The Lord your God, as a man carriers his child, all along your journey…”(Dt 1:31) It was a journey that started one starry night when the lake was still and silent, and ended five days later with sun rising over field golden with grain ready for harvest. It was a journey of the heart.
It was the night of the 11th of July, 1986- the fifth day of our novena in preparation for the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
As we gathers in our prayer room for Night Prayer, the theme of our shared reflections was BUKID (Mountain).
What does bukid means to you? Our house is on top of the hill, so the symbolism is very rich for us-multicolored, woven with mystery, enchantment, challenge, touches the divine… Bukid speaks of wilderness, of silent music, sounding solitude, of height and depths, of encounter with God, of prayer. Bukid is associated with the virgin forest, caves, wild animals springs waterfalls… From symbol, our heart an imagination carried us beyond the bukid to the land of dream where symbols give the way to reality. To conclude our sharing, Sr. Divina, who was in charge of the novena theme for the day, said a prayer the went something like this ” Father, you know the desires of our heart. We know that all our dreams are but the shadow of your own dreams for us. Make them come true in your own way and in your own time.” Little did we know that the time was NOW!
Outside, the men who would be god’s instruments to make our dreams come true were already waiting.
It was almost 9:30 P.M. when we ended our prayer. The novice, with Sr. Teret, their novice mistress, were the first to leave the prayer room as they live in the separate quarters about two meters away from the main house. As they opened the kitchen door to go to their novitiate house, Sister Judith and Fatima were met the armed men pointing their guns to them. “Hostage” was all they said, and Sister Fatima told them something was seriously wrong. Going out to the prayer room, they saw the four-armed men had entered the house while others had posted themselves outside. The men spoke in Tagalog: “ Huwag sisigaw huwag lalaban papatayin kayo”, (Do not shout and do not resist or else we were kill you)
Everything happened very fast from there on. The kidnappers did not want to lose time as there were soldiers (PC-Philippines Constabulary) guarding the Tourism building about three hundred meters away from our house and wanted to avoid an encounter. They wanted to take us all, so Sr. Madeleine’s dilemma as to who and would go and stay was quickly solved. We asked to prepare something to bring but they don’t allow us to do even that, as we had to start moving at once. They said they would the ones to take what we need. So meekly and obediently, we followed them out of the house into the dark of the night. Sr. Divina asked one of them in the way, “ bakit kami and inyong pinag-initan”? (What do you have against us?) The curt reply was, “ hindi kayo si Cory kasi”(Its not you. It is because of Cory)
As we walked out of the house, we held each other firmly hand-in-hand. We checked: Everybody’s here? Yes all ten of us were there- to begin the journey that would lead us to where- we- did- not- know. Only one thing we knew: god was with us, and we felt the Lady’s presence very palpably. Most of us were frightened, some were too shocked and daze to know what to feel, but there was also a deep sense of surrender. “Into Your hands, O Lord, we commend our Spirit.”
We had just sung this resposory at Night Prayer, and the line echoed in our heart as we edged our way down steep, steep hill, still holding each other’s hands with one of the kidnappers, leading the way. Some of the captor was kind and assuring, telling us that we would not be harmed and helping us find our way in the dark. But others were quit rough, poking their guns at us and prodding us to hurry.
Half way down the hill, some of us looked back and saw our house on the top of the hill with the security light on the side. We all stop to marvel at the sight: “Sister’s look at our house!”
There it was like a sentinel in the night, standing there as a symbol of presence, of prayer, of Mary of Carmel. We recalled the song we had sung at the Night Prayer:
“Bukid habog ug ambungan
sa pag ampo timailhan…
Ang ulay imong gyanggaan
Madanihon sa katawhan.”
Had we not been sharing just a short while ago about the bukid? All we had been talking about in words not in reality: the bukid our –bukid! The word made flesh! But this was no time to be lost in ecstasy. Our captor was in hurry and told us to move on and to keep silent. We were getting excited with all the beauty and wonder of the night –we almost forgot we were being kidnapped!
Down below, at the foot of the hill lay the Maranaw Village of Kalokan. How we often looked the at the cluster of houses from the top of the hill, dreaming how thrilled we would be to go there to met our Maranaw brothers. Now we were actually on our way there! But we avoided passing near the houses. Instead, our captors diverted us to the other side along the bays of the hill encloses an inlet and the village. A big motorboat was waiting for us at the lakeshore. Our hearts beat wildly as we near the lake. We were just dreaming, or would we really be touching the waters of Lake Lanao and riding on its starlet surface? Where were they taking us? Then a quiet begun to grip us.
To be continued in the next issue . . .