The original image enshrined at the Minor Basilica of the Santo Niño de Cebú.
First Reading Isaiah 9:1-6
Second Reading Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-18
Gospel Luke 2:41-52
Each year the parents of Jesus went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom. After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances, but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them. He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced [in] wisdom and age and favor before God and man.
The Sleeping Sto Niño
(There are many versions)
THE SLEEPING GOD
by Simeon Dumdum, Jr.
by Simeon Dumdum, Jr.
This first appeared in Cebu
Daily News three
years ago. It is used here with permission. Simeon Dumdum, Jr, known to his
friends as 'Jun', is a retired Regional Trial Court judge, a writer and a poet.
Not too long ago, a couple gifted us with a wood carving of the Child Jesus. It has the size, curls and royal garments of the Santo Niño of Cebu, as well as its crown, globe and scepter. Except that the globe lies on a seat and the figure reclines on it, sleeping – the scepter resting on a leg.
The statue, which has apparently gained popularity, goes by the name Sleeping Santo Niño.
In the house we give pride of place to a copy of the standard, the official representation enshrined in the basilica. It occupies the center of a table that serves as altar, together with the crucifix and the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. But I am unsure as to where to put the Sleeping Santo Niño. My decision on the matter would almost certainly depend on whether it is a holy object or a mere artistic item – an objet d’art. I have since been inclined to the latter, having dragged my feet towards having it blessed (terrified of the priest’s refusal or ridicule), and for the moment having installed the statue above a console together with a paper weight portraying the head of a plumpish baby angel.
How did the first Sleeping Santo Niño come about? Did the one who carved it, true to his restless, artistic soul, make it purely for the purpose of creating something different, just as others have come up with their own different versions of the Holy Child, many of them clearly out of character, such as a Santo Niño holding a saw, a sight that would have terrified good St. Joseph himself.
Did the carver want to make such a statement? By the way, the official statement of the official representation of the Santo Niño is of the universal Kingship of Jesus, who is God, who became man, and is shown as a child to stress the need in the kingdom for the childlike virtues –dependence, trust, simplicity.
Someone, who apparently was losing in his grapple with faith, wrote about the Sleeping Santo Niño being a revelation of the “real” character of God – detached, indifferent, unconcerned with human problems.
Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt, 1633
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston [Web Gallery of Art]
This was exactly what the disciples felt when,
while aboard a boat on the lake, a storm arose and the waves began swamping
them, and Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. Mark tells us that
they woke Jesus up, saying, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are about to die?”
Jesus got up and rebuked the wind, commanded it to stop, and then turned towards the disciples to chide them, “Why are you cowardly? Do you still not have faith?”
I doubt that the originator of the Sleeping Santo Niño had this episode in mind when applying chisel to wood. Likely as not, he thought of a tender human scene – Baby Jesus, like any infant elaborately dressed up by its parents for a pageant and unmindful of adult concerns, succumbing to sleep, the thing that infants most need and yield to no matter the occasion.
Jesus got up and rebuked the wind, commanded it to stop, and then turned towards the disciples to chide them, “Why are you cowardly? Do you still not have faith?”
I doubt that the originator of the Sleeping Santo Niño had this episode in mind when applying chisel to wood. Likely as not, he thought of a tender human scene – Baby Jesus, like any infant elaborately dressed up by its parents for a pageant and unmindful of adult concerns, succumbing to sleep, the thing that infants most need and yield to no matter the occasion.
But subconsciously the carver has conveyed to me
the message that Mark gives in the incident about the storm on the lake. It was
not accidental that Jesus slept on a cushion at the stern (neither was it
inconceivable – it was evening, and as usual Jesus must have had a full day).
His rebuke being proof, he gave the disciples a lesson on faith – of reliance
on the protection of the Father so complete that like him they should have
slept the storm away, as well as that his mere presence among them should have
been assurance enough of safety. After all, he had power at any time to tell
off the wind and the waves.
People who complain that God does not intervene enough in human affairs really want Him to do the work for them. But really with full faith in God they should first act, carry out their roles, let the play of their lives unfold, and not always whine for the Author to appear. Incidentally, C. S. Lewis tells us, “When the author walks on the stage, the play is over.”
Perhaps the Sleeping Santo Niño deserves a second look. It does no more than remind, not of a divine pastime, but of the proper human attitude – trust. The God who appears to sleep is really an unsleeping God – as watchful as a parent is of an infant that is learning to walk, and coming to its aid only when necessary.
People who complain that God does not intervene enough in human affairs really want Him to do the work for them. But really with full faith in God they should first act, carry out their roles, let the play of their lives unfold, and not always whine for the Author to appear. Incidentally, C. S. Lewis tells us, “When the author walks on the stage, the play is over.”
Perhaps the Sleeping Santo Niño deserves a second look. It does no more than remind, not of a divine pastime, but of the proper human attitude – trust. The God who appears to sleep is really an unsleeping God – as watchful as a parent is of an infant that is learning to walk, and coming to its aid only when necessary.
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I love Jun's reference to the sight of the Child
Jesus holding a saw as something that 'would have terrified good St Joseph'! As
the son of a carpenter named Joseph myself I felt embarrassed the first time I
tried to use a saw and didn't have a clue. I still don't!
Pope Francis in Manila speaking about his statue of the sleeping St Joseph.
You will find Sunday Reflections for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, observed everywhere except in the Philippines, here.
CHRIST IN YOU, OUR HOPE OF GLORY
Colossians 1:27
51st International Eucharistic Congress, Cebu, Philippines
24-31 January 2016
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