#07 In Defense of Minorities

"IN THE EYES OF GOD, the angels and the one family of the nations of mankind, how we treat our Muslim brothers and sisters here in the Philippines, most especially in this present time, is a very visible sampling of our general attitude toward minorities in this Republic."

Sequence #07 of the Pax Pilipinas Series

The mosque in front of the Baclaran Shrine of our Lady of Perpetual Help is in such a central place in our Country as well as in the hearts of our fellow brothers and sisters on the Way, it shames me as a Roman Catholic Christian to see it in that state of disrepair.

This is a part of our response to a common need of the highest order, meaningful existence. For as long as silence is kept by their muezzin in respect for both our mutual calls to prayer, I see no reason why this holy place should linger on like this. For this is another reflection of our general attitude toward minorities in this Republic.

Separatism draws it's most valid arguments from these kinds of evils and instead of blaming them, we should address their grievances. One who knows the joys of a living faith should respect those who are pursuing the same means towards our one last end even though they might not appear similar to one or the other. Lest why hold fast to the principles of monotheism? We might as well believe that the Allah of Islam is another god separate and distinct from the Christian God and that the God of our Jewish brethren and sisters is a third god and so forth and so on, I tell you, my good friend, the idolatry will never end.

Please refer to entry: On the Most Holy Trinity, Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus

Once again, what do we owe them? What can we do without betraying the greater hopes of the one Filipino people, the national ambition of not just Christians but of a number of Filipino Muslims as well. Is this not a greater good which, though not eliminating the lesser good, should command our loyalties to labor together to make all of these goods align towards the one purpose for which they were all provided by our one infinite and most beneficent Provider. Conflict without thought to all of this is nothing but endless battle, and endless battle is the descendant way of war, a gravity of division, discord, dilution and dissolution that shall only lead to one final destination, the ultimate annihilation of entire human nations and the damnation of the immortal souls of those who freely and willfully choose in their own selves to descend down this slippery slope with Satan and his demonic horde.

Of course, hunger is the first thing on our list of common needs and it goes down the line according to their order of possibilities. To start from the top is not only meaningless but impossible to do without addressing the previous needs first. However, bearing in mind that all of these needs are equally important in the life of our common humanity, let us also understand that the first need is the most common need but the last need is the most significant need and therefore, none of them should be overlooked because all of them are not only interconnected, they are interdependent. To dissect them by separately picking on their parts is to miss the whole point. They are as a whole meant not only to save from despair our suffering humanity but also to build our national communities into stable platforms that make true human liberation possible from this midnight world of endless battle and probational suffering.

Thus do we move to help our Holy Mother Church with the whole of blessed Christendom and all the honorable religions of the world sanctify the hopes of the needful nations of mankind, our beloved Filipino nation in particular, laboring to restore them to their original purpose as pure vessels of the life of our humanity that bear all of sacred life by great sheltering wings of peace along with all of our generations across this vast, midnight desolation of war into the shores of our LORD's forever.

Not as common hopes forsaken of shared human values of a nation profaned by the darkness of the beast, of a people enslaved by the paradigm of war, their particular endeavor of Country willfully turned into misguided instruments of hatred and/or stinking cesspools of material corruption can any nation of the one family of the nations of mankind hope to achieve this and it is here that we find ourselves at this moment within a pause in exile time; the void of the threshold of the third Christian millennium.

Please refer to entry: On Corruption, On War, The Nature of the Fight

Let us all bear into mind what our LORD told our patriarch Noah after the flood about our accountability for Country and see how severe our LORD really is with regards to the regential authority given by Divine Providence to those who are to govern their peers:

"I WILL DEMAND an accounting: from every animal I will demand it, and from man in regard to his fellow man I will demand an accounting for human life.

If anyone sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; For in the image of God has man been made.

'Be fertile, then, and multiply; abound on earth and subdue it.'"

Genesis 9: 5-7

How do we subdue this earth but through Country? Not as individual human beings in our own peculiar littleness, brokenness and vulnerability can we ever hope to obey this divine command. But who is being subdued by who? It is we who are to subdue this world, and not the other way around. For this is our divine responsibility as the common people and ultimately speaking, in a Republic citizen-state, are we not all the common people being the one community of the common citizenry? Let us recall into mind the similitude of the shape of the eternal Republic:

"IN THE REPUBLIC, our peace is like the calm of the waters for this calm is descriptive of the equal order of our Republic citizen-state with Almighty God as the Sun above our native sky, shining upon our labor of Country, an endeavor of all our generations across time and dimensional space with waters clear enough and sunbeams sharp enough to enable the will (and therefore, empower the choices - fostering an authentic sense of human freedom) of the lowest of the low of our common citizenry. Therefore, to disturb the waters of our Republic means to say to disturb our one Republic peace."

- Excerpted from entry: On Our Internal Peace Process

Therefore, let us be consoled by the words of our Blessed Savior when He told us that we shall be known as His disciples if we love one another as He has loved us - because if we must love God, we must also love others in God as true self - and this is not hard to do, all we have to do is to give - and to begin to give one must open the eyes of his heart into the heart of God that one may see what is truly worth seeing in his fellow men and women, especially our Lord's poor, and God will do the rest. Thus do we rest in our sufficiency being in our hearts without guile, referring all things to God.

Let's start caring about each other, admit to our lack and recognize our shared humanity and recall always to mind, my honored Filipino compatriot and good friend, that the secret of our freedom is in the giving, for only in the giving shall we truly become free.

---<--@ for promise of every nameless Filipino life whose innocence was cut short by war's evil ambition...

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Sancta Sanctis!

Alfredo Maria Aranda Obviar, Servant of God, pray for us.

Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.

"AND THE KING will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.'"

- Matthew 25: 40

Next: Sequence #08: On Effective Unit-Work