When will all this end?

A local issue that has that has touched a raw nerve of our nation is the unresolved tanim-bala controversy.  While we are so used to the endemic lagay system to avoid the forfeiture of our driver’s license (corruption which we hesitatingly cooperate with) and, on the other hand, have callously accepted that many of our politicians are simply corrupt (corruption that we abhor),  the intensity of disgust and infuriation over the tanim-bala issue manifests something very deep within us – our collective sense of vulnerability to systematic forces of corruption and evil with tentacles among the rank and file all the way to people in authority.  Anyone of us who travels, such as wheelchair bound Rhodora de Guzman and Gloria Ortinez, both OFWs, can be exploited.  We can all be victimized.  And we are helpless.  Nakakapanggalit!

On a larger scale a searing image that has broken our hearts is that of a toddler washed-up, lying on his face, on a beach in Turkey near the town of Bodrum.  The toddler was three-year-old Aylan Kurdi whose family fled the northern Syrian town of Kobani due to the conflict between Islamic state insurgents and Kurdish forces.  They took a perilous journey from Syria to Turkey, hoping to eventually make it to Canada. Aylan and his five-year-old brother drowned.

On a still larger scale, we are becoming more alarmed about the effects of global warming – the more intense local typhoons, such as Yolanda two years ago and Lando most recently, the most powerful hurricane ever recorded, Patricia, which slammed into Mexico last month, the worst drought to hit California in 1,200 years which is now on its fourth year, the drying up of bodies of water – the Aral Sea bordering Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Lake Oroumieh in Turkey, the Dead Sea which borders Jordan and Israel, Lake Waiau in Hawaii – the rapidly melting glaciers, such as the Zachariae Isstrom glacier in northeast Greenland, which contributes to the rise of sea levels, making coastal villages and cities vulnerable.

With regard the tanim-bala controversy and the refugee crisis we are disheartened, disgusted and desperate.  And we ask ourselves, will this never end? Is human history a never-ending narrative of corruption and exploitation of fellow human beings, of war, the slaughter of innocent civilians, and the exodus of entire peoples? 

Because of global warming, we fear the submersion of islands and coastal areas, the extinction of innumerable species and the annihilation of our human race.  Collectively, we feel threatened.  No wonder the popularity of apocalyptic movies, whether due to natural cataclysms, such as earthquakes and tsunamis, or due to viral outbreaks (think of all the zombie movies) or terrestrial attack (think of all the alien invasion movies).  They all speak of our fear of being wiped out.  They all depict our sense of vulnerability and helplessness.  As we consider the annihilation of the human race and even of the entire world, we ask ourselves, is this how it will all end?

With regard corruption festering in all levels of Philippine society and as regards religious extremism and intolerance that have spawned the on-going refugee crisis, the Christian Faith proclaims the mystery of the Incarnation, that God is with us, and teaches us to understand the roots of sin, to confront sinful and evil forces, to seek and help the victims.  The Gospel of Jesus compels us to live in and deal with the present world, to alleviate one another’s hunger and pain, to confront sin within and without.  However, the Christian Faith also has much to say about how the drama of human history will ultimately play out, what we can hope for ourselves, our loved ones, all humanity and all of creation.

We can become overly focused on the apocalyptic language of the Bible, “a time of unsurpassed distress” (Dan. 12:1), when “the sun will be darkened and … the stars will be falling from the sky” (Mk. 13:24-25).  However, the more important point has to do with what comes after the earthly upheaval – the vindication of the righteous, the righting of wrongs by our faithful God, “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake… those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever” (Dan.12:2-3).  Our Psalm proclaims that our Lord will not abandon us to the netherworld, but rather will “show us the path of life… at your right hand forever” (Ps 16:10-11).  The promise of redemption from this corrupt world, the vindication of the just, the creation of a new heaven and a new earth (Rev.21:1)—all these will come to be through Jesus Christ, our universal Redeemer.

Will the world end with a bang or a whimper?  How so is secondary.  What is primary is the promise and assurance that in the end, sin and evil will not have the last say; in the end, decay and annihilation will not be our final destiny.  We profess that in the end, God’s love and life will prevail and will reign supreme through Jesus Christ our King, “And they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory” (Mark 13:26).