Toward the Final Time

Where am I going? Have we ever posed this question in our consciousness from where we were when we were young, or from the very place from where we have continued to move on, or from where we stand at present? For the answer to the question will define the aim of our every action. It will indicate the direction towards which we travel in this earthly journey. What was my childhood dream, the hope of adolescence, the vision of the future which have developed from all this?

Every year, just before we celebrate the solemnity of Christ as King and just before we enter into a new Church year of grace, the Word of God is ever persistent in predicting great tribulations after which "they (we) will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory, and then He will send out the angels to gather (His) elect from the four winds from the end of the earth to the end of the sky" (Mk 13:26-27). Hence, the need for watchfulness for "of that day and hour, no one knows neither the angels nor the Son, but only the Father. Be watchful, be alert!" (Mk 13:32)

Humanity is on the precipice. We always speak of the pollution of the air we breathe, the plunder which mercilessly rape our natural resources to give way to man-handled industrial infrastructures to be able to generate maximum material wealth. This deterioration of our planet earth is directly rooted in the pollution of humanity’s spirit, poisoned by greed, lust for power and the voracious appetite for luxury and comfort regardless of what it has cost Mother Earth or others. The ‘culture of death’ proclaimed by Pope John Paul II is at the root of the world’s diseased state. The great religions of the world have largely failed us, and in many ways have contributed to this pollution. Christianity has long distorted the words of Genesis (1:1) whereby God endowed humankind with the responsibility to be ste-wards, not capacious masters of the earth.

In what direction are we going? We in the Philippines are not exempt from the terrorism which engulfs the world today. Our leaders especially our supposed law-makers in Congress have lost direction and the masses are being used in the great manipulations of power. They are offered money so they will join rallies unknowingly taking advantage of a graft and corruption whose magnitude knows no proportion.

Christ has His fundamental perspective of the direction we must take. He speaks of no targets or goals which stop right there where our vested interests are perilously laid at life’s gambling table. We have to be always prepared for His second coming. Nothing is at stake but a radical conversion to truth and goodness which we cannot have unless we come profoundly and intimately close to Christ. In our life’s journey, our development should press on toward the increasing perfection the Father would have us attain in Christ who offered Himself for our salvation. This process should not admit of any reversal and all religions must honor this. The worst darkness is not the blatant evil but the corruption and debasement of the human spirit by which modern humanity has deliberately chosen shallowness and superficiality. Reduced to a word we have chosen suicide. This poses a fundamental challenge to all humankind. For we are meant not for the transitory goods of this life but for the eternal Kingdom of God which knows no end. It is always the church’s task and for that matter all religions to carry over that remains forever.

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Mark 13:24-32.