Gifted to Give

good evening dear brothers and sisters dear parishioners of our lady of pentecost parish thank you for inviting me to give this evening's recollection on the topic gifted to give on the occasion of the 500th year of christianity i just want to begin by giving you the biblical inspiration for the theme gifted to give it comes from matthew chapter 10 verse 8 b the second half of the verse and take note that this is from the mission discourse in the gospel of saint matthew it is part of the instruction of jesus to his apostles when he sends them out on a mission he says without cost you have received without cost you are to give well this is going to be a five-part reflection the first is going to be on the theme itself gifted to give the second is on the gift of the christian faith to the philippines the third is the has to do with the four encounters that took place in 1521 as narrated by pigafetta you know the the events that took place within 46 days when magellan came to these islands the fourth is the follow-up that took place in 1565 and then fast forward 2021 500 years later let us begin immediately with the theme gifted to give like i said it comes from the mission discourse of the gospel of matthew without cost you have received without cost you are to give meaning jesus is defining for us a gift as that which you receive without cost that is what it means to be gifted you received without cost and as that also which you give without cost and that is what the second part is about gifted to give well we have to make clear that it is not a gift when the receiver has to pay for it or it is not a gift when the giver demands payment for it it is not a gift when the giver expects something in return or when the receiver feels entitled to the gift you don't call that a gift maybe you will call it a reward or a payment but don't call it a gift it is a gift when the receiver feels grateful for it not entitled to it grateful for it and is thereby motivated to reciprocate by sharing it take note um i am not denigrating you know the value of quid pro something for something meaning an equivalent amount of goods in exchange for merchandise for example that is not bad in itself to demand or to expect just payment or just compensation for goods and services there's nothing essentially bad about that that is part of human business and human transactions but let's make it clear that is not what gift is about it is not a gift when the giver has a hidden agenda or an ulterior motive for the giving or when the receiver is held captive by the giver through the gift the so-called gift we must call as paid as paid not all gifts are gifts you know i realized this very early in my life because my late father served as an assistant to the chief prosecutor of metro manila and you know and prosecutor ang piscal usually would decide on the merit of the case meaning would establish what they call probable costs and many times you know people attempted to send gifts to my late father and i do remember how offended he felt whenever they sent gifts but i didn't understand that at the start only later did i learn to distinguish between what is called a gift and what is a bride not all gifts are gifts if it is given for a prize or in exchange for something then it is not a gift it is a commodity or a merchandise for sale or for barter if it is given with a hidden agenda that is even worse kuminsan you know the agenda can be economic or political or sometimes even a sexual agenda then if it is given with a hidden agenda it is not a gift it is a trap it is a bait there is an old saying i'm sure you're familiar with it beware of the greeks bearing gifts well i do not mean to be racist when i say that it's just a quotation that has a literary background and i am sure you know the literary background to it that trojan horse you know the trojan horse when uh when they set that trojan horse you know they really thought it was a gift not realizing that it was a trap so let's now move to the second part the gift of the christian faith having established what a gift is supposed to be already from the mindset of jesus himself you know then maybe let us reflect on what we call now the gift of the christian faith you know one of the issues is was christianity a gift or a mere tool for colonial rule i am sure not everyone will agree with us about celebrating 2021 or commemorating 1521 in fact there are some historians who would simply say oh come on you know the christianity brought by the spaniards was just a tool for colonial rule well maybe if you agree that christianity was nothing but a tool a political tool or a tool for colonial rule then maybe if that is how you look at it then you will not regard it as a gift you will probably talk about christianity as something similar to the trojan horse you know but the question is how come how come we eventually got rid of the spanish colonial rule but we kept the christian faith how come that could only mean that even the natives of this of these islands learned to distinguish between faith and politics you know i mean they were not dumb people they were also intelligent and i am sure they were also discerning the movements of these strangers who came to these islands i think they also distinguished between the political agenda of the colonists and the evangelizing mission of the missionaries of course they came together that is why it is easy to equate them with one another they are colonists and the missionaries we rejected we ended up rejecting the politics but we kept the faith and for me for me that could only mean we recognized it as a gift and we recognize this as a gift not from spain but as a gift from god maybe through spain but not from spain you know because we kicked out spain after all after we uh uh we had a revolution against spanish colonial rule and so we need to clarify 500 year of what because we're saying we're celebrating 500th year of christianity what is it about the fifth about 1521 that we are commemorating well i would like to put it very simply it's the 500th year since the first contact of the natives of these islands that would later be called the philippines with christians or with christianity with christians from spain and portugal in the person of magellan and all who were part of the magellan expedition of 1521. and so are we you know are we going to say 2021 is the 500th year of evangelization that's another touchy issue for some church historians even but i would dare say yes why not 500 years somehow of evangelization but with a lot of qualification on the significance of what exactly happened in 1521 because because we celebrated 1965 as the 400th year of evangelization that was to commemorate 1565 the 1565 legaspi expedition and that expedition came with the first group of augustinian missionaries with the express mandate to evangelize and this group departed not from spain by the way but from mexico which was then called new spain or la nueva espana the 1521 magellan expedition had no such mandate to engage in evangelizing mission like i said they departed from spain while uh you know the other the 1565 departed from new spain or mexico and the objective of the magellan expedition was not really to evangelize but to find a new westward route to the moluccas the spice islands and by the way it's important to note that uh all the members of the crew were christians they were all christians majority of them were lay christians maybe portuguese christians spanish christians or italian even like the chronicler picafeta was italian uh but also a christian with the exception of one ordained priest well historians tell us there were other priests but they perished they did not they did not arrive in these islands with machelan so isalanian parinila father pedro de valderrama acting as a chaplain of the expedition and who is magellan well magellan was a christian portuguese captain who transferred political loyalty from portugal to spain in exchange for the financing of his experimental westward voyage to the moluccas he was trying to get the support of the portuguese monarch but he didn't get it and so he defected from the portuguese king and you know became loyal to the spanish monarchy because it was the spanish monarch that financed the expedition you know he was the first he was the very first to propose to follow the opposite routes not the eastward route but the westward route through the pacific ocean in order to reach the moluccas the spice islands and so he succeeded in a way because he was the first european to reach asia through the south pacific ocean before magellan nobody else has attempted to do that that is why the whole strait is named after magellan who is magellan again well let's call a spade spain he was not a missionary he was a mercenary and he was doing this for pay you know but there is something that puzzles me about magellan's behavior when he came to these islands he suddenly shifted to being a missionary when he met the natives of samar leyte sometimes you know i ask myself the question what was in the mind of magellan that was not his work that wasn't his business in these islands what was in his mind what got into him that made him shift from mercenary work to missionary work my only answer to that is your guess is as good as mine of course the typical question would be he was doing it for an economic or political agenda well remember his true destination was the malukas they were just passing through so what motivated him to sort of behave like a missionary and i will explain to you in what way he shifted somehow from being mercenary to missionary in his dealings with the natives of samar leite and cebu so as i said he was just passing through and to the natives the first natives who met with the expedition of magellan you know these people from far away europe were just strangers what were they they were playing strangers who came and were in dire needs imagine they had just crossed the south pacific ocean and survived it when they left there were there were five ships but only three of the ships survived one got shipwrecked and the other deserted them and halfway through the voyage there was even a mutiny that's why magellan even had to execute some of these rebellious members of the expedition several of them several of them died they weren't able to last through the journey many of them when they arrived were very sick they were tired weary and sea beaten they were hungry and thirsty and you know they needed new provisions in order to reach the real destination which was the malukas so dumada and they were just passing through and before they actually reached the islands we now call the philippines they pass through the marianas islands but they were immediately unwelcome there you know they were met with bose and arrows by the uh by the chamorros and so when they arrived in the visayas and upper mindanao they they were very afraid they were anxious you know they were not sure because the natives of these islands and they saw that some islands were quite well inhabited populated you know busy islands but they were not sure and they saw that many of these people were tattooed natives you know would these natives be friendly or hostile i'm sure they were afraid would they provide them temporary shelter would they be kind or unkind to them well in tagalog you would call the situation of magellan's expedition do you remember what we dramatized during christmas they were in search of a shelter in their time of need you know evangelization can happen only in the context of dialogue and in filipino you know if you are seeking shelter you present yourself as a human being in fact when we knock at the door that is what we say and if if the homeowner is convinced that you are really tahu he would say tulupo so this is the dynamics that took place between magellan's crew and the natives of these islands i would think of magellan as strangers you know his company his group was a group of strangers these are the basic rules for strangers seeking shelter and for the prospective hosts who are of course naturally cautious because they do not know yet what your objective is so in tagalog we would say and what is the best expression and i'd like to propose that evangelization begins with that that evangelization cannot be true cannot be real if it doesn't begin with you remember even in the story of saint luke uh on the infancy narrative the holy family was unwelcome you know they came as unwelcome strangers being uh but they were seeking shelter and no one would open their doors to them except the lowly shepherds and when finally they find shelter in the company of the lowly shepherds luke tells us that the angels in heaven sung the gloria and the angels said glory to god in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will meaning the lowly who respond with good will they are the very first to receive the good news that is how the gospel is laid out in the gospel of saint luke the good will of the lowly shepherds which you know the the good will of opening a door to strangers who are in need evangelization begins with that it begins with a basic exchange of good will in dialogue and good will is the only fertile ground for the seeds of the good news of the kingdom of god let me repeat that good will is the only fertile ground for the seeds of the good news i think that is what luke is trying to insinuate with angels singing glory to god in the highest and on earth peace peace to people of good will these people of goodwill are the recipients of the good news now let's go straight to the 500th year of christianity in the philippines we say we celebrate the 500th year meaning 2021 is the 500th year of becoming a field for the seeds of the gospel how the seeds of the christian faith were sown by god through the instrumentality of european christians who were both flawed and holy sinful and saintly missionaries and mercenaries magellan is usually credited for discovering the philippines you know from the mercenary point of view we might say he discovered a potential colony for the spanish monarchy whom he was working for and from the missionary point of view what i believe he discovered was a fertile ground for the seeds of the christian faith we cannot separate magellan the mercenary and the magellan the missionary you know it's one human being and that is the case with you know with all of us you know we are always a mixture of saints and sinners now let me move to the four important encounters so that we will be able to situate in these four encounters where we might believe uh the fertile ground of goodwill was laid out and became became open or welcoming to the seeds of the gospel so we're going to highlight the four important encounters that took place in 1521 and uh reported within 46 days because remember they arrived on march 16 1521 but they departed departed on may 1 1521 then the departure was not very pleasant so for encounters first with the fishermen from summer the second is the encounter with the two brothers the chieftain colombo of limasawa and siagu of bhutuan and the third is the encounter with the chieftain of cebu and lastly the tragic encounter with the chief taints of maktan and i'm talking about sula and la pulafu unfortunately most of us know only we probably never many of you probably never heard about sula but he is an important figure who would make you understand what really happened in la pullappu i don't even want to call what happened in la pullappu a battle i i would rather call it an ambush an ambush okay now we talk about the first encounter this happened on march 18 1521 at homeon hon island in summer meaning magellan you know they had arrived but they were not coming out of their ship they moved their ship you know quite a distance from an island because they're observing around they they had already seen li masawa but because they saw that it was very populated umi was they avoided it and went to a less populated island and that's which happened to have two springs by the way then they were looking for fresh water and they were surprised they were in the ship they were in the ship and suddenly there was this boat this bunker with nine fishermen approaching the ship suddenly they they felt afraid because uh you know they were thinking that they might be attacked by these natives that's why they were already holding on to their swords but you know magellan told his men to put down their swords when he noticed that these this men they were just plain fishermen that they were just curious they were approaching the ship and they probably wanted to know who was in the ship and magellan welcomed them in the ship and they were pleasantly surprised that magellan was very nice to them he served them food and he gave gifts to them some tokens a red cap looking glass combs bells ivory little things little trinkets you know and apparently the native fishermen were very happy that they were treated in a friendly way by these strangers so what do they do the fishermen because they're touched by the the warm and the friendly demeanor of magellan they reciprocated they also gave gifts they were bringing some gifts of fish pan wine tuba fruits and coconuts and of course they were raving about the coconuts because they were delicious and these people were longing for fresh water they had not drunk you know real fresh water and now they're drinking delicious coconut juice you know you will keep hearing about coconut juice it became a token of friendship between magellan's men and and the natives so after that first brief encounter on march 22 four days later as promised the natives came back in two boats with more coconuts and oranges and they were even bringing a rooster down no and and so magellan felt more more comfortable you know with the natives they not only moored close to the island they actually went to the island and they sought the assistance of the natives there to attend to their sick companions a tent in order to attend to their sick companions and they got fresh water from the springs in homanhon island now we talk about the second encounter the second encounter took place on march 28th with two chieftains colombo of limasawa and thiago with one now first columbu so kolambu was in a boat and he approached the ship just like the first encounter he was in a boat and majellan you know also responded in a friendly way he was asking kolambu to get into the ship but colombo stayed in his boat and asked some of his men to enter the ship but he was very formal meaning he was very cautious he was trying to play it by ear magellan you know gave gifts and but kulambu tried to maintain his dignity and you know what colombo did when his men came down and they were bringing tokens given by magellan he was bringing a bar of gold and a basket of ginger according to pigafetta meaning he gave payment he was trying to pay them and how did magellan react to that he declined the payment meaning he wanted to make it clear they were gifts and somehow that broke the ice so on march 29 on good friday magellan sent enrique to the island the island in order to buy some provisions and colombo visited them reciprocated the visit so magellan sent people to the island by the way i should tell you about enrique enrique you know he was the slave of magellan and this name was a native of malacca meaning he was a malay you know and and this malay was serving as an interpreter to them yeah i would wonder if they really understood each other to the interpretation of enrique because it's like making a cebuano and a speaker of bahasa indonesia talk to each other no they probably understood about 50 or 40 but i do not think they understood each other really a hundred percent at least it's a lot better than communicating between the the malays and the spaniards no so colombo visited them in the ship and this time he entered the ship he did not stay in the boat and he was bringing gifts he was bringing gifts of cooked rice on china dishes and cooked fish as well and other good things you know food and the captain you know showed gratitude he was so touched by the gesture of welcome he reciprocated with more gifts and he even served refreshments in the ship and then colombo invited them to the island he tried to explain to them that common hon was just a hunting ground for for these two chief things you know that uh that shiago was really from both one and in fact he's called amur by the way no i wonder if he was a muslim and uh magellan was the chieftain of limasawa so he invited them over to limasawa and he prepared a friendly banquet for them and picafeta would be raving about the friendly meals that they were having together not natural look overnight stay and then they returned to their ship um next thiago the brother of colombo would visit magellan again it would be a friendly encounter the climax of the first two encounters is actually the first mass at limasawa on easter sunday of 1521 and that happened on march 31. you might be wondering why why you know the cbcp has proposed to celebrate or to inaugurate our 500th year of christianity uh uh to commemorate the first mass on april 4. well because march 31 in 1521 was an easter sunday actually celebrate and it's not the date but the day the significance of the day which was an easter sunday and that easter sunday was also the occasion for the first encounter of the natives with the first christian icon which is the planting of the cross so let's review what happened uh in this uh the cla this climax of the first two encounters no so um this the gestures of friendship uh you know happened really on march 31 15 21 uh on that first mass know and his brother rahasyagu assisted them in constructing a platform as a venue for the mass because magellan told them that they were celebrating a very important occasion you know for the christian faith and that they wanted a place where they could worship and colombo and sea who said of course of course we will help you and so they assisted them the tayo silent platform and not only did they do that they slaughtered two pigs as gift for their newfound friends they were really treating magellan and his companions as friends and not only did they do all of that they even joined them in their uh in their celebration of the mass and pigafetta was saying they found it a bit amusing that you know they were doing sabinyan what we were doing like you know there was a ritual that we did when we kissed the cross they also kissed the cross when we knelt at the consecration they also knelt at the consecration and even folded their hands i am sure that was a gesture of friendship as far as colombo and siagu and his families were concerned meaning it was a sign or a show of respect for the faith of these guests who were strangers whom they were assisting and then magellan said you know we would like to plant a symbol you know and we'd like it to be a kind of a token of our friendship and it's the cross and thiago and colombo said oh that would be wonderful yes we will assist you they try to find the highest point of the island where they could plant the cross now the third encounter so first the fishermen of samar second columbu and shiago uh in limasawa the third encounter now in cebu with raha huma and this took place on april 7th the question was this the captain when i say captain i'm talking about magellan dakapitan said to colombo you know with all due respect i'm happy you know that you have been assisting us helping us even providing food for us but we need more food and we don't want to burden you too much is there a place or a port here for trading where we could get more provisions because we are on our way to the moluccas and we need more provisions and of course not only to malukas we have to return to spain so that will require a lot of food and drink said oh yes yes you know you go to cebu cebu is a very busy port and if you want i will even accompany you and he did on april 7 colombo colombo introduced magellan to raha humabon of cebu and rahuman was very formal you know rahuman was very businesslike of course you know the one who was doing all the uh interpreting so that they could communicate well was actually the interpreter enrique and through enrique magellan tried to negotiate you know and i don't know if enrique had the permission you know of magellan everything that he was saying uh but enrique went out of his way you know to insist to human that they should not be made to pay the port tax of cebu khumabon was saying you are strangers here you're visitors you're bringing merchandise you have to pay a poor tax and enrique on behalf of magellan said if we are friends why will you make us pay tax you know and he says if you waive the tax the port tax then we will promise you you know protection from your enemies and you know ah that's good so give in the mancha okay now we're not talking about gifts anymore we're talking about queen pro you know you demand you know to be given a special privilege so all right i will give in to your request but uh that will come with a prize you know and uh kumamon for his part started offering gifts so he also expressed some friendship and he welcomed them with a banquet and they did a little bit of a ritual called the blood contacts which was for the natives a gesture of their friendship so it is expected that on both sides para pakiram and baga they were trying to feel they their way with each other trying to see what is the gesture or token of friendship in their culture you know and when magellan saw that the gesture was an exchange of blood or blood compact then he submitted himself to it and i'd like to believe that when the natives joined them in their own liturgy or religious uh celebration it was for them also an expression a token of friendship april 9 tuesday who is called the moro they assure the captain that that humabon was preparing more food provisions for them as they requested and take note he is not supposed to be demanding it as a gift but rather as i know uh merchandise meaning uh magellan was going to pay for it so human would prepare the food provision but magellan had to pay for it now during that time uh pigafetta tells us that that magellan you know who became really very friendly in particular with columbus and siagu began to induce them to become christians the mercenary start is starting to behave like a missionary i would expect the priest to do that see pedro de valderama but no it's not the priest who does it it's the capitan magellan he tries to induce them to become christians and you know what they answered and they were very nice they were very kind they said if the captain could send two men later on to teach us and to show us the christian faith we would be more than interested to listen and the capital was very pleasantly surprised that they showed interest in the christian faith and so here is what pigafetta narrates no let me quote directly from him no and of course when i read pigafeta i also take him with a grain of salt because i know that he is making this as a report to the king and trying to impress as well no well he said each of us wept for the joy which we felt at the goodwill of these people and the captain told them not to become christians from fear of of of us or just to please us but sabanya if they wish to become christian they must do so willingly and for the love of god for even though they should not become christian no displeasure would be done to them would be done then but those who became christian would be more loved and better treated than others this is you know the narration of pigafetta their their reaction it was so heartwarming on the part of these of these lay christians you know to realize that their friends were interested in their faith and magellan was actually now starting to induce them to become christians and the natives thou said they cried out with one voice they did not wish to become christians only from fear nor from complacence but of their free will well let's take it you know at its face value this is pigafetta trying to tell us that the natives you know really responded very positively to the invitation to join the christian faith then the captain dao with tears in his eyes embraced them and after peace was concluded the captain had refreshments served to them there after peace had been concluded i'd like to believe that this was being interpreted by the two brothers as some kind of a peace path a gesture or a ceiling of a friendly relationship you know because remember all of this is being mediated by an interpreter called enrique and so what follows is an exchange of gifts gifts would prepare baskets of rice pigs goats fouls and he wasn't asking for payment for it he was giving it as gift and in fact he was even saying you know i found it very funny the way pigafetta was describing the the apologies being expressed by colombo you know for the for his humble gifts please accept my humble gifts and magellan of course reciprocated it what did he give for colombo he gave fine cloth red cap glasses cups of carved glass you know and very precious things that they were bringing with them from spain and now pigafetta you know got an idea from that because because he saw that the dynamics between magellan and columbu and chiago was really really very friendly he was so enthused by that and he went out of his way to suggest to the captain [Music] seems to be a very important figure and what did magellan prepare a turkish style robe of yellow and violet silk red cap fine pieces of glass and a silver dish according to pigafetta and pikafeta explains to humabun through the interpreter enrique that let me quote it was not as a return for his present which he had previously sent to the capitan but he was giving this for the affection which he bore him did you notice that but when it is a gift it should be a gift when it is merchant dies it is a merchandise parang it's gentleman's agreement but it is the gift usually that seals the friendship and pikapeta is explaining for on behalf of the captain through the mediation of enrique the interpreter this is a token of our affection which we have for you evening magellan is trying to to be friendly with human in the same way that he was very friendly with kolambu and his brother on april 10th wednesday and he says one of our companions died and we need your help we would like to give him a decent christian burial and it was wonderful because human responded positively he helped them and they also asked kumabon to secure the merchandise that they were intending to sell in cebu and that's when they explained to homabon you know since cebu is a very busy port there is a lot of buying and selling happening here we would also do some selling because we have merchandise with us says oh yes go ahead go ahead and he had their merchandise secured and magellan dispatched four of his men to do the business of selling at a just price and pigafetta describes the sibuanos this way let me quote him directly and sabinya you know samina these people they live with justice and good weight and measure loving peace and are people who love ease and pleasure a nice description of the cebuanos by pigafetta na no doubt that sebuanos live with justice and they do good business meaning hindi and the daya good weight and good measure and they are peace loving and they also love ease and pleasure easy life on april 12th which was a friday night industrial you know for metal and iron and other big goods they gave us gold and sabini pigafetta and for the other small and sundry goods they gave us rice pigs goats and other provisions i would call this barter but the babayan bins they gave us 10 weights of gold for 14 pounds of iron wow no 10 weights of gold for 14 pounds of iron so telegon it's a business it's business going on on april 13th saturday london scaffolding in on an open space and his family so he wanted to prepare a platform in cebu and it was going to be celebrated young baptism on the third sunday of easter and that fell on april 14 the following day so the climax of the third encounter which is with humabon in the company of colombo and siago first baptism the baptism and let me describe how this whole thing happened okay april 14th sunday actually individual the captain and the king and he's talking about human they sat on two chairs and through the interpreter the captain began to again incite human to the faith of jesus christ he did that earlier with colombo and thiago now he is doing it right on the day of april 14 you know trying to incite suma khanna and he's talking to raha human and the capitan dao took rahuma by the hand wow holding hands basila and they walked about on the scaffolding you know he would give him the name carlos because he's an important figure and the king of spain is king carlos and his brother he would name him fernando and colombo would be named juan and his brother youmoro will be named cristobal you know the the way the quick way in which things developed you know i i am more inclined to believe that on the part of human it was really he was looking at it as a peace patch is a bit like blood compact for them he was trying to seal a friendship remember you know father pedro de valderrama ended up baptizing first si humabon and 49 other men in the morning so cinque and 40 women companions in the afternoon so cincuentas omaga 41 in the afternoon that's 91 people within that particular sunday the facility the total number of individuals that were baptized on april 14th wow i cannot imagine how pedro de valderama did all of it eight hundred persons the young silent and eight hundred persons on the third sunday of easter april fourteen men women and children and the the women were given christian names the wife of humans the wife of or the daughter of human was called catalina and the wife of kulambu was called isabel now the santonino okay cross the planting of the cross is associated with the first mass of masawa on march 31 itunes santo nino gifting of the santo nino is connected to the first baptisms on april 14 third sunday of easter and let me quote directly from pigafetta pigafetta says during that time they showed her meaning my wife okuma an image of our blessed mother of our lady made of wood holding her little child and a cross after she was baptized itunes begged them means she begged us to give her the little little wooden boy to put in place of her idols meaning santoni pala binigai sakanya was actually attached to the madonna and child she didn't want the whole madonna and child she only wanted the child because to put in place of her anitos now within eight days from april 14 to 22 all the inhabitants of the island thou were baptized and some belonging to the neighboring islands and by the way no pigafetta knows the distinction between the gentiles and the moors and i would understand this because of his spanish background no well pigafeta is italian but he's doing this for spain and and you know that at some point in the history of spain you know quite a big uh part of their country was conquered by muslims known by the moors so angsabini pigafeta in one of these islands we planted a cross and i think is referring to li masawa because the people were gentiles if they had been moros they should have erected a column as a sign of hardness of heart because the more sansabiniya are more difficult to convert than the gentiles so i am inclined to believe that most of the people they encountered were not muslims were not morals the only one that pigafetta refers to as amoro was the brother of columbu who is shiago and who turned out to be very friendly and allowed himself also to be baptized by pedro de valderrama let me continue reading pigafeta let me quote him the captain general went ashore every day so after the easter after the baptism on april 14 uh every day the kakaroo and the captain general went down ashore in order to attend mass on the same platform every day and many thou of the new but newly baptized christians attended the mass and the captain during the mass explained various points of our religion meaning the catechist i find that a bit amusing you know i'd expect that it would be valderrama but is telling us that the captain himself was catechizing the newly baptized christians from among the natives what baptism and christianity was really all about you know and then sabini pigafetta one day the queen came meaning see juana you know the wife of human the captain on that occasion approved of the gift apparently duma thinks carrying the santoninio she attended she attended the mass and she was proudly showing the captain the santo nino that she received as gift through i'm glad you like my gift you know of the infant jesus and henda kapitan recommended to put the santo nino in place of her anitos because now it was in remembrance of the son of god and ahuana promised to do it and she said she would take good care of the santo nino now let me move to the fourth encounter okay bittersweet because it was sweet sweet sweet and then suddenly it would turn very bitter it will end up bitterly and the fourth encounter will end up in tragedy because of two things first the treacherous gift that we're talking again about gifts no beware of gifts the treacherous gift of sula who was the other chief thing of bhaktan angmaktan was ruled not only by one chieftain there was another chief thing he was called rahasullah no and so the first is the treachery of sula and the second is the treachery of enrique malika and that caused the turnabout also from a friend he will become an enemy let me explain a little bit very quickly now on april 26 which was a friday magellan met the son of rahasullah apparently rahasula of maktan sent his son and his son was bringing gifts dalawang kambing goats as gifts there are some historians who suggest that maybe rahasullah and lapulapu could have been moros meaning muslims you know because they were not bringing pigs they were offering magellan to goats they were a token of friendship and me and here is the message take note listen carefully message from sula if the captain would send him the following night one boat full of men to give him assistance he would fight and subdue his rival meaning he was trying to give the captain or majella the impression that he and lapu lapu were actually enemies in the same island and so madjava became overconfident divide and rule you know ah they're not united after all and one half of this island will side with me because rahasullah is on my on my side you know and so he was being invited now no the following night to come to maktan with one boat full of men in order to meet with rahasullah so that they together would fight the pulappu and but would believe the invitation and that very night with only 60 armed men they would arrive before dawn and ang bababa you know would only be 41 of his men the rest would stay in the boat so meaning 19 stayed in the boat and 41 went by bankers in order to go to maktan presumably to meet with rahasullah rahasullah no he wasn't there these are the troops of la pulapu about 1500 soldiers they had created even trenches you know so how do we interpret this i don't call it a battle it's a trap ambush and vageland you know um couldn't retreat anymore he was he was trapped it was too late for him to realize that he had been set up by this raha sula it is not true after all that sula and were at odds with each other he just sort of deceived him and that led to the death of magellan and eight of his men and casualties the magellan on his side nine zilla along with four of the men of raha humabon of cebu in maktan it was so tragic they retreated participate he got wounded in in that ambush you know and kumar bonn saw when magellan dao was was killed and human wept bitterly for him according to magellan and in the afternoon the survivors you know tried to ask for assistance from human to plead with the people of maktan to you know to exchange the body of the captain because they had the cadaver and captain and the eight other men were were there in maktan and and human mediated and he tried to reason out with the people of maktan if you give us their bodies they are willing to exchange them for merchandise it's all in yulang ah no they wanted to keep magellan and his companions as trophies you know and of course that was a very tragic thing they had to retreat you know and when they retreated well captain and they had to elect new captains and they elected two my interpretation for this is there is a rift between the portuguese and the spaniards among them i think the portuguese elected duarte barbosa and the spaniards elected juan serrano and i don't think any one of them wanted to give in so the portuguese capitan and the spaniard capitan to replace the one capitan magellan now in the meantime they encounter a problem with the slave enrique the slave enrique after magellan died you know talked to barbosa and said sir you know well my master promised me that pagnamataisa i could be liberated already so please keep the promise of my master because i want to go back home to malacca and barbosa says nothing doing no way yes magellan is dead but his wife is still alive you have to come with us all the way back to spain because your new master is going to be the wife of uh of magellan now you know he felt really cheated and because he felt so cheated now he started to betray them what would enrique do he would poison the mind of humans so that human would turn against them he is now a shift you know from being a facilitator of dialogue he became a facilitator of conflicts that is why on may 1 1521 huma born and this time human is acting very clearly no human would invite them for dinner in cebu and 26 of them would attend including the two new captains serrano and barbosa i'm a little bit suspicious you know that there is an inside inside conflict here an inside job among the survivors among the crew of magellan no but anyway that's another story altogether so they are invited to dinner by human they do not realize that umabon is going to poison them imagine sehuman who had been baptized baptized as a christian now suddenly turning into their enemy and biga feta is wondering he was such a friend how could he suddenly overnight turn into an enemy what is it that enrique told him is maybe he told him that you know that uh that these survivors among the men of magellan would attack cebu you know and burn their homes etc things like this you know i don't know yeah your guess is going to be as good as mine but the dinner turned out to be a trap and fortunately one of them was able to escape and his name is juan carvalho well there are a lot of complications that took place in the tragedy but uh suffice it to say that this is what happened so 46 days it all 46 days it all and in spite of the tragic ending i cannot get myself to believe that there was no real friendship that was struck between magellan's men and the natives the fertile ground of goodwill on which some seeds had been sown haphazardly were just quickly mixed with the weeds of treachery ill will and hidden agenda remember what i say about gifts well not all gifts are gifts some turned out to be well something like the trojan horse and now let's talk about the 1565 expedition of legaspi i hope you understand that it is what happened in 1521 as reported to the king of spain when they returned and by the way it was through the leadership of el cano that they were able to return to spain you know but it would take you know how many something like uh 44 years later you know for a follow-up to to be sent i called the 1565 expedition of legazpi a follow-up to the magellan expedition and take note it is not being sent from spain but from mexico and they had a special mandate because they were sending missionaries and in the expedition of legaspi there would be a whole group of augustinian missionaries the first with the task to evangelize and my inclination is the 1565 is really a conscious follow-up to 1521 because pigafetta has narrated to them that they baptized they baptized oh you know the whole island about you know first day 800 people that is quite a responsibility you know so i think of 1565 as a follow-up to 1521. um i call this the mission you know my question is were some seeds of the gospel somehow successfully planted among those natives during those 46 days of their encounter with magellan and companions in 1521. well returning now to the field idea you know they are actually going back to the field with the hope that even if the wheat had been infected by the weeds there is something there is something to harvest that's why i call the 1565 some kind of a follow-up because they were aware the kahikopano even if done haphazardly and it ended tragically they did try to evangelize they did try to baptize people and these are now a responsibility of the spanish christians no back to the idea of being gifted to give what is the gift the gift is the christian faith like i said if you really believe that the christian faith was nothing but a tool for colonial rule then you will really not consider it a gift but i also asked ibak if it was just a tool of colonial rule how come we got rid we got rid of the colonial politics of the colonial ruler and we kept the christian faith well for me that could only mean the christian faith was really regarded by the natives of this country as a gift the gift is the christian faith that has been sown like grains of wheat albeit by flawed workers there are no perfect christians you know our all christians will always be a mixture of weeds and weed you know the important thing is the sower is god the sower is god you remember the old hymn that says we plough the field and scatter the good seed on the ground but it is fed and watered by god's almighty hand the sower is god this is the reason why i say i think i think we're thankful for this gift because we believe that the giver is god not spain it is god through spain or through the spaniards who came here who were not necessarily coming with all the purest of intentions and motives but they were just human beings like you and me and it was on the fertile ground of plain goodwill no not you know they were able to strike a dialogue and an exchange of goodwill so following the parable of the weeds and the wheat in matthew chapter 13 i'd like to propose that we are not the seeds we are the field you know we are the field because if we think of people as weeds and wheat aina you will say some people are innately good and some people are innately bad now we don't think like that in christianity i think the parable of the weeds and the wheat is actually a parable of the ground of the field it is the same field that is planted with wheat and weeds and it is like that it is always like that in every period of history of christianity the fields are sown not always with with with seeds but with wheat with weeds with wheat but also with weeds we are the field eviks on earth we will always be sown with a mix of wheat from god and weeds from the evil one well no problem we leave the harvesting to god let me end now my conclusion 500 years later sorry i've gone a bit over time though i know you gave me only an hour but uh the shadow was topic so i had to adjust a little bit now the the conclusion 500 years later here we are gifted to give you know and we're trying to define our mission uh la lunaitum the final year of preparation for 2021 is called a year of mission and uh we're asking ourselves you know with this precious gift that we have received the gift of the christian faith how do we share this gift the mission to share as gift the very faith that we receive from god as gift what is this mission about i think it is important it is important for us to to say to ourselves you know to define what this mission is about the mission is to share the good news to evangelize so to evangelize doesn't mean to proselytize you know to evangelize doesn't mean to force your religion on other people you know to evangelize is to share the gift the gift that we have received and what is that gift it is the gift of the good news of the kingdom of god and of course the next question is what is that good news it is the good news of jesus and that good news of jesus is we are all called to be sons and daughters of god and if we are called to be all sons and daughters of god meaning we're called to be brothers and sisters to one another we're not called to be slaves and masters to one another we're called to be brothers and sisters to one another and so i think that became very clear very very clear to to the natives you know that the colonists were behaving like masters and who were treating the natives like slaves were not of the same mindset as these people who were bringing faith in jesus christ who is proclaiming a totally new kind of world which he calls the kingdom of god and which he proclaims as good news and the good news is we are all heirs of the kingdom of god being a family being family to all human beings fellow human beings and to all fellow creatures i think the natives of this country began to truly appreciate you know this faith the beauty of the christian faith the challenge to live life on earth as it is in heaven and when does earth become like heaven where when we treat the earth as our common home when we treat every fellow human being every fellow creature as a member of god's family let me end with this now we trash your christian faith as a gift and this gift is lived the gift of christian life we are the bearers of a gift saint paul says we hold the thresher in earthen vessels to make it clear to us that its surpassing power comes from god and not from us inevitably christian life is always attention attention between on the one hand our old and our flawed and sinful humanity as sons and daughters of adam fallen humanity but on the other hand christianity is also about our new grace and redeemed humanity as sons and daughters of god in the risen christ every bearer of good news is always a mixed of the two kahitayo even we now in 2021 we are bearers of this precious gift we hold this treasure but this treasure we possess in our own earthenness the church will always be a church of saints and sinners the church will always be a combination of holiness and wretchedness but don't despair we plow the fields and scatter the good seed on the ground but the one who but it is fed and watered by god's almighty hand we are the field god is the sower and we are grateful for the seeds that are thriving that have grown that are bearing fruit and that now have to be shared shared to all humankind so this is bishop amber david bishop of the diocese of kalau and it has been a pleasure sharing with you on the topic gifted to give 500 years of christianity thank you

Channel: Diocese of Kalookan

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Length: 78min 35sec (4715 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 16 2021