Sunday, November 04, 2007 Luab: Prayer power By Evelyn R. Luab Light Sunday
Oct. 26 is the day that will remain etched in my memory.
“Estrada pardoned!” Thus the headlines read. Then we were given a lollipop (or was it a baby pacifier?) that the court ruling forfeiting Estrada’s villa and some bank accounts will remain in effect! That day drove my hopes to the doldrums and
I asked myself, “How low have we sunk?”
Today we find ourselves exactly in the same mess (or worst) as when Erap had to leave Malacanang back then! Did any of us during that time even dream that today we would hear the same cries of graft and corruption?
Impeachment threats, impending coups and bombings that take innocent lives? On top of that we are made to believe that pardoning the highest leader of the land, found guilty of a crime, is the best thing that can even happen in the Philippines to prove that forgiveness and reconciliation is the humane way to follow? What about justice? The irony of it is that Erap was pardoned for a crime he says he never committed!
When I think of the many times a young man steals from a pharmacy the much needed medicine for his mom and gets punished for it, I cry today.
When I remember the young prostitutes hauled into police stations because these girls opted to get money the quick way to solve hunger problems in their families, I cry today. Why? Because the thousands of small people who did petty crimes out of hunger and need were imprisoned.
Politicians say Erap had already been imprisoned (detained is the word) for six and a half years. Wow! So his kind of detention was difficult? Need I say more? Father James Reuter has been calling for Prayer Power for some time now. E-mails are all over the place. With what I feel today and what I see and hear, only a miracle can get us out of the state the Philippines is in.
With that aura of hopelessness filling our air, I believe that Father Reuter’s plea is the best way out of our predicament.
We need a power greater than our President, a power greater than our senators and our congressmen to lift us out of the depths of our despair.
Sorry that I had to use that word.
When the late Cardinal Sin was still around, I still had hopes. We rallied, and the priests and nuns rallied and the people rallied for a better Philippines.
Many of our top ranking politicians obeyed his calls for honor and integrity.
Today, the void that Cardinal Sin left has not yet been filled although I see promise in Cardinal Rosales. However, the Cardinal’s strength needs help, too.
The battle of Constantinople was won by prayers. Slaves were freed from Egypt by God’s powerful hand. The walls of Jericho come tumbling down with God’s help. There have been many instances in the Old Testament which show God’s omnipotence.
Remember the words when Jesus stopped the storm? “Who is this man that even the seas and the winds obey him?” Jesus, God’s son loves us, too.
Surely He will listen.
The first Edsa revolution in 1986 was bloodless and peaceful in spite of the presence of tanks and machine guns.
If we pray as one nation we, too, can implore, beg, and ask for our nation to be saved again. At the height of my anger and disillusionment I said, “I give up! Why keep on doing my apostolic works to make this a better Philippines?
Of what good are my efforts?”
However, after I knelt to pray, my anger simmered down and I said, “We just have to pray together. We can form groups or attend bigger groups that get together to pray for an ailing nation.”
God’s benevolence, generosity, kindness and love for a prayerful nation surely will pull us out of our hopelessness if we but pray and ask for help.
