"The Nazarene in 2020" by Juan Bta. Codina Bas

The Nazarene in 2020.

Homage to Mrs. Ramona Fernández de Palencia.

On March 14, 2020, the hermitage had already been prepared so that the next day the image of Jesús Nazareno with his mother, La Dolorosa, would leave for Xàbia. Flowers had been placed around the hermitage and the candles were ready to accompany Jesus on this annual trip to the village. But before the evidence of the coronavirus crisis, the following conversation took place in the dark of the night mitigated by the illumination of a small candle that resisted going out.

Jesús Nazareno from his altar addressed his mother, the Sorrowful, who was nearby and said:

- Mother, this year everything is difficult and there will be confinement of all the inhabitants who are under our protection. And we, what will we do?
- Son, as always, go down to town to bless all the inhabitants.
- But, Mother, I see it difficult.
- Son; remember that in December 1834 you went down to the town to prevent all the inhabitants from catching cholera and they put you in front of San Sebastián who is the patron, because your presence helped the holy healer and between the two, Xàbia defeated the disease. Aren't you going down now that they need you?
- Mother. I have thought these things but I will tell you that in 1834 the villa was walled. Many were enclosed between the walls and others by suburbs such as that of the Convent and the Ravalet de Sant Jaume and when I came down I was close to them and could protect them.
- Son, well now the same.
- No mother. No, now the inhabitants are not enclosed within the walls; they extend throughout the plain and the adjoining hillocks. Don't you think that from here, from the hermitage, we can cover more territory and that our protection reaches everyone? And not only to those of Xàbia, because from here we also cover Benitatxell and even those of Gata and Pedreguer and others from further afield.
- Son. You've convinced me. I think that from here our protective action will have more effect. When the mayorales arrive tomorrow, I will tell them: Do whatever He tells you.
- Mother: I will tell them to look at the town to bless them and from here our protection will come to all and if they are locked in their houses, we are also confined in the hermitage, in the same situation as them.

The day after this conversation, on the 15th, the mayorales went at half past five in the morning to take them both to the town, but they gave up on it when they saw the circumstances and the face of Jesús Nazareno and his mother, the Painful, so they decided to leave them.

This year of 2020 the Nazarene has stayed in the hermitage to put under his protection all the inhabitants, those of the intramural and those of the extramural, the Customs and the Arenal, the granadella and The flat, and all those of the other games of the term and those of the populations as far as the eye can see.

And from heaven, Mrs. Ramona, who organized the descent so many times, will agree with the Nazarene's decision that this year, on the third Sunday of Lent, she did not go down to Xàbia to protect all the inhabitants of the town, confined to her hermitage and fighting the coronavirus, which reminds Jesus of the crown of thorns, only in this case the crown is made of viruses, the Covid-19.

Juan Bta. Bas Codina