Gift of faith: Tracing the 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines through the transformative experiences of the BEC lay leaders.

Abstract

The Philippine Church commemorates in a year-long (April 2021 – April 2022) celebration the 500 years of Christianity in the country. The Filipino Catholics and communities gathered to joyfully celebrate the event which marks the first hearing of the good news about Christ some hundred years ago by the foreign Catholic missionaries. Alongside the colonization of the Spaniards, which comes with complex issues and controversies, one remains significant and meaningful on the other side of their arrival- the Christian Faith! Today, this same mission of evangelization of the first Catholic missionaries in the country had been continued specifically in the local activities of the Church through the Basic Ecclesial Communities or the BEC movements all over the country. This is a case of qualitative study exploring the concept of faith of the lay leaders of Basic Ecclesial Community (BEC) in Francisco de Borja Chapel, in Barangay Sta. Fe Caraga Davao Oriental. The study was conducted through an in-depth interview and dissemination of research questionnaire to the selected BEC lay leaders who were able to respond actively. In the end, the result of our thematic analysis, which was used to utilize in discovering the different emerging and significant themes of the gathered data, narrates for us the core meaning of the gift of faith for the BEC lay leaders: (1) faith that centers on Christ, (2) it is a gift of the Holy Spirit, (3) faith makes a person open to salvation, (4) faith as a gift means a blessing from God, and (5) faith makes them victorious over the trials of life. Moreover, the transforming effect of faith in the utterance of the BEC lay leaders reflects in the consciousness of the researchers the vision and objectives of the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines (1991): (1) participation, (2) responsive, (3) service, and (4) becoming truly Christian. These core themes of the transforming effect of faith on the BEC lay leaders reflect the reason for the Philippines to continue cultivating and nourishing the Christian mission in realizing the Kingdom of God here on earth.