Kamay ni Hesus Shrine PHOTO BY DON LEJANO/INQUIRER.net
LUCBAN, Quezon — “The ocean of devotees was spiritually amazing. It was an avalanche of faith and devotion.”
This was how healing priest Fr. Joseph “Joey” Faller described the mass of pilgrims who had been flocking to the five-hectare “Kamay ni Hesus” (Hand of Jesus) shrine here since Palm Sunday to observe the Holy Week.
For the first time in 10 years since the shrine started to attract legions of Lenten pilgrims, a sea of devotees flooded the entrance of vast complex on Good Friday as they inched their way to its gate.
“This only happened this year,” Faller said.
The priest, who is believed to possess a gift from God to cure the sick, is the administrator of the shrine which is under the supervision of the Diocese of Lucena.
Faller called the influx of devotees a manifestation of the “Year of the Faith” which was declared by the former prince of the Catholic church, Pope Benedict XVI.
Police, unarmed Army soldiers, volunteer groups and vendors were mystified as multitudes of pilgrims from all over the country came in buses, cars, jeeps and motorcycles to mark the Holy Week at the shrine some two kilometers from the center of this rustic town at the foot of mystical Mount Banahaw.
“They just kept on coming 24 hours a day. I’m proud to be a Catholic,” said a hat vendor who added that he was having a good sale for the past week.
Despite the seething heat, the crowd of devotees displayed remarkable patience and waited for their turn to reach the half-open gate. Some of the pilgrims in the middle of the ocean of devotees shared bottles of cold water to each other and candies to crying children.
“Ganito lang ang daan papuntang langit. Mahirap pero maligaya tayo kapag nasa loob na [This is the way to heaven; its difficult but you will be very happy once you get inside],” someone in the crowd shouted.
This correspondent was caught in the middle of the Good Friday crowd for about 30 minutes before stepping into the shrine premises.
But once inside, devotees become subdued as classical piano pieces filled the air.
Most pilgrims silently pray in front of their favorite saints, more than 150 of which are scattered around the place.
Senior Police Officer 4 Floricel De los Santos, head of Lucban police unit in-charge of security at the shrine, estimated the number of shrine visitors who have been arriving since last Sunday to more than two million.
“The figure last year was almost doubled. The number was more than what we expected,” De los Santos said.
Last year, police estimated 1.5 million visitors — religious pilgrims, summer picnickers, balikbayans and curiosity seekers from all over the country.
Police said while the opening of the town’s diversion road eased the perennial traffic problem during Holy Week, the vehicles were replaced by an “endless flood of walking people”.
“They were the one occupying the road,” De los Santos said.
Police said medical first-aid teams were busy attending to several devotees who fainted.
As the clock struck 12:01 a.m. on Good Friday, pilgrims, mostly youth, joined the “Lakbay Kamay ni Hesus 2013” — a midnight procession from Lucena City, Pagbilao, Quezon and neighboring towns in Laguna to the Lucban shrine.
The participants walked 22 kilometers or more than four hours as communal expression of their faith. They sang spiritual songs, prayed the rosary and did the Stations of the Cross along the route.
Until noon on Good Friday, a mass of penitential hikers who did not participate in the midnight procession continued to arrive at the shrine, meeting the throng of pilgrims making its way home.
Vehicles carrying pilgrims from as far as Isabela and Bicol based on the markings at the side of passenger jeepneys formed a seven-kilometers line that snaked its way to Lucban from nearby Tayabas City.
Joel Samonte, a senior college student from Lucena, said he had been hiking his way to the shrine for the past two years as “penance for my sins.”
He described the penitential hike with praying and singing as “spiritually enhancing.”
“My friends and I enjoyed it. We did not get tired. It seems the prayers and the singing had been charging us with renewed energy to just walk and pray, walk and pray,” he narrated to the Philippine Daily Inquirer while slurping the famous “pancit habhab” straight from a sheet of square banana leaf.
Faller described the arrival of the mass of tired and sweating penitential hikers at the shrine at the break of dawn on Good Friday as a manifestation of “renewed faith of the Filipino people especially the youth”.
“The sea of young Catholics praying and singing in a desolate highway at the break of dawn was quite a moving scene. They really walked with Christ,” he said.
The healing priest said he joined the first kilometer of the walk from Lucena. “I have to rush to the shrine to prepare for the arrival rites,” he said.
Faller said he was informed that a number of hikers who participated in the penitential walk came from Manila and other provinces.
He attributed the huge turnout of mass participants to the Lenten walk to media reports.
Faller said they were not able to distribute certificates to the hikers who participated.
“We only printed some 12,000 copies but the number of participants was so big so we skipped the awarding. What they received instead was a blessing and spiritual salutation from heaven,” he said.
The number of pilgrims reached its peak at the break of dawn after the arrival of penitential hikers, according to a shrine volunteer.
“They were scattered everywhere. But when the sun started to rise, they started to leave causing chokepoint at the gate because of fresh stream of incoming devotees,” Ireneo Absulio, said.
Faller, wearing a bull cap, jogging suit and dark shades, was seen strolling around the shrine. Some devotees who were able to recognize Faller received his blessings.
Devotees wanting to climb the 300-step “Stairway to Heaven” to reach the 50-foot statue of the Risen Christ — touted to be the third tallest icon of Jesus Christ in the world next to Bolivia (70 ft) and the tallest in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (150 ft) — formed a long line from the parking lot passing through the “Garden of Eden” before they stepped on the first stone step.
“We’re already here on the line for the past two hours and we’re still 50 meters away from the entrance of the stairs. But we don’t mind. This is only a little sacrifice compared to Jesus,” Anselma Obano, an entrepreneur from Makati City, told the Inquirer.
Beside her was her husband, Carlos, and two kids slurping on their ice cream on cones to cool them from the noonday heat.
“We will join Fr. Joey in praying for an honest and peaceful election where the Filipino people elect good leaders to govern us,” Carlos said.
Faller had declared that the holding of clean election this May would be included in his prayers.
On Maundy Thursday at around 10 p.m. the whole shrine was covered with darkness as its main power transformer from the Meralco post tripped off. The power was restored at around 3 a.m. of Good Friday.
Most of the pilgrims lit candles and opened their mobile phones for lights during the blackout, a young pilgrim said.
“With lighted candles all around, the scene inside a sacred place looked more pious and dramatically spiritual,” said Viel Polintan, who participated in the penitential walk.
But as Faller was busy praying for the sick and attending to the spiritual upliftment of shrine devotees, his own immediate family is grieving over the death
of older brother Gerry, a physician based in the US, who was rushed to a Chicago hospital after a hemorrhagic stroke on Thursday.
On Saturday, Faller announced Gerry’s death on his Facebook account.
“I thank you sincerely for praying for my brother. With a very heavy heart I regret to tell you my brother, Doc Gerry Faller at the age of 51 has gone back to his creator this good Friday March 29 at 7:54 pm Chicago time. Please pray for his soul,” Faller said.
The priest said he would be flying to Chicago on the first hour on Sunday as he could not just go to the US to be with his brother because Holy Week was the busiest period at the shrine.
“This is the life that I embraced when I was ordained a priest. God first and my family only second,” he said.