young VOICE
Santino’s reminders
I WAS watching “May Bukas Pa” with my six-year-old cousin and I couldn’t help but notice how little Santino’s charisma played upon a pre-schooler.
My cousin tends to be picky with what she eats. During one dinner where there were more vegetables than meat, she was hesitant to eat the greens. However, her parents told her that Santino eats up all of the food served on his plate regardless if it’s yummy or not and remains obedient to his guardian priests and his best friend. Bro. Santino was the reason why my cousin obeyed finishing up her supper.
Santino has become a household name. Parents freely use his influence to convert their tantrum-filled children into peace-loving and obedient demi-angels. Priests use his stories during their homilies. Showbiz personalities make a big deal out of their guest appearance in the show. Santino has introduced a new nickname for Jesus Christ that perhaps most faithful use as they kneel on church pews. Santino has made change that has gripped stronger the grasp of a morally weak society.
Santino’s innocent but philosophic views remind us all of values that we know but fail to nurture.
Respect. Our human nature is filled with differences and each one of us is unique. But these variations led to conflict. Most relationships are broken because the people involved lack respect for each other as well as the ability to understand and tolerate.
Honesty. From a fourth-grader who cheated off her seatmate on an exam on adding fractions to a distinguished congressman stealing off his district’s funds to finance his Caribbean cruise lack the value of honesty.
Faith. Some of us really have such an extravagant facade of our spirituality. Yes, we attend masses every Sunday, we hold festivals for feasts of saints, and we treasure religious artifacts like bars of gold. A middle-aged woman walks in her knees the length of the church. She lights a candle for every saint she knows. She prays the rosary more than five times a day. But when she goes home, she shouts vulgar words at her househelp. Faith is when you pray for the world to be spared from poverty and you give some ten pesos worth of bakeshop bread to some street children discretely, when no one else is watching. It’s simply between you and your Bro.
Hope. We thirst for miracles but when we already see some signs of the rare and extraordinary, we doubt. “If you ask for patience, does God give you patience? No. He gives you the opportunity to be patient. If you pray for a closer family, does God give you a closer family or does he give you the opportunity to be one?” With the recent natural or man-made calamities, our hope fuels us to believe that the sun will rise again to brighten up tomorrow.
Love. There’s an ‘80’s song that goes, “Love will keep us alive.” Yes, it will. Love is the mother of all values. Without love, there can never be respect, honesty, faith and hope. The reason why a husband could not respect his wife and bear to beat her up, is because the love is not there. The reason why a politician could not be honest and transparent with his expenditures is because he does not love his country. The reason why a person fails to have faith and hope in miracles is because their love for the Divine isn’t firm enough. Love should be present and fully charged for everything else to work.
Santino reminds us all of these values. He respects and sees the goodness of people who wish him harm. He remains honest despite the consequence of his guardians reprimanding him for his actions. He remains hopeful and faithful to the promises of Bro. His love overshadows any troubles in Bagong Pag-asa.
As Santino finally retires from the comforts of our television screens, may his reminders remain ever-living and throbbing in our hearts.
I’ll miss his angelic voice and cute almond-shaped eyes.
Thanks Bro for Santino.
