μερκι 'Meraki'

 

In the Catholic Peace Weekly Peace Column, a university professor gives us a beautiful meditation on the Greek word μερκι 'Meraki' which is difficult to translate into Korean. However, the professor sees the Korean words: to the utmost, utter devotion, heartily, and treating another with utmost courtesy as coming close to the meaning. Putting yourself into the action and melting into it.

'Meraki' is not a word applied only to important matters. The daily act of brewing hot coffee for a guest from afar or arranging the messy collection box to reduce cleaning workers' trouble is also ‘Meraki’ if you do it wholeheartedly.

 Loving someone becomes ‘Meraki’. In all the countless acts and moments of love you show and feel—holding your parents' wrinkled and bereaved hands, choosing a gift for a friend you haven't seen for a long time, in feeding your pet animal, or simply doing something for another, we do 'Meraki'. ‘Meraki’ is not an act of seeking rewards or recognizing consequences. It's enough because I can immerse myself in the action and the moment and be devoted. 

The reason why every moment of love is ‘Meraki’ is because love— wanting the good of the other— is irreplaceable and unique. You cannot do 'Meraki' with a dispersed mind. You can't be replaced by anyone. It is to live in the moment that can't return. If I say I love you because of your appearance or ability, I do not love you. The moment I am with you does not become 'Meraki'. 

 

Many moments in Jesus' life would have been filled with this 'Meraki'. Jesus taught us to love God "with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength" (Mark 12:30), but he first loved us that way. When he declared the Hebrew people to be his people, it was 'Meraki'. When he bent down to defend the woman who had committed adultery and put his head down to write something on the earth it was 'Meraki'. When he visited the house of Maria and Martha who were in sorrow, again we have 'Meraki'. Before his death, when he broke bread with his disciples and said, 'Receive and eat my body', it was 'Meraki' with a heart ready to explode.

 

That is what it means to say that God loves us. It means that each of us has been chosen by God and that he loves us as irreplaceable beings. Rich or poor, highly educated or not, disabled or not, heterosexual or sexual minority, left or right, God embraces us without conditions or reasons. For you and me, who are the only unique beings in the world created in his image, it's should be ‘Meraki’ every moment we breathe. There is therefore no life in the world where God's 'Meraki' hasn't entered.

 

When we confess that God is 'one God', we confess this kind of love for God. In other words, monotheistic faith does not deny or reject other religions. Instead, it means to confess that the God I believe in is the only irreplaceable love for me. It is not that we love God because He is the Almighty who controls everything in heaven and on earth. We do not love God because He blesses us when we live and prepares a place for us to enjoy eternal life when we die. 

Regardless of conditions, reasons, and purposes, God first opens his heart to embrace me, and my heart returns that love. That's how  God's 'Meraki' enters my life and I return it to my neighbors.

Handwriting And Computer

In the Catholic Times column: Are you at peace today? the nun in her weekly column gives the readers some thoughts on our use of computers and our losing the need for handwriting.
 
"When I write with a pencil, I feel my body is pushing the writing." These are the words of a Korean novelist. If you write with a pencil, your body feels the writing, what does this feel like? Does it feel like I'm telling the story of life and soul engraved on my body?

" … This father has been praying for you and will continue to pray every day for you to become a great disciple and a true disciple for the poor people in this society for the rest of your life. All I can do for you is this."  

One day, while cleaning out the bookshelves, she found the above letter written by her father a long time ago. It was heartbreaking to the point of tears. It was a letter mixed with Chinese characters in an old fashion handwriting style that came from an old man, easily imagining her father's dim eyes and trembling hands. The letters were yellow and old, but the handwriting was alive and moving. As the years passed and she got older her father's handwriting returned to her with greater meaning.
 
When she first received this letter, she thought only of the contents. However, now she senses her father's breath from each of the strokes of the letters. Is it not said that the script is the "mirror of the heart"? The warm heart of her father found it difficult to express his love but was conveyed warmly in the handwriting. Then, she thought: "What if this letter was printed on a computer?" She wondered if her heart would be so moved. If so, it would have been a letter that would have been concluded by reading the contents.  
 
Computers are described as an 'a tool that extends the body and sensory functions' (Marshall McLuhan). The computer, which handles work faster than the speed of her body, has become a part of her body. As she repeats writing, erasing, searching, copying, and pasting at high speed, the computer becomes one with her. Sometimes the computer becomes the owner and she is dragged along. Otherwise, when she leaves the computer, she doesn't even remember what she was doing.  
 
There is a line from a poem by William Stafford, "When I close the book, I see that I have left my head in the book." I think the expression 'I left my head on the computer after I turned it off' would be correct. The moment you work hard on something and save it to your computer, your brain doesn't want to remember it anymore. So, is the brain resting?
 
When she was studying abroad in the United States, she wrote a diary with a pencil almost every day. It was a diary that was turned into prayer while struggling to learn English and trying to overcome cultural barriers. While writing a diary with a pencil, she passionately met God. On days of pain, she wrote down her anger, on days of solitude, on loneliness, and on days of sadness, she wrote down her sorrow. Sometimes like a raging wave, sometimes like a soft flower petal. Looking back now, she wonders if she had ever introspected and faced the Lord as deeply as she did back then. The diary was her sincere confession of faith, and at the same time, she received the joy of being purified as a gift. Although now the hand holding the pencil has moved to the computer. Still, traces of her handwriting days remain in her hands and return to her in memory. A new change does not erase all of the old. What is stored in the body cannot be erased.




 

Let's Share Our Bread With Others

 

In the Eyes of the Believer column of the Catholic Times, a director of a Theological Institute gives us her opinion on concern for the young people of our society.

Not long ago, a woman in her 20s murdered a woman of her age whom she had not even met because she "wanted to kill" was reported shocking many.  
 
Analyzing her psychology it was revealed she was a 'loner' who had been unemployed for 5 years after graduating from high school and was cut off from society to the extent that there was no trace of contact with others on her cell phone. She lived in a state of complete isolation from the world, searched for 'Murder' on the Internet,  for crime novels and programs, and finally put her plan into action.
 
Once a month, the director's reading group meets to read and talk about classical literature and this month's topic book was the Russian novelist Dostoevsky's novel 「Crime and Punishment」. This is a novel about what happens after the main character, a young man who was a student of law, plans to murder an old pawnbroker who he judged to be unjust and wealthy.  
 
While discussing various stories about this novel, which raises moral questions about the main character's motive for the murder and depicts the psychology of anxiety and fear after the crime, one person suddenly said that the main character Raskolnikov looks like the young woman in the above case. Raskolnikov dropped out of school due to his difficult family circumstances and locked himself in a cramped room like a coffin before committing the murder he had envisioned in his head. Just as the story of the main character in the novel, was in a miserable situation, and begins with a murder case, she pondered the fact that the existence of a lonely young woman in a violent way took the life of another who was living in similar circumstances.
 
A "loner" generally refers to a person who does not engage in outside or social activities and lives in a confined space, such as a house or room, for more than three months. According to the results of a fact-finding survey by the Seoul Metropolitan Government last year, about 130,000 young people in Seoul alone did not come out of their homes and were isolated or secluded.
 
This is a phenomenon that has appeared in Japan since the 1970s, and these people called 'hikikomori', increased further in the early 1990s as Japan's economic downturn began, and young hikikomori remain isolated even after reaching middle-aged and old age, becoming serious social problem.
 
The hermit-type loner phenomenon is mainly found in adolescents and young adults who are starting to enter social life, and fear of a highly competitive society and feelings of isolation at school or work are cited as the causes. The number of secluded loners will gradually increase in a competitive society that justifies discrimination in which differences are regarded as wrong rather than diverse, and bullying and isolation are prevalent.
 
Looking at this serious reality, what can we believers do? Last month, the institute's monthly Zoom seminar dealt with the topic of spirituality in old age, and during the sharing, one participant said that it would be nice if the church could lead the elderly to share their experience, wisdom, time, and money with the young people in need.  We shared the idea of setting up a youth apartment in each parish for young single-person households who are experiencing difficulties. It was not a dreamy story, but a proposal by an Anglican priest who was present that day and was preparing to do that very thing.
 
In this week of contemplation on Corpus Christi and our life with the Eucharist, she proposes that we members of the Church break the bread that we have, and share it with young people who are prone to isolation. 

Holiness And What It Means

 

In the Apostolic Exhortation Rejoice and Be Glad, Pope Francis shows us the path to holiness in today's world. Sadly holiness is a word that has little meaning in our world's culture.

The pope describes a world in 2018 in the exhortation as one filled with gloom and anxiety, a reality that today has only increased greatly: satisfaction in consumerism, individualism the lack of connection with others in the community, and strange forms of spirituality.

He does give us his remedy that has been present from the teachings of Christianity from the beginning. We live in a noisy aggressive world and he gives us five signs to judge ourselves on our progress in holiness. First is the practice of the virtues of perseverance, patience, and meekness when we experience anxiety and distress. 

He gives us the words of St. John of the Cross: "Always prefer to be taught by all, rather than to desire to teach even the least of all...Rejoice in the good of others as if it were your own, and desire that they be given precedence over you in all things; this you should do wholeheartedly."

 

Secondly, he challenges us to live with joy and a sense of humor. The life of charity brings joy to our lives. We know we are infinitely loved.

Thirdly boldness and passion should be in our lives. We need to proclaim a different narrative than that which the world presents. Pope Francis wants us to exercise boldness and passion beyond our comfort zone and at the fringes of society. It is there that we will find Jesus.

The fourth sign of holiness is growth in community. When we do not live in community "we can grow too isolated, and lose our sense of reality and inner clarity and easily succumb."

Finally in constant prayer. "For each disciple, it is essential to spend time with the Master, to listen to his words, and to learn from him always. Unless we listen, all our words will be nothing but useless chatter."

 

In the path towards holiness, virtue has an important part to play. The Catechism has defined virtue as a "habitual and firm disposition to do good". The virtues help us habitually do what is good. They are the building blocks for Christian moral living— habits that are cultivated that become part of us. 

In Korean the word translated virtue can also mean a gift from another a blessing, consequently the possibility of confusion as a disposition that one needs to cultivate with effort and not only a blessing that comes from the exterior.

"All of us can attain Christian virtue and holiness, no matter in what condition of life we live and no matter what our life work may be"— St Francis de Sales.

 

Need for Education in Communication

 

In the Catholic Times' Eyes of the Readers' column, a parish priest gives the readers some points on why not only priests but all of us need education in the field of communication.

He recently received an official letter from the Diocesan Youth Bureau. It was asking for cooperation in having the elementary Sunday school teachers attend "self-discovery and communication education programs" to help them communicate smoothly, and sympathize with community members. Looking at the content, he saw that communication was recognized as an important factor in operating a Sunday school. Then, he wondered how much the priests in charge of Sunday schools knew about communication. Shouldn't priests also receive helps in communication so that they can communicate properly with teachers and students?

These problems are not limited to Sunday schools but to all our relationships. Since church activities themselves consist of communication, it can be said that "church is all about communication". Liturgy, sermons, Sacraments, evangelization, education, group gatherings, events, etc. all fall under the category of 'communication'. 

 

Furthermore, social media: YouTube, Kakao Talk, Facebook, and Instagram are common in churches, and in particular, pastoral matters and evangelization through YouTube are very active. In addition, with the opening of the artificial intelligence era, it is difficult for one to live without communication. Such huge media changes have a strong influence not only on our lives but also on the church, but media education and communication education for priests are presently insufficient.

He thinks the Pope's statements, on 'Communication Sunday' every year should be of great help to us. It is a good place to go for education on communication.

  

The discourses have been consistent for the last three years. In 2021, under the theme of "Come and See" (John 1,46), direct face-to-face communication was emphasized and introduced as the most effective and objective communication and missionary method. In 2022, he mentioned the importance of listening under the theme of "Listening with the Ears of the Heart." This year, as an extension of last year's theme, "Speaking with your heart" was presented as the theme. In this world, "which is often biased toward indifference and anger based on false information that manipulates and exploits the truth," it says that truth can be declared when communicating with true hearts, and minds, "even if it is sometimes uncomfortable." He believes he knows what "speak with your heart" means. The Pope urges us, who live in a "devastated society" to "seek and speak the truth with courage and freedom, and reject the temptation of sensational and aggressive expression."

 

True communication, begins with understanding the other's situation. No matter how fast and convenient digital media such as SNS, smartphones, and AI make communication, unilateral communication without considering the other person's mind only treats the other person as "it" rather than a person, and eventually brings hurt and pain.

So, the precondition for true communication is to understand the mind of others, and for that, you need to listen, you must have an 'open mind'. As you and I become ‘open hearts’ and heart speaks to heart, true dialogue and sharing will take place and true peace will bloom. These are the reasons he believes communication education is necessary for the priesthood training process and for all of us.

One Layperson's Critique of Korean Catholicism

In a bulletin for priests, a member of the Justice and Peace of a diocese writes about finding lost lifestyles and activities.

According to a survey on the 'favorable impression and religious efficacy of major religions' released by Korea Research last November, unlike the decrease in other religions, the preference for Catholicism decreased considerably. Because the favorable impression for other religions also decreased, one can think that the overall popularity of religion has decreased in society and secularized rapidly with the development of science and technology

 

However, it seems difficult to say that religion is losing its power due to secularization  seeing as tens of thousands of people flock to emerging pseudo-religions in present day Korea. 

 

In the survey, more than 70% of the respondents said they gain positive effects in their lives through religion. In our secularized society, at least 7 out of 10 people affirm the role of religious teaching. On the other hand, Catholics since 2018, the population that believes in Catholicism has remained unchanged at 11% of the total population of Korea. The Catholic population has not changed much, but the affinity for Catholicism is decreasing and the number of those leaving the community has increased greatly.

 

The number of people who are showing a vocation to the religious life or priesthood has decreased significantly. Can we understand this phenomenon simply as a result of the secularization of our society, or as one of the naturally changing processes like the European churches? On the other hand, it is too irresponsible to regard it as a natural change like the European church. 

 

One religious priest said: "If people feel that way, it will be the result of our wrong lives." The writer thinks this is an accurate understanding of the situation. As a layperson, if you ask about the cause of this phenomenon, the answer that usually comes back is 'anti-church laity.' 

 

The church was indifferent to the daily life of the members of the church community. While focusing only on the quantitative growth of the church, the church community did not realize the 'mode of life and activity' (modus vivendi et operandi) of faith that the church community should clearly reveal as Christians.  

 

The priests and religious who fought against the Korean military dictatorship are a good example of this method, but even they were trapped in the methods of the 1980s. It was a good thing to be against the dictatorship but also important to enact a serious disaster punishment law to prevent the death of workers.

 

Enactment is also important. Has the church showed an interest on those on the fringe of society  such as the urban poor, sexual minorities, migrant workers, and the like? He wonders if the church has  researched this issue  and shown the 'way of life and operation' of faith  according to the teachings of Jesus in dealing with them.

 

It is not that there are no members of the church community accompanying them. However, they are still a minority in the church community, and unfortunately, their voices are weak. So, people are greatly disappointed by the indifferent attitude of the church, and the church has been placed in the current contradictory situation.

 

As the religious priest  said earlier: I think the time has come when we need to seriously reflect on 'how we have lived wrongly' and face the problems that exist. We should think together not only about justice, but also what kind of peace we want to  create together in our daily lives.

The Washington Declaration

The Vice Chairman of the National Reconciliation Committee of Seoul Archdiocese in the Catholic Peace Weekly gives the readers his understanding of the recent meeting in Washington.

On 26, President Yoon Seok-yeol visited the United States, held a summit meeting with President Joe Biden, and announced a joint agreement. The so-called “Washington Declaration” contained three main points. Looking at the composition of the agreement, the first thing that appears is that South Korea fully trusts the US extended deterrence and abides by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
 
Many argued that South Korea should also develop nuclear weapons as a solution to North Korea's nuclear threat, but the United States put the brakes on it. Nevertheless, in reality, measures to deter North Korea from using nuclear weapons were included in the second and third points of the Washington Summit. South Korea and the U.S. guarantee more in-depth nuclear-related policy decisions in Korea through the establishment of the Vice Ministerial Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG), and regularly deploy US nuclear submarines loaded with nuclear weapons, to the Korean Peninsula.
 
The latest declaration is evaluated as containing measures for extended deterrence within the framework of the ROK-US alliance while banning South Korea from introducing its own nuclear weapons at a time when North Korea's nuclear technology is improving day by day. Due to recently heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula, many people have insisted on possessing nuclear weapons, and as a result, such claims have subsided with this announcement, which is fortunate. However, it is worrisome whether the extended deterrence contained in the Washington Declaration will lead to peace on the Korean Peninsula.
 
In general, peace is often divided into two concepts. A state in which there is simply no war is said to be ‘negative peace’. The Washington Declaration is a plan that can ease nuclear tensions on the Korean Peninsula, but it cannot go beyond the level of passive peace. In contrast, ‘positive peace’ refers to a state in which the causes of conflict are resolved by resolving conflicts in a peaceful way and removing structural and cultural violence. The Washington Declaration is meaningful in that it banned South Korea from developing nuclear weapons and prevented a more dangerous encounter, but it is regrettable as a positive peace concept since it deals only with extended deterrence and no attempt was made in mediating fundamental problems between North and South Korea.
 
Against such an opinion, one might object, we should only wait for the situation in which the nuclear threat increases. It is argued how well the declaration was made as it discussed the use of nuclear weapons and decided to deploy more weapons with tremendous firepower called strategic assets. Of course, he does not mean tolerating and understanding the heightened nuclear tension.
 

North Korea's nuclear threat is unacceptable under any circumstances and must be stopped. However, the peace Christians seek is simply not completed with deterrence. Trying to deter the threat of the other country with greater force may be a partly realistic policy, but the church notes that extreme distrust lies at the base. Therefore, extended deterrence alone is not sufficient for the journey of peace. Rather than working for extended deterrence, they say that words and actions to build fundamental trust require greater thought and effort.
 

When a protruding spring is pressed with force, the length of the spring is reduced, but the force of the spring is condensed that much. On the surface, it seems to have softened, but there is a greater tension there. For true peace on the Korean Peninsula, he hopes we can now think about ways to restore mutual trust as much as the merits and efforts of extended deterrence. Deterrence is not a balance of power, but a balance of fear. Christians cannot be said to be at peace with this.