FEAST OF STO. NIÑO

(Feast Proper to the Philippines

3^rd Sunday in January –

2^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time)

 

Readings: Isaiah 9:1-6

                 Ephesians 1:3-6; 15-18

                 Mark 10:13-16

 

 

“Let the children come to me…

the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

 

 

            The feast of the Holy child is proper to the church in the Philippines. This typical Filipino devotion is intimately connected with the early beginnings of Christianity in our country. History tells us that in April 1521, Ferdinand Magellan gave a statuette of the Sto. Niño to Queen Juana, the wife of King Jumabon, as a baptismal gift to her during a mass baptism of the natives of Cebu. Since then, the religious image which is the oldest in the Philippines has occupied a religious place in Filipino religiosity. The image of the señor is preserved at the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño in Cebu where it attracts thousands of devotees from all over the country.

 

            1.         The feast of the Señor Santo Niño encourages to focus and meditate on a particular stage in the life of our Lord, his childhood. Unfortunately, our gospels are not so abundant in their accounts about the childhood affairs of Jesus. But this is understandable since during Jesus’ time, children had practically no place in the social and cultural life of the Jews. The biblical literary language of portraying the Patriarchs with so advance in years is one way of telling us that they had won heaven’s favor because they had already more than enough experience in life and they knew so much about the law. Children had nothing of this kind, and thus they had nothing to contribute to Jewish life. So, they had to stay at the back. That is why, we must not be surprised about the disciples forbidding the people to bring their children to Jesus. They might just bother the Master!

 

            But it seems that it is against this particular background that Jesus would now try to correct this seeming error brought about by culture and tradition. In today’s gospel, Mark seems to be emphatic: “When Jesus noticed it, he was very angry…”

 

            By such initial reaction, the Lord shows how children are precious to him. And not only that. Probably beyond the disciples’ expectation, Jesus makes himself clear: “Let the children come to me and don’t stop them for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” ---  To let the children come close is tolerable. But to make the kingdom of God theirs is quite difficult to understand. What is in children that make them worthy of the kingdom? This could be the unspoken question of the disciples. And this could be our questions, too.

 

            2.         The wisdom of the gospel pushes us back, and challenges us to be more fundamental. The answer to this puzzling question is right in our midst, if only we are mindful to the lessons of life.

 

            a.         A child is a model of a person’s purity of mind. When one has no knowledge of a particular thing, he is either ignorant or innocent. But ignorance and innocence are very much different. While ignorance is a vice, innocence is a virtue. That is why in the legal context, the law always favors the innocent but never excuses the ignorant.

 

            The child is not ignorant; he is innocent. The child’s innocence makes him a natural philosopher. He has plenty of question to ask, most of which are the “why” questions. And though plenty and endless, these questions are motivated not by any malice but by the purity of his intentions to know. The child’s innocence is therefore, the most evident proof of the purity of his mind. The child is truly a lover of truth. He wants to know the truth because he too, wants to tell the truth. What comes out of his mouth reveals the truth he has in his mind. That is why his testimonies in court can usually and largely influence the jury’s most rightful verdict. And there is one overwhelming reason for it. The child is not ignorant. He is innocent.

 

            b.         A child is a model of a person’s purity of heart. The child’s purity of heart is best shown in his untainted dealings and relationship with others. The child expresses what is truly in his heart. When he enjoys and is happy, he laughs and cheers up, and invites his peers to cheer with him. When he is offended and hurt, he cries and tells the world by his tears how sad he is. When he is angry, he burst out in child-like fury. And when he gets into quarrel, he fights to his might until his foe surrenders or he himself gives up and cries. But this is all what the child does. He does not go any further. The child does not keep any grudge or harbor ill-feelings in his tender heart. Let a little time pass by, when his anger subsides, he and his foes make again the best of friend.

 

            c.         A child is a model of a person’s purity of will. The child’s purity of will comes as a necessary consequence of his purity of mind and heart. Convinced that what he learns is true, he proudly proceeds with his child-like project. But honestly mindful too of his limitations, the determination of his will is perfectly rated by the great amount of humility he shows. Observe the child. All he knows about and all knowledge he gets is from his father (or mother or someone on authority). This is the greatest truth in the child’s world. Convinced about it, he knows only of one greatest person on earth: his father. He is so proud of his father and no one could stop him convincing the world how great his father is. But it is precisely in this conviction that the little child sees his own limitations. He knows too that without his father everything collapses. That is why he puts his total dependence on his father.

 

            This seems to be the kind of dependence God wants his people to have. It is not a parasite-type of dependence which passively waits for heaven’s grace to fall. Rather, it is a child-like dependence which is motivated by the purity of will to strive for individual projects, yet at the same time acknowledges that everything is futile without heaven’s blessings. This dependence is nothing else but the child’s total trust and confidence to his father.

 

            3.         Indeed, this is what life has to say. But sadly, life also teaches us about the irony in human growth and development. The child is born with purity of mind. But while the child always strives to say what is true, the grown-ups are there to feed him with lies. The child is pure in heart. But ironically, it is again the grown-ups who do replace sincerity with hypocrisy. Before men and the world, they put big smiles on their faces. But deep in their hearts, they harbor ill-feelings that would cry out for vengeance. The child is gifted with purity of will. But ironically, when the child grows up, he begins to know the art of self-reliance and the beauty of freedom. Little by little he asks and demands for it. And before he knows it, he already lives totally independent from his father. --- Alas, the grown-up child now loses his child-like virtue. That is why Christ admonishes: “Unless you turn and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”