fantastic: 1st sunday of advent C

This morning we have been talking about faith.  I am glad that we did before we read and before we reflect on our gospel today, the first Sunday of Advent.  I am glad that we talked about faith before reading a gospel that really sounds fantastic.

Why did I say it sounds fantastic?  Listen to the gospel again - Jesus is telling the disciples of the great trial that is about to come, people he said will even die of fright, people will be tested, the world would undergo great tribulations, wars insurrections, and persecutions but amidst all these, the Son of Man, Jesus will come in a cloud with power and great glory. 

When was the last time you saw a man riding on a cloud?  When was the last time you looked up and have seen something glorious, something or someone full of power, probably surrounded by the light of the sun, something so dazzling.  I wonder how that person would look like.  Then Jesus said, when this comes you are to stand erect - never mind those bullets crisscrossing here and there; raise your heads, Jesus said, when everyone else is taking cover, raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.  Fantastic, isn’t it, unbelievable, out of this world, extraordinary.  I did not say it is not true.  What I’m saying is, it is fantastic, it is out of the ordinary, it is not something you see every day, or even once in your lifetime.  Why?  Because it is something fantastic.

The season of advent makes us recover our sense for and our attraction to what is fantastic.  We are preparing for two fantastic things.  We are preparing for the days when we recall fantastic events - a virgin having a child, three kings coming from the east, angels hovering in the sky, shepherds adoring a future king - fantastic.  Not content we even added still another fantastic persona - Santa Claus.  Then we get to remember that Christ will come again - he will come in the clouds, and again angels will appear holding, blowing trumpets in the air, the dead will arise, and the heavenly court will be set up to judge the living and the dead.  Fantastic! 

But it is not to get amused.  We believe in the bible, we believe in the promises of our faith precisely because it describes a reality beyond what I can ordinarily see, a reality even beyond what I am capable of imagining.  We do not believe the bible because it describes to us our day to day routine.  No.  We do not believe in the promises of our faith because it writes about how we lived everyday and how we made do with the day to day happenings.  Not only that.  The bible tells us something fantastic.  Faith tells us something fantastic.  And that is why we believe.  We believe because our faith can transport us beyond the confines of our finite existence; our faith can make us go beyond the confines of our weakness and even beyond the sources of our conflicts and squabbles. 

Wala na kita naga-wow except sa mga bag-o naton nga mga gagets ukon sa signature naton nga mga apparel.  Nadula na naton ang excitement tungod kay ang tanan nabase na lang sa realidad sang pangabuhi.  If ever we appreciate anything fantastic, dira na lang ini tanan na-confine sa sine, sa libro nga fiction, ukon sa mga fairy tales.

 Judah shall be safe, Jerusalem shall be secure.  That’s fantastic! Just two weeks ago, a group who prepared for quite some time to go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land had their trip cancelled the last minute while they were already in Manila.  Why?  Because of the conflict with the Palestinians.  As far as human history is concerned, ever since Jerusalem was founded by David, after grabbing it from the Jebusites, there were always wars in that place.  And the bible would have us believe that Judah shall be safe and Jerusalem shall be secure.  Fantastic indeed.

One day they will beat their swords into ploughshares.  This sounds fantastic in a world so in love with guns it killed 3 in Quezon province yesterday.  It sounds fantastic because in the span of our experience, and this is too limited, it will not happen, at least not in our lifetime.

 JRR Tolkien ang manunulat sang Lord of the Rings nagsiling nga ang ebanghelyo is the perfect fairy tale, kag amo ini ang kamunu-an kag inspirasyon sang mga makatalanhaga nga mga istorya.  Ngaa?  Tungod kay ini nagasaysay sang matuod kag puno sang kalipay nga istorya sang kaluwasan sang bug-os nga katawohan - halin sa sala pakadto sa grasya, halin sa kalautan pakadto sa kaluwasan.  This is a fantastic story and it will, it has become true.

Recover the wow of faith.  Discover the miracles of God in your life - not only in the healing you received or in passing a difficult exams but also God’s redeeming, converting, leading, embracing, guiding.  Recover and retell this fantastic story of our relationship with God which starts this day on the First Sunday of Advent.   Recover and retell the fantastic promises which God will one day fulfil in our lives.  This is advent - it is a retelling of fantastic events - it is to recover the fantastic in our relationship with God, in the promises of God, to believe, to celebrate the faith that these engender.  God will do great things for us, be prepared for something fantastic.