REFLECTION ON THE FEAST OF STO. NINO
We were children once, remember?
And though each of us would have a different memory of growing up -- some more happy than others, others more sad and painful than some – I submit we all have, if only for a moment, a remembrance of innocence, of trust, of joy. It is that moment that the feast of today invites us to recall. Calling it to mind again, may we know and be assured that what once was can be again, even if in a different form and in a different time and place.
We may be grown-ups now. But to God, we still are His children -- always have been, always will be. The tragedy is that often we do not wish to hold His hand anymore, or be held by Him. We take pride in our being adults. We say we are our own persons. We wander off to highways and byways far from the Way He wishes us to take with Him. So we get lost.
But if this is our tragedy, our consolation is that He does not want us to remain lost. He looks for us. He calls us by name, aching with concern, desiring communion, as in Eden days when He said: “Adam, where are you?”
Today, in our inmost heart, may we hear that call again. And come home.
The Feast of the Sto. Nino is the feast of the God-Child. It invites us to remember our history, how Christianity came to us as a people even if not in the most pleasant of circumstances. It should also shake us into realizing that if the feast is to be real today, it must embrace the ninos and ninos of our society, many of whom are lonely and are getting lost, abandoned and forgotten by those of us who call ourselves adults. It tells us that if we are to enter the Kingdom of heaven, no matter how old and how professional we may be and claim ourselves to be, we remain and must always convert ourselves to be children of God.
Today is the Feast of the Christ-Child. It is also ours. We were children once, remember? We still are. We need to be. Let us be. Again. Santa or Santo – like the Cristo Nino.
FATHER RODERICK C. SALAZAR JR., SVD President
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