"Food is the only thing that truly nurtures," says a character in the movie Autumn in New York. Some foods nurture young life, like mother’s milk, while some sustain adult bodies through a complicated series of appetizers, entrée, salads, desserts, wine, and coffee. There are foods meant to nurture the soul, while others serve to nurture a community, like the traditional bread, broken and shared in a celebration of agape. There are those that are meant to heal the body, while others bring healing to a people.

The ube jam of the Mountain Maid Training Center, popularly known as the Good Shepherd Ube Jam is all that, and more. It nurtures the loving dialogue between a religious congregation founded in France and the indigenous peoples of the Cordillera. This sweet, violet concoction that leaves an aftertaste of divinity has as its main ingredients the missionary zeal and compassion of the RGS Sisters and the dedicated labor of the young sons and daughters of Igorots. Most importantly, this jam, considered a major tourist attraction and destination in Baguio City, nurtures a dream: that of the empowerment of the whole Cordillera.

Every time a jar is sold, a dream is about to come true. When a sales lady serves ube jam to a costumer, it is a ritual offering of the fruit of this spiritual union between RGS and the Cordillera, a taste of what we may call the spirituality of the ube jam. And like any other life-giving relationship, this one is hatched in the mind of God.

The story behind this loving relationship delicately follows the whole process of cooking this jam. The ube, whose natural flavor symbolizes the innate giftedness of this mountain region and its people, undergoes an intricate and carefully guarded preparation, actually a series of transformations that can only be described as transcendence. It includes everything good in it, and raises it to a level way beyond its original taste. The artistry and passion that Baguio residents are known for are obviously incorporated in this process.

PEELING

This is a three-step procedure that includes cleaning, boiling in order to soften, and removing the thick skin that covered the ube flesh. This preparation carefully illustrates how the relationship between the RGS Sisters and the Cordillera people really began. There was a cleansing, a removal of biases and prejudices that might have hindered the friendship from blossoming. In their shepherding, the Sisters were very careful to remove their own sandals, their protection, and entered into the hearts of these tribal peoples like entering holy ground. And the people responded by revealing their raw flesh, wounded and pained by centuries of struggles and oppressions. God revealed to the Sisters the broken souls ashamed of their roots, being labeled as monkeys or people with tails due to their G-strings. Compassion was awakened, trust was given, and a friendship began.

SLICING AND GRINDING

Here the ube is diced into smaller pieces and dropped into grinding machines over and over again until fine. The process is of purification, of trial and error until the right texture is reached, for every relationship should have the right texture. There were tears along the way both from the eyes of the Sisters and from the boys and girls. Tears serve to wash away impurities. And God must have cried with them, for their hearts were also crushed, ground into the finest pieces.

Pagtimpla, the mixing with other ingredients. The most delicate of all processes, partly because the right mix is necessary to maintain the quality of the product, partly because there is no written recipe. The workers who mix the various ingredients with the ube just have to trust their instinct and their memory, in the same way that there is no written recipe for compassion and healing. Only an intimate encounter and memory of the compassionate Good Shepherd himself can guide the Sisters in a relationship like this. And for the Cordillerans, they just have to obey their instincts, for there, the voices of their ancient spirits speak. The modes of discernment combine in a loving dialogue.

COOKING

The process of transformation. The heat completes the mixing process, the very fine ube absorbs and becomes one with the rest of the ingredients, with the right amount of heat and the correct pace of stirring. Here stirring becomes a contemplative process as the worker focuses his or her gaze on the circular movement of the product, alert, and waiting for the right time to bring down the heat and stop the cooking process. This is when the Cordilleran becomes a good shepherd himself or herself, and the Good Shepherd becomes part of the Cordillera’s tribal peoples. Their hearts are now beating as one, heated and inspired by the Spirit of Jesus.

CONSUMPTION

The final step in this journey. The ube jam carefully placed in a jar ready to be sold to a long line of waiting customers. The relationship bears fruits—bottled products and empowered people. Shepherding has multiplied and eventually the whole Cordillera will feel the compassion of God the same way that almost the whole country has had a taste of this ube jam.

So the next time you see a long line of people patiently waiting to buy their two jars of ube jam, don’t regard them as customers, think of them as pilgrims waiting to witness a miracle, a taste of how God can work wonders today.