Batas Mauricio .
MANY Filipinos were at it again! They thanked Catriona Gray after she grabbed the crown and became Miss Universe 2018 on Dec. 17, 2018; they thanked Mark Tumang who made her concededly stunning “Mayon” gown; they thanked her “lava walk” that made heads turn, and her brilliant answers to the questions thrown her way during the pageant by the judges.
But, I did not see nor read, nor heard, anyone thanking God for Catriona’s beauty and brilliance, for her becoming the only fourth Filipina to bring home the country’s fourth Ms. Universe crown.
What has surfaced in all these is that, Catriona’s outstanding success at the Ms. Universe 2018 beauty contest now appears to have come from man’s beauty and brains alone, which is surely not acceptable.
All blessings, guidance, and protection which people are privileged to enjoy come from no One else but God. If an individual is beautiful or handsome, if he or she is financially endowed, if he or she is graced with intellectual superiority above others, it is only because God gave him or her these favors. For me, it was spine-tingling as it was hairaising that no one but no one, right at the moment of victory, expressed gratitude to the real Source of Catriona’s triump, right, Sen. Manny Pacquiao?
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This phenomenon of ingratitude reminded me once more of the story of ten lepers who were all healed by Jesus. Let us read the story yet again, to remind us that the first thing that anyone who had been blessed, guided, and given protection by God is to return to Him and offer thanksgiving. We can read this story in Luke 17.
The story goes like this: “… Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, `Jesus, Master, have pity on us!’
“When he saw them, he said, `Go, show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan…”
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Because of this, Jesus asked: “ `Were not all ten cleansed?
Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?’ Then he said to him, `Rise and go; your faith has made you well’…”
Many will dispute me on this, but this is the pestering problem about many Filipinos and, if we give it a more serious thought, about all peoples of the world. Like the Filipino ballad popularized by the late Rico J. Puno, during the times that man is happy and contented, he would forget that there is no forever, for everything has an end. “But when sadness or tragedy strikes, that is the time people will remember God,” Rico further intoned.
What is truly lamentable is that, this ingratitude or this turning away from God is not only a malady afflicting beauty contests.
It is a cancer permeating all aspects of life–in sports like basketball, at the Philippine Basketball Association and the University Athletic Association of the Philippines; in political wrangling; and in most day-to-day struggles. This is the one reason why “good luck” refuses to consistently visit many of us–we forget the true Source of all these.
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