the sto. niño C - 2nd sunday ordinary time

We are formators of the young and this is our gospel today.  The question which would somehow aid us in our reflection this morning is the question, what happens when our girls and boys go beyond our expectations?  It would seem that this is the question confronted by Mary and Joseph in our gospel today.  Jesus went way beyond their expectations.  They were looking for him with his relatives, friends and perhaps even with his playmates, but instead they found him with the scholars and theologians.  They were looking for him all over Jerusalem, perhaps in inns and restaurants where food was plentiful, perhaps they looked in parks and playgrounds but instead they found him in the temple.  It took them three days to find him because Jesus was no longer what they thought he was, he was no longer the baby boy they once had, his priorities were no longer the same, his concerns were no longer the concerns of a little boy, his needs were no longer the needs of a child.  It took them three days to locate him because Jesus went beyond their expectations. 

Well this is much better, isn’t it, though it may have hurt his parents a lot?  To go beyond expectations is better because trouble begins when we have realized that half the class is not really going beyond our expectations.  They are just below or even lower than low. 

We work on expectations.  Many of us do.  Many of us would hold on to them and gauge everyone by the standards we have set.  We expect them to reach this and that level. 

Other times some children have become so used to these standards it becomes built-in rather than imposed.  They would run after them because they thought that’s what we expect them to do even if we are no longer there to even bother. 

Nowadays too there is a clash as to who is more effective, the eastern type of parenting or the western type of parenting, the gentle mom or the tiger mom.

No, I am not getting myself into that debate.  I just want to point out what the gospel is pointing out.  That many times our searching is difficult, our seeking out takes a longer time, and our pursuit many times would end nowhere, because we carry with us our expectations.  I am not saying that expectations are wrong.  If we don’t have any expectations, it would be difficult to explain to parents during card day and to the principal at that, why, as a teacher, you have not yet submitted your grades.  You have to submit your grades and grades come because of expectations.  What I am saying is just that:  understand that many times our searching becomes difficult; understand that many times our seeking takes a longer time; and understand that many times our pursuit would end us nowhere with the children.  Why?  Because of our expectations.

Today, we celebrate the feast of the Sto. Nino.  Again this image comes beyond expectations, sometimes you get to wonder what is this really all about.  A weak child yet dressed with symbols of power, a young seemingly weakling yet regarded as a God, and a cute thing yet deferred to as most powerful and formidable.  For a child is born to us our first reading says and he is called Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.  All these are characteristics of this child.

And so to end this little reflection I would like to read to you a poem made by Kahlil Gibran on Parenting.  He said

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,

which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you,

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer (who is God) sees the mark  upon the path of the infinite,

and He bends you with his might

that his arrows might go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrow that flies,

so He loves the bow that is stable.

Expectations confuse us.  The thing is, be confused, be surprised, be astonished, be depressed even.  We are in front of a child.  And he and she is God’s child, not ours.