Gospel: Mark
10:13-16
People were bringing
children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this
he became indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not
prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to
you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child* will not enter
it. Then he embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands on them.
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Reflection:
A story is told
about a man who wanted to know God on his own terms and intelligence. So, he
read books that would help him know God but to no avail. He be friended people
from his church’s parish yet there still was no development of his knowledge
about God.
Finally, a wise man
advised him to humbly abandon himself like a child before God. So he did and
thereupon began pouring all the wisdom that he would need to know God deeply.
Today we celebrate
the feast of Sto. Nino, this is one of the most well attended and most popular
feasts of the church here in the Philippines. Many also are devotees of Sto.
Nino in fact we see the image of Sto. Nino in almost all of the catholic
families here in the Philippines.
There are also
images of Sto. Nino in government/private offices; majority of politicians are
devotees of the Sto. Nino. For the reason that the Sto. Nino is present
everywhere it may seem that our country is morally upright. Better think again,
the country is still mired in corruption, immorality, arrogance and killings.
Where is the
influence of the Sto. Nino then? Do we allow our devotion to the Sto. Nino
change us for the better? Certainly not and this is our big problem. We are
fond of displaying images of our faith but the irony of it is this: Our faith
remains on exterior display and it ends there.
There is no
conversion and change of heart. If only we would learn to imbibe and
internalize the virtues of the Sto. Nino who is a little child that is always
humble and honest. Who doesn’t know how to cheat, kill and lie. Who doesn’t know how
to compromise with wrong. Then, our devotion to the child Jesus or Sto. Nino is
not in vain.
In the gospel, Jesus is angry with His disciples for they were preventing the children to go to
Him. So Jesus told them: “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for
the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. (Mark 10:14)
Is Jesus speaking
here of the literal children only? Of course not! Jesus is also speaking here
of the adult ones which includes us. Adult ones who have childlike virtues such
as: Humility, simplicity, forgiveness, honestly and the like. – Marino J.
Dasmarinas
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