Delicadeza

MANTAYUPAN Falls down in Barili town in Cebu is an oasis for tired, harassed souls in need of urgent relief. I experienced this first hand when the other day, taking advantage of a public holiday, I with friends went there.

Its 98-meter water drop, already quite voluminous compared with other waterfalls, immediately gave me an object of intense wonder that brought me, at least in my mind, not only to its geologic source but farther, much further beyond.

For sure, it was not only a feast to the eyes. It was more so to the soul, as I marveled at its natural beauty. It can come not only from some chancy natural events. It must come from the hands of someone more sublime than what our mind and senses can readily admit.

At first, we were just a few souls frolicking in its basin of fresh and gurgling water. Soon after, more groups came, crowding it almost to a Sarah Geronimo concert audience size.

Someone naughtily whispered to me the place was fast becoming like the Ganges, that sacred river in far India dirtied by millions who take their dip daily for some ritual cleansing.

It certainly was not like the Riviera, but I did not agree it was like the Ganges. This was just a simple place, so Pinoy in looks and character that manages to attract families and intimate groupings.

The reason, to me, was quite obvious. It was just the right size, in the right place. You don’t have to be an athlete or a mountain climber to reach it. It just required a very reasonable effort to get there. It was neither too near nor too far.

For the millions of middle-class where I belong, it offers genuine comfort and rest at very affordable prices. I would not be surprised if it’s promoted to stir local tourism to life. In fact, I saw a “Suroy-suroy” tarp, and I gave it a mental thumbs-up.

My heart swelled with tenderness to see families with their elderlies and their babies in tow, fathers carrying their excited little boys on their shoulders, mothers constantly calling for their straying kids.

I saw young men helping their lolos and lolas maneuver through the rocks and to the water. About the only flashes of the extraordinary were some boys of the place who showed their acrobatic leaps into the water from some height.

The experience was already heartwarming, and yet the place afforded me, despite the crowd and the engaging sights, a precious space to think, reflect and pray. This, to me, is very important, and I just hope that everybody else did not neglect this duty.

Otherwise, what is yet naturally clean, pristine and beautiful can easily be spoiled and corrupted. A place, a crowd, to remain human and more, always needs a soul. And that can only be provided if each one makes the effort to imbue it always with spiritual values with no let up.

Remember the crowd who met our Lord with “Hosannas” when he entered Jerusalem. A few days later the same crowd shouted “Crucify him.” That’s what happens when a crowd is not properly animated by the spirit of Christ, but by another spirit—of the world or of the flesh.

We should never allow a crowd to live and act on its own. It needs to be infused with the truly human substance. And that can only happen if we are firmly grounded on God, in spite of the glitter and allurements of the world.

Of course, this has to be done with adapting naturalness and flexible discretion. This is the essence of delicadeza. It enables us to remain in touch with God and the refinement it involves amid the rough and tumble of the world.

Now that we are approaching the election season, where crowds will be roused to vote this way or the other, we should not forget this virtue of delicadeza. It allows us to think, reflect and pray properly, and hopefully make our choices and pursue our goals properly.

My heart breaks to see people turned into a mob, supposedly exercising their right to protest and yet violating the fundamental requirements of charity to their perceived enemies.

Without delicadeza, persons who otherwise are simple and earnest in their intentions and efforts, become easily seduced by worldly values. The crowd would become easily manipulated.