A few
of you might be upset if this Cathedral were to be destroyed. I suspect that
the disquiet or distress might arise not from a loss of aesthetics but rather
from a loss of familiarity. Many of us are creatures of habit. Wittingly
or unwittingly, the older we are, the more we tend to canonise the status quo. So
ugly or otherwise, this structure is meaningful to some of us. We are at home
here. Thus, to flippantly declare that this building is fit for demolition might
create anxiety amongst parishioners.
If the
destruction of a hideous building such as this could evoke that angst of
disquiet, you can imagine how much more the Temple in Jerusalem. It was an awesome
edifice, as Jesus Himself acknowledged, one that had taken more than 25 years
to build. As He prophesied the destruction of such a magnificent building, the dismay
was palpable.
But mayhem
was not His point.
The
point the Lord was trying to make was how one ought to be ready or to be prepared. As next Sunday is Christ
the King, today marks the penultimate Sunday in Ordinary Time. And the readings
have so far reflected a concern with the Last Things. One knows that he is approaching
the end of the liturgical year because the tone is both eschatological as well
as apocalyptical. Eschaton deals with the end of time. When the end is
associated with tumultuous events, what provides hope is the apocalyptic tone
of the readings. For example, the Gospel encourages those who are persecuted to
hold on or to hang on because God will come, as the Responsorial Psalm indicates,
to rule the peoples with fairness.
We
span the era between the Ascension and the Second Coming. St Paul’s preaching
to the Thessalonians consists of how our preparation is supposed to look like.
Hard work built on an orderly life—in other words, live a life of virtue. In
that way, the end of time will not be a time of ending but rather a stepping-stone
to a new beginning. It means that when it comes, we should not be flailing
about but rather be ready for it.
Being
ready requires that we stand in the light and not hide in the shadow. It is
better to live a good life rather than have a good life so that we will not be dragged
into death clinging to whatever we have. Instead, we dare walk into death
leaving behind all we have in order to appreciate the new life we are called to.
Yet,
no one knows when that moment will come. During the reign of Pope Sylvester II,
he predicted the end to be at the turn of the first millennium. As you can guess,
rioting took place as people were afraid. As recent as 2009, the movie 2012 depicted
the calamitous ending of the world with humanity struggling to preserve the good
that remains of human civilisation. Nobody can forecast the end, not even our
climate change predictions of choking air and rising flood can point to the
exact time. This obsession with exactitude may just miss the point that the end
will come most likely for each one of us individually before all of us
collectively. Sometimes all it takes is to be at the wrong place at the wrong
time. A lorry sideswipes your car onto the oncoming traffic and the timber
trailer rams head-on into your car and everyone is dead in a split of a second.
If anything
can happen, it begs the question if one is ready for anything. This readiness
is not preventive as in be careful and be attentive so that you can pre-empt it
before it happens. Instead, are you ready to give an account of your life
before the Lord? This end time is not meant to scare us but instead to prompt
to not neglect that which is most important—the salvation of our souls.
There
are three words to consider when reflecting about the end time and our
salvation. They are eutopia, utopia and dystopia. First eutopia is what we
yearn for, that is, a good place or if you like, a good space to be in. Sadly
though, eutopia is utopian in the sense that it does not exist. When St Thomas
More penned his political satire, the title of his work was “Utopia” which translated
literally meant “nowhere” indicating that “topia” or the place is nothing but a
figment of one’s imagination. However, thinking of end-time, what is disturbing
is how dystopian our vision of the end is. Our cinematic landscape is tarred
with this dystopian future as it taps into our sense of doom, gloom and tomb.
Zombieland and Terminator: Dark Fate are two good examples of such a hopeless outlook.
It does not inspire but it definitely bogs us down. Salvation is next to
useless in such a bleak and tattered future.
Truth
is, there is no time in recorded human history which is not marked by trials
and tribulations. The sooner we appreciate that troubles are mankind’s lot, the
more prepared we might be. The description of the end, even though filled with
eschatological trepidation, it is not meant to lead us into dystopian despair. Furthermore,
prophecy does not make sense if there is no viable future. It only makes us
stop living. If we stop living, even if we are breathing, we are as good as
dead. However, when the future is filled with the infinite possibility of God’s
presence, prophecy is salvific and redemptive.
We
need not wait for a turn of the century for catastrophes or calamities to
strike us. We always have them with us. Hence, what we need is not despair but
hope. As creation groans and longs for its salvation, we place our hope that
God will save us. Whilst the eschaton may be fear provoking, the apocalypse is definitely
hope evoking. We should not be afraid as the Gospel suggests but instead trust
that the Lord will come to our assistance, even if we are weighed down by the
turmoil of our time. As we inch toward the Kingship of Christ, we trust Him
that not a hair of our head will be lost. Without hope, we cannot endure. Only endurance
can win us our lives. As God is trustworthy, the end of time is always an
occasion of hope. Let us bless the Lord.
