Truth vs Perception

In the Science and Faith column of the Catholic Peace Weekly, a science teacher introduces us to a meditation on the 17th-century European painter Caravaggio.

The columnist visited the Seoul Arts Center to see the exhibition of works by “Caravaggio, the Master of Light & Faces of the Baroque.” He was excited to see the works of Caravaggio, who left a significant mark on Baroque art, and the painters influenced by him.

In particular, the work he wanted to see the most this time was “The Doubt of Saint Thomas,” which depicts a scene from Chapter 20 of the Gospel of John. 

The work on display is not Caravaggio’s original but a copy from the Uffizi Gallery in Italy, completed by a later artist influenced by him. “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will never believe” (John 20:25).

Thomas doubted the resurrection of Christ, and heard the words of Jesus: "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Do not doubt but believe" (John 20:27). This passage depicts Thomas poking the wound in Christ’s side with his finger.

The intense contrast of light and darkness and the hyper-realistic expression of St. Thomas were too shocking to try to express in words. “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). 

Christ’s voice telling Thomas resonated deeply within the writer, and he found it difficult to leave. He reflected on his attitude toward life as a Catholic, recalling the words of St. Augustine: “Faith is believing in what you have not yet seen, and the reward for believing is seeing what you believe.”

In this world, there are things that you must believe without seeing, and on the contrary, there are things that you must see with your own eyes and believe. The former is faith regarding religious beliefs, and the latter is social phenomena and news we encounter in our secular lives. 

South Korea is in an uproar due to sharp political and group conflicts. This results from political beliefs and actions based on them, which has polarized the country.

Who is right? Humans tend to commit the error of confirmation bias, seeing only what they want to see and believing only what they want to believe. The formation of beliefs that modern brain science has revealed so far are not the product of an analytical and rational process, but rather the result of a complex network of individual experiences, memories, and emotions, and different areas that perform various functions in the human brain are connected to complex neural networks.

The brain is only about 2% of the human body's weight, but it consumes 20% of the energy consumed during the day. Therefore, rather than consuming energy and processing information analytically and critically, it operates according to efficiency, looking at phenomena based on subjective beliefs already within itself and drawing conclusions it wants. 

This is why it is easy to be deceived by fake news and agitators. In times like these, we must ask God for wisdom so that we are not immersed in superficial phenomena but can keep our center and seek to see what is. Do I believe what I see about the world now, or am I seeing what I believe?

Our Journey Together!

On a beautiful Saturday afternoon, a Catholic philosophy professor asked a brother professor on their return to the seminary from a walk: "Brother, why did you return from your mission trip to China?"

"I came because I was sick. I took a sabbatical year for treatment and ended up staying in Korea. Do you have a heart for missionary work in China?" This was the question asked of the writer of the Philosophy Column in the Catholic Peace Weekly.

The philosophy professor was curious about how his friend had set the direction of his life, pursued it, and then given up on it. 

Until recently, the professor was a student. His life's direction was clear. The short-term goal of graduating made him anxious and impatient, but it simplified his daily life. He has no direction now since he has reached his goal and is doing meaningful work training seminarians. There is so much to do. Thankfully, many places need him. However, there are times when he wonders if it is right to spend each day as he does. Shouldn't he set some big and short-term goals? But it would also be nice if life was meaningful without this accomplishment. 

What should he say when he stands at the top of the mountain he wants to climb? He feels proud of his accomplishment, but does he need to climb another higher mountain? 

Where are we headed? Ancient ethics were interested in the purpose of life. Aristotle thought that the end, the destination, is contained within our innate nature. Our nature is drawn to good things. The perfection of our nature is our destination, and that is happiness.

Medieval Christian ethics considered the destination given to us to be God or union with Him, and they were as interested in the journey to get there as they were in knowing the destination. Our freedom is just as important as our inner nature. We can achieve the perfection of our nature depending on religious choices, so life is not like climbing Mt. Everest, where you have to go to reach a set destination, but the free choices we make to get to that destination, the emotions we experience, the relationships we form—the process.

Modern ethics, more human-centered, came to value the freedom discovered in the Middle Ages more than the given nature and does not pay much attention to distant destinations. Kant said it is not important what kind of person I am becoming, but I should focus on the right choices I make with my will right now. What do you think of our modern society? When you ask yourself what do you live for, what thoughts arise? My distant goal? A journey of grace and effort? Or my actions at this moment?

He has become accustomed to living a life toward a specific goal. Fortunately, he has realized that life's meaning does not come from achievement. His days are meaningful enough even if he doesn't pursue an achievement goal. He can look back and feel happy about his achievements, but the direction of his life is sufficient for meaning. It does not necessarily have to be directed toward some visible goal.

"We are all headed toward the truth. The brothers who live together serve as guides. We live together, pray, have fun, and go together toward the truth. Even though our lives are very different. We don't want to live a life where we bump into each other too closely and interfere with each other, but we are going together. 

If we go together, won't we see our own paths?" The brother adds warmly as they finish the walk.

You Are What You Eat!

In the Catholic Times, a broadcaster in the Sunday Chat column tells us that we are what we eat. This proverb expresses how our food affects our health and quality of life. It is said to have originated from the saying: "Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what kind of person you are," written in his book by the 19th-century French food scientist Anthelme Brillat-Savarin. 

We need to eat. Eating provides us with energy and various nutrients and is necessary to maintain our bodily functions, growth, recovery, and health. The process is just as important as eating itself. Emotions arising from eating with family or friends are also important and part of our culture.

Everyone enjoys eating delicious food; it relieves stress and provides psychological satisfaction. Popular broadcasts often talk about food as one of their topics.

The Korean language even has people eating many things that are not food. It is part of their idiomatic, figurative language, but that is also true in English, for we say 'eating one's heart out' and that something is 'gnawing away in me' when consumed by negative thinking and feeling— eaten up with jealousy.

The Korean language has us eating the 'years'; we are fed the years. Sometimes, it is said that one has eaten three or four years to their age at once and are 'old farts'.

Just as eating unhealthy food can harm your health, what the mind and heart 'eat' that is not healthy will hurt our health. It is said that books are food for the mind. He remembers the loving face of an old lady who was illiterate until age eighty and learned Hangul at a literacy school a few months ago and sang along with her hymns enthusiastically.

There is a saying that we 'grow old.' If you think about it carefully, isn't age something that we eat or that is fed to us? Eating is something that we do ourselves, based on our own needs and will, but age is something that we can't eat more if we want to, or not eat if we don't want to, so isn't it something that an invisible hand forces on us? 

There is another thing that we eat. When he was young, his parents used to tell him, 'Don't go around and do things that will cause you to eat insults from people. He didn't insult himself; others insulted him. Unfortunately, everyone has probably had several experiences where they had to eat insults against their will. Strictly speaking, this is something others feed me, not something one eats oneself. 

There are things that the Korean language permits you to eat. 'Eating food' and 'eating with the mind, heart, and spirit.' Usually, the mind 'eats' new plans and resolutions on New Year's Day; the mind can also eat with faith. Faith is about eating with the mind, heart, and spirit. It gives you comfort and hope in times of hardship and suffering and a positive mind that endures under challenging situations. It gives you a mind that thinks of your neighbors, holds the hand of those left behind, and runs side by side with them. It makes you realize the value of the world and that we must respect each other's differences and coexist.

Although the food that books talk about may be lacking, what is consumed wisely with a proper mind is never unpleasant; even if you eat a lot and are fat, it's beautiful. I will add a spoon to the above famous saying—

'Whether it's food or other things that are consumed in the manner of food, what is taken in makes you the person you are'.

 

From Receiving to Sharing Church

 

This year marks the 50th anniversary of establishing the Korean Catholic Church's first overseas mission society. A reporter at Catholic Times provides some information on the event.

The Korean Foreign Mission Society was established 50 years ago. On February 26, its founding date, a Mass was celebrated at the Cathedral in Seoul. 

The Korean Foreign Mission Society was founded in 1975 when the Korean Church faced difficult circumstances, despite many concerns about the lack of priests and financial resources. It was the first step for the Korean Church, which had grown with the help and support of foreign missionaries, the first of which came from the Paris Foreign Mission Society. The Church has continued to grow since the gospel was first preached in Korea to become a 'sharing church.'

The Korean Foreign Mission Society has inherited the passion for evangelization, dedicated sharing, and the service spirit of foreign missionaries. The mission society dispatched its first overseas missionary to Papua New Guinea in 1981 and has 87 missionaries in 9 countries spreading the gospel.

The seeds of overseas missions sown by the Korean Foreign Mission Society over the past 50 years are considered to have dispelled the concerns of the early days of its establishment and changed the makeup of the Korean Church. Now, Korean missionaries are no longer an unfamiliar word. They also significantly contributed to the Korean Church expanding its perspective to mission fields in difficult situations overseas, breaking out from their own 'fences.' In addition, they achieved excellent results in discovering missionary priests. The lay missionaries made us realize that the missionary mission is given to all church members.

On the day of the Mass, bishops, priests, brothers, and nuns from each diocese, religious orders, missionary societies, and many laypeople filled Myeongdong Cathedral. The  Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers were represented by Fr. Richard Agustin and  Fr. Gerard E Hammond.

The Korean Foreign Mission Society chose 'Go Out' as its 50th-anniversary motto. It aligns with the mission society's spirit that aims for global evangelization. Together with all believers of the Korean Church, we hope that the Korean Foreign Mission Society will reaffirm the missionary mission of the Church as its motto suggests and become a community that joyfully spreads the gospel to the whole world.

Archbishop Jeong, the celebrant at the  Mass, expressed his gratitude and congratulations on the 50th anniversary of the foundation. He said: "The priests of the Korean Foreign Mission Society met Jesus Christ at some point in their lives, experienced the joy of the gospel that He gave them, and became missionaries who devoted themselves to a life of missionary work to spread the joy of the gospel wherever the Lord wants them to go." He asked for prayers and support for the missionaries faithfully carrying out their missionary work worldwide.

Cardinal Yeom Soo-Jung remembered that when the missionary society was founded, Bishop Choi Jae-seon remembered the missionaries who worked in the  Church and were martyred and emphasized the mission of the universal Church to spread the gospel. He said: "The essence of our Church is to receive God's love, spread that love, and bear witness to it. As we celebrate our 50th anniversary today, our mission is to dedicate our youth to the joy of spreading the gospel with all our strength, sincerity, and passion and to live  bearing witness."

The first missionary was dispatched to Papua New Guinea in November 1981, and missionaries have since been sent to Mexico, Mozambique, the United States, China, Cambodia, Thailand, Taiwan, and the Philippines. On June 10, 2011, Cardinal Jeong Jin-seok, Archbishop of Seoul, proclaimed a decree recognizing the Korean Foreign Mission Society as an apostolic life group established by the Archdiocese of Seoul. On December 5, 2015, the Vatican confirmed its canonical status. 77 members, 6 associate priests, and 2 lay missionaries are continuing missionary activities in 13 dioceses in 9 countries, and 11 seminarians are in missionary training.

The Korean Foreign Mission Society is considered to have played a key role in helping the church grow from a "receiving church to a sharing church." For its 50th anniversary this year, the Society has set the slogan "Go Out" and announced that it will make more efforts to train missionaries.

"The Korean Foreign Mission Society began with a spirit of gratitude and has continued its overseas missionary activities for the past 50 years with the support and interest of the Korean Church. The 50-year history looks back on the establishment of the Korean Foreign Mission Society, an important turning point in the history of the Korean Church and its missionary activities today." 

Community of Faith?

In preparation for the first Sunday of Lent, the Catholic Peace Weekly offers a reflection by the paper's columnist, a priest, and a professor on the preciousness of our faith.

There was a time when he was studying and providing education on the movement called 'Shincheonji,' which is considered a cult by most Protestants and Catholics alike.  

The doctrines of Shincheonji, such as its parables and eschatology, were problematic. Still, the way they gathered people to join the Church was shocking. He asked Shincheonji defectors who returned to Church what they liked so much. They said that the doctrines were new and interesting. Still, the most important thing was that the people there treated them warmly and cared for them like family, especially since they experienced being chosen and learned the hidden truth.

One of the significant characteristics of new and pseudo-religious movements is the strong bond between believers. While waiting for the imminent end, they shared hope within the community and experienced great happiness. Having returned to the Catholic Church, they ask: "Why aren't Catholic believers passionate? Why aren't they interested in God's word and lack confidence in salvation? Why is the community so indifferent and cold?"

Their belief that the end would begin when the 144,000 Shincheonji members were filled was wrong, but he thinks their 'eschatological faith' has much to teach us. They were deceived, but their good-willed desire and waiting for the coming of the Lord were not false. Instead, they remind us that the Christian faith was eschatological. The core of Jesus' gospel proclamation was the kingdom of God. That kingdom is not just the afterlife we can enter in the distant future but the eschatological rule of God the Father that has come here and now through Jesus. 

The apostles boldly proclaimed the gospel while forming an eschatological community with the hope of waiting for the Lord, who would soon come. For them, the end was not the end of the world that would occur in the distant future but the time that had already begun with the Lord, the end that the Lord who was to come would complete. Their faith was a faith that was awake to welcome the Lord who was knocking at the door and a faith that earnestly hoped that the Lord would overcome sin and death. The letters of the Apostle Paul are filled with teachings on the eschatological faith and the corresponding way of life to welcome the coming of the Lord.

What is our faith? Is it a faith that eagerly awaits and prepares for the coming of the Lord? Are we forming an eschatological community that shares our destiny and achieves deep communion and unity to welcome the coming of the Lord?

The Universal Church is currently celebrating a Jubilee. The 'hope' contained in the theme of the Jubilee, 'Pilgrims of Hope,' is the hope that the apostles who spent time with Jesus in the past had and the hope that the Church has kept for 2,000 years. That hope is a firm conviction in the presence of the resurrected Lord who lives and works within us and an earnest waiting for the coming of the Lord. This hope is based on the expectation that God will personally rule this world with love and mercy, justice and peace, life and health, reconciliation and unity, putting an end to the history of humanity that has been marked by death and illness, pain and sorrow, despair and frustration, fights and conflicts that have made people miserable.

To renew this eschatological faith, we must recover our sense of identity as beings who died in Jesus Christ and were resurrected in Him and given new life (cf. Rom 6:4). When we are newly armed with the conviction that the risen Lord has conquered sin and evil through the Church, overcomes death, and encourages his disciples with immortal hope, we will be able to powerfully bear witness to the world about the hope of Christians.

As we celebrate the Jubilee of Hope and this time of Lent, let's renew our sense of identity as Christians and be reborn as a community of faith filled with the desire for the coming of the Lord.

Learning How To Dialogue!

 

A Catholic Times editorial gave the readers the recent steps to implement the results of the 16th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. 

On February 19, the Bishops’ Conference held a national meeting attended by priests in charge of the synods of each diocese, religious, and lay delegates who discussed how the Korean Church will achieve the synodal church.

The synodal formation of laypeople and the formation of parish priests are the most important steps in building the synodal church. Along with priests, laypeople must experience the synodal spirit through ‘Dialogue in the Holy Spirit’ and acquire it as the foundation of church life. This participation requires a sense of mission responsibility from all the Church.

'Dialogue in the Holy Spirit' invites the Holy Spirit into the conversations, hoping to unite the participants to move from the "I" to "We" bringing us together as brothers and sisters in Christ. The process of being open to what the Holy Spirit reveals, prayerfully meeting one another and building relationships through cooperative dialogue.

Realizing the synodal church requires fundamental changes. It is not an easy goal, so we should not be impatient. However, for such efforts to achieve good results, we must set visible goals with fundamental cultural changes in church and religious life.

We can describe the stages of this 'Dialogue in the Spirit', first with preparation in prayer and meditating on what one will say about the topics discussed when the opportunities are given. 

Second, after prayer in silence, each participant speaks and expresses their thoughts on the subject and listens attentively to the others' opinions. This is followed by silent prayer.

Third, each shares what resonates most with them and what aroused the most resistance hearing what was said. Always guided by the Holy Spirit. Each person is called to answer, “When listening, did my heart burn within me?”

Fourth, the last stage of the conversation in the Spirit is a free exchange among participants, dialoguing with one another based on what has emerged to discern and gather together the fruit of the conversation in the Spirit that has just taken place. We recognize points of commonality and differences between us. We hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to us as a group so that we can move forward in a common direction. We ask ourselves: “What steps is the Holy Spirit calling us to take together?” Finally, we conclude with a prayer or song of thanksgiving to God.

There is hope in the Church that 'synodalitas' and 'Dialogue in the Holy Spirit' could now become major trends in the Korean church.”Most believers fail to experience the meaning of synodalitas and the value of ‘Dialogue in the Holy Spirit’"

In particular, it was pointed out that it is difficult to feel the effects of the synod because the opinions raised through the synod were collected into the “final document” and then conveyed to the believers over several years. During the long time it took to express opinions and hear the answers, interest and enthusiasm for the synodalitas inevitably cooled.

Participants in the national meeting said that one of the most important elements of forming a synodal church, in addition to establishing and activating ‘Dialogue in the Holy Spirit,’ is the training of its members, and that opening a ‘Synodalitas School’ could be a good idea to continue specific and practical efforts to spread the synodal spirit. They also added that the training of ‘facilitators’ who will lead ‘dialogue in the Holy Spirit’ should be conducted for priests, laypeople, and religious.

Where To Live and Die?

The Catholic Times gives the readers in View from the Ark Column a reflection on death and where to make the encounter when they still have the freedom to choose. The thoughts of a university professor.

Last fall, he went on a tour of elderly housing in Japan. After turning 61, he thought that the issue of elderly housing would soon be his problem, so he looked around carefully. It was a memorable trip where he kept thinking about where and with whom he would live, what he would do in his old age, and then die.

The first place he visited was a place near Tokyo.  It was a day service facility for the elderly located in a suburban area, and it was a cozy place where people of all ages, including the elderly, children, mothers,  and local residents, lived together.

The home for the elderly is operated by the Sony Group, which opened in June last year. It was a newly built facility in the middle of a residential area, so it was clean, and all services, including a dog robot companion, were provided. Still, he wondered if this interior-focused space was the best.

He also visited Yokohama City. It was a village where elderly welfare facilities, rehabilitation facilities, and service-type elderly housing were all combined on a fairly large site. In low-rise single-family homes, the elderly receive various services and live. The alleys and the bridges on the second floor connect all the houses, which he liked.

The place he liked the most was in Koto Ward, Tokyo. It is a two-story building located in an ordinary residential area, and it has a lot of rooms. It was built as a kindergarten in the 1970s and was once used as a funeral hall, but it was remodeled after being vacant for a long time and opened in May of last year. The first floor is a day service facility for the elderly, and it operates from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. On the wall of the central passage on the first floor is a Library, where local residents donate their books to run a bookshelf. The second floor is an after-school classroom for elementary school students from 2:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. There is also a play area for infants.

At 2:00 p.m., children who have just returned from school file into the central passage, greet the elderly, and go up the stairs to the second floor. The elderly receiving care read books to the children and helped change diapers for infants and toddlers. In the evening, when the elderly and children go home, the library owners enjoy their programs while drinking beer. Seeing many people using a small space for various purposes all day was impressive.

The places he visited included the uniquely named ‘Center' in Kanagawa Prefecture.  It is said that the name was given with the hope that the supermarket, which had served as a local center for a long time but closed in 2016, would be revived and become a village center in 2022. It consists of various functions, such as a senior day service, a childcare facility, a shared kitchen, a laundry research center, and a group home for the disabled. The building's design won the Japan Good Design Award.

Where should the elderly live to be happy in this aging society? Where among the places introduced above would be a good place to live and die? While visiting Japan’s senior housing, he thought of the ‘Care Farm’ in the Netherlands, which he had visited six years before. Care farms where dementia patients and adults with developmental disabilities can come and spend the weekends on farms with cows, horses, pigs, chickens, and colorful plants seemed like a great solution. He remembers thinking that care farms, where the elderly and the disabled receive care and live dignified lives by caring for animals, plants, and others, are the best housing for the elderly.

We live in an aging society. Where is the best home for an elderly person facing death? How will it be okay if they live and die? Who will they be with, and what will they do before they die? Let’s think about it. Where will we die? A good meditation for the beginning of Lent.