#11 The Peace of Ramadan

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Sequence #11 of the Pax Pilipinas Series

Far be it from me to oppose official government decisions, but for the sake of our common interests as one Filipino nation, where I believe I can add to the national debate, especially concerning peace with our Islamic compatriots, I feel I should express to you, my honored Filipino nation, what is in my heart:

Ramadan carry great significance to Islam. It is their season to be intimate with the Intimate. As Christians, regardless of denomination, we should not be the last to understand what joy it is to have a living relationship of faith in and with God through God's love in each and every one of us. We have our own seasons, this is their time.

If we are to be truly sensitive to the needs of our Islamic brethren and sisters, we should show them that even conflict itself will bend it's course in deference to those holy things and holy days consecrated to the one, holy and eternal God of our Father Abraham.

Let us give to them our peace and let us learn to trust in theirs and there is no time to better exercise this than here in this season of Ramadan.

As regards to the atrocities committed to our common citizenry, those who have offended the peace of the innocents, justice requires that they must be held to answer for their offense.

Lest we tempt the God Who require from each nation, an account for each and every human life, to the last hairs on our heads, a covenant of Country made with our patriarch Noah in Genesis 9: 5-11.

Justice is virtuous that is restorative and not vengeful, for justice that is meritorious inclines to mercy where mercy is applied but justice that is false knows no end to it's wrath.

Those who have offended the peace of the innocents must still answer for their actions. But that hour can wait for in reality justice is eternal and there is no place in heaven, upon the inhabited earth or in hell that has not heard of the Justice of God.

Thus, do we honor those lives who were abruptly taken away from our midst, for we must live up to their hopes, their hopes for life, peace and common Country.

Law serves life, only then is jurisprudence meaningful.

The law should always defer to the needs of our common humanity, be it material or spiritual.

And this season being the season of Ramadan, this is one of those times.

Our military should stand down and adapt measures to perform containment operations, conduct the deep defense and refrain from active offensives. Localize the specific threat and area contain it.

Establish in the deep ground, meaning at all levels of national power, sectors of the ready defense with military units that are short-warning, intelligence-enabled and combat capable to actively interdict where there is a breach in the line of the defense. ROE is fire discipline at all times. Protect the public peace and respond only to those who break the peace of Ramadan.

Our legislature should learn to adapt from these events the necessary juridical requirements so that the necessary legal innovations that will assist our national whole in the prevention and deterrence of these kinds of atrocities are promulgated and our public covered at all times by the protection of our laws.

My beloved Christian brethren and sisters, we must avoid believing in the evils that a few people do to describe the whole of Islam, believe in the good that many Muslims do in spite of evil, for that is how it must be, we live to better our lives and our days not by our conviction that these days are evil but by our trust in the good within each of ourselves and in the one Source of all that is good in God. And if we dare extend this to apply to all of the people in the world, one will have found what is truly worth finding in our being human, in the beautiful for being beheld by Beauty Itself.

Thank you very much for your time and your attention.

I hope to have added to the strength of the argument for the peace.

---<--@ for our Father Abraham and those numberless stars...

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Sancta Sanctis!

Jose Maria of Manila, Capuchin priest and martyr, pray for us.

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

Next: Sequence #12: The Conduct of the Peace