Fetalvero: Disharmonies and asymmetries

EVER since the dawn procession that kicked off the celebration of the feast of Señor Sto. Niño, thousands of devotees have been attending the novena masses held at the Basilica Minore del Sto Nino. It is a show of love for the Child Jesus who, in so many ways, has answered their prayers and granted their petitions.

Days before the feast of our Santo Niño thousands of devotees in Manila celebrated the feast of the Black Nazarene. Hundreds of handkerchiefs were thrown toward the facilitators who would then rub the handkerchiefs to the statue of the Black Nazarene.

That phenomenon was not the case here with the dawn procession of the Señor Sto. Niño.

Devotees simply lighted their candles and joined in the procession while praying the rosary. In other words, it was more solemn.

In both festivities it is noted that majority of the participants are from class D and E of our economic strata. I believe it is in their helplessness that Filipinos are still hopeful and turn to the Divine for help and intervention.

Writer Nanette Garcia Dungo, Ph.D, of the University of the Philippines, who wrote the introduction of the book entitled Sick Situations and Pastoral Heart, noted: “We are now witnessing the results of these kinds of disharmonies and asymmetries in the phenomena of the panata, the fatalism being exhibited in the way we celebrate the feast of the Black Nazarene and often further portrayed in the celebration of the feast of a saint, the ‘town fiesta’ converging religious rites with earthly vices, and criminality at the worse, all at the same time.”

News headlines shock me. Despite of our being the only Catholic nation in Asia, there are notable inconsistencies in how we project ourselves as Catholics.

“The internalization of Christian values did not happen from within ourselves, unlike the Asian ‘isms’ of Confucianism, Buddhism, Shintoism, etc. that proved to be personal transformations deeply rooted in the inner socio-psychological structure of the human person. Our Christian faith was not nurtured from the inside, but forced from the outside in a violent way and that took roots in a kind of double standard morality,” she added.