Sto. Nino (A)

FEAST OF THE STO. NINO (A)
(Jan. 20, 2008)
Mt. 18: 1-5; 10

In a century that gave us computers and nuclear power, the SIMPLICITY of a child may be dismissed as human stupidity. But isn’t it that we have been acting like stupid grown-ups because we have lost the wisdom of a child?

Remember our childhood days and how we loved and believed those fairy tales- those “once upon a time… there was a kingdom…” – that our parents read for us. Perhaps, we had outgrown them; we thought we could now distinguish fiction from facts. That is logical. But are we moving from fact to belief, from what is logical to what is beyond reason, which believers call faith? Or are we walking towards unbelief of God to belief of ourselves as gods who can build our own kingdom on earth?

What we expediently accept are those truths that are rationally preached by humans- world leaders, media and business people. We may shrug off Gospel truths as invalidated truths or simply pink elephants resulting from a childish imagination. Like Pilate we ask, “What is truth?”. Yet truth is not at the mercy of verification; what is irrational does not always mean it is not true: it is true because it is true. And we thought we knew better!

Perhaps this is the reason for living amidst contradictions. We want to be secure but we submit ourselves to things that make us even more insecure; we want to be happy but we cannot consent that happiness has no price on it; we want to live in peace but every country is gearing for war to achieve it; we want to live in freedom but we relinquish the same to the opinions of the world; we want to act with reason but professionals and business people are knocking at the doors of fortune-tellers.

How can we capture again the ending in a child’s storybook, “And they lived happily ever after…?” Left with our own powers, can we honestly say that we can live in a peaceful and humane world? Can we have the ability to clean out the enormous emotional rubbish and pragmatic games we have played that clutter our lives? How can we not live in fear when we are told by media, experts, and zealots to fear everything?

The disciples asked Jesus, “Who, then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Jesus called a little child and made him stand in the middle of them…” The child is the greatest because he can believe, trust, and obey God while living with hope for the kingdom to come.

Albert Einstein once said, “Either everything is a miracle, or nothing is a miracle.” We can never entertain the possibility of a miracle unless we become children again. It is only then that even miracles are superfluous. Every day miracles are nothing more but facts of God’s love. VIVA SENOR SANTO NINO, teach us to believe, trust, and obey our Father in heaven as You did in all simplicity!