This 3rd Sunday of January
marked a special feast for the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines. Today is the feast of the Holy Child or
popularly known in the Philippines as the Santo Nino. The Santo Nino is one of the most popular and
well venerated icons of Christ representing His Childhood and Kingship. The Santo Nino has occupied an important role
in the Evangelization of the Philippine Islands. Fernando Magallanes (Ferdinand Magellan)
gifted the King and Queen of Cebu with an Image of the Infant of Prague. The death of Magellan and the departure of
the first expedition created an interregnum until the second expedition fifty
years later. On the return of the second
expedition, the Spaniards were surprised to find out that there in Cebu the
image of the Holy Child were preserved and kept by the natives. To this day the
Santo Nino is venerated by Filipino Catholics and almost every home the image
of the Santo Nino is displayed for veneration.
Like
my fellow country folks, I am also a devotee of the Santo Nino in my own
way. In this devotion I find and see the
face of Jesus and the promise of paradise/Eden.
Let me offer to you my personal reflections.
[1] The Icon of the Santo Nino beyond
the material importance that we give to the icon is the essence of God’s
Kingdom. The Kingdom of God means the reign
of God in our lives, in our community and in the world. We speak about this in both our
devotional/personal lives as well as in its eschatological dimension. Simply put it, the Kingdom of God is
something that is given to us now by faith, and in the future at the end of the
ages, when Christ will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. For this reason Christ said, “Let the little
children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the
kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell
you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never
enter it.” – Luke 18-16. The image of
the Child Jesus tells us that the only way we could regain our status in
Paradise is to have the humble and trusting faith of a child. This calls for the surrender of our wills to
God – to follow God’s will. Humankind
lost paradise by succumbing to temptation and pride. “You can become like god”. Perhaps God was withholding this to you
because you have the potential to become like God, says the tempter. And because of the weakness of the flesh and
the vanity of humankind Adam and Eve succumb to Pride which led to their
downfall. “Behold they have become like
us, knowing what is good and evil.”
Humankind thought that by obtaining the power to control themselves
apart from God, which they will be able to free themselves. But by gaining the desire for self-will and
knowledge, humankind was plunge into evil and darkness. Humankind can never find its way back to God,
if they will continue to believe and think that by their own powers and will,
they could find the way back to God. A
Saint Paul said: “God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to
the degrading of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the
truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creator, who is blessed
forever! Amen.” – Romans 1:24. That is
why even today, with the advances in science and technology, even with higher education;
still our nation is still plunge in corruption, ineptitude and violence. But how many of us own or venerate the icon
of the Holy Child? How many of us
participate in Holy Mass every Sunday? How many of us would give donations to
charity, as if we think we could repay our evil deeds with money? Our veneration of the Holy Child will be
futile and fruitless unless what we seek from Him goes beyond the material
benefits towards the spiritual benefits.
Aptly our Lord said: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these
things shall be added unto you.” As we
look at the icon of the Holy Child, let us be reminded and be instructed that
the way to God’s kingdom, the way to peace and the way to real prosperity is by
surrendering our will to God and see in the Santo Nino, the New Adam, the New
Father of the Human Race, born to be a salvation and blessing for all
humankind. A heart full of repentance is
what the Lord is seeks from us.
[2] Another point that I would like to
give in my reflection is the need for us to mature in faith. The Filipino
people are blessed with a believing and trusting hearts. That is why when the Faith of Jesus Christ
came to these shores 400 years ago, the Filipino nation embraced the faith so
willingly. This made manifest in the
collective outpouring of devotion as shown by how we make a display of our
affection for God through our festivals, like the one we are having in the
Sinulog, Quiapo, Penafrancia and many others.
Some people and some of our friends who do not belong to our faith often
criticize us that the outpouring of our devotion is bordering on paganism. There is always one answer I give to the
critic, whether pagan or Christian, human beings possess that innate desire to
worship God and put tangible expression for that devotion. What makes popular devotion popular, of which
the Sinulog is one example, is its simplicity.
It puts the faith in a form that is simple and therefore comprehensible,
within the reach of all (New Advent Encyclopedia). There is nothing against Catholic dogma and
doctrine in this practice. Therefore it
serves as a powerful vehicle to promote growth and maturity in faith. Faith is both human and divine. It is human because, human nature is always
there at play. God does not force anyone
to believe, but Humankind is given that freedom to accept and reject. But coupled with that freedom is the understanding
that our choices have consequences.
Faith is Divine in the sense that it is something given to us as a gift,
as a display of favor. “Christ did not
come to destroy nature, He came to sanctify it,” to make it perfect and
conformed to the image of God. For God,
even in the darkness in which humankind fell, did not abandon them but retained
within them the life and light of the Divine.
Jesus came to give us that sanctifying grace, so that God’s image,
overshadowed by sin can be recreated in us.
This truth aptly is demonstrated in waters of Baptism. Thus, from the popular outpouring of devotion
we must grow into a full understanding of what it is to be a Christian. We honor Christ and lavish Him with outpouring
of devotion, but the most tangible and saving response is to live according to
His Teachings. Our fervor and unabashed
display of love should be channeled into a concrete and intelligible understanding
of the faith so that in our everyday lives we can show what it means to be in
the state of sanctifying grace. The Icon
of the Santo Nino is not a magic. It is
not a talisman that will invite good fortune and money as some ignorant people
believe it is. But rather it is a
powerful icon in the sense that it transports our consciousness from the
material to the spiritual of which the icon represents. The Santo Nino indeed can bless us
materially, more abundantly even beyond our imagination, but above all the
Santo Nino wants us to be saved, he wants us to live in the state of
sanctifying grace, to live by the gospel and to show our love for the poor. If we do this then our popular expression of
devotion will never be in vain but it will be efficacious and redeeming.
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