(written in 1997)
While some people worship money, some men of virtue pursued the spiritual value of poverty. One good example would be St. Francesco who gave away all his property so s to help the poor. From reading the newspapers nowadays, it seems society unfortunately is run by bribes. Politics, business, education, etc.--almost every field is fond of money, more money, which ultimately leads to corruption and spiritual death. Is money so important in our lives? Money is surely necessary for one to live but it is not the only thing.
I would like to talk about a man who was a witness to poverty and uprightness in our society. I think some of the older generations remember him. He was the late judge Kim Hong-sop (Paul, 1915-1965), who confessed in one of his essays "The Heart Looking at the Star" that "I like the moon better than the sun. I like the stars better than the moon. From the time of being a mere child sitting on my grandfather's lap learning of the Great Bear and the Twins to the time of heartbreaking longing under the night sky on Mr. Odae, I have dearly loved the stars, and I still love them..." His pure child's heart caused him to lead a simple, noble, and frugal life. He surely made the strict court a place of a flower, which means practicing law with a compassionate and understanding heart.
He was born as the only son of a poor farm family in Chonbuk on Aug. 28, 1915. Reading a biography of Abraham Lincon he decided to become a lawyer in 1934. He became an office boy for the family of a Japanese judicial officer in 1953. With painstaking efforts, he passed the Chosun Bar examination in 1940. He left the University of Japan without graduating, but he held various posts such as a judge at the Kwangju and Seoul High Courts. On the contrary, he loved poverty like St. Francesco; his sense of integrity led him to be poor all the time.
He became a Catholic at the age of 38 in 1953. He was eager to pursue the truth and entered the Third Order of St. Francesco in 1964. He became a brother and father to condemned criminals and accompanied them to their end giving them consolation. His apostolic spirit, integrity, sacrifice, and unconditional love were very similar to the consecrated life of the religious becoming the light and the salt of the world. While spiritually supporting alienated people, he was well-known for his devout faith, humility, frugal life, pious contemplation, serious writing, love and care for criminals, and the abolition of capital punishment. he was strict but gentle, simple but warm, upright but compassionate. He used to wear black rubber shoes and secondhand clothes. He enjoyed climbing mountains, visiting temples, and drawing simple pictures. He read the Imitation of Christ ten times and wrote many prayers in the blank spaces of that book. When he died of liver cancer at the age of 51 on March 16, 1965, all his relatives, condemned criminals, and other criminals with long penal servitude felt pain almost like the heavens collapsing down.
He wrote poems of sensitivity and published them under the title of Namelessness in 1954. A collection of essays, Beyond Transiency, contemplating nature and life with a true and lofty spirit came into being in 1960. The revised collection of his posthumous works including essays, poems, diary, and notes was finally published in 1971 by "Pauline" run by the Daughters of St. Paul who is working for the ministry of Mass Media. This book is still cherished by many readers. Here is one of his poems in that book, "A Court with a Flower":
This flower
How can I throw it away!
In the burning
fire,
On the flowing
water,
Or else, shall I
dig.
And bury it in the
ground?
It would rather
Not to be broken.
Is the wind
Guilty?
A broken flower!
Though it had been
trampled down.
This flower
How can I throw it away?
Without the heart
to throw away
I tie it with
thread
And put it on the
wall.
If I do so, it
might be alive
In a blissful
spring in March.
The Korea Times/ Thoughts of the Times/ August 16, 1997
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