Each week, there will be some practical help to prepare for this week’s retreat and for getting the most from it. Notice what the questions are about this week. That will make them memorable. They ask us to focus on images, memories, crossroads, specific painful memories. We could say, “I already did that!” This week we are asked to […]
[Week 2] 1. Our story’s depth
Our Story’s Depth. As we reviewed the photo album of our life stories last week, we all experienced special memories that have put us in touch with our God’s presence with us throughout our life’s journey. Our exercises this week will help us enter more deeply into our stories. One powerful way to go deeper […]
[Week 1] 5. My review of the week
Jan. 19, 2009 The first day of the Spiritual Exercise online! The weekly guide suggests I need to reflect on my life. It can be done roughly Monday and Tuesday, remembering the images of my childhood; Wednesday and Thursday, my teen and early adulthood; Friday and Saturday, the rest of my adult life. And […]
[Week 1] 4. The courage to accept accpetance
There is a basic principle in theology which states that faith or Scripture contains the answer to the deepest questions of the human heart. Faith is about life, my life. Faith is like x-raying my human existence. It helps me to live better, to be more human, to be more integrated. Faith is to discover […]
Crossing Boundaries (4th Ordinary)
Jesus’ new teaching with authority! To me, it would be described as crossing boundaries. When I was a kid, I loved watching an animated movie based on the Korean War. In the animation, North Koreans were pictured as violent wolves with red faces that killed innocent South Koreans, so we called them the reds. It was a vivid image that scared me all the time just as others had, so to speak, the red complex. Needless to say, I had been educated that North Korea was our enemy and against them we had to defend our country, democracy, and freedom.
In the gospel, Jesus crosses the well-established boundaries by healing the unclean man. No one at that time wanted to talk, contact, and treat the unclean as neighbors. This boundary was considered to protect people from defilement and became a division between the good and bad, friends and enemies which led to hatred and exclusion. Jesus does not respect these boundaries. He trespasses them, simply ordering to the grumbling, “Quiet! Come out of him!”
To me, Jesus’ teaching—love your enemy and bless and pray for them—was foreign and totally new. How can we South Koreans love North Koreans who tried to get rid of us and even bless and pray for them? They are wicked as well as ungrateful, no matter how much we send humanitarian aids for the starving and mal-nutritional children. There was a deep boundary that I thought no one could cross over and should.
Here I want to talk about the movie called “Freedom Writer.” The background of the movie is set in a high school in Los Angeles where the students segregates themselves, especially after 1992 Los Angeles Riot. The Hispanic never converse with the blacks; the Cambodians never allow anyone to walk through their ghetto; and the whites are a minority group. In the classroom, each group has its own territory that no one dares to cross. Then a new teacher, one day, invites them to play the Line Game, drawing one line in the middle of the classroom. The game is pretty simple. People who stand aside need to step up to the line when they hear something that they can relate to. “Is there anyone who is born in America?” All step up to the line. “Is there anyone who has a girl friend or a boy friend?” Obviously everyone steps up, giggling at each other. “Is there anyone who has been shot at?” After a little shocking silence, most hesitantly step up. “Stay there, if anyone who has lost a friend because of gun violence?” Most stay still. “Is there anyone who has lost more than one friend?” The dead silent prevails; some drop the heads, sobbing. “More than two?” Some move back, but many still remain, looking at each other. This is such a powerful moment when for the first time they look at one another differently in the line for they see the others’ same sorrow and pain. The teacher asked, “Four?” Some are still there. The teacher asks all to pray for the victims of the violence.
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