I walked into the classroom holding nothing in my hands—no classcards, no index cards or lecture notes on yellowpad. I even left my chalkbox and blackboard eraser in the faculty lounge. Instantly I could hear my Alpha Section class heave a collective sigh of relief.

“No graded recitation tonight sir?” Juan Dimacaawat wondered.

“No, Juan, I’m going to preach tonight,” I answered.

“Uh…wouldn’t that be a violation of our religious rights, sir?” Deema asked, her left eyebrow rising about a quarter inch higher than her right.

“I’d love to hear your reasoning support for that, Miss Deema,” I said.

“Well, sir, it’s one thing to sit on a pew in church and listen to a sermon you disagree with, because you can walk out. In class, we are a captive audience and walking out carries a heavy penalty of being marked absent. That gives us no choice but to surrender our religious beliefs in favor of your own!”

“Trust me, Miss Deema, walking out of a sermon carries a far heavier penalty in the long term,” the class laughs mildly, “but not to worry, I’m not aiming to save anybody’s wretched soul tonight.”

“John Newton, 1772, Geneva College in England,” Julyrain Arpeggio said casually.

“I’m sorry, what did you say, Miss Arpeggio?”

“That very rare phrase you used sir– ‘wretched soul’—it comes from the song Amazing Grace by John Newton,” said the chubby cute walking iTunes library of Alpha class.

“Riiight…you know, Miss Arpeggio I’d expect you to know everything about the Beatles or Taylor Swift but I’m amazed that you’d know about gospel music!”

“Oh, no, sir gospel music—or what we call the spirituals—gave birth to soul music, that led to blues, which became modern jazz, that fused with rhythm-and-blues to evolve into rock-and-roll…”

“No, no, no—that’s okay, Miss Arpeggio, I wasn’t aiming to dig up the genesis of music…wait…did you just say rock-and-roll began as spiritual??” I was struck by that odd piece of information, “but never mind, don’t answer that.”

“My secular preaching tonight has nothing to with things audible but rather with something visible. I want to talk about light.”

“I think ‘secular preaching’ is a contradiction in terms, sir,” a familiar interruptor said.

“Let it slide, Miss Deema,” I said, “it says in the bible, right at the very beginning, that God said ‘Let there be light!’ What does that tell us, anyone?”

Hannah Maala stood up, “It’s a very significant statement, sir. The first thing God created was energy, manifesting as light. In other words, God created electricity ahead of everything else, including man.”

“Thank you for that astute observation, Miss Palindrome,” I said, “now, does that account tell us anything about what ingredients God used to create energy?”

Blank stares greeted me.

“Aw, come on, lawyers-to-be, you’re supposed to be masters of logic!” I provoked the class, “what existed before light that God could have used as ingredient for creating it?”

“Nothing, sir,” Deema tried, “if energy was the first thing God created, then nothing existed before that.”

“Correct!” I said, “now if nothing existed before energy, then between the point just before God spoke a word and after He had spoken, what is it– what substance or thing–bridged those two points?”

Miss Kata stood up, “Time, sir. Just time.”

“That’s right, Miss Kata,” I said, “understand one thing, class: apart from God Himself, there are only two things that existed in the universe at the very beginning—TIME and ENERGY. Did you notice something peculiar and common between these two, anyone?”

Jack Makataruz stood up, “both are intangible, sir. You can observe them but you cannot hold them in your hands.”

“I will not ask you who dyed your tomahawk hair PINK, Jack, because I have a pretty good idea,” I snickered as Deema rolled her eyes, “but you are correct. TIME and ENERGY are quantities. But, mind you, as quantities they are only measurable, but not storable.”

The whole class went, “Oooooh…!” as the realization hit them.

“I can discuss with you several special criminal laws dealing with anti-hoarding of various commodities, but I can assure you none of them includes time or electricity. There’s no need. You CANNOT HOARD time or electricity.”

“You know, class, the pride of man makes him think he can pass laws on everything. But once in a while, we come across something we realize we cannot control. We still try to enact laws about it but in reality, those laws only deal with how we behave around those things, that’s all.”

“That’s pretty deep sir,” Deema said, “are we a Philosophy class now?”

“Only tonight,” I said, “with all this talk going on about electric cooperatives and the struggle for their ownerships not just here in Baguio but nationwide, I wanted to give you a wider perspective. So let me pursue the point further. In terms of distribution, what else can we say about time and energy? Anyone…”

Mommy Dionisia stood up, “we all get equal portions, no matter who we are. We all get 24 hours in a day, and 220 volts at home.”

“Very interesting point, Mommy Dionisia,” I acknowledged, “time and electricity are the true great equalizers. None of us gets more than anyone else. But like I said, sometimes we like to pass laws, or use existing law, to try to OWN more of it than our rightful portion. At the basic level, God really intended for all men to have equal portions of time, and equal access to energy, like electricity. Technology could not break the God recipe for time. Technology still cannot produce time, but it learned how to generate electricity. That made man even prouder.”

Cabo Buhan, the science guy in the class, stood up, “Actually, energy cannot be created, sir. It can only be transformed from one form to another. Electricity, for example, is the result of transforming hydroelectric potential energy, into current.”

“I didn’t say ‘create’ Cabo, I said ‘generate.’ That’s what technology achieved. It discovered how to generate electricity. And it hasn’t stopped discovering new ways. First, hydroelectric, then geothermal, then nuclear, then solar….but at the end of the day, their common product is still the same: electricity. It doesn’t matter how you generated it, you still cannot hoard it.”

Again the class went “Ooooooh…!”

“So you know what man came up with in order to get more than his portion and satisfy his greed? Ownership of the means of distribution. That’s what is at the center of all this debate about electric cooperatives. It’s a battle for ownership between those who believe that we should all have equal portions, and those that want everything for themselves. It’s a battle between equality and greed. It’s a battle between fairness and profit.”

Deema stood up, “Sir, can you explain one thing to us then. If God intended energy distribution to be democratized, how come there are some so-called evangelical Christians who are rabid supporters of privatizing electric cooperatives?”

“Miss Deema, some Christians won’t even recognize Jesus Christ if the Lord were to walk around today,” I said sadly, “so don’t let the religion of others stand between you and God. If there’s anything God is good at, it’s talking directly to whoever He wants without having to use any conduits other than His Son,”

Deema looked as if she was going to say something, but stopped short then sat down.

“In fact, class, don’t even be surprised that some people would even quote passages from the bible to support a view that is philosophically anathema to God. The bible itself identifies the Number 1 expert at doing that—the devil.”

“Sir, if we want our actions to be aligned with the will of God, let’s say, in this battle for ownership of an electric cooperative, how are we supposed to choose sides?”

“The answer to that is really rather simple, Miss Kata. God is consistent. He never changes. So just ask yourself, did God who created electricity, mean it to be enjoyed equally by all, or did He want some wealthy person, whether natural or juridical, to own it all by himself?”

“Well, sir, by that criteria, then God must be in favor of member-consumer-owners or MCO communities because they are for democratized ownership, as opposed to self-righteous individuals who want privatization so they can make profit?” Miss Kata asked.

“There you go,” I said, “you just interpreted God’s will correctly…and you didn’t even have to go to seminary.”*

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