Is Karma the same as Gaba?

It is not the same in the religious culture of Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. According to Wikipedia Karma is the result of one’s action or the action itself. The action can be thinking or acting. It sounds positive. The result seems to be positive and good.

But in the religious culture of Filipino Christians Gaba, or Curse, in English, is a punishment, therefore clearly negative.

There is another point of reference. In Karma the good result of one’s stems from oneself, maybe due to the good quality of that action. In Gaba the punishment comes from outside oneself, supposedly from some divinity who was offended.

In our Bisaya Christian culture, it recalls God’s warning to the enemies of the Israelites. In Psalm 105:15 God says, “he allowed no one to touch them; for their sake he instructed kings, ‘Do not touch my anointed ones, to my prophets you do no harm'”. In Latin, it reads, ‘Noli tangere christos mios’. Jose Rizal’s anti-Spanish book was titled slightly different, “Noli me tangere.”

Christos means Anointed. In Israel’s history it referred to kings and prophets only. In our culture it referred to bishops and priests, and to parents and elders. Now it refers to All the Baptized. Anointing with holy chrism is an essential part of the sacrament of baptism. That is why the process is called Christening.

I have witnessed Gaba twice in our hometown in Leon, Iloilo. An Irish Redemptorist priest was loudly ridiculed by a tuba gatherer everytime Father would invite his family to parish mission. One day he was on top of a coconut tree and from there he hurled insults to the priest. Father’s response, “Be careful”. The guy fell from the coco tree and died on the spot.

A Dutch Mill Hill missionary would tell parochial school students to hold flag ceremony on the street in front of Saint Catherine Parochial School. The town Mayor did not like it. But the priest ignored him several times. One morning while the students were on the street, the Mayor sent policemen to arrest the priest and put him in jail. When he arrived in the municipal building the Mayor punched him in the face and kicked him before he was thrown into jail. Next day word went around town that the Mayor fell off from the balcony of his house and died.

The baffling question now is: the drug war has killed thousands of innocent people even kids. Some bishops have been insulted and maligned. Four priests have recently been killed. Catholic beliefs and practices have been ridiculed. But no gaba so far to the killers and insulting mouths! WHY?

The answer should come from the perspective of faith and culture, not politics and economics.