On disaster and preparedness

Fr. Leo Pabayo . 

THE Gospel of Luke that was read in the First Sunday of Advent Year A projected images that are too horrible to imagine and can scare the wits out of some people. Such images are similar to some of the writings of the prophets which are sometimes worse.

It seems that Our Lord himself is not beyond the use of such literary style to impress on the people the fear of God that would condition them into giving time to reflect on their great need to take notice of what is sorely needed by them to the great danger of losing their souls because of a life of self-indulgence. This is very applicable even today.

The literary style used by the Lord seems to be different from the words He uses in the other Gospels. In my opinion they might have been an embellishment of His words that were made by the divinely inspired writers or preachers in the early Church Community that found their way in the Gospel of St. Luke.

Some experts on the Gospel say that the words uttered by Christ in the Gospel like those in Luke: 21-35; 34-36 are actually not the so called “ipsissima verba” or the words used by the Lord himself in his Aramaic or Jewish way of speaking.

I am expressing an opinion here. But it is best to leave the question to the exegetes or the experts on the Bible.

Be that as it may, they are nevertheless part of the tradition of the early Church community around or soon after the time of St. Luke and were drawn from or inspired by the teaching of the Lord.

The vivid images evoked in these writings or preachings may not only be metaphors but might turn out to be also literally true considering the experience of mankind as told in various oral traditions of different peoples in the world. Some of these have been depicted in recent times in the movies. And some of them are literally true to a great extent and have been experienced by many of us in recent history in our own towns, villages and homes.

It is part of the mystery of life that only God fully understands. Many of these disasters came unexpectedly to the great misfortune of many of us.

In our city of Cagayan de Oro, who would have expected such great disaster brought about by the typhoon “Sendong” that claimed lives in the hundreds or more than a thousand in a few minutes.

Many in Iligan also suffered although not a many and as much as in Cagayan. A year later, Compostela Valley also suffered such natural calamity that the people were unprepared for. And then there was the typhoon “Yolanda” to cap it all. And who would have thought that Bohol would be hit by an unpredictable earthquake that claimed lives and much devastations in buildings and houses? We can go on and on and recount the natural disasters that have been upon visited man for countless number of times.

The one that we are most familiar with in Cagayan de Oro was our experience with “Sendong.”

“It came like a thief in the night.” That was how one teacher described the tsunami-like flash flood that ravaged the low-lying areas of our city. It caught us totally unprepared.

Survivors recalled that the flood water rose quickly in their houses barely giving them time to escape. Both men and women found unexpected strength in saving themselves and their families. Many escaped drowning by punching a hole through their ceiling and roof. Many did so with bare hands not minding the wounds that this inflicted on them.

“When the water began to rise before the blackout.” recalls one, “I thought of bringing down my family and take them on my motorcycle and go to a higher place. But the water was rising so fast that I decided to bring them to the rooftop of our house where we stayed for hours in darkness.” He was lucky for his house was sturdier and was not knocked down by the force of the rampaging water. Many of his neighbors’ houses were carried away. “About 15 of my neighbors’ houses nearby were washed out.” Later the papers would report that the houses that were washed out were in the hundreds. In Cala-cala alone, a new settlement of 400 houses were washed out. More reports are still coming in of houses that were washed out.

“The rushing water sounded angry,” said a female office worker from Consolacion, a sitio next to the Cagayan River. “I tried to open the door of our house by pushing it outward but the strong force of the rampaging water was against the door and I could not open it so I with my mom and dad decided to climb and bore a hole through our roof to get to the rooftop.” Those living near the river heard the frightening sound of rumbling water of the river that carried away all kinds of trees and houses as well as the desperate cries for help of the people as they were carried by the rampaging water.

“Our house was knocked down by the force of the rampaging water then broken up and carried away,” says a college girl from Balulang. “My family was separated. I, mother and my younger brother managed to come together on a shallower part of the flood. I did not know where my dad was. My younger sister was not far away from us but in the middle of the swift flowing water. My younger brother went out to rescue her but they ended up both stranded and unable to move. A strong man coming from nowhere calmly waded through the water toward my brother and sister, got them and brought them to us. He must have been an angel. I later learned that my father was in the house of our neighbor that had remained standing. I thank God that my family survived.”

“We managed to get the rooftop of our house by boring a hole through the roof,” recounts a teacher living in Tambo, Macasandig. “My mother came back down to retrieve something but then another surge of the flood water suddenly came and drowned her.”

“We bore a hole through our roof and climb to our rooftop but the water came up the rooftop totally submerging our house, recalls a resident of Tibasak. Luckily, we were beside a high two storey house. We all climbed to this house. I heard a neighbor crying for help. We could not get to her because the current was so strong and would surely carry us. We could have gotten to her if we had a rope but there was none.”

An elderly grandmother and her grandniece who lives with her managed to break the glass above the door of their house. The grand niece was small and managed to squeeze herself through but the grand mother did not have the strength to squeeze herself through and was swallowed by the inundation inside the house.

Each of the survivors has his or her story to tell on that fateful night. It is very sad that many did not survive to gladden us with their survival stories.

The prevailing mood in the city now is that of mourning for the death of so many who perished. The usual joyful spirit of Christmas has been taken away from us. We have our momentary joy in hearing the amazing stories of survival. But the death of many, especially those we know, cast a shadow of gloom on us all. We should, however, not surrender to it and trust that in the providence of God everything will out well for us all, even including for those who perished. We pray that they are now telling their stories to an audience of friends and angels in heaven.”

Let us start anew and do whatever good we can do now. Let us start by learning the lessons that we can learn from this catastrophe. We can start with the lessons we can learn from the stories told us by those who survived.

This tragedy has many lessons for us to learn. The biggest lesson is the lesson on preparedness. It jibes a  lot  with what the Gospel tells us about being prepared for the coming of the Lord that we are asked to ponder on in this season of Advent.

The worst disasters however were man made. No greater disasters would compare with the disasters brought about by the two world wars that claimed millions of lives because of some distorted notions of ideological and fanatical minded so called leaders. These wars these were unexpected by those who suffered them.

When we watch of the movies nowadays that depict wars of the world in which man so-called and aliens it may not be too farfetched when we see them with the eyes if the authors of the Book of Revelation and also in terms of the words of Christ in the Gospel of Luke: 21, 25-28. 34-26.

“On earth, nations will be in anguish , distraught at  the roaring of the sea and the waves. Men will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the earth. The powers of heaven will be shaken.” In a sense they are meant to scare us out of our wits to prevent us” from becoming bloated with indulgence…”

All these are taught by Christ in the context of the message of Advent which is basically about hope. They are telling us that in spite of the threats of these disasters and even their actually coming to pass, we should never give up hope for the saving God is larger than all these and will turn all these eventually to what is good for mankind. “Pray constantly for the strength escape to escape whatever is in prospect. And to stand secure before the Son of Man.”