Salutation #57

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.

(What if?)

What if next year,

we draw a line in our hearts

- together this time -

and agree to belong again

as human beings and citizens to each other

under Almighty God

as one nation?

What if next year,

we leave the darkness of the past 2000 years

completely behind us?

What if next year,

we let go of our divisions

and hold on to our belongings

to each other instead?

What if next year - we begin again -

the labor of building upon the strength of our nationhood

and work to unify our one Republic peace?

What if next year,

we learn to reach out to each other

- more and more - as Filipinos than as anything else?

What if next year,

we make an effort to understand the plight of our minorities?

What if next year,

we stop making fun of the least of our brother and sister Filipinos

and try to share with them the meekness of our spirit?

What if next year,

we capitalize on the freedom of our gifts

and work together to build a better Philippines?

(On an election year: What if next year,

we work together to ensure a free and fair election?)

What if next year,

we mark the beginning of our labor of hope

and the end of our labor of tears?

- selah -

It will not be easy.

The taming of the unknown earth

- was meant to be difficult -

and the building of the inhabited earth

- shining with a myriad living lights -

near impossible.

The peace that we are tasked to observe

- one with the other - is not a perfect peace.

There will be adversity

and there might also be conflict...

But deep may this long night be,

my brothers and sisters of the Promise,

its darkness shall yield to our unity

for the darkness is but the darkness

if it does not lead to the truth.

Let us always remember,

we are a forward thinking nation!

And a forward thinking nation

is a nation guided by the light of its own truth.

---<--@

May Peace be in Egypt -

"A warlike Republic may seem unified but where the foundations by which the State unifies it's elements are not only unjust but also untrue, it shall never advance to fruition."

My beloved brothers and sisters of the Promise -

Let us pray for the unity of Egypt and for the Christian minority in that land...

Truly, the evolution of the Egyptian Republic shall not be easy. For all undertakings of Country is a labor vehemently opposed by the spirit of division.

But if they must succeed, they must do so by securing the 4th Cause and closing the gate of their Country against the spirit of oppression that wages a constant war against the weakest and most vulnerable portions of their common citizenry.

For if their Republic allows this horseman a free hand upon their land, it shall work its way from the weak to the strong and shall mean to one day overthrow even the noblest of their folk until - by and by - there shall be no one left to defend the liberty of that Republic.

So let the peace of Egypt be in our prayers - for all Egyptians.

And I especially ask my own Roman Catholic brethren and sisters to take this prayer to Holy Mass this Sunday - may Peace prevail in Egypt and in the Middle East!

---<--@

No State exists to fail but all States that fail exist only for itself.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! Mabuhay ang Republika ng Ehipto! God bless us all.

Exceeding the Defense

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

20110729

Salutation #44

(Interdependent Human Community)

To my one Filipino nation -

all my brothers and sisters of the Promise,

peace - mabuhay.

Our one Republic is part of a great family of nations,

each engaged in the labor of building up the earth

as its own undertaking of Country,

of this we can be sure, my honorable compatriots,

especially in this new age of interdependent human community -

no Country matures on its own,

no nation learns the truth about itself by itself alone,

above all, our failing world can not long endure the darkness ahead

without the LORD, the God of all nations.

For the Peace of the LORD is our pledge of unity

and this unity is the guarantee of our victory

- as nations dreaming together this time -

against the darkness in our midst

wrought by the War in heaven

and division in the human heart.

- selah -

Therefore,

In this house, in this Country,

my fellow Filipinos -

we shall serve the cause of our victory.

Glory to God in the highest!

Adoration to Jesus Christ the Lord.

Peace to our nation and to all our kindred nations.

Good will to all men and women of peace.

---<--@

A Picture of War in the Heart

During the Holocaust, in Auschwitz, there is an old picture of the selection process where people who were to live (at least for the time being) and people who were to die at the gas chambers were sorted immediately upon their arrival by the camp authorities.

This is for me by far, the best pictorial representation of War in the heart.

It is a spirit which is still very alive in our world today. It is the bane of all nations. It will surely prevent us from entering into this new age in peace.

But we are not without help for we have God and we have each other - as human beings and as human nations, citizens and keepers, each to the other.

---<--@

An Example of Human Solidarity -

It was reported in Egypt, during the recent upheavals that delivered that great nation to a return to promise, that when the Muslims prayed, the Christians protected them, and when the Christian prayed, the Muslims protected them.

I salute you, honorable Egyptians, for this necessary example of the shape of things to come for my Country as well. May both our nations be blessed by God with peace and prosperity as we write a brave, new chapter of our history together as a noble undertaking of Country upon the earth, thank you - mabuhay!

My fellow Filipino compatriots -

Let us bear into mind and heart the example of brave Egypt and, despite what darkness there is in our midst, consider once again our own national minimum:

A Filipino is a Filipino is a Filipino.

All honorable religion comes from the reality of God, my noble Republic of the Philippines, its fruits make us human.

Therefore, prayer itself is a common human need.

It is a need (like hunger, thirst, etc.) protected by the Eternal Law of God and by the law written in our heart of hearts.

This is most especially true within the Abrahamic Peace we share as Christians, Jews, and Muslims together and is the engine of our national progress as human beings and as citizens to each other, as Filipinos.

---<--@

Mabuhay po tayong lahat! Peace. Salaam. Shalom. God bless all His nations of the one family of the nations of Mankind.

The National Minimum

Promise of Old

Healing Work

20110619

PEACE be with you, Starshine -

Words are but empty vessels if they are to remain without meaning for you.

Just the same, in everything you say or do, Beloved of God, do not remain hollow - because you must practice, you must pray.

Now then, didn't you know the best prayer of all is Holy Mass?

To learn the heart of this most important of all Christian prayers ask your local parish priest for a Catechesis of the Holy Mass today - and then pray...

For prayer is an attitude of the heart present to the Presence of the LORD of all hearts - it is a sense of connectedness (unity) we must fight to always maintain in ourselves, Starshine.

In this sense, prayer is battle (2725, Catechism of the Catholic Church).

And it must naturally lead our heart of prayer toward a deepening sense of inter-connectedness (community) with each other as human beings and as citizens of all creation.

For in prayer is Peace because its results are the works of peace.

Pray, pray, pray therefore - pray for all Mankind, my most precious Starshine - pray for all our poor, broken nations, know of their needs intimately in thyself, tolerate no division, no chaos, no enmity in thy heart of hearts and let us storm the one God of all heaven and earth with our common human hopes -

Today is Holy Trinity Sunday.

On Prayer

AS A RULE, my precious Starshine,

prayer is always more

than the sum of all that we can see

with our unseeing eyes.

A soul in prayer is a heart present to its thought;

a walk across the vast, empty deserts within;

a reaching out to places beyond self;

a looking above from within.

It is silence contemplating Silence -

alone with the Alone.

It is a growing, persevering,

often times frustrating work

born of great necessity,

out of thy love of God.

Prayer is an ascent to the timeless,

anchored upon ageless truth,

of all the things we love

and of the Love that all created things hope for,

most especially by the truth of thy heart of love,

and of thy faith yearning to God in prayer.

The way to God is a crooked line,

for we are all but human.

But the way of prayer

makes this way certain.

For the soul that perseveres in prayer

shall indeed profit

from the LORD Who rewards all things,

great and small, known and known to God alone,

when done out of love and fear

of the one common Creator

of all common creation, seen and unseen.

It is not only important that we pray,

and persevere in this way, my precious friend,

in private, above all in community with each other,

it is simply necessary for human happiness

and the well-being of the still small truth that lives,

like a mustard seed,

inside of every self

for all things true and everlasting

depend on a heart of prayer.

Prayer is spiritual.

Therefore,

there are seasons within the soul that range

from sweet to dry or empty

but never must thy heart stay still,

you must gather when it needs gathering

and to know also when to look beyond these seasons;

you must be vigilant,

pressing on till you reach the heart of God

to lay your hopes in the LORD.

So prayer may be long

or it may be short

but it must always be timeless,

its substance is the motion

that lives like a love longing for Itself.

And when the Silence shall to your bowed heart speak,

It shall do so swift as light,

being Spoken without words

and instantly manifest to your soul as winged truth -

then you shall seek to forget all other things

but God and God alone.

And in God you shall range far,

self cognizant of self,

intimate with the Intimate,

to dwell in holy remembrance of all things.

For far may your wandering heart be

but to love and in Love

you shall forever remain

when you shall in prayer persevere.

So do so, dearest Starshine,

and say AMEN:

Know for thy own self

why the heart that believes

believes only because it prays.
---<--@

(produced 20090223)

Salutation #16

(Salutation to all Christian minorities among the nations)

To all our Christian communities, Peace.

Take courage,
my beloved brothers and sisters,

peace be with you!

Let us remember each other

as we heed the call of Christ

Who upon the mount of Tabor
was Transfigured into glory
that we may see beyond time
into the timeless brilliance
of our great Home in eternity.

Let us be meek like our Savior
and seek shelter in His humility
Who upon the mount of Tabor
by our witness of a living faith
was Transfigured into glory
to unveil for us,

our Christian hope
and give courage in adversity -
"Arise, be not afraid." (Mat 17: 7)

God is our surest Refuge!

We include you in our hearts,

my beloved brothers and sisters,

our prayers constantly reach out to you
asking the LORD for His mercy
that we may always together endure

for God alone provides

and His grace alone is sufficient.

Though you may feel alone

at times, O Beloved of Christ,

surely, you must know

in your heart of hearts

our baptism is for always.

Ever in God then,

my beloved brothers and sisters,
in time and in eternity

we are but

one Communion of Saints.

Ever to God then,

my beloved brothers and sisters,

toward peace and brotherhood

and the unity of God's Perfection

where your hope becomes our hope

your virtue becomes our virtue

your sin becomes our penance
whatever helps you helps us
whatever hurts you hurts us
your gladness being our gladness
your sorrow being our sorrow
for we are but one bread,
one Love, broken for others.

Hold fast to the peace of Jesus
for His peace is our abundance
and the abundance of Christ is life
being the promise of eternal bliss
revealed in the Most Holy Trinity
as the truth of the most high God
unveiled in the Father and the Son
and in the unity of the Holy Spirit -
one God that transcends all time
one Truth that illumine all truth
one Will that fulfills all our being
one Being that sustains all of life
one Love that gathers us together
like a love ever longing for Itself:
one blessed, triune Perfection!

Alleluia, my brothers and sisters,
distance is no longer a tyranny
nor separation bear it's sting
to every Christian who trusts
in the Name of Jesus Christ
Who is Emmanuel, God with us.

Alleluia, Amen to Christ, Alleluia.

---<--@

Let us pray especially for our brethren and sister Christians in the Holy Land. For the Holy Land is a special place. And the Christians in the Holy Land are a special people.

Let us therefore, extend to them willingly our hearts and hands.

Let us bear in mind and heart this day, all human minorities of whatever distinction from among all our nations, peace - mabuhay!

And also let us pray for Dondon Celestino Lanuza, an OFW on death row in KSA.

Mabuhay po tayong lahat! God bless all His Christian communities.

God Encompassing God

O LORD,

God encompassing God,

God encompassing All in Thyself!

O LORD,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -

Blessed Unity,

Holy Trinity,

Perfect Company!

O LORD,

there is none but Thee,

there is none like Thee!

O LORD,

Thou art from everlasting to everlasting -

in Thee All draw their being,

in Thee All draw their living life,

in Thee there is no shadow of turning,

in Thee there is neither darkness nor Night,

in Thee there is joy, abundance and peace,

in Thee there is only love and the Light!

O LORD,

Thou desire salvation for all beings

to Whom shall all needful souls turn to,

my God, but to Thee?

O LORD,

Thou art the one Sovereign of all nations

unto Whom shall Thy exile peoples return to,

my God, but unto Thee?

Abide in us, O LORD, be with us!

Be the God of our lives, our families,

and our national communities!

O Goal of all my goals,

I love, I trust, and I adore Thee!

---<--@

Our God, O my beloved of my heart, is a God of relationships - One, Triune Perfection!

20110520

Reviving the Middle East Peace Process

I was able to tune in last night to CNN in time to see President Obama's speech on the Arab Spring and the Middle East Peace Process.

I am no longer going to mince words about my convictions on the Middle East Peace Process.

There is a necessary shape that our family of nations must take in order for us to enter into the right door that will lead to the right future.

If our nations are presently conflicted, if America herself is presently conflicted, it is because this necessary shape is being presented to our hearts.

We know our common hope - we desire a better, brighter, kinder world for all men, women and children of all the nations of the one family of the nations of Mankind.

We desire peace, equality, freedom, justice, and prosperity enough to (at the very least) reach our own particular UN MDG's which are markers set in real terms to measure the growth of these ideals.

And now that the path that leads up to this hope is being presently revealed to our nations, we are becoming conflicted.

We are conflicted

and understandably so

because it is a path of peace - a road less traveled, as it were.

It is a heretofore unknown path - an ascendant, mountain way.

Because the necessary shape that must now permeate the prevailing order of the times (which is required as an adaptation to the new age) is simply

the shape of peace and peace as a paradigm whole.

We are now coming to the realization that our world must completely break away from the momentum of the last 2000 years and formally forsake the familiar but deadly gravity of

the last great age of War.

Lest we should not only get more of the same, it shall be dealt to us in magnitudes previously unknown to our remembrances.

My beloved friends, peace is the necessary shape. It is the one key that shall unlock the hidden promises of the new age before us.

If we are hesitating here today, this is good. B

ecause in this quest for a new age of peace, w

e are all pioneers.

This is why we are conflicted.

Now, I am of the conviction that the Middle East Peace Process is vital and must be concluded on paper under President Obama's watch.

Because a large part of this necessary shape depends on the Middle East Peace.

Indeed, the path that a mature America needs to take goes right through the Middle East Peace Process.

My fellow Filipino compatriots, this

too is our path.

As you know, our own Philippine Peace Process is part and parcel of a larger global movement which though complex, I have endeavored to present to you through this blog.

The whole world is shifting, not just us, and things are speeding up toward 2012.

(I have been trying to discern these things for years and have both Scriptural as well as empirical basis for most everything I am presenting here. Why I should do this is no longer a question I ask myself - it simply must be done.)

Our particularity as a nation distinct is entirely worth defending. But so too are our alliances with our friends just as equally worth fighting for.

We are to walk the way of peace and not only because we are allied to America (by irrevocable ties of blood and fire) but because we must remain true to the nation in ourselves: This we do by honoring our citizenships with each other as well as our covenant bonds with all the other nations of the one family of the nations of Mankind (represented in and by the United Nations institution).

And we must work out an understanding of this in ourselves: We must work out a conviction in our hearts that seeks to embrace all things in unity and in peace whether between ourselves as a community of citizens or between our nations as a a global community of wholes.

We live in a divided nation in a divided world but this external reality does not have to reflect the aspirations we should now maintain in our selves.

We are no longer part of the last great age of war.

This is why I have stressed the importance of keeping our mind and heart both on the goal of achieving the peace here locally as well as contributing to the larger peace processes specifically the one in the Middle East.

Because this particular perspective introduces us to our own potential as a nation distinct as well as to our own place as a contributing partner to the peace of other nations and breaks us out of our insular thinking within as well as without.

For we can no longer afford to be insular or xenophobic in a world of interdependent national communities.

We must be equally and openly committed to our nation as well as to our friends.

Or we should at least have informed opinions about the matter.

---<--@

My Concept on the Middle East Peace

I am naturally aligned with America on the Middle East Peace Process.

The only difference is that I am predisposed to deal more fairly with the Palestinian Cause.

I regard the Palestinians, by the sheer nobility and valor of their own adherence to their belongings to each other, as a nation endowed by God with all the inherent rights of nationhood.

I am putting my trust in the right things being motivated only by the good things I recognize and remember in both the nation of Israel and in the nation of Palestine.

I refuse to be by evil inspired.

I reject terrorism and the use of wasteful, needless violence on innocent civilians from any side, in any nation, at any time.

I reject illegal forms of waging war. I realize the evil of the spirit of war should be securely bound by laws national as well as international.

I am also naturally committed to the security of modern Israel as an undertaking of Country as well as to the nation of elder Israel as a whole.

I have sought to understand both their hopes. I have also sought to frame these hopes in the context of the times and in light of the prevailing climate of peace.

I regard the will of division itself as the enemy of both a secure Israel which I shall define here as an Israel at peace within and without herself and a young and resurgent Palestine, reintroduced anew to her own potentiality and promise as a Country entire.

I regard the relationship between Israel and Palestine as completely and utterly unique with no precedent in history and therefore am not bound by the limitations of the past in terms of finding solutions that contribute to a meaningful, sustainable, durable peace.

I will adhere to the 2009 Limit of the Times based on Daniel 12 and consider the entire time preceding 2009 as a one whole argument in favor of peace and peace as a paradigm whole.

I support -

1. A contiguous Palestinian National Territory built from 1967 borders w/ negotiated land swaps.
2. The Special Status of Jerusalem and the Concept of Secondary Capitals.
3. The Protection of the Jewish Majority status of Israel and the Recognition of the Rights of Minorities in both Israel and Palestine.
4. Provisions for the Care and Special Status of Palestinian Refugees.

And after the conclusion of the formal peace process on paper, I support -

1. A Two States, One Destiny Concept that works to preserve the uniqueness of the relationship between these two Countries on a Nation-First basis that puts their politics squarely in the service of each their respective nations.
2. The establishment of bilateral Nations-First agreements between Israel and Palestine on security, trade and knowledge exchanges.

---<--@

On the Arab Spring

It is the desire of the common people that have wrought for the region this moment.

The hopes of the least, so prone to become lost in the chase must be all the more perseveringly brought to both mind and heart at this time that it may remain present when the newness of things become established into the prevailing order of things.

My own Country is not new to mass movements of human hope.

May peace prevail in the region.

---<--@

Let us each continue to pray for peace according to the freedom of our faiths. And let us each continue to work for peace according to the freedom of our gifts.

Mabuhay po tayong lahat! God bless all our nations.

Support Sanity in the Middle East.

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

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I am just going to speak to you freely about some things here...

Some of the things I am feeling I find difficult expressing in words. Because if I do, they will become distorted. Usually, these things just need a little more time. But sometimes, they do not need any form of expression at all. Regardless of which it is, what I put down I must put down or else not at all.

But let me tell you of what I am feeling instead of what it is all about. You know that line between patience and impatience; where anxiety meets daring right at the confluence of faith and hope. I am there. Because, my fellow Filipino compatriots, the world is speeding up again.

You know that holiday lull, that sense of a calm in the storm? It's over now and the calm that we felt we now realize was the calm right at the beginning of it.

Moreover, we can no longer afford to be insular in our thinking as a nation. I know this thinking because I used to have it. Before I left for overseas, I thought Filipinos were all there is to our world.

But our world is a community of peoples - a family of nations.

And it is getting smaller in a sense that we must be able to take it all into our mind and hearts to understand how we fit in and how to go forward from where we are.

What's happening in Egypt seems far but it is no longer so. We must remember we are now presently living at a transition into a different age; a twilight if you will, and that in this twilight, it is so easy to be lulled into a deadly complacency.

What we have discovered so far about ourselves as a nation seems easy to dismiss. For they are mostly immaterial in nature. But the work of the heart always precedes the work of the earth. Indeed the calamities we must now face on a planetary scale have all precipitated from a neglect of these same things.

I know that there will be those who will find their security in complacency; that there are those who will deny themselves the effort and the concentration to even attempt to understand the work that is being proposed to us. Indeed I am fully aware that there will be those whose hearts God will harden. It is written.

But it is not for the unwilling that I am writing, it is for you - my fellow Filipino compatriots - for us and for all those other free and willing citizens of our kindred nations in general - all the people of the peace - so that what belongs to you might always be yours in peace and good will. And that we all (including myself) might become better for it - as a nation, indeed as one family of nations.

For in my heart, O my nation, as I know you do, the colors I have chosen to wear is that of our Old Defiant. So I will have nothing to do anymore whatsoever with that Old Compliant: I reject the lie of war (and its train of social and personal sins along with it). Therefore, I must tolerate no division in my heart and strive to constantly uphold the honor of the LORD in my soul. For the LORD is God and He alone is God, one, peerless and eternal: My one, triune Perfection.

So what is happening in Egypt affects us indeed. Therefore, may peace reign in Egypt. May the people over there including our fellow citizens find safety. Above all, may peace reign in the Middle East and in our native Philippines. Let us not forget to put these in our prayers to God today.

We do not have to exceed our promise nor must we hold back on it: We are one whole sky after all, my honorable compatriots.

Today is the first day of World Interfaith Harmony Week: Try to learn something about those who are different from you and use this learning to enrich your sense of our nation today and all this week.

For me particularly, I think the Muslim hijab (head dress) is a beautiful thing. As a Roman Catholic Christian, I see it as a true symbol of a woman's right to choose; it is a practice that encapsulates a freedom that is not license; a responsible freedom; a freedom that leads to good things; a freedom that is pleasing to God Who Himself is free.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Forward Thinking