The power of prayer

If there’s anything the Spaniards gave us, it’s the gift of our Catholic faith. Today, Christians all over the world celebrate the resurrection of Christ which is symbolic of a renewed life that is full of hope. Easter is also a time of reflection on the grace of God, and for people to practice forgiveness and rekindle their faith.

Being the only Catholic nation in Asia, the Philippines is known for being a bastion of the Christian faith. Despite the many challenges that have come our way, we as a nation and as a people have continued to be resilient, believing that God is in control despite seeming adversities.

Our faith is our strongest attribute, relying on the power of prayer to pull us through during difficult and challenging times. This is why the popes – from Pope Paul VI to Pope John Paul II and now Pope Francis – have a very soft spot for Filipinos.

While there are a lot of changes and challenges going on here in Washington, D.C., majority of Filipino-Americans see hope and encouragement in the recent developments in the world, among them the planned meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump.

When news broke about the planned summit between Trump and Kim early in March, some hardliners expressed skepticism, saying this will not happen because it is simply another attempt by the North Korean leader at distraction and put the rest of the world off guard while he secretly continues his nuclear program, and for pressure to be eased against his country, in particular the economic sanctions that have been imposed.

But the potential summit comes with optimism because it could be the start of more positive developments especially after it looked like a doom and gloom scenario was on the horizon when Trump and Kim were trading barbs and insults, actually engaging in a word war late last year. The US president had said he would rain “fire and fury like the world has never seen” on North Korea in response to the latter’s intercontinental ballistic missile tests whose strike range could theoretically hit “the entire area of the US mainland,” according to Kim.

As President Duterte himself put it, a confrontation between these two nations could result in a nuclear holocaust that would spell the end of humanity and the end of everything. “We better pray,” he told the world. In reality, the possible meeting between the American and North Korean leaders would be, as South Korean president Moon Jae-in had put it, nothing short of historic, describing it as “an almost miraculous event.”

Admittedly, a lot of preparations for the unprecedented event have to be made, among them the security arrangements and the venue. Among those that have been mentioned are Geneva in Switzerland because the city is known as “neutral” territory and has been the venue for high-level meetings between rivals such as US President Ronald Reagan and Russian Communist Party leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985.

Another is Stockholm in Sweden which, compared to other western nations, has a closer relationship with North Korea. Since the US has no embassy in North Korea, Sweden has often acted as a go-between especially with regard to imprisoned US citizens. In fact, the North Korean and Swedish foreign ministers had a three-day meeting in mid-March regarding the security situation on the Korean Peninsula – strengthening speculations that the Trump-Kim meeting may just happen in Stockholm.

It’s also very likely that the summit may happen in Beijing because China wants to play a key role in this whole thing, as can be gleaned from the recent meeting between Kim Jong Un and Chinese president Xi Jinping, who said that “China will continue to play a constructive role on the issue (of the talks) and work with all parties, including the DPRK, toward the thaw of the situation on the Peninsula.”

Not surprisingly, there are those who are bothered by the recent visit of Kim to Beijing, seeing it as a negative indicator since it would seem that the “rift” between North Korea and China (which has ramped up sanctions against the former) is on the mend (or has been mended). Some are also suspicious of a “coordinated agenda” being cooked up by Beijing and Pyongyang prior to the talks, adding that it is also a tacit signal that Kim has the support of the “Asian dragon.”

However, some read Kim’s Beijing trip as a simple reassurance from the North Korean leader that China is not being deliberately left out in the recent spate of diplomacy between the two Koreas that have resumed dialog and are also set to meet this April 27 at the demilitarized zone or DMZ (located at Panmunjom straddling the border between the North and South).

South Korean leader Moon Jae-in’s hard work has finally paid off, as a dialog between the two countries seems to be forthcoming and the only way forward to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula. And now for the very first time in history, a sitting US president will be meeting a member of the Kim dynasty.

As president Donald Trump himself put it, “For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility. Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity.”

One thing is certain: As Christians, we believe that nothing is impossible with prayer – a weapon whose power can never be underestimated.

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