‘Ninoy came home that fateful day carrying in his heart a reconciling spirit that the spirit of this world would reject.’
SINCE this deadly virus crisis started to take its toll on lives and livelihoods, I have not been keen on the news, which is strange since I have been a journalist for the longest time. The news media is preoccupied insufferably with developments mostly on the tragic plight of millions around the world. Christian and Biblical media, sidelined for so long, have suddenly become relevant.
We are now confronted with the other “reality” that this world ignores. Those who still doubt Biblical prophecies should look back at the astounding fact of the restoration of Israel as a country in the 1940s which the world thought was impossible.
The Bible contained accurate accounts of remarkable events before they happened — the victories of Israel against the more superior military forces from six countries that surround it, among others. And what an utterly startling episode of Jesus coming down from heaven with a huge throng of angels and the righteous dead being raised to meet Him in the clouds!
As Aug. 21 fast approaches it may be worthwhile to remember Sen. Ninoy Aquino’s spiritual renewal, a deeper perspective from dying for the country he would leave behind. He became a Born-Again Christian after his heart operation in the United States although his family, Marian devotees all, did not openly admit it.
After questioning the existence of God while in solitary confinement Ninoy finally concluded that there is a God. For how else could he or anyone explain his unjust suffering in the hands of the Marcos minions, that included a death sentence, if there was no God to reward him?
It was the book (“Born Again”) of Charles Colson, the chief legal adviser of Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal, that transformed Aquino. Colson was imprisoned and eventually became a Born-Again Christian who later founded the largest Christian prison fellowship in the world.
In an interview by Pat Robertson on the 700 Club TV program, Ninoy said it was a miracle he was strong again and enjoying his life in the US with his family. Ninoy came home that fateful day carrying in his heart a reconciling spirit that the spirit of this world would reject.
His son, Noynoy, also did not venture into a politics of reprisal, his soul deeply attached to the virtues of his martyred father.
In Colossians 1:19 God reminds us of the eternal value of selfless reconciliation: “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things…. by making peace through His bloodshed on the cross.”
