On Lifting the Moratorium on Capital Punishment in this Republic

I am not against the death penalty. I am against the death penalty being abused. 

I believe there are times when the imposition of capital punishment becomes necessary in the ordinary pursuit of justice so that the severity of the punishment meets the malice and gravity of the crime.

I also believe the guilt of executing one innocent person can not be wiped away by executing ten more who are guilty.

In all criminal cases, this guilt takes on the character of community so my opinion is this: We, the people, should try and ponder on this more carefully. For the question is not an easy one:

Were the Republic to lift the moratorium on capital punishment, is our justice system ready?

There are five pillars to this justice system.

All five pillars form one synergistic whole. But the center-most pillar in my view is the people. 

Our national communities being one of these pillars - are we, the people, ready? 

The other four pillars of our justice system are as follows: (1) our courts system, (2) our police service, (3) our state's attorneys, and (4) our state reformatory system.

All of them draw their necessary virtues from the character of our peoplehood.

Let us look at how we judge and accuse each other everyday - how rash and how harsh we can get... How many or how few the times do we choose to actively preserve each other's honor and recognize each other's dignity as something of equal and precious value.

Let us look at in-built social prejudices: The provincialisms and other chauvinist excesses that linger on within our selves. For these things - were we to serve the ideals of the justice we, the people, commonly desire - must all be considered carefully.

Let us work to rid ourselves of these... As for my own part, I continue to actively work to remove these harmful preconceived notions from myself as well.

Also, look at how some people here, her own compatriots - react to the case of Mary Jane Veloso. I have a lot of admiration for Mary Jane. For her detractors here in our own Country - so very little. They react like they don't think. Like they worship law. 

For these are safeguards against abuse of the law. Indeed, a good and well-regulated populace is better than any law. Good judgment naturally supports a sound justice.

We should be citizens first in this Republic after all and politicians last. Are we?

In any case, the fact that there is a moratorium on capital punishment means that the death penalty is not off the table and it never was.
---<--@

Salutation #187

The War in heaven is in the heart.

(Maturity of Remembrance)

God seeks to be near to all His Children!

In their Exile,
He has clothed them with Justice.

Justice
through each Nation
the LORD hath - together appointed -
at the autumnal Dusk of our Faded and Fallen Eden
to shelter with Peace the remnant peoples of all Mankind,

and who at the East Gate stands faithful guard to the Memory
that the lineages of Adam and Eve may hope to prevail - in time,
according to the great and mysterious designs of His Wisdom,

over the lands of an Unknown Earth, far away from familiar Sky,

cast adrift in the unyielding Darkness, across the Veil of Exile Time. 

And in despair of death, 

offered them Love and Mercy.

Love
in the one Redeemer
He hath appointed to save our souls,
- ever before any of our souls needed saving -
long before we were even souls - alive to the Alive -
deep in the waters of the Firmament, before the Earth.

And Mercy
through the Most Holy Incarnation
of that same timeless and ageless Redeemer,
in Our Emmanuel - Who is Jesus Christ the Lord -
Who through His Sacred Humanity, came upon our Earth
- to be with us - the God with us - in our poverty and suffering.

Christ 
Who as Word of the Father spake to all hearts of - the Truth -

that God is - across all realms of Earth - and unto all Ages of time,
one and for always - for Christ did love - the each of us, in each of us
- ever in spite of our smallness and despite the greatness of our sins,
with a Love that is forever - and did reveal to our needful world
the deepest and most profound expression of this Divine Love
in the Christian Mysteries - for the Salvation of all human Nations -
so that in Spirit and Truth, the LORD is, in all living hearts - as God is -
to be sought, loved, served, understood, praised, revered, and worshiped
without division - as one ascendant motion in time - for God is Love unyielding,
and in all things professed in honor of this Blessed and Eternal Unity
He dwells forever - as Father, Son, and Spirit.

- selah -

As Father to each orphaned human heart,
and the one Sovereign of all the Nations of Mankind
God seeks us - in the Peace we profess in our human communities;
in the National Belongings that are the direct expression
of His unyielding will of Unity, of Peace over War.

As Redeemer of all Mankind,
the Son comes to us - as a Servant of our common humanity -
to share in our littleness, and to drink of our bitterness,
and to join in our common human hopes.

Indeed,
Jesus came to call sinners to life,
and to gather all the lost to Himself.

And lived to serve and not to be served,
in a posture of offering, and laid down His life
through an act of His own Freedom - giving all -

- that the poor and the needy 

may receive sustenance and strength,

- the stranger and the outcast
may find the good will of Godly friends,
- the orphan and the widow
may come to the solace of a faithful Nation,
- and the weak of the Unknown Earth
may discover again the preserving salt of our tears
through Him Who wept for all our weeping
upon that lonely Cross on Calvary

for the Salvation of our common Humanity 

and the Redemption of our Mankind

with tears born of human compassion 

that flowed with the Blood of His Passion

and cleansed the Darkness of our Exile 

sealing forever the one Everlasting Covenant

that consummates the Promises of the Old 

of deeds by written word spoken in Scriptures 

by Prophets and Patriarchs of those times before

Passing them Over from weakness to strength

that Scripture may be professed as Light,

through Word of the Incarnate Truth, 

made Ageless and ever New. 

For Christ is our Prince, 

and everlasting above everlasting,

- the Defender of our Eternal Remembrances - 

mighty and able to save us - through height or depth,

in good times and in evil times, through illness and in health,

from weakness into strength, from grief to joy, despair to hope

across the desolation of the human soul and the troubles of this life,

Jesus is Emmanuel - in life and in death, forever - He is God with us.

And He seeks us - in the Good Will we must profess as a love of the Peace
He has entrusted to all those whose hearts have come to know the Truth, 

that God is, the LORD - one God alone.

- selah -

Yea, in the Spirit of the Father and the Son, we are sent - 

to be seekers of the Peace and witnesses in the Good Will of God thereof.

For as the Father sends the Son to call the Nations to Remembrance

and even as the Son speaks to each and every Nation about the Father 

- calling all human hearts unto an everlasting witness of the Truth -

the Spirit of the Truth rejoices in - the one Truth - that God is, 

and that He is God forever!

Alleluia to God, 

O Children of Mankind, 

alleluia to God, all ye Nations!

For thou wert a people saved - before thou needed saving -

and a Nation - gathered and justified - before God and each other,
long before thou wert ever alone and in need of His constant Peace.

Alleluia to God, 

O Angels of the LORD, 

alleluia to God, all ye Heavens!

For the LORD purposed - through time and all its Ages -
to bring unto all living hearts, a new rebirth of Freedom and Truth -

that the Original Glory of the Heavens and the Earths shine again forever;

in a time made new, of worlds made whole again, lit in golden glory.

Peace is over War.

---<--@

We are by each unique person 
Redeemed by our Holy Redeemer.

But the fullness of our Salvation comes 
through the strength of our common 
human communities.

In Peace we are purposed
and through it, we are obtained.

The LORD God therefore 

banished him from the garden of Eden, 

to till the ground from which he had been taken.

When He expelled the man, 

He settled him east of the garden of Eden; 

and He stationed the cherubim 

and the fiery revolving sword, 

to guard the way to the tree of life.

Genesis 3: 23-24

Awesome vs. Not Awesome

Awesome - Elizabeth Smart.

Look at you, sister Smart, you have grown in maturity and grace!

Thank God your terrible ordeal at the hands of your jailers have passed and now they - who did abuse your freedom in your youth are now themselves without freedom in their old age.

For they were not able to mature as you did, Elizabeth. You have grown in measure and dignity where they have weakened - and by the grace of the LORD, here you are. 

Their evil was not able to triumph over you, not before, not during the unhappy days of your captivity, and most certainly not now. And so may you long endure.

You kept what truly only belonged to you, Elizabeth, that which is only thine to give that none can ever take from thy soul by deception or force - and now, by the love of our Savior, here you are.

Not Awesome - these two.

Anyare?

Let us pray for Brian Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, may God have mercy on them and teach them of the Justice that does not seek to impose itself by fear but is freely sought because it is a virtue both highly esteemed and deeply loved by the heart of all Mankind - of love and mercy and truth embraced - and freely given - for the repair of the human spirit and the restoration of the human heart.

Personal Reflection

The most important possession of a girl or a woman can never be taken from her by deception or force by any man or creature on earth or in heaven.

For it must proceed freely from her spirit and is truth.

This is not the same as the last ages, the liberation of Woman from the receding tides of things past is ever in effect, especially in this new age of spirit and thought.

Woman as every Man's complementary but equal half - each a human being,
one whole in their persons that - when taken together, through the blessing of the LORD,
form a new creation of Love - in the wedlock union between Man and Wife
wherein new worlds are begun again anew with every human family.
---<--@

Salutation #184

No Unity without Diversity, 

No Peace without Adversity, 

No Perfection without God.

(Precious Forever)

As thus, precious Starshine -
shall the Judge of all created Worlds,
before the Throne of the LORD in Eternity,
judge the Peace of every Nation at the Last Day
- by the great Jewel that is set in our every crown of  life -
the LORD will strike it thrice with a hammer - three mighty blows -
one for Justice, one for Mercy, and one for Love -
the unfailing, the faithful, and the true - shall not shatter,
being together - made victorious through trial and adversity
whose reality by the Providence of God, the light of the Angels,
and the freedom of Man, is hard as diamonds - and precious forever -
ascended unto everlasting skies before God and the assembly of Heaven.

But the unworthy, as it is written, shall shatter -
into dust and ashes.
---<--@

Salutation #180

Man is a victim by first principle.



(Tread Carefully)

We live in a bubble of reality
hospitable to our humanity - body and soul -
ONLY by a mere fraction of a thought
yet the One Who does the thinking
loves the each of us infinitely
enough to keep it all indefinitely
IF - it were at all possible -
that He may save all of us
from our own choices.

If it were possible...
for even God, being our God,
does not seek power over our freedom -
Things will then end in this universe,
as science has so clearly seen,
when the purpose of God in time is fulfilled
in order for those of us who truly wish
to be simply free in the LORD
to have a real beginning...

Tread carefully.
---<--@



We are the Children because we are most vulnerable of All.
We are the Children also because we are most precious of All.

Salutation #177

Spirit is light.

Thus, how a shadow is transmitted at the source
is also how the original wounding of the first man and woman
became the original wound that - in our soul - we all carry
down the line of the generations of our humanity
to the very last of our generations.



(The Original Wounding)

"The Devil sinned in the Presence of God
but Man sinned in the presence of the Devil."

Original sin was just that... a sin - the sin...
(whose it ultimately was still depends on each of us)
It was transmitted from our original parents
down the spiritual lineage of our common humanity
as an infirmity in our hearts, an original wound:
   the cause of our exile - the separating hurt of time -
   the pain of all our pain - the fear in all our fear -
   the source of all human suffering and death
because truly, brothers and sisters,
we are more universally inclined to weakness in our natures
than to evil - for this is how we are human...  
because we are vulnerable.

Therefore,
we have to be gentle and kind
with ourselves and others like ourselves Now
knowing that to be human is ONLY to err and NOT yet to sin
and be human with our own humanity -

Indeed,
let us strive to understand - once and again -
that the origins of sin is not human...
because an understanding of this is - of that same truth -
which underpins our understanding of Justice.

FOR -

The Justice of fear and punishment,
the Justice of hatred and vengeance -
this believes that Man is by nature evil.

It believes all men guilty right from the very beginning
and accords all that is evil unto all human institutions,
and evil's damnation unto all human nations,
sowing despair at its wake.

But the Justice of love and restoration,
the Justice of repair and repentance -
this believes otherwise:

It believes all men innocent
unless proven guilty by their necessary degrees,
each according to the living customs of the laws of our nations,
and accords the merit and virtue of these self-same remembrances
to empower human institutions, and strengthen human nations,
sowing hope at its wake.
---<--@

Salutation #140

Equality is an environment

where individuals who are not alike (in our distinct persons)
become equally empowered (under God) to find their own happiness
as well as enabled to freely support (through Country) others in that same pursuit.
---<--@

(Define Equality)

Equality is a quality of Justice;

the fullness of every life's goodness
made present in all - for all.

Equality is the perfection of Law;
the completion of the labor of nations
made manifest in all - for all.

It is not a form of slavery
to a blind and mindless conformity;
the ancient curse of modernity!

Nor a vainglorious submission
to the fickle fashions of the times
that soon wash away with the darkness
ever as fleeting as the world!

Equality is
the boon of peace!

And therefore,
a social virtue born of good will -
the undoing of all false impressions,
mischievous hatreds, and maliciousness.

It is the medium of every human respect
and the foundation of our every labor
of awakening the timeless dream
that slumbers from within
every Man - for every Man
born of freedom and love of the same
not make every person a copy of the other
but to allow us all in our common communities
to be uniquely and supremely happy

   (across our kindred nations,
   across our common generations)
in the realization in the self that indeed -
freedom is not happiness,
happiness is freedom.

This is a Just Equality.
---<--@

Old Defiant says -

If
Luzon + Visayas + Mindanao = one Republic

Then,
Luzon = Visayas = Mindanao = one Nation

For
Star + Star + Star = Sun (synergy)

And
Star = Star = Star = Sun (luminosity)
---<--@


No Unity without Diversity

Salutation #125

JUSTICE would seem as love
to those who are familiar with her
but to those whose hearts
are far away from her,
Justice is their chief terror.
---<--@


Justice with Virtue and Vice

(The 3rd Cause: The Cause of Justice - Harmony)

TWO THINGS 

the heart of our Mankind needs:

Love and Justice.

- selah -

The original state of Man
is one of unadulterated goodness.

In this original state,
Man knew neither good nor evil
but is wholly submissive
to the nurture and protection
of God, his Creator.

In this original state,
the promise (human potential) of Man
is completely in harmony with his freedom
and his being (human dignity)
both in body and in soul
constantly preserved
by the golden Presence of the LORD,
his Eternal Provider and Holy Sustainer,
in and across all of living creation,
whether seen or unseen.

 (Truly,
 an unimaginable wonder indeed!)

The root 

of all that is evil
(i.e. the source of its mystery
as it is experienced in the visible world)
lies in the apprehension in our understanding
of a wholly spiritual, completely true,
and therefore, symbolic (or veiled) truth - 

as regards Man's abrupt departure (exile)
from this original state
since that most primordial of evil
was a sin that was inflicted
upon Man through woman*
(and from Man and woman*
unto all of our lineages to the last)
by the sin of another.

   (*The vulnerability of woman - here -

   is equally a consequence of the failure of man.

   Neglect of this first principle
   is a constant source of suffering in every age
   for it is the spirit of division that insists on parting the fault
   and therefore, disowning the peace the LORD
   hath intended between man (Adam) and woman (Eve)
   undoing the harmonious and complimentary order
   God hath placed between male and female.

   Furthermore,
   the woman spoken by here
   is not the Woman of later revelation,
   clothed with the Sun, a Lady with 12 stars -

   the Mother of Jesus Christ, the Savior of Mankind.)

For the fall of Man
- was an act initiated -
by the Serpent of Eden;
the Devil, Satan - Lucifer -

who is now and forever
the enemy of All.

- selah -

Unto Man was offered
a knowledge to command All things;
a knowledge over and beyond God Himself
so that Man might become like God
and therefore, apart from Him.

By this lie Man was deceived.

Because none
may offer this knowledge
but the LORD, 

God and God alone!

And no creature
whether in heaven or on earth
may ask this of the LORD 

without sin!

For the Serpent offered Man
- knowledge of God Himself!

It was this lie
that caused Man to break away
from his original lineage
of life and of light.

It was this evil 

that have caused 

the one heart of Man
- to become divided -
necessitating his departure
from this original state.

Man 

(and the children of Mankind) 

came into exile grief
and time itself was torn asunder.

Heaven was grieved
and its open gates was shut
at the autumnal dusk of faded Eden.

So began - the long march -
of the nations (of the children) of Mankind.

- selah -

Now,
that which caused this departure
was disobedience of which Man is guilty.

But that which caused this disobedience
was not of Man: It was of the Serpent.

Justice is a result of this first principle.

And the Creative Ideal
even as it is perceived - in exile time -
(as if looking through a glass, darkly;
obscured and eclipsed, as it were,
by both [1] the veil of time
and [2] the presence of sin
- at the very heart -
of the one habitation of Man)
is an expression
of this original state (of Man).

It is

the timeless expression
of the one, absolute Good
- the ideal Peace -
longed for - in and by - 

every human heart.

The original destiny
of all the nations of Mankind
- long lost -
yet still waiting to be found
and offered by God - continuously -
as a gratuitous outpouring of grace
(wrought by the Atonement of Jesus Christ)
to those who have ears able to listen 
and hearts willing to receive.

It is as an unspoken promise
understood by the children of all Mankind
being written in each our hearts
and so duly expressed
in the Ideals of the States (Constitutions, Laws)
that govern the nations
to whom this Creative Ideal
is entrusted by God (our Father)
and continually revealed - in time -
by His Providence

on earth.

Justice primarily concerns itself
with this Creative Ideal.

For what concerns Justice is 

the restoration of Man.

Therefore,
all meritorious acts of Justice
as a virtue - must be that -
which serves to restore Man
to (a vision of) this original state
(being continually revealed
unto every generation, and unto every nation
- by and through -
the Holy Spirit of the LORD).

- selah -

In this way,
Spiritual Justice
is a constant pursuit.

For Spiritual Justice
- must concern itself -
with the human community
as a growing, dynamic,
synergistic whole.

It is always vigilant.

It is always in motion.

It drives the juridical sciences
according to the needs of every good
in the context of the realities
of every present time.

What seeks to banish
the evils in human society;
what seeks to redress the legitimate grievances
- of the wholes - of all human communities;
what seeks to safeguard
the individual good and the common good
(in the context of each other);
what seeks to continually fulfill
the requirements of the Creative Ideal
as it is - currently expressed - 

in and by the hopes of every nation
and mandated through the ideals 

- vested and entrusted -
in each its Responsible States,
all of these are acts of Spiritual Justice.

It is what imparts force of truth
to the individual will to meaningfully defend and preserve
- through human institutions (the courts system),
the prevailing peace and the living order
of every civil (human) society.

From Spiritual Justice spring Temporal Justice.

Now,

Temporal Justice
is a remedy of law.

Its merits are derived
from the prevailing judgments
of a particular law court
which are always relative to the needs
of the present realities
it has been called to serve and redress.

Its proximity
to the realities of these needs - in time -
and its efficacy according to Spiritual Justice
is always underpinned by its own faithfulness
to the Creative Ideal.

Thus,
it is never anger
nor the spirit of revenge
that drives - forward and onward -
the Cause of Justice
but Justice itself!

- selah -

The relationship 

of the 3rd Cause to the 4th Cause
(Benignity, the Cause of Minorities)
is not incidental.

For what concerns Justice
is the total and absolute defense of the good
(conceived - as it were - 

as one and [at the same time] at-one, 

in and with itself, according to the Ideal Good, 

or the Highest Good, or [of] God
and understood, according to every present understanding, 

in the synergistic context of each other 

as an absolute whole [or as it really is in Eternity]).

Simply put,

Justice - promotes and protects - 

what is good.

It is Law
that seeks to bind
what evil there is
(specifically the Evil
in all evil things).
---<--@

The Circular Relationship of the Four Causes

20111111

(NOTE: I often use this double reminder below to remind each of us of the deeper underpinnings of our sacred remembrances - external as well as internal in their manifestation - being both temporal and eternal, corporal and spiritual.)

Lest We Forget. Lest We Forget.

Peace, I salute you.

Today is commemorated Veteran's Day in the USA and Armistice Day in Europe, including Australia, New Zealand and others.

It is a day of remembrance; a solemn day, a blessed day, a day of days. It is a day of common military remembrances and is therefore, a day of peace.

My fellow Filipino brothers and sisters of the Promise, I know for a fact we do not commemorate November 11 here in the Philippines but we should at least try to learn to understand what makes this day valuable to the sacred remembrances of many nations - for we are part of just one family.

In doing this, we are not only being generous - to ourselves and to our other kinder nations - we are being responsible - for ourselves and for our other kindred nations.

- selah -

Therefore, I write this here today to formally and officially remind us that, however dark the past may have been for all our nations - without exception, we belong to just one family.

Indeed, the past has been terrible and dark: For the spirit of War has deceived us all.

The truth is that all our nations, however great or small and however diverse our distinctions, belong to only one true belonging - so let us remember this today - that we are truly only one global community and let us try to meaningfully commemorate our peace with each other as nations - dreaming together this time.

Let us remember that our Philippines is - and shall forever remain - integral to this one family of nations - represented by our United Nations institution.

Let us say, "I remember you, my brother, I remember you, my sister - mabuhay!"

Let us say, "I remember, I remember."

---<--@

Shifting Paradigms -

When we talk about remembrance we essentially speak about the substance of our inspiration.

This is why we should be wary of evil inspiration because the source of all evil inspiration is false remembrance.

You only have to shift your focus to see that the night sky is so full of stars...

(Photo courtesy of Harmony Lovelife and Haragan Makamandag - Go 1ID 35IB!)

Our brave soldiers - who can bear not to love them...

Despite all the controversy (and these days it seems controversy is everywhere), in the darkness, above the fleeting clouds, they are there -

standing steadfastly,

preserving our best military traditions,

shimmering with virtue and valor,

ever ready, ever faithful,

ever hopeful for better, kinder days,

guarding our better tomorrows -

Therefore, I do not choose to believe in controversy.

However deep the night goes, I choose to believe in you

(for I believe in Justice and the good fight)

I choose to believe in our better selves -

and as sure as I live and breathe today,

the morning will surely come

for our beloved Land of the Morning.

Go team AFP - go PA - mabuhay!

---<--@

You only have to shift your focus to see that the night sky is so full of stars...

Often, when all that we care to remember

is how huge the darkness and how frail and tiny the light,

we weep bitterly unto despair

and completely forget

which one is pure substance

and which one is pure illusion.

Be inspired about the right things and they will produce in you, the right things.

Be inspired about the wrong things and they will produce in you, the wrong things.

So do good and abhor evil by doing good. Do not be by evil inspired.

For even if you fight evil through its own evil inspiration in yourself, it shall eventually consume you.

---<--@

It is not the severity of Justice but the certainty of Justice that deters good people from becoming less virtuous than they should and evil people from becoming more criminal than they deserve.

---<--@

Love your Country.

Your Country is the land where your parents sleep,

where is spoken that language

in which the chosen of your heart, blushing,

whispered the first word of love;

it is the home that God has given you

that by striving to perfect yourselves therein

you may prepare to ascend to Him.

- Giuseppe Mazzini

---<--@

Mabuhay po tayong lahat! Salaam. Shalom. Peace. God bless us all.

...the brightness of thy Banner undiminished in triumph waves, the glory of thy stars and sun are lights that shall ne'er fade...

P.S.

Today I also commemorate 2 years of recovery. I am so glad to say, this is a battle I now know I can win. I thank each of you for your prayers and your support! (You all know who you are.)