500 Years of Christianity in the Philippines A Personal Reflection: Living and Growing in Faith
500 Years of Christianity in the Philippines
A Personal Reflection: Living and Growing in Faith
by Arlenne Villahermosa
“Prepare for Mass; change your clothes now”, was the call my mother would make for all of us to get ready for Mass or for any other Church celebration that we would be attending.
This call lingered on in my memory long after my mother has stopped calling on us to change our clothes for Mass. Over the years, it served as a reminder for me to change, not so much anymore on its intended original message, but on my attitude and ways that are not life-giving, as I prepare to meet God in the daily banquet of life.
Attending Sunday Masses, fiestas and other religious events or celebrations were a big part of our growing-up years from childhood to teenage life, and into our adult years.
Whenever my siblings and I heard the call of my mother, we responded either happily, excitedly, half-heartedly or reluctantly depending on our situation at the given moment. The time came when my mother need not call on us anymore. We took the responsibility of preparing ourselves for Mass. It has become a part of our lives as Catholics. Through the years, we’ve learned to discover for ourselves our different callings in life and how to live-out our faith in the paths of our own choosing. The faith that was passed on by our mother to us, which was also passed on to her from generations past, remains alive in us.
My faith journey has led me to becoming a lay missionary of the Missionary Society of St Columban. I have brought with me my faith experience, along with my search for a deeper relationship with God in the people and the universe He has given us. My experience in the Philippine Church, with all its richness as well as its flaws, has been a source of strength in the mission. As I shared it with the people in Korea and Myanmar to where I was sent, they too have enriched my Christian faith and reaffirmed my belief in the ever-present love of God even in the unfamiliar and the unexpected waiting to be recognized, to be welcomed and to be accepted.
Arlenne (seated at the corner) attending a youth prayer service one Sunday morning in one of the houses in Banmaw, Kachin State, Myanmar
Living in faith is being open to see and recognize the many faces of God in our world. Growing in faith is being able to go beyond the self and work together as one community, regardless of gender, faith, nationality, culture and age, for the good of all and of our planet Earth.
500 years of Christianity in the Philippines is an ongoing journey of a maturing relationship with God as a people, collectively and personally. The Filipino people and the Philippine Church have lived out the Christian faith in many different ways – sometimes in straight paths, other times in crooked lines, and sometimes even with just a shimmer of faith in the heart. The faith that we received from our Spanish colonizers has come a long way, yet we know that a lot of improvements are still needed in living out the gospel values taught to us by Jesus.
Like Jesus who grew in stature and wisdom, may our faith mature into a response that hears the call to a life of loving service – a life which hears and responds with compassion, justice and mercy to the cry of the poor, the marginalized and the wounded earth.