Team play

A coach tries to get the best out of every player.

He studies each boy, to discover his talents, and to develop them.

He studies each boy, to discover his weaknesses, and to strengthen them.

Then he trains these boys to play as a team. He teaches each one to sacrifice his own personal glory for the common good.

The total impact of the team is greater than the sum of their individual talents.

Team play multiplies the power of each individual boy.

In the Philippines, on a national scale, we find it hard to work together as a team.

The country is filled with men and women who have tremendous talent, but we spend most of our time and energy quarreling with each other.

We rarely get to the moment when each one of us is at maximum effort, driving toward a common goal. We find it hard to harness the power that God has given us, and to unleash it, strongly, all at once, in one direction. We fight with each other, wasting our time, wasting our talent, wasting our strength.

The one who knows how to get us together is God.

He does it by disasters.

He shakes up the whole town with an earthquake. All the people are so terrified that they cling to each other, and reach out to each other, and help each other, and forget to be selfish for a little while.

God knocks down all the houses with a typhoon. He swallows the seashore with a tidal wave. The people are so panic stricken that — for these few moments — they make magnificent sacrifices for each other.

The Filipino has always been magnificent, in time of crisis.

We got together for the revolution against Spain. We were winning, against the Spaniards, when the Americans came in. And then we gave the United States a real run for its money. One of the most glorious moments in our history was the young Gregorio del Pilar, holding up the whole American Army for eight hours, at Tirad Pass.

We got together against the Japanese. All the virtues of the Filipino surfaced at Bataan, on the Death March, in the prison camp at Capas.

And during Edsa I all the world watched in wonder at two million Filipinos, standing shoulder to shoulder on Edsa, doing something that no other nation has ever done.

Could we not work together, as one, even when there is no dramatic crisis?

For instance, ecology. Could we not try to save our forests, to save our rivers, to save our seas, to save our land, before we reach the point of no return? This is a common national problem, of great importance to all of us. This land is our home!

For instance, infrastructure. Can we not accept the fact that roads in Mindanao, roads in Samar, roads in Luzon are a national treasure? They enable us to work together. Every road enriches every one of us.

For instance, traffic. Can we not face the fact that if each vehicle fights its way through the streets, all of us suffer? If we sacrifice for each other, and bear the burden of discipline, each one of us will get there faster.

Could we not have a national campaign for honesty? This has been our problem since Humabon of Cebu. Can we not realize that if anyone cheats, or steals, all of us lose — including the thief?

Could we not have a national campaign for decency? How many mothers in this country, want their daughters to look upon a young woman, who has conceived out of wedlock, as if this woman were a national heroine?

All over the Philippines, little girls in grade school are asking: “Mommy. . . . now. . . . now. . . . . is it alright for a girl to be pregnant when she is not married?”

We know that we must have a return to the ancient, traditional purity of the Filipina. The beauty, and the character, of our girls is a national treasure. We must save the girls as well as the trees, and the sea, and the land.

A politician thinks of himself. He thinks of the next election.

A statesman thinks of others. He thinks of the next generation.

We need a statesman in every family, a statesman in every home.

When we sacrifice for each other, for the common good, it is the foolishness of God, which is wiser than the wisdom of men.

When each one of us dies, and stands all alone before God to be judged, we have only one description of that moment, which will certainly come.

God will say to you, personally:

“So long as you have done it to the least of these, my little ones, you have done it to Me.”