THROUGH UNTRUE
Every New Year, many of us turn to fortune tellers, feng shui experts, and tarot card readers to ease our worries and anxieties about the future. Their predictions somehow help us embrace the upcoming year with a sense of direction and purpose.
However, it is crucial to approach this practice with a critical mindset. As has frequently occurred, none of the fast-talking self-proclaimed "prophets" accurately predicted numerous calamities and disasters that caught us unprepared. This explains why some people preferred consulting alternative "prophets" they perceived as more reliable.
In China, football enthusiasts sought counsel from a cat named Badian’er, which accurately predicted the outcomes of several football games in the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Before each game, the cat was presented with two bowls of food representing the competing teams. Six times, Badian’er correctly selected the team that ultimately emerged victorious. The cat gained widespread popularity on social media, but unfortunately, it fell ill and passed away before making more predictions.
In Hokkaido, an octopus named Rubio accurately predicted the outcomes of three football matches played by Japan in the same World Cup tournament. However, the owner did not view its psychic abilities as profitable, so Rubio was promptly turned into delicious sashimi.
Several years earlier, another sea creature, Octopus Paul, residing in an aquarium in Oberhausen, Germany, accurately predicted the winners of eight games during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Octopus Paul became a global sensation, with a dedicated Facebook page created for both admirers and critics, the former celebrating Paul’s prophetic powers and the latter expressing a desire to cook and eat it.
Scientists dismiss as superstition the practice of observing the stars, palm reading, dissecting the sheep's entrails, gazing at crystal balls, or shuffling tarot cards. They, instead, use mathematics and computers to predict geological and weather disturbances, government upheavals, and stock market trends. But they also admit that, despite their sophisticated computations and gadgets, they can, at best, make only educated guesses with no guarantee of accuracy.
Badian’er, Rubio, and Octopus Paul remind us that despite the exponential increase in scientific discoveries and technology, the future eludes our ability to ascertain it fully. Our pride in scientific achievements often blinds us to the fact that our knowledge is infinitely less than the sum of our ignorance. Badian’er, Rubio, and Octopus Paul also prompt us to recognize that there is much to learn from animals and creatures that we deem fit only to be used, abused, killed, or eaten.
So, will 2024 be a good year? Let us bear in mind that the future is not a finished product that will materialize out of nowhere. The future is what we make it to be. The challenge is to work to realize our vision for this year, despite our fear of uncertainty. After all, the unpredictability of the future is not something to be dreaded but embraced with the firm conviction that God already holds the future in His hands.
It would be tragic if, due to our obsession to control our future, we become numb to the wonderful surprises that God wants us to experience. Faith in God brings us to a moment of truth when we realize how superficial our dreams and hopes often are, how shallow our happiness is, and how insignificant our fears and worries are, compared to what God wants us to have.
When we surrender our hopes and expectations to God who knows what is best for us, 2024 will be a good year. As St. Paul writes, "No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him" (ICorinthians 2:9).