Crucifixion In the Name of Christ in The Phillipines

pureplaya434

hello all,

my youger sister told me that in the phillipines people publicly flaggelate themselves and crucify themselves and i did not beleive her until i looked it up they do all these things on easter sunday in teh name of christ what is our church view on events such as these?

i have attached a link with an article about it http://pages.zdnet.com/AsiaBill/id11.html

aghape,
chris

mazza

omg i had no idea people were that weird
personally i think its blasphemous
the only one that was allowed to be crucified was our lord and saviour jesus christ- even if its just a reenacment its soooooooo wrong
y would u do somefin like dat for???

AvvaAntoni

Dear brothers and sisters,

I have heard of this event for a long time now. I do not want to say anything to offend anyone or to have a negative impact on what you guys think. This is just a humble opinion on this topic.

Who of us is worthy of enduring the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord bore the cross to death and we praise and glorify Him for that and we thank Him for granting us eternal salvation. There is a meaning behind the death of our Lord and that is to save us, his children. The events that occur in the Phillipines, on the other hand, have no validity or meaning behind it.

If we look at St. Peter. When they came to crucify him, he told them to crucify him upside down because he felt unworthy to be crucified like his Master. All in all, I do not see a necessity for the actions these people are doing.

Sorry again if I have offended anyone, but please take this into consideration. Also please keep me in your prayers.

Avvaantoni

nardin

avvaantoni
y wood u offend by sayin that
that was absolutely brilliant that is exactly correct good stuff ;) :D

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Christi_03

well said AvvaAntoni!

im behind you 250%.... very awesome words...

pray for me
take care and God bless

mazza

true dat
dat was so gr8- what humble words

fadidanial

While I do think it is a little extreme, I don't really see a problem with it. I've heard several stories of Saints who mutilated themselves (such as the egyptian cobbler who gouged out his eye so he would not sin). As well I've heard stories of priests who pray for illness or cancer so that they may endure the suffering for Christ. I think before we decide that these people are crazy and out of their mind we should know the reason and spiritual significance behind their actions. That being said, crucifiction and flagellation are a tad extreme, but the concept of suffering physically and mentally for Christ is not a new one nor one that our church necessarily rejects. I disagree with AvvaAntoni when he says that these events have no validity or meaning behind them. On the contrary, I'm sure that those who undergo this process do benefit in some sense from it. Why else would they do it? I am sure there are many traditions in our Church that outsiders see as senseless, useless or just plain weird, but we ourselves gain spiritual rewards from it.

AvvaAntoni

Dear Fadi,

Thank you for your input on this topic. I greatly respect your opinion. I would just like to restate that this was my opinion, this does not mean that everyone has to correspond to it.

I would just like to mention something though. You talked about the egyptian cobbler (Samman El Kharas) who gouged out his eye so he would not sin. This is a case where he is depriving himself from falling into sin. Those people on the other hand are not doing it for the same reason. But yet again, there was a dispute at his time whether he would be punished or not for taking the Word literally. The passage from which he got the idea of plucking his eye was to be taken in a spiritual manner rather than a litteral sense. You also talked about priests who pray for illness or cancer so that they may endure the suffering for Christ. This may be true, but if you look at it, they are not causing harm to themselves. They PRAY and I repeat PRAY for illness. Now this doesn't mean that they will receive what they are asking for. This is not our bodies to say what we want done to it or not. I agree that illness and such is a blessing, but it is a blessing granted by God, not done out of our own will.

One thing I would like to apologize for from my previous comment is making the assumption that there is no reason for what they are doing. Their may be a religious view behind it, and because of my ignorance, I did not take this into account. Forgive me. But all in all, if this is not their mentality, then I believe what they are doing is wrong.

Thank you again for correcting me. I know that everyone has their own opinion about this topic and I just felt that I would share mine. Forgive me again if I have said anything wrong. Please pray for my weakness.

Avvaantoni

fadidanial

Hi AvvaAntoni,

There is really no need to appologize, I knew all along that this was your opinion and I can see exactly where you are comming from. Rereading my post, I realized it sounds a bit pushy, I by no means meant it to be this way. I completely understand and respect your position. In fact, you are very right in saying that Priests PRAY for illness but do not bring illness to themselves. I hadn't thought of that and it is a very good point. If one wishes to suffer for Christ physically he should ask Christ not go off and do it himself. Perhaps there is a spiritual meaning behind what they do, but I agree with you that their methods are extreme. The more I think about it the more I realize that this is probably behaviour Christ would frown upon rather that support.

Cheers,
Fadi

nardin

ok guys lets not judge
who cares any1 elses opinion

lol im lost

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