Salutation #20
(Freedom and the Filipino Dream)
My fellow Filipino compatriots -
Is the Filipino truly free?
Not while Country flounders
and ignorance of it reigns...
Not while our one Republic sky
remains shattered and broken
and our Peace is left unspoken.
- selah -
What is thy vision, O my people?
Is it so difficult to dream
- nowadays -
that we have forgotten the dreaming
that in ourselves as ourselves
require our constant true believing?
Have we forgotten the daring
that must accompany the dreaming
that can not take to its flight
without our surrendering
to the greater dream of Country?
- selah -
Shall we be forever fettered
by this lingering gloom, this unbelief,
this stultifying lack of conviction
in the nation in ourselves?
Shall God forever deny us
the Peace of our one Republic whole?
- selah -
Does our freedom consist in chains?
Indeed, freedom is a bond
but it is a bond of truth
- as a vow -
forged in the fire of brotherhood.
It is a liberating, expansive experience
of all that is good in the ascent
toward the unity of God
and the perfection of our humanity.
It is not a fear of responsibility
for our freedom is not the so-called freedom
of tyrants and cowards
but a courageous acceptance of the same.
It is simply the happiness of knowing
you are who you ought to be
in the LORD and among your fellows,
a citizen, true and true.
- selah -
If this has resonance in you,
let it rekindle in your heart
- a willingness -
to make this Republic of ours,
according to the freedom of our gifts,
truly a home away from Home for all Filipinos.
Is the Filipino truly free?
Do not look for the answer in others
seek the the answer in thyself!
---<--@
Salutation #21
(A Revolution of the Heart)
My fellow Filipino compatriots -
If it is so
that the need for adaptation
has outpaced the agility of our Republic to react
- as it is being evidenced now -
by our vulnerabilities to disasters of a natural source,
we must take this concern to heart,
my honorable compatriots.
Because if we are now being outpaced by these
what more of man-made calamities
which are much, much more unforgiving?
Or is it so
that these natural sources of nemesis for our Country
are being presently aggravated
by the willfulness of persons
who desire for our nation no good will at all?
Persons who from motives
ranging from blind self-interest
to a complete and utter collaboration with the evil in all evil things,
bring down upon our common folk
untold suffering at our expense?
All the more must we endeavor
to awaken to the calling of God and Country within ourselves,
O you of noble Filipino heart
- because -
if we can not preserve ourselves against their scandal,
we shall lay ourselves prone against their evil
and will fall with the very same cohort
as those who seek to overthrow
the rule of God in our lands
and sow confusion in the hearts of our people.
For the War to liberate the soul of this Country is in our hearts
- let us remain vigilant -
and let us complete our remembrances with each other,
invoking the LORD for His guidance
and His most efficacious assistance - always.
As the slogan from my home Province of Cavite goes -
Let us make this is a revolution of the heart.
---<--@
Salutation #22
(A Nation with a Soul of Submission and a Republic with a Heart of Peace)
To each of you, my honorable Filipino compatriots,
and to all our generations, Peace - mabuhay!
Our original line of eternal election* lost (to War),
(*that is, our hereditary rulers - kings, queens and princes of old)
we are survived still by the nation in ourselves -
for we are a nation, O my people,
born and bred in battle
and as thus, my brothers and sisters of the Promise,
our hearts can no longer be divided
for we are a people
inclined by the Providence of God
in our heart of hearts
to an understanding of His peace -
one lineage of hope, 7,107 islands strong.
A Republic undertaking of Country
is like a phoenix
born out of the ashes of fire and revolution -
it is therefore,
an endeavor of our generations
established not in War
but in Peace.
Our Republic therefore,
must be built up from the fostering strength
of its own abiding will of Peace.
For as no human hope may be realistically built
upon foundations wrought in War,
a Republic that must prevail
must prevail first from the fire of its own revolution
and emerge from within
its own ashes where from
this Country must eventually emerge
from War into Peace.
Our Republic must therefore,
for it to serve as a guardian to an orphaned people,
be brought up
- here in our heart of hearts -
in the spirit of the absolute defense.
And so the best indicator of the Republic will
to preserve itself (at any time)
- in the first instance -
is the prevailing state
of its national military forces,
its spirit as well as its capabilities,
namely the entirety of its willingness
and ability to fulfill its constant mission
as well as
- in the second instance -
the watches of its community police
who are the custodians of the civic peace
and all of its first responders
whether professional, reserved, or volunteer
who are the extensions of the good will of the state.
Now, the watches of the community police -
more than enforce the law,
deter criminal activities,
and combat criminal structures,
must be custodians of the peace of the community
and are therefore
free agents of the cause of justice
inspired by a sense
of the vision of the nation in themselves
who more than quash evil by force of law
promote by personal example
as well as by extension
of the instrumentality of the policing institution
the whole individual good
- human dignity as well as human promise -
in the spirit of the community good
for the law and its prescripts belong to our courts
but to our own national police services
must primarily belong the order of the peace
of our civic communities.
Blessed indeed is the nation served
by the unblinking vigilance of the watches
of their own loyal police, fire, rescue,
and various civil defense services,
including its rehabilitative institutions,
- at all levels and at all times and places -
professional, reserve, as well as volunteer.
As to our noble military services,
charged primarily with the defense of this nation
standing faithfully with the Republic favored by God Almighty
with the Sacred Life and common good of our generations
to the very last of our generations
and so by equal extension
our national peace and good will
with all the other nations
of our one family of the nations of Mankind
especially here in our region, in our continent of Asia,
and across all the continental wholes of our needful world
caught adrift between heaven and earth -
Preserve the sense of the person of the soldier in yourselves.
Do not be influenced by evil affairs!
Do not be so swayed by those present things,
passing and obsolete in themselves
- empty of promise -
being manifestly vain by their very nature;
things that you know so very well
in your own heart of courage and peace,
have absolutely nothing to do with the good in yourselves
which though vulnerable is of a nobler and lasting substance,
more in keeping with the virtues of your profession.
Therefore,
Beloved of God,
do not be so swayed by those present things,
so as to become bitter
or fall into the darkness of despair,
neither allow your soul to become fraught
so needlessly by anxieties about tomorrow
for tomorrow is here now
with you today.
- selah -
For you are the path that opens
who know by your own heart
the Republic belongs to those who love it
and the nation to those who take this love to heart.
If the times are dark, it is not because of the true:
As every lion waits for its time, so must you.
Indeed, however long the night,
it can not last forever.
---<--@
Peace is original to our state. It can not be won in battle nor can peace ever be attained through war.
Peace, as it concerns our nations, can only be re-established among the hearts of the people.
---<--@
Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.
The Two Questions