MANILA, Jan. 20, 2013—Devotion to the Sto. Niño should not be limited to dancing during the “Caracol” in Cavite, “Sinulog” in Cebu, or the “Buling Buling” in Manila or having the “best-dressed” Sto. Niño image at home.
What most devotees forget to imbibe is the example of the boy Jesus of being obedient to the will of the Father despite his age.
Fr. Conegundo Garganta urged devotees and the lay faithful to celebrate today’s feast of the Sto. Niño by going beyond the sound and colors of the festivities.
Garganta, the executive secretary of the Episcopal Commission on Youth, said Catholics should learn to celebrate and revere the Sto. Niño not only emotionally.
“Let us go beyond our shallow ways of revering the Sto. Niño. This year of faith, the Sto. Niño inspires us to assess the quality of the faith that we claim to have,” he said.
Garganta added that the Sto. Niño’s petite size invites everyone to do small, ordinary and usual acts to grow deeply in faith.
“The Sto. Niño would initially attract us because of its cuteness. But it should not end there because behind the child Jesus is a bigger mission of carrying out God’s plan for the salvation of man,” he said.
“This is why the Sto. Niño also invites us to partake in the child Jesus’ mission through small, ordinary or usual ways to grow deep in the faith,” he added.
Garganta said even Sto. Niño devotees often miss out on the examples set by the child Jesus that small acts offered to God never go unnoticed.
“The ordinary, small ones are the easiest to embrace and adopt. The child Jesus’ readiness to carry out the will of God despite his age and miniature gestures teaches us that basic thing,” he added. (KB/CBCPNews)
