Cory and courage

During this dark period of our history, where lies, untruth, abuse, injustice and disregard for human life, rights, and laws reigned, remembering Cory brings light and hope that tomorrow, we will overcome, as a people, as a nation.

We have been in a dark regime in the past. Together with all others who gave up their lives for our people, Corazon C. Aquino, the courageous widow of Benigno Aquino Jr., assassinated during the Marcos regime, showed us what strength is. She led our country out of dictatorship, guided by her profound faith in God and her devotion to Our Lady of Fatima.

Cory said: “Every time life painted me into a corner, with seemingly no escape, I always turned to Him in trust. I knew He would never abandon us if we trusted in Him. And you know, somehow, He found a way for us.”

According to Fr. Catalino Arevalo: “Our Lady truly had a special, living presence in her life: Mary was, for Cory, true mother and incomparable friend. No, Mary was not the center of her faith, but its air, its atmosphere; and the rosary, her lifeline through every trial and crisis. In the long harsh months of her illness, Sister Lucia’s beads never left her hands.”

When they met, Sister Lucia dos Santos, the eldest of the children who witnessed the apparitions of our Lady of Fatima in Portugal, told Cory to expect many sufferings to come her way.

Despite seven coup attempts, a 2006 declaration of national emergency, her fight with colon cancer, her daughter Pinky shared: “Mom was always calm even in the most trying times. She trusted God would always be there for us.”

Despite her sufferings, these beautiful words of faith from Cory: “It…is not simply a patience that passively suffers until the storm is past. Rather, it is a spirit that bears things – with resignation, yes, but above all, with blazing, serene hope.”

Cory and her husband Ninoy proudly and nobly offered their lives believing that the Filipino is worth dying for.

In turn, thousands and millions of Filipinos returned their love and gratitude to Cory and Ninoy, respectively. Their faith and service for God and our people live on, their love for us Filipinos worth remembering through the years.

May their courage and their love unselfishly shared for us Filipinos be with us always, as a people, as a nation.

Certainly, being mortals, they were flawed, not perfect. Yet, they remained our pillar of courage, faith, hope and love. So much integrity, simplicity, grace, dignity.

Oh, that God may bless us again with selfless, noble leaders!

Remembering Cory, Ninoy, their son, Noynoy, calls back to mind this poem of Maltbie Davenport Bobcock worth sharing with all our people, amidst reigning terror, evil, and darkness.

Here is that poem: Be strong!

“We are not here to play, to dream, to drift; we have hard work to do, and loads to lift; Shun not the struggle—face it; 'tis God's gift.”

“Be strong! Say not, "The days are evil. Who's to blame? And fold the hands and acquiesce—oh shame! Stand up, speak out, and bravely, in God's name.”

“Be strong! It matters not how deep entrenched the wrong. How hard the battle goes, the day how long; Faint not—fight on!”

“Tomorrow comes the song.”

In 1986, the songs “Nagkaisa” and “Handog ng Pilipino sa Mundo” proudly heralded the new dawn of our liberation, our freedom from the Marcos dictatorship.

Today, this hopeful reminder to us all, then - “faint not, fight on, tomorrow comes the song!”