Wilderness

Falling Down was Michael Douglas’ surprise blockbuster film in the 90s. The entire movie happens in just one day. Douglas, a divorcee, was on his way to attend his daughter’s birthday party. However, he was caught up in a terrible traffic situation (we can all relate to that). After a long while, he decided to just leave his car and walk. But as he was walking LA’s dangerous streets, a group of teenagers tried to mug him. He put up a fight and survived the hold-up but got into another fight at a telephone booth and then another one at fast food restaurant. At this point, the poor guy had enough of the city jungle, he exploded into violence and started shooting. I won’t tell you how it ends but you could probably guess if you haven’t seen it yet. But suffice it to say that the film was the number one film in the US box office for two weeks and got a rare 75 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, that reputable movie critic organization. This showed the movie’s universal appeal. Definitely many of us could relate to what the daily grind in the city can do to our mental and spiritual condition, yup from the traffic to the other stressors and pressures of supposedly modern living.

And that is where the Gospel today finds us. The phrase “a voice crying out in the wilderness or desert,” in other versions, is an apt description of our lives or our mental or spiritual condition towards the end of the year. We are that desert or wilderness. We are like a desert because at the end of the year, we are already dried up; we are tired and exhausted from all the work, all the worries, all the concerns of the whole year. We are just physically depleted, drained, spent, and empty. It doesn’t help of course that Christmas adds to that – decorating the house and offices, shopping for gifts, attending parties and reunions, etc. Yes, by the end of the year, we are as dry and barren as the Saharan desert. Some of us though can relate to the other metaphor, wilderness. The dictionary defines it as “uncultivated places where only wild animals live; a wasteland.” Again, that can be an apt description of our lives at the end of the year. Certainly our rooms or houses look like a wilderness after a year. It can be chaotic, unorganized, messy. And surely that also describes our internal mental and spiritual situation. At the end of the year, as one priest says, we feel our selves scattered all over, and thus feel the need to gather them up again. And like the wild animals that survive in the wilderness, some of us can be at the end of our ropes like Michael Douglas and would burst out into violence at any provocation. Can you relate to all this, dear friends? Are you now as dry as a desert or as chaotic as the wilderness?

But the good news however is that before our lives spiral out of control or turn into total disaster, a voice always miraculously finds us. Every year. At advent. In the din of the hustle and bustle of our supposedly modern-day life. John the Baptist goes to us. We are the desert, we are the wilderness that he travels to every advent season. Like every prophet however, he speaks in behalf of God and so his voice is that of God. His message certainly is. Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths, every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low. These are the words of the prophet Isaiah of course. At that time, Israel was exiled by the Babylonian empire. They struggled to live in strange and foreign lands and longed for their home sweet home in Canaan. And so Isaiah prophesied that one day they would be able to return home. The lord himself would create roads into the mountains and hills that separate them from their beloved country. That is the message then of Isaiah and now John. Return home. Home to God. And in the cacophony of the wilderness or the bareness of the desert that is our life, that is our prayer this advent, that we may hear that voice of God, whispering to us, ushering us back home. For it is only in him that we can find peace and quiet in this maddening world.

But we must be careful because there are other competing voices at this time of the year. We are all too familiar of that. Buy, buy, buy. That seems to be the most dominant voice around this time of the year. Or I feel sad, I feel lonely this Christmas. For those of us with the dramatic flair. Or there is the violent one, much like what Michael Douglas heard, the cynical voice perhaps that questions the joyful sentiment of the majority. Be careful then to focus on the voice of John the Baptist, of the voice of God.

Cardinal Chito Tagle shares a Christmas story. In 2021, at the height of the pandemic, he found himself at the airport, waiting for his ride home to be able to visit his parents here. Yes, talk about the wilderness! Pandemic plus airport plus Christmastime! As it was customary then however, flights were being canceled. He was bumped into a long waiting-list. Like anyone, he felt very angry even incensed; he had booked this flight a long time ago after all. He wanted to wage war, that was the voice he heard that stressful night, but realized it was pointless. While waiting, he chatted with some Filipino OFWS who were also bumped off into the waiting list. It turned out that they booked earlier than him and that many of them were visiting after three or five years of not coming home. They even bore many gifts for their families—toys for their children, clothes for their husbands or wives, etc. Then the names of some of them were called for the next flight. But they turned to the Cardinal and offered their seat for him: mauna na po kayo, Cardinal. He melted in their generosity. Here he was he just saw his parents some months back while these Filipinos have not seen their families for years, and yet they were giving up their seats for him. He melted in shame, he said. He refused their offer, but they insisted. He was tearful all the way back to Manila. The generosity of his kababayans was like an oasis in the desert, consoling him and leaving an imprint of God’s love in his heart.

Friends, where ever you are now in your spiritual life, may you hear the gentle voice of God, calling you out, leading you back home, to Himself. Amen.