she says, it is
necessary to look at the history that has formed us. When we examine
the last hundred years, we see how we were the victims of imperialism.
For 36 years, we were a colony of Japan. We were influenced by foreign
powers in modernization. After colonization, we worked to overcome the
remnants of the colonial period, and before achieving success, we
experienced the Korean War and a divided country; the military take-over
of the government, and the May 18th Democratic Uprising. All this made
us sensitive to which way the wind was blowing, and for survival to join
the strong in the society.
Males, fathers, superiors, seniors
have been given excessive authority and obedience, which was extended to
the larger society, enabling the blind obedience and dependency on the
powerful in society. Power that came from wealth, and strength gave
birth to anxiety and fear which in turn, unknowingly, began to become an
habitual cultural pattern in the lower strata of society. She wonders
if the fear that comes from the strong in society, and the failure in
the resistance is not a cause for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. The arrogance that comes from strength she feels, is a reason for many of
the problems in society.
Physical, mental and verbal violence that some women experience in the home is endured because of the greater fear of leaving.
Suffering cruel treatment for a long period of time lowers the respect
that they have for themselves. She does not have the confidence to
support the children on her own, and if she leaves she feels she will
lose her children and find the conditions for living difficult. There
are those that believe that in time, things will get better. However, in
many cases, the abuse becomes even greater even though the hope for a
change remains.
Many in society are like the battered women who can't
solve the crisis in which they find themselves. She is hoping a
person with greater strength will come to the rescue and will lead her
out of the situation. This is the state of mind of many in society. She
concludes her column by asking: "Who am I and how do I want to live?" Questions we need to give a great deal of thought.
Youth in Korea are faced with many questions that an older generation
did not have. Jobs are not easy to come by; competition is fierce; the
families are stressed, and living is not easy. The diocesan bulletin
recounts the story of a young man who was placed in a home for
rehabilitation by the court. A Salesian priest recounts the problems he
faced and the results of his stay at the home.
He was a
good-looking young man with an attractive personality. He was
well-liked by all who knew him. His family did not give him the love
he needed, which was the cause of his trouble; he ran away from home, associating with his friends. The love he received was compensation for what he
didn't have in the home, but he was all mixed up. He was looking for
what he didn't have. This distorted kind of love that he received did
not prevent him from getting into trouble, ending up coming to
the home of the Salesians.
While at the home he was
shown love by the religious brothers and little my little he began to
feel comfortable and adapted well to the life at the home. He realized
that he was given another chance and took advantage of the opportunities
at the home. One day he went to the brother in charge of the home and
asked if he could be baptized. He wanted to start living a new life he
said, and began studying. Since he was only going to be at the home for 6
months and then be released, he did promise to do all that would be
necessary before baptism. After release he would return for the lessons
and the retreat that was required. And with great joy received baptism.
The
young man enjoyed riding his motorcycle, and he promised to blow his
horn three times consecutively any time he passed the home; which he did
as a greeting to the brother who believed and trusted him. The brother
responded in prayer for the young man. For all those who knew him this
was a great joy.
When educating the young, and even
more so when they are on a journey of faith, there is a need for them to
discontinue one way of life and to make a leap to another. One needs to
move from the person he was yesterday to the new meaning and values
that he has today. Changing is what is meant by the word repenting. The
development that is taking place is a change from the way one lived to
another way of living. It is opening oneself to a new horizon of
meaning and values.
The story of the rich young man in
Matthew 19:21 is an example where the young man was not able to make the
change and the leap to another way of life.
It is
good to remember, says the priest, that the time of youth is when they
want to grow in character. They want to grow internally and spiritually
and put aside the various ways in which they feel oppressed. What will help
them make this leap are not long lectures or interference but
acceptance, trust and love.
The Kyunghyang magazine has an article by a professor emeritus on the
need to make ourselves the owners of our lives. He begins with a list
of suicides that took place during one month. The suicide death of a mother and
her two children because of poverty, a mother with her two children
jumping off an apartment building, one died with the mother, and the
other in a serious condition. A taxi driver suffering from cancer of
the liver, together with his wife, killed themselves; a mother in her
thirties with her son jumped off a high-rise apartment building, all of these shocking many in society.
Korea has one of the
highest rates of suicide in the world. It has increased in the last 20
years 3 fold, especially among the young and old. In recent years, we
have had family suicides. Statistics from 2012 have 28.2 suicides for
every 100 thousand.
Emile Durkheim the French sociologist divided
suicides into three types: the altruistic, the selfish and the anomic
suicides. Anomie refers to a lack of connection with others and a lack
of regulation of behavior. Durkheim saw the reason for suicide less to
do with the feeling and motivations of the individual and more from
the societal environment in which the person finds themselves: social instability resulting from a breakdown of standards and values.
Korean
society is no longer what it used to be.
Competition is one of the most
intense in the world. Those that win in the competition do well but
those that don't, which are the majority, feel a sense of deprivation
and a loss of meaning. The professor lists a number of existentialist
philosophers and their thought. Sartre: we are condemned to be free.
Camus: we must face the absurdity of life with absurdity but this is not
without meaning in life, and he does not look on the absurdity negatively. "It is because I am in opposition to this absurdity that I
exist." This is Camus' way in being in solidarity with others.
The
professor goes on to mention the economic strength of Korea, that has
grown in 50 years from poverty to one of the strongest economies in the
world. However, now we have many of the young, who can't find a meaning
for life and are lost. They are faced with a choice for freedom or uncertainty: two sides of the same coin.
Existence has a special meaning for humanity. We are the only part of creation that can determine its own goals. All other created existences are determined. Humanity has wide-open potentiality: the possibility of determining our existence and the meaning we want to give it. We have to determine what we want our existence to mean. Each one of us, says the professor, has to engage his conscience to determine how they are to live their existence.
In
conclusion, the professor mentions that the young people do not have
the freedom to develop their potentiality. Their education is uniform
that makes them into puppets. Society is only interested in the pursuit
of wealth. The two possibilities are the pursuit of wealth or its
opposition.
Society should be giving these
young people a variety of possibilities to pursue. First of all, we have
to determine the gifts that they have received from their early years:
their disposition, talents, tastes and allow them to grow in an
educational system in which they are able to communicate these gifts.
On the spiritual page of the Catholic Times, the columnist recalls a visit he made to a priest doing pastoral work on an island. The time spent with him was always very rewarding. His words about the spiritual life never left time to be bored. While they were talking, a bird flew into view, and he interrupted the conversation looking intently at the bird. And again when a bird in a near-by tree began to chirp, he listened carefully. The columnist surmised that he was very much concerned with the world of birds.
That evening at the meal one of the side dishes was chicken. And the columnist without much thought asked: "Father, how dumb must birds be since we often hear: 'he has a birdbrain'?" A serious expression appeared on the face of the priest, and he answered: "Father, the heads of birds work very well. Just think of the thousand of miles that they travel to and from in their migration all without a GPS (Global Positioning System). It certainly is not a lack of brain power." "Very true, Father, you must have a great love for birds."
He then retold the columnist the following story. "Some years ago a group of specialists on migratory birds came to the island to study the birds. I was interested in the equipment they brought along, and became a spectator. On one occasion, I had the opportunity to spend time eating with the group. I asked the head professor since he is so interested in God's creation shouldn't he become a Catholic. Hearing my question the professor responded with laughter and asked me: 'Father how many names of birds do you know?' I could list the names of 12 different birds. He in response: 'Father since you know only about 12 species that is an extremely small number of God's creation. If you loved God wouldn't you know more than 12 of his loving creation? There are over 7000 bird species. When you learn the names of at least 500 of his creation and their characteristics, then I will think of the possibility of becoming Catholic.' Hearing these words was like a slap in the face. Once you love someone you want to know all there is to know about the person. I began the study of birds and their characteristics and began to see the differences between them. I see a great deal more than ever before. When I see a bird flapping their wings or hear their song I can tell pretty much what specie it is. The study of birds has become a hobby. Whether the professor becomes Catholic or not is not the issue, but seeing the variety and the preciousness of God's creation leads me closer to the creator and to appreciate the preciousness of all creation."
Hearing what the priest had to say was of great interest. In making the study of birds a hobby has enabled him to appreciate God's creation in a way he never did before. The columnist found this aspect of the pastor as strikingly beautiful.
The poet farmer writing in his column in the Catholic Times recalls a question he asked the children at a Catholic 'Our Farm' movement event. "What is of greater importance eating or what we wear?" One girl, he thought was in third-grade elementary school, shouted: "food is always in the refrigerator when we open the door. Clothes are what are important." When even the children, he laments, consider clothes more important than food the future of the country does not look bright.
He wants parents to ask their children this evening a couple of questions. What do you think is most precious, parents or money? What is more important, the food we eat or the clothes we wear? He wants us to ask ourselves what do we search for in life. Not an exclusive search for money, is it? We do not believe that money solves all our problems. And yet, we study to make money; we go to the workplace to make money; we marry to make money; we buy a house to make money; we meet people to make money....
Our farms, the bosom of our mother, with the passage of time are collapsing, our environment is being polluted. The reason is that children, and adults are not in search of truth but for comfort and money. No matter how important when faced with discomfort or the opportunity to make money truth is of little interest. If we look around us, we can quickly see the most important things are not bought with money.
The heavens, air, wind, sun, moon, ocean, clouds, rain, fog, earth, wood, grass, flowers, earthworms, bees, butterflies....We forget their importance in life. This is the reason we have sickness both of body and mind. We live with anxiety no matter how much we increase our possessions, power and honor, because, he says, we have distanced ourselves from the earth. We need, all of us, to return to the earth.
The Catholic 'Our Farm' in Korea continues to influence many to join the natural farming movement. Organic farming has become an ideal for many of the small farmers. The farmers know the price they are paying in using high technology in their farming methods. The farmers need to make a living for their families, and organic farming is more difficult than the scientifically proven methods. Using pesticides and chemical fertilizers are much more lucrative. The education of the consumers is necessary for when the housekeepers go shopping and begin to avoid the good-looking fruits and vegetables and are willing to buy the more naturally looking fruit and vegetables at a higher price, the farmers will be making the changes in their methods of farming.
