Thousands and thousands of Filipinos all over the world 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 similar as Philippine Catholicism, notably in the best way it’s understood and practiced.
For probably the most half, it appears to be like 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 isn’t actually the identical.
We deal with saints the identical means our ancestors used to deal with their anito. Our fiestas, in the present day a celebration of Catholic spirits, are rooted within the previous pagan traditions. The best way most Filipino Catholics do their panata (devotion) and pamumuwesto (pilgrimage) follows the identical ideas as the folks practitioner. House altars comprise quite a lot of non secular photographs, from Catholic to Feng Shui—seemingly in an try and harness and appease each energy “simply in case.” That is why many social scientists up to now have known as it “Christianized Animism.”
This week is Holy Week, a commemoration of Jesus Christ’s loss of life and resurrection, symbolizing the spirit’s rebirth by means 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 generally. I’m a psychological researcher, so my curiosity isn’t in what folks needs to be doing throughout this time, however what individuals are doing, and what this would possibly suggest about us and the way we relate with the world. It’s not my place to guage anybody’s non secular perception system. That is how folks make which means of the world and their lives. I all the time strategy the unfamiliar with an open coronary heart (bukas loob), as a result of beneath all of it we actually are extra related 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. It is 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 mentioned.)
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 interact with one another by means of balete bushes; antingeros make and cost their anting-anting.
One antingero informed me that that is additionally the most effective 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 (equivalent 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 technique of interior transformation (pagbabagong-loob), or as a method to align their particular person spirit with the bigger spirit that strikes the world.
The Jesuit psychologist Jaime Bulatao studied these matters a long time in the past, and from him we are able to borrow an essential psycho-spiritual idea: what he known as the “Filipino Transpersonal Worldview.”
In response to Bulatao, most Filipinos see the world in a “transpersonal” means. This tutorial time period simply means, experiencing the self past the physique. This would possibly sound unusual, as a result of we expect we’re restricted to our bodily kinds. However take into consideration how you will have felt everytime you see an impressive sundown, and also you abruptly really feel such as you’re a part of an actual, stunning, and loving universe. It’s all the time onerous to elucidate, however the sensation is profound.
Additionally attempt to keep in mind the sensation of being so invested in a sports activities sport or live performance or magnificence pageant that your voice is drowned out within the crowd, and you’re feeling like you’re a part of one shared spirit. These are all “transpersonal” experiences.
Bulatao mentioned that Philippine spirituality is transpersonal: we work together with the world as if it have been a part of us, that the spirits of nature and faith are neighbors and relations. 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 got totally different political views, we have now totally different financial wants, we have now totally different duties and duties in life. We’re too busy with our personal, and our household’s, well-being (kaginhawaan). However throughout holidays equivalent to these (keep in mind, “vacation” is rooted within the phrase “holy day”), many people start to acknowledge the extra non secular points of our lives, particularly in how these non secular issues really affect each different a part of lives.
To be clear, I’m not penning this only for Catholics. This isn’t solely a spiritual factor; it’s also a cultural expertise. If you’re not a spiritual individual, you possibly can nonetheless expertise the transpersonal in your personal means. We all know that Holy Week is an extended, non-working vacation, and many individuals take this time to journey with their households or relaxation at dwelling. Our tendency is perhaps to distract ourselves with display screen time and doomscrolling on our telephones. It’s because we don’t really need to take heed to the emotions we have now buried deep inside us: the anger, discontent, resentment, nervousness, and disappointment that has constructed up each different day of the yr due to our work and social relationships. So, regardless that we get to relaxation from our duties, we aren’t 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 just actually take pleasure in? This doesn’t must price something; it could possibly be having an sincere and weak dialog with a liked one, or beginning on that artwork undertaking you will have been laying 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 move of a stream and actually let your thoughts wander? This was the key of the previous animists: the spirits have been probably not particular entities, they have been auras or emotions from the atmosphere. The solemnity we really feel in historic 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 probably the most primary degree, it truly is about realizing that the world outdoors our our bodies and the world inside our minds are one. Generally, they’re misaligned. Our expectations should not matched; we get dissatisfied 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 interior and outer worlds. When there’s misalignment, we really feel offended and alone. When they’re aligned, we really feel like we’re one with every little thing. 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 may take part within the stations of the cross. However, on a psychological degree, these also needs to aid you join with what’s most essential to the human expertise: your private relationship with kapwa, nature, and God.
