B: 1st Sun of Advent (3 Dec 2017) - GOING NOT PASSIVELY WAITING - Mk 13:33-37

Once I was corrected by an older confrere when in the microphone I invited all to enter the venue of a program, saying, “Everybody, please go in”. It was supposedly “come in” according to him. From then onwards, I put into mind that “to go” is a movement away from the speaker while “to come” is a movement towards him/her. It is of the same meaning that we use the word “Advent”: It is a waiting for the Lord Jesus to come to our very location. Thus, we say the antiphon: “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”

Our gospel today from Mark describes the arrival of the master with the Greek verb “erchetai” which contextually means “to come”: “You do not know when the master of the house will come” (Mk 13:35). However, “erchetai” is such a rich word that in other instances it can also mean “to proceed on a course, with destination in view, go” as in Mt 16:24 or simply “to change place or position” as in Mk 4:21 (cf. BDAG). In fact, the Latin verb “advenire” (from where “Advent” is derived) can mean both “to come to” or “to develop, to arise”. The Filipino antiphon encompasses this nuance: “Halina, Hesus, Halina”; “Halina” is a hortative verb with the sense of “Come, let us do it!” and not just a passive waiting for something to transpire.

The Advent Season has been wrongly presented to us Christians as a passive waiting. On the contrary, it is originally a season filled with action: fasting, repenting and praying. Indeed, it is Jesus who will come to us, but it also entails our movement toward him so that we meet halfway, to say the least, better prepared and ready to receive his kingdom with a communal enthusiasm. In fact, in all Advent masses the priestly formula to end remains the same: “Go in peace!”

In the Philippine socio-political context, Filipinos are generally silent, or are just passively waiting. It is already 18 months since we have had this new administration which is filled with controversy on extra judicial killings and systematic rounding up of select groups who are identified as drug-traffickers, rebels, and now, communists. The recent shoot-to-kill order to all members of the New People’s Army is nothing new. We have been used to the daily bloodbath to the point that we have become numb to any headline on it. A common Filipino will say: As long as it is not me and my family, I will not speak out and be concerned; speaking out only jeopardizes my safety.

This passive indifference was also the general attitude of Europeans at the height of the Nazi’s persecution of the Jews. Too late did they realized that 6 million were already annihilated. Appropriately, the famous poem of the Protestant pastor Martin Niemöller (1946) is displayed in a Holocaust memorial hall, which reads:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

This was pointed to me out by a professor in a university, a German national himself, who could not stand the inhumane political predicament in our country. He says so because they had in their own country a similar experience when the poor Jews were systematically killed by their own people for no logical reasons. He then revised Martin Niemöller’s poem and dedicate it to all Filipinos:

First they killed the drug pushers, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a drug pusher.

Then they killed the communists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the human rights activists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a human rights activist.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

And here we are in the Advent Season, just passively waiting… If with this poem a German is already speaking for us, why would we care less speaking for our own when we can still manage to do so? As we begin this season, may we take seriously the Eucharistic dismissal command: “Go in [and speak for] peace!”

- Rex Fortes, CM