Reditio — a touching profession of faith

The last four weeks of Lent were a touching encounter for me with an event — the first ever to be held in Negros Occidental — the reditio. I had attended the same rite in Molo, Iloilo, two years ago and it is all the time soul-uplifting.

Reditio is simply public profession of the faith by Catholic Christians, usually by members of the Neo-Catechumenal community as in the case of the Molo Christians. They belonged to the first Neo-community in Iloilo.

In the last four weeks, I witnessed the reditio of the first community of Bata’s Our Lady of Lourdes Parish. Fr. Edwin Cadena, the parish priest, was one of the first four top clerics of the Bacolod diocese who attended last Tuesday’s reditio.

At the helm of the four churchmen was Msgr. Victorino Rivas, vicar general of the Bacolod Diocese, with Msgr. John Liu, former pastor of the Our Queen of Peace Parish of Hua Ming. He is the presbyter for the first two Neo-communities of the parish.

The presiding pastor was Fr. Angel Mojica, a Columbian priest-turned Italian citizen, from Rome. He is the head of the itinerant team from Rome who was here for the past 14 years ministering to the more than 60 communities of Panay, Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental.

God’s intervention

Most of us must have been extremely disturbed by the current political events in the country. The imbroglio over the People’s Initiative tends to infect all of us with a sense of confusion and trouble as to what will happen to the country later.

The debate is intense. And even now, Rep. Renato Matubo of the Partido Manggawa Saturday told a labor forum in Bacolod that the Commission on Elections face a deluge of suits for its validation of signatures of voters supporting the People’s Initiative for Charter change.

Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos, however, said the poll body is not violating anything since it is merely verifying signatures. In short, it has not yet taken cognizance of the initiatives for Charter change.

The Bayang Alyansa Makabayan is also waging a signature campaign against Charter change.

Commissioner Resurreccion Borra told the Daily STAR that there is no deadline set for the verification of signatures to be completed.

Bacolod registrar Mavil Majurocon admitted Sunday that no signatures had yet been submitted to her office for verification. Bacolod DILG head Irineo Asuga had earlier asked her for a copy of the Bacolod list of voters, but the Comelec official failed to return to her office when informed if the DILG would shoulder the cost of photocopying the list. The Comelec, she added, did not have the budget for it.

Provincial Comelec head Daisy Real, however, said the the verification of signatures in the province will start yesterday. Several had already been submitted to her office, including signatures form Escalante City, Calatrava, Pontevedra, and La Carlota City, said Ms. Real.

Rodolfo Alvarez, head of the Negrenses United Against Constituent Assembly (NUNCA), said his group is also opposed to Charter change through a People’s Initiative. The people, he added, have not been properly informed about it. Alvarez, however, did not mention how NUNCA was going to oppose the move.

Escaping the political din

With political flak being dished out all over, one tends to forget that Lent is the time when a person needs a pause to take stock of the situation and allow God to induce repentance and to realign one’s life.

Thus, the reditio, to a great extent, enabled me to pause for a refreshing insight on how God actually puts his plan into action, albeit gradually opening the eyes of a believer through hindsight.

Reditio is a Latin term that means to return to the Church what it had entrusted to the believer. That is preceded by what is called the tradition. This means that members of a Christian community spend one day a week going from house to house to share their experience with the living Christ.

Very often one learns from the testimonials of those making the reditio of how they discovered that during their visits to individual families, they found out that the passages of the Scriptures often answers the problems of those they visit. And they do it by opening the Bible at random.

Usually, three to five members of the community present their testimonies to the community. All the time that they are reciting the Apostles creed and hold the cross.

During the reditio, one discovers that God has plans for the life of a person. This is gradually discovered over the years, usually by hindsight. The most important thing is that faith provides the person the needed insight into his/her experiences.

Rich or poor, each member has his own experiences with God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

Very often, among some of the rich members of the community, one discovers that a person is detached from the idol of wealth. It is usually tragic that one finds him himself/herself, stripped of that attachment to riches. And that often involves losing one’s properties, the comforts of life, and the life of affluence.

But the poor are not liberated either from their poverty. They remain poor. But discover the meaning of the Golden Cross that makes them happy in their misery.

In short, Christ does not promise the believer that He will carry his cross, but transform its heavy weight into a taste of eternal life.

The impact of the reditio on the attendees is that it makes people aware of God’s intervention in the lives of the witnesses and how He transforms seeming tragedies into a beautiful experience with the Divine. There were many teary-eyed participants in the audience. At one time, several people from Iloilo and Dumaguete attended the reditio and they all went home praising God.

And the funny thing is that all of them forgot about the controversy over the People’s Initiative.

It was an experience that is unforgettable. And it leaves one wondering when God will bare His plans for the Philippines and for the Filipino people. But one thing is sure, God has His own design for all of us — from the most powerful to the weakest, from the richest to the poorest. All these will gradually unfold. And that is what makes it important.

ADDENDA. Focus on the reditio, however, did not mean that I became oblivious of some events that have been happening elsewhere in the region. For example, there was the holdup of an Australian national Wednesday night. In Dumaguete City, the Australian, Stuart Lekin, 57, was held up and P8,000, an ATM card, and a Visa credit card were taken from him while on his way home to Valencia town. Lekin was driving the motorcycle of a friend, another foreigner, when two unidentified motorists overtook him near the Julie’s Bakeshop in Junob. The two reportedly fired at him three times. Lekin was wounded on the left hand. His motorcycle fell on the ground. The backrider then approached and pointed the gun at the hapless Australian and asked him to hand over his wallet. Several foreigners had earlier been victimized by holdup men in Dumaguete. These included a Korean, German, Canadian, Iranian, Swiss and Indian nationals. Dumaguete has become a dangerous place for gunmen have been victimizing them . . . Also in Oriental Negros’ Baywan City, 66-year old woman was victimized by a Bodol-bodol gang near the Dumaguete Cathedral Thursday. Precise Guerrero, married, said she lost her gold necklace worth P12,000, a P3,000 wrist watch and gold ring valued at P3,000. The story is familiar. She was about to enter the Church when a 50-year old woman reportedly asked her where to rent a truck to haul her cargo to San Carlos City. She reportedly offered Mrs. Guerrero a commission to help her with her predicament. Mrs. Guerrero agreed to help her. At the corner of Colon and Sta. Catalina streets, another woman and man met them and claimed they knew somebody who could hire them the truck. To guarantee that she would receive her commission, the first suspect asked the victim to take off her jewelry and put them in an envelop with her own. Well, as what usually happens in this situation, the swindler left the envelop with the victim. Then, they went to get the truck. Later, Mrs. Guerrero opened an empty envelope.