imcsap.org – God has a covenantal way of reaching out to this Sabahan pilgrim in this 2023 season of Lent with the message “Return to the Earth. Eat natural food” through an overnight stay in the field where they farm. In the afternoon of Saturday. March 11, 2023, after a short nap in the breezy kubo next to the Pasbul Chapel, I experienced God as a personal sense of freedom from the routine of activities I am used to in LST. 

Living on the farm, in an open field, was my dream come true. It was a much-awaited moment of returning to the Earth, a part of the Earth, brilliantly lit up at night by a full moon, akin to a mystical experience being encountered by God’s omnipresent Spirit of communion, solidarity, resistance, and resilience. This indwelling God is ever active and present with the indigenous communities, particularly the Ayta Mag-Indi people, in their ancestral/tradition, in their adaptive-accumulative plural local knowledge of locating the every-flowing spring, planting banana, coconut, gabi & ube, rearing the chickens, kerbau, pigs, pigeons, especially in-making for sales in the market. 

Standing near the natural spring, my conversation with Tonet Garcia led me to glorify Apo Namalari (Creator of the Ayta peoples) is indeed very present and active in their annual communal celebration of Ayta Day in which the communities honor the panganito (shamans) as they mediate the power and presence of the anito (spirits) whom the Ayta regard as very sacred (sacredo) and behold with great respect (respecto). I immediately recall how Pope Francis, in Querida Amazonia (QA), has elevated their religion cultural treasures to that of “ancestral wisdom (QA 51) and “indigenous mysticism” (QA 73) and anito as “various beings” (QA 42) that promotes buen vivir (“good living” QA§8, §26, §71). Moreover, I delight in Pope Francis’ remarks regarding the ritual paraphernalia for access to spirit guide & spirit world in that “the many elements proper to the experience of indigenous peoples in their contact with nature, and respect native forms of expression in song, dance, rituals, gestures and symbols” (OA§82) need not be considered a pagan error or idolatry. 

Night fell. I felt very honored that Isaac and his brother had prepared the kareta (cart) to be my special bed for the night. I realized the need to put on my thick socks for the night. I realized a fire was lit at each sleeping place to keep us warm. Before midnight, the night became cold. I wore a second shirt and spread the sarong and blanket on top of my chest. The night was a full moon, and it was all bright all around. I could see the trees lit up by the moonlight. After midnight, I felt really cold. The chill enabled me to identify with the recent climate refugees of Turkiye and Syria when they are languishing in the cold without proper shelter and food. 

Before falling asleep, while basking in the moonlit farm, lying on a kareta, strings of grateful praises arose from my heart to:

1. God as the Giver of the gift of spring water, camote/yam, barbecued paluga (bird) and fish.
2. The Source of traditional knowledge of Charcoal/ulin-making, made up of conduits below for the lit charcoal, kahoy Mili/Nara, a layer of dried leaves and twits on top, with sand right on top.
3. Originator of wisdom when Tateng (Papa) Bert Garcia mentioned to me that the Atya near Mt. Pinatunbo enjoys natural food.

Coffee and tobacco are mixed with chemicals and not suitable for our bodies; (d) Gentle Reminder that I need to return to the Earth and eat natural food like yam when we eat dinner and breakfast using fresh banana leaves that rest on the face of the Earth. The Earth was our table. All food comes from the Earth. The Earth provides us with natural food.

Then I woke up close to 6.00 am, wrapped myself in a blanket around me and walked to sit on the chair close to a table, and prayed with the recitation of my Lenten mantra: 

“With everything in this farm, the table I lean on, the chair I sit on, the earth I rest my feet, the spring, the flowing water, the pond, the mist, the forests, the birds, the buffaloes, the pigs, and chickens, I am interrelated.” 

“With everything on this Earth, with everyone, with all lifeforms in this Earth and the entire cosmos, I feel interrelated. I thank you, God, for we are interrelated.” 

Third Sunday of Lent. At the 8.30 am mass in the chapel on Sunday, March 12, I was taken up by the image of “water from the well” that the Samaritan woman offered to Jesus, who asked her for a drink (John 4:7). I realized that the Earth in the farm offers me a refreshing natural drink full of natural minerals for my body!! At the same time, water is special to me. When I moved from the Lutheran Church to the Catholic Church at the age of eleven, I was baptized with water which healed me of my “walking sickness” or somnambulism. During this Lenten season, water meditates with this God who is “the living water” (John 7:38) to me and who is calling me to be close to the Earth, to “return to the Earth, eat more natural food.” 

This overnight immersion in the “womb” of the Earth has anchored me deeper in the ancestral wisdom which has become enfleshed in me, a pilgrim who has returned from the farm in Pasbul wiser, having imbibed the wisdom “return to the earth, eat more natural food.” Allahwahbar !! Alleluia, as an earth pilgrim, I resonated deeply with…

“Culture is sufficient enough to protect the tribe from all forms of climate adversity—like floods, typhoons, and even covid19.” Bae Inatlawan, Babylan/Shaman of Mt. Kitanglad, Bukidnon, Philippines.

 “For the indigenous people, our habitat is part of the divine creation and, as such, sacred.” Patricia Gualinga, defender of indigenous rights & leader of the Kichwa indigenous community of Sarayaku, Ecuador.

“We are as familiar with the lands, rivers, and great seas that surround us as we are with the faces of our mothers. Indeed, we call the Earth Etenoha, our mother from whence all life springs.” Onondaga Faith Keeper Oren Lyons.

 “Our modern society has much to learn from the original/indigenous peoples, especially the values of personal, familial, communal and cosmic harmony and finds expression in a communitarian approach to existence.” Pope Francis (LS 179; QA 71)

By Fr. Jojo Fung, SJ – International Chaplains, IMCS Pax Romana