A Clean Green Environment

A religious sister in the Catholic Times View from the Ark column wants all of us to direct our attention to a clean, green environment. 

As she welcomes in the new year of 2024, she remembers New Year's morning at the senior welfare facility where she worked a few years ago. It was established on a small hill surrounded by forests, a small comfort zone in a small town with a predominantly elderly population. 

One New Year's morning, the moment she opened the front door of the convent to go to the nursing home, wow! The entire world was covered with a white blanket of snow. She picked up a broom because she needed to make a path to the nursing home, but hesitated for a moment because it felt like she was damaging the New Year's gift that God had given her.

She brought up the subject in a group meeting— "The environment and the Earth are getting hotter, so shouldn’t we save Mother Earth?" The moment she boldly expressed her opinion, many participants sympathized and did not hesitate to support her. Then the discussion began and the results were reached. The opinions of "We should do something, let’s do it, reduce its use, and the like were overwhelming, but there was no concrete  resolve on what to do." Although the results were not as good as expected, the disappointment was alleviated by the fact that the awareness of ‘environmental protection’ was planted in people’s minds.

The natural environment that God gave to mankind cannot be maintained by enjoying it to our heart's content, as we received it for free out of love for people. However, there is still a lack of action on how to use and preserve it well.

Although we have raised our voices to reduce disposable containers, disposable cups, plates, and cutlery, they are piled up in homes, parishes, various stores, and even at national events. This is because it is convenient with their use and inconvenient and difficult without their use. We are conflicted between convenience and inconvenience. Perhaps a bigger reason is that you don't feel like you're destroying the environment by using disposable utensils, and you don't immediately see changes in the environment if you don't use them. Sometimes it feels like the efforts of countless environmental defenders, environmental activists, and zero waste practitioners, as well as the efforts of the movement to protect our common home through activities at the parish, are meaningless.

"I brought you into this fertile land to eat its fruit and its good things. But you have come in here and defiled my land and made my inheritance an abomination" (Jer 2:7).

It was as if God's wrath was digging into his heart. You have told us to take good care of the creations you have given us, but we must deeply reflect on whether we, the people, are just being seduced by convenience and less effort and are trying to ignore our duty to protect and care for the environment. When we look ahead to the future in the next few years, it is bleak. She is afraid because she cannot let go of the thought that the day will inevitably come when we pass on a miserable environment to generations to come.

The demands of market consumers and multinational companies for renewable energy have now become a global trend, but it cannot be denied that our society is not yet keeping up with the demands. Even if policies to deal with climate change are left to the government, we must continue to make small efforts to protect our common home through environmental preservation campaigns. Together, we must once again strive to create a ‘clean, green society’ where life and joy coexist in a sustainable and eco-friendly manner even in cramped urban spaces.

Living With Less and Lacking Nothing

 

The Catholic Peace Weekly in its Faith Platform Column, reminds the readers of another time in Korea not that many years ago, experienced by a child now a housewife.

She mentions the days when her parents were poor and were entertaining guests at the noon meal the guests would leave food in their bowls for the hosts who they knew were not eating. The starving hosts were giving up their food for the guests. When she tells her child these stories about a time when food was rare, he frowns and says: “Why?”

She recently raised a family of three at her parents' home. Her parents, who had precious memories and were thrifty and didn't know how to throw away things, had every corner of their house filled with memorable items. For three generations to live together in one space, we had to throw away a lot, and every time we tried to throw it away, there was friction with her parents.

My mother, who has experienced poverty and abundance, is still thrifty. She recycles bags of coffee mix to store salt. We always recycle disposables, fold leaflets into pot holders, and make wallets out of stretched socks. Shopping bags are stuck in every crevice of the furniture, waiting to be used again. Sometimes you are creative, and sometimes desperate.

“Today, the school told me to throw away my textbooks, so I threw them away.” 

“Hey, that’s strange, why are you throwing away your textbooks?”

“I’ve learned everything now.”

As she writes this, she recalls the conversation between her daughter and grandfather. Who said he didn't have money to buy books, and wonders why they throw away good textbooks when the children haven't even graduated yet.

We live in an age where convenience is greatly esteemed. When she sees advertisements for quick delivery of online services, or to buy goods at prices much lower than the market price, she is living a life where she can consume more, more quickly, and throw it away more easily. She worries that she'll get used to this way of living. This is because the more widespread the perception that ‘it’s cheap, use it, and if you don’t like it,  return it, the more the earth will inevitably suffer. These days, as irresponsible consumption and disposal become easier the Earth will suffer. We need to learn to wisely coexist with the Earth.

She thinks we need to creatively incorporate the frugality that is ingrained in us from our parents, a lifestyle to which we were not attracted. It's best to carefully consider whether you really need it and whether it's durable and well-made before purchasing it, using it for a long time, and passing it on to someone who needs it rather than throwing it away or returning it.

“In the old days, everything would have been considered a treasure.” My father said something while looking at the gorgeous gift-wrapping paper. I think he’s saying: ‘If it were me, I wouldn’t throw it away, but since you guys want to live a clean life, you’ll throw it away.’ As the person in charge of throwing things away in my house, I also wonder, ‘Would it be harmful to convey my feelings if I reuse these precious packaging boxes when giving them as gifts instead of throwing them away?’

Nowadays, we have long passed the days when we looked at a guest's leftover bowl of rice and thanked him for it. Nowadays, we exchange gifts in recycled packaging, consume carefully, share and reuse items, and show our gratitude to the earth that we generously share. We have lived without serious shortcomings thanks to the Earth, so now she hopes we can live using less and lacking nothing, a way of living in which we can all come to see its charm for the sake of the Earth.

An Invitation to Desire

In the recent Catholic Kyeongyang Magazine, a professor in the Spirituality
Department of the Incheon Seminary wants the readers to reflect on the invitation to desire.

Our invitation to Desire—

Most of humanity interiorly, and concretely, lives with unfulfilled desires. Our time is spent in their search and realization. Desire gives direction to our lives, and whether they are well-selected or rashly acquired it gives us the energy to face the future.

Many persons without desires live without vitality and the number is not small.

The professor at a counseling center of a university has met students who face an uncertain future without strength with a feeling of helplessness and complain about the emptiness of their lives. They have no idea how to fit into the society in which they exist. They have been pushed aside in competition. They have worked hard to achieve what others have presented to them and paid no attention to their own desires. The vision that was given to them of wealth, and success, is no longer a possibility and the reason for the emptiness.

The world tells young people what they need to desire before they even become familiar with their own deepest desires. A situation that is forced on them.

The young people are given an external standard to follow and with which they are to compare and be judged which alienates them from themselves. The biggest cause of anxiety is the fear of being rejected or abandoned by others and being left alone when the desires of others are not followed. 

Relationship of Desire—

The temporary satisfaction of pleasure only causes more thirst and creates a feeling of emptiness. By longing for and obsessing over certain actions, objects, or people, we are changed from a loving person to slaves of the object we long for. Paradoxically this state of obsession begins with a self-centered desire to own the object.

The reward given to those who seek temporary and immediate pleasure is a confused and scattered sense of self in a state of slavery.

Our human longing is for the whole person: the body, the mental, and the spiritual. It is experienced on all levels.

The longing is experienced by the body in its sexual dimension, and with psychological and spiritual attractions. No desire is divided between the head and the heart, it is experienced by the whole person. Clearly, human longing has a relational aspect towards an object. It may be an attraction or aversion. The human desire is a human process that enables a  capacity to begin a relationship.

From birth, we are surrounded by all kinds of desires, longings, and cravings. They give us life energy.

The instinctive attitude of wanting to satisfy a deficiency is a part of our makeup. The sexual desire to love someone, the longing that we experience as energy is a powerful force that guides our lives. This is experienced in all our desires and is the motive power of much of life. So taking a look at our desires gives us a chance to see what makes us tick.

Desire goes in two directions. One is to a deeper level to be more complete, and the other is to find instant gratification for the moment. Our choice will be for our harmonious growth in our relationship with self and with others or despondency and chaos.

St. Ignatius of Loyola has explained that when this attachment is to disorder and chaos, hope is lost. What we see in present society: scorn, sarcasm,  lethargy, loss of meaning, anger, and hopelessness is the opposite of what comes from spiritual consolation. 

Spiritual consolation from desire is an internal joy that one experiences. From a superficial way of living to a deep appreciation of the way God is leading us.

Towards Transcendence—

Our desire is God. Because human longing is limitless, no object can satisfy us other than a relationship with an infinite being.

The creation of humans was God's act of love who is infinite love, longing for greater love. In the love he showed in creation and the love between the Father and the Son is an invitation to more love. In and thru Christ we share love with God.  We have a longing to share this love with God and others. It is a longing for an intimacy with God. We see our life's journey as one of getting to know ourselves and accepting all, be it with difficulty.

When we are grasped with a longing for God then all the temporary and indiscreet desires are forgotten. These are the little deaths that we experience in life.

When the longings that we have become clear in our minds, the anxiety and fear that can't endure uncertainty will gradually fade.

When we fall in love we give up everything for the one we love. We become completely open and transcend ourselves. We experience anxiety due to failure, weakness, poverty, illness, etc. We need to see what is causing the feeling, deep within ourselves. When God's love grasps us then we experience a change and we begin living the resurrected life a new life right here and now.

Korea a Multiracial, Multcultural Country

In the Catholic Peace Weekly Eyes of the Clergy column, a priest gives us a look at the change in Korea from a monoethnic to a multiethnic country.

In 2024, the proportion of foreigners in the country will exceed 5% of the population for the first time. Korea is considered a ‘multi-racial and multicultural’ country according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This is much faster than Japan, which accepted foreign workers first. Entering a ‘multiracial and multicultural country’ means that the country is changing into a country where at least 1 in 20 residents is a foreigner, second-generation immigrant, or naturalized person. Representative multiracial and multicultural countries include Australia and Canada.

We can already easily encounter ‘Korean foreigners’. You can meet Jonathan and his younger sister Patricia, who are called the Princes of the Congo and speak the rich Jeolla dialect, as well as Daniel from Germany, Alberto from Italy, and Julian from Belgium on various broadcasts. American Tyler's Korean skills are amazing. Last year, Chairman Ihn Yo-han served as the chairman of the People Power Party’s innovation committee. Chairman Ihn is a Korean who was born and raised in Korea and became a naturalized Korean. Foreigners who appeared on holiday special programs and entertained people with their proficient Korean language skills are no longer a ‘special feature’.

International marriage is no longer an unfamiliar sight. The story of a foreign wife marrying a rural bachelor is a thing of the past. One out of 10 married couples is a multicultural couple. Foreigners of various nationalities are having international marriages in Korea, moving away from international marriages centered on Southeast Asian nationalities. Videos showing the daily lives of such international couples abound on YouTube. As we enter a multiracial and multicultural country, the government is preparing to establish an ‘Immigration Office’ under the Ministry of Justice.

With the entry into a ‘multiracial and multicultural nation’, the myth of our society as a ‘single race’ (homogeneous) was broken. Only those who deny this reality have the same bloodline and speak the same language band together to exclude immigrants. The story of discrimination experienced by mixed-race singer Insooni (Cecilia) is a story of violence committed by our community based on the myth of a ‘single race’. In 2007, the term ‘single race’ was completely removed from textbooks. Teenagers, the future of our community, are already more familiar with ‘Korean foreigners’ than with ‘single ethnic groups.’

It must change now. We need to expand our community's neighbors further. Until now, the main framework of our country’s multicultural policy has been ‘assimilationism.’ Immigrants adapt to and change in our country’s culture. If life in ‘our country’ is uncomfortable, then ‘you’ should change and adapt. However, in the future, there must be a change to ‘coexistence’ where immigrants and Koreans exchange help with each other. Korea's unique culture and foreigners' unique culture must be respected.

Symbiosis, accepting foreigners as our neighbors, can prevent ‘xenophobia’. The abuse and hatred directed at McDonald’s model Jenny Park, using ‘women’ and ‘black people’ as links, is a litmus test for fascism in our community. Hatred is based on prejudice and fear, regardless of faction. Internet comments are filled with endless hatred and prejudice against weak countries.

More than anything, I am worried about religious hatred. The hatred of Muslims shown through the construction of the Daegu Islamic Mosque showed the scale of our society's heart. The appearance of some sects trying to use hatred of Muslims as well as hatred of homophobia as a driving force has made us know what kind of attitude we Catholics should have. As a global religion, Catholicism can do well in embracing foreigners. There is a need for pastoral care that takes careful consideration of foreigners, centered around the Migrant Pastoral Committee.

 In hindsight, the Korean Catholic Church may already be living in a ‘multi-racial and multi-cultural’ world. In the word ‘Catholic’, we can read the church’s will to work together with others through tolerance and solidarity, not hatred and discrimination. The new year has arrived. In the new year, he prays that Catholicism will become the center of ‘multiracial and multiculturalism'.

 

Gender Roles in the Church

 

The Catholic Times in its column View from the Ark gives the readers some thoughts on equality in the Church from a professor in research on women's issues.

She begins by mentioning a man who was proud that his wife was such a good cook. He is a hard-working middle-aged man who supports his family. He loves his children and tries to spend time with his family. However, he felt burdened by the situation because he did not know how to cook anything besides noodles when his wife was visiting her parents' home and he had to take responsibility for the children's meals. So he ate out or ordered food. She advised him to learn how to cook, and she emphasized that she was not saying that he should be a great cook, but needed survival skills through simple dishes such as rice and soup. He didn't mind cleaning the house but he didn't want to cook. Since he supported his family, he seemed to think that he did not need to learn how to cook.

She hasn't seen him in years. When she saw him again recently he told her that his family had been going out to eat on the weekends lately because his wife didn't want to cook. He thought his wife's food was the best, but he felt uncomfortable when his wife didn't want to cook. But he never thought about learning how to cook. Since food delivery has increased and become more common since the pandemic, he may not necessarily need to learn how to cook.

Although women's higher education and economic participation rates are increasing, women are still the cooks in the home.  If the reason men want to get married is because they have a fantasy of eating the food prepared by their wives, this may not be so easily achieved in the future. And some men think that because their wives are good at cooking, they don't need to cook.

For a while, male chefs appeared on entertainment programs and gained popularity. Although men are respected as experts, women cook at home as part of their gender role. Women cook for their families even when they don't feel like eating or cooking. Women do this out of love for their families. However, when sick and not able to give the family the help they were accustomed to they are fortunate that they can buy packaged food and porridge for the family.  

Chizuko Ueno, a Japanese sociologist and feminist scholar, discusses the old age of single men in "A Single Afternoon" (2014, Real Culture). The reasons why men become single in old age are diverse, including non-marriage, divorce, and widowhood. She says that unmarried men know how to take care of themselves and run a household, so it's not that much of a problem. However, she says that men who are divorced or widowed find it difficult to live independently, so they express discomfort and difficulties after divorce or widowhood and want to remarry. Local governments in Korea are holding cooking classes for retired men. Men learn cooking as a hobby and survival skills.

She can give gifts if she wants and not give them if she doesn’t. Also, the reason for giving gifts is to make the person receiving the gift happy. But the role of the wife as a cook is not like that. It is a duty that she has to perform regardless of her will, and if she does it well, she gets what she deserves, and if not done well may be criticized. 

The gender division of labor imposed gender roles on men to earn money for their families and on women to take care of their families. However, due to gender roles, women had to reduce or give up work to take care of their families and had difficulty achieving economic independence. These roles are not a fair division of labor. A clear example of this is women who are dual-income couples devote more time and energy to housework and care.

Similar to society's gender role expectations, female believers perform gender roles during church events.  We all participate actively in the communion service which helps with communication and bonding. But, "Come for a meal after mass." She cannot respond with joy to the district leader’s invitation. In most cases, it is only the women who work in the preparation of the meal.

She hopes that the parish will become a space where gender roles are more flexible, with male believers also participating in meal preparation for the community.

The Awkwardness of saying: Merry Christmas!

In the Catholic Peace Weekly, Peace Column, a Korean Student living in the States doing research work gives us some of his thoughts on experiencing Christmas this year in the States. His observations have been the reality for many years and a dilemma that is faced by many Christians in modern society. Today, liturgically, we end the Christmas season for another year. 

The Christmas holidays in the United States feel like Chuseok or Lunar New Year holidays in Korea. In the United States, where it is common for everyone to live far apart, they find time from Christmas to New Year's Day, to meet, share food, and spend time with family they have not seen for some time.

This year's Christmas was no different from previous years. Beautiful Christmas decorations everywhere, cafes and stores with carols blaring, excited people, and supermarkets and stores that were busier than usual were all things that made his heart flutter.

However, there was something he felt particularly different while spending this Christmas season in the States. People’s greetings have changed. Obviously, the representative Christmas greeting is ‘Merry Christmas,’ but many people who use it have disappeared. Instead, more people say ‘Happy Holidays!’

The United States is a multi-ethnic country and people of various religions live there, including Jews, Muslims, and Hindus. At some point, the concept that greeting people without emphasizing 'Christmas' was being open to other peoples' feelings, and being more inclusive. Consequently, Happy Holidays for people of different religions began to spread in society, and as a result, with the best of intentions the use of Merry Christmas as a greeting continues to decrease.

But in fact, the meanings of these two greetings are very different. ‘Happy Holidays’ literally means saying ‘Have a nice holiday!’ The holidays are coming soon, so have a good time. ‘Merry Christmas’ has a much bigger and more important meaning.

‘Merry’ means ‘rejoicing’ rather than ‘happy’, and ‘Christmas’ means ‘Christ’s Mass’. Therefore, when put together, it means ‘Rejoice in the Mass of Christ!’

‘Merry Christmas’ means for believers to remember and be thankful for the birth of Jesus, the Creator of the world, who came among us as a child.  ‘Happy Holidays’ to people of different religions may be hiding Jesus and not sharing the gospel with those who are Christians.

Jesus said this: “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15) Therefore, the mission of proclaiming the gospel has been given to all of us. Although becoming a missionary and receiving a mission to proclaim the gospel is something else. He thinks that the greeting of proclaiming the gospel, “Merry Christmas,” is something that all of us can do.

In a world where it is difficult to find Jesus among all the fancy things we see during the season, one thing that is indispensable to Christmas is Jesus Christ. If 'Christ' is missing from Christmas, if Jesus Christ, who came to the world as an infant to save us, was not lying in a manger, there would be no brilliant Christmas tree, no sound of carols, no Santa Claus waiting for children to say 'Merry Christmas' but a ‘fun holiday’. Even though it might be a little embarrassing, how about remembering this next Christmas? 'Merry Christmas!'

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Bridge Builders

The Catholic Times gives the readers a meditation on bridge building by a Brother of the Korean Taize Community.

We live in an era of numerous disconnections. Different interests and beliefs conflict, and generations, cultures, and identities divide people. The division and factions show no signs of abating. Politics and religion, which are supposed to fulfill the function and role of social integration, not only fail to do so but also increase division and conflict. Even within political parties gathered for the same purpose, people who speak differently cannot be tolerated. Churches and believers who preach love, discriminate, and promote hatred.

Many people say that they feel lonely when they are alone and that it is painful when they are together. Now, beyond the nuclear family, the terms ‘nuclear household’ and ‘nuclear individual’ have emerged. For them, community is a pie in the sky. His friend, who had moved to an apartment, took rice cakes to his next-door neighbor and heard: “Why are you giving them to me?” As housing patterns and lifestyles have changed, many people are learning how to cook and raise children through the Internet rather than from their parents or neighbors.

The young generation saw numerous social disasters and realized that the state could not protect them. They know that even family cannot provide a strong fence if parents do not have financial power. In this way, Korea became a society of people living their own lives. The total fertility rate of 0.7 was not created overnight.

Many young people say that religion gives little meaning to their lives. In addition to human isolation, living without a relationship with God or a transcendent being is another form of poverty.

The world of politics has little to say on how everyone can live together in peace or in what direction society should move. Mainstream religions also cannot easily break away from long-standing practices with systems, and languages that only they understand. 

For people struggling to survive in their daily lives, politics is a power struggle, and even religion is seen as an interest group. Religion's message to society does not resonate with them and seems distant from their lives. When politics and religion are confined to their own strongholds and fail to provide vision and inspiration to the public, voices for the common good disappear. Consumption, advertising, entertainment, and dramas fill the void.

However, there are people around us who do not ignore the conflicts and wounds between individuals and society, but listen to the weak and stand by their side. People who do not see differences as mistakes or obstacles are ready for friendships that transcend boundaries and barriers. They see and celebrate diversity as natural and beautiful. He wants to share that story. 

The world does not change through criticism and condemnation alone. Everyone of goodwill must join together to find a new path with a new vision. In this era where cynicism and frustration are rampant, the person who creates hope is the person who builds bridges where they find ruptures.