A Double Whammy of A Tsunami

Several days into the aftermath of the tsunami that hit several southern Asian countries the day after Christmas, the world comes to grips with the shocking reality of the enormous devastation it has wrought. The deplorable death toll continues to rise daily and to date lists at nearly 150, 000 dead - truly a figure of apocalyptic proportions. Experts now fear that the number could double due to the outbreak and spread of disease.

Undeniably the biggest calamity of the century thus far, it rapidly translates into the largest relief effort the world has ever seen. US State Secretary Colin Powell has announced that America is committed to bankroll $350 million dollars in aid. (And yes, it’s the same Bush-led America vilified in the media for its stance on the war in Iraq.) Emergency funds and pledges contributed by the international community are now pegged at close to over 2 billion dollars.
Familiar international news networks like CNN and BBC (and certainly the Big Three in the US) quickly dispatched their crews and cameras in the mad dash for gripping survivor stories and gut-wrenching footages of the massive destruction and tragedy visited upon those hapless countries affected.

Quite recently, a volley of three consecutive typhoons battered several Philippine provinces that set off massive landslides and floods causing considerable loss of life and limb. One cannot fail but recall the painful and poignant appeals for help by desperate victims who lost their possessions and loved ones. Ironically, this soul-stirring picture now pales in comparison to the magnitude of the horrifying Yuletide catastrophe that caught hundreds of thousands of people literally napping.

But still, thankful Filipinos clasp their hands and heave a huge sigh of relief at the thought of their narrow escape from the jaws of yet another potentially crippling and ominous debacle.
Sadly, amid the high profile global media attention, the supernatural import and ramifications of the Asian tsunami disaster are lost in the equation. True to their secular moorings and orientation, the mainstream media cautiously toe the line and avoid crossing the Rubicon to keep the individual’s perception of this “wrath of nature” away from a profound religious and supernatural perspective.

But one cannot fail to see through the grief-stricken survivors’ moving accounts of their horrifying ordeal. Amidst pain and suffering, these victims voice out their harrowing experiences in anguished and at times faltering tone - some in defiance and despair, others in resignation and still many others in relief and gratitude. Nonetheless, all of them could not help but sense the unmistakable hand of God in their ghastly and tragic misfortune.
Can God be merely an innocent by-stander to all this and watch everything with cold indifference? Or is this terrible calamity a prelude to an even greater and worse CHASTISEMENT to come? Is it mankind’s death rattle?

Nothing on this earth ever happens without God willing it and the Asian tsunami disaster is no exception. In just a few fleeting moments, towns and villages were decimated and reduced to rubble while countless of lives lost in the ensuing devastation and chaos.
Imagine, on that calm Sunday morning after Christmas: a vacationing Western tourist lazing away and sipping his or her ice-cold piña colada on a cozy beach chair in Phuket, Thailand or in the paradisiacal environs of the Maldives; a cheerful throng of carefree and wide-eyed children prancing in frolic along a coconut tree-dotted seashore somewhere in Sri Lanka; sturdy sun-drenched fishermen tending their rickety wooden fishing boats on the Indian coastline; or perhaps just plain rural folk doing menial household chores in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Then suddenly at the snap of a finger and one sweeping instant, disaster strikes and everything is lost.
Man’s highly vaunted progress and modern technological advances failed miserably in averting a fateful catastrophe that snuck like a thief in the night. No one foresaw what was to come and nothing could have saved those who perished from the element of surprise. Such is the awesome power of God.

In face of this heart-rending tragedy, the Fatima message becomes ever more relevant during our times. In 1917, Our Lady appeared to three children in Fatima, Portugal where she spoke of terrible chastisements if mankind would not amend its errant ways. She warned the world how much her Son was offended and that she could no longer prevent Him from unleashing His avenging hand.

During the entire month of December 2004, several Philippine parishes enjoyed the singular privilege of hosting the international pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima that miraculously shed tears in New Orleans in 1972. The visit couldn’t have come at a more propitious time. On that fateful day after Christmas, unsuspecting Filipinos oblivious to the catastrophe being unleashed upon fellow Asians knelt in deep prayer and paid homage to Our Lady in a church somewhere in the diocese of Tarlac.

Would it be too far-fetched to believe that the Mother of God spared this long-suffering Catholic Filipino nation from the hellish nightmare of this most recent Asian calamity?
In this day and age, how many seriously heed the Fatima message? Let alone, how many KNOW of the message? Lamentably, man remains indifferent and obstinate to the maternal warnings of Mary Most Holy in 1917. Same-sex unions, euthanasia, contraception and abortion, divorce and the decline of the family, cloning and embryonic stem cell research, wars and terrorism, etc., etc. – all these serve as living testimonies to mankind’s continuing descent on the slippery slopes of mediocrity, impiety and moral depravity.

Man ought to shape up or ship out. Surely, this double whammy of an Asian tsunami came in with a big bang. But hardly what one expects to usher in the New Year. Could the Americas or Europe be next?