Lenten In My Mind
contributed by Zach
I am an atheist. I have been one since I graduated from my nun-run catholic high school, where one of the most sacred holidays that they celebrate is the season of Lent. I remember back then, that I had to bring home the missalette (the pamphlet for mass) home every Sunday as proof that I did go to mass, and we had to write a paper about the priests’ sermon that Sunday and if there were any special announcement from the cardinal or pope (politics on the pulpit) for we had only one acceptable reason why we could not attend mass, and that was when we were sick. Come Lenten season, which by the way for those non-knowing people actually starts on Ash Wednesday. Lenten season is 40 days people. Not one week. Meaning, the nuns would remind us that Friday should be a meatless meal day from Ash Wednesday onwards. Special prayers had to be said. I have forgotten the other things that back then I had to observe, my family being strictly devout Catholics also.
Next month the Catholic community will be celebrating Holy Week. Since we are the only Catholic country in Asia, it has been marked red-letter days in our calendar, meaning that it is an official Holiday for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. For some lucky dudes out there, especially those with government posts, they are on Holiday as early as Holy Monday. The more prudent companies give a half-day on Wednesday. But most establishments will be closed from Thursday to Saturday to observe the sanctity of this event. With most of the malls closed and with a long weekend ahead, most Filipinos grab this opportunity to go out of town and make it a family holiday. For some companies, they schedule the company outings on this day.
But if you work for a call center, like I do, most likely you’ll be one of the lucky ones still in the metro by that time. Not that it matters to me working on the said days. I have not been observing Lent since I became an atheist and it is with some luck that I have always landed jobs with American companies who don’t celebrate Lent, meaning that we do business on those days. And I would not brave the traffic on the expressways, be it north or south on that season because traffic on the expressway is the definition of hell for me.
Funny that for a traditional Catholic country, people view the coming Holy Week as fiesta and gimik week. I know that aside from Christmas and New Year, this is one of the occasions where I can find more drunk people lolling about the streets, with videokes blaring at full volume, and mind you they’re not singing “Pasyon”. In these modern times, there is barely a town or house that is occupied that I see that is silent, people quietly meditating, (or sleeping heheheh) while praying on these days.
Lenten season by the ways is more important for the Catholic faith than all other seasons combined. It is here where the faithful are reminded of the sacrifice and the meaning of that sacrifice of Jesus Christ (the saving of souls from eternal damnation). But who am I to pass judgment on those who want to relax on a long weekend, even if it is a sacred Catholic Holiday? Maybe most Filipinos are atheists by heart, only they don’t care to admit it. And in this land of hopelessness, they need to have someone or something to hold on to in hopes that things will turn out for the better for them. Religion sells to the poorest of the poor, because it gives them things that they want to hear, and it inspires them to look forward with a positive note in hand.
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