The Nine Common Human Needs: Security of Person and Property

Uncertainty is a root cause of fear in Man. This fear before our Exile was a Fear of Certainty. Both of these fears preserve in them the original intention that Man is to be - as the Angels, a social creature - a loving and faithful keeper to each other.

The former, which is a fear of the unknown - is manifest in each of us as an abiding and mortal fear of our impending temporal death, and exists as a consequence of our Exile.

The latter, which is the Fear - of the God Who Is - the Ultimate Truth - is a holy, loving, and awe-filled reverence that abides in the hearts of those who seek after Him - whom He calls unto Himself - in order to more perfectly love Him, and serve Him, and know Him.

The latter inspires us to freely strive for Peace and Human Community. The former bends the will and the spirit towards an understanding of the latter. The former must lead to the latter and the latter must enlighten the former. That the burden of our civilization may be light. One leads to safety, the other to freedom.

For the LORD, our God and Creator, is a God of Community - the LORD of hosts. He dwelleth in Unity and this Unity is Peace.

One of the main reasons that spur our human civilization forward is our need of a common relief from this fear of the uncertain. For it is painful.

The human spirit itself is driven by a universal thirst for a more perfect understanding of that Fear, which leads to Wisdom, and that Wisdom which is an understanding of the Truth - Truth that to our souls is Peace.

Aspects of this interior seeking universal to all Men and to all Women remain common to all our Sacred Remembrances; a spirituality of Peace therefore, remain as a common teaching in each our most cherished and honorable religious traditions as well - particularly, within our three Abrahamic faith traditions.

And so, in spite of the long shadow of War, we as a people remain yearning for Peace. It is more certain to us than War - in ways we often fail to readily understand.

AT THE VERY LEAST, in the sense that we are all equal partakers of this yearning (for Certainty) in our Nation (and in our world), we hold to an expectation as citizens that each of us may - in common - enjoy, security of person and property -

THAT dignity of each individual human life and the safety of its promise - from conception to natural death, along with each our respective right to private ownership - as a natural right and as a public trust - be duly preserved by the Philippine State.

The value of Sacred Life being already well defined, to further expound on the right of private property, I shall take from a teaching in Catholic Morality (excerpted from the book, Catholic Morality by Fr. John Laux, M.A.)

4. Duties Concerning Material Goods

a) The Right of Private Property

1. Ownership defined. - Not only spiritual goods, but material goods also have been placed at the disposal of man by God. But whilst the goods of the soul and the mind are accessible to all and do not diminish, no matter how many partake of them, a material good can, of its very nature, belong undivided only to one person, and the oftener it is divided, the smaller becomes the portion of those who use it. The right to possess, enjoy, and dispose of any material good for ourselves, to the exclusion of others, is called the right of private property or individual ownership.

2. Private ownership rests on the divine law and, taking man as they are, is necessary for the individual and for society -

a) the Seventh Commandment forbids theft as a violation of the rights of others. If private property were theft, as the French Communist Proudhon calls it, theft would not be a violation of the rights of our neighbor, but the right of the State. But God does not forbid theft as a violation of the right of the State, but of the right of our neighbor individually. In the New Testament parables such as those of the sower, the vineyard, and the fig tree pre-suppose the right of private property.

(As regards to plunder of the public coffers, it is the individual tax payers' right of representation, direct as well as indirect, in the official affairs of the State that is violated.)

b) Private ownership is founded on the nature and condition of man; it is a natural right. Nature imposes upon man the duty of preserving his life, and hence it also gives him the right to exclusive ownership in those things necessary for the preservation of his life.

c) The individual has natural duties to provide for the material needs of his family and the education of his children. But he can not fulfill these duties without the right of accumulating and retaining a variety of these goods. If all men were perfect Christians, then the difficulty would be minimized. But we must take men as they are.

d) Without the right to private ownership there would be no incentive to work and consequently no progress in the arts and sciences.

e) God is the true Lord and Master of all things by the right of creation. But man also, the image of God, can mold and modify things at his pleasure. The fruits of his labor bear the stamp of his personality; and thus becomes their true lord in a limited sense, as God is their absolute lord in an unlimited sense.

f) Under a system of common ownership (Communism) the distribution of labor and of the rewards of labor would destroy individual liberty and make all citizens slaves of the State. Under such circumstances, peace and order are inconceivable.

(As regards the peace process with the NDFP, it is not condemnation of each side our Republic whole must seek but a re-calibration of interests leading towards the beginnings of a common ground vision pursuant and compatible with the reality of the Philippine State, a transformation of the nature of the conflict, and ultimately a reversal of the mindless tides of prejudices and cessation of the cycles of violence that have consumed this Nation for several generations now.

In short, we must together make this Republic of ours work - and, in an imperfect world, labor for the common good of all. Upon our Peace - one, whole, and complete - much depends.)

...

4. Whether we possess much or little, we must always remember that we are only the stewards of what we possess, not the absolute masters, and that we must one day give an account of our stewardship. For as God never gives up His dominion over the gifts of life, so He never relinquishes His right over the gift of material goods.

The fruit of this vision 
in the reality of the Nation is -
An institutionalized, civilian Policing, 
Public Safety, and National Security Service.
---<--@


The Nine Common Human Needs

Innermost Freedom

There are four basic powers professed in freedom - choice, thought, want and fear.



Of the four, the first three are enabling forms, and the fourth an empowering form - all four are governed by brightness or lack of the light - in the person of Man, the first three are rooted in the spiritual and the last one, distinctly in the physical.

These powers bend and incline the will, shape and give force to understanding and govern the ambition of the mind as regard to knowledge and the obtaining of the truth.

These are the freedoms located in the interior most space of the heart - where only the LORD may go - they are sacred, inviolable, and distinct per individual - Angels and Humans both possess them (and, wherever the grace of God permits, in varying degrees, may also become possessed by them).


Freedom is to know Freedom

Salutation #64

The color black is the color of hope. Green is the color of the perennial nature of hope.

For hope is upon the earth, in a constant state of subtle transformation, rising and falling as all things ascend to God, in steady cycles of loss and fulfillment.

When black is used to remember death, it is not used to signal the finality of death, but to remind us of the hope that is invested in death - for black is also the color of the expectation of life.

(Death)

All the death that we see

upon this world of earth and fire

- with our physical sight -

is a temporal death.

But there is a hidden death

- the second death -

the death of the soul of Man.

Of this hidden death,

the soul of Man implicitly knows and naturally fears

for it is the death of his life.

And though reason might oftentimes confuse the two,

we human beings should truly fear the death of the soul.

For this is the true death!

But temporal death is a transformation -

for those who value life to the point of giving it - everlasting life.

for those who hate life to the point of taking it - everlasting death.

So today,

we honor our brethren and sisters

who have passed away from life into everlasting life -

all the official Saints of our Holy Mother Church

but especially those Saints of God who are known to God alone

each those Saints who are especially chosen by the LORD

to become known to each of us alone - as our special friends -

who are all those who are victorious against death.

So let us express our love for them today

all our victorious dead - let us remember them

- solemnly and meaningfully and sincerely -

every beloved one of ours - all our family and friends -

who has passed away from the sight of our eyes

into the quickening Light of the Vision of the LORD;

all those who loved us with the love of God till the end.

Let us rest assured

in the knowledge of the faith

that they are well and that we shall one day

be one with them in God and in all truth - forever.

For life is life and death is death.

- selah -

Glorified be God - forever -

in all His Angels and in all His Saints, alleluia.

---<--@

Everybody have a safe and meaningful All Saints' Day 2011.

Glory to God the Father!

Adoration to Jesus Christ!

Alleluia, peace be unto our nation

and peace be unto all our nations;

good will to all men and women of Peace.

To lose Love is to die.

20110821

The National Salutation

ALL SALUTATIONS are meant to invoke into our collective memory the reality of something good.

Evil being devoid of the excellence we tend to honor and admire is not something we commonly salute as individual human beings and as human nations together we do not openly invoke them in our salutations.

Therefore, we may safely exclude from this particular reflection anything else but the good in things.

"Mabuhay" is the salutation commonly associated with the Philippines. As such, it is something quite familiar to all of us Filipinos and even to other nations.

It is not a salutation of individuals.

Therefore, it can never be something meant to refer to any individual or anything about the life of an individual or about his or her virtues no matter how excellent.

So what does it mean when we Filipinos say "mabuhay"?

And when we Filipinos say "mabuhay" to whom or to what in particular do we tend to commonly - or even unconsciously - address it to?

Mabuhay simply means "to bring to life". It is a salutation that invokes "life" or the quality of it.

Now, the life of any nation is the product of the quality of the communities that exists within itself. It is therefore, a measure of the sum of all its relationships.

This sum is always positive no matter how deteriorated any nation becomes. There are no last peoples only disappeared cultures. There will always be remnant nations for as long as there are nations upon our world.

Because just as there are no such things as false hopes, only real ones; there are no such things as false relationships, only real ones.

But the quality of these relationships within the nation is a product of the quality of the national remembrance. For it is remembrance that dictates the quality of the national peace.

- selah -

Mabuhay is the salutation of our nation in its entirely and so must refer to the quality of the life of the nationhood in each ourselves as well as the completeness of the sacred remembrances we must keep through all our generations as a nation upon this earth.

It intends to invoke in the Filipino heart, a memory of itself.

It is a salutation addressed directly and simultaneously to all Filipinos from everywhere and from every time and is meant to return our every present generation to the timeless memory of our people.

It reminds us of the reality of our nationhood; its duties and responsibilities, its mission, promise and destiny. It says to every Filipino heart, "long may our remembrances serve us".

So when we Filipinos say "mabuhay" it should mean that we do love the Philippines as citizens to each other, and that we do understand it as truth in our hearts.

When we say it with substance, this truth empowers us.

It must elicit in our hearts a love that is not distant or abstract.

It must remind us of something real to our common hopes as a nation, something we can all meaningfully understand.

It must continuously rekindle in ourselves as citizens to each other a kind of ownership proper to our national trust and empower us with a love of Country that reaches right down to the ground of our national communities enabling every Filipino to freely bring the blessings of our peace into lives of the very least of our brothers and sister, the littlest Filipinos.

- selah -

The life of every nation is derived from its particular sense of unity and this particular sense of unity is derived from the strength of its peace.

Upon this peace (and the abundance or the lack of it) is established the order and the cohesion of all its national community.

A nation's life therefore, is measured by the sum of all the relationships within itself.

Mabuhay is meant to recall us to a memory of all of these relationships and in particular, to the poor and needy, not to remind us of what we lack but to return us to what we all must be, to the labor that our nation is purposed for by God, the trust that bind together all our generations, and the remembrance of the peace that must constantly live in each of us as citizens, one to another, equally engaged in our one Republic undertaking of Country - mabuhay!

---<--@

Salutation #46

(The Wisdom of Learning)

We are - because -

we have come to know who we are not.

This is why we must ask our questions

sincerely seeking for answers.

For when we learn any truth,

we do not learn to use it - unless -

we are led by an understanding

of our need of it.

We become wise

not by the conception of what we know how to do

- but by the sheer weight -

of what we know we ought not to do.

Wisdom never applies where danger is absent.

We become wise - only -

when we become broken enough

by the wrong things to ask ourselves why.

Fear of the LORD must lead to a reverence of Him.

For the safety of God is the beginning of wisdom.

Or we could learn to listen, to ponder and to observe -

To be able to surrender a measure

of our own freedom to the ennobling of others,

submit our independence to their discipline

and strive to remain in the humility of our youth

- the agelessness of little children -

to be able to absorb their constant teaching.

Fear of the instruments of the LORD

must also lead to a reverence of Him.

For wisdom that is learned

and wisdom that is transmitted

are one and the same thing.

In the former,

we expose ourselves to the presence of things

we must learn to never trust.

And in the latter,

we expose ourselves to the presence of things

we must learn to trust.

Both of these - being those things -

that we should never expose ourselves to in the first place.

Such is the condition of our exile!

For if our bliss is to never know danger,

to never know wisdom, makes it perfect.

The safety of God is the beginning of all learning.

And a knowledge of the truth is its own lineage.

For all true things ascend to God - just as surely -

as all our learning must eventually disappear

from the confines of both mind and heart

to return again to the infinite depths of the Divine.

All knowledge is a giving that begins with God

and a receiving that must end forever in God.

All our learning is nothing we can possess.

All our knowledge may only be kept in trust.

We possess it for a while as a means to find our way

and then we must return it - again and again -

to the LORD Who possesses all means.

Indeed,

learning that does not lead to wisdom

is like water that never flows - without purpose -

and like a river with neither beginning nor end - meaningless.

All learning that is kept like a treasure rots.

For every knowledge that must remain - as truth in the heart -

must be something we forever give away.

---<--@

A Filipino is a kind of love and this love binds us all together as one nation.

---<--@

Today, we remember Ninoy - his life, his loves, his hopes, his labors, his sacrifice.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

One Nation

20110316

Mga mahal kong kapwa Pilipino, huwag po tayong magpapadala sa labis na takot. Tunay ngang maraming nangyayari sa ating mundo sa mga araw na ito. Pero wala ni kahit isa sa mga ito ang pinapayagang mangyari ng Diyos ng walang pahintulot.

Siya po ay ang PANGINOON, ang Diyos nating lahat.

Lahat po ng bagay sa ating mundo na binibigyang pahintulot ng Diyos ay ayon lagi sa kagustuhan Niyang tuparin ng lubos ang Kanyang mga pangakong binitiwan Niya para sa lahat ng ating mga henerasyon patungo sa ikabubuti ng ating pagkatao at ikagagaling ng ating sangkatauhan.

Huwag po nating pangunahan ang Diyos ng labis at nakabubulag na takot sa mga kalamidad na nangyayari sa paligid natin at sa paligid ng bansa natin. Kapayapaan lang po ng ating loob at kapayapaan na rin ng ating mga bansa ang nais Niyang subukan at patatagin dito.

Manalig ka, kapwa ko Pilipino! Naniniwala ka ba ng buong puso na mahal ng Diyos ang Pilipinas? Datapwa't matakot ka sa Diyos na ating Tagapagligtas higit sa lahat, ikaw na nagmamahal sa Kanya.

Manalig ka, kapwa ko kapatid sa pangako! Maniwala ka na kung mahal ng Diyos ang Pilipinas, mahal ka ng Diyos, Pilipino.

Sapagka't mapalad ang Bayan na ang Diyos ay ang PANGINOON.

Bakit ka pa natatakot?

Fear of Calamities

I have a healthy aversion to chain letters of whatever form - email, social media messages, text, or the traditional paper versions. I do not believe that compulsion is an aid to free will. To me, as regards to free and human choices, what holds water is faith and reason.

Whatever transmits and advances faith, whatever fortifies and completes reason, these things in turn effectively aid the freedom of the will of Man to choose rightly the things that belong to his or her human dignity and therefore, has the potential to actually fulfill (in time and in eternity) the human promise that the LORD, our God, had planted as a seed in the soul of each person.

I've friends and family who send me chain messages and I love every single one of them. It is love however, and not blind chance, my beloved friends, truth and not random compulsion that feed that hunger from within our souls - that restless desire to grow out from inside the self into God.

Choice is not blind to the heart that has chosen to become in love alive - we all walk in this exile darkness guided accordingly by the love in our hearts...

Now please, a lot of our everyday people here in the Philippines are presently being affected by needless fears arising from rumors reportedly spread by text messages of a lethal degree of radiation from Japan reaching the Philippines.

This is something which has absolutely no factual merit. It is just NOT TRUE. The current radiation levels here in our own Country remain at levels that are considered safe.

The spreading of this misinformation reminds me of those more devious forms of chain letters that prey on the legitimate fears of the common people.

It does not increase my faith in God to believe with any conviction of heart in any of those things. Nor the fleeting quality of any random compulsion serve to intensify the presence of the love I must hold and I must have in myself for people as myself - human, mortal, vulnerable and fallible - a love commanded by Christ, my Savior.

But the fostering of an authentic human citizenship, the responsible collective ownership of the life of living creation, the love of nature and the dignity of the natural world, holy friendships, an ordered love of family, a strong sense of duty empowered by love of God and Country, active civic participation partnered with effective civic education, an ethical and diligent observance of one's state of life, a willing and generous response to the call of vocations, a life that is well-lived in loving service of the truth and of the good of others - all of these work together to transmit, whether explicitly or implicitly, the qualitative force of both reason and faith. In all its various gifts and benevolent guises it speaks of a certain love; that of freedom; of liberty in the service of human community.

And none of these are served by that reckless compulsion which as far as I am concerned, is spread by that same rationale of domination that seeks only to disturb the waters of our peace.

Does the spread of those above mentioned rumors aid anybody's love of God and Country?

Then whether through ignorance or malice, the person/s behind it must also be one who is devoid of that same love. For the means employed and the ends achieved are both driven and derived from the inward inclinations present in the human heart.

---<--@

The Quake in Japan: A Personal Retrospective

Deep within my soul, I hold a proper sense of pride for the great (ancient as well as modern) cities of our Mother Asia - Tokyo, Chiba, Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Seoul, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Mumbai, Bangkok, Manila of course, etc.

I was decisively reminded of this as it rose plainly into my awareness the day after the disaster in Japan - I realized that I felt sad and outraged.

This is my Asian spirit - a sense of a belonging to a greater whole. If you ask me, all Asian nations share one thing in common - one thing alone: a deep and profound longing for peace: A desire to belong.

I realize and understand that I have this desire and required neither validation nor permission from any other being other than myself to accept the fact that being Asian is part of my identity; that I belong with as well as to Mother Asia.

If a similar disaster had afflicted Germany, would France not be just as concerned? If a similar disaster had afflicted France, would not Italy not be just as concerned? In the same way, I am concerned for Japan. Because Japan is of Asia as I am of Asia.

But most of all, I am likewise just as presently concerned about what these events bode for my own Philippines, my own Republic undertaking of Country. Because as regards to earthquake preparedness, Japan is the most prepared Country in our corner of Mother Asia if not all of Asia. Is this not a worry?

Shall we not listen intently to her advice? JICA prepared a recent report as regards to our own preparedness in a similar context - specifically that of Manila. It had revealed that we have much to do.

Now please, let me add my own two cents worth to the growing national conversation about civil defense: I am of the conviction that national endeavors such as these must be seen and understood as a duty that is to be performed by every present generation in the context of the lifespan of the nation.

It must, in the spirit of greater civic participation, be something that is done with diligence and vigilance of heart even for the sake of those generations who are yet to come. It must also be felt in the heart as something every Filipino generation must continuously be doing; as something that is worked by all our citizenry, something that must be accomplished even if it lies far away from the notice of others, far away from any praise or recognition; something that is generally understood to even be beyond the reach of each of our lifetimes to completely accomplish.

In this way, we are never lulled into a false sense of complacency.

Indeed, my fellow countrymen, the common defense of the nation against natural and man-made disasters is the concern of all Filipinos. Each of us who draw their citizenship from our eternal belongings together bears a responsibility to act responsibly and decisively to secure the national good according to the freedom of each our gifts.

Japan understands this - so must we.

Let us continue to pray for Japan...

---<--@

Soccer Diplomacy

Our Marines are doing something new in the Spratlys - soccer diplomacy. If you think about it, they are initiating a work of peace-building. They might not be aware about it but they are - and so what they are doing is very important.

It is no small and insignificant thing that adds up to become a great thing and there is nothing of greater importance to the life of a nation than peace. Of this truth we must all become aware of because as regards to peace, every little thing counts.

Soccer connects individual citizens and individual nations together in very much the same way that peace does. It certainly has the potential to connect us to as well as with the Americas (most especially the nations of South and Central America with whom we have deep historical trade and cultural connections) and the greater regions of our Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia, Oceania - and to the rest of the soccer world.

Aren't we glad we have our own national soccer team? Go the mighty Azkals!

---<--@

National Peace Building Initiatives

Here are some examples of national peace-building initiatives: Light a Candle for Peace, Peace Runs, Peace Councils, Community Consultations, Interfaith Dialogues, Sports meets, etc.

These national initiatives are distinct but not apart from the governmental initiatives set by our Responsible State e.g. the AFP IPSP - Oplan Bayanihan. All of these work toward the same end of a peace that prospers the national good. Even the Common Market has its own innate ability to form its own peace-building initiatives with the nation and alongside the Responsible State.

Truly, we all have a part in obtaining from God, the peace of our Philippines.

---<--@

Preserve Palawan

If we are wise, O my people, if we are far-seeing enough, we will realize what we are losing by our indecision to preserve Palawan as a National Sanctuary.

In Palawan is a vestige of our former innocence - something the Filipino soul would always want to return into, something we should like to bestow to our generations even to the very last of our generations.

The frontiers of our world shall be as green oases in the midst of urban deserts. For the world will turn to our cities for hope. People will flock away from these rural areas. But most shall not quench their thirst for living life in the gray of these urban sprawls. Hope shall not be found in concrete jungles. For hope is a thing held in the garden of the heart: In these present times, a kind of innocence lost; something we presently stand to lose forever in Palawan.

Because for us Filipinos, Palawan represents our last frontier, something we must leave untamed and unconquered, something we must leave to be free - for our own good sakes'.

If we lose it now, we will lose it forever.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

It is no small and insignificant thing that adds up to become a great thing and there is nothing of greater importance to the life of a nation than peace.

Be present for peace.