Liza Soberano as Calixta Ferrer wasn’t just beautiful. She was also a reality played
in a movie. Cali isn’t only a character but a mirror of who we really are. In
many ways, we are also the Gio Martinez, played
by Enrique Gil, in the lives of
others.
“When you choose to love, dapat tapat. Kasi
kung mahal mo, bakit mo sasaktan?”
Cali was
right, indeed. It is a complete irony that we choose to love yet we keep on
being the source of pain to all those we love. Let us ask ourselves the same
question that bugged Cali and Gio – “WHY?”
Like Gio, we promised to
love… then we ask those who we love to trust us. But as we go on, we break
those promises that we’ve made, not knowing that doing so causes a lot of pain
to the ones we love. Why?
Like Cali, we accept to be loved…
then when we get hurt by a single mistake, we curse, and then promise ourselves
never to give them a chance again and stop loving them. Why?
Gio and Cali answered their
questions through themselves. It’s none other than understanding, forgiveness,
and trust.
We ourselves know that these are the
answers. It’s just that we are too ignorant, and because we don’t really understand
what it takes to love and to be loved. Love isn’t just about the happiness and
the togetherness. It’s not only about what we feel, but also what the ones we
love feel.
We need understanding. We need to
understand that love requires one to understand the other. Love is totally
mutual. It’s the understanding of both the lover and the ones who receive the
love. Why Cali and Gio had a broken relationship is that they both failed to
understand one another.
Gio, on his part, failed to understand that Cali
treasured their relationship too much. He didn’t realize that it would hurt
Cali so much since she gets too affected easily in terms of cheating. This is
why he took it for granted and cheated on her.
Cali, on the other hand, failed to understand the
circumstances around Gio as he cheated. She became selfish in the sense that
she didn’t give Gio a chance to explain himself, thus ending up ignoring his
eagerness in asking for forgiveness for his shortcomings.
Forgiveness was another thing that was lacking in
both of them. Forgiveness should not be considered as a trait of what people
call: “martir”. Forgiveness is an
essential part of love. We know for ourselves that shortcomings and mistakes
are undeniably done by us. But then, like Cali’s attitude, we loved while
thinking that those we love don’t have even a single one and it’s totally
stupid. On the other side, we think that when we commit mistakes, like in the
case of Gio, we would be forgiven easily. We are so full of ourselves and think
that a single mistake in nothing for others.
“Gusto mong
magmahal pero ayaw mong magtiwala”, one of Cali’s friends said to her. How can that be? Of
course that can’t be. Trust gives meaning to love. One cannot love without
trusting and it goes the same the other way around. Love cannot be considered
true if there’s no trust in it.
Love is truly a gamble. When we love, we trust those
we love that they be faithful to us. Still, true love doesn’t end with that. True
love means we trust, then we trust, then we trust again. When there’s trust,
mistakes will be like nothing. When those we love make mistakes, it doesn’t mean
we stop trusting them. It only means that they should be reminded that
something will be lost if they do so again, thus cherishing the relationship
all the more than what they have in the past. It makes the love between two
people grow, not despite but through the mistakes and shortcomings they face.
We trust because we love and we love because we
trust. We forgive because we love and we love because we forgive. We understand
because we love and we love because we understand.
The answer to all our whys is one – LOVE.
The movie posited many questions about love, whys to
be exact. “Bakit tayo patuloy na
nagmahal?” Why? Why do we keep on loving? It is because we trust, because
we forgive, and because we understand. We keep on loving because we want to,
simple as that. With love, mistakes and errors and shortcomings that one has
will be looked upon not as a reason for us to stop loving but rather to
continue loving and even start loving more.
Cali’s statement during the press conference about
her ended all her whys. If what she is doing, that is asking whys, is the
reason for others to not believe in love, it’s better to stop asking whys and
just love.
I call for the same thing. I think it’s time we stop
asking ourselves the whys and just… love.
We as seminarians know this best of
all in our relationship with God. When we entered the seminary, we are all that
Gio who promised to love, asking for trust from God, our very own Cali. The
only thing different is that God understood the meaning of Love too well that
He doesn’t stop trusting, forgiving, and loving us, despite of what we are
currently doing, and you know what I mean. If God would ask us the same
question that Cali gave to Gio the first time they met: “So Mr. Stick-to-one does exist?”, can we answer the same answer
Gio gave: “You just found him.”
I guess the
rest of the story is for you, for us… to reflect on. Let’s stop asking whys and
just… love. Again, as Cali had said and asked: “When you choose to love, dapat tapat. Kasi kung mahal mo, bakit mo
sasaktan?”
