PARADOXICAL

The Pitogo Leaf Thieves

Last Palm Sunday, something hilarious and disturbing happened.

Supposing the video is neither a prank nor AI-generated, a CCTV footage in one village residence showed three women stealing choice leaves of pitogo (an endemic cycad, it turns out), apparently to use them for, or maybe sell as, palaspas for Palm Sunday mass, completely missing the irony of their illicit act.

Jesus Christ, the God-became-man, was about to offer his life for them, so they could be saved. Out of eternal gratitude, they are supposed to follow his teachings and live a life of virtue. Upon the arrival of our Lord borne of a donkey, they are supposed to spread out blankets on his path in honor of him and wave fronds of honestly earned palm leaves as part of the welcoming committee. And yet they completely missed the point.

It made me try hard to figure out why. Why steal preferred palm leaves for Palm Sunday knowing stealing is a sin? Maybe, I thought, they saw the leaves as high-end species that would command a higher price in the palaspas market? Or maybe they held this belief that only the leaves of pitogo would have healing powers or offer enough protection from lightning, as many believe?

Why did I end up like justifying theft?

I realize that many of us Catholic Filipinos tend to overdo Catholicism and be more popish than the pope most especially during Lent.

In my case, I grew up believing that all the practices practiced in our town for generations were regulation Catholic teaching, only to learn later on in my adult life that they are not.

I had always thought that offering atangs or alay on the altar, performing certain healing rituals, and performing an assortment of self-imposed suffering were practices stamped with nihil obstat and imprimatur.

As an adult devotee, I had to do a double-take and sift through a myriad of beliefs and practices and figure out which ones were 'legit' and which ones are not--or to be frank about it, 'heathen' ones.

I had to learn the hard way that, yes, of course, submitting one's forehead to receive a cross sign made of black ash from a priest on Ash Wednesay was 'licit' and expected, together with fasting from a meal on that day. But what most people don't know is that these are not even obligatory, just like so many devotions like Visita Iglesia, Way of the Cross, and the washing of the feet ceremony.

All that waving of palm leaves was likewise orthodox, although I've seen coconut palm leaves replaced with other leaves outside the Palmaceae family such as guava leaves. The use of non-palm leaves reminds me of indigenous healing rituals for someone who was 'abaltikan' or 'nabati,' and a traditional non-Christian cleansing ritual during or after funerals.

Not eating meat on Fridays was to be expected (with seniors and the sick being exempt). Abstinence of all kinds is most welcome.

But it is especially on Good Fridays that things would turn for the worse, with many traditional observances getting really out of hand.

Among the beliefs and practices that would turn out to be not Catholic at all are:

- Dahil patay daw ang Diyos kapag Biyernes Santo, kapag nasugat ka, matagal itong gagaling. (Once you are wounded on Good Friday, it would take so long for the wound to heal because God is dead on Friday.)

- Bawal maligo, dahil 'di pa nabuhay ang bangkay ni Hesus. Kailangang maghintay sa 'Pasko ng Pagkabuhay.' (You can't take a bath because Jesus' corpse has not resurrected yet. Wait for Easter.)

- Bawal lumabas. (You can't go out, or something bad might happen to you.)

- Bawal gumawa ng mabibigat na trabaho. (You can't do heavy workload.)

- Huwag kumain ng karne ng Huwebes Santo at Sabado de Gloria. (Don't eat meat even on Maundy Thursday and Black Saturday.)

- And the most bizarre of all is this because it is like acquiring an amulet: Sa hatinggabi ng Biyernes Santo, ang sinumang lalabas sa dilim upang abangan ang pagpatak ng isang likido mula sa puso ng saging ay magkakaroon ng kapangyarihan. (On the midnight of Good Friday, anyone who goes out into the darkness to wait for a drop of liquid to fall from the flower of a banana tree will gain superpower—like having special or supernatural abilities.)

- There's even self-flagellation, which they say contradicts the concept of the grace of God's mercy. (This, however, is reportedly practiced to a lesser extent by certain groups like Opus Dei members.)

Aside from the expected fasting from meat on Fridays or from a full meal on Good Friday itself, only this practice is deemed acceptable for obvious reasons:

- Bawal mag-ingay. (Observe silence, or at least avoid making noise in deference to the solemnity of the occasion.) But here, it must be pointed out that we are not celebrating God's death (death is never something to be celebrated unless you rise up again to eternity) but honoring and commemorating Jesus' passion and earthly death on the cross.

Other beliefs, though not part of official teaching, are acceptable or at least innocuous because they affirm the faith and are an act of faith and act of love by nature.

- Ilagay sa pintuan o bintana ang nabendisyunang palaspas bilang proteksyon sa kidlat. (Place the blessed palm fronds on the door or window as protection against lightning.)

- Sa alas dose ng tanghali Biyernes Santo, gumawa ng 'larak' o langis ng niyog para gamiting panghaplos ng mga mayroong sakit sa katawan dahil ito ay pinaniniwalaang nakagagamot. (At 12:00 noon of Good Friday, make oil out of coconut to produce healing oil.)

- Kapag Sabado de Gloria, magtanim ng kahit anong buto ng gulay o punla ng puno, dahil siguradong ito ay lalago ng husto. (On Black Saturday, plant any kind of vegetable seed or tree seedling, because it is sure to grow well and thrive.)

This one may be construed as our version of an Easter egg hunt:

- Kinaumagahan ng Pista ng Pagkabuhay, ikaw ay tumalon ng pinakamataas mong kayang talunin, upang ikaw ay maging matangkad. (On the morning of Easter Sunday, jump as high as you possibly can, so that you will grow taller.)

- Other acceptable practices include the Senakulo, Siete Palabras, and pasyon, but a quick research on the history of the pasyon reveals versions that were anathema to or inconsistent with teachings, culminating in the creation of the Pasyon Pilapil, a corrected version by Fr. Mariano Pilapil that became the most widespread version.

Anyway, what I am pointing out is that we, Filipinos, are no different from the pharisaical and overly legalistic Jews of old, to some extent. We love to overdo things in our practice of Christianity, apparently in our desire to bribe God with good deeds and deeper spiritual fervor that He might regard us better.

...To the point that we violate God's teachings and deep it justifiable, believing that resorting to our precolonial ways would ultimately do us good.

In our willingness to resort to hedging or bargaining through unnecessary add-ons and outright idolatry to please God through our own merits and efforts, we're not much different from the pitogo leaf thieves last Palm Sunday.

O mi Jesu, dimitte nobis debita nostra.

posted by Resty Odon  # 5:08 AM