Yes, it wasn’t just the locals who scaled the mountain or bathed in its cool refreshing waters. Even foreigners like me did. And for a good reason. Banahaw is a mountain range not like any. It was a beckoning mecca for different faiths and it’s a psychic center for all esoteric purposes for as long as it is meant for the welfare of mankind. Traditionally, it is a home for benign spirits; even a copy of the Heavenly Jerusalem promised in Revelations. But it also has its stern and powerful guardians who do not like its sanctity violated or harm could come one’s way. Which is why the great cable car project which could have eased the way for all pilgrims especially even the sick and the aged never materialized. The mountain elders and some genuine hermits declared that the cable car project would remove the element of sacrifice which was needed for healing and worst, the project was only meant to fill the coffers of the already filthy rich who would like to exploit the fame of the puestos sagrados (holy places). Thus, when the engineers still tried, there were some mishaps that occurred where lives were secretly harmed or even lost. The guardians destroyed their equipments and their hirelings were horrified promising never to return.
Some hard-headed ones still tried, even several times, but again and again they were thwarted; even if they tried offering sacrifices. Tierra Santa (Holy Land) couldn’t be bought even with lives. The holy One is the Giver of lives. Yes, they have tried that on the looming giant mountain of the range; the devil’s mountain and of course, the former master of San Cristobal (St. Christopher) is prone to receiving bribes even if he won’t give them any boon at all. Anyway, he didn’t ask them to give him offerings; they gave them voluntarily and he never pledged anything to the fools. And finally, the fools gave up.
And now, they have this new project called Our Lady of Mt. Banahaw (OLMB); it is said to be non-sectarian, non-denominational center of faith and healing where pilgrims can meditate and pray. Sounds very pious and even ecumenical. It echoes a lot of mystic forebodings of the past when the santong boses called forth Agapito Lontok or Illustrisimo, the Katipunero from far away Pampanga to dwell therein and evade the Spanish guardia civiles. Yes. Indeed, Banahaw will be the sanctuary for those who evade all kinds of captivity in this world. Isabel Suarez of Ciudad Mistica is now dead. But there will be those who will tell you that saints appear continually on the mountain for ages past to teach a life of holiness. And the locals take them as their own. And they will tell you, for instance, why should they still believe in a San Isidro who is a Spaniard when he was already seen in the site called San Isidro ergo he is a native of this land!
But OMG! Why an OLMB?! Could this be canonical? Definitely not. Even if the resort/theme park/recreation center/spiritual centre would welcome all religions like Medjugorje or even as ecumenical so as to allow images of Pachamama to be displayed, the place couldn’t be considered canonical. For even the apparitions of Lipa with its rose petals and miraculous cures wouldn’t suffice to move the hearts of Vagnozzi, Santos, Fernandez et al. how can it be accepted by church authorities when Our Lady had never been reported to have appeared on Mt. Banahaw or not even on the foot of the mountain where it is located. Or are we becoming too insensitive to the study of truth that we would just start another cult in the making?
Take the Aglipayan Church because it had evolved into a religion. In its sensitivity to the truth, it had stopped recognizing Rizal as a saint for it was unacceptable for a saint to make dulce Josephine Bracken broken. Or haven’t you heard? Even Ciudad Mistica now cite Rizal only as a hero and no longer a god as in the days of Maria Bernarda Balitaan, its foundress. Even the Apostolic Catholic Church of Hermosa’s Sacrifice Valley with its mother and son saints didn’t dare establish an Our Lady of Sacrifice Valley to grace its church but instead borrowed the Catholic Ina Poon Bato (original sequestered by the Aglipayans during the revolution) because it would be doctrinally fallacious. This despite its having its own holy orders.
Yes, it is not built on the holy mountain itself and had said it had bought the land but it was capitalizing on the sacred waters which came from the mountain which been made to flow into its property
