20110808

Good morning Philippines!

And a very good Monday start of the working week to all.

It's a humid, overcast day out there, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, all my fellow Filipinos of every stripe, almost gloomy - but weather IS a relative thing - especially the weather we choose to live inside of ourselves.

"Establish within thy soul

an unyielding firmament of Day"

- Salutation #9, Perseverance

Keeping a perspective on things is important, O my nation, especially during these days of unprecedented change.

Truly we are a people guided much more by the steps of our hearts than by the fickle fashions of the spirit of the world.

The world outside of ourselves is undergoing so much change - in more ways than one, even the climate of space is shifting. Indeed there is much cause out there for needless worry.

But if we willingly place ourselves as a people together upon the original peace of our foundation, we shall not be harried so much by the storm that must pass us by, O my people, if only through sheer grit and conviction that we are one nation entire.

If we know who we are, no external weather system is going to cause our nation to derail itself from its long march eastward to destiny. Because this is the way back to our Eden rebuilt, O my beloved people, the way God has established for all human nations.

This is our return to promise.

- selah -

Unity is important to any emerging undertaking of Country.

Let us be encouraged by the recent dialogue between the GRP and the MILF.

Let us be mindful as well of the willingness of each our kindred nations across our needful world to provide us assistance - let us remember their kindness always.

This kind of remembrance will go a long way towards preserving our own sense of a prevailing national good will. Let us refuse to become evil-inspired and pawns to the relentless hatred of the enemy of all human nations.

Let us learn to keep our liberty, preserve its value, know its cost, and use it well.

Let us work to become individually informed as well as better involved in the vital processes that shall help to actualize the dream of unity for our Republic and peace for our nation.

And let us be altogether convinced that this peace is our only way forward into the miracle of national development; a miracle our people have deserved for so long.

Let us be vigilant about this peace, my honorable compatriots, bearing in mind and heart how easy it is to become sleepy and complacent about it. Few to none of us have ever known it in our lives to be empirically convinced of its merit.

Generally speaking, it is very easy to be lulled back into the deadly embrace of 2000 years of division in the human heart.

We must never allow War back into the abode of our souls with the LORD.

Indeed, all of us are now coming to perceive the void that is staring our failing world in the face to realize the existence of a better way, a road less traveled, as it were, an eastward way back to an Eden rebuilt; a way of return for our one family of the nations of Mankind.

This eastward way is guarded by an angel. And this angel shall require each of us to complete each our own remembrances as a nation distinct but not apart from our one family of nations. This angel shall query each of our hearts for the quality of our belonging as a people upon the earth; a nation under the LORD; a Republic with a soul of submission and a heart of peace.

My fellow Filipino compatriots, this is our road back to promise.

---<--@

The Twilight of Choices - The Milky Way Road

You can see how our other nations suffer from diverse things. We ourselves know some of their suffering. If we, as a nation, better ourselves - if we defy the sins that have defied our society in the past - we acquire from God the timeless lessons that shall help to heal our other kindred nations. In this way, we help our region, our continent, and our world - indirectly at first.

Look up at the night sky outside of your souls, my honorable compatriots, you know it in your own love that if we help ourselves, as we are doing now under President Noynoy and under this season of the Sky, we add to the strength of our one family of nations.

We no longer live in a void. We have chosen to be as the numberless stars. Indeed, if we shine all the more harder together, the nearer we get to the Light, the more we add to the strength of our one whole Sky.

---<--@

Your Prayers Here Please -

To all my brothers and sisters in the Promise - all the numberless stars of our Father Abraham, guided by the Light of the unity of the LORD and empowered by the one Peace of God - Let us pray for Syria - for an end to the spiral of violence, for Libya - for the protection of all its civilians from War, for Israel and Palestine like twins joined together in War or in Peace - may they both stand together in Peace rather than fall apart in War, for Egypt - for its own necessary searching for its soul of Country, for the United States - for the peace within her own self, may it prevail in the name of the common people, let us pray for the peace of all our nations.

To all my Brothers and Sisters in Christ and to my Holy Mother Church -

Let us put all these prayers in our hearts, in our rosary of hope, and above all, please take them all with you to Holy Mass as I will.

Finally, let us pray for the souls of Attorney Benjamin Pinpin of my home parish and for all the fallen warriors of our nation and of every nation in this crucial twilight of our nations awakening from the longest night of our needful world.

We will expedite his final hopes on earth.

"A Christian without prayer is like a soldier without a rifle."

Holy Father Dominic de Guzman, pray for us.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Healing Work

One Nation

War in the Heart

20110514

Salutation #9

(Perseverance)

TO EACH OF YOU,

my beloved brothers and sisters of the Promise

who are all my honorable Filipino compatriots -

with one heart, O my nation -

I salute you, peace.

The more we are tried in fire and humiliation,

the more persevering should be our peace -

The more the evil within all evil things

seeks to dominate our common will of hope,

and shatter our belongings with each other,

the more we should strive to become who we are -

a people of peace, strong for our togetherness,

together for our faithfulness in the truth

that we are a nation distinct but not apart

from the one family of the nations of Mankind.

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.

So must you preserve the peace within thy selves!

Establish within thy soul

an unyielding firmament of Day,

and preserve in thy hearts a shelter of law -

tolerate no division, no enmity, no chaos -

for in this world there is much evil and lawlessness

but the more this darkness seeks to encroach upon thy will

the more the scandal of evil shall with pleasure entice

the more you shall seek to this shelter as a shield

that you may be guided by reason and faith

and as the Day is separated by God over the Night,

you shall be made to prosper in Justice and in the right.

Let this shelter flourish in thy one heart of hearts,

all of you who hold true to thy love of God and this Country,

and let the evil in all evil things find no safe harbor in thy souls;

let its tongue be confounded in the Sanctuary of thy heart;

let its deceptions wither under the light of the truth;

let its malice and cruelty be brought to naught,

its schemes be turned into dust and ashes,

and its ambitions into nothingness.

For thou shalt will to extend this shelter of law

as a shield to the stranger, to the weak, to the voiceless,

to the dispossessed, the displaced, and the defenseless,

and thereby through thy own willingness,

find favor for this nation of ours

with the LORD of all nations -

the God of all mercy and infinite compassion!

---<--@

The War on the RH Bill

There is a "war" of words going on between the proponents and the opponents of the RH Bill. And its getting downright nasty.

My fellow Filipino compatriots, I am decidedly against the RH Bill.

I have made this position clear in my previous posts.

But I am also against this dividing spirit. In fact, I am more worried by the outcome of this division than by the outcome of the debate itself.

If we should fall, O my people, may we always land on our feet united in heart.

Entire nations have an ability to make mistakes, let there be no doubt about that. For in such a way are entire peoples tested in spirit.

But if our hearts become divided - RH Bill or not - not will we only fall, we will be crushed by its height.

A nation with War in its heart - a people without its peace - feels itself paralyzed for fear that it can not afford to make mistakes and is therefore struck down by God Himself.

There needs to be humility in the fight for the purposes of God will always prevail.

What if the RH law is passed? Shall it serve to make these divisions permanent?

What if the RH bill does not receive quorum in Congress? Shall it serve to also make these divisions permanent?

We should be mindful of our ultimate loyalties to each other as citizens. We should be aware of the humanity in our words - for we are speaking to each other in terms noble and human, being mindful that we all want what is best for this Country.

I fear the shift in our culture that will be brought about by the RH law will eventually serve to shape it into a form that is foreign to our people.

But I am more concerned about the internal divisions that will render this culture irredeemably stony and hard, fragile against any force of truth and unyielding against the will of any form of law at all.

Therefore, if this RH bill is passed into law, I shall endeavor to do my utmost to overturn it. But I will always remain within my loyalty to this Republic undertaking, true to my faith in God, and to the great democracy of our people.

For Man is able to live even under the yoke of evil laws. But without law, Man is unable to live at all.

---<--@

The 2nd Cause: The Cause of Law - Unity

Law in the service of Sacred Life.

A law that serves is one that is observed. One must first observe the law who desire to gain from its original intention. In this way, law is no respecter of persons but is above all persons.

Therefore, if any human community is to benefit from the intention of law, then it must first be willing to apply itself to its prescripts and to ensure that the rule of law both extends to all and applies to all (which is effective promulgation and civic participation founded on effective civic education respectively).

What precedes this necessary observance is an inherent public trust of whose original domain is founded at the very foundations of law.

To be sure, law was something inspired by God in Mankind having variously revealed it to our humanity throughout Salvation History as a sign of our LORD's manifest will to lead all hearts to the truth.

It is an extension of His good will for all nations.

Since the purpose of Justice is the restoration of the original ideal, Justice by its own virtue seeks to preserve and to promote what goodness there is.

We are then left with the reality of evil.

Now, the intention of law is to bind evil - to deter, deflect, deny, and expose it.

Therefore, the purpose of law is to preserve and to promote goodness also but this law achieves by the discouragement of evil acts.

Law is an adaptation of human reason. If gives a necessary form and shape to our reason. It shapes the social consciousness and civic conscience of entire nations.

A law that is unreasonable is not a law but a tyranny of words.

One can make a law against the preservation of life but this is essentially offensive to the spirit of law.

For law in and of itself has its limits. It must first be founded on something limitless to make it meaningful.

In such a way is the 2nd Cause related to the 1st Cause - Sacred Life.

Only in this light can we meaningfully perceive the saying -

"Those who have less in life should have more in law."
---<--@

On Illegal Immigration

In my own view, there can be no such thing as an "illegal immigrant", only the act of illegal immigration may be sanctioned by law.

You can undo the act but not the person: Love the sinner not the sin.

The thinking that inclines the mind to believe that a human person is somehow illegal (given that this entire universe is our one human habitation) is in itself unlawful and leads to those forms of injustices that add to the burden against which law itself must continually guard and fight against.

And this is true not just in the U.S., who is by far the most visible Country presently grappling with the issue, but is true for all nations, including our own.

Every nation to a certain degree must deal with forms of illegal immigration both from within ourselves (e.g. "informal settlers") and with other nations.

The way we, as a nation, treat human beings (especially the weakest and the least) and the way our laws treat human beings are intertwined because of the fact that our laws shape the way in which our society thinks to believe itself to be.

As such, law by itself is not sufficient.
---<--@

Preserving and Representing the National Good Will



My fellow Filipino compatriots, in the midst of all our necessary affairs as a nation - and they are many indeed - let us not forget our common duty of personal and national good will to our other kindred nations of our one family of nations:

Let us pray for peace in Libya and the safety of the Libyan nation.

Let us also pray for peace in Egypt and the safety of the Egyptian nation.

Let us never forget that region in Asia so wanting and needful of peace and that our own peace process is connected to the peace of that region.

For if we desire peace for other nations, we must first possess it.

And if we truly desire peace for ourselves, we must first work to gain it from God - here in our one heart of hearts.

Let us also continue to pray for Japan in her work of healing and rebuilding and for Mexico who is fighting a vicious conflict against drug cartels.
---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The Two Questions