Christmas of sacrifice

It’s Christmas tomorrow! I hope that by now you’ve sent all your cards and gifts after sacrificing your sanity to brave the overcrowded malls and bumper-to-bumper traffic. My article last week featured the Chapel of the Holy Sacrifice at the UP. It elicited a good number of e-mails, which I’m reprinting below:

First, a short one:

Dear Mr. Alcazaren, I have read your article today. I submit a proposal to rename the UP the University of the Holy Sacrifice! I noticed, too, the gaudy landscaping of the chapel when I reviewed for the bar this year. – DG

We all sacrificed much to graduate from the university but not more than our parents. They slaved just to get us that degree we needed to conquer the world and make it a better place to live in. But have we?

Next from another law student:

Greetings! Thank you very much for writing your article on the UP Chapel. Thank you, too, for putting a photo of how it looked like before all the clutter surrounded it. A friend of mine, who is old enough to remember how the UP Chapel looked like before, has been complaining about it. My friend happens not to be a Catholic, or even a Christian, but I found myself agreeing with her that the lone Catholic place of worship in UP Diliman looks better without the junk.

Like you, I am disappointed with the current state of the UP Chapel. During my law school days, I used to go to Mass there frequently, (the pressure at UP Law makes one feel the need to be devout!). I was very grateful that there was a chapel within walking distance from my college, but at the same time, I felt the conditions of the UP Chapel could have been more conducive to prayer.

The inside of the chapel is not being maintained well. The ceiling, as you pointed out, needs repair, as do some pews. Many people who enter the chapel no longer have a feeling that they are inside a sacred place. A daily churchgoer used to bring her dog inside the chapel, and let her dog roam around during the Mass. The sight of young couples sitting inside the church, talking and holding hands instead of praying, has become common. More than once, during Mass, I had to silence people who were chattering loudly while I was trying to concentrate on my prayers. Mendicants and vendors weave in and out of the church, begging for money, food, medicine or pamasahe. If the people entering or even merely passing by the UP Chapel get the impression from the way it looks that it is a place for praying and reflection, and not for lounging, dating, or chatting, then they will behave accordingly.

I don’t expect all churches to look like the grand cathedrals of Europe. I have experienced an atmosphere of prayer in churches or chapels that have minimalist design and still evoke a sense of the sacred. Unfortunately with all the debris surrounding the chapel, this is not the case at all.

Your article made me aware of the past glory of the UP Chapel. I hope it will help convince the current parish priest to restore the UP Chapel to its former elegance. (The parish priest who succeeded the previous one who "run amuck and turned the grounds into a succession of follies" seemed to be a good one. It was under his term that the Blessed Sacrament oratory was transferred and improved and he made many visible changes in the parish that I’m happy with. I don’t know if he’s still the parish priest, though; I graduated last April.) For me, the physical appearance of a church or chapel is crucial; it can strengthen or weaken the faith of the worshipping public. – CM

Well, CM, people behave better in cleaner surroundings. Notice how more refined you become upon entering the Rockwell Powerplant Mall compared to, say, a Manuela …or how more "civilized" Cubao has morphed because of spiffy new buildings and a well-maintained landscape. The way the UP is deteriorating, it feels like one big defense-less settlement waiting to succumb to the pressures of infrastructure (the expansion of CP Garcia), low-budgets (not enough money to hire security guards) and uninspired architecture (that always seem to prioritize driveways and parking lots instead of sheltered walkways for students).

Finally, from a fellow professor at UP:

Thank you for writing about the UP Chapel. As once a student and now a professor at the State University, this chapel is an important part of my development as a person.

While the chapel still holds some of its original charm, the gardens are a mess. I remember the stately agoho trees that surrounded the chapel. The murder of the gardens really started with Father X, who had a zoo made. (What has a church got to do with running a zoo? It would have been better if the Institute of Biology ran the zoo for educational purposes!) Fr. X then had silly sculptures erected around the church. Of course, UP has, and I hope still has, a nationalist orientation. The statues of Fathers Gomburza are appropriate. Also the bust of Fr. Delaney is too. But a stone circle? A burial jar? and A pregnant woman? A visiting professor from England commented to me that a dolmen and menhir are just needed to complete the pagan theme.

The chapel is not just a work of modern architecture. It is primarily a place of worship and any art installed should prepare a person for encountering the Divine. The pregnant woman? This is extending the pro-life argument to its silliest end! There are many better ways to show one’s pro-life belief and that sculpture isn’t one of them. As for the burial jar, the Anthropology Museum is the better venue for this! Aren’t all these sculptures better placed in a sculpture garden at the Academic Oval perhaps?

I just wonder if the parish community was ever consulted in this running silliness!

What is just lacking to complete the landscape architectural terrorism is to make the interior of the chapel Neo-baroque. Some post-Vatican II modern churches in Manila have been turned into Baroque monstrosities. A clear example is the Mt. Carmel Shrine in New Manila.

The Protestants across the street have much preserved the original look of their chapel. But they also have their own version of architectural murder. The complementary lines of the Parsonage (Gumersindo Garcia hall) is now gone. What you have is a silly GG hall facade that kills the parabolic look of the chapel.

As for UP itself, this university is a clear example of what you call a "balkanized" community. The buildings have no single complementary element that signifies the idea of a university, a unified goal of seeking truth and the diversity of ways this can be had.

I hope that through your essay, the UP community gets to realize what has been lost and what can still be recovered.

– Prof. BV

I agree that the university needs to redefine its identity as an institution. A direction to take is embedded in the term university itself – a unity of purpose accommodating a diversity of ideas and reflected in a physical setting that ennobles rather than disgusts.

Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year to all!