New Heaven

A crash lecture on the Kapampangan dialect by Father Mon Capuno taught me that Bagong Taon to the Kapampangans is Bayung Banua. The word banua has two meanings: It means "heaven," as in "Ibpa mi atiu ca banua" or "Our father in heaven"; and "year," as in apulung banua or 10 years.

When you greet somebody bayung banua, it could simply mean happy new year, the literal translation and contextual. Or it could mean "new heaven." The use of the latter in that context, of course, is wrong, but it does lead to varied reflections. I keep thinking of new energy or a new heaven amid the turmoil of the world. I especially like the promise of bright hope that is heaven, though I do wonder how we can bring ourselves to partake of the new heaven’s blessings.

It’s now the third month of the year and we still long for banua. That is what’s great about new years – they make us strive for new heavens. The new year never fails to fill us with rekindled dreams and renewed hope. Even as "new heaven" is an aspiration, attaining it is a challenge with the daily purgatory that confronts us. Apparently, it takes strong hearts, pure determination and perseverance.

Funny, but banua in Ilonggo means "place for people," "town." It may not mean heaven but at least it still means a place where people converge, just like heaven. And I am sure that banua in Ilonggo also originally had a connotation of being special. Going to town always meant a special trip for Negrenses who mostly stayed on farms.

Fr. Mon suggests that bayung banua provides us with a fresh chance to unload unnecessary burdens. Purge if you must, he says, especially for those hindrances that keep us from moving on or moving up.

The lecture of Fr. Mon should be listened to by the leaders of the world. We ended the year 2002 with a massive preparation for war by the Americans and the British. The continuing clash for supremacy between these two countries and members of the UN leadership makes all the more the wish for bayung banua most critical as war is not how a new heaven begins in a new year.

There are many Filipinos in America and some of them have become American soldiers who are now assigned to participate in the war against Iraq, if it should happen. They are our own and we must pray that they are not hurt or killed. America is a natural ally because millions of Filipinos have become her citizens as well.

But human lives are beyond countries of origin, their value intrinsically the same whether the skin is black like Kofi Annan’s, white like George Bush’s, or brown like Liza Maza’s. We cannot pray that Filipino blood not be spilled in Iraq and not pray that Iraqi blood be spared as well. Liza sarcastically says that technology has not given eyes to missiles which can discern between civilians and combatants, and that bombs still have no hearts.

All the more we must pray and work together to unload the bitterness of a conflict which has gone on for 400 years. We cannot pray for peace in the world without working for peace in Mindanao.

Bayung banua can come only without war, without violence. It does not matter who is at fault, Saddam or Bush, America or Iraq, because war kills and bayung banua is all about life, new life, fresh life. It is about fresh beginnings: a new year, a new chance.

We must be peacemakers in a world of war. We must allow ourselves to unburden our heavy load, the emotional baggage of anger and violence and replenish our souls with the spirit of new hope.

Therefore, we learn to empty the self, to give way to new priorities in life. Unloading our worries and conflicts lightens up our hearts and enables us to meet fresh challenges with a clearer conscience and brighter vision.

It seems to me that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo understood the meaning of bayung banua and was guided by it when she declared her non-participation in the presidential polls next year. Sacrificing her political ambitions must have been her way of unloading her burden and preparing herself for a kind of governance with a minimum of political interference. And if she really has unloaded her burden, the speculations and doubts of others will not bother her anymore.

And this sentence is dedicated to Wilson Siao of Cotabato City: The goal of unloading is the same as unlearning. We drop what has brought us sorrow and pain, and we unlearn what made us commit mistakes. Unloading useless stress and unlearning stupid ways makes us ready to create a strategy that can move our life and those we love forward with little impediments.

Our struggles are not for nothing, even when we fail. Like dripping faucets, our precious water flows out onto a pail of wisdom which transforms our wasted energies to potent power. It is the unloading and the unlearning which can bring blessings more enormous than one can imagine.

Bayung banua is an expression of thirst. A new heaven cannot come from stale water. We must empty our glass in order to receive fresh liquid, especially the one that a new year brings. We must empty our glass to make it full, to quench our thirst with water from bayung banua.

My classmate Fr. Mon says, "Think of purging as waste segregation. Like the trash we dispose of, our lives have biodegradable materials and non-biodegradables as well."

There are some traits, experiences, thoughts and even friends we should completely leave behind and there are others whom we must recycle so that we are enriched all the more. Or you can also choose to think of purging as spring cleaning. Clear our closets to provide room for better rewards, to become more focused with a purer vision and turning our garbage to compost contributes richly to the fertility of our beings.

For the non-biodegradables, Mon adds, "Man will find ways to recycle them."