Advent season is here, the beginning of the new liturgical year. The gospel continues to give us messages on the second coming of the Lord, very similar to the ones we had for the two Sundays at the end of the liturgical year. The first reading is a prophecy about the birth of the Messiah from the clan of Jesse, which sets an advent tone in the readings.
As we had seen a couple of weeks ago, the language of the second coming of the Lord is bathed in an apocalyptic narrative style. The gospel text predicts upheavals in the sky, on earth, and in the sea. It reminds us of the primordial chaos before the earth and seas were fixed in their boundaries, the sun and moon were given their time and places to shine. The cataclysm in the text invites us to reflect on the season of advent as a time of hope for the whole creation hit by environmental disasters and chaos. In the midst of chaos, the gospel invites us to hold our heads high, stand erect, for salvation is at hand.
Our world returns to chaos primarily because of the exploitation of our environment; we have wronged the earth and exploited all its resources thoughtlessly. Breaching the divine laws etched in the nature of things has resulted in creating chaos. After trespassing nature’s laws, we face the same psychological condition of Adam and Eve. God was their walking companion on their journeys. After the breach of divine laws, they began to fear God. So do we. We have started to fear nature as well. After murdering his brother, Cain realized everything on earth would revile against the fratricide; he was hiding away. When we breach the laws of God, we are afraid of nature turning against us which in fact, it does
Adam and Eve attempted to cover their newfound nakedness—their vulnerability with a few leaves—with quick fixes. When we are exposed to our own thoughtlessness and vulnerabilities, attempting to cover them with quick fixes is futile. What is destroyed is inner harmony. What lies exposed is human greed and avarice. Covering the outside with a few leaves will not solve the problem, but rather aggravate it. It is only an attempt like the mythical ostrich to bury its head in the sand when it cannot escape danger. It believes that by hiding its head; the threat will vanish! The threat begins inside, in our attitudes. And that change should happen for the whole of humanity, converting ourselves to care for the earth. Advent should be a time of hope for regenerating ourselves, rebuilding broken relationships with others and nature.
To begin restoration out of chaos is to fix one’s gaze on the on the Lord who is coming. His instruction is to stand erect and look up because salvation is at hand. I am reminded of the boy from a nautical novel who climbed the mast of the ship to tie a flag. I am not sure if it is from Tolstoy or someone else. . The little sail ship was caught up in a storm. The violent winds had torn the ship’s flag, and it had to be replaced quickly to be identified as a friendly vessel. One of the deckhandsscaled up the mast with the flag. With much difficulty, he managed to tie the flag. After tying, he looked down. He was terrified to see that the tiny ship was being tossed like a toy in the sea, and he was swinging on the mast like a pendulum at every bounce of the ship in the lashing waves. Finally, he shouted at the top of his voice, “I will not make it anymore to the deck.” The captain, noticing that he was about to give up in the fight, asked him to look up at the sky and climb down. He looked up, saw the clearing sky. A glimmer of hope dawned on him. He kept looking at the sky and felt the steps of the coir ladder with his feet, and climbed down to the deck.
Fixing one’s gaze on the Lord in hope, away from the chaos, is the immediate answer to our anxieties and despair. But that is not enough. On the deck, at the bottom, we need to do a sincere pre-mortem of the project-human on earth and trace backwards the moments of failure, repair them, restore them, and regenerate them. The hope of the advent of the Lord is not limited to humans alone, but to the whole creation, yet that should begin with us, humans.