worship at the cathedral 8: un-good friday practices

Have you ever heard of a brandea?  Brandea are objects which is believed to become holy by coming into contact with holy people or things.  These could be handkerchiefs or clothing used by the saints, or a chair once sat upon by the holy person, or even a chunk of stone from the tomb of the saint.  Well that should have been the end of it.  But things became a bit complicated.  Why?  Because one can practically make a brandea.  Get a piece of cloth and rub it against a relic or a tomb of a saint (of course with faith and reverence unlike magic).  This practice comes from the belief that supernatural powers residing on a relic or a holy person are passed to anything that touches it. 

Filipinos, however, would take this belief a little bit further (very far in fact). 

First, we begun by applying it not just to relics but to images of our Lord and the saints. And so for a Filipino a brandea is an object nga ginpahid kag gintandog on a sacred image.  

Second, images are not just sources of supernatural powers but presence and thus images are not just objects of prayer or reverence but intimacy. 

And third, anything coming in contact with this supernatural power and presence in images (decorations, flowers, etc) are conveyed the same power and presence and thus become a way too of becoming intimate with the saint or with the Lord.

When Pope Francis came to Manila, our college seminarians told me what they did at the Manila Cathedral where the Pope spoke in the presence of bishops, priests and religious. Seminarians were not allowed inside the cathedral, but long after the pope, the bishops and priests left, these enterprising seminarians went inside and sat on the chair where the pope sat an hour or two before.  They were so elated they felt as if they have come into contact with the real person himself.  And not content, some wiped their handkerchiefs on the chair so that they can bring home with them that "presence" that lingered.  Mind you these are men and philosophy students at that, trained to be rational and not just your ordinary superstitious fanatics. And yet mind you too, they are Filipinos, with Filipino hearts and minds, and a Filipino way of looking, grasping and understanding the realities around them.

This article is occasioned by the procession of the pasos last Good Friday, a commotion specifically brought about by the struggle almost a brawl in order to acquire flowers used to decorate the caros.  This did not just happen last Good Friday.  It happens year after year after year and not just on Good Fridays but every time we have processions in the cathedral.  For a time I would stay at the cathedral and watch meditatively as the different pasos come into place just outside the cathedral fence waiting for the incensation.  Now I go home early to the seminary just as the procession starts.  Why?  I don't want to be angry.  I don't want to be furious at seeing the viciousness of some people as they grab and tussle and elbow and push and pull in their desire to get hold of their beloved saint's adornments.  It is so un-Good Friday!

And so what do we do about this?

Again here's my take.  These may not reflect the view of my superiors or of the church but I would like to open the discussion about a practice that has gone out of bounds and must be stopped.

First.  My florist friends may not like this but I think we should stop putting flowers on the caros on Good Friday. Decorate it with leaves instead.  And besides, in the liturgy, mourning and flowers don't mix.  Well, we believe that the death of Jesus, the greatest martyr, was a triumph rather than a defeat.  We know that this would not end in death but in the resurrection.  And yet even the liturgy allows us to mourn, to cry at the death of the Lord as to a loved one.  Flowers are for the resurrection.  Let us bring back sobriety to Good Friday.  Let us allow ourselves to mourn the Lord's death.

Second, intimacy is a need and I believe that if you cannot find it "here" you will find it "elsewhere".  That "elsewhere" is dangerous!  In the liturgy there are four presences of Christ:  first, Christ is present in our midst, for where two or three are gathered in his name, he is among them; second, Christ is present in the priests/ministers who act in the person of Christ; third, Christ is present in his Word (in the reading, the gospel and the homilies); and lastly, Christ is present in the Bread and Wine, and this presence is presence par excellence – there is no equal.  I hope priests, instead of propagating relics and miraculous images here and there, would provide the people a better celebration of the Mass where the Word of God is valued and truly appreciated in their well-prepared homilies and where the Real Presence is reverenced and solemnly received in Holy Communion.  If I find more intimacy with God by touching an image of a saint and kissing a petal that adorned his caro, than in hearing God's word and receiving him in Communion, then something is wrong with my faith. (Did you notice... so many attended the procession last Good Friday, the procession route was so densely packed with people.  But alas, only a few attended the liturgy in the cathedral.)

Third, frankly, I don't quite understand the why of these pilgrim images of saints and our Blessed Mother.  Whether it is made in a foreign country or just made locally, an image is an image, period.  If there is any difference at all it is merely aesthetic (plus the cost of transporting them here) and it has absolutely nothing to do with spirituality.  When we begin attributing to a particular image a unique supernatural power, then we are putting ourselves in grave danger of falling into idolatry.  Our love for the saints and their images (that remind us of their love for God), should lead us to a deeper intimacy with God, with Jesus and with Mary and with all the saints, through the Word and Sacrament.

Fourth, there are so many things now that detract us from the essentials of our faith – relics, images, so many pasos with their gold thread gowns, etc.  I am not in anyway belittling them.  We have a collection of relics here in the seminary and we value them greatly.  I still wear a brown scapular which I did since my first year high school in the seminary.  We chose to adopt one of the pasos formerly owned by Ofelia Jalandoni, the Corte de Pilato, and the seminary community and even the whole Barangay Seminario come together each year to prepare it, our humble contribution to the visual proclamation and meditation on the Lord's Passion for our salvation.  It is always an honor to contribute to the spiritual well-being of our parish.  But I believe we need to work harder to make our faith and that of our parishioners mature. We need to go back and emphasize the essentials, the word and the sacraments, without abandoning that which makes our faith Filipino.  We need to trim down the excesses of popular devotions.  We need to form our MKKs and build the many forms of Christian Communities in our parish.  We need to hammer down a faith that would move us to love one another.  Let this be our prayer and our hope. 

A Blessed Easter to all.