Josh Ong Ante's 'Way of the Cross' artwork installed semi-permanently in ASHS Gonzaga Chapel

Last January, Ateneo de Manila Senior High School (ASHS) Chaplain Fr Noel “Weng” Bava SJ commissioned ASHS student Josh Ong Ante (11-Tsuji) to create a painting for this year’s traditional University Way of the Cross (to be held on Friday, 28 March 2025). Fr Weng was of course aware that Josh had been commissioned by Church of the Gesù Rector Fr Raymund Benedict “RB” Hizon SJ to create artwork for St Ignatius' Feast Day Mass on 31 July 2024, and for Halloween/All Souls’ Day/All Saints’ Day in late October - November 2024. For his latest assignment, Josh was told that the theme for his artwork would be “a pilgrimage from disappointment to fulfillment,” which is inspired by Pope Francis’ Bull of Indiction for the Jubilee Year of Hope, Spes Non Confundit.   

Fr Weng instructed Josh to create an “immersive and contemplative” artwork that would depict Jesus and the marginalized, one that would inspire those who saw the painting to reflect on the depth of Christ's love and self-sacrifice, and view these through the lenses of Christian hope and redemption. 

Josh went to work creating the piece while juggling an already hectic schedule as a student and as a debater. Despite being ill for a few days while working on the painting, he submitted it to the ASHS Campus Ministry Office (CMO) in time.  

His artwork now adorns all the materials announcing the University’s Way of the Cross activity, including the lamp post banners (installed on March 3 & 4) throughout the Loyola Heights campus and even in other Ateneo campuses such as the Law School in Makati. The artwork is also used in the digital prayer guides and the microsite for the March 28 gathering. 

According to Josh, the artwork depicts Jesus surrounded by folk as He is on His way to see Pontius Pilate. The people surrounding Christ, explains Josh, are “people who need and deserve hope,” dovetailing with 2025 being "the Year of Hope.”  

As Josh is wont to do for his Ateneo-commissioned works, he also imbued the piece with a giant Easter egg (it is Lent, after all). This “secret” is not in the painting itself, but rather, a "bonus" that reveals itself depending on how one looks at the image. Need a clue? Two words: Landscape. Portrait.   

Those who figure out the main Easter egg are then invited to see the work from two points-of-view, namely, a theological perspective and a more grounded one. 

Measuring 43.73 inches x 60 inches, Josh’s obra has been printed on canvas, framed, and installed “semi-permanently” in the ASHS FLC’s Saint Gonzaga Chapel. Fr Weng says that the work will not be permanently installed in the ASHS Chapel so that it can be hidden when it is not seasonally appropriate (during Advent, for example) and so that other churches – such as the Church of the Gesù – can borrow it. He emphasizes, however, that the ASHS Gonzaga Chapel is the artwork's home. "The painting is Josh's 'pamana' to the ASHS," explains Fr. Weng. "Many years from now, maybe Josh will come back - perhaps with his children if he has kids- then point to it and proudly say, 'I made that when I was a student here.' " 

As for the artist himself, how does he feel about having a legacy that is perhaps the first of its kind in the history of the still-young ASHS? “When I, as an alumnus, visit my artwork 10 or even 20 years from now, I will look upon it with fondness, knowing that it has served as a conduit for worship,” predicts Josh. “Artworks are the media which allow us to pray in solidarity with the Lord, and so I am beyond grateful that I will be able to aid generations of Ateneans in their pursuit of Christ through this painting.”