In the name of God

DEFENDING HER appointment as Supreme Court Chief Justice, Maria Lourdes Sereno took one from the very pages of the Book of Revelation, thus: “Ito po , ang buong mundo ay testigo na galing po sa Panginoong Diyos lamang. Hindi po ito gawa ng tao, hindi po ito gawa ng kahit anong political bloc. Hindi po ito paglo-lobby ng business or economic interest ngunit ang Diyos ang may alam kung ano ang plano nya sa taumbayan (The whole world is witness that this appointment is God’s will. No one person did this, much more by any political bloc. It did not come about due to lobbying by any business or economic interest group; it’s only God who knows what his plans are for the people).”

“Siya lamang po ang nagtalaga sa inyong lingkod. Siguro po ay panahon na upang ibigay ang liderato (ng Korte Suprema) sa Kanyang isang abang lingkod (Only God put your servant in this position. Maybe the time has come for Her to hand the   leadership of the Supreme Court to one of Her humble servants).”

The conspicuous presence of God – in word, not necessarily made flesh – in Sereno’s speech at her first flag ceremony as Chief Justice on Monday at the Supreme Court underscored her being a born-again Christian.

The conspicuous absence of seven senior justices of the High Court -- Associate Justices Antonio Carpio, Teresita Leonardo De Castro, Presbitero Velasco, Arturo Brion, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, and Martin Villarama – underscored the disjointed bench Sereno is now hard put to cobble.   

But then, it was God Herself that put Sereno there, so what is there to fear?

Indeed, Romans 8:31: What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Amen to Psalm 118:6: The LORD is for me, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?

Praise the Lord, Hallelujah!

Fear, precisely was what Senator Joker Arroyo felt: “After the Chief Justice expressed her belief that she was anointed by the Good Lord as chief magistrate, I hope she would not think she has now the infallibility in her judicial opinions.”

The Joker is not being wild there, his fears are far from being far-fetched.

By her claim that it was God’s will and not President Aquino’s that seated her as chief magistrate of the land, Sereno may have assumed some “angelic status,” as Arroyo said, and therefore has become more infallible than the Pope.

Ex cathedra, “when the Pope talks of matters about faith and morals, you cannot challenge that,” Arroyo said.

From her lofty seat at the Supreme Court, when Sereno – as God’s anointed – talks of jurisprudence, you cannot challenge that too.

“I hope Chief Justice Sereno doesn’t think that way because that’s not good.  That doesn’t allow for dissent,” Arroyo said.

And dissent makes the very essence of democracy.

Which brings to mind the Middle Ages where misrule was the divine right of kings. Aye, the royals who invoked the name of the Lord as having ordained their kingships, including the rulers who, in the name of God, unleashed the genocide of the Middle Easterners in the Crusades; ordained the annihilation of the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru; conquered and “civilized” the Philippines.

Which brings fear in my heart whenever I hear now anybody invoking the Lord’s own mandate for his/her appointment to some position of leadership or power.

I can only find solace in Exodus 20:7: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord, thy God, in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.