SUDDENNESS. SURPRISE ... SALVATION!
First Sunday of Advent (A)
December 1, 2013
SUDDENNESS. SURPRISE … SALVATION!
Mountains have always mystified me. Oceans frightened me
each time, but mountains always somehow make of me a little mystic. I have
climbed at least 14 of them in tropical Philippines, a number of them for more
than just once or twice, or even thrice, and every time I set my sights on one,
I always sigh – and pine for – the heights.
The Israelites were spot on to think of mountains as a place
of refuge and a place to encounter God. It certainly was – and is – refuge for
me … Then and now … when times get tough and the rough and tumble of life get
the better of me. It is also a place of encounter with God, especially when
right from day one we started the group – and the tradition of trekking up
heights at Don Bosco Mandaluyong, Philippines – we ended each weary day with a
lively recitation of the rosary and the traditional Salesian pep talk called
the “good night.” But the best was always the Eucharistic celebration either at
sundown or at sunrise.
More often than not, we did so, facing the rising sun, “ad
orientem” – towards where the light of salvation emanates.
Three weeks after the unparalleled and unprecedented
devastation wrought by the super-typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda in the Philippines), I
still find myself in tears, unable to find sufficient meaning to so much
suffering and death and utter desperation for millions, not hundreds. Although
I am not directly involved in relief operations, but in finding ways and means
to send help to those who do direct work of helping the hapless victims, I
can’t help but be moved every time powerful images of intense suffering and an
equally intense spirit of acceptance and resignation, brought about by deep
sense of faith on the part of so many fellow Filipinos.
Today, first Sunday of Advent, thoughts of mountains come
rushing back to my mind. After all, the prophet Isaiah says so: “the mountain
of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised
above the hills” (1st reading). Mountains definitely conjured up
images of strength and power as refuge. The ancient Israelites looked up to the
mountain for solace and strength: “I lift up my eyes to the mountains, from
where shall come my help” (Ps 121:1)
Today, we are starting afresh … a new liturgical year …
another challenge … another opportunity to be prepared for suddenness, for
surprises. Typhoon Haiyan caught us all by suddenness and surprise. No one of
us understood fully what “storm surges” were. Many of my countrymen thought they
were safe inside their own homes, unmindful and unaware of what that much
vaunted “storm surge” really would amount to. I don’t blame them. I probably
would have done the same.
Now, in retrospect, casting another glance at today’s
readings, and reading them once again using the prism of faith, we stand to
learn a lesson or two that is totally apt for the Advent Season we are just
beginning.
And just what would that lesson be? Simply this … nothing
beats preparation for suddenness and surprises that can spring any time in our
lives. But let me clarify this a bit … Suddenness and surprises only have to do
with life in this unpredictable world as we know it, in our earthly and human
way of reckoning. Suddenness and surprises can overwhelm only those whose
minds, hearts, and total personhood are not attuned to the God of death and the
God of life – the God who can give life while killing, the God of the living
and the dead.
Suddenness and surprise can defeat only those whose focus
never goes beyond the here and the now … those whose take on life does not go
higher than satisfying physical bodily needs and desires … those whose only
preoccupation is to make the most out of life this earthly life offers.
Suddenness and surprise can only thwart one who refuses to “know the time,” and
who refuses to acknowledge that “it is the hour now for [us] to awake from
sleep.”
Advent is an antidote to suddenness and surprises. And
Advent, more than being an antidote is really a powerful vitamin booster. It
does not make us immune to suddenness and surprises. We will still be surprised
by suffering, even as we will still be surprised by joy, even despite the
suffering. Advent will never make us immune to pain of any kind, but what
Advent leads us to is something beyond the heights, beyond the mountain peaks,
beyond what mortals can pine and dream about, beyond thoughts, beyond
imagination, beyond anyone’s loftiest longings and expectations.
It is great and noble enough for our strivings. It is worth
our while to “prepare” and “stay awake for,” “for it will come at an hour we do
not expect.”
It is beyond suddenness. Beyond surprise. It is the coming
of the “Son of Man.” And when He comes, suddenness and surprises pale in
comparison and will have to take the back seat. For we will then be in the
realm of God’s promised SALVATION.
Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord!
Comments