In the Philippine Church today, I think what we need for metanoia is the view that every

move that we make must depend on the priests. Seemingly this approach shows that our
personal prayers are lesser than priests'. While many Filipinos hold priests in high regard, they
often fail to consider the beliefs of all the People of God. While it is true that clerics preside our
sacraments—with the exception of the marriage sacrament—many of us have yet to appreciate
the community aspect of our faith. The Church as a whole is the Body of Christ.

One particular example, we often look for priests to bless our sacramentals even though
this can be done as well by any lay faithful. It is not wrong to have a priest bless the
sacramentals, but we missed out the fact that all Christians could bless sacramentals. Ain’t the
Holy Rosary be blessed if we prayed with its mysteries? The praying itself is a grace, a blessing.

As Saint Paul would say in his first letter to the Corinthians, “As a body is one though it
has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. For in
one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons,
and we were all given to drink of one Spirit. Now the body is not a single part, but many. (1 Cor.
12:12-14).” Everyone is graced by the grace of God. How much more would it be that we are
part of Christ’s Mystical Body? All the baptized are in the Body. It just happened that our Church
recognizes the need for leaders to animate the Body, but we shall remember that we are in the
Body of Christ.

Mark Anthony Muya