Do you think hatred cares
what wood it may devour
to keep from burning out?
Nay!
It shall seek to devour all trees
and consume the whole orchard!
For hatred is a dark fire
and shall burn until it is out.
Hate is never meant to last.
But Love is a bright fire.
Love consumes but is never consumed.
Love burns Eternal.
- selah -
What limits War from prevailing over our communities
is the presence of those who despite all the violence and the rage,
continue to hope, pray and work tirelessly for peace in this Country
all those who in spite of this unhappy state
of a prevailing temporal enmity among brothers
have chosen - in their heart of hearts -
to place unity over division for the good of all Filipinos.
What limits the darkness
of the Night from devouring our nation
is the presence of these living lights
who are of the stars of our Father Abraham
and born to that one promise of old
that we shall bless our national communities;
a promise made not by any Man
but of the one God of all Mankind.
(A Message to the Bangsamoro)
To the Bangsamoro -
Peace, I salute you.
I acknowledge each of you,
my brothers and sisters of the Promise,
as you are - and so -
as you cherish yourselves,
I cherish you.
And I tell you no lies.
Because what I want for us is peace.
You possess through your lineages
a distinct cultural and ethnic identity
containing within each yourselves,
a noble and lasting heritage,
worthy of our one Republic undertaking.
I also realize
- there still lingers -
the evil of days past.
I offer you no apologies for them.
For I too am hurt
by the pain of those evil days.
Though I am not born from thy own descent,
I am hurting as you are hurting.
For I am different yet I am the same.
(And I am certain there are many others
who are like myself - a citizen not unlike yourself.)
- selah -
O Bangsamoro peoples,
there are some things we can never undo,
for they are not meant to be undone.
Some pains are meant to bear us away
from the evil of things past.
The darkness of the night
can never flow back into itself.
It may only deepen - if we are not wise -
and darkness that is deep is madness.
If we focus on the pain of our history,
we shall be found forever looking backward
being without a present and without a future.
For the hurt that we witness in our history
- goes deeper and deeper into the darkness past -
but the wound we need to commonly address
must always rise into the present.
Truly, the past can be painful
but we can never heal these hurts
without first letting go of them.
We have a history and also a destiny.
We are one nation - Now.
We are one people
beloved of God and bound
to the freedom of each others' gifts
into one Republic undertaking of Country.
We represent each other's common human hopes.
Therefore,
I will not allow you to be forsaken in the night.
Believe thee with me
we have suffered enough
and the recompense we desire
is a just and lasting peace
for our one undertaking of Country.
This is why I am ardently supporting
a lasting and meaningful peace in Mindanao
specifically to bring to your homelands,
a measure of prosperity and freedom
that is met for you - and -
to bear our Country away, here today,
into a future that is met for all Filipinos.
For we are a forward looking nation.
and must now look eastward to the dawn.
I realize - that -
we shall face many difficulties
along the way - this for is certain -
but a nation is intended by God
to overcome these difficulties.
No one individual, family, or tribe
can master the untamed earth
nor can any human community
short of a nation among a family of nations
- build up the inhabited earth -
and fill the darkness of this world
with living lights.
However,
only a nation united
- as one truth in the heart -
shall prevail over the unknown earth.
Indeed,
we shall do this work of raising a Republic
worth all our sacrifices and common dreams
as one nation - together this time -
one whole sky.
We shall build a shelter of Country
for all our generations - mabuhay!
If we are merciful to ourselves, O my nations,
if we value the life that take their shelter under our wings,
we shall ardently seek peace, one with another.
We shall look to the dawning of the new age and never look back.
Eid'l Adha Mubarak!
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