The month of October in Korea is the month of the Rosary and Mission. A time to live our faith more completely. We can't hide the violence that accompanies totalitarian nations in efforts to proselytize. In the world in which we live and the pluralism all around us does not diminish our call to be missioners. With these words the Desk Columnist of the Catholic Times reflects on the work of mission in today's world.
The world of Islam in many parts of the world has shown a flagrant animosity towards Christianity. They go about their mission without any restraints in spreading their message.They kidnap, threaten death, all seen as barbarous by the rest of the world.
What does it mean to preach the Gospel? What are we to do? In the early days of the Church it meant that you were likely to be martyred; you were going against the mores of the society in which you lived. Or just the opposite, when the Church became the National Church, it became the tool of the State; used to oppress and persecute the other religions. During those years all were made to submit by force to spread the politics of the country and to extort monies. Many of the efforts in these totalitarian states used Christianity as their ideology.
Today the spreading of the Gospel is in a pluralistic environment. A world with different religions, many with the ideals of Christianity. We have the continual stress and conflict with Islam. Many cultures and societies have their own traditions and religions with which we are in easy contact. Korea is an exhibition hall for the religions of the world, all vying with each other, but for the most part peacefully.
In this kind of world what does it mean to spread the faith? We use the word evangelize, spread the Gospel message, what should be our attitude as missioners for Jesus?
Catholicism did not open its heart to the other religions until after the Second Vatican Council. There are those who feel the Church has tarnished its image by opening itself to the world and other religions.
He divides the focus on evangelization into three areas. Know who your are and your religious identity, respect the beliefs of others, and be able to persuasively express your own beliefs to others. Easy to say, but how do we go about doing this? To respect the religion of the other and be strong in your own faith is not easy.
However, he says, it is not walking a high wire. We need to be honest like little children, and express the happiness we have received from Jesus. Evangelization has to do with the way we live. We have the example from the early Church, Christians lived already in God's kingdom in contrast to the outside society.
The early Christians were using the strong words of the message, but also living differently than those in the society in which they lived. Heidegger said: 'Language is the house of Being." Language is more than a tool it is the way we express ourselves.The message of a Christian comes from the life that is lived. When we live Christlike we are being missioners and evangelizing.
A priest writing in the Korean Catholic Digest recalls a confession he heard. A grandmother enters the confessional and immediately says: "Living is it not all sin? Quickly give me my penance."
"Grandmother, God has given us this beautiful world in which to be happy, you should not be so pessimistic. It is not good to think that way." The priest spoke these words, but at the same time knew life was not always easy.
He lived as a religious in a monastery for over ten years and was given an assignment as a pastor of a country parish. The Sunday Mass attendance was about 500 so it was not a small community. Some of the older priests hearing about the assignment told him that he will have many sleepless nights. You are a pastor, however, and not a hireling.
His life in the monastery was very regular. He would get up in the morning, pray, say Mass, after breakfast go to his work place, evening prayer, the meal, a period of rest, night prayers and sleep-- a very simple life.
He has been in a parish now for over ten months. There have been peaceful days but also days of battle. "When we have some parish events the different groups are at odds with each other on how to proceed, and we have conflict."
The parishioners do listen to the wish of the pastor and go along but he always finds it difficult when he has to choose one group over the other. He is bothered greatly with the results of his decision.
He follows the practice of the previous pastor in going to the different villages once a week for a Mass. There are are 10 to 20 that attend. Each division of the parish has a distinguishing feature.
In the farming area we have the aroma of grass and bean-paste pot stew. Those who attend, seem to be care-free and at peace. Apartment areas of the parish and market environments have a different feel, they are lively, vigorous, dynamic, but some seem to be living in the shade.
At Sunday Mass, everyone is well dressed smiling and greeting each other. He surmises they are not having financial difficulties. At the village Masses he sees this is not the case.
Before he entered the religious life he worked and lived a frugal life in a small apartment. He no longer has those problems. After work he would meet with his fellow workers, and sharing glasses of liquor would forget their cares. At a village Mass these thoughts come back to him. Jesus never stayed in one place and associated with all kinds of people in society. He finds this very healthy.
The grandmother's: "All is sin is it not?" Often rings in his ears. How difficult life must have been for the grandmother? He feels sad, and wants to be a conduit to bring consolation to those he meets.
In his column in the
Catholic Times, a pastor in his talks to young people tells
them to search for what they like--that will save them. St
Augustine's well known words: “Love and do what you like” gives us the
reason why this is so. Those that love God all things work together for the good.
He laments that many young people don't know what they like, what they really want.They are running very zealously towards an unknown future. When they realize that is not where they want to be, they become despondent, and lost. Those on the sidelines can sense this loss of hope. Those who are racing towards a worldly goal will be affected even more.
That is the reason we have to have a dream, he says. He wants to address these words to all the parishioners. Many of the older people want to die: they believe there is nothing left for them to do. They need a dream. It is never too late to dream.
When one works to realize their dream they find joy and are invigorated.
What
is my dream? What is it that I like? We are all traveling the road of
happiness: a life in God's kingdom. Aren't all Christians dreaming about life with
God here and in the hereafter? When we are conscious of this goal and daily working for its
accomplishment, this in itself brings great joy. Process is already part
of the accomplishment. That is why he asks his parishioners often:
"What is your dream, what is it that you like?" "All the way to heaven
is heaven because Jesus said, I am the way." These words of St.
Catherine express this truth.
We are all on the path to happiness. A life in God's kingdom, a life of happiness for all eternity is our dream. Dreaming of this goal that we all have should bring great joy into our lives.
We need to know who we are and where we are heading. This is the way of life and his
wish for all who are reading these words. Life should be filled with
meaning and with joy because of our dreams. St. Peter in his sermon in
Acts 2:17 "in the last days... your old men shall dream dreams." The
spirit of God that is given moves us to hope and dream dreams.
Korea is working hard to remove itself from the list of countries
with the highest rate of suicides. Both Catholic papers gave space to
the issue, noting especially the number of elderly who are committing
suicide.
The Seoul Diocese conducted a symposium on
methods to decrease the number of suicides in society. According to the
government office of statistics for every one hundred thousand
citizens from the ages of 60 to 69 there are 42.4 persons who kill
themselves. From 70 to 79 there are 73.1 persons and those over 80
there are 104.5 who commit suicide. Over 80 those who commit
suicide number 4 times the average.
Department of
Health and Human Services in a 2013 survey showed the largest group
attempting suicide: 65.5 percent were the non-religious, Protestants
16.0 percent, Buddhists 9.4 percent, and Catholics 3.5 percent.
A
professor at the Catholic University in the keynote speech said that
those who had strong values and found meaning in life, and those that had
a strong faith life had the lowest suicide rate. To lower the rate he
stressed the need to increase the faith life of the elderly.
The
Catholic Church and the Nowon District (a residential district of
Seoul, South Korea, Located in the northeastern part of the metropolitan
city) have worked together to decrease the number of suicides in the
district with good results: in 2009, 180 deaths from suicide, and in
2013 it decreased to 150.
Civilian groups within the
district have increased their cooperation, drawn up programs for the
different age groups within the district, made efforts to find those who
were at greater risk and work more closely with this group. A
need was shown by the volunteer groups to have input by specialist in the field.
The editorial in the Catholic Times
mentioned that 11.2 percent of those over 60 have thought of suicide.
Chief reasons were health and financial difficulties. With society getting older, those in the country have more difficulty than those in the city: more alienation, struggles and loneliness.
We can't just see the suicide as an individual problem.
In conclusion was the need for the church to get more involved in their work with the
elderly, form groups that are in sympathy with their goals, efforts to establish a social safety net, and extend the culture of life movement.
A university professor of law writes in a diocesan bulletin about his experience in hosting a FM radio program on law and music. He uses the lawsuits that the composers had to deal with as background in talking about the music they wrote; analyzing the law as seen at the time of the composition of the operas to understand the music of the age.
There are many who praise what they hear on his radio program, but there are those who find him whitewashing the libertine life that composers like Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt lived.
When he hears the criticism of Liszt by his listeners, the Pharisees of the Gospel come to mind as they pointed their fingers at the prostitutes and tax collectors. The Hungarian composer Franz Liszt at certain times in his life did not live an exemplary life: a relationship with a countess who left her husband to be with Liszt, and with whom he had three children outside of marriage.There was also the long relationship with a Russian princess after he left the countess that took 14 years to regularize in the Church, and the day before the wedding was cancelled. He became a third order Franciscan and took his spiritual life seriously. The princess spent the rest of her life in a convent and he received the minor orders before the deaconate, but never became a priest.
Liszt was one of the greatest piano virtuoso of the times and with his good looks became a star. We have heard of his music but we are not familiar with his sacred music: the music for the liturgy, the Stations of the Cross, the Our Father, the Ave Maria and the like. In our age very rarely heard in church or society.
There are many who have lived a virtuous life and overcome their natural inclination and they are a good example to our young people but also those who have fallen into the bottomless pit, fallen into despair and have turned to a life of prayer are also a good example to our young people. Liszt cried a lot and feared the Lord.
He was generous in helping others and in donating his money for different causes.The professor says even today you see plaques with his name for monies that Liszt donated in Europe. He was a man considered a king of the volunteer givers of his time.
When he hears the story of the prostitutes and tax collectors and how they were looked down upon; listening to the music of Liszt the professor hears in the background of the music the plaintive sound of sadness.
Unification of Germany was basically the demand of East Germany. An article in the Catholic Times wants us to review the process that brought the East and West Germany together, and the message it has for Korea.
The last Soviet leader Gorbachev and his revolution and policy of openness: Perestroika and Glasnot were the heralds for the change in society. East Germany felt with unification there would come freedom and prosperity. Where did this thinking come from? It was the constant interchange between the East and West from the time of the division. The East wanted to be included in the West. The citizen revolution in the East brought about the unification of the country.
In 1970 the policy of rapprochement with East Germany brought about a thaw and the interchange that brought about the unification to the country. In the beginning of the interchange East Germany was lukewarm because of the structure of their government but this changed and they overcame the difficulties.
The unification brought many problems to the fore. West Germany thought only of money. Economic unity was important but gradually they realized that mutual understanding was more important. With the unification the West took all the important positions in the government. The West also took a great deal of the responsibility for social security and payments towards the social welfare programs.
Germany in helping the East for ten years remained without growth and the East felt that they were second class citizens.They were treated like the West and yet they felt they were deprived and this feeling grew.
Efforts were made to win the hearts of the East. The East wanted unification and the surrounding nations agreed and yet after unification there were many problems.
Here in Korea the North South divide without interchanges, without travel between the North and South, and little efforts to win favor of the other, there is little resemblance to the preparation that preceded German unification. If suddenly we had unification, with our own differences in the South, and the North/South division, does any one think it will be a blessing?
A young girl about 13 or 14 years old, with short hair, dressed in a Korean skirt and blouse sitting in a chair looking straight ahead with a determined sadness in her face and closed mouth. A statue depicting one of the comfort women as a young girl, sexual slave of the Japanese military during the Second World War. The bronze statue is a sign of the scars inflicted on these young girls who were for the most part Koreans. This statue was put in place in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul four years ago, and have now appeared in other cities of Korea and in other parts of the world.
Each year the sculptor and his wife make two or three statues in a small attempt to heal the wounds that have been inflicted. They just finished the ninth statue that was commissioned in Detroit where they had the unveiling recently, and the journalist interviewed the sculptor recently after his return from the States, for the article in the Bible & Life magazine.
These young girls were recruited by the Japanese with deception and force, using family relationships to trick them. The Japanese military worked mostly with the poor families. 'Comfort stations' exposed the girls to all kinds of inhuman treatment. When liberation came many of them did not find it easy to return to their home country. Even after Japan's defeat some returned to Japan to do forced labor. Those that returned to their home country had another tragedy befall them. One of the grandmothers, in one of the reports, said after what they experienced it was difficult to return home to the family; they lived in the shady places of society.
Reporting about the comfort women began in earnest 23 years ago with a Wednesday protest march outside the Japanese Embassy. On the 1,000th weekly demonstration by the elderly women and their supporters they erected the Peace Monument which is the young girl sitting in a chair.
The Sculptor mentions the many times they tried to get the face of the girl correct.The couple have always been interested in the fight for rights of the citizens in their art work. They find great satisfaction in what they do. In this fight to have Japan recognize and apologize formally brings an increase of interest on the issue, but also the opposition of Japan continues to increase. In California where a statue was erected, the Japanese residents and the extreme right groups have continued to fight legally for the removal of the statue. Another statue that was to be erected in front of a library in Detroit was cancelled and they had to change the location of the statue.
The issue will continue for the time being but the number of the women who experienced this shameful period in their lives continues to decrease with death: most of them are now in their 80s and 90s. How much protest will continue if the Japanese government does not accept blame for the treatment of these girls only the future knows.
