Ang Kalatas Volume V February 2015 Issue | Page 11
THE MESSAGE. BRINGING INTO FOCUS FILIPINO PRESENCE IN AUSTRALIA
www.kalatas.com.au | Volume 5 Number 5 | February 2015
EDITORIAL & OPINION
11
Ode to the Fallen
By Danny Dingle
Father,
you went to Mamasapano with a mission,
carrying the hopes of our nation.
Instead, they carried you back in a coffin.
And our wounded hopes.
Brother,
you brought your idealism to Mamasapano,
And with it our hopes for unity and brotherhood.
Instead they brought you back in a box.
And a splintered bond.
Son,
you trained hard and traveled far to Mamasapano,
bringing with you our prayer for peace.
Instead, you have returned, bloodied and fallen
But standing tall in the silence of our grieving hearts.
Stranger,
you were the unknown name who went to Mamasapano
to help find peace for our weary nation.
But in the treachery of some hearts and terrains,
In the insensitivity of some crazed thinking,
In the incompetence of your leaders,
In the folly of a cynical conflict,
You have fallen for us,
You have taken the bullet for us,
You have swept away the cobwebs for us.
We are you and you are us.
Salute! Respect! Glory!
From a grateful nation
for whom you have sacrificed your all.
All is clear now.
More than 200 military mourners gather at the gates of the National Police head quarters in Manila on February 1, to pay their respects by offering flowers and prayers to 44 elite police commandoes who died in Mamasapano town in the strife-torn
southern island of Mindanao. People have been offering flowers and prayers at the police headquarters to show sympathy for those who died in a bloody operation to catch one of the world's most wanted.
ADOBO
(A Dose of Brown Opinion)
Halo effect: My Pope Francis experience
Dateline: Manila, 18 January 2015. He came, he saw,
he conquered! And the faithful came, saw and were conquered. This is how the visit of Pope Francis can be
summed up.
he vicar of
Christ came to
be with the millions of ordinary Filipinos
who turned pilgrims to see,
hear, and experience his messages of integrity, honesty, family/youth, mercy and compassion. His visit brought a
spiritual renewal that I hope
translates to more actions of
compassion. His office has asked the epals in their various
colours and shades, guises
and disguises, to stay away.
So, if you have not seen yo-
T
ur favourite political or entertainment personalities, they
were epals.
He saw the multitudes, in
their various realities and expectations, in their layers of
reverence, in their constancy of hope, in their unbridled
faith, in their unalloyed joy, in
their collective prayers of deliverance from evil and suffering. The people at the motorcade routes and papal venues
talk of a nondescript feeling
of blessedness and upliftment
at the sight of the pope. His
mere presence was enough
for his 'halo effect' to rub on
those around him, this writer
included.
He conquered without really trying, winning over new
admirers because of his downto-earth pastoral style, at the
same time steeling further
the faith of believers. He succeeded in imparting his messages aimed at various sectors of our society – families, youth, religious and laity, ordinary persons, the displaced and marginalised, government officials – everyone.
They were themes that both
cajole our consciences and
spur us to act for others.
As I write this column in
my Notepad, the papal mass
has just concluded at Rizal
Park. It had been raining all
afternoon, and still raining
now as I walked home. But
the indomitable spirit of the
Filipinos was unshakeable –
typhoon-proof – as social media proclaimed. Come shine
or rain, their faith was on display for the world to see. To-
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day’s audience at the papal
mass was mammoth in numbers to rival those when Pope
John Paul II came here.
I cried during his homily
in Tacloban airport; today, it
was about the Santo Nino, and
the child in all of us. A common theme is suffering and
how Christ suffered too. We
must suffer with others – compassion – to have true meaning in our lives. We should
not be afraid, he said, as Christ
has been there before us and is
always with us.
In the few events where
protocol dictated the presence of government officials, the pope managed to
talk about greed and corruption, which probably did not
sit well with some in the audience, and drew immediate re-
MILLIE MARCIAL-PHILLIPS
Publisher/Managing Editor
TITUS FILIO
Copy Editor
action. The welcome speeches at the Malacanang reception were dubbed by one
commentator as between "the
king of poor," and the socalled "king of pork." For the
pope to mouth these words
himself should be a wakeup call for those who may
be guilty of this sin to rectify their sins and return their
loot to the people’s treasury.
I await to see who could be
the first person to do so.
We will see a better Phil-
ippines if we put words to action. I hope the corrupt repent; idle people help in productive work for themselves
and others; more corporal
works of mercy are done;
more lights are lit to make
our country a true beacon of
Christ’s light. Then and only
then can the halo effect be
truly able to make our personas resplendent because
of our work for others in the
name of Christ. May God
bless us all.
DANNY DINGLE holds a degree in
Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila,
where he became the The Sebastinian’s first
editor-in-chief during martial law. He was a
Philippine government scholar to the UP School
of Economics, Diliman, and Harvard University,
Cambridge, MA, USA.
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