The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.” Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay are those who gain riches by unjust means. When their lives are half gone, their riches will desert them, and in the end they will prove to be fools. Jeremiah 17:9-11 (NIV)We were asking the professor to have a "make-up" class for Christian Ethics so that we would not meet on Monday, October 30 (because a class of 6 seemed-to-be-older-than-their-professor students unofficially declared that from October 30 to November 4 should be apt for a semestral break - which we don't have). So we met this morning at 8 am - while the rest of the population is in their beds, being lazy on a Saturday morning.
It was supposed to be routine class with topics and so on. Christian Ethics is supposed to be boring because of those metaphysical philosophies one is familiar with these subject matters. Yet, this is quite a different day indeed because of some simple questions thrown by Atty. William Uy, the professor-in-question. Browsing through the syllabus of the course, he asked, "What is a good life for you?" and "What do you do with the freedom that you have?"
These questions seemed innocent enough, but the class seemed to confessed their secret lives in relation to the freedom they have to have that good life - like the one whose son is incarcerated, and another who had an affair with his wife's friend, while another one who married an older man who turned out to have 2 other wives (because he is a Muslim, and she has to deal with marital multiplicity). My mother had to confessed that she married an American who divorced her, after a short married life with that guy (yes, my mother is my classmate in law school).
Yet the most revealing of all seemed to come from someone who is not from the Christian Ethics class that morning. She completely bared herself of her true nature that I find repugnant. She reminded me of my grandmother (because my mother reminded me that she is like my grandmother). She felt slighted by an innocent remark, and she wanted vindication, lambasting the poor classmate on Facebook through the chat group. Unfortunately for the classmate who has to go to Luzon - who cannot defend herself, who cannot talk to her, or at least ask an apology immediately (thus the lambasting continues online). No wonder mama distanced herself from her even from the first instance they met.
Implied or expressed, many things are worth revealing, and these revelations form the very essence of ourselves as to our relationships with one another. Those who expressed their true selves should deserve praise for braving the exposure of their weaknesses, but self-serving "righteousness" deceives the person - implicating themselves to further ridicule. Perhaps it is time to examine ourselves and express something worth revealing.
