I have found the excellent way to reflect on the Word of God in everyday life. Creighton University has Online Daily Reflections that provides not only the readings of the day and reflections done by the students and faculties and spiritual directors at Creighton. I want to invite you to use it for your spiritual […]
On beginning Online Spiritual Exercise
“Discernment is everything!” I see more and more the importance of the discernment of the spirits that I deal with in everyday life. In order to advance in spiritual life, I have been led to be interested in Ignatian Spirituality. Surprisingly, I have been exposed to that for a long time. Karl Rahner’s Anonymous Christians […]
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.
One Thing (3rd Ordinary Sunday)
“There is one thing in this world that must never be forgotten. If you were to forget everything else, but did not forget that, then there would be no cause to worry; whereas if you performed and remembered and did not forget every single thing, but forgot that one thing, then you would have done nothing whatsoever. It is just as if a king had sent you into a country to carry out a specified task. You go and perform a hundred others tasks; but if you have not performed that particular task on account of which you had gone to the country, it is as though you have performed nothing at all. So each human being has come into this world for a particular task, and that is each one’s purpose; if one does not perform it, then that one will have done nothing.” (Rumi, the Sufi mystic and poet)
The one thing to which everyone is called could be named life purpose or vocation. To find the one thing in our life is to understand who we are and to be able to enjoy a full life that God has given us. But do you know how many percentages of people who are in the wrong jobs these days? The answer is seventy percent! However, let me ask you a question: which musical note is wrong note? Is B-flat a wrong note? C sharp? Obviously there are no “wrong” musical notes, but only notes that are in the wrong place at the wrong time, thus destroying the harmony. I believe that heaven will consist of every person doing what they most love—of every note being in its right place. Hell will be an eternity of people having to do work they hate.
Annual Retreat 2
My spiritual director Fr. Eric Jensen S.J. said to me when I expressed my difficulty reflecting on my life in terms of the gospel stories.
“If we need to start our journey to find God from some where, our life would be the best place to begin. And if we are able to find God in our life, our life should be called a sacred text.”
His guidance was precise as well as accurate. I followed his direction, trusting that God would be in my life stories and the scripture is the way to start. When I spent my time to pray, I first recalled God’s presence in deep breathing. And I gave thanks to God for his goodness in my life. Slowly and gradually, I let myself move into the gospel stories that I read before the prayer.