Columban priests and co-workers gather at the exhibition of art work by Fr Jason Antiquera (front centre), Seoul, Korea. - Photo: St Columbans Mission Society
Someone once observed: “What we hear we forget; what we see we remember and what we experience we understand.”
Having retired back to Ireland in June 2017 after nigh on 50 years as a missionary in Korea, the part about experiencing and understanding is vividly real for me. I feel deeply thankful to God for the many experiences of joy, hope, success and occasional failure during those years. What I now know profoundly is that while cultures, languages and people are different, the basic human desire is to experience understanding, love, support, compassion, and forgiveness.
My life is enriched by the many people that crossed my path in Korea: other missionaries, the people in the different communities where I lived, and those I met in the ordinary circumstances of daily life. I appreciate the welcome, understanding and support offered to me by the many people I met in parish ministry, in the promotion of Columban supporters’ apostolate, and in my last years of semi-retirement.
Such encounters took place not only in ministry, but in more informal settings, such as having meals and celebrations together. People coming together to share food and drink were special moments when barriers broke down. It was then, especially, that I did not feel an outsider or a stranger. My final ten years in Korea were happy ones. I enjoyed an independence and freedom to find new avenues for ministry that were not stressful or overly demanding.
The resilience of Korean people, who seem to excel in times of crisis, always impressed me. That they could move forward, even in the face of many natural and human-caused disasters, helped me appreciate different values and traditions. Ironically, the experience of the not-so-beautiful brought me to a greater awareness of God in the beauty of nature, whether in the mountains of Korea or in the green fields and woodlands of my home country. There is a special beauty in all of God’s creation.
Occasionally since returning to Ireland, I have gone to the headquarters of the Columban Sisters for funeral Masses of their members who were missionaries to Korea. As I wander through their cemetery, looking at the gravestones, I get a new awareness of the immense contribution these women made as doctors and nurses working in medical centres in Korea. In the challenging years after the Korean War, they cared for so many poor, ill and suffering people.
I have similar feelings about the St John of God Brothers, who have also contributed to the uplifting of so many poor and suffering people, especially in the greater Gwangju area. Just two years ago, the Brothers invited me to their headquarters in Dublin to offer a Mass of Thanksgiving commemorating the 60th anniversary of their arrival in Korea. It so happened that in the autumn of 1958, I, along with a few other Columbans, travelled with their first team of five brothers on a freighter from San Francisco to Incheon, a 19-day journey.
Today, despite the many problems in our Church and world, I live with hope, wonder, joy, and a quiet appreciation for beauty. My years in Korea, and the many people I encountered there, taught me that nothing less is acceptable.
Columban Fr Anthony O'Brien lives in retirement in Ireland
Listen to "Memories of Korea"
Related links
- Read more from The Far East - September/October 2022
