AN­GE­LO JE­DIDI­AH

Re­porter

an­ge­lo.je­didi­ah@guardian.co.tt

This Good Fri­day, one young man takes on the role of Je­sus. And as he car­ries the cross, he car­ries with him not just a role, but the faith of an en­tire com­mu­ni­ty.

In T&T, Chris­tians join the world in paus­ing to re­mem­ber the cru­ci­fix­ion of Christ. In Gran Cou­va-Tabaquite, that re­mem­brance takes on a liv­ing form: the an­nu­al re-en­act­ment of The Pas­sion, or the Sta­tions of the Cross, bring­ing the sto­ry vivid­ly to life.

In this qui­et rur­al com­mu­ni­ty, the Gran Cou­va-Tabaquite RC Parish con­gre­ga­tion works tire­less­ly to stage the an­nu­al re-en­act­ment. While the pro­duc­tion does not boast a lav­ish bud­get, res­i­dents spend weeks prepar­ing, en­sur­ing that every de­tail of the spir­i­tu­al jour­ney is care­ful­ly brought to life.

Ac­cord­ing to pro­duc­tion di­rec­tor Dave Mar­cus, the parish’s land­scape is ide­al for the re-en­act­ment.

“In our parish, our ge­og­ra­phy and land­scape pro­vide a per­fect hill. It could al­most be like Cal­vary, what we think Cal­vary would have been,” Mar­cus told Guardian Me­dia.

Mar­cus says the event, which will see the pro­ces­sion move through Flana­gin Town and climb up­hill at Los Ata­jo, re­trac­ing the fi­nal steps of Je­sus Christ, is as much about evan­ge­lis­ing as it is about act­ing.

“We could safe­ly say we had be­tween 400 to 500 peo­ple fol­low­ing the re-en­act­ment over the years. Then, with the cast and peo­ple we en­counter go­ing to work and so on, we can reach around 700 to 800 peo­ple on that morn­ing,” he said.

For 19-year-old Nathan Xavier Luke, this year marks his first time play­ing the role of Je­sus—a dream he has held since child­hood.

“See­ing the char­ac­ter of Je­sus, what he en­dured and suf­fered, brings a sense of peace and helps you to know who God is. This year, I am thank­ful to have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to por­tray that role, to bring oth­ers to Je­sus,” Luke said dur­ing re­hearsals.

“It in­volves a lot of fast­ing and prayer as well—to cleanse your­self, your body, and your mind, to walk in the foot­steps of Je­sus.”

Even with his strong faith and pas­sion for act­ing, Luke leans on the guid­ance of those who have played the role be­fore him, es­pe­cial­ly when it comes to car­ry­ing the cross.

“The walk­ing is fine. I walked bare­foot. There are no is­sues,” Ethan Aaryan Per­sad said, re­count­ing his three years play­ing the role of ‘Je­sus’.

“You don’t re­al­ly think about it. It is just about get­ting the play done and try­ing your best to give your best rep­re­sen­ta­tion of what Je­sus suf­fered.”

The re-en­act­ment is not on­ly a com­mu­ni­ty ef­fort but of­ten a fam­i­ly af­fair. Luke’s moth­er, Mar­sha Luke, is re­spon­si­ble for cre­at­ing the wounds on the ac­tor por­tray­ing Je­sus.

“We use liq­uid la­tex to cre­ate wounds be­fore­hand. Then, on the day, we ap­ply them.

“I usu­al­ly pray about it be­fore I do this be­cause, for me, it is very emo­tion­al. When he is walk­ing up that hill, it touch­es a part of you,” she said.

By the time the re-en­act­ment draws to a close, the sto­ry of faith and sac­ri­fice lingers in every heart, re­mind­ing the com­mu­ni­ty of the en­dur­ing pow­er of de­vo­tion and the lessons of Christ’s ul­ti­mate jour­ney.