THE universal Church’s celebration of the “Year for Priests” has brought the entire ecclesial community into a serious consideration of the role of priests in the Church today.
Pope Benedict XVI, in proclaiming the “Year for Priests”, said the celebration is “meant to deepen the commitment of all priests to interior renewal for the sake of a stronger and more incisive witness to the Gospel in today’s world.”
The ecclesial event is also aimed to bring the Catholic faithful together to pray, reflect, celebrate and honor the clergy.
Icon for ‘Year for Priests’
Profoundly moved by the Church’s celebration of the “Year for Priests”, and its significance in the life of the faithful, a religious brother got inspired to produce an icon that would somehow convey the meaning of priesthood.
The icon has the title of “Hesus Manghigput” (Jesus Celebrator) written on alibata script (an ancient Filipino alphabet) to convey a “filipino” idea. The term “manghigput” refers to priests in the animistic tradition of Central and Southern Philippines.
The artwork has the central image of Jesus the Priest holding a chalice and a host, two meaningful Eucharistic symbols. Jesus is flanked by minor images of Melchizedek the High Priest and St. John Mary Vianney, representing the “priesthood” of biblical tradition and of the catholic ministry.
“The essential theme that I wanted to convey in the “Hesus Manghigput” icon is the centrality of the priestly duty of celebrating the Eucharist,” said Bro. Tagoy Jakosalem, OAR, creator of the icon.
A Recollect friar, Jakosalem is currently assigned as Property administrator of the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos (UNO-R). He is a multi-media artist, and teaches photography in UNO-R’s College of Mass Communications.
The Recoletos brother comes from a family of artist. In fact, the icon “Hesus Manghigput” is a collaborative project between him and his brother Agustin, a realist painter currently based in Calatrava, Negros Occidental.
Trained as a photographer and in the area of sculpture, Jakosalem’s fascination in art dates back since his early childhood when he would hang around with the local photographers of their hometown.
“I developed my art in the seminary, where I designed books and magazines for publications,” he disclosed.
His art is usually about socio-religious themes, political commentaries, and environmental preservation. Some of his artworks are uploaded in his own website (http://www.pinoyrekoleto.com/tagoy.html).
“I already made an icon of “Hesus Manghigput” during my formation year in theology in 1999, done in watercolor; it was made as a stampita design,” he said.
The original artwork was his signature one-eyed Jesus and the alibata script which spells out the words “Hesus” and “Manghigput” (Jesus the Celebrator).
The inspiration to create an icon for the Year for Priests came when he saw the icon of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) done by iconographer Marek Czarnecki.
Improving on his original work, he decided to adapt the images of Melchizedek and St. John Vianney from Czarnecki’s icon, while retaining the alibata script. He tapped his equally talented brother Agustin, a self-taught painter, to work with him on the icon.
Making people aware
“Aware of the celebration of the ‘Year for Priests,’ I simply wanted to make an artwork for our oratory in the university for our students to be aware [of] and make them participate for the celebration,” he said.
Jakosalem said the icon serves as a means to deepen the students’ understanding of the “priest” in Jesus.
“In this case, Jesus as the ‘manghigput’ is explained as the gatherer and celebrator of the community,” he said.
The Recoletos brother said the icon is just one of the many means they intend to utilize to make students and the rest of the faithful understand more profoundly the significance of the celebration.
On Sept. 11, the university staged a dance documentary titled ‘Hesus Manghigput.’ The documentary featured the Filipino ‘babaylan’ as an early experience and awareness of Filipinos of what is ‘priesthood’—manghigput in that case
“We are not only catechizing them with the icon, we [are] also [using] the language of theater, dance and multi-media to make them understand about the celebration,” Jakosalem said.
Aside from multi-media presentations, other plans are afoot to create deeper awareness of the event.
“My plan is to make this artwork nearer to the hearts of priests, and the hearts of all the members of the Church through pilgrimage in all our churches,” he said.
Launched
Last August 25, the icon was officially unveiled and blessed during a community Mass led by Bishop Vicente Navarra, together with the Recoletos priests in the cathedral of Bacolod.
In his concluding message during the launching, Jakosalem stressed the threefold function of the Priesthood: that of being ministers of the Word and of the Eucharist to the world; of being prophets in modern times steeped in corruption and injustices; and of being kings or leaders whose lives are characterized by service and sacrifice.
In wanting to share his gift to the Church, Jakosalem has earlier given full copyright of the artwork to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) through the CBCP Communications Development Foundation in time for the celebration of the Year for Priests. The icon has since been uploaded in all CBCP websites.
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