The Calm in the Storm
You know as well as I do, my fellow Filipino compatriots, that each of us must find that calm in the storm to make sure that we are no longer part of the problem but part of the solution.
When everybody is railing around you in anger about China's aggressiveness, you can not stir in the spirit of that same stirring - you must find the center in the storm.
You know how strong these typhoons get. It is quite easy to be swept away by its howling winds. This is precisely what it does when we act out rashly, judge things with finality, believe falsely or too easily.
Or it may bring to us, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, so great an inundation that the crash of all these realities might unleash currents strong and swift enough to drive us all into inaction or worse, despair.
But if we hold on to the beliefs in our hearts, and if we practice these convictions in everyday life - we shall be secure in the storm.
If each of us makes a conscious effort to make these truths about ourselves as a nation stand out in our awareness strongly enough through daily practice that they form good, strong civic habits in ourselves as citizens to each other - we shall be secure in the storm indeed.
Because no matter how the Spratly issue plays itself out - the reality of it all is that what really, really, matters is how we react to it as a nation.
Defense is a reaction - absolutely speaking.
Therefore, we can not stir with the stirring of the outside world. We can not let external forces dictate our own internal desire for peace amongst ourselves and amongst other nations at any and at all costs.
I tell you now, the best adaptation in these uncertain times is unity and the more timeless the truths invested in this sense of unity, the better we shall be able to withstand those forces of division that seek to tear all nations apart.
Not the Chinese, not any other nation on earth can reach out to God for our own sense of national unity and belonging than we, the Filipino people.
And in a typhoon - let us always remember - a house divided will not last.
Therefore, when you hear those many voices railing against sides to this dispute (voices who do not even have the courage to own up to the perspectives they like to spout) go ahead and listen but always make sure you have presence enough in yourself to be able to make your own considerations about the matter as soundly and as closely to the one heart in each thy selves that you can get or ask those who you know and whose counsel you can trust.
Do not be so easily swayed or unhinged by opinion polls, popular clamor, or any extemporaneous outpourings of sentiments from faceless crowds but rather, always try to have one for yourself and always be open and honest enough to test the strength of your own opinions against these external forces.
Be committed to the truth and not to false pride.
Do not hold on to the darkness that must sink into the void at the passing of every moment lest it carry you down to your grave.
Ascend with the ascent of all true things to the unity of God, the LORD of All.
Represent the national good will in these times but especially in sundry times - in and amidst our national communities and among our kindred nations.
Do good things that are unknown and without fanfare. Love the act of doing good, yea - love the act itself - appreciate deeply in your heart what you receive by your giving away.
Preserve the national good will in sundry times but especially in times of adversity.
Especially, do not creates sides within our Republic whole that may not exist and discriminate against our own citizens of Chinese descent or any other citizen that does not appear common to you because not one of us has the right to do so who belong to this nation - citizenship is a call made by God and not by people (or by angels for that matter).
It is a particular bent in the human soul - a grace no human eye can see but is all too commonly felt in those whose hearts have awakened to their patriotic calling.
It is a splendor we witness by the beauty of those lives we as citizens desire to commonly imitate in our nation's heroes and in the heroes of all nations.
Above all, know and understand that this grace is made to dwell in the hearts of all citizens from every nation - that you may better identify with them in their humanity and better understand also that constant call for good will among our nations that despite the ferocity of our recent past is now being reiterated under this season of Peace, by the one Sovereign of all nations no less.
Let us pray for an equitable solution to the Spratly dispute.
And let us continue to be vigilant and deeply committed to the cause of peace in our nation, in our region, in our continent, and in our world so needful of the responsible and decisive exercise of our most basic of citizenships simply as human beings, one to another.
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The Angel of the Nations
All the Holy Angels of the LORD serve God and God alone.
Now, the Angel of the Nations beholds the face of the LORD, constantly giving worship to God.
Therefore, when the angel of the nations faces its own nation, it provides light to the generations of its people who in turn accept it.
Its sword is then turned away from its own nation in its defense.
When the people reject the peace of this unifying light, the face of the angel is turned away.
And the sword of the angel is then turned toward its own nation to fight against the darkness that keep it from its own remembrances.
As nations, we can only really either surrender to the peace of our belongings together or fight against the angel that guards the memory of our people from the darkness of War.
Remember this - nationhood is a spiritual endowment. It is therefore, a truth in the heart. You can not see it - it is not just a face, not just a sound, or anything purely material - it is wrought through a particular kind of grace, of peace and the love of the same (good will).
It is a labor, a mission, a vision and a destiny.
You feel it in your being, you know it in your heart because it is an unseen reality that calls out to you and all of your peers in the nation that you may be gathered into your own true belongings in time.
It is your gift of nationhood that fosters you according to the peace of your own citizenship - one to another - as a human being among human beings and as a nation among a family of nations.
It is not a work of War.
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If you still want to know the name of the Angel of the Philippines, it is this - "Go and be a good citizen".
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Mabuhay ang Pilipinas at lahat ng mga bansa ng ating sangkatauhan! May God bless us and all His nations of the one family of the nations of Mankind.
To close, let me (and my Miyang) share this with you -
Blindness