INTERPRETING THE TIMES
Farmers
who are close to the soil and to nature can teach us so many lessons.
They look at the patterns in the world of nature and adjust their sowing
and planting accordingly.
They are experts at interpreting the times.
But life being what it is, a complex but supposedly an integrated
whole, we need to grow in our capacity for attunement to everything that
goes on — be it on the natural and the supernatural planes. Farmers and
fisher folk ought to be attuned to weather patterns. Not to do so could
prove disastrous and can cause not just the loss of a livelihood, but
also precious human life. I remember hiking up a mountain together with
some seminarians from Papua New Guinea many years ago. Coming as they
did from a mostly undeveloped place, they were very much at home in the
forest. They knew how to read “signs” in things that I didn’t
even notice before. It was not a problem for them to find their way
through thick thickets and unbeaten tracks, like it was second nature to
them.
They were experts at interpreting the signs and the times. Many of us
now are co-opted by so many conflicting ideologies. In our times marked
by complexity and pluralism, whatever is the latest, whatever is mouthed
by the most popular showbiz personality is taken hook, line and sinker
by the unsuspecting masses, possibly including those who are highly
educated. Mainstream media, owned and managed by the same ruling elite,
are the contemporary times’ tool for mass manipulation.
The times call for more than just shallow attunement. They call, too,
more importantly, for attachment — to objective truth, first and
foremost. Said truth may not necessarily be what is conveyed by the
mainstream and popular media. But we need to be wise and prudent, and
work for both attunement and attachment to Him who is Lord of all times
and seasons. Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB
REFLECTION QUESTION: How attuned are you to the Lord?
Grant me the grace to be faithful in listening to Your will for me every day, Lord.
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