Reflection delivered by retired Chief Justice Artemio V. Panganiban, Member, Bukas Loob sa Diyos Covenant Community [BLD]Council of Servant Leaders, on October 18, 1995 [a week after being appointed Justice of the Supreme Court] during the BLD Corporate Prayer Meeting, Cuneta Astrodome, Pasay City
The gospel reading tells of ten lepers who asked Jesus for healing. That is the equivalent to asking our Lord for a miracle. As we all know, leprosy is incurable even by modern science. At that time, it was a much more wretched disease because the victims were completely dehumanized. They were treated worse than animals. It was believed that leprosy was highly contagious. That is why lepers were required to shout “Unclean! Unclean!” as they walked about to warn people about their presence. They were prohibited from going nearer than 50 feet from anyone who was not stricken with the said disease. And more than all that, it was believed that lepers were condemned by God to die ignominiously because they were unforgiven sinners. Hence, the lepers were not only condemned as contagious outcasts of society. They were also shamed as forsaken sinners – with no hope in this life nor in the next.
This is why the gospel narrative says that the lepers “kept their distance” as they shouted, ‘Jesus, Master, have pity on us.”
And Jesus showed His compassion. He healed all of them. But the irony is that only one – a Samaritan, a non-convert – came back to praise and thank our Lord.
Tonight, it is our intention to tell the Lord, that in BLD, we – each and all of us – will all go back to thank and praise the Lord. Amen? And so, our worship will be a celebration of thanksgiving and exaltation from our God. After the usual cleansing prayers and songs of repentance for our sins and our offering of tithes, we shall proclaim His power and His might; we will exalt His dominion and providence and most all, we will manifest in prayers and in songs our eternal thanksgiving for the graces and blessings our Lord and Master has poured upon us, His unworthy servants.
Tonight, this reflection will be slightly different from the usual in the sense that it will contain my own personal sharing on two points: first, the validity and effectiveness of our discernment process in BLD and second, the value of faith in obeying God’s will after we discerned it. The bottom line of the sharing is that when we are able to discern properly God’s will in our lives and we obey such will, He shall be faithful to pursue and complete it.
You all know that I was recently appointed Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. I took my oath only a week ago. Let me now tell how God’s word guided me in my quest for this career high, how He humbled me in the process and how, eventually He rewarded me. Let me also tell you how my prayers and faith in Jesus combined to lead me to victory and fulfillment.
Being elevated to the Supreme Court is the highest aspiration and dream of every lawyer. Like any lawyer, I thus aspired to have a place in this Court. My serious quest began some three years ago.
The process of getting into the highest court – as it is in every other court in the judiciary – begins in the Judicial and Bar Council or JBC. This Council is empowered by our Constitution to screen and then recommend a list of nominees from which the President of the Philippines eventually chooses the appointee. Once appointed, the justice holds office during good behavior until he reaches the age of seventy. The screening process is rather rigid and a man’s personal life, professional career, and life-long activities are minutely scrutinized.
From 1992 to 1994, at least seven vacancies in the Supreme Court were created due to the retirement of incumbent members. In each of these vacancies, my name was submitted for screening. But in all seven, I failed the test. Many objections were raised against me – my alleged insufficiency of professional competence, my alleged lack of ethical character, my alleged sins and wrongdoings. At one time, a former client suddenly surfaced to complain about my alleged mishandling of a case which happened 25 years ago. And when I was able to answer and explain the charges against me, I was by-passed anyway because career judges were given priority over practicing lawyers, and at another time, simply that I may be qualified but that there were others who were more qualified. In other words, these past three years of screening were one long story of frustrations and defeats. Many times, I cried and would ask the Lord: How long, O Lord must I bear this frustration and embarrassment of being rejected? Why must I suffer for charges and accusations which are absolutely baseless and misleading? I have repented for my sins and I have reformed my life. Why do You still allow me to be humiliated and chastised?
In all these instances, however, and even if I asked the Lord such hard questions, I never lost faith in His wisdom and providence. I always took comfort and consolation in Romans 8:28:
“God makes all things work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.”
In January 1995, after seven by-passes, and having been convinced that the Lord did not want me to be in the Supreme Court, I humbled myself and bowed to what I thought was God’s will for me. My Spirit was shattered and my heart bled but I uplifted my ambition to God with the prayer:
“Take, O Lord, all that I am, all that I will ever be. Take my personal ambition, my liberty, my career. Do what You will with them and I will follow whatever it is you want me to do.”
In early July this year, another vacancy in the Court was created and a close friend (Justice Jose A. R. Melo), who is a member of the High Court asked me, “Why don’t you try again? Don’t pass up the opportunity because the next vacancy will be in late 1997 already.” At first, I did not take my friend’s suggestion seriously because at that time, I had already given up my ambition.
However, at about 1:00 a.m. of Saturday, July 29th, I woke up and could not sleep. My friend’s words kept bothering me, kept reverberating in my ears. So, I decided to pray for over two hours. I told the Lord that I had already surrendered to Him my quest; that I had already given up. Why am I still bothered? I fell asleep at about 4:00 a.m. waiting for a sign from the Lord. None came that night.
But the following morning, He spoke loud and clear to me. Let me explain.
Brothers and sisters, in our Community, it is our faith that God speaks to us through Scriptures. Though written some two thousand years ago, we believe in faith that if we listen intently and prayerfully – in full faith and confidence – God will speak to us personally – as we are struck by a verse which comes alive and answers our questions. This verse shows God’s specific mission or work for each of us individually. This method of discerning God’s will is uniquely a charism of BLD and is developed in each of us as we mature in our Christian life.
The following morning, Sunday, July 30, 1995, I served as a Special Minister of Holy Communion in our parish. As it was my usual habit, I listened to our parish priest with eyes closed and with an ascending Jesus in my mental vision, as he read the gospel for the day. I was struck by the following verses which he read from the gospel according to Luke 11:1-11:
“Ask, and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you. For whoever asks, receives; whoever seeks, finds; whoever knocks, is admitted.”
I perspired coldly and my body hair stood up, as I gasped, “My Lord, are you asking me to persist in my quest?” but I was not satisfied. I told God, “Lord I may just be deluding myself, hearing things I like to hear. Please give me another sign to confirm this message.”
The Lord’s confirmation came after one week in the same Church and through the same priest. On that following Sunday, August 6, 1995, the gospel was on the transfiguration of our Lord Jesus – Luke 9:28-36. The gospel said that as our Lord was transfigured in the presence of Moses and Elijah and as witnessed by Peter, John and James,
“… a cloud came and overshadowed them and the disciples grew fearful… Then, from the cloud came a voice which said, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen One.
Listen to Him.’”
“Listen to Him.” These three words struck me. And once again my heart pounded madly as my body hair stood up and cold sweat oozed out from all over my skin. And then, I was sure what the Lord wanted me to do. After all, it was our Lord Jesus who said, “Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened to you.” And now, our Heavenly Father commanded me. “Listen to Him!” So, I obeyed Him. I submitted my name again in the JBC screening.
I felt so sure of the Lord’s message for me that I shared it during the word sharing session we had in the Council of Servant Leaders just two days afterwards on August 8, Tuesday. And the following day, August 9, Wednesday, Leni and I were prayer leaders during the prayer meeting of the BLD South Sector held in St. James School in Sucat, Parañaque. During my reflection in that prayer meeting, I boldly proclaimed my discernment and publicly claimed God’s will for me, even at the risk of being ridiculed should the discernment turn out to be false. I declared my determination to pursue God’s will in my career by quoting a favorite Jesuit saying:
“I will work as if everything depended on me and I will pray as if everything depended on God.”
This did not mean, however, that my trials and tests were over. I had to undergo more of them. But I clung to God’s word and never lost my faith in His promise. Let me continue the story.
During the meeting of the JBC on September 13, there was a serious attempt to exclude me from the list. I would have been excluded right then, had it not been for one member, who I believe was guided by the Holy Spirit. He pleaded. “I think we should let Panganiban’s name stay in the list in the meantime. We are meeting next week anyway and, if you still insist on deleting him, so be it.”
This member told me two days after that, unless a miracle happened, I would surely be out of the list. So, I prayed again and I told the Lord that human forces, however exalted and powerful, cannot prevail against His will. I declared my full faith and dependence on His word.
And true enough during the JBC meeting one week thereafter on September 20, no one, by some mysterious reason, objected to my name and for the first time in over three years, I passed the screening. A proclaimed miracle! Thereafter, a list of the five JBC recommendees including me was sent to the President of the Philippines who, under the Constitution had the power to anoint one.
After being informed that finally and at last, I was on the JBC list, President Ramos asked me pointblank, “how did you do it?” “Do what, Sir?”, I asked back. “How did you get the JBC to nominate you. How did you do it?” He repeated.
It took the President another two weeks to make his decision. During all this time, I asked our Community in all our prayer meetings and during all intercessory sessions to storm the heavens with supplications and sacrifices. On my part, as well as that of Leni and my whole family, we clung to God’s discerned word – and we never doubted that He would be faithful and would make His will prevail.
Exactly two weeks after the JBC included me in the list of nominees, the President called me by phone saying in effect, “I am the Lord’s instrument. He has chosen you and I therefore appoint you Justice of the Supreme Court.” I answered, “Alleluia, praise be the Lord God Almighty.”
And since then, I have never ceased to praise and thank God for this display of His might and power in my career.
Our God took His time because He wanted me to learn some lessons in humility and in purification. He wanted me to acknowledge my powerlessness. He wanted me to recognize His power over all things. He wanted me to cling to Him; to have steadfast faith in Him. He wanted me to know that on my own, I could do nothing, but with Him, I can do anything.
Truly, brothers and sisters when we discern His will, when we surrender our ambition to Him, when we show our obedience and faith – OBEDIENCE AND FAITH, He responds mightily. And because it is my faith that it is God who made this appointment possible, I hereby declare before this Assembly that all my actions and all my decisions will only be in accordance with His commandments and His gospel. I hold office by God’s grace and I pledge to serve Him and our people with fortitude, integrity, competence, and prudence. I dedicate all that I am, all that I will ever be to Him who is the Source of everything.
And tonight, like that Samaritan leper who was cleansed and healed by the Lord, I come back to Him to GIVE THANKS with a grateful heart, to give praise to our holy God.
Thank You, Lord Jesus Christ!
The Personal Website of Retired Chief Justice Panganiban 