CHILD, AND YET, A SAVIOR.
January 21, 2024.
Feast of the Santo Niño, Holy Childhood Day (Sancta
Infantia).
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
“Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the
kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” Mk 10:14
A Swedish proverb says: “From children old people arise.” A
Burmese proverb adds: “Parents are the first teachers of the children.”
We are celebrating today a feast that for every Filipino has
a great meaning and conveys a great message. The Santo Niño, or Holy Infant,
while plunging us back to the joy of Christmas, bears a message of love and
hope. It speaks of the love of God for our humanity and brings us hope that,
despite all trials, sufferings, humiliating situations, poverty, and rejection,
God will always be by our side. The feast of the Holy Infant or Santo Niño is
about our faith in God who gives us His Only Begotten Son, the little boy of Bethlehem,
the Son of Mary. The second message is that despite poverty, hunger, social
injustices, and material want, the Santo Niño gives us hope. No sorrow lasts
forever. God became man to save man and bring him back to God. When situations
and even people try to constitute a barrier or a hindrance for us to reach out
to God, it is God himself who reaches out to us.
The Gospel passage, the extract of Mark 10: 13-16 is a quite
clear example. While parents wanted their children to get closer to Jesus and
obtain his blessing, the disciples erected themselves into a hindrance. The
words of the Lord were scourging to his disciples and uplifting to the
children. He sets up high children's rights: “Let the children come to me; do
not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say
to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter
it.”
Our children deserve spiritual goods. We need to bring them
to Jesus. This is not only during or for baptism but also when they are
growing. We need to teach them to know God and to love him. It is part of their
rights. Children deserve the best, that is, spiritual guidance and growth unto
divine protection.
I like to see how parents are eager to get their children
baptized. But the most important thing should be the after baptism. How do we
help them to grow in their faith? This is a task for a whole community,
parents, godparents, catechists, priests... It is not enough to baptize our
children. We should help them know and live their faith. That is what it means
to love Jesus.
I read somewhere this beautiful invitation addressed to
Christians and Catholic parents: "BRING YOUR KIDS TO CHURCH!” The author
said. “Even if they're on the floor, it's probably because they need to play and/or
a pacifier to stay calm. Even if you spend the entire time at the end of church
service swinging from side to side and holding them.
Even if your child is a turbine or a small hurricane. Take
them to Mass: let them see you worship, let them see you pray and above all,
let them see you sing God’s praises. Let them see you going to the priest to
receive the Eucharist, and they will probably follow and imitate you. If they
don't see you doing these things and they don't learn from you, who will they learn
them from?
Children, in fact, to a certain extent, listen to their
parents with their ears but always listen to them with their eyes... If you
don’t bring them, the world will teach them that it’s not a priority but one of
many options. The world will pull them away from God, confuse them, and
misinform them that it’s enough to be “good”, but what goodness is the world
talking about? But be sure the world will not teach them who Jesus is to them
and that He is alive in the Word and the Bread of life. It is something only
you can teach them. So, take your children to church." It is exactly what
those parents did in the Gospel we have just heard. They brought their children
to the Lord.
Celebrating Santo Niño, we celebrate Jesus our Lord, who
became a child, just similar to any of our children. So, just like them, he may
have been turbulent, stubborn, restless, and sometimes hard to deal with. Let
us not miss from mind the episode of him getting lost in the Temple. That means
he escaped from his parents' sights. Mary and Joseph spent days searching for
him, and in the end, found him in the Temple. Because they used to bring him to
the Temple, it is where the child Jesus found refuge, and to the amazement of
his parents, he was listening to the high priests and the Scribes and
interrogating them. They did not find him on the basketball court, nor in the
internet shop playing mobile legend, nor in the vape shop smoking, or at SM
strolling around. But, where do we find our children today?
St. Paul, in his address to the Ephesians, invites us to
give thanks to God because, in Jesus our Lord, he made us his children, to be
holy and blameless. Through the Holy Infant, a great hope is opened to our
humanity. We are made worthy to rediscover and be restored to our original
beauty and identity. He is our Redeemer. Child, yet, and Savior. So, our
children also are called to be holy.
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