An Image of a Mature Faith

Feast of the Sto. Niño Jan. 16, 2011 (Mt 18:1-5, 10)

At that time the disciples approached Jesus and said, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"

He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, "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.

"See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father."

Jesus' childhood is forever immortalized in the popular image we call the Sto. Niño. This image, a common sight in homes and even in business areas, is often dressed up to portray different personalities. While it is merely a popular tradition to dress up the Sto. Niño as a farmer, as a fireman or as a construction worker, it serves as a reminder of Jesus' Incarnation, of the fact that He lived among us. Jesus indeed became a true human child as an act of humility and out of love for humanity. He lived a full human life, from childhood until death, precisely to demonstrate to us how to live as true children of the Father. The different portrayals of the Sto. Niño serve to remind us that regardless of who we are and what we do in life, we are children of God.

Jesus reminds us to remain humble, like little children. No matter how old we get and how mature and experienced we think we may be, we are still God's little children. We would never have achieved anything without His grace and we definitely cannot, by our own maturity and wisdom, save ourselves. Salvation requires a recognition of one's sinfulness and a humble, dependence on and surrender to God's fatherly love.

As we go on facing many responsibilities and accomplishing new achievements in life, we must never forget to remain humble before God. We must not forget that, as children of God, we should always remain obedient to His will and dependent on Him.

Our devotion to the Sto. Niño must not be a mere taking care of a statue as if it were an actual child that needs to be cleaned and dressed up all the time. The very point of immortalizing Jesus' childhood through this image is precisely to awaken the child in our hearts that has grown up and has rebelled against his Father, the child that has been fooled into thinking that he can survive without God. Maturity in faith is different from the maturity that the world values. While maturity and independence mean relying on one's ability to accomplish one's responsibility, maturity in faith means doing one's best while recognizing that one cannot succeed without God's help.

Jesus showed us His humility in becoming an innocent and dependent human child. And as He grew up, He remained obedient to the will of His heavenly Father. We must follow His example by being obedient children of God even as we grow up. As Jesus grew in wisdom and in age, He remained to be the Sto. Niño, the holy and obedient child of the Father, even until His death. We too, must be holy and obedient children of God no matter how old we may grow up to be. In growing up, may we not grow apart from God and apart from His heavenly kingdom, which is open only for children.

A Call for Mature Faith

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time Jan. 31, 2010 (Lk 4:21-30)

He said to them, "Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing." And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They also asked, "Isn't this the son of Joseph?"

He said to them, "Surely you will quote me this proverb, 'Physician, cure yourself,' and say, 'Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.'"

And he said, "Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian."

When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But he passed through the midst of them and went away.

"Familiarity breads contempt," a saying goes. True enough, we easily lose interest in things we are too familiar with. We conclude that we know everything about something or someone, to the point that we don't care to know them anymore. This was the attitude of Jesus' fellow Nazoreans. They only knew Jesus as the son of a carpenter and, thus, wondered where He got wisdom and eloquence. Their close-mindedness and lack of faith were the reasons why Jesus didn't perform miracles in their town.

Often, we are like the Nazoreans who rejected Jesus. We, too, reject God. Yes, we have faith in Him, but our faith is limited and immature. We see God as an All-powerful Being who, being our Father, will care for us and provide for everything we need. We expect Him to readily say yes to all our prayers. Because of this immaturity, our faith cannot grow and will easily be upset when we don't have things our way.

Our Gospel for today doesn't only call for accepting Jesus, it calls for a total faith in Jesus, including accepting and living His examples and preachings. The message of Jesus is not as simple as, "I love you. I saved you. End of story." His message is a complete turning away from sin and returning to God, rejecting the senseless pleasures and accepting the cross as He did. If the purpose of Jesus' Incarnation is just to save us, then He should have been crucified immediately after He was born. But as it is, He came to dwell among us to set an example of how to live as children of God. He showed us that suffering does not mean the absence of God; it could be the will of God at work in our lives to bring a greater good. His last and best example of accepting God's will is His death on the cross.

Our relationship with God calls for true faith in Him, a mature faith that sees how God works in our lives even in the midst of many problems. We must accept Jesus' preachings and follow His example of obedience to God. We must imitate the great selfless love that He showed us.

Of course, it is also our mission to share our faith, hope and love to others. As baptized Christians, we share in Jesus' prophetic mission. Therefore, we must proclaim Him in word and in deed, even when nobody shall listen to us. A prophet always faces rejection. What's important is that we have faith and we share this to others, so we can all grow and learn from Jesus.