"I lived like a
fool."
It is the title of popular song written by Kim Do-hyang (1945-) in 1980.
"One day, listening to falling leaves, I saw my empty heart. I felt the
times went by transiently. Have I perhaps lost my life? Would it be too late? I
have truly lived like a fool…"
The well-known nickname of the late Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan (1922-2009)
was "a fool." The simple image of a fool with a hidden smile has
become a trend mark of his life.
He called himself "a fool" after drawing a simple self-portrait at
the age of 80s, confessing that "It seems that I have lived like a fool
pushing myself forward with some knowledge and wanting to be treated with
respect."
Many of us now appreciate the true meaning of living as a fool in the midst of
people in need.
In the spirit of his sharing, "Pottery scholarship" was founded in
2002 to give scholarships to seminarians in the hope of preparing a mission to
North, and various events are still organized under the name of "Sharing
of a fool" to raise funds to help others since 2010.
Jesus himself was a fool, too, in a positive and spiritual sense. He never
judged nor criticized others in a negative way. He kept silent and he willingly
gave himself out to realize the will of God. He was crucified and endured up to
the final moment of death on the cross.
"Lazzaro felice" (Happy as Lazzaro) is an Italian film directed by
Alice Rohrwacher who won the 71st Cannes Film Festival Award for Best
Screenplay in 2018.
This film is called a modern fable on a happy fool. Living on an estate called
"Inviolata" isolated since 1977, Alfonsina de Luna, a tobacco
baroness and queen of cigarettes exploits 54 farmhands working on her tobacco
farm. Every peasant in this farm is unpaid and in debt.
A pure Lazzaro is one of miserable peasants, and unfortunately, his neighbors
also abuse him, asking various things to do. Nevertheless, Lazzaro does
whatever people ask him without any resistance. His face reflects his inner
goodness filled with compassion and kindness. By nature, he does his best to
help others.
Tancredi is the disillusioned marquis against the working principle of his
mother. So Tancredi lives in the mountain while pretending himself to be
kidnapped. He threatens his mother to hand some ransom, but instead, the police
arrives to tell the truth and evacuates Inviolata. In the end, Alfonsina is
arrested due to her great swindle.
Lazzaro faithfully tries to support Tancredi who said him to be his
half-brother, but Lazzaro falls down from a cliff and awakes many years later.
He meets the survivors who are still poor, swindling others in the city.
One day, he encounters Tancredi who lost his fortune to the bank. Then, Lazzaro
visits the bank to ask for the fortune to be returned to Tancredi. However,
Lazzaro has a slingshot only, and people beat him until he sees a vision of the
wolf running free.
Lazzaro has been fooled constantly by people around, but every moment he chose
to give himself out for the good of his friends. Here lies the mysterious
beauty of living like a fool. "There is no greater love than to lay down
one's life for one's friends."(John 15:13)
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2019/07/162_271661.html
The Korea Times/ Thoughts of the Times/
July 4, 2019
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