A Joy-filled Life

The pope's visit to Korea is approaching and there is hope within the Church that it will be more than an event, but an occasion for renewal. The editor's column in the Peace Weekly asks what is to be done and where do we  begin? He, like many others feels the exhortation of the pope: Joy of the Gospel is a good place to start.

He selects two areas, not in their degree of  importance, but rather of ease in discussion, the need as Christians to live full of joy, and the second is to embark upon a new way of  evangelization with new paths for the Church's future journey.

These two are not to be separated. The life of a Christian has to be one with obvious joy for without  joy the words we  express of Gospel joy become empty.This living the joyous life is a prerequisite for evangelization and its foundation.

The pope in the exhortation mentions those  "Christians whose lives seem like Lent without Easter" (#6).  " Evangelizers must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral!"(#10) He stresses we must live a joy-filled life.
 
Why is it that we do not live this joy-filled life? "Whenever our interior life becomes caught up in its own interests and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no place for the poor. God’s voice is no longer heard." When this happens: "the quiet joy of his love is no longer felt, and the desire to do good fades." These are the  words in (# 2) of the exhortation.

The pope gives us the prescription for this  kind of life." I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since 'no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord'. The Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk; whenever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms... No one can strip us of the dignity bestowed upon us by this boundless and unfailing love. With a tenderness which never disappoints, but is always capable of restoring our joy" (#3).

What is another reason we are not living this life of joy? We are not sure that we are loved by Jesus. Because we are Christians does not mean we will not have pain and sorrow in our lives. "Joy adapts and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved."  The pope goes on to explain: "But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning." (#6).

To live with this Gospel joy we need to open our hearts and secondly, to have unlimited trust in his love. If there are any Christians without the joy let them pay attention and practice this in their daily life. He also feels a need to do this in his own life. He concludes that he has always been open and proud of being a Catholic but has not lived a clearly joy-filled life.

Willingness of the Church to Welcome Criticism

Few are the  countries with such a favorable environment  to examine itself and plan for the future. In preparation for the visit of the pope many are the symposiums, programs, lectures in  preparation  for a renewal, preceded by an honest appraisal of the situation. The Peace Weekly gives us an account of a symposium in Seoul that was attended by over 300. The subject was the  exhortation of  pope Francis: Joy of the Gospel. How do we share this message in a  world with different values? Bishop Mario Toso, Secretary of the Pontifical Council gave the keynote address for  the symposium.

The article begins with the reality  of Korean society. One of the presenters mentioned the  polarization of society. The middle class is being destroyed, and we are seeing new poor. New areas of conflict appear.The Church needs to be with the poor, but the Church has grown with the  advancement of capitalism, and we have become a middle class Church and distanced ourselves from the poor. We have also learned some of the tricks from capitalism not only in the fields of medicine and education, but in another profit ventures. The hierarchical system has become exclusive, and we have a vision for salvation that is individualistic, a worldly spirituality seeking comfort.

Economy excludes; money has become an idol, immoral investment practices; violence from  a growing inequality makes a need to work to achieve the blue print given to us by pope Francis.  Another speaker spoke about the need to not be excessively  concerned with our internal pastoral issues, but to go out to the world. We need to be with  those who are hurting.
 
Joy of the Gospel gives us directions to become a poor Church and  in search of the common good for society. Jesus is the example of the one who loved all his brothers and sisters, searching for justice, peace and the dignity for all.
 
In the address by Bishop Toso, he  quoted from Joy of the Gospel: "People in every nation enhance the social dimension of their lives by acting as committed and responsible citizens, not as a mob swayed by the powers that be. Let us not forget that responsible citizenship is a virtue, and participation in political life is a moral obligation."
 
The Church's need for renewal requires, said one of the speakers, to open the  doors of our churches, go in search of people, open ourselves up to the persons who are hurting in society. The first step in evangelization is to have the mind of God and to hear the voices of the people. Since half of the Catholics are not practicing we have to go in search of them. We have to listen to the words of Scripture and become prophetic in our lives.

The article concludes with a  paragraph on what is needed to become a Church of the poor: a spirituality of poverty. One of the speakers criticized the appearance of the Church being with the poor, but that is not the reality of the middle class Church we have made. To be a  Church of the poor we have to give of our personnel, our money in the work for the poor. It requires said another, for ourselves to have a spirituality of poverty, which will  motivate us to get involved in the work of the poor and those who are alienated from society.

Encouraging Vulnerability

"There is much suffering in the world: physical, material, mental. The suffering of some can be blamed on the greed of others. The material and physical suffering are suffering from hunger, from homelessness, from all kinds of diseases. However, the greatest suffering is being lonely, feeling unloved, having no one. I have come more and more to realize  being unwanted is the worst disease  any human being can ever experience."

These words of Mother Teresa of Calcutta are well-known and there are many who would have little difficulty in agreeing. Writing in his column as a prison chaplain in the Peace Weekly, he recounts the story of a prisoner who spent his twenties in prison and after release came back for a visit.

Usually when they come back to the Center, they will meet each other with their eyes and welcome each other with a handshake. The young man had  great regret for his past life and was resolved not to hurt another person again. The chaplain gave the man some encouraging advice and asked indirectly if he was  going to church. The young man said that the church was on the opposite side of the street from  his house and did attend Mass on a few  occasions, but  stopped. In the evening, he would go for an hour long walk around the church saying the rosary.

The priest asked for the reasons he stopped going, and the answer gave him much sadness. When he went to the church, he felt so lonely he stopped going. The Catholics after Mass were  greeting each other, drinking beverages and talking, but no one ever showed  him any concern. He was like a person from another planet. Each time he decided to go to church his feet became heavy.
 
The young man wanted  the priest to help him enter the parish community, and if that was impossible to allow  him to come to the Center for Mass. The priest with a heavy heart refused. If he got involved everybody in the parish would know he was once a  convict released from prison. Because of the prejudice, this  would make his relationship with the community worse.  Coming to Center for Mass would make entering the  parish community more difficult.

Exchanging the greeting of peace at Mass, we extend our hands and  great each other with words of peace. The hand outstretched at this time is not only to those around us but to all those who need our help, love and kindness. We should be extending our hand of kindness, the hand of God, to all especially those with a greater need. 

Alienation from  God, the self and others are all too common. The young man of the story has a problem with the community of faith that lacks sensitivity and a full understanding of what they are doing at each Mass in which they participate. However, the young man also needs the wisdom to understand how the alienation he feels has to be faced and overcome by not retreating but in making the situation he experienced a means of growth for himself and the community to which he belongs. This expectation is difficult and demanding, but avoidance of the problem is not the answer. We as Christians need to understand how vulnerability is a great help in spiritual and human growth.      

Feast of St. Kim Taegon Andrew

July 5, was the Feast Day of St. Kim Taegon Andrew. In most parishes  the feast day was transferred to Sunday. St. Kim Andrew is the first Korean priest to be ordained after the introduction of Catholicism to Korea at the end of the 18th Century. He was ordained in China in 1845 and was martyred the following year.

The Catholic history of Korea is unique. Before the first priest entered the country there were already 4000 who considered themselves Catholic. The first priest was Fr. Chu Moon-mo, a  Chinese priest who entered in 1785 worked for 6 years and was martyred on 1801. This community was again without bishops or priests for close to another 30 years and was able to produce Christians of great faith willing to die for what they believed.              

The Parish Foreign Mission Society was given  the territory of Korea and when they entered in 1836 they found dynamic Catholic communities led by lay people.They selected a number of young boys from the strong religious families and sent them to the seminary in Macau to study for the priesthood. Kim Andrew was in this group. He was  ordained in China and trying to find ways to help the French missioners  to enter Korea was arrested and with repeated questioning and torture  was beheaded in 1846.

He has left  us a number of letters that he wrote while in prison which are a lesson to all of us on what  a spirituality of martyrdom should encompass. One of the readings for the office of the day is taken from one of his letters from prison. 

"Hold fast, then, to the will of God and with all your heart fight the good fight under the leadership of Jesus; conquer again the diabolical power of this world that Christ has already vanquished. I beg you not to fail in your love for one another, but to support one another and to stand fast until the Lord mercifully delivers us from our trials.There are twenty of us in this place and by God’s grace we are so far all well. If any of us is executed, I ask you not to forget our families. I have many things to say, yet how can pen and paper capture what I feel? I end this letter. As we are all near the final ordeal, I urge you to remain steadfast in faith, so that at last we will all reach heaven and there rejoice together. I embrace you all in love."

For the feast day the second reading for the liturgy is a good reminder of what a spirituality of martyrs is all about."We know that afflictions makes for endurance, and endurance for tested virtue, and tested virtue for hope. And this hope will not leave us disappointed, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been give to us
(Rm. 5:1-5).

Making Religion a Private Matter

Religion, its place in society is a topic we hear a lot about, but not always with clarity. Not a few think that our religious beliefs are a private matter and not open to public discussion. However, a professor writing on the opinion page of the Catholic Times gives us a different understanding of the issue.

He uses the example of the recent nominee for prime minister who resigned after questions were raised about his  fitness for the job. For a few days, the public sector was  noisy. In a talk to his church, some years ago, he  described the Japanese colonial rule as  "God's will." The talk became known to the public, which generated a negative response that led to the resignation.

The professor considers the talk about friendliness to Japan a minor issue. A more serious problem is the way his religion sees God working in the world. He has asked some theologians and priests he knows, and the answers he received were what he has always believed. God does not cause  pain for those he created. He does not wish pain for us. The pain that we meet and experience in life is not God's wish for us. It is something that we have to undergo; it is a given in life. There is much we need to patiently accept, God allows it to happen, but he gives us the strength and hope to overcome it. Of course, God also will draw good from all that we suffer but the pain is not of God's willing. 

The issue that the media took as the main issue was his pro-Japanese stand. A lot of bad reporting and distortion of the news was involved, but this the  professor says, is only a minor issue. The bigger issue is the understanding of religion.This misunderstanding of religion is a greater danger in one who is to be a public servant.

There are those who will say a person's private beliefs have nothing to do with a public office.That was actually the issue on a panel TV show recently: what a person believes should not be an issue in his public life. The professor stresses those who speak this way do not understand religion. When one states that religion is only  a private matter and  has little to do with our public life, we have a misunderstanding of religion. What one believes, and this is not only true for the religious person but is true for all those with convictions and without convictions, they can  influence every facet of his or her life.

Many are those with  great passion and sacrifice in their religious life but do not have a correct understanding of religion. A person with blind religious beliefs is open to making wrong judgements and performing acts that will cause harm to those with whom he relates. A person in a public office should have concern for what he believes.

The professor is saying something, which is not easily digested, but is something with a little thought is rather obvious, for what we hold to be true and believe, is going to affect what we say, think and do.

Mercy and Justice

The Desk Columnist  of the Catholic Times reminds us that he does not know Pope Francis with any depth, but in his position, he does a lot of reading of the foreign news and  translating, so he does have a little better grasp of what the  pope is saying and doing than the ordinary Catholic.

He would like to know, he says: how he lived his early years, his personality, his hobbies and interests, the food he likes, the woman whom he may have  loved. These and many other  areas of the pope's life,  arouse his curiosity and have to be satisfied with a fragmentary understanding of Francis the pope.

However, since becoming pope, he has said many things, which have been unconventional, but have shown a certain consistency and have  won the admiration of many which as a journalist perks his curiosity.

For him, the number-one trait that impresses him the most is the pope's  mercy and justice. He can harmonize the justice with mercy. In dealing with the inhuman qualities of the economic structures, he is  critical of the neo-liberalism type of capitalism and at the same time showing mercy to the poor. On one occasion, it is  justice that comes first at another time it is mercy.This embarrasses the journalist.

The document in preparation of the October Synod has been released and there is the concern on how to make the teachings of the Church acceptable to our Catholics; it is not to review the teachings themselves. The emphasis of Francis is: How do we show mercy? There are many who are not following the teachings of the Church, the relativism that permeates all of society also has entered the Church. This along with many other unavoidable reasons have made married life, family life and the teaching on life difficult for the Christians. Pope Francis wants ways to show mercy.

Francis shows his mercy to the poor who are   harassed  and exploited by an immoral financial system and expresses this with a just anger. This mercy and justice are seen often in Francis. This, says the columnist is the reason for the admiration that is shown the pope. Mercy and justice go together. When mercy is necessary, and you thrust justice out in front you have oppression, and when you need to show a  courageous act of justice and you, recoil  and pull back, you are being a coward. The pope distinguishes the two clearly and with resolve, and without hesitation. Which makes his stand all the more attractive. He is waiting anxiously for his visit.

The problem of how to reconcile the two is difficult and  many are not able to see how they are compatible. St. Thomas said: "Mercy without justice is the mother of dissolution;  justice without mercy is cruelty."

Peace-building

Conflict is a part of life. We see it in the family, village, society, church and the world. Most of the time we are passive spectators  and learn to live with conflict. Kim Young Ai, who represents the Saeurinuri Peace Movement writes about peace-building. Recently, she successfully completed a three-day Ganghwa-Gyodong Peace Leadership Camp. She has made a study of how to resolve conflicts, and the leadership program was a concrete expression of one of her dreams. Conflict resolution is now understood by many as conflict transformation. Conflict is an opportunity to come to a new understanding of the problem.

Conflict is not only something negative but can help us to grow, help us to transform the way we live. We first have to know the context of the problem. In Korea, the opposite of peace is war: the cessation of conflict, factionalism, fighting. Many of our conflicts end with victory for the strong, with a legal victory, or a cultural victory of a religious way of thinking, but those who lose  usually do not change and often the anger makes them resort to revenge. Peace is when the victors and losers can accept the results. Working together for peace means that we already have a kind of peace.

She mentions first the transformation of the conflict. This requires, first of all, the awareness of the conflict and its reason.There is no reason to blame oneself for conflict we have conflict because we are social animals. We have to understand what  the conflict is before we can hope to solve the problem.

The second step  is to analyze the conflict:  see it objectively and  without emotions; accept the others as our equal, and search for the roots of the conflict. The conflict could have historical roots or cultural roots. It may have to do with authority, material goods or health. Usually the roots are like those of a tree with a variety of reasons, a composite of reasons. We need also to know what are the results of the conflict and what it is doing to us. Understanding the conflict, the reasons for the conflict, and the influence that it is having on us  are necessary for the transformation we desire.

Thirdly, we need to have plans and policies to overcome the discord that we experience. The transformation of the conflict is many faceted. Compromise, concession and negotiation are all part of the process. The process does not only depend on practice and skills, but a need to make  the process a natural  human one. This will take a great deal of time, but the beginning is important and as the Koreans say, to begin is to already be half way to our goal.

A great sadness is that many do not think anything is possible.They have given up and  feel it is hopeless.  Many are willing to live with the discord and inability to communicate, which is a great tragedy for that is not what Christians are called to do. Theresa ends her words with a reminder that Christians with the analysis of the conflict and meditation, and  our continual spiritual training; we should be familiar with much of what is required for the transformation of  conflict.