There has been a growing awareness even within the Church of a crisis of faith experienced today in many developed countries that were
once Christian and have now abandoned the faith in favor of secularist
philosophies. We recall Pope Benedict XVI's letter, Porta Fidei (2011), which called for particular reflection and rediscovery of the faith in response to this crisis [PF, no 4].
In the Philippines, one may still claim that the Filipino people have not lost the
faith yet. But signs of secular mindset
creeping in are not difficult to notice and are gradually undermining the
integrity of faith in Filipino communities and families. Besides, the faith of a great number of
Filipino Catholics needs to move on from being just “sacramentalized” to
becoming truly evangelized.
Hence, we continue
our commitment to a long and gradual process of deepening our knowledge and
appreciation of our Christian faith and to grab every opportunity of living out
our faith consciously and of sharing it to the world with joy.
The celebration of the Feast of the Santo
Niño is one such opportunity. How can
our devotion to the Santo Niño help us achieve the goal of deepening and
strengthening our Christian faith? I suggest three ways:
Gratitude
for the gift of faith. Today’s second reading (Eph
1:3-6, 15-18) should inspire us to be grateful because of the faith we
received. St. Paul writes: “Therefore, I,
too, hearing of your faith in the Lord
Jesus..., do not cease in giving thanks for you, remembering you in my
prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give
you a spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him”
(v.15-17).
Our devotion to the child Jesus has to nurture our gratitude
for the gift of faith. The feast of the Santo Niño is particularly significant
to us Filipinos because it was the image of the child Jesus that was first
instrumental to the introduction of Christian faith to us. When we dance the sinulog step, we recall the joy of Hara Amihan, wife of Rajah Humabon, the ruler of Cebu in
1521, as she danced upon receiving the image of the Santo Niño as baptismal
gift from Magellan.
Let our celebration of the Feast of the Santo Niño,
then, express our gratitude to God for the gift of our faith. Gratitude is a sign that we just don’t take
our faith for granted but we appreciate it and we are conscious of its value
and influence in our personal and communal lives. Gratitude for the gift of
faith is recognizing the gratuitousness of God in loving us sinners. When we
thank God for the gift of faith, we thank Him because we have Him in our lives.
Let our devotion to the child Jesus remind us of this.
Nurturing
the gift of faith in our children. The Santo Niño
represents a child. One reason perhaps why the natives of this land did not
resist the faith is the disarming appeal of a child. Jesus Christ himself has
always welcomed the presence of the children and has seen in them the qualities
of those who should belong to God’s Kingdom.
In Mt. 18:1-5, 10, Jesus called a child over
and presented him to his disciples saying, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn
and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever
humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And
whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.”
If Christian faith has to continue to
flourish, we need to nurture the seed of faith in our children. If we fail in this, how can we hope to succeed
in sharing the beauty of our faith to grown-ups who have become arrogantly
materialistic, astute in electronic technology but spiritually bankrupt?
Our devotion to the child Jesus then
should heighten our recognition of the openness of the children to God. Children
are very fragile. We ought to take care of them, especially the aspect of their
faith and relationship with God. They can easily be destroyed by today’s
materialistic trend. God calls all of us for a purpose. We need to nurture that
calling in our children early on that they may grow in the path set for them by
God and that faith may be their guide in their search for meaning in life.
Maturing in faith by purifying popular piety. Popular piety may have led some people
to flock to the image of the Santo Niño for its supposed ‘lucky charm,’ or
‘miraculous powers.’ While it’s a function of faith to trust in God’s
providence to answer our human needs, it is bordering onto fanaticism to assign
the divine power to the image of a divinity. While we love the image of the
child Jesus, for whatever reasons, it is perhaps a form of fixation to see the
person of Jesus only as a child.
Our devotion to the Santo Niño has to
help us encounter the whole person of Jesus. In Luke 2: 41-52, the incident of the
losing and finding of Jesus reveals that, as a child, Jesus is already
concerned about his relationship with his Father. “Why are you looking for me?
Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” His
concern as a child to be in His Father’s house tells a lot about Jesus’ commitment
to do his Father’s will. When we see the
child Jesus asserting the utmost importance of doing His Father’s work, it
should not be difficult for us to see that this is the same person who reaches
out to serve the poor, the destitute, and the oppressed. He is the teacher who teaches us to love one
another and instructs us to forgive as the Father in heaven forgives, i.e.,
seventy times seven times. He is the same person who agonizes in the garden of
Gethsemane as He chooses the path of self-sacrifice that His Father’s design
may be accomplished. The child Jesus whom we love so much is the Jesus who has
saved us through his total obedience unto death on the cross and His
glorification in the resurrection.
Beyond the excitement of dancing the Sinulog steps, our devotion to the Santo
Niño has to lead us to the joy of mature discipleship and the challenge of
being his witnesses in this changed and increasingly secularized milieu. May our celebration of the Feast of the Santo Niño
be an opportunity for us, indeed, to deepen our faith.
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