Not meant to be a dead letter

OUR laws should not be left alone to dry up and deteriorate into a dead letter. We need to give them life always and revive them from time to time when they show signs of flagging. They need to be nourished, purified, attuned and adapted to situations as they flow in time.

            I wonder if we, as a people, as a nation, are aware of this responsibility. We make laws, usually worded very beautifully with all the legal jargon we can get from all sources, but then we scarcely make any effort to enforce them, much less, to make them grow and flow with the times.

            We have to remember that our laws are at best our estimation of what is truly good and fair for us. They can’t help but be reflections of the ultimate law, which is the eternal law of God, our creator.

            Unless we understand that, we would be suffering from a fundamental infirmity, if not a radical error, that would surely drift us to all kinds of dangerous destinations in life. Yes, they are mere estimations, which presume that they are supposed to be a living, dynamic phenomenon that needs to be handled accordingly. They are estimations in constant search for perfection.

            Thus, they always need refinement and polishing. They are a letter that constantly requires to be animated by the spirit proper of us as persons and children of God. Our laws cannot just be a matter of words. They have to have the spirit, otherwise, they would denature themselves.

            And their perfection is nothing less than love, just like what one liturgical prayer puts it: “Law finds its fulfillment in love.” Of course, love here means everything: truth, justice, affection, understanding, sacrifice, patience, etc.

            We have to have a very clear idea of what this love is all about, because all sorts of definitions that spring mainly from the emotions, fashions, and very partial ideologies, are now being presented to us and we need to be discerning.

            Our laws should become more and more humane, more and more able to bring us to God as well as to serve the common good.

            Thing is if we individually make some kind of periodic self-assessment or examination of conscience to see if we are still on the right track, to see if what we are now approaches what we ought to be, then all the more reason should we as collective body, as a people and nation, need to have the same regular self-examination.

            Business companies, for example, take pains to take care of their bookkeeping, lest they would fail in their business. They institute all sorts of check-and-balance mechanisms just to see to it that things are working as they should.

            But do we do this? Frankly, I don’t see much of these things around. If ever there are signs, they remain signs with hardly any substance to back them up. They are just for show.

            We need to have a radical conversion to attend to this basic need of self-examination. This obviously should start in the individual level, but it should spread to an ever-widening circle of entities—family, schools, offices, communities, towns, cities, provinces, private and public sectors, and other areas of human concerns.

            This need should be able to count on an adequate plan of practices and structures in all levels of human life, seeing to it also that the coordination among the different parts and levels is well delineated and executed.

            Are we able to pinpoint the gaping loopholes that exist, for example, in the area of how our public officials are using the public funds or approving contracts or identifying projects to be done?

            Are we growing toward a greater and more effective participation of the constituents in making decisions that affect a certain community? How are we improving our electoral process such that the true common good of the people is served and not perverted by certain machinations of politicians?

            There many other questions that can be asked, and they all show that we have to be always watchful with regard to our public affairs, and the appropriate laws should be made and improved to effectively pursue the ideal situation for us as a people.

            The problem is that our politicians in general are distracted by their desire to remain in power or to get even more of it. So we have lawmakers who, instead of making laws, more busy going around practically campaigning.

            We need to have living laws, that dead ones.