On Honor

"JESUS summoned the crowd and said to them, 'Hear and understand. It is not what enters one's mouth that defiles that person; but what comes out of the mouth is what defiles one.'"

Matthew 15: 10-11

OUR DIVINE DESTINY is written not according to what others' do unto us but according to what we do unto others. For it is the sum of own choices that will form the measure of our individual judgment by the Justice of God.
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REALIZING that in the course of our service to God and Country as common peers in common creation, as individuals committed to common humanity and honorable religion, as companions on the Way, as Christians united in the Peace of our Savior and as sharers in the one charism of our one Solidarity - one and all, it may become necessary in time to raise a counterpoint measure against the creeping influence of the beast of war that specifically targets the vulnerability of our sister Muslims in particular and our common humanity as a whole.

What war does to one, war does to all. If we allow a segment of our humanity (it matters not who or what they are) to become nameless without a care, we forget that we are all nameless in the face of our Adversary (Satan and his reprobate human and angelic mob). I tell you, we will all perish in our hypocrisy. If we let our sister Muslims, human beings to the very last of them, become vulnerable, what is to stop the spirit of war (the dominion of a principality of hell, a major cohort of the Devil himself) from spreading until all of us, men women, and children of every nation of the one family of the nations of mankind become vulnerable and no one is left safe from this evil. If we allow this beast of war to devour at our human promise, it will soon become strong enough and mature enough to overthrow what remains of our shared humanity.

Tyranny owes it's birth from our common consent. Thus, evil - especially social evil - becomes everybody's business. Not to oppose evil, mind you, for we can not long oppose war without being consumed by it. War opposes (hates) and destroys (serves not). Peace builds (co-creates) and defends (serves). Only God Himself can kill this beast. We will resist it's murderous spread by building on our own sense of sacred honor and understand enough about our shared humanity to defend with valor where we may still defend. Thus, we will starve out the beast and perhaps even outlast the evil of our present day. But if not, let us build for those generations of beautiful life to come and we shall all be able to rest in our sufficiency, leaving all that we can no longer defend to God's own invulnerable and omnipotent defense.
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HONOR is a form of endurance that consists of acts of forbearance (resistance or constraint); acts that reflects one's strength of personal fidelity.

Therefore, honor to be considered virtuous must first be perceived in terms of the nature and scope of the reasons (motives) that continually inform it's acts of courage both moral and physical.

To further understand the requisite motives that inform acts of honor that we may clearly define it's exact nature, one must then begin to ask the question: Where does it's loyalties lie?

For honor that is disloyal is not honor but a betrayal. But honor without the truth of itself is not honor but a disgrace. It is as a hollow fruit, seemingly ripe yet empty and without promise of true fruition.

As darkness without the Light comprehends itself not, honor by itself understands itself not.

All that is truly virtuous binds the will of heaven on earth. Heavenly virtue transcends the self and brings down holy gifts where there was once none. Virtue and it's attendant acts of service form a limitless source of good that serve the life of our common humanity in the greater context of the sacred life of our one planetary whole.

Honor relies on the truth illuminated by the one Light of faith and therefore, rests in it's own sufficiency. Lack of the light is darkness, claiming ownership of the light is arrogance (pride), but praising and honoring the one living God of all the living for all blessings received is not only honorable it is just, virtuous and meritorious for our salvation and the salvation of others.

Truth is invulnerable because God is unchanging and where the will of God seem to yield to the frivolous vanity of the world, one must recall to mind that it is men who are random and not God nor His attendant truths.

Thus, honor that is virtuous can not be impugned by the actions of other people. It does not feel the need to derive it's meaningfulness from it's opposition to people for it knows it's original purpose is to resist evil and not human beings. It is sustained by the personal communion of the heart with God - alone with the Alone - and not in any way, shape or form affected by external interactions with created things as human beings, plants, animals and their habitations within visible creation.

Honor that is truly virtuous is patient and kind. It never seeks to harm the good and recognizes what is good. It knows that all good things in this world is only meaningful and comprehensible to the human soul when it is made to serve the life of our common humanity in the greater context of the sacred life of our one planet as a whole.

Honor always cherishes, in this way alone will it's valor ring true and meritorious in the eyes of God, the angels and of all mankind. It never hates.

To understand the true fruition of honor and the reward of virtue, one must realize that all that is virtue work in synergy with each other, standing together and must be understood not by it's parts but by it's whole. When viewed from this perspective, all that is virtue blends together to form a clear picture of God's will for each of us as our true selves. What is wonderful about virtue is that each of us is gifted with varying degrees of virtues that make us each unique and distinct from one another in our strengths with God where we are all alike and similar in our brokenness, in our lack as human beings one with another.

My good companion and honored friend, let us each try to always remember that the secret to our freedom is in the giving, for only in the giving will we become free. Therefore, let our virtues such as our honor always add to sacred life, to serve life and never to profane or take away it's promised potential on our Creator's own behalf for the sake of our own suffering humanity.

---<--@ for lost promises...

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Sancta Sanctis!

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