World Interfaith Harmony Week
On October 20, 2010, the United Nations passed a unanimous resolution to establish a World Interfaith Harmony Week on the first week of every February.
This initiative is being spearheaded by H. M. King Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to whom we should give proper regard for this very praiseworthy undertaking. Therefore, may God bless him and his family for opening for us and for all nations this vital opportunity and may peace be unto the people of Jordan.
This initiative, my fellow Filipino compatriots, if we so choose to willingly undertake and adopt as an official part of our national commemorations shall benefit us greatly.
Because peace is our common salutation: All Christians, Jews and Muslims universally bless each other with it.
Why then is the world so resistant to this truth?
To even begin to comprehend the richness of the spiritual heritage of our three, great Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, we must first work to overcome the inertia of the last 2000 years.
We must begin to break down the barriers of ignorance and misconceptions that have for so long fed into those vicious cycles of violence that have set us apart and have denied for our world the promise that the LORD, our God, has intended through our Father Abraham - that we shall in His own time be as the numerous stars,
a blessing to all the communities of Mankind.Indeed, if we are to begin to comprehend the beauty of this promise of old and to finally come to an understanding of the true extent by which God in His graces have established - for our own good sake's - from the beginning of time, for all our nations, a singular path of brotherhood, we must first learn to take into ourselves the spirit of the new age.
And we must do this with much prayer and effort - together this time.
The paradigm of the last age was one of war. Understanding this paradigm of war is important for us, my fellow Filipino compatriots, because it allows us to begin to penetrate the darkness of war and perceive the unseen presence of the beast (spirit) of war.
First of all, it is vital we understand we are entering into an age of thought.
Now, the substance of thought is spirit. This spirit is the force of all truth and this force of truth gives form to all visible things and is comprehended by the soul of Man in terms of meaning not of words. It seeks to fulfill all things in the truth of God Who is Himself Spirit.
The beast of war is the opposite of this. It is a spirit that denies the power of truth. It seeks to corrupt the soul of Man and destroy the meaningfulness of all created things. It seeks to undo the purpose and the order of God in all creation.
This beast of war is ancient. It was cast out of heaven by the holy angels of God by the power of God. It first entered upon the earth at the time Cain killed his brother Abel, when man was first killed by the hand of another man.
Since days of old, this beast of war has fed upon the sufferings of countless innocents. The soil of our earth is soaked in their blood.
But the hope of the innocents cry out to God against war, "this beast is not sustained by virtue of our lives for we are those who lived for peace."
To all the nations of Mankind, they testify, "our blood is shed not to propagate this suffering but as a witness against the deception of war. For war is sustained by its own injustices."
"It has spread to sow the seeds of division upon the ends of the earth. It has shattered the reign of many of the lineages of the kings and rulers of old. It has brought forth the ruin of many nations."
"Upon its deadly wake, Man labor only in bitterness and despair."
Indeed, the last 2000 years have seen the beast of war inflict abomination after abomination upon all the peoples of the world. The last century is a century of genocide.
Now this beast threatens the very purpose and order of the nations of Mankind. For the nations of Man contend against war. But Man was never meant by God to contend against this beast.
Therefore, we must learn to understand the ways of peace and peace as a paradigm.
To do this, we must learn how to think as a nation. This is very important for us to understand, O my nation, because it will provide us with the strength and the solidity necessary to overcome the enormous momentum of the last great age of war.
There is a purpose and an order to our labors upon the earth: (1) The building up of the (unknown) earth (into the inhabited earth) and (2) the preservation of the dignity and promise of the children of Man.
The building up of the (inhabited) earth is a labor commanded by God of all the generations of the children of Man. This building is the purpose of the nations of Mankind. Because the (inhabited) earth may only be built by the labor of Nations. No man lives or dies for self alone.
Now, humanity is created by God to prosper the life of all visible creation. To the keeping of Mankind is entrusted the stewardship of the Sacred Life of all the visible universe entire. (Indeed, the void of the universe have become hostile to all of life itself only because of the shattering brought upon by the outset of war and exile time.)
Sacred Life being all plant and animal life, above all human life, each human being is particularly entrusted to the keeping of every other human being.
Each of us is singular, each of us is near infinite potential and all of us are arrayed from least to greatest according to the freedom of our gifts.
Our nations are so structured and established so as to maintain this design and in so doing to preserve the life of our common humanity and safeguard the order of our generations arrayed according to each their own times and seasons.
For the preservation of the dignity and promise of the children of Man as a reflection of the image and likeness of God in every individual human being is a labor that is likewise commanded by God of all the nations of Mankind.
Towards this purpose and order is established and ordained the brotherhood of the nations of Mankind so that by whatever name every present generation receives the unmistakable call of their original nationhood, this purpose and this order makes it forever meaningful and binding to the souls of all its citizens. For every nationhood is a work (of the heart). It is where it works. It is where it unfolds in time.
All true nationhood is a gift; an unmistakable sign of a divine endowment.
Therefore, true nationhood is not a thing that can be crafted by human hands. It is a reality that may only be granted by God alone. True nationhood is something that the children of Man seeks to obtain from the LORD not because Man is Man but because the LORD is God and He alone is God.
It is spirit and therefore, must always be sought from deep within the individual human heart.
It is timeless and therefore, encompasses all the generations of our people to the very last of our generations.
It is a promise won for Man by the immovable justice of God; a reflection of His great mercy to the children of Man, now fallen into exile.
It is a destiny perfected in the likeness of His love; a revelation of the fullness of His compassion to all creatures, great and small.
These are first principles of nationhood: It is spirit. It is timeless. It is endowed by God with both a purpose and an order. It is both a promise and a destiny.
The nation is the foundation of all human civilization. To begin to understand it as we ought, we must first come to accept it as it is - a particular living creation with us.
The nation is the people. To be more precise, a nation is a people under God; a community bound together in freedom by a spirit entrusted to a particular people of God.
This spirit is a particular angel of the LORD; a guardian of the people.
Therefore, when taken as a whole, the nation in each our minds and our hearts must always be more than what the present reveals.
It is what establishes us forever in the peace of our belongings to each other. It is light to drive away the darkness of an unknown earth; a sword to stay the beast (spirit) of war and a shield to preserve the Sacred Life of the people.
It is a keeper of our past, a guardian of our present, and a steward of our future. It is what keeps us faithful to to the original truth of our founding and the singular source of our common identity as Filipinos.
It is the invincible guardian of all our sacred remembrances, embracing all our generations into one lineage of hope.
It is an unseen reality that surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds all our hearts together into one particular love - the love of Country - the love of each other in God.
When we seek the truth of our belongings to each other, we are likewise sought by the nation in and around ourselves. When we begin to awaken to the reality of our being Filipino, we awaken to the truth of ourselves as ourselves as we begin to encounter the reality of our nationhood.
We know we are Filipino because our nation knows us - equally, individually, each by our own true names written in heaven. When we affirm it in ourselves that we are Filipino, our nation knows that we have come to finally awaken to a knowledge of our citizenship and that we have come to ally ourselves to the love that is the timeless keeper of the common patrimony of our people.
It is what binds all our lives and our fortunes together as one people, one work, one destiny.
For who is a Filipino but this love in the heart?
To seek the peace is to seek the truth of this love. And to understand that this love is not (and never was) beholden to division.
For this love is indeed present in the races but cannot be confined to a mere color of skin, sound of name, or slant of tongue.
It is a love that is, above all, allied to All that is bound by the freedom of the sons and daughters of the LORD, our God; the light in all His living lights.
We can never take this for granted.
This peace must be something that is constantly sought. For this peace is not the way of this world. Left to itself, our world as we know it will eventually spiral down the gravity of the void. Everything in this world, whether upon the earth or in the heavens above the earth, is destined for destruction.
Indeed, it is an imperfect peace. But it is the perfect acceptance of this imperfect peace that allow our nations to walk in constant humility before the LORD, our God, Who alone brings victory to our peace. Our common sufficiency as nations - indeed, as one family of nations - rely on our free and willing submission to this truth.
Indeed, these days, peace, like love, is oftentimes a word that is emptied out of its meaning. A lot of people know how to say it. But not a lot of people know what it really means.
Some people think peace is the cessation of conflict. But that is not so. For the peace we speak of here is a commitment to the truth in the presence of conflict.
Some people think peace is the side that sits opposite of war. But that is not so. For the peace we speak of here is the overcoming of this very mindset of division.
It is something that must be obtained from God.
It is a free and willing choice made by the individual.
It is an absolute and irrevocable commitment to eternity, virtue, humanity and universality.
Now, the first of these World Interfaith Harmony Weeks is set to begin on the first week of February of this year, my fellow Filipino compatriots.
It is my hope that we may begin to receive this initiative with much enthusiasm and faith this year that we may begin that month with the most advantageous attitude of heart.
Because February of this year is going to be a busy month indeed.
We are, as a Republic undertaking of Country, going to become decidedly, fully engaged in the restructuring of our national psyche -
towards the peace, and the peace that prospers.
No man is an island,
no man lives for self alone -
we live for but a moment,
we labor for just a day -
we are here only for a time
then everything passes us away.
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Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.
The Three Elements of Country
Service, Synergy and Sovereignty
