Our Lady of Piat and Maria Kannon of Japan - Mother as an Intercessor of Mercy

What is a common denominator for Our Lady of Piat and Maria Kannon of Japan?

You may find an answer to this question in the below blog entry. But, allow me to tell you how I have come to pose this question.

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May is a month dedicated to Mary, the mother of Christ.  And given John 19:17, she is also our mother, as we follow the path of Christ.  Jesus has made his mother, Mary, also our mother in our discipleship.  As commanded in Exodus 20:12, in honoring our mother in our discipleship, we dedicate the month of May in honoring Mary.

One Marian devotion I made with my faithful friends this May was the novena to Our Lady of Piat.

Novena devotion to Our Lady of Piat, who  has also been known as “Nuestra Senora del Santissimo Rosario” (Our Lady of Rosary), namely, Blessed Virgin Mary, is very popular among the Filipino Catholics – for she is credited to bring an end to draughts in the Cagayan Valley region of the northern Luzon, the Philippines, along with many other miracles.  The Filipino Catholics are so grateful for Our Lady of Piat’s intercession for heavenly Father’s merciful intervention to save the people of Cagayan from possible famines. Therefore, this novena of Our Lady of Piat is an expression of gratitude for what she has done.

Throughout the nine days of the novena, a replica of Our Lady of Piat travels from devotee’s ho

me to home. At each home, the faithful gather in front of Our Lady of Piat and offer our prayers. Because she is also Our Lady of Rosary, we also say the Rosary together. We end the novena by singing hymns.

This practice of novena from home to home is very common among the Filipino Catholics. The novena of Sto. Nino de Cebu is also practiced this way, as a replica of Sto. Nino statue visits devotees’ homes during the nine days of the novena.

After we complete our novena, we shared our personal reflections upon praying the novena of Our Lady of Piat.  By sharing what the novena has invoked us afterward, we feel much closer to Our Lady of Piat, our blessed mother in our discipleship. This is also where we connect our own lived life experiences and memories to Mary, Jesus, Joseph, and the Father in heaven, as well as the Holy Spirit to discern meaning of our religious experiences juxtaposing to our personal life experiences, and vice versa.

So, the below is what was transpired in me upon the novena to Our Lady of Piat, “Nuestra Senora del Santissimo Rosario”.

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Unless you are a woman and so-called “daddy’s girl”, you probably grew up fearing your father. I sure did, as I grew up in a very patriarchal family.

As my ego grew, especially during my adolescence, my father and I often collided in terms of thoughts and values as to what I should do and what I ought to be. I sometimes responded to my father rather rebelliously. This often resulted in punitive consequences, like unrepentant sinners receiving God’s judgements. There were even times when both my father and I refused to talk to each other because we were too angry to talk.

Of course, at that time, an image of my father was like vengeful God. I found it very difficult to juxtapose an image of the prodigal son’s merciful father to my father, knowing how he was in response to the wrongs I committed and the offenses I made against him.

Because my ego was strong, it prevented me from going to my father to ask for forgiveness and to reconcile with him.  Even I sincerely regretted what I did and wanted to reconcile with my father, my ego still made it difficult to approach him. Of course, I was afraid that he was still angry.

So, I always resorted to my mother to resolve this dilemma between my desire to reconcile and my ego to make it difficult. She understood and broker a reconciliation process between my father and me.

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Basically, I saw Mary as an intercessor, more than a mere mediator,of the Divine Mercy, between the Triune God and me, especially when I do need the mercy of God, the Divine Mercy – juxtaposed to how my mother was to me and to my father when I was in trouble with him.

This is not to suggest that the draughts in the Cagayan Valley region was a phenomenon of God’s anger.  Rather, what I see is Mary’s motherly care to intercede for the heavenly Father’s mercy – to make the Divine Mercy reach out faster and more effectively to our needs – whether it is ending draughts or reconciling with angry dad.

This sort of view on Mary is actually similar to how many Japanese and Chinese Buddhists view Guanyin (Kwan Yin) (Chinese) or Kannon (Japanese).  In Mahayana Buddhism, it is Guanshiyin (Avolakiteshvara) Bodhisattva and considered as means of Amitabha Buddha’s mercy to reach out to those in need.  Buanyin literally means “one who see  the sound” and is feminized in China and Japan.

I believe that viewing Guanyin as a feminine figure is the subconscious psychological proclivity to seek maternal care with priority, feeling closer to a mother, rather than a father. Thus, though Amitabha Buddha is considered to be masculine figure, the feminine, especially maternal image attached to Guanyin Boddhisattva, serves to meet our psychospiritual need of mercy, whether it is from Amitabha Buddha or from the Triune God, as my mother intercedes for father’s mercy when I need it but I find it uneasy to directly ask it to my father – as Mary, our mother in the discipleship, intercedes for the heavenly Father’s mercy to be granted to us. 

During severe persecution of Christians in Japan, during the 17^th, the 18^th, and the 19^th centuries, many Japanese Catholics erected “Maria Kannon” (a statue of Mary in a shape of Guanyin (Kannon)) to make them look like Buddhists to inspectors’ eyes.

Just as Mary is understood as the mother of mercy, Guanyin is also called "mother of mercy". Thus, both Mary and Guanyin are much-alike in terms of their intercessory roles of mercy. 

As the Filipino Catholics has been honoring Our Lady of Piat for her intercession to God’s mercy on the people of the Cagayan Valley, perhaps, the Japanese Catholics should start the novena to “Maria Kannon” for keeping the Catholics in Japan safe during these persecution years through the Divine Mercy protection.