Articles
The Yellow Card
Opinion | Articles | Chhotebhai | 20-Nov-2025
There are two reasons why I remember the Yellow Card. The first dates back to boarding school more than 60 years ago. We had monthly tests for which we got cards – Gold for excellence, Blue for good work, Yellow for average marks and Pink for failure. During my eight years of boarding I got a Gold Card just once, a couple of Pink ones, and mostly Yellow or Blue. I could be categorised as a Yellow Card holder.
The second Yellow Card is from my favourite spectator sport – football. For a serious foul the referee gives the erring player a Yellow Card. If repeated the player gets a Red Card and is shown off the field. The Yellow Card then is the penultimate warning, before a harsh sentence.
We have just celebrated the penultimate Sunday of the liturgical year; before we enter the season of Advent. Going by the Sunday readings, it was like being shown a Yellow Card. Pay heed, or else! The readings were from Malachi 3:19-20, 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12 and Luke 21: 5-19. What was the referee saying?
The word Malachi itself means “message”. He was one of the Minor Prophets who lived in the 5th century BC. His warning was for both the priests and the people who had gone astray. He now warns them of the impending disaster where evil doers would be burnt like straw or stubble in the all-engulfing inferno. Nevertheless, it also gives a message of hope, like the phoenix rising from its own ashes; that the Son of Righteousness would rise, with healing in its wings.
Paul’s exhortation to the Thessalonians wasn’t as sinister. To the contrary, he portrayed himself as a paragon of virtue, one who earned his own living by hard work, so as not to be a burden on his congregation. He condemns sloth and laziness, exhorting the believers to earn their keep. There is no reference to the Parousia, the Last Judgement or the Second Coming of Jesus.
In contrast, the Gospel is explicit that the ornate Temple would be destroyed. Though no time line is given, the message is clear – there will be destruction and persecution, but those who persevere to the end would be saved. Why is the Church threatening the believers with a Yellow Card?
The next Sunday would be the feast of Christ the King, followed by the expectation of the Advent season. Just as one’s life cycle draws to a close, so too the church ends its liturgical cycle, with both a warning as also hope.
For the second reading I had to go back to the Yellow Card in school. It was a symbol of mediocrity. Was the Lord saying that it was not enough to be a mediocre or lukewarm Christian? Was it not enough to be baptised and go to Church on Sundays? For a Frenchman it would be laissez-faire (not seeking to rock the boat). For a Goan it would be sucegade, and for the Hindi speaker – chalta hai; a laid back approach to religion.
Through the Thessalonians the Lord is asking us not to be spiritually idle. He wants us to be pro-active in seeking the Lord and his justice. It is not good enough to be good Christians, as the good is the enemy of the perfect. Christian discipleship is a call to perfection (cf Mat 5:48). We need to be awake, alert and well equipped, as the wise wedding attendants awaiting the bridegroom (cf Mat 25: 1-13).
The end of the liturgical year had the gospel warning about the end of the world; despite Jesus’ stricture not to believe doomsayers who say “The time is near at hand” (Lk 21:8). He even warns that “the end will not come at once” (v 10).
There is no dearth of Bible thumping doomsayers who keep frightening people that the world is coming to an end. Even the great St Paul erroneously believed that the world was ending in his own life time; hence advised people not to marry or buy property (cf 1 Cor 7:29-31). In sharp contrast Jesus himself was compelled to state, “But as for that day and hour nobody knows it, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, no one but the Father alone” (Mat 24:36).
Despite these clear-cut teachings there are many Christians who are looking over their shoulders to see the world coming to an apocalyptic end. The word comes from the Greek apokalypsis that literally means “lifting of the veil”. A few years ago there was a scare that the world would end in 2012 because that was the end of the Mayan calendar! But here we are in 2025, alive and kicking!
Some other doomsayers refer to Nostradamus’ and Malachy’s cryptic predictions, sometimes trying to co-relate them to the horrific events portrayed in the last book of the Bible, Revelation, earlier called the Apocalypse.
However, biblical scholars tell us that this book was written at a time of crisis and persecution by various Roman Emperors – Nero (54-68 CE), Vespasian (69-79 CE) and Domitian (81-96 CE). This book was considered controversial, which is why the churches of Syria, Cappodecia and Palestine did not include it in the biblical canon till 5 centuries later.
As for Nostradamus, it is the Latinised name of Michel de Nostradame (14/12/1503 – 2/7/1568). His prophecies are found in the book “Les Propheties” published in 1555. It reportedly has 200 versions and 2000 commentaries, so whom do we believe? The prophecies are in the form of 942 four-line quatrains. These so-called prophecies are so delightfully vague that they can be fitted into any situation. Take the horoscope predictions in newspapers and magazines, none of which are categorical. They are deliberately vague generalisations with several riders attached. It’s like saying “It will rain tomorrow, if the sun doesn’t come out”!
St Malachy was the 12th century bishop of Armagh in Northern Ireland. His 112 prophecies refer to the popes beginning with Pope Celestine II elected in 1143. I won’t go into the specifics of his cryptic prophecies. Suffice it to say that as per his list, Pope Benedict XVI was the 112th and hence last pope. We all know that after that came Pope Francis and now we have Leo XIV. All said and done these prophecies are balderdash, grist for idle minds against which Paul had warned the Thessalonians.
Let us delve a little deeper. Hindus believe in 4 eons (yugs) – Satyug, Trethayug, Dwaparyug and Kalyug. Currently we are in Kalyug. Whenever that ends we will go back to Satyayug, in a never ending cycle. This fits in neatly with astro-physicist Stephen Hawking’s, hypothesis that the world is without beginning or end, a big cycle; hence there was neither creation, nor the need of a creator.
In contrast Albert Einstein stated that time and space began when matter was created (out of nothing). According to the Big Bang theory of creation (that the Church accepts) this took place 10 billion years ago, when all creation moved with immense velocity from its one source. The universe is now slowing down and it will end when it is all sucked back into the black hole of non-matter in the Big Crunch. That may take the next 10 billion years. Small wonder then that Jesus said that “the end will not come at once” (Lk 21:10).As for us finite mortals, let’s not bother about when creation will end. Let us not even focus on our own end, or beginning, but rather on what lies in between; the kind of virtuous life that we are called to. We don’t want the referee to show us a Yellow Card or a Red Card as we walk off the field?
(The writer has further expounded these thoughts in his book “The Jerusalem Code”).
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