TWENTY YEARS OF EDSA

(Homily delivered by His Eminence Cardinal-elect Gaudencio B. Rosales, Archbishop of Manila, during the Mass to commemorate the 20 th anniversary of EDSA People Power I at the Mary Queen of Peace, Our Lady of Edsa Shrine on February 25, 2006 at 12:15 pm.)

God’s reminder to the chosen people after they were freed from slavery in Egypt was this: Remember that you were once a slave in Egypt, carefully observe these laws.” (Deuteronomy 16:12). People have a way of forgetting great events of the past. And when people and their leaders forget their history of weakness and sinfulness, they tend to repeat the same mistakes.

Like the Exodus events, EDSA, the people’s appointment with destiny, must be celebrated and reawakened, reviewed and continuously researched for deeper meanings that apply to everyday Philippine life. If EDSA were a river and not an avenue, after having been guided in crossing to the opposite riverbank of dictatorship and oppression, and saved from the destructive waters of tyranny, the Filipino people, both the leaders and the led, drowned from the orgy upon simply stepping on the opposite shore, which happened to be only the threshold of freedom.

It is now sadly discovered that the opposite of tyranny does not necessarily mean freedom. Subjugations to “new idols” can take over. The process leading to freedom is lifelong struggle within the human person in his or her experience faith and infidelity, between worship (only God is good) and idolatry (there are lesser gods like money), between pride (I am the greatest, I am the best) and humility (the rest are the least). No.

There is no easy way to freedom. God knows that the people and their leaders must first be tried. In Moses’ own words he said, “Remember the long years by which Yahweh your God led you for forty years in the desert before even reaching the Promised Land, to humble you, to test you and to know your inmost heart whether you would keep his commandments or not. He humbled you, he made you feel hunger, he fed you with manna which neither you or your ancestors had ever known, to make you understand that the human being lives not by bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of Yahweh…Learn from this that Yahweh your God was training you as man trains his child; and keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and so follow his ways and fear him.” (Deuteronomy 8:2-5).

To remember is not the same as to repeat! Great episodes, like the crossing of the Sea of Reeds, cannot be created again. Such an escape was an awesome episode leading only to immediate liberations from Pharaoh’s cruelty. But complete freedom waits after a long purification process. The great escape must be remembered that it may continue to re-establish new attitudes, motivate to new directions of honesty and the purity of values (in both private and public life) that contribute to the building and growth of a renewed nation.

Everybody—not only those present at EDSA I—crosses the boundary between tyranny and freedom. EDSA cannot be the proud possession of only the 1986 protagonists in that great avenue. EDSA cannot be the excusive ownership of only the reformists, the politicians, the opportunists, the military, the freedom-lovers, the poor and the middle class or not even of the Church. EDSA expresses the Filipino people’s primordial spirit longing to be free, to become a noble people wanting to be inspired by their elders which the dictator and his cohorts sadly misunderstood.

Now, twenty years after, the question “how close are we to freedom” is perhaps the same as asking “how far we are from its inspiration to unity.” We want to be free. Do we? Or are we reluctant to be involved in the mastery of the human heart, where freedom really reigns, the suppression of the desire for power, to choose to be honest rather than to acquire wealth. Or do we accept change only at the prodding of the gun, which, since the time of Cain, never has succeeded in giving people friendship or even peace?

EDSA day is perhaps the best time to remind all the Filipinos, including those in uniform, that the principal source of problem in democratic Philippines is precisely military in nature - - - the imposition f Martial Law and many more attempts after that. Military posturing of any kind, for any reason, severely risks our position among the family of honorable nations, sets the country back in its business competitiveness, work availability, the unity of people and sacrifices even the value of its currency. At its worst it is seen as the military grabbing the supremacy from the civilian.

Brothers and sisters EDSA is not military. EDSA is people power. EDSA’s People Power is really civilian power. It is the place where people prayed to God so humbly, and where God removed hatred, envy and selfish ambitions from the hearts of an oppressed people. Not a gunshot was fired at EDSA. Yes there were tanks and there were rifles yet not a gunshot was fired at EDSA. It was that moment of grace in a holy place. God passed through that road leaving behind more than a million footprints. And yet it was not the number of people that made history. It was God who disarmed people of hatred and gave them the beginning of love, the sure path to peace.

But EDSA is also the day to remind those in governance that the issues of leadership and corrupt transactions must be addressed with sincerity, transparency and with personal sacrifice. Change must come. In the way God wants it. Change or renewal of self is indeed very much part of one's service to the community. Pope Benedict XVI, reaching out to the heart and spirit of Jesus, wrote in his first encyclical letter, Deus Caritas Est, No 35, the following guidance for service. It is ideal service. “This proper way of serving others also leads to humility. The one who serves does not consider himself superior to the one served, however miserable his situation at the moment may be.”

If the word for freedom is reform, then we all must reform ourselves from the heart! If the word for free Philippines is unity, then we must all unite! This is our form service to our people to our country.

We have crossed EDSA 20 years ago, but we hesitated at the “river” banks. We still looked back, longing for the “flesh pots of Egypt” --- the prized booty for political partners and stakeholders. That is what we did. We stayed too close to the safe banks, afraid to dare to be a new person. We fear “to be tried; we are afraid to be humbled; and we have dreaded to be known where it matters most , “our innermost heart.” If we are afraid to be the last, it can mean we are afraid to be honest. We all belong to EDSA, even the Filipinos who are in Batanes or Tawi-tawi or who never saw or stepped or crossed the avenue.

EDSA has no identifiable heroes!

It only has only icons who, unknowingly, but with God's unfailing designs, were delivering not an image but a message from the architected combination of events, threats, needs failure, ambitions, betrayal and recommitment to peace which is the authentic path to justice and love. EDSA is like a morality play where model players (actor and actresses), together with the villains, were inspired (or divinely drafted) to reveal lessons in morals and virtues directed towards the entire story of rebuilding freedom and reinforcing our fidelity to God (and righteousness).

Honor the memory of EDSA. But dare to leave the side roads of the big avenue. It is away from its side streets where the people are tested, humiliated and known. The poor are not really inside EDSA they are out there. Do not be afraid to be known by God as you are in the depths of the heart. Do not be afraid to be friend of God --- (He knows best how to forgive you, always where you need to change) and He will make you His partners for love and peace.

Listen, there is hope for the Filipino. Nobody can take that from us for as long as we are near our God. But let us together dare to walk and explore the many paths to unity and peace even beyond EDSA.

Thank You! God Bless!

+Gaudencio B. Rosales
Our Lady of Peace
EDSA Shrine
25 February 2006