Lent and Our Call for Ecological Conversion
By Rev. Fr. Kurt Zion Pala, SSC

“All tribes of the earth shall bless themselves with you.” - Genesis 12:1-4

Mountains are sacred and revered by many. Some are even considered as gods by indigenous peoples. The Philippines is composed of many indigenous peoples. But most of them have been pushed out of their own lands by mining , plantation, residential housing companies and other industries. Once they lose their lands, they will eventually lose their culture and identity. This year the Church in the Philippines is celebrating the Year of Ecumenism, Interreligious Dialogue and the Indigenous Peoples with the theme “Dialogue towards Harmony.” In the pastoral letter of the bishops they wrote that the theme “…expresses well our Lord’s desire which we should appropriate for ourselves, “that all may be one” (John 17:21). An open, honest, respectful, loving dialogue of life, prayer and action, is the only way towards harmony in community. At stake are the great values of peace and harmony particularly in areas of armed conflict, solidarity in the struggle for social change, unity in healing social ills, integrity and social justice in our land.”

In our gospel this second Sunday of Lent, we find Jesus and three of his disciples, Peter, James and John on a high mountain. The gospel of Matthew often talks about encounters happening on top of the mountain - at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus, he was tested on a mountain. It is from a mountain that Jesus proclaimed the Sermon on the Mount. After feeding five thousand people, Jesus went up to a mountain to pray. It is on a mountain top that Jesus also gather his disciples and send them out to the whole world.

Why are mountains important to Matthew? In the Old Testament - mountains are places of contact and meeting between God and his people. Remember Moses - he was called to Mount Horeb - which is even called the Mountain of God. On this mountain God spoke to Moses and asked him to remove his sandals. Mountains are sacred and holy. This is why mountains are sacred because it is a place of meeting between God and his people. God revealed himself to his people. Indigenous peoples call the mountains. But today we have destroyed many of our mountains. We have cut all the forest and even flattened them - extracting all kinds of minerals and leaving behind wounds of polluted mining wastes pools. We welcome huge development projects like dams in the name of development but at the price of our environment.

Our God is a loving and merciful Father. The mountains are signs of God's goodness, creativity and mercy. His love and mercy are as high as mountains and as deep as the oceans. God the Father loves his Son and loves us exactly how He loves His Son. In the Gospel we hear God the Father exclaim the words, "This is my Son, the chosen. Listen to him.”

How can we begin to talk with our children about God’s love and mercy as high as the mountains or as deep as the oceans when our mountains are no longer standing tall but are now pools of mining wastes and our oceans are slowly becoming floating mountains of plastic and other wastes.

Lumad, a general term used for indigenous peoples living in the island of Mindanao. A Columban priest works among them. He is Fr. Brendan Kelly, the parish priest of the Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Don Victoriano. Fr. Brendan is involved in the Subanen ministry of the Columbans but is also working for the Episcopal Commission for the Indigenous Peoples. Like most towns in the area, one finds a mixture of Subanen and Visayan people. The Visayans mostly occupy the lowland, or patag, while the Subanens live on the hills and mountains surrounding the valley.

I was introduced to three young Subanen farmers Rene, Ruel and Jonel who recently graduated from a 6-month course run by the MASIPAG organization. MASIPAG is a farmer-led network of people's organizations, NGOs and scientists working towards the sustainable use and management of biodiversity through farmers' control of genetic and biological resources, agricultural production and associated knowledge. Their mission is to improve the quality of life of resource-poor farmers.

Ruel's farm is almost a cliff that sits on the side of the mountain and their house is on top of the mountain. I can't imagine the difficulty of climbing up and going down the mountain to bring their products to town. It was already dark when we were able to return to the parish. The next day, Jonel was excited to bring us to his farm. Jonel is the youngest of the three. He is fun and a bit short so people nicknamed him Dagul. He told me that the trip will be a lot easier compared to the trip we had yesterday. The journey started out easy, but as we progressed the difficulty also progressed. We had to cross one river three times. The water flow was fast and strong in most parts of the river so they had to assist me every time we encountered a river. At the last river crossing, I wanted to give up and just remain there. But by trusting them, I was able to cross the river again. The last stretch of the journey is a climb where one is almost facing the ground. When I saw the first house I was relieved and happy that we finally arrived.

The village sits on top of a hill between two mountains. The next day after breakfast we went out to help Jonel and his family pick onions. The harvested onions will be bundled into "bangan" which we will sell for around 30 pesos to buyers in town but will be sold at a higher price in markets in Ozamis City. Jonel had to carry these bundles tied to a "bukag" all the way down the mountain into town. I have so much admiration and respect for farmers because of my experience with these three young Subanen farmers.

Many of these farmers today are like slaves to various companies who have enriched themselves by preying on farmers with their designer seeds that first need fertilizers to grow, flower and eventually bear fruit. Then plants require more products like weed killers. These plants mostly have terminator seeds, which means that whatever seeds produced can no longer be replanted. The farmers have taught me that I can make choices just as they had chosen not to become slaves of these companies. I can make choices to remain connected to the Earth and not be separated from home. Let us support our farmers and indigenous peoples. They carry the burden of feeding us and treasuring our traditions.

Lent at this time does not just invite us to spiritual conversion but to ecological conversion. Pope Francis in his traditional peace message last January 1, 2020 reminds us that we need to undergo an “ecological conversion” because “natural resources, the many forms of life and the Earth itself have been entrusted to us to till and keep, also for future generations.” He explained that ecological conversion needs to be understood in an integral manner as “a new way of looking at life”, relations between human beings and with nature. Here is where dialogue is needed, a dialogue towards harmony not only among peoples but also between people and the environment. The Pope explained that conflicts stem from “our lack of respect for our common home or our abusive exploitation of natural resources – seen only as a source of immediate profit, regardless of local communities, the common good and nature itself.”

Make this Lent a green one!
Fr. Kurt Zion Pala is a Columban currently on a mission assignment in Myanmar. He met Rene, Ruel and Jonel when he was a deacon.

"To dare is to lose your footing temporarily. To not to dare is to lose your life. There is nothing with which every man or woman is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he or she is capable of doing and becoming. Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. Be that self which one truly is." - Soren Aabye Kierkegaard

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