NEW YEAR’S MESSAGE 2007
Manila Archbishop Gaudencio B. Cardinal Rosales

 
Another way of looking at New Year is to take time as a challenge and not as a comparison with the past as a score of events, mostly sad and bad. If we look back at the calamities of the past year—both natural and man-made—questions like, “did we deserve all these” or "are we that hopeless” keep bothering us.

But the New Year is made up of newly created opportunities wherein we can start anew; wherein we can come together in a common desire, shared by both the rich and the poor, the strong and the weak, the learned and the less educated, in order to arrive at a better and united community of citizens and believers in any faith.

Communal desiring has basically nothing to do with wealth. Because any concern with wealth immediately divides people. It also has little concern with power, position and parties; these are equally divisive and, sometimes, violently discordant.

The Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI has called the attention of believers in his Message on the World Day of Peace (2007) to People and their Leaders, reminding all that the Heart of Peace is the Human Person.

Looking for what we should hold in common in our search for Unity and Peace, let us start with what is common to all, because whatever belief, tradition, system or status people hold on to, we Filipinos have the same nature as humans (we are made into God’s image and likeness (Gen 1:27)), having the same values as believers and owning the same aspirations for the good of every one and tied together with the same needs to become fully Filipino and a true believer.

Without doubt the only way to proceed to a common goal (or, better still, a vision) is for absolutely everyone to make a sacrifice of one’s individual or group ambition.

National progress is not a matter of debate, competition or fame seeking. Nations that had broken the barriers of impoverishment and disunity showed us that the price for unity and progress is discipline and sacrifice. New laws may not shape us into what we want. But what we desire and aspire for we can put into life, better than the law. In people and nation building to say “let us be one is the same as let us a make a sacrifice.”

May I end this Message with the Prayer of the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI: “May Mary (Mother of Jesus) show us, in her Son, the Way of Peace, and enlighten our vision so that we can recognize Christ’s face in the face of every human person, the heart of peace.”

Manigong Bagong Taon Po sa Inyong Lahat!

(Signed)+GAUDENCIO B. CARDINAL ROSALES, D.D.
Archbishop of Manila