Cry in the Dark

It is terrible to recall
what we have done to each other
in the name of human progress.

More terrible still,
despite all the many atrocities
and the slaughter of so many of our innocents
   (unto whom we all did belong forever
   as citizens and as human beings to each other)
whose dignity and particular good we all did despise
and continue to do so, in continuing to so freely carry out
the very same acts that in spirit
committed to murder them -
the common fruit of so many of their gifts
we now suffer to deny ourselves
and continue to suffer to deny to ourselves
and to our common posterity -
in the Nation.

It is painful to see
that we have not gained a thing,
for their loss.

That we have forsaken so much
for not an iota of good.

And continue to do so
far, far into the night,
into a night without a twilight -
unto a place where the night itself
can not get any more darker than it is,
where the darkness may only deepen into madness,
comprehending not itself dark -
but light.

How much pain must we endure?

How much can we endure
before the pain itself our spirit forsake?

How many lives will it take to teach us humility?

How much darkness
must we call upon ourselves
to allow us to realize
all this blindness is sheer and utter madness;
that we are human after all - and that -
it is our own inhumanity to ourselves that is killing us all -
as a species of living soul entrusted by God
to shepherd the life of the earth!

For
is it not madness that - as living souls,
we did intend to carry out our own death
and bring about upon our own living world,
a swift and final desolation?

When will lukewarm hearts in the Nation arise as the day,
to a fierce and burning longing for Thy Peace?
When, O God of Peace...

It is terrible to know what we have forgotten - that -
at times, when my own remembrances of these things come to me,
I do not know what is more painful, to recall them
or to forget them.

Maybe I do not want to know anymore.
---<--@

The Question of Cain

Let us meditate a little more
on this war within the Filipino soul -

The absurdity of this war is
that it constantly propagates itself among our people,
multiplying the reasons why we should abandon our Nationhood,
when all the while, it is precisely this Nationhood
that can redeem us.

It feeds on the life of our beloved peoples,
overpowering the human spirit - from weak to strong.
It lies to our faces - that it means to do us good
and then proceeds to devour our children,
sparing none.

In war, the only winners
are those who learn its lesson.

War is the tutor.

Peace is the test.

And to pass this test
brings success.
---<--@

The Land of Nod

As a Nation, let us be reminded that to serve the power of our arms is to be slowly but surely crushed by its burden. If we continue the course, we might find a day when we realize we can not eat our weaponry nor this continued violence against our own Nationhood allow for our people the best and the brightest means to satiate our common human needs.

BUT we have in the past ceded the nature of this internal conflict to the power of arms, and sought to further invite this war among ourselves like it were a friend -

and so for decades, we fought over this war. 

That this so-called "friend" may by its power vanquish our hatred of others, our fear of their "otherness". (Is there such a thing as "otherness" in a soul that is one? We only mirror our own hate.)

And so we became enemies to ourselves. We fought until hatred and despair, themselves offspring to war, became another reason to fight. (Fighting for the sake of fighting alone is not a lineage that leads anywhere.)

We fought until attitudes of murder crept into our own self regard for the Filipino soul, and became as Cain. In ourselves we have come to also behold the person of the Adversary - in our brother, our fellow siblings to the one Nationhood.

If we are not careful, we will be like Cain - a fugitive to his own heart, restless for Justice yet unable to return to its source.

There is a certain kind of fear that dwells in the land of Nod, it is a fear of others - a fear that is not a tension of the respect - due to God and to our fellow human beings - that leads us in time to discover how to surpass its own limits - it is an inward thing, imploding and shrinking the soul of a person.

It is a fear that prevents common respect and human community and dwells in a restless land devoid of faith and trust, in God and Country.

Our Nation is proof against that fear, and restores Justice where Justice needs to be restored. Not the justice of Nod, but the Justice original to our Eden. (After all, did not the LORD give us our clothes? And more so, in the Gospels is found the greatest remedy to this restless fear - for the Seal of Christ dispels it - for Charity covereth a multitude of sins.)

We exist - in this particular regard - to do both the brothers Justice, Abel by Remembrance, Cain by the Love that lives within the compassion of our peoples - exemplified by our famed hospitality, our native trustfulness and willingness to give welcome to the person of the stranger; and the power to make of them - strangers to us no more.

The question of Cain is a question of Liberty.

Cain is not free to find it. So we do not expect answers from Nod. The answer is - in us - as citizens and keepers to our common humanity. And if we seek to do both the brothers Justice, then each of us must choose to remember - and then, to renounce the War that brought to the first generation of our Exile so much woe.

And a woe - let us recall to memory, terrible upon terrible, that we have had to live with ever since.

Nod is in the Unknown Earth. It exists in places where the Goodwill of our Peace - as one Nation and as one Family of Nations - have not yet taken firm root upon the soil of our world.

If we continue to allow this war in the soul of the Filipino to remain, we shall exile ourselves like Cain, and nothing that is lasting shall ever be built upon this world by our labors of Country for our Nation. And the fruits it shall bear shall always never be enough to nourish the goodness and the life of our people.

Nor shall we be any more good to other Nations than our chosen weakness - our fellow Nations who are kindred to us in this world - in the Truth - to whom we do rely and who also look to us for their reliance.

We shall as a people proceed upon the Unknown Earth as Cain, restless for Justice and thirsting for a true sense of belonging - yet fearful for our own Reliance - to God and Country; wanting to return yet unable to return - set apart from our Peace by our own lack of choice.

The question of Cain is a question of Liberty.

The Decalogue made it clear that murder is a transgression in the eyes of God - in beholding the Divine Law; this is universally recognized in the ethical codes possessed by the great lineages of the Children of Mankind and a common prescript reflected by the Law of the Nations.

In the time of Cain, the killing of Abel was murder - as an act of War. It was not Cain who did murder his brother. But it was he who opened the door of his heart to it. And "it" - the Advent of War - caused him to kill his brother - by his own hands.

At the onset of the Nations of the Children, the LORD introduced to the Nations through Moses and the faith of His Nation Israel, a common prohibition on murder. So in our days, murder is clearly and heavily sanctioned.

Because murder too was exiled to Nod - with Cain. And as we are - as Nations - called to gather all the Children of Mankind - in the way of our return to Peace - neither War nor its many offspring which are lies, hatred, pestilence, famine, murder and genocide - must have a place in our life and labors.

Yet where war is, there shall the shadow of its offspring linger. Is this war among ourselves our "friend"?

That we should mouth its lies,
partake of its ancient and relentless hatred for our common humanity,
clothe ourselves with its violence, and allow its adversarial spirit
to feed on the life and labors of our human communities -
only so that it may proceed to devour our children
ruin the order and purpose of our generations
and profane the peace of our communities.

The nature of this war among ourselves is such that it is an evil to us - only inasmuch - as we are - in ourselves lacking in the good. We are sufficient for the Peace we must profess. We should never be afraid of our own Reliance - to God and in each other.

War is, of course, a greater beast that the one we must together in this Nation confront.

But if we come together in this Nation of ours - in Peace, as a Nation - let us also understand, we are with other Nations together capable of staying the beast - as one Family we are able to build up a world that is better for Peace, through Love for common humanity and living Remembrance.

Nevermore shall the stirring in our spirits stir for War - but for the many hopes the past generations shall to us entrust, when we make our peace with their memory.

But first, we must end this War within ourselves by a free and human choice. (War chose us - it seeks for us to open the door of our hearts to it, we do not have to - there is really only one choice we have as a Nation - renounce it. Let Peace be our policy. Let us also wonder and be grateful at the foresight of the architects of our 1987 Constitution - are they not like us?)

I believe there are many opportunities these days to exercise citizenship with fidelity. And to be able to understand and to make this choice for Peace freely is a prime opportunity to do so.

Is it not good practice - to find the right questions - why our Nation must end this war, and let go of all the wrong reasons - how, and how may one proceed from choice - to civic efficiency - to human exercise?
---<--@

Practical Application -

Found here is the provenance where from the CARHRIHL is in spirit derived. The JASIG sought to draw the line upon the sand whereby we may together reverse the nature of the conflict.

That this line may only be realistically held under the flag of a robust and honorable truce is where the present difficulty lies. We shall overcome this difficulty or we shall be overcome by it.

Let us be for the overcoming. 

Amen, let us begin. May God continue to bless and aid our efforts - mabuhay!

Where is thy brother, Abel?

To a man with no sense of Remembrance, one hundred people murdered in war and one million people murdered in war makes no difference.

But to those who know of Sacred Remembrance - to save one life is to save all of Mankind.



The first time
Man ever saw in himself
the form of the Enemy was
when Cain slew his own brother, Abel.

This primordial sin of mortal division
that passing through the door of the heart of Cain
unleashed the adversarial spirit of the Enemy of all Nations
and upon our world, resulted in the first taking of a human life
marked the advent of War and the first loss of an innocent soul
as both violent conflict and murder were realized upon our world -
at the very same moment - for truly they are synonymous to each other.

Beloved Starshine -
the Soul of every single Man
when they are each endowed by God
makes fully human - and - fully complete
the seed of corporeal life that is fruit and blessing
of the consummation of the love of Woman and Man
wrought within the freedom of their Sacred Union in Marriage
at the very moment of its conception - to become a Living Soul -
a complete human being - united in body, soul, and spirit -

and as such, contains within it's being all the good and the promise 

that the LORD hath fully intended for that person to be and to become
in time, emerging upon the earth, a wonder and a work of completion
in the freedom of the Truth - for the greater purposes of God -

for Man is a creature of the becoming - a being invested in hope!

(Why do you think, Starshine, human parents plan ahead for their child?
God being Parent to His Children, also plan for their success - as is His right.)

So when God asked Cain, "where is thy brother, Abel?"
The LORD was not asking Cain about the whereabouts of his brother.
Indeed, God already fully knows where Abel went, for - in being with Him
the LORD asked of Cain where the life - the entire life - of his brother went
that he may come to realize the gravity of his sin - for all that Abel was - cried up
to the LORD from the ground and his blood wept for all the good that shall never be.

- selah -

A sapling felled
at the beginning its life will no longer yield it's fruits -
and yet these fruits shall still be required of us by the Master of Harvest
we shall then produce them by the improvements we make unto ourselves -
that - each of us - may hope to yield more for the Master of Harvest
but most of all, by the improvements we undertake to create in our communities -
that - all of us - may hope to yield more for the Master of Harvest
and by our Remembrance receive the blessings of His everlasting Peace
and by our God's faithfulness and mercy - succeed!
And that our joy may be full forever.

We wonder why the world is so troublesome and lacking in fruit...
How many trees have we lost since the beginning of our long march into Exile?

How many times
have the LORD asked our Nations
the same question he asked Cain at the advent of War?

And how did we respond?

- selah -

Every Nation of the Children of Mankind
are charged with a constant Remembrance of these things,
that we may together render faithful account of each human life
All in behalf of each other - all for the life of visible creation
with a Book of Memory, and a Burden of Justice to carry
and a Sword to guard - for each of thee - thy every generation well
and to charge them all - to remember always - from the very beginning
at the East Gate of faded Eden - the way of our return to an Eden rebuilt -
their constant Debt of Remembrance - to God and to each other -
that each is a keeper to another, citizens and human beings -
so that by each their labors, these thy generations may soon undertake
in behalf of each other - and - in peace with all other Nations
to make each their Soul of Country in spirit - ever brighter
by each their degrees of Love and Remembrance
and its every Ascent unto completion of All Country
in Ages together - ever more certain.
---<--@