1st Sunday of Advent, Year C
Jeremiah 33:14-16 / 1 Thess 3:12 – 4:2 / Luke 21:25-28, 34-36
The word terror means a very strong feeling of fear, or something that causes very strong feelings of fear, or something that is terrifying.
It is certainly not a new word. Neither is the word terrorism. But terrorism has become profoundly significant, especially since September 11th 2001.
Ever since then, terrorism and the use of violence or the threat of violence, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of so-called political goals, has resulted in the loss of many innocent lives.
The spread of terrorism has certainly caused fear and raised security measures, and as what we heard from the gospel “men dying of fear as they await what menaces the world”.
But looking at the root of terrorism is something that is actually quite common that happens in schools, at the workplace, over the internet and even at home and at playgrounds.
It is called bullying. A bully is a person who uses strength or influence to harm or intimidate those who are weaker.
And just like terrorism, bullying also has dreadful consequences – people are scarred by it and some even die from it.
Often it comes in the form of violent actions, but it usually begins with hurtful words that are aimed at humiliating the other person.
But the fact is that calling someone ugly won’t make you pretty. Calling someone fake won’t make you real. Calling someone dumb won’t make you smart.
In other words, those who are war with others, are not at peace with themselves.
Jesus said this in the gospel: Watch yourselves, or your hearts will be coarsened with debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life.
To be coarsened means to become rough, or to become vulgar and unpleasant.
For the heart to become coarsened means that it has become rough, vulgar and unpleasant. It is layered with hate and anger.
And that’s what a bully is all about. A bully hates himself. And the more we hate ourselves, the more we want others to suffer by bullying them.
But if we love ourselves, we won’t want to hurt others or harm them or make them suffer.
And more than that, we would also want to prevent others from being hurt and from being harmed.
Yes we want to love ourselves and we want to love others, as Jesus had taught us to do so.
But we have had our own share of being bullied. People say all sorts of nasty things against us and even do nasty things against us.
Our hearts are coarsened by such things and hate may even consume our hearts and in turn we may become bullies and cause hurt and harm to others.
But it has to stop somewhere otherwise bullying will just grow into terrorism and lead others to think that violence is the solution to problems.
The famous actor Jackie Chan has starred in dozens of martial arts movies and is famed for his combat skills.
When he was younger, Jackie admits he wasn't so brave, and was often picked on by the other children at his school because he was such an easy target and he was "too scared" to stand up for himself.
Jackie endured years of torment, only learning to defend himself after he stood up for another child.
"I was bullied quite a lot when I was growing up in my Peking Opera School," he explained.
"I allowed myself to be bullied because I was scared and didn't know how to defend myself. I was bullied until I prevented a new student from being bullied.
"By standing up for him, I learned to stand up for myself."
By the way, the bully that Jackie Chan stood up to was that big burly Sammo Hung, another kung fu actor.
The kid that he stood up for was Yuen Biao. But somehow the three became friends and did movies together. So it was a happy ending to all that bullying.
Jesus told us to keep praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen.
What is going to happen is that there will be people who will hurt us over and over again. We need to pray so that we will think of them as sand paper. Why sand paper?
Like sand paper, they will scratch and hurt us, but in the end, we will end up polished and they end up as paper without the sand.
And as we begin the season of Advent, we also light the first candle of the Advent wreath.
That is a sign of our faith that the light will scatter the darkness of fear and the evil of terrorism.
That is also a sign of the promise that Jesus will come with power and great glory.
Let us continue to pray that we will be liberated from fear and that our hearts will be cleansed from hatred so that we will be at peace with ourselves and be at peace with others.