BEGINNING ADVENT THE RIGHT WAY

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Last Sunday as the church was getting ready to liturgically celebrate the solemnity of Jesus Christ King of the universe, here in Uganda, we woke up to the news of a shocking event on Lake Victoria. Saturday evening, a cruise boat had capsized on the lake, leaving an unknown number of people dead. (By the time of writing this piece, the number of confirmed dead is 33). Tragic! Very sad! May the departed brothers and sisters rest in eternal peace. Amen.

Against that back drop, to some of us, the celebration of the Solemnity, became more of an occasion for soul searching than a time of jubilation. A time to meditatively say, in our hearts and actions, the famous “Viva Cristo Rey (Long Live Christ the King)”. Not because accidents of this nature are to be hailed, — Oh, no! —- but because of the whole idea behind the Solemnity of Christ the King. Namely, in the end, in spite of the many, many things we go through in this world, the various happenings whether joyful or sad, which more often than not, prevent us from seeing the true ’ruler’ of our lives; Christ the King must rule our hearts, minds, wills, and bodies. He  will reign for ever.

As this tragic event continues to dominate our conversation, discussions and prayers, to day we have woken up to a new Church liturgical Season: Advent. As it is the case most of the time, the themes of the last week of the outgoing season, merge with the opening themes of the incoming Season. We do not build walls between the two, we instead make it happen “re-lay style”.

Last week of outgoing Season

For example the whole of last week Mass readings, have been telling us of the End Times; …. “the angel of the Lord set his sickle to work on the earth and harvested the whole vintage of the earth and put it into a huge winepress, the winepress of God’s anger……….., Babylon has fallen…., the Lord God will shine on them….., there will never be night again; There will be great earthquakes and plagues and famines here and there; there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven…… then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand erect, hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand.”

First day of incoming Season

The new season begins with Mass readings telling us: “……  the days are coming – it is the Lord who speaks – when I am going to fulfil the promise I made……. be blameless in the sight of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus Christ comes with all his saints…...‘There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars; on earth nations in agony, bewildered by the clamour of the ocean and its waves …..Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to stand with confidence before the Son of Man”. 

Relay Style? Looks like it from where I am standing.

Begin Advent the right way

Here are two examples to set each one of us reflecting on what God expects of us during this four-Sunday season. No offense or disrespect intended, but the examples happen to be about a sinking boat. 

Missing the signal!

The first example is from Fr. Anthony Kadavil, pastor of St. John the Baptist Catholic Parish in the Archdiocese of Mobile US.

In its day, the Titanic was the world’s largest ship, weighing 46,328 tons, and it was considered unsinkable. Yet, late during the night of April 14-15, 1912, the unthinkable happened to the unsinkable. Near midnight, the great Titanic struck an iceberg, ripping a three-hundred-foot hole through five of its sixteen watertight compartments. It sank in two and a half hours killing 1,513 people.

Before the Titanic sank, warning after warning had been sent to tell the crew that they were speeding into an ice field, but the messages were ignored. In fact, when a nearby ship sent an urgent warning, the Titanic was talking to Cape Race about the time the chauffeurs were to meet arriving passengers at the dock in New York, and what dinner menus were to be ready. Preoccupied with the trivia, the Titanic responded to the warning, “Shut up. I am talking to Cape Race. You are jamming my signals!”

Why did so many die that night? Perhaps the crew disregarded the danger of the weather; there were not enough lifeboats on board; and the radio operator of nearby California was off duty; perhaps those responsible did not heed the warnings; they were preoccupied with other things!

Lesson: Sometimes we believe that our ‘ship’ is unsinkable, our life is all well planned, and the unthinkable can never happen to us. We need to read the signs of the times, we need to pay attention to the warning signals. But if we are preoccupied with the trivial things of life we will miss the most important things till it is too late. The First Sunday of Advent gives us the warning to be watchful, waiting and prepared.

Would we keep arranging deckchairs on a sinking ship?  

The second example is again from Fr. Kadavil (as in the 1st one), but this time he gets it from the magazine, ‘Sunday Liturgies’ by M. Link.

On the night of April 15, 1912, the Titanic hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank.  Over 1,500 people lost their lives in one of the worst sea disasters in history.  A few years ago a magazine recalled the great disaster and asked its readers this shocking –almost blasphemous question:

“If we’d been on the Titanic when it sank, would we have arranged the deckchairs?” 

At first we say to ourselves, “What a ridiculous question!  No one in his right mind would ignore wailing sirens on a sinking ship and rearrange its deck chairs!  No one with an ounce of sanity would ignore the shouts of drowning people and keep arranging deck chairs!” But as we continue to read the magazine, we see the reason for the strange question.  And suddenly we ask ourselves:

 “Are we perhaps, rearranging the deckchairs on a sinking ship? For example:

 - are we so caught up with material things in life that we are giving a back seat to spiritual things? 

- are we so busy making a living that we are forgetting the purpose of life? 

- are we so taken up with life that we are forgetting why God gave us life?” 

 

Wed 05, Dec 2018 10:12 am