Cycle C - Year I:

20 January 2013 - Feast of the Sto. Niño

(Liturgical color: White)

Luke 2:41-52

The Sto. Niño: the human face of God!

Filipinos' love for children is deeply ingrained in our culture. In every Filipino family little children are the center of love and affection.

Thus, it is not surprising that Filipinos love and revere the image of the Holy Child or the Sto. Niño throughout the country. Because Filipinos feel that their natural closeness to God can relate more in the image of a child's simplicity, innocence and trusting attitude.

The devotion to the Holy Child is said to be the oldest and one of the most popular in the Philippines. So that the Holy See granted us a special permission to celebrate the Feast of the Sto. Niño on the third Sunday of January.

In the Catholic Church, the Holy Child is an example of humility and as a celebration of the Incarnation of Christ. God came to us as a child to show us how to become children of God, how we can entrust our lives to our heavenly Father. In Jesus, God chose to make himself visible as an appealing child in order to draw us to himself.

Even Jesus himself loves the little children. He sees in their eyes the reflection of the freshness and the holiness of his Kingdom.

The gospel for this Sunday narrates the event when Jesus as a twelve year old boy was lost in the temple. His human parents, Mary and Joseph found him there after three days "sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers." Luke places the young Jesus in the temple as the place for the Son of God to make the beginning of his work of salvation.

Our devotion to the Holy Child should not stop at his infancy. We are reminded that the child Jesus grew up to be the Jesus of Nazareth who inaugurates the kingdom of God by his preaching. So, too, our devotion to the Sto. Niño should grow and deepen so that we become witnesses of the Lord Jesus by our words and good examples of Christian living.

Today is also the Feast Day of our Village as our Patron is the Sto. Niño. We start our celebration with an early  procession of the Sto. Niño around our village, followed by Thanksgiving Mass in our chapel. We greet everyone in our community Happy Feast Day and Viva, Señor Santo Niño!
A blessed Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Deo Optimo Maximo!