This weekend, the people from my hometown celebrate the
Feast of the Child Jesus (Santo Nino as we call him.) A nine day Mass novena attended by thousands
culminates in a solemn Saturday procession (5 kilometers, 7 hours long). During the procession, some 2 million devotees follow the miraculous statue given by Ferdinand Magellan (when he discovered the
island and converted the King and Queen to Catholicism), as it parades through the
main streets of the city. (You bet
traffic is stalled. You either stay home
or join the procession.)
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| {Real} Courtesy www.rowenabajo.blogspot.com |
On Sunday, there is a choreographed street dancing called
Sinulog, with millions in attendance. This devotion of dancing a statue of the
infant child mimics a parent lifting a baby up in the air to elicit giggles and
smiles. Devotees dance either in petition or in thanksgiving to the miraculous statue. Since its hard to explain what the dance looks like, here’s a video
clip:
{Happy} No, I'm not there. Wish I were.. under the umbrella, though
Meanwhile, as my homies celebrate and sweat, here we are at 30 degrees in our first snow of the season.
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| {Pretty} Of course I'm not there. I'm a snow wimp. That's hubby towing the toddler on a garbage lid. (Mom you didn't read that.) |
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| {Funny} Indoors, it snowed marshmallows all over the kitchen floor when a two-footer climbed up a chair to get to the off-limits cupboard when I wasn't looking. |
I remember an intellectual college Theology professor once
criticizing such a fanatic devotion to the child Jesus. Her point was that it has a tendency to stunt
the growth of one’s faith by escaping from the sacrificial passion of the adult
Jesus. Professor R, this is twenty years too
late, but I OBJECT!
People of a third world country cannot escape the suffering
that is inevitable with evil and sin. We
see and live it on a day to day basis (My experience of it here.) Perhaps the reason why the childlike devotion
is so crucial and prevalent to the Philippines is because we need to remember
that, like little children, even in the face of human pain, we can trust a
Heavenly Father, a Blessed Mother and a brother who was once like us: little,
humble and poor.
As a parent, I am constantly reminded of childlike
faith. Yesterday, I watched my toddler
tumble off the makeshift sled and began crying.
My husband leapt to her side, picked her up and promised to go slower
over the bumps. When she hurried inside
to tell me of her booboos, I gave her a hug, a kiss, and some blueberry muffins
for desert. And she was back on the “sled”
this morning.
God parents us better than that. Over a myriad of life’s inevitable
bumps and booboos, He leads and He consoles. Plus, Our Lady is ten million times the mother
I am. Why would I want to have anything
other than childlike faith?
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| The Child Jesus of Cebu, who just granted another novena intention to me. |
Shared on www.ourmothersdaughters.blogspot.com for the happy, pretty, funny, real link up.
4 comments:
Greetings fellow snow wimp :)
Amazing to see faith like this, Anabelle. It's uplifting to see that the Faith is strong in some spots in the world still.
Not here though. It makes me so sad that we don't see processions like this in the U.S. I believe we are going to need this kind of childlike faith in the not-so-distant future.
Mary, yes the culture in Catholic countries is amazing. But believe it or not, my faith matured here in the US among so faithful staunch Catholics. The world will need all the faith it can hold, my fellow watchman/snow-wimp.
Great post! You are so right about childlike faith! We need to TRUST!!
Re: child-like faith. Is there any other kind? Thanks for the video. I never knew about this tradition.
Re: snow wimp - lucky you don't live up here in Canada. Garbage can lids will never do. We've got toboggans that'll send you hurtling and screaming down the hill so fast you won't know what hit you(hopefully not the tree at the bottom of the run)LOL!
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