By c.pio
Baguio City. Its six o’clock in
the morning, I go straight to the window… opened it, took a long deep breathe
and let the misty cool air run through my nostrils… then I exhaled. In an instant
it rejuvenates this sleepy tired body from yesterday activities. I glance the
surrounding, my eyes captured a distant picturesque view of a pine forest sleeping
under the blanket of a thin layer of white fog…AWSOME! Truly, how wonderful
your handwriting is, my Lord. Amen.
I
closed the window, headed to take a twenty minutes hot shower. Elevator –
pressed the G button. Rush to the cafeteria for a cup of aromatic dark-brewed
Benguet coffee.
Now,
we are ready for a whole day learning process.
Deadpan.
Bul’ol – rice god of highland people
greeted us. Ifugaos are deity worshipper people; they expressed their beliefs
in the numerous rites and prayers. Believe it or not they have as many as 1,500
deities in various ranks – gods to demons, monster to imps. They have various
rituals to invoke their deities’ favor and to dispel the malady or misfortune. Sacrificial
animals are common and meant to ‘bribe’ the gods. (the Mumbaki – ifugao priest
study the carcass for omen to know if their prayers are answered).
This
observation reminds me of my childhood ambition – to be a famous Anthropologist
but most of all the Church teaching:
Indigenous religion – the Mythical gods
Man
created his god
By
focusing on Human behavior during a period where knowledge was not fully
developed, wherein answers to every problem are not on the tip of a finger, Man
has to rely on his illusionary / imaginative section of his brain. He creates
Myth or story.
For
instance, in an early stage man cannot explain the nature of SUN, why I cannot stare to it directly? Why this
thing is so hot? Because he cannot find any answer that could address to
all his ‘Why’, this SUN which has
unexplained qualities became so mysterious to him and deep enough to be more powerful, this mysterious powerful now became a Being, then he called this Being as his god! [an instinct to respect that there is something greater than themselves]
and since this god is powerful, he
has to please him. Now the ritual begins, he has to offer something
to gain the favor of his sun god. He
has to do everything because this god is
sacred - beyond his human capacity.
Same
way with the rice god; the Ifugaos like all their Malay ancestry, rice is
staple food, they cannot consider meal a meal without rice - they cannot live
without rice. By associating rice to life, this rice became powerful that could strike-down
someone’s life without it… this powerful
again became being and they call this
being Bul’ol or the rice god.
Myths
attempt to explain the origins of things, but this explanation does not survive
rational questioning.
With
the explanation of science these gods
became rare and in the blink of extinction.
In the end, it allows me to contemplate the pristine teaching of our Church; The
Catechism of the Catholic Church succinctly explains the Human longing for his
Creator – his desire for God.
I. THE DESIRE FOR GOD
27 The desire for God is written in the human heart,
because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to
himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops
searching for:
The dignity of man rests above all on
the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse
with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists
it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to
hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely
acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator.1
28 In many ways, throughout history down to the present
day, men have given expression to their quest for God in their religious
beliefs and behavior: in their prayers, sacrifices, rituals, meditations, and
so forth. These forms of religious expression, despite the ambiguities they
often bring with them, are so universal that one may well call man a religious
being:
From one ancestor [God] made all nations
to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and
the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search
for God and perhaps grope for him and find him - though indeed he is not far
from each one of us. For "in him we live and move and have our
being."2
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