FEAST OF THE SANTO NIÑO A

ACCEPTING IN FAITH

(pls support 2nd collections in your churches for the 
Taal volcano eruption evacuees...)

Days before last Christmas, Filipinos received a great news – the Filipino Cardinal Tagle was appointed head of what will soon be the top office (dicastery) in Rome!

It was a great honor to Filipino Catholics!

It was a recognition of Filipino talent to lead in the world!

But what was it like for the Cardinal?

Some said it must have been a surprise for him, but others opined that it was something he expected, even desired, from the start.

On the one hand, there was a picture of a humble man lifted high, and on the other, of an ambitious man reaching his goal!

To know the real answer, I returned to an old interview of Cardinal Tagle in an American channel where he stressed that the sudden changes in his life – becoming a priest, being appointed a bishop, and named a cardinal – were events he never desired but was something he “accepted in faith.”

In that context, the Cardinal’s simplicity and humility are clearly manifest.

Today we celebrate the unique Filipino feast of Santo Niño, honoring the divine childhood of Jesus, before moving on to the ordinary time of the liturgy.

The Gospel describes how the Lord Jesus Christ viewed greatness.

For Jesus, it was never about power.

It was never about superiority over others.

It was not about a display of achievements and talents.

That was how the world imagined greatness, and the Lord would have none of it.

Instead, he came down from heaven through a lowly virgin, who was herself just a “servant of the Lord,” being born in a stable, and growing up in a backwater town despised by others.

God became a human being by renouncing his power, his distance, his title, his prerogatives, and just enjoying what it means to be weak, limited, unknown, and poor with the rest of his creatures.

When the disciples came to Jesus hoping that he would affirm them in their secret desire for worldly greatness, the Lord pointed to the image of a humble child.

The one who is like a child is the truly great one in the kingdom of God.

A child “accepts in faith” what is given him by his parents.

He simply trusts that his father knows best.

He simply obeys what his mother tells him to do.

A child has no grandiose plans for the future but adapts to the unfolding challenges of everyday.

In this way, he is “obedient.”

This “obedience” to others, to what will happen, to surprises, is a facet of a humble and child-like faith.

Do we not feel we are great when we have control of things?

Of our future, of our finances, of our health, of other people’s behaviors?

And in the face of the unforeseen, the unexpected and unplanned, do we not freak out and lose our cool?

The child simply takes in what happens around him and acts according to what is needed of him.

The Cardinal referred to this as “acceptance in faith.”

St Francis de Sales called this “obedience to events” (specially to unpleasant ones).

Little Sister Madeleine of Jesus said: He took me by the hand and blindly I followed.

Let us ask the Lord to give us the heart of a child

-               Believing

-               Trusting

-               Obeying

-               Following

whatever is the will of the Father for our lives this year and always…

____________


Tulungan po nating mag move up ang Blog na ito sa pamamagitan ng 3 simpleng hakbang:

first, go to the main page of the blog: ourparishpriest.blogspot.com; 

second, click the bar at the top. 

third, then when the "followers" appear on the side, click there too. 

hope you'll have time for this short thing today. thanks po. God bless po!