YOUNG pilgrims pray before the altar of a Catholic church in Lumban, one of their Visita Iglesia (church visits) stops in Laguna province. Vaughn Alviar
“Back in the day…,” elders would begin.
Then they would preach about how, when they were children, they were not allowed to make noise from the day of Christ’s death until his resurrection at dawn of Easter Sunday.
With most of the youth failing to master the “pasyon” (a narrative verse on the life and death of Jesus Christ) and unable to stand the Siete Palabras (the veneration of the Cross and the procession) all on Good Friday, Semana Santa might not be observed when they’re gone, they’d fear.
But they would be relieved to know that, despite some calling Semana Santa a needless mania over holy relics and antiquated rituals, there are others who found their faith strengthened through the litanies and rites of yore.
“I find it better to be at the church than elsewhere,” CJ Carual, 14, said as he shared his choice to be inside a Roman Catholic church in Paete, Laguna province. “There, I become closer to God and meet really good friends.”
Obedience
Carual’s Lenten devotion is the result of his grandmother’s dying wish. There is blessing in obedience and continuing the tradition, she had said before she passed on.
He serves as a sacristan at Saint James the Apostle Parish and, until last April 11, was one of 20 young curators of the church’s Lenten exhibit of holy images. For this town, the traditions do not veer away from sculptures.
Carual guided tourists through three rooms containing human-sized images of biblical figures and scenes such as the Last Supper and Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem. He reminded each not to touch the delicate heirlooms, explaining the history that lay with some of them.
In the last room lay the Santo Entierro, an image of the dead Christ that, Carual said, was made even before Magellan’s arrival in the country. Carual began in this tradition when he was 12.
Nikko Sunga, 18, had trained Carual. For five Lents now, Sunga has found the practice fulfilling, drawing him “closer to God.” “Through it, you get the chance to have a quiet time, pray and fast, and ask for forgiveness for your sins,” he said.
The exhibit, he added, was an effective retelling of the passion of Christ to children and guests, without having to say a word.
An annual event in Paete, the exhibit is an awaited side trip for Catholics visiting the church for the Visita Iglesia, the pilgrimage through at least seven churches or religious spots to pray the rosary.
Jeth Cagayat, 21, visited the exhibit with a group of mostly young people from Castillejos, Zambales province. But it was only a “bonus” to see the churches, learn about their past and witness local parishioners in devotion, he said, because the visitation was not just some leisurely escapade.
Pilgrims
Fulfilling the “Katolikong Manlalakbay” phrase printed on the back of their white shirts, he and 22 other pilgrims visited Laguna, Rizal and Quezon provinces, kneeling on pews in prayer. The pilgrims bore an image of their patron San Nicolas de Tolentino. Each person held a rosary, said Cagayat, who was only on his second year in the practice.
“Even if I know that tiredness and the extreme heat of the sun are my enemies, I know that God hears our every prayer,” he said. “I really want to join and experience it myself,” he added. He is encouraged that he has company in this pilgrimage
“What good does it do?” asked Fr. Cesar de Guzman Jr. of Iglesia Filipina Independiente, addressing questions on the validity of the rituals of the Holy Week. The Aglipayan Church, which calls itself Philippine Catholic, celebrates Holy Week like the Roman Catholic majority.
“Holy Week results in good things. People who wouldn’t go to church attend the services,” said the 26-year-old priest of the Parish of San Antonio de Padua in Luna town, Apayao province.
In the town center of Luna, the churches stopped holding the Via Crusis (Way of the Cross) after foreign Protestants had influenced residents to stop, he said. Last year, De Guzman revived the practice.
In a church community where only a few old people know the pasyon, he said he saw hope in the turnout, made up mostly of the youth. He recorded the local song for the Via Crusis and the youth sung its lyrics: “Kaasiam Apo, kaasiam daytoy ilimi (Have mercy on us God, have mercy on our town).”
One day, they would need the recording no more, De Guzman said. He is studying the local version of the pasyon, planning to teach this to the youth.
“I want [the traditions] to flourish,” he said, amid the rejection by some youths of Catholicism and migrating to other faiths.
“There is a lack of education [among the youth],” said Ronald Jacalan, the national president of the youth sector of the Aglipayan Church.
Bible-based
“Once you fully establish that the practices … are Bible-based and theologically sound, you [will] observe that they strengthen your faith,” Jacalan said. Churches lack the mechanisms to help the younger churchgoers understand the practices of the faith, he said.
To preserve the traditions, people in some areas have revolutionized some aspects of Lent, like the pasyon verses sung in rap. In Binangonan, Rizal, since the 1980s, children have been holding an annual parade of miniature holy images in their Caru-caruhan Festival. Around the same time, where the washing of the feet is traditionally done on adult men, teens have made up the cast in the Aglipayan church in Paoay town, Ilocos Norte province.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines also put up a website (visitaiglesia.net/2014/), which has audio files of the pasyon in Tagalog, videos of priests and bishops explaining the rudiments of Lent, an online copy of “The New Way of the Cross” and virtual tours of some Roman Catholic churches across the country.
Jacalan does not worry. A native of Cagayan de Oro province, Jacalan said that compared with the processions in Manila and nearby provinces, theirs was “much simpler.” He also did not grow up hearing the pasyon sung in their locality.
Variations
He welcomes the variations, though, because, for him, scale does not make one a better Christian, nor pretensions with antiquated ceremonies.
“You shouldn’t be doing a practice because it has been done for a long time,” he said. “If the flip-top version of the pasyon helps you understand the narrative of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, if it hooks you. especially, wouldn’t it be better?”
For Carual, his grandmother’s observation is valid. He said blessings came when he became obedient and followed tradition. “I know that God loves me,” he added.
Salvation, Sunga said, is the message of the Paete exhibit. But “without the heart and the understanding of Jesus’ crucifixion, the number of images will be futile.”
Changes are fine “as long as they deepen your faith, ” Jacalan said. He wants to assure the worried folks that Semana Santa will live on.