A priest writing in a pastoral bulletin gives us some thoughts on how to deal with what we consider evil.
He has 8 siblings who relate well with each other but recently he did quarrel, used some words that hurt and lost control of the situation. Thankfully all recently has returned to normal.
Because of what he experienced in the family his thoughts became clearer on the need for respect and courtesy in society and the many problems we face. Each person has their own solution.
We can't say we are always right. Maturity is needed. I am right and you are wrong and refuse to hear the other's opinion closes the conversation before it starts.
Koreans have a lot of passion and want to do the right thing so when they see injustice there is no compromise and mercy. As a result, overcome with emotion, we hear: "I die and you die" and are faced with a catastrophe.
We see this presently with the Japanese and Korean situation. We are far from united on the way to address the situation. This is true of the North-South problem also. We should be able to solve the problems between us but see flags of other countries in demonstrations.
Political strife between political parties is not a fight to the death. It is not a battle to annihilate the opponent. The same is true with the South's problems with North Korea. The situation of confrontation is correct, but it is a brother to be reconciled. Of course, a military is necessary. This is to prepare for the worst possible consequences of the opponent's misunderstanding of the situation.
It is necessary to take the time and not to react immediately to the criticism of the opponent. When Jesus quickly dismisses a gentile woman's request for help for a daughter and calls her a little dog and tells her it is not right to throw the children's bread to a dog, she makes light of the seeming abuse: "Yes. Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children's leftovers." A woman who knows humor. Jesus is amazed and revises what he previously said. Reprimands, accusations, and attacks do not change a person. For the truth to be heard by another, goodwill needs to be shown.
Nowadays we hear a lot of talk about taking legal action with opponents. Politics is the art of the possible. Instead of doing one's best it may be better to do the second-best thing. The other side also needs to breathe and use strength if we are going to have a healthy relationship.
If you call you opponents: idiots or stupid, Jesus says that you will be dragged to the central court and dropped into hell fire, so the best thing is to compromise quickly on the way to court. Extreme expressions, rude or abusive language, should be avoided. It's frightening to see the comments throw at the other camp. It's so easy to label the opposing faction with 'leftist' 'extreme right', 'bone pain', 'aborigines' and the like. Once you label others, you lose the power to think otherwise. Even with evil one needs to be gentle.
We need to learn how the profiler's technique opened the mouth of a serial killer. (A recent case where a prisoner who was in prison confessed to other murders which he had committed). They treated the prisoner warmly. "Did you have a meal?" They met with him nine times, he stared at the female investigator's hand and said, "Can I hold your hand?" The investigator then said, "Let's shake hands after the investigation." From then on, he began to open his mouth.
Jesus also talked to the devil. If we can only have warm conversations, we will be able to walk along with anyone and journey together toward the common good. We confess God as our Father. 'Our Party', 'Our Opposition', 'Our Neighbor Japan' and 'Our North Korean Brothers' all are possible. We need to embrace the heart of the Lord who embraces all in unity.
A missionary priest working in Korea writes in the pastoral bulletin for priests on the concept of function.
He recalls a visit home and seeing the album of his sister-in-law that was published in commemoration of their 50th anniversary of graduation. They were asked to answer for the 50th anniversary yearbook whether they realized the expectations they had 50 years before at graduation.
He spent some time reflecting on the expectation that he had for life. Our expectations are the seasoning of life. When we are young, we dream and think a lot about what we will do in the future. But these days young people are worried. Finding a job is not easy. The playing field in which they will enter is far from level and they know it. They will have a more difficult time than their parents, understandable but sad.
But those who live by faith know that God did not call us to succeed but to do our best and live faithfully. Even if it's not what's desired you find another way and have the courage to challenge yourself. Attitude is important. Living the virtuous life, searching for wisdom, and living the life of a disciple are not the values of society and we get contrary messages of other ways. Society values functionality and encourages and seduces us in the need to succeed.
A few decades ago, there were priests in American society who viewed the priesthood as functional only. This was easy to believe since many priests have many other positions in the Church besides pastoral activity. In English, they are seen as 'hyphenated priests'. Priests work fulltime in many fields, as teachers, administrators, researchers, authors, the arts, etc. Of course, the Church clearly teaches that the life of a priest is not functional but ontological. The right orientation in all things and the desire to do God's will, make all fit easily into the mission of a priest. Protestant pastors, for the most part, see their work as functional but this is not what it should be for priests.
It is easy to see why many laypeople have the same idea on their roll in the church as one of function. The laity also participates in the universal priesthood. The priesthood is a mission given to a baptized person. However, we need teaching to emphasize that this priesthood is not the same as the ministerial priesthood but at the same time not just functional. This mission of the laity is not only participating in Masses, praying, serving, and helping to support the church. They are full-time disciples, not part-time disciples. Religious, clergy, and laypeople are the same in this respect.
The day-to-day daily activities of the laypeople, at home, working, shopping, at play, relating with others, can all be related to their mission as disciples. The laity, like the priests, do everything that comes from their being as disciples and the universal priesthood of the laity.
Of course, this is not making us superior in any way or considering us better than anybody else but an understanding of our calling to mission of all disciples. We are all one in Christ. The priesthood of the priest and the universal priesthood of the laity are both ontological, using a philosophical word. If this became the understanding of the laity would this not make a tremendous difference in the way they saw their calling?
"Hence the laity, dedicated as they are to Christ and anointed by the Holy Spirit are marvelously called and prepared so that even richer fruits of the Spirit may be produced in them. For all their works, prayers, and apostolic undertakings, family and married life, daily work, relaxation of mind and body, if they are accomplished in the Spirit —indeed even the hardships of life if patiently born—all these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (Cathechism #901).
"When anyone is joined to Christ, he is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come"(2 Cor 5:17).
In the Eyes of the Believer column of the Catholic Times a Jesuit professor of sociology gives us a meditation on a fish tank and asks the readers: Have you ever raised fish? You have water, various fish, plants and food. How do you keep the fish from getting sick? He gives us three things to do.
First, fish in the tank should be given the right amount of food regularly. If you have a variety of fish, large and small, and food is scarce, only the big and strong ones will eat, and sometimes the big ones will eat the small ones. Secondly, there are other things in the tank such as plants, sand, gravel, motors, lights, and so on, and how used is important. Thirdly the water above all must be good. If there is a lot of excrement and moss in the water the beneficial bacteria will be less and ammonia will be generated and the water murky.
For these fishes to live well, one has to have concern for the whole fish tank. It's not enough to be concerned only with the fish. Our human society is similar to the fish in the tank! For each person to live healthily and happily, we must consider and improve the overall social environment of society.
First, to become a human society, we do not follow the law of the jungle where the weak become the food of the strong but a society where nourishment, proper food, goods, jobs, and opportunities are provided fairly. Today, the neoliberal economic system, as Karl Polanyi points out, gives primacy to the market and profit to an extreme, rather than "human society," justifying the survival of the fittest and polarizing society. Pope Francis stresses frequently, precisely because of this, we need to be wary of the neoliberal dictatorship.
Second, the social system like the devices in the fish tank must work together. If some laws and institutions are only beneficial to some and harmful to the powerless and marginated these laws and institutions must constantly be evaluated and reformed based on universal human rights and the common good.
Third, just as the water in the fish tank has to be fit for the fish to live so also in our personal lives the environment in which we live has to promote a healthy daily life. In a culture that benefits greed, domination, comparisons, competition, discrimination, and aversion, it is difficult to seek understanding, consideration, cooperation with others. Persons who are hurt in this culture are left to survive and find healing and are easily caught in the trap of individualism.
Our church has confessed that the stressing in the past salvation of one's own soul, we were forgetting the community and the mission of evangelizing. Those who wanted to see a change in society and worked towards that end were seen as communists.
However, what God wants to save is not only myself but all of us. "God loved this world so much that He sent His only Son," says John (3:16). A merciful Creator takes care of the entire fishbowl and wants all the fish to be healthy. The Second Vatican Council also emphasizes the fact that God offers holiness and salvation to God's people (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church # 9).
Christ, symbolized by the fish since the early church, sacrificed himself for the purification of the world and the salvation of all human beings. Our church must follow Jesus and be faithful in our mission of evangelization. We Christians pray not only for the salvation and success of ourselves and families, but we must pray that this society, where everyone lives together as the Creator desires, will be purified and become a more just and peaceful world.
"I can't remember making my mom happy. Not once… So sad."
Not long ago, Mrs. M, who lost her mother, with a trembling voice crying like a baby, uttered these words. Her sadness was so deep that the religious sister writing in her weekly Catholic Times' column remarks how she couldn't help but be deeply moved by the sadness of the woman and it brought to mind that she also could not remember incidents in her life where she brought joy to her mother.
The sister grabbed the woman by the hand and they cried together. At the same time, trying to think of a moment of happiness that she gave her mother. "There were such moments."
When the sister's mother received a lung diagnosis she had the same feeling as Mrs.M. "Ah, there's nothing I did for my mother. What should I do?" She was in a hurry to get home for a month's vacation. Looking back, all she remembered was the feeling of guilt in failure to please her mother.
She urged her mother to go out in the sun even though she was sick and hard to move. To help in her recovery, she forced her mother to eat the food she didn't like. Hearing her cough during the night she would go to her room and embrace her and say: "How difficult it is?" She restrained herself from crying before her mother not wanting to add to the suffering. Thinking of her mother there was no time to think of the gratitude she had for being with her mother during those last days. In retrospect, she did recall the feelings of gratitude.
Why do we keep bringing up bad memories? Do we have more painful memories? Is it not that we expect happiness to be enormously magnificent, and consequently coop up all the joys of life deep in our imagination? In addition, the pain that hurts us, big or small, strong or weak are bugaboos that seem to cover over all the joys we have. Is that not the reason pain is remembered more than happiness?
Sometimes the memory of pain hurts more than the pain itself. The memory of the suffering of the past prevents us from enjoying the joys of the present. Sometimes seeing the small dark clouds in the sky we worry about the future and forget the shining sun in the present sky. Even under the bright sunshine, the memory of the dark clouds of the past prevents us from basking in today's sun. If we deny the present, our fears will increase and multiply the pain.
Even if there's an enormous amount of happiness, "Isn't this a dream? Can this be happening to me…" Bewildered one can miss the very moment of joy. In our daily lives, everything seems to be routine and no different from the day before: 'that's life' and we don't notice the small moments of joy.
Every day should be filled with joy—writing, meeting people, eating, talking. All of this should be moments of joy. Isn't this the daily life of most? All want to enjoy life, we need to carefully give ourselves to what we are doing as completely as possible and with thanks in our hearts.
The end of the past is the present. We greet the present with memories of the past. So what I remember and live tells me what I will do today. The memory of the past will be helping to make my present and the future.
God has allowed me to come to this moment in time and I am thankful and also tonight, even tomorrow morning. Of course, at some point, this will not be the case the chances are good that we will fall and be hurt. It will hurt a lot. It is then that we return to the past and remember the moments of joy in life and ask for the strength to endure the pain of the present.
The seeds of the Gospel were brought to Japan in 1549, 250 years earlier than Korea. The zeal for the Gospel was present in Japan for some time but was quenched by severe persecution, but even during the persecution, the hidden Christians kept the fire of faith for 250 years without a priest. At present, there are just under 0.5% of the population Catholic. The Catholic Times has an article by a Korean Jesuit missioner working in Japan that gives the readers an idea of Christianity through his eyes.
'Zainichi' is a word that refers to Koreans in Japan. In Japanese society, even if they are naturalized and acquire Japanese nationality, they continue to be called 'Zainichi' and treated as foreigners.
Japanese immigrants in the United States and South America are called Japanese Americans or Japanese-Brazilians. Then why doesn't Japan, likewise, call Koreans who have moved to Japan and acquired citizenship "Korean-Japanese"? You don't want to call them Japanese, there is a certain social distance you want to keep, this is understandable to a point but you go beyond that. Using the word 'Zainichi' casually is horrible discrimination.
Whenever the writer has a chance he wants the Christians in the community to use the word Korean Japanese or Philippine Japanese when addressing the other national groups but without results. Is it that the time is not right or that he doesn't understand the situation?
The Japanese Church will celebrate the feast day of the 26 martyrs of Nagasaki on February 6th. They were a group of Catholics who were executed by crucifixion on February 5, 1597, at Nagasaki. Their martyrdom is especially significant in the history of the Catholic Church in Japan. The persecution against Catholics continued. Another day on September 10, they remember those who were martyred in other parts of Japan from 1617 to 1632. Their nationalities include seven countries, besides the Japanese and Koreans.
Japan is a country that cannot be reached without crossing the sea. Nevertheless, this diversity of nationalities of the martyrs is intertwined with the circumstances of the times. Japan opened its ports to these countries and traded with them but forbade Catholicism. They came to preach the Gospel and were martyred.
This shows that the 'Japanese Early Church' was a church formed with a multinational culture. No nationality is involved in the construction of the kingdom of God. This grace continues even after 400 years.
The parish in which the writer has pastoral duties is one of the largest in Japan. The church near Shinjuku in Tokyo attracts more than 5,000 believers at Sunday Mass. Japanese language (5 times, 2296), English (1120), Spanish (173). Mass, biweekly or once a month Vietnamese (1092), Indonesian (80), Polish (78), and Portuguese (61).
On October 6, the total number of pilgrims attending Sunday was 4740. According to statistics, more than half are foreigners. Currently, the Catholic Church of Japan is overwhelmingly foreign more so than any other denomination. As a result, the Tokyo Archdiocese has experienced the cultural differences and unity of heart, and since last year, has established and practiced "consensus within diversity" as a pastoral guideline.
The Japanese church is now trying to respond to other ethnic and multicultural realities. When more than half of the church's believers are foreigners, the Japanese do not feel the church is being taken away from them, but a chance to build the current Japanese church together.
On the lawns of the church, children from different countries, different hair, skin colors, and languages are seen speaking in Japanese and playing together.
One day, an elementary school student asked his father what nationality was the child with whom he was playing. The father replied: "Yes, his name is Thomas." Before distinguishing, the father, a mature Christian, was teaching his son that the person comes first. The Church of Japan as well as the Jesuit parish in one sense, is already living in the kingdom of God. If they are conscious of this fact and learn to pass it on to the next generation, the Japanese church can be said to be heading in the right direction.
There are many international religious groups in the Japanese Church, dedicated to evangelization and missionary activities with strong resources and manpower. The Jesuits were at the beginning in charge of the Hiroshima Diocese; they are still present (Busan is the Sister Diocese). They have a College of Music, Secondary Schools, Retreat Houses, Labor Education Center, 20 parishes and kindergartens.
Thirty years ago they realized that they would lack vocations so they divided the dioceses into districts. It was late but the Order moved ten years ago. The biggest difficulty in the process of change was the uncooperative attitude of the older members. They thought that the work they had carefully prepared during the last 60 years would all end. At this time, the leadership of the Diocesan and Provincial Directors was important. You should be able to celebrate failures.
From November 23, Pope Francis comes to Japan from Thailand. Is it a coincidence that both countries have a small number of believers and the church is operating in less than ideal conditions. They are waiting for the warm touch of Pope Francis.
In the early 1960s in front of the gates of elementary schools, one would see banners with the motto: Intellectual, Moral, Physical. They were taken from the Chinese characters: wisdom(智) virtue(德)physical(體). It was the understanding of society on what constituted a robust education.
In recent years they have been replaced with 'Happy Education', 'Dreams for the Future', 'Let us Greet Each Other With a Smile' and the like. Society was not too happy with the results of the old educational system where exams were everything, studies based on rote memory and knowledge for the college entrance— which in the eyes of many determined the future, and filled the children's growing up years with unnecessary pressure.
However, little has changed and the pressure still exists and the number of depressed students and suicides because of the exams is still with us. Efforts continue to be made but the rite of passage into adulthood by way of college is difficult and unhealthy but what to do doesn't come easy to the mind because of history and culture.
On Nov. 14 the senior high school students will be taking their college entrance exams. The mystique built up over the years on this one exam is hard to describe but it is not healthy. Not only students but the whole society knows in numerous ways that this is the day the student's future will be decided. They are all trying to get into the best colleges and they all know what they are and what is required to enter. Consequently, there are many in society that want to see a change in this craziness.
Making a quick search of the old slogans on the internet it was interesting to find that not a few wanted to change the order of the ancient three aspects of education. You have those that wanted the physical first and you have also virtue listed in the first place.
Those who wanted physical in first place recalled the old Latin phrase: Anima Sana in Corpore Sano (A healthy soul in a healthy body). For those who find the use of the word anima (soul) uncomfortable they used the word 'mens' (mind) instead. ASICS the Japanese athletic sports company uses the acronym Anima Sana In Corpore Sano as their logo.
The problem comes when the word wisdom is downgraded to the level of knowledge— a great tragedy. In our world knowledge and wisdom are often confused. Those who didn't care for the old order misunderstood the word (지) in Korean for knowledge which they did not want to see listed first. However, even the four capital virtues on which all the other virtues hinge the first one is prudence and has the character for wisdom in Korean, the same (지).
If our educational system had wisdom as the goal all would change and if society would see this value, the hell that we have made for the children would cease to exist. A famous English philosopher has left us with these words of wisdom: "The limits of my language are the limits of my world."
Wisdom is to understand what is going on in the world and to think and act accordingly, so begins an article on wisdom in the Kyeongyang magazine by a psychiatrist. A wise person is not one who knows a lot. What is it?
The Seoul National University's motto is Veritas Lux Mea (Truth is my Light). Sogang, the Jesuit University's motto is Obedire Veritas (Obey the Truth) and Yonsei University's motto Veritas vos Liberabit (Truth will make you free). Australia National University's motto is Naturam Primum Cognoscere Rerum (First to know the nature of things). These are not only foreign Latin expressions as some would like to say for truth is truth here and everywhere.
The word truth and wisdom appear in the Christian Scripture often. It appears a little bit less than love but more often than faith, hope or salvation. This is also true in the Asian classics. In Confucian literature, wisdom is one of the four necessary qualities of a right living individual.
We live in a world where everything is reduced to money, consequently, even learning has been reduced to a means of getting a job and money. Classes in how to get a job are very popular and literature, history, and philosophy no longer attractive. True also in the continual study of teachers deciding on how much the monetary returns will be from their studies. The search for truth has become only a means for material well being—are persons like Socrates who failed to succeed in life are we to say they weren't wise?
Wisdom is not sought for success. It is valued for itself. Creation and the world order are examined and the thinking gives birth to other truths. It doesn't matter that there are no material benefits. If this was not true the colleges would have as their mottos worldly and material success as their goal.
Do we leave the search after wisdom to the scholars? No says the writer for is not the heart more important than the head? More than intelligence is sensitivity. Moreover, when the heart is on fire we can compensate for what we lack in mental capabilities— "The heart has its reasons of which the reason knows nothing."
St.Thomas Aquinas in our tradition was not famous only because of his learning. He made known that the study of truth was a way of approaching God, a holy endeavor. God is the truth and when we close our eyes to the truth we are turning our backs on God.
For thousands of years, God was found in the study of nature and creation. Ancient knowledge continued to be dressed in new clothes. The search for wisdom has always been the same. The book of nature has given us much wisdom. This study in itself is a college education.
Few can say they have a natural disposition to study but we do have the ability. We have the natural capacity to be curious about the workings of nature. When we remember the rote memory of our school days we should not associate it with the search for truth. The study of nature is satisfying, completely different and a reason for great joy.
Both Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton studied theology intending to become Anglican clergy but they abandoned this desire, although not orthodox they had great respect for nature from their studies.
The search for truth doesn't lead to the making of money nor becoming famous, although this may happen, it is not the intention but only the result. A fisherman's joy doesn't come from a big fish, likewise, the joy that comes from the search for truth is in the process. The joy that comes in the possession of wisdom is eternal truth.
