Understanding Death to Live More Fully

Death puts an end to earthly life, a big event. Some deaths have great ramifications on society and often give great shock and sadness to others. The aftermath, however, is limited, generally, with the passage of time we forget. Death does not remain in life. We all know that life ends in death. Knowing that we are going to die influences the way we live.                        


Death makes life important; we can't separate them. Philosophy is the field concerned with understanding life and death. These words begin an article in the Peace Weekly about  a philosophy professor at the Catholic University. Ku In-hei  who teaches  at the  university and  has written the book: Study of the Philosophy of Death.

Death and life are two sides of a coin. She goes  through the history of the different philosophers and their treatment of death. They begin with anxiety about death but life is the preparation for death. 

In the time of the Greeks  death was both an enemy and a friend. At times seen as a sweet sleep and  described as a gloomy subterranean world. In a word it was seen as a world of contradiction.  At the times of the Renaissance  they made an effort to ignore it. The author calls this the time of forgetting. The  atmosphere of the times determines  the way we look upon death Each philosopher had their own way of seeing death. Without religion each used their intellect. What was the way the Christian looked on death? They saw beyond death and stressed love.

Christians believe in God's love which is eternal when  we live in that love we are already going towards eternity and overcoming death. Love is the reason for our creation and the  hope that  overcomes death. Love has the strength to transcend death.

Professor Ku concludes, we do not fear or avoid death but make our greatest effort to prepare to  pass through death with  peace. When we live our life completely the anxiety and fear of death has no possibility of coming into the picture.

Without a real understanding of death it is difficult to live life well, she maintains, and hopes the book will help us to have a better understanding of death.    

Suffering in Asia

Life as an immigrant is difficult. Leaving one's home  brings hardships. Coming from a country with a low wage scale, and living in one with a high wage scale  needs preparation-- they are often looked down upon and feel ostracized, and the disadvantages and hardships are not just a few. Two articles in the Peace Weekly addresses the situation of migrants  in Asia. One article treats the FABC (Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences) recent conference in Thailand on the issues.

In Korea as in other countries the Church does work pastorally with the immigrants. In Korea they are now addressed as guest workers which is an attempt to be more welcoming. One article says that it reflects on the citizens when our attitudes and behavior are not considerate of their difficulties.

Pope John Paul II in his apostolic exhortation Ecclesia In Asia says: "At the present time Asia is   experiencing an unprecedented flow of refugees, asylum  seekers, immigrants and overseas workers. In the  countries to which they come, these people often find themselves friendless, culturally estranged, linguistically disadvantaged and economically vulnerable. They need support and care in order preserve their human dignity and their cultural and religious heritage." This was written 16 years ago and in Korea the situation has got worse.

In Korea with the large number of migrants, we also have the need for helping them to integrate. This is a concern for both the Korean Church and FABC. 

There is the need for the  pastoral care of the immigrants. In Japan we have many Filipino women who have  come to Japan to work in the country areas and most of them would be Catholic, which is a concern because of the small number of Catholics in Japan. One Japanese bishops considers them a gift to the Japanese Church. 

Secondly there is a need to protect the dignity of the migrants. The treatment of illegal immigrants is a problem. Trafficking is fought against but the efforts are few, illegal immigrants are the victims of trafficking, men are  used as slaves on vessels at sea,  women are sold into prostitution,  and  children become the victims in pedophilia, and there are those from whom bodily organs are extracted. 

No one can remain indifferent to the suffering of the countless children in Asia who fall victim to intolerable exploitation and violence,not just as the result of the evil perpetrated by individuals but often as a direct consequence of corrupt social structures. The synod fathers identified child labor, pedophilia and the drug culture as the social evils which affect children most directly, and they saw clearly that these ills are compounded by others like poverty and ill conceived programs of  national development. The Church must do all she can do overcome such evils, to act on behalf of those most exploited, and to seek to guide the little ones to the love of Jesus" (Pope John Paul II).

The article on the FACB ends with  the need for prayer and to get involved in the problems the continent faces. The Church needs to hear the cry of those who are suffering in Asia.    

Working for the Common Good

In the Peace Column of the Peace Weekly, the columnist  doesn't know if it is his lack of knowledge, but he is not  happy with the present government nor was he with the past one. He has bad memories of both; same problems exist as in the past.

Just a few weeks ago we had the suicide of three  unmarried sisters in their late twenties and early thirties who had lost their jobs.We were supposed to have change; they did make plans but nothing changes. Can we say the government is incompetent? 

Why is this the situation we face? The reality is the politics we have. What do we mean by politics? The dictionary gives us two meanings. Strict meaning is managing the government, sustain and exercise the powers of government in order that the citizens may lead a decent life; mutual understanding  of one another that brings order into society.

The problem is with those managing the government. They have been given the authority to bring happiness into the lives of the citizens, but it is difficult to see. The opposition party is not much different; they are continually in factional fighting.

In a broader sense of  the word politics as explained in a book for elementary school children: a way of enabling the different opinions and squabbling to come to an  amicable conclusion. We have different dispositions, come from different environments, different ways of thinking; conflicts are inevitable. With dialogue and compromising, and coming to an harmonious solution is what politics is about. In  our country the ability  to compromise and communicate is deficient. If one doesn't agree with one side they become an enemy.  

This is not only true in politics but this factionalism can be see in many other areas of life: regional conflicts, social status, rich and poor divide--  factionalism is an element of our culture.

He concludes the article blaming the failure to understand the meaning of the 'common good' as the basic problem. With this lack of understanding we are not negotiating  a true agreement, but merely temporarily pasting the  issues together but in short order they separate again.                                                        

Happiness: a By-product of a Life Well Lived

Today,Trinity Sunday, the editorial in the Peace Weekly reminds us that a true understanding of our faith is a short cut to happiness. Strange that we have to be reminded of this but there are good reasons why this seems necessary.

Humans were made to be happy. What we do and think will determine whether we are happy or not. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church we hear: "The Beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness. This desire is of divine origin: God has placed it in the human heart in order to draw man to the One who alone can fulfill it."

On Trinity Sunday we talk about God who is love, sending the Word in love who is Jesus, who in turn  sends us the Spirit  to instruct and lead us so that we will have joy now and forever. We  forget this basic teaching which is that we were made to be happy now and forever.

The editorial mentions that today in Korea we also celebrate Youth Sunday.The young people are not happy. They study with great effort to get into college, achieved they have to find work, and then romance, marriage and raising a family, this package of three in many cases has to be  postponed.

Young people are not getting the courage and consolation from their attendance at Masses, and  consequently they are leaving the Church. They are not finding  answers they need.

In the editorial mention is made of the message of Pope Francis to the youth of the world. He  stresses true happiness. “Dear young men and women, in Christ you find fulfilled your every desire for goodness and happiness,” continues the Holy Father. “He alone can satisfy your deepest longings, which are so often clouded by deceptive worldly promises.”

Youth is a time of storm and stress. They have not found their  place in life, are uncomfortable, and  open to all kinds of temptations. What is kernel and what is the shell are not  easy to discover, and to find the truth in their faith life is not easy.

Pope Francis  earnestly entreats  they never forget  that God wants their happiness.  For a Christian happiness is not only the object of life but also our duty, and the easiest way to achieve happiness is living our religious life.

The problem that arises is that the happiness that is given is not in the way the world gives, and here is the difficulty that many of the young do not  understand--it is not found by searching for it.  A Christian paradox which apparently few understand and one of the most important. 

Are We a Church of the Poor?

Pope Francis continues to be a topic of interest in even  his smallest actions and words. A fashion specialists after making a study of the pope's style calls it 'minimalism'. This keyword includes simplicity and  plainness. A Salesian,  priest columnist, who writes in the View from the Ark, examines the life of the pope and leaves us with his reflections.

Pope Francis in  his visit to Korea was using a 50 dollar watch. He was wearing shoes made by a small shoemaker in Buenos Aires, the ring and the neck piece were made with silver. In his very person he was showing us a distancing from materialism with which we are surrounded. In Korea, especially, we have the economic progress firmly compressed,  which makes the virtue of poverty difficult to practice

Jesus lived poverty but it was not a miserable life. It was a life freely chosen, which was his glory and  blessing. Poverty gave him freedom. When a person feels the miserableness of poverty than we have real poverty. Christians today need to examine this  theme in detail, we need to make known that poverty is not  something bad. We need to show that we can be happy without money, contrary to the spirit of the times. Money when it becomes the answer to everything we are on the verge of falling into big hole. We are driving our older people to the edge of a cliff, making for a bleak future.

Pope Francis in seeing the poor leaving the church is angry. The Church needs to lessen the gap between the poor and rich. A beautiful bridge needs to be built between them.Religious living the life of poverty is a good, but they need to share this with the poor.

Pope Francis is beginning to give us a  spirituality of poverty  following on that of St. Francis. The priest columnist  remembers the visit to Korea of the pope and all his travels. He showed us what humility and poverty meant with his whole body. Everyone of his actions in meeting with the poor were intimate and  natural. His visit has made for a new spiritual awakening for the Church.

We need to take his lead and work to bring about a change in our life as followers of Jesus. We don't  want to change the direction he has given us--a small, poor church, with poor and humble pastors getting close to the poor.

The pope's words continue to resound in the ears of the columnist.  We want to change the bureaucracy of the clergy at the center, and careerism within the church. We need to become a church of the old, the poor and the young. And concludes with the question: Are we making it easy for the poor to enter our communities without any feelings of discrimination and alienation?  

You Can Be A Saint

“I tell you the truth, I am convinced that if each one of us would purposely avoid gossip, at the end, we would become a saint! It’s a beautiful path!” These words and similar ones on gossip  are heard often from Pope Francis. An article in a secular newspaper mentions the direction the Church is making with 'poverty'-- the words of a columnist who mentions Fr, Jin Seul-ki, who wrote a book titled: You Can be a Saint By Not Backbiting.  A collection of the  sayings of the  pope. 

Fr. Jin Seul-ki  a Korean priest who is in Rome studying philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University translated a collection of the pope's saying under the title You Can Be A Saint.... He has also uploaded the pope's sermons to YouTube with Korean subtitles, and in the book he has the  video clips with QR code, for those who want to access the sermons. 

Pope Francis has continued to express the  need for the Church to identify with the poor of society. The article  mentions the talk he gave to the  priests and religious in Naples. He said diocesan priests do not take the vow of poverty but they should live the spirit of poverty. When profit comes into the parish life we dirty the message.

He also spoke of the danger of attachment to worldly goods. He said when priests or religious  are attached to money, they will  prefer people with money. In a humorous aside, the Pope told of a woman who was so attached to money that when she fainted someone suggested putting 100 pesos under her nose to awake her.

He also was very pointed about poverty when he talked to the bishops and priests in Korea.  When he was asked how  he viewed the Korean Church  he answered: "Your Church is a growing Church, a wonderful  evangelizing Church, a big Church. With the prophetic mission of the Church you don't want to exclude the poor. A Church rich and for the rich, a Church of well-being is not the Church you want to be." These words were sharp and bitter to hear.

In one of the talks the columnist mentions the pope said:  when we are too interested in money and its  benefits we lose our freedom to speak the truth.

He concludes his column by stating that the religious groups  are busy determining how they are to become transparent in the use of monies. People want to see clergy live a poorer life style, and reminds us that here we have the original thinking of all religions.

Spirituality Is Not All the Same

This Chinese Character  靈 is the one we use in Korea for the Holy Spirit and spirituality in general. This doesn't fit our Christian understanding of the spiritual. Korea's shamanistic history shows itself in the way the icon expresses the spiritual. The top part of the character is the  icon for rain, the three mouths  are said to express the rain falling and the bottom character is the icon for sorceress who  dancing, asks for rain.

A seminary professor who teaches spirituality begins a series of articles in the Peace Weekly on the subject. He has the need to speak about spirituality with the modifier Catholic, because of the possibility of misunderstanding, due to the shamanistic understanding of spirituality in Korean history.

After the second Vatican council we use the word spirituality often in our teaching. Not only within Christianity but even outside of religion altogether. But the professor makes it clear that in Korea the word does have a context that is different from what we would understand by the word. In Korea the word would  mean marvelous, magical, and strange. The context in which the West understands the word is missing. He admits this is also changing in the West. The Church in Korea started using the  word regularly about 20 years ago. He says it is not an exaggeration to say that  Christians are forcing a Christian meaning on to their past understanding of the word. In Korean society all feel no restraint in using the word spirituality, which he says requires we be attentive to this reality.

The shamanistic history of Korea will continue to influence the native religions and those  from the outside and society. This common denominator  probably is the reason that Koreans have a good feeling towards the practices of other religions.   

Spirituality as used in Korean society does not have the Christian meaning of the word. If we do not understand the Christian meaning we will easily, without any discernment, have an eclectic acceptance of other religious beliefs, and the possibility of losing our faith. 

We have in recent years accepted a great deal from what we have learned from anthropology and psychology in our spirituality which is a good but we have to discern otherwise spirituality can be just the results of what we have learned from psychology.  Our spirituality becomes  a hodgepodge of the teachings of many other religions and ceases to be Christian, consequently, he concludes the need to use the  modifier Catholic when he speaks about spirituality.