20110623

Salutation #20

(Freedom and the Filipino Dream)

My fellow Filipino compatriots -

Is the Filipino truly free?

Not while Country flounders

and ignorance of it reigns...

Not while our one Republic sky

remains shattered and broken

and our Peace is left unspoken.

- selah -

What is thy vision, O my people?

Is it so difficult to dream

- nowadays -

that we have forgotten the dreaming

that in ourselves as ourselves

require our constant true believing?

Have we forgotten the daring

that must accompany the dreaming

that can not take to its flight

without our surrendering

to the greater dream of Country?

- selah -

Shall we be forever fettered

by this lingering gloom, this unbelief,

this stultifying lack of conviction

in the nation in ourselves?

Shall God forever deny us

the Peace of our one Republic whole?

- selah -

Does our freedom consist in chains?

Indeed, freedom is a bond

but it is a bond of truth

- as a vow -

forged in the fire of brotherhood.

It is a liberating, expansive experience

of all that is good in the ascent

toward the unity of God

and the perfection of our humanity.

It is not a fear of responsibility

for our freedom is not the so-called freedom

of tyrants and cowards

but a courageous acceptance of the same.

It is simply the happiness of knowing

you are who you ought to be

in the LORD and among your fellows,

a citizen, true and true.

- selah -

If this has resonance in you,

let it rekindle in your heart

- a willingness -

to make this Republic of ours,

according to the freedom of our gifts,

truly a home away from Home for all Filipinos.

Is the Filipino truly free?

Do not look for the answer in others

seek the the answer in thyself!

---<--@

Salutation #21

(A Revolution of the Heart)

My fellow Filipino compatriots -

If it is so

that the need for adaptation

has outpaced the agility of our Republic to react

- as it is being evidenced now -

by our vulnerabilities to disasters of a natural source,

we must take this concern to heart,

my honorable compatriots.

Because if we are now being outpaced by these

what more of man-made calamities

which are much, much more unforgiving?

Or is it so

that these natural sources of nemesis for our Country

are being presently aggravated

by the willfulness of persons

who desire for our nation no good will at all?

Persons who from motives

ranging from blind self-interest

to a complete and utter collaboration with the evil in all evil things,

bring down upon our common folk

untold suffering at our expense?

All the more must we endeavor

to awaken to the calling of God and Country within ourselves,

O you of noble Filipino heart

- because -

if we can not preserve ourselves against their scandal,

we shall lay ourselves prone against their evil

and will fall with the very same cohort

as those who seek to overthrow

the rule of God in our lands

and sow confusion in the hearts of our people.

For the War to liberate the soul of this Country is in our hearts

- let us remain vigilant -

and let us complete our remembrances with each other,

invoking the LORD for His guidance

and His most efficacious assistance - always.

As the slogan from my home Province of Cavite goes -

Let us make this is a revolution of the heart.

---<--@

Salutation #22

(A Nation with a Soul of Submission and a Republic with a Heart of Peace)

To each of you, my honorable Filipino compatriots,

and to all our generations, Peace - mabuhay!

Our original line of eternal election* lost (to War),

(*that is, our hereditary rulers - kings, queens and princes of old)

we are survived still by the nation in ourselves -

for we are a nation, O my people,

born and bred in battle

and as thus, my brothers and sisters of the Promise,

our hearts can no longer be divided

for we are a people

inclined by the Providence of God

in our heart of hearts

to an understanding of His peace -

one lineage of hope, 7,107 islands strong.

A Republic undertaking of Country

is like a phoenix

born out of the ashes of fire and revolution -

it is therefore,

an endeavor of our generations

established not in War

but in Peace.

Our Republic therefore,

must be built up from the fostering strength

of its own abiding will of Peace.

For as no human hope may be realistically built

upon foundations wrought in War,

a Republic that must prevail

must prevail first from the fire of its own revolution

and emerge from within

its own ashes where from

this Country must eventually emerge

from War into Peace.

Our Republic must therefore,

for it to serve as a guardian to an orphaned people,

be brought up

- here in our heart of hearts -

in the spirit of the absolute defense.

And so the best indicator of the Republic will

to preserve itself (at any time)

- in the first instance -

is the prevailing state

of its national military forces,

its spirit as well as its capabilities,

namely the entirety of its willingness

and ability to fulfill its constant mission

as well as

- in the second instance -

the watches of its community police

who are the custodians of the civic peace

and all of its first responders

whether professional, reserved, or volunteer

who are the extensions of the good will of the state.

Now, the watches of the community police -

more than enforce the law,

deter criminal activities,

and combat criminal structures,

must be custodians of the peace of the community

and are therefore

free agents of the cause of justice

inspired by a sense

of the vision of the nation in themselves

who more than quash evil by force of law

promote by personal example

as well as by extension

of the instrumentality of the policing institution

the whole individual good

- human dignity as well as human promise -

in the spirit of the community good

for the law and its prescripts belong to our courts

but to our own national police services

must primarily belong the order of the peace

of our civic communities.

Blessed indeed is the nation served

by the unblinking vigilance of the watches

of their own loyal police, fire, rescue,

and various civil defense services,

including its rehabilitative institutions,

- at all levels and at all times and places -

professional, reserve, as well as volunteer.

As to our noble military services,

charged primarily with the defense of this nation

standing faithfully with the Republic favored by God Almighty

with the Sacred Life and common good of our generations

to the very last of our generations

and so by equal extension

our national peace and good will

with all the other nations

of our one family of the nations of Mankind

especially here in our region, in our continent of Asia,

and across all the continental wholes of our needful world

caught adrift between heaven and earth -

Preserve the sense of the person of the soldier in yourselves.

Do not be influenced by evil affairs!

Do not be so swayed by those present things,

passing and obsolete in themselves

- empty of promise -

being manifestly vain by their very nature;

things that you know so very well

in your own heart of courage and peace,

have absolutely nothing to do with the good in yourselves

which though vulnerable is of a nobler and lasting substance,

more in keeping with the virtues of your profession.

Therefore,

Beloved of God,

do not be so swayed by those present things,

so as to become bitter

or fall into the darkness of despair,

neither allow your soul to become fraught

so needlessly by anxieties about tomorrow

for tomorrow is here now

with you today.

- selah -

For you are the path that opens

who know by your own heart

the Republic belongs to those who love it

and the nation to those who take this love to heart.

If the times are dark, it is not because of the true:

As every lion waits for its time, so must you.

Indeed, however long the night,

it can not last forever.

---<--@

Peace is original to our state. It can not be won in battle nor can peace ever be attained through war.

Peace, as it concerns our nations, can only be re-established among the hearts of the people.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The Two Questions

20110312

The Earthquake in Japan

My initial reaction as regards to the news of the massive earthquake yesterday afternoon just off the coast of north east Japan was one of shock. I also felt somewhat afraid:

"I've never heard of a magnitude 8.9 in all of my life", I though to myself.

My heart goes out to the Japanese people.

Massive as the quake was, my friends, and the huge 10-meter high tsumani waves that came in its wake, it is currently being reported this morning that the damage as regards to human life is comparably less worse.

This is all thanks to Japanese foresight and ingenuity. Their building code did its fundamental job of preserving the basic integrity of structures thus sparing the lives of those other citizens who would have suffered greater harm had their authorities been less vigilant and less diligent in their duties.

The loss of lives for a calamity of this scale would (or could) have run into the many thousands.

Truly, my friends, we are only able (as well as enabled) to effectively learn our lessons from mirroring the experience of other nations exclusively in a climate of peace. Thus, we should be just as vigilant, just as diligent as they. For we too, exist with Japan in the Pacific ring of fire. And our Responsible State too, alongside Japan, exists with the same mandate to preserve the promise and the dignity of our citizens.

I realize we have found ourselves on opposite sides with the Japanese during WWII but the past is most certainly the past. We can neither live in the past as human beings nor build upon it as human nations. We have to address the issues, where they exist, in the prevailing climate of the present time as if the past has truly passed us away forever because it has.

Once you have made the choice for peace - at a time, times and half-a-time - there can be no more looking back. If we are to throw off the tyranny of war and to pass over the oppression of its shadow there can be no more division in the heart this time. The justice that we serve (and that serves us) is not animated by anger nor served by division.

Now, there was a certain amount of fear in my own nation about the news received yesterday of the earthquake and the consequent tsunami in Japan. Everyday people were talking about it. This fear is healthy. No nation desires to be hurt in its soul by a disaster of this magnitude.

It was unfounded as well. We did not sustain any damage at all from the tsunami waves that ripped all about the Pacific rim as well as the Island nations all across it. We should be thankful and glad for ourselves and fear God Whose pleasure it is to save and to strengthen us.

There was even a certain amount of religious suspicion that blindly invoked the wrath of God upon our kindred Japanese nation. Now, was God punishing Japan then? No.

The burden of these times is one of expectation and not of judgment. If it were not, would any nation survive? Which of us is not guilty of war in the heart? Indeed, we should be thankful and glad for ourselves and fear God Whose pleasure it is to save and to strengthen us. Let us pray then to God for the strength to persevere in our choice to follow the path of peace.

Let us be always reminded of this, brothers and sisters. Let us always be reminded in our heart of hearts that these are the times - the favorable season for peace - when we should be rightly guided by the brightness of our hopes - dreaming as nations together this time - and not find ourselves sunk again into the dismal depths of despair, utterly mired in the poverty of war and division, caught in the gravity of the void. Indeed, all of this, my dear friends, should help us to overcome the inertia of the last 2000 years - together this time.

Having said all that, Japan has still sustained massive damage. And it is really a terrible thing indeed. The clean up itself, it was further reported, could run into the billions.

I bid us all, my honorable compatriots, to pray for the victims of this latest tragedy to befall our one family of nations. And to do all that we can to extend to the Japanese nation our sincerest sympathies and willing help.

Then we must do all that we must, as far as we can, to carry on with the task of peace-building set before our hearts and our hands by God. That we may in the near future realistically look forward to being more enabled, empowered and equipped to extend such a help to our fellow citizens abroad (as in the case of our merchant mariners who are still being held against their will by pirates in Somalia) and even to our fellow nations whenever and where ever necessary - most especially here, in our own region in Mother Asia, our own local neighborhood with ASEAN.
---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.


Randomness of Nature

20110305

Daniel 12

The evils of the present times are manifest enough to satisfy the requirements of human reason unaided by the light of faith. For the need for peace is such that all our nations recognize it by the depth of the darkness war has wrought upon our humanity and our world.

But such is the LORD that God has made provision to fortify the faith of those whose hearts are so inclined that all may indeed work for peace (and peace rightly understood).

Let me now share with you, my friends, my interpretation of the passage in Daniel 12. Far be it for me to be so bold as to presume, I will not suffer to forever hold my peace on something that has time and again proven itself to me as truth in my heart.

The signs of the times seem to me so obvious as to be compelling and since it involves all of us in all our nations, woe to me if I keep it from you. For if I see the danger lurking, if I see the enemy of our nations approaching, will I not cry out to you who share with me a common humanity?

I shall therefore entrust to you what I have long kept in myself and leave it to your discernment.

We have so far sought about this peace enough to understand that peace indeed is the craft of all nations. For in reality, all nations are responsible for each other.

Daniel 12 decisively places its emphasis on the importance of individuals in the healing of nations and the importance of nations in the healing of our failing world.

Time is 1000 years, Times is 2000 years, Half-a-Time is a 50/50 choice - shadow (uncertainty) being made half of light and half of darkness, we are in each our hearts presented now with a choice between war as a paradigm and peace as a paradigm.

The difference between the days in Daniel 12 which is 1290 days leading up to 1335 days being the year 2009 through to 2045.

Because as time flows from the timeless flowing from the Throne of the LORD in every human heart, the work of the heart (which is each individual human heart) always precedes the work of the earth (our X and Y Generations among all the nations, in particular from the three, great Abrahamic lineages).

2009-2012 denotes an initial period of awakening; a period set aside by God. This is most especially true for each of us today in 2011 - a year of choices.

Therefore, the necessary groundwork of effective peace-building both within as well as between our nation-states should be established within this time.

2012 shall be a turning point. How it shall come to pass depends on the choices we make today.

2012 is a time of testing. It is perceived as a burden of expectation and not of judgment. How decisive it shall be for us as nations depends completely on how decisive we allow ourselves to become here and now as individuals - to be present in the here and now for the peace and the peace properly understood.

When the sign appears, it shall be too late.

2012, if war is hastened, shall be calamitous. This hastening, if we shall at present choose to largely ignore the signs, shall be accompanied by fire from the sky which is a large-scale impact event. It is worth noting that in 2009, Jupiter was hit yet again by a Shoemaker-Levy type extra-planetary body.

In the order of grace, my friends, there is no such thing as a random event; that one particular year of years - 2009 - in the context of billions of years of time and space is not coincidental.

However, it must also be duly noted that the main emphasis of the passage in Daniel 12 is the deliverance that is being offered and not the global catastrophe that seem so foreboding in its inevitability with or without the assistance of a large-scale impact event.

An example of this kind of deliverance being Y2K as a non-event was already manifested in the year 2000 but was largely ignored or consigned to the imaginary realm of pure luck: That God delivers from evil, as in our Lord's Prayer, is never due to random chance, this was not learned by our nations in 2000.

It took 2000 (or 2009) years for this choice for peace to become comprehensible to our souls. But after this time, this choice shall no longer be a choice.

Were this same choice for peace presented to our nations at an earlier time than this present time, it would have been futile. For no nation before this time would have had the developed capacity to comprehend it meaningfully.

Therefore, if we in our nations are to willfully pass up this invitation to draw nearer to the LORD, during this season of peace - together this time, we shall no longer be without any accountability.

War which is the enemy of all nations, if we do not bind it today - together this time, shall be set loose upon our generations. And all of our living memory shall not even be enough to contain the remembrance of this destruction.

---<--@

The Quest for Peace in the Middle East

The roots of war is ancient. Therefore, who is to blame for the presence of war in the Middle East? No one. Who is to blame for the absence of peace in the Middle East? Everyone.

Now, what I mean to say when I write about the "siege of war" being broken only from the Middle East is that the epicenter of this interpretation is the Israel-Palestine or Palestine-Israel division in general and Jerusalem in specific.

My fellow Filipino compatriots, concerned as we are about the well-being of our own peace, we must also connect (in our minds and in our hearts) our own peace-building initiatives with that of Israel and Palestine.

And I also enjoin the citizens of those other nations longing for a better world to do likewise.

What shall it gain us to achieve a greater peace in our own lands if the labor of building up the (inhabited) earth which is the undertaking of all nations fails?

We must do what we can and work to become bigger than our own national interests.

---<--@

The Israel-Palestine/Palestine-Israel Division

What happened to you, O Israel -
pitted against your own soul,
a nation among nations
at war against thy own peace?

The past has been terrible,

but the night shall soon wane

the darkness shall fade forever

and the dawn shall arrive.

None shall be left in the night!

We will do this - together this time.

The everyday, ordinary Palestinian is like a seed caught in a storm. Indeed, they are as a people like so much seeds blown hither tither, seemingly at random, and mostly by forces beyond their control. But however strong the storm these seeds remain as seeds - in the quiet, waiting for its time to grow. That is the truth.

Now, the Palestinian people are not a perfect people.

But the Palestinian people is a nation. Therefore, there is nothing either on earth or in heaven that can prevent their emergence save their own rejection of this truth. Now, it is you, O Israel, who have helped them to embrace their own nationhood. Therefore it is you, O Israel, who must also stand with them. Do so now, O Israel, do so now.

It is the natural right of all nations to fulfill each their own potential as a particular undertaking of Country upon the earth. This right was not denied you. This right will not be denied them.

So turn now to your brother in unity. You must find it once again in your heart to accept their own humanity with your own. For there is a purpose and an order to all things under heaven, each in their own times and seasons under the LORD.

To reject this truth is to propagate the conflagration of the last great age of war. It is to prolong our suffering and to do this is not human and an inhuman nation is an abomination to God and to itself.

So let the climate of these times turn to the peace, all ye nations. This is our time.

Towards the morn, O ye nations,
towards that awakening dawn!
Towards the peace, O ye peoples,
towards the twilight of the new!
Towards the LORD, O ye numberless stars,
towards that promise made of old!
Towards the Light, all ye living lights
away from the darkness,
where all our roads,
lead back to you, Jerusalem.

It is difficult. But it is not impossible. Indeed, there are many things in the way of our returning to peace that are left to each our own free and human choice. But not war, O Israel, not war.

War is a spirit. It will most certainly prevent the emergence of peace in your region in Asia. The momentum of the last 2000 years will most certainly try to us all into a deadly complacency. For the siege of war may indeed only be broken from your region in Asia. And the beast knows it.

Let me tell you here and now, O Israel, that the blessings of the peace that awaits us all in this new age far outweighs all of these present anxieties. This is not beyond you. In fact, the choice now lies squarely within your reach.

If we work to achieve this necessary requirement under heaven, the enormous potential of the one family of the nations of Mankind shall become unleashed in the service of our common humanity: What once served the will of war shall now be brought into the service of the peace of the LORD, our God, for all Mankind.

We will find respite for our failing world - together this time.

It shall not be perfect before the Day. But it shall no longer be a labor wrought in bitterness and tears. So exercise prudence. Look for wisdom. Seek for justice and the healing of hurts. But you must pray. Pray now with an urgency. Pray now with an understanding of the times. Pray now with a knowledge of our hopes together in time. Pray now with the brightness and the force of a heart undivided.

Let us all pray now for the peace all nations even as we pray also for the peace of each our own. Let us all who desire a better world desire peace with all sincerity.

Finally, to help us understand the question that is now being presented to each our hearts do not look for answers before 2009.

For all of it, (time, times through to 2009) including the "war on terror", is one entire proposition, a plaidoyer if you will, that in the midst of the silence within our souls must, God-willing, incline us all to peace. Lest we forget.

All of it, God-willing, must lead each our hearts, willingly and freely, unto the LORD, our God, the one Sovereign of all nations.

In this way, in this age, which is different from all the ages before this one, we are all pioneers.

May it be so, O ye nations, may it be so, O beloved people Israel. Let us work our way through to 2012. Let us all work to complete each our own remembrances and and make the choice for peace today while it is still today.

No nation learns in isolation. No Country matures on its own.

Palestinian Christian, I believe in your nationalism:

Do not be deluded by the darkness that deceives

for the spirit of war lusts for all nations equally

but your unity is your nation's guarantee.

Do not be embarrassed. Do not be confused.

The God Who loves us all - He is the LORD of our Lord.

Therefore, in God through our Lord, Jesus Christ,

there is both a will and a way for all of us.

Be perfect in this way,

encompassing all things in your heart of hearts -

tolerate no division, no chaos, no enmity...

and all this for love of God and Country

and you will find rest.

The War in heaven is in the heart.

Your place in the Middle East is meant for better things,

much better things...

---<--@

Mabuhay po tayong lahat! God be with us all.

20101011

Protest

There are many newsworthy articles that I came upon in the last few days but only a few of them stood out. Among the few that stood out, one thing in particular caught my attention. This was the report that our fruit industry took an unexpected hit.

Apparently, our banana exports to the Middle East became an unwilling casualty of the row between the US and Iran. A prominent local paper reported last week that Iran refused to buy them. Iran is the biggest buyer of locally grown bananas in that region.

The fallout: 64,000 citizens will most probably lose their jobs; that's 64,000 heads of families and this close to the Christmas season, I personally do feel for my fellow Filipino compatriots - the littlest Filipino worker - a lot.

Let me just say that I very much disapprove of this quite inconsiderate act of state. And that through this post, I personally protest it as being squarely unjust.

While it is true that this Country is allied to the United States, the roots of our alliance are established upon the same foundations that built the United Nations of which my Republic of the Philippines is a founding member. As a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, the Philippines makes clear our principle that our alliances are built not upon war or aggression but upon peace and human community. And as a member of the ASEAN comity of nations, we stand by that same principle.

I myself am squarely in favor of peace and human community so that even if I am speaking here only for myself, in the democratic traditions of Philippine society, it is still representative of the good will of my nation as a whole. Because no nation on this earth may truly exist for war's own sake most especially at this crucial time in the history of our world.

It might just be that we are, as a nation, experiencing some difficulty at present. Long may our years have been but we are still an emerging endeavor of Country. We have yet, as a nation, to become reconciled with what virtue we may contribute for the good of all nations and also that all nations possess this same potential to contribute to the good of the world. And I would that we should not overlook this, my fellow Filipino compatriots: Never again must we think in terms of what darkness there is or how deep into oblivion it runs - for darkness that is deep is madness.

I think the Iranian people are a good people. Otherwise they wouldn't be here with the rest of us this far out into exile time. So let our own thoughts be focused on this - only on the things of the light - as we continue to complete our remembrances as a people - a nation distinct from among all the other nations of the one family of the nations of Mankind: Distinct but not apart.

Let us say to them: Peace, I salute you.

And understand that if we continue on this path, though there may be setbacks like this, though things may seem difficult, we will prosper. Because we will be fulfilling the promise we have been purposed for by the one Sovereign of all nations, the LORD.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

A little anecdote:

A fellow Catholic told me once that he left the Faith because of all the bad apples in the bunch. He told me that Hitler, Himmler and Goebbels were Catholic (or so he said) and to look at what they did.

Being very good friends with my Anne Frank, you should know by now, my fellow Filipino compatriots, that I am particularly sensitive to those things.

And indeed, I know what they did. I fully understand it. Indeed, I fully understand the depth of it. Because I am utterly repelled by it. The very spirit of it nauseates me. I see in it everything I ought by the grace of God not to be. For the evil in evil things does not inspire me to be good. It only serves to affirm in my heart what goodness I know there is. Only good things inspire me to be good. My Anne inspires me to be good. But evil itself inspires me not to be evil.

The thing about him, brothers and sisters, was that his sight was dead set on the darkness and how deep the darkness runs so he forgot about the Light.

He betrayed Peter because of Judas.

He left Christ because of Satan.

However wholesome and right these things may present themselves to the door of our hearts, we should never be inspired by evil inspiration -

Salutation #5

(Freedom)

PEACE, I salute you.

Even the smallest of lights
shines in the darkness -
so shift your focus, my friend,
if you haven't already done so
for each and every good thing counts
regardless of the darkness.

What is praiseworthy is right action.
It is what makes us distinct from the darkness -
it is ignition -
the actual point of contact
between human will and divine grace.
Right action is, in the painting by Michelangelo
of Adam reaching out to God
with their fingers extending out to each other,
that bright spark at the imagined point of contact
between the freedom of Man and the freedom of God:
Right action always results in good works.

What motivates the will to act
must also be what inspire the heart to love.
Therefore, evil action is always the result
of false inspiration -
the idolatry of sin!
So if we are to do good,
we must first learn to love the good -
and shun all that is evil.

For we profit not from evil,
my dear friend,
but from the good;
our motivation being derived
from purposes that are good,
our hopes being anchored upon things
that are true and therefore, good,
and the wings of our surrender to prayer
being ever vigilant and discerning
in its ascent
to the one Giver of all good things.

For evil no longer hold us captive.
We have come to know it
and forever bless the LORD for His Light.
Therefore, we seek now to unknow it
upon paths of repentance
that lead away from darkness
and into peace -
peace in our hearts -
peace with our fellow human beings -
peace with all of heaven -
and peace with our God.
---<--@

I continue to pray for peace...

...from star to star, one whole sky.

Lastly, brothers and sisters, it is not the seeming randomness of nature that impart virtue on human events but the freedom of Man cooperating with the freedom of God: This is a first principle truth.

Therefore, if you want to know if there was anything special to me about 10/10/10, well here it is -

Congratulations to all the 175K+ people who joined in on the 10/10/10 Run for Pasig River - what a splendid success it was!

It was truly a model of community participation in the national conservation effort.

Way to go, Philippines!