Marco Carvalho
It is the greatest symbol of the suffering Jesus underwent to redeem the sins of mankind. The Procession of the Passion of Our Lord made its way through the streets of Macau over the weekend, in a unique demonstration of faith. Thousands of people took part in the ceremony, announcing the triumph of Jesus over sin and despair. Among them were pilgrims from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The annual procession of the Passion of our Lord, one of East Asia’s oldest Catholic traditions, wound its way through the city center on the first Sunday of Lent, March 9th, drawing huge crowds from Macau and the neighboring regions. Bishop Stephen Lee Bun-sang presided over the event, an expression of faith that left everyone in owe and devotion. The event attracted devotees from Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan and other regions, near and far.
In keeping with a three-hundred-year-old tradition, the two-day procession recalls the experiences of the Passion and death of Jesus, as depicted in the Bible. The parade re-enacts the suffering inflicted on the Son of God, starting from his condemnation on the Preatorium to his crucifixion at the Calvary. On Saturday, the procession of the Cross set out from St. Augustine’s Church in the early hours of the evening and the image of Christ bearing the cross was taken to the Cathedral of the Nativity of Our Lady, where the Sermon of the Garden of Gethsemani was delivered, and an overnight vigil was held. Father Daniel Ribeiro was once again chosen to preach the first major sermon of the weekend and the Dehonian missionary urged the faithful to follow in the footsteps of Christ and to embrace the redemptive dimension of suffering: ‘A great Italian preacher, the now Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, tells us, in one of his sermons, that maturity in faith is to praise God in the middle of suffering. This is where maturity in faith lies. In saying, ‘May your will be done, not mine’. Dear brothers and sisters may everyone carry their own cross. But may we also, with the same maturity that was shown by Jesus, be able to say: ‘Lord, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done. May the Lord help us to remain faithful until the end. May the Lord help us to persevere and one day live with him in Eternity,’ the Brazilian preacher urged local devotees.
The Sermon of the Garden of Gethsemani, Father Daniel Ribeiro told “O Clarim”, is of vital importance in the sequence of events that led to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on the hill of Calvary and to His subsequent resurrection. By embracing his suffering and accepting the terrible experience he was about to go through, Jesus opened the door of salvation to every person who would ever live on this Earth: “The Sermon of the Garden of Gethsemani is the sermon that Jesus delivered on the evening of Maundy Thursday. It’s a preaching that was delivered in a moment of agony, the moment when Jesus’ suffering really begins. It was exactly at that moment that he asked the apostles to pray for him. Jesus ends up praying alone and thrice he asks his father to remove the cup of sufferance from Him, to take away his hardships. Historically, this preaching doesn’t take place during Lent, but in the first day of the Easter Triduum, on Thursday evening”, the parochial vicar of the Cathedral Parish explains. “On Friday evening we have the last words of Jesus, and the last words of Jesus are remembered in the Sermon on the Calvary. When Jesus concludes the Way of the Cross, he doesn’t say anything, but before the crucifixion he utters what turn out to be his last words. This sermon, the second great sermon of the weekend, is delivered at the end of the procession of the Passion of Our Lord, which is a little longer and mimics Christ’s journey to the Crucifixion. Why is it called the procession of the Passion of Our Lord? Because it shows us Jesus’ journey towards glory, towards the Resurrection. Jesus goes through agony in Mount Olivet, where he prayed and then again in the Calvary, where he was crucified. These two sermons challenge us with very intense moments of suffering, the suffering that Jesus went through, both at Gethsemani and at the Calvary”, Father Daniel Ribeiro adds.
Faith without borders
In Macau, the devotion to the Passion of Our Lord is centuries old and draws hundreds of people every year. The Procession of the Cross, on Saturday, and the Procession of the Passion of Our Lord as such, on Sunday, are among the most important public displays of faith in the Special Administrative Region and this year was no exception. Carlos Anok Cabral, president of the Board of Directors of the Confraternity of the Passion of Our Lord, told “O Clarim” that the turnout for both processions was much better than expected. Mr. Cabral argues that the Procession of the Passion of Our Lord is increasingly popular beyond the local borders: ‘The number of participants has far exceeded our estimates and surpassed the number of people who took part in the procession one year ago. There were many more people taking part in the procession this year. The Public Security Police and the Macau Transport Bureau (DSAT) had to deploy a lot more officers to ensure the participants’ safety. We noticed that the PSP had to put more police on the streets to maintain security”, the head of the confraternity claims. “Apart from a minor incident with the loudspeakers at the beginning of the procession, everything went very smoothly this year, with the assistance of the Public Security Police, the Traffic Bureau and the other local parishes. The other parishes of the Catholic Diocese of Macau called on their parishioners and sent their altar servers to help with the procession. But we were lucky enough not only to count with the support of other local parishes, but also with the contribution of one of the parishes of neighboring Hong Kong, which sent its altar servers to join us in this procession. It was a great honor for us to welcome them to Macau”, Carlos Anok Cabral told “O Clarim”.
As well as pilgrims from the neighboring Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the procession of the Passion of Our Lord also brought to Macau devotees from mainland China and Taiwan. The largest contingent of pilgrims, however, came right from across the Pearl River Delta: “We noticed that there were more believers in the street. Not only local believers, but also devotees from mainland China and other places. We had three groups that came from one of the parishes of Hong Kong. The largest one had over a hundred people and the other two were thirty-something and twenty-something strong. Altogether, there were three groups from Hong Kong, several small groups from mainland China and a few more from Taiwan”, Mr. Cabral concludes.
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