Praying for the nation

Since early this year churchgoers have been encouraged to say a prayer for the nation after every celebration of the Holy Mass. It is a beautiful prayer, and a sobering one at that because it mentions a "wounded nation", wounded, it says, by "tribal and political conflicts and by moral degeneration." Intoned as an offering to the Holy Eucharist, which along with the Virgin Mary, is the focus of this year's solemnities, the prayer was probably composed to bring about a "healing of hurts" after the 2004 electoral exercise. But it could have been written precisely for today's in-fighting between President GMA and her supporters and the opposition apparently led by deposed president Joseph Estrada.

For what is happening now has indeed wounded this nation, and it is not just a surface wound but a serious one really. Talks of coup d'etat have been heard and a repeat of EDSA 1 and 2 is seen as a possibility. If any of these will indeed take place, the nation will not be only wounded, it will be fatally hemorrhaging. This means that we will be back to square one, economically. This means there would be more unemployed and underemployed Filipinos. This means further that more of our countrymen will have less roof over their heads and less rice on their tables.

In the face of all these, there is a need for more prayers for this country. "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of", says a poet. But how many Filipinos believe this? Even among us baptized Christians, how many believe prayer can help pull this nation back to its feet? Jesus taught us: "Have faith in God. Truly I say to you, if you say to this mountain: 'Get up and throw yourself into the sea', and have no doubt in your heart but believe that what you said will happen, it will be done for you….." But how many take these words of Jesus seriously? The truth is, if we only have sufficient faith, the mountain in our problems will easily dissolve into the sea.

Perhaps our troubles spring from our hardness of hearts. Thrust into the 21st century world of extreme materialism, our childhood faith has been shaken loose, and the values that used to strongly bind us together are now like rotten mangoes in the soil of our discontent. How shall we recover the good old days when Filipinos were one and united, when the bond of brotherhood transcended political clustering? In those days laws were supreme and public service was really service for the public. No EDSA occurred and coup d'etat was only a dictionary item.

With EDSA 1 we drove away a dictator, but in doing so we opened our social order to the floodwaters of instability. Then we had EDSA 2, but with it more instability resulted. The thinking now seems to be that since it was possible to topple an administration by massing angry warm bodies in the streets, might it not be possible to win back power through the same process? No wonder PGMA's watch is now under siege. They have thrown all sorts of dirt against her hoping to generate anger from the masa and draw them to the streets. Will they succeed?

This is where the prayer of the nation comes in. Heartily uttered and sincerely offered, it can work wonders for this country. With it God will not turn his back to our people although many of us have turned our backs to Him. Jesus reminds us that if the birds do not go hungry because His Father feeds them, how much more important are we! Like the prodigal son, we could retrace our steps back to His vineyard where He eagerly waits for our return. Then these words God spoke to Isaiah will come true: "I will create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind again. Be glad forever and rejoice in what I create; for I create Jerusalem to be joy and its people to be delight…"