Holy Week
Holy week is a pretty big deal here in the Philippines.
The week starts with the Palm Sunday processions, and each day has a rememberance. Today, Tuesday, is the rememberance of Jesus being betrayed. But the big celebrations start with the Holy Thursday processions and feasts to commemorate the last supper. Then comes Good Friday, with Jesus being executed by crucifixion, Holy Saturday, and finally the day of Easter, when Jesus rose from the dead.
People are going home to celebrate, since here religious holidays still have meaning. So the roads are full, and even the campaigning politicians are having to stay quiet.
The MSM will only manage to see the small number of Flaggelants and self crucifiers, with ridicule. The church discourages them, but sees the piety behind the actions, so doesn't condemn them.
Ironically it was the National Geographic special "TABOO" that asked a man to explain why he performed this terrible ritual. And the man explained that his wife almost died in childbirth, and the baby was not expected to live, so he vowed to God that if they lived, he would crucify himself for the next 15 years in Thanksgiving.
In America, the elite media seems to ignore the idea of suffering and death and this year, in between stories that ridicule Christianity, we see them promoting the idea that if we think positively we can have it all.
But where suffering poverty and death of loved ones is a common experience, there is comfort to know that God himself, when he came to live on earth, came as a poor man who preached against stupid religious rules that harmed ordinary people, had mercy on the weak, and told people that God loved them even when they did terrible thing, and that if they turned to God he would help them to live a good life. Jesus was not a phlosopher or even a teacher of ethics who could parse down exactly how many pennies you needed for your tithe. Instead, he explained the idea of God and the idea of how we should act through stories that anyone could understand.
And it is a comfort to the suffering to know that God suffered, and understands our despair in suffering and loss and death..
When I worked in Africa, the local high school put on a "Passion Play" with the Roman soldiers dressed like government soldiers.
Here, every Philippino knows that the story of Philippine martyrs from Rizal to Bataan to Ninoy Acquino, is "holy" because they too were willing to die for the love of their fellow man.
The knowledge of God is not an intellectual discussion, but a story that touches our everyday lives.
The week starts with the Palm Sunday processions, and each day has a rememberance. Today, Tuesday, is the rememberance of Jesus being betrayed. But the big celebrations start with the Holy Thursday processions and feasts to commemorate the last supper. Then comes Good Friday, with Jesus being executed by crucifixion, Holy Saturday, and finally the day of Easter, when Jesus rose from the dead.
People are going home to celebrate, since here religious holidays still have meaning. So the roads are full, and even the campaigning politicians are having to stay quiet.
The MSM will only manage to see the small number of Flaggelants and self crucifiers, with ridicule. The church discourages them, but sees the piety behind the actions, so doesn't condemn them.
Ironically it was the National Geographic special "TABOO" that asked a man to explain why he performed this terrible ritual. And the man explained that his wife almost died in childbirth, and the baby was not expected to live, so he vowed to God that if they lived, he would crucify himself for the next 15 years in Thanksgiving.
In America, the elite media seems to ignore the idea of suffering and death and this year, in between stories that ridicule Christianity, we see them promoting the idea that if we think positively we can have it all.
But where suffering poverty and death of loved ones is a common experience, there is comfort to know that God himself, when he came to live on earth, came as a poor man who preached against stupid religious rules that harmed ordinary people, had mercy on the weak, and told people that God loved them even when they did terrible thing, and that if they turned to God he would help them to live a good life. Jesus was not a phlosopher or even a teacher of ethics who could parse down exactly how many pennies you needed for your tithe. Instead, he explained the idea of God and the idea of how we should act through stories that anyone could understand.
And it is a comfort to the suffering to know that God suffered, and understands our despair in suffering and loss and death..
When I worked in Africa, the local high school put on a "Passion Play" with the Roman soldiers dressed like government soldiers.
Here, every Philippino knows that the story of Philippine martyrs from Rizal to Bataan to Ninoy Acquino, is "holy" because they too were willing to die for the love of their fellow man.
The knowledge of God is not an intellectual discussion, but a story that touches our everyday lives.
posted by boinky at
8:25 AM
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