“We look forward with gratitude and joy to March 16, 2021,
the fifth centenary of the coming of Christianity to our beloved land,” the
bishops said in their July 9 letter. “We remember with thanksgiving the first
Mass celebrated in Limasawa Island on Easter Sunday March 31 that same blessed
year. We remember the baptism of Rajah Humabon who was given his Christian name
Carlos and his wife Hara Amihan who was baptized Juana in 1521. Our eyes gaze
on the Santo Niño de Cebu, the oldest religious icon in the Philippines, gift
of Ferdinand Magellan to the first Filipino Catholics that same year. Indeed
the year 2021 will be a year of great jubilee for the Church in the
Philippines.”
To prepare the faithful for this year, the bishops announced
“a nine-year journey for the New Evangelization,” with a different theme for
each year: Integral Faith Formation (2013), The Laity (2014), The Poor (2015), The
Eucharist and the Family (2016), The Parish as a Communion of Communities
(2017), The Clergy and Consecrated Persons (2018), The Youth (2019), Ecumenism
and Inter-Religious Dialogue (2020), and Missio ad gentes [mission to the
nations] (2021)
This year then is dedicated as the Year of “Missio ad
Gentes”, the Latin for “mission to the nations”. And we have as an over-all theme during this
500th anniversary celebration—“Gifted to Give,” which recalls the
mandate of Jesus: “What you have received as a gift, give as a gift” (Mt 10:8). This “giftedness” had motivated the
missionaries over the centuries to share the gift of faith to us. This same
experience of giftedness should also inspire all of us today to engage in
mission.
Given this context, the Feast of Santo Nino this year takes
on a very special flavour and poses a great challenge to our devotion. In the
light of this theme, “Gifted to gift”, let me suggests three invitations for
all of us: Gratitude for the gift of faith, Growth in maturity of Faith, Becoming
a Missionary in Sharing the gift of faith.
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.
We are celebrating the 500th anniversary of
the Christian faith this year! How can this realization not move us to
heartfelt thanksgiving? 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.
Growth in Maturity of
faith. Since the first Holy Mass and
baptism in 1521, the seed of Christian faith has blossomed into a strong and gigantic
tree of faith. This year, there are 80+
million Catholics in 16 Archdioceses, 72 Dioceses, 7 apostolic vicariates, 1
Military Ordinariate, and 2,127 parishes!
What a blessing! Yet we continue to take on the challenge of cultivating
a mature Christian faith by purifying our 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.
Becoming a Missionary
in Sharing the Gift of Faith. “The Christian faith arrived and prospered in
our land through the dedication and heroic sacrifices of thousands of men and
women missionaries from various parts of the world. They treasured the gift of
faith they had received and desired to share this gift with others. As the
theme chosen by the Catholic Bishops‟ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) for
this fifth centennial notes: all Christians are “gifted to give.” This
“giftedness” motivated generous missionaries over the centuries; it must also
enflame the hearts of all of us today to engage in mission here at home and in
other countries (mission ad gentes). Indeed, this is part of Jesus‟ mission
mandate to his disciples: “What you have received as a gift, give as a gift”
(Mt 10:8). We pray for a missionary renewal of our Church—both at home (ad
intra) and beyond our borders (ad extra) during our celebration of the 500
years—and into the future! (excerpt from CBCP Pastoral Letter, BECOMING
MISSIONARY DISCIPLES).
We are challenged to a heightened awareness of and
commitment to our 3-fold mission: prophetic, priestly, and kingly. Let us be
missionary in the family, in our neighbourhood and BECs, in our parishes,
offices, institutions we are serving either in private or public service, in
our businesses and even in the market place.
We recall the challenge of Pope John Paul II during his 1981
visit to our Church: “I wish to tell you of my special desire: that the
Filipinos will become the foremost missionaries of the Church in Asia.” This is
a clear invitation to engage in missio ad gentes!
May this year of Missio ad Gentes bring us all into a deeper
commitment to becoming missionaries. As Pope Francis exhorts: “Every Christian
is a missionary to the extent that he or she has encountered the love of God in
Christ Jesus: we no longer say that we are “disciples‟ and “missionaries,‟ but
rather that we are always “missionary disciples‟” (EG 120).
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