Challenges popular piety poses
A church document defines popular piety as follows: “those diverse cultic expressions of a private or community nature which, in the context of the Christian faith, are inspired predominantly not by Sacred Liturgy but by forms deriving from a particular nation or people or from their culture.”
Note that it is supposed to spring from Christian faith and that it expresses itself not so much in terms of strictly liturgical norms as of a people’s cultural character. It’s more of a people’s response to the faith they receive, understand and live.
It’s truly a great blessing when we have popular piety breaking out, as it has, in many places of our country. It can only mean that in spite of our warts and all, we have an inculturated, if rudimentary, faith that can’t help but show itself in public in some specific forms.
It means our faith has already entered deep into our people’s psyche and ethos, such that it more or less spontaneously, and surely under God’s grace, bursts forth in public display. It means the Holy Spirit is at work and we are responding to his promptings.
The devotions and other pious practices surrounding our faith and love for the Black Nazarene, Santo Nino, our Lady and saints attest to this wonderful phenomenon, now hardly seen in many other countries, especially the more developed but already secularized ones.
We have to do all to keep, nourish and protect such popular piety from forces that seek to undermine, weaken or empty it of its proper substance and spirit.
More than this, we need to realize that such popular piety should be purified and enriched, made to mature and bear concrete fruits not only of personal holiness and apostolate, but of vast social transformation.
It would be wrong to leave popular piety alone, thinking that by itself it can grow and develop into maturity. It has to be trained and egged to aspire to reach higher levels and degrees of perfection. Obviously some supernatural forces are at work, but these do not exempt us from doing our part in nurturing it.
We cannot deny that many difficulties, barriers and corrupting elements need to be surmounted. A good part of it can be generated merely by a passing curiosity, not much different to the one associated with the UP oblation run.
Or it can be due also to a fit of sentimentalism, very common among people not yet exposed to modern developments. Or it can just be a public desire at certain special occasions to be socially showy of our official creed.
It needs to be purified, deepened and strengthened. Especially at its early stages, it can be vulnerable to superstition and outright errors in the understanding of one’s faith. Confusion and a mix-up of priorities and hierarchy of values can also spoil it.
Thus, the fervor it generates often has only short shelf life. It’s also one that can hardly translate into action, or grapple with the daily routine of work and the issues of the day, be it political, social, economic, etc.
The ardor loses consistency when applied to the other aspects of our life. Thus, we continue to see a lot of discrepancies and anomalies in our socio-political life. People can be hot in public, but cold in their personal prayers, feeling holy in extraordinary times, but spiritually dry in ordinary times.
One time while visiting a popular shrine of Our Lady, I felt uneasy to see people showing great piety to the image of the Virgin while giving practically no attention to the Blessed Sacrament just beside it.
Repeatedly people tell me they just light votive candles to their favorite patron saint instead of fulfilling the Sunday obligation. Their doctrinal grounding is shallow. They often fail to harmonize their popular piety with the standards of faith and liturgy.
With this situation, it’s no wonder that abuses can emerge and fester. Acts of exploitation erupt as in the commercialization of religious items and even outright simony. Many tricks and gimmicks can be played on the gullible.
In its worst cases, it can foster or perpetuate emotional infantilism, psychological imbalances and religious fanaticism.
There’s no doubt that continuing formation and catechesis is needed by all, but especially among the Church leaders or any religious group directly involved in the popular piety.
Highly disciplined and motivated, they should know how to cope with the fast-changing challenges of popular piety, knowing how to maneuver between the dangers and the good potentials it can have. Official vigilance is a must!
(Fr. Cimagala is the Chaplain of Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City. Email: roycimagala@gmail.com)