I was standing in front of Marikina City Jail, waiting for the Mass. Standing along with me an old woman and a little girl. While were waiting outside the Prison, I saw a woman (prisoner) kneeling before a security guard. This woman, while crying, she implored the security guard, “Sir, please, let me kiss and hug my child outside. (Sir, please, Isang halik lamang Po). I looked at the little girl and her grandmother crying. In the end, the security guard allowed this mother a few seconds to meet her child. The woman was running toward her child, kissing and hugging. These three women embraced each other for a few seconds.

After the Mass, on my way back home, I recalled this beautiful experience: the great love of a mother toward her child. Certainly, she suffered a lot inside the jail. In her suffering, she never forgets her child. She was not ashamed kneeling, crying in front of the security guard and many people around her. She insisted, put all her effort out of her love for the child. The little girl was waiting to be embraced by her Mom’s love.

As we celebrate today the Feast of St. Nino, it is good to go back to the Christmas greatest gift, when God chose to enter into human history in complete weakness. God chose powerlessness. God became a little baby. “God wants to come close, very close, so close that we can rest in the intimacy of God as children in their mother’s arms.

While God chose powerlessness in order to come close to us, the disciples chose the power, looking for the greatest. Jesus invites them to choose the way of God; humility and this must be the only way to relate with God and to one another. “I assure you, that, unless you change and like little children, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus invites his disciples to change their vision about God and how can they build an intimate relationship with Him. Jesus invites us as well to trust God like a little child's trust with their parents.

What is so special about and why do we need to learn from a little child? “The little child has nothing to prove, nothing to show, nothing to be proud of. All the child needs to do is receive the love that is offered. Jesus wants us to receive the love he offers. He wants nothing more than that we allow Him to love us and enjoy that love. This is so hard since we always feel that we have to deserve the love offered to us. But Jesus wants to offer that love to us not only because we earned it, but because he has decided to love us independently of any effort on our side. Our own love for each other should flow from that “first love” that is given to us undeserved.”

The Mother (the prisoner), out of love, put all her effort to kiss her child. The Child just waiting to be embraced by her Mom’s love. God has decided to love us and let us allow ourselves to be loved. And when we experience that first love we will be able to welcome everybody, especially to welcome those who are often overlooked (the children, the handicapped people, the beggars). When we welcome them we welcome Him.