https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12852/1347 Sun, 05 Apr 2026 16:10:09 GMT 2026-04-05T16:10:09Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12852/3466 The paschal liturgy in the Philippines context Laus, Joseph B. One of the most noticeable features of the present liturgical monument is the recovery, restoration, reformation or enrichment of the Paschal Liturgy of Holy Week and Easter as the crown of the Christian liturgical year. The paschal liturgy is the heart of the Christian liturgical year. It is the unitive celebration of the Christian Passover accomplished in Jesus Christ and into which all Christians are plunged by virtue of their baptism. It is the liturgical celebration of the one saving act of Christ in which the Church as his mystical body dies and rises again with him. The Paschal Liturgy consists of the Rites of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the Great Easter Liturgy of the Easter Night. When the Church celebrates the paschal rites of Holy Week and Easter, she is not keeping a series of antique rites of considerable beauty. It is by means of the liturgy that the Church makes present here and now the redeeming power of Christ's saving acts in the past. Holy Week and Easter is not chiefly the time for recollecting upon the last events our Saviour's life; nor is it a time for individual corporate retreats. It is all these, but it is chiefly a time for the renewal of the Church. And the Church in celebrating the paschal liturgy is concerned with the central facts of its existence and faith. By celebrating the liturgy, the Church lives more intensely than at any other time of the year the central facts of her existence and faith so that she may be drawn more closely to her redemption in Christ, and at the same renew herself to the very depths of her existence and faith. Year by year, the Church is renewed as she recalls in Holy Week the point of her redemption the cross and resurrection of Christ. It is the occasion of the Church’s corporate awareness of the events of her redemption. It is during Holy Week and especially the Sacred Triduum of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday in which the people of God enter into, and are renewed as the people of God by the triumphant passion of our Lord. Thus the paschal rites are the unique means by which the Church proclaim the Word of God to men, and the mighty acts of God in Christ for man's salvation accomplished in Christ once for all in history. The Church does this in rites and ceremonies, word and action, placarding the events of holy history, exposing and meditating upon it, and at the same time becoming identified with that which she proclaims and celebrates as present, passing from death to life, and becoming the new creation in the Risen Lord. The underlying theme of Holy Week and Easter is the Passover of Christ and the passover of his Christian brothers. Just as Christ passed over from death to life to the glory of the Father, so now the Church is making her passover through the liturgical celebration so that she may come to a new phase of her existence. In the first Holy Week, Christ redeemed us and every Holy Week He renews our redemption. Thus on Palm Sunday, the Church recalls the triumphal entry of our Lord to Jerusalem to accomplish his passover. On Maundy Thursday, the Church recalls the betrayal of our Lord and the institution of the Holy Eucharist in which Christ gave his body and blood as his anamnesis until He comes again. Then on Good Friday, the Church dies with Christ, she rises to life again, now filled with the life of the Risen Christ on Holy Saturday at the Great Easter Vigil. This work is a liturgiological study which is concerned with the origins and development of the liturgy as lived in the Church. Thus the basic thesis of this study is that true liturgical renewal must always return to the sacred sources, original and development of the liturgy. This grounding has a practical bearing on the present because it tells us how the Christians prayed and worshipped through the living centuries of the Church, providing a connecting link with the present as far back to the life and worship of the Primitive Church. And it is when we understand the primitive origins, the development of the liturgy through the centuries of the living Church, and this connecting link from the present to the primitive origins that we can know and understand best our present forms of divine worship. Thus the Given Liturgy, the Paradosis is a necessary ingredient in any liturgical renewal. What has been done in the liturgy and what is being done now must be tested against the given or the Paradoses. The work is divided into eight chapters. The first chapter is on the background and the origins of the Paschal; and then reconstructs the Primitive Рaschа as given especially by the writings of Justin Martyr and the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus. The second chapter deals with the development of the complex observance of the paschal liturgy, and the reconstruction of the same, especially as that which developed as the Jerusalem Holy Week pattern. The succeeding chapters outline the historical development of the Holy Week observance in the Western Church as a whole before Vatican II. The chapter on "Holy week" in the Orthodox Church” is to bring us to the liturgical traditions of the East as they have received the Paradosis from the Primitive Church. However, this section is very limited because of the lack of texts available, except the English translation of the Holy Week services from the service book of the Holy Orthodox Catholic (Greco-Russian) Church by Isabel Hapgood (1906 edition). The chapter on "The Paschal Liturgy in the Philippines" is important and its main concern is a description of the major customary religious practices that have been associated with the Holy Week observance in the Philippines. Thus this chapter gives the context of the Philippines, that in addition to the official rites of Holy Week many extra-liturgical or quasi-liturgical services are being observed by the people. This chapter poses a problem to the Church: “How should the traditional Holy Week practices be adapted, or redirected, or re-oriented so that they are not celebrated separately from and unrelated to the paschal liturgy of Holy Week and Easter?" This problem has become more serious because some of these religious practices which the people value so much have become tourist attractions in the streets, or they may fade away in the future years ahead. Some solutions to this problem is suggested on the chapter on "The Paschal Liturgy In The Liturgical Renewal." The main concern of this chapter is liturgical and practical. It reconstructs the restored and reformed paschal liturgy of the Church, especially as represented by the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church and the Reformed Church Tradition. Then it proceeds to give the principles for the adaptation of the liturgy to the norms and traditions of the people. First, a profound knowledge of Christian Tradition is necessary to discern in the custom what is universal from what is particular to a given civilization or culture. Second, the norms governing liturgical laws must be followed. Third, the substance of the liturgy must be kept intact; and fourth, indigenous practices and traditions must not be indissolubly bound up with superstition. With these norms in mind, the Church can carefully adapt or re-orient some of the meaningful traditional practices of the people into the liturgy of the Church, keeping what is valuable in them, correcting what is wrong and elevating them to the Gospel. Integrating some of the more meaningful traditions and practices of the people will involve them actively to participate and share in the paschal mystery which the paschal liturgy proclaims and celebrates. And the christian will be able to experience a continuity between his daily life and customs, and the Church. The paschal liturgy will then evidently be celebrated as the summit of the liturgical celebration of the Christian Year will be celebrated with reality and great awareness that we are truly a sacred people and members of Christ's body, which is highlighted in the liturgy of Christian Initiation (baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist of the Great Easter Liturgy. In effect, this brings to focus the meaning of the Christian life, making it clear that the Christian is incorporated into the body of Christ through the sacrament of Christian Initiation. Thus the Christian will be able to worship Christ, whose property he has become, because he will be able to understand Sunday better as a weekly Easter, the Eucharist and the prayers of the Church. The christian who participates in the paschal rites of Holy Week and Easter will not fail to understand the meaning of the Christian life, proclaimed and celebrated experienced in word and action through the effective symbolism of the liturgy. The concluding section of the chapter attempts to suggest for possibilities and areas of adaptation and liturgical renewal, orienting some of the traditional practices to the paschal liturgy of the Church as celebrated through the living ages of the Church. The final chapter is on "The Theology Of The Paschal Liturgy." Foremost is the Passover motif, and the death and resurrection of Christ. It was because the angel of the Lord passed over the land of Egypt killing the first-born of the Egyptians that the Israelites were enabled to pass over the Red Sea to Mount Sinai where God made covenant with them to be His Chosen People and He will be their God. This was the most important of all the saving acts of God among the people of the Old Testament. Now, when Christ came, what he did was in essence as that which God has done for Israel. It was a Passover, Israel in Egypt was hopeless, and except that God would intervene and do something. God intervened and delivered Israel. In like manner, the sinless man Christ, making himself in all things like man chose the way of the guilty though utterly guiltless, in order that men might be saved, becoming the Passover of his sinful brothers. Abstract only Sat, 01 Jan 1977 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12852/3466 1977-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12852/3463 The divinity and pre-existence of Jesus in the Gospel of John and its impact on the Christian evangelical church in Minahasa Lolowang, Decky Kornelius The conviction of Jesus’ divinity and pre-existence (from now on referred to as JDP) is one of the topics of theology which, on the one side, led to the rise of Christianity, but, on the other side, has been a confusing problem. The problem has been especially felt since rationalism has challenged JDP as it has been found in the church's witness and teaching. JDP has also been a problem for the church's encounter and dialogue with other religions. Today, the question arises as to the relevance of the J DP doctrine in the life, witness, and service of the contemporary church. Can the thought that everything written in the Bible must be accepted as the one and only criterion of true faith be maintained today? Or does the church have to reformulate her faith contextually, just as the writer of the Bible were always thinking and writing contextually? These are the questions which are discussed in this thesis. Historically, discussion of JDP occurred more frequently in post-New Testament writings. But NT texts were always used in these discussions. Therefore, the question needs to be asked as to how far and in what ways the NT writers thought of Jesus as divine and pre-ex existent. Within the NT, there are a number of passages which do seem to be marked by JDP, particularly in Colossians, Ephesians, and Hebrews. In Col. 1:5-10, Jesus is presented as the picture of the invisible God, as that which was before all else, for in him everything was created. In this hymn, the impression is given of Jesus as mediator between God and human beings together with all of creation. But JDP is not explicitly stated in this hymn; its main concern is with the role of God in creation and salvation, and not with Jesus’ divine and pre-existent nature. The same is true of Ef.1:3-14 which seems to point to Jesus ' r ole in the maintenance and salvation of the created order. The reference to the secret purpose of God before the creation of the world does not contain any explicit statement about the pre-existence of Jesus. What is stressed here is redemption in and by Jesus as part of God's plan which was determined in the beginning. Of more interest is the hymn in Heb.1:1-3. At a glance, JDP seems to be included in it, especially because of the statement that Jesus is the light of God's glory destined to declare God's will from the beginning. But the hymn is not dealing with JDP; rather it is stating God’s plan of salvation and God’s activity of redemption as looked at from the angle of its beginning and not of its ending that is related to Jesus. Therefore, if these hymns are carefully looked at, it cannot be said that they are expressions of JDP. But such expression for the first time clearly does occur in the gospel of John. For the reason, this thesis is concerned primarily with that NT writing. The hymn in the prologue (Jn.1:1-8) is concerned with the logos which existed before creation and through which creation occurred. The logos became human flesh for the purpose of salvation, and this incarnate logos is identified with Jesus. With this identification, it is clear that this section expresses JDP. Yet, the main emphasis here is not on pre- existence but on incarnation--logos sarx egeneto. The other passages in the gospel which seem to refer to JDP are those which speak of "the sending of the son by the father" ( see esp. 4: 34; 5:37; 6:44; 8:18,42; 13:3; 17:8) and of "the son of man descending into the world and then ascending again to the place from where he came” ( see esp. 3:2,13; 6:31,41, 62; 13:31-32). In addition to these, the frequent use of the phrase ego eimi -- a phrase which most likely refers to God’s or divine being's revelation (as found both in the Old Testament and in Hellenistic religious literature) -- conveys the impression that the writer is trying to express Jesus’ divinity as the one who comes from God and from the divine world. Statements such as " I am the bread of life which came down from heaven" (6:35,41), and "I am the door of the sheep" (10:7), or "I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (14:6) seem to contain the understanding of Jesus' function as the one who came from above to become the mediator between God and humankind. Then there are several verses where JDP is explicitly expressed, such as 3:13; 6:38; 8:38, 58; 17:5,24. The clearest of these is that in 8:58, "Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. Nevertheless, much of the gospel of John gives the impression that its main concern is not the nature of Jesus as the one who has come from the divine world, but rather the meaning of Jesus' presence in this world. The concern of the writer is not so much who Jesus is, but what Jesus does. By looking at what Jesus does during his time of being in the world, one can know the real God, that is, the loving and merciful God who has come to encounter human beings through Jesus. So it can be said that the christology which John developed to express his conviction about the loving God is really a functional, not an ontological, christology. By analysing the subject of JDP, I have tried to contribute to the church's understanding of her mission and teaching, especially that of my own church, the Christian Evangelical Church in Minahasa. If the church learns from the gospel of John, she realises that her christology should be more "functional rather than christological in character and that, however that may be, it is most important that she always try to do christology in a contextual way. I have tried to point to some traditional elements in Minahasan culture and religion that might well be part of the context for contemporary christology in Minahasa. The organisation of the thesis is as follows: Chapter I is description of the understanding of pre-existence as found in Judaism and Hellenistic thought at the time of the NT. Chapter II contains exegesis of those parts of the Gospel of John which seem related to JDP. Chapter III attempts to ascertain the causes for the appearance of JDP in the community which produced the Gospel of John. Chapter IV discusses the effect of JDP in the life, witness, and service of the Christian Evangelical Church in Minahasa (GMIM) and tries to point to the possibility of the development of a more contextual christology. Abstract only Tue, 01 Jun 1993 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12852/3463 1993-06-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12852/1359 Eschatology in Galatians through the lens of Paul and its implications to the teachings of eschatology among Filipino Christian churches Cabulao, Rexie-Eric S. The study aimed to analyze eschatology in Galatians through the lens of Paul and its implications to the understanding of eschatology among Filipino Christian Churches in Mindanao. The design used was descriptive in content that highlighted the historical narrative of Paul in selected passages of Galatians. Specifically, the study aimed to: discuss the sociocultural, education and religious background of Paul and how this shaped his understanding of eschatology; discuss his understanding of eschatology in Galatians through exegesis; examine Filipino Christian Churches' teachings on eschatology; and draw out implications of Paul’s theology of eschatology in Galatians to the teachings of Eschatology among Filipino Christian churches. Paul’s life, socio-political millieu, education, religion, ministry, worldview, experiences, and declaration of the gospel were traced through the culture of his day. All six selected Christian churches believe that Jesus would surely return to be with them in paradise forever. Endurance and loyalty to His teachings would encourage them to carry and fulfill their missions faithfully. A major difference in their belief on eschatology is the time of Christ’s return. However, Paul understood end times as the beginning of the new era which refers to the renewal of God's creation from the fall. The presence of Christ made the Church complete and restored from the deterioration of the corrupt system of this world. For Paul, God will set everything right, restoring and renewing creation, and this future must fulfill the promises made to Israel in particular. This study concluded that the Christian churches’ understanding of eschatology affects their lifestyle, as evident in the way they treat others and their response to the Great Commission. Indeed, it is not healthy for the Christian Churches to engage in schism, instead, they have to agree on major doctrines of the faith but allow minor differences, for instance, on the issue of eschatology. Abstract only Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12852/1359 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z