January 18, 2026 – Feast of the Sto. Niño
In our Wednesday novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help, we always ask our Mother to help us learn to adapt to our growing children. Praying this, we acknowledge before the Lord that as Christians and in particular as parents, we are imperfect. We recognize that we encounter problems and difficulties in parenting our growing children and that, at times we fail to love and respect our children as persons and as God’s children. And for this, we implore Our Mother’s guidance and assistance as we parent our children.
We, Filipinos love the Sto. Nino, the child Jesus, and today – every third Sunday of January, here in the Philippines, we celebrate the Feast of Sto. Nino. Like the Sto. Nino, we honor our children as also God’s gifts and instrument of salvation for humanity. We acknowledge our children as God’s blessing and signs of hope for our Christian families and communities.
As God’s gifts, children then must be accepted, love and provided with the love and care they need for their growth and well-being. As God’s expression & instrument of His grace, they must also be respected for what they are and will be, with talents and limitations, for in their own unique way children can contribute to the building up of Christian families, and communities, and of God’s kingdom as well.
In our gospel today, we hear how Jesus emphasizes greatly the value of us being God’s children, and of being children in God’s kingdom. For Jesus, “great is the child”. Our being beloved children of God is thus our very dignity and rights as a persons in this life.
As God’s beloved children, we enjoy a personal relationship with Jesus and the Kingdom of God. We have the right and duty to grow in faith, to grow in our own personal relationship with God. It is also our calling to be His disciple – to come and follow Jesus Christ and express our response, by our love and respect for others.
Today, Jesus invites us to especially love and respect our children, as much as we demand respect from them. We are reminded that like us now adults Christians, our today’s children are also God’s beloved children, where the greatness of God’s kingdom is founded.
Now if we wish to learn how to adapt to our growing children – to respect God’s beloved children, take a good look at the picture of Our Mother Perpetual Help, a portrait of Mary carrying her child Jesus. By merely looking at the picture of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, we readily notice the mother & child relationship between Jesus and Mary – Mary as the mother, the parent of child Jesus the Redeemer.
As parent, Mary presents to us the child Jesus – a child who like any other child needs nourishment, love, guidance, protection and care of a parent. We see Mary as the model of Christian Parenthood for she teaches us how to love, care, protect and adapt to our growing children. The picture also shows us Jesus growing and gradually learning that in fulfilling his vocation in life, there will be coming great changes and suffering (as shown by angels at the side bearing cross & hyssop on spears).
And Mary has to adapt gradually to the changes going in her growing son’s life. As Jesus grew up in life, so did Mary grow to respect and share the sacredness & giftedness of the growing Jesus, as God’s beloved child to others.
As we honor today the Sto. Nino, Jesus want us to remember that our devotion to the Sto. Nino must reflect not only our deep joy and thanksgiving to God for sharing us the gift of His only Son, but also expresses our love and concern for our growing children – God’s ninos and ninas amongst us.
And the most relevant and meaningful way of honoring the Sto. Nino is not by merrymaking, parades or street dancing, but by concretely expressing our Christian respect, love and concern to our growing children, especially the poor and abandoned little ones.
Perhaps better for us to BE with & spend quality time with our growing God’s children these days. Listen to their stories, their concerns, and their hopes in life.
Respect and learn from them for they are also God’s children and messengers, for as Jesus warns us in our gospel today, “unless you turn and become like children (of God), you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” In our children & our being children of God, we could find then answer & access to God’s love for us.
As a popular Filipino folk song would advise: “Ikaw ba’y nalilito, Pag-iisip mo’y nagugulo. Sa buhay ng tao, Sa takbo ng buhay mo?…. Itanong mo sa mga bata, Ang buhay ay hawak nila. Masdan mo ang mga bata, Ang sagot ay ‘yong makikita. (Are you confused, are your minds troubled, Of man’s life, of the direction of one’s life. Ask the children, life is in their hand. Look closely at children, You will find the Answer)
Like Mary, may we honor the greatness of God’s kingdom in our growing children, and by adapting with them, may we discern and respect God’s ways and plans for a better life now & ahead of us.
So May it Be. Amen.
A DOSE OF GOD TODAY 