Today is Mercy Sunday and throughout the Catholic World a time to
reflect on how merciful we have been to others and how open we have
been in receiving God's mercy in the confessional. Pope Francis has
proclaimed a Holy Year of Mercy starting on Dec. 8 of this year. A time
to experience the love of God who consoles, pardons, and instils hope.
In
the archives of the Pastoral Bulletin from last year there is a lesson
on how mercy was shown by two men, Mr. Kim and Mr. Park, who were
contemplating suicide, and whose friendship changed their lives. The
story of their friendship and change in life did make the international
news a few years ago.
Mr. Kim gave surety for a
friend and was left with a debt of over 300.000 dollars. Mr. Park
lost his wife in a traffic accident, and was being sued for wrong
doing, and during the litigation became depressed and decided
to end it all. They both found their way to the Han River bridge. The
police were called and they were helped to change their minds and
promised to give life another chance.
The police
mentioned how the two of them left the bridge and ended up going for a
drink at a nearby pub, and became close friends-- both in their
late 30s. That night each decided to buy 10 lottery tickets and if
they won they would split the money. They came in second and won over 300,000 dollars. Mr. Kim had the winning ticket but both men had a
naturally kind nature, and each wanted to give the money to the other.
They
exchanged letters and briefly: Mr. Park wrote he had a job, and
could take care of his family but Mr. Kim had a debt of over 300
thousand dollars and that was the reason he was thinking of suicide. Mr.
Kim, however, said because of the death of Mr. Park's wife, the family was
without a mother and the litigation made his situation more serious.
They went back-and-forth trying to give the money to the other.
One
night Mr. Kim, having too much to drink went to the house of Mr. Park,
or so he thought, and put a letter in his mail box with the winning
ticket. Mrs. Zin, however, was the owner of the house, and seeing the ticket and money, notified a newspaper, where it was reported and became
internet news.
A bank hearing the story of the
two men, offered to give a similar sum of money that they won in the
lottery to Mr. Kim, to take care of his debt, and pay for the best lawyers in the country to help Mr. Park in his litigation, and solve his problems with the law.
The
article concludes with the words of a leader in society who recalled
how winning the lottery has broken up families, and in this case how
each was only concerned for the other, brought tears to his eyes. There
is still a lot to be grateful for in society."A little bit of mercy makes the world less cold and more just." Pope Francis
A man remembers the exploitation of the elementary Sunday school
children some fifty years ago in the building of his parish church, and
writes about it in the diocesan bulletin. Many of the children would
take a whetstone attached to poles with which they polished the imitation
stone on the floor of the church. Many of the children ruined their
clothes in the process. This was their Saturday afternoon work for a
couple of months.
While building the church
at the end of the 60s the writer mentions that he would spend his
weekends at the construction site doing miscellaneous tasks-- no
catechism during that time, all done under the watchful eyes of the
parish sisters. The construction site was a dangerous place with all
the equipment on the property. Today the church would have been sued for
labor exploitation of the young, but because of the poverty of the
times this wasn't even imagined and all joyfully joined in the work.
Many
times during the construction, the work stopped because of lack of
funds. Adults would be doing odd jobs and the children kept busy with their tasks. Often
the floor of the church would be covered with newspapers, and the
parishioners would attend Mass sitting on the floor.
His mother hearing that her son was at the construction site,
and working, made her happy. They were not able to give much to the
construction of the building so this was a way of participating in the
building of the church. The thinking of those days is hard to understand
by our present generation: we have difficulty putting up with
inconveniences.
Whenever he goes back to his home parish
and attends Mass he looks down at the floor that he helped to build, and
feels good about his participation. There are many from those days who
have entered religious life,and have done well in living their faith as
lay persons.
In entering a newly built, top of the line church, the feelings of the parishioners are different from those he
had as a child. They were able to live with the imperfect and simple, difficult with the new generation. Community was very
important in those days, not as true in our times.
He
concludes his article with thoughts on how we become imprisoned by the culture in which we live, without thought of what is causing us to
go in one direction instead of another. We are being changed. A present need is for
us to observe our culture and judge its worth and failings. Moral
judgements need to be made and it is not only a question of what
political party is in charge.
We don't reflect on what the culture is doing to us-- necessary if we want to be evangelizers. We need to know what is imprisoning us. The very thing the culture tells us is freeing us is taking our freedom away, and we are blind in not seeing what is happening. He uses the story of Lazarus and Dives in Luke 16:19. A good man who was so influenced by his culture, he couldn't see anything besides his own needs.
A Jesuit retreat master in the Catholic Times, introduces us to 'Gospel
Contemplation' which he distinguishes from meditation on the Gospels.
Easier than meditation because there is no need to use our powers of
thinking and reasoning. We read a passage a number of times, and
recall it for our Gospel contemplation.
The Gospel passage is a very brief written expression of what transpired in the time of Jesus. The incident in Mark where Jesus was baptized by John
the Baptist, is an example. Jesus came from Galilee, and was baptized by
John at the Jordan-- only three lines of print. What we need to do is
to fill the spaces between the lines and pray. We select something of
interest to ourselves, ask questions, and wait for the answers.
In this situation we look at Jesus leaving Nazareth, his trip to the
Jordan. How many were there? What were they doing? What do we want to know? We wait for the answers to
come from deep inside us. It is like the unfolding of a novel we
are writing, but we stop at what grabs our attention. We interact with the Gospel incident, dwelling on what is before us: an image, thought, feeling, whatever touches us deep down inside, bringing something to our attention that we never imagined before, that could trigger a change in our view point and disposition and make us a new person. This is the
heart of contemplation.
During the contemplation what is not
described in the Gospel passage: the feelings of Jesus, his actions,
are given meaning by us, we come to an intuitive understanding of the situation.
Our hearts are moved, our love grows, and we want to follow him more
closely.
There are those that recommend becoming one of the
participants in the scene. In the example we have with John the Baptist
and Jesus, one could take the place of John the Baptist and ask Jesus
questions and react with him, but he does not think this is helpful--
too much psychology, and one remains on a superficial level-- meaning
for him, the chances for change in one's life would be minimal.
He
would like to compare what we are doing to visiting a country market day, and watching
what is transpiring and developing in front of us. When something
moves you deeply you stay with it, and think about it, and let your feelings speak. You move from one to another of these situations and
let your intuition decide what to do.
Many say their
imagination is not good which militates against the Gospel
contemplation. He concludes, with his conviction, it is not the
imagination that is the problem but the lack of love for Jesus.
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.
