The Feast of the Santo Niño is a fitting reminder to all of us regarding the essence and the quality of our relationship with God. It reminds us to reflect on how our faith in Him developed and became fruitful, or is it the other way around?
Our knowledge of who or what God is, always depends on our experience of Him. For most of us, God is the creator of the whole universe, an immensely powerful God. Some of us may look at God as the Savior of the world, when God chose to be one like us, and died on the cross for our salvation. Still, for some others, God is a forgiving God who is always ready to forgive and have pity on us even if we commit the same sins every day in our life. God can be known as the God of love, who showers His graces both on the good and the bad. We all have our own knowledge of who our God is. It is a pity, though, that there are some morons who look at God as a foolish God simply because God cannot fit into their miserable lives and worldly ambitions.
The Feast of the Santo Niño, which we have celebrated last Sunday, introduces us to a God who is just a child. It is not because we can just let him do what we want, our selfish desires and all that, but it is to present to us an example of who we must be in the eyes of God. Of course, we must be like a child in His eyes, a child who always enjoys being with his or her parents, a child who always follows the will of his or her parents no matter what. This is the most ideal knowledge that God can have of us but, to be child-like in God’s eyes, is also the hardest thing to do for most of us.
If we can ask God who we are in His eyes, I believe we will hear different answers, and those answers will depend on how we let God see our person. God knows me as a menace of the society with all my troubles, problems, misdeeds, anger issue, and all that. That is me and I do accept that fact of my life. But He is aware of some innate goodness in me that only comes out in the open very rarely. Maybe He knows me as a priest who struggles to be just like the priest He is. I really do not know, but I pray that, after all had been said and done, He will know me to be just a child who tried to follow everything that He wished for me… even if I always failed Him. I know He always loves me as I am, and I am His son, and He is my Father and friend.
Who we are or what we are in God’s eyes depend on how we let ourselves be known by Him. He gives us all the graces we need each day but our cooperation to make those graces work in us is necessary for us. We may have all the graces around us, but they will be useless if we will not allow them to have a meaning in our day-to-day experiences and dealings with others. The sad part, though, is the fact that most of us tend to choose not the grace but the easier way of life which is almost synonymous with evil deeds, corruption, and sin. Sad to note the evil, especially in the form of materialism, has found its place in our systems and we, even priests, can be victims of this kind of evil!
The pandemic is still here and active within our society. The destructive wars and calamities which passed us by left us with lots of problems and hopelessness. These things may not be graces, but we can always drive out some good things from them, if we will only allow it to happen. For those who are endowed with more than enough riches, this is your time to be known by God as generous people to your own kind, especially those who are suffering and those who may have lost everything that they value in their own lives. For those who have power and much influence on other people, this is also your chance to make clever use of your power and connections so it will benefit our lowly brothers and sisters. We all have our own way of changing things for the better and we only need that firm decision to show it so that God will recognize us to be His faithful children.
Things around us are getting so challenging each day and this world is now an arena where only the toughest of all remains standing. On the brighter side of it, however, we can make these not-so-good events that are taking place to be tools for us to grow and not as obstacles for us to throw. We are all God’s children and God is expecting each one of us to follow and obey His commandment however challenging it may be. We are just His children, and, with God as our Father, He will always protect us from all evils. God bless us all!