BINANGONAN, RIZAL. It has been three years since I spent Holy Week in the Philippines. For us Catholics, this is a week-long commemoration of the death and passion of Jesus Christ. It is also a week-long family/community affair of all sorts – reunions, processions, prayers with lots of eating and story-telling. This is also the time when religious practices are taken to our streets to dramatize Christianity. Everywhere I go, from the market to my home, the mood is joyous and prayerful.
What I enjoy most about spending Holy Week in the Philippines is the sense of belonging that I feel whenever I attend the mass and participate in the processions. I am always fascinated to see what brings people together and there is no doubt that our Holy Week truly manifests a Filipino sense of community.
Over the years, physical structures may have altered the landscape of my town but the social bonding that the Catholic religion has built through rituals has remained fundamentally, the same. Yes, it is remarkable to see how education could influence the mind, but it is more remarkable to witness what the practice of religion could do to individual souls. Here in the Philippines, Catholicism has permeated a way of binding us as a community of which I am happy to be a part of.
Hm. It’s interesting, I think a lot of modern interpretation of traditions leave out a community focus. Community ought to be at the heart of faith.