Fr. LPabayo Who and what to blame
Who and what to blame
Monday, 30 January 2012 00:00
WE are accustomed to speak of "natural disaster" and "man-made disaster." But the phrase "natural disaster" is a misnomer. A disaster cannot be natural because what is natural is inherently good, orderly and beneficial to man. Disaster connotes disorder resulting in great loss or harm to man. Nature's activities are determined by physical laws. In a manner of speaking nature cannot help but obey these laws. God who is the author of nature can however intervene and suspend the laws of nature. This is what happens in miracles. If God intervenes and changes the laws of nature or suspends the laws of nature we can be sure that it will be for the good and not for disaster.
God, however, gave man dominion over the world. Man whom God made in His image and likeness has the intelligence and the freedom to introduce changes in the activities of nature. He can introduce changes for good, to enhance the order in the activities of nature so that he can better benefit from it. However, unlike God man can introduce changes that are not for good but for ill. For ill, when he introduces disorder in the activities in nature by his wrong act born of a wrong notion of what is good. The sad truth is that from the very beginning man has been disturbing the order of nature or has been failing to act in harmony with the order of nature. This happened because man ignored the gift of wisdom he received from God on how to relate to nature. In this lies the explanation for the disasters that happen in the world.
The mythical story about Adam and Eve eating of the forbidden fruit in the Book of Genesis was the inspired author's way of saying that man went against the wisdom of God and followed his wrong idea on what is good in life. The result was disastrous to human relationship and to the relationship between man and nature.
I will quote again the passage that indicate disturbance in relationship between man and nature and apply it to the recent disaster that hit us by changing a few words in the biblical passage. "So the Lord God said... to Adam, 'Because you... ate from the tree about which I commanded you not to eat, Cursed is the ground because of you... It will produce thorns and thistles for you.'" (Genesis 3:17 -18)
To apply this to the disaster that hit us substitute "modern man" for "Adam", "cut down" for "ate" and "eat", "forbidden trees" for "tree", "river and soil" for "ground", "flood and mud" for "thorns and thistles. It will come out like this: "So the Lord God said... to modern man, 'Because you... cut down the forbidden trees about which I commanded you not to cut down, the rivers and soils will be cursed because of you... They will produce flood and mud for you."
Those who suffered from this flood would understandably complain that they had nothing to do with "the cutting of the forbidden trees" how come they were also affected by the curse? The answer lies in the fact that we are one human family. When anyone in the human family sins he harms the other members. The sin of our first parents continues to harm us to this day. We have a proneness to sin as result of their original sin and this causes havoc in our personal and social life. In our particular case today in our city the sin of greed of the loggers who abused our watersheds was the immediate cause of the disastrous flood that destroyed lives and properties in our city. The negligence of government officials share in the blame for the disaster. They neglected their responsibility to protect these watersheds from abuse, as well as protect the people from the harm that would result from this abuse. All of us who have been passive in the face of this abuse and negligence also share in the blame for the disaster. Where were we when the Task Force Macajalar was trying to stop illegal logging in our watersheds. If thousands of people joined them in stopping the transport of illegal logs through our city this might have stopped the illegal logging. But as they say, "Ulahi na ang pagbasol."
We affect one another in the way that each part of the body of a person affects the other parts. That was how St. Paul described the Christian community. He therefore wrote, "The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I don't need you!' And the head cannot say to the feet, 'I don't need you!'.... there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other." (1 Corinthians 12:21, 25) What St. Paul said of the Christian community can be applied to any group of people or body politic that tries to be community. If each part of the body politic functions well the whole body is benefited. If one part or some parts do not function well, they harm or cause disaster to the rest of the body.
In view of the Sendong disaster we should ask: Which part or parts of the body politic have been deaf to God's wisdom and have not been functioning for the good of the community resulting in disaster to us and therefore should be corrected? But more important than this, we need to answer the question: How can we root out the proneness to sin that is deeply imbedded in fallen human nature which is the ultimate source of all the problems that we face in our community? Unless we deal with this more basic question, our effort to correct what need to be corrected in our community will be like treating the symptom but not the real source of the problem. The real source of the problem is man ignoring of God's wisdom on how to relate with nature. We are talking here of moral reform. Our practical efforts to correct what are not functioning well in our community should be accompanied by and be in the context of our efforts at moral reform. (To be continued)
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