Homeless in Seoul
There’s a homeless guy I pass in the train station every night on my way home from work. He reeks, in a tattered winter coat and pants that end in shreds around his cracked black feet. He stands motionless, bedroll in hand, staring into space as throngs of well-dressed Seoulites hustle about giving him a wide birth. I wonder whether they’re any better than he is. Or whether I am?
I don’t know what the general attitude about homelessness is in Korea. I mean, with all the crosses dotting the skyline you’d think it would be a paradise for the underprivileged, but somehow I get the feeling that isn’t the case. The country has been through a lot in recent decades and that’s engendered a sort of “life’s tough” attitude. Maybe the Confucian influence plays a part too, that it’s some sort of moral flaw that has led to a person’s degraded circumstances. Buddhism would say it’s karma.
A scene from the biography of St. Francis springs to mind, when the young son of an Italian merchant encounters a homeless man in his path. Horrified at first, he comes to believe that in fact it is Jesus before him, overcoming his revulsion and embarking on a life of extreme poverty and faith.
Truth be told he’s most likely mentally disturbed, his demons fed by a steady diet of soju and scorn. But that fear he strikes in people is real and its that fear that St. Francis had to confront before undergoing his spiritual transformation. It’s that same fear I admit to myself every night that I will most likely never get over.
Still, while not a Christian, I’ve always remembered that story and every night it makes me wince as I shut off a part of my humanity so that I can join the others in pretending not to see him. But I do see him, and the old lady sitting night after night with her tray of coins, and the two feet sticking out from under the box in a pile of food scraps and filth. I see it on my way to my warm home, closing the door on the biting cold of winter and those outside. And I wonder whether I’m not closing the door on myself as well.
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Filed under: Asia, Daily life, Korean Society, Opinion, Seoul, buddhism, religion | Tagged: buddhism, confucianism, family, homelessness, Korea, religion, Seoul, soju, spirituality, travel
Great reflections! And I like the title of your post, because it seems to me it really expresses what is on your heart.
I am a Christian and I believe that when something sticks in our mind or bothers us and we don’t seem to shift it from our conscience, it is because God is working something in us through that.
For example, I too felt very convicted about the homeless and about the fact that although I am a Christian, I was doing very little to help those less privileged than me. Jesus clearly asked his followers to look after the poor and yet many of us who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ walk by the homeless, just as you describe, glance at them and continue with our comfortable lives.
This happened to me too and the burden would not go away. I believe God was asking me to open that door on myself, as you put it, and in helping the homeless, see beyond myself and my circumstances and do something meaningful that can help others other than myself and my family. When we do this, we not only bless others but mostly ourselves.
We have recently started an initiative to collect food for the homeless in our community. Members of our church now donate food regularly and this gets given to the homeless. It is not much, but at least it is a start.
When God knocks on our door and we constantly get reminded about those who need us, He does not go away until we listen to his calling and do something about it. Why don’t you try, in your own personal way to do something which can bless that homeless person? It does not have to be anything big; a simple gesture of compassion that shows him/her that you care for them could make a huge difference to their miserable circumstances.
Who knows? In the economic climate we are living in, it could well be one of us that one day is lying down on the floor in the streets with not a penny to our names and we may well need a compassionate hearth to help us if that was to happen to us.
All the best,
ransom33 @ http://www.ransom33.wordpress.com