By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Archbishop Thomas Wenski preached this homily while celebrating Mass Jan. 21, 2024, with the Filipino community on the feast of “el Santo Niño” (the holy child) at St. Bernard Church in Sunrise.
Today, the third Sunday of January, the Filipino nation celebrates Sinulog. This is a beautiful celebration – in a way, it extends for us the feast of Christmas when we celebrate that our Savior and Redeemer became a “little Child” precisely to save us and to introduce us to the intimacy of his family, which is the life of the Most Holy Trinity. He became one like us so that we could become like him.
In the Gospel, the disciples asked him what they must do to become great in the Kingdom of God. His answer had to surprise them – because children did not enjoy the status that we give them today. We love to spoil our kids. If you don’t think so just remember all those toys you bought for your kids for Christmas. Some of those toys are already forgotten by them. In Jesus’ time, most of his contemporaries followed the axiom, “spare the rod and spoil the child.” And back then there was no DCF that would investigate parents if they used the rod too generously.
Yet, Jesus put that little child before them and said, "Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” And, if he said it to his disciples, he is probably saying the same thing to us today.
He is trying to make an important point – and drives it home with this example. He wants to remind us that the way things are valued in this world is not how they are valued in his kingdom. We do want to feel important, and we want to feel valued – and that’s what drives most of us to succeed in school and in our workplaces. We live in a very competitive society: It is dog eat dog out there; and to succeed, it seems that we have to be the meanest dog. The world tells us: Nice guys finish last.
Again, children in Jesus’ time lived in humble circumstances and so they weren’t about feeling themselves important or powerful. After all, they were looked down upon; after all, they are short people, so they have no illusions about being “the greatest” anywhere. So while the disciples wanted to know what they have to do to become “great,” children are not worried so much about that, which is why Jesus put that little child in front of them and told them to be humble like they are. There is something more important to them than being considered as a great person or a ruler over others. They were then, and they are today, more concerned about feeling themselves loved and protected by their parents. To be with mom or dad, to be with someone they can trust, is what concerns them. As “short people” they recognize their powerlessness, they know instinctively that they cannot live unless there is a parent or someone that they can trust. They place themselves in their parents’ hands; that’s all they are looking for.
And here is the lesson that Jesus wanted to give: Unless we can be satisfied with just being in God’s mercy and under God’s rule, we cannot say that we are like little children. If we have thoughts of wanting to make demands from God and from others for expected rewards for what we have done, we cannot say we are like little children.
We must have a change of heart at that level and change directions otherwise we will not be satisfied with the kingdom of God.
Jesus also says, “Whoever receives a child like this one on behalf of my name is receiving me.” What does this mean? If it was about accepting someone who is easy to accept, he would not have had to say this – and so, this verse is also about accepting the hard to accept person. A little child is dependent, he or she requires care. Kids can create a burden; they are certainly great responsibilities. How do we make room in our lives for those hard to accept people unless we are humble? How do we bear with one another’s burdens unless we are humble? Only if we know of our own “littleness” under the mercy of God are we able to see others as people also under the mercy of God. To reject the other because he or she is annoying, because he or she is in no position to help us, because he or she is unimportant, at least in ways that the world evaluates what is important, is to reject Christ himself.
Christ humbled himself – he was God yet became a little child; Christ humbled himself – he was innocent and without sin, yet he suffered and died on the cross for sinners.
Our Lord’s humility is what makes him accessible to us – and when we are humble, we become accessible to others, especially those most vulnerable, those most in need. It’s a lesson we need to appropriate lest we, in seeking to be important, forget how to be good.
This beautiful devotion of the Filipino people reminds us of the humility of Christ, the Santo Nino. From the time of Queen Juana until today, the Santo Niño continues point out to the Pinoy and Pinay the path that we should follow. We dance the Sinalog as an expression of our willingness to walk humbly with our Lord.
