Amazing Hope!

The result of the recent presidential elections indeed reveals, with shocking amazement, the Filipino people’s trust and hope in a down-to-earth president who is incredibly fearless to face any battle to wipe out crime and restore peace and order and a future for the needed growth and development of the entire. A Mindanao mayor who becomes president is evident of the people’s faith in a man who is simply true to himself and has shown transforming results in his own bailiwick. This also throws the limelight on leadership coming from the southern end of the country that apparently aspires for recognition and the opportunity to bring about change for the better, especially for the advantage of the underprivileged citizens that populate the ‘Island of promise.’

No one knows the future for certainty but God, whose loving providence works mysteriously in response to our prayers. The president-elect may be the person the country needs at this time of transition, and, as Archbishop Socrates Villegas wrote in his pastoral letter, we exercise a vigilant cooperation in respect for the decision cast by our fellow countrymen.

Let continued prayers for national and local leadership sustain our trust and readiness to cooperate so that we all journey with a common vision and prayerfully continue the quest for eternal truth and happiness amidst earth’s transiency. Let us pray that Jesus the Good Shepherd be the model of our new president and that he be filled with the blazing fire of the Pentecost Spirit and see himself as a God-sent instrument to care for the sheep gone astray. A good shepherd ‘knows the smell of his sheep and is ready to sacrifice his life’ (Jn. 10:1-16). May our prayers enlighten our leaders to be authentic seekers of true freedom and human dignity, so that joyfully, we can acclaim: “When you send forth your Spirit, they are created” (Ps. 104:30).