An InterdIscIplInAry JournAl of theology And phIlosophy Marian Devotion and Liturgy in the Churchs Evangelizing Mission in Asia Josefna M. Manabat, SLD Veneration of Saints in Popular Religiosity Fr. Oliver G. Yalung, SLL The Paschal Mystery in Hans Urs von Balthasars Trinitarian Theology Fr. Jesus B. Layug, Jr., SThL Becoming-Religion: A. N. Whitehead and the Process Metaphysics of Religion Fr. Kenneth C. Masong, PhD Book Reviews: Evangelization for the Third Millennium Israel Enero C. Camara Truly Our Sister: A Theology of Mary in the Communion of Saints Jowel Jomarsus P. Gatus Vol. 1 Number 1 2011 Issue ISSN XXXXXXXXX Pamisulu comes from the Kapampangan word sulu meaning light (in the sense of a bonfre or a torch) and the prefx pami- which means sharing or being together. The word pamisulu suggests the dual meaning of sharing around the light of fre and sharing the very fre itself. The journal Pamisulu seeks to be an avenue for a communion of ideas in theology and philosophy. It seeks to embody the mutual interaction of a searching faith and an open reason. Pamisulu is a refereed, print, and open access journal published bi-annually by the Graduate School of Theology and the Faculty of Philosophy of the Mother of Good Counsel Seminary, San Fernando, Pampanga, Philippines. Pamisulu: an interdisciplinary journal of theology and philosophy Graduate School of theoloGy faculty of PhiloSoPhy Mother of Good counSel SeMinary uniSite, del Pilar, San fernando, PaMPanGa 2000 PhiliPPineS telefax: +63.45.963.5463 eMail: registrar.mgcs@gmail.com iSSn: coPyriGht 2011 Mother of Good counSel SeMinary PAMI editor Fr. Kenneth Masong, PhD INTERNATIONAL EDITORIAL BOARD PhiloSoPhy Andre Cloots, PhD, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) Mark Joseph Calano, PhD, Ateneo de Manila University (Philippines) ScriPtureS Teresa Kuo-Yu Tsui, SThD, National Chengchi University (Taiwan) Fr. Victor Nicdao, SThD, Mother of Good Counsel Seminary (Philippines) church hiStory Fr. Jose Femilou Gutay, OFM, HED, Our Lady of Angels Seminary (Philippines) canon law Msgr. Edgardo Pangan, JCD, Mother of Good Counsel Seminary (Philippines) liturGy Josefna Manabat, SLD, San Beda College (Philippines) Fr. Oliver Yalung, SLL, Mother of Good Counsel Seminary (Philippines) Moral theoloGy Fr. Roland Tuazon, CM, SThD, St. Vincent School of Theology (Philippines) doGMatic theoloGy Fr. Daniel Franklin Pilario, CM, SThD, St. Vincent School of Theology (Philippines) Fr. Lope Lesigues, SThD, Fordham University (USA) EDITORIAL STAFF aSSociate editorS: Ranniel Soriano Dave Andrew Valencia BuSineSS ManaGerS: Mark Airho Manio Raymond Emilie Garcia lay-out artiStS: Al Manacmul III Mark Christopher De Leon Table of Contents From the Editor 7 Marian Devotion and Liturgy in the Churchs Evangelizing Mission in Asia 11 Josefna M. Manabat, SLD Veneration of Saints in Popular Religiosity 29 Fr. Oliver G. Yalung, SLL The Paschal Mystery in Hans Urs von Balthasars Trinitarian Theology 50 Fr. Jesus B. Layug, Jr., SThL Becoming-Religion: A. N. Whitehead and the Process Metaphysics of Religion 57 Fr. Kenneth C. Masong, PhD Evangelization for the Third Millennium Dulles, Avery, SJ 73 Review by: Israel Enero C. Camara Truly Our Sister: A Theology of Mary in the Communion of Saints Johnson, Elizabeth A. 77 Review by: Jowel Jomarsus P. Gatus Table of Contents Vol. 1 Number 1 2011 Issue PAMISULU 7 | PAMISULU From the editor: ON WRITING In thinking, one gives birth to ideas from the womb of the eternal. In writing, one salvages these born ideas from the fragility of memory and inscribes them in the enduring passage of history. That which is written is written to be remembered so that in remembering, one may continue to celebrate the singular birth of an idea. We belong to the generation of the text. From among friends and acquaintances countless text messages are sent to and fro; innumerable emails are transmitted across the globe; tweets and facebook shoutouts are posted for the anonymous public. This is but a fraction compared to the books published, news and magazine articles written, both in printed and digital format. Since writings birth in pre-historic pictographs, to the ancient scripts and now the modern written symbols or graphemes, writing has become a symbol not only of the human need to communicate (for such can be achieved by the spoken language), but of the equally human need to remember that which is communicated. The intimate link that exists between writing and remembering is attested to in historyall because we can speak of history in a global and long-term sense precisely because of the perennial presence and testimony of the text. Such scenario is not foreign to the discipline of philosophy and theology. The dialogues of Plato, at least the earliest ones, try to immortalize the philosophic conversations spearheaded by Socrates who, fortunately or unfortunately, has not left us with a personal inscription of his own ideas. The Christian Scriptures in general, and the Gospels in particular, also immortalize the sayings and deeds of Jesus who, like Socrates, never left us a text of his very words (ipsissima verba)save perhaps that single account of Jesus writing on the ground in the event of the woman caught in adultery (cf. Jn 8:6). However, the very text written is forever lost to us. Indeed, the Hebrew Scriptures are replete with instances of writing in order to remember and celebrate the utterances and the mighty deeds of YHWH. After the breaking of the frst tablets of the Law, the Lord instructed Moses to prepare two stone tablets again. Write down these words, for in accordance with them I have made a covenant with you and with Israel (Ex 34:27). Also, when Joshua won against the Amalekites, the Lord instructed Moses 8 | PAMISULU concerning their victory, Write this down in a document as something to be remembered (Ex 17:14). In remembrance lies the secret to redemption. These words attributed to Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760) points to the importance of writing in the economy of salvation. Nowadays, the saying is often quoted in view of the Holocaust memorial signaling the moral that in forgetting one is bound to repeat the mistakes of the past. But the moral dwells not simply in the negative warning. We dont simply remember lest we forget. We also remember in order to celebrate and make real again that which we recall and inscribe in writing. The rituals, gestures and spoken words in the Eucharist summarize the recollection and celebration of the Paschal Mysteries. These manifold textualizations of the redemptive sacrifce of Christthe inscription of the Christian eventum tantum into texts-in- actionis an immortalization of the past to be forever celebrated: Do this in memory of me (Lk 22:19; also I Cor 11:23-26). The possibility of an inscription of an idea or event into texts- in-action, or better yet, into performatives, is a singular grace of religion, particularly Christianity, in its sacramental theology. What is highlighted in the importance of Scriptures in Sacramentology is not simply the recollection of the Word of God that entered into time and space in the history of the Israelites and the Christian religion. It is not a mere remembering of what has happened. In taking up the Word, the sacrament makes real that which was real before in history into the here and now of the present. In the sacramental action, the performative character of the word of God becomes actual. Hence, Benedict XVI insists in his latest Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation that the People of God ought to be educated to discover the performative character of Gods word in the liturgy in order to help them to recognize [Gods] activity in salvation history and in their individual lives (Verbum Domini, 53). To link writing with remembrance is only one-dimensional. Perhaps there is an other to which writing is a necessary correlate. One can discover this in the writings of the great St. Augustine of Hippo (354- 430). In one of his sermons Augustine wrote, I endeavor to be a man who writes while he progresses, and who progresses while he writes (Epistulae 143). For Augustine, he writes not simply to record the development of his own ideas and the progress of his life and ministry. The very act of writing is also performative. To write is to do something. To write is to progress. Here, writing becomes a condition for the advancement of oneself. Augustine eschews the static view of writing where we write simply to record events, ideas and details: a logbook 9 | PAMISULU mentality. Rather, writing is active. True to the present progressive verbal tense of the word, writing is dynamic. This performative character illustrates how writing becomes a tool for self-refection, that is, we write to crystallize our thoughts to ourselves. It becomes a tool for self- assessment for in objectifying ourselves to ourselves, we more easily and dispassionately evaluate our actions, attitudes and aspirations. Furthermore, in writing, we set ourselves various purposes. It is not simply an activity to record the past, writing can become a tool to make our goal, which lie in the future, normative to the present. In the true spirit of spoken performativity in Rom 4:17, one can speak of writing things into existence. Writing as celebratory remembering and performative progressing underlies why this topic was taken as the academic theme of the school year 2011-2012 at the Mother of Good Counsel Seminary. The intellectual formation of the seminary necessitates the appreciation of writing as testimony of the past. But this appreciation needs to create a room for writing as an instrument for self-advancement in the confguration of candidates according to the heart of the Good Shepherd (cf. Jn 10:11). It is opportuneand providentialthat the maiden issue of Pamisulu is published within this academic year where writing becomes an object and condition for intellectual formation. Although the frst issue contains articles from the professors in the Graduate School of Theology and the Faculty of Philosophy, it is envisioned that seminarians and other learners and researchers in the ecclesiastical sciences may soon contribute scholarly articles to this interdisciplinary journal. The choice of Pamisulu as the name for the journal is both illustrative and programmatic. Colloquially, the Kapampangan word pamisulu means to gather together and share a meal, exemplifed in the Tagalog meaning of a salu-salu. Looking into the etymological derivation, pamisulu comes from the word sulu which means light, and the prefx pami- which suggests sharing or to distribute. Pamisulu then becomes illustrative of an academic ambience of a sharing of ideas in both theology and philosophy. Like people gathered around a campfre on a dark night, this interdisciplinary journal seeks to become an avenue for inquiring people to share, exchange and debate on their ideas and refections on the one light of faith and reason. Programmatically, the people behind the journal believe that there is only one light, sulu, by which we see, under which we stretch out, and which we contemplate as lovers of wisdom and prophets of God. Despite the distinct and sometimes differing discourses of philosophers and theologians, the light shared and refected upon fow from the same source (cf. Jas 3:11). The proper object 10 | PAMISULU of faith and reason is one, that is, the Truthwhat differs is the stance we take before this Truth: on the one hand, a searching faith, on the other hand, an open reason. In this spirit of sharing the light, the articles in this issue manifest a balance between praxis and theoria, between the practical and the speculative. The frst two articles deal with issues in liturgy and popular religiosity. It is well-known that Philippine piety is markedly Marian in character. The Filipino people is un pueblo amante de Maria. Precisely because of this strong devotion to Mary, according to Dr. Manabat, sometimes popular piety needs to be re-aligned and purifed according to norms of liturgical worship in order to highlight Marian devotion as a means in the Churchs evangelizing mission in Asia. Dovetailing on the issue of popular religiosity and its importance in Filipino culture, Fr. Yalung inquires into some local sanctoral devotions or forms of veneration of saints, particularly in the province of Pampanga. He highlights their religious signifcance and certain deviations, putting them in their proper liturgical perspectives. The last two articles are speculative in character. On the one hand, Fr. Layug revisits the Paschal Mystery in the current revival of Trinitarian thought, particularly in the aesthetic theology of the Jesuit theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar. The Paschal Mystery is the revelation in time of the immanent Trinitarian life of the eternal God. Fr. Masong, on the other hand, argues that in the contemporary conceptual landscape, there is a re/turn to religion, but religion here is now grounded on a different metaphysics, one exemplifed in the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. The affrmation of the inherent dynamism of religionthe Church understood as ecclesia semper reformandarequires a revisit of the metaphysics that underlies ones concept of religion. These four writings constitute a record, a testament, of the authors ongoing theological and philosophical refection. They narrate not simply what the authors have thought about, but also charts the trajectory of their thinking concerning their various interests. It is hoped that in publishing them, readers may come to share in the glimpse of the light being offered. May these articles stir up one to think, refect, ponder. Hopefully, in the end, may one be inspired to write something because of theseperpetuating the very life of writing itself. Fr. Kenneth C. Masong, Ph.D. 11 | PAMISULU Vol. 1 Number 1 2011 Issue MARIAN DEVOTION AND LITURGY IN THE CHURCHS EVANGELIZING MISSION IN ASIA 1
Josefna M. Manabat, SLD In his encyclical Ecclesia in Asia (n. 51), the late Pope John Paul II recalled a statement made by the Synod Fathers at their Special Assembly for Asia in 1998: Asian Christians have a great love and affection for Mary revering her as their own Mother and the Mother of Christ. He noted, moreover, the presence of hundreds of Marian sanctuaries and shrines where not only the Catholic faithful gather, but also believers of other religions too. 2
Indeed, the phenomenon of a vibrant Marian devotion in this part of the world would never escape notice with its various manifestations that are embedded in the religious cultures and consciousness of our people. In the Philipines alone, such manifestations include numerous parishes, barrio chapels, shrines, and oratories dedicated to her, 3 not to mention the innumerable institutions and establishments like schools, hospitals, and even business and sports facilities, named after her or after one of her many titles and invocations .4
Notable too are the various practices of devotion like novenas, Block Rosary, visits to Marian shrines in rural and highly urbanized areas alike. Who has not seen frst hand the fervor with which novenas to the Mother of Perpetual Help are held every Wednesday not only in her central shrine in the Redemptorist Church of Baclaran but practically in every church all over the archipelago? The Filipino celebration of Christmas has acquired a distinct trait emanating from the nine-day dawn Masses (popularly known as Aguinaldo or Simbang Gabi Masses) preceding the Solemnity of Christmas itself. Celebrated as votive Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary, these dawn Masses accord Filipinos with the experience of having the Blessed Mother as special companion in eagerly anticipating the feast of the birth of her Son. Popular devotion too has its share in making Mary
1 A paper given at the ASIA-OCEANIA MARIOLOGICAL CONFERENCE (AOMC) held in Lipa City, Philippines on September 12 to 16, 2009 on the theme MARY AND THE NEW EVANGELIZATION OF ASIA: Forerunner, Witness and Fullness. 2 John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia In Asia on Jesus Christ the Saviour and His Mission of Love and Service in Asia (New Delhi, India: November 1999), n. 51.
3 Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Pastoral Letter Ang Mahal na Birhen on Mary in Philippine Life Today (Manila: February 2, 1975), n. 6. [Henceforth: Ang Mahal na Birhen.] 4 Ibid. 12 | PAMISULU conspicuously visible in the celebration of Christmas with her fgure indispensably present in the belen or the nativity scene found not only in churches and homes but also in malls and town squares. And how about the dramatic re-enactment of Mary and Josephs search for an inn in which to give birth to the Son of God, known in the Philippines as Panunuluyan? Holy Week and Easter too have their share of such distinctive Marian favor. She fgures in the Way of the Cross, in the recollection of the Seven Last Words of Jesus on the Cross, and in the Good Friday evening procession in her fgure as Mater Dolorosa following the image of the dead and buried Christ (Sto. Entierro). We could go on and on but we certainly will never run out of illustrations of such fervent devotion to the Mother of God. However we do not wish to dwell only on the observable facts. We would like to look beyond what is obvious and see what lies underneath that provides the source and foundation for such manifestations of warm and fervent devotion to the Mother of the Savior. Such devotion emanates from sincere veneration of her who was not only introduced to them as the Mother of God but whose love and protection they have experienced in some personal way as from their own Mother, both individually and as a people. This veneration has consequently taken deep roots not only in their history as a people but also in their hearts 5 and has become a positive and powerful force in and for their Christian life. 6 Together with other forms of popular religiosity, and by no means the least, forms of Marian devotion have provided occasions for the faithfuls deepening in their understanding of the Christian faith and for their growth in liturgical life and participation. 7 Marian devotion provides a concrete mode in which Christianity is incarnated in our people, deeply lived by them, and manifested in their daily experience. 8 It has led to the special closeness with which Christians regard the Blessed Virgin as their own Mother and intercessor.
As well as being called a Christian nation, Filipinos love to be called a Marian nation. They have an instinctive awareness that the Christian faith was introduced to them and they were initiated into it in the context of devotion directed to both Christ and his Mother. 9 As the Philippines was initially evangelized in the Christian faith through forms of Marian devotion so shall she continue to be evangelized through the same fervent and authentic devotion to Mary. Devotion to Mary has been 5 Ibid., n. 97. 6 Ibid., n. 65. 7 Ibid., n. 70. 8 Ang Mahal na Birhen, n. 70. 9 Ang Mahal na Birhen, n. 72. 13 | PAMISULU a potent factor that preserved our faith and has provided the occasions for deeper and fuller evangelization of the Catholic faithful. 10
However, the reality of Marian popular piety in the Philippines is not without its shadows. The otherwise bright horizon against which Marian piety fnds itself is at times dotted with elements that need to be purifed and re-aligned with orthodox faith and practice. Some forms of popular Marian devotion are sometimes penetrated into by certain syncretistic and superstitious elements. In some other instances, the Marian piety found among our people lacks the necessary foundation in the Christian faith and genuine religiosity that it fails to have a real bearing in their behavior, decisions, and outlook in life. Marian popular devotions are often exploited for show and touristic purposes, not to mention the two malaises that creep into the use of religious articles associated with Marian devotion. The attractiveness of medals, rosaries, scapulars, stampitas and votive candles is exploited for commercial purposes, as the simple-minded among our people regard them as magic charms possessing miraculous healing and sometimes apotropaic powers. Moreover, the fervor with which Marian devotional practices are kept is too often left unmatched by equally fervent efforts to ground such devotion on adequate understanding of the person of the Blessed Virgin Mother and her role in the redemptive mission of her Son.
A concomitant problem is the failure to see the proper relationship between Marian popular religiosity and the Churchs liturgy. In many instances, the importance of these popular forms is overestimated practically to the detriment of the Churchs liturgy 11 the result of which is paradoxically the impoverishment of Marian piety. True Marian piety, after all, fnds its richness in its rootedness in and orientedness to the Paschal Mystery of Christ which is celebrated and made present in a most excellent way in the liturgy. LITURGICAL WORSHIP AND MARIAN DEVOTION: THEIR PROPER RELATIONSHIP The key to striking a correct harmony between liturgical worship and Marian devotion is a sound understanding of their proper relationship. In maintaining that the faithful assimilated the true Christian spirit by drawing from its primary and indispensable source, which is active participation in the most holy mysteries and from the
10 Cf. Ibid., n. 73; Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy (Vatican City: December 2001), n. 46.
11 Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, n. 51. 14 | PAMISULU solemn public prayer of the Church, Pope Pius X, at the beginning of the twentieth century, asserted the objective superiority of the Liturgy over all these forms of piety, their distinction, and their relationship. 12
On its part, the Vatican II Liturgy Constitution also sought to clarify the relationship between the Liturgy and popular piety. It is not one of contradiction, equality, or of substitution. 13 On one hand, the Constitution declared the unquestionable primacy of the Sacred Liturgy and the objective subordination and orientedness of pious exercises to it. 14 Even the laudable quest to make Christian worship more accessible to contemporary man, especially to those insuffciently catechized, should not lead to either a theoretical or practical underestimation of the primary and fundamental expression of liturgical worship, notwithstanding the acknowledged diffculties arising from specifc cultures in assimilating certain elements and structures of the Liturgy. Solution to such diffculties should be sought with patience and farsightedness and not withsimplistic remedies that may lead to the overestimation of the importance of popular piety to the detriment of the Churchs Liturgy. On the other hand, the Liturgy Constitution also emphasized the validity of forms of popular devotion if they harmonize with the liturgical seasons, accord with the Sacred Liturgy, are in some way derived from it, and lead the people to it (SC 13). Recognition of the primordial importance of the Liturgy, and the quest for its most authentic expressions, should never lead to the neglect of the reality of popular piety, or to a lack of appreciation for it, nor any position that would regard it as superfuous to the Churchs worship or even injurious to it. 15 It has to be candidly accepted that popular piety itself, especially that which is directed to the veneration of the Holy Mother of the Lord, is an ecclesial reality prompted and guided by the Holy Spirit. 16 Rather than being mere expressions of excessive sentimentalism, certain forms of popular piety are manifestations of authentic and legitimate spiritual aspirations. 12 Pope Pius X, Motu proprio Tra le sollecitudini (22.11.1903) 13 Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, n. 50. 14 Ibid.; cf. SC 13. 15 Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, n. 50. 16 Cf. John Paul II, Homily at the Celebration of the Word in La Serena (Chile), 2, in Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, X/1 (1987), cit., p. 1078. Cf. Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, n. 50. 15 | PAMISULU THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY IN LITURGY AND IN POPULAR PIETY the Commemoration oF the Blessed Virgin mother oF god in the liturgy. Nowhere do we fnd a more excellent veneration of the Holy Mother of God than in the celebration of the Liturgy, above all, in the celebration of the Eucharistic Mystery, in the Divine Offce, in the celebration of the Sacraments and Sacramentals, and in the observance of the various feasts and seasons of the Liturgical Year. In all of these, her being united to her Son by a close indissoluble tie is brought out in the various texts proclaiming her singular dignity of being the Mother of the Son of God, beloved Daughter of the Father, and Temple of the Holy Spirit (LG 53). in the euCharistiC CeleBration. 17 The singular honor accorded to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the celebration of the Eucharist is seen especially in its euchological and lectionary texts. On the euchological side, deserving frst mention are the Eucharistic Prayers, both ancient and new compositions, which express such affectionate commemoration of the Blessed Virgin. With the ancient Roman Canon, or Eucharistic Prayer I, for example, the Church fondly honors the Mother of the Savior in terms that combine doctrinal precision and ardent devotion: In union with the whole Church we honor Mary, the ever-virgin Mother of Jesus Christ our Lord and God. In turn, with the Eucharistic Prayer III the Church prays as a People that longs to share in the glorious destiny of the Mother of their Lord and who is also their own: May he make us an everlasting gift to you [the Father] and enable us to share in the inheritance of your saints, with Mary, the Virgin Mother of God. It is but ftting that the Eucharist, being the most sublime celebration of the mysteries of salvation worked by God through Christ in the Holy Spirit, must necessarily recall the Holy Mother of the Savior united indissolubly to these mysteries. 18
The reform accomplished by the Second Vatican Council on the Lectionary Readings for Mass has resulted to a richer fare of Old and NewTestament readings concerning the Blessed Virgin. This numerical increase has not however been based on random choice: only those readings have been accepted which in different ways and degrees can be 17 Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus for the Right Ordering and Development of Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary (Rome: February 2, 1974), n. 10, 12. 18 Congregation for Divine Worship, Letter Orientations and Proposals for the Celebration of the Marian Year 1987- 1988 (Rome: April 3 1987), n. 19. Cf. SC,103; LG, 53, 57. 16 | PAMISULU considered Marian, either from the evidence of their content or from the results of careful exegesis, supported by the teachings of the Magisterium or by solid Tradition. 19 Three types of readings form part of the Lectionary to honor her and her role in the redemptive mission of her Son: 20 a) readings from both the Old and the New Testament that relate to the life or mission of the Blessed Virgin Mary or that contain prophecies about her; b) readings from the Old Testament that from antiquity have been referred to Mary, for in the perspective of the venerable Fathers of the early Church, certain events, fgures, or symbols of the Old Testament foretell or suggest in a wonderful manner the life and mission of the Blessed Virgin Mary; and c) readings from the new Testament that, while not referring to the Blessed Virgin, are assigned to the celebration of her memorial in order to make clear that all the virtues extolled in the Gospelfaith, charity, hope, humility, mercy, purity of heartfourished in Mary, the frst and most perfect of Christs disciples. Our consideration of the special honor accorded to the Blessed Virgin in the celebration of the Eucharist will be sorely defcient without mention of the promulgation in 1984 of the Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the Congregation for Divine worship with the approval of Pope John Paul II. The Collectio comprises principally the texts for Marian Masses that are found in the propers of the particular Churches or of religious institutes or in the Roman Missal (Sacramentary). 21 Intended for use in Marian shrines where Masses are celebrated frequently and in ecclesial communities that on the Saturdays in Ordinary Time desire to celebrate a Mass of the Blessed Virgin, the Collectio seeks to promote celebrations that are marked by sound doctrine, the rich variety of their themes, and their rightful commemoration of the saving deeds that the Lord God has accomplished in the Blessed Virgin Mary in view of the mystery of Christ and the Church. 22 The formularies are characterized by doctrinal richness and are a happy synthesis between the best tradition and the best creativity; a prayerful resonance of the Magisterium of the Church and of post-Conciliar theological refection on the Blessed Virgin Mary. 23
19 Marialis Cultus, n. 12 20 International Commission on English in the Liturgy (tr.), Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary 2: Lectionary (Praenotanda), n. 3. 21 Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary 1, n. 20. 22 Ibid., n. 19, 21. 23 M. Aug, Maria nella Celebrazione del Mistero di Cristo, in Liturgia. Storia, Celebrazione, Teologia, Spiritualit, Milano 1992, 300. 17 | PAMISULU in the other saCraments and saCramentals. 24 Expressions of affection and trustful confdence in the Mother of the Lord are likewise found in the celebration of various sacraments and sacramentals. In the celebration of Baptism, the Church invokes her, the Mother of God, before immersing candidates in the saving waters of baptism. 25 Upon mothers who have just given birth, grateful and joyful for the gift of motherhood, the Church invokes the Blessed Mothers intercession. 26 Upon those who embrace the religious life and those who commit themselves to the life of consecrated virginity, the Church invokes Marys motherly assistance and presents her as model in living out their sacred vows and state. 27 For those who have come to the hour of their death and for those who have departed from this world into the eternal Light of Christ, the Church prays fervently for the Blessed Mothers intercession. 28 Upon those who mourn the loss of their loved ones as well, the Church invokes Gods consolation and comfort through the prayer of the Blessed Mother. 29
in the diVine oFFiCe. 30 Eloquent expressions of devotion to the Blessed Virgin are not also lacking in the Liturgy of the Hours or Divine Offce. They are in the form of hymns that exemplify fnest works of poetry and artistry, of antiphons that express profound admiration of and affection for her, or of prayers of intercession especially at Lauds and Vespers which, although addressed to the Father or to Christ, express trusting recourse to the Mother of the Savior. To these could be added compositions by authors of various epochs, truly part of the literary treasure of the Church, offered as hagiographical readings on her feasts. Finally, we can not forget to mention the Churchs use of Our Ladys Canticle or the Magnifcat in the daily celebration of Vespers to express her thanksgiving for the gift of salvation, a custom that is praised by Saint Bede the Venerable in his homily that we read on the Feast of Our Ladys Visitation: Therefore it is an excellent and fruitful custom of holy Church that we should sing Marys hymn at the time of evening prayer. 24 Marialis Cultus, n. 14. 25 Rite of Baptism for Children, n. 48; Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, n. 221. 26 Cf. Rituale Romanum, Tit. Vll, cap. III, De benedictione mulieris post partum. 27 Cf. Ordo professionis religiosae, Pars Prior, 57 and 67; Ordo consecrationis virginum, 16; Cf. Ordo professionis religiosae, Pars Prior, 62 and 142; Pars Altera, 67 and 158; Ordo consecrationis virginum, 18 and 20. 28 Cf. Ordo unctionis infrmorum eorumque pastoralis curae, 143, 146, 147, 150. Roman Missal, Masses for the Dead, For dead brothers and sisters, relations and benefactors, Collect. 29 Cf. Ordo exsequiarum, 226. 30 Marialis Cultus, n. 13. 18 | PAMISULU in the liturgiCal year. 31 It is perhaps in its chapter on the Liturgical Year that the Vatican II Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy articulates most eloquently the focus and intent of the singular honor that the universal Church reserves to the Blessed Virgin: In celebrating the annual cycle of the Lords mysteries, the Church honors with special love Mary, the Mother of God, who is joined by an inseparable bond to the saving work of her Son. In her, the Church holds up and admires the most excellent effect of redemption and joyfully contemplates, as in a fawless image, that which the Church itself desires and hopes wholly to be (SC 103). I will surely exceed the time allotted for my presentation if I attempt to be even just fairly exhaustive in illustrating how closely is the Mother commemorated together with her Son in the annual cycle of his mysteries. I will therefore be contented with a couple of illustrations. In Advent, for example, the Church fnds in Mary a Companion and Model for the appropriate way to wait for the long-promised Messiah, as ample liturgical reference is made to her especially in the second part of Advent, that is, December 17-24. The Sunday immediately preceding Christmas calls to mind the ancient prophecies concerning the Virgin Mother and the Messiah and Gospel passages that speak of the imminent birth of Christ and of his Precursor.
At Christmas, as the Birth of the Savior is commemorated with joy-flled solemnity, the Church both adores the Savior and venerates His glorious Mother. Then, also, as the Church celebrates Gods gift of salvation for all peoples on the feast of Epiphany, the Church contemplates both the universal Savior and the Blessed Virgin, the true Seat of Wisdom and true Mother of the King, who presents to the Wise Men, for their adoration, the Redeemer of all peoples (cf. Mt. 2:11).
mary, model oF the ChurCh in liturgiCal Worship. Another singular signifcance of the Blessed Virgin in the Churchs Liturgy is that she embodies the necessary and proper interior disposition with which the Church and, indeed, every individual Christian should have in order to fruitfully celebrate and live out the mysteries of redemption: attentive, contemplative and active presence, generous concern for the rest of the world and humanity, and openness to the eschatological fulfllment of all that humanity hopes for. To the Christian faithful at worship, Mary stands as model in listening to the Word and taking it to heart; in praising and thanking God who has done great favors to oneself and to the rest of humankind; in bringing Christ and his gifts of joy and salvation to all that one meets, in 31 Marialis Cultus, n. 2-11. 19 | PAMISULU praying and interceding for the needs of all, in nourishing the life of grace which one receives through the sacraments, in offering oneself in union with Christs offering of himself to the Father, in imploring the coming of the Lord, and in waiting for it with vigilance. 32 mary, model oF liturgiCal spirituality. Liturgical spirituality is that in which ones disposition and experience at liturgical worship with its elements of texts, rites and feastsis the point of reference and primary determining factor which orders and shapes all the elements of ones Christian life and pursuit of perfection. 33 For this, Mary is not only an example for the whole Church in the exercise of divine worship but is also, clearly, a teacher of the spiritual life for individual Christians. 34 Her spiritual attitude at worship comprising those dispositions mentioned in the preceding paragraph was translated into her fat to the will of the Father in all the other moments of her lifefrom the annunciation by the Angel until the foot of the Cross. Thus, since early on in the life of the Church, the Christian faithful have always looked to Mary and imitated her in making their lives an act of worship to God and making their worship a commitment of their lives. Hers was that worship that consists in making ones life an offering to God. For this, it was to the example of the Blessed Virgin that the saintly bishop St. Ambrose referred his fock in encouraging them to glorify God by a life that embodied an acceptable worship to God: May the heart of Mary be in each Christian to proclaim the greatness of the Lord; may her spirit be in everyone to exult in God. 35
THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY IN POPULAR RELIGIOSITY Popular religiosity, noted Pope Paul VI in his Encyclical Evangelii nuntiandi, shows a hunger for God that only the simple and the poor can possess; it makes people capable of being generous and of making sacrifces to the point of heroism, when it is a question of manifesting ones faith; it brings with it a deep sense of the profound attributes of God: paternity, providence, loving and constant presence; it generates interior attitudes rarely observed in other places to the same degree: patience, sense of the cross in daily life, detachment, openness to others, and devotion. 36
32 Cf. Congregation for Divine Worship, Orientations and Proposals for the Celebration of the Marian Year 1987-1988 (3 April 1987). 33 Cf. C. Vagaggini, Theological Dimensions of the Liturgy, Collegeville 1976, 661. 34 Marialis Cultus, n. 21. 35 St. Ambrose, Expositio Evangelii secundum Lucam, 11, 26: CSEL 32, IV, p. 55; S. Ch. 45, pp. 83-84. Cf. Marialis Cultus, n. 21. 36 Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi on Evangelization in the Modern World, n. 48. (Henceforth: EN). 20 | PAMISULU It is indeed with such simplicity and poverty of spirit that the faithful acquire an insight that makes it easy for them to perceive the intimate link between the Savior and his Mother in whom he entrusted his Church as he hung upon the Cross. Popular Marian piety that is manifest among masses of Asian people has no diffculty seeing the exceptional immaculate holiness of the Virgin Mother. The poor, the simple, and the suffering can easily identify with her as one who, like them, was poor, went through untold suffering on account of the role she played in the redemptive mission of her Son, but who was patient, lowly, and undauntedly hopeful in the face of all situations. They come to her without hesitation and confdently implore her help and protection as one who is at the same time the glorious queen in heaven and one who is very close to them, personally knowing their concerns. They identify with her in her sufferings at the crucifxion and death of her Son, and rejoice with her at his resurrection. Such identifcation and special closeness translate into a devotion so fervent that they celebrate her feasts with joyful enthusiasm, participate willingly in processions, visit and pray in her shrines, devoutly sing in her honor, and offer her votive offerings. They will not tolerate anyone who would do her any offense nor take those who do not honor her into their confdence. The various forms of Marian devotion provide the ambit in which the Christian faithful feel free to let out their ardent affection and trustful recourse to the Blessed Mother. Popular devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is no doubt an outstanding and universal ecclesial phenomenon with a great variety of expressions and very profound motivation, which is no less than faith in and love for Christ, her Son. The Church, no wonder, encourages such a personal and community devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary expressed in approved and recommended pious exercises. 37
However, in acknowledging the many positive values of popular religiosity, Pope Paul VI also adds a note of caution against its exposure to infltrations of many perversions of religiosity, like superstition and syncretism, and against piety that does not embody an authentic adherence in faith. 38 On account of this, the Magisterium has laid down the fundamental principle by which to guide the faithful in the practice of various forms of Marian devotion: they should be derived from the one worship which is rightly called Christian, because it takes its origin 37 Cf. Vatican II Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium on the Church (LG), n. 67; Decree Presbyterorum Ordinis, n. 18; Decree Optatam totius, n. 8; Decree Apostolicam actuositatem, n. 4. 38 Cf. EN 48. 21 | PAMISULU and effectiveness from Christ, fnds full expression in Christ, and leads through Christ in the Holy Spirit to the Father. 39
Moreover, in the practice of various forms of Marian devotion, the faithful are enjoined to have constant recourse to Sacred Scripture, as understood in Sacred Tradition; not overlook the demands of the ecumenical movement in the Churchs profession of faith; consider the anthropological aspects of cultic expressions so as to refect a true concept of man and a valid response to his needs; highlight the eschatological tension which is essential to the Gospel message; make clear missionary responsibility and the duty of bearing witness, which are incumbent on the Lords disciples. 40 The Liturgy is the best school in which these values that should characterize Marian devotion are learned. LITURGY AND MARIAN DEVOTION IN THE CHURCHS MISSION OF EVANGELIZATION After a brief survey of the elements and characteristics of the two expressions liturgical and popular of love and veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we can only agree that an accurate reading of the Vatican II Liturgy Constitutions articulation of the relationship between the two expressions of Marian Piety, that is, the Liturgy and popular devotion is not one of contradiction, equality, or of substitution. 41 While the Constitution is unfinching in affrming the primacy of the Sacred Liturgy over forms of popular religiosity in expressing the singular affection and honor that the Church reserves for the Blessed Mother, it is also with great solicitude that she recommends such popular forms of Marian piety for the Christian faithfuls observance, particularly those that are in accord with the sacred Liturgy and in harmony with the liturgical seasons, for which they have been given ecclesiastical approval. This having been said, what I see should be the last part of my agenda in this paper is to offer some points to consider in view of making both liturgical and popular expressions of Marian piety more effective and fruitful in the Churchs evangelizing mission in our continent. 39 Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, n. 186, cf. Marialis Cultus, Introduction. 40 Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, n. 186, cf. Marialis Cultus, n. 8. 41 Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, n. 186; Marialis Cultus, n. 50. 22 | PAMISULU A. the need to puriFy marian deVotion oF seCularistiC and superstitious motiVes The strong natural appeal of Marian devotion to the Christian faithful is a potent opening for the evangelization of the Catholic faithful in Asia. Its various forms that are found in great abundance in both rural and urban communities could be venues to bring people to a clearer knowledge of and commitment to Christ, provided that these are not coming from and are kept free of motives that are less than noble. On one hand, they must not be organized and maintained for utilitarian agenda as what happens with the Flores de Mayo (or Maytime fower festival) and the Santacruzan in many places in the Philippines. Turned into beauty pageants and fashion parades, these are taken advantage of for commercial and touristic purposes devoid of any spiritual meaning and of a genuine manifestation of faith. On the other hand, the Catholic faithful should be led to acquire a correct understanding of and attitude toward things and places that are connected to Marian devotionnot to ascribe magical and apotropaic powers to these but to see them as concrete reminders of the closeness of the Blessed Virgin to her children and of the reliability of running to her for help and protection. B. the need to take adVantage oF Forms oF marian deVotion to eduCate the FaithFul in the Faith A number of popular forms of Marian piety provide effective venues not only for the faithful to express their affection toward her and their trustful recourse to her in times of need. They also possess great potentials for providing context for the formation of the faithful in the Christian faith, not to mention the community-building and family bond ing opportunities that these provide. One way to capitalize on this potential is to take great care in directing the minds of the faithful, through homiletics, catechesis, and the use of liturgical art, to the particular mystery in the life and mission of Christ to which a Marian feast is connected. In the Philippines, the Block Rosary devotion, the Barangay Sang Birhen, and Marian Missions held in various dioceses provide ample occasions for catechesis of the faithful for which some of the capable ones among the laity may be trained to give some catechetical instruction in collaboration with the pastors. And then, a possibility which, on a personal note, I have a special interest in is that which is provided by the observance of May as Marian Month. In the Philippines, in particular, this is in the form of a month-long Flores de Mayowell-loved 23 | PAMISULU as a Marian devotion which, unfortunately obscures the celebration of the Fifty-day Easter because they coincide in great part, considering that the Paschal seasons stretches from March or April to late May or early June. The content of this Mayfower devotion could, however, be harmonized with the content of the Fifty-day Easter. The Blessed Mothers participation in the Paschal Mystery (cf. John 19, 25-27) and in the Pentecost event (cf. Acts 1, 14), with which the Church had her beginnings, could be emphasized. A witness to the resurrection of her Son, the Blessed Mother journeys with the Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, since in the mind of the Church, the Fifty-day Easter is a period during which those who have received Christian initiation during the Easter Vigil are to be given mystagogical catechesis, 42 even for those of us who have received baptism years ago but who renewed our baptismal commitment on Easter Vigil, the Fifty-day Easter could also be a mystagogical period during which intensifcation in Christian life could be pursued by paying greater attention to the well-planned lectionary and euchological program of the Easter liturgy. The faithfuls daily visit to the Church to pray and offer fowers to the Blessed Mother could provide the occasion for this mystagogical teaching, if planned well. 43
While popular Marian piety has adopted May and October as Marian Months, the four-week Advent is what the Roman Liturgy provides as the month of the Blessed Virgin par excellence. It is an example of a Marian time that has been incorporated harmoniously into the Liturgical Year. The Philippine Church has a particular possibility to take advantage of this because of the special permission granted it to celebrate the Masses at dawn (known as Misa de Aguinaldo or Simbang Gabi) from December 16-24 as solemn votive Masses in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Considering how the importance and role of the Blessed Mother in the redemptive mission of her Son especially in the Incarnation is organically expressed in the lectionary and euchological program of this season, the faithful should be assisted in coming to a full appreciation of the numerous references to the Mother of our Saviour during this particular period. 44
And how could we miss to mention the incorporation of the Salubong (or Encuentro), a traditional dramatization of the meeting of the risen Christ and his Mother, with the Mass at dawn on Easter 42 Congregation for Divine Worship, Circular Letter Paschales Solemnitatis on the Preparation and Celebration of the Easter Feasts (Rome: January , 1988), n. 102. 43 Cf. Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, n. 190. 44 Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, n. 190; Orientations, n. 65 e. 24 | PAMISULU Sunday? The evangelical value contained in the beautiful incorporation of this form of Marian devotion with the Liturgy is sustained and enhanced by the Collect (Opening Prayer) adapted for this celebration: Almighty and merciful God, on this most holy day of Easter our risen Lord appeared to his disciples to confrm their faith in the resurrection. We rejoice with Mary, mother and disciple, for the Son whom she carried in her womb has truly risen from the dead, as he said. Grant that through her prayers we may go forth to meet our risen Savior when he opens the Scriptures to us and breaks bread in our midst. We ask this C. marian piety and the dignity oF Women, in the Family, and in soCiety The role of the Blessed Mother in the mystery of the Incarnation confers on womanhood an exalted dignity. God, in his plan to bring back humankind unto himself, entrusted his Son to the free and active ministry of a woman. 45 As the Christian faithful celebrate this dignity both in Liturgy and in popular piety, they will see in Mary the traits which true womanhood is all about: tremendous capacity for self-donating love; fortitude even in the face of the greatest sorrows and misfortunes; capacity for total fdelity; indefatigable commitment to work; a rare insight that is capable of seeing signifcance in appearances, meaning in events, thought and affection in action. As they hear the Gospel proclaimed on her feasts and behold her life and activity in Bethlehem, or in Nazareth, or in Jerusalem, as events in the life her Son are recalled, the Christian faithful become witness to Marys fat in her humble submission to Gods will in prayer and contemplation as well as in her active presence in the life, mission and death of her Son. As they do, women in particular will fnd in her the secret of living their femininity with dignity and of achieving their true advancement, while others will develop a high regard and a deep respect for the same. Whether in the narrow confnes of the family home or in the bigger social contexts of commerce, politics, health care, economics, science and technology, Mary stands before women and the rest of humanity as an example to imitate in how she fully and responsibly accepted the will of God, having heard His word and acted on it in charity and service. The holiness of the home she helped foster with her chaste spouse St. Joseph by faithfully and diligently undertaking the ordinary chores in the little house of Nazareth, the home which nurtured the Savior as he grew in age, wisdom and grace, infuses a deeper meaning 45 John Paul II Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Mater on the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Life of the Pilgrim Church (25 March 1987), n. 46. 25 | PAMISULU and greater signifcance even to the humble task of housekeeping. But the breadth of her concerns expressed in her celebrated song of praise, the Magnifcat, as well as in her active presence in the passion of her Son and in the life of the early Church, inspires in women active involvement and co-responsibility in politics, the social feld, scientifc research, and intellectual activities, which are by no means incompatible with a profound devotion to Mary. d. mary and the ChurChs preFerential loVe For the poor An accurate portrayal of the fgure of Mary both in the Liturgy and in popular devotion will clearly show her as an embodiment of Gods and of the Churchs preferential love for the poor. If part of the raison dtre of the Churchs liturgy is to proclaim the God who saves, it follows that preferential love for the poor and the underprivileged should be part of the same proclamation. Taking up the cause of the poor in concrete ways will have to substantiate such proclamation. The Churchs stance of preferential love for the poor is wonderfully inscribed in Marys Magnifcat. She praises the God who in her lowliness favored her among all women and generations. But she also exalts the God who has been taking up the cause of the poor and the underprivileged through all ages dispersing the proud of heart, throwing down rulers from their thrones, lifting up the lowly, flling the hungry with good things, and sending away the rich empty-handed (cf. Luke 1:51-53). It is a condemnation not of wealth and of the wealthy but of the selfshness and apathy that it breeds in those who possess wealth in abundance, not of authority and of its holders but of abuses and injustice perpetrated by those who wield power by their positions of authority. Marian devotion should be mindful of the condition of many in our continent who wallow in subhuman standards of living. Our love for the blessed Mother must extend to her other children who come to her as well as we do because they seek her help and consolation in their suffering and want. Those who have less in life fnd in Marian devotion in its various forms an expression of Gods special closeness which explains the fact that its various forms, especially novenas invoking the help of the Blessed Mother in her various titles, attract more adherents from among the poor than from those who are affuent. Our devotion to the Blessed Mother, then, should show itself in works of charity that truly uplift the condition of the poor, in causes that uphold justice for those who have no means to pursue it, in helping build a society where everyone, even those who have least in life, can enjoy the full measure of their human life and 26 | PAMISULU dignity. Marys heart of a mother goes out to everyone but especially to the least among her children for they are the ones who need her most. As Mary did in her visit to her cousin Elizabeth, we are called to run in haste, be present where our brother or sister needs us, proclaim the Good news of the God who frees from oppression and consoles in times of affiction. 46
CONCLUSION Those who gathered at the First Asian Mission Congress held in Chiang Mai, Thailand in October 2006 articulated what should be the confguration of evangelization in Asia in terms of a methodologythat of story-telling and faith-sharinginasmuch as Asians love stories and they learn their faith best through stories. To evangelize, to proclaim the Good News of Gods reign which is the Churchs mission, is to tell the story of Jesus, for He is Gods love story in the feshGods Incarnate Story. Whether celebrated in the Liturgy or manifested in some form of popular devotion, the story of the Son necessarily includes the Mother. Whether in the Liturgy or in popular forms of Marian piety, the commemoration and veneration of the Mother will always point to the Son and his redemptive mystery. Two tasks are in place to ensure that both in Liturgy and Marian Devotion, the commemoration and veneration of Mary may constitute a clear, accurate, and eloquent telling of the story of Jesus. 47
First, care should be taken that expressions of Marian devotion be oriented to the liturgythat worship which the Church offers to the Father through Christ in the Spiritwhich is the summit toward which all the activities of the Church are directed and the fount from which all her power fows. 48 Their devotion to the Mother of the Savior should make the faithful desirous and eager to participate fully in the table of the Word and of the Eucharist, and spur them on to witness by their lives to the Gospel values expressed in the liturgical actions. Second, liturgical worship should be brought closer to the people by opening it up to the popular dimensions of Marian piety through which and within which context the faithful usually feel more free and at ease to express their faith as well as their religiosity. The Church, after all, desires that all the faithful should have that full, conscious, and active participation in
46 Cf. 1971 Synod of Bishops, Justice in the World, Introduction. 47 Congregation for Divine Worship, Orientations and Proposals for the Celebration of the Marian Year 1987- 1988 (Rome, April 3, 1987). 48 SC 10. 27 | PAMISULU liturgical celebrations which is demanded by the very nature of the liturgy, and to which the Christian people, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a redeemed people (1 Pet 2:9; cf. 2:4-5) have a right and obligation by reason of their baptism. 49 This twofold task entails a fruitful integration between liturgy and popular religiosity. On one hand, it demands assiduous study and careful discernment in order that, in the process, the integrity of the Christian faith and the essential structure and elements of liturgical worship may be respected and safeguarded. On the other hand, it necessitates a profound knowledge of the cultural background of popular religiosity, its contents, symbols, and language. Once the soundness and usefulness of such integration is established, it could be carried out under the guidance of the bishops and experts of popular religiosity in a certain territory. There have been numerous examples of successful attempts at such integration to which the history of the liturgy both in the East and in theWest attest. Within the context of the Philippine Church, a couple of examples were cited abovethe Misa de Aguinaldo or Simbang Gabi celebrated as votive Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary all through the nine days preceding Christmas and the Salubong or Encuentro between the risen Christ and His Mother which forms part of the Introductory Rites of the earliest Mass of Easter Sunday. These and some others have perennially nurtured the faith and worship life of Filipino Catholics as well as their love for the Blessed Mother. There are instances, however, when forms and manifestations of popular Marian piety may not have to be modifed and transformed into liturgical expressions. We have pointed out above that the Church highly recommends popular devotions provided that they conform to the laws and norms of the Church, especially where they are ordered by the Apostolic See. 50 Among others we can mention the praying of the Holy Rosary, the recitation of the Angelus, of the Regina Coeli, and of the litanies of the Blessed Virgin, and pilgrimages to specifc Marian shrines and sanctuaries. There are many others, some of which are practiced by particular local communities, which if diligently evangelized and made the object of renewed catechesis can occupy a rightful place in Christian worship and can peacefully co-exist with the Liturgy in accordance with the principles laid down by the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. The process either of fruitful integration or of peaceful co-existence between the liturgy and worshiping expressions of popular
49 SC 14. 50 SC 13. 28 | PAMISULU religiosity, in order to become potent means of evangelizationof telling the story of Jesus in Asiashould be accompanied by diligent study, prayerful discernment, and committed and loving pastoral stance and action. Mary was evangelizer par excellence because before she brought the Good News to the world, she frst received It humbly in her heart, cherished It, and kept It. She put herself at Gods disposal as His handmaid. She was a faithful witness to the life and mission of the Savior from his infancy to his death on the Cross to his Resurrection and even to the outpouring of his Gift, the Holy Spirit, into the Church. Today, she remains to be that faithful SERVANT and WITNESS of the Word as her memory is venerated and her help and protection invoked both in liturgical worship and in popular piety. The Church in Asia continues to tell the story of Jesus with Mary as help, guide, and model. To her, therefore, we pray: O Holy Mary, Daughter of the Most High God, Virgin Mother of the Saviour and Mother of us all, look tenderly upon the Church of your Son, planted on Asian soil. Be her guide and model as she continues your Sons mission of love and service in Asia. Pray for us that through that mission all the peoples of Asia may come to know your Son Jesus Christ, the only Saviour of the world, and so taste the joy of life in all its fullness. Amen. (Ecclesia in Asia, n. 51) 29 | PAMISULU Vol. 1 Number 1 2011 Issue VENERATION OF SAINTS IN POPULAR RELIGIOSITY Fr. Oliver G. Yalung, SLL INTRODUCTION A discussion on the theology of the veneration of saints and the liturgical cult of saints essentially implores some attention on its expression in popular religiosity as well. Not only because we are Filipinos but primarily because popular religiosity today, and perhaps even as before, has been part and parcel of the spirituality of many Catholic Christians. No one among us here would deny that Filipino Catholicism is, indeed, deeply rooted in popular religiosity. We are very much attached to our religious devotions. In fact, it is diffcult to speak about Filipino Catholicism without making mention of our religious devotions. Last week, a parish priest asked me for suggestions on what topic in liturgy he could share to his lay constituents. As it was what preoccupied my mind then, I blurted out without vacillation, How about Liturgy and Popular Devotions? His remark was, Why, is there a difference? He was not even smiling. For a start, let me premise my presentation by stating that the practice of venerating saints is perhaps more richly expressed in terms of popular devotions. We can point out without diffculty endless examples which come in various forms of devotions like the novenas, the rosary, the angelus, and pilgrimages.
Processions are another good illustration. There is no town festa in our country which is celebrated without honoring patron saints in processions. Who will not understand the maxim, Pagkahaba-haba man ng prusisyon, sa simbahan pa rin ang hantong? Not a bad illustration for popular devotions in general. Processions come in various forms too, street or fuvial, with sacred images or even without them. People fock to this communal activity that seems to satiate their deepest yearning for the divine. Saints are also customarily venerated on altars or shrines, a very distinctive Filipino religious practice. There is always a space reserved for the veneration of religious images of Christ, the Blessed Mother and the 30 | PAMISULU saints like in homes, sari-sari stores, street corners, and even inside public or private vehicles. The faithful love to pray before sacred images. They cant seem to fully quench such desire when inside the Church that they have to continue with this even in their homes. These altars are truly esteemed. I remember my mother, who used to lead Enthronement Services in our parish, saying: What is a home without an altar? Even homes are perceived as mini-churches or chaplets, annexes of the parish Church. They are ornamented with fresh or plastic fowers, colorful Christmas lights, and precious trinkets. In barrios and remote places, little grottoes are seen in the felds and along the roads. Located especially along sharp curves of the road, these grottoes are meant for the protection of travelers and motorists. Other forms of venerating saints include the religious dramas and some native cultural dances. We are familiar with the Panuluyan and the Salubong, but the more popular among these dances are those performed during processions with the image of the patron saint. Some of these dances, done in front of images inside or outside the church, are done for various reasons ranging from fertility to good harvest, visa approval to winning the lottery. As these cultic expressions originate from the people themselves, they own and care for them. They embody their own understanding and articulation of their faith. The Sacred Constitution on the Liturgy recognizes this when it states that spiritual life is not limited solely to participation in the liturgy. 1 The faithful will always fnd ways to satisfy their longing for worship. We have seen the considerable leap done by the reformed liturgy of Vatican II but it seems that liturgy is still somewhat distant from the Filipino faithful. A priest in charge of various charismatic renewal programs once sent me an SMS: Why cant we make the liturgy more appealing to our people? I can understand where he is coming from. For a people who prefer to use their hearts more than their minds when they pray to God, the veneration given to saints will certainly gain greater ground in popular religiosity. It is precisely because of this that the practice of veneration of saints in popular religiosity deserves our close attention.
I. TEST CASE: SAMPLE SANCTORAL DEVOTIONS As aforementioned, there are innumerable and diverse expressions of how people venerate saints. It is not possible to address 1 Sacrosanctum Concilium no. 12. 31 | PAMISULU here all these rich and widespread devotions. Therefore, allow me to interest you with some test cases. I selected a few well-loved and very vibrant devotions 2 still done in my province that I am most familiar with and probably would have certain counterparts in your own areas.
A. LUBENAS short desCription This practice still survives in big towns in Pampanga like Mabalacat, Magalang, Angeles, San Fernando, Mexico, Concepcion and Capas (both in Tarlac). Strangely, the practice runs from the center to the Northern part of the province all the way even beyond its boundaries. LUBENAS is actually a corruption of the word NOVENA, meaning nine. It is done for nine evenings before Christmas (December 16-24), the same period for SIMBANG GABI (dawn masses). The LUBENAS is a kind of a street procession (LIMBUN) where two rows of lanterns mounted on bamboo poles accompany the shoulder-borne carriage (ANDAS) or the wheel carriage (CAROZZA) bearing the patron saints image. The lanterns, 5-7 of them on each row depending on how many the barrio can afford, are carried by boys or men, and sometimes women. At the beginning of the procession is a lantern in the shape of a cross. Right behind it is another lantern in the shape of a fsh, with movable fns, mouth and tail. Behind the image is another solitary lantern that is larger than the rest. Lanterns are made of paper and bamboo frames and are illuminated from within usually by candle or electric light.
While processing, people sing the Dios Te Salve, often accompanied by a brass band or, if the barrio cannot afford it, a lone guitarist. In some towns, there are intervals where the rosary is prayed, or where people watch the reenactment of the life of whoever saint was being honored in the procession. For nine days, each barrio holds a lantern procession simultaneously with other barrios. On Christmas Eve, just before the Midnight Mass, these lantern processions converge at the Church 2 Much of the details found here are taken from the special issue of SINGSING, a publication of the Juan D. Nepomuceno Center for Kapampangan Studies at the Holy Angel University, Angeles City. The article is entitled 8 Unique Kapampangan Folk Festivals, written by Robby Tantingco. I considered only fve of which as they are most pertinent to the topic. 32 | PAMISULU patio creating a grand spectacle of lights of various shapes and colors. This event came to be called MAITINIS, from the Latin word Matins. religious signiFiCanCe This popular practice speaks of the penchant for our people to do more for God. It is noteworthy to mention that they seek the aid of their patron saints! It seems that the waking up at early dawn for the SIMBANG GABI is no tough sacrifce for them. This must still be augmented by another opportunity to prepare their souls for Christmas by staying up late at night and walking great distances also for nine consecutive days! Their beloved saints make sure that they are spiritually prepared when the Savior comes! deViation It has been observed though that some organizers have distorted the practice from a beautiful tradition into an inter-barrio competition, with whooping cash prizes in contention. In the provinces capital, for instance (the city of San Fernando), the practice literally grew into a giant lantern festival, with lanterns as big as houses with ingeniously crafted Technicolor of lights that uses as much as a thousand bulbs per lantern! On the tips or at times at the very center of every lantern are inscribed the names, or at times images, of their patron saints. While still bearing its religious marks of veneration of saints, it is now slowly but surely evolving into a mere secular spectacle. B. CURALDAL short desCription This practice is famous in the towns of Sasmuan, Lubao, Macabebe and Betis, mostly from the Western side of the province. CURALDAL is held with great fervor in the week starting January 6, the feast of the Epiphany. This is strange because this devotion is dedicated to St. Lucy whose feast day is celebrated on December 13. People say that St. Lucy is remembered and celebrated also every feast of the Epiphany, as the star of Bethlehem which guided the Wise Men, evokes the light (Lucy) which the popular saint manifests to the faithful.
33 | PAMISULU The CURALDAL starts in the morning of January 6, after the 8 AM Mass. They begin a short-distance procession of the image of St. Lucy from the parish church to the Sta. Lucia barrio chapel. It is more of a street dancing than a solemn procession. The next day, January 7, a group of women devotees, wearing buri hats and dresses with pink and white foral designs, dance door-to-door for donations. The climax is on the evening of January 10, when the Eucharist is celebrated by the archbishop on a makeshift stage in a square behind the Sta. Lucia barrio chapel. After Mass, two brass bands, one in front of the makeshift stage and another in front of the chapel, signal the start of the CURALDAL. The crowd is sometimes so thick that devotees only manage to sway or jump instead of dance. Dancers cry VIVA SANTA LUCIA! PUERA SAKIT (Away with ailments!). Petitions range from pregnancy to winning the lot or passing the board exams. CURALDAL may be likened to the Sayaw sa Obando, but it is wilder. Some dancers have been observed to dance non-stop for several hours, bathed in sweat, with faces paled and eyes rolling up as if in a trance. The dancing lasts until after midnight. Meanwhile, devotees scramble their way up the makeshift stage to pick fowers and leaves (believed to contain healing power) from the bouquets and rub their handkerchiefs on the image of St. Lucy. In Betis, a group of 24 dancers and 2 instructors dance the CURALDAL rather strangely, with sword fghts for nine consecutive days until July 25 (feast of St. James). These dancers are expected to pass on the duty of performing the CURALDAL to their children, in the same way that they inherited it from their respective fathers. The devotion proliferates. religious signiFiCanCe In 1698, Spanish chronicler Gaspar de San Agustin wrote that an image of St. Lucy had been venerated in Sasmuan since long ago. CURALDAL may have been a very ancient para-liturgical rite begun by the Augustinians to promote the devotion to St. Lucy. Over the years, it may have been moved from inside the church to the church patio and later, farther into the streets. The timing of CURALDAL raises the possibility that it may have been part of the natives harvest rituals in pre-Hispanic times. 34 | PAMISULU deViation Many young people and teenagers, who are clueless about the cultural and religious signifcance of the event, are gradually taking over. They convert the chapel into a disco, dancing wildly and irreverently on pews and on the altar table itself! The crowd can be uncontrollable during the course of the CURALDAL. It seems that, in some places, the tradition has not been properly handed on to the coming generations. C. BATALLA short desCription Irreverent procession is the immediate description of some people about this practice. It is still done in Macabebe, Masantol and San Simon, the Southern part of the province. A more popular one is celebrated on May 22 (feast of St. Rita) although it is a moveable feast depending on how soon the annual foods come. BATALLA which means battle, is quite obviously a ritual based on the Moro-Moro, said to be popular during the colonial days. It depicted the battle between the Crusaders and the pagans, or perhaps between Christian conquistadores and the Muslims who were said to be the inhabitants of Pampanga at the time of the Spanish conquest in 1571. Researchers suggest that like the CURALDAL, BATALLA may have been a pre-Hispanic tribal dance that was merely Christianized when the Augustinian missionaries came. BATALLA, unlike the CURALDAL, is a religious drama and dance at the same time. After the 4 p.m. Mass celebrated by a visiting Catholic priest in the predominantly Methodist village, the procession begins at the chapel and heads to a footbridge. Then it makes a U-turn just before reaching the bridge, and that is the signal for the start of BATALLA. The brass band starts playing and devotees begin to dance to their tune. The dance is mostly hopping, which intensifes as the band plays faster, with intervals of swaying when the music slows down. All devotees, from the ciriales-bearing acolytes to barefooted children and old wives and fshermen jump and dance as they negotiate their way through narrow streets and around fshponds and riverbanks. This revelry will go on until after sunset. Those who carry the ANDAS, bearing the tiny image of their patron saint, rock it from side to side, at times really violently, as they chant Oy! Oy! Oy! Oy! Oy! Right behind the ANDAS, devotees form two lines by holding the shoulders of the person in front of them. There is a 35 | PAMISULU certain unwritten rule about the arrangement of the devotees: the adults are right behind the saint. The dancing on this level is said to be wildest. The teenagers stand in the middle, and small children (some barely above the ground and yet allowed to participate!), at the tail-end. When the procession fnally returns to the chapel, the participants beginning with the ANDAS bearers, start running around and shouting like free spirits. Afterward, they position the image in front of the church door and then perform a ritualized tug-o-war. At this point, the BATALLA reaches its climax judging by the intensity and the wildness of the dancing and shouting. This then concludes with the saint being allowed inside the chapel. The band plays a few more tunes before the excitement settles down. religious signiFiCanCe This devotion is full of historical and religious imageries. The entry of the saints image through the chapel door symbolizes the successful Christianization of Kapampangans. The subsiding of emotions is highly evocative of the conciliation of the land. There is an interesting detail that needs to be emphasized here according to researchers: that the saint succeeds in entering the door only because the people have allowed it. Historians say that the natives were never defeated in battle but that in a familiar gesture of native hospitality, they welcomed the newcomers and even embraced their faith. Another interesting fact is that although residents in these remote areas have mostly converted to the Methodist Church, many of them continue to join the BATALLA. This goes to show that the people never really let go of their most cherished devotions and popular religiosity no matter what! deViation Revelry and dancing could not let go of wine and drinking. The practice is threatened by intoxicated participants who become violent and vulgar especially when the image of St. Rita enters through the chapel door and the band starts playing popular tunes like the Lambada, Nobody, Nobody But You and local favorites like Bikining Itim! It now easily deteriorates into a mere tourist attraction or worse, an occasion for political opportunism. 36 | PAMISULU D. LIBAD short desCription This practice is very vibrant in Apalit, Sasmuan, Minalin and Macabebe, Southern coastal towns of Pampanga. All located beside the great Pampanga River. LIBAD is a fuvial procession where devotees who are swimmers manually pull the PAGODA (barge decorated and made to look like a big house) across the river and devotees being rewarded with a spectacular shower of food from the riverbanks, perhaps much more impressive than the manna from heaven of ancient Israel. It is always held in honor of their patron saints. In Apalit, we fnd the biggest and most elaborate celebration of the LIBAD. It is in honor of St. Peter, whom locals intimately refer to as Apung Iru. It is annually done at the three-day long celebration of the solemnity of St. Peter and Paul. The frst LIBAD begins on June 28 and the last one occurs on June 30. These two big river processions are held to accompany the passage of the venerated image of Apung Iru, said to be more than 300 years old, brought to the Philippines from Spain in 1844 and entrusted to the governor, a certain Macario Arnedo, back then. The frst LIBAD is held the day before, when the image travels from a private chapel of the Arnedo family to the Apalit church. The ivory-faced image of Apung Iru leaves its chapel in Barrio Capalangan, and is borne in procession by the Knights of St. Peter, who wear orange shirts. After the procession on land, the image is brought to the banks of a stream leading to the Pampanga River in Barrio Sulipan and put on a PITUYA (two or three boats tied together), which takes it to the PAGODA. Meanwhile, hundreds of boats, many of which adorned with images associated with St. Peter (cock, fsh, etc.) and bearing brass bands and wildly cheering revelers accompany the barge as it passes through a seven-kilometer stretch of the Pampanga River. The second LIBAD which is more boisterous occurs the day after the festa, when the image returns home. On June 30, the image of Apung Iru is taken from the Apalit Church after a Mass at 8 AM, to the same port in San Juan where another Mass is held. This signals the start of the second LIBAD as the saint turned to Barrio Capalangan. It is in this last LIBAD where thousands of devotees on both sides of the Pampanga River keep pace with the PAGODA. There are groups who wave leaves and fowers as they dance to the music from another brass band on land. 37 | PAMISULU People climb up the roof of their houses so they can throw apples, canned goods, boiled eggs, etc. on the people on the PAGODA or on the boats accompanying the PAGODA. The Knights of St. Peter, swimming in the rivers murky water, pull the barge with a thick abaca rope to make sure it doesnt tilt and also to guide it towards the river banks where clusters of devotees wave and splash in the water. Two sets of Knights perform a push-and-pull ritual with the PAGODA so that the image stays longer in the vicinity. Then in Barrio Sulipan, the image is taken from the barge and borne on the shoulders of another set of the Knights of St. Peter for a procession to bring it back to its chapel in Barrio Capalangan where it will stay until the next festa. Thousands of devotees, many of them dancing and rejoicing follow Apung Iru in his last leg of the procession. Continuously, the faithful shout out loud: VIVA APUNG IRU! religious signiFiCanCe One easily dismisses such action of throwing food away as charity to ease the hunger of devotees who have skipped meals just to follow the image. Some old folks, however, maintain that the throwing of food was meant for the saint. Local superstition mentions that St. Peter comes disguised as a hungry old fsherman during his feast day. Also, the wasted food is really offered to their great river whose cyclic foods replenishes their farmlands and literally brings fsh all the way to their doorsteps! deViation While this practice truly encourages sacrifce, generosity and solidarity among the devotees, the gracious gesture is lacking in social and environmental awareness. The shower of food, while truly spectacular, would actually beneft more poor and hungry people if gathered and shared. Also, the practice has little or no environmental sensitivity at all as the food that doesnt land on the boats stays on the water for several days. This results in polluting the great river, endangering the fsh and the poor communities that would be the unhappy benefciaries of this great bulk of trash through the same life-giving river. 38 | PAMISULU e. SABAT SANTACRUZAN short desCription It still thrives in Angeles City (Sapangbato), San Fernando City and some villages in Concepcion (Tarlac). It is celebrated annually towards the end of May. Of all the celebrations occurring in May, the most spectacular in terms of costumes and community participation, is probably the SABAT SANTACRUZAN. Also known as GOYDO-GOYDO (after Goy do Borgonia, successor of Constantine), SABAT is a version of the SANTACRUZAN in which costumed performers interrupt or stop (SABAT) the procession to challenge the sagalas and their consortes to a duel, either through verbal joust or in a swordfght. It is a reenactment of the ambuscades that the Moros launched on the Crusaders as they returned to Europe after fnding the Holy Cross. The SANTACRUZAN itself, before it degenerated into a pageant of beauty queens used to be a novena procession commemorating the fnding (not the search, because Reina Elena is already holding it!) of the Cross by Empress Helena and her son, EmperorConstantine, in Jerusalem. The basic storyline of the Sapangbato version, which is handwritten on a thick book that resembles a PASION, begins with Reina Elena embarking on a search for the Cross and ordering Goy do Borgonia, next in line to her son Emperador Constantino, to repel an attack led by Moro queen Florifs, sister of Prinsipe Arabiano and Prinsipe Turquiano. Goy do Borgonia, however, falls in love with Florifs and is unable to carry out Reina Elenas order, thus prompting the queen to turn to Emperador Carlo Magno of the Franciang Corte for help. Carlo Magno sends eight of his 12 brave princes (Doce Pares), namely, Prinsipe Roldan (the captain), Oliveros, Reinaldos, Conderlos, Goyperos, Montesino, Galalon and Ricarte. The Crusade encounters many battles en route to joining Reina Elenas party. In one battle, Roldan slays the Moro prince Clynos and wears his cape. Meanwhile, the Reina Elena and party fnally discover the Cross relics on Monte Lebano (Mount Lebanon), and start their victorious journey back to Europe, singing VIVA VICTORIA! They encounter Roldan who is still on his way to the Holy Land and whom they do not recognize because of his borrowed Moro cape and also because they think hes been dead. Reina Elena asks each of Roldans princes who also do not recognize himexcept Olivares, who confrms Roldans identity. The problem thus settled, the procession resumes until they are ambushed by Prinsipe Arabiano. Goy do Borgonia captures the Arab prince but just then Moro queen Florifs comes to rescue Prinsipe
39 | PAMISULU Arabiano, her brother. Being in love with Florifs, Goy do Borgonio requests permission fom Reina Elena to free Prinsipe Arabiano. Afterwards it is Florifs other brother, Prinsipe Turquiano, who attacks the procession and is about to succeed in stealing the Cross when Reina Elena makes an impassioned speech about the meaning of the relics to Christendom. Moved, Prinsipe Turquiano and the Moros are converted. religious signiFiCanCe SANTACRUZAN originated in Europe, was exported to Mexico, and then passed on to the Philippines in the earliest days of colonization. Fr. Francisco Coronel, OSA translated in 1689 a papal bull on the practice, Ing Bulla quing Sancta Cruzada pepanabanga ming Sto. Padre ing Laguiu na Inocencio Decimo. The original SANTACRUZAN was like Moro-Moro staged in street theaters (estrada) supposed to cultivate the faith of the people. It lasted many hours as the procession made numerous stopovers to give way to the poetic jousts. Thus it is the SABAT, not the sagalas-studded SANTACRUZAN that more accurately resembles the SANTACRUZANs of yesteryears. deViation In another source, it is claimed that there are certain sectors of the society utilized to play particular roles in the SABAT, a practice which promotes discrimination. The role of Moros are said to have been given to the natives from the hills of Porac (Baluga or Aeta). This has caused the unwelcoming and at times hostile treatment of this people by the lowlanders. Instead of being a religious devotion, it became an occasion to promote division and discrimination in society. II. OBSERVATIONS: DANGERS AND RISKS As we have seen, the aforesaid practices are all very dear to the locals. These prayer-types were derived from them, and therefore, are loved and cherished. For many, especially the poor, they are a source of strength and hope in diffcult times of life. The veneration they have of their patron saints seems to perfectly express their personal and communal faith in God. Because of these positive traits, the local Church has been very careful to pass judgment on them. However, they also have their downbeat behavior. The Church will be remiss if she does not speak against some deviations committed in the pursuit of such practices. Let us name a few: 40 | PAMISULU A. they Can MISLEAD people. Some of these devotions continue to mislead the faithful. Instead of leading them to the liturgy, the faithful seem to be driven away from it. There is an impression created in the pursuit of these practices, namely, the precedence of devotions over the sacraments. A lot of devotees, in fact, regard the procession as the pinnacle of the celebration of the feast. The impression in the minds of the faithful and especially outsiders is that Catholicism is merely a religion of saints. And often really, we cannot blame them. Not that this is entirely wrong! Who would not want to be part of a religion of saints? But sanctoral devotions must always lead the faithful to their very source or ultimate end. Cases in point: the fve practices presented. The number of people who participate in these practices is dramatically greater than those who come for the Mass or other sacraments, for that matter. As a consequence, liturgical celebrations are relegated to second place, if not totally abandoned at all by many out of disaffection if not distaste for it. This misguided sense of priority leads our faithful to so many directions when they can be guided directly to the very center of our faith who is Christ. The offcial liturgy must always be given priority over pious devotions since the liturgy is the ordinary and preeminent means by which we commemorate Gods plan of salvation fulflled in the sacred mysteries of Christ. B. they Can Be done For the Wrong motiVes More often, forms of devotion to saints are done for the wrong reasons. A lot of people may do them because they feel good about them. This certainly is a very superfcial reason for becoming a devotee. Having joined the CURALDAL or BATALLA certainly gives one a certain feeling of accomplishment that, of course, spells satisfaction. When I asked a middle-aged lady why she joins the CURALDAL, she ponderingly replied, Its good exercise!
We venerate saints because we acknowledge an engaging sign or a testimony of faith in them. We are continually charmed by their examples that bring us courage and perseverance as we endeavor to live our Christian lives. It is not simply about feeling good or being satisfed but rather that we receive from them help and a wealth of motivation in our concrete efforts to follow Christ in our own little ways. 41 | PAMISULU C. they Can enshrine a QuestionaBle theology. They can transmit a wrong understanding of God and of our relationship with him. They can give a false sense of security due to the promise affxed to doing them. The CURALDAL and the LIBAD are most especially involved in this kind of risky business. A lot of solid, call them hard-core, devotees believe that once they accomplish them, God must grant their prayers. What a very crude understanding and regard for God. This slapdash, proliferating theology must immediately be challenged. It can only be pathetic if even pastors of soul ride on these high waves to establish misplaced control or appalling authority over their fock! d. they Can shelter superstitions. Unbelievable, how superstitious beliefs have permeated through and instituted fear in these innocent, unassuming devotees! Perfect examples to illustrate this point: the devotees practice of wearing of medals, scapulars and even colored shirts; or the extremely mystifed regard of the images as life-giving grace, healing source and miraculous powers. How thin is the line that separates devotion from sacrilege, or even idolatry in these practices. Again, time must not be wasted in giving bold and persistent instruction to the devotees. e. they Can easily Be relegated to seCular aCtiVities In many places, the LUBENAS has degenerated from a grand expression of faith to a mere spectacle or secular parade. It has been observed how some organizers of the LUBENAS have misshapen the tradition into an inter-barrio competition. In the city of San Fernando, the practice literally grew into a heavily contested festival, with whooping cash prizes. While still bearing their religious marks, many of these practices of venerating saints are desolately diffusing into simple secular activities. Many times, the organizers and participants of these events are not even Church-going people! F. they Can promote tWisted soCial Values Instead of being religious devotions, they can sometimes obliterate cherished social values. In the earlier years, The SABAT SANTACRUZAN, instead of promoting devotion, became an
42 | PAMISULU occasion to promote division, hostility and racial discrimination in society. Taking in the local natives (ding Baluga or Aeta), owing to their skin color and curly hair, to play the role of Moros may have instilled in the minds of Kapampangans the indifference and recurring hostility toward these people until the present time. g. they Can Be used For FinanCial gain. There are complains about these practices being used to elicit money, donation and favors from people. The LUBENAS hardly pushes through without sponsors for nine days! Donation boxes, collection envelops, and pledges are only a few devices being used to this rather unfortunate end. III. PROPER PERSPECTIVE: RECIPROCAL ILLUMINATION Given these realities, how should we look at the practice of the veneration of saints in popular religiosity? Are they to be discontinued? Should they be adapted or maybe modifed to avoid further distortions? The Directory mentions about the reciprocal infuence of liturgy and popular piety. 3 It gives hint to two encouraging attitudes we can have about the popular practice of veneration of saints. One is that they must learn from Liturgy. The Sacred Constitution on the Liturgy (13) recommends that popular devotions should in some way be derived from the liturgy, harmonize with the liturgical seasons, and lead the people to the liturgy. In other words, liturgy must enlighten and guide expressions of popular piety. However, popular devotions can, in a diverse manner, also infuence the liturgy. Popular veneration of saints with its powerful and expressive affuence must be permitted to share its inventive vitality with the liturgy. Not that liturgy is deprived of which, but such dynamism can help the liturgy to better incarnate itself in our culture. In short, while it remains our mission to continuously rectify and align these devotional practices to the rich doctrinal content of liturgy, the former can also enliven the latter by its wealth of popular expressions. There must be a mutual and enriching exchange: a reciprocal illumination, each shedding light on the other for a more illuminated or enlightened act of worship to God. 3 Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy no. 226. 43 | PAMISULU A. LEARNING FROM LITURGY What can liturgy teach these popular expressions of venerating saints? 1. glory oF god The glorifcation of God in his saints is the objective of celebrating the saints. It is primarily a celebration of a loving God who attracts human beings and calls them to a particular mission. When we venerate saints it is actually an act of praising the grace of God which has triumphed in the saints life. As a preface proclaims, You are glorifed in your saints, for their glory is the crowning of your gifts. 4
The praise of God must be seen and emphasized in the popular expressions of people. While this seems to be presupposed, there is a need to accentuate the place of God in the lives of the saints. The LUBENAS has this reality expressed beautifully in its structure, especially at its conclusion. The BATALLA, LIBAD and CURALDAL are found to be wanting of this. The journey from place to place, from chapel to church should be presented as the journey of the community living in this world towards the community of God in heaven. Such processions should be conducted under greater ecclesiastical supervision for better guidance. The Directory has some worthwhile suggestions to carry out this important consideration: 5
a. They can begin with a moment of prayer during wh i c h the Word of God should be proclaimed. b. Hymns and canticles can be sung and instrumental music can also be used. c. Lighted candles or lamps can be carried by the faithful during the procession. d. Pauses should be arranged along the way so as to provide for alternative paces, bearing in mind that such also refects the journey of life. e. The procession should conclude with a doxology to God, source of all sanctity, and with a blessing given by a bishop, priest or deacon. 4 Preface I for the Common of Holy Men and Women. 5 Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy no. 247. 44 | PAMISULU 2. Christ in the saints The Sacred Constitution affrms that the feasts of the saints may not take precedence over commemorations of the mysteries of salvation. 6
The Second Vatican Council made a conscious effort of reducing the number of commemorations of saints in the present Roman Calendar because the multiplication of these in the past led to the impression that they are detached from the fundamental mysteries of redemption.
This has useful pastoral implications. The feasts accorded to the saints are ultimately feasts of Christ, who carried out the fulfllment of Gods plan to humanity. Devotional practices must redirect their veneration of saints ultimately to the reality of Christ in the lives of the saints. No where among the cases presented seemed to have made this a very important principle. Clearly, the popular expressions leave behind the very essence of these celebrations who is Christ and seem to promote what may appear as a religion of saints. The objective, therefore, of these popular devotions goes beyond answered prayers or more intimate relationship with the saint but rather a greater commitment to live the Christian life following the example of Christ. 3. proFound signiFiCanCe The Directory mentions that it is necessary to represent the fgure of the saint in a correct manner. 7 The faithful are usually awed and overcome by the legendary events associated with the saint, or of his miraculous or magical powers. They should also include a valuation of his import for Christian life, namely, his sanctity, witnessing, and how this character contributed to the growth of the Church. Noticeably, popular expressions feed on these so called extraordinary accounts of their patron saints. These events could be opportunities to lead the faithful towards the more profound signifcance of saints in their lives. The veneration of saints must lead devotees on the way to holiness of life and renewed participation in the community of the church.
6 Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy no. 247. 7 Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy no. 231. 45 | PAMISULU 4. Christian Content The feast must be imbued of its Christian content. 8 The devotions presented have shown how they have deviated originally from being religious expressions of faith into sheer social occasions or secular spectacles. The LUBENAS and the BATALLA, for instance, have unfortunately been bending toward social events of the community. Therefore, pastors must continually lead the faithful to the right disposition and sound celebration of the saints. Again, Christ and his Paschal Mystery must occupy the content of the message of saints. 5. real Communion
So far, most if not all of the devotions presented have begun or climaxed with the celebration of the Eucharist. The Augustinians seem to be successful in instilling in the hearts of the early Kapampangans the unparalleled importance of the Eucharist in every church activity. As the Directory implies, what better way to commune with the saints except the Eucharist? 9 The lives of the saints are the living exegesis of the Word proclaimed. The memory and intercession of saints in the Eucharist are what unite us with them. However, in practice, the quantity of the faithful who attend the Mass is nothing in comparison to those that participate, actively at that, to any of these devotions. While the Eucharist is still part if not the center of the celebration of saints, the faithful continue to be more strongly attracted to their popular expressions. 6. Beyond the external
The Second Council of Nicaea explained that the honor given to an image is given to the person it represents. The veneration of an image is the veneration of the person it represents. The Directory affrms this in regulating the veneration of relics: external signs of veneration must be conducted with great dignity and be motivated by faith. 10 The various forms of popular veneration of the saints, such as kissing, decorations with lights and fowers, bearing them in processions should be conducted with great dignity and be motivated by faith. Untoward expressions of devotion that border on sacrilegious practices or 8 Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy no. 233. 9 Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy no. 234. 10 Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy no. 237 46 | PAMISULU idolatrous expressions therefore must be aggressively contradicted. While the devotions presented are done for the love of their patron saints, the loose, violent and irreverent processions like the BATALLA, LIBAD or at a certain extent the CURALDAL may not easily appear as dignifed ways of venerating the saints. While the deviations may be cultural, they favorably contribute to the distortion in the ordinary faithfuls understanding of his faith. B. LEARNING FROM POPULAR RELIGIOSITY It has been observed that devotional practices of venerating the saints, more than liturgical celebrations, keep the faith of many simple people alive and vibrant. The clamor of people towards a more vibrant, more inspiring and hope-flled celebration remains an enormous pastoral challenge for the Church. The practice of venerating saints outside the liturgy is overfowing with popular expressions that can give greater dynamism to the liturgy. These expressions can infuence the plan and symbols of the liturgical rite. But what characteristics can be integrated? We are able to identify certain elements with the help of the foregoing test cases that may be of infuence to the liturgy: 1. CeleBration Perhaps the idea of the festa celebration best characterizes these practices of popular veneration of saints. They are defnitely joyful, alive and expressive. But sometimes this accommodating spontaneity and intense creativity put these devotions in bad light, constantly distancing from the doctrine of the Church. They are also traditional and symbolic in orientation. People hold on to them and would risk even theirconnection to the church in their honest effort to defend their customary forms. They are defnitely very human and communitarian being connected with human problems and sentiments that is why they are generally suited for the simple townsfolk. The liturgy at times fails to deliver in keeping the faith of many simple people alive and vibrant. Perhaps the secret to a more vibrant, more inspiring and hope-flled celebration is a certain amount of spontaneity and creativity. Almost every prayer is a text that is prepared 47 | PAMISULU for the ministers of the liturgy. If he is not too careful and spiritually prepared, a priest may simply end up becoming reader instead of a presider of the Eucharist! In addition, if the liturgy desires to be embraced by all, it may be good to start to be more sensitive to the simple people and consider the preoccupations, problems and sentiments of the poor more extensively than ever. 2. language The language of the devotions presented is noticeably overly-elaborate, conversational and intensely striking. I kept wondering what the devotees of the BATALLA meant in their chanting the: Oy! Oy! Oy! Oy! Oy!They certainly appeal to the sentiments and emotions of people more than addressing the intellect. The CURALDALs repetitious and almost hypnotic cry VIVA SANTA LUCIA! PUERA SAKIT (Away with ailments!) and the LIBADs VIVA APUNG IRU! certainly draw the spirit from the crowd. Notice the very humane and discursive quality in the words of devotees. How can liturgy learn from these important lessons from popular devotions? We have always understood liturgical language to be sober, direct, and linear. Prayers were made to address the intellect more than the heart. As such, they become very simple and straight to the point that the faithful seem to be left hanging wanting for more. The devotees seem to relate better with fattery and conditional phrases. It may really be benefcial for the liturgy to be open to such style of popular expressions. 3. ritual Popular religiosity easily commands active participation. It takes so little to make people submit themselves to the devotional activity. Its secret could be the tools for participation it employs. Implements like communal recitation, repetitiveness, and litanic petitions are highly effective. The devotions presented thrive in this area of adoration. There are less of these in the liturgy. At times, there is a certain feeling of not having prayed after the celebration that the faithful draw their rosaries or little pamphlets from their pockets and start talking to God again. It is remarkable how these devotions attend to this necessity quite remarkably. 48 | PAMISULU 4. representations Veneration of saints is unthinkable without sacred images. It is always done in front of the image of the saint being invoked. All the devotions presented (LUBENAS, CURALDAL, BATALLA, LIBAD and the SABAT SANTACRUZAN) are done with the images of their patron saints, and not just one but at times several. Do we even need to mention the holy week processions in the town of Baliuag, Bulacan, with perhaps more than a hundred carriages of life-size images with sometimes as many as thirteen images in one carriage! The liturgy could learn from this trait of popular devotions. It seems to have little sympathy for sacred images. Should the number of images be limited? Is the prominence of sacred images destructive to the faith? And why should there be only one image of any one saint in the same church? It is perhaps good to recall that GIRM 278s decree that there is to be only one image of any one saint is conditioned by the phrase: in such a way that they do not distract the peoples attention from the celebration. 11 Something tells me that for sacred images, Filipino devotees live by the truism the many the better. In addition, several images may serve for a good source of catechesis and devotion to the faithful. For instance, the Blessed Virgin under different titles when displayed in the church on a Marian celebration or carried together in a procession could be an opportune time for the faithful especially the young to be properly instructed on the meaning and grace that each image brings to the people. 5. drama Popular religious dramas, like the SABAT SANTACRUZAN, imitate the events they commemorate. In this devotion in point this element of imitation is particularly heightened. As we have seen, there is a total reenactment of the strong emotions at play in the commemorative event.
Can the liturgy also be infused with more religious drama in its celebrations? Why not? There are moments when some parts of the liturgy are celebrated narratively; for instance, the readings in the
11 The General Instruction on the Roman Missal, no. 278 has these exact words: In keeping with the churchs very ancient tradition, it is lawful to set up in places of worship images of Christ, Mary, and the saints for veneration by the faithful. But there is need both to limit their number and to situate them in such a way that they do not distract the peoples attention from the celebration. There is to be only one image of any one saint. 49 | PAMISULU Liturgy of the Word, euchological texts and even the way liturgical music is carried out. Often the dynamism is lost in the celebration, particularly when done with children and young people. The challenge perhaps is how to make these portions of the liturgy dramatic without necessarily becoming a drama in itself. The catechetical aspect becomes more powerful with the use of this device. 6. danCe The various movements, like the hopping and swaying, are not devoid of any further meaning. For the devotees, dancing the steps of the CURALDAL or BATALLA actually means petition and contrition, while being expressions of joy and thanksgiving. Processions are done as public proclamation of faith, and the images carried in procession are a reminder for the faithful of another our heavenly home toward which we journey in faith. Can these be embellished with more meaningful movements that do not necessarily turn the Mass into a cultural presentation? In the Eucharist, procession happens at the entrance, offertory, and communion. To a certain extent, would it be possible for these processions be patterned after, or at least be evocative of the CURALDAL, LUBENAS or LIBAD? CONCLUSION
What should our attitude be on sanctoral devotions vis-a-vis the liturgy? It can only be that of GRACIOUSNESS. While we admit that a lot of these ubiquitous practices must be aligned properly with the liturgy, the liturgy must also learn from them. These devotional practices have kept the faith of many poor and simple people alive and vibrant all these years. The greater pastoral challenge for us all today is how to make more vibrant, inspiring and hope-flled celebrations for the Church. These devotional practices certainly serve as the key to unlock this enduring conundrum. Perhaps it is not too much to assume that the practice of venerating saints in popular religiosity is GODS PROVIDENTIAL GRACE to help us incarnate better the liturgy in our very culture. In the process of it all, we are better aided to respond rather more fully to the Second Vatican Councils noble and universal call to holiness. 12 12 Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, 21 Nov 1964 n. 39, in The Documents of Vatican II. The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, ed. A. Flannery, New York 21984, 397. 50 | PAMISULU THE PASCHAL MYSTERY IN HANS URS VON BALTHASARS TRINITARIAN THEOLOGY Fr. Jesus Layug, Jr., SThL I. INTRODUCTION The twentieth century theology is characterized by a dramatic revival of Trinitarian thought in Christian Theology. Hans Urs von Balthasar stands as a major fgure in employing new theological approach in seeking to crystallize the Doctrine of Trinity in the light of Christs death and resurrection. From the perspective of this approach and in direct consideration of the Paschal Mystery that this paper aims to understand von Balthasars Trinitarian theology. II. TRINITARIAN PROCESSIONS The Primacy of love is what lies at the heart of von Balthasars theology. 1 He seeks to understand the inner life of the divine Trinity strictly in terms of love. It is in this context of being as love that von Balthasar desires to understand the Trinitarian procession. Gods logic is the logic of love incarnate in Christ human life and death on the cross. On the basis of Christology, Jesus identity is rooted in an eternal community. The Father, being the source of love, wants to give everything away. He risks his being in a self-donation to the Son. The Son in turn is a radical response to the Fathers love. The Son is not only a perfect image of the Father but also the perfect surrender of love. Their mutual love in turn overfows in the love of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can thus be defned as the fruitfulness of the divine love. This fruitfulness is as infnite as divine life itself. 2
But before one fnds analogies of divine logic on human existence, it will be helpful to turn to von Balthasars methodology from above and look at divine Trinity where the logic of love has its origin. 3
While appreciating many permanently valid traditional insights, it is important to know that von Balthasar is not constrained 1 Peter Henrichi, The Philosophy of Hans Urs von Balthasar in David L. Schindler, ed., Hans Urs von Balthasar: His Life and Work (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1991) 153. 2 John ODonnell, Hans Urs von Balthasar: The Form of His Theology, Communio 16 (1989) 466. 3 ODonnel, Truth as Love 200. Vol. 1 Number 1 2011 Issue 51 | PAMISULU by the traditional approach because his work pervades sophisticated critique of Augustinian Thomistic Trinitarian theology. 4 Faith for him in the frst place is not an intellectual act but an act of perception. It is an existential surrender of the whole person. He does not consider Gods being and Trinitarian processions in terms of metaphysically-conceived absolute being. A distinct shift in emphasis from being to love is evident in his Trinitarian ontology. 5
For von Balthasar, it is preferable to understand divine procession as a procession of love which grounds the possibility of the incarnation and paschal mystery in the economy. This he explained when he writes that God can so give away his divinity that God as Son does not merely receives it as something borrowed but possesses it as being essentially equal, expresses such an unimaginable separation of God from himself, that every other separation, even if it is the darkest and most bitter can only occur within it. 6
Trinity is a divine drama of mutual offer and response. It consists of the eternal self-emptying of the three persons which makes possible the self-emptying of the divine persons in the history of salvation. This means that every possible drama between God and the world is already contained in and allowed for in the inner Trinitarian event. The whole salvation event is understood within the eternal divine intersubjectivity which already contains within it all the modalities of love, of compassion, and even of separation, including the risk inherent in creation. 7
Von Balthasar perceives that the immanent Trinitarian personal distinction are suffciently real and infnite to embrace the kind of opposition between Father and Son that is involved in their common salvifc plan without fear of losing unity. Thus even the Sons experience of opposition in the God-forsakenness of death and descent remains a function of his loving relationship to the Father in the Holy Spirit. 8 This means that the Sons self-giving to the Father in his death on a cross is already contained within this eternal procession. The Trinitarian processions are thus understood to involve an interpersonal dynamic interaction within the godhead and the different modalities of which are then expressed in the economy particularly in the paschal mystery. 9 4 Ibid. 5 Anne Hunt, The Trinity and the Paschal Mystery: A Development in Recent Catholic Theology (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press 1997) 82. 6 H.U. von Balthasar, Theodramatik III. Die Handlung (Einsiedeln: Johannes Verlag, 1980) 302. 7 H.U. von Balthasar, Mysterium Paschale: The Mystery of Easter, translated by Aidan Nichols (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1990) 28. 8 Mysterium Paschale viii-ix 9 Hunt, 61. 52 | PAMISULU III. the trinity and the pasChal mystery Von Balthasars theological vision is deeply informed by the drama of Jesus paschal mystery and in many of his works, particularly in Mysterium Paschale, we fnd the theology of the paschal mystery and its interconnection with the Mystery of Trinity. a. death on the Cross The death of Jesus on the cross according to von Balthasar is marked by the paradox of action and passion. 10 On the cross God hands over his Son to bear our sin. The Son, sent by the Father into the God-forsakenness of the cross, out of love freely takes on himself the sin of the world. Babbini would call this as vicarious substitution for sinners without cooperation in sin. 11 But this act of handing over has its origins in the Trinitarian decision of the Father to send the Son to save the human race from sin. 12 St. Paul expresses this conviction most radically when he says God did not spare his only-begotten Son but handed him over for our sakes (Rom 8:32). Von Balthasar sees the cross as the supreme moment of God- lessness. For him the cross, and in the whole paschal mystery, is an event of triune surrender and of mutual self-giving and self-yielding love. The experience of abandonment on the cross by the Father is in Balthasars theology a modality of the inner-trinitarian event. 13 Here the Father does not intervene to save the Son from suffering and death. The Son dies and is buried and descends to hell and cut off from God. But this separation to the point of Fathers abandonment is the highest worldly revelation of that event of difference between the Father and the Son in the Spirit. In this sense, the abandonment on the cross is understood as the economic form that reveals what God is in Gods eternal triune self. 14
10 H.U. von Balthasar, Death is Swallowed up by Life, Communio 14 (1987) 50. 11 Ellero Babbini, Jesus Christ, Form and Norm of Man according to Hans Urs von Balthasar, Communio 16 (1989) 451. 12 J. ODonell, Hans Urs von Balthasar: Outstanding Christian Thinkers (London: Geoffrey Chapman; Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1992) 82. 13 Hunt, The Trinity and Paschal Mystery 63. The term event here expresses a liveliness in the triune God not as imperfection but as the perfection of the divine love that is unchanging and eternal. 14 See von Balthasars Death is Swallowed Up by Life 49-54. 53 | PAMISULU B. the desCent into hell The descent into hell on Holy Saturday symbolizes Jesus identifcation with humanity in death and in the powerlessness of the sinners. For him the descent is in no sense a glorious entry but rather a sinking down into the abyss of death. In contrast with Jesus active self-surrender on Good Friday, Holy Saturday is marked by utter and extreme passivity. Between Good Friday and Easter Sunday there is the incommensurability of the hiatus which can be associated with the Israelite conception of the realm of the dead which they call Sheol. It is a land of lifeless passivity 15 where dead are cut off from the source of life. 16
Von Balthasar recognizes that the descent is more than solidarity in physical death. It represents Jesus solidarity with those who have defnitely isolated themselves from the love of God. He is in solidarity with humanity in its sinfulness without implying any cooperation by Jesus in sin itself because he himself is not bound by sin. Von Balthasar explains this logic when he says that: If the Father must be considered as the Creator of human freedom- with all its foreseeable consequences then judgment belongs primordially to him, and thereby Hell also; and when he sends the Son into the world to save it instead of judging it, and, to equip him for this function, gives all judgment to the Son (John 5,22), then he must also introduce the Son made man into Hell ( as the ultimate entailment of human liberty). But the Son cannot really be introduced as a dead man, on Holy Saturday. 17
It is because the Son comes not only for the elect but for sinners, not only for the living but for the dead. It is not to judge but to save us that he descends into hell. For this reason, indeed for our sake the Father, Creator of human freedom, introduces the incarnate Son into hell. However the descent, the solidarity with the dead, and the remitting of all judgment to him can only take place on the Holy Saturday when the Son himself is dead, obedient in corpse-like passivity. In the absolute weakness of love God comes to the sinner in hell and enters into utter loneliness and desolation and in this way Jesus disturbs the absolute loneliness striven for by the sinner. By no means is the human freedom to make a choice be denied because hell remains as the ultimate entailment of human liberty. 18
15 Mysterium Paschale 176. 16 ODonnels Hans Urs von Balthasar 85. 17 Mysterium Paschale 175. 18 See ODonnels, The Form of His Theology 465. 54 | PAMISULU The divine persons are thus revealed in the Paschal mystery precisely in their engagement with the reality of human freedom. God as redeemer, respects the genuine freedom bestowed in creation on the human person and that is capable of resisting and rejecting Gods love. Human freedom and all its possibilities are not in anyway undermined. Only in the absolute weakness of love does God descend into hell to accompany the sinners. God enters into this solidarity with those who reject all solidarity. But neither is Gods freedom thwarted by created human freedom. This means that neither the freedom to sin nor the deadly consequence of sin is denied. The human person may reject God. The human person may choose hell. But divine love is not obstructed by human folly. On the contrary, God accompanies the sinners experience of hellish isolation. Henceforth hell belongs to Christ. While it is a place of desolation, it is a Christological place. It too exists in the space that is the Trinity. 19
The trinitarian character of the descent is crucial to von Balthasars theology. The decent is only possible because God is triune. The Father sends the Son into hell. The Son, while remaining God descends into God forsakenness, assumes the condition of sinful humanity and embraces all that opposed to God and in this sense as one who is even lonely. Jesus accompanies the sinner in the sinners choice to damn himself and to reject God. Throughout it all he remains God. The Spirit accompanies him and is the bond between the father and the Son, uniting them in their separation. The abandonment of the Son by the Father is possible only because at this point of extreme separation they are united in love by the Holy Spirit. 20 Because God is triune, with both difference and unity guaranteed by the Holy Spirit, the inner-trinitarian difference between Father and Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit can accommodate all created differences including the death and descent. The descent into hell is the fnal consequence of the unanimous Trinitarian will to salvation and therefore of the Sons redemptive mission. 21
C. resurreCtion Although the events of the cross and the descent into the hell prepares for it, it is only with the resurrection that the Trinitarian 19 Mysterium Paschale 175. 20 H.U. von Balthasar, Elucidations, translated by John Riches (London: Burns & Oates, 1968) 51. 21 Mysterium Paschale 174-175. 55 | PAMISULU character of the paschal events is fully perceived. The resurrection reveals that even in the moment of extreme separation between the Father and the Son, by virtue of the same divine liberty of love in the Trinitys eternal plan of salvation, the two were united. This inseparable unity is expressed in the very body of the Risen Lord. 22 The self-surrender and obedience of the Son remain as key themes in his interpretation of the resurrection. Jesus is also obedient in the resurrection because he allows the Father to raise him from the dead to the visibility proper to the paschal mystery. When the Father shows to the world his risen and glorifed Son, he himself is also disclosed through the person of Christ. In the freedom with which the Son shows himself in the post resurrection appearances, the Fathers freedom is also manifested. Thus von Balthasar explains: When accordingly, the Father grants to the Son, now raised into eternal life, the absolute freedom too show himself to the disciples in his identity with the dead Jesus of Nazareth, bearing the marks of his wounds, he gives him no new, different or alien freedom but the freedom which is most deeply the Sons very own. It is precisely in this freedom that the Son reveals, ultimately, the freedom of the Father. 23
Furthermore, von Balthasar also explains that the resurrection is also the revelation of the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit that bridged over the separation of the Father and the Son in the cross and descent into hell. The resurrection of Jesus is accomplished in the powerful transfguring action of the Spirit of God. 24
From this presentation, we can now say that the dramatic events of the paschal mystery atleast from von Balthasars theology is revelatory of Trinitarian relationality and dramatic character of divine life. For him the paschal mystery serves as analogy for his understanding of the Trinity.
IV. ECONOMIC TRINITY AND IMMANENT TRINITY Balthasar recognizes that it is only on the basis of the economic trinity that one can have a knowledge of the immanent trinity. He personally maintains a clear distinction between the two. 25
22 Mysterium Paschale 203. 23 Mysterium Paschale 209. 24 Mysterium Paschale 102. 25 Theo-Drama III, 190-191. 56 | PAMISULU However he does not infer that the economic trinity constitutes the immanent Trinity as there is a modern tendency to identify the two too closely. For him, immanent Trinity remains as the transcendental theological reality, not swallowed up in the economic Trinity when he says: Instead, we have to think of the immanent Trinity as that eternal and absolute love. This is the only thing that will explain Gods free self- giving to the world as love, without God needing the cosmic process and the cross to become (and mediate) Godself. 26
V. CONCLUSION Balthasars Trinitarian theology is certainly inspired and grounded on the Paschal Mystery. For him faith is frst an act of perception and so his Trinitarian theology proceeds from a consideration of Jesus Christ in his Paschal Mystery to the inner-trinitarian procession. The events of the three days of Sacrum Triduum of which the midpoint is the descent into hell are of vital importance in his philosophical and theological attempt to explain the Trinity. Thus he moves from the paschal mystery to the mystery of the Trinity, from the economic to the immanent. The Paschal mystery is recognized as the supreme revelation of the divine Trinitarian life, actualizing Trinitarian relationality in the economy. 26 Theodramatik III, 300. 57 | PAMISULU BECOMING-RELIGION: A. N. WHITEHEAD AND THE PROCESS METAPHYSICS OF RELIGION Fr. Kenneth C. Masong, PhD Those societies which cannot combine reverence to their symbols withfreedom of revision, must ultimatelydecayeither from anarchy, or from the slowatrophy of a life stifed by useless shadows. 1
A. N. Whitehead, Symbolism (1927) 1. the re-/turn to religion Alfred North Whitehead (1861 - 1947) begins his treatment of religion in his seminal book, Religion in the Making, with a peculiar statement that largely defnes the contours of our perception of religion. He says, [i]t is the peculiarity of religion that humanity is always shifting its attitude towards it. 2 It was believed that the legacy of the Enlightenment, coupled with the rise of science and technology, would result in the breakdown of religion. As Bainbridge and Stark point out: The most illustrious fgures in sociology, anthropology and psychology have unanimously expressed confdence that their childrenor surely their grandchildrenwould live to see the dawn of a new era in which, to paraphrase Freud, the infantile illusions of religion would be outgrown. 3
But one can observe that in the horizon of contemporary period, religion is still a thriving domain of human existence. It is true that religions appeal to authority seems to have waned; it is true that much of its supernatural claims are either peculiarly questioned or largely ignored by most people, both believers and non-believers; it is true that if one measures the health of religion, say Christianity, by Church attendance and the reception of the sacraments, then religion is defnitely standing before the doorway of its demise. 4 Yet, it remains to be said that religion, though a silent presence at the periphery of contemporary pedestrian life, is still there 1 Alfred North Whitehead, Symbolism: Its Meaning and Effect (New York: Capricorn Books, 1955), 88. 2 Alfred North Whitehead, Religion in the Making (New York: Fordham University Press, 1926), 13. 3 William S. Bainbridge and Rodney Stark, The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), 1. 4 For an interesting recent study of the decline of organized religion in the West, see Bob Altemeyer, The Decline of Organized Religion in Western Civilization, The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion 14, no. 2 (2004): 77-89. Vol. 1 Number 1 2011 Issue 58 | PAMISULU with a presence to be reckoned with. In religions perpetual agony, avers de Vries, lies its philosophical and theoretical relevance. As it dies an ever more secure and serial death, it is increasingly certain to come back to life, in its present guise or in another. 5 If this is the case, religion has not gone; we have simply shifted our attitudes toward it. In Western philosophy, it is very striking to notice a strong re-/turn to religion. The use of this term re-/turn largely characterizes our shifting attitudes toward religion. Firstly, in some domain, there are a marked number of instances of returning to the faith, instances of people retrieving their religious roots. After centuries defned by departures, we enter into a period of return, although as Derrida cautions, it is not a simple return. 6 It is a going back to our own tradition (although now with a different set of critical bifocals) because we know that such an element of the past defnes likewise our identity, and for us to face our future, we need to look back, analyze and hopefully learn to appreciate our own rootedness in a certain tradition. For some people, this tradition involves the domain that religion appeals to (Gianni Vattimo, Anthony Kenny, Alistair McGrath, Jacques Derrida, etc). Secondly, for some it is not exactly a return as a turn to religion. The period between the 17th to the 20th century is markedly infuenced by the revolt of some atheistic humanistic thinkers that abhor the very notion of an appeal to transcendence. For some of them, religion is not only false, it is evil, and thus the generations that follow them are given birth in a freedom of life that may even be possibly devoid of the slightest presence of religious infuence. There is no return to religion because they have never been there, nor been rooted in there in the frst place. For them, it is a deliberate attempt to consider religion as it is in itself (Alain Badiou, Slavoj iek, etc.). Whether we see it as a return or a turn to religion, the important thing is that religion has once again become a matter of consideration for his generation, reentering into the public sphere. There are a number of factors that may explain this re-/turn to religion. For Gianni Vattimo, two factors defne the horizon from 5 Hent de Vries, Philosophy and the Turn to Religion (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), 3. 6 The said return of the religious, which is to say the spread of a complex and overdetermined phenomenon, is not a simple return, for its globality and its fgures () remain original and unprecedented. And it is not a simple return of the religious, for it comports, as one of its two tendencies, a radical destruction of the religious (). Jacques Derrida, Faith and Knowledge: the Two Sources of Religion at the Limits of Reason Alone, in Religion, ed. Jacques Derrida and Gianni Vattimo (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998), 42. 59 | PAMISULU where religion reemerges. 7 Firstly, the fn-de-sicle state of anxiety that humanity now experiences. Never before has the human civilization faced with a threat of global proportion, nuclear war, genetic manipulation, ecological disaster and its impending global threat like global warming, and the loss of meaning in Western culture. All these contribute to a far-reaching state of anxiety that leaves humanity with a sense of hopelessness, a feeling of uncertainty over impending events that rock the boat of complacency. In this century, we encounter a humanity unanchored and being tossed by Herculean waves of improbability. Secondly, modernitys sanction on religion has caved in, that is, we are now confronted with [t]he breakdown of the philosophical prohibition of religion. 8 The philosophical underpinnings that seek to delegitimize religion have become its own undoing. The legacy of the Enlightenment is the close scrutiny of everything under the watchful gaze of reason. Everything has to pass through the thorny passage of the rational, otherwise it is displaced as mere superstition that should hardly concern a decent Enlightened fellow. But if there is one strong impulse brought about by postmodernism, it is the undoing of a form of rationalism, a species of rationality that has no open space for a domain beyond the rational. Religion then in this respect won by default; reason could not sustain itself, could not keep up to its game, bowed low at the silent triumph of religion. However, this re-/turn to religion is far from a comeback of religion in its traditional garments. What we see is a religion and a humanity transformed by global upheavals and revolutions from the 17th to the 20th century. Perhaps today the prevalent interest on the concept of religion derives from questions that plaque not so much the domains of philosophy or theology but that of economics, jurisprudence, and socio-politics. 9 Religion is making headlines not so much because of its endeavor to invite people under its fold, but because of how global politics is being shaped by certain forms of religious fundamentalism, intolerance and dogmatism. Religion makes the headline, but only because it has been casting shadows. This religious scenario effects only the worsening of irritation of anti-religionists like Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and Michel Onfray. 10 Nonetheless, it also invites deeper refection on what
7 See Randy J.C. Odchigue, The Radical Kenoticism of Gianni Vattimo and Interreligious Dialogue, Studies in Interreligious Dialogue 16, no. 2 (2006): 174-75. 8 Gianni Vattimo, The Trace of the Trace, in Belief, ed. Gianni Vattimo and Jacques Derrida (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998), 81. 9 On this regard, see the excellent reader on religion that just came out of the press: Hent de Vries, ed., Religion: Beyond a Concept (New York: Fordham University press, 2008). 10 See, for example, their following publications: Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (Boston: Houghton Miffin Company, 2006). Daniel C. Dennett, Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (London: Penguin Books, 2006). Michel Onfray, Atheist Manifesto: The Case against Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, trans. Jeremy Leggatt (New York: Arcade Publishing, 2008). 60 | PAMISULU exactly is the role of religion, especially in the social domain of politics, economics and international law. Religion makes a comeback in philosophical discourses, not so much because philosophy itself primarily has become interested in religion but because the current religious scenario has made it incumbent upon philosophy to rethink, to re-ponder, the concept of religion. What is philosophically exigent is a rethinking of the concept of religion and how it is to be thought, conceived, and made relevant, no longer in the medieval sense of a hegemonic absolute, but as a humble yet relevant factor in what Whitehead would refer to as the creative passage towards civilization. That is, how does religion contribute exactly to the civilization of contemporary experience? One avenue to throw light into this question is to inquire into the metaphysical models that inform religious identity. 2. religion and its metaphysiCs There is a strain in the relation between religion and philosophy, especially with the latters realization that its vocation exceeds beyond the measly ancilla theologiae. Indeed, the very concept of philosophy of religion is almost conceptually incoherent. Is philosophy doing justice to religion when, as Marion notes, [t]he feld of religion could be simply defned as whatever philosophy excludes or, in the best case, subjugates? 11
Is the relation too overwrought that the most tenable alternative becomes the categorization into different exclusive language games? Despite the dominant fragmentation brought about by postmodernism, the emerging interest in the philosophy of event, from phenomenology to Badious ontology of the multiple, promises a new mode of thinking that offers fresh insights on religious importance. 12 One of the philosophers who conceptualized on the event is Alfred North Whitehead who contends 11 Jean-Luc Marion, The Saturated Phenomenon, in Phenomenology and the Theological Turn (New York: Fordham University Press, 2000), 176. Cf. also James K. A. Smith, Liberating Religion from Theology: Marion and Heidegger on the Possibility of a Phenomenology of Religion, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 46 (1999): 17-33. 12 In contemporary French thought there is a growing interest in the philosophy of lvnement mostly centered in French phenomenology as a result of an abiding refection on Husserls thoughts on temporality and Heideggers Ereignis. The signifcant thinkers on this feld would include, among others: Jean-Luc Marion, Being Given: Toward a Phenomenology of Givenness, trans. Jeffrey L. Kosky (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2002). Franoise Dastur, Pour une phnomnologie de lvnement: lattente et la surprise, tudes Phnomnologiques 25 (1997): 59-75. Claude Romano, Lvnement et le monde (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1998). Badious philosophy of the event is a sui generis, emerging from his philosophical refection on the metaphysical import of transfnite set theory. See Alain Badiou, Being and Event, trans. Oliver Feltham (London: Continuum, 2007). 61 | PAMISULU that the genuine encounter between philosophy and religion only promises conceptual purifcation and experiential enrichment. 13
Whitehead argues that religion needs a metaphysical backing. 14
This is more than a mere philosophical platitude. The history of how Christian faith has come to understand itself is a history of how belief appropriates metaphysical concepts and principles in the articulation of its central propositions. Religion will not survive with the fdeist ghetto mentality of a Tertullian. This is at the heart of Augustines and Anselms fdes quaerens intellectum. This is not simply because of a need for a critique of its fundamental concepts and beliefs, but because it needs metaphysical structures, conceptual scaffoldings in order to coherently and intelligently make sense of its own belief. The problem here lies on the sort of metaphysics that inform religious beliefs and practices, the philosophical presuppositions that motivate and infuence its own coming to terms with self-understanding. Although Christianity has been well judicious in its selection of conceptual scaffolding in order to erect its theological edifce, the fow of transformation has never been a totally one-way street. The effect is a mold of religion that occasions some accusations of it being unavoidably intolerant and fundamentally dogmatic, saying that it is at the heart of religious life to be so. Is this really the case? Is it inscribed in religions own grammatical faith logic that it likewise speaks the language of fundamentalism? Nowadays, due mostly to the infuence of the writings of Ren Girard, the intimate link between religion and violence has become a philosophical subject. 15 Nonetheless, the knotty issue of religious fundamentalism is deeper than the current concern over religion and violence that informs much of the contemporary debate on religion. Violence does have a deep historical resonance in a genealogy of religion, but violence is mostly a religious practical consequence. Fundamentalism, or more properly, dogmatism is at the root of religions recourse to violence. Religion embraces forms of violence, either to itself or to others because of an apodictic faith, a set of incorrigible 13 Whitehead says, Philosophy frees itself from the taint of ineffectiveness by its close relations with religion and with science, natural and sociological. Religion should connect the rational generality of philosophy with the emotions and purposes springing out of existence in a particular society, in a particular epoch, and conditioned by particular antecedents. Philosophy fnds religion, and modifes it; and conversely religion is among the data of experience which philosophy must weave into its own scheme. Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology, ed. David Ray Griffn and Donald Sherburne, Corrected ed. (New York: The Free Press, 1978), 16. 14 Whitehead, Religion in the Making, 83 15 Cf. Ren Girard, Violence and the Sacred, trans. Patrick Gregory (London: Continuum, 1977). 62 | PAMISULU beliefs, that legitimizes violence itself. Violence is justifable only in a complex set of religious propositions that do not accommodate the possibility of its own fragility, that fail to recognize its own provisionality. One may generally argue that, ontologically speaking, there are two metaphysics that inform the conceptual articulation of religion, a metaphysics of substance and a metaphysics of event. 16 According to Whitehead, these two metaphysics are the deliverances of an integral experience. We all experience that some things change while others do not, some things move while others do not: Being and becoming, substance and process. Most process philosophers argue that the history of Western philosophy has given undue importance to substance over process, being over becoming, especially among those philosophical systems where movement, change, and transformation are nothing but attributes, effects, derivatives. To a certain degree, the success of substance metaphysics is owed to the mode of thinking that cultivates such mentality, that is, during the early times, perfection is synonymous to that which does not change, that which does not move. It even has a geometric symbol, that of the sphere whose points are equidistant to each other and whose cyclical movement not only suggests the abandonment of beginning and end, but also gives the illusion of stability. Greek thought was conducive to substance-thinking. The fundamental import of a metaphysics of substance is that reality is explicable only in the logic of a basic unchanging substratum to which all observations are predicable as its attributes. When this metaphysics entered the domain of religion, there was an almost perfect ft, especially with the rise of religious monotheism. As the concept of movement, change, becoming suggests imperfection, the idea of Being, immutability, impassibility inversely suggests perfection. The metaphysical search for the unchanging ground of changing reality became a religious search for an ultimate ground which was found in the arms of an impassible, omniscient, omnipotent God. When substance metaphysics found its ultimate category in the concept of Being, religion found its religious ultimate in God that put on the attributes of Being itself. God became the Ultimate Being, and from then on the history of Western metaphysics and religion had followed the track of what Heidegger would later call as onto-theology, the forgetting of the 16 Cf. Whitehead, Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology, 209. Whitehead utilizes the phrase metaphysics of fux especially since in Process and Reality the concept of event has signifcantly changed from his earlier theorizing. Nonetheless, in this paper, fux, event, process and becoming are concepts used interchangeably. 63 | PAMISULU ontological difference between Being as it is in itself and God. 17 The problem of onto-theology is not only metaphysical; it is also religious. If the metaphysical ultimate coincides with the religious absolute, what results is an apodictic faith, a set of unshakeable religious beliefs that fails to accommodate the possibility of revision, of provisionality, of contextuality. This becomes a fertile ground nurturing seeds of intolerance over differences, dogmatic reifcation of non-fnal beliefs, and the absolutization of a particular at the cost of the most. What is needed is to appeal for the possibility of thinking religion away from a metaphysics of substance towards a metaphysics of process. One may argue that religion can speak and refect on itself philosophi- cally not only with the conceptual scaffolding of a substance metaphysics where religion becomes objectifed, but likewise with the shifting waves of a metaphysics of fux where religion remains in the making. 18 There is freshness to be had with the deterritorialization of religion from the category of object to its reterritorialization in the fux of event. 19 The appeal is to dislodge religion from the certainty of standing on demarcated substantial land and to invite it to journey into the vast fuid sea. To follow the path of faith is not to remain in the security of standing on the port, but to embark on a risky journey of going off-shore, sailing into the expanse of the unknown and uncertain. The displacement of religion from the feld of substance metaphysics was not simply a result of Heideggers diagnosis of Western philosophys metaphysical malaise. Much of it was also informed by the advancement of science. Even during the time of Newton, one can already discern that the basic presupposition of reality is not stability but movement. It was no longer stability explaining movement, but movement explaining stability. Nature is in a fux, such that things that are stable are said to be only at rest, being permeated with kinetic energy (kinesis). The credence of Aquinas frst way, that of the unmoved 17 Cf. Heideggers essay The Onto-theo-logical Constitution of Metaphysics in Martin Heidegger, Identity and Difference, trans. Joan Stambaugh (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002), 42-74. 18 As Whitehead reiterates, [t]he continuity of nature is to be found in events, the atomic properties of nature reside in objects. Alfred North Whitehead, An Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Natural Knowledge (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1919), 66. 19 In the contemporary landscape of religious inclinations, there is a growing bifurcation of concepts that proceeds along the channels of object and event. On the one hand, there is the channel of growing critique against institutional religion (and sometimes of religion in its entirety); and on the other hand, there is the channel of growing interest in lived spiritualities (ranging from traditional spiritualities to the New Age forms). Although this bifurcation is patently a generalization of the religious scenario, there are already noticeable and concrete upshots to this religious disjunction. These upshots are suggested by such catch-phrases as believing without belonging, being spiritual but not religious, spirituality vs. religiosity, etc. 64 | PAMISULU mover, rests only in a mode of thinking wherein one asks, who or what is it that moves something else?. Nowadays, one inquires, Who or what hinders one thing from moving? Previously, change or process is derivative or attributable to being or substance, nowadays, being and substance are derivative of process and becoming. The classical principle operari sequitur esse is reversed into esse sequitur operari. 20
3. three models oF the god-World relation If such be the characterization of process metaphysics, one then may ask oneself, how does process metaphysics affect the fdes quaerens intellectum of religion? What is the religious contour of the sacred if the soul that animates it is a metaphysics of fux? When one considers Whiteheads 1926 book, what one immediately takes cognizance of is its striking title: Religion in the Making. That religion changes is not foreign to religion itself. Indeed, Christianity has known well the saying ecclesia semper reformanda, the Church is always reforming, changing, transforming itself. However, knowing that in Whitehead one fnds a fully developed metaphysics of process or of becoming, a philosophical system that puts becoming, rather than being, as the ultimate metaphysical category, one immediately wonders on the effect of this mode of thought in the rethinking or contemporary refection on the concept of religion. Whitehead argues that [r]eligion is the reaction of human nature to its search for God. 21 Broadly conceived, religion is about the relation between God and the World. 22 Much of the conceptualization of religion is based on how the relation between these two poles (heaven/ earth, God/creatures) had been conceived, both religiously and metaphysically. But what are the conceptual models available explicative of the relation between the two? One may locate an avenue for this in Whiteheads remark concerning progress and the relation that exists between what 20 Cf. Nicholas Rescher, Process Philosophy: A Survery of Basic Ideas (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000), 7. 21 Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the Modern World (New York: The Free Press, 1925), 191. 22 Indeed, the suggestiveness of religion in the last section of Whiteheads Process and Reality is already revealed in the title itself. 65 | PAMISULU he calls the Republic on Earth and the Kingdom of Heaven. 23 He says: [p]rogress consists in modifying the laws of nature so that the Republic on Earth may conform to that Society to be discerned ideally by the divination of Wisdom. 24 In these words, Whitehead alludes to the adventure of ideas, the discerned humanitarian ideals, which shape the outlines of various civilizations beyond immediate determinations. Ideas emerge from the sensitivity towards the complex but determinate order of possibilities that pass through the divination of Wisdom. Against naturalist process philosophers who incise the divine from Whiteheadian metaphysics, 25 God fgures signifcantly precisely because God proffers the initial aim by which concrescence accrues, accounts for the introduc- tion of novelty in the created order, and promises objective immortality in the perishing of actual occasions. Despite certain inconsistencies in Whiteheads creative and speculative input, the ontological principle requires that eternal objects have to be somewhere. 26 In the vision that God offers, humanity discerns its proper ideals. Nonetheless, the issue is not straightforwardly uncomplicated. It is not just a case of God offering ideals, suggestions, possibilities, and then humanity decides to realize them, admitting their ingression in the conformed determina- tion of the actual state of things. In the relation between God and the World, the metaphysically crucial word is conform, that is, how the World needs to conform to the divine Wisdom, and whether this is just a one-way street. Religiously, the brief statement of Whitehead is almost a re-echo of a famous prayer among Christian denominations, that is, the Pater Noster, wherein we say among other things: tito q ooiitio oou ytvqqo o tiqo oou o tv oupovo |oi ti yq [your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven] (Matthew 6,10). That the coming of Gods kingdom (ooiitio) is realized only insofar as his will (tiqo) is done or accomplished on earth provides the crucial framework for a fertile dialogue between metaphysical modelsand religious beliefs. What is the nature of this tiqo to which we are to conform? Is it a plan mapping the ideal order where digression promises 23 The phrase kingdom of heaven itself does not appear as such in Adventures of Ideas. It features signifcantly though in Religion in the Making especially pages 72, 87-88, 154-155. It is interesting to note that Whitehead does not refer to the common Christian expression of the Kingdom of God. Indeed, in the whole of Religion in the Making, such expression is absent and references alluding to such are identifed more as a subliminal glorifcation of power that he critically dismisses as barbaric. 24 Alfred North Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas (New York: The Free Press, 1933), 42. 25 This is signifcantly present in the revisionist writings of Sherburne. See Donald Sherburne, Whitehead without God, in Process Philosophy and Christian Thought, ed. Delvin Brown, Ralph E. Jr. James, and Gene Reeves (New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1971). This article set into motion the so-called Whitehead without God Debate. See John Jr. B. Cobb, The Whitehead without God Debate: The Critique, Process Studies 1, no. 2 (1971). Also, Donald W. Sherburne, The Whitehead without God Debate: The Rejoinder, Process Studies 1 (1971). 26 Whitehead, Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology, 46. 66 | PAMISULU only a muddled chaos? Is it a law to which the world ought to comply and where non-compliance promises only a chastisement? Or, is it a wish, an expression of purpose that invites us to become Gods co-workers (tou ouvtpyoi) in the building up of the Republic on Earth (cf. I Corinthians 3,9). The frst model explicative of the relation between God and the World may be called Repetition. This model draws heavily from the Platonic and neo-Platonic infuences within Christianity. 27 When the world was created by God, he already had an idea, a plan defning his tiqo. In Gods mind, there is already a blueprint, and this blueprint guides him in his creation and relation with the created order. To pray the words your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven suggests on this model that humanitys exercise of freewill is constituted by the repetition of this same celestial blueprint into the created order. Approximating Whiteheads Eastern Asiatic concept of God, tiqo refers to an impersonal order to which the world conforms. 28 Evil is characterized by the departure from this celestial blueprint in the passage of history. The coming of the kingdom of God is characterized by the repetition of what God has in mind into the realm of the created order because this world [is] a lost cause. 29 However, this very concept of repetition effects its own undoing. This is defned by the tyrannical absoluteness characteristic of theocracies where Gods will reigns supreme and to which human wills only contribution in the passage of nature is to repeat this same will in terrestrial domain. Being Gods co-worker is about copying the blueprint in the heavens into this world. Humanity is a servile amanuensis writing the dictates of Gods will into the Book of Nature. 30 Gods plan for the world is something complete and unchanging. Defnitiveness is patent for the celestial blueprint is ultimate and fnal. Holiness is a passive submission to Gods will. God is an absolute tyrant who wants to colonize not only heaven but also earth. In the origin of civilized religion, avers Whitehead, gods 27 This model is prevalent among theologians of the Middle Ages wherein there is the abandonment of this world to the Evil Prince thereof, and concentrated thought upon another world and a better life. Whitehead argues that Plato did consider this solution but gave it a twist not adopted by later theologians. Plato conceives the perfect Republic in Heaven as an immediate present possession in the consciousness of the wise in the temporal world. The model of Repetition taken here is a fipside of mediaeval Christianitys temptation to abandon the immediate experience of this world as a lost cause. Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas, 32.
28 Whitehead, Religion in the Making, 68. 29 Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas, 32. 30 This stance makes a parody of Hugh of St. Victors statement that the World is like a book written by the hand of God. Universus mundus iste sensibilis quasi quidam liber est scriptus digito Dei Quoted in Charles Taylor, A Secular Age (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007), 93. 67 | PAMISULU are like dictators. 31 This model expresses the extreme form of religious absolutism. The second model is Representation and proceeds from a fxated interest in absolute transcendence. To pray the words your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven suggests in this model that Gods tiqo is effectively present in the domain of heaven where he reigns, but suggests further that whatever is present in Gods eternity can be re-presented likewise in created temporality. The economy of salvation is not about making a heaven of earth (Repetition), but of actualizing the mode of order of the heavens as something relevant and also effective in the domain of the world. However great an improve- ment this model already is compared to the frst, it still falls victim to the pitfall of absolute religious transcendence. If God is absolutely transcendent from the world, representation is exigent. Indeed, much of the political history of Christianity, as Marcel Gauchet illustrates, is refective of this model because the secular and religious leaders become the absolute Gods exclusive representatives to this world. 32 If the frst model is a theocracy, the second model is religious oligarchy, the rule of the few representatives of the divine. If in the frst model God is fashioned as an imperial ruler in the image of Caesar, the second model sees the religious and civil leaders as emissaries of a divine sovereign. The third model is Participation. Here, God and the World are immanent to each other, that is to say, considering the world we can fnd all the factors required by the total metaphysical situation; but we cannot discover anything not included in this totality of actual fact, and yet explanatory to it. 33 Unlike the second model where absolute transcendence necessitates representation, this model affrms God who is immanent, or at least, not wholly transcendent. To pray the words your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven means that Gods tiqo becomes a relevant factor in the becoming of the world, not to the extent that the exercise of human will becomes repetitive or representational but collaboratory or participative. tiqo is not simply will, fnal and decided. It also expresses wish, purpose, 31 Alfred North Whitehead, Modes of Thought (New York: Macmillan Publishing Inc., 1938), 49. 32 As Gauchet remarks, With the States appearance, the religious Other actually returns to the human sphere. Marcel Gauchet, The Disenchantment of the World: A Political History of Religion, trans. Oscar Burge (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), 35. Cf also Andr Cloots, Marcel Gauchet and the Disenchantment of the World: The Relevance of Religion for the Transformation of Western Culture, Bijdragen 67, no. 3 (2006): 253-87. 33 Whitehead, Religion in the Making, 71. 68 | PAMISULU suggestion or proposal for a future event. 34 Gods will does not necessarily imply blind obedience, but an invitation for collaborative work, for participation. The vision that God offers is dependent on the elements comprising the actual world of each concrescence and it changes in view of the transformation that accrues in the immediate environment. Though Gods will is defnite for the moment, it is never fnal. It invites humanitys contribution as genuine co-workers. This is one of the fundamental insights that Alain Badiou gathers from Saint Paul. Before the Christ-event, we are all established in equality as Gods co-workers in the Worlds becoming: co-ouvriers de Dieu. 35 In this respect, religion is a democracy of wills, both divine and human. This may be referred to as the ethnopoietic character of religion. 36 The evental encounter between God and humanity extends over, passes onto wider spatio-temporal extensionality or results into the emergence of a particular nexus of actual occasions. That is, the event of religion constitutes (oito meaning to make) a people, a group, a nation (tvo). We need to rehabilitate the human element in religions identity. The process of becoming-religion is not simply a mandate of the divine fat but is given birth in the enduring democratic consent of those who enter into its constitution through faith. 37 The so-called Clash of Civilization 38 is not the 34 Although the Greek word tiqo is proper to the New Testament, its verbal form tio is a shortened form of ttio meaning to will, to wish that See Liddell and Scott, An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889), s.v. 35 The most powerful expression of this equality [of the sons], necessary correlate of universality, can be found in I Corinthians 3, 9. We are all tou ouvtpyoi, Gods coworkers [co-ouvriers de Dieu]. This is a magnifcent maxim. Where the fgure of the master breaks down come those of the worker and of equality, conjoined. All equality is that of belonging together to a work. Indubitably, those participating in a truth procedure are coworkers in its becoming. This is what the metaphor of the son designates: a son is he whom an event relieves of the law and everything related to it for the beneft of a shared egalitarian endeavor. Alain Badiou, Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism, trans. Ray Brassier (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), 60, emphases added and text modifed. 36 This neologism is the third variant in Whiteheadian studies. Firstly, Isabelle Stengers coined the word ethopoiesis and used it in reference to the concomitant transformation of the knower in the production of knowledge. See Isabelle Stengers, Thinking with Deleuze and Whitehead: A Double Test, in Deleuze, Whitehead and the Transformation of Metaphysics, ed. Andr Cloots and Keith Robinson (Brussels: Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van Belgie voor Wetenschappen en Kunsten, 2005), 8. Secondly, Roland Faber used the word theopoetics as characterizing process theology. See Roland Faber, Gott als Poet der Welt: Anliegen und Perspektiven der Prozesstheologie, 2nd ed. (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2004). Also the talk he gave: Roland Faber, Process Theology as Theopoetics, (Kresge Chaple, Claremont, CA: Unpublished paper, 2006). Theopoetics as such is an emerging discipline of study (in theology) where theological refection is worked out along the symbolic and interpretative principles of poetry. 37 The event of the religious (e.g. Badious Christ-event) is creative of a community, and as Alistair McGrath argues, this is one of the positive aspects of religion that needs rethinking. The role of religion in creating and sustaining communal identity has been known for some considerable time, and has become increasingly import since about 1965. Alistair MacGrath, The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World (London: Random House, 2004), 264-65. 38 See Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of World Order (New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 1996). Cf. also his earlier article on the subject, Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations?, Foreign Affairs 72, no. 3 (1993): 22-49. 69 | PAMISULU schizophrenic doubling of a God or a celestial variance among Gods. It is chiefy the zealous collision of human wills in their enthopoietic constitution arising from their singular encounter with the divine. What religion is is not just due to what God wills but also because of what we, humanity, want of it. The role and fate of religion in contemporary times rest to an equal degree on how and what we want it to be. There is no infantile escape into the will of God when religion is becoming intolerant and fundamentalist. Being co-workers demands the synergy of wills in the advancement of history towards Gods vision of Harmony of Harmonies. 39 There is no defnite celestial blueprint because every possibility for the future is always determined on the decisions made in the present in view of the past. The world is a mutually adjusted disposition of things, issuing in value for its own sake. 40 There is no need for representation because God and humanity are immediate co-workers in the unfolding event of civilization. In the fne words of Whitehead: Gods rle is not the combat of productive force with productive force, of destructive force with destructive force; it lies in the patient operation of the overpowering ra- tionality of his conceptual harmonization. He does not create the world, he saves it: or, more accurately, he is the poet of the world, with tender patience leading it by his vision of truth, beauty and goodness. 41
What God offers is a vision to which God invites us to journey onwards in the progress towards civilization. For Whitehead, God is not the destination of religious sojourn, but a companion to the pilgrimage itself. 42 In the becoming-religion, God is not its teleological object as if to suggest the goal of religion is a divine homecoming in a transcendent locus where God expectantly stands at the door with arms wide open. Whiteheadian ethnopoiesis postulates that God is a co-worker in becoming-religion and constituting believers as a nation peculiarly his own (cf. Deuteronomy 26,18). In Whitehead, religion engenders hope because religion is the prime agent in the dynamic quest for the ideals of civilization. It is not coincidence that, despite some events that cast a shadow on the achievements of religion in a particular civilization, religion is signifcantly present in most great civilizations of ancient times, in Egypt, Persia, Rome, Greece, Jerusalem, etc. Whitehead argues that the great 39 Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas, 296. 40 Whitehead, Religion in the Making, 143-44. 41 Whitehead, Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology, 346.
42 Cf. Whitehead, Religion in the Making, 17, also 154-55. 70 | PAMISULU social ideal for religion is that it should be the common basis for the unity of civilization. In that way it justifes its insight beyond the transient clash of brute forces. 43 Religion is a potent transforming agency that nurtures the fermentation of the ideals of civilizationtruth, beauty, adventure, art and peace, 44 ideals that constitute the reasonable hope for things to come despite the transient clash of brute forces of the immediate present. Indeed, the constant challenge for any religion that sinks back into sociability, that sinks back into tribalism, authoritarianism, xenophobia, is to reorient itself to that fundamental experience of the religious spirit where distinctions and specifcity fall asunder under the mantle of universality to which solitariness is fundamentally oriented. 45 Solitariness is that raising of oneself beyond the transient, contingent and mundane. 46
Through solitariness, there is an endeavour to fnd something permanent and intelligible by which to interpret the confusion of immediate detail. 47
This apprehension of the permanent and the intelligible coerces us to transcend our complacency in prepackaged hand-me-down beliefs and practices. The apprehension of the permanent and the intelligible impels us to that reorganization of belief in order to make religion the potent agent in the ordering of life, a life that gains the approval of ethical scrutiny. 48
4. FallaCy oF dogmatism However, religion can only engender hope for the advancement of civilization only if it does not fall into the pit of the fallacy of dogmatism. For Whitehead, Religions commit suicide when they fnd their inspirations in their dogmas. The inspiration of religion lies in the history of religion. By this I mean that it is to be found 43 Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas, 172. 44 Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas, Part IV. 45 As Whitehead famously remarked, [r]eligion is what the individual does with his own solitariness. Whitehead, Religion in the Making, 16, also 47, 60. 46 As Lundeen argues, Whiteheads solitariness refers to those immediate aspects of experience which are beyond exhaustive penetration and control. It is the manner in which every individual transcends his environment without being separated from it. It is not solitariness in the sense of being alone, but rather in the sense of appropriating the data of experience in ones own way. Lyman T. Lundeen, Risk and Rhetoric in Religion: Whiteheads Theory of Language and the Discourse of Faith (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1972), 227. 47 Whitehead, Religion in the Making, 47. 48 This refers to what Whitehead unfortunately calls Rational Religion: Rational religion is religion whose beliefs and rituals have been reorganized with the aim of making it the central element in a coherent ordering of lifean ordering which shall be coherent both in respect to the elucidation of thought, and in respect to the direction of conduct towards a unifed purpose commanding ethical approval. Whitehead, Religion in the Making, 31. 71 | PAMISULU in the primary expressions of the intuitions of the fnest types of religious lives. 49
Dogmatism is the reifcation of religious intuitions, the petrifaction that lies at the root of the prevailing decadence of religious infuence. It stifes the spirit whereby religion contributes hope for a better world. This is central to Whiteheads critique of religion. If religion is to fnd its brighter future, it should face its crisis in the only way in which such problems can be studied, namely, in the school of experience. 50 This entails both the anamnesis of the singular religious origin, e.g. the Christ-event, and likewise our own proper religious experience that led us into the footsteps of devout conviction. Grounding faith in experience, one recognizes that the Christian tradition is more than a mere deposit of faith. It is an unfolding of event. It is in this paradigm of event, of happening, of actual occasions that Whitehead offers to religion in general, and Christianity in particular, a conceptuality where religion itself not only engenders a high hope of adventure but becomes an adventure itself. Religion is grounded on genuine human experience; 51 it is not an illusion or a desperate attempt to conceive of hope in a hopeless world. The religious spirit is always in process of being explained away, distorted, buried. Yet, since the travel of mankind towards civilization, it is always there. 52
Religion engenders hope because religion itself is a noble discontent. 53 It tries to reach beyond what it is, beyond that which no humanity can ever reach. Religion not only engenders hope in itself, it offers to each of its citizen that grain of hope germane in all human experience. It offers this hope because religion itself is a vision. It is the vision of something which stands beyond, behind, and within, the passing fux of immediate things; something which is real, and yet waiting to be realised; something which is a remote possibility, and yet the greatest of present facts; something that gives meaning to all that passes, and yet eludes apprehension; something whose possession is the fnal good, and yet is beyond all reach; something which is the 49 Whitehead, Religion in the Making, 144. 50 Whitehead, Religion in the Making, 147. 51 Santiago Sia, Religion, Reason, and God : Essays in the Philosophies of Charles Hartshorne and A.N. Whitehead, vol. 10, Contributions to Philosophical Theology (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2004), 135. 52 Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas, 172.
53 Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas, 11. 72 | PAMISULU ultimate ideal, and the hopeless quest. 54 If religion then engenders hope, is there a hope also for religion in our times? Whiteheads answer is in the affrmative. There need only be a strengthened refexivity in solitariness and a cautioned appreciation of religious intuitions that do not reify into dogmatism because these bring to bear the dynamism inherent in religion. Religion needs to go beyond itself in the adventure of the religious spirit: a religion beyond religion. It needs to articulate its belief and identity according to the religious eventum tantum in order to rehabilitate its essence as pure happening between transcendence and immanence, between the celestial and the mundane, between the actual and the possible. Religion needs to fnd its identity not as an accomplished-promise but as an already-but-not-yet; that it is in essence a becoming-religion. 54 Whitehead, Science and the Modern World, 191-92. 73 | PAMISULU Dulles, Avery, SJ. Evangelization for the Third Millenium. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2009. 144 pp. ISBN 978-0809146222. Evangelization for the Third Millennium was the last work of a dedicated servant of the Lord. Writing over 750 articles for various periodicals and journals, authoring over twenty books on various theological subjects, active member of various committees of the Catholic Church in America and lecturing in various theological institutions, Avery Cardinal Dulles, SJ, wrote his last in the Jesuit infrmary at Murray-Weigel Hall on the campus of Fordham University. In the Preface of the book, his assistant, Anne Marie Kirmse, OP, PhD, described how this labor of love was his testament of his faith and dedication to the Word of God. When he was confned to the Jesuit infrmary in February 2007, he begun this project so close to his heart, he labored over the details of the manuscript and was always involved along the way. He edited the text, read it and wrote his changes, when his health failed and rob him of his speech or his capacity to write or type; he crumpled the pages he wanted changed. 1
Avery Cardinal Dulles died peacefully on December 12, 2008. This book was published posthumously in 2009. The cardinal always believed that the pontifcate of Paul VI was defned by his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Nuntiandi, this work he maintained was the unifying theme of the objectives of the Second Vatican Council, the radical interpretation that would defne the relevance of the Church in the Third Millennium; Evangelization. And for this very reason, Avery Cardinal Dulles, SJ wanted to leave us this book so aptly and generously conceived.
The title itself would give us a glimpse to the treatment and approach the cardinal utilized in presenting the purpose and intent of this work. EN no. 2 to make the Church of the twentieth century ever ftted for proclaiming the gospel to the people of the twentieth century. 2
The cardinal re-appropriated this to mean, the Church ftted to proclaim the gospel for the third millennium. 1 Dulles,A. SJ., Evangelization for the Third Millennium, Paulist Press, Mahwah, NJ 2209 p. v 2 Dulles,A. SJ., Evangelization for the Third Millennium, Paulist Press, Mahwah, NJ 2209 p. 3-4 Vol. 1 Number 1 2011 Issue 74 | PAMISULU The cardinal divided the book into ten chapters. The frst three chapters discuss evangelization in the life of the Church. Chapter one starts with a short biblical defnition of evangelization and proceeds in broad strokes on how it was understood in the life of the Church in her long history, it is a mark, the identifying character of the Church, how it was neglected in recent centuries and the vision of Pope Paul VI to revive it. After which, the what, why, who and how of Evangelization are discussed to serve as summaries of what the preceding chapters would be. In Chapter II, it discusses the 1974 synod and the Paul VIs post - synodal apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Nuntiandi, its context, favorable reactions, critical comments and implementation in the United States of America. Chapter Three dwell on how Pope John Paul II picked up the challenge left by Paul VI which effectively launched the direction of the Church and the Program of New evangelization in the Third Millennium, Evangelii Nuntiandi being its backbone. The next three chapters would discuss the challenges and possible avenues of convergence and dialogue concerning New Evange- lization in the Third Millennium. Chapter four dealt with the object of evangelization, the gospel, by going back to the history of reformation, particularly the contentions in the understanding of the gospel between the Lutherans and the Catholics. The chapter closes by citing points of convergence by clarifying some misunderstandings, terminologies and various movements that poster ecumenism and dialogue in the years following Vatican II. What is more important in this chapter is the rediscovery of what both sides can offer to enrich each others faith. The very heart of chapter fve discusses the issue of ecumenism and mission and how to dialogue with Christians from other denomination and with the other great religions of the world. This chapter also suggest that by clarifying the term evangelization we can enter into authentic dialogue with other faith without sacrifcing the very mission of the Church and vivifying her very own life of faith and witnessing before others with the riches of her worship and liturgy, sacraments and acts of charity. Chapter six discusses the evangelization of Cultures. Cardinal Dulles proposes that transmitting Christian culture is an integral part of evangeliza- tion through the conduit of higher education without limiting academic freedom. Through this means the Church enters in a dialogue with modernity and secularism, and situates challenges the Church is presented with. The next four chapters are the discussions on how to execute the program of New Evangelization. Chapter seven suggests that in order for evangelization to be effective in a complex global culture, which is characteristic of the third millennium, we need to have a paradigmatic 75 | PAMISULU approach in theology which is both evangelical and catholic. This means a theology that shows the connection between the Word of God and the truth that leads to salvation; the theology of faith is inseparable to the theology of witness. 3 Chapter eight presents the different models of Evangelization, these consist of personal witness, verbal testimony, Christian worship, community, inculturation and works of charity. In chapter nine, the cardinal, proposes various models of catechesis which are doctrinal, kerygmatic, liturgical, experiential, praxis, all which are girded towards integral Christian formation. The last chapter deals with the models of Apologetics, these are classical apologetics, biblical evidentialism, religious experience, the acts of faith or longing of the heart, theological aesthetics, presuppositionalist, arguments from the patterns of history. New Evangelization, 4 in Avery Cardinal Dulles mind is the renewal expressed in the believers life, the Church and society in general brought about by the gospel, whose content and summit is Christ and is continually inspired by the Holy Spirit. Thus it permeates every aspect of our life, through the transformation brought about by the Holy Spirit, the gospel brings salvation to all who believe. How did the cardinal arrive at this realization? Through careful historical analysis, he presented how the Church is essentially missionary, by the very reason that she is commissioned to proclaim by the Lord to preach the gospel to all people. Thus, evangelization is a mark of being church, she is expansive in her very nature, however, the understanding of evangeliza- tion was mediated by various contexts in her history. Thus, it occurred that her self-understanding became ecclesiocentric and apologetic. But it came to be that the church felt the need to open her doors and to dialogue with the modern world, the infuence of Vatican II through the initiative of Pope John XXIII, the providential apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi of Paul VI and the continuance brought by Pope John Paul II launched and showed the relevance and need of a program for New Evangelization. New Evangelization discusses the centrality of Christ and the hierarchy of truths, promoting unity by bearing a common hope among Christian churches or ecumenism, authentic dialogue and proclamation, religious freedom, commitment to common good and social teachings of the Church, and evangelization of cultures, employment of new methods
3 Dulles,A. SJ., Evangelization for the Third Millenium, Paulist Press, Mahwah, NJ 2209 p. 79. 4 New evangelization was a term Avery Cardinal Dulles barrowed from Pope John Paul II. The term was frst coined in the Popes speech at Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on May 9, 1983. It was on the occasion of the ffth centenary of the frst evangelization of the Americas. 76 | PAMISULU and expressions or New media, involvement of all Christians and the primacy of the Holy Spirit. Evangelization is thus understood in a broader sense, a process continuing throughout the life of faith, wherein it happens, as pointed out in the encyclical of Pope John Paul II on missionary activity, in three spheres, frst, mission ad gentes or evangelization to those who do not know Christ, second, reevangeliza- tion to those who lost a living sense of faith, and lastly, pastoral care to faithful Christians so as to animate them to think, feel, speak and act in full accordance with the mind of the Lord. Lastly, this program of new evangelization, according to Cardinal Dulles, is needed right now. Today, we are faced with two realities, the external factors which are antithetical to Christian culture and old Christian categories and theologies which impede evangelization. However, we are also presented with an opportunity; people today experience spiritual longing and hunger. This program can address these realities through the models of Evangelization, Catechesis, and apologetics, models which were re-interpreted through historical analysis, refections on Church doctrines as presented by the works of the Vatican II, Paul VI, Pope John Paul II, and through the guidance of the Magisterium. It is the re-thinking of evangelization in radical categories by going back to the richness of the revealed Word and our earliest traditions, facing the challenges of societies and cultures in our present millennium and acknowledging the centrality of Christ in our lives and the primacy of the Holy Spirit in animating our faith, witnessing, sacrament and worship. Israel Enero Camara 77 | PAMISULU Johnson, Elizabeth A. Truly Our Sister: A Theology of Mary in the Communion of Saints. London: Continuum, 2006. 400 pp. ISBN 978-0826418272. Elizabeth A. Johnson, one of the many critical voices in feminist theology and biblical scholarship today, explores a liberating and feminist reading on the person of Mary with her book Truly Our Sister: A Theology of Mary in the Communion of Saints (2003) Johnson, a recipient of the American Academy of Religion Award for Excellent in the study of Religion, a Distinguished Professor of Theology at Fordham University, and a past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, sets up her enterprise of connecting Christian tradition with the contemporary religious experience of women in their struggle for the fullness of human dignity through her books: She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse (1992), Friends of God and Prophets: A Feminist Theological Reading of the Communion of Saints (1998), and her aforesaid book. On Truly Our Sister, Johnson aims to give a post-Vatican II feminist reconstruction of the theology of Mary that is grounded in scripture, liturgy and Catholic tradition, one that is, in her own words, theologically sound, ecumenically fruitful, spiritually empowering, ethically challenging, and socially liberating. To achieve an image of Mary bearing the aforementioned elements, she tries to understand the image of Mary, not as a religious symbol divorced from her history, but as a particular person with her own life to compose. Johnson begins her project by bringing to light the current changing landscape of contemporary Mariology wherein she gives a survey of the immerging voices of disgruntled women from different walks of life expressing their scorn on the idealized and exaggerated maternal image of Mary. Instead of being an encouragement for women everywhere, her image became a symbol that disparages and hinders women in exploring their uniqueness and achieving a fuller expression of their humanity. Johnson tries to expose the hand of a dominant traditional religious patriarchal culture who painted a romanticized image of Mary in the context of defning gender roles and controlling women. In effect, the portrait of Miriam of Nazareth became an ideal woman who is submissive to men, desexualized and fxated in motherhood. Quite frankly, this the quest to restoring the true image of Mary as a Vol. 1 Number 1 2011 Issue 78 | PAMISULU historical and graced woman would not only be a liberating experience for Miriam of Nazareth but also to all women everywhere as well. Johnson then removes Miriam of Nazareth from her pedestal and goes behind the scriptural text to get a glimpse of the true Mary by studying the socio-cultural, economic, political, and religious world of the 1st century Palestine. Here, Miriam of Nazareth is assumed to have lived as a Jewish woman in a politically oppressed peasant society, the mother of Jesus, and our sister in faith whose story and struggle encourages our own faith. The heart of the book entitled the Dangerous Memory of Mary explores the world of the scriptural text by revisiting 13 verses in the New Testament wherein Miriam of Nazareth is cited. From these, Johnson makes a mosaic from the shards of history of Mary. Ultimately, she is placed with the company of the saints, a woman who walked with the Spirit of God and an ally of God in bringing about redemption. Johnson fnally tackles a world ahead of the scriptural text by proposing a theology of Mary who is a graced individual, an actual fully human woman who struggled with her own lifes journey, and a friend and prophet of God who has faithfully walked through, with and in the spirit of God, now together with the company of all Gods friends and the prophets who have likewise have done the same. This proposal has not only have precedents in the 1st Millennium of the early Christian church tradition and liturgy, not to mention bearing the spirit of Vatican II that compromisingly viewed Mary as model of true discipleship in the Church, but also satisfes the authors quest for a theologically sound, ecumenically fruitful, spiritually empowering, ethically challenging, and socially liberating interpretation of Miriam of Nazareth for the oppressed people, most especially for disparaged women today. Truly Our Sister ranks as an excellent material for rethinking our beliefs on Mary. It presents a fresh new understanding of Mary as a friend and prophet of God that challenges and reforms our conventional idea and pietistic veneration of Mary. The book is scholarly done with creative passion and insight. After reading the book, we are left empowered and thankful to God for giving us this gracious woman who is truly one of us to learn from. Indeed, she is truly our sister. Jowel Jomarsus P. Gatus 79 | PAMISULU
Seminarian Israel Enero C. Camara belongs to the Diocese of Iba. He is currently a fourth year student of the Graduate School of Theology of the Mother of Good Counsel Seminary, Pampanga. He obtained his bachelors degree in Philosophy from the University of Santo Thomas.
Seminarian Jowel Jomarsus P. Gatus obtained his bachelors degree in Philosophy from the Mother of Good Counsel Seminary, Pampanga. He belongs to the Archdiocese of San Fernando and currently he is a fourth year theology student at the Graduate School of Theology of the same seminary. Josefna M. Manabat holds a doctorate degree in Religious Education from De La Salle University; a doctorate degree in Sacred Liturgy from the Pontifcal Institute of Liturgy, Rome; a Master of Arts degree in Theology from the Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City. Currently, she is the Dean of Studies at the San Beda Graduate School of Liturgy. She is teaching at the Graduate School of Theology of the Mother of Good Counsel Seminary, Pampanga; also at Don Bosco Center of Studies, Paraaque; and at the Mother of Life Center, Quezon City. At present, she is a consultor of the Episcopal Commission on Liturgy of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines. Rev. Fr. Jesus B. Layug, Jr. belongs to the Archdiocese of San Fernando, Pampanga. He holds a licentiate in Sacred Theology with specialization in Biblical Theology from the Pontifcal Gregorian University, Rome. He obtained his bachelors degree in Philosophy at the Mother of Good Counsel Seminary, Pampanga. He is teaching at the Graduate School of Theology of the same seminary, and the Director of Formation of the seminarys Philosophy Department. Currently, he is the director of the Archdiocesan Commission for the Biblical Apostolate. The ConTribuTors 80 | PAMISULU Rev. Fr. Oliver G. Yalung belongs to the Archdiocese of San Fernando, Pampanga. He holds a licentiate in Sacred Liturgy from the Pontifco Ateneo di SantAnselmo and the Pontifco Instituto Liturgico, Rome. He obtained his bachelors degree in Philosophy from Mother of Good Counsel Seminary. He is a professor at the Graduate School of Theology of the same seminary, and a guest professor of the University of the Assumption Graduate School. Currently, he is the Director of the Archdiocesan Liturgical Commission, and a chairperson on Committee on Church Construction and Restoration of the said Archdiocese. He is the secretary of the Asian Liturgy Forum in Southeast Asia. Rev. Fr. Kenneth C. Masong belongs to the Diocese of Iba. He holds a doctorate degree in Philosophy from the Higher Institute of Philosophy, Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, Belgium; a Masters Degree in Systematic Theology from San Carlos Graduate School of Theology, Makati City, Philippines. He obtained his bachelors degree in Philosophy from San Carlos Seminary, Makati City. He is the Dean of Studies of the Theology and Philosophy Departments of the Mother of Good Counsel Seminary, and he is teaching at the Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City; St.Vincent School of Theology,Quezon City; Immaculate Conception Seminary, Bulacan; University of the Assumption, Pampanga, and at the Mother of Good Counsel Seminary. Currently, he is a member of the Center for Process Studies, American Catholic Philosophical Association and Philosophical Association of the Philippines. 81 | PAMISULU ManusCripT subMission::
Manuscripts should be typed, double-spaced, excluding references and notes, and should follow the MLA formatting style. Text should be around 6,000 8,000 words and saved as MS Word file. Since the manuscript will be blind-reviewed, no identification of the author should appear in the text. A separate MS Word file should accompany the manuscript containing the title of the article, the authors name, abstract and 5 6 key words of the article. Both these files should be sent to the editor as attachments to registrar.mgcs@gmail.com. 84 | PAMISULU