LIKE him or not, Pope Francis I is his best public relations agent (almost homonymous with angel). Right off the bat, he has given two Filipino Christmas traditions the imprimatur of Rome.
Last month, he acknowledged the eloquence of our “belen” custom of placing Christ at the center of the heart of Christmas, pointing out that there’s no Christmas without that first Christmas in Bethlehem.
Next, in a precedent-setting rite, he presided over a “simbang gabi” – which he took care to pronounce as correctly as he could – in St. Peter’s at the Vatican. Dressed in the pink robes of Advent, he acknowledged how Filipino expats, aka OFWs, have spread the custom all over the world, a tribute to their faith, devotion and catholicity.
“Simbang gabi” (literally, evening masses) used to be “misa de gallo” or mass of the rooster (a creature that crows at dawn), happening between 4 and 6 a.m., a beautiful time to pray. But more and more, in the effort to make church-going more convenient for Catholics, the Church has allowed dawn masses to be moved to a later time slot, from a.m. to p.m. Will the misa de gallo survive the competition from simbang gabi? TV coverage of Pope Francis’ mass for the SRO Filipino congregation did not specify the time of its offering, but as His Holiness said it was a simbang gabi, we have to take his word for it. Methinks he would have enjoyed a misa de gallo with “bibingka” and “puto bumbong” waiting out in the churchyard.
In another twist of semantics, most Christmas “midnight masses” are scheduled at 10 p.m. Dec. 24 to end at or just before the start of Dec. 25. As a priest of the old-fashioned Latin rite commented, “Ten o’clock is not yet midnight, don’t call it a midnight mass.” Same with the “midnight mass” to welcome the New Year; don’t say midnight if it starts at 10 p.m.
Splitting hairs when we’re not sure that Christ was born in December? Unless His birthplace was south of the equator, such as in Australia, where Christmas occurs in the summer, the Baby in “swaddling clothes” would have caught a very bad cold in the depth of winter. All the same, Merry Christmas, all!
