Salutation #17
(Common Identity, Common Destiny, and the Republic Vision)
If we succeed in our time
to achieve what in our own Day
is necessary for this generation to prevail,
we will have begun for our people
a new age for our Country.
The peace of these present times
require us to return to the timeless memory of ourselves as ourselves;
a Republic with a heart of peace
built upon the strength of a people with soul of submission
- that is -
a nation unified under Almighty God
being sheltered by the prospering peace
of the one Republic standing faithfully
in our defense forever.
Therefore,
if we remain true to the spirit of our undertaking of Country
and obtain to the strength at the heart of the nation in ourselves,
we will succeed in this labor of our times
for it is by the command of God that we are so arrayed
and by this same command we shall prosper.
As every nation is possessed of its own destiny -
a Republic undertaking of Country is led
by the vision of the national success.
This vision that must faithfully lead us
across the exile darkness of the unknown earth
as an undertaking of Country
and the hopes that
through common human needs
bind our generations together
is the soul that sustains our conviction
that we are
- as human beings and citizens to each other -
one nation entire.
More than anything,
my brothers and sisters of the Promise,
it is a remembrance of these things,
common identity and common destiny,
that must lead us ever onward
and forward against the darkness
to establish upon the unknown earth
the life of our national communities
like a multitude of living lights.
Its brightness in each ourselves
advances our cause of Country into its ages in time
for this vision is a thing written entirely in our hearts,
its outline is but a sketch in our Constitution -
it is spirit more than words, meaning more than form
being wrought more through action than inaction
for we must not only be Filipino by name or paper alone
we must work to become its actual merit in ourselves
by the virtues consistent to our common identity -
virtues preserved in the memory of our heroes
and in the bravery of our common peoples.
For how else can we become the citizen in ourselves,
my fellow Filipino compatriots,
than to know with conviction of heart
that we are who we ought to be
in time and in eternity?
How we appear, how we sound,
what we hold and possess in our hand today,
our family lines, our tribal affiliations,
all these things might influence our history
but it is remembrance that truly rules our destiny
as a nation distinct but not apart
from the one family of the nations of Mankind.
Mabuhay, let it be so.
---<--@
Sources of Prosperity
The LORD, our one Sovereign, will ask of you, O my nation - "Where now are thy treasures, O valiant Republic?"
"Where now are thy offerings to thy one, true and faithful God, thy most gracious King and stalwart Defender?"
"Do I not deserve thy love, thy allegiance and thy loyal tribute?"
"I, the LORD, speaks!"
Prosper therefore, abiding in thy common human hopes and rendering meaningful service, one to another - for the greatest treasure of this nation is its people.
As thus, the greatest accolade this Republic undertaking of Country may give to the LORD, our Holy Sustainer and Most Beneficent Provider is the spreading of its own sheltering wings of peace - the peace that prospers, O my people, the Peace that is over War!
Now, the nine common human needs, eternally protected by God and sanctified by our nation in time, are, in and of themselves, sources of prosperity.
These nine common human needs underpin as well as drive the prevailing reality that necessitates our gathering together into the divine endowment that is our nationhood.
They form the foundation of our industries.
Rightfully understood and individually expounded, these nine common human needs also co-relate to the UN MDG's which are a mirrored expression - observed in our behalf by our family of nations - of our particular national deficiencies in protecting and sanctifying these hopes in each ourselves as citizens to each other within the peace of our one Republic whole.
The catalyst for national prosperity, of course, is a strong national identity.
A strong national identity is like an electromagnet - it will necessarily reach out as mightily as it is enabled in itself to do so toward its own self-cognizant destiny.
And remembrance is its requisite expression - its electricity, as it were.
So let us remember, if we remain true to the nation in ourselves - time is on our side. Because however long this night might be, if we are who we ought, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, it can not last forever.
Have thou now forgotten
that promise long ago?
Return now to the wonder
and never let go.
---<--@
If in Rizal is our patriotic hope, then in Bonifacio is our patriotic daring - one completes the other, they should both be our national heroes.
Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.
Common Human Needs