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.
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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.
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Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.
Love and Truth