'Hubo'rite symbolizes unwavering faith

Thousands of devotees flocked to the Pilgrim Center of the Basilica del Sto. Niño yesterday to witness the annual symbolic changing of the clothes of the image of the Sto. Niño which symbolizes our spiritual journey and adherence to our faith.

Rev. Fr. Andres Rivera officiated the Hubo Mass yesterday along with Cebu Archdiocese Vicar General Msgr. Esteban Binghay.

The Holy Child's festive vestments or what the image had worn in the course of the novena had been changed to its ordinary clothes.

Msgr. Binghay said that the moral significance of the changing of vestments is change itself, "unless you change and become a little child, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God."

Aside from the annual changing of vestments of the image, the ritual included the washing of the image with water as if an act of cleansing or purification that "we ought to do to renew ties with God through the Holy Child Jesus."

Most devotees believe that the water used to wash the holy image is miraculous and can cure any ailment.

But Msgr. Binghay made it clear that the water should not be taken to have magical powers, "the washing of the image signifies the child's baptism and that the water used to cleanse the image becomes holy water which helps us to receive the sacraments."

"It becomes holy water, a blessed water to dispose us to pray. It has no automatic effect. Healing comes only through prayer and through the grace of the Lord," he said. - Jasmin R. Uy