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The powerful God in a powerless little boy
Filed under: Sunday Homily |
An exegetical reflection on the Gospel of the
Feast of Santo Niño, Year C (Luke 2:41-52)
January 20, 2013
Feast of Santo Niño, Year C (Luke 2:41-52)
January 20, 2013
By Msgr. Lope C. Robredillo, SThD
IN RECENT YEARS, there has been a
proliferation of various images of the Holy Child: in some, he is
dressed like a soldier or a doctor, in others, a fisherman or a
pilot. I am not sure why the Infant Jesus was made to take these
countenances, but the real image remains that of a child who wears the
garb of a king, with crown on his head, scepter on one hand, and the
universe on the other. The reason partly comes from the First Reading
(Isa 9:1-7), which is the most famous messianic prophecy. God will
liberate his people from oppression, through the agency of a child, who
is a prince of peace. If the image has any meaning at all, it is meant
to convey that this child, helpless and innocent though he is, is the
king of peace, who is so powerful that he holds the world in his hand,
and the liberator of the human race.
When we think of a
liberator, we associate him with Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great,
Julius Caesar, or Napoleon Bonaparte. They are mighty warriors, who
defeated their enemies and established empires over which they
ruled. Through wars, power, and oppression, they subjugated nations and
put their enemies under their feet. That is how worldly power
works. But in the ways of the divine, one conquers the world not
through power, but through weakness. If Jesus conquered world, sin and
death, and now sits at the right of God, it was not through violence,
but by submitting himself to the powers of this world. He showed his
weakness by allowing himself to be humiliated, crucified and killed. It
was in his frailty that he was recognized, especially in the Johannine
theology, as king: “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” (John 19:19).
If in his adulthood where he
manifested his weakness, Jesus was recognized as king, so also in his
childhood, helpless and feeble though he was, he was already known as
king of the universe and its savior. The child, in other words, despite
his ordinariness, is not an ordinary one. He is really a king—and more
than a king, he is God among us, the Emmanuel (Matt 1:23). Which is
why, although the image of a Santo Niño might appear absurd—for how can a
mere child place the whole world in his hand, yet its meaning is
entirely correct: God has deigned to show himself in this child of
Bethlehem . Frail and lowly though he is, yet he is worthy of praise and
worship. Small and voiceless though he is, he is really the revelation
of God.
How did God manifest himself
in this small boy? In today’s Gospel reading (Luke 2:41-52), he is
portrayed as one who was devoted to the things of God. Early in his
childhood, he was already concerned about his Father’s affairs: “Why did
you search for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”
(Luke 2:49). His first allegiance was to his Father. And it is not a
simple allegiance. Luke uses the word “must” or “had to be” which, in
Luke’s Gospel, characterizes Jesus’ life: “The son of man must suffer…” (9:22); “But first he must suffer many things…” (17:25}, “I must stay in your house…” (19:5), “Everything must be
fulfilled…” (26:44). In the conflict of human and divine obligations,
the Father’s will must prevail. No wonder, Hebrews characterizes the
life of Jesus as doing the Father’s will: “Then I said, here I am—it is
written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, O God (Heb
10:7). Doing the Father’s will culminates in his death, in weakness, in
what appears, from the human point of view, as a defeat.
Of course, if from the
beginning until his death, Jesus’ life was all about doing the will of
his Father, it was not simply because he is God’s Son. As the Gospel
today emphasizes, he progressed steadily in wisdom and age and grace
(Luke 2:52), and that growth is to be attributed to his upbringing as
well. An evidence of that upbringing is that “his parents used to go
every year to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover” (Luke
2:41). Surely, as can be seen from the rest of the Gospel of Luke, Mary
and Joseph were deeply religious parents. If God was able to manifest
himself in a child, in a boy who not only was deeply religious, but
whose whole concern was to do the will of his Father, it is in no small
measure due to what he received from his parents.
Which reminds us of a rhyme: “Before
your child has come to seven, Teach him well the way to heaven. Better
still the truth will thrive, If he knows it when he is five; Best of
all if at your knee, He learns it when he’s only three.” That is
the meaning of the figure of Sto Niño: the all powerful God who is king
of the universe, deigned to manifest himself in a powerless little boy,
who is chiefly concerned about the things of God, partly because of how
his parents brought him up.
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