I would like to take some time in this update to share a little about Philippine culture, as we recently experienced it.
Many of you all have heard of the crucifixions that happen every year here in the Philippines. On Good Friday every year in Pampanga province (and now in some other provinces as well), the penitensiyas start their ritual of flagellating themselves. I found out several reasons why they do this after some investigation. I heard answers ranging from trying to get closer to God, to trying to imitate Christ, to trying to remove some of the grievous sins they have committed in the past. The official response from the Catholic church is to not encourage this sort of thing. However, there was a priest interviewed on the radio the week before it was happening who indicated that the church is ok with people doing this as long as it is something they are doing out of devotion to God, and not to bring in money or fame.
In any case, this year Sarah and I drove up to Pampanga to witness the event and talk with some of the penitensiyas.* Right when we arrived, we managed to make friends with a local fellow, not a penitensiya, who was pleased to find a foreigner there who could speak Tagalog (even though Kapampangan is the main language in that area). He took the liberty of escorting us through the area and making sure we got to see everything we could, which we appreciated.
At the beginning of the event, there are many penitensiyas lined up on the street that runs on top of the small hill above the local village. Those who have volunteered to go through the ritual have someone cut their backs, and then they beat themselves with sticks on the part where they have been cut. The video I have posted gives a really good picture of how they do this. Even though it is a bit bloody, it is quite fascinating to watch. Also, by going and viewing this personally, I developed a sense of understanding why they do this. I believe it is a feeling of cleansing the soul – at this time of the year, those who have a desire to express their penitent feelings in a physical way feel a sense of being absolved of their sins by going through this ritual.
Of course from my Protestant biblical perspective, I believe the need one feels to do this to himself (it was entirely men in the area we saw, no women participated that we could tell) comes from a misunderstanding of grace. The sacrifices of God are “a broken and contrite heart” (Psalm 51:17), not the exercise of punishing one's self. Furthermore, Christ took the punishment upon Himself for our sins. That doesn't mean the grace we are given may be treated lightly, of course. It is a very sobering reality, which should draw us near to God in humility and thankfulness. But it is His blood that needed to be shed for us to be redeemed, not our own.
Theological issues aside, you can see from the pictures and video how they beat themselves with sticks and cut their backs open so that they bleed. While this was going on, the people staged a re-enactment of the the arrest, trial and crucifixion of Jesus. As far as biblical accuracy for the reenactment, they did pretty well. There were only a few anachronisms, like the fact that the priests that were putting Jesus on trial in the reenactment were dressed like Catholic priests of today, instead of Jewish priests of old. The narrative of the reenactment was almost entirely in Kampampangan, the language of the province of Pampanga, so I had a difficult time understanding what they were saying.
While the man playing Jesus was led down the way, beaten several times with whips by the Roman guards playing that role, the penitensiyas followed along beating themselves on their bleeding backs with their sticks. It was impossible to avoid having a few drops of blood splash onto our clothes. When we got to the hillside where they were to crucify the one playing Jesus, there was one of the penitensiyas, standing there with his back all bloody, holding his ipad. I know the Romans didn't have those.
The last event was the nailing of the one playing Jesus to the cross. He was an older man, and there were too many people around to try and talk with him directly. So we just watched. Yep, they really did it – nailed his hands and feet to the cross and then stood the cross up in the air. They kept him there for about 7 minutes, and then took him down. There was a medical tent nearby, so they put him on a stretcher and carried him over there to get checked out and make sure he was ok. They had put rubbing alcohol on his hands and feet when they pierced them with the nails to help prevent infection (I don't think the Romans ever did that), and then the next participant went up and got himself nailed to the cross. Same routine, except that the 2nd guy didn't get his feet nailed, only his hands. I think the 3rd guy did the same thing. That was the point at which we left. There were supposed to be 2 more people after that for a total of 5 in the area we visited, but we were really hot by that time and needed to go and cool off.
We walked back to our car, and then our guide invited us to stop over at his house and he and his wife would give us some juice and cookies (for what they call here merienda). We appreciated that. They had a nephew living in the house who was about 5 years old – he had a kid size set of sticks and was dressing up as a penitensiya and beating his back with the sticks, just to play. Amazing. Kids in every culture will imitate what they see and turn it into a game.
So, that was our little adventure into Pampanga. I thought I would share it with you, along with the pictures and video.
It has been a busy 2 weeks, and I am thankful for your prayers, as it feels like I am starting to get some of my strength and energy back. After the trip to Pampanga, 2 days later I went up for a trip to the Bugkalot tribe to participate in their 60th anniversary celebration of when the Gospel was first brought to them. I will tell more about that in the next update, which I hope to put out soon.
Until then, we are preparing for Sarah's graduation and our 1 year home assignment (which used to be called a missionary furlough). Also I have 2 new missionaries studying Tagalog now, along with those in the tribes, so we have plenty to do while we get ready to come home! Ginny is in a sprint to the finish for the end of the school year, as she works hard to make sure her students are able to finish well!
Many thanks and blessings on you all for your continued prayers and support! We couldn't do this without you!
Because of Him who died and rose again,
George for all of us
*I just want to make a note on how the use multiple languages can get rather confusing when trying to express things correctly. The word penitensiya is a Tagalicized spelling of the Spanish word penitencia. Many of you reading this know some Spanish, so that you know if you pluralized that word in Spanish, you simply add an 's' to the end like you do to pluralize in English. It would be las penitencias. In Tagalog the spelling is changed because there is no letter 'c', and the 'sh' sound is represented by the letter combination 'siy'. However, in Tagalog, to make it plural, you don't add an 's' to the end. Instead you put a pluralizing word in front of the Tagalog word, and it becomes mga penitensiya. But then, since I am writing in English and not Tagalog, I have to bring this word back into an English context so that the English sounds correct; hence penitensiyas. It is an Anglicized Tagalicized Spanish word. Now, want to have some fun? Try translating everything I just wrote into French or Portuguese (without using Google translate).
Here are the pictures:
