A renewal of faith
MAE FAVILA always looks forward to Holy Week not because it is an opportunity to bond with her family, but it is also a time to renew her faith.
Every year, Mae and other members of her family, including distant relatives, go to Cavite for their Holy Week tradition of the pabasa ng pasyon, or the ritual reading of the life, passion, and death of Jesus Christ. It has been a family custom that started in the 1960’s and will probably last until she and her cousins grow old.
Favila’s friends are surprised that she and her family are still reading the pasyon since many young people consider it almost an obsolete practice, a thing of the past.
“My friends would be surprised because until now there are those like my age who read the pasyon. Usually, only old people or those from the provinces would do that,” Favila told The Manila Times.
They would start reading the pasyon at around 6 p.m. of Maundy Thursday until 3 p.m. of Good Friday. They would rotate in shifts—she and the younger members of the kin would read the book until dawn, sometimes changing the tune to modern songs like Beyonce’s or Rihanna’s hits to fight sleepiness.
“It’s fun to read the pasyon. Your spirits would be awakened when you read it... sometimes we would encounter unfamiliar Tagalog words and we would just laugh,” she giggled.
Despite living in a fast-paced world and in the age of social media, letting go of the annual pasyon is hard for Favila, who inherited the creed from her mother. At first, she admitted that it was boring for her to read the book; but as she grew with the tradition, she learned how to appreciate it until it has become an annual practice.
“At first, I really thought that it’s tiring to do the same thing every Holy week,” she said.
“But I also thought what my mom told me that it has been our tradition. If it ends, our lives during Holy week would
become different.”
Favila told The Manila Times that if her family would not read the pasyon, their celebration of Easter Sunday would not be enjoyable as it is because they were not able to remember and feel how Jesus Christ sacrificed his life.
“Our Easter Sunday is festive because we’ve sympathized with Jesus’ suffering.”
Increasing number
Although not so many Filipinos are as traditional as the Favila family, many Catholics today still observe Holy Week in the traditional way.
Msgr. Pedro Quitorio III, the Media Office Director of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), told The Manila Times that more Filipino Catholics today are observing Holy Week, as shown by the huge number of people who go to churches. Oftentimes, churches cannot accommodate the huge flow of people during the Lenten season.
“The church in our province in Samar, for example— in the past three consecutive years that I spent my Holy Week there, the people attending the mass drastically increased,” he said. “Before, when I was in high school or college, everybody can fit inside the church. Now, the churches are filled with people.”
Quitorio attributed this increase to three things: population growth, formation of several religious organizations, and propaganda through social media.
Population growth is obviously a very big factor as to why more people today are celebrating Holy Week. Catholics comprise an estimated 85 percent of the 92.33 million Filipinos. He noted that a huge part of these attendees are the youth.
“It’s gladdening because the population of the Philippines is young,” he said. “It’s good because there is freshness in the celebration of Holy Week.”
On the other hand, the formation of several religious organizations over the years greatly helped the Catholic Church in maintaining its customs and traditions and even preaching its social teachings to the people. These include Couples for Christ, El Shaddai, and the Knights of Columbus, among others.
Social media
The emergence of new technology also changed how the Church spreads its word to its flock. It broke the very traditional way of celebrating Lent: it has, in fact, become more accessible for people who are sick or those who need to work during the holidays.
In 2009, the CBCP Media Office put up VisitaIglesia.net, a website for a virtual Visita Iglesia. It contained photos of churches, background music, and a prayer, including the Stations of the Cross. It was initially made out of fun and curiosity by the staff of the CBCP Media Office but it was well received by the people around the world.
“It was visited by a lot of people, mostly foreigners and overseas Filipino workers. That is where they had their Visita Iglesia, on the churches we’ve posted online,” Quitorio said.
Since then, they had uploaded other materials like videos, retreats, talks, podcasts, and even pasyon. In 2012, they created a 360-degree shot of beautiful churches in the country, played with background music and posted with a prayer.
“It’s like you’re really entering the church,” the monsignor said. “Even though you’re sick, you’ll just connect to the internet. We have Palm Sunday celebration, washing of the feet, seven last words—all of the celebrations.”
“All of the website’s content is uploaded in social media: in Facebook and Twitter, and being shared by Katolikong Pinoy [a Facebook fan page with 190,000 likes].”
Reflect and repent
Amid the changing times, it is inevitable for some to set aside the tradition—in fact, a lot of families take advantage of the holiday to go for an out of town trip. Quitorio said that it is up to people how to they observe Lent, but he reminded the public not to forget the real essence of the season.
“What’s important for the families is not to forget our faith. Parents should encourage their kids, at least on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Black Saturday—those three days—to devote time to the Church,” he said.
After all, Holy Week is not just a time for the Church, but also a chance to rest and reflect. It is an opportunity for people, families, and communities to stop and look back on the things that happened the past year, Quitorio said.
For Favila, Holy Week is the time to renew her faith and her relationship with God and her family. She will observe the practice of reading the pasyon until she grows old, even though the younger generation she belongs to is somehow indifferent with the age-old tradition.
“That’s my way to be one with God again and that is my way to condole Jesus, who sacrificed his life to us,” she said.