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THE HUMAN PERSON: A FILIPINO

CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE
Madaling maging TAO,
mahirap MAGPAKATAO.
- The journey toward
Christian maturity and
commitment starts with the
awareness of who we are
(TAO) and of what we are
ought to be (MAGPAKATAO).
The Catechism for Filipino Catholics (CFC)
eloquently describes who we are and
what we ought to be as Filipino
Christians.
-Authentic
discipleship
means following
Christ in action.
-Genuine
Christian piety
inspires true
Christian witness
and service.
Challenge of authentic Christian witness:
1) Interiorly, to interiorize their
devotional prayer and
sacramental worship;
2) Exteriorly, to commit
themselves to Jesus Christ and to
all He stands for (according to
Catholic moral principles and the
Teaching of the Church).
Christian moral life is simply to
respond to the call to become
loving persons, in the fullness
of life-with-others-in-
community before God, in
imitation of Jesus Christ.
HUMAN DIGNITY
The sense of the
dignity of the human
person has been
impressing itself
more and more
deeply in the
consciousness of
contemporary man
(DH 1).
In Christ and through
Christ, we have
acquired full awareness
of our dignity, of the
heights to which we are
raised, of the surpassing
worth of our own
humanity, and of the
meaning of our
existence.
Christ reveals how
the essential
dignity of all
persons is
grounded directly
in their origin,
meaning, and
destiny.
All are redeemed by the
Blood of Christ (Eph.
1:7), are sanctified by
the indwelling Holy
Spirit (Rom. 8:14-16),
and are called to be
children of God,
destined for eternal life
of blessed communion
with the Father, His
Risen-Incarnate Son,
and their Holy Spirit.
Christian truths related to the
common experience of being
a Filipino:
Persons are open and relational
by nature.
. We Filipinos are outstanding in this regard. It
is said Filipinos are never alone. This is how
we have been created by God as social
beings. This is how we have been redeemed by
Christ as people. This is how the Holy Spirit
works not only within but among us as the
people of God, journeying toward our common
destiny in God.
Persons are conscious
beings
Persons are aware of themselves in their
outgoing acts.
We possess this self-awareness through
our knowing and free willing.
Thus we image in our small way the
Creators infinite knowing and loving.
Persons are embodied spirits.
This stresses the unity between our body and soul.
Our bodies are not merely instrument we use
according to our whims. Christian faith regards the
body as good and honourable since God has created
it and will raise it up on the last day. God the Son
dignified the body through His Incarnation The
Word became flesh and dwelt among us (Jn1:14). And
St. Paul admonishes us: You must know that your
body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is within the
Spirit you have received from God So, glorify God in
your body (1 Cor 6:19-20). All our relationships with
others and with God are expressed through our
bodies, which are the natural sacrament of our
spiritual depth
Persons are historical realities.
We are pilgrims on-the-way, who gradually,
through time, become our full selves. In exercising
our freedom, we decide for ourselves and form
ourselves; in this sense we are our own cause. We
develop as persons in discernible stages,
described in great details in modern psychology.
Salvation history narrated in the Bible shows the
dynamic interplay between good and evil, success
and failure, within the lives of the great biblical
figures. It recounts how God progressively
brought His chosen People to a clearer
understanding, and higher moral vision, of their
own being and of God Himself
Persons are unique, yet
fundamentally equal.
Despite physical differences as well as differing
intellectual and moral powers, we instinctively realize
that as persons, in some basic way, we are all equal.
All men are endowed with the rational soul and are
created in Gods image; they have the divine calling
and destiny; there is here a basic quality between all
men (46). Yet, each of us is called to image God in a
unique way no one can take our place, as it were.
To each of us Christ says: Fear not, for I have
redeemed you; I have called you by name: you are
mine (Is 43:1). Thus, within the fundamental equality
of all persons, we recognize the unique identity of
each person (47).
This fundamental equality of all individual
persons also grounds the participation
and solidarity of all peoples. Since God
the Father is the origin and purpose of all
people, we are called to be brothers and
sisters. Therefore, if we have been
summoned by the same destiny, which is
both human and divine, we can and
should work together to build up the
world in genuine peace (48).
There are five predominant Filipino
characteristics, together with five essential
traits of Jesus Christ, both assumed within
the typical Filipino way to Jesus.
Filipinos are family-oriented.
Filipinos are meal-oriented (salu-salo,
kainan).
Filipinos are kundiman-oriented.
Filipinos are bayani-oriented.
Filipinos are spirit-oriented.
Filipinos are family-oriented.
The child-parent (anak-magulang) relationship
is of primary importance to us Filipinos. Father,
mother, child (Ama, ina, and anak) are
culturally and emotionally significant to us
Filipinos who cherish our filial attachment not
only to our immediate family, but also to our
extended family like the godparents
(ninongs, ninangs, etc). This family-
centeredness supplies a basic sense of
belonging, stability and security. It is from our
families that we Filipinos naturally draw our
sense of self-identity.
Filipinos are meal-oriented
(salu-salo, kainan).
Because Filipinos consider almost
everyone as part of the family
(parang pamilya), we are known for
being gracious hosts and grateful
guests. Serving our guests with the
best we have is an inborn value to
Filipinos, rich and poor alike. We love
to celebrate any and all events with a
special meal. Even with unexpected
guests, we Filipinos try our best to
offer something, meagre as it may
be, with the traditional greeting:
Come and eat with us. (Tuloy po
kayo at kumain muna tayo)
Jesus as Eucharist is not only the host of the new
Paschal Meal (1 Cor 11:23-26), and the food, the bread
of life (Jn 6:48-58), but even the guest in every
gathering (Mt 18:20). The New Testament refers more
than twenty-five times to eating (kainan). Eating
together in table fellowship with the presence of risen
Christ (1 Cor 10:17), Communion, in other words,
constitutes the core-witness of the early Church as a
Eucharistic community. So we Filipinos feel naturally at
home in breaking bread together with Jesus. PCP IIs
spirituality of social transformation finds in the
Eucharist not only its full nourishment but also its total
prayerful communion with the Lord of salvation and
liberation (51).
Filipinos are kundiman-
oriented.
The kundiman is a sad Filipino song about
wounded love. Filipinos are naturally
attracted to heroes sacrificing everything for
love. We are patient and forgiving to a fault
(magpapaka-alipin ako nang dahil sa iyo).
This acceptance of suffering manifests a
deep, positive spiritual value of Filipinos
kalooban.
Jesus, the Suffering Servant of the prophet Isaiah,
is portrayed through our favourite Filipino images
of Padre Hesus Nazareno, the Santo Entierro or
the Sacred Heart. Through these images, Jesus
appears as one of the least of our brethren: the
hungry and thirsty, the naked, the sick, the lonely
stranger and the prisoner (Mt 25:31-46). Jesus the
Suffering Servant can thus reach out to us Filipinos
as a healing and forgiving Saviour who
understands our weaknesses, our failures, our
feelings of depression, fear and loneliness. He has
been through it all Himself (53).
Filipinos are bayani-oriented.
A bayani is a hero. We Filipinos are natural
hero-followers. For all our patience and
tolerance, we will not accept ultimate
failure and defeat. We tend instinctively to
always personalize any good cause in
terms of a leader, especially when its
object to defend the weak and the
oppressed. To protect this innate sense of
human dignity, Filipinos are prepared to
lay down even their lives.
Jesus as Christ the King (Cristo
Rey) responds well to the
bayani-oriented Filipino. As
born social critics, organizers
and martyrs, we Filipinos see
Jesus Christ as the Conqueror
of the world by His mission as
prophet, king and priest (PCP
II 57-61). So as bayani-
oriented, we Filipinos
enthroned our image of Cristo
Rey. He assures us that
everything will be alright in
the end. Christ the King has
won the ultimate victory over
evil
Filipinos are spirit-oriented.
We are often said to be naturally psychic. We
have a deep-seated belief in the supernatural
and in all kinds of spirits dwelling in individual
persons, places and things. Even in todays
world of science and technology, Filipinos
continue to invoke the spirits in various
undertakings, especially in faith-healings and
exorcism.
Accepting Jesus Christ as responding to these
essential Filipino traits has historically come about
and continued in a typical Filipino manner. The
outstanding characteristic of the Church in the
Philippines is to be a pueblo amante de Maria
a people in love with Mary. Even before the
coming of the Spanish missionaries, there was a
small dark image of the Blessed Virgin, known
only as coming from the sea, venerated on the
shores of Manila Bay. Thus originated the
devotion to Nuestra Senora de Guia, Our Lady,
Guide of the Way, the oldest extant image of Mary
in the Philippines.
The typically Filipino approach to Christ is
with and through Mary. Devotion to Mary has
always been intimately intertwined with
Christ. The two central mysteries of our Faith
in Christ: the mystery of the Incarnation
celebrated at Christmas, and of Redemption
celebrated during Holy Week, are deeply
marked by the veneration of Mary. This is
portrayed graphically in the Simbang Gabi
(Misa de Gallo or de Aguinaldo) and the
panunuluyan at Christmas time, and the
Salubong in Easter Sunday morning
Marian devotion and piety seem co-
natural to us Filipinos. Mary is deeply
involved in each of the five Filipino
characteristics leading us to Christ. The
family altar in so many Filipino
homes witnesses to Mary as mother of
Jesus and our spiritual mother. Thus
she is all the center of our family-
orientedness. As celebration and meal-
oriented, Marys month of May is noted
for the fiestas in her honor and
pilgrimages to her shrines. For suffering
in life, Mary is venerated as the Mater
Dolorosa, the Sorrowful Mother, whose
Perpetual Help, compassion and love
is sought through popular novenas and
devotions.
What is then the Filipino concept of
human person?
Who, then, are Filipino Catholics?
We are a people who have experienced in
one way or another that our Filipino
identity, meaning, suffering, commitment
and world-view are all tied to Jesus Christ.
Like a diamond with a thousand facets,
Christ is able to reveal to every person
and nation, their very own unity, truth
and value.
Thus we Filipino Catholics: are created
by God, redeemed in Christ, sanctified
by the Spirit, and destined for eternal
life with God.
As persons, we experience ourselves
as embodied spirits, conscious of our
historical process of growing up and
developing, in constant relation with
others with whom we are
fundamentally equal, yet unique in
ourselves.
We are baptized into discipleship of Jesus Christ, discover
our identity as adopted children of our Father and as
members of Christs Body, the Church, inspired by Mary our
Mother; in the breaking of bread around the table of the
Lord, we find meaning in sharing ecclesial fellowship with
one another and with Christ, their Priest and Eucharist; in
meeting the Crucified Saviour are sustained in the
sufferings and hardships of life, and receive forgiveness for
their sins through His Sacraments; commit ourselves to our
Risen Lord and His mission through the gift of Faith,
celebrated in great Hope in the Sacraments, and lived out
in Love and service of their fellowmen; from our world-
vision led by the Spirit of the Risen Christ, experienced in
the Christian community, the Church, which sustains us in
our pilgrimage of life-in-Christ; and approach and live out
this Christian life within the powerful inspiring presence of
Mary, our Mother and Model.

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