The Glocal Filipin@s and the Pasyon Through the Lens of Ethnicity

This chapter continues the discussion on the pasyon, the non-stop chanting of the passion of Christ during Holy Week in the Philippines. It engages the ongoing debate regarding the question of priority between the text and the performance of the pasyon. It posits that from a theological-pastoral perspective, the binary approach is unnecessary and unhelpful given the participation of the global and local Filipin@s in the world community where ethnic hate proliferates. Instead, there is a need to recognize, challenge, and correct the ethnic-based denigration of the Hudyo (Jews) in the theological-pastoral language of the pasyon toward a more ethnicity-inclusive theological-pastoral approach that shows solidarity with the poor and outcasts rather than the ongoing denigration of the Jews. The chapter’s position is argued following these three sections: (1) the diverging views on the text and the performance of the pasyon, (2) problematizing the theological-pastoral language of the pasyon through the lens of ethnicity, and (3) recontextualizing the pasyon for an ethnicity-inclusive theological-pastoral solidarity with the glocal Filipin@s.