Significant signs to read

The jitters over Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon belies how a small country like Israel can have its influence in the world. But the fact is that, Israel, a minor country amid the vast Middle East, can impact on the future of the region and the entire world.

Even now, the EU and the United States are watching with bated breadth the fate of Sharon. So with the Arab countries, some Palestinians rejoicing that Sharon may be dying, "punished by Allah."

The Sharon incident is just one of what one writer called the "signs of the Times." Apparently, he was referring to Christ's warning that the end of the world cannot be predicted although He advised His followers to read the signs of the times.

Christians, of course, are not afraid of the Second coming. As a mater of fact, that is what they are praying for everyday at Mass. For Christ to return to the earth, Maranatha simply means, "Come Lord, Jesus."

But the Sharon watch is just one of the fortuitous events that have sent chills along the spines of most of us. Right now, there is the unprecedented (in 10 years) heavy snowfall in China's interior areas where some 20 million people have to be evacuated. And Japan, too, has just seen scores of seniors die because of another unprecedented snowfall that paralyzed even rail transport.

Then you have the landslides in Java that had already killed scores more people. The same floods are raging in some Latin American countries, including (purportedly for the first time in living memory) in California's Napa Valley. Again there are the brush fires in Texas and Oklahoma as well as those raging in Australia near Sydney.

Then you had last year, the massive earthquakes and tsunami that divested a large area of South Asia, especially Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India. This was followed later by hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma in the Mexican Gulf Coast. These virtually razed the city of New Orleans and damaged a big portion of the main importing ports of the Eastern Seaboard. Even now, New Orleans still has to be rehabilitated and the damage just to sugar crops of Louisiana, Texas and Florida are still to be replaced.

Europe also is in the grip of a talked-over winter.

In short, there are strident cries from scientists about the accelerated melting of the snow caps with glaciers crumbling into the sea. And warnings of a possible meltdown that could raise the ocean levels. This could eventually swamp the major cities of the world.

Whether these are harbingers of the world to come remains to be seen. but for Christians, the more important, is to believe that the Lord will be coming soon. Either in the silence of the summons or through the triumphal celebration of the Second Coming.

***

Thus, it was significant that while readying this column yesterday, I received word that my brother-in-law, Ernesto Llavore, was already dying at the Montevista residence of his elder brother, Arturo.

"Nestong", as he was better known to friends, died at the young age of 62, just a few days short of his February 17 birthday when he would have turned 62.

He lost his wife, Cora, just a few years back. And that apparently was what had depressed him to such an extent that his sons noted that he lost his will to live.

There will be forthcoming announcements of arrangements for his cremation. His ashes will be interred in Lipa City. The wake will be at the Llavore residence in Montevista.

***

I should like to call the attention of the general public. There is scam going on where one gets a phone call informing him or her that he/she has won a major prize --- a heavily discounted bundle of household appliances.

The catch is that when one refuses to buy the package, she or he gets charged for the reservation fee. They even insist that is company policy.

Well, for your information, the Department of Trade and Industry can easily be accessed by telephone. The government has a policy against such illegal impositions on the buying public.

Just a reminder.*

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