MANY roads lead today to the Shrine of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo, Manila. Devotion to the Black Nazarene continues to be a focal point of Filipino popular religiosity. Essentially, it recalls the redeeming power of the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The image of the Black Nazarene enshrined in Quiapo aids popular devotion, reminding Christians of the loving mercy of God manifested in Jesus of Nazareth.
Last year’s movie
The Passion of the Christ portrayed the crucifixion of Jesus as a miscarriage of justice caused by the scheming enemies of Jesus and the cowardly Pontius Pilate. Essentially, devotion to the Black Nazarene entails remembering how Jesus sacrificed His life on the cross for the love of all human beings, despite their sins.
Through the centuries, Filipinos have found hope in the sufferings and death of Jesus. They recognize in Jesus someone who also suffered. Crucifixion was the most ignominious form of capital punishment used by the Romans. Being scourged, forced to carry a cross beam to the place of execution, being stripped naked and tied or nailed to a cross, there to suffer a slow and agonizing death, was the ultimate that a person could suffer. Jesus accepted such shame and suffering for the love of sinners.
The crucifixion, however, was not the end of Jesus of Nazareth. The Gospels proclaim that Jesus was vindicated in His resurrection. The crucified Nazarene now reigns in glory at the right hand of God the Father. That Gospel faith is the basis for the popularity of this feast. The celebration of the Black Nazarene is not masochistic devotion, as some skeptics and critics claim. Rather, it is a popular devotion celebrating the triumph of good over evil, of life over death. The popular devotion at Quiapo church will continue to flourish because the death and resurrection of Jesus gives hope and solace to Filipinos in their own times of trial.
Today’s fiesta challenges the faithful to discover the transforming power of God’s grace in their personal lives and in the complex relationships and institutions of Philippine society. The challenge seems daunting, but today’s fiesta is a powerful reminder of the victory of Jesus over sin and death.
