MANILA, Philippines - The celebration of Christmas and the anticipation of the New Year are human events that bring joy and hope to people. Both dramatize the earnestness of a new beginning with renewed promise of better life and national fulfillment. It is at this time of the year that we experience calm and comparative peace everywhere, disturbed only by the sporadic incidents of animosities and misunderstanding. It is on this special season, too, that we see churches and places of worship overflowing with devotees giving thanks and prayers for a hopeful life in the incoming year. With prayers, instinctive and fervent, people from all walks of life feel obliged to do their best in anticipation of a more abundant future. After witnessing some of the most serious shortcomings of the past year that caused disturbances on the national scene, it is best that the people pray, too, for the guidance of our national leaders. Surely, the people should be responsible for themselves but the health and condition of the nation should be the concern of their chosen leaders. More than themselves, they are required to nurture what is best for the country and the citizenry: That is the mandate of leadership, a specification that leaders are sworn to devote themselves without reluctance or obstruction. Just the other day a ranking official of the Catholic Church called on government officials to exercise care in the dispensation of justice.
"We should be very careful with justice because if we are not careful, we do another injustice," Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales said. Clearly, it was a warning to the government to be "extra careful" in the dispensation of what is just and godly and honorable. His Eminence expressed his belief that those who enforce the law are doing their best honestly, with integrity and humility. The warning was timely in light of the reported excesses in the implementation of laws. Recent controversies demonstrate these excesses - or biases, if you may call them - and for most of them politics has been blamed as reason for their commission. As we look ahead to welcome the New Year, it may be well to be thoughtful on the new possibilities for us and the nation. As His Eminence has said, let's "go for principles," as we seek for the best that the New Year can offer... (zhern_218@yahoo.com)
