A mother was teaching her three year old son the Lord’s Prayer. For several evenings at bedtime, he repeated it after his mother. One night he said he was ready to solo. The mother listened with pride, as he carefully enunciated each word right up to the end. “And lead us not into temptation”, he prayed, “but deliver us some e-mail, Amen.”
(The story is from an unknown author)
Filipino families would make little children the center of their attention. Children in Filipino homes are over protected and lavished with love from their siblings, parents and grandparents. This could be the most significant reason why the devotion of Filipinos to the child Jesus is quite strong. The Santo Niño is a little child whom we easily can love and shower with affection.
There are at least three reasons why we, Filipinos, should keep and develop our love to the Santo Niño. First of all, the Santo Niño reminds us of the beginning of the Christian faith on earth. The Santo Niño provides a visible representation of the great mystery of the Incarnation. When the fullness of time came, the Second Person of the Triune God decided to be born as a little child and to become one like us in everything except sin. At the center of our faith is the fact that God became little in order to make us great. Saint Irenaeus once wrote, “On account of His great love, He became what we are, that He might make us what He is.”
Second, the Santo Niño reminds us of the establishment of the Christian Faith in the Philippines. In 1521, the Spanish conquistadores landed in the Philippine soil. The missionary friars who were with them worked hard to introduce Christianity to the natives. In the beginning there was strong resistance, but after some time the friars were able to bring many to the Christian faith, including the king (Humabon) and queen (Juana) of Cebu. As a baptismal present, Magellan handed to the queen an image of the Santo Niño. Today, the same statue, which marked the Christianization of the country, is venerated in a beautiful basilica in Cebu.
Finally, the Santo Niño serves as a perpetual reminder of the key to our salvation. Jesus said, “Unless you become like a little child, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God” (Mt 18:3). Obviously, the Lord doesn’t want us to remain a child forever. He wants us to mature physically, emotionally and spiritually. He likes us to grow in our faith and love of God and neighbor. And yet, in all these, the Lord wishes us to remain childlike. He wants us to remain humble, simple and trustful in God who is our Loving Father in heaven.
One big stumbling block on our way to heaven is pride. A proud person would forget easily that God is the source of all blessings. He would think that he achieves everything only with his efforts, and thus, would not be grateful to anybody, not even to God.
A proud person would hardly say “sorry.” He would see only the faults of others, not his own. Even when he recognizes his mistakes, he would not say “sorry” because repentance for him is a sign of weakness.
Worst of all, a proud person would be quick to judge and slow to forgive. A person who does not realize his own need of forgiveness would tend to be very hard on others.
As we celebrate the feast of the Santo Niño, let us be reminded that true greatness lies not in lording it over others, but in being grateful, humble, compassionate and merciful with others.
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