Fr. Leo Pabayo .
AS we approach the fiesta of Cagayan de Oro, let us reflect on what it is all about. Human as we are, we naturally seek to understand the things that we do like a fiesta celebration.
In general a celebration is an act of rejoicing for whatever blessings that we have received from God. The most important gift and blessing from God that each of us has received is the gift of our human life. Thus we usually remember and celebrate the day of our birth.
In a fiesta we celebrate in common the blessings that God has bestowed on us as a community. The first blessing that we celebrate as a community is this birth of our community. We celebrate something in the past that brought us together to become a community. In a fiesta we celebrate mainly our being as a Catholic Christian community. This Catholic Christian community was constituted when the early members of this community and their leader were converted into the Christian faith as Catholics. The beginning of the story of this conversion will be included in this essay later.
In due time, this Catholic Community evolved and made welcomed others others to belong to this community simply for being also also children of God and especially for sharing the same beliefs and values of this community.
In a fiesta, we also celebrate the success in the work that we have done that add something to God’s gift of creation. To some extent the work that we do makes us co-creators with God and sustains the gift of life he has given us.
The best example of the first success of man in his work from time immemorial would be his success in working and making use of blessings of creation like planting and harvesting and other kinds of work that provide us with the food that help us sustain the gift of life that God has given us.
The other examples would be our success in other works that draw from the other gifts of creation, such as the caring for animals that help us in our work and some of which are also sources of food for us.
This is also true with the other works of our hands that are meant to make our common life better for us such as building a house or other structures that make life better for our families and other members of our community.
A fiesta celebration is our act of thanksgiving to God and rejoicing for the gift of life and blessings that he has given us out of his generosity and love.
The act of rejoicing and thanksgiving in a fiesta celebration usually takes the form of a religious ceremony followed by various kinds of festivities.
(Fr. Leo Pabayo is a member of the Society of Jesus.)
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