Accents
Fil-Am Catholics celebrate Sto. Niño feast day
REDDING, California, USA—Religious piety so characteristic of the Catholic faithful was demonstrated once again last Saturday, Jan. 16, at the Our Lady of Mercy parish in Redding, a city in Northern California. The Filipino-American or Fil-Am Catholic Association, all devotees of Sto. Niño, the Child Jesus, came for the 10:00 a.m. Mass. Some Filipinos including our daughter Raileen, a practicing pediatrician here, brought images of the Sto. Niño for consecration.
History has it that the image of the Santo Niño de Cebu is the oldest religious image in the Philippines. Brought to the island in 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan, it was said that Magellan gave it to then Queen Juana of Cebu as a baptismal gift. Sto. Niño is Cebu’s patron saint and has been the object of pilgrimage and fantastic fiesta ever since.
Being far from the homeland, we can just imagine the happenings in the first month of the New Year—how festival and devotion combine in different parts of the country to honor the Child Jesus. After His birth in joy-filled December, it was Viva Sto. Niño! in January: the Aklan Ati-atihan, our very own Iloilo City’s Dinagyang, and Cebu’s Sinulog—celebrations that blend religiosity with masquerade, drumbeats, and merrymaking, not to mention tinges of pre-Hispanic beliefs—all for God almighty. We marched, swayed, clapped to the ati-atihan cadence in Aklan some three decades ago when fine-tuning of the rituals was still in the nascent stage. What was started in Kalibo built up to be a tourism spectacle, attracting tourists far and wide. We know too well visitors come not so much to immerse themselves in religious fervor but in the festive celebrations the locality can offer—sights, sounds, sumptuous food.
Over here in Redding, the Mass was the focal point to venerate Sto. Niño. No ati impersonations, none of the local color that we long for in Kalibo, Iloilo, and Cebu celebrations, or even in the exported kind performed for the Manila crowd. Nevertheless, the Catholic association here made up for the lack of theatrics and trappings in the food, glorious food, and above all, in the Mass officiated by Fr. Jonathan Molina, the congregation’s parish priest who is a Filipino.
After the Mass, the salo-salo followed at the parish social hall. I’d like to tackle first the “stomach development” portion of the affair because the spiritual aspect needs a longer dissertation for me to fill this week’s column inches. No Pinoy gathering is without a well-laden table, be it in Bayan Ko or in alien land—a well-known fact especially among Americans who get invited to a party of a kababayan. Last Saturday’s luncheon was heavy Filipino cuisine in all its countless variety—personalized, modified or faithful to the recipe books. It was a potluck party, a family bringing his/her own kitchen best. To avoid duplicates, the chefs called up each other as to what dish to cook or bring. Among the mouth-watering (no excuses for the choice of words) concoctions, easily the favorite was the Pinoy signature chicken and pork adobo. Sometimes (or is it most often?) you just have to forget the calories and cholesterol.
No one I’ve listened to thus far has driven home the meaning and significance of the Sto. Niño celebration than Fr. Molina, a Filipino (and I’m being repetitive about this because he is one Pinoy you and I can be truly proud of). Fr. Molina extolled the humility and simplicity of children, traits we adults seem to have forgotten. His homily turned out to be a celebration of children! “Unless you change and become like little children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven,” the good Father expounded on this biblical quote, a fitting theme for the Mass honoring the Child Jesus. Unless you become like a child…—innocent, trusting, humble, loving.
How is the bringer of good tidings, you might ask? One gets to admire the speaker when he is what he says: simple, humble, unsophisticated—possessed with the very traits you love in a child. And that is Fr. Jonathan Molina, a young priest from Abra, only 33, recently come to Redding to head a parish of about two hundred Catholic families where Catholic Americans outnumber the Catholic Filipinos.
I need not emphasize the role of children in real life. Literature in all its forms—innumerable novels, dramas, poems—has immortalized that. From the tomes of prose and poetry encountered in school, I recall a line from William Wordsworth which highlights the significance of the child in our lives: The Child is father of the Man—the philosophical underpinning of which is for everyone to interpret.
Songs, too, many are paeans to children: I believe the children are our future/ Teach them well and let them lead the way/Show them all the beauty they possess inside/Give them a sense of pride to make it easier/Let the children’s laughter remind us how we used to be… These fragments of a song nurture in us tenderness, love, and care for children in the same way that the Sto. Niño, the Child Jesus that we adore and pray to, inspire in us a childlike life, one of simplicity and humility. (Email: lagoc@hargray.com)
