The Three Kings and
the Black Nazarene

The feast of the Three Kings ends the annual December Christmas festivities. In the Philippines, at least. This is marked by the actual gift-giving tradition by most of the diehard Catholics.

In Manila and elsewhere in the country, three men, dressed in ancient clothes, with crowns, go around with bags of gifts to be distributed to the poor.

This was a tradition I had seen since I was a small boy yet in Cebu City where Spanish-speaking old folks enthusiastically joined the fun of gift-giving.

Usually, the Casino Español was the site of the early ritual that signaled the end of the Christmas Season.

Of course, the three kings are the wise men mentioned in the Bible. They were reportedly from various countries of the then Middle East.

And our ancestors must have realized that they had travelled far and wide to be able to see Jerusalem where they were received by then King Herod.

Later, our forefathers may have decided to flesh them out. So they changed the wise men to three kings. That decision must have been anchored on both tradition and common sense. Although he was just a minor king, Herod could not have revived them into His chamber and summoned his wives including his seers, etc., to be able to give them assistance in determining where the King of the Jews was going to be born.

But one thing I have noticed about Christmas, we have always associated it with Santa Claus. Although a lot of explaining had been done to justify the use of “Uncle Nick” as the Savior, if is a cult that has eliminated Christ from the center of our worship.

That is why there is a real need for all of us believers to help refocus Christ being on earth in Bethlehem we are supposed to be celebrating. Not that Christ was born on December 25, as traditional observers. But the tradition had endorsed the best of firm and faith. And so we end up with our secularized observance of the Nativity.

Tomorrow is the feast of the Black Nazarene. He is the Saint of Quiapo. And millions believe in the cult and join the strange rites behind it. The festival dates back to Mexico where it originated. But over the years, the cult of the Black Nazarene had grown bigger and now encompasses millions of largely Manila residents and those around the big city as well as the Southern Luzon provinces.

I had covered the Black Nazarene festivities every year for many years. Strangely, except for a few, hardly anybody really has been killed by the stampeding of crowd that frenziedly clamber over one another in the bid to wipe their handkerchiefs on the Black Nazarene’s statue.

It is simply amazing. Hundreds are tossed from one group to another with hardly anybody truly getting his bones cracked. That I believe is the miracle. One can hardly imagine the sight of men climbing over the backs of others to get their hankies handed to the statue’s caretakers to have them wipe it on the Nazarene. Later, they are tossed back, and there is the struggle to retrieve them. Simply amazing.

But going back to the more interesting story. My children who were in Bacolod at the time, had travelled as far as Fabrica to bid farewell to our dear friend, Rachelle Burgos, wife of the late Dr. Nestor Burgos.

I would have gone with them to Fabrica, and later to Cadiz City, to accompany her trip to the grave. But my physician-daughter refused to grant me permission to travel that far.

Dr. Burgos was a close friend of both Nene, Dr. Lourdes L. Espina, and myself. But over the years, we have hardly joined together. But that did not limit our contact with one another.

Yesterday, I received word from another daughter, Inday Salvacion Espina-Varona of Manila SU who informed us that Atty. Renecio Espiritu a member of our Christian Family Movement Unit II of Homesite, passed away in Manila.

Since the time that they had transferred to Manila, Espiritu and his family had only sparingly been in touch with us. But I knew of his successful practice in the Big City. There he became later one of the topnotch lawyers. He even won a case as law partner of an American law firm in California. That was something I had written about with gusto because it showed that a Bacolod lawyer could hold his own against some of the world’s best legal brains.

Still, as I said, our contact had been spotty. Later, almost nothing. She promised to send me the details about the transfer of his remains to Bacolod where he had reportedly expressed his wish to be buried.

Rene’s wife, Grace, must be suffering much with the loss of her husband. So with the children. But we know, as most members of the CFM unit, that God takes care of his own.

God bless your soul, Rene.*

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