TODAY, Semana Santa in Baguio comes an end today, rather in more somber times amid the continuing threat posed upon us by Covid-19. Since Monday this week, we’ve been calling upon spiritual strength and redemption, at least those that can harnessed from within, and at most from up above, reminded that God the Father is all that we can all implore when man-made efforts seem without much result.
Covid-19 is one enemy that has been afflicting us all this time of ECQ — extended up till April 30 — and in a way more spiritual, it has bonded us from a sense of deep humanity now laying prostrate before a chosen deity. This is what Semana Santa has ushered in, circa 2020, a coming together by keeping apart, for everyone’s salvation — not just ourselves, not just loved ones closest to us, but even neighbors whose being have come nearest the allowable grasp. Today, as we mark Resurrection in all its glorious burst, we end a week-long spiritual immersion that Christians the world over have direst need for, given the nature of the times when just being pious in one’s belief have to be extracted from a far distance, away from infecting each other, face in half-mask to be risk-free. It’s been a week of R and R, which is what Baguio has been through the years to many Filipinos. No, it isn’t about rest and recreation which is what the nation’s summer capital has become — and has been affectionately regarded all through many summer yesteryears — it’s about the reflection and redemption that many, to be sure, are thirsting for at a grim time such as now.
Years past of Holy Week in Baguio are memories shoved out of remembrance if only for because we need to grapple with the afflictions of the moment. Those were summer days when most residents jostle it out for sojourns out of the city and elsewhere — back to provincial roots for badly needed homecomings — even as heat-suffering lowlanders braved all odds to beat the sweaty climes over in their midst. Those were mundane afflictions of many a Semana Santa when summertime ejected not just thrills but woes as well. Not enough water all around? No problem, everyone would simply endure it like we residents of this beloved city have been doing, 24/7. Too much traffic on the road? No problem, we’d manage to survive the usual snags and snarls, and even the occasional loss of common sense.
Here we are now on the final day of pious reflection, this time more immersed in what’s real, what’s imminent, what’s lying out there down the road. Surely, it’s been less of a festive treat as it used to be, and more of a soul uplifting episode. Because of Covid-19, not much but sporadic arrivals came our way, many of them returning relatives eager to interact once more, albeit from far-off safe distance, with relatives and relationships as filial as the good ol’days.
A good, divining sign of humanity re-discovered indeed. Really, when times are at their afflictive moments, familys re-discover a thousand one endearing ways, much of which even need adaptation to the call sweeping not just our little world, but even the larger realm of what has become of our planetary home. Amid Covid-19, Baguio remains clean and green at all times, invariably unmessed from all the dirt and debris of a bygone past. Founded, developed and nurtured nearest the Philippine skies, Baguio signifies caring and sharing, between and among our own residents and the visitors who have been scared enough to get through their usual journeys up north and down south. It’s all about the precious environment that Baguio has had beyond compare, unequalled in its uniqueness, the very pristine natural setting from which precious resources have grown in full splendor, the very richness of a heritage that has remained astonishingly harmonious, despite the diversity of differences.
When Covid-19 has gone to its just conclusion, hopefully sooner than later, when Baguio is all set to recover and renew, new beginnings will surely sprout, fresh starts may have to be endeavored like the phoenix rising from ruined existence. To be sure, Baguio is never the beach resorts that used to explode in uncalled for revelry, never the other valley-cradled places offering playtime activities at sky-rocketing costs, never the other summer sites with not much to offer other than the usual Philippine landscape scenes available elsewhere. Baguio is Baguio of summertime thrills, of romantic interludes beyond remembering, of nature cradling people in a benevolent embrace, of a Divine Being watching over his flock in a shared linkage from birth to rebirth.
Re-discovering this mindset will bring Baguio back to its spiritual foundations, where we hold holy the Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection in sacrosanct piety, simply because Covid-19 has made us closer while standing apart. Our own sins of living in distance from the Creator, this we seek atonement, our own avowals for reformation, from ever again staying way off course, this we strive to realize in genuine contrition and repentance. Holy Week in Baguio is spiritually more about living life the right way, regardless when everything else seems wrong, regardless when everyone seems out of synch, regardless of the material reasons for our spiritual being. It is about being there for and with our God, when life has become too much to bear, when enduring it out amid the frustration of the days should be bringing out more of human kindness, rather than human greed that always begins with the first inconsiderate act.
We may have become Holier this week. We may have transformed ourselves and, learning from today’s Resurrection, be whole again in the fullness of spiritual rebirth that comes from redemption. Well and good. With and (hopefully) without Covid-19, let us stay the course of keeping faith that God, as unseen as the evil incarnate that the virus is, remains loving for His creations. A joyfully rising Easter everyone
