Deliverance

 

From the early inky darkness of humanity’s ascent, through its dawning antiquity and now the almost naked clarity of its modern times, there has always been embedded in the deep recesses of his latent longings the gaping need for deliverance.  Essentially, that common thread that ran through the ages has been the strong desire for liberation from the vicissitudes of daily living.  Man since his novice years has never had an easy life, as we are taught in the holy books.  He came into this world with a very flawed nature, not in full grasp and control of the contravening forces that inhabit his daily living; forces that appear to go against his very nature.

In early times, man had always banked on the arrival of somebody or some things that would offer him release from his almost inborn sufferings from the world.  And in those times, he had always hoped that some extraneous forces would suddenly appear in the skies to bring him that release.

The ancient Jews also had identical expectations of Christ.  The promised Messiah that would snatch them away from their temporal miseries and lay them down to the Promised Land.  Unfortunately for them, Christ had a quite different idea.  Instead he had impressed upon them with the way he had lived his earthly life that deliverance would not come from outside of man, His excellence and Godhead notwithstanding.

Instead further he had impressed upon them that their rescue would ensue from the necessary changes to be wrought in their own lives.  The radical change being that they all should follow the life of Christ since only that imitation would ensure deliverance for them.  He had said, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.

Fast forward to the current times.  Our time.  And we are still looking for our deliverer, and still from one of flesh and blood.  In the person of our leader, Dear President.  We vociferously shout to him to deliver us from our vicissitudes.  And he appears to be inattentive, and to his detractors, clueless, about how to bring about that discharge.

His mumbled or jumbled utterances appear to come from nowhere – from nowhere that would give us understanding and wisdom.  Words and ideas seemingly articulated with a careless smirk, a mocking sneer, and even willful disregard and nonchalance for his constituents

 Have we lost our bearings, or were we ever privy to the truth of what Christ had left us as legacy and gift? That our deliverance ought to emanate from us, and not from any forces without, especially those man-made or man himself?

Thus, the US and its boundless benevolence cannot save us, not the EU, Japan and whatever hosts of altruistic countries or organizations people can litanize.  Neither can our deliverance come from those that could provide us with most effective and lethal armaments man or country could devise.

Listen then to the hazy rhetoric of Duterte and in our hearts of hearts try to unravel if we can find parallels and connections with how our deliverance may be wrought for us.   That the overarching message may be that the Way is to cut umbilical ties with all the extraneous forces that we have been attached to all these times, and try working with our own resources and ingenuity to bring about our own progress and development.

Look not from without, but from within.