There's The Rub : Smallness
Posted 10:39pm (Mla time) April 11, 2005
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the April 12, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
I, TOO, was astounded when I heard President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo claim in an interview with CNN that Pope John Paul II helped engineer Edsa II. "It was after my conversation with the Pope that I finally found -- shall I describe it as courage or conviction -- to make the break and join the bloodless revolution." She went on to say that she has been guided throughout her rule by the Pope's convictions. "The Pope had a very, very keen sense of understanding of what is happening in the Philippines and he was very encouraging towards my taking steps to make sure that I would do what I could do in order to promote morality in Philippine society."
I do not blame Didagen Dilangalen for bristling at the suggestion. He puts into words what many Filipinos must have thought at the interview: "At a time when we should be sending off a great and morally upright man to his eternal rest, Ms Arroyo's statement alleging that the Holy Father tacitly approved any move she might make to take over the government of our country in 2001 smacks of politicking of the cheapest kind."
Dilangalen might be forgiven his biases, which come from being the defender of the faith, also known as "Erap" (Joseph Estrada). He cannot possibly be amused at the thought that the overthrow of his boss carried with it divine, or at least pontifical, sanction. There is something truly cheap and distasteful about putting words into a dead man's mouth to advance one's interest. The dead cannot rise from the grave to refute it. Or can't he? But I am getting ahead of my story. There and then, Arroyo herself refutes the notion that she drew inspiration from the Pope in striving to spread morality in this country. It is clear she has not imbibed it; it is not seen in her conduct. Indeed, forget morality, mind only manners. Dilangalen is right, the living might want to show some respect for the dead.
When I heard Arroyo say it, the first thing I did was wonder why a thunderbolt did not issue from the sky and strike the interview site. I will take the Pope's name in vain, too, and say that I heard from him in a dream that he interceded before an irate God not to do so -- he was a most forgiving man. The second thing I did was to remember that Arroyo also said she would not run again. Some habits are just hard to break.
To begin with, even if what Arroyo says is true, that the Pope convinced her to join the struggle to overthrow Erap, why on earth, or in hell, would she need something like that? Why on earth, or in hell, would she need the Pope to give her the courage or conviction to do what needed to be done? Corazon Aquino never needed the Pope to discover the strength to fight Ferdinand Marcos. She needed only to look into her own heart. The NGOs and schools and media and politicians, opposition and administration, never needed the Pope to glimpse the compelling need to rid the country of a petty tyrant, or pest. They needed only to look around them and hear the agonized cry of a people.
What a benighted thing to do, attribute one's joining Edsa People Power II to the Pope's or anybody else's moral suasion. Lest she forget, the concept is called People Power, not Pope Power. Morality is nothing but the capacity to see right or wrong in our midst. Courage comes from within, not from without.
But all this presupposes she is telling the truth, and like I said, she promised not to run again. That she followed the Pope's wishes with respect to Edsa II, we only have her word for. That she has not followed the Pope's wishes with respect to everything else, that is engraved in stone. You go down the list, and she has pretty much gone against everything the Pope has stood for. The Pope stood against the American invasion of Iraq, calling it unjust and immoral. Arroyo has gone for it whole hog. The Pope stood for peace and a culture of life, Arroyo has subscribed to war and culture of death. The Pope spoke for accommodation and dialogue. Arroyo takes those who are not for her as being against her. The Pope lived simply and austerely. Arroyo's husband likes to rent $20,000-per-night hotel rooms.
I do not know how it can be possible to mistake the Pope's voice with that of George W. Bush. Even while ravaged with disease, the Pope spoke with angelic resonance, which has been known to accompany the truth. Even at his healthiest, at least physically, Bush has spoken with pipsqueak malevolence, which has been known to accompany deceit. Arroyo says the Pope approved of her efforts to spread morality in this country. The record shows the Pope has never approved of lying, cheating and stealing.
But what truly assails about Arroyo's self-serving statements about what the Pope told her is that it so directly and atrociously contravenes the spirit of things. Few leaders can hope to rival the Pope in stature, but most of them can at least try to emulate him. The Pope was above all about humility, about forswearing greed and covetousness, about a largeness of spirit. Though he was a man of tremendous influence, he, like Mother Teresa, thought first about serving others and last himself. Though he could always sit at the front, he always preferred to sit at the back -- and for that reason was asked by the world to move to the head of the table. Truly, the humble shall be exalted. And just as truly, the exalted, or trying-hard-to-be, will be humbled.
It is the Pope's largeness of spirit that made him larger than life and makes him tower over death. Everyone he met left with the feeling they had caught a glimpse of the divine. It is Arroyo's smallness of spirit that makes her smaller than life and dwarfs her stature all the more. Everyone she has met has left only with the feeling they have caught a glimpse of the petty.
Small is as small does.
