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The people who attended yesterday’s traditional reenactment of the first baptism in Cebu are called to “be cleansed” not only by renewing baptismal vows as Christians. They have to be “cleansed of greediness, being unforgiving, cheating and committing corruption.”
“We need renewal and cleansing. We look at ourselves, it has been almost 450 years since the first baptism, and we are still here with strong faith in the Sto. Niño,” said Msgr. Cristobal Garcia, the main celebrant and homilist.
“The water poured on the heads of Rajah Humabon and Queen Humahay has not dried up. In contrast, the water in the Guadalupe and Pasil rivers has dried up but the water in the churches have not dried up,” he added.
Garcia led more than 20 Augustinian and diocesan priests including Augustinian Prior General Fr. Robert Prevost, OSA.
“What we do in the church is real because God looks at the heart of the people,” he said, explaining that the reenactment was not a simple matter of role playing.
“So it is not reenactment but a renewal of baptismal vows,” he said.
The Mass started shortly after the arrival of images of the Sto. Niño, the Ecce Homo and the Lady of Guadalupe.
At the head of the group was Lito Acha as explorer Ferdinand Magellan, six “natives”and Rajah Humabon and Queen Juana played by siblings Benjamen J. Marcojos and Cristina Marcojos Loquere.
The narrator Pat Acabodillo, head of the Council of La ty in the Archdiocese, retold the account of historian Antonio Pigafetta of the arrival of Magellan, the first Mass, the baptism and the turn over of the Lady of Guadalupe image to the natives, the Ecce Homo or the bust of the suffering Christ to Rajah Humabon and the Sto. Niño to Queen Juana.
Msgr. Garcia baptized them in front of the altar, pouring water from a clay pot and ladling it over their heads.
After the Mass, Sinulog dances were presented by the Cofradia del Sto. Niño led by Mary Rose Villacasten-Maghuyop, the Guadalupe and Mabolo Groups and the Sandiego Dance Troupe.
Choreographer Val Sandiego and his wife Ophelia were dressed as St. Joseph and Lady of Guadalupe and were carrying a boy as they danced to the Sinulog beat.
Other dancers wored silver gray dresses bedecked with pictures of cherubims, o r carried canes.
