Statements

Following the tradition by his prede cessors, Popes Paul VI and John Paul II, Pope Benedicts XVI has issued a message of peace for today, the first day of January 2006. Our greetings then to one another “Happy New Year” must include our desire to be with the Holy Father in praying and witnessing for peace, not only today but throughout the coming year.

The theme chosen for this year’s reflection is “In Truth, Peace”. This theme “express the conviction that wherever and whenever men and women are enlightened by the splendor of truth, they naturally set out on the path of peace.” St. Augustine described peace as tranquillitas ordinis, the tranquility of order. By this St. Augustine meant a situation which ultimately enables the truth about man to be truly respected and realized”. Hence, the way of peace and the way to peace is by respecting the truth about man, i.e., the truth about the persons I am leading or in contact with. In this way I will learn how to be in right relationship with him/her. Respect for the truth of a person produces a peaceful relationship with him/her.

The Holy Father wrote: “Any authentic search for peace must begin with the realization that the problem of truth and untruth is the concern of every man and woman; it is decisive for the peaceful future of our planet.” Wars and production of weapons, acts of terrorism, violations of human rights, disturbance of harmonious coexistence; these have their source in untruth or false beliefs about man. “The truth of peace calls upon everyone to cultivate productive and sincere relationships; it encourages them to seek out and to follow the paths of forgiveness and reconciliation, to be transparent in their dealings with others, and to be faithful to their word.” All kinds and all manners of lies are likely to disturb peaceful relations of people to one another. “Lying is linked to the tragedy of sin and its perverse consequences, which have had, and continue to have, devastating effects on the lives of individuals and nations.”

Pope Benedict XVI continues his message: “If peace is to be authentic and lasting, it must be built on the bedrock of the truth about God and truth about man. This truth alone can create sensitivity to justice and openness to love and solidarity, while encouraging everyone to work for a truly free and harmonious human family. The foundations of authentic peace rest on the truth about God and man.”

At this point in time, in our country, if we want to work for national renewal and transformation, if we want peace in our social and political relationships, we must make every effort to value and to witness to truth. This is very basic in human transaction. Truth is the foundation of integrity, credibility and accountability. The opposite is true: lies destroy integrity, credibility and accountability. Truth builds, untruth destroys. We can apply this to simple friendship, family and community relationship, social order. Parents, businessmen, leaders in all levers of society must build their integrity and credibility on the bedrock of truth. This is how to build peace. “In truth, peace.”

As the year 2006 steps hesitantly into our life and history, I would like to extend this message of hope.

2005 has been a tumultuous year. Endless inquiries in the senate and in the house of Congress, rallies and political protests in all their eerie forms and grotesque shapes, accusations and counter-accusations, exposition of unheard-of scandals and variegated scams allegedly perpetrated by our top leaders, wiretapping, destabilization talks, revolutions, civil disobedience, what have you, have been the main course for the days, weeks, months of the year 2005. All these did not bother me so much. I know, after all, that “tayo ay mga pinoy”, that is, we can go over it. But when the congressional investigation of the “hello Garci case” started, I shuddered. I said to myself: this is it, this is our end. The investigative process seemed to dramatize that there is nothing wrong in flaunting with the law provided we are wise and crafty. It wrongly projects an image that the law is there to be used as a shield, a safety net for one’s wrong doing; that it is easy to tamper with the law and get away with it by flourishing the magic wand of one’s knowledge of the law, manipulating it to one’s selfish advantage, mixing lies and truths together in one single stroke. I tremble, because no society can long stand when its laws that bind members together in a harmonious and dynamic whole are used for selfish motives, with complete disregard for the common good.

But then, something happened. There was a sudden relative silence on the issue in the whole nation and the mass media, the papers, radio and television veered on other interests than political squabbles. The atmosphere of December got clearer and cleaner, the people became more calm, composed, serene. What happened? It was just days before Christmas. People were seen retiring to the silence of their homes and places of prayer. They braved the otherwise dumpy and dark night to attend the Misa de Gallo novena days, as if seeking for the needed respite from the world. I myself went to these nights of novenas, starting from the remote parishes up to the Cathedral. In all of these churches, inspite of the stormy weather and the black outs, people were seen in throng, praying on their knees. There, I concluded: Our nation will survive in spite of the rather hopeless situation. We have citizens who know how to solve their problem: they know well the power of the night and the power of prayer.

We are best touched by night. Perhaps it is because it gives one the sure reenactments of childhood experiences, a time when one sees his early tender years with full clarity and force. It is a time when our estimate of the world is not so confident, when it contains things and events that make us shudder. Sooner or later, the night finds us alone. And man is not prepared to face himself. He is afraid of the dark, he is afraid of himself. This brings us to the story of Adam and Eve who were ashamed of their own naked bodies after eating the forbidden fruit. When God called them up, they were hiding behind the tree, more afraid to present themselves naked to God. God has to cloth them to keep them calm. I too remember the story of a great existentialist philosopher of our times. The story says that one day he looked at himself in the mirror. He could not recognize himself; he was so disgusted at what he saw that with his bare fist he shattered the large mirror that reflected him.

Yes, it is not easy to face oneself. And yet, it is only in this act of facing and confronting one’s own self that man finds his inner strength, his hidden resources, his power, which man cannot do unless he is covered by the magical canopy of the darkness of the night. The story of the beauty and the beast bears this out articuprocess is accounted for in the Bible as an angel wrestling with him the whole night. At the end, he was given a name, a new one, a new beginning because of what he discovered in himself. He was called “Israel”, that is, strong with God. That night experience gave Jacob the strength to face his brother and all the other succeeding events of his life. He was reconciled not only to his brother, but to himself. The night helped him did that.

Yes, the night offers inwardness, it offers aloneness. Freed of vision, we see inside. Primary concerns emerge; much that seemed demanding and important is now seen as a trick played by the light. As one poet said: “Darkness is the black cape of the magician laid gently upon the world, until all that seemed certain vanishes, and we question comprehension itself. We can then search in a new way. It is no wonder that God works at night. When he created the sun, the moon and the stars, the birds of the air, the fishes in the sea, the beasts in the field, and finally man, he was actually hovering in the darkness of chaos, of night. When he freed His people from the slavery of Egypt, he was there under cover of the night, fighting alone the enemy of his chosen people. And when the fullness of time came, God came into this world to bring peace to all men of good will—it was night.

And so, when I saw our people braved the nights of Christmas and shook off with disdain the heavy rain, the muddy road, and the black outs, then with high hope I said: Our nation will survive. It nurtures people who know the power of the night and the need for God.

Happy New Year!