Let The Children Come To Me

Written by Rev. Fr. Orly Mendoza | 17 January 2012

FEAST OF THE STO. NIÑO
(White) Cycle B, Year II (January 15, 2012)
Is 9:1-6/Eph 1:3-6/Mk 10:13-16

I had my Christmas vacation last year in Manila for some days and I observed in an overpass that I used to cross the street a child probably of 6 years of age walking alone and asking for alms from the passersby. He was very dirty and scantily clothed and was walking barefooted. I looked around to see whether he had a companion; but finding none of his own nature, I suspected that he was simply an abandoned child. I even thought that he was controlled and managed by a gang just like other children. My own instinct and common sense, however, would tell me that he was an abandoned child just like some other street children trying to survive in the busy and unconcerned streets of Metro Manila. Then I pondered as I went on my way: “Who takes good care of him? Who feeds him? What does he feel? Is he not afraid of not having anybody to care for him and not having any house to call his home?”

In the gospel for this Sunday, Jesus Christ says: “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs” (Mk 10:14b). It is sad how we forget or do not give importance to this teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. We simply take these poor and abandoned street children as part of the ambience and view of Metro Manila streets. We do not do anything about it and we blame the government and the parents for not taking care of the said children. Worse of all, we even blame the children themselves for being eye sores and obstacles in the streets. We blame others but we never blame ourselves and consider what we can do to help remedy the situation. 

This Sunday we celebrate the Feast of Sto. Niño, the little child Jesus. God, indeed, gives great importance to the children for He does not only give to them the Kingdom of God, He also sends His Son here on earth to become a child, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary. God has become a human child so that we, human persons, may become children of God. The importance of the feast of Sto. Niño is not only to let us understand how God has become like us especially by becoming a human child, but most of all to make us aware of the truth that in Jesus Christ we have become children of God. 

As children of God, we need to live according to such dignity. As children, we have to be humble as to recognize the greatness of God and the importance of other people; to be trustful and trustworthy in order to establish a genuine relationship of honesty and love with one another; to be kind as to be concerned for all those who are in need of help in one way or another; to be thoughtful and generous so as to take care of those who need our care or concern in any way; to be obedient in order that God’s law and civil law may be observed faithfully and to be forgiving so that broken relationships may have healing and new beginning. “In truth I tell you, anyone who does not welcome the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it” (Mk 10:15). These words of Jesus Christ in the Gospel assure us that only when we live literally as children of God can we enter into the eternal bliss. 

As I continued to ponder on what the abandoned child in the overpass felt and how he survived, questions like these also entered my mind: “What can I do to help him? Certainly, the meager amount that I gave would not be of great help to ease the hunger that he would be suffering the whole day. What do we do to change the situation? Is there nobody willing to do a heroic deed to solve the situation? Can we not move as a community to help solve the problems that children around the world encounter?” “Then (Jesus Christ) he embraced them, laid his hands on them and gave them his blessing” (Mk 10:16). This example of Jesus Christ is a call for each of us to do the same, taking good care of the children particularly those who are lost, suffering and abandoned. Only those who take care of them will receive the blessing of Christ for the Sto. Niño lives in each of these children.