The rhetoric of Sin

By Rolo B. Cena
The Gulf Files
Dumaguete Star Informer
04 September 2011

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – It was his trumpet sounded off that concocted the greatest assembly of mankind, which consequently aborted the most horrible dominion of all times; a speechifying that enunciated the freedom defined solely for this act and purpose.

He caused change as he himself is an agent of change; a promulgator of freedom who denounced the most promiscuous of sins. He called forth the abortion of a sin that ruled for more than two decades and disgraced the Filipino people; an oratory manifesting a different passion of greed – a cardinal sin. It was the newest of freedom defined in the oratory of a Cardinal.

If he were alive, he would have sounded once more his rhetoric on the electoral fraud of the former strongwoman of the Palace; articulated an argument on the ZTN deal; verbalized his own way of protest against the most horrifying carnage of the millennium that took place in the remotest of areas in Maguindanao. He would have struck the hullabaloos of the previous administration and that of the son of the icon of democracy, whose political occupation he triggered via the world-acclaimed bloodless revolution at EDSA.

If here were alive, he would have opined on the “pajero bishops” that stirred the Roman Catholics in awe; he would have narrated how the drug lords build the churches in the drug rings of countries of the world, or how the most organized crime syndicates in the world finance foundations and refugee centers.

If he were alive, he would have recited once more his oratory on the “Poleteismo” staged at the Cultural Center of the Philippines that blasphemed the faith the more than eighty-million Christian Filipinos behold for centuries now; he would have desecrated Mideo Cruz, et al, the exhibit halls, the minds and spirits of the organizers. All by his powerful prayers that come from his unstained heart and mind, he would have outdone the blasphemy. He would have dared “Kulo” artists to stage the same for Prophet Mohammed to prove to the entire world that the Islamic community would stage the same protest, or to prove that arts is supposed to convey the most beautiful and lasting of all messages and not to instill in the minds and hearts of the followers the most satanic or oddest of all pieces of arts.

If he were alive, he would have opined on the Reproductive Health Bill that sends all groups to the porticos of the Congress and Senate and halls of the academic institutions. He would have stressed the importance of eradicating poverty from the list of social concerns to and before the so called cause-oriented groups protesting against the RH Bill; he would have emphasized that the country has been plagued by population problem, more so, population control problems. He would have emphasized as well that population problem should be addressed by both the people and the government along with the assistance of the Church; he would have emphasized that the only thing that divides the church and the state is the thin red line that is so sensitive and fragile.

If here were alive, he would have recited once more his rhetoric over the first one-hundred days of President Benigno Aquino III, as was in the first one-hundred days of his mother, Corazon Aquino, the icon of democracy with whom he worked with in toppling the strongman and his cronies. He would have advised the son in the name of the father and of the mother to work honestly and conscientiously sans vested interests and future political plans.

His rhetoric is far greater than the rest; far valuable that the Congress and Senate. His rhetoric is beyond imagination, beyond meaning yet vividly visible and completely comprehensible.

Whatever happened to the country today, to the Filipino people – we owe them to Cardinal Sin, the prime mover of the EDSA spirit. Whatever happened to the political arena of the country today is not his cause – it was the peoples’ choice.

EDSA would have been enshrined more than ever; respected more than ever; and revered more than ever. If Cardinal Sin were alive, the spirit he had given birth would have been taken care of, would have been nurtured, and would have been nourished.

Such was the rhetoric of Cardinal Sin, removing sins from mankind. Godspeed, Cardinal!