Christmas Cards Tell the Story

The Subanens are an indigenous people whose ancestral habitat is the highlands of northwest Mindanao in the Philippines. When the Columban Fathers arrived in Mindanao in 1938 we took little notice of the Subanens because we were so engaged in a full schedule of parish pastoral activities which included dozens of far flung barrio communities. As time passed, the Mindanao Church was blessed with an increase in diocesan priests who assumed pastoral responsibility for most parish ministries. In the 1970s and 1980s Columban Fathers began to look into new ministries that fit our missionary commitment to foster the reign of God with the poor and marginalized. Some Columbans like myself chose to work with and learn from the Subanen People.

It was through my association with the Columban Sisters that I began to learn just how crucial the Subanen culture is as a voice on behalf of a renewable Earth. The Subanens regarded their habitat as a sacred community to be cherished not as a collection of resources to be exploited. They celebrated the sacred dimension of their habitat in their rituals, stories, music, and dance.

In 1983, Columban Sisters Mary McManus, Salvador Oyson, Kathleen Melia, and Glenda Struss, answered a request from the Mindanao Bishops for more church personnel to enter into a ministry of dialogue with indigenous peoples. These four women chose to live among the Subanen people in the hinterland parish of Midsalip where Columban Father Sean Martin was assigned. By committing themselves to this mission the Sisters entered into the world of the Subanens and began to share their joys, fears, and concerns.

It was a perilous time for the Subanens of Midsalip. They lived in a war zone and frequently had to abandon their homes and crops during armed conflicts. When they returned home their food and crops were gone. They faced constant hunger and disease and watched their children die of dysentery. The intense violence, hunger, and death that the Subanens experienced in the 1980s was accompanied by a deep sadness as they watched their ancestral habitat being consumed by logging operations. Following the loggers came land-hungry settlers who used the roads bulldozed by the loggers to enter and occupy the ancestral land of the Subanens.

The Subanen culture and our Catholic tradition both profess that God created the Earth as a sacred gift. And it has become evident that this sacred gift needs the healthy ecosystems if we are to fulfill, in a sustainable way, the Gospel’s commission to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, heal the sick, and shelter the homeless. Since the 1980’s teachings from Popes and Bishops have affirmed the Church’s commitment to care for the gift of God’s Earth. In accord with these teachings many Catholic parishes and their barrio-based communities in the Philippines are beginning to nurture the habitats that grace their lives. The Subanens and other indigenous peoples can guide our faith communities to live in an enhancing way within the Earth community.

Immersed in the spiritual and cultural world of the Subanens and affirmed by the Church’s teachings, the Columban Sisters have worked for decades with Subanen leaders to form a ministry team that honors the Subanen way of life and, at the same time, fulfills the Gospel’s commission to foster the reign of God with the poor. In the Gospel depiction of the last judgement (Matthew chapter 25) the Son of Man welcomes all into His Father’s reign who cared for “the least of these who are members of my family.” And so, to paraphrase the Gospel of Matthew: The Sisters and their ministry team fed the hungry by promoting agricultural practices that renewed the soil’s fertility. They along with Columban Father Frank Nally fought to maintain the flow of rivers and streams for thirsty people and their crops by protesting illegal logging in the local watershed. They clothed the denuded hillsides through tree-planting programs. They sheltered the homeless by protecting the forest which provided shelter for thousands of species and produced materials for human homes and households. They cared for the sick by organizing health programs that produced effective remedies using local herbs and ingredients. They worked to free families who felt imprisoned in a world that belittled them by creating pre-school centers for their children, and literacy programs for adults. And, in doing all these things, they and their team used the Subanen language, stories, blessings, and rituals.

The Columban Sisters had years of pastoral experience with the Subanens before I involved myself in the Subanen Crafts ministry nearly 20 years ago. I depended on their advice and insights in forming a craft-making project that could provide needed income for Subanen families. Making handcrafted mats, baskets, storage containers, and other household items is part of the Subanen culture, and the Sisters helped me find crafters who could apply their weaving skills in making beautifully crafted items that honor their spiritual bond with their habitat.

One benefit of the Subanen Crafts Project is that it provides Subanen crafters with income to buy food for their families during the lean time between harvests called the “hunger season.” To make it easier for crafters in remote areas to work during the “hunger season,” we recently built a small workshop in the mountain barrio of Sigapod. The workshop will provide a well-lit and dry workspace for crafters and a base where art materials and finished items can be stored.

Our small workshop used lumber from trees in its construction so it was fitting that during its blessing ceremony we also called upon God’s blessing for seedlings destined to be planted in the nearby hills. Years ago a vibrant rainforest covered the hills around Sigapod. This forest acted like a sponge which soaked up water during the rainy season and then slowly released it into streams during the dry season assuring a safe and steady water supply. This is no longer the case. The deforested hills now cast rainwater down in floods and mud slides.

Our workshop went into operation in April 2019 just in time to facilitate the production of this year’s Christmas cards. Each card requires hours of cooperative work. Some crafters color the background. Others carefully cut out images of Joseph, Mary and the donkey. Still others neatly inlay pieces of colored paper into the cut-out parts. The crafters hope to finish thousands of cards before October.

The images in our Christmas cards draw attention to those joys, fears, and activities which the Holy Family have in common with Subanen families. Subanens have to hike daily over mountainous trails, and so our Christmas cards show Joseph and Mary trekking over rugged terrain to reach Bethlehem. Subanen children are born in simple shelters with farm animals nearby, and so our cards show the birth of Jesus in a lowly stable. Every day Subanen families cook, clean, gather fire-wood, fetch water, and feed their farm animals, and so our cards show Mary and Joseph doing similar activities. Many Subanen families have had to quickly abandon their homes and flee during times of armed conflict, and so our cards show how the Holy Family had to quickly gather up their belongings and flee from Herod’s soldiers. Subanen families do their best to feed, clothe, shelter, nurture, and protect their children, and so our cards highlight how Mary and Joseph cared for Jesus.

Over the years, the Columban Sisters and their ministry team fostered the reign of God through programs that honored the Subanen way of life and cherished the Earth as a sacred gift of God. The Subanens and Earth-friendly faith communities know that caring for the Earth is not valued in Mindanao by business practices that profit from the degradation of the Earth. They will need the power of the Holy Spirit to continue working for healthy and sustainable habitats. On the day we blessed our workshop and the seedlings we thanked the Sisters and their Subanen Ministry and all who support them for helping us form a ministry that promotes the gift of God’s Earth and celebrates the spiritual bond that the Subanens have with that gift.

Columban Fr. Vincent Busch lives and works in the Philippines.