"My nine friends in the Lord arrived here from Paris in mid January. All are Masters of Arts and well versed in theology: four are from Spain, two from France, two from Savoy and one Portuguese. They came braving the wars and the biting cold of winter, and on arrival they settled in two hospitals to serve the sick and the poor in the lowliest tasks, those most contrary to nature."
(from a letter of Ignatius to Juan de Verdolay, sent from Venice 24july1537)
Those most contrary to nature. And so it was with my own nine friends in the Lord 476 years later as we arrived in Navotas on 30sept2013. Yet before getting to the heart of the matter, gentle reader, a few introductory words (and images) regarding my experience of Navotas & my modus operandi herein.
Simply Google the term Navotas & you can read any number of eloquent treatises on demographics, geography, socioeconomic conditions, poverty, the causes, potential solutions, systematic theological discourses, etc. regarding the city. My aim here is (hopefully) is something rather different.
You may be wondering what I was anticipating prior to heading off to Navotas to live with my families there. As previously mentioned, I've been revisiting the slender volume of Egide Van Broeckhoven, SJ's journals - A Friend to All Men: The Diary of a Worker Priest. Prior to departing, I happened upon Egide's own reasoning for desiring to write down his experiences working in the Brussels factories from August 1965 until his death (a fatal accident in a factory) on December 28, 1967. Egide writes that his aim is to write down
...what God is doing in me and not what I am doing.
Yes. This became my prayer in the days leading up to leaving for Navotas (and, subsequently, my desired approach to writing this all down here) - to receive the grace to enter into the experiences vis a vis what God is doing in me & those around me, rather than simply reporting/reporting/reflecting upon what I was doing.
I know myself well enough. When the story starts with me, it becomes nothing but muddled obstacle. It's easier to start with what God is doing.
And if I am to merely reporting what happened to me, I run the risk of placing myself as mere observer & reporter. Worst case, I create an I and them scenario - thus keeping the experience at arm's length (and, even worse, objectifying those around me as mere subjects for my spiritual travelogue).
So we arrived that Monday in Navotas.
The key came rather early on (a grace - unquestionably not my own doing). That astoundingly stifling afternoon I walked along Abenida Leongson in Cuatro (the neighborhood in the barangay of San Roque). Amid the first cries of "Hey Joe!" (a carryover from the days of U.S. military presence in the Philippines, it's the standard greeting for anyone who "looks American"), I felt bulldozed - by the sun & the heat & the dogs & the tricycles & the stench from the fish sauce factory along with thick exhaust fumes commingled with the savory smell of meat cooking & the garbage & the roosters & building upon building & so many jeepneys & noise & humidity & the staggering stream of people...
(an aside - these sorts of seeming paradoxes would pile up during my brief days in Navotas - beauty in the midst of chaos, grace in the midst of structural evil, incredible dignity in the midst of poverty.)
But how could it all seem so exquisite & luminous & magnificent? It all seemed so incredibly messy, tumultuous.
Absolute bedlam. Full-on chaos.
But... in spite of it all, an absolutely exquisite, luminous chaos.
A magnificent bedlam.
But how could it all seem so exquisite & luminous & magnificent? It all seemed so incredibly messy, tumultuous.
And that's when it hit me, with the very same suddenness & force as all the din & chaos that first afternoon in Navotas...
Beauty & luminosity is in the flesh & blood.
Magnificence & grandeur in the humanity.
It all comes down to one fundamental: relationship.
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| wonder & awe: Fiesta of Our Lady of Fatima Barangay Daanghari, Navotas |
It's all about the Incarnation.
...men and women being born and being laid to rest, some getting married and others getting divorced, the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the happy and the sad, so many people aimless, despairing, hateful, and killing, so many undernourished, sick, and dying, so many struggling with life and blind to any meaning. With God, I can hear people laughing and crying, some shouting and screaming, some praying, others cursing.
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| life & death as neighbors: Navotas Municipal Cemetery, home to an estimated 6000 homeless living in a shantytown amongst & atop the tombs Barangay San Jose, Navotas |
But then, then, the real kicker...
The leap of divine joy: God knows that the time has come when the mystery of salvation, hidden from the beginning of the world, will shine into human darkness and confusion. It is as if I can hear the Divine Persons saying, “Let us work the redemption of the whole human race; let us respond to the groaning of all creation.”
The leap of divine joy. Joy. That first afternoon in Cuatro I was just as dumbfounded by a God who desired & chose to become human - to mix it up with our painfully messy humanity in a spirit of joy & love - as I was by the staggering scene around me.
The pieces were fitting together. In theory, at least.
The invitation here, the grace to be prayed & begged for, was for friendship with those around me. To allow myself to enter fully into it all. To embrace my own incarnation & that of those around me.
Egide again: the mystical depths of friendship.
Egide again: the mystical depths of friendship.
What I was desiring as I prayed to recognize what God was doing in me & around me was to enter fully, authentically, without any baggage, into the relationships around me with the people in Navotas. Not to figure them out, not to fix their problems, not to minister to them.
Just to be.
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| croons like King Cole: Ruben, Bohol family home Barangay San Roque, Navotas |
As the Word joyfully leapt to be with us, so I prayed to be joyfully & fully with the people around me.
And God never disappoints.
It would merely be a matter of my embracing the experiences in light of this. And lest ye think I'm turning this into a lovefest in which I skip merrily through a field of gilly flowers, be patient.
I would go into all of this, in my most self-focused moments, kicking & screaming.
I would recoil upon meeting uninvited guests even Francis of Assisi might have a tough go with loving.
More to come, my friends.
PAX.
It would merely be a matter of my embracing the experiences in light of this. And lest ye think I'm turning this into a lovefest in which I skip merrily through a field of gilly flowers, be patient.
I would go into all of this, in my most self-focused moments, kicking & screaming.
I would recoil upon meeting uninvited guests even Francis of Assisi might have a tough go with loving.
More to come, my friends.
PAX.
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