1Reflection for Sunday January 21, Feast of the Sto. Nino; Mark 10:13-16

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