⌛ Before An Angry Christ : Negros Occidental - Victorias

My fair cousin was brimming with excitement. In less than an hour she can finally prove to me that there is really a gigantic mound of sugar housed in one of the warehouses of the Victorias Milling Company. How big? About fifteen feet tall, she would brag. But she has not seen it before. It was something described by her pen pal.

In a town like Victorias, Negros Occidental, there isn’t much traffic. We passed plantation after plantation of sugarcanes, in varying stages of growth. I guess my subconscious expected the sugarcanes simply because we were headed towards a sugar milling company.

I guess we were near the compound because I saw several wood and cement structures already. When we passed by a church, my usually gentle cousin shrieked at me to stop. Stop! Wait! Stop! Seeing no imminent danger, such as a truck bearing down on us, I brought the car to the roadside but kept the engine running. Where’s the fire?

“It’s the church and it’s tradition,” she blurted out. Huh?

My cousin hastily explained that a person should always enter the church of the town he visits for the first time. She says that when a visitor enters the church, he must make three wishes, and these wishes will come true. I frowned because I was skeptical. I don’t think any Christian religion or denomination will support such “tradition”. But with the way Filipinos tend to mix-up religious beliefs and superstitions, I should not be surprised.

As I drove the car towards the church, I suspected that my cousin is already trying to decide which wishes she will request. It is a Catholic church called the Church of Saint Joseph, The Worker. As we walked along the center isle, my jaw dropped. And my feet froze.

Before us, at the altar, is a huge colorful mural. At the center is the unmistakable face of Jesus Christ. And he was angry. His face was evidently furious. A perverse voice in my head exerted itself, “There goes the three wishes.” No angry God will grant three trivial wishes. And I can hardly believe the audacity of the artist to create an image of an angry Christ inside a church.

Then, I saw my cousin walking determinedly towards the altar. I hastened to join her. On closer look, I saw that the mural depicted the saints as brown-skinned Filipinos. The mosaic was formed using bits of broken pop bottle and I can’t take my eyes off the face. The longer I stared at it, I more I realize that it was not meant to scare. It was meant to persuade souls to repent.

Later, when we indeed found the huge mound of sugar and had talk to the locals, I found out that this Church was once featured in Life Magazine and the artist was Ade de Buthune, a Belgian-born American. The people of Victorias are proud of their Church of the Angry Christ.