Incontro stradale

p. Fernando Milani, PIME

Scendendo verso Dao, un incontro sulla strada in sitio Ig-casicad dove, a quanto pare, si annida il segreto della longevità.

Pericos Pari

PHILIPPINE FOLKLORE STORIES By John Maurice Miller, Boston, U.S.A., 1904

The Pericos Tao

Throughout the Visayan islands almost every family owns a pericos, kept as American children keep canary birds. The pericos is about the size and color of a Crow, but has a hard white hood that entirely covers its head. The people teach it but one phrase, which it repeats continually, parrot fashion. The words are, “Comusta pari? Pericos tao.” (How are you, father? Parrot-man.) “Pari” means padre or priest. The people address the pericos as “pari” because its white head, devoid of feathers, seems to resemble the shaven crowns of the friars and native priests.
I
In his small wooden box
That hangs on the wall
Sits a queer-looking bird
That in words sounds his call.
From daybreak to twilight
His cry he repeats,
Resting only whenever
He drinks or he eats.
He never grows weary,–
Hear! There he goes now!
“Comusta pari?
Pericos tao.”

II
And all the day long
You can hear this strange cry:
“How are you, father?
A parrot-man I.”
He sits on his perch,
In his little white cap,
And pecks at your hand
If the cage door you tap.
Now give him some seeds,
Hear him say with a bow,
“Comusta pari?
Pericos tao.”

III
Poor little birdie!
How hard it must be
To sit there in prison
And never be free!
I’ll give you a mango,
And teach you to say
“Thank you,” and “Yes, sir,”
And also “Good day.”
You’ll find English as easy
As what you say now,
“Comusta pari?
Pericos tao.”

IV
I’ll teach you “Good morning”
And “How do you do?”
Or “I am well, thank you,”
And “How are you too?”
“Polly is hungry” or
“It’s a fine day.”
These and much more
I am sure you could say.
But now I must go,
So say with your bow,
“Comusta pari?
Pericos tao.”

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Tribal leader killed, Arakan

Two unidentified motorcycle-riding men shot and killed a peasant leader in Arakan, North Cotabato on Tuesday morning.

Supt. Bernard Tayong, spokesperson of the police in North Cotabato, said the victim, Joel Gulmatico, 58, and chair of the Arakan Peasant Progressive Organization (APPO), was riding his motorcycle on his way to Barangay Naje when killed. The 9:15 a.m. murder happened 700 meters away from the victim’s house and at least 300 meters from the military’s 57th Infantry Battalion detachment. “He was traversing along the national highway when shot by the suspects,” Tayong said.

Gulmatico sustained two gunshot wounds. At least two empty shells from a .45 caliber pistol were recovered from the crime scene. Norma Capuyan, chair of the Apo Sandawa Lumandnong Panaghiusa sa Cotabato (ASLPC), condemned the killing and urged authorities to ensure the arrest of suspects. Capuyan said the victim had no known enemies in his community and was active in helping farmers in his village. Gulmatico also served as a barangay (village) councilman in Barangay Naje for three terms. He ran for village chair in 2013 but lost. Capuyan said the victim also opposed the entry of military’s Peace and Development Program (PDOP) in Barangay Naje. (Williamor A. Magbanua, Inquirer Mindanao)

Estuario … calmo

Wandering it

Curch in Guinsang-an, Antique

I am back in Antique, island of Panay. Here four years ago I became a good traveler who spent hours on hard and rocky surface knowing that, with the arrival of rains, the ground would give way and paths would be made more uncertain and dangerous. Today it’s raining, but I am just passing by and resting; further on the south other routes await me. Meanwhile I renewed, with the help of Fernando (Milani), parish priest of a road intersection called Guinsang-an, my driver’s license and I am rearranging my dentures in the clinic of a young dentist in Saint Jose de BuenaVista who years ago had been busy with my decayed teeth.

I look aloof places known years ago when I was known as ‘spare wheel’s priest’. Little has changed in Antique: the Ati, the Indigenous people of this area, are still begging, selling their workforce for few pesos. In general, the people here are trying to give, with dignity, a logic to their finiteness. Life in this long strip of land struggles with the sea, revolves around rice fields and is constantly tested by money, search and lost, and little else. Here reasoning about moral does not work especially when you have urgent needs to be addressed. In order to do this you must develop a kind of sixth sense that guides you, where and who to go. Here perception  replaces the voice of the conscience in how to relate with someone, and you have to do this with humbly gracious gestures and smiling faces, to pocket something. It is not that people here are poor in contents and ideas; during feasts and celebrations they unleash extreme creativity. It is that instead of a inner voice it seems more important the daily and practical looking for a face-to-face relationships with people in better shape, much more wealthy then you anyway. This is something an imperative. Forget your conscience. In this ethics, tacitly respected, the better equipped can benefit a lot, as it will in the next 2016 Election or as it was for Cuarteron, Borgazzi and Riva, a century and a half ago, when they brought from these shores ‘catechists’ (better say Christians) to their mission in Borneo among Muslims. Christians with the rosary in their pockets that even today depart for other countries, because the innate perception to cross the seas and make a fortune abroad seen as a better place. The sinking of their national identity in order to surface in countries where appearance and exposure is a priority.

The Philippine Church has proclaimed the year of the poor with a stylized logo printed on plastic-coated posters. To be displayed in all the churches and chapels. However I wonder how can we give shape to the symbol of Eternity in order to help those poor who are feeling alone and adjacent the dead line. Only the desire to be immortal, life everlasting, can subtract the poor from the embrace of the increasing abstention in believing in God the Merciful and push them back to the Church or at least to life as skeptics but constructive people.

Finally, I look to the willfully interest of Fernando in shaping hearts and minds of the altar boys. They have no “foster parents” and this is a point in their favor. What I appreciate is that is not a mere exchange of data. Boys are tuning up with the mind of the educator. Minds that resonate each other not only through words, but also with blackboard, chalks, T-shirts and things around, sacred and profane. For sure, something will remain in the minds of the altar boys. The hope is that, at home, some of what they learned will sneak out towards relationships more important for their growth; those with parents.  (Lucius)

Sono tornato in Antique, nell’isola di Panay. Qui quattro anni fa ero diventato un buon viaggiatore che trascorreva ore su superficie dure e sassosa e che poi avvertiva che con l’arrivo delle piogge la terra avrebbe ceduto e i cammini si sarebbero fatti sempre più incerti e pericolosi. Anche oggi piove, ma sono solo di passaggio e mi riposo; più a sud mi attenderanno altri tragitti. Nel frattempo ho rinnovato con  l’aiuto del Nando Milani, qui parroco di un incrocio stradale chiamato Guinsang-an, la patente di guida e risistemo la dentiera da un giovane dentista che già a suo tempo si era dato da fare con le mie carie. Osservo distaccato luoghi conosciuti anni fa come ‘prete ruotadiscorta’. Poco è cambiato in Antique: gli Ati tribali chiedono ancora l’elemosina e vendono per pochi pesos la loro forza lavoro e il resto della gente cerca di dare, con dignità, un senso alla propria finitudine. La vita in questa lunga striscia di terra si confronta con il mare, ruota intorno ai campi di riso ed è perennemente provata dal danaro, speso e cercato, e poco altro. Qui ragionare di morale non funziona quando bisogna cercare soldi per le più immediate necessità. Bisogna intuire dove e da chi andare. Più che altro intuire e fornirsi di gesti umilmente gentili e volti sorridenti per intascare qualcosa. Grande lo spiegamento di nuovi cartelloni pubblicitari. Più spettacolari saranno il prossimo anno per le elezioni politiche. Non è che qui la gente si senta povera di contenuti anzi nelle feste si scatena il massimo della creatività, ma la ricerca pratica di relazioni a tu per tu, possibilmente di gente potente, agiata e ricca, ha spedito contenuti importanti, spirituali pure, in abissi profondi e in cieli distanti. Dimenticati. In questa etica, tacitamente rispettata, i meglio dotati se ne possono avvantaggiare, come fecero del resto i nostri Cuarteron, Borghazzi e Riva un secolo e mezzo fa quando da queste coste si portarono con se ‘catechisti’, o forse meglio dire cristiani, per la loro missione in Borneo tra i musulmani. Cristiani con il rosario in tasca che anche oggi da qui emigrano in altri paesi, Italia compresa, per il desiderio innato di attraversare i mari e fare fortuna. Il naufragio della propria identità per immergersi nelle società dell’immagine e dell’esposizione. La Chiesa Filippina ha indetto l’Anno dei Poveri con un logo stilizzato stampato su manifesti plastificati da esporre in tutte le chiese e cappelle, ma poi non so come farà a dare una forma alla figura dell’eternità a chi si sente mortalmente solo più di altri. Solo il desiderio di essere una creatura immortale può sottrarlo all’abbraccio della crescente astensione a Dio e spingerlo a ritornare in sé o per lo meno a essere uno scettico costruttivo. Infine guardo il Nando caparbiamente interessato a formare i chierichetti. Non sono ‘adottati a distanza’ e questo è un punto a loro favore. Non è un semplice scambio di informazioni. I ragazzi si sintonizzano sulle espressioni e domande del prete. Menti che entrano in risonanza non solo con le parole, ma con la lavagna, i gessetti, le magliette e le cose attorno, sacre e profane. Qualcosa rimarrà nella mente dei chierichetti. La speranza è che a casa tracimi in relazioni più importanti per la loro crescita, quelle con i genitori. (Lucius)

The Philippines

                                                                                                                                The Philippines is entering the twilight of Benigno Aquino’s presidency. His term has been fruitful: Since he took power in 2010, the nation has logged some of the fastest growth in Southeast Asia. Efforts to reduce graft and improve governance have raised the country’s international credibility. The private sector appears stronger than ever.

Fellow travelers

Thus ends our retreat with the passage of Acts where Philip becomes a guide on the road to a eunuch ( a character described with many details ) a rich Ethiopian in a personal and spiritual quest. He is the recipient of an initiative of God who orders Philip to get up and go to a deserted road for a single meeting. The man of Ethiopia is a powerful man and Philip jumping on the bandwagon may well ask something for himself, and his evangelization, an economic advantage for his small community. Instead he climbs up only to guide a seeker of God in order to help him to understand what he was reading, Isaiah 53, with the categories of the Good News taught by Jesus. The meeting is a photocopy of what happened on the road to Emmaus, where Jesus became a traveling companion, and as Jesus in the breaking of bread, here, after the baptism, Philip disappears. Now it depends on the Ethiopian to announce and to continue the evangelization.

Philip, as we are now, has been sent to ride the wagons of modern evangelism. Unfortunately, we live in a world where the passengers are more interested in taking care of their bodies rather than their souls. So for many of us the future does not seem in the hands of God but in those who can built comfortable wagons, carriages, cars, machines, devices. The technology has the power to control the happiness (and fears too) of the future society. Technology is not interested in searching the truth, but in serving the global economy so that people can feel good and less responsible. The task of spreading the Good News on the road, as Philip did, will never be an easy jump over, unless God ….

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Finisce così il nostro ritiro con il brano di Atti dove Filippo diventa guida sulla strada di un eunuco, un personaggio descritto con molti particolari, un etiope ricco ma in ricerca spirituale. Destinatario di una iniziativa di Dio che ordina a Filippo di alzarsi e andare nella strada deserta per un unico incontro.  L’uomo è potente e Filippo salendo sul carro potrebbe benissimo chiedere per se e per la sua evangelizzazione un vantaggio economico invece sale solo per guidare un cercatore di Dio a comprendere quello che andava leggendo, Isaia 53, con le categorie della buona notizia portata da Gesù.  L’incontro è una fotocopia di quello di Emmaus dove Gesù si fa compagno di strada e come Gesù nello spezzare del pane, qui dopo il battesimo Filippo sparisce. Ora dipende dall’etiope annunciare e continuare l’evangelizzazione.

Come Filippo oggi ci viene chiesto di salire sui carri moderni ed evangelizzare. Purtroppo si vive una realtà dove il passeggero è maggiormente interessato alla ricerca del corpo che dell’anima. Il futuro poi non sembra nelle mani di Dio ma in colui che i carri li costruisce. E’ il potere della tecnica a gestire la felicità (o disperazione) della futura società e alla tecnologia non interessa la ricerca della verità ma quella del benessere economico. Sarà sempre difficile e in controcorrente il compito degli evangelizzatori di strada come Filippo.