HIS VOICE cracked in his last SONA. The rudest critic dismissed it as mere drama, but for the discerning, it spoke eloquently of the depth of his love for country he earnestly strived to serve.
Reviled, ridiculed, rashly judged but only by the vilest of enemies, the good man always stands tall.
Ninoy his father never saw a great chapter of the country’s emancipation from a dictator. Cory his mother died before seeing her son shone and shed light to a gloomy economy when people learned to dream again, with not a few dreaming but too high, thus setting themselves up for frustration.
And now, PNoy dying without seeing the dawn of this yet another dark chapter in the country’s history.
Is it propitious that he died on the Solemnity of John the Baptist, holy patron of Manila, but above all precursor of the Son of God himself, he who announced in the desert the news of the coming salvation?
History has the habit of repeating itself, and I say salvation history. Abraham never saw God’s promise fulfilled when it was finally fulfilled. Moses never set foot on the land promised to his people. John had to decrease so that the true Saviour could increase.
Is PNoy’s death a portent of things, good things yet to come? Only the Lord of history knows. But yes, history does repeat itself.
Fr. Vidz Gornez, SJ
