Thoughts about the Black Nazarene (part 2)

(Note: I have a new home somewhere on the internet and you can find the first part there. Check it out here)

As early as December I have already filed a PTO (paid time off) from April 17 to 20. I'm already anticipating the Holy Week and as early as now I'm torn between two options: spend the week on a retreat with the Jesuits or attend the Holy Week services in Laguna. Both are as equally good as the other, and I haven't come up with a decision yet. Hopefully by February I already know which option to take.

Black Nazarene painting

I always look forward to the Holy Week. You may be thinking "This guy's crazy. He enjoys other people's misery!" Yes, I know that the Holy Week marks the passion and death of the Lord. But mind you, it's capped off by the resurrection. I'm looking forward to it because misery always leads to victory.

Yesterday was the feast of the Black Nazarene, better known as Poong Nazareno among its devotees. We already know what's gonna happen. The media men covering the event already know what's going to happen but we still turn on the TV and watch the live broadcast. I remember my first year religion professor told me: "We Filipinos love heroes and martyrs. Just look at our devotions. The Black Nazarene and Apung Mamacalulu (the Santo Entierro of Pampanga) are just a few. We see our suffering in their images and that is why we are drawn to them."

 

A devotee supporting the broken beam
of the cross (Photo from InterAksyon)

I have read somewhere that the statue of the Black Nazarene has suffered a lot of damage mostly from the yearly procession. The Black Nazarene's left cheek was damaged by a gunshot during an incident in the late 1990s. A few years back several fingers were broken. Yesterday the upper portion of the cross broke as the procession reached Jones Bridge.

The Black Nazarene's broken finger
(Photo from Paulus Maximus)

Going back to my professor's statement, we are attracted to martyrs and heroes. The Kundiman is one example of this attachment to undying love we are ready to endure. Even Aladin's statement to Flerida "Ang puso, hahamakin ang lahat, masunod ka lamang!" (immortalized in Francisco Baltazar's Florante at Laura) has become ubiquitous as 7-11. As Ramon Bautista would put it, "pag-ibig nga naman."

The Black Nazarene has been damaged, as I see it, because of one reason, and that is the deep desire to have a physical contact with the image. The devotees don't mind being pushed and bruised just to have contact with the Poon. They see that the Lord is one with them in their ordeal. For them, Emmanuel is not only the child wrapped in swaddling clothes. For them, Emmanuel is the God who was flogged, mocked and crucified. I realized that if friends text or call me if they have a problem, they don't need to hear me speak or console them with sweet words. What they need is presence. Maybe that's why my friend, whenever he's depressed, wants me to drink with him. Not to share the expenses on the liquor and the pulutan (honestly, I see that as one reason) but because he needs someone to be with him during the hard times. Being present for someone during the most trying moments is priceless.

Speaking of Kundiman, I think it started over two thousand years ago somewhere in Israel. And the lyrics went "This is my body, this is my blood."