Towards a jubilant and militant Christmas, and beyond
Let’s take a step back. The Christmas tradition in the Philippines is a carryover of Spanish colonialism; it is a ritual celebration that harks to the days when Filipinos were first enslaved to serve in plantations in our own land. While many believe it to be too pure to be political, Christmas is anything but apolitical, and it changes as much as we do, as the political landscape and economy of the land evolves with the ever-changing nature of capitalist exploitation. Much of what we know to be Christmas is a mixture of folk traditions and Western-style consumerism, bolstered by transnational capitalism, the global glut of commodities, and mobile capital ever-adapting to ensure the possibility of exponential surplus value and profit. This is the nature of the ideology of the Yuletide season, whether we like it or not.
We owe the decay of the potentially revolutionary core of such ritual celebrations to the imperial powers, and the hand-binding, teeth-gnashing control of the private sector over every aspect of ‘modern’ life in one of the poorest nations in the world. There is no irony in seeking brighter times, as the masses look up in awe at the bright, blinking lights in malls and commercial establishments. For only those in perpetual darkness would have such a deep thirst for salvation, light, and the end to corporeal suffering under the guise of ‘honest labour’ and a disciplined society. Such is the unbearable yoke of neocolonial subjects serving imperial interest for centuries. The sizes and population densities of the regions and cities have changed, but our status as slaves to an exploitative system remains more or less the same.
Our brand of Catholicism attempts to serve the interests of the downtrodden by teaching people to be faithful and charitable. However, it is ideologically bound, still, by its own roots, going all the way to the Vatican. The Vatican itself is still undergoing evolution, of change of the most essential kind, as the Pope attempts to rectify in small steps the mistakes of previous Church administrations. The universal household of Catholics has entered an age of increasing humility in light of concrete deficiencies and crime against the faithful. The cases of sexual harassment and rape from the faithful of different nations, which used to be hidden by churches efficiently, are now being brought to light — as should have been the case from the very beginning.
These times of radical change within the Vatican are cause for celebration, not despair or depression. If the Pope is willing to hold a dialogue with those it has put into power to lead the flock across the world and tell them “you are not beyond the morality that we attempt to teach,” then there is now an increasing space to actually carry out the revolutionary mandate of the faithful, which can be traced to Jesus Christ’s own teachings: honor and love the poor, live among them, be one with them. Such simple words of admonition and correction, and yet, if these can be lived out critically and practically, the oppressed would be able to internalize a kind of collective power that only deep, unquestioned faith can bring.
It is only in the restoration of Jesus Christ’s own message of genuine love for the oppressed, and the shrugging off of the exploiters, can we live out one of Christianity’s core teachings and most important messages to humanity — that oppression is evil, and those under it have the divine right to fight.
Marius Carlos, Jr. is a storyteller, essayist, and journalist. He is the current editor-in-chief of Revolt Magazine and Creative Director at Vox Populi PH. He is also the English editor of Rebo Press Book Publishing. He is an independent researcher focused on transnational capitalism, neocolonialism, empire, and pop culture. Contact him for writing projects.
