CEBU, Philippines - Aiming to strengthen faith in God especially among the younger generation, the Archdiocesan Shrine of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish will have a different commemoration this year of the resurrection of The Christ through a first-ever grand production.
Instead of just the traditional presentation of the “Sugat” or the meeting of the Blessed Virgin Mary with the resurrected Jesus Christ, the parish will be holding a broader scope and intent of the presentation with a bigger cast, a wider stage, and grandiose costume design.
During a press conference yesterday, Betsy Gabutin who sits as Parish Pastoral Council secretary and the ad voc chairperson of “Sugat sa Guadalupe” said that they decided to have a grand celebration this year since this would be a good way to encourage the parishioners, especially the youth, to participate and experience the presentation as a “tool for evangelization”.
Gabutin said that they are already very happy with the support they are getting from the parish and the residents seeing the huge participation of kids and teenagers who will be acting as angels and cast members during the play.
Maricar Escuyos, the overall in-charge of the parish youth coordinating council, said that since this is a first for their parish, the youth are very excited and interested to join the said activity.
She said that with a lot of distractions nowadays like computer/online games which most youth are fond of, plays like the one they would be mounting is a good way for the youth to strengthen all the more their faith and devotion to God on top of the goal of building camaraderie with other people.
Escuyos said that they hope the activity would be sustained in the next years so that the youth would have more plays to look forward to.
Play director Aljin Abaquita, who also directed plays for “Sugat” presentations in Argao town and in Barangay Pardo, this city, shared that changes which will be seen this year include a bigger, wider platform for the one-hour play.
Abaquita mentioned that instead of just a traditional portrayal, they will be incorporating societal issues of the modern setting into the play such as the dirty, senseless tactics employed during election.
He said they would present a flashback on the faces of society then and now and on what a broken and contrite heart could do to address societal ills. Abaquita also said that they are not doing this “merely for entertainment but for the viewers to be part of it.”
The commemoration of the passion, death and resurrection of The Christ would kick off today, Palm Sunday, with a parade starting at the San Nicolas Parish grounds going to the Guadalupe Parish.
On April 4, the “Sugat sa Guadalupe” would start at 2 a.m. where the drama “Tungod sa Gugma” would take place followed by the traditional “Sugat.”
This year’s event is a fund-raising activity for the parish’s projects headed by the Parish Pastoral Council, Parish Youth Coordinating Council under Msgr. Jose Montecillo and the other parish priests. — AJ de la Torre/MEEV (FREEMAN NEWS)