BALAAN BUKID

by Reynold Glenn Jaboneta

There was a time in my life that I visited Camiguin Island. It was summer and I was told aside from visiting and seeing the wonderful beaches and springs of the island there was a need to visit their own version of the “Way of the Cross.” The experience was tiring and really a battle of the will that I need to finish my “Way of the Cross” and it was literally an experience of climbing up the hill under the heat of the sun.

Over here in Iloilo, we have Guimaras Island. Since I was a child the huge cross atop the island facing Iloilo City was already a sight to behold. We call the place Balaan Bukid. Balaan is the dialect for holy and bukid for mountain. Balaan bukid then means holy mountain.

It was only this year that I literally trekked my way up to Balaan Bukid. The students from the Basic Education Department who are members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SSVP) invited me for their culmination activity which involved a visit to Balaan Bukid.

March 16 this year was my baptism to Balaan Bukid. With me were fifty students and some teachers and the pump boat we hired brought us at the edge of the island the part fronting Iloilo City. There was no port and all I could see were rocks. We carefully disembarked with the aid of the boat men. We followed the path and we reached the first station of the way of the cross.

It was a sight to behold. Nature was untouched. As we climbed our way up we were sheltered by the canopy of trees. Rock formation as it is, all the greens around us and the magnificent panorama of the sea beneath us and afar is Iloilo. I was in the company of young people. They have all the energy there is in the world to enjoy the trek.

We finally reached the top where the huge cross was planted to signify that we are now in Balaan Bukid. Just like in the story of the transfiguration it was an experience to behold and could move us to stay and build tents for ourselves.

I was told there is another way of reaching Balaan Bukid. One may come to Balaan from Iloilo to Jordan Wharf and up to Balaan. But the road less taken is the one we trekked.

It is now Holy Monday. I made my way up to Balaan Bukid of Guimaras on a Palm Sunday.

Life they say is dynamic that is why some would call it a journey and a search. It is again another year of remembering the passion, death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I would like to begin from here… that of searching, journeying.

One, sometimes I do not have to search from far away lands. My Balaan Bukid experience is telling me there is so much to discover right at the very places near me. I can be faulted on this one. The principle that the farther we go the richer the experiences are cannot be a general principle. This is true on a personal level, this is true on a national level, and this is true when we look at our families. Sometimes we just need to look at the power within us, the very heart, the very feelings, the emotions we hold are not far. They are at the very core of our beings. We just have to recognize them and own them and in recognizing and owning them we become people whose hearts are made of flesh. Forgiving and forgetting become easy. To shed tears becomes spontaneous, to embrace a foe is always heroic and life can become baggage free and we journey only with essentials.

Second, life can never be a clear cut path for all of us. One may reach life through the normal way (Iloilo-Jordan-Balaan) and the way we are used to or the other way (Iloilo-side of the island-trek then Balaan). The other way is unfamiliar, dangers lurking. But the point is we reached the same apex. We commune with the same God. I prefer to go the other way.

Let me get personal. In 1988, when I entered the seminary the normal way was to go through the stages of formation-philosophy, theology and other stages of formation in between. Some made it to become priests through this way. Others prefer to trek what was not the way it may seem to be normal. I have been to the other seminary with that aim to become a priest. But the aim was through the normal, tested way.

Looking back, God is showing me there is another way. Perhaps God allowed me to leave the comforts of seminary life and formation to be uncomfortable with the world, to be nobody, to be humiliated, to be rejected and to be just one grain of sand, very insignificant.

It was a tough journey. It is still. But I am confident that the hand of God is working. I read this line, “God writes a straight line in crooked strokes, so if you cannot understand His plan then you just have to trust His hand.”

In fact, some of you may have been the hands that God are using to lead me back or just give me a break, a nap in my journey, in my search. Thank you.

Thirdly, I received a forwarded message from my student : “What you are really afraid of: you are not scared of the dark…you are scared of what’s in it. You are not afraid of heights…you are afraid of falling. You are not afraid of the people around you…you are just afraid of rejection. You are not afraid to love…you are just afraid of not being loved back. And you are not afraid to try again…you are just afraid of getting hurt for the same reason.”

Another forwarded message, “No matter how broken we have become, we never lost the potential to become good gifts for others. It is often the wounded healers who go on to live the boldest and victorious lives. Just always remember we do not own anything. Everything is temporary. God is the owner of our lives. All glory is God’s glory.”

Lastly, this message, “Why was David able to stand against the giant when the army of Israel pulled back in fear? It is because he saw Goliath not as a threat to big to hit. But as a target too big to miss. Most of the time, it is not the situation that has the complication. It is the way we see things that matter very much in determining our victory.”

I remember these messages as I make sense of my trek to Balaan Bukid the other day.

Balaan Bukid is just there. Perhaps, it is because it is just there.

Thank you, Balaan Bukid because the CROSS atop you is a statement of victory, crown that awaits people who dare to cross the sea and trek its sides, and apex of life.

This perhaps is what semana santa is all about.

By: Reynold Glenn S. Jaboneta