Catholic Social Spirituality-Choi Chung Sook

In the recent issue of Theological Perspective the writer who is a lecturer in a University  Education  Program  for the whole person gives the readers a profile of Choi Chung Sook (1902-1977). A study of Catholic Social Spirituality as expressed by her life.

The article had an abstract in English which explained the purpose of the study of Choi by the writer as an effort to  reveal her understanding of social spirituality which applies  not only to her inner spirituality but how it was expressed in the society of her time. 

Since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1962) the Catholic Church has striven to set a new relationship between the Church and the World: the Church should actively participate in establishing  truth and justice within society rather than isolating the Church from the world.

In this historic context, the Catholic social spirituality does not separate the spirituality from the life of the people but rather has highlighted the efforts to actively express the spirituality in order to create  a world that will evolve into the Kingdom of God.

In previous research on Choi Chung Sook they separated her life of faith and her secular life but the present writer shows that they were one.

In society she is regarded as a feminine leader who left  a remarkable legacy in Korean modern history. She was a patriot opposed to Japanese imperialism, an educator who was a leader in the enlightenment movement and a doctor helping the poor.

She was the first female principle at Jeju Shin-sung middle school. She was elected the first superintendent of schools in Jeju in 1964. She is considered an outstanding leader in Korean modern history.

She came from a strong Confucian background, baptized in middle school with the name Beatrix. She had dreamed of being a religious sister but this changed after she was imprisoned for participating in the March First independence movement.  

At that time the place of religion and politics in the lives of the believers was clearly defined. Catholics were to be concerned with the salvation of their souls. At that time the hierarchy was composed of men from the Paris Foreign Mission Society. They were interested in the freedom of the church and increasing the numbers of believers and wanted to decrease political conflict. Consequently they forbid the Catholics  from participating in the  Independence Movement.

Despite this, patriot An Jung-gun, Choi Beatrix and many others disagreed with the church and thought working for independence was the right thing to do. In a study made they found that 53 Catholics were imprisoned, of that number 8 were woman and Choi was one of them and the reason she would not be a nun.

Choi's various activities can be seen as based on Catholic spirituality. This spirituality was expressed in her struggle for the Korean people and not only for her own spiritual  well-being. She was not only a leader in modern Korean history but also a female lay leader in the Korean Church.

Ideology and Faith Life

We are quick to criticize sharply the corruption and evil we see in society, culture, politics, and religion. Often the criticism of others comes back like a boomerang to the system or organization to which we belong only to a greater degree. A professor of spirituality in a diocesan bulletin gives the readers much food for thought.

If we don't understand the dynamics of God's love we despair, feel frustrated. We fail to see his mercy and turn towards others, the community, the church, society, even ourselves and see only sins and faults and denounce.

Since we do not see the defeat of sin and enjoy the realization of goodness and justice we end up with fear, frustration, and disappointment. When matters don't turn out the way we envisioned and no change for the better, we are tempted to see it as the absence of God. 

It is often easier to believe that sin and evil are stronger than the mercy of God and push him aside. The magnificent forms of criticism of reality created by rational logic and exalted justice stand higher than our faith in God's mercy and love. Boiling anger serves us as an exhilarating catharsis and the driving force behind maintaining self-esteem, turning the criticism itself into an ideal belief. The bleak emptiness that flows after the cathartic storm is filled with self-justification— the reason for criticism was piety, affection, and concern.

A faith life without knowledge of God's mercy is the worship of one's own convictions, an ideological faith. There is a remarkable difference between non-believers and believers who participate in the liturgy and observe the commandments, but the boundaries between non-believers and believers disappear when we examine the practice of love and mercy.  

When it comes to calculating gain and loss, and the sense of sacrifice and concern for others the differences ceased to exist. The writer considers right from the beginning there was no separation between the person's convictions and faith life.

The reason for criticism by saints and the masters of the spiritual life was neither individual convictions nor emotional anger, separated from the love of God. The mercy and love of God in the good news was the basis for future ages to bring about change and reformation. Therefore, despite the sins of the world and the church, we must help each other to restore a positive gaze on God's work in the world and the church itself.    

The person to be wary of is the one who doesn't do anything and shouts that there is no hope. Criticism without sacrifice is like resurrection without death. Only in the absolute belief in the love of God, not frustration, skepticism, pessimism, and criticism will the sins and evils of our lives, conflicting structures, institutions, and values, be changed.

Problems in Believing

In a diocesan bulletin, a spiritual director mentions the many ways people lose their faith and leave their community. Sometimes it is a sudden tragedy, the death of a loved one, a sickness of a devoted believer, economic loss. That's not supposed to happen. You have problems with pastors and religious, the spiritual life is filled with darkness, no consolation so they leave. These are scars that arise from feelings, our emotional life.

Modern times and the young, their loss of faith may have more to do with the head than the heart. Scientific knowledge keeps increasing, the faulty ways in which the Scriptures are understood, the failures, sins, and crimes of believers and especially the leaders of these communities, and the hypocrisy that the media has made known is too much for many to deal with. We shouldn't however, get rid of what is true because there is some falsehood mixed in with it. We discern, keep what is true, and get rid of what is false.

All these problems should help us to deepen our faith. Look deeper into what we thought the Scriptures were saying and find out what they really are meant to convey. The Scriptures are not a history or science book but a book on how to live. If we have accepted misinformation as truth than one has to change the way we look at Scripture. The truth in Science is not denied by Scripture but my understanding of what I thought was the truth may be denied.

The society in which many of us live is secular and it can't help but influence us. The unseen world is hidden, the eyes of the heart are not activated, the meaning many found in life has no place for religion. They prefer to ask what and how rather than why? God is no longer meaningful in their lives.

The faith life that a Christian tries to live, the spiritual joy, vitality, darkness, emptiness, doubts, and conflicts in community and the fellowship are all part of a process trying to identify with Jesus. We are imperfect human beings on a journey with other imperfect human beings trying to better ourselves by identifying with Jesus in our thoughts and actions. A believer has trust in God's grace that enables one to overcome the difficulties that will arise if we don't put up barriers and harden our hearts. He is the Way the Truth and Life.

Life is full of mystery and the atheist as well as the believer can't deny what is seen. There is too much beauty, too much that is noble, good, pure, too much that we love and honor, virtuous, and worthy of praise to be attributed to chance. At least the doubt, at times, has to arise for the unbeliever.

In our process towards Jesus we grow in wisdom, and discover the meaning of love. When we encounter persons, situations that offend or confound we don't avoid the situation but try to understand. What is God saying to me here and now? It is an opportunity to get closer to God. Spiritual life is the process and tool in growing in love; we are not blinded by what is before us but use it to grow spiritually.

Can Our Society Give Us Meaning for Life?

Korea recently has had one case after another of famous people killing themselves. This has puzzled and saddened the public and made them reflect on their situation and reflect on their own death. A university professor in the sociology department gives us her thoughts in an article in the Kyeongyang magazine.

These reports of suicide leave us with scars large or small, especially those who are familiar with those who have died; we ask ourselves what is the meaning of life and death what makes us continue to live?

Death is a part of life we don't know when but it is our destiny but some try to advance the date. Like life, the varied manifestation of the way it is lived is also true in the way some persons choose to end their lives. The reason to continue living is not found because of poverty, loss of employment, sickness, betrayal, loss of face, etc. When a person is not able to determine a reason to go on living are they not bothered with such thoughts? Why am I here?

Humans like animals have a strong survival instinct. The increase in the number of suicides is a problem for society but in our history, we have not seen any society with an endless number of suicides. It is precisely because we are human that a person can go against a strong instinct for survival. What makes a person overcome this strong survival instinct? The writer feels it is meaning. When a person has no meaning in life this is fatal.

Consequently, the means of decreasing the number of suicides, in theory, is simple. It is to give persons a reason to live. Before the modern era, this was not something that needed to be done for we had family, clan, tradition, the nation, religion, ideology, and the like which gave a person a collective reason and meaning to life. There was little reason for the person to look for individual meaning.

However, in our day do we have readily available a collective meaning, a social ideal, a common ideology, and the absolute to which to give ourselves as those in the past? Where do we go, to whom do we go to get the meaning of life and the assurance of its value?
 
We need to succeed in finding meaning in life. It's not something everyone can do by wanting to. This she feels is especially difficult in Korea. In society, it is to be recognized by others which gives one value. It is a business card. Those with this value system need the approval of others without something to show, nothing is achieved and the effort continues and the person loses freedom.

Today each person has to find their own meaning and values in life that will enable them to live a fruitful life. The world we are born into is different from the past because of the thinking of Nietzsche and those of the same school.  

This duty is beyond one's capabilities. In a world where everything is relativized and left without an absolute standard, many are walking a dangerous tightrope between different standards? What is the right answer to why we have to live? With our social structure, it is natural that society has a hard time convincing its members of a reason to go on living.

We always had to be something and reach somewhere. You are now in front of a completely different task. Learning that life can be full even if it doesn't work, even if it doesn't reach somewhere. Life has meaning but is always exposed to the "sea of meaninglessness" in much of society.
 

New ways of support and solidarity are needed for this era. First of all, each individual has their own burden in life that must be carried, but it is the interest of all of us to see whether individuals can survive this task well. The meaning of my life also hangs there.
Meaning is the product of relationships and communication. Each person has to live, but no one is the maker of one's own meaning alone.

Leisure of the Heart

 

In one of the diocesan bulletins, a seminary professor recalls seeing a quote of Ludwig Wittgenstein which made him think. "Religion is, as it were, the calm bottom of the sea at its deepest point, which remains calm however high the waves on the surface maybe." He goes on to explain his thoughts on the subject. 

 

This he says gives some objectivity to the concept of religion. However, this is not the way believers will choose to describe their faith life. To express one's belief as religion is awkward to most believers. The common way is a life of faith.

 

When the word religion is used we are talking about a system, the cultural aspects of our faith, and its role in life. When we speak about faith life we are speaking about our relationship to community, our inner life, an encounter with God, and our response. 

 

Religion has little to say about the paradoxes of life experienced by believers. Living faith life is not readily seen nor measured. On the other hand from a religious point of view the study of the believer's way of life, the life in society, community, the believer's actions, attitudes, and virtues can objectively be scrutinized.

 

Society can give answers on how they objectively see the church. Wittgenstein was not a believer but had great respect for religion and worked seriously to understand the mysteries in life, his words should be taken seriously.

 

Our society is now extremely confused, it seems all are suffering from a form of hysteria and responding accordingly. The media also has lost a great deal of its reliability and the writer feels is promoting conflict in society. 

 

Society should help to integrate, bring together, condole, and care for the weak but those with this mentality are difficult to find. We who are religious and members of the Catholic Church should be desiring this internal quiet, peace, and gentleness. This genuine peace and gentleness do not come with extreme concern only for one's safety, well being, and benefits. It arises from those that have within them a stillness, leisure, in Latin the word Otium describes this attitude well.  

 

Augustine used this word otium often to describe an inner quiet that allows the virtues to grow, easy inner leisure that allows a contemplative outlook on life. This is the background to our Sunday obligation. This is also time away from making a living for the family to enjoy life, free oneself from selfishness, and to work towards the building of character. We can say it is time to give ourselves over to the movements of the Holy Spirit.

 

We who have been born for the eternal, this leisure and peace are what is desired of us so as to give it to others.

What Makes a House a Home?

 

A priest in charge of the Justice and Peace activities in a diocese writes in Bible & Life of  the feeling he has when traveling, seeing the many apartments that continue to be built. It seems that there is always a lack and they go on building one after the other. He fears the country shortly will be a country of  apartment buildings. 

The housing supply rate in our country has surpassed  100% for some time. Consequently every family should be able to have their own home but the reality is that only about half do. There are many who  have two or more. 

The apartments that we continue to build will they  be going to those without  a house? The chances are no. The houses are bought to be resold which continues to polarize society into those who have and those who don't.

Policy change will not solve the problem for those who make the  policies are not those without homes. The problem is the wrong understanding of the purpose of a house. At present for many, it is a profitable investment for the future and not a place where people make a home for  their family. It is not a place taking up so many meters of space,  made with this kind of  material, in this area of society, but a place where a family lives.

A house with all kinds of precious stones, adorned with  expensive marble but inhabited by thieves it is no more  than a den of thieves. But if it is only a thatched cottage that leaks but is the home of a king than it is a palace. The palace of a respected king and one who is despised will be completely different. A home is made valuable  by the persons who live there. 

If a home is made by those who live there is that not what we  should be about. In Luke's Gospel  the story of Zacchaeus is a good object lesson. Jesus tells him that salvation has come  to this house today. His house was transformed because the  occupant was transformed; his house became a temple.

Jesus sent his apostles out to fill them  with fullness of peace, Matt. 10:11 " As you enter the house, salute it, and if the house deserves it, let your peace descend upon it; if it does not, let your peace come back to you."

This invitation of our Lord if accepted will make all the houses a place fit for living and not a place  where persons are busy with their calculating machines determining how much a house is financially worth.

 

 

A Letter to the Priests of Korea

A couple who have been very active within the church community, teaching catechism and living as active Catholics expressed their feeling on the condition of the church published in a bulletin for priests. They were often comforted by what they saw, proud but also disappointed and frustrated by the church community but recently they have seen the very existence of the community fading in society. They expressed their feeling in the following ways.

 

1. The church should prioritize protecting and supporting the poor and weak who suffer. In particular, to actively present alternatives to the COVID-19 problem.

2. Jesus was always present to the people, explained his teaching with easy parables, and helped the little ones. The priests' sermons are not speaking to the Christians: schematic and formal. In "The Joy of the Gospel," Pope Francis tells the priests to be concerned with their preaching and tell the believers what they need for life.

3. The media, such as church broadcasts and newspapers, must be radically reformed and used as a tool for the social community. At present, the church press is nothing more than consumables, decorations, nothing important to see or hear. They spend a lot of money paying labor, maintaining buildings and equipment. Both the subscription and the listening rate are poor. Even believers are not attracted by the programs—they are not worth seeing, listening, or reading. Even if evangelization was the purpose, it has failed. Compared to other religious broadcasts, it is a truly embarrassing heartbreaking situation.

4.The proud history of the church community with educational materials for adults, including youth needs to be examined. The church in our youth when as a couple attended college, took pride in being a member of the faith community, confirming what the "Catholic Priests' Association for Justice" inherited from the martyrs' teachings, served as the lever of Korean society.

5. The way the structure of the church functions is closed, assertive, and inefficient.

 

The many laws and structures that have been made according to the needs of the church cannot be ignored. Even when we understand and accept this fact as a believer, our church community is unnecessarily authoritative and oppressive. We must move away from organizational management, obey God, and have a way of behaving that serves the members of the parish community and society.

6. The life of the priests should be an example to the faith community. It requires temperance and simplicity. In his lecture, Cardinal Kim Soo-hwan quoted a worker who said: ''We are to be the salt of the world, but we have turned it into a preservative." The cardinal said it is very doubtful that the Korean church is playing the role of light and leaven to illuminate this society. 

They spoke of the sadness for the church community that they have seen and felt for over 40 years. 

 

The main contents of this article were extracted from the guidebook <Proclamation and Volunteering> published by the Institute for Pastoral Joy and Hope. This is an appeal and encouragement from a couple of believers to our priests.