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...

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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.
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