Religious Practices On Honoring The Dead: Need For Contextualized Christian Formation

Abstract

Filipinos’ deep respect for the dead impelled the culture of holding wake, interment and memorial as expression of reverence and tribute. Although Filipinos’ daily life are influenced by Catholic teachings, there is an observable lack of knowledge of and formation in the faith. This article investigated on the rich, yet often neglected, literature that surrounds Christian formation and religious practices on honoring the dead in the Philippines. Understood as a heritage in itself, there is a need to preserve, protect, and promote such social practice on honoring the dead. Despite the call of the particular Church in the Philippines towards a renewed catechesis on Christian life, death and afterlife, there have been no available learning module or program for families of the departed that has been created, nor implemented. This study argued that by integrating a contextualized learning resource in the existing learning package for Religious Education, crafting of lessons which are responsive to the educational and social context of learners – specifically on topics that touches Catholic doctrines on life, death and afterlife – will aim at a deeper appreciation of Catholic doctrines, leading to authentic witnessing to the Faith through one’s own cultural identity.