A special time, a special occasion

So we have come to a close with our observance of Holy Week, culminating in last night’s Easter Vigil and today’s celebration of Christ’s resurrection, and thereby the salvation of all believers.

The celebration ranges from the sacred to the secular. It may take the form of the meaningful and solemn observances of the “mother of all vigils,” as St. Augustine called the rituals on the night before Christ rose from the dead, and the Masses that fall on what, for Catholics, constitutes one of the few remaining “holy days of obligation.” Easter can also be celebrated as an occasion for folklore, as in the “salubong” or rendezvous, as two processions, one headed by a statue of the Risen Christ, the other headed by an image of the Virgin Mary, meet in front of the church. Here, hovering from a scaffolding, is a young girl, dressed as an angel, lowered to lift the solemn length of purple cloth to reveal the Risen Christ to his mother.

In the cities much given to Western influences, Easter Sunday is observed with modern touches, as simple and joyful as an Easter egg hunt whether in hotels, malls, or private residences; catching the visits of the “Easter bunny” to shopping centers; or indulging in Easter brunch buffets with special themes.

And on the highways and expressways crisscrossing the land, I’m sure Easter will be a marathon of traffic and frayed nerves, as vacationers return to the city like lemmings, dissipating all the relaxation and ease they had gained in the previous days.

But whether solemn or reflective, stressed or commercialized, may your Easter Sunday ease you back into the workaday world, back from the few days’ retreat we enjoyed from our daily stresses, renewed and energized, ready for what is to follow.

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Three or so years ago, a team composed of Benedictine Fr. Anscar Chupungco, photographer Noli Yamsuan, design and layout artist Pie David and editorial coordinator Peachy Yamsuan set out to produce a “little book” on the “Holy Week and Easter Triduum.” The book would consist of photographs taken by Yamsuan during one Holy Week observance, with Father Anscar, the head liturgist of the Archdiocese of Manila, providing the captions to the photos and explanations on the Holy Week liturgy, with which not too many of the faithful are acquainted.

It was conceived, in consultation with Fr. Genaro “Gene” Diwa, of the liturgical ministry of the Archdiocese of Manila, by Father Anscar as “a loving tribute” to a man for whom he had “a very high regard and deep affection,” no less than Gaudencio B. Cardinal Rosales, archbishop emeritus of Manila, who was archbishop at the time Yamsuan gathered the photographs.

But, wrote Father Gene in his foreword, “two events would stop the idea from bearing fruit right away. The Vatican announced the retirement of Cardinal Rosales and Father Anscar retired to his heavenly home.”

The project was shelved in the meantime and David (disclosure: He happens to be my hubby), who had begun the first layouts, filed these away, not knowing if the book project would ever come to light.

“But the book was ever on our minds,” says Father Gene, and a few months ago the project was revived and was launched just recently. “We thank Father Anscar for leaving us with a lasting legacy, his body of work that keeps him ever present and alive among us.”

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“Of the 52 weeks of the calendar year Holy Week stands out significantly as a rich storehouse for theology, traditions, and spiritual doctrine,” wrote Father Anscar in his introduction.

“Although in several parts of the world, especially in the Philippines, Christmas is a rival celebration, Holy Week definitely enjoys co-primacy with it, as the Catechetical Directory of the Philippines notes, the two chief images with which Filipino Catholics depict Christ are the Child Jesus (the Santo Niño) and the Suffering Christ (Jesus Nazareno). In a sense these two images represent the portrait of the Filipino people.”

In Father Anscar’s view, Filipino Catholics observe the Holy Week “in a mood of feasting and celebration. Exuberance is a good word to describe it.

“While the rest of the Christian world wears a long face, Filipino Catholics are jubilant amidst the tearful images of saints drawn around town streets. Catholic life never seems to be as vibrant as during Holy Week.

“A sociologist or anthropologist might explain such joyous mood as part of the Filipino people’s propensity for taking practically any occasion as moments to feast and celebrate. Wherever there is food or company even at funerals, Filipinos will feast and put on a smile before a photographer. But how does a theologian explain such a phenomenon?”

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Perhaps it is because, Father Anscar volunteers, the Holy Week (liturgically, from Palm Sunday to Holy Thursday) and the Easter Triduum (from Good Friday to the evening prayer of Easter Sunday) are observed as the week “when Christ accomplished the promise of salvation prefigured by the Old Testament. Hence it is the week of the new creation and salvation in Christ.”

Three elements constitute the date of Easter, wrote Father Anscar: Spring, equinox and full moon. “There is symbolism in these cosmic elements: spring means rebirth or new life; equinox brings us back to the time of creation, when God divided light and darkness into two equal parts; full moon signifies fullness of life and endless light.”

He said that 2,000 years ago, “Christ gave up his life for us and rose from the dead. They remind us of this event; indeed they recapture it for us.”

Recollection, reflection, celebration and triumph: These are what make the Holy Week and Easter Triduum a special time, a special occasion.