First Things First

In the meditation for the liturgy in the Daily Mass Booklet, we have the mention of the Records of the Grand Historian also known by the name Shiji. It is the history of ancient China written around 100 BC. The first paragraph of the meditation mentions why the most famous and renowned doctors can't cure certain diseases.

First, you have the sick person who is proud and impudent and knows all there is to know about his sickness. Second, the person doesn't respect the body because of his desire for money and material goods. Third, the person is not able to rightly select the foods he should and should not eat. Fourth, the YIN and YANG  law, the harmony of opposites is broken and the body loses its rest. Fifth, the body becomes so weak that it can't do what is required for health. Sixth, they don't trust the doctor and go to the shamans and fortune-tellers.

In the accompanying meditation in Bible & Life for the same day, we are reminded that at one time the right hand was the proper hand to hold a pencil and when it was held with the left hand you would be told to change. The left-handed person was told the reason for being right-handed was the norm.

Tradition needs to be respected but it is another thing to make it a question of right and wrong. Not to give an adequate reason for not following tradition and not to explain why we should change is forcing one and is a form of violence.

The issue for the liturgy of the day was the Pharisees and Doctors of the law insistence on the ritual laws that were established. They were the laws of clean and unclean foods and ritual washing of the hands. They demanded it of all and condemned those who did not follow. They had no desire to make the laws understood and treating those with whom they disagreed with kindness.

Jesus was making a point very strongly when he said: "Listen and understand. What goes into the mouth does not make a man unclean; it is what comes out of the mouth that makes him unclean." This was a bombshell of tremendous proportion. They were only concerned with the externals and forgetting what was important.

We do have primacy of order and concern only for the externals in life is not contributing to a healthy life. Jesus was talking about the world that God has planned for us and it begins with the internal life—mental, spiritual, and emotional. When we consider only the external realities we often do harm to ourselves and others.

Even in matters of health forgetting the internal reality is not going to be of help in returning to health. As a Christian, we know that if the healthy character traits are in place the actions will follow very nicely. In a Description of a Gentlemen by St. John Henry Newman, he shows how very natural qualities and not necessarily Christian ones, make a  gentleman—a human being.

In secular words, we are all familiar with 'more than the doing is the being'. When we have the right being the doing will follow.

Cleaning the Mind Gives Vitality

Organizing our exterior environment leads to a change in life.

When you look at a neatly organized house after cleaning, you feel refreshed. It's hard, but it makes one proud and happy. "Cleaning up is a matter of moving the body, but it certainly has a great influence on the mental faculty." So begins an article in the Catholic Peace Weekly in which the reporter uses the words of three well-known councilors to increase our vitality.

Those who have experienced putting order into their life have experienced change. One couple after consultation, said, "The cleanliness of the house reduced the fighting and improved the relationship between them" One of the experts said, "The final goal of putting things in order is to bring about life changes."

One of the councilors said: "I think the opposite of happiness is not misfortune, but confusion and disorder. No matter how wealthy, those who don't appear happy maybe if you look at their surroundings, the internal situation is not in order in many cases. Cleaning up the space of life allows us to look back at the whole of our past life."

In the United States, life organizing experts are professionals who help you put life in order. They help to effectively prepare, plan, and organize all daily life, not just the living space, but also life and work.

How does one put aside negative emotions? Organizing and discarding things is also a matter of getting rid of possessions and obsessions. After cleaning up the surroundings, it is easier to relax and forget what was bothering you. The mind is the same. After clearing up the dizziness and confusion in your mind, you need to make room for new energy."You are not actually emptying your mind but filling it with positive thoughts and feelings."

The key to emptying your mind is to quickly get away from bad emotions like depression, anger, sadness, and irritation. Many experts recommend walking as a good way to do this. Walking helps you see your situation in a new environment, away from the space of bad emotions. It's also a good idea to stay alone or meet someone you like and have a conversation. "I have to know for myself what will make me feel better." At the same time, care must be taken not to fall into a state of loss. You are not the only one with similar feelings.
 
The article ends with the counseling experts giving their thoughts on how to empty the mind.

The priest recommends rather than emptying to fill it with the things that you like and you will forget what bothered you. Your mood is changed. One needs to awaken the senses: vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell. Listening to your favorite music, drinking fragrant coffee, watching fun movies. Then you will feel better soon. When he has time, he goes to the mountains. Step by step, reality and delusion began to differentiate. When you organize your thoughts energized by the trees and soil, your mind will improve. I'm not just letting go of a bad mood. "I'm trying to change my mood quickly. Do what I like. It's important for me to take care of me, not to hope that someone else will make me feel good. Reward yourself."

The religious sister when she is feeling dizzy: walks and writes but recommends strongly you put the smartphone down. Watching a smartphone has become a habit for all of us. She lives with her smartphone but believes that if you keep away from it, you can empty your mind. News addiction, an excess of information can lead you away. For her watching, the news is also stressful. She recommends using the smartphone only from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, but not at other times. Dieting should be done steadily to succeed.
 
The Layperson mentions the problem when driving because of backup traffic. He gets annoyed and angry but when he looks around everybody is in the same situation. He is not the only one. "No one planned this or deliberately intended the traffic jam. It's not just me. When something happens that is difficult he asks himself: What does the other person feel? It has become an ever-present topic of life. Asking questions like that creates a bond with the other person and the feeling that I am sharing my pain helps me to empty my mind."

Love For Mother Earth

We say we are Christians but it is not easy to empty ourselves, so we hold on to much that is contrary to our calling. We know to be Jesus' disciples we need to carry the cross but in most cases embarrassingly do not. A priest doing pastoral work with environmental issues in a diocese begins his article in the Kyeongyang magazine with these words.

However, some do not close their eyes to the poor, do not avoid the marginated, and give of their money, time, and energy to better their lot. 

Our emotions are moved and we feel the twinge of embarrassment but little comes of it and one of the reasons is selfishness. The embarrassment comes from the knowledge that selfishness and avarice are keeping us from being concerned and doing something.

 We know the relationship we should have with others and creation. When we have that love of others that we have for ourselves than joy comes into our lives and we begin to relate correctly with all of creation.

 Many are things to enjoy in life, many delicious foods, beautiful clothes to wear; clothes rather than wearing out are discarded because we are bored with them. This is the society in which we live. TV is filled with all kinds of shopping channels to entice us to consume.

 We need to reflect: Is this necessary for our well being? Rather it is already too late. Is it not true that we have been concerned with our selfish needs and need to examine if the structured society in which we live is not drawing us to indulge ourselves?

 We can buy anything, do anything, but not everything is for our good and what God desires. At this moment is what I desire to have and do appropriate? Am I not preventing others from enjoying the goods of creation?

 If we look up the word avarice and covetousness we find that it is an excessive desire to gain. It's a failure to know what I need. I was made to live with others. This kind of covetousness eats away at life and prevents us from spending time and effort on what is important. 

The priorities are not in order. God and others do not enter the thinking. This is one of the reasons we are having problems with environmental issues. Pope Francis in Laudato si wrote: "A misguided anthropocentrism leads to a misguided lifestyle. In the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, I noted that the practical relativism typical of our age is 'even more dangerous than doctrinal relativism' When human beings place themselves at the center, they give absolute priority to immediate convenience and all else becomes relative. Hence we should not be surprised to find, in conjunction with the omnipresent technocratic paradigm and the cult of unlimited human power, the rise of a relativism which sees everything as irrelevant unless it serves one’s own immediate interests. There is a logic in all this whereby different attitudes can feed on one another, leading to environmental degradation and social decay"(#122).

 When humanity comes first, forgets God, and the aim of creation, it is only a short term benefit to humans. That is the reason that when we have plenty to eat the number of those starving continues to increase, and we are not able to decrease greenhouse gases.

 We need to find the reason for the problems. If a river at its source is polluted we don't try to fix the problem downstream as it goes into the ocean but search for the reasons at its source. We need to get rid of our covetousness. We need to live according to 'right reason' and convince ourselves of the righteousness of our decision.

 This spiritual conversion should lead to sincere repentance from everyone for having been duped by "mindsets that divide, starve, isolate and condemn." Francis wrote. "It would be wonderful if we could become capable of asking the poor and the excluded for forgiveness, then we would be able to sincerely repent also for the harm done to the earth, the ocean, the air, and animals."

He ends the article with a prayer asking forgiveness for the covetousness and the strength to change.

Growth in Community

  "We are not troubled by things, but by the opinions, we have about things." These words of wisdom from the past give us one good reason to spend time talking with others about the things that matter in life instead of the small talk that takes most of our time in conversation. In the Catholic Times, a member of the Christian Life Community CLC reminds us of this in his article on the spirituality of the community.
 
Late at night, the two-hour Christian Life Community (CLC) online meeting ended. Coronavirus Infection-19 (Corona19) makes meetings difficult, but non-face-to-face meetings through video conferencing continue every week. At the gathering, they take time to look at how Jesus was with them and sharing with others what he was asking of them. Above all, he was grateful for the understanding of the community as they shared how the community would help with the difficulties of a member.

CLC members form a small community of about 10 people, each with their own special work and family in the world.  Through regular meetings, once a week, they share their spirituality, community, and apostolic efforts—specifically, contemplative prayer, prayers of reflection, and apostolic life.  When you share with each other like this, the other person's experience can be my experience, and you can discover aspects of the spiritual life that were unknown through other members. Each individual gains from the experience of wisdom and gratitude of the community.

Although they form a community together, members have different lengths of time in community, ages, occupations, backgrounds, etc., and their views on life are slightly different. They each have their own unique light and darkness.

Although each person's situation is different, in Jesus they are one and see new life through his love, and desire to share, empty themselves, be of service in love to the world. They realized God's love deeply through Jesus and they know it is through community rather than alone.

Of course, being together as a community is not always romantic or easy. Sometimes there are small conflicts, tensions, and discomforts in the community. And the spiritual advice exchanged within the community for mutual growth can be painful and uncomfortable. The writer mentions he was once upset that the advice received from the community made known his deficiency and judged him. He just wanted to hear good things, comfort, and encouragement.

However, as the community gathered in prayer he trusted in the Holy Spirit to lead, and as he experienced the community's love for him, he felt comfortable and listened to spiritual advice. With the spread of such enlightenment and trust in the community, advice, challenges, comfort, and encouragement given to each other have become more comfortable and liberating. Based on the love and sincerity experienced, the community grows and matures together.

Jesus also came to this world and formed a community. It wasn't just because they needed a hand. Rather, proclaiming the Gospel in the world must have started with love and growth in a small community. It seems that forming a community of love with disciples who were different, weak, and sometimes selfish, was the starting point of creating the kingdom of God in the world. The disciples went out to the world with the experience of love and growth learned through the community, and again formed a community and preached the gospel.

Today, an SNS message came encouraging him to faithfully live the spiritual life. This is because we remind each other not to become lax. He feels the growth he has made in his journey towards God was made because of the community. It is a very precious community.

Golden Rule In the Corona Era

In the era of the corona19 pandemic, everybody is wearing masks. With carelessness, we have groups that continue to appear with the virus. The writer is a health environmentalist who writes in the Peace Weekly's Diagnosis of the Times and believes this will be recorded in the history books as the great disaster of our era and has three questions.

First question, how long will this situation continue? Some say we will continue to live this way in the future, others that eventually we will recover, and return to normal. The question will be how well the individual, social, national, and international levels of prevention work, and when a proven vaccine is reliably delivered to everyone.

The second question, why did the pandemic happen? It was reported that the virus spread from camels in the Middle East during MERS and from bats in Wuhan, China during Corona 19. People know it's not the fault of camels and bats. They originally lived with the virus without any problems. It is humans who have spread the virus of camels and bats to the world.

Earlier this year, when Corona 19 began in Wuhan, China, it spread quickly to the whole world.  Newspaper columns written by scholars reflected on why this was happening. Unanimously it was pointed out the wrong relationship between humanity and nature. Words such as reverse counterattacks in the ecosystem and
a disease that can be transmitted to humans from animals was often heard.

The words that made the most sense to the writer were globalization and climate change as the passports of the virus. Globalization is a phenomenon in which the number of overseas travelers is breaking records every year,  money and corporations are found in every corner of the earth. Climate change is a natural response to excessive development and consumption of resources. The virus of the wild animals passed through each country with a passport issued by globalization and climate change and spread to humans.

Do people really think this is true? 'What do you think about the point that the root cause of the Corona 19 incident is climate change that causes the common epidemic, and this will continue to happen frequently?' The Environmental Health Citizens Center celebrates Earth Day on April 22nd. 1,000 people over the age of 19 across the country were asked these questions: 43.2% 'very much agree' and 41.4% 'somewhat agree', more than 8 out of 10 respondents agreed.

Third question, what should I do? He mentions an article written in a daily newspaper at the end of March by a priest who has been involved in labor and environmental movements. "Each country in the corona situation needs to find a solution that suits their situation, but each person is not the solution."

The priest's article begins as he recalls Pope Francis, who prays alone in the empty Vatican Peter Square and quotes his words. "Even if I protect my home with high-tech equipment and build a  high fence, I'm still afraid and don't know when and how I will get the virus. After diagnosing the phenomenon it reveals the limitations of pursuing my own safety by separating me from others."

"If my neighbor is not healthy, it threatens my health. It's good to share what I have with my neighbor who is poor but more important to understand that I am not separated from my neighbor."

These words of the priest he has often heard in his parish but the article made it more alive and went deeper. China and Japan need to be healthy if Korea is to be healthy. The adjacent city needs to be healthy if we are to be healthy. Everybody is my neighbor and we all need to be concerned about the health of others if we are to remain healthy.

This is the spirit that is needed by us who are living in the corona era.

Dreaming of Bygone Days

The Catholic Times' Eyes of the Believer column has an article by a lawyer who dreams of a time when life was more uncomfortable. He begins with lamenting the loss of the flowers in the area of Seoul in which he lives. The leaves of the bush of flowers have fallen to the ground because of the rainy season and he recalls when this was a common sight. 

  

On the outskirts of the big city in which he lives, going back a few decades, the tallest buildings in the neighborhood were three-stories and even though it was the main thorofare, each of the houses had a small yard out in front. However, it became a subway transfer station and ten-story buildings appeared, the neighborhood was transformed into one-room buildings, and all the yards disappeared. His house remains from the old days surrounded by high-rise buildings.

A real estate man in the area when he meets the writer's mother asks: why don't you sell the property or put up a building with 20 studio apartments? You could be making over 8,000 dollars a month. This is the temptation always present. 

 When he wakes up at dawn and looks out the window, lights are on in the surrounding studios. What are you doing all night without sleep? Is it playing computer games? In the morning the leftovers are at the front door—packaging containers, plastic bottles, and disposable garbage.

He misses the old days when family members in one room looked at a computer or TV screen together. Where did all the children playing in the alleys go? At that time, moms went to the market with a shopping bag, bought mackerel, bean sprouts, ate at home, the garbage was minimal.

Today, if you buy a take out cup of coffee, the aluminum quickly becomes thrash. In economics, it is recycled, wages are paid to the workforce in the process of making cans those who provided the money gain a profit. What's wrong with that? However, not all of them are recycled. Considering the energy consumed in the process of making and supplying these cans is it not wasteful and unnecessary making an aluminum can so one can drink a cup of coffee? In this case, our descendants will be paying the cost for our convenience.

Our generation is undergoing tremendous change. His wife is from an area close to Seoul, in middle school she did her homework with the help of a kerosene lamp. But now, he makes a video call to a grandson in the United States for free. The "development" that took place is astonishing. During the process all the houses with the front yards are gone, families are scattered, single-person households are the mainstream, and online promotes exchanges among people, but self-assertion and self- expression fill the world rather than solidarity.

On summer vacations, people fly around the world in airplanes. How much oil will go into flying that heavy plane into the sky, and how much is the pollution that remains? But we do this to satisfy our curiosity.

'Development' means that there is a lot of money to be used, and that money guarantees my convenience, so development is usually going to encourage our selfish attributes.

This passage appears in Pope Francis's Encyclical LaudatoSi#208/210: Disinterested concern for others, and the rejection of every form of self-centeredness and self-absorption, are essential if we truly wish to care for our brothers and sisters and for the natural environment... We need to criticize the "myths" of a modernity grounded in a utilitarian mindset (individualism, unlimited progress, competition, consumerism, the unregulated market). 

He closes with strange-sounding words. Can we choose a house that blooms with flowers in the front yard and resist the temptations of 'development'? Is it possible to overcome self-centered attributes and gather together as a family instead of alone in a studio room? Can we say no to the selfish conveniences of the energy-filled modern civilization, a world filled with disposables, and return to the inconvenient life of the past?

Let's Discuss the Way We Discuss

The non-face-to-face class instruction conducted because of Corona 19 this semester was a new experience for both the learner and the instructor. Non-face-to-face classes have great implications in the post-corona era in that they have attempted new types of interactions between learners and instructors. A professor explains in Catholic Peace Weekly her own experience in the new way of teaching.

Learners evaluate the classes taken at the end of each semester. 'Interaction' to evaluate the learners' satisfaction with a class is an important factor in determining the quality of the class. Discussion is one of the types of interaction in the classroom.

The interaction may be called: debate, discussion, and deliberation in English. In Korea, a debate has the meaning of dispute. Its purpose is the persuasion of others to one's position by attacking the loopholes in the opponent's logic. This kind of discussion is often observed in class. Among the opinions, what do you agree or disagree with? Most of these are dichotomous questions with yes/no, agree/disagree, true/false answers.

What are these students asked to do after these questions? After choosing one of the two positions, it would be to attack the other person's opinion and defend one's own logic. This kind of discussion tends to cultivate a black-and-white logical way of thinking— my opinions are without error and the others are worthless. As the goal of the debate is to persuade the other person, the discussion lacks the opportunity to learn tolerance, accept what is right in another's opinion, and often the arousal of emotions. As a result, after the discussion, it is easy to be left with the consciousness of victory or defeat.

A discussion's goal is to gather comprehensive and rational opinions through multifaceted sharing of ideas. The role of the instructor is, of course, important to direct proper interaction. As far as possible, questions with dichotomous or correct answers that prevent the expression of disagreements should be avoided.

How about revising the previous discussion question as follows? Why do we have a problem? What are you in favor of and with what do you disagree? In what circumstances would what we are talking about be more important or less important? Is the argument completely false, or partially true?

The media is also responsible for our failure to discuss based on various options that we have. Let's recall for a moment the debate scene reflected in the media. Traditional debate-style programs that invite experts from various fields can often deal with dichotomous questions that reinforce black-and-white thinking. Even if the form of the question is not, the panel with a position in favor of the subject and the panel with a position in opposition sit facing each other. The way the stage is set up is to draw the audience watching the positions that fit the viewer's logic.
 
The media is obliged to provide a public sphere where various dissenting opinions are shared. However, it is necessary to examine objectively to see if the media is an obstacle in establishing a desirable culture for discussion. She concludes asking the readers: "Let's discuss the way we discuss from now on."