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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