Salutation #11
(On Honorable Religion, Religious Harmony and Pluralism)
Peace, I salute you.
Religious wars are a perplexing feature of the last great age of war
and one that we ought to guard against in this new age of peace.
Alone or with others,
our nations stand to gain much through honorable religion
but only if we succeed in exorcising the past
and healing the present from the contagion of War.
Alone or with others,
the fruit of all honorable religion is peace
not because they are the same but because they are different.
For despite the unrelenting tide of the darkness of exile time
and the half-forgotten specters that haunt our history,
honorable religion is ever the engine that inspire
the ennobling light of human civilization,
advancing the Causes that like sheltering wings defend
from the relentless gravity of War's final defeat
the heart of every nation of our one family of nations
gathering together the generations of the children of Mankind
ever toward greater peace, true belonging
and universal brotherhood.
As a shelter against War, therefore,
the peace of our Republic undertaking must prove proof
against the spirit of division.
As citizens to each other,
we can no longer dare to extend safe harbor,
in our hearts and in our times,
to the debilitating rot
of religious divisions, misconceptions, prejudices,
than accept the eternal loss of our peace.
If we love as we ought, then we will see -
that fear and ignorance breeds intolerance
and intolerance destroys human community.
Thou must ever so beware, O Man,
guard thee never to behold the LORD, thy God,
as an image of thyself - a limited, mutable, ephemeral, unfinished work.
For the LORD, our God, is not the invention of any human religion.
The LORD, our God, dearest Starshine, is an infinite Reality.
Compared to the LORD,
all of time and all of the timeless,
all of creation whether seen or unseen,
everything that was, is, and shall ever be,
are all but a particle - incomprehensibly tiny.
Remember thee always, Starshine,
only through God's wisdom,
only through His benevolence,
and through His generosity,
may thy little soul attain
to the incomprehensible vastness of Eternity.
Notwithstanding religious distinctions -
You will know the LORD, thy God,
only inasmuch as you allow thyself to love Him.
And even then, O Man,
you yourself know in your heart of hearts
that you can never love thy God
in the way that God ought to be loved.
Because you heart may never behold the infinite -
no creature may do so, my beloved, and hope to live.
The Divine Reality
when one may think it is understood
is understood only because the One and infinite God
is pleased to reveal Himself to thy understanding.
All creatures are limited
but the LORD is neither finite
nor lacking in anything.
We know Him only by the tiniest of degrees
and even then, always indirectly.
For no creature
may truly know God, dear Starshine,
and hope to survive.
What thou understand therefore
is never God Himself as Himself
but God as He is pleased
to become so intimately related to thy soul
through the freedom of thy faith.
God pours into thee like a tiny vessel
an essence thou can never hope to contain
without His Face beholding thee always
and so only with love, mercy and compassion,
from the LORD and His instruments -
the Angels and the Prophets,
the Incarnate Word of God - Christ the Lord,
Our Emmanuel through His Sacred Humanity,
may you attain to the object of thy faith -
The God Who is, the LORD.
Be this way unto all beings, therefore,
thou who have attained to God in truth and Spirit -
loving, merciful, and compassionate.
Worship none but the LORD - God and God alone!
Honor and respect all of God's instruments
all the Angels and the Prophets,
the Incarnate Word through His Sacred Humanity
Who is Christ the Lord and Savior of All
without any confusion or division of heart -
let there be no cause in thee for War in the heart
and say thee truthfully thy peace to All of creation.
Be thankful always and be glad, being humble in heart,
tremble and work out thy salvation in virtue and good works
for the Reality of the LORD has become a reality to thee!
So let thy faith bid thee
seek, serve and love God
and in thy heart, be at peace.
Our dearest Starshine,
what all creatures will to safely and meaningfully comprehend
whether great or small, seen or unseen,
from the noblest of Angels to the least responsible of Man,
are our distinctly individual relationships to the One.
The LORD's unchanging will for all of Sacred Life is Our business:
How this will of salvation is revealed to all creation
is the universal labor of all faiths.
Now, a faith that is universal is one that must also become particular.
For no one faith may truly hope to represent the totality of the LORD.
Religion is the structure that makes a particular faith present.
And the fruit of all honorable religion is peace.
- selah -
As a Roman Catholic Christian, most especially,
I do not consider myself at odds with any honorable religion
most especially with Judaism and Islam.
For I must practice my peace to keep it - not to lose it.
For I shall be held to account by my Lord Christ for this grace;
the grace of belonging to God and to my Country
and of prospering in the faith and obedience of my Holy Mother Church
helping to add to the life of my own nation,
and hoping to grow into a peace this world can neither provide
nor truly ever understand without God
and God in Christ Jesus the Lord -
the one Redeemer of All.
---<--@
On Religious Harmony
Religious toleration seems to me, an oxymoron - what is there to tolerate?
It implies a sort of truce. But what if there really was no conflict to begin with...
To build harmony among our religions, there must be interdependence - a common ground.
This common ground is the labor of peace-building - primarily, the work of its inspiration within as well as between our nations.
It is the work of fostering hope in the people and also of realizing these hopes for the benefit of the greater good, competing in good works.
This is religious harmony.
---<--@
Moving Forward...
Congratulations to our President Noy on the success of his recent trips to Brunei and Thailand.
Peace be to Brunei Darussalam and to the Kingdom of Thailand - It is always a very good thing indeed to foster relations with our friends in ASEAN.
What is good for one in ASEAN is good for all in ASEAN.
---<--@
Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.
God Encompassing God
O LORD,
God encompassing God,
God encompassing All in Thyself!
O LORD,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -
Blessed Unity,
Holy Trinity,
Perfect Company!
O LORD,
there is none but Thee,
there is none like Thee!
O LORD,
Thou art from everlasting to everlasting -
in Thee All draw their being,
in Thee All draw their living life,
in Thee there is no shadow of turning,
in Thee there is neither darkness nor Night,
in Thee there is joy, abundance and peace,
in Thee there is only love and the Light!
O LORD,
Thou desire salvation for all beings
to Whom shall all needful souls turn to,
my God, but to Thee?
O LORD,
Thou art the one Sovereign of all nations
unto Whom shall Thy exile peoples return to,
my God, but unto Thee?
Abide in us, O LORD, be with us!
Be the God of our lives, our families,
and our national communities!
O Goal of all my goals,
I love, I trust, and I adore Thee!
---<--@
Our God, O my beloved of my heart, is a God of relationships - One, Triune Perfection!