Trixie Cruz-Angeles: In Our Image

By Rose Beatrix C. Angeles (Trixie Cruz-Angeles)

INQUIRER.net

First Posted February 05, 2008

Religion is the opiate of the masses - Karl Marx

www.philippines.hvu.nl 

Even the most modern Filipinos will not allow two weddings in one family in the same year for fear of sukob, the belief that both couples will suffer bad, even fatal luck. To this day even city bred families send their babies or children to the hilot for unexplained fevers because of “pilay.” House moving and building are incomplete without the usual parade of cotton, rice, salt and religious figures – but only after coins have been strategically embedded into the foundations – after which, ironically, we ask a priest to conduct a house blessing.

Strangely enough, as exemplified by these house blessing rituals, we Filipinos have conscripted our Catholicism into this belief system, so that we even ask our priests to bless other mundane objects like our cars – often to the consternation of our more modern, Western-oriented priests.

But that’s Philippine tradition for you, where indigenization is a distinct trait. Unlike other cultures that encourage oftentimes extreme forms of xenophobia, our ancestors were rarely afraid of the strange and new. But they did not allow influxes of differing traditions to overwhelm them. Rather, they incorporated the new into the old, made over to serve the needs of the community.

Devotion to the Sto. Nino or Child Jesus is the most famous case in point. The image was allegedly brought to the Philippines by Magallanes himself and given to Queen Juana of Cebu as her baptismal gift. With the repulsion of the Spanish forces and their eventual return, the same statue was allegedly found by the forces of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, intact and possibly still venerated despite the persistence of the indigenous belief systems.

Stories of the Sto. Niño’s supernatural ability persist to this day. It is said that the image periodically disappears from its home only to reappear later with grass stains on its shoes. Oral tradition also tells us of the attempt to transfer the image to Manila; the shipment had to be repeated several times, but the image kept reappearing back in its home, the Basilica Minore de Sto. Niño de Cebu. The fruitlessness of the attempt is apparent as the image remains ensconced in Cebu.

The cult of the Sto. Niño sprung from there and various incarnations have appeared. Some images are dressed in the profession of the devotee like a doctor’s lab coat, a fireman’s or police officer’s uniform. Others gown and coif the image in felt, silk and gold thread with varying levels of artistic success. Although the dressing and gowning of the child image is nothing compared to the way Marian devotees dress their own images in silks, pearls, gold, diamonds or crystals, and velour (an entire book by itself). If we had a fur tradition, I’m sure we would find at least one image in ermine or mink (although animal rights activists and conservationists would probably, and rightly, shame us out of it).

The dressing of such images, their treatment like human counterparts and the sometimes borderline fanaticism devoted to such treatment find few parallels in other countries. Some anthropologists explain that the Filipino concept of religion has not strayed too far from the animist traditions the Spaniards found.

The image therefore is not a mere symbol of the deity they represent. In fact, it is not a representation. It is a venerable object by itself, and worthy of devotion in the same manner we genuflect before the relics of a dead saint. It’s the same way the Russians created icons themselves venerated like windows to Heaven.

Neither have we departed much from Ifugao traditions where the bulols are not mere representations of the deity or animist spirit, but believed to be inhabited by spirits, who in turn stand guard over homes and granaries, and guarantee protection and prosperity.

This is not to say that we actually worship the religious object itself. Modern Filipinos would cringe at such blasphemy. The distinction is quite fine, but exists nonetheless. Those items associated with God must be accorded respect – though not actual worship. By according devotion and respect to items that symbolize God, we show respect and devotion to the Lord himself.

We therefore suppose that as with any other aspect of life in these parts, no revolution can be waged without taking into consideration intrinsic but entirely unique Philippine religious beliefs. EDSA I was a strange brew of an attempted coup turned four-day novena. Rosaries and Marian images were common at the site, and to commemorate that event, no less than a church with a huge representation of Christ’s Mother was erected adjacent at the site. If God be with us, who can be against us, right? And so EDSA I has gone down in history as a true Philippine Revolution and rightly so because it was a complete expression of cultural values.

Understanding the need of Filipinos to include the Divine in any undertaking and to take such Divine participation to great lengths is necessary in order for us to navigate our own governance and to figure out how to make-over our society while maintaining our unshakeable belief in God.

(Source: Trixie Cruz-Angeles - INQUIRER.net )
To know more about Trixie Cruz Angeles, check out: I AM TRIXIE CRUZ