Living the Transcendent Life

The Catholic Times Sunday Chat columnist offers readers some thoughts on the duration of inhalation and exhalation and how grateful we should be for the air we breathe.

As a middle school student, he had a rather unusual experience being buried in the ground and then dug up by those around him. It was such a strange incident that some people misunderstood and made more of it than what really happened.

That year was unusually dry, and the fields of the island village where he lived were filled with parched rice paddies. Since the school was closed temporarily, the children were instructed to help with water supply work instead of attending school.

His family worked on extending the water channel to the village pond. If you dug deep into the sandy ground, you could find a vein of groundwater to expand the water supply to the pond. With others, he found a vein about 3 meters underground. When the ground was hit with a pickaxe, the disturbance and resonance of the sound shook the ground on both sides of the dug hole's wall, and the mud and dirt covered them instantly. The movement of the earth that he felt is still vivid; he could feel the pressure increasing as it filled the space between his neck and limbs. He tried to breathe, but even though it was sandy soil, the air didn't pass through as if blocked by plastic.

They said it took us about 5 minutes to dig our faces out of the dirt with our hands, and he realized how much of a blessing it was to inhale and exhale.

When middle-aged and quit smoking cigarettes that he had smoked for years, this memory came back to him and made him think. To mix this blessed air with smoke and inhale it into his body…

It was the same when he was watching his father's bedside when he was dying. His body, with several hoses connected, was struggling to extend his time on earth; inhalation was difficult. He watched helplessly to see if the exhalation could lead to another inhalation or vice versa. The sound of breathing in the darkness was like a snail crawling across a tidal flat. That’s how he understood the meaning of ‘the time of one breath’.

He heard that Usain Bolt, the world record holder for the 100-meter dash, breathes little from the start to the finish line. He is said to be doing anaerobic exercise for about 9 seconds, during which he must tense his entire body and release explosive energy. It is said that even veteran female divers on Jeju Island can stay underwater for about 5 minutes with a single deep breath. Let’s leave the argument that the gap between inhalation and exhalation is the minimum unit of time a living organism feels, and is unique to each individual.

In the midst of all that is going on in our lives, slowing down to breathe is not an easy task, but it is a time of resurrection for people of faith, a time when all our values and preconceived notions are regularly checked against a new standard. Let's reset our time units and connect the things we see and evaluate in the visible realm with the things beyond. Inhale and exhale, break up the units of time, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, carefully cross the thresholds of daily life, pondering what transcendent life mechanisms God has designed just for me.

God Working In Cultures

 

Korea is often mentioned as the most Confucian country in Asia, a statement that many understand and accept. Confucianism is a way of life for millions of people of the past and today. 

Neo-Confucianism was introduced to Korea from China in the 13th century and became the nation's ideology during the Joseon Dynasty, which lasted from 1392 to 1897. The Korean Empire lasted from 1897 to 1910. Buddhism came to Korea in the 4th Century CE, but when Confucianism became the dominant state ideology, Buddhism faced many restrictions. 

Some see Confucianism as a secular belief based on Natural Law with natural ethics, a philosophy that focuses on moral behavior rather than worship of the Deity. The early Jesuits who went to China in the late 16th century had this understanding of Confucianism and sought to integrate much of its ethics, social harmony, and virtue as compatible with Christian teaching.

Other missionary groups that worked in rural areas and mainly with the uneducated would have a different understanding of Confucianism than the city-dwelling Jesuits. This was one of the reasons that, for many centuries, there was a serious controversy over the question of rites within Catholicism. The Jesuits believed the rites practiced were civil and social, not religious, and could be tolerated within certain limits, allowing the Chinese to continue their practices when becoming Christian.

During the past centuries, up until 1939, we had bans on the rites for the veneration of the dead. These Confucian rites would be accepted, and then permission rescinded; even debate on the issue was forbidden until 1939. After two centuries, the Holy See re-assessed the issue. Pius XII issued a decree in December 1939 authorizing Chinese Catholics to observe the ancestral rites and participate in Confucius-honoring ceremonies. This came as a great blessing to Korean Catholicism.

A good example of what the Jesuit missioners were impressed with was the Analects, a compilation of the sayings of Confucius and his disciples, written centuries after his death. One maxim that would have shown sensitivity to the Natural Law and the virtuous life,  was: "三人行必有我师" literally, "When three people walk together, there must be one who can be my teacher.") This saying emphasizes that one can learn from everyone around them, regardless of status or knowledge. It reflects a humble attitude towards learning and acknowledges that everyone has something valuable to teach. 

This humility in Confucian teaching would have made a lasting impression on these first Jesuits in China and made it easy to understand Confucianism's positive and virtuous approach to life.

At the Second Vatican Council, understanding inculturation made another step. It understood the Gospel message taking root and flourishing in different cultures, allowing these cultures to enrich the church's life and teachings. 

This perspective encourages people to approach different cultures with respect and understanding. It recognizes that God may work uniquely within each context and continues to lead people to a fuller understanding of the movements of grace in our lives.

What is Death with Dignity?

The Catholic Times' View from the Ark column, written by a research assistant and professor of Life Science at the Catholic University of Korea, shares her thoughts on the "assisted death with dignity movement."

In Korea, there has been a recent movement to legislate ‘assisted death with dignity’. At first glance, ‘assisted death with dignity’ sounds like it means receiving assistance and dying with dignity, but in reality, it means suicide with the aid of a doctor. 

This is a distortion of language. The background of physician-assisted suicide, called euthanasia with dignity, began in the United States in 1972 when the governor of Oregon started promoting the movement.

He strategically used the expression ‘death with dignity’ to reduce opposition from citizens and the legislature and gain support. In the end, Oregon successfully legalized physician-assisted suicide in 1994 by packaging the meaning of physician-assisted suicide with dignity and mercy, and it has been legal since 1997.

In Korea, confusion over the term ‘death with dignity’ began when the media reported ‘withdrawal and suspension of life-sustaining treatment’ as euthanasia or passive euthanasia. Since then, there has been a movement to immediately equate the decision to terminate life-sustaining treatment with death and to overlook the fact that “even if life-sustaining treatment is withheld or suspended, beneficial and necessary medical treatment and basic care continue for the patient.” [The Catholic Viewpoint— we all have the freedom if it is medically decided that one will die in a short period, and life support treatment would only delay the moment of death, to refuse life support treatment]

With the revision of the Life-sustaining Treatment Decision demanded in 2022, expressions that considered physician-assisted suicide as a death with dignity began to be used interchangeably, and the misuse is becoming increasingly severe. This confusion of terms not only obscures the word's original meaning but also carries the serious risk of distorting social perceptions of life and death.

According to the “Trends and Tasks of Well-dying Discussions for Preparing for Future Society,” published by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs in December 2024, 82% of Koreans are in favor of physician-assisted suicide, which is expressed as assisted euthanasia. However, a closer look at the survey reveals surprising results. The top five services that the public “needs most to achieve a good death” are: first, relief of pain that may occur during the end-of-life period; second, support for the cost of treatment for patients at the end-of-life; third, psychological and emotional support for patients at the end-of-life and their families; fourth, strengthening of end-of-life medical care that can be received at home; and fifth, improving the quality of medical services received during the end-of-life period.

This shows that there are still many people who believe that “life is sacred and no one can dispose of life at will.” Modern medicine has reached a level where it can sufficiently relieve most pain, and many people agree that care and support are essential during the end-of-life period. So why do they package physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia as “death with dignity” and appear impatient because they cannot legislate it?

The government is investing a considerable amount of money to solve the low birth rate problem. Still, it is not paying enough attention to specific and realistic support for those living at the end of life. In this reality, we need to reflect on whether we are not gradually diluting the essential value of ‘communion and solidarity among people’ by being influenced by the tendency to evaluate life solely based on usefulness and productivity.

A person's life is an epic narrative that cannot be captured in a single book. We need to reclaim the meaning of “death with dignity.” What can we do? 

First, if you hear the media, legislators, or government officials refer to physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia as “dignified death,” we need to point out clearly and respectfully that this is inaccurate. Legislators and policymakers should also recognize that support for physician-assisted suicide is not simply a vote of “yes,” but rather a reflection of our society's institutional deficiencies and lack of care.

The Best I Can Do

 

In the Sunday Chat column of The Catholic Times, an artist hired to help remodel a church shares with readers what he learned from the experience.

While working as an artist, I have supervised the construction of five Catholic churches. This is because I wanted to share my experience of visiting 180 churches in two dioceses over three years and analyzing their architectural features to design the covers of the parish bulletins for the Busan and Masan dioceses. When word got out that I was doing something out of the blue, my artistic colleagues joked that I couldn't make a living from my artistic talents alone. 

They admired Michelangelo and Gaudí but were puzzled to see me working on an architectural site. Also, when I wrote a short poem that was published in a literary magazine, they told me to dig a well somewhere, please. They said it was for my own good, but they were trying to keep me in the same old box. In any case, the change in my activities was spurred by my own need to express myself.

Three years ago, I was at the church remodeling site in the Diocese of Busan. The church was designed by a famous architect in Seoul and had a very high floor. The ceiling structure, which was 15 meters high from the floor, was dilapidated and needed repair. Many contractors had visited the site and given up, so I was contacted by chance. Knowing the pastor's concerns, I eventually took on the project and had to find various breakthroughs that differed from the existing specifications due to the low budget.

Explaining the solution to the pastoral council and the building committee and getting them to understand the construction process was complicated because they didn't trust anything other than traditional methods for such a challenging project. It was a replay of their past history, where they had no choice but to oppose the project, even if it meant that the project would not proceed, to avoid being held accountable for the wrong decision.

This statement silenced the room for a moment, but it didn't change the stubbornness of the person who opposed it from the beginning. I had to say something. “Brother, have you ever lived this day before?  How did you walk out of your front door today since you have not lived this day before?” The meeting ended, and the next day I was appointed general manager of the project. I think the words I uttered that day were the wisest words I have ever spoken.

When it comes to the statement "Render to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's," the believer is faced with a stark choice. The "best" and "best I can do" are different. The "best" is an absolute value, while the "best I can do" is relative. The world seeks the best, and God desires the best we can do. How humble is the best that finite human beings can achieve, and how beautiful is the best activity combined with a place in life to one who looks to God!

Prostitution—Disease of Humanity

The Catholic Peace Weekly had an article on illegal prostitution and the violation of women’s human rights, even though rampant in society. They looked into the actions of Paju City to close down the largest prostitution district in Korea with 70 years of history and met those helping these women get out of the district and become self-sufficient.

“They will never be self-sufficient!" This is what a 70-year-old business owner who is protesting the closure of Paju City’s prostitution district said to a Paju City official. 

Self-sufficiency means ‘living on one’s own strength’. During the 70-year history of the district, victims of prostitution lived isolated lives where it was difficult to support themselves. Most of them, whose days and nights are reversed, have solved their food, clothing, and shelter problems in confined spaces. The longer they worked in the red-light district, the more they forgot how to use public transportation, find directions, purchase goods, and conduct daily life.

The ‘Prostitution Prevention Act’ went into effect in 2004. Although this law has been on the books for exactly 20 years, prostitution is still being bought and sold in 12 red-light districts across the country, including Paju, the largest in Korea. They looked into the actions of Paju City, which declared the closure of red-light districts and allocated more than twice the amount of support funds compared to other local governments to help victims of prostitution become independent. 

The Church’s View of Prostitution: “Prostitution is a crime and a disease of humanity”.

In the preface to the book “Women Crucified: The Shame of Human Trafficking in the Streets” written by a priest from the “Pope John XXIII Community” in 2019. Pope Francis stated, “People are not beings that can be bought and sold,” and asked, “Please courageously step forward in rescue and recovery activities for victims.”

The Catholic Church defines prostitution as a clear violation of human dignity and a social disaster. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “Prostitution harms the dignity of the person who sells their body, reducing them to an instrument of sexual pleasure,” and “Those who pay also sin gravely against themselves” (paragraph 2355).

The Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People expressed concern at the First International Pastoral Conference for the Liberation of Women on the Street held in Rome in 2005, stating that “sexual exploitation is an act of violence against women, an act that injures their dignity and a serious violation of their fundamental human rights.” It also expressed concern that “the number of women on the street is increasing dramatically worldwide due to a complex mix of economic, social, and cultural reasons.”

The final document produced by the pastoral conference stated that “the victims are torn to pieces and are psychologically and spiritually dead” and that “most of them have stories of violence, abuse, distrust, self-degradation, fear, and deprivation of opportunity” and that “what they seek is human relationships, love, security, affection, confidence and a better future for themselves and their families.”

Sister Hong Seong-sil, former director of the prostitution victim protection organization ‘Sonya’s House,’ stated, “Human dignity, which is to regard human sexuality given to us by God as noble and not to treat it as material or instrumental, is an important value that our church cannot give up, and it is the foundation of the life of a believer.”

Cardinal Kim Soo-hwan was the great-uncle of women in prostitution. Starting in the 1988 holiday season, Cardinal Kim frequently visited shelters for victims of prostitution and talked with them for three to four hours. The reason Cardinal Kim remembered and called the women by their names, supported them without anyone knowing, and even visited their funerals was because he considered them daughters of the Lord who lived lives of pain, prejudice, and suffering. This was the love he wanted the church to show them.

Building A Synodal Church

 

A report on a research seminar that examined the three-year journey of the 16th Regular General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops and sought specific implementation measures was published on the Now/Here Catholic website. This summary aims to convey the thoughts of some members of the Korean Church during the research seminar. Here is the address that will give you the page of the article—https://www.catholicnews.co.kr

On March 15, the Vatican's Synod Secretariat emphasized the role of local churches in implementing the synod. It explained that local churches should "appropriately 'accept' the direction expressed in the 'final document' of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops to fit the needs of local cultures and communities. This will be a three-year process that will end in October 2028. This article will only include the issues from the first of the two presentations in response to the final document. 

A professor analyzed the theological foundation of the "Final Document" and explored how these insights can be applied to the church. He also emphasized that all church processes and procedures should be carried out through listening, discernment, consultation, decision-making, and responsible explanation and evaluation, based on transparency, to realize the prophetic power of the ‘Final Document’ insights.

He focused on theological explanations of listening and discernment methods, the subtle tension between consultation and decision, and discussions of evaluation methods. As a lay theologian, he also proposed a new way of imagining lay participation and lay ministry in the church. 

A priest commented, "We need to approach the ‘final document’ from various angles and perspectives on theological reflection, inspiration, and practical implications.”

He asked whether the ‘final document’ suggests conversion and formation to realize synodalitas (walking together). While formation requires theological statements on the method and direction, results are not analyzed. For example, he said, “All churches in the world celebrate the Eucharist daily, but why do churches and believers not easily convert to a synodal life? Is the catechesis of the parish (church) leading people to a synodal life of faith? Is theological education cultivating clergy with a synodal attitude? Are today’s Catholic universities profoundly influencing the spread of Catholic values ​​and beliefs? If we do not honestly ask ourselves these questions and make efforts to  find answers, the theological statements can be empty.”

He said that most parishes today are “centered on the liturgy and the sacraments, so there is a risk that clergy will only be administrators of the sacraments and ceremonies” and not fully active as religious educators and formators. He suggested we should honestly consider this reality and find new formation methods.

He further said that forming a public discourse is important for the change and renewal of the church community and urged church media and theologians to work toward this goal. Although they may be unable to create a grand public discourse, he hoped there would be more small-scale humanistic religious study groups among believers beyond parish boundaries.

One priest said: “If Synodalitas is a process of renewing the essence of the church, what is important in this process is not ‘integrating the people of God into the hierarchy,’ but that the structure of the church must ‘find its own position within the people of God,’” and that “the identity and mission of the laity must be fully recognized and accepted as the ‘true subject’ of the church.”

He pointed out that “laymen become ‘true subjects’ according to the essential nature of baptism, and the sacrament of baptism grants rights, not just duties, in the church” and that “if the church fails to accept this, the relationship between laymen and ordained clergy will remain in the institutional church model that reflects an unequal social model, and the church of ‘participation and shared responsibility’ will disappear.”

Never Lose Hope— Happy Easter!

The Preciousness of Faith columnist at the Catholic Peace Weekly offers some thoughts in preparation for the Feast of Easter.

We are in the Jubilee, but the columnist laments that he feels there is strangely no Jubilee atmosphere. The current situation in our country, which is extremely chaotic, may not be unrelated to this atmosphere.

Pope Francis set the theme of the Jubilee as ‘Pilgrim of Hope’ — the Church will light a flame of hope in this era of wounds and loss of hope. But what kind of hope can the Church convey to the world in this dark era? As the biblical text of the Jubilee says (cf. Romans 5:5), how confidently are we conveying that hope?

The priest columnist recently read an article about a book called "I Wish Today Was Tomorrow". The author tells the story of a mother who chose euthanasia (assisted death) while suffering from terminal cancer and invites us to deeply reflect on life and death. The remaining time in a state where there is no hope of recovery will be a more painful experience than death. How painful must it have been for a patient in Zurich, Switzerland, who was waiting for tomorrow, the day of her “planned death”, to say that she wished the day would come sooner?

Since the columnist was at the side of his mother, who suffered from pancreatic cancer and passed away in the arms of God, he could relate to the above story. However, on the other hand, he also felt regretful that it had to be that way. This is not just because the church prohibits euthanasia. In fact, this is a problem that all people, not just terminally ill patients, have to face.

At some point, whether due to old age or illness, we will stand before the “cliff of hope” where all human hope falls to the ground. When there is no hope, what meaning and value does the time left until death have? We will fall into depression and spend our days in misery, and we will even resent God for still keeping us alive. In this way, we are all weak beings who cannot live even a single moment without hope.

However, we Christians have hope beyond death. And that hope changes everything. The moment we place our hope in God, who governs life and death, the time we have left becomes an incredibly precious time to prepare for meeting God, organize our relationships, and reorder our lives. He experienced this at a hospice and wished he could convey this hope to the people of the world. Wouldn’t it have been possible to change the decision to choose assisted death?

At this point, we can say, as author Han Kang said, “The dead save the living.” Believers who have walked this path before us tell us to find what hope we have. How blessed, precious, and great that hope is. They tell us not to realize it too late but to find that hope, organize our lives now, prepare for a beautiful death, and live today beautifully and brilliantly, given to us as a gift.

Jesus set foot on Jerusalem after the holy transfiguration. Wasn’t the reason he went to Jerusalem to walk the path of pain, suffering, despair, and death before us so that he could be with us and become our hope when we reached the valley of death?

Let us remember that Lent is a pilgrimage to Jerusalem with the Lord and a journey to find the hope that the Lord wants to give us. The world desperately longs for hope. However, it is not easy to dream of hope beyond death alone. If we believers stand up and boldly spread hope, living in it confidently, won’t the world become brighter and more hopeful?  Happy Easter!