‘Tis the season to be holy, to contemplate matters of the spirit and repent for one’s sins in hopes of redemption.
Last Sunday, most churches were packed as Catholics had their palm fronds or palaspas blessed in observance of Palm Sunday.
In Pampanga, despite the Catholic clergy publicly frowning on self-harm in the name of faith, communities are preparing for the annual ritual of self-flagellation and actual crucifixion of penitents called Kristos using iron spikes. The flagellants and Kristos swear the bloodletting is good for both their spiritual and physical well-being.One of the best messages for this Lenten season was given in a Facebook post earlier this month by Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas.
To those who take flowers from the carrozas to adorn their homes, his advice: “Why don’t you bring flowers instead to a home for abandoned seniors and brighten the faces of lonely grandparents with the love you bring?” Missing Sunday mass was a mortal sin. Once in grade school, I confessed this to the school’s Caucasian priest. He stormed out of the confessional to loudly scold me in public inside the church. That mortifying experience put me on the path to becoming a lapsed Catholic; I never returned to a confessional again, except to take photos beside picturesque ones in churches.