20111020

Salutation #60

Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

God saw how good the light was. God then separated the light from the darkness.

- Genesis 1: 3-4

(Objectivity and Justice)

It is not in the present nature of the earth to be neutral.

The unknown earth - in and of itself -

is greater than our natural powers to subdue and perfect

and bring into the dominion of God.

This dominion of earth,

selected for the stewardship of our one family of nations,

being the visible universe entire and particularly this one home world

upon which our humanity and all its generations is planted

as seeds by the will of Providence Divine,

is a barren and hostile realm.

It is a realm of exiles.

We exist as transients in a realm of imbalances, fickle and fleeting.

Absolutely speaking,

objectivity can never freely exist - unbound and unlimited -

in a realm that is as strange and unwelcoming to Mankind as the unknown earth

for if it did, Law and its derivative forms would become unnecessary

and the peace of our nations forever undone!

- selah -

All human constructs inherit from our own humanity,

our own human characteristics, including our own weaknesses.

Collective experiences of a common reality is subjective as a whole

because this same subjectivity also applies

to each individual experience of a particular reality.

Our collective experience of reality

- as a nation among nations -

can be said to be like an all-embracing sea

of whose invisible waters are constantly - refreshed and replenished -

from the culmination of individual choices that flow out as a river

- from every past to every present time -

from each our own individual experience of a particular reality

and this germ of national consciousness

- that every present generation inherits as a whole -

may be said to be naturally predisposed to the intrinsic subjectivity

that is native to each our own particular experiences.

The greater these remembrances,

the stronger the inclination exists to remove ourselves

from the pain of an original ignorance

we can no longer enjoy.

It is therefore, difficult - the greater the view of reality -

to even begin to establish a common foundation

upon which a sense of judicial objectivity

may be said to be ascertained.

Objectivity,

as far as our experience of reality goes,

may only be guaranteed to be certain as far as it is viewed

from within the confines of a controlled environment.

Objectivity in Law

draws from the letter of the law

which at times leave no room of the interpretation of Justice.

For Law as itself is objective only insofar as it is unapplied -

in this sense, law is neutral;

its potential locked until such a time as it is interpreted and applied

by the right juridical authority.

Justice is not objective.

Anywhere that Justice is said to be impartial, it is only to persons.

For Justice by its virtue deals with the restoration of the Truth.

It is therefore, by its own nature partial always to the good.

- selah -

Justice and its application in time, I personally believe,

in its widest sense, must depend not by complete objectivity in interpretation

but by complete impartiality in judgment.

Law is a constraint meant to restrict

what harms the public order and impugns the civil peace

but Justice is not a constraint - it is an act -

meant to restore and preserve the good, the common good, and the absolute good.

It uses the constraint of law in order to preserve

and the virtue of its nature in order to restore.

Since Justice is never inherently objective and Law is never freely subjective,

objectivity where juridical interpretation is concerned, I personally believe,

must draw its common foundation from ethics and the moral sciences.

---<--@

A Soldier's Heart -

No matter the politics - No matter the differences - No matter the cause - When it comes down to it - When the thunder and the confusion sets in and the killing and the dying begins and the whole world seems to shrink - Soldiers fight only for each other and this picture says it all...

NEVER FORGET - go team AFP - go Army.

(Farewell to Promise)

I believe the greatest protection from the psychological and spiritual trauma of the battlefield is the peace of knowing you are fighting for something you personally love; something near to your heart and mind - something you can connect to everything you hold dear and connects you to everything you hold dear.

A love that is a constant assurance to your soldier's heart that you are not fighting in the blind; that you are not fighting just for the sake of fighting alone; that your individual actions are never inspired by mere hatred of the enemy but by a personal commitment to duty, honor and a glorious adherence to the martial virtues.

---<--@

A Call to Memory -

O my Philippines, ALL you brothers and sisters of the Promise, we can not allow the future to be derailed by those who seek to pull us back into the gravity of the last great age of War!

We can not be the enemy we claim to fight - the peace process must draw its lessons from this last encounter, define itself more closely, include and involve all our communities more broadly, and proceed fortified and not weakened by the nobility of our soldiers and the sacrifice of those whom we lost yesterday in Basilan - from both sides of the one side of the one Filipino nation.

Verily, it is the spirit of War against whom we ultimately struggle against before whom we are all, as nations of Mankind, enemies to the last of our generations!

---<--@

It is human to fight for right causes. It is not human to fight against Justice.

It is human to know when to stop fighting. It is not human to forsake the cause of Peace.

It is human to hope for self and for others. It is not human to despair of either self or of others.

It is human to fight for love. It is not human to fight for hate. For when we fight for love, we defend. When we fight for hate, we only fight.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Brokenness

Promise of Old

20110912

Salutation #49

Hear me, O my nation! The LORD, thy God, is a God of relationships.

(This one it is difficult.

You must please bear with me.)

(Our one Human Habitation)

Cast adrift in this great void of exile time,

in a remote spiral arm of our one Milky Way galaxy,

but one upon one of more than a billion known galaxies

that lay spread in their great clusters

across the vast expanse of this visible universe;

upon the life bearing regions of a nameless yellow star,

lay a nameless, native planet of earth -

a world embraced by those familiar circling of seasons

held in their great cycles by the perennial sweep

of each our measured round

about a singular middle aged star we simply call, our sun;

a world sheltering these worlds within ourselves.

This is the reality of our one planetary home.

It is a reality - that -

while seemingly being at present - obscured -

by the prevailing darkness of these times,

is nevertheless the abiding truth that prevails

as the one common reality of our one planetary home.

We are upon this earth,

a world embarked upon an inevitable journey

toward an inescapable destiny - that -

while remaining hidden and unbeknownst

even to the understanding of many,

is nevertheless the unfolding of a reality - that -

has and ever will be - a truth - that is and must be shared

by and with all human beings

as the one common reality of our one human habitation.

Upon this, our home world,

we as human beings have pondered together

the questions of our existence.

Each these question as questions bent and inward sought

like answers seeking its way into thought.

Each these thoughts as thoughts we must leave afloat

upon the cumulative tide of each those silent moments

we spend sought in our seeking.

Each our seeking like our prayers - met -

by our ascending with each moment that rises and falls

with each moment - spent -

in the pondering of that great and unfathomable Silence,

awash upon a void,

hostile beyond hostile to all Sacred Life.

We are by what answers we bear for each other,

ever like the twinkling of each of those unseen stars

rising in their great arcs

upon the great ocean of our LORD's Eternity,

an inward part of the rising and falling of one firmament,

an integral part of the seasons of our one native sky.

These seasons of our one native sky

are the interior seasons within each and every human soul

that when perceived through the ebb and flow motions

of our coming together in our great belongings under the sun,

become the great celestial sweep of that one unseen cycle

rising from deep within the soul of all Mankind.

And it is this one unseen cycle

that universally attests to our common human witness

of that one great and unfathomable purpose of all creation,

the one great celestial cycle,

the one gathering of the All of Sacred Life,

and the one destiny toward which we are purposed

to steer the one common reality of our one human habitation.

We are like the questions that we ask,

borne by each our own common experience

of our one human habitation.

We are by what answers we bear for each other

carried afloat upon the great sweep of the physical motions

of this vast and empty realm of the visible universe.

For we are through each other,

our own seamless experience of our one common human reality,

the experience of our own human habitation.

Begun at the timeless birth of all human togetherness,

we are upon the earth, upon this one great and visible realm

of our one common human habitation - with each other -

as those worlds upon worlds

bound by our own true belongings to each other

as the one lineage of the generations of the children of Mankind.

And fallen into the darkness of exile time,

at the autumnal dusk of our faded Eden,

at the great scattering of worlds,

we were a togetherness never purposed to belong

upon a realm intended to be as divided, dark and barren,

as fallen, bitter and empty

as these shattered skies fallen upon our world.

When we, as human beings, gaze out into the universe

- above and around ourselves -

we must know in our heart of hearts

that even in the midst of all this emptiness and longing for life,

even in the embrace of all these questions sought

here in the darkness of exile time,

here at the great scattering of worlds,

if we are to understand the order of the physical stars

in those temporal heavens above and around our native of earth,

from clusters to galaxies, from star to star,

from worlds to their companion worlds,

we can easily perceive in each native region of space

what is reflected inwardly in our souls

like a primordial longing bound in companionships.

For there is only a gathering sense of belonging

in the all of visible creation and this sense of belonging,

reflected by the physical order

of even those shattered temporal skies

that lay barren about our native of earth

and amidst all of this exile darkness,

is the one order that have endured - and therefore -

should be the one truth that must have always to prevail

in the order of all of the visible universe.

For our one human habitation

is not comprised of individual human beings

ordered according to each individual self.

Our one human habitation is ordered

- according to the connections that we serve with each other -

as individual human beings

and those relationships borne in exile time and dimensional space

that we in our shared humanity

is purposed to serve with and for the All of Sacred Life

that we must in our own particular belongings to each other

responsibly carry out not as divided individuals but as united wholes -

ever as those nations dreaming together this time.

Therefore,

we must be able to perceive the reality of all of visible creation

with an understanding that bring us closer

to an understanding of what truth it reflects.

For our one human habitation

reflects the truth about our own persons as human beings

with and to each other - in God and Country, for God and Country.

---<--@

On Friendship

To love first your friends is to know them -

May all our friendships be without frontiers!

The Angels of the LORD,
my precious Starshine,
each of which is distinct
in Beauty and Light,
being individually endowed
with splendor of truths
unique to each their gifts
possessed by each their person
from the very beginning
of their swift flight
across the timeless void
and into eternity
into the wholeness
which is God
for lack of human words
to define the strength of a relationship
that transcend the all of time
from across that veil of shadow and tears
beyond the sum total of human experience
call each other "friends".

Each of our family
who are related to us
by corporal bonds of blood
are the friends that our LORD
has chosen for us.

Each of our friends
who become part of us
by spiritual bonds of truth
are the family that we learn to choose
in the course of each our lives
to complete what our LORD
has begun for us
in our families.

Both bonds bind us together
in the strength of human relationships
that nurture life and sustain hope
through action of community
and the service of life.

You must love,
my precious Starshine,
to transform these bonds
into that one friendship alone.

And make these bonds
into the bonds of angels
who are each in God
spirits united in their freedom
created by the strength of friendships
bound in timeless truth.

So with each other,
my precious Starshine,
you must build on the good,
and give to the need of thy beloved
recognizing in thy shared humanity
the giving of the LORD
Who is the singular Source
of all our relationships.

Be thankful for friendship wings
human, angelic and Divine,
that take us all across
from moment to moment
into an understanding of its peace
lifting us into the unity
of those wholes upon wholes
from hope to hope
and strength to strength
past, into present
and into every present
across the void
into eternity.

Starshine,

there is always a reason to smile.

---<--@

On Loyalty

What you do for your friends will be remembered by your friends. What you don't do for your friends will be remembered by your enemies.

Starshine,
the things of Loyalty
are the relationships
that shall remain
forever with thee;
so defend your friendships
with courage and tenacity.

For we are not Loyal
if we do not remain
true to each other,
moment to moment,
from always to always
appreciating those things
that we share in our humanity
and respecting the things
that make us unique as persons,
seen as well as unseen,
in ourselves and in our nations
in the vision of our timeless belonging
with one another in God and Country
as each our own true self -
as each our own true names
written in heaven.

From the descendant gravity
of the spirit of war and division;
against things born of the darkness
defeated and empty of promise
stand fast in thy friendships!

Guard thy peace with each other
and in thy togetherness hope.

Never be Loyal
to inanimate and empty things;
those fickle and ephemeral
things of vanity!

But only to each other
and in the ascendant motions
of Sacred Life.

For the realization of all our hope
rests in the glory of our LORD
in all creation.

And all these created things
are made by our one common Creator
to be Loyal to all of these.
---<--@

A Requiem Prayer -

During the first week after 9/11, I made a conscious effort to refrain from learning anything more about the lives of the fallen. I remember that first week was a week of soul searching. The whole Country was looking for meaning.

I am very sensitive to the impact of lost innocents and I knew it. I was only beginning to know my Anne and her lost generation.

The only name whose life I can remember is Tod Beamer on Flight 93. And he was a hero - is a hero. He became consigned to embrace with valor the fate which though sad, he and those others with him were able to transform into a shining light. It is easy to remember guys like Tod.

But what of the others? Those who died crying and afraid. Those who are difficult to let go? What of the youngest who I now learned is only 3 years old?

I blocked them all during that first week. I avoided knowing more about their stories. Not because I wanted to but because I had to - for me.

9/11 also happened during the darkest times of my life. I was not yet reconciled to many things in my own life. My personal life was at a threshold. I was in despair.

And then all was swept away in the aftermath. That was all exactly 10 years ago yesterday.

So last night, when I heard the calling of the names, I remembered again that first week (this is Philippine time of course which is exactly 12hrs ahead of the Eastern Seaboard). I was affected again. I felt the pain of the loss. But this time, I felt I was no longer alone. And I began to include them in my prayers to God.

I encourage you to please do so as well.

People with no connection to people will say this is all over-hyped. But if you understand what I understand, you will think of people. Because we are our relationships.

Let us pray for the victims and their families. Let us expedite their final hopes on earth.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The Truth

Breaking the Siege