Posted by The WORD in other words (2009) by Fr. Jiggs Orcino, SVD (Palawan)
Saturday 2nd Week of Lent
There were floods in Oriental Mindoro in 1992. Boulders rolled down from the mountains. Tons of logs were washed into the rivers. Landslides were everywhere. Crops were destroyed. The Mangyans were horrified and driven to tears.
One Mangyan elder stood up and said, “This is a sign that we have sinned against God and nature. We have to do the Agpamauli! (a ritual of reconciliation). Then the elder asked me, “Father, would you like to join us?”
I asked how the ritual would go and what I had to do. He answered, “While the shaman prays, we will hang a pig. Before slaughtering it, all of us will have to stand under the pig, confess our sins to the person facing us, then to the others as well.”
“Practically, we have to confess to everybody,” I said to myself. So I told him, “it is hard to do that.” To this, he responded, “Yes, it is, but are you afraid? Amang Tam (God the Father) is merciful. He will forgive us. We will be one again.” Hearing those words, I joined the group.
The reading points out that God loves us so much. He will do all His power, but without force, to get us back in His arms. No matter how bad we have been, no matter how terrible our sins are, or even if we have not prayed, or confessed, or gone to church in years, God stays beside us. He is just there, waiting for us to notice Him and allow Him to embrace us. He wants us to know that He is a loving and merciful God.
At times, God touches us, nagpaparamdam, so to say, like He touched the Mangyans when they felt Him in nature and in the chaos of their lives. This led them to think of their Agpamauli ritual. How about us? Do God’s similar touch make us think of our sacrament of reconciliation too?
Like the father of the prodigal son in the reading, God keeps His eyes fixed on the road in hopes that we may one day come to our senses and return to Him. Each time we do, He calls on everyone in heaven to rejoice.
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