FOLLOW your heart and do whatever it takes to make yourself happy — this is a universal law which all of us will definitely carry out in our lifetime. Happiness which can be found in a lot of things such as simple luxuries of getting your much desired cellphone, designer bag, or a pair of shoes; or it may be plainly brought by eating out in your favourite restaurant or going out to see the latest movie. At times, happiness comes from mundane and inexpensive things in our everyday life, such as having that extra time to spend with our loved ones, or even that invaluable amenity of having a complete and rejuvenating sleep.
Well, if we are to ask everyone around about what makes them truly happy, then the list would simply go on and on as each one of us have different aspirations and beliefs in life. This is why it makes full sense when we accept the fact that what may be gratifying for one person may not be necessarily the same for another. Happiness indeed is relative.
However, all of us share this single and essential need to love and be loved in return. This is why most of us will go head over heels in search for that person and we will do everything to have that person in our life forever. Of millions and millions of people in this world, there is only one person whom God has chosen to be our perfect match who will complement our entire individuality. As it is written in Genesis 1:27-28: “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
And now people would tell me, this is an issue of religion and morality. As much as everyone is entitled to his or her own convictions, the matter of legalizing same sex marriage in the Philippines is and will always be a dispute regarding morals and dignity. After the 2015 US Supreme Court ruling with a 5-to-4 vote in favor of the ratification of same sex marriage in the entire United States, LGBT communities worldwide revelled and declared this victory of their right for equality and freedom.
Borrowing words from a colleague to aptly describe my sentiments on this controversial matter: “Not because the majority declares so, (it) is moral. Not everything that is legal is moral. We are MORAL beings.” In an official statement, CBCP public affairs committee executive secretary Fr. Jerome Secillano said that “the government should not destroy the moral and cultural fabric of the nation, otherwise, it will destroy the very foundation from where its nation is built.”
As much as we completely respect the members of the LGBT community as our brothers and sisters, we also call upon them to honor the morals that shepherd the entire Filipino nation. Catholics and even unorthodox groups such as the Iglesia ni Cristo faithfully believe in the sacrosanctity of marriage.
We also make this firm resolute to cease all their malicious desecrations of Jesus and the Holy Church on social media and internet. Respect begets respect, and much as we want to accord this to them, we absolutely feel violated and disrespected by these irreverence and impudence.