Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos around the globe are Catholic, due to the Spanish colonizers who launched the faith primarily as a software for social management. However we should be cautious in considering that the Catholicism of the colonizers is identical as Philippine Catholicism, notably in the best way it’s understood and practiced.
For essentially the most half, it seems to be the identical, sounds the identical, and in lots of instances even feels the identical, but when we glance intently, the religiosity of the on a regular basis Filipino just isn’t actually the identical.
We deal with saints the identical manner our ancestors used to deal with their anito. Our fiestas, right now a celebration of Catholic spirits, are rooted within the previous pagan traditions. The way in which most Filipino Catholics do their panata (devotion) and pamumuwesto (pilgrimage) follows the identical rules as the folks practitioner. Residence altars include quite a lot of non secular pictures, from Catholic to Feng Shui—doubtless in an try and harness and appease each energy “simply in case.” This is the reason many social scientists previously have referred to as it “Christianized Animism.”
This week is Holy Week, a commemoration of Jesus Christ’s demise and resurrection, symbolizing the spirit’s rebirth by way of struggling. I’m not a pastor, so you don’t want to listen to from me the theological and ethical significance of Holy Week and Lenten Season usually. I’m a psychological researcher, so my curiosity just isn’t in what folks ought to be doing throughout this time, however what persons are doing, and what this may indicate about us and the way we relate with the world. It isn’t my place to evaluate anybody’s religious perception system. That is how folks make which means of the world and their lives. I all the time method the unfamiliar with an open coronary heart (bukas loob), as a result of beneath all of it we actually are extra comparable with one another than we expect.
Learn: Holy Week 2025: An Inquirer.internet Particular
Throughout the archipelago, the albularyo, baylan, and antingero are making ready. This can be a spiritually highly effective time for them. A surwano defined to me that, for some cause, this time is simply extra “clear,” and so it’s simpler to do magic. (Like a sunny day, she stated.)
One more reason is that Christ (that’s, the authority) is useless and the spirits of the earth and underworld are extra assured to roam round and strike bargains with folks. Albularyos would search for their particular herbs; baylans collect in sacred mountains and forests, and a few of them have interaction with one another by way of balete bushes; antingeros make and cost their anting-anting.
One antingero instructed me that that is additionally one of the best time to gather dignum, a type of magical wooden that supposedly solely seems to the worthy. Traditionally, antingeros would take blessed supplies from church buildings throughout Holy Week (similar to fragments of the Paschal candle or a brass bell), and people items can be used as anting-anting. Lots of them do that as a strategy of internal transformation (pagbabagong-loob), or as a strategy to align their particular person spirit with the bigger spirit that strikes the world.
The Jesuit psychologist Jaime Bulatao studied these matters many years in the past, and from him we are able to borrow an necessary psycho-spiritual idea: what he referred to as the “Filipino Transpersonal Worldview.”
In accordance with Bulatao, most Filipinos see the world in a “transpersonal” manner. This tutorial time period simply means, experiencing the self past the physique. This may sound unusual, as a result of we expect we’re restricted to our bodily types. However take into consideration how you may have felt everytime you see an impressive sundown, and also you abruptly really feel such as you’re a part of an actual, lovely, and loving universe. It’s all the time laborious to clarify, however the sensation is profound.
Additionally attempt to bear in mind the sensation of being so invested in a sports activities recreation or live performance or magnificence pageant that your voice is drowned out within the crowd, and you are feeling like you’re a part of one shared spirit. These are all “transpersonal” experiences.
Bulatao stated that Philippine spirituality is transpersonal: we work together with the world as if it had been a part of us, that the spirits of nature and faith are neighbors and members of the family. In a earlier essay, I wrote about household dynamics in Philippine politics—and that is what I imply.
Learn: Household dynamics and Philippine politics
So, throughout this Holy Week, we see this “transpersonal worldview” in motion. For a lot of the yr, we’re separate from one another. We’ve totally different political opinions, we’ve totally different financial wants, we’ve totally different duties and duties in life. We’re too busy with our personal, and our household’s, well-being (kaginhawaan). However throughout holidays similar to these (bear in mind, “vacation” is rooted within the phrase “holy day”), many people start to acknowledge the extra religious elements of our lives, particularly in how these religious issues really affect each different a part of lives.
To be clear, I’m not scripting this only for Catholics. This isn’t solely a spiritual factor; it is usually a cultural expertise. If you’re not a spiritual particular person, you possibly can nonetheless expertise the transpersonal in your individual manner. We all know that Holy Week is a protracted, non-working vacation, and many individuals take this time to journey with their households or relaxation at residence. Our tendency may be to distract ourselves with display screen time and doomscrolling on our telephones. It is because we don’t really need to take heed to the emotions we’ve buried deep inside us: the anger, discontent, resentment, nervousness, and unhappiness that has constructed up each different day of the yr due to our work and social relationships. So, although we get to relaxation from our duties, we’re not actually letting our spirit breathe.
When was the final time you simply sat down and listened to the emotions of your physique? When was the final time you took care of your self—and I imply precise care, by doing issues that you simply actually take pleasure in? This doesn’t must value something; it could possibly be having an sincere and weak dialog with a liked one, or beginning on that artwork venture you may have been pushing aside, and even listening to your favourite album out of your favourite artist.
When was the final time you stared on the sky, or the bushes, or the circulation of a stream and actually let your thoughts wander? This was the key of the previous animists: the spirits had been not likely particular entities, they had been auras or emotions from the atmosphere. The solemnity we really feel in historical forests or mountains: that’s the “diwata.”
Faith has given us handy symbols to make use of, in order that we are able to simply entry these very important realities. However on essentially the most primary degree, it truly is about realizing that the world outdoors our our bodies and the world inside our minds are one. Typically, they’re misaligned. Our expectations are usually not matched; we get upset by how folks deal with us; the stress of the bodily world tires us out.
The themes of struggling, renewal, and rebirth throughout Holy Week are related to the non-public course of we should all undergo if we need to realign the internal and outer worlds. When there may be misalignment, we really feel indignant and alone. When they’re aligned, we really feel like we’re one with every part. We really feel God’s will and presence in our lives (loob ng Maykapal).
That is what it actually means to be “transpersonal.” So, if we need to undergo our personal transformation (pagbabagong-loob), then we should be able to really feel some discomfort.
You are able to do panata, pamumuwesto, Visita Iglesia, and all different non secular rituals. You’ll be able to take part within the stations of the cross. However, on a psychological degree, these must also enable you to join with what’s most necessary to the human expertise: your private relationship with kapwa, nature, and God.
