Earthly life is a one time event and precious; we enjoy seeing life
in its many varieties. All life makes efforts to maintain itself.
Plants adapt to the rain, winds and sun, and send their roots down into
the earth; propagating themselves with the seeds that they send back
into the earth. Animals do the same, they make all the necessary efforts
to propagate even at temperatures at 90 degrees below zero, as does the
female and male emperor penguins, taking turns in caring for the young.
The
20th century gave us a great deal of hope but in the 21st we are
beginning to notice the problems of our earth. Looking over the
analysis and statistics we are riding on a bus in which the breaks are
giving us trouble. These are the words of a professor at the Taegu
Catholic University and the head of the Human Spirituality Center in the
diocese.He writes about the problems we face in this 21st century in
an essay in the Catholic Times.
He wants us to look at
the area of Admont around the famous abbey, the surrounding area and the
whole Country of Austria with a population of 8 million-- a little
smaller than South Korea. Even without trade with other countries they
are self sufficient. They make efforts to maintain a clean
environment, separating the trash for recycling, and the garbage, and
willing to accept penalties for failure to do so.
No
matter the efforts there is no guarantee they will receive what they
seek for the neighboring countries influence their own efforts. They
are still struggling with the refugees from the recent war in a
neighboring country.
We are given certain limitations
in our development and we need to keep this in mind. There are limits in
space and conditions that we need to follow or we will pay a
price. Buddhism and other advanced religions have seen the need for an
understanding of voluntary poverty-- the simple life-- to prevent us from destroying
ourselves.
Pressure is on us to make the change. He
recommends we not only be attached to this earthly life, but
keep our eyes on the resurrected life that Jesus has promised us, and desire it with a stronger faith.
This hope will give us the strength
and courage to accept the limitation of this life and do what is
necessary to solve the problems with our environment.
He concludes the essay by telling us there is no need to spell out what needs to be done, for we all know deep in our hearts what is necessary, the problem is to do it.
Jubilee is a joy-filled word which gives us reasons for jubilation.
The Old Testament Jubilee was celebrated after the seventh sabbath
year, the 50th year. Everything would return to the situation at the start of the 50 years:
land restored, debts forgiven, slaves freed, even the land was not
cultivated and all would be free to eat of the fruits of the land--a new beginning for all.
Bible & Life magazine has three articles on the Jubilee giving us an understanding of that legislation that most authorities say was never really completely practiced; not difficult to see why, the wealthy would have had great difficulty in giving up what they had earned. Avarice and selfishness is part of our DNA; the Jubilee for the most part remained a dream an ideal. However, at the beginning of Our Lord's public life this Jubilee was a part of his blue print as expressed in Luke 4:19.
It's
a dream we have as Christians. We can see the similarity of the Jubilee
Year to God's kingdom that we all entered at baptism with our decision
to imitate Jesus in loving, forgiving and showing mercy: a way of life
we decided to live. We have been bathed in this light and our work is to have all enter the community of humanity, leaving no one on
the peripheries.
Looking over the creation story
and the way it has developed despite the teaching received can leave one
with a feeling of despair. However, seeing it with the eyes of faith and going beyond the history of sin we can see the hand of God.
One
of the articles shows how we sometimes look at the Scripture as only a
written account of the past and fail to see it as a blue print for the
future. Looking over the history of the past there is much sadness and
suffering but the message of glad tidings (Gospel) is
always present to stimulate and inspire us.
Pope Francis has asked us not to remain in our own communities but to go out into the streets of the world. This is our work to proclaim the Jubilee to all the nations of the world.
Apathy is a lack of feeling when action would
not only be appropriate but required. Indifference is a synonym for
apathy and its opposite would be concern and sympathy. Many are the
sermons that put apathy and not hate as opposed to love.It may
be easier to go from hate to love than indifference to love.
A short article in the Catholic Times draws our
attention to the subject. She mentions drinking coffee in the morning
and those who see the face of a 5 year old child
picking the coffee beans in the hot sun. Not only in a far country but in Korea we have the indifference shown in many ways: to the
handicapped, those with problems in marriage, the poor and
suffering.
Pope Francis has mentioned often the globalization of indifference. Failure to see what is happening right before our eyes. "'I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that
you were cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor
hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have
prospered, and I need nothing; not knowing that you are wretched,
pitiable, poor, blind, and naked" (Revelation 3:15-17).
We
need to sympathize with the other, to walk in their shoes and to
understand others who are hurting.These thoughts are not only expressed
by Christians but by many others: philosophers and thinkers of other
ages. Mahatma Gandhi said it well: "The best way to find yourself is to
lose yourself in the service of others."
Tragedy and
apathy are at times associated. The Sewol tragedy was preceded by
apathy, and many saw apathy during and after the tragedy. The accident
will not just disappear into history for the families of the victims
will not allow this to happen, and many in our society and in other
parts of the world are joining the families.
Apathy is
often triggered by market values that blind us to the importance of
human life and its dignity. Tragedy could have been averted but
apathy preceded the tragedy, incompetence during the tragedy, and
mistakes made after the accident by the public, the media and the
government.
Hopefully the apathy before the tragedy
will be acknowledged and we will have complete transparency and be able
to admit the faults committed and prevent them from happening again.
"When one suffers all suffer" (I Cor, 12:26). We need to turn our vision towards those who are hurting.
Asia's time is in the third millennium. "In the first millennium, the Cross was
planted in European soil; in the second, in American and African ground;
we can pray that in the third Christian millennium, there will be a
great harvest of faith to reap in this vast and vital continent." These are the words addressed to the bishops of Asia in Manila in 1995 by Pope John Paul II.They begin an article in the Catholic Times on the Church of Asia. No longer will it be a copy of the Church of the West.
The task is not a an easy one. A diversity of people, cultures, traditions and two thirds of the peoples of the globe. Birthplace for religions, cradle for ancient cultures and civilizations, the home of religions that continue to influence the society in which they exist. Asians remember the unlawful seizure of their lands by the powerful nations of the West; after the Second World War some of the countries developed economically but many still face poverty, natural disasters, and wars that bring suffering.
Diversity of cultures, inhuman conditions, imperialism of the West and the harm done to some of the countries of Asia accompanied by Christianity is still fresh in the minds of many Asians. The missioners from the West have worked in Asia for the last 500 years and only 3 percent of the population has become Christian. In some of the countries like China and North Korea there is no freedom, and Christians are persecuted-- serious obstacles to overcome.
Pope Francis along with his two predecessor have seen Korea with a mission to work for the evangelization of Asia. The country has progressed greatly economically, democracy is strong, but the writer wonders if it is ready for the mission, it will not be easy but the Church has started contemplating the possibility. Scholars have expressed their opinion on the subject: there is a need to become more Asian.
What do we mean by an Asian Church? There is a need in evangelization to have a three part dialogue: with the poor, other religions and the culture. In 1998 in the meeting of the Federation of Asian Episcopal Conferences (FABC) the thinking expressed was that Asia can no longer be a copy of the Church of the West but has to have an Asian face: a need for inculturation.
The missioners from Korea going out to other lands have learned from the foreign missioners of the West and the problems that arose with their connection with the imperialism of their countries. There is a desire to serve the poor, and to dialogue with the poor, their traditions, culture and religions.
First, evangelization of Asia is similar to that of Korea. We have to be first evangelized otherwise we will not be an example of the light from the Gospel. One scholar expressed it as a renewal of oneself.
Secondly, the Churches of Asia need to speak with each other and become closer. Pope Francis in his talk to the Asian Bishops while in Korea said: “It will be impossible to have a true dialogue unless we open our
thoughts and minds in a sympathetic and earnestly accepting manner. So we need to be clearly aware of one's identity and
sympathize with others. This will be the starting point of dialogue.” He
also said, “I hope you can open your heart to others and promote
dialogue for the benefit of our Asian neighbors that have yet to build a
relationship with the Lord.”
Thirdly, efforts to make Christianity feel at home in Asia and not to imitate the West. This will require examination and a great deal of study. The article ends with the words of a missioner of the Korean Foreign Missionary Society, when a missioner goes to another country to evangelize he needs to ask himself: why, where, how, when, and to examine what he is meant to do; to study, and research and to have his mission work correspond to what he has learned.
Happy Easter! Today we celebrated the holiest day of the liturgical
calendar, the one with most meaning, the day on which the powers of
death have been conquered by the hope given by our belief in eternal
life. Death is the end for all of us but the death and resurrection of
Jesus allows us to participate in the new life he has promised--here and now. The
Catholic Times editorial reminds us of this meaning for Easter.
More
than any time in the past we are faced with despair, and frustrations. We endured the First and Second World Wars, our Korean civil war and
we are still fighting in our world village; uneasy about terrorist attacks, and the fear of tragedy.
Destruction of our environment and ecosystem is
putting into danger our living space. The spread of materialism,
worldliness, relativism, and unlimited competition is making the life of
the poor more difficult.
Korea is not an exception
with these problem. The young have difficulty finding work, our
situation is not much better than the times when we received relief from
the International Monetary Fund. The gap between the rich and poor
continues to grow, the dignity we should have for life is being trampled
by the culture of death. Many of our citizens are living with despair. Last years Sewol tragedy shows us how slow
our society has been to see the contradictions and immorality rampant
in society.
But no matter the problems,
we still have hope for the future and we should never lose that hope.
Christians have the example of Christ on the cross. We both participate in the despair of the cross, and in his resurrection. Despair like
that of death is overcome by the hope of the resurrection.
Resurrection is not only the possession of the Christian, but is the
message for all humanity. We have the Gospel message of the good news which is the word of hope to the whole world. Let us always be messengers of this hope.
On the front page of the Peace Weekly we are told that 220 years ago in the Korean Church, after many years without any priest, they had their first Easter Mass on April 5th of 1795. Chu Mun-mo the Chinese priest who entered Korea at the end of the previous year celebrated the first Easter Mass in an area of Seoul.
The Mass was a moving experience for all those present and the alleluia was their expression of joy in a language not their own. That Mass was the fuse that brought about a new persecution that began in that year. Han Yeong-ik a newly baptized Christian was the informer that made know the whereabouts of the new priest and the efforts to find him. He finally gave himself up to the authorities to save the lives of the Christians who were being detained, tortured and killed. He was martyred in 1801.
Each year we come to the climax of the liturgical year with the Easter Vigil Mass the same Mass celebrated 220 years before without the ceremonies we are accustomed to at the Vigil Mass.
The bishops of Korea each year have their messages for the Christians of the diocese and the key words for Easter: light, hope, courage all have a predominant spot in these messages.
The liturgical calendar is filled with all manner of visual aids for our participation and renewal. This evening we start with the new fire and light that spreads from the Paschal Candle to the congregation, and from there to the whole world.
The Peace Weekly editorial reminds us that it is the Resurrection that has given us the Church, and our joy in life. Without this meaning the suffering and death has little to offer us. The Resurrection gives all that precedes meaning.
We are living the resurrected life here and now which is the message of the liturgy. The world in which we live has much to depress us, and it is getting more difficult to see the good which still surrounds us. We are not only to find this good but to add to it with our lives filled with light, sufficient to overcome the darkness we see.
The number of Catholics in the world are numbered at 17 percent. A large number, but sadly the light that should be given is not focused but distorted. The light that should be emanating from this sizable number of Catholics should be of great help to those who are looking for a way to follow, but the light we have received and celebrate on the Vigil of Easter is dispersed, not focused, and what we did in symbol loses meaning when we leave the church.The candles we held in our hands remain merely an external rite without any meaning for our lives.
A seminary professor
in the Kyeongyang magazine gives us a meditation on the words of the
the crowd to Jesus in ridicule: "Now come down from the cross and save
yourself!" Pope Francis uses these words at his talk at the conclusion
of the Synod as one of the temptations that we face in life. "The
temptation to come down off the Cross, to please the people, and not
stay there, in order to fulfill the will of the Father; to bow down to a
worldly spirit of purifying it and bending it to the Spirit of God."
We
are faced says the professor with this temptation when we are
concerned only with the things of this world. Depending on who defines
the word we will have different understandings of secularism. A
secularist sees improvement of life by material means and science, and
working for the good in this present life,which most Christians would
agree, but there are transcendent values which materiality and science
cannot give us, and we only have to look at the world that we have for
the affirmation.
In the Korea of 2015,
says the professor, we are losing the values and capability of religion
in life. A Gallup Survey showed that since 1984 to 2014 there has been
great change in the way the people see religion. In 1984 those that
considered religion as important was 97 percent, in 2014 this decreased to 81
percent. Thirty years ago,the influence that religion had on society was accepted by 77
percent, in 2014 it decreased to 48 percent. This shows a big change in
Korean society. The values of the holy, transcendent and the eternal
have been replaced.
Children
are more interested in their computer monitors than going to
church.Churches are no longer the leaders in giving aid to the poor
replaced with many social welfare programs. Our citizens want more
improvement in the quality of life than in the past, and in many cases this does include the spiritual.
We no longer like
talking about carrying the cross. When we talk about sacrifice we like
to put it all aside, and follow the flow of society. When we go to
church we fold our hands in prayer and talk about justice and love but
in our daily life we are only interested in number one, ourselves.
The priest professor
admits in conclusion that he is not free from this temptation. He sees
himself seeking success and honor and is looking out for results. We
are not interested in what hurts because of the good that results. "Without the pain we don't have glory without death we don't have resurrection."
