(Excerpts from the homily delivered by His Eminence Gaudencio B. Cardinal Rosales, archbishop of Manila, during the Mass in celebration of the 7th anniversary of Pondo ng Pinoy.)

Constancy or repetition is the mother of virtues. Pondo ng Pinoy relies on the availability of love fed to it by the unfailing repletion of the littlest charitable acts, so easy to repeat, because the insistence of Jesus and the poor is that love is given in little doses of compassion born of an honest love for God.

When we speak of the spirituality of Pondo ng Pinoy we always refer to the Eucharist that makes Jesus Christ present in the Altars of Sacrifice, summing up our prayers and offering to the Father, but making us remember and urges to reach out to our brothers and sisters who are in need. The Eucharist is an active prayer and sacrifice. It leads us to those in need, bringing them the love of the Father, released to us in Jesus Christ and which we re-express in the little ways, crumb-like pieces, yes, small, but nonetheless, still little acts of love, small in the sights of man, but large in the heart of God. This is the miracle that the Lord Jesus is encouraged to make every time a person reaches out in charity to another. He can make tiny scraps with an ounce of compassion big before God, an act of love that opens Heaven to the little giver.

The neglect of the poor spoils the Eucharist that we offer to God, when at the table of our own meals we neglect to reserve a little share for the poor, “for when the eating begins, each one of you has his own supper first, and there is one going hungry, while another is getting drunk. Or have you such a disregard for God’s assembly that you could put to shame those who have nothing.” (I Cor. 11:21-22).

Aside from its spirituality, there are the ordinary challenges to charity.

The first challenge is to live in the love of God who inspires and urges us to be the “salt of the earth.” But to reside in that love one has to be “at home” in the compassionate thoughts of Jesus; this is done with relative ease when the person longs to pray and to reflect. The second challenge is to reach out to and share with those who are in need; this is the task of charity. The Eucharist makes this possible as a challenge to those who are in love with God. “Do this in memory of me” applied primarily to the offering and sacrifice of the Body of Christ. But it also can include any act of love for the poor, such as the little 25-centavo coin, given out of love and in the memory of Jesus, the Lord.

Blessed John Paul II had these words for those who celebrate the Eucharist with frequency. “I think, for example of the tragedy of hunger which plagues hundred of millions of human beings, the disease which afflict the developing countries, the loneliness of the elderly, the hardships faced by the unemployed, the struggles of immigrants. These are evils that are present—albeit to a different degree—even in areas of immense wealth.

“We cannot delude ourselves.

“By our mutual love and, in particular, by our concern for those in need we will be recognized as true followers of Christ [John 13:35, Matthew 25:31-46]. This will be the criterion by which the authenticity of our Eucharistic Celebration is judged.”

Frequent exercise assures continuity of health and the availability of virtues. Virtue, they say, is the result of repeated action that has ended up as good habit. The littlest good thing (like 25 centavos) will be easy to repeat, and more encouragingly prescribed, as it will be done with love.

The Lord Jesus Christ was sent to us by the Father precisely to make the kingdom of heaven available to all. With what we understand of the love of God preached by the Lord, I would dare to say that Jesus is the way back to God, made easy.

Gaudencio B. Cardinal

Rosales, DD

Archbishop of Manila

For comments/feedback: e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; for donations to Caritas Manila: 563-9311; and for inquiries: 563-9308 and 563-9298;  Fax:  563-9306.