HOLINESS EQUATED WITH ROYALTIES?

Way back in the 60's I remember when Lent would come, my older relatives would hush us and make us pray or read the Bible instead of talking or chatting on the phone. It was a very very long period for me and I would grow impatient. Instead I would retreat to the top of my aratiles tree and read books on mythology, that was after I had gone to the Sacred Heart Parish Church in Sta. Mesa and heard mass. 

By the way, I really loved going to that Church because the priests then would swing incense sticks engulfing the whole interior. Then the mass was said in Latin and so, it seemed as if we churchgoiers were in another world enveloping us with the holiness only associated with the Divine. 

I became an agnostic after a time. I told my friends, "I am not an atheist but if you can prove to me that God exists then I would believ you." As a agnostic, I wanted to be convinced of the valid existence of God. 

However, when my mother, Esperanza died, I longed to see the images of her, every morning, reading the Bible at the terrace. In fact, some nights, she would ask me to read passages for her, as if she was readying herself to meet the Great Maker already. 

So since 2008, when she passed away, I would travel from one church to another, born again, Catholic, Protestant, and even Islamic, just to feel the heavenly presence of God, whichever religion could give me that experience. 

Now I have settled down in one in Diliman, where I am also a member of the choir, singing beautiful songs that speak of the holiness and invincibiliyy of God. 

One thing I notice with some songs though is their reference to Jesus Christ as King. I also heard that over DZFE, the only radio station that airs classical music all the time, or majority of the times. A pastor had spoken about the King, and I shudder at the thought of seeing Jesus as a King. 

A Filipino painter has a painting of Christ with the downtrodden and he does not look like a king at all in it. And that really looks very natural to me, Christ having dinner with the poor. 

I really prefer seeing Christ in that manner because He is closest to our lives in this underdeveloped (morally and economically in terms of governance) country. He seems like a very sensitive companion who is not afraid to go all the way to live with us, to share our problems of existence. 

I think composers must stop that idea of equating Jesus' holiness with the royalties. Kings and queens are earthly titles and Christ is God, not an earthly being. So I really find it odd for them to be harping on him as a king. 

I lived in England for almost two years in the eighties and I had seen how difficult it was to have an aristocracy, especially during that time that Princess Diana was having marital problems with her husband supposedly the king-to-be, having a dalliance with another woman. 

Maybe we have a lot of wayward individuals in our midst because our image of Christ is not that clear to them. I will reveal to you that one of the policemen who was involved in the murder of their own officer, used to carry a Bible in his youth and would attend worship services sponsored by my mother at home. So where has his religiosity gone now?

To preserve Christ's image as one of us, as a man of God for everyone, and not for royalties, nor does he carry any qualities of being a member of the royalty, we, artists, musicians, singers, writers and I would say even theologians, could be more guarded about presenting his image to the public. 

*African Christian Art