Cardinal David: Hope is fragile, stubborn, and shines brightly in the dark

Kalookan bishop Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David on Thursday reminded the public that while hope is fragile, it is also stubborn and shines brighter amid darkness and despair.

In a post on his Facebook page, David noted that 2025 did not feel hopeful despite the late Pope Francis’ declaration of 2025 as a “Year of Hope.”

“For many Filipinos, it did not feel like a year of hope at all… We witnessed horrors long buried finally surface,” he said.

In particular, David mentioned the missing sabungeros, drug war victims, the flood control controversy, back-to-back disasters, and online gambling addiction.

He said power was shaken in “unsettling ways” due to former President Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest; the failed impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte; Senator Imee Marcos’ call-out of her brother; President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.; and a probe into the national budget.

“The streets filled with protests. Institutions faltered. Public trust thinned… And yet – if we listen carefully – this is precisely where hope must be located,” he said.

Regardless, David said hope shines brighter “at midnight,” amid darkness and despair.

“As the French philosopher Gabriel Marcel once said, hope is not optimism. It is not the denial of darkness. True hope is born in the very moment when despair seems most logical – like light that shines brightest not at noon, but at midnight,” he said.

“Hope is fragile. But it is stubborn. Perhaps 2025 did not feel like a Year of Hope because hope, when it is real, is never comfortable. It demands vigilance, memory, moral courage. And the refusal to surrender our future to cynicism,” David added.

The bishop then called on the public to remember that hope is a choice that one makes when things do not go well.

“May the darkness of this year not extinguish us, but teach us why hope still matters… May our God of surprises – born as a fragile little Child in a stable in Bethlehem, shining as a bright light in the midst of darkness – surprise us again with hope where we least expect it,” David said.

During the Christmas Eve Mass at the San Roque Cathedral Parish in Caloocan City, David urged Catholics to practice compassion and to remember that goodness can truly change people.

“Kahit ngiti lang o kamusta o pag alalay sa mga nauulila, basta may malasakit, nakapagpapaangat ito ng dangal,” David said, as he shared his recent visit at the Caloocan City Jail.

(Even just a smile, a simple greeting, or helping those who are alone, compassion uplifts their dignity.)

“Hindi matututo kumalinga ang taong hindi nakaranas ng anomang pagkalinga,” he added.

(A person who never experienced compassion will not learn how to show compassion.) — JMA, GMA Integrated News