Tuesday, 12/5/17
Many of the Advent readings at
Mass have to do with the Lord coming to rule Jerusalem or his coming at the end
of the world. And, it is disappointing that the Liturgy does not reflect our
principal concern with this year's Christmas.
I have been making up for
that by bringing up stories of wonderful Christmases I have shared in.
Let me speak about Korea
(where I had a parish from 1954 to 1965.) All U.S. A. people from the Atlantic to the Pacific
call ourselves Americans. The Korean people have a much different way of
referring to themselves. "They call themselves, "The Hundred Names." That is because they have
a hundred family names (like Kim,.Pak, Han, Jung, and so on.)
Up till the middle of the
last century, the people with the same Korean name. honored the direct descendent of the first of the name
to land on Korea's coast. They would provide him with a home where they could
gather once a year to honor their ancestors.
The Korean War, leaving half
the Kim's in the north, with half in the
south, broke up those clans, leaving people with hidden
longings for the old common family life.
From 1955, my first year in
Yang Yang parish, our number of parishioners
doubled each year.(With the newcomers feeling the church to be their new clan.),
In 1956 before we could start
our midnight Christmas Mass, I had to baptize sixty converts. They-made two facing lines from the back door to the
altar. It was terribly cold, with tubs of charcoal giving off more smoke than
heat. (One old lady fell over when I anointed her forehead with Chrism.)
From after Mass until dawn, the
people crowded on to every inch of floor space in my house, putting down rice,
singing songs, and acting like one big family.
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