By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Archbishop Thomas Wenski preached this homily while celebrating Mass for the feast of the Santo Niño de Cebu with the Filipino community, Jan. 15, 2023, at St. Bernard Church in Sunrise.
Today, the third Sunday of January, the Filipino nation celebrates Sinulog. Viva Santo Niño de Cebu! Pit Señor! 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 first reading the Prophet Isaiah speaks about how a people who have walked into darkness have seen a great light. Isaiah, addressing the Lord, says, “You have brought them abundant joy and great rejoicing.” And aren’t Isaiah’s words today also descriptive of the Filipino people, who since the baptism of Queen Juana have embraced the Catholic faith and have become members of the Church?
Today, our celebration – the sound of the drums and the Sinulog dance – expresses the joy of believing: for faith is not a burden but a gift that gives us strength – and encountering the living God in Jesus Christ is what brings true joy to our lives.
This beautiful devotion of the Filipino people reminds us of the humility of Christ, the Santo Niño; and this devotion points out to us the path that we should follow. We dance the sinulog as an expression of our willingness to walk humbly with our Lord.
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. In the Gospel today, Jesus when he saw his disciples arguing about who was more important, placed before them a little child. The Kingdom of God, he tells them – and he tells us – is for those who are humble like a little child. It’s a lesson we need to appropriate lest we in seeking to be important forget how to be good.
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.”
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.
Jesus tells us something different. Yes, it’s good to be important; but it’s more important to be good.
But Jesus is not talking about children’s innocence or purity – some kids can be “holy terrors”; he is talking about their humility, their lowliness. 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.
Children 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.
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 we find hard to accept 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.
Through this image of the Christ Child, given to Queen Juana on the day of her baptism, God began to reveal his glory to the Filipino nation. Faith in God has animated the life and culture of the Filipino people for almost five centuries. From this first encounter between that faith and Queen Juana there has emerged a rich Christian culture which has found expression in the art, the music, the literature and above all in the people’s religious traditions and their whole way of being. From the time of Queen Juana until today, the Santo Nino continues to reveal his glory to the Pinoy and Pinay so that they, like the first disciples, might believe in him.
