Viva Senyor Sto. Nino! Pit Senyor!

It's one of those Sundays that we actually have two gospels to choose from. This is because today is the Feast of our Senyor Sto. Niño, which is special feast in the Philippines. For the rest of Catholics all over the world, the Sunday gospel reading today falls on the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, and it comes from John 2:1-11 about the Wedding in Cana… a story that many of you have already come to know as the second mystery of the Luminous rosary.

As we are here in the Philippines, we shall use the gospel reading for the Feast of the Sto. Niño. It is no longer a great mystery for us who have come to read and learned a lot of things that the Holy Bible has taught us… that the only begotten Son of God had to come down from heaven and to suffer for our sins because of God's unfathomable love for humankind. That Our Lord Jesus Christ was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary is part of God's salvific plan to restore humankind from the fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve. So let's reflect upon today's gospel about the Boy Jesus in the Temple, which you can find in Luke 2:41-52.

“41 Each year [Jesus'] parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, 42 and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom. 43 After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. 44 Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances, 45 But not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him.

46 After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, 47 and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your Father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”

49 And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house? 50 But they did not understand what he said to them. 51 He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus advanced [in] wisdom and age and favor before God and man.”

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As a Cebuano born in the Parian District, less than half a kilometer from the Basilica de Minore of the Senyor Sto. Niño, I was always amazed about the Holy Child Jesus that young and old would line up just to see and touch the glass that protects this icon. As I grew older, I learned about our history and I realized that the Holy Image of the Sto. Niño was part of Philippine history and culture.

I have read many books about the voyage of the Armada de Moluccas, which was the official name of the expedition of that Portuguese explorer under the employ of the Spanish Crown and clearly from its official name, it wasn't a voyage seeking the conversion of pagans to Christianity as some historians would have us believe. Sure, they brought along with them a priest, but his role was not for conversion, but to ensure that the men of the Armada de Moluccas had their Sunday masses and confessions on board.

But we know the story very well… that Rajah Humabon (who was a Hindu) embraced Christianity perhaps in fear of being conquered by the Spaniards… who surely did not have the time to teach them Catechism. But Ferdinand Magellan gave Humabon the gift of the Holy Child Jesus, which you can see inside the Basilica de Sto. Niño today. Pre-Spanish artifacts found in Cebu revealed that our ancestors worshipped wooden idols or “anitos.” We can only assume that when Magellan gave Humabon the beautifully dressed Sto. Niño, it was an “anito” like no other that the natives ever saw.

It was only 44 years later when Spanish Conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legazpi came to our shores with the intent to Christianize the natives. But he came to avenge the death of Magellan and razed the town of Cebu to the ground. But when the Holy Image of the Child Jesus was found intact among the rubble… this miracle allowed Cebuanos to become the first Asian race to embrace Catholicism.  Call Cebu the New Bethlehem if you wish.

Magellan came at a time when Catholicism was in a great schism and was splintering into Protestantism. Four hundred years later, the natives of the Philippines would be going back to Europe to show them their Catholic faith in so many places made rich because of Christianity. Indeed, God works in strange ways. Viva Senyor Sto. Niño.

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