The new abnormal

We are familiar with the expression, "new normal." We now have to be familiar with its late-coming sidekick, "new abnormal."

While the "new normal" takes time to settle down in a certain place or people and is generally welcomed by at least a big portion of the populace, the "new abnormal" can come in anytime and most likely is unwelcome, forcing itself indiscriminately on everyone.

And while anything abnormal can somehow be expected even if it is unwelcome, the "new abnormal" goes further in that not only is it unwelcome, it is also unwelcome in an overwhelming way. This is the case with Typhoon Yolanda that aggravated the intensity 7.2 earthquake that walloped us in just a matter of one month.

All of a sudden we find thousands of people dead, homeless and in different forms of extraordinary difficulties. Churches, buildings, roads, bridges, etc., are destroyed. People fleeing and seeking refuge in other towns and cities, exacting immediate attention and care.

Now I am starting to receive requests for accommodations, at least temporary, of some displaced families, and all this to be done pronto! It's not anymore as if we are some kind of an outsider observing the events from a distance. We are now part of the living drama. This is part of the new abnormal.

Most of the terms used to describe the situation speak of nothing less than hell. And in a way, it really is. Some people asked, where was God, is this a kind of divine wrath, if not of divine cruelty? Are we being punished?

This is the new abnormal we have to contend with these days. What immediately comes to my mind is one of the last words of Christ on the Cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me." (Mt 27, 46)

Imagine Christ himself, the very son of God, God himself who became man, feeling abandoned by God. It's a very mysterious reality of how the humanity of Christ, firmly united to his divinity, can feel forsaken by God.

If it can happen to him, it also can happen to us in a most understandable way. We should not be surprised by this state of desperation that we can fall into. But at the end of the day, we know that God never leaves us. We subjectively may feel he has left us. But objectively speaking he is always with us.

Let us rouse ourselves from a prolonged state of helplessness, because we also know that together with the severe tests and hardships that God may send us, he also sends us all the necessary help.

Besides we also have to realize that our life here on earth only has a relative value in the sense that this is not our definitive life. It constitutes only as the preliminary but testing stage of the real life meant for us with God in heaven.

We do a lot of things here, just like what the gospel says. We eat and drink, we marry, buy and sell, do politics, etc. But we will leave these things behind. We cannot bring anything beyond the gate of death except the goodness, the love, the wisdom and justice that we gained and practiced while doing them.

It's the intangible, the spiritual that can take the leap from the here and now to eternity, and can serve as our ticket to determine how our eternal life will be.

We have to be ready to leave everything behind in this life whenever it shall please him, as it shall please him, however and wheresoever it shall please him. We should try to be ready all the time, just like what the Boy Scout motto tells us, "Be prepared."

That's why it is always recommendable that we regularly meditate on the last things, namely, death, judgment, hell and heaven, to give us the ultimate dimensions of our attitude toward life.

Let's disabuse ourselves from simply assuming a worldly and temporal outlook. Our dignity as persons and as children of God put us in a reality that goes beyond time and space, beyond what is merely material and natural. It's a reality that includes and culminates in the spiritual and supernatural.

Let's also remember that God, in spite of what we may consider as harsh and cruel realities, is always a good father who takes care of us. His will and ways are inscrutable, way beyond what we can see and understand. But his will and ways can only be of love and goodness, in spite of how they appear humanly speaking.

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