Saturday, April 07, 2012

The Cross, my migraine

I had two straight days of migraine, mainly due to the extreme summer heat. On the first, I was able to mitigate the attack by taking a painkiller at the onset, allowing me to make the long drive from Manila to my homeprovince pangasinan for the Lenten break.
On the second, I was completely defenseless. I was there with my folks at the foothills off the western part of the province to do the station of the cross (how would have I declined if I knew it was there).
We were doing the ritual at noontime, the sun was blazing hot and the hills looked like a steppe, save for a few maturing trees that provided little shades against the heat.
Some guys, perhaps the owners of the hills, built really nice stations, depicting the way of Jesus's cross on the hills to the hilltop that provided a view of the dry landscape down the lowlands, including a stream wilted by the summer sun.
There were 10-ft. figures of Jesus in various agony. The farther up the hills we went, the worse the sun torched my head, as if I was feeling Jesus's pain myself.
Yet, looking around the otherwise magnificent mountain architecture, I could see why the Lord had to suffer: the mountains were bare and barren, a testament to man's unbridled abuse of the earth.
That speaks of the destruction man has wrought upon his soul. If he could destroy his environment this way, why can't he of his own self with sins. If he were good in the first place, he would not have made this harm to his environment.
Which was why Jesus had to pass that cross test. I was having a migraine for a day, yet Jesus's head oozed with blood to death, to pay for the sins of this world.

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