TODAY’S FIRST reading from Isaiah 29 could not have come at a more providential moment. It speaks of Lebanon—the very land Pope Leo XIV has just visited—receiving a promise of transformation:
“In a very little while, Lebanon shall be changed into an orchard,
and the orchard be considered a forest.”
If we dare to read this oracle with the eyes of faith, nothing stops us from replacing Lebanon with the Philippines.
In a very little while, the Philippines shall be changed into an orchard… the orchard into a forest.
In a very little while, the deaf shall hear again, and out of gloom and darkness the blind shall see.
In a very little while, the lowly will find joy, the poorest will rejoice, and the tyrant shall be no more.
Is this not exactly what we felt at EDSA last November 30, when a double rainbow appeared over the crowds—not just a meteorological event, but a sign of covenant hope, a reminder that God still bends history toward justice and mercy?
We are living through a moment when the moral outrage of our people is awakening—quietly but powerfully—against systemic corruption that has long wounded our nation. Isaiah gives us the words we need today: God sees. God hears. God acts. And God’s hope is never neutral—it strengthens the poor, confronts the arrogant, and unmasks those “who ensnare the defender at the gate and leave the just with an empty claim.”
Let us harness this energy, this grace, this collective longing for a moral reset.
Let us allow Isaiah’s oracle to become our prayer:
That in a little while, the Philippines may be renewed—
its people awakened,
its leaders humbled,
its poor lifted up,
its justice restored.
In God’s time, the orchard becomes a forest.
In God’s time, the light of truth breaks through the darkness.
In God’s time, hope becomes courage.
And God’s time is already beginning.
