Jesus is powerless for two days

A display inside the Basilica de Santo Nino in Cebu.
Mary, the one of the left, was touched so much that the paint is peeled and the wood from underneath turns black. She is the one people wanted to touch and be blessed.

We have been seeing a lot of interesting Filipino Catholicism phenomena in the Philippines, e.g., we always see huge statues of Mary, but not of Jesus. Jesus, if we see him, is either a helpless little baby in the tender arms of Mary, or he is hanging on the cross, head bowed down and is also helpless. Mary is powerful, and of course, she is the mother of God. Jesus, on the other hand, according to a historian on Mary, had to receive permission before he went on the cross.

The phenomenon also shows up on the Filipino calendars, you almost cannot find one calender that is printed in the Philippines that has Easter Sunday marked, though Good Friday MIGHT be. The only calendars that have these days marked are imported calenders.

We went to a local church this morning (Easter Sunday), for 90 minutes, we heard something along the line of suffering and death of Jesus, towards the last two sentences, the preacher mentioned the resurrection of Jesus and how we should be happy that Jesus lives today.

A missionary who has been serving in the Philippines for 25 years wrote the following email to explain to us an essential part of how Filipino Catholics view Jesus and Easter.

Filipinos tend to restrict their activities during the Holy Week because they are afraid that something might happen to them.

I’ve personally experienced Filipino negative reaction to things during Holy Week. A number of years ago, I needed to have elective surgery done. It was scheduled during Holy Week because that was the first available time that the doctor could do surgery. The doctor was a follower of Christ, so she didn’t have any problem with my having surgery and I didn’t either. But when the nurse was gathering the information for pre-surgery, she was shocked that I would have elective surgery during Holy Week.

Another time, the Vista Verde church in Manila had a retreat during Holy Week. On the way home, there was an accident and several people were injured and one lady died from internal hemorrhaging. The lady was a strong believer, but her mom and family were strong Catholics. The body was put at the church for viewing. The next morning (Easter Sunday) the mom came into the church and yell at her son-in-law, and at the church people. Her daughter was going to be condemned to purgatory. She was inconsolable that day. The church held services every night during the week. The next Sunday was the funeral. Coming out of the church after the service, my friend heard the brother say to his sister, “Don’t be sad, we know where Cynthia is, she’s in heaven, but what about us? What will happen to us when we die." So during the week, their belief about eternal life changed.

The reason I share this is that maybe the issue with the Filipinos isn’t that they don’t believe in Jesus being both human and divine, but the issue is trying to correct the misconception here in this country that God dies every Good Friday. They may have gone too far the other way.

We are still struggling to understand how their theology has become what it is. It is difficult for us to grasp why Jesus is so small.