Superman and the Advent

Now that my exams are over, I’ve had a little more time to examine the season of Advent, which we’re supposed to be focusing on this time of the year.

Yesterday, as I was re-watching the latest version of the superman movie in the post-Christopher Reeves generation, one of the lines in the movie struck a very deep chord in me. I have no idea why it didn’t register when I first watched it 4 years ago, but this time round, it sure stayed with me.

Lois Lane, in the prolonged absence of Superman, had written a Pulitzer-winning article out of sheer pique, titled “Why the World Does Not Need Superman”.

So one fine day when Superman literally appeared out of the sky, he carried Lois Lane high up and right above the Metropolis, and asked her if she hears anything. Naturally, she doesn’t. And he says to her, that he does. He hears everything. Then he gives her the one liner that really screamed for my attention.

He said: “You wrote that the world doesn't need a savior, but every day I hear people crying for one.”

And it suddenly clicked in my mind, that what he just said summed up perfectly the spirit of Advent!! This is the season, where we are once more reminded that this world needs a savior, just as it needed a savior more than 2000 years ago.

I guess there is nothing in this life that we do not become numb to, at some point or another, unless we make the effort to especially retain its significance. And I think this season of the Advent, I have Superman to thank, for helping me to once again be reminded that the Advent is as real today as it was more than 2000 years ago. If nothing else, today we are more in need of a savior than we have ever been.