John Nery?s column titled ?How do we know she wasn?t a saint?? (Inquirer, 8/4/09) may sound somewhat shocking to our secular ears, but he certainly has a point. I remember a priest years ago saying to our ethics class that sanctity consists of a person, through God?s grace, excelling in one virtue ?to a heroic degree.? In other words, a virtue done to the max.

Well, how about courage? To face down a dictator and overcome the tyrant by uniting the people under her and chasing him away? Nah, this is something out of a fairy tale. Things like that just don?t happen in ?real? life, right? And staring down seven coup attempts calmly: courage under fire.

How about forgiveness? If she could not forgive, her face would eventually have given her away: words may be false, but a face in its advanced age shows every vice to the max. Her face was radiant and serene to the end, suffused with love. You can?t feign love.

How about simplicity, which she called sincerity? She was without guile, what you saw was what you got, a woman of the truth, her motives not devious or Machiavellian, but simple and loving. She was, she said, after all, a simple housewife, but so much more.

How about humility? As per the previous one, she realized who she was, and the enormity of the task ahead of her, a real David and Goliath challenge, but she invoked God?s help, and received it to do the task, because nothing is impossible to God.

Nery mentions that ?there is a temptation to damn Cory for her wealth.? Balzac cynically wrote that ?Behind every great fortune there lies a great crime,? but the Catholic writer G.K. Chesterton simply wrote: ?All generalizations are false?including this one.?

Ms Aquino was not a slave to her wealth: she did not plunder the public purse, nor allow it to be by her Cabinet or associates. Name me one scandal of that sort during her seven years in office. And whilst you?re at it, name me one scandal?period!

But if you?re talking about sanctity, you might ask how Cory used her wealth to help the poor. Christ may very well have said that ?the poor you will always have with you,? but He said that as a challenge to the rest of us in the ?real? world to do something about poverty, but that whatever we may do, there?ll always be some poverty somewhere, maybe not always among the poor either.

Then, finally, the crux of the matter: so show me some miracles, show us a ?sign.? The miracle, if it has to be made manifest, is in the people themselves. Sure, a revolution is transformative, it energizes, but does it renew, does it restore, does it revive?

And maybe the real miracle will take place in the next elections. Change is coming, as it surely must, Cory will guide us to its end.

And whether after that there will be a ?cure? for what ails us is, to me, beside the point: the miracle is already taking place. Did you watch the funeral?

?WALTER P. KOMARNICKI,
langka958@gmail.com