Prayer Power: Reminiscence of EDSA

I’ll tie a yellow ribbon at my door to welcome you home Ninoy. You have arrived at my doorstep that August 21st, but bloody and dead.

We tie a yellow ribbon around out head and hearts to keep you alive in spirit; and you gave us the exiled democracy, golden and alive.

And so the yellow cuts across the land: yellow headband, yellow dress, yellow flowers, yellow day, yellow smile.

It all started when, on the 25th of February 1986 the King by the Pasig River was forced to desert his palace and given a sanctuary at Uncle Sam’s domain. The howl of a million crowd pierced the King’s ears. The deluge of tears woeing over the thousand victims killed during the reign of teeth flooded his heart. The King could not hold the stabbing thrust; he has to run for his life.

Come out prisoners of cause! “Come out Lazarus” from the tomb and let the sunshine stroke your pale face. Leap over the Pasig River. There’s none to be afraid of.

You, mouths glued by silence, shout on the mountaintop to recapture your fading voice. You, fettered feet, stretch out a mile-step over the yellow fields.

Today, February 26, 1986 is the golden page in our history for we begin the reign of the Corazon whose throne is the will of the people. Today, for the first time in twenty years of suppression of will, we unleash the “people power” by non-violence to crush tyranny. Today we have demonstrated that non-violence is no longer a myth, it is real; that Filipino Christian identity in Asia is not a myth either; it is alive.

That moment of February 24, 25, where the civilians, with courage alone forming a human barricade to prevent a bloody revolution was a show of civilian protection to the military. That was the moment of emphasis on the constitutional truth that the civilian prevails over the military. That was the moment that the civilian regained his political posture in the democratic Philippines.

Today, God reminds the power-hungry politicians that pride can drive them to shame. The life of Mr. Marcos serves as a warning. His pride runs at its peak. He prides over his being a hero without equal, parading twenty-seven medals of heroism on his shoulder, claiming to have a messianic covenant with his people, believing that nobody else but he alone is the brightest son of Juan de la Cruz to make this nation great again, pasting our landscape and homes with his images. So proud is he to feel invulnerable for there are the military hardware to shield him, there are the military dobber-watchdogs to secure his palace, there are the technocrats of international brand baked at Oxford, Harvard, Wharton to read the stars.

The law was at the tip of his fingers and in fact, he ws the law. So powerful was he to believe he was the law; so invincible he believed to be. But, in the slap of time, on the 25th of February he sunk on his knees before a “housewife only.”

It is a gravitational truth that the highest the pride is, the lowest and loudest is the fall. Almost all dictators fall into the same trap.

As Christians, the Filipinos have proved to the world that they have the capacity to break the chain of slavery; not by bullets, but by rosary beads, by crucifix, by candles, by flowers, by holy water, by pan de sal, by pleading knees, by courage. All these things halted the pilots of the steel tanks. For inside that steel is a heart penetrable by love.

Love disarms as David to Goliath.
LOVE DISARMS DEATH AS JESUS DOES BY RESURRECTION.



February 25, 1986

Thank you, Lord

Thank you Lord that each person is different;
in color and shape,
in talents and interest,
by its differences, you make ach one beautiful.

Thank you for the uniqueness of others:
Thank you that others know what I do not know,
Thank you that others pick up jobs which I do not like,
Thank you for what I can do which others cannot.
By uniqueness, you make each one a donor.

Thank you for my failures; without them I cannot appreciate success.
Thank you for the sufferings and inconveniences I meet in daily living;
Without them I cannot understand happiness.
Thank you for the realization of my sinfulness
for I see the need of your forgiveness and the need to forgive others.
Thank you that I cannot answer many questions by logic;
I must answer them by faith.

Thank you for the people around me;
for how can I fulfill your law of “love your neighbor”
if there’s no one to love.

Thank you Lord for joining us in humanity;
You showed us personally how to join with you in divinity.
Amen.

The Two Visitors at the Manger

St. John says of Jesus, “He came into His own and His own received Him not.” Jesus came to His own people at Bethlehem to ask for a hotel accommodation; he got no suite but instead a stable.

At the stable, the Child-King was visited by two groups of men: the shepherds were the first to arrive at the stable, the kings next.

In terms of guide, the shepherds were guided by the singing angels; the kings by the star. The two guides differ in this: the angels were spiritual beings, while the star is a thing.

The two well-wishers brought their gifts: the shepherds offered lambs, while the kings gold, frankincense and myrrh. The two gifts differ in this: the lambs were lives, with life, while that of the kings were lifeless things.

Christ intentionally appeared first to the weak, to the shepherds, to generate being, to generate life, “and the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen; it was as they had been told.” Lk. 2:20.

What they heard was a Gospel of liberating hope and what they saw as a liberator born in a manger. “Today in the town of David a saviour has been born to you: he is Christ the Lord. And here is a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” Lk. 2:12.

Only the men of humility and goodwill can read the signpost to salvation.