EDITORIAL - Miracles

Miracles, in the context of how people, or more precisely Catholics, want to believe them, are matters that are subject to Church discretion. Only the Church can declare miracles. On the road to sainthood, only one or two miracles were attributed to Pedro Calungsod, and most people do not even know anything about them.

It is therefore too early to say whether an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the town of Alcantara has manifested a miracle based on where she appears to be facing. It is said she has turned her head to face Bohol, which bore the brunt of the devastation from last October 15's magnitude 7.1 earthquake.

Of course, a people badly shaken by the earthquake would like to see miracles amid the ruins, or in the aftermath of the traumatic experience. People need to find meaning, or even simple messages, from the horrible experience.

But there is nothing people can do about the icon and its supposed physical manifestations. It will have to be the Church that will determine whether there is cause to believe a miracle has happened. In the meantime, people can continue venerating the Blessed Virgin just as they have always done.

On the other hand, those who truly want to put a finger on some palpable miracle to make sense out of the chaos that was the October 15 earthquake, they can always look around their immediate environs and take comfort that their families and friends are still around.

Over in Bohol, there are tens of  thousands of living and breathing miracles going about their daily lives — perhaps barely, but then what more miracle can they ask in face of such a devastating challenge. These tiny little miracles add up to one great people, of Boholanos rising up and striving to move on.

Here in Cebu, where the devastation was not as crippling, tens of thousands of living and breathing miracles are also going about trying whatever they can to help their neighbors in Bohol. These tiny little miracles also add up to one great people, of Cebuanos ever ready to lend a hand.

Filipinos have always been called many names — regionalistic, of sometimes being possessed with crab mentality and the desire to put other people down. But these negative attributes are the first to come crashing down when the greatest miracle of all happens — the Christian brotherhood of men.

As often as the name Bohol is mentioned in relation to the quake, Boholanos do not define themselves by the accident of geographical residence. They define themselves by the strength with which they try to rediscover themselves and their lives. So with Cebu and the Cebuanos, by the charity of their hearts.