The Republic Peace
THIS PEACE can not be enforced from the outside, as by force of arms.
Our Republic Peace is first and foremost, a free and willing observance. It is born of promise; a dream in the wing, born of a proven reality.
And if this necessary reality require more proving, my honorable compatriots, then let this be our striving - together this time.
Peace may only be embraced as its remembrance is honored - by all, from least to great, it is thing that must be present in the heart of the people.
Peace is a role of nations - it is the necessary atmosphere that guarantees national progress and human development. Peace is the responsibility of the national government - it is the necessary medium of political cohesion and meaningful national dialogue.
Without it, nations perish and governments fail. Entire civilizations depend on it.
A deficiency in the vision of peace is a serious lack. For the Filipino dream will always remain a counterfeit dream for as long as this dream is not our own dreaming together.
So what are we, my fellow Filipino compatriots, and why for are we born to this particular time and place?
If I say I am Filipino and you say you are Filipino, what binds us in love and truth? What makes of you and I, a nation distinct but not apart from other nations?
It is this peace. So what is it?
It is a belief, a sacred trust embraced across our generations, that we shall as citizens together prevail over the unknown earth. It is an unassailable truth founded on the guarantee of a clear vision of the national destiny.
It is a remembrance of God and Country. This remembrance is an essential component of the sacred trust of our one undertaking of Country.
So what is this undertaking of Country?
It is the indivisible labor of all our generations, under the eternal vigilance of God Almighty, to bring this peace to pass, from hope to hope, strength to strength, across the wide, barren desert expense of exile time and into our Home in eternity. It is a work of return to our Eden rebuilt.
Now, there are many undertakings of Country upon the earth, yet we are each called to the labor of one and this one undertaking of Country is our Republic of the Philippines.
So what is a Republic undertaking of Country?
It is a guardian to a people orphaned by War. It is this guardian spirit that preserves the necessary Republic form - for the nation. If we are to remain true to the Republic form, we must come to realize its potency in ourselves.
We shall be to each other, a keeper and a friend.
For just as a nation is not a nation without the LORD, a citizen is not a citizen by his or herself alone.
Our Republic government must be a shepherd state; a responsible steward of the Causes that advance the peace of our people - a servant after God's own Heart, a Responsible State, willing and able to be generous enough to freely respond to the needs of a hurt and wounded people in disinterested, selfless and loyal public service.
We have to work to realize in ourselves with conviction of heart that as a Republic, we are across our generations to the last of our generations, under the eternal vigilance of God, one work, one people, one destiny.
The deeper the roots of our Republic peace (that is, the more this peace becomes present among our people), the stronger its hold on the ground of its own truth, the more trusted its fruits.
If we do not understand Country, we shall be as wandering stars, scattered, having no certainty of its own light; without a past, without a present, and without a future.
If we are to be as real stars, those that arc in the sky, being certain of its own light (that is, my fellow Filipino compatriots, being certain that this light is not its own and shall therefore end up possessing that Light) we must know that we are as a nation commanded by God to -
build up the earth,
love the least,
protect all minorities,
preserve and uphold justice,
observe the law,
and cherish Sacred Life
- and that we are as thus arrayed as a Republic because of our common will to carry out this divine command, for our own good and the good of all nations.
That we are gifted with a will of Country is proof that the nation is alive in ourselves and that God has preserved this reality in our hearts not because of what evil there is but because there is merit in our people.
So we are a Republic, my honorable Filipino compatriots, and the first rule of service in the Republic form is this - know that the real treasure of this nation is the people.
Therefore, O my people, you shall live to love the LORD, thy God, in everything and with everything.
We shall be victorious according to what dignity and promise we shall together work to accord and help to realize in the very least of our Countrymen.
So we are a Republic - a lineage of hope 7,107 islands strong, one work, one people, one destiny.
Only one thing shall ruin us, my honorable compatriots, War in the heart.
Because the craft of all nations is peace.
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Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.
Vision.
