murder at the cathedral!!!

It was murder at the cathedral! And what I thought happens only in the movies or elsewhere, happened here – a stone’s throw away from where the convent is, and from where I was. It may have been done outside the cathedral (at the fence just at the exit gate), but the fact that it was done within its vicinity, at a time when any person who had just come from mass might have felt most secure (who would ever think that criminals would want to kill someone who had just come from mass. Probably some of you might want to kill the priest who just gave a lousy homily! Hahahaha! But that’s another topic.), but would be at his most vulnerable position (because one feels more secure, one can be less alert) - that act defiled the house of God, desecrated the shrine of Our Lady of Candles, contradicted the age old belief that here is the sanctuary of peace and reconciliation. Not only did the murderers (those who did the act and those ordered it) defile sacred space, they also defiled sacred time, committing their despicable act at a time when Catholics pray and make an external resolve with ashes on their foreheads accompanied by fasting and abstinence that such crime, such sin (including its concomitant sins of anger, hatred, lust for power) have no place in the heart and in the life of a follower of Christ. They have defiled sacred space and sacred time and I won’t be surprised if one day I hear that the perpetrators of such defilement would earn for themselves and those associated with them the wrath of the House of the Candelaria!



I am writing this because as I write this diary I just arrived from our home in Oton where the termite eliminators were just finishing their work of eliminating these little creatures which eats up whatever their nasty teeth could take hold of. Anyway one of these “terminators” approached me telling me that they were prevented by my mother to “attack” and eliminate the very source of these nasty creature, the source whose name in the vernacular creates in most of us dread and fear – the mystery that creates among us Ilonggos tremendum (fear) et fascinans (fascination) - that infamous bungsod!
Overhearing us, my mother told me that a doctor once told them of a patient with an unexplainable and incurable disease which the good doctor (and others like him) could not diagnose. Exploring things further now, beyond textbooks and medical bulletins, the doctor found out that the patient destroyed the bungsod in her house that kept on growing despite her dogged persistence in eliminating it every time it grows back. Aha, so that explains things, the reputable doctor concluded. And that’s the story why the bungsod in our house should not be touched.
I agreed too that it should not be touched. I may not be a believer in whatever inhabitants a termite mound hosts, but I respect the beliefs of our ancestors, age old beliefs formulated at a time through the much simpler logic of action and consequence. And despite the scientific knowledge that may be next to nil at that time, those beliefs worked in the sense that it eliminated possible causes of friction in a community that needs to preserve its equilibrium for survival. And besides with the absence of a microscope to see viruses that may have caused a plague, the bungsod is a much, much bigger cause which eliminated unnecessary debates at a time when an immediate and concerted action was necessary for the survival of the community. And besides I love the thought that we are the only people in the world who have deep respect even for creatures that may cause us evil. In the western world they exorcise or drive away evil. In contrast we say “tabi, tabi” which literally means “excuse me,” and we have traffic signs like “Slow Down, Mari-it,” and we have unwritten rules as to the precise time to plant, to harvest, to fish and even to bury our dead.
We can coexist with whatever and with whoever, because we RESPECT. We are a people with deep respect for peoples and places, we have a deep respect even for time – and this is not just shown and extended to what we can see with our two eyes, but even to what our creed refers to as the “invisible.” This may sound superstitious to most of you, it may even sound funny to some, but my concern here is the value these beliefs engendered and still engenders in us as a people – the value of respect.
My point therefore is, in our sophistication and scientific knowledge today it seems that we too have lost not just our beliefs as a people, but most importantly we have lost our sense of respect for peoples, creatures, places and time. In our hubris brought about by knowing almost everything and having an explanation for every event under the heavens and even beyond, we have lost our fear for the unknown, a fear that has engendered in our ancestors a holy and deep respect for everything!
This crime at the gates of the cathedral has shown us the contrary to every belief we hold as Ilonggo Filipinos, religious, superstitious and whatever, that holds our community intact. And this is what makes it more despicable than that shameless, brutal and cowardly act. We have lost our esteem on people as persons and creatures, we have lost our reverence for places, we have lost our holy and fearful regard for certain times of the day and year. When we have lost our respect for these things our problems will just keep on piling up and the equilibrium that holds us together as a community will be slowly eroded and eventually destroyed. And this is what I mean by the Wrath of the House of the Candelaria.
I never said gaba-an, or did I? But you see when we are not careful we will reach the point that it will look like that. Our actions have consequences. It is not God causing such consequence but our actions . . . and even our inaction.