A Christmas Visit To Myeongdong Cathedral

It was late afternoon and the warm light of the lowering sun brought out the beauty of the building wonderfully.  But getting there meant I first had to run a gantlet of police, all ready in advance for a possible riot as the recent political upheavals had all kinds of protesters/idiots out in force demonstrating for all kinds of causes, some of which had nothing at all to with the government.  Fortunately, it was all peaceful and everything was hunky-dory.

 

A Visit To Myeongdong Cathedral

I find that Catholic churches, no less than Buddhist temples, somehow manage to achieve an atmosphere of calmness and introspection even when they are located in busy, noisy city centers.  In the case of Myeongdong Cathedral this effect is especially pronounced, as the church is located just a block away from the crazy raucousness of crowded Myeongdong, the touristy shopping and eating district.

Location, Location, Location

I was driving home yesterevening in some pretty unusual weather -- hot yet cloudy through most of the day, partly dry and partly humid -- when I noticed, some distance ahead, what looked like extremely localized pockets of rain. The sinking sun was selectively lighting up the clouds in the northwestern sky and making the precipitation stand out. The rest of the sky was mostly clear, though. Odd.

When rain fell from a clear sky I understand people in parts of the western world used to say the Devil was beating his wife, and the rain was her tears.

I recently learned that in Korea, people used to say of the same phenomenon that somewhere a magical creature, the fabled nine-tailed fox of folklore, must be crying. How do I know? I've been watching the K-drama My Girlfriend, the Nine-Tailed Fox (내여자친구는 구미호) -- a fantasy about a likable slacker dude who acquires a beautiful girlfriend, unaware that she is in reality a 500-year old magic fox. With nine tails. Which she keeps hidden when in human form.

On the show, whenever she feels sad and cries (mostly due to the guy's thoughtless behavior -- it seems that, despite being so old and powerful, she's an amateur when it comes to the emotional complexities of life as a human), it begins to rain, no matter that the sky was perfectly clear a moment before.

Anyway, as I neared the glowing columns, some drops of rain did hit the windshield, so I guess I was right about the localized rain. But as I continued driving along the 101 freeway and neared the Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral (which occupies a commanding position overlooking the freeway), I noticed something which quite stood out, and made me stare:

O.K., I didn't exactly break out in a cold sweat, but really, with its elongate shape it was pretty striking -- it almost looked like a soaring lick of flame in the sky. And not only that, with a little imagination you can see a standing female figure there, clad in a robe/veil (burqa?^), above (or standing/riding on) whatever the other thing is (which looks to me like a dove!). There is even a faint hint of a nimbus behind 'her' head. And considering the proximity of the cathedral, I daresay there are people who would not hesitate to say that, that column of floating water droplets/fox tears/mystical flame, was actually the sign of a 'presence' hovering over the cathedral. I love it!