In the case of Republic
of the Philippines versus Merlinda L. Olaybar G.R. No. 189538, the facts
narrated show the said respondent requested from the National Statistics Office
(NSO) a Certificate of No Marriage as one of the requirements for her marriage
with her boyfriend of five years. Upon receipt thereof, she discovered that she
was already married to a certain Korean National. She, thus, filed a Petition
for Cancellation of Entries in the Marriage Contract. During the trial, she
denied having contracted said marriage and claimed that she did not know the
alleged husband; she did not appear before the solemnizing officer; and, that
the signature appearing in the marriage certificate is not hers. She also presented
a document examiner to testify that the signature appearing in the marriage
contract was forged. On May 5, 2009, the RTC rendered its Decision in her favor.
The trial court found that the signature appearing in the subject marriage
contract was not that of respondent; the court found basis in granting her
prayer to straighten her record and rectify the terrible mistake. This said
decision was affirmed by the Supreme Court when the Office of the Solicitor
General assailed it in the petition for review on certiorari under Rule 45 of
the Rules of Court.
My dear friends in
Christ, Merlinda L. Olaybar knows who she is. There could be no other person better
than her to testify about who she truly is. She herself could even be the best
evidence presented in court to prove her identity. But this is not how things in
court work. There is a need to produce evidence and to present witnesses to help
the judge weigh everything and render a just decision with basis. In the said case,
the testimony of the document examiner was vital because the court made a
categorical conclusion that Olaybar’s signature in the marriage certificate was
not hers and, therefore, was forged. Clearly, it was established that, as she
claimed in her petition, no such marriage was celebrated. The testimony of a
credible or expert witness helped her establish her identity without being further
questioned.
Now, let me ask you,
“Who could be a better witness other than Jesus to testify for someone?” Of
course, the answer is none! Jesus is the most credible and the most expert
witness one can ever have. He can neither deceive nor be deceived. But this is
not how things in this world work. Why do I say this? In the Gospel of Luke 7:
24-30, Jesus testified on who John the Baptist is before the crowd. He
testified that John the Baptist is a prophet of God whose mission is to prepare
the way of the Lord. The entire populace who heard Him, even the tax
collectors, gave praise to God, for they had received from John the baptismal
bath he administered. However, unlike a just judge in our court, take note of
the reaction of the Pharisees and the lawyers who failed to receive baptism
John administered. When Jesus appealed to the Pharisees and lawyers that John
the Baptist was the prophet they were waiting for, they ignored His words
because they were already fixated on their wrong opinion. No matter how Jesus told
them that if they wanted to see a prophet, they should set aside their belief
of what a prophet looks like and welcome John, they refused to submit
themselves to Him because they could not accept John as a prophet. No amount of
evidence or testimony of a witness could change their minds as they were fixated
on their wrong belief. They were not open for change or to change because their
minds and hearts were already fixed like an immovable solid rock.
My dear friends in
Christ, this Gospel reminds us of our own experience with some people whose
minds are fixated on their wrong opinion about us. We know ourselves. We know we
have our share of weakness as well as of goodness. Nevertheless, there are
people who think they know us more than we know ourselves. They unjustly judge
us. They condemn us for reasons we do not know. They criticize us even if we do
not do anything against them. No matter how we try to be good to them, they
never stop putting us in a bad light. We cannot even defend ourselves as all
the attacks come from behind. Sometimes even our own friends who heard those circulating
bad stories start to doubt us and avoid us. Worst, when our own family like our
brother or sister, a spouse or an in-law and even one’s children would be involved
in rashly judging us. We begin to live in desolation. We reach the tipping
point that all we can say is “Alam ng Panginoon na wala akong kasalanan. Alam
Niya ang totoong nangyari. Bahala na Siya sa akin.” We know that even if Jesus
would be present to testify for us we could not expect those people to change
the way they treat us just like what the Pharisees and the lawyers did to John.
So what should we do? Should
we allow them to ruin our days? Should we retaliate? The answer is found in the
next verses (verses 33-35) of the same Gospel passage which are not part of
what we have read today. From these verses, we are conditioned to accept the
fact that there are people in this world who are fixated on their wrong opinion
about someone. Those who suffer this kind of fixation love to find faults on someone.
Such people are consistent in finding faults on someone yet inconsistent on
what fault they are looking for. Just like the Pharisees and the lawyers, they
criticized John because he fasted and did not drink wine; yet they criticized
Jesus who ate heartily and drank wine! Thus, according to Jesus, we have to use
wisdom in dealing with them and live our lives as children of wisdom. We have
to dare to be who we are vis-a-vis what God wants us to be. We need to spend
time in silence and listen to the voice of God speaking through our conscience.
God’s wisdom shall lead us to go back to our true self and to take care of it.
If in the past, we have left it untended because we are more concerned on what
others say about us, it is now time to know what is going on in our true self
and try to put everything in order. We are not here to live up to the
expectations of others. We do not live in order to listen to those people who
make us feel unwanted and rejected. Remember, no amount of evidence or
testimony even of a credible witness could change their minds as they were
fixated on their wrong opinion. God’s wisdom tells us to live our lives
according to His purpose for us. It is only in finding meaning with our life that
we can totally stop hearing from those people who make our life miserable. Therefore, let us live free. Let God
alone at the end be our witness as well as our judge. Let us live freely. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment