Farmers at this time of the year are looking forward to a period of
leisure. The life of a farmer gives them little time to admire the
scenery, and now with the Free Trade Agreement with China there is a
great deal of uncertainty and worry on what the future will bring. In an
article on the opinion page of the Catholic Times, a city dweller, who
worked for a large construction company, some 12 years ago returned to
the farm and began raising grapes. He gives us his thoughts on country living.
The situation for farmers, he says, is like the flame of a candle in the wind. With free
trade he sees everything in a fog and is uncomfortable. He wonders
whether there is a future in farming? Many feel the greater wealth of
the country will lead to the greater happiness of the populace, this he strongly believes is false. This is a belief held by many in
government, and yet we know that wealth does not determine the degree of
happiness of the citizens.
The numbers of those
retiring from work is increasing. He mentions a number of his old
buddies who ask about life on the farm. They are now white haired and
have time on their hands.They are looking for ways to occupy themselves
after the many years in the work force. They mention how infrequent are
the visit of their children and would like to see a change in the way
we live. He compares life for some after retirement like the male bee,
the drone, who is kicked out of the hive.
His son
will be in third year high school next year and he comes home every
other week end. The father casually told his son that after graduation
from high school he could always work on the farm. The son shook his
head derisively to which the father told him if you go to college and
after graduation you can't find a job you can always come back to a big
farm which I will buy for you. Now when he comes home he is more relaxed
and magnanimous.
In the country along the road you
see banners fluttering in the wind especially during the winter months
they look out of place. You have them congratulating some recent son or
daughter of the country who has just received their doctorate, passed a
civil servant exam, or was hired by a big company. They make known to
all, the family situation, and how proud they are of their children. He
would love to see banners flying in the wind mentioning a son who has
decided to return to the country to work on the family farm, or a son
who has set up a cafe in the area and is asking for the people's
patronage.
Life on the farm is busy and the future will
not see any big changes but he finishes his article with the joy that
comes with life on the farm. He would like to see the government make
life on the farm easier, with less worry, but he also knows farmers have a great deal of
joy from the small things of life that are all around them, and hopes
this will continue in the future.
Recently in Korea as in other parts of the world there has been a renewed interest in natural farming. We talk a lot about organic farming but natural farming is going to another level of the natural. In the View from the Ark in the Catholic Times, a priest writer introduces us to a Japanese farmer, Akinori Kimura, and his new way of growing apples.
Another Japanese Farmer Masanobu Fukuoka (1913-2008) a philosopher, besides being a farmer believed the less a farmer did to disturb the natural ecology- no plowing, no chemical fertilizers, no weeding or use of herbicides or pesticides the better the land would respond. Akinori applied this teaching to growing apples and gave us the 'Miracle Apple'.
The articles mentions a talk that was given at one of the concerts by an educator to raise money for unwed mothers. A video that was shown moved many of those present. The talk was about the farmer Akinori Kimura and the documentary that caused a sensation in Japan when it was shown Dec.7th in 2006. His apples at a normal room temperature will not rot even after 6 months. They sell out as soon as they hit the market. A soup that is made from the apples is famous in all the first class restaurants in Japan. When a typhoon hits an orchard he has less damage than the ordinary orchards.
However, to reach this point in raising apples required a great deal of time, frustration and failure. Not using pesticides, blight and harmful insects reduced his harvest to almost nothing. Neighboring farmers considered him a fool. He was so demoralized, he even contemplated suicide. He withdrew to the mountains. During this time he saw an oak tree with its acorns that were not fertilized, no pesticides used, and gave us healthy acorns. He realized that it was the grass and earth that allowed it to happen. It took him 10 years to reach this in his orchard.
He gives credit to his family for the success he was able to achieve. The immediate cause for the change was his wife's allergy to the pesticides he was using. The love he had for his wife enabled him to overcome all the difficulties that he met during the ten years of work. This was a difficult period for the family because during the transition little money was coming in for the family to live.
The priest reminds us the word to learn and the word for spouse in Korean are written the same, leaving us with the message that a couple are made to love and to learn together up until death. Sadly, he says that for many it is teaching and the power of authority that has priority. In families of this type all may seem well but they are not happy, and there are many problems between parents and children.
He believes this is also true with priests and parishioners. They should both be interested in learning. The priest should be learning from the parishioners, and achieve happiness by working for the miracle of love.
The lesson that can be derived from the natural farming methods for growing miracle apples can be transferred also to our place in families, communities and society. The reason that Akinori was able to work for 10 years to achieve the miracle apple was the love he had for his wife. He wants us to overcome jealously, backbiting and lack of love which we often express, and make the effort to harvest the miracle fruit of love.
This past Sunday was the last Sunday of our liturgical year, and this Sunday is the first of Advent and the start of the New Year for us Catholics. A vocalist and part time columnist for the Peace Weekly give us important words of advice to begin the new year.
Every time he goes on the stage or is being video taped for a program there is a great deal of preparation. Arrangement of his clothes, the makeup, the tuning of his guitar, always effort to make a better appearance for his audience and the TV viewers. Rehearsals are required and since this involves others, a lot of time is spent waiting.
Rare is the time when he goes on the stage completely prepared. At times after rehearsals and a simple meal he sees that his hair, clothes, and makeup is messed up and because of the weather his guitar is in bad shape. All requiring fixing to get back to where he was in the first place. Despite all this preparation after the performance there is always the feeling that something was not right leaving him dissatisfied.
He feels this is not only true with vocalists but with all of us; all we need to do is change some of the words he used for himself. Especially at this time we have the students who have taken the exams for college entrance and their parents who tried their best and are waiting for the results. But in retrospect there is often the feel there was a lack in the preparation, and a feeling of regret. A feeling that we all have felt, and the next time, we say, it will be different.
For a vocalist there is always another opportunity to go on the stage, another program. Of course there is always the chance of making a serious mistake that would threaten the end of the vocalist's career as a performer, but even here, working diligently there will be another opportunity.Only one chance to succeed: a life that would not admit of mistakes and failure would be hell. Difficult it is to even imagine that kind of situation.
We have St. Peter who in one night time denied Jesus three times and St. Paul who persecuted the Church. Two good examples of those who have been given a second chance. Life is filled with second chances. Is it not true, he asks, that what we at times considered important looking back at the past turns out to be of little importance.
The opportunities that await us in life are like exams. What we did yesterday that worked out well may not be the case today. Life is filled with exams in which we test ourselves many times over. We learn from what we did that was not so good, correct our mistakes, and do the best we can at the next opportunity.
He concludes his column by telling us that one of our greatest discoveries was the eraser. What we can erase, means we can start anew. Whether we are satisfied with what was done yesterday or not, it was yesterday. We want to completely erase our mistakes; remember what was done, and begin again.
We have this opportunity with the start of the new liturgical year. Let us remember that we are always given graces to overcome our faults, and on our part be prepared to accept them.
Maryknoll Local Superior, Fr. Gerard Hammond, was recently interviewed by Catholic News (Here and Now). He has made 57 trips to North Korea and considers them as pilgrimages, for Bishop Hong and many Christians from the Pyongyang Diocese, and the Benedictine Religious, died a martyr's death in the North.
He is secretary of the Bishops Ad Hoc Committee for National Reconciliation. The interviewer asked him what he thought about the UN resolution on Human Rights in the North. Father considers his work with the TB patients in the North as work to extend human rights. Need is for more humanitarian aid to the North. Sickness is prevalent and infectious diseases continue to spread.
Father has been working as a trustee in the Eugene Bell Foundation since 2003. The bacteria that cause tuberculosis has developed a
resistance to the antimicrobial drugs used to cure the disease.
Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is TB that doesn't respond to the drugs of the the past and the foundation is working together with the public health programs of the North to eradicate TB with a new series of drugs. In many areas of the North the Eugene Bell Foundation is bringing in new medicines and medical equipment to help in the fight against TB. Referring to the TB patients: Fr. Hammond says, "Jesus worked among the suffering of his time and we want to be among the suffering of today."
When those who are suffering are at their lowest, the Church should be with them. Conversing with them in a peaceful way, the encounter and the interest we show is naturally helping to reconcile the North and South.
Fr. Hammond mentions that one of the most fearful things we face in life is the lack of interest--apathy. We in the South have to show more interest in the North. We have to pray and act, not only with material help, but to search for ways to communicate with the North.
One of the big problems is the inability of the South to travel to the North. He knows that prayer is not sufficient: we need acts of reconciliation and ways of directly showing interest in the North.
Bishop members of the committee for reconciliation have shown a desire to visit the North. Fr. Hammond and the the Benedictine Abbot of Waegwon, before the division of the country are members of communities that worked in the North.
Every six months the committee meets to discuss and examine the new information that has been gathered about the North and decides what the South can do to help the North. Although the bishops may not be able to go they hope someone will go in their place.
Fr. Hammond has a special affection for the Catholic Church of Repentance and Atonement in Paju, Gyeonggi-do. For those that can't go to North Korea he would like them to make a trip to the Church to pray, reflect on the fratricidal war between the North and South, and determine how we can help to bring about reconciliation and renewal.
Although he is an American with permanent residence in the South, he has no difficulty getting a visa to go to the North. He hopes to grow in humility and poverty and to work as a missioner in Korea until he dies. He has great sadness that those in the South are not able to meet those of the North. He is only acting as a temporary bridge for those in the South, hoping the day will come soon when they will meet as brothers and sisters.
'Know that we are loved.' Is the topic the nun columnist in the Catholic Times wants us to remember as an important part of the spirituality of
communication. She gives us the example of a writer that came to the
conclusion that he and his three teenage children were addicted to the
digital screen. Any free time they had would be with the computer or
the smartphone, glued to the screen. One day coming home from work, out
of the blue, he declared: no more 'screens' for six
months.
Let us suppose there were no smartphones or
internet, what would we be doing? she asks. We would be walking in the park with our
friends more often than we do it now; reading, and going to the
dictionary, talking more often and looking people in the eyes and communicating, and wanting to understand another more deeply.
She
recalls giving a group some homework: go home, look a family member in
the eyes, and have a conversation. One condition was to spend 10
minutes doing nothing else put looking directly at the person and
conversing. A week later she asked for the results of the assignment, and not
one out of the ten spent the 10 minutes in conversation. One woman said that she couldn't find the time but did talk to her husband while
she was driving. There was no time to spend in eye to eye contact, and
speaking to one another.
In a questionnaire recently,
parents have difficulty speaking to their children for even 30 minutes a day,
and mostly about their school work and their complaints. There are many couples
that do not even speak to each other in a proper fashion for even ten minutes. Reasons given can be unnerving: busy, fear of a fight,
it is useless. There are even those who communicate by means of Twitter until their anger subsides.
Another study showed
that those families that eat together at least 4 times a week have
two times more satisfaction in life than those that don't, and relate
better with the society in which they live. Communicating with one
another is a sign of a happy family.
A condition for
happiness is relationships, and this requires communication. This does
not only include talking to one another. St. Don Bosco in talking to
his teachers said: "Do not just stop at loving your children but make
sure they feel that love." To make them feel love means there is a need for mutual understanding. Full attention given to the other, and speaking
as if they were the only person present.
We are communicating with others without meeting the other.
Communication is everywhere, but mutual understanding is rare. We are
daily communicating with our smart phones, but are we meeting the other?
How about spending ten minutes today speaking face to face with a person you love; you will find there is the possibility of having it develop into a heart to heart
talk.
For
over a year there has been an hour long radio program, 'Korean Songs'
for overseas Koreans, mostly in China, Sakhalin and North Korea. The
best time for the listeners is from midnight to 7:00 am. There is little
feedback but one of the vocalists writing for the Peace Weekly
expresses his feelings on the outreach to the North with song.
On
occasions he has met defectors from the North or those who have spent
time in China before coming to Korea and has been told the songs and the
program have been a great consolation to them. Some
listened secretly to the programs while in North Korea, or heard the program in China while waiting to come to Korea.
Here in Korea we have TV programs in which North Korean defectors appear
together with celebrities from the South so there is a coming together,
but a distance is maintained, fear and avoidance of contact. The writer admits that even he after a year working with them doesn't find it easy to relate.
Those brought up in the South have difficulty with their way of
speaking: coarse and stiff. From the time they were in elementary school they heard only negative remarks about the North which makes forgetting the past difficult. The North Korean defectors have entered a
society altogether different from what they were accustomed. They find it difficult to open up to those in the South. With
the passage of time,he says, we will reach a point where we will see them as
members of our society. Separation has been long; it will
take time to overcome the language difference and customs.
In our efforts to become closer we will bicker, have misunderstandings, hurt feelings, and feel uncomfortable. If
we avoid these difficulties we lose the chance for intimacy. From the time we were born we have learned to relate with
others. We need not only envision unification of Korea, and coming closer
to the refugees from North Korea, but when we look around there are
many with whom we avoid. We should be the first to
approach them with a warm greeting.
Often
we hear, he says, that the vibes are not right, from the
start we exclude others from our company. But it is not difficult to see
that others may not like the vibes they experience in our company,
and choose to avoid us. We should ignore our feelings and do what we
know is right.
When
we were children our mothers often told us to get along with our
friends. Not only not to fight, but to know what they like and
don't like, and to enjoy what is in common and to understand what
is different. This is the way we need to go if we are to see a change not only with North Korea, but with those we choose to avoid in our society.
"Holiness doesn’t mean doing extraordinary things, but doing ordinary
things with love and faith." These words appear in Pope Francis' Tweet
for Dec. 13, 2013. Sister Claudia Hae-in Lee
writing in the Seoul Diocesan Bulletin gives us her thoughts on these
words. She prays that her ordinary life, motivated by love will become a
beautiful and exquisite flower.
In the one of the
rooms of her convent there are many scrolls on the walls, Chinese
Characters expressing words of wisdom; one of them is the 'ordinary mind'.
She mentions the wisdom from the writings of St.Therese: to do the
common things with uncommon love.
Also from the Analects of Confucius, Chapter 14-45 we have the 修己安人 (Making our self better gives peace to others) cultivating
ourselves, practicing the virtues, so we can give peace to others.
When
the sister is asked for an autograph she writes: 'may all your days be
renewed daily'. Although she has lived in the convent for half a
century she does not find living the ordinary life in an extraordinary
way with humility, patience, and with love, easy. Eating, cleaning,
washing, working, writing, reading, meeting people, etc. and to do it
with a prayerful heart, and to the best of her ability is not easy. When
this is accomplished the happiness that comes is not confined to one
place, but prepares the foundation that opens us up to the pain in the
world, our care for neighbor, and to be of service to others.
She
wants to experience her journey of faith in a special way, she wants
to relate in a special way with others, in the field of literature she
wants to be more elegant, and quietly vanity creeps in and annoys
her. But she knows without the ordinary she will not get to the special.
Without the tedious, and the desert like experience, she will not be subdued and matured by the ordinary.
Looking back
on her life she sees times that were not ordinary and she has cried
much, but she is looking forward to the ordinary and the joy and song
that will come. She wants to invite all of us to walk this way
of the ordinary
"Lord, today give me the grace to
accept the ordinary boredom that comes. Make me remember that faithfulness is the first step in the way of the spirit."
