The devotion to the Sto. Niño is celebrated all over the islands of the Philippines. The local Church sets aside the 2nd Sunday of the Year for the feast day of the Sto. Niño. The feast is accompanied with great color, festivities, parades, and an infectious drum beat that can influence any passerby to dance with the parade. Devotion to the Sto. Niño is so popular that even commercial establishments reserve an altar in their workplace for the image of the Infant Jesus.
Being a predominantly Christian country, we usually boldly expressed our religiosity through different activities and religious commemorations. In fact, here in the Philippines, most particularly here in Cebu, we recently celebrated the Feast of the Sto. Nino (The Child Jesus) this was a special event celebrated by the church here in the Philippines duly granted by our Church leaders and personalities. Apparently, there's festive mode in almost all of the churches here especially those whose Parish Church is named after it.
However, the Philippines being a third world country is also poor and there’s a whole lot of suffering and hungry people specially the children. Just on the day of the celebration I saw this poor boy selling images of the child Jesus. His situation got my attention. I even made him as an image of the celebration duly because he thrive for a living, I supposed. Yes, he is just a little boy but I really appreciated his will and effort to do an admirable endeavor. He is, with the thing he did, of course of profound help in his family. Nevertheless, I came to ask what prompt this little boy to sell such images? Is it for thankfulness or making such opportunity to earn for a living because he has a stomach to feed and needs to satisfy? Eventually, in life aside from our religiosity, we are propelled to do things even against our will because this is what we need. In this little boy's case, we at the critic side normally criticized what is not suppose to be done by the society. But what alternative we can provide just to partly minimize this outward picture of poverty?
However, the Philippines being a third world country is also poor and there’s a whole lot of suffering and hungry people specially the children. Just on the day of the celebration I saw this poor boy selling images of the child Jesus. His situation got my attention. I even made him as an image of the celebration duly because he thrive for a living, I supposed. Yes, he is just a little boy but I really appreciated his will and effort to do an admirable endeavor. He is, with the thing he did, of course of profound help in his family. Nevertheless, I came to ask what prompt this little boy to sell such images? Is it for thankfulness or making such opportunity to earn for a living because he has a stomach to feed and needs to satisfy? Eventually, in life aside from our religiosity, we are propelled to do things even against our will because this is what we need. In this little boy's case, we at the critic side normally criticized what is not suppose to be done by the society. But what alternative we can provide just to partly minimize this outward picture of poverty?
I also know some families with number of children the father has a stable job the mother has none. The children are so thin because they are neglected. The father drinks with friends often and the mother doesn’t know how to budget their money. And she also has her own set of wayward friends. So who suffers? It’s their children.These are but sad stories of suffering children—there’s a lot more out there I’m sure and who is to blame for this? It’s their irresponsible parents! So where’s the influence of the Sto. Nino? Here lies the problem of our superficial faith—faith that is not imbibed and lived. We celebrate this special feast festively but we don’t properly take care of the poor and hungry children.With this in mind, eventually today, families are greatly attacked by worldly values, decadent media, internet, and modern gadgetry. Moreover, a sizable number of marginalized Filipino families are living in utter poverty.
We have to ask the following question, How can the Sto. Niño today become the refuge of families who are landless, jobless, homeless, hungry; and which lack the basic social services such as health, education, housing and others? Our celebrations will be like empty clanging cymbals if the above concrete realities of the least of the Sto. Niño's brothers and sisters are not addressed effectively.
It’s not only the children of the poor who are neglected; even the rich children are neglected also. Some rich parents have this wrong notion that money can substitute for their love and time. They pamper their children with money and other material things. So what happens is that these rich but sadly neglected children turn to other vicious things upon entering puberty and adulthood.
As Christians, we are God’s instrument in social change. Thus, the theme of the Sto. Niño of Cebu fiesta celebration will re-focus us to the liberating and transformative role of the family as the focal point of evangelization and the nucleus of faith-witnessing. This brings us back to the core of our being created in God’s image and likeness where the foundation of the family is to manifest that essence and to radiate God’s love to all. The family, as foundation of society, has an essential task in genuine societal transformation and a definite ecclesial task which places itself at the service of the building up of the best society in history. Hence, our faith must redirect our worldview and outlook in life.VIVA PIT SEñOR!!
