20101225

The Pain of Remembrance

THERE IS A REQUIREMENT FOR US TO SUCCEED, O my nation. There is an expectation under heaven for our one Republic of the Philippines to emerge from the stagnation of our not knowing. We have in a sense been a nation held in reserve.

Indeed, my fellow Filipino compatriots, our history seems to us wounded but the pain of past things have denied us nothing. All our past travails can not exhaust the virtues of our Republic undertaking. The long memory of our colonial past can take nothing away from the goodness of our people. In fact, these trials only serve to increase our hopes together.

The hopes of our nation is held in trust by our merits. It is not evil that sustains the truth of our belonging together. Let us never forget: We are because there is merit in our people. We are not because there is so much darkness in our midst. Our nationhood is an invincible reality sustained by the nobility of the lineages of our generations. Its inspiration comes from the virtues of all our heroes, least to great, known and known to God alone. So let us forsake all bitterness. We are not because there is so much darkness. It was never about the darkness. For we are not of the darkness. We are because we are a good people and a nation called to the light.

Our sense of national sufficiency draws its certainty from an abiding sense of unity. This unity is sustained by the concentrated strength of our common identity. All nations proceed from this self-cognizant sense of self. It is what gathers all its generations together into one lineage. It is what guards its timeless remembrances from the darkness of all things passing away into the gravity of the oblivion of everything that was not meant to be. The darkness of the void. This darkness dilutes the spirit of our being Filipino. It distracts us from the truth that we are in ourselves one whole sky; that we have a place in the greater scheme of things; that we are a nation distinct but not apart from the one family of the nations of Mankind.

Therefore, O my nation, let us come out of our despairing and begin believing again in ourselves as ourselves. Our nation exists not because there is evil in our midst. These times indeed may be dark. But if we come to a remembrance of ourselves and ascend with the ascent of the truth, the darkness will surely wane and we will find that the skies above our souls is so full of stars. For we are in all our nations as numerous stars spread upon the night sky. Stars that wills to shine all the more brightly in the darkness. Stars that guide together towards that promised dawn.

The pain we feel in our history is not a wound inflicted by the sword of other nations. No nation truly exists for war. The terrible history of our world makes this truth clear. Peace is the craft of all nations. And the season for peace is now. The weight of the last two thousand years (time, times) have fallen upon our poor world. But it is not a burden of judgment. For if it were, would any nation survive? It is a burden of expectation. We have a chance to open the door to a better world. The choice it offers all human hearts is peace (half-a-time). This peace is not an absence of conflict. It is not a surrender to the darkness. This peace is the presence of truth in the heart. It leads to an understanding of the order and purpose of greater things. And our place in the greater scheme of things. This peace is a path that leads away from the darkness of these times. It gives hearts rest. It returns nations to the path of victory.

The pain we feel in our history is a wounding wrought by the sword of our own nation biting against the darkness laying siege to our memory. It is the pain of our coming to terms with the calling of the present times. We should no longer fear this pain. It is not the mark of a defeated people. It is not a cause for despair. Neither is it a reason for hatred. It is the pain of our becoming alive to the memory of our people. Through it we shall come to understand the peace of our belongings with each other. Therefore, we must learn to confront it to find the truth of ourselves again.

We have been as a promise held back and a nation called to the labor of the times. This labor is a labor of peace. War has wounded the life of our nations. The darkness of war has obscured the remembrances of its peoples. Our world is in peril of failing. But there is yet sufficient strength left to overcome the evil of these present times. For this is the favorable season for peace. Our time is now.

The healing of our nations depends on each of us as individuals. But the healing of our poor world depends on the vitality of our nations. We only have to come to complete our own remembrances. We only have to begin from ourselves. It all begins with a choice to forsake war and embrace peace. This peace is the present hope of all nations. It is the path that leads us away from the darkness of the times. It is the key that opens the door into the promises of the new age. This peace is our hope as well.

We have not been a nation held in ignorance. We did not choose to willfully ignore the truth of our nationhood. It was something that was kept for us - by purposes greater than ourselves. We have been as a people asleep. And now we come to the task at hand fresh in spirit, our pain is not a pain of exhaustion. Our sacred remembrances of ourselves were kept for us by the timeless guardian that keeps vigil over our nation. It was never a thing that was lost.

We are a nation preserved by our peace. And so it is by this same virtue that we shall come to terms with our not knowing. We shall come to know peace - the angel we know but do not know. To remind each of us that our history is a reality that is continually won for us by the love that works to gathers us all together. And it leads us all to a destiny that can never be undone by any nation other than ourselves.

We must come to terms with our not knowing. God has remembered for us our hopes. And now we stir for a remembrance of ourselves. Many of our fellow Filipinos have begun to seek for the truth of our nationhood. We have begun to confront the pain of our not knowing. We have begun to awaken to who we truly are. We have begun to find ourselves again...

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Merry Christmas!

Peace among the nations.

Good will to all men and women of peace.

...from star to star, one whole sky.

The Longest Night

The day once forsaken shatters into night -
Light turns into darkness.

And the night can not get much darker.

But the darkness itself
once the light of day is forgotten
and the hearts of the children of Mankind
is overtaken by the emptiness,
amidst the long march of exile time,
can deepen into madness -

Hurling into the gravity of oblivion
the void that once was -
the nations of our needful Mankind.
---<--@


The Rise of Wormwood

20101222

Order of Chaplains, Abrahamic

The information revolution as signified by the revolution in military affairs (RMA) at the advent of the information age is clearly and primarily a moral evolution.

To be sure, this information revolution is a planetary phenomenon the effects of which have only been becoming more and more tangibly felt across all the nations of the world as a whole.

Many things may be said about it, so many in fact that it is often difficult to know where to begin to understand its longer term effects.

However, its surest foundation, it may now be affirmed, especially in the universal profession of arms, must only be found in every human heart - the primordial domain of the human spirit.

Therefore, the necessary evolution of our AFP into a 21st Century force must also include, along with the Human Rights Office (HRO), its Chaplain Corps.

That there must be those lingering divisions and present confusion at the heart of the military Chaplaincy in general is in itself a sign of the times.

Because it is precisely this darkness in the soul itself that must first be confronted and overcome to set its will of faith against the greater darkness that plagues the human spirit in general and the noble military in specific.

And we shall do this, my fellow Filipino compatriots - together this time.

Toward this end is conceived the Order of Chaplains, Abrahamic:

The one Chaplaincy

The military Chaplain is a servant of God
and a dedicated instrument of the one Peace of God.

He does not bear arms against men
nor does he exists to fight against the nations of men.

He is an extension of the good will of all nations
and a constant reminder of our desire for better days.

He is faithful to the cause of the noble military
being jealous in the observance of honor and purity of arms.

He is a keeper of our sacred remembrances
lending noble strength to the martial practice of virtue.

He is a shepherd of the souls of our soldiers
and represents amidst conflicts our abiding hope for peace.

He labors to instill in every heart, a will of life,
and gives recourse to sorrow when life itself seems lost.

He brings comfort when despair seem to linger near
consoling spirits by his gentle sense of optimism and joy.

He is patient to understand each need to be understood
and leads the anxious heart toward greater trust in greater things.

He brings the light of God when darkness is deepest
and speaks the necessary truth when and where truth counts.

He provides for the spiritual needs of the soldier
and the Sacraments (Catholic) that strengthen them in the grace of God.

He counsels the doubtful, the confused he guides into reason, he instructs the ignorant in the truth and the lost he helps to be found by faith in God.

He prays for the safety of the person of the soldier at all times, in times of peace but especially in fields of battle, entrusting to God and Country, the victory of our noble military.
---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Christmas Greetings!

Peace among the nations.

Good will to all men and women of peace.

...from star to star, one whole sky:




Jus Cogens: The Four Faithful Causes

20101221

The President's decisive intervention on behalf of the Morong 43 have paved the way for their eventual release.

I appreciate that the workings of our democracy, imperfect though it may be, and the present executive will embodied by PNoy, being solicitous for each their personal rights, have produced for them the freedom many of us have hoped for.

Thank you so much, Mr. President. That they will be home with their families this Christmas is indeed in keeping with the spirit of the season which is peace and reconciliation.

The Morong 43 were apprehended on suspicion of complicity or active participation in the NPA. Those suspicions, I now hope, shall remain suspicions that, if they are truly unfounded, in time will eventually dissipate from the national memory.

Truth will out, our liberty permits.

Because, my fellow Filipino compatriots, if there is anything that we may all stand to learn from this somewhat confusing and untoward incident is that our democracy, fragile and imperfect as it is, is something worth loving and keeping and fighting for.

Truth will out, our liberty permits: Our democracy works and the timely and judicious release of the Morong 43 illustrates this point.

And they say, my fellow Filipino compatriots, that we're a "flawed democracy". No, we are a young Republic - and time is on our side. We will gain maturity and strength if we ascend with the ascent of time towards God and Country; towards the wholeness of truth that we are but one nation, one lineage of hope, 7,107 islands strong; towards the unity of peace and national destiny.

Towards this end, all Filipinos of every generation have but one common purpose. Towards this end of a vibrant, free and flourishing Republic, that awesome vision of a meaningful and lasting peace between all Filipinos among our one nation have its strongest foundation.

What oppresses us is division; what prevents us from obtaining from the LORD, our God, the peace that prospers is the War that we keep in our hearts - against our common humanity with each other. This War did not find a place in heaven, it most certainly must not find a place in the Filipino heart - of one accord, O my nation, must we learn to love with one love alone.

Our unity is an aspect of our liberty as a nation distinct but not apart from the one family of the nations of Mankind; it is part of the intrinsic strength of our democracy. Clearly, it is from a dearth of good will and liberty that we begin understand what it takes to be free. Because to understand our freedom, we must learn to endure its demands...

Today is AFP Day.

Sometimes, when dark and overcast days persist, we must learn to trust that the stars are out there, spread above us, upon the heavens, in the sky - because they are.

It is easy to get lost in this midnight darkness if we have nothing to steer a course in and through this exile time with - but we do.

Because as a nation, we are in ourselves, one whole sky.

Today we remember the vital importance of strengthening our AFP institution.

Our AFP recently established a Human Rights Office (HRO) as part of the HQ Staff of the AFP Chief of Staff. This Office shall oversee the operational conduct of all our soldiers across all three services down to battalion level to ensure ethical standards are met.

This is a milestone in Philippine military history.

Today we remember also the Samar 10 and the person of the soldier.

"Kawal" is a Filipino word for soldier. Our native tongue does not make the usual distinctions between soldier, sailor, airman, or marine. It particularly refers to the land force upon and around which the total force is built. But in a sense, "kawal" also applies to the total force.

It is in this universal spirit that I use the word soldier - "kawal" - or to be more specific, the person of the soldier.

The person of the soldier is the Soul of Army; souls

endowed by the Almighty with the heart that possesses the will that redeem time and again, in the sight of God, Angels and Men, the intrinsic honor and inherent nobility of the universal profession of arms.

The will of the fight is to win. For no one fights for the sake of fighting alone. But a person who hates and fights for what he hates soon forgets the will of the fight. Because what you love and what you must fight for in this world are always one and the same thing.

A citizen who knows in his heart and in his mind what he loves, who is willing to fight for what he loves, and has the means to fight for what he loves - that is a soldier.

Soldiers always fight to win.

THE LAST FADING AWAY

O Soul of Army!
Defender of our Peace -
when in battle we weep
for those whose time has come
weep not because of anguish,
our tears are meant not for grief.

Cry not because they have fallen,
those sons and daughters of Country;
valorous souls who gave to us their utmost
and have bled their everlasting witness
to the universal mission of the eternal Army
from which all honorable armed professions
draw their great lineages of victory
Here, at the last fading away -
the quest for that one final sacrifice
the very last soldier to fall

before the breaking of the Day
in the name of Peace and for Sacred Life
in a relentless war that have lasted
from the dawn of Our exile time.

O Soldier of the Peace!
Noble Defender of Country -
You are life preserving life itself
for what is Country but a work of life.
Know you not why you respond
when duty calls you to battle?
Vague at times may your reasons be
especially amidst the desolation of war
and the darkness of war's attendant evils
but forget not what you love
and love shall forget not why you live
and none shall forget you if you shall fall
for in thy Country is thy longevity
Life itself shall be your resting place
and God will forever remember you
His Peace shall forever honor you
for the time you have given others -
more time for building,
more time for sowing,
more time for loving,
more time for hoping,
for kinder days to come.

O when shall the wounding stop
and the healing begin!
O beloved Soul of Army -
when is our last fading away?

Until mankind learns
to be better builders in peace
more than wanton destroyers in war;
until humanity learns
to value Sacred Life
than to seek those paths of death
Heaven and earth shall weep
with thee, O Soul of Army,
but never for those whose time has come
for the lost are never lost
so we must seek them not in vain.
Seek not our fallen with the dead
for life is life and death is death
so let the dead bury the dead!
Let us look for those who are triumphant
not with the defeated enemies of the Peace
but with the living as well as the everliving
for God Himself has declared Peace is over War.

It is for the oppressors of Country
and the enemy of Peace and Sacred Life
for whom the bell tolls
as we sing the songs of our fallen heroes
and their potent remembrance stir
in the hearts of those who yet believe
in the victory of the eternal Army
and in the timeless vision of God
to bring to bear in the name of All that is life
the final wrath that is to come
and bring to pass
Our last fading away;
that one final hymn of taps
at the joyful dawn of the Everlasting Peace
and the breaking of this midnight world.

So cry not because of the passing away
weep for loneliness but never for sorrow
for life is life and death is death.
Let us save most of our tears for those
who yet stubbornly cling to the lie
and believe in the heart in everything that is false
giving rise to all things that inflict evil to our poor world
and bring war and death to our suffering humanity.

For it is always for the reprobate that the bell tolls
to remind to those who sow in war what they shall reap.
---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Christmas Greetings!

Peace among the nations.

Good will to all men and women of peace.

Remembrance: The Ages of Country

20101201

Kindred Spirits

They say, my fellow Filipino compatriots, that blood is thicker than water. But what they say these days is not complete. The truth has become obscured in the darkness. Because while it is true that blood is thicker than water, water runs deeper than blood.

When we were born, for the first few months of our lives, we were - each of us - citizens of all creation, seen as well as unseen. Of this same truth is established the bonds of nations, water bonds that run deeper than blood ties. For we were when we were yet too young to remember, we were each a citizen of all nations.

In the haste and the confusion of daily living, water bonds become quite easy to forget. Indeed, they take an amount of effort and grace to constantly remember.

But it is essential to the practice of peace and good will to bear these greater citizenships always in mind and heart. For these are the bonds awaken us to the reality of the greater good; these are the relationships that quicken our souls to the willing service and care of the good of others more than ourselves.

For as human beings, we all belong to the All of creation, seen and unseen, through bonds of Sacred Life and as Christians, these water bonds are further fortified by our common baptism in the LORD, our God - the one, living God of all the living.

Blood and Water

---<--@

Life and Time

When times become uncertain, as these times are, we must always bear in mind: Time has an arrow because life has an order and a purpose.

So when we observe the Sabbath, in the day of our public worship, let our minds and our hearts be constantly mindful: Life belongs to God, time belongs to Man. Life is sacred and time exists for Sacred Life.

The Arrow of Time

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

20101130

Captain of the Common People

Today is Bonifacio Day.

Andres Bonifacio, my fellow Filipino compatriots, is a captain of the common people. And why is it worth remembering his legacy?

It is a well known fact that we are a patient people. But this patience is tempered by a daring that is jealous in its aspiration. For we are a people meant by the LORD, our God, for freedom and self-determination; a nation distinct but not apart from the one family of the nations of Mankind.

Indeed, this truth is written in the soul of every Filipino for all Filipinos instinctively know and understand that this freedom is our eternal right.

Therefore, as a nation, we know the limits of our patience. And this is so because bravery too is a virtue that is not lacking in our people.

This is a characteristic trait we often take for granted.

There is a tension that exists between our patience and our bravery, our hope and our daring, that continually calls us to our national destiny; a tension that we may only understand through our connections with our past, the shape of our present, and the purpose of our future.

As a matter of fact, we sometimes take this to excess and inflict against ourselves the zeal that is meant for our real enemies.

We can observe this in the narrative of our history. We can especially observe this in the life of Andres Bonifacio.

For as long as we have not yet in time matured in our ages as an undertaking of Country there must exist this tension in our lives and this tension is one that is meant for us to understand but only in the greater context of the order and the purpose of our generations; for this tension is a tension of justice.

Indeed, our hopes for a better Philippines is one that is justified under God - the Filipino dream, my fellow Filipino compatriots, is not a false dream neither is our dreaming dead: We know this to be true - we are a good people and meant for better things, much better things.

In fact, there is a requirement under heaven for this nation to succeed, we just need some time to remember ourselves as ourselves again. For only the Filipino can love and prosper the peace of this one Republic of the Filipino people - verily, no other nation can do this work for us.

So if in Jose Rizal is our national hope, then in Andres Bonifacio is our patriotic daring.

But in particular, to remember Kuya Andres is to remember the common people; that in a Republic such as ours, we are all - young or old, man or woman, rich or poor - but particularly those of us who are working our way to the middle classes - the common people; and that we must be ever brave and vigilant for each other.

After all, we are all but one work, one people, one destiny - mabuhay!

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Morong 43

In the same spirit of November 30, I must also take this opportunity to call on our President to reconsider the case of the Morong 43 and look upon their plight with as much equanimity and compassion as he did with the Magdalo soldiers whose reintegration to the life of our nation I also support.

Wouldn't it be really nice to see the Morong 43 enjoy this Christmas in freedom and with their families as well?

Yes, it would.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Nearness

20101129

Generation Y

SALUTATIONS OF PEACE

and common goodwill to you,
our precious Starshine.
O precious child, O little lambs!
Think not your life to be uncertain
life is indeed full of uncertainties
but let this not burden your minds
nor make your hearts anxious
for it is not life that is uncertain
it is time that is uncertain
but life is for always.

For the life of man is in the soul,
made in the image and likeness
of our one common Creator,
and the soul of man is spirit
for God is Spirit
and our God is a God of life:
He is for always.

Time is uncertain
because the Truth is veiled
and all of heaven is in mourning.

There is much despair in our world today -
too many people are bitter,
too many people live in fear,
too many people are dying...
without even truly beginning to live.

Too many hearts have been hardened,
too many souls have turned away,
too many minds have become blind...
without even beginning to truly believe.

Too much lies, the language of war,
have twisted the tongue
of our nations.

Too much war, the scourge of life,
has plagued the memory
of our peoples.

Evil has taken a prominent place
in the hearts and minds of many;
like a dark star that rises
Wormwood ascends from sin to sin
in the Sacred Sanctuary of the soul
to eclipse our Eternal Daystar
turning our poor world into midnight
in the inward seasons of the celestial sky.

Every generation of every time and place
must confront the evils of their present time:
this darkness is that evil that we must confront
it is a spiritual darkness, a beast of War,
a reality that prevent the ascendant Peace
and deny respite not only for our suffering peoples
but for our dying world itself.

Our generation and yours
along with those elder generations
still here for us today by the grace of God
has been commissioned by Christ
to arrive in this time and place
to shine and lead the way
out of the darkness of war
and into the new morning from on high;
a new era of peace and renewal
for our planet and her peoples.

Never be ashamed of who you are:
You are a child of this dawning
a vanguard of this twilight awakening
that is the truth that no lie can ever take
this is the fight of your generation
and it is also the fight of mine.

O numberless stars
of our Father Abraham!
Shine for sacred life
and be present for peace.
For if we do not do this
though our actions are but
a tiny drop in the eternal sea
it will yet remain undone -
what will the future of our world be?
What will the succeeding generations
think of us who left for them a desolation?
Are we not all a part of this one world?

Nay, we must do this,

we must stand together.
In our hearts first
and then outward
into the tremendous world
of our common human hopes.

So be brave,
dear Christian soul
and remember,
from always to always,
we belong to our God and to each other:
One whole communion of Saints.

Life is hard indeed
But life is not impossible
nor is life evil.

So never fall into despair.
Because we are Christian,
O little flock, O little lambs,
there is always, always hope
because we are here now:
We are here now
in the Name of Jesus Christ
on behalf of suffering mankind.

Heavy indeed, precious Starshine,
and troublesome are the burdens of this world
but the burdens of this world
are the burdens of this world
they are not our burden
our burden is to love
and love all things well
neither exceeding nor holding back
according to our individual vocations
what promise we have in Jesus Christ.

Our Blessed Lord Himself said,
"the truth shall set us free."
Therefore to accept
Jesus into our hearts
is not a form of slavery
as the world would have us believe
for indeed His burden is light
and His yoke easy.

For who is our Lord but our Life
and this Life is the Light
of the human race.

This Light is Truth unveiled.
It is life endlessly abundant
and joyful complete -
it is heaven rejoicing greatly;
our risen Savior's shining glory.

So when you are in doubt,
O little flock, O little lambs
Just be true to the things that are for always
as God, your inner life, and your baptism,

family, friends, and friendships.

And be of good cheer,
and let our Lord's Peace keep you,
for our Peace is not a parting of ways
as Christians we never say goodbye
save for grievous sin.
We say, "Peace and Godspeed" -
it is my hope and your hope together,
it is our Lord's hope in you and in me;
our gathering together in eternity.

Jesus Christ loves you, O little lambs,
the Immaculate Mother of God loves you,
all the Angels and Saints love you,
all the Holy Souls love you,
all of Holy Mother Church embraces you
with an everlasting love.

Precious Starshine,
the things that really matter in this life
can not be perceived by human eyes
so liberate your minds from
the vanity of external things.
Penetrate deeply into this world
But never let the world master you.

All we have to do to shine
as the countless stars of Father Abraham
is to turn away from the darkness
live in loving repentance
and walk into the one Light
into the welcome arms
of our risen Savior bright.

Build like natives.
Live like pilgrims.
Love like Christians.

This is our time.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.


...from star to star, one whole sky.


Allied Generations

20101124

The Pontiff of Love

My Holy Father Benedict XVI recently acknowledged that the use of condoms is permissible in some instances to prevent the spread of HIV; a statement widely regarded as a step forward.

Pope Paul VI in the encyclical Humanae Vitae (14) acknowledged that it is sometimes lawful to tolerate a lesser moral evil in order to avoid a greater evil or to promote a greater good. It is in this context and only in this context that the statement should be viewed in my opinion.

Indeed, my fellow Filipino compatriots, the debate thickens. A lot of people are eager to make progress in this issue but one thing it is not - simple.

Now, if we can all agree on that, that the issue of contraception, sexually transmissible diseases, and population control is not simple, may I also propose to you, in fact, that stepping forward might be the last thing we need right now.

Perhaps, what we need to do is to step out of the issue and try to perceive it from a vantage point that allows us to grasp at the enormity of the question at hand and understand that there will be no easy answers.

Now, the world-at-large may say many things about the Pope but in my eyes, Holy Father Benedict XVI is the Pontiff of Love.

He is for my Holy Mother Church and for all people of good will, the right person at the right time - our time, my fellow Filipino compatriots. And let me tell you why -

His first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est (God is Love), is an exposition of God being Love Itself and Love which is intimately involved in the life of our humanity and that this Love is consummated in Christ; that this God is not someone or something that dwells from across vast open distances of space and time for God is found nearer to Man than we can ever possibly imagine; that Man need not look outward to find Him but only inward into the soul of his being where from the Sanctuary of the Heart, the LORD dwells to fill the universe entire with Light.

For if Love is not present in the heart of Man, God shall nowhere be found in the galaxy or in the universe entire.

This Love is also synonymous with Goodness, Beauty, and Simplicity.

All of this means to say to me that the Holy Father draws from those first principle truths, an understanding of the sheer complexities of human living, and seeks to proceed from it to arrive also at answers to the problems that trouble our age - and there are many.

I can only imagine the angst of the Holy Father - we must continue to always pray for him.

Because when one dwells upon the magnificence of God as Goodness; of God as Love and Beauty Itself, one becomes necessarily confronted with the mystery of evil and the human condition.

Consequently, one arrives at the virtue of Hope which is the subject of his second encyclical - Spe Salve (Salvific Hope). His apostolic exhoration Sacramentum Caritatis (Sacrament of Charity) means to strengthen and renew the Church in the Sacrament of Love, the Eucharist, and his latest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Love in Truth) is one that proceeds to courageously address and engage the nascent problems of our age.

Truly, Holy Father Benedict XVI is the Pontiff of Love.

What he says and does I take seriously for he is with us, brothers and sisters, so let us banish the thought, first of all, that the Pope is in any way or form against any of us who are seeking for intelligent answers to this debate. What can be derived from all of this confusion is that we must indeed proceed with caution for this question of the RH Bill concerns the highest of causes - that of Sacred Life - the Cause of God.

Hence, we must be more eager to step out of the issue than to move forward and not misplace our zeal for progress in the fight for the betterment of our nation.

I also completely understand that it means a lot to our Filipino nation, being a majority Catholic nation, to meaningfully understand what confronts us here - on a moral level, viewed from the heart of Mother Church. And so I am particularly engaged in the striving for answers with you, my fellow Filipino compatriots, both as a citizen and a Roman Catholic Christian.

Let me begin this with the culture of death that pervades the times. For this culture of death is the universal background against which the problems of contraception, sexually transmissible diseases, and population control (among other evils) merge together to confront our collective moral understanding as a people.

It would do us well in the interim to try to get a better understanding of what the culture of death presents to us not in terms of what it promises to our eyes but of what it does not and can not promise to our generations; that our conviction for a culture of life may become more and more deeply and profoundly established.

Concerning the RH Bill in particular, this culture of death shall be the next topic of discussion in this blog.

Truly, we have to individually reflect and pray about what decision to make in the forums of the Republic before our Congress acts on the RH Bill next year.

In the meantime, my fellow Filipino compatriots, even as we reflect and pray, let us temper the public debate with much patience, nobility, and reason, knowing in the end to place our greater trust in the greater purposes of greater things.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Hope Taking Wing

20101123

Pathology of a Tyranny

Today, the whole nation commemorates the Maguindanao Massacre.

Exactly one year ago, 58 of our fellow Filipino compatriots, including 32 journalists, were ruthlessly murdered in a great and astonishing crime that shocked the nation and sent ripples around the world.

What was shocking about these murders is the sheer audacity by which it was carried out. It was committed with an air of impunity and brutality that was so great as to be astonishing.

It stands out singularly and distinctively as an evil fruit of an evil tree.

No evil of this magnitude suddenly appears without first being allowed to maturate, my fellow Filipino compatriots, the Maguindanao Massacre was not an accident.

Tyranny takes many mature forms but are born of one beginning; the people has to allow it. For without our permission, in principle, no tyranny will ever reach its most absurd heights.

This was allowed to happen, the evil tree was allowed to bear evil fruit.

In times of peace, in a Republic such as ours, it would have been more difficult for a tyranny of any shape to evolve into a form that threatens the freedom and order of our civil society.

But these are defining times, my fellow Filipino compatriots - we are still in a twilight shadow for a decision looms over the threshold of our hearts - a choice for a meaningful, sustainable, durable peace toward a better, more vital Republic of the Philippines.

It is the common work of tyrants whether temporal or spiritual to deny us our ability to benefit from our human freedom.

Indeed, how can we consider ourselves free if there is an area of our life that is ruled by fear and ignorance? How much do we know of ourselves? How much do we know of our fellow Filipinos?

Differences and divisions are only fearsome if we allow ourselves to be ruled by it. Our Country is wracked by these divisions and nowhere are the wounds of our nation more evident than in our beloved Mindanao: As one of the three stars of our Old Defiant, she deserves to shine no less brightly than the first two.

Therefore, we should let our remembrances today stir our hearts and spur our minds onward, God-willing, toward a better understanding of ourselves as a people - that we are one people; a nation established by God; a nation distinct but not apart from the one family of the nations of Mankind.

We deserve better, my fellow Filipino compatriots, and because we do, the work is ours today to make it so - the work of Country: We are a Republic because peace is the will of the LORD for us, the peace that prospers.

No power on earth can ever bring back the victims of the Maguindanao Massacre. But we can dignify their passing by a celebration of their lives, their hopes, undimmed and unforgotten, now joined to the hopes of all our heroes and martyrs for a better, more vital Philippines for all Filipinos.

We shall grieve with the loneliness of those who have lost their loved ones but not with tears of bitterness shall we weep today, my fellow Filipino compatriots.

For we shall bear with each other the pain of their remembrance, O my nation, and make it our own and we shall see this season of sorrow pass away into new seasons of life together this time.

Truly, it flies in the face of the Republic, here in this day and age, to have such an evil hovering over the hopes of our compatriots -

It not only requires but demands justice:

Justice delayed is justice denied!

The later it takes to bring the cause of justice completely to bear upon this great an evil, the more potent its spirit shall in time become to haunt our generations over again.

Televise the trial for the benefit and the healing of the nation.

Indeed, let us also always remember not to punish the innocent with the guilty. In the pursuit of justice, we must never repay evil with more evil.

May our remembrance of that fateful day be both blessed and meaningful.

And let us all continue to pray for justice and for peace.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Salutation #3

(Darkness)

TO THE NUMBERLESS LIGHTS
of our kindred belonging,
greetings of sincere hope
and good will -
my love and prayers:

There is evil in our days,
as it was in those days of old.

Evil where it is allowed to endure
into every present time
to stand against the line
established in the Now of the moment
is an enemy that is never meant
to defeat the will of the good.

For the arrangement of all past things
in every person's life
like a romance between human choice
and the serendipity of God's grace
is always intended in such a way
by the beneficence of Divine Providence
so as to culminate into every present time
which is always sufficient in its own Day
with regards to the particular evils
that each and every individual soul
must in each their own time and place
learn to recognize and vanquish
by and through the grace of our LORD
in and with the support of our human communities,
civic and religious, national and international,
that exist for our benefit

- in exile time -

to safeguard and foster our common good.

Should there be evil in our day,
even if the past had a large part to play
in its appearance in our present time,
indeed, it should not be here to give us reason
to conveniently dwell on the darkness of past things.

Where evil is allowed to endure
into the present reality
of souls and communities of souls,
it is so that we may learn in our own lives
how to effectively close the doors of past things.

Believe that evil endures
not to defeat the human being
but to allow him or her the opportunity
to recreate in every present moment
in God and with each other,
the beginnings of better, brighter and nobler things.

Peace.
---<--@

Darkness is but darkness that does not lead to the light.

---<--@

I hope that Tilapia roast they had over at Maguindanao makes it into the record books! Salaam: Peace be to all of you from all of us.

Eye of the Heart

20101122

Pilipinas, kay Ganda

Poor Tourism Secretary Alberto A. Lim and his new "Pilipinas, kay Ganda" campaign! There was such a great rush to reject it that the merits of the new DOT slogan became inextricably lost in the confusion of the fight.

I myself wanted to tear it to bits a couple of days ago. But now I have become quite circumspect about the whole thing because no one ever took to the positive side of the debate.

This no longer appears to me as strange, ganging up on our own. We Filipinos have developed an inopportune tendency to take sides - any side but our own.

Incidentally, I think it is high time we dumped this unnatural way of thinking and start adopting Country-friendly mindsets as citizens, bearing always in mind that in the end, after everything has been said and done, we are (and we will always be) joined together in this Republic endeavor.

The new "Pilipinas, kay Ganda" slogan does have its merits. So what if its in Filipino, that is not a handicap! I realize that we are trying to attract foreign tourists but not all of them speak English. That this new slogan showcases a sampling of our national language already shows a glimpse of who we are.

After all, who we are is basically what we are offering in tourism and not anything else. We are not trying to offer anyone more of the same of their own Country, we are trying to help them discover what is distinctly and uniquely ours.

Sure Secretary Lim's team might have taken an idea or two from Poland's tourism department (it's not like it's plagiarism). But no one ever noticed that the Poland slogan is in Polish. And that (pardon me for being frank) it has a lot less pizazz to boot.

If we had not already spent so much of our own money on this new slogan, it would have been prudent to just let the old one stand (i.e. Wow, Philippines). But since we already did, I am of the belief that it would be a crime to just toss the new slogan out the window. We should find a way to use them both, side by side.

And then let go of the thinking that every new administration has to re-invent the wheel because: If it ain't broke, why fix it? And if it ain't workin', why keep it?

Let us realize from all of this, here and now, O my nation, that this kind of thinking have really only kept us Filipinos down from our real potential because what we really need in this Republic is momentum and continuity.

In the end, selling this new tourism slogan is a matter of pure conviction. We just have to like it first and then find ways to like it even more. After all, how can we Filipinos sell it if we ourselves are conflicted about it.

The real work behind all of this lies in making our Philippines the home away from Home that all Filipinos believe in and deserve - our Land of Promise.

Of course, my fellow Filipino compatriots, that's the work we're all currently engaged in doing at present - each according to the freedom of our gifts - in our Nation, our Responsible State, and our Common Market: hearts joined together under God as one Republic undertaking of Country, one lineage of hope, 7,107 islands strong - one work, one people, one destiny.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

M's Razor

20101117

Generation Choice

TO ALL MY PEERS,

Salutations of Christian peace

and common good will
to our Generation X.

It seemed as if it would never come
But now the world awaits
What virtue we shall impart
To the nations of whose hopes
We shall soon inherit.

O my generation!
What distinguishes us
from the past?
Is it the hurt,
Is it the lack,
Is it the want of heroes' fire?
Who are we
and what defines us
as a generation?

We are here.
We are here now.
What shall soon define us
is not our past.
What shall soon define us
is not in the future.
What shall soon define us
in the eyes of heaven and earth
is our being here now
our being here in the moment
our being present for the peace.

O my kindred spirits,
O my generation be aware
of the wide, awakening twilight
of the time, times and a choice
at this void at the threshold
of the third Christian millennium
a space between our common human hopes
for peace and a better world
caught between tears and shadow
and God's infinite ocean of mercy.

The reality of our times exist
between the autumnal dusk of faded Eden,
this midnight world of war,
and the springtime thawing
of the new dawn from on high,
that bright new morning of peace,
before the noontime reign of Christ,
the Splendor of the Truth
and the Sun of Righteousness,
arising here in the wintering of our times
in the glory of God the Father,
the one common Creator of all mankind
on behalf of suffering humanity
and our poor world.

We must begin today
what no other generation can.
We must quicken to truths
that no lie can ever deny.
We must open doors
that lead to new horizons.
And we must shut the gates
so that no one may be left behind.

This is our time.
---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.


...from star to star, one whole sky.


Human Nation

20101116

The Lady

The military junta in the Republic of the Union of Myanmar has recently decided to free Aung San Suu Kyi after more than 7 years of house arrest. It was also further reported that it was an unconditional act, if you will, a gesture of good will from the state.

Like a breath of fresh air. That's how I feel about it:

What is good for Burma is good for ASEAN, my fellow Filipino compatriots.

But like all gestures of good will, this one will only remain significant for the Burmese nation as a whole if it is genuine. For history will record it so.

And it can only remain genuine if Aung San Suu Kyi remains in freedom to pursue a path of destiny with her own people. She herself has made it very clear that the path she chooses is a path of peace; a radical change, one of internal renewal leading to the transformation of the fabric of Burmese society - a peace that prospers.

In this crucial time in her history, the Burmese nation can look to the People Power experience of my own Filipino nation. Indeed, we still have a long way to go but we are as a nation better still for our souls being touched by our adherence to peace and non-violent social transformation as exemplified in the People Power revolution. Today we are as a people still coming full circle into a remembrance of the things that make us a nation and a Republic undertaking of Country. But that circle was begun in EDSA 1986.

For Burma, I believe that circle was begun a few days ago with the simple act of freeing a bird with a song to sing for her nation. That bird is "the Lady", Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

Having said that, my fellow Filipino compatriots, isn't it high time we also consider the case of the Morong 43 and other detained political prisoners in our own Country?

---<--@

A Blessed and Meaningful Eid'l Adha to all my fellow Filipino Muslim compatriots and to all Muslims, peace.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The Paradox of Power

20101109

Simplicity vs. Corruption

The labor of life is a pursuit of happiness.

Now, let it also be said here that this happiness is not so much about addition but subtraction.

For the happiness that the human heart longs for is an immaterial state.

But the spirit of the world would have us believe otherwise. For the spirit of the world is an enemy of truth.

Corruption begins when the lie enters the heart that the end for which our labors upon this earth is intended is a purely material end.

Therefore, all human beings are vulnerable to its allure - young, old, rich, poor. It threatens all and reduces all to emptiness.

Material wealth is a necessary good. But temporal riches are not the ultimate end towards which the fulfillment of life is purposed. It is a means to an end.

In our world, there are those unhappy souls who live in utter desolation in the midst of great material wealth. Those who toil no more for the original purposes through which all men and women are purposed by the LORD to obtain from the one God of all the abundance of heaven on earth.

They labor instead for vain and material ends and reap naught but emptiness and isolation. They have become enslaved by the fickle fashion of fleeting things. They have lost the appetite for the true things of happiness - virtue, light, beauty, peace, family, friendship: God, and Country.

They have become corrupt and eventually, habitually corrupt. They have ceased to be simple like children, young and free.

Hence, corruption is a vice and as thus, is opposed by a virtue.

This virtue is simplicity.

My fellow Filipino compatriots, simplicity is a virtue and as thus, require the grace of God in its operation. And so I should like to illustrate this for us through this brief anecdote:

Freedom Seeking Freedom -

do you like to live simply?

"yes."

no, you don't

if you would like to live simply

when i ask you again

do you like to live simply

you must first learn to answer no

and to humble thyself before our God

say to thy heart that God is and that is all!

and then say to the one LORD of all truth

that you want the answer to be yes

persevering in constant prayer

until you know that you do

for you are by thy seeking sought

... selah

because you sought, o heart

you are found

and you become free to become

thy true self.

---<--@

Virtue is a power to act; a power begun as a choice to cooperate with the Divine will. All that is virtue must proceed after its every realization in the quiet of the heart with God as a free and human act practiced over and over again until its exercise forms in the soul a habit of grace.

Indeed, the battle to end corruption begins and ends again with the self.

A "No" to corruption is a "Yes" to the Republic.

Therefore, if every Filipino would say "No" to corruption even for a day, it is a good start as the solution here belongs to its own exercise.

This exercise of virtue opposing vice may be likened to a new road being laid over the old.

The smoothness of the new means it must extend over the entire length of the old. This means it shall require much time and practice. The more complete the road, the smoother the journey.

The strength of the new road means it must possess (and be possessed of) some depth. This means it shall require much prayer and faith. The deeper its layers, the firmer the road.

Truthfulness or honesty is the foundation of simplicity.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Love and Truth

20101108

The ASEAN Neighborhood

The concept of an interdependent community implies something more than mere tolerance. It requires a harmony of diverse strengths bound by a distinctive unity achieved through shared ideals and common goals.

In our region in Asia, my fellow Filipino compatriots, this interdependent community, in the most immediate sense, is our ASEAN Neighborhood.

The ASEAN is a regional grouping of nations. But more than that, we are a Neighborhood - a family of friends.

Each ASEAN nation is like a house and the life of our nations make of it a home (away from Home) for all of the generations of our peoples.

Each of our ASEAN homes is a shelter of Country, each with its own particular set of house rules that make up its written laws and Constitution or Ideal of State.

Each Ideal of State maintains within each particular form of Country its necessary governance which is a derivative form of the creative ideal and an extension of the will of Divine Providence.

Each our Responsible States is a specific guardian to a particular vision of Country of which singular will of mission it is to preserve the peace that prospers the life of our civil societies and preserve the order of our generations (unto the last of our generations at the Last Day).

Each ASEAN home should maintain a Family Store within the ASEAN Common Market to foster trade within our region and to facilitate cultural exchanges.

This, the SEA games, and other cooperative engagements within our ASEAN Neighborhood benefits us, my fellow Filipino compatriots, and it shall stand to benefit us even more if we cease to be passive about it or worse, indifferent.

I am bringing this to the fore of our consciousness because it is a prevailing fact of our national life that our civilization is not complete without our neighbors. Indeed, the founders of ASEAN understood that no one nation in ASEAN is an island.

It is our work to build upon their realization and break free of the rut in our collective thinking that our hard-won independence somehow implies isolation from the rest of the nations of our world. And we should begin this breaking out process with an understanding and appreciation of our ASEAN Neighborhood.

An awareness of this should work to inculcate a region-wide appreciation and a sense of comity that should preclude any more disrespect of the ties that make us one as ASEAN.

Too, we should not compare ASEAN with other more prosperous groupings of Countries in their respective regions. Because ASEAN is our work to do as well.

Indeed, we have our own set of problems and troubles but no one else can build on ASEAN than those nations within our ASEAN Neighborhood:

And we, as one of those nations, must form part of the solution.

Our Republic of the Philippines is also a member of the EAS, APEC, Group of 24, the Latin Union, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the United Nations.

---<--@

The litmus test for change in Burma is only this: Free Aung San Suu Kyi.

No Comparing PNoy

A recent article reported a comparison was drawn by an intelligence firm between our President, Benigno Simeon Aquino III, and the current President of the USA, Barack Obama.

Personally, I did not appreciate its negative implications. However, even if it were essentially well-meaning it is still basically faulty. Comparing persons is like comparing apples and oranges. They're just different.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.