ONE of the complaints against some Catholics in the country is summed up by the lyrics of the hit song of the once popular folk-rock band Yano. Some lines: “Kaharap ko sa dyip ang isang ale/ Nagrorosaryo mata niya'y nakapikit/ Pumara sa may kumbento/ Sa babaan lang po, sabi ng tsuper, kase me naghuhuli/ Mura pa rin nang mura ang ale…”
This is an interesting topic as Cebu, or should we say the entire country, is hosting the 51st International Eucharistic Congress (IEC), which opened with a Mass whose main celebrant was Charles Maung Cardinal Bo, the papal legate. Forget the praises he heaped on the Filipino Catholic faithful in the country and abroad. Rather, consider the admonitions.
Here's one about “devotion” as opposed to “discipleship.”
“Adoration alone makes us a devotee. But being a devotee is one of the easiest things—debosyon ni Santo Niño, debosyon ni Jesus Nazareno. It is good, but not enough. Christ is calling us to be His disciples. To carry His cross. The mass of a devotee ends in an hour. But the mass of disciples is unending.”
For Cardinal Bo, discipleship is one that goes deeper. It is not merely about attending religious rituals and singing praises to God but is also about practicing what is being preached, or allowing the teachings of Christ to make a difference in everything that Catholics do, metaphorically referred to by Cardinal Bo as the “streets.”
The cardinal was right. The Catholic faithful must not confine their “Eucharist to the clean, decorated altars of the church” but bring this outside, to “the streets, as altar.” Indeed, “Christ's altar was the world.”
The relevance of “devotion” is therefore when it makes the faithful better Christians in their dealings with others, with the community. Cardinal Bo's message should therefore resonate both among Filipino priests, who are supposed to be models of how Christ's teachings are practiced, and the ordinary Catholics, who often miss the point about “devotion.”
They should not be the “banal na aso, santong kabayo” in the Yano song.