[REFLECTION] Our Woman of Peñafrancia and the individuals’s mysticism

This text, initially printed in The Windhover: The Philippine Jesuit Journal, accommodates the writer’s reflections on his and his brother Jesuits’ journey to Naga Metropolis for the Penafrancia fiesta in September 2023. Rappler is republishing this text with permission from the writer and The Windhover.

Theologically backwards. Spiritual fanaticism. Overly sentimental piety. Irrational religion. These are simply a number of the criticisms directed in the direction of well-liked expressions of the Catholic religion, e.g., the procession of the Black Nazarene and the feast of Our Woman of Peñafrancia. There’s additionally the tendency to lump collectively the devotees because the “uneducated lots,” which is unquestionably not at all times true and may be derogative. Sadly, the criticisms additionally come from inside the confines of the Church, together with myself.

I admit I’m responsible of a few of these unfair judgments and mischaracterizations. Coming from the world of refined theology, it’s certainly simple to be condescending towards these religion expressions (for instance, well-liked piety, medieval-like devotions, and finishing novenas for a selected petition), to topic these into theological critique, and to impose my very own logic of religion on them. My journey to Naga Metropolis in September 2023 was not a mere bodily journey; it was additionally a journey inside — an inside journey of self-confrontation.

On the day of the Traslacion —  the switch of the picture of the Divino Rostro (Holy Face of Jesus) and Our Woman of Peñafrancia from the Basilica to the Naga Cathedral — Brother Raymund Belleza, SJ, led us Jesuit juniors and the fathers with us right into a reserved space situated on the second-floor veranda of a constructing. This might permit us to have a greater view of the procession within the afternoon. We climbed the smalls stairs with two bodyguards manning the slender entrance to the veranda.

Not everybody had entry to it. Clearly, we had been seen passing by the group by individuals standing on the road as we went up. If I keep in mind it precisely, one girl grabbed my consideration and advised me that she knew the Jesuit superior. She requested me to tell the guards for she was barred from climbing up. I responded that I might attain out to the superior. I actually felt shy.

I used to be given stalks of flowers to be given away to the voyadores, the male devotees who accompany and carry the Woman’s statue, who would method me and ask for it. Unknown to me, the flowers possessed miraculous powers for them. I acquired to know this by Brother Raymund and the non-public sharing of Kuya Jonathan, who’s a voyadores. I used to be there to see, to be uncovered to their faith and tradition, that are intertwined.

Standing on the veranda ready for “Ina” to move by, I felt like an outsider. The second I reached the veranda, I turned extra acutely aware of the privileges bestowed upon a customer. Up there, I used to be with some clergymen, my fellow seminarians, and others who had entry to it. The gap between myself and the devotees was each seen and hid.

Externally, I used to be up there whereas most of them had been down there. I used to be throwing stalks of flowers from an elevated place and the lads had been making an attempt to catch them. I used to be enclosed in an area removed from the hustle and bustle of the group. Internally, I couldn’t make sense of what would possibly occur. Questions in my head remained. How will I react to the Traslacion? Will it elicit constructive or unfavorable emotions?

The Divino Rostro was processed first earlier than Our Woman of Peñafrancia. Observing the procession and the devotees, I couldn’t keep away from asking these questions: Why are they much less enthusiastic when the Holy Face of Jesus is approaching in comparison with “Ina”? Is Mary greater than Jesus Christ? Why give extra consideration to “Ina” than Jesus? I attempted to droop my judgment.

I did my greatest to broaden my slender horizon, considering that possibly, the individuals know higher than me since they’ve been doing this for a very long time. The overwhelming variety of devotees spoke for itself. There was one thing particular in “Ina” which I felt I wouldn’t comprehend within the clearest phrases.

A specific scene which was extremely symbolic and etched in my reminiscence concerned “Ina,” the clergymen, and the voyadores. The clergymen garbed of their Roman black cassock had been guarding the statue of “Ina” positioned on the highest of an orb-shaped andas (carriage) from the bare-foot and generally half-naked voyadores who had been making an attempt with all their would possibly to climb as much as contact the Woman. The clergymen had been wielding lengthy sticks to ward them off.

I perceive the explanation why they had been there. A few years in the past, “Ina” was stripped badly of her clothes because of the unruliness of the devotees. I heard from Kuya Jonathan, a voyadores who shared about his private devotion to “Ina” and what he does as a voyadores, that those that often go up greater to have the ability to contact “Ina” are drunk and their motivations vary from gaining satisfaction for having the prospect to the touch her to receiving graces and blessings out of sheer devotion.

Sure, their religion expressions aren’t good. To romanticize them would do injustice to their human realities. Anyway, I couldn’t low cost the genuine religion expressed by them regardless of its ambiguity. In any case, no religion expression achieved by people is completely pure.

The distinction of images between the clergymen and the voyadores are symbolic of the stress between the institutional Church and the favored religiosity of the individuals. Misunderstandings on either side are frequent. In some quarters of the Church, the favored expression of the individuals’s religion is dismissed and ridiculed as missing agency theological foundations. However, some lay trustworthy don’t discover power and resonance within the Church’s dogmatic and liturgical fashion.

Is the Church stopping the trustworthy to follow their distinctive show of religiosity by wanting down upon it or by rigidly imposing one “greater” manner? In my feeble try and bridge the space between myself and the devotees, I slowly understood the plurality of religion expressions. My very own religion expression shouldn’t be the usual and absolute norm. The best way I pray differs from the way in which they pray. Silence and noise may be each technique of encounter with God. Religion expression is ever colourful and should not be lowered into one kind.

Witnessing the Traslacion firsthand was very significant for me. I couldn’t deny the religion I noticed among the many trustworthy. The voyadores making an attempt to the touch Mary. The trustworthy withstanding the warmth to point out their love for Ina. The shouts and claps because the Divino Rostro (Holy Face) and Ina had been progressively approaching. Who would do all of those with out devotion? Devotion additionally means a sense of ardent love and this sense springs from the center. No matter their intentions had been, crucial factor was they had been there to be with “Ina.”

All these had been concrete and actual events. Who am I to evaluate the “validity” of their religion expressions? Being there opened my eyes to what religion can do to individuals and what it’s basically. Religion is that this affective relationship with and belief in God. Actually, I must develop extra of this. The simplicity and the affectivity of the individuals’s religion stands as an invite of depth to a very rationalistic conception of faith.

Witnessing them enhanced my religion regardless of observing from a distance each bodily and spiritually and with the privileges I had in place. Emotions of awe and guilt welled up due to the judgments I simply made and my condescending angle in the direction of them.

Within the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences’ Closing Doc of the Asian Continental Meeting on Synodality, the Asian follow of taking off one’s sneakers in getting into homes or temples was talked about and honored as a ravishing signal of respect, a sign of how we’re acutely aware of the others whose lives we’re getting into into.

On this manner, it may be interpreted as an expression of the deep consciousness of sacredness coupled with genuine listening not contaminated by prejudices and biases. Visiting Naga as an outsider, I attempted to take off my sneakers. I’m grateful to the sacred place of Naga for difficult me to reside out this spirit of respect for and openness to the sacred which permeates cultures, peoples, and locations.

In Naga, I sensed, within the phrases of the bishops of Latin America referred to by Pope Francis in his exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, “the individuals’s mysticism.” — Rappler.com

Kevin Stephon Centeno is a Jesuit scholastic. Born in Oriental Mindoro, he obtained his bachelor’s diploma in philosophy and spent 5 years of seminary formation at Saint Augustine Seminary in Calapan Metropolis. His views don’t characterize the place of your entire Society of Jesus.