STO. NINO (JANUARY 18)

HISTORY

According to accounts, Magellan gave the image to Juana after the natives were baptized. Magellan was later killed while battling Lapu-Lapu and his men in Mactan.

Another Spanish expedition, under the leadership of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, returned to Cebu in 1565.

After pillaging and razing a village, Legazpi’s soldiers found in a house spared in the fire an image of the child Jesus, similar in looks to the made-in-Flanders statue that Legazpi believed was given by Magellan more than 40 years earlier to the wife of the chieftain of Cebu. A church was then ordered built on the spot where the image was found. This church was elevated to the rank of a basilica during the 1965 celebration of the 4th centennial of the Christianization of the Philippines.

SINULOG

The Sinulog festival is one of the grandest and most colorful festivals in the Philippines. The main festival is held each year on the third Sunday of January in Cebu City to honor the Santo Niño. It is essentially a dance ritual which remembers the Filipino people’s pagan past and their acceptance of Christianity.

The festival features some the country’s most colorful displays of pomp and pageantry: participants garbed in bright-colored costumes dance to the rhythm of drums, trumpets, and native gongs. The streets are usually lined with vendors and pedestrians all wanting to witness the street-dancing. Smaller versions of the festival are also held in various parts of the province, also to celebrate and honor the Santo Niño. There is also a Sinulog sa Kabataan, which is performed by the youths of Cebu a week before the Grand Parade.

Recently, the cultural event has been commercialized as a tourist attraction and instead of traditional street-dancing from locals, Sinulog also came to mean a contest featuring contingents from various parts of the country. The Sinulog Contest is traditionally held in the Cebu City Sports Complex, where most of Cebu’s major provincial events are held.

from http://www.sinulog.ph/index.php/about/

CAUTION

Using the Sto. Nino instead of venerating it.

The statue of the Sto. Nino just like all religious statues and images are meant to remind us of spiritual realities. In this particular case, we are reminded of the fact that God became man. In fact, he was born of the Virgin Mary. He started out as a baby and grew to be a child, then an adolescent and then an adult. And because the statue of the Sto. Nino is a reminder of a spiritual reality, it is to be ven-erated, that is, respected.

But it can happen that instead of respecting it, we use the statue of the Sto. Nino for non-sacred purposes. This happens when we turn the Sto. Nino into a good luck charm, a magnet for raking in money. We display the Sto. Nino in our store not as an expression of our faith but for making our business successful. The Sto. Nino de Cebu becomes the Sto. Nino de la Swerte.

Getting fixated

Babies are attractive creatures. They catch our attention. They call forth in us gentleness and a caring and protecting attitude. They’re just so lovable. Perhaps it is for this reason that it is easy to evoke devotion for the Sto. Nino.

But it might happen that we get fixated with the Sto. Nino. We might forget that this Sto. Nino is Jesus who did not remain a baby but grew in wisdom, age and grace before God and men. In fact, he reached the age of 33.

The Liturgical year begins with Advent. But it does not end with Christmas. The Liturgical year does not end with the baby Jesus in the manager. It continues until his passion, death, resurrection and ascension into heaven. And it ends with the feast of Jesus, King of the Universe.

So also our devotion to Jesus should not begin and end with the Child Jesus. It should move on to devotion to Jesus the adult who is Lord and who calls us to be his disciples.

But it is not just our way of looking at Jesus that should grow. More impor-tantly, our faith should also grow.

GROWTH IN FAITH

Compare what you know about your faith 10 years ago to what you know now? Do you know more now than before? If there is not much difference, then you may need to do some reading. Buy a spiritual book. Do you already have a bible? Perhaps it is time to buy one now. And perhaps it is better to buy a bible that has footnotes such as the Jerusalem Bible or the New American Bible. These footnotes are important because they give you additional information.

How do you pray? Is your prayer ONLY about asking God for this and for that? Is your prayer ONLY formula prayers, such as the Our Father and the Hail Mary? Have you already learned different ways of praying? For example, have you already learned to pray by just sitting there in the presence of God without saying anything?

Have you learned to trust God more? When problems come, are you more confident now because you have learned to believe more strongly that God will be with you as you work out those problems?

CONCLUSION

In the musical Fiddler on the Roof, there is the wedding scene. In that scene, they sang this song entitled: “Sunrise, Sunset”. The beginning goes this way:

Tevye: Is this the little girl I carried? Is this the little boy at play?
Golde: I don't remember growing older. When did they?
Tevye: When did she get to be a beauty? When did he grow to be so tall?
Golde: Wasn't it yesterday when they were small?
Men: Sunrise, sunset (x2), Swiftly flow the days.

It was like yesterday when the bride and the groom were just little kids. And look at them now. All grown up and just married.

Growth is a sign of life. When you no longer grow, you’re dead. So also growth in faith is the sign of a living faith. When your faith no longer grows, it is because your faith may already be dead.

The feast of the Sto. Nino invites us to check on the state of our faith. Is it alive and growing? Or is it stagnating and dying?