DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 03 March) – A text in the Bible provides a grim picture of the end-time: and then the end will come (Mt 24: 14) …countries will fight each other… there will be terrible earthquakes, famines and plagues everywhere, there will be strange and terrible things coming from the sky (Lk 21:12).” If one sits in front of the television screen today and surf across the different news channels, one gets the impression that this prediction is unfolding in real time.
Consider what is happening around the world. Even as an increasing number of countries believe that the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer considered deadly and we could now look forward to a “new normal” (even in our country, most major cities are now at Level 1), still there are disturbing news of infections and deaths in places like Hong Kong. Latest news reports indicate that dead bodies are crowding hallways of their hospitals, overloaded with the biggest number of infections given their recent outbreak of infections (more than 26,000 cases as of the latest count and close to a hundred deaths).
In the past few months, West Africa held the world’s attention as coup after coup took place across Chad, Guinea, Mali and recently in Burkina Faso with its president becoming the fourth one removed from power by their military forces. On the other hand, there were coup attempts in Niger and Guinea Bissau. As a consequence peace, security and sustainable development in the entire West Africa is in peril.
In recent years until today, the situation which has persisted in the Middle East continues to make this region another hot spot in the world. The continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed lives as the volatile situation constantly erupts in violence. Then there is the ongoing war in Yemen where in 2014, the Houthi rebels took control of the country’s north including Sanaa – its capital. A military coalition from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – backed by the US – has been fighting the rebels in the hope of restoring the deposed president who fled to Saudi Arabia. Thousands have been killed and the UN warns that this war could cause the world’s worst humanitarian crisis as aid agencies are running out of food, medicine and funds.
Then there is the current reality of Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban’s takeover of their government leading to another massive humanitarian crisis with more than a million people faced with hunger as their food supply has steadily run out and help from outside has not coped with the people’s needs owing to sanctions imposed especially by the US. Recent news reports indicate that the pandemic is causing a spike in infections among the population.
Hospitals face the problem of dwindling diesel fuel needed to produce oxygen. Essential drugs are also running out and hospital staff who have been unpaid for months struggle to make ends meet.
Meanwhile, the world weary of the impact of the pandemic, while bracing with calamity after calamity (forest fires in Turkey, floods from Madagascar to Australia, earthquakes in Peru, snowstorms from the US to Canada, hurricanes even in Europe, typhoons in Asia, the recent Odette in the Philippines, the volcano eruption in Tonga that caused a major tsunami and, droughts in many African nations) continues to face reports of a worsening catastrophic situation caused by climate change.
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had constantly warned the whole of humanity of what lies ahead.
A recent scientific report written by 270 researchers from 67 countries recently issued a disturbing report indicating that “the dangers of climate change are mounting so rapidly that they could soon overwhelm the ability of both nature and humanity to adapt unless greenhouse gas emissions are quickly reduced.”
It echoed warnings at the recent COP26 held in Glasgow, Scotland, UK last year: “If average warming passes 1.5 degrees Celsius, even humanity’s best efforts to adapt could falter. But achieving that goal would require nations to eliminate their fossil-fuel emissions by 2050, and most are far off track.” The ensuing non-availability of food and potable water would affect as many as half of the world’s population.
Then of course there is unfolding of a war that could pit global superpowers against each other which – God forbid – could lead to a nuclear war! Reports indicate that Vladimir Putin – the strongman turned “mad man” (as he is already labeled by opinion-makers around the world) – might consider unleashing his arsenal of nuclear weapons if he turns desperate to make sure that his war against Ukraine would end in his favor. His ambitious dream to reclaim the territories of the USSR for purposes of establishing an Empire could fuel such a desperate move.
One week has passed since the Russian tanks began to penetrate Ukrainian sovereign territories followed by the bombings in cities – hitting civilian enclaves and destroying government buildings, even hospitals and schools. As of March 3, the Russian military has taken control of the city of Kherson, considered an important moment in Putin’s successful invasion of Ukraine even as explosions have struck the capital city of Kyiv and the occupying forces continue to lay siege to Kharkiv. A 40-mile convoy is already approaching the capital city of Kyiv but the desired takeover of the city in just a few days has not been accomplished. The Ukranian people’s armed resistance, supported by all kinds of solidarity action from outside the country (especially from NATO-affiliated nations) have frustrated Putin’s belief that Russia could easily occupy the whole of Ukraine.
As with other wars of this magnitude, there is bound to be heavy casualties on the part of the combatants and the civilians caught in the crossfire. Statistical reports of casualties rise by the hour even as the numbers of refugees leaving Ukraine to seek shelters in adjacent countries such as Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic and others are increasing by the thousands. It is estimated that a million Ukrainians have fled to the neighboring countries, fueling a crisis in terms of how to respond to their needs at a time when it is still winter in Europe.
Even as peace negotiations have taken place between the two countries at the border of Ukraine and Belarus, there seems to be a deadlock as to both sides coming up with a resolution that would end the war, pronto! One hopes the Ukraine war will not repeat the long duration of the Vietnam war but the reality is that it may take a long while before the guns are silenced! But the bombs are not only falling on Ukrainian soil.
On a much smaller scale bombs have been dropped on Mindanawon soil. Just recently, an FA50 fighter jet bombed suspected camps of the Maute-ISIS group as the military launched a brigade-sized operation in the hinterlands of Maguing, Lanao del Sur, killing two Dawlah Islamiya members. It has been temporarily suspended to allow civilians to move to safer grounds before dawn Tuesday. As to what can take place in May-June, there are fears of possible political violence erupting if the election process is marred by cheating and the rampant violation of Comelec rules.
But for the moment, most Filipino Catholics face another Lenten season beginning with the Ash Wednesday. It is the opportune time to reflect on our shortcomings and seek God’s pardon and mercy. Thus the Church’s exhortation of the faithful to pray, contemplate the Passion Narrative of Jesus and seek God’s forgiveness of their sins through works of mercy and compassion.
The current volatile situation of the world today could just fuel thoughts as we engage in a Lenten reflection. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are those whose Lenten thoughts would dwell of the end time when the predicted Armageddon – when “the kings of the entire inhabited earth” along with wicked people in general will be destroyed in “the war of the great day of God the Almighty” (Revelation 16: 16:14,16) – will unfold. This because – as written in a Bible text – we human persons become lovers of themselves, lovers of money, disobedient to parents, without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, and lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God (2 Timothy 3: 1-5).”
[MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Redemptorist Brother Karl Gaspar is a professor at St. Alphonsus Theological and Mission Institute (SATMI) in Davao City and until recently, a professor of Anthropology at the Ateneo de Davao University. Gaspar is the most prolific Mindanawon book author, tackling subjects on peace, ecology, anthropology, theology, among others. In the past three years, he authored four books: “Ordinary Lives, Lived Extraordinarily – Mindanawon Profiles” launched in February 2019; Handumanan (Remembrance): Digging for the Indigenous Spirituality in 2021 which won the Catholic Book Awards and two other books in Cebuano, “Mga Lumadnong Sugilanon nga Mahinuklogon” and “Ang Dagayday sa Pananhong Nanglabay” under his pseudonym, Melchor M. Morante. He writes two columns for MindaNews, one in English (A Sojourner’s Views) and the other in Binisaya (Panaw-Lantaw). Gaspar is a Datu Bago 2018 awardee, the highest honor the Davao City government bestows on its constituents]
