MANILA, April 12, 2009- The Catholic bishops' leadership urged a nation facing a financial crisis, conflict and increasing poverty not to lose hope, but to join in real solidarity for the good of the country.
In his Easter message, Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) President and Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo said Filipinos can accomplish many things by acting in authentic unity.
"We can only build a better nation if all of us will do all we can all the time. We alone can build a better nation, but no one can build it alone," said Lagdameo.
He said disunity among the various sectors of the society must also be avoided and instead move towards a common goal.
The CBCP head pointed out that it is impossible to move the country ahead if every sector shifts in different directions.
"No one group can build a better country in contraposition with other groups... They need to affirm and confirm the potential of one another," Lagdameo said.
Like Jesus Christ, he added, the nation must rise from its grave then face and live a new life.
"And so it can be said that Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead alone, but that our country is on the path of a gentle revolution that leads to Easter," the archbishop said.
The heart of change is the change of heart for the common good," Lagdameo also said.
Sacrifice
Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, for his part, said that daily self-sacrifice in imitation of Christ was the key to the Christian life.
Sacrifice and renunciation belong to the just life, he said and whoever promises a life without the said continuing gift of self is fooling people.
"To aspire for development without sacrifice, to enjoy progress without discipline or to seek redemption from evil without dying to sin, is akin to looking for Jesus where He could never be found," Rosales said.
For Davao Archbishop Fernando Capalla, following in a personal way the pattern of Christ's suffering, death, and resurrection may guide Christians towards moral transformation.
He said, however, that "self-control attained through voluntary self sacrifice" can change in attitude and relationship towards God and other people be only possible.
It is also through sacrifice, the former CBCP President said, that can make the long and much-desired national transformation attainable and achievable.
"What only remain needed are leaders with authentic Easter experience who will inspire and bring about collectively a national mobilization and coordination of these transformed individual towards a common cause and welfare," Capalla said.
Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz also said that Easter is equivalent to hope.
Thus, he said, while life in the country is hard and "even becoming worse" because of the global financial crisis "but we should not lose hope."
"Why not? Christ rose from the dead and Christ himself said that: 'Behold I have risen. I am with you,'" Cruz said. (Roy Lagarde)
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