ON this Feast of the Sto. Niño, we are reminded that irrespective of whatever status we have in this life, it is always necessary that we be like children. Why?
Christ told his disciples clearly: “Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.” (Mt 18,3-5).

Christ reiterated this necessity of being childlike a number of times during his preaching. “Let the children come to me. Do not prevent them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” (Mk 10,15) St. James, in his letter, made the same affirmation. “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” (4,6).

We can ask what it is in children that Christ would want us to be like them? I suppose what can come to mind are the qualities of simplicity, transparency, complete trust to elders, etc.
It’s quite clear that we all need to be childlike even as we grow in age and stature, and even as we accumulate already quite a significant amount of knowledge with our exposure to the world and to life in general.

Yes, children and heaven are almost synonymous to each other. No wonder we feel like we are in heaven every time we see children around. Every time a baby is born, we are very happy because we somehow know that he just did not come out of his mother’s womb, but rather from the very hands of God who created him before the parents procreated him.
In spite of the many limitations of children, what makes them always desirable is their pure, innocent heart, incapable of malice, ambition, pride and haughtiness. They are a source of many other good things.

Their heart is always trusting in the Lord, just like a little kid is always confident with his father. Faith and hope easily grow and acquire strength when nurtured in a child’s heart. It’s this attitude that leads them to go on and move on no matter what, for life to them could only be an adventure of discoveries.

This feast of the Sto. Niño also reminds us that we really need to take care of the children, teaching them the basic virtues that hopefully will branch out to more virtues until they can have a strong sense of religion. Let’s remember that as a poet once said, the child is the father of the man. How the child is trained and raised will determine how he will be when he grows up.

How important it is therefore to teach the children the basic virtues and values. The teaching has to be done patiently and in a most gradual but persistent way. For this purpose, parents may have to undertake some study to know how to go about this most delicate duty. But, for sure, all that effort and sacrifice involved would be all worth it.

Children definitely need to be constantly accompanied. Especially these days when the environment can be very confusing, it’s important that children are closely supervised so that their inherent innocence can be kept even as they get to know more and more things.
Let’s hope that we manage to train children to be always God-fearing and loving of everyone even as they unavoidably face all kinds of trials and challenges as they go along in life.

“The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. (Psalm 90:10).

This is the verse in the Bible that sets the biblical life span of human beings on earth. God had set this limit when human beings had already multiplied and occupied the whole world. It’s threescore years and ten. One score is equivalent to twenty, so threescore is twenty times three, which is sixty. Plus ten, that’s seventy. So the typical, biblical life span of people is seventy years old.

Does it mean that people do not die before reaching the age of seventy? No. Do people who reach seventy years of age die immediately? No. Just because God had declared seventy as the people’s life expectancy doesn’t mean they only die at exactly seventy years old. They could die before or after it, as we must have observed. It’s just the typical age limit.

Well, life on earth used to be so long, especially during those times when the number of people on earth was still very small. They lived up to hundreds of years. Many of them such as Methuselah and Noah lived to be nine hundred plus years. And even if they were already hundreds of years old, they were still procreating sons and daughters until such time that the earth’s population had multiplied.

And so, when people had already occupied the whole earth as God commanded, their numbers multiplied, and God had shortened man’s lifespan into threescore years and ten, or seventy. Of course, life expectancy nowadays is also dictated by culture, lifestyles, status in life, religion, and many others. In our country, that’s apparently the average life span so long as people die of natural deaths.

If for some reason, someone lives to be eighty or ninety, the Bible says that his days will be full of labor and sorrows. He would be suffering from bodily pains and even emotional anguish. Sickness and disease multiply among old folks as their strength and body deteriorate. These are deteriorating years, and losing years. One eventually loses eyesight, hearing, teeth, strength, beauty, friends, and many others, not to mention the pains that settle in many parts of the body.

In short, one may live to be over seventy years old, but these years would be nothing but years of suffering, pain, sorrow, loneliness, sadness, idleness, boredom, anxiety, depression, and many other negative experiences. It would take a great optimist to convert all this into favorable ones. Perhaps, that’s what one gets for living beyond the limit. It’s not an exciting life anymore, hence the preference of some to just give up the ghost.

Make no mistake about this. Am not saying that life beyond seventy is useless. Of course, it’s a blessing from God, a bonus so to speak. One should take it gratefully if one lives to be a hundred or more. Praise God for it.