Caritas Manila

There is a Yes which responds. Last January, three unassuming women,  Mary Gotua, Helen Lo, and Esther GB Ang, members of the Buddhist Huatkong Temple in Sta. Mesa brought 135 sacks of rice, 50 boxes of noodles, and 50 boxes of sardines to Caritas Damay Kapanalig. Sr. Maria Fe Mata of the Sisters of the Holy Family Nazareth who assisted them said, “They said yes to your call for Sendong victims and affected families in Mindanao ”.  Their Buddhist temple, like others in the Philippines, actually have in place charitable programs to specifically help Filipinos in times of natural calamities while respecting local religions and customs, and they engage in inter-religious dialogues.

Second, there is a “Yes which frees”, as L’Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper, reports. This is the Jesus Yes: Pope Benedict XVI stressed to the General Audience this February that “the human will finds its complete fulfilment in total abandonment to God”. Every time we pray the Our Father, The Lord’s Prayer, this relationship of trust, faith and love in a living God liberates us from day-to-day anxiety and the new anomie: “we should be able to bring to God our labours, the suffering of certain situations, of certain days, the daily commitment to following him... and also the weight of the evil that we see within ourselves and around us”.  The Holy Father also quoted St Maximus the Confessor: “since the moment of the creation of man and woman, the human will is directed to the divine will and it is precisely in God's 'yes' that the human will is fully free and finds its fulfilment”.

Third, there is homegrown Yes which leads. “These are my suggestions. They are now in your hands.” Remember Cory Aquino, Luneta, February 6, 1986?  I shall never see a sea of hundreds of thousands of people singing, praying the “Ama Namin” – the Lord’s prayer,  Our Father -  in our country except on that day. That was the first call for civil disobedience to the institutions – government and business - that support a leader who had lost the moral authority to govern. That was the first time I saw how people – strangers to each other, unorganized, unaffiliated – spontaneously turn to God. It was no surprise then that that ‘crowd’ became people power.

Finally, shall we need all three “yes” when we assess what the unfolding impeachment proceedings mean for us?

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A total of six million pesos of cash donations have been turned over to the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro and the Diocese of Iligan. These cash donations are to support the relief and rehabilitation programs for community and family rebuilding in the areas heavily affected by typhoon Sendong. The six million in cash was given in tranches. The first two million pesos were sent immediately upon receiving the request for assistance from the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro and the Diocese of Iligan.