In this issue of “Servant Leader,” I share with you the main points of the second part of the talk given by his Eminence Manila Archbishop Gaudencio B. Cardinal Rosales on Pondo ng Pinoy’s fifth anniversary.

Part II of II - First Step

God is a family. That’s why God, although One, has Three Persons. God has Three Persons in order to make that Family a family of love. God is love, He needs to be loved, He needs love. Father, Son, Spirit.

That’s the Family of God, which we imitate in the homes. Papa, mama, children. Lover, beloved, love. It will become an image of God. Larawan ng Diyos ang bawat pamilya. That is why you cannot toy with the family. It is a most sacred thing because it represents God. I play a role in our family. I am a son in our family. Put love in a grouping of persons and it becomes a family. In love, simple smiles in company become joy. Not just merriment, it becomes joy.

As the saying goes, once you love, there are no little things in life. This is what Pondo ng Pinoy is trying to teach. The 25-centavo coin has value far greater than a crumb. Put together many 25 centavos and you have the power to buy food for the hungry. In the eyes of God, a 25-centavo coin, given in love for God and in compassion for the needy, unlocks the gates of heaven to the lover.

When many individuals, young and old, practice Pondo ng Pinoy, a community of joy immediately exists. Pondo ng Pinoy practitioners exchange stories of experiences, joy in little sacrifices and humor, even in funny mistakes. Unaware, those who practice Pondo ng Pinoy like you encourage one another when they share their experiences. Pondo ng Pinoy inspires serving by sharing! It inspires serving and building with little sacrifices known as the constant discipline in little things. It is helping you by disciplining you in setting aside 25 centavos a day. Discipline—sacrifice in little things. It purifies values.

Pondo ng Pinoy has a catechesis even for nation-building by first developing the person. Talk about it. Don’t keep the secret. Like Jesus, who began by evangelizing and saving the person, Pondo ng Pinoy, through the way of the “crumbs,” gives the individual the vision and the values that will lead to the fullness of life Jesus wants you and me and everyone to enjoy.

Pondo ng Pinoy helps create a certain subculture in society—a spirit of concern; the spirit of concern and the practice of the “little disciplined acts of goodness” mostly absent in both personal and social life of the Filipino.

People who do not know think that Pondo ng Pinoy is all about 25 centavos. Wrong. We are after the change of mind, which is the subculture that we are trying to establish, through small, disciplined acts. No change takes place in the world that does not arise from changes in man’s mind. Changing one’s attitude really means changing one’s mind.

St. Paul reminds us in his letter to the Romans, “Do not model your behavior on the contemporary world, but let the renewing of your minds transform you so that you may discern for yourselves what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and mature” (Romans 12:2). The key to community change is in changing minds and purifying the heart. We do not lose hope. Goodness is still within our reach. The movement emphasizes that there is hope that one day all people will see the light, and when they join us in doing, providing the occasion for good to be done, then that time will arrive and we’ll say we’re ready to serve God and country. Everybody will belong to the fullness of life that Jesus wants you and us and all the others to enjoy, but through the catechesis of change that Pondo ng Pinoy brings to our midst.

First step, change the person.

God bless us all.

+ Gaudencio B. Cardinal

Rosales, D.D.

Archbishop of Manila

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