Chapter One

REDEMPTION IN THE FILIPINO RELIGIOUS CULTURE

A question that may linger as one reads this presentation is the sudden
emergence of the Filipino icon, the Black Nazarene. What has this got to do with
the central theme of this work, that is, redemption, in particular, the Lex Crucis of
Bernard Lonergan?
In his book, Christology of the Inarticulate,1 Benigno Beltran, a Filipino
theologian narrated an incident that inspired him and prompted him to conduct a
scientific and methodical study about who Christ is, for the Filipinos. The book is
the more popular version of his doctoral dissertation, Who Do You Say That I Am?2
when he took his doctorate in theology at the Pontificia Università Gregoriana.
While working with the scavengers at a garbage dump at Tondo, Manila, he
encountered some of the poor and illiterate Filipino Catholic fellows who
frequented the mass, but insisted that Christ is «created» by the Father, which is a
doctrinal contradiction about what the Church teaches that as expressed in the
Nicean creed, Christ is «begotten, not made». In his book, he explained the fact of
Filipinos as being «inarticulate» of the Christian faith insofar as the words and
terminologies of Western dogmatic categories, in spite of the best efforts to translate
them, are not intelligible to them.3
I also observe that on Sundays when masses are celebrated in the Filipino
language, we recite the Apostle’s creed instead of the stipulated Nicean creed. I was
thinking at first that it was a matter of preference over length. But when I reread the
Filipino translation, it made me question myself how a simple Filipino could ever
comprehend some of the translated Christological concepts of the elaborated creed
like: sumilang (as a translation for «begotten»), magkasing-sangkap (for
«consubstantial»), lalang ng Espiritu Santo (for «by the Holy Spirit»). These terms,
as it seems to me, are merely accommodated translations, for they signify

1
B. BELTRAN, The Christology of the Inarticulate: An Inquiry into the Filipino Understanding of
Jesus the Christ , Divine Word Publications, Manila, 1987.
2
B. BELTRAN, Who Do You Say That I Am?: A Theological Inquiry into the notions held by
Filipino Catholics Concerning the Person and Functions of Christ, doctoral dissertation, Pontificia
Università Gregoriana, 1985.
3
Cfr. Ibid., vii-viii.
Ch. I: Redemption in the Filipino Religious Culture 15

differently from the ordinary conversational usage. They are terms, though Filipino
in translation, foreign in the Filipino understanding. Indeed, the Filipino translation
of the Apostle’s creed could be much simpler for Filipinos to comprehend. For
these reasons, I agree with Beltran’s assertion for the need of that theological task
of critically mediating Christian meanings and values into Filipino culture. It is not
that the poor, illiterate and simple Filipinos err in the dogmatic articulations of the
Christian faith, they are simply, as what Beltran claims, «inarticulate». 4 Indeed,
theologians, especially from those of the country have the crucial task in addressing
this difficulty.
This is where Lonergan could be of an important assistance as he provides
for us a twofold response. Not only that he offers a theological reflection of the
doctrine of faith, especially on the theme of redemption which, as we shall see, is in
synchrony with the Filipino culture, Lonergan also offers a method that mediates
culture and religion.5 In this method, religion and faith must find its meaning in the
culture. This task of theological mediation of meanings is what Lonergan could
offer as we shall see when we employ this in the presentation.
An important element that we need to take into account when we do this
task of doing theology is that of the auditus fidei, that is, listening to the word of
God with faith in the Church. It is important to emphasize that the listener cannot
and must not detach his listening from his culture. This is thus the reason for
grounding the concept of redemption in the Filipino religious context. Even the
post-synodal apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in Asia affirms this, recognizing the
paradoxical fact that Jesus who is born in Asian soil is foreign to the Asians. 6
Through the exhortation, the Church in Asia is encouraged:
In offering to others the Good News of the Redemption, the Church
strives to understand their culture. She seeks to know the minds and
hearts of her hearers, their values and customs, their problems and
difficulties, their hopes and dreams. Once she knows and understands
these various aspects of culture, then she can begin the dialogue of
salvation; she can offer, respectfully but with clarity and conviction, the
Good News of the Redemption to all who freely wish to listen and to
respond. Therefore the people of Asia who, as Asians, wish to make the
Christian faith their own, can rest assured that their hopes, expectations,

4
Cfr. B. BELTRAN, The Christology of the Inarticulate, 4.
5
Cfr. B. LONERGAN, Method in Theology, 4.
6
Cfr. JOHN PAUL II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Ecclesia in Asia (6 November 1999),
20, in AAS 92 (2000), 449-528.
Ch. I: Redemption in the Filipino Religious Culture 16

anxieties and sufferings are not only embraced by Jesus, but become the
very point at which the gift of faith and the power of the Spirit enter the
innermost core of their lives.7
 The Filipinos, inasmuch as they are Asians themselves, share the
sentiments of the Church in Asia. They need to be heard of their context so that the
gift of faith received from their first missionaries may be embraced in full clarity
and conviction, and in communion with the Universal Church. It is the same
legitimate way that has been recognized by the Second Vatican Council through the
decree on the missionary activity of the church:
It is necessary that in each major socio-cultural area, such theological
speculation should be encouraged, in the light of the universal Church's
tradition, as may submit to a new scrutiny the words and deeds which
God has revealed, and which have been set down in Sacred Scripture
and explained by the Fathers and by the magisterium. Thus it will be
more clearly seen in what ways faith may seek for understanding, with
due regard for the philosophy and wisdom of these peoples; it will be
seen in what ways their customs, views on life, and social order, can be
reconciled with the manner of living taught by divine revelation. 8

It is to be emphasized that the listening to the culture does not mean an

imposition on its part, but a way of being understood as well as to understand the
faith that has already been warmly received. As presented, it expresses a dialogical
work as both affirmed by the Church in the Second Vatican Council and Lonergan.

1. Redemption as the Starting Point of Filipino Christology

1.1 The Reception of Christianity in the Philippines

In 2021, the Philippine Church celebrates the fifth centenary of the coming
of Christianity to the country. It was 500 years ago when the first mass in the land
was celebrated at Limasawa Island on Easter Sunday of the 31 st of March. It was on
the same year that the first Filipinos were baptized: Rajah Humabon and his wife
Harah Amihan. To them they were given the oldest religious icons, the Santo Niño
de Cebu (an image of the child Christ) and the wooden cross that was erected by the
explorer Ferdinand Magellan. The year 2021 is foreseen as a great jubilee for the

7
Ibid., 21, in AAS, 483-484.
8
SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, Decree on the Missionary Activity of the Church, Ad Gentes, 22, in
AAS, 58 (1966), 973-990.
Ch. I: Redemption in the Filipino Religious Culture 17

Church in the Philippines.9 Although, the Christian faith may have been embraced
easily and immediately by the Filipinos with the arrival of the first missionaries, the
Filipino reception of Christianity is another matter that we need to look into. By the
word «reception», we mean here the Wirkungsgeschichtliches Bewußtsein key
concept of Hans-Georg Gadamer from his work Truth and Method.10 Here we speak
of the productive and critical assimilation of the subject that provokes
transformation, in this case, the Filipinos in relation to the Christian faith received,
and the consciousness effected in the course of history.11 To illustrate this, it is
important to critically examine the situation surrounding this period.
When Christianity first arrived in the Philippines, Filipinos were
essentially animists. Although paganistic in their practices, they exhibit this
yearning for «the sacred» whom they find as something or someone responsive to
their needs. They pray to anitos (wooden idols), trees, rocks or mountains whose
effects of sacredness are strongly felt by them or their tribe. When the first
missionaries came, it is no surprise that the first outward symbols of Christian faith
were warmly received. Aside from their welcoming, respectful, polite and
affectionate demeanor to the foreigners,12 they already possess that yearning for the
sacred ever since. For more than 300 years under the Spanish rule, pagan and
animistic practices were replaced by Christian religious ones.13 The anitos were
replaced by the statues and images of the saints, the anting-antings (protective
amulets or talismans) were replaced by the rosary and the holy water, and
incantations to produce rains or harvests were replaced by prayer. To this present
day such syncretism or mixture of Christian faith and Filipino animism still

9
Cfr. CATHOLIC BISHOPS CONFERENCE OF THE PHILIPPINES (Henceforth, CBCP), Pastoral Letter on
the Era of New Evangelization, “Live Christ, Share Christ,” (2012 July 23) in CBCP Online
Archives <http://cbcponline.net/cbcp-pastoral-exhortation-on-the-era-of-new-evangelization-longer
version/> (20.10.2020)
10
H. G. GADAMER, Truth and Method, trans. Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshal,
Bloomsbury Academic, London 2013.
11
Cfr. Ibid., 312-313.
12
Cfr. CBCP, Pastoral Letter on Filipino Spirituality, “Landas ng Pagpapakabanal,” (10 July
1999), 11 in CBCP Online Archives < http://cbcponline.net/pastoral-letter-on-filipino-spirituality/>
(20.10.2020).
13
Francisco Regala used the term substitution of religious symbols, a means of accommodation
and adaptability of the Catholic faith to the culture of the natives. Cfr. F. R EGALA, JR., Inculturation
of Popular Religiosity: A Theologico-Anthropological Study of the Filipino Chinese Devotion to the
Black Nazarene of Capalonga, doctoral dissertation, Pontificia Studiorum Universitas A S. Thom
Aq. In Urbe, 1995, 92-99.
Ch. I: Redemption in the Filipino Religious Culture 18

pervades among many Filipinos. For one who is well-catechized and knows his
doctrine of faith so well would be appalled by certain Filipino folk practices such as
the dancing with the image of the Santo Niño at Sinulog,14 the self-flagellation and
actual crucifixion of men at Pampanga, and the sea of devotees jostling one another
to touch the image of the Black Nazarene in its procession.
Beltran examines this phenomenon as he points out the distinction and
tension between Official Catholicism and Folk Catholicism. 15 The former refers to
the set of beliefs and practices maintained as normative by ecclesiastical authority.
The latter refers to the set of beliefs and practices, though harmless, are frowned by
some Church authorities, but they remain as expressions of the community of their
needs and longings. The attitude of these certain Church authorities that condemn
the practices of these Folk Catholics is what Lonergan illustrates as the prevailing
«classicist notion of culture», whose ideas, ideals and virtues are pressed upon
someone to produce the uomo universale.16 But Beltran makes us understand that
this syncretism of animistic beliefs and practices with the Christian faith is an
experience of religious feeling which shapes and maintains the sense of identity of
17
the people, personally and communally. The Filipino religious experience, as
Beltran reaffirms, generally «moves in the direction of vision, image, ritual,
reflection, meditation.»18 To impress the Western cognitive categories of the faith to
the Filipinos especially to the masses would pose certain difficulties to understand
their faith. Furthermore, these categories would render the faith as alien to them,
detached, unrelated, and without meaning into their lives. Filipinos and their folk
practices are characterized, as Beltran puts it, «by a thaumaturgical thrust – the
desire of the people to experience the extraordinary effects of the supernatural in
their lives.»19 That is why, Beltran continues to explain, if the doctrines of the
official Church move away from the archaic immediacies close to the hearts of the
masses, there will be dimensions of their religiosity that would be overlooked and

14
Sinulog is the annual celebration of the feast of the Santo Niño held during the week of the
third Sunday of January. It is marked by a joyous, colorful and cultural festival of dances, fluvial
procession and the religious procession culminating with a Eucharistic celebration to the Basilica. 15
Cfr. B. BELTRAN, Christology of the Inarticulate, 4-5.
16
Cfr. B. LONERGAN, Method in Theology, 3 and 281.
17
Cfr. B. BELTRAN, Christology of the Inarticulate, 5.
18
Ibid., 6.
19
Ibid.
Ch. I: Redemption in the Filipino Religious Culture 19

ignored.20 It is part of the theological task therefore to reconcile the tensions by

moving away from a «classicist» way of looking at culture, that misguided view,
according to Lonergan, of conceiving culture normatively and that there is just one
human culture. Instead, we must conceive it «empirically», recognizing the fact of
many cultures that gives meanings and values that informs their way of life.21

1.2 The Historical Path towards a Filipino Christology

After the Second Vatican Council, the call for aggiornamento was taken up
by the Philippine Church in 1991 through the Second Plenary Council of the
Philippines (PCP II) envisioning herself to be the Church of the Poor on a renewed
integral evangelization and witness to Christ’s salvation and liberation. 22 Part of the
Philippine Church’s renewal is for the Christian faith of the Filipinos to mature as
they interiorize the Church teachings and practices, but must be personally
appreciated and appropriated by them with their own way of thinking with the faith
that takes root in the matrix of the Filipino being. 23 And so the Council affirms that
«the Gospel must be presented with tools, methods and expressions coming from
the culture itself […] a faith that is transmitted and expressed through our people’s
culture or cultures».24
It is important to highlight that after the PCP II presented in the document
the Situationer, the Philippine context in its «lights and shadows», the council
moved on to reflect on Jesus. Rooting the Filipino identity as Christians, as
followers of Christ, they are to trace his footsteps in their times. The Council – in
asking the question: how the Filipino Catholic Christians are to live today? –
responded,
it is to know, to love, to follow Christ in the Church which he founded.
This is why we need to contemplate the face – and the heart of Christ…
to retell his story to ourselves, that we may, more credibly, more
authoritatively, tell it to others.25

20
Ibid.
21
Cfr. LONERGAN, Method in Theology, 3 and 120.
22
Cfr. CBCP, Acts and Decrees of the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines, Paulines
Publishing House, Pasay City 1992, 5.
23
Cfr. Ibid., 72
24
Ibid.
25
Ibid., 36.
Ch. I: Redemption in the Filipino Religious Culture 20

That italicized portion, «retell his story» is an emphasis from the document
by the Council itself, to accentuate the importance to own the story of Christ, so that
He may be intelligible and meaningful to all Filipinos, so that the Christ that was
first preached by the Spanish missionaries may result to a faith personally
embraced. And thus they may be able to say to these people who brought Christ to
them: «We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for
ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world» (John 4:42).26
It is in this context when a lot of initiatives were made for the quest of the
Filipino face of Christ. One of which, as already mentioned, is Benigno Beltran who
has made a critical, systematic and methodic inquiry on the Filipino understanding
of Christ from his dissertation and his soon published book. Douglas Elwood and
Patricia Magdamo published an introductory textbook in theology for college
27
students entitled, Christ in Philippine Context that explores the same theme with
that of Beltran by studying Christ of the Gospels placed in the Filipino context.
Another important figure in the Philippines that contributed a great deal of
theological reflection on Christ is the Jesuit theologian Catalino G. Arevalo, SJ, who
for many years taught and compiled notes of a renewed interest in Christology for
four decades (1960-2000).28 Jose de Mesa did a pioneering work of the so-called
«theological re-rooting» which is the effort to communicate the Gospel values in the
context of the Filipino and its native language by cultural exegesis as a
hermeneutical act.29 Aside from these are the various theses, articles from various
journals, and symposia that continued to reflect on various Filipino Christological
themes. One important theological symposium organized by the Society of the
Divine Word was entitled «The Filipino Face of Christ», held in Tagaytay City, in
January 15-17, 1991, and is attended by mostly deans and professors of theology

26
Cfr. “Foreword” in The Filipino of Face of Christ, A Theological Symposium, ed. B. BELTRAN,,
Divine Word Seminary, Tagaytay City, 1981, 2 and D. SENIOR , J. COLLINS and M.A. GETTY (eds),
The Catholic Study Bible: The New American Bible, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2010.
27
Cfr. D. ELWOOD and P. MAGDAMO, Christ in Philippine Context, New Day Publishers, Quezon
City, 1971.
28
Cfr. C. AREVALO, Notes for Lectures: Seminar Workshop on Christology: Notes and Readings,
Loyola School of Theology, Quezon City, 2001.
29
Cfr. J. DE MESA, In Solidarity with the Culture: Studies in Theological Re-Rooting, Mary Hill
Press, Manila, 1987.
Ch. I: Redemption in the Filipino Religious Culture 21

from all over the country.30 It was an attempt and a concerted effort for theologians
in the Philippines to meditate on the Christ of the Gospels in the Filipino context.
What is, therefore, the Filipino face of Christ? To respond to this, Filipinos would
automatically or necessarily refer to the various images of Christ. Both studies of
Beltran and Elwood and Magdamo share conclusive results as to what the most
popular face of Christ is for the Filipinos, summarized in the following: The first is
the Hesus Nazareno or commonly known as the Black Nazarene. It is the image
found in the Quiapo Church and reputed to be the most miraculous of all images.
The second popular image is the Santo Niño. It is the image of the child Jesus in
royal robe with a globe in one hand and a scepter in the other. It was the first image
brought to the Philippines by the Spanish conquistadores. It is mostly popular in the
Visayan region, but even in the north, his image is seen on the altars of very
Filipino Catholic home. The third popular image is the Crucified Christ. The cross
has been the symbol of Christian faith everywhere. The cross is found in every
church, not only on every altar but also in the very architectural design of the
Church as it stands at the topmost part of its structure. The crucifix is found
everywhere, from hospital rooms, work places, classrooms and even places of work.
The fourth popular image of Christ for Filipinos is the Santo Entiero, or Christ in
the Sepulchre. The devotion to the dead Christ is particularly famous in Pampanga,
Manila and Bulacan. The fifth popular image of Christ is the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
This is mostly seen in the calendars given away every New Year, but its popularity
is evident with the mass attendance of devotees on First Fridays of the month.31
From the results, it is evident how Filipinos cling most to the suffering
image of Christ. While there are others who claim the Risen Christ, the Good
Shepherd and the Christ the King as their preferred image, most Filipinos,
especially the masses, would however relate more to Christ in His passion. This is
reaffirmed by Frank Lynch in saying that «The Christ of the Filipinos is pre
eminently a suffering Christ. He is the beaten, scourged, humiliated and defeated

30
Cfr. B. BELTRAN (ed.), The Filipino of Face of Christ, 4.
31
Cfr. B. BELTRAN, Christology of the Inarticulate, 116-112. As stated in the text, same results
are also found in Elwood and Magdamo’s work, cfr. E LWOOD and MAGDAMO, Christ in Philippine
Context, iii.
Ch. I: Redemption in the Filipino Religious Culture 22

Christ. With Christ under this aspect, the people of the Philippines in particular
32
identify themselves». Beltran claims that these Christological images have a
subliminal and latent mediations on the Filipinos’ perception of Christ and even
bears an implicit Christology in the popular manifestations of these devotions.33
When pastors and theologians give a scriptural foundation of this image of Christ,
the Filipino faith becomes more meaningful for them. This is even expressed by the
German theologian Jürgen Moltmann in The Crucified Christ saying that «the
theology of the cross was relevant only within the framework of human misery and
of salvation»34 and on how the identity of the church and the relevance of faith is
intrinsically related to the cross of Christ.35 Thus, With Christ’s reference to the
Suffering Servant of God from the Old Testament Scriptures (Isaiah 53:1-9), that
leads to its fulfillment in the Gospels through Christ’s suffering in the cross, to St.
Paul’s preaching of Christ’s suffering of kenotic significance (Philippians 2:6-8), to
the theological reflections of the Christian identity with the cross in human
suffering, these perceptions of suffering is connected to the Filipino concept of
heroism, when the bayani (hero), the protagonist, suffers a great deal at first, but
eventually overcoming these struggles and ending up victorious.

1.3 Soteriology as the Point of Departure of Filipino Christology From the

aforementioned data, it is evident the Filipinos are more inclined to the image of the
suffering Christ. They are sympathetic to the sufferings of Christ because they
themselves experience suffering. Philippine history would narrate how the country
has suffered under the hands of the foreign colonizers: 333 years under Spain, 48
years under the Americans, and 3 short but agonizing years under the Japanese. But
even when the colonizers are already gone, their daily experiences of poverty,
hunger, sickness and death continue to haunt them. No wonder they turn to Christ as
the Suffering-Victim. Some of the priests or the Church authorities often criticize
this over-emphasis of Filipinos to the Passion of our Lord while His

32
F. LYNCH, Organized Religion in the Philippines in HRAF Handbook on the Philippines,
Volume II, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1956, 485.
33
B. BELTRAN, Christology of the Inarticulate, 116.
34
J. MOLTMANN, The Crucified God, 40th Anniversary Edition, Fortress Press, Minneapolis 2015,
xxiii.
35
Cfr. Ibid., 1-36.
Ch. I: Redemption in the Filipino Religious Culture 23

Resurrection is de-emphasized. In the celebration of Holy Week or the Paschal

Feast, it is observed that the Filipinos are more attuned to the church activities of
the holy week, especially on Good Fridays, while on the Easter Sunday itself, they
are tired and asleep. Beltran gives three good explanations about this, reflecting on
the Filipino context, why the Resurrection is de-emphasized in the Filipino
consciousness. First, according to him, the Easter symbol of new life that the
Resurrection pledged is not felt by Filipinos due to their hot season especially when
the Paschal week was celebrated during the summer months when everything is dry
and brown. His second reason points to the Salubong Easter Filipino tradition, the
procession when the Blessed Mother meets the Risen Christ. The event however
emphasizes more of the joy of Mary as the Mother than the Resurrection of the Son.
This is due to the fact that the Philippines is a matriarchal society where
motherhood and kin relationships are strongly emphasized. And thirdly, in the
Filipino consciousness, the appreciation of Christ’s resurrection is more of an
eschatological event. The kabilang-buhay (afterlife) mentality pervades in their
consciousness when the joy of reunion with one’s relatives who have passed on to
this life would take place.36
But more than the Filipinos identification with the suffering Christ, they
are more perceptive, on the other hand, to Christ’s solidarity with them. They see in
these images that Christ suffers with them and for them, a glaring message of that «I
am with you» (Isaiah 41:10, Matthew 28:20), that «God is with us!» (Matthew
1:23), and that «the Lord will not abandon His people» (Psalm 94:14). That amidst
the suffering the Filipino people endure, there is «someone» who reassures them,
who gives them hope, who promises them light and salvation. It is mainly for this
reason, and more reasons we shall see later, why soteriology would be a starting
point for Filipino Christology. Critical and connected to this soteriological
perspective is the need for the analysis of the Filipino experience of sin and evil. To
reflect on salvation is to answer: from what we are saved from? From what does
Christ save us?
Even before the Spaniards arrived in the Philippines, the recognition of
deities of Filipino forefathers is due to the recognition of the existence of evil. It has

36
Cfr. Ibid., 139-140.
Ch. I: Redemption in the Filipino Religious Culture 24

been already in the Filipino consciousness the dualism of good and evil at work in
the world through the various myths of every tribe. 37 They believe in the devil, evil
creatures and spirits that lurk in nature. The belief of their existence formed part in
their consciousness that evil forces are always there and present, and that no one
could escape from them. That is why they resort to their deities for deliverance.
They built altars and offered chants and sacrifices. And when evil persists, it is
probably because their efforts are not enough, or perhaps they did something that
displeased their gods. This is when they would see evil as a form of punishment,
unbelief or disobedience. It is from here they recognize the concept of sin as at is
connected to the presence of evil. For this reason, it has passed on to generations
that common fatalistic mentality of resignation, when a Filipino would remark,
«Bahala na!» (May it be so!). But the word bahala is actually derived from Bathala
who is regarded as one the ancient supreme Filipino gods. This expression is a
resignation of a Filipino’s fate to the will of his god. This fatalistic attitude of
resignation forms in the Filipino consciousness his «pagtitiis», the patient
endurance to bear his pain and sufferings, even when they are undeserved,
excruciating, and bordering on irrational violence and twists of fate.
As we critically examine this context, we begin to understand how
Filipinos, from their innermost being, are so in need of salvation. That is why when
Christ is presented as the promised Savior, how easy it is for them to claim him.
Salvation or redemption or kaligtasan in the Filipino parlance is the key concept to
get to the person of Christ. It is from here where Filipinos draw out the ultimate
significance of Christ in their life. It is in this context why soteriology should be the
starting point for Filipino Christology.
For Beltran, the central and paradigmatic event for Filipino Christology is
the death and resurrection of the Christ who «was put to death for our sins and
raised for our justification» (Romans 4:25).38 After a comprehensive and methodic
inquiry and study of the understanding of the Filipino about Christ, he ended up to
this conclusion and proposition that:

37
Cfr. A. CORLETO, Creation and Fall in Genesis 1-3 and Philippine Myths, Divine Word
Seminary, Tagaytay City, 1982.
38
B. BELTRAN, Who do You say that I am?, 8.
Ch. I: Redemption in the Filipino Religious Culture 25

One point of departure for Christology in the Philippines is the

elaboration of an adequate and appropriate theology of redemption or a
soteriology. The Christian understanding of salvation must be explained
in the context of the Filipino experience of sin and evil and the longing
for liberation in the Philippines.39

This claim is from the context of his findings that it is of the same
soteriological interest the Fathers of the Church were motivated in the desire to
search for a Christology that can mediate conciliar teaching with the ultimate
horizon of meaning.40 It is a task given to future researchers and theologians to
continue where he left of, after pointing out some possible directions from this
while providing them the prolegomena to a Filipino Christology as a guide. 41 It is
from here where I wish to make a contribution, an attempt to do a soteriological
reflection on the Filipino image and devotion of Black Nazarene in the lens of, and
guided by Bernard Lonergan, whose method, as I see it, is in-sync with Beltran’s
method for Christology in the Philippines.

2. The Filipino Understanding of Redemption in the Devotion to the Black

Nazarene.

2.1 A Brief Background of the Black Nazarene

The Black Nazarene is a life-size image of Christ dressed in a maroon
colored robe, embroidered with a golden design of woven thorns, with white laces
around the neck, the sleeves, and the waist. He wears a crown of thorns and a
diadem in the form of three rays. On his right shoulder lay a big wooden cross,
embraced by his right hand. He is in a semi-kneeling position with a straight body
and a stretched back. It is a snapshot of Christ rising up after a fall from the weight
of the cross. His face is dark, smeared with blood gushing from the wounds of the
crown of thorns from his head and from the wound of his smitten left cheek. His
face is expressive of pain that sends varied messages depending on who
contemplates on it. For Aguinaldo: «His whole face, eyes, and mouth manifest the
writhing pain He suffers, and portrays a call of someone to help Him carry the

39
B. BELTRAN, Christology of the Inarticulate, 162.
40
Cfr. Ibid.
41
Cfr. Ibid., 204-248.