“A communion, participation and mission” in the BECs of Burgos, Siargao Island, Surigao del Norte

“A communion, participation and mission”

in the BECs of Burgos,

Siargao Island, Surigao del Norte

(Summer Exposure)

Fray Genesis P. Labana, OSA

See (Ver)

Frays Ryan, Robert and me.

There was not much expectation to a place, where it is unfamiliar. In Burgos, Siargao Island, Surigao del Norte there were no stories heard. There was no background-check on what it’s like. Everything was left unknown. It was like a see-for-yourself experience. Being exposed there, together with my two other brothers, bequeathed me an unforgettable and wonderful journey of faith and joy. 

 

The main purpose of our 40-day journey is to live and stay with the family members within the Basic Ecclesial Community. This is at the same time our participation of the call of PCP II that “seminarians are to be given opportunities to experience the life and activities of different movements and especially of BECs (PCP II 

 

Decrees, no. 77, #2) We have to observe on how a BEC is run by the servant leaders. We also have to witness on how they do their living. Since the municipality has just only 6 barangays, we then were able to visit all of them. In all barangays, we’ve thought that the BECs are already well established and supposedly we only have to observe how it’s facilitated. But it turned out the opposite way. Faith or Bible sharing was not anymore practiced for more than 2 to 3 years. It all rooted to one cause, which is politics. Politics had created a great rift between families and even to relatives. There’s a group list but it’s only for paper requirements. Its spiritual meaning had been buried deep into the ground. We just knew it when we were already assigned in the barangays. It was a call for us then to personally revive the weekly Bible sharing, which is the very scaffolding of every BEC towards a more productive and humble living with each other. I am personally fulfilled and happy that I became a part of the restoration of Bible sharing to at least 3 barangays, namely Baybay, Matin-ao and Bitaug and at least 4 BECs in Poblacions 1 and 2. 

 

My first poster parent (Nay Genie) and her granddaughter.

On my first assignment, in Baybay, - a 20 minute drive from the main town - which only have 15 BECs composed of 7-10 families each, gave me the impression that they can be easily managed. They may be few but to gather them is difficult especially during daylight. I was able to gather them on my last evening. There were at 10 people who attended the bible sharing. Before we went for summer exposure, I researched about some major problems in BECs, one is that most of the participants in Bible sharing are women. However, in this barangay more a half of it was men. This only means that the survey is not all true to all BECs. This barangay maybe is an exemption. While observing them on how they share, some were emotional as they share their life experiences. Supposedly, when it was my turn to share, I immediately changed my topic from a scholarly point-of-view to a faith-experienced sharing. Simple yet meaningful stories from them had diverted my view on faith based from the classroom setting. 

 

On my second assignment, in Matin-ao, - a 15 minute drive from Barangay Baybay – they only have one (1) BEC since there are only 10 families that are Catholic. It is the smallest barangay in Burgos. This place is feared by other barangays since most of the people live there do have Schistosomiasis. Since BEC is always associated to bible-sharing, they said that their first and last bible sharing was facilitated by a nun. It was never continued. It was much different from the participants in Baybay. This time most of the participants are from the youth. There were 11 of us. The children stood as representatives of their parents since parents do have a little misunderstanding with each other. The need for spiritual nourishment is very much addressed by the members. They even expressed strongly to do it every night since they don’t have things to do. It adds to the demand since their televisions don’t have a good signal and others don’t have televisions. The activity had moved others to attend masses again on Sundays or the Kasaulugan sa Pulong. After one week I made a follow-up and I am thankful that they still continued the bible-sharing even without our presence. 

 

Brgy. Bitaug was my third assignment. The barangay is just a 15 minute walk from the town. There are only 3 BEC composed of 15-18 families each. I initiated the revival of their Bible sharing again and covered it for 3 nights. However, on the 3^rd BEC I wasn’t around since I was stranded in the convent due to heavy rain and thunders. I was in the parish since I gave a Lenten recollection in the morning. Despite of my absence, they still continued the bible-sharing. The participants this time were all women except for three males, who are at the same time Lay ministers in the barangay. The lack of initiative of the servant leaders had also caused the stop of weekly bible sharing. Some of them had conflicts with other members during the election. All the families in this barangay were Catholics before and members of the BEC. But, they transferred to other religions because they don’t like the strict policies of the parish. Some families denied the Catholic faith because other religious offer an easier access to living. The policy of “no BEC recommendation, no sacraments” had forced them also. The spiritual dimension of BEC had been lost for the past 3 years. 

 

My penultimate assignment was in Poblacion 2. I had to continue in facilitating 4 BECs since the previous brothers were not able to cover the more than 25 BECs. I only stayed in my foster-home for 3 days since we have to help Fr. Leonard Realiza, OSA in facilitating the 1^st Augustinian Youth Camp, which is also first time in Burgos. What’s unique in the BECs of Poblacion 2, they helped and communicated with each other, especially in preparing my daily meals. Every meal a family would sponsor, which indeed was a good way of interacting and socializing with them. I was able to hear some of their problems in the family and about the concerns of our faith. 

 

The last sitio, where I was assigned was in San Mateo, which is a 30 minute drive from the town. It only has 7 BECs. The people there are very welcoming. They are very eager to let me facilitate all the BECs in two nights. Since 2 nights is not enough, I had to consolidate them into two groups. First night was only two BECs and the rest 5 BECs were on the following night. Unfortunately, on my last night, there were only 6 members attended, which 5 were servant leaders. However, I didn’t focus on them but rather to the children of the barangay. Since it is hard to teach and play with children on empty stomachs, I had to solicit money from the barangay officials. It was very timely that they had barangay session. I was included to other matters. They eventually donated money and snacks for the children. 

 

Fr. Ben, OSA (seated from left), parish priest of Sta. Anna Sub Parish.

Judge (Juzgar)

Basically, the Basic Ecclesial Communities (BEC) is the response of the Philippine Catholic Church to the call of renewal of the entire Catholic Church through Vatican Council II. This model was adopted by our bishops during the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines (PCP II), which was already used by the dioceses of Mindanao. The bishops only had one vision: 

 

“Our vision of the Church as communion, participation, and mission, about the Church as priestly, prophetic and kingly people and as a Church of the poor— a Church that is renewed — is today finding expression in one ecclesial movement. This is the movement to foster Basic Ecclesial Communities” (PCP-II Text, no. 137).

 

Communion strengthens each member to be concern with one another as it sees the community as one in spirit and goal towards a fruitful and developed sons and children of God. Participation to ecclesial needs integrates each person as an active and helpful agent of transformation to the local and global Church. And, mission solidifies the faith towards the proclamation of the gospel since “we are all called to mission… all – without exception – are called to evangelize” (PCP II 402).

 

The very nature of BECs varied in various aspects of the Philippine Society as they saw it that it would not only address the need for spiritual care but also of the “material and temporal dimensions” of the “economic, social and political” imbalances.¹ It was a call for ‘renewed integral evangelization’. 

 

This we also realize that ‘each disciple of Christ has the obligation of spreading the faith to the best of his ability (Lumen Gentium, 17). 

 

BECs, modelled from the Sacred Scriptures - particularly the Acts of the Apostles 2:42-47; 4:32-35 - heeds them to follow faithfully the following: 1. Devotion to the teaching of the Apostles; 2. Unity of mind and heart; 3. Praying together in the temple and praising God; 4. Breaking the Bread in their homes; 5. Believing in Jesus and his Resurrection; 6. Sharing of possessions; 7. Distributing goods according to one's needs; 8. Enjoying the good will of the people; 9. Increasing the number of believers.

Bishop Quevedo had also added some salient points regarding the nature of BECs. BEC is whose members are gathered together with their leaders to worship the Lord. BEC is also to share with one another, serve and support one another. BEC is also to listen prayerfully to the Word of God, reflect upon it, and apply it to their daily lives.

All of these positive nature and characteristics that a BEC must observe are somehow in contrast to the demands of reality. The BECs in Burgos may have not totally fulfilled and observed all the above mentioned natures yet in one way or another they have imbibed it when they were first built by the missionary sisters, who had lived and stayed with them for many months in order to form the Basic Ecclesial Communities. Listening and praying to the Word of God or Bible sharing may have not been practiced for many years yet the need for a pastor-priest and hunger for spiritual nourishment is much intense. The Burgos community as one society had been sharing and supportive to the needs of our priests assigned there. 

To bring Christ into the heart of the faithful in the ‘evangelizing mission of proclaiming the Gospel’ (Catechism for Filipino Catholics, 1419) through the BECs may not be identical with the thrust for justice and liberation but the Church says they are ‘intimately connected’. The hope ‘to transform the whole fabric of society according to values of the Kingdom and of Christ’ will never be in vain unless God stops loving us, which he cannot.

Acts (Actuar)

Much has been said and iterated regarding the relationship between reality and ideal nature of the BECs. We must them say and do: Duc in altum. "Put out into the deep." (Lk 5:4) Based on the words from the Apostolic Letter of Bl. John Paul II, we are called to do the same like Peter, who had cast the net into the deep in order to catch fish. 

 

Bishop Quevedo’s message to the delegates of the National Pastoral Consultation on Church Renewal in January 27, 2001 has put it all.

The challenge for us, the Church in the Philippines, is to do the same. We are called to put out into the depths of Philippine life and society, to put out into the depths of our life as Church, to put out our nets into the unknown depths of the future. Like Peter, we know the frustration of having caught nothing. But like Peter, we know that the One who directs us is the Lord who has renewed all things by his life, death and resurrection. And so we dare to begin again in the task of renewal. May Mary, star of evangelization, be with us in our journey to the new creation we so deeply desire.²

This challenge raised by Bishop Quevedo is not only for the delegates of the NPCCR but also to each member of the society. This may pose a great challenge but we must not lose hope that one day we may achieve all our goals towards building a better community of Christ.

Time-out!

For my personal actions and suggestions for the next batch of exposurists that will be assigned in Burgos there are only few things to do. These are the following:

1. To go house-to-house in inviting the members of the BEC to join the Bible sharing. They’ll be thankful if someone from the Church visited them especially if it’s remote.
2. To create a separate group for the youth in facilitating a Bible sharing.
3. To teach Catechism to children in the afternoon in April although it’s not yet Flores de Mayo.
4. To invite families personally to attend the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, which is the culmens et fons of our faith.
5. To be somehow an instrument with their problems in the Parish so that it could be relayed to the Parish Priest.
6. To tell them that BEC is not another organization from the Church that always entails for material and temporal demands.
7. To tell them the spiritual benefits of hearing the Word of God and applying it to daily lives.
8. To tell them that BEC bible sharing is not the only thing to do, there are also other ways of promoting BEC, it can be social and justice actions like fighting illegal logging and illegal fishing.

1 (BASIC ECCLESIAL COMMUNITIES, PHILIPPINES by Most Rev. Orlando B. Quevedo, OM.L, D.D. Archbishop of Cotabato Chairman: Basic Ecciesial Community (CBCP), pg 1.)

2 'BEHOLD I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW' (Rev 21:5) Message of the National Pastoral Consultation On Church Renewal by ORLANDO B. QUEVEDO, O.M.I, D.D. Archbishop of Cotabato  CBCP President in 2001 January 27, 2001, Makati City