In other remote centuries they were called signs or omens. In this era we live in, it is known by another less romantic and more accurate term: weather forecasting. And this Sunday afternoon, to the misfortune of so many, the scientists were completely right. It is true that many were confident that, after months and months without rain in this parched land, it was quite unlikely that it would occur. They forgot that Murcia is a city of curious dualities. And last night this theory became evident: it never rains, except during Easter.
At first, a light rain, although not bothersome, began to dampen the procession. Its intensity did not predict the suspension of the procession and not even the thousands of spectators on whom it fell opened their umbrellas. Furthermore, a certain tranquility gave, perhaps a few minutes of advantage against the threatening storm, the emergency plan that every brotherhood has in these cases: itineraries in case of an unforeseen return, plastics ready to be deployed over the carvings and nearby parishes notified to open their doors. doors and guard them. But the little donkey at the Entrance of Jesus pass, which its sculptor baptized Teresa, seemed to raise its glass eyes looking at the sky and a little restless. Teresa was not wrong. Some remembered that Palm Sunday in 2018, when exactly the same thing that was going to happen happened.
It was an unequal game of Nazarene chess between the clouds and Hope, that the more steps he took from San Pedro to the street, on that improvised Passion board of the Murcian street, the more the rain intensified, gaining squares. Until the sad checkmate. Not even the keys of San Pedro that appear on the brotherhood's shield managed to block the storm. Rather the anchor, which is also part of his iconography, recalled a rough sea. The same one that ended up sentencing the procession.
It was then that those who witnessed the parade in Trapería barely saw the first two steps pass. It was then that the Christ of Hope had to return to his parish.
How to discover that a procession is suspended and returns to your church? Very easy. And it is no use observing the penitents in the lines, who remain in those first 'impasses' still and looking forward. However, it is enough to see how the thrones begin to be covered with plastic and how the banners of the brotherhoods, like the musicians of the bands, turn around waiting for instructions.
The beginning of the end
A quarter to eight in the afternoon. The rain increases and the doors of the episcopal palace open in Belluga Square in case it is necessary to move the steps inside. There is no turning back, except for the parade, because that will be the path, unsafe and slippery, that the shelves of the last brotherhoods, those closest to their headquarters, choose.
There is no sadder situation for any brother who, for twelve long months, has worked and suffered to go out into the streets. They lightened the march by giving the greatest display of Nazarenism they could, in the form of defiance of the rain: without breaking the ranks of penitents, without any brother leaving his post and maintaining a similar and inverse order.
The bitter return had only one reward: the applause that, in an improvised show of solidarity, the people of Murcia gave to each brotherhood. Diego Avilés told it, perhaps in his capacity as a Nazarene of Forgiveness, which really is forever, rather than in his position as Councilor for Culture, when he warned that the reaction and spirit of the Murcians was “gratifying,” ” holding on in the rain and applauding the Nazarenes who returned to the church. Because in this city, rain or shine, no one sells their fervor for the rain. The reactions began to happen. At 7:50 p.m., the Royal Superior Council of Brotherhoods announced that Esperanza was returning to San Pedro. “We send our encouragement to the brothers of the Palm Sunday corporation,” they lamented, using, perhaps because of the unrest of the moment, the very un-Nazarene term “corporation”, being able to use the logical one: brotherhood.
Not even an hour had passed when all the thrones, as evident proof of the good work of the institution, were already safe in their canonical headquarters. Many Murcians also went there to express their support for these brothers in green tunics who, for another year, will not be able to make up one of the most beautiful processions that this Region calls for.
#Tears #heaven #Hope
