THE VIEW FROM RIZAL
Tomorrow, Jan. 9, millions of devotees are expected to join the annual religious tradition called “Traslacion” — the procession commemorating the historic transfer of the image of Jesus Nazareno from a church in Intramuros to its present-day shrine in Quiapo, Manila.
The number of devotees reached 6.5 million last year. This year’s anticipated attendance can easily top or even double that number. After all, this annual tradition is perhaps the most-awaited ritual in the Philippines. It is a fact that no one could draw a crowd of that size and of such emotional fervor as that wooden representation of Jesus of Nazareth — the icon known to Filipinos as Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno.
The people of Antipolo have strong emotional ties with this annual celebration. The ties have historical origins. Local lore has it that during the Second World War, the Antipolo Church (now an International Catholic Shrine) was turned into a garrison by the foreign invaders. The image of the Lady of Peace and Good Voyage —Antipolo’s Patroness — was initially concealed in an underground hideout to prevent it from being vandalized or stolen.
The precious image was later smuggled to Quiapo. It was concealed in the same church where the Nazarene is enshrined today. After the war, the image of the Lady of Peace and Good Voyage was brought back to Antipolo in a procession that may have inspired the modern-day annual “Alay Lakad.” This is why to this very day, a motorcade bearing the Lady’s image from Quiapo to Antipolo is held every year to commemorate her safe return from her Son’s shrine in the heart of Manila back to her home in the Pilgrimage Capital of the Philippines.
During this time of the year, I am usually asked about my thoughts regarding the frenzied display of faith witnessed by the world in the nearly one-day-long procession of the Nazarene. This is expected since this tradition — while generating much admiration for the unshakeable faith of many Filipinos in God — has also fueled criticism for what others say is a fanatical, almost pagan, display of religious fervor.
As an adherent of Bible-based faith and as I have done a few times in our past columns, I shall share my view with our readers.
Despite what has been said by critics, the annual procession is the stage from which we can witness, understand, and appreciate the nature and depth of the spirituality of the ordinary Filipino.
As I have pointed out before, the devotion to the Nazarene shows me three important qualities of the faith of the ordinary Filipino. It is simple. It is concrete. It is passionate.
It is simple as it shuns the sophistication of theological dissertations. It has a simple logic — man is weak and needs a powerful king and savior. It does not want a king robed in majesty and seated on a golden throne. It prefers a king who looks like any ordinary man — blackened by the dust of the streets, scented by the sweat of the working man, and burdened by the cross just like the one the ordinary man carries on his shoulder every day.
It is not abstract. It is displayed in ways visible to the human eye, such as the bare feet of those who follow the Nazarene’s carriage. It clamors for a God and Savior who can be seen and touched — whose face can be wiped by man-made kerchiefs.
It is passionate. It involves much human emotion. In expressing this simple, concrete faith, the devotee weeps, cries, and shouts. In the presence of a cross-bearing, dark-skinned King, the devotee unleashes his bottled-up pains and frustrations. He believes that they, in turn, would be heard by the King who would take on every hurt and burden they carry.
In the presence of this King, the ordinary man complains, cries for comfort, and clamors for hope and favor.
The fact that they return every year to hail the Nazarene is proof that such a simple, concrete, and passionate expression of faith does restore the ordinary man’s strength and hope. Such simple and concrete faith defies logic and remains unfathomable to the sophisticated human intellect. It requires one to be simple for one to be able to understand it.
We can learn from the simple, concrete, and passionate faith of the devotees of the Nazarene.
After all, the Bible says we are all weak and we all need a King and a Savior — one who walks with us and bears our pains in the very cross He alone can carry. “All men have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” St. Paul wrote in his letter to the early Christians of Rome. “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved,” said the book of Acts.
That name is Jesus — yes, Jesus, the Nazarene.
(The author is the mayor of Antipolo City, former Rizal governor, DENR assistant secretary and LLDA general manager. Email: [email protected])