FOLLOWERS of the Black Nazarene procession have dismissed the genuinely spiritual truth that should otherwise redirect their fanatical adoration. A regular participant in the annual “translacion” recounted in a radio interview that he felt his body trembling as if seized by an unknown “power” during their prayer of “Our Father.” He started weeping and he could not explain why. He did not say if he had been drinking before the procession, although the news media have reported the smell of alcohol lingering among numerous penitents.
Many probably have since assumed a connection between being inebriated with liquor and the emotional or inspiring uplift. Whether the renewed burst of a fresh well-being was triggered by drinking or not, hundreds of followers believe that it was a blessing, among others, that God has bestowed on them. But they would come during a huge idolatrous and unbiblical event that God himself had long rebuked.
God declares in Dueteronomy 5: 8-9. “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.” As we know, Israel went from one debacle to another when its people chose to worship other gods and idols made by human hands.
Miraculous physical healings during and after the grand procession have also been attributed to Jesus Christ who is mistaken as a Healer ministering from a carved wood.
There are, of course, dozens of controversial healing beliefs but which can only stand as undisputably authentic if these are based on the Word of God in the Bible. To Christian believers and even to Catholics, it is ironic that nowhere is the Holy Spirit invoked during the more-than-a-day long march even if it is clear that God says in the Bible that “true worshipers will worship in Spirit and in truth.” Many healing miracles then and now had been only transient or temporary because sin has returned. Jesus warned to “sin no more” or the disease would come back. Truthful spiritual healing or spiritual deliverance should accompany physical healing and one without the other will not last. Sorcery and mysticism leading to miracles in the Bible were not carried out by the prophets of old or by the disciples of Jesus.
Emotions are not exclusive avenues for an encounter with Jesus, which are also employed by Satan for his dubious and doomed purposes and which have become more strangely credible than deeper and liberating Biblical enlightenment. And it seemed that the Catholic Church, with its watered-down set of commandments, has completely bowed to tradition and the real fear of massive protests bannered by fanatical paganism if and when it finally embraces the truth of the Gospels and denies the Black Nazarene procession as a farcical and ungodly ceremony.
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Who among the officers and employees of RPN 9 and IBC 13 can forget the feisty Ninez Cacho-Olivares? She was appointed chairman by President Cory Aquino to the board then administering two sequestered networks. She replaced the top management with Malacanang appointees and assured the four unions of continuity in operations and revenues. But when the negotiations for the employees’ new collective bargaining agreement at IBC 13 were delayed for three months, its two unions went on strike.
The employees disabled the transmitter and the TV station went off the air. Ninez called the police to help break up the picket line at the TV transmitter site in Quezon City. While the police was still negotiating with the union officers, Ninez suddenly stormed inside, elbowing her way in or shoving those blocking her way. Once inside the transmitter building she ordered power to be restored to restart the transmitter, but no one budged. The engineering manager begged helplessness as the needed cable and mechanism for the transmitter to resume operations had gone missing. After about 10 minutes she left in a huff.
The TV network would go back on air after three days, losing more than half of its revenues during the period. Ninez didn’t play tough this time and resumed the CBA negotiations after a week. Malacacang later created separate boards for the two networks and Ninez remained as chairman only of RPN 9.
