Welcoming Jesus in life’s many contrasts

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion, Cycle A, 29 March 2026
Isaiah 50:4-7  +++  Philippians 2:6-11  +++  Matthew 27:11-54

We begin today the Holy Week with Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. Its long name is derived from the two celebrations that developed separately in Jerusalem and Rome during the first one thousand years of Christianity, one of the oldest in our liturgy.

As early as the fourth century, Christians in Jerusalem celebrated Palm Sunday at the city gate with a procession led by its bishop followed by people holding palms reenacting Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. Meanwhile in Rome, the Pope ushered the Holy Week with the proclamation of the long gospel account from the Lord’s Supper to his Passion, Death and Burial. Eventually in the 12th century, Jerusalem’s practice of a palm procession with the blessing of palms added by the French in year 800 reached Rome and was celebrated separately. After more than a 1600 years, it was only in Vatican II when the two celebrations from Jerusalem and Rome were merged into one that we now have its official designation as Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion.

It is a beautiful story of how two distinct practices in Jerusalem and Rome, of two contrasting liturgies mirrored our different and unique journeys into the mystery of God in Jesus Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection.

And I love that contrast because our life is filled too with many contrasts that make it so beautiful and meaningful.

Contrast is when we compare differences between two or more things in order to highlight distinctive features like light and shadows, or pains and joys that make us see life fullest. Contrasts many times are a grace from God when he works in disguise among us, within us, as he writes straight crooked lines in our lives that eventually lead us to him and be fulfilled.

All our readings today present us with many contrasts that enable us to find and welcome Jesus coming to us like that Sunday in Jerusalem in the midst of our pain and sufferings, joys and fears. Three things I wish to reflect this Sunday.

*Photo by author, Hagia Sophia, Turkiye, November 2025.*

First contrast we find is the wisdom of God and the folly of man.

Read the longer version of the gospel from Matthew 26:14-27:66 and you find the many contrasts presented by the evangelist to highlight God’s wisdom in Jesus and man’s folly among the Jewish people led by their priests and elders, Pontius Pilate, and even with the prince of Apostles, Simon Peter!

At his trial before the Sanhedrin at the house of the high priest Caiaphas, Jesus was so comp-composed, silently listening to the many false accusations against him, and then shocked when he admitted amnd declared his being the Christ indeed (Mt.26:57-68)! And while all these were going inside the house of Caiaphas, outside was Peter denying Jesus thrice when asked of his being a disciple (vv.69-75)!

Again we see this glaring contrast of God’s wisdom in Christ and man’s folly in Pilate as Jesus remained silent during trial, answering briefly only when necessary that have put his enemies at the defensive posture (Mt.27:11-14). And how foolish they were in choosing to set free a known criminal in order to crucify the Christ (vv.21-26) which continues to these days in our own country as we keep on electing corrupt and inept people into office.

The most tragic of all is how some people while professing to be Christians are like those mob in Jerusalem still defending a known murderer now facing trial for crimes against humanity who had cursed God several times, made fun of women including those raped and under whose administration happened rampant and shameless corruption and decadence.

How sad that despite our supposed to be many advancements in science and technology that have completely altered our way of living and way of thinking, we have actually become more lost and empty than ever. Like Pilate and the Jewish people of that time with their elders, the more we assert our supposed to be superior knowledge on everything, the more we sink into emptiness and meaninglessness.

Let us not be blinded with our intelligence that have sent men to space and moon and shrunk the globe into a village but have made us grow more apart from each other; open our eyes and our hearts in Jesus Christ who is the truth because he is the only way in life.

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2026.*

Second contrast we find is that true power is in weakness not in strength.

Everybody at the trial and crucifixion of Jesus were at their own kind of “power play” especially the soldiers with the Jewish leaders and their cabal of followers (Mt.27:27-44). Imagine the very act of stripping Jesus or anyone for that matter of clothes – it is the most brazen display of power over someone. Not contented with that, they mocked Jesus while unconsciously recognizing him truly as king with the sign placed above his head, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews” (v.37). They would confirm this later at the death of Jesus when they declared “Truly, this was the Son of God!” (v.54).

At his trial and sentencing until his crucifixion, Jesus showed that true power lies in weakness and surrender as St. Paul eloquently expressed in the second reading today, “Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather he emptied himself” (Phil.2:6-7).

How sad the whole world is now plunged into a great disaster without any clear sight of an end in the war launched by the US and Israel against Iran. Who’s really winning? Despite the sophisticated and powerful weapons of the US and Israel, how come Iran still continues to launch many missile attacks against its neighbors and worst of all, control a supposed to be tiny strait that had sent fuel prices beyond reach of Tomahawk missiles!

Let’s look into our own lives, in those moments we “power tripped” against others: what happened? Have we really won over them or, are we now suffering its dire consequences, even paying the price of our too much pride and display of power and strength? Jesus shows us in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem until his Passion and Death, true power is in weakness and surrender. It is the only path to Easter because it is the path of life and love which we shall see next.

Third contrast we have seen in the passion of the Lord: life symbolized by blood is for love and caring, not for vengeance nor convenience. Not even a solution to a problem.

At the trial of Jesus, when Pilate felt at a loss that he could not set Christ free, he decided to wash his hands to free himself of any responsibility for his death: “I am innocent of this man’s blood. Look it to yourselves.” And the whole people said in reply, “His blood be upon us and upopn our children” (Mt.27:25-26).

It was the height of human arrogance and pride, of folly and insensitivity that sadly happens right in our homes, in our schools and offices, in the society and even in the church maybe.

Instead of using technology and the sciences for the care and preservation of human life symbolized by blood, these have actually objectified persons into things, from contraceptives to abortions, genetic manipulation and gender redefinition. We have become so impersonal that people are seen more in economic andn utilitarian terms especially infants and children as well as the sick and elderly, the most vulnerable ones among us. Worst, criminals and others labeled as misfits are disposed like things either through judicial or extrajudicial killings. So heartless.

See the contrast presented by Matthew in this aspect when at the Last Supper, Jesus “took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins'” (Mt.26:27-28).

Life is precious because it is vulnerable that is why God became human in Jesus Christ like us in everything except sin. Right after his birth, he faced the murderous threats of a king and now an adult, he offered himself freely to die on the Cross because he loved us so much so that we too may finally be able to love again like him as willed by God since the beginning.

Isaiah’s Song of the Suffering Servant in the first reading showed this contrast of Yahweh’s servant fulfilled in Christ Jesus of how he valued life so much, of bearing all pains and hurts because of love.

In his triumphal entry into Jerusalem up to his Passion and Death, Jesus showed us so many contrasts for us to see the bigger picture of life itself, of one another as brother and sister, of God who loves us so much. Take time to examine every contrast in life for God is surely in there, even sometimes in disguise. Amen. Have a blessed Holy Week ahead!

Lent is greeting, announcing Christ

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, 25 March 2026
Isaiah 7:10-14, 8:10  +++  Hebrews 10:4-10  +++  Luke 1:26-38

*“Cestello Annunciation” by Botticelli painted in 1490; from en.wikipedia.org.*

A friend informed me last Monday of the death of a former classmate in elementary named Nilo; his brother Mar had sent me a message asking me if I could possibly celebrate Mass at his wake: “A long time ago we met in a Mass in our Barrio chapel when you approached us and greeted ‘kumusta, Nilo, classmate!’ And I never forgot that smile on his face after you acknowledged him. Nilo was so happy with your coming to him… we will greatly appreciate if you can celebrate Mass for him in his wake.”

I was so touched with the message and despite my toxic schedule this week, I promised to come today to offer a Mass for Nilo.

That’s why while praying over today’s Solemnity of the Annunciation, I realized how in every greeting we also bring Jesus Christ, of how we make him present in others too.

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming of her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! Then Lord is with you.” (Luke 1:26-28)

*Photo by Ar. Philip Santiago, Annunciation Basilica in Nazareth, October 2025.*

The Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord often falls in Lent, adding more meaning in our inner journey into our hearts to meet Christ in this blessed season.

Notice how in our Sunday and daily readings we find God greeting us, inviting us to come to him to set things right in our lives (Is.1:18). Here is a God so loving, pointing out our sins but never judging us but actually believing in us that we could change and be converted to become better persons.

The past three weeks have been so tiring but fulfilling for me as a university chaplain giving recollection and hearing confession later in our various university campuses. First thing I tell every penitent is how God is so happy with us when we come to the sacrament of reconciliation because he has long been waiting for us. God rejoices because we finally welcome him in our lives!

Though it could be painful and shameful to confess our many sins, it is actually the sign of grace working in us too because the moment we change our sinful ways, then we grow! When we see our sins, our weaknesses and limitations as humans yet still forge on in life to become better persons, to achieve greater things for others, that is God working in us.

That is why Luke tells us today how the angel greeted Mary during the annunciation using the Greek words “kaire” which is to rejoice and “charis” or “karis” for grace: “Hail (or rejoice), full of grace! The Lord is with you” (Lk.1:28).

This is actually unusual because Jews greet each other with “shalom” for peace; why did Luke use kaire?

Because wherever and whenever there is grace, surely there is rejoicing like in those beautiful gospel stories we have heard the past three Sundays this Lent: the Samaritan woman, the healing of the man born blind, and the raising to life of Lazarus who had been dead for four days. In all these instances, it was Jesus Christ who came on his own to bring grace to everyone that everybody rejoiced.

Lent is the time to get real, to stop pretending. It is the time for us to finally admit our own limitations and weaknesses in order to create a space in our hearts and in our lives to let God fill us, to let God possess us. That is the purpose of the lenten practice of fasting.

Mary became the Mother of Jesus Christ not because of any special qualities in herself but simply because God is so good, so loving. Despite her fears and questions, she welcomed the angel Gabriel by saying “yes” to God’s plan of giving birth to the Messiah and Savior of mankind.

Can we be like Mary who said yes and allowed God’s power to “hover over us” to renew our lives in welcoming Jesus Christ?

This was the problem of Isaiah with King Ahaz in the first reading who pretended to refusing God in asking for signs of his presence when actually he had already entered into alliances with other pagan kings in the region as the Babylonians were closing in them; he had doubted God already. Hence, Isaiah’s prophecy to insist that God is our protector: “Listen, O house of David! Is it not enough for you to weary men, must you also weary my God? Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel: God is with us” (Is.7:13-14; 8:10).

*Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com*

How sad that in this modern time when we rely more with our science and technology, we have not only shut out God from our lives but we have even refused to welcome him in his coming to us, asking us to open ourselves anew to him and his powers and plans. We have not only become impersonal but worst, we seem to have chosen death more than life, darkness than light. Just check on the news going on everywhere and we see how heartless we have become.

The late American spiritual writer and monk Thomas Merton rightly said, “We live in a time of no room, which is the time of the end. The time when everyone is obsessed with lack of time, lack of space, with saving time, conquering space… The primordial blessing, ‘increase and multiply’ has suddenly become a hemorrhage of terror… In the time of the end there is no longer room for the desire to go on living. Why? Because they are part of a proliferation of life that is not fully alive, it is programmed for death” (Raids on the Unspeakable, pp. 70-72).

What a tragedy in our modern time when we are supposed to be more intelligent with so many inventions, more affluent with so many money, more real with everything being shown in social media, the more we are empty and lost. Our communications are all mass mediated, no more person to person that is warm, so filled with life that is vibrant and dynamic giving us so much reasons to believe, to love, to hope in life and the future.

The Solemnity of the Lord reminds us today of God’s coming among us like one of us in everything except sin. In Christ’s coming through the Blessed Virgin Mary, we are reminded how each one of us is a sign of God’s presence and coming. Every time we greet one another, every time we reach out to others in love and kindness, every time we are one with others especially the marginalized and neglected, we do the will of God (second reading) and become an Emmanuel, a God-is-with-us. Amen.

Lent is believing in Jesus, the Resurrection & Life

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Fifth Sunday in Lent, Cycle A, 22 March 2026
Ezekiel 37:12-14  +++  Romans 8:8-11  +++  John 11:1-45

*“The Raising of Lazarus” by Italian painter and architect Giotto di Bondone (1266-1337), fresco inside the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy via commons.wikimedia.org.*

We now come to the final Sunday of our Lenten journey into Easter with John still as our guide telling us Jesus Christ’s raising to life of his friend Lazarus who had been dead for four days.

The raising of Lazarus is a prelude for the greatest sign of all by Jesus as the Christ – his Resurrection at Easter after his Passion and Death on good Friday. Though very long, it is a lovely story that speaks of Jesus Christ’s deep friendship with us by being most present in our most painful suffering of all which is death of a loved one as well as our many “deaths” in life.

And like in every true friendship, Jesus invites us like the sisters of Lazarus, Martha and Mary, to believe in him.

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would have not died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world” (John 11:20-27).

When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled… (John 11:32-33).

Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” (John 11:39-40)

*“The Raising of Lazarus”, 1311 painting by Duccio de Buoninsegna from commons.wikimedia.org*

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” We are all like Martha and Mary who believed in Jesus Christ. Both expressed to Jesus their faith in him, of believing in him and his powers.

To believe is the starting point of every relationship. With God and with others.

It usually begins in our mind, in our intellect. We believe because we know and have learned their names and backgrounds, their likes and dislikes, and a host of others things. We can truly be friends with others even by believing only with our intellect that is why we understand their predicament and situations, the way they react. Almost everything, we know and have known that we are still the best of friends. Including with God.

Martha exemplified that kind of believing.

Martha is good. If she is the same “Martha, Martha” mentioned by Luke whom Jesus visited, she was well meaning like most of us.

She believed in Jesus. In God. In the scriptures when she told Jesus she knew Lazarus would rise along with all the dead in the resurrection on the last day.

Jesus never argued because it was good. Same with us.

Our friends do not argue nor break away from us with our kind of believing. After all it is reasonable and sane. But, believing from the mind, from the intellect is not enough. For a more intimate and engaging relationship in friendship, believing has to deepen and take root in our heart.

Believing leads to love.

Whatever kind of love, it starts in believing.

We love because we believe as we have claimed last Sunday.

But, believing and loving do not stop there.

How deeply, how truly we believe indicate how deeply, how truly we love.

Without any intentions of comparing and pitting the two sisters against each other on who is better, John presents to us where believing leads us.

Like Martha, Mary expressed how she believed in Jesus and his powers by telling him “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” But it was not merely coming from her mind, from her head, from what she knew of Jesus but more of how she felt with Jesus.

Notice at the start of this long story (verse 2) how John described Mary as the one who anointed Jesus – six days after this raising of Lazarus – with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair as expression of her faith and love for the Lord on his burial. Getting some help from Luke’s account again, we find Mary’s level of believing as deeper and matured when she chose to seat at the Lord’s feet to listen to his teachings when he came to visit them.

Mary came to Jesus with her total self – unashamed to weep in front of the Lord. She spoke no words, showed no clues of her “theology” like Martha’s faith seeking understanding by studying the scriptures.

It was Mary’s heart that spoke to Jesus that he was “perturbed” twice and “deeply troubled” seeing her. Even the Jews with her felt the Lord so moved by her that led us to the final scene of this beautiful story.

Feel the revelations at the cave where Lazarus was buried:

When Jesus asked the stone removed from the cave, Martha stepped in. And it was reasonable of her. We do it so often in various occasions like in funerals and deathbeds.

That was when Jesus reminded her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?”

Everybody fell dead silent.

Jesus then prayed aloud briefly to the Father, shouting for Lazarus to come out – alive, still covered with cloth. End of scene.

What’s next?

You tell me. Tell me how much you believe Jesus, how much you love Jesus. And how much you love like Jesus especially when everything, everyone is dead, dead silent, dead still for many reasons.

How much do we believe in Jesus, the resurrection and life?

Think of our many deaths in life. Not only in losing a beloved but our very own deaths – when we were buried and dead to sin and failures, disappointments and losses like the Israelites thrown into exile that Ezekiel the Prophet described in the first reading. What a beautiful imagery of God raising us to life, opening our graves of sins and failures, weaknesses and darkness, breathing into us his spirit, now better. Or maybe still struggling in life.

Believing in Jesus is believing like Martha and Mary most especially, unashamedly pouring out our pains and griefs to Jesus, baring our battered hearts and souls to him because we have felt, we have experienced his very passion and death in our own life, with those we love and serve.

In these trying times, Jesus invites us to believe more than ever in him by believing also with those severely affected by the hard times like the jeepney drivers and minimum wage earners. Let us try to live in spirit as St. Paul reminds us in the second reading by feeling their struggles, their fears, their sufferings so that they may not cry, “Lord, if you were here our families would have not gone hungry, would have not died” because we his disciples were here for them.

That is believing in Jesus the resurrection and life – being present with those suffering and dying. Solidarity.

Jesus is not asking us to think nor understand their pains and miseries. He is asking us to feel within us their pains and miseries so that like Mary we can bring Jesus to them and raise them to new life. Let us pray:

Lord Jesus Christ,
before all these pains and
sufferings came to me,
you were there first 
to suffer and die for me
on the Cross.
Let me love you more
by loving others
especially those also
in pain and suffering.
Amen.

Lent is seeing the Light amid darkness

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Fourth Sunday in Lent (Laetare Sunday), Cycle A, 15 March 2026
1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a  +  Ephesians 5:8-14  +  John 9:1-41

We continue our Lenten journey with John still as our guide this fourth Sunday known as “Laetare Sunday” for “Rejoice Sunday” because we are fast approaching the end of the Lenten journey to celebrate Easter – but not that too easily.

More than that the path is still long, what makes the journey difficult is our own “blindness” that we fail to see and recognize Jesus as the light who had come to illumine us. His healing of the man born blind shows Jesus precisely in the exercise of the mission given him by the Father that John made clear in his gospel prologue about the coming of God’s Word, the Christ, as the light that enlightens everyone which the darkness refuses to accept (Jn.1:5, 9-10).

In a similar manner when Jesus told the Samaritan woman last Sunday that he is the living water who quenches our deepest thirsts in life, he clearly declared in this healing of the man born blind that he is “the light of the world … who had come so that those who do not see might see” (Jn.9:5, 39). But, unlike in the story of the Samaritan woman, Jesus appears only at the start and the end of the scene of our gospel this Sunday. And the most amazing part is how the man born blind eventually turned out to be the one who led those in the crowd including us today in realizing why Jesus indeed is the light of the world.

*Photo by author, 25 February 2026, National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, Valenzuela City.*

This beautiful story of the healing of the man born blind is like a huge painting or a tapestry best seen by slowly going through certain sections and details little by little until we see the whole picture.

As he passed by he saw a man born blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him” (John 9:1-3).

Actually, the man born blind wasn’t the only one blind in the story: everyone else is blind led by the Apostles themselves who are like us today always looking for someone to blame, a scapegoat for all the miseries in life. Everyday we repeat in various forms their question “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Its worst part is how we continue to insist like them with the Pharisees and those in the crowds in molding Jesus into the person or God we want him to be, either so stern at one end or too lax at the other extreme to accommodate our own ideas who God is.

The late American Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote that God is not an “object” like a thing our minds can comprehend or grasp, saying that such attitude in seeing God leads to a false, idolatrous understanding of God. According to Merton, God is a pure “Who” and “Thou” we experience in silent prayers, a reality we experience and meet in ourselves and with others.

Maybe that explains why more than half of the wars going on today in various parts of the world are sadly because of religion!

How ironic that in this mass-mediated world where people practically live in social media, the more we see and expose everything, the more we have become blind, forgetting that the deepest truths and realities in life are hidden from our eyes that only our hearts can see. Hence, like the Pharisees and scribes of Jesus’ time, we still demand signs from God about his reality. In the first reading, we find God reminding Samuel and us to go beyond material things and outside appearances “because man sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart” (1 Sm.16:7).

Worst of all blindness is our being blind to those closest to us like family. Notice that John specifically mentioned how the parents of the man born blind refused to attest to their own son’s miraculous healing by Jesus for fear of reprisals from the temple authorities. Like them, we are blinded by power, wealth and prestige. Likewise, we are divided by affiliations and labels with public and moral issues nowadays decided not in its merits of truth and veracity but in its sheer number of followers. Talents and genius take the backstage to whatever viral and trending seen as the best, as the “in” thing. As a result, the more we are plunged into darkness despite the 24/7 “lights” of the world.

Interspersed in the amusing exchanges and conversations among the crowd with the man born blind after his healing by Jesus, we see now why Christ is the light of the world: because he brings hope amid darkness in life.

When Jesus heard they had thrown him out, he found him and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered and said, “Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him and the one speaking to you is he.” He said, “I do believe, Lord,” and he worshipped him (John 9:35-38).

It was in the ensuing drama in the conversations that followed after his healing that John assembled the beautiful pattern of the light of Christ shining through the man born blind as he joyfully and enthusiastically spoke of Jesus. It must have been dark for the healed blind man of being questioned and even laughed at by the Pharisees and crowd, and worst, not supported by his own parents; yet, despite all these, he held on as he affirmed his faith in Jesus as a prophet who had healed him because finally he had found a glimmer of hope and meaning in life. Recall now what St. Paul says in the second reading of our own moments in darkness, of how Jesus our light had enlightened us.

Many times in life our knowledge and experience of God do not happen instantly but slowly, little by little. And like that blind man who was healed, there are even times we could be already in front of Jesus without realizing it was already him because he comes in disguises – often in darkness of failures and sufferings, in our blindness in sin.

*Photo by author, La Union, 09 January 2026.*

It is in those moments of darkness and blindness we see and realize the light of Christ because that is when we experience hope and meaning in life.

The joy of this fourth Sunday is found in Jesus Christ like shafts of light filling us with hope within amid the darkness and failures, sufferings and pain we go through in life. Jesus is the light of the world because light is brightest in darkness like the stars at night.

When we hope, we believe, then we love despite the suffering we are going through because deep in our hearts we know something good is happening, that darkness is not the final say in life but light when everything becomes clear. In the healing of the man born blind, Jesus offers us hope for something good and better. Without hope, we stop loving because we have darkness within, finding no sense at all in living that we destroy, even kill. With Christ, even a glimmer of light can pierce the wall of darkness to lead us to life and meaning. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead sharing the light of Christ with others, especially those blinded within.

Lent is “leaving our water jar” for Christ

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Third Sunday in Lent, Cycle A, 08 March 2026
Exodus 17:3-7  +++  Romans 5:1-2, 5-8  +++  John 4:5-42

*Photo by author, an old well somewhere in the desert of Egypt, May 2019.*

We continue our lenten journey from the wilderness of temptations of Jesus to the high mountain of his transfiguration. As we have claimed since Ash Wednesday, life is a daily Lent, an inner journey that takes us into different directions that surprise us like this Sunday when Jesus entered an “enemy territory” and even spoke with a Samaritan woman!

It is a very long story but a lovely one with so many layers filled with inexhaustible meanings for us today.

Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land thart Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. the Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water” (John 4:5-10).

*Jesus and Samaritan Woman, AI-illustration from stock.adobe.com.*

Imagine Jesus going into “enemy territory”. That’s how much Jesus loves us. He goes directly where we are most empty and dark, even tired and exhausted, lost and alienated, perhaps when we are deep into sin like that Samaritan woman who had to fetch water at noon to avoid the Marites, the gossipers speaking about her sixth husband.

It is very clear that what we have here is more than a geographical setting but a revelation of God’s immense love (and thirst) sending Jesus for us all especially the sinners and those neglected by the society, living in the margins like women and children, the poor and the elderly.

We are that Samaritan woman always hiding from everyone even from ourselves, hoping the decay and wounds within us can be hidden or simply be gone. And that is why like that Samaritan woman, we keep on going back to our “well” of comfort and false securities and affirmations to draw “water” that would quench our deeper longings and desire in the heart like mercy and forgiveness

Jesus knew the Samaritan woman was coming at that time. In engaging her into a conversation, the woman opened up and realized her deeper needs she had always been disregarding or setting aside for a long time, hoping there could be a perfect time to fix everything in her.

With Jesus, every day is a perfect day. He does not beat around the bush. He talks straight but never judgmental, calling a spade a spade. No need to soften the impact as we are wont in doing and saying. That is why our responsorial psalm today says it so well, “If today you hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts.”

Let Jesus come into your heart. Don’t be afraid to speak openly. Complain like the Israelites in the wilderness in the first reading. Was it wrong? Not really. Like us, the Israelites complained to God not because we are mad at him but actually because we believe in him. We know he alone can do something to our situation and problem. He alone can quench our thirst not just for water but inner thirst.

*Photo by author, Third Week of Lent 2019, Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.*

The woman left her water jar
and went into the town…
(John 4:28)

This is what the Samaritan woman realized in conversing with Jesus: more than the waters of pretensions and false affirmations of friends, the alibis and rationalizations we make, the noise we cover the truths within us, the well will eventually dry up until finally we have to confront and face our true selves in Christ right there in our hearts.

Why wait when we can do it now, this Lent?

Going back in the first reading, we see our situation: our inner longings that deep inside we cry out to God because we believe only him can hear us and satisfy us.

Have you realized this inverse proportionality with God? We come to God because we have nothing, convinced that only God can give what we need. God comes to us always especially when we foolishly believe we have everything that is actually nothing because he knows so well only him can fulfill us.

God knows this so well. As St. Paul tells us in the second reading, “For Christ, while we are still helpless, died at the appointed time for the ungodly. Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhpas for a good person one might even find courage to die. But God proves his love for is in that while we were still sinner Christ died for us” (Rom.5:6-8).

This Sunday, we have come to celebrate this Eucharist believing only Jesus can fulfill our deepest longings in life. Let us leave our jars that hide our many pretensions and false securities, our doubts and dilly-dallying in life. Empty yourself in Jesus, let him fill you for he is the Living Water.

The water in the well invites us to confront our true selves – no alibis, no ifs nor buts. Be our true self to realize we are an empty jar. Which kind of water you wish to be filled with, of the world or of Christ? Have a blessed week and let us pray:

Lord Jesus Christ,
you have given me with a jar
filled with fresh,
living water
I have wasted for so long
to be filled with the
world's water of fame
and wealth and power;
You know everything about me,
Jesus: forgive me,
refresh me in your love
and mercy, 
in your words and
loving presence;
fill me with yourself
the only Living Water
that may flow and be
shared with others
so thirsty
and untidy
with sin.
Amen.

Lent is returning what we have stolen, claimed as our own

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Second Week in Lent, 06 March 2026
Genesis 37:3-4, 12-13, 17-28     + + +     Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, March 2023.*

As we come to nearly closing
this second week in Lent,
forgive us Lord Jesus Christ
for the many times we have
claimed everything as our own:
Lent is when we return back 
to God our Father 
the life we have all stolen
and destroyed in the process.

It tears apart my heart,
O Lord, 
that scene when Jacob's sons 
conspired to kill, later sold 
Joseph their own brother
because of jealousy
and sadly,
how this still happens among us 
as brothers and sisters,
"Judah said to his brothers:
'What is to be gained by killing
our brother and concealing his blood?
Rather, let us sell him
to these Ishmaelites, 
instead of doing away with him ourselves.
Afer all, he is our brother,
our own flesh.'
His brothers agreed.
They sold Joseph 
to the Ishmaelites 
for twenty pieces of silver"
(Genesis 37:26-28).

Forgive us,
Lord in owning each
other like a thing,
an object to be possessed
than a subject to be loved
and respected like when we 
rejoice at the summary execution
of criminals, when people argue
in favor of abortion and contraceptives
negating the value of life,
when some insist on same sex unions
and gender reorientation 
disregarding the sanctity of
the human body.

*Photo by author, from Dominus Flevit Church overlooking Jerusalem, May 2017.*

It is the same pride
that consumes us when we
think of our selves,
of our very lives,
of this planet itself
and universe as if
we own everything,
laying claim on everything
and everyone; forgive us,
Father for being so arrogant
with our misplaced confidence
and familiarity in our sense of
ownership and possession
of "your vineyard" entrusted
to us.

We have not only defied you,
Father in disregarding the prophets
you have sent to gather from us your
share of produce from your vineyard
we have now usurped; worst of all,
we have killed your Son Jesus Christ,
not giving him the respect due to him,
"Finally, he sent his son to them,
thinking, 'They will respect my son.'
But when the tenants saw the son,
they said to one another, 
'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him
and acquire his inheritance.'
They seized him,
threw him out of the vineyard,
and killed him"
(Matthew 21:37-39).

Every time we sin,
whenever we disrespect others
especially the sick and the weak,
whenever we discredit someone
not present with us in a gathering,
when we are unfaithful and we betray
those we have promised to love
and to serve,
we steal your vineyard, Father,
we kill your Son and Heir,
we claim as ours
without realizing the truth
we have nothing at all
for we are mere stewards.

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, March 2025.*

Lord Jesus,
you have given me with
so much -
life and talents,
experiences and fulfillment
family and friends
not to own
nor possess like things
but gifts to be shared;
I return them to you
so you may use them
and me according to your will.
Amen.

Lent is refocusing in God

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Second Week in Lent, 05 March 2026
Jeremiah 17:5-10     + + +     Luke 16:19-31

Thus says the Lord:
"Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings,
who seeks his strength in flesh, 
whose heart turns away from the Lord.
He is like a barren bush in the desert
that enjoys no change of season,
but stands in a lava waste,
a salt and empty earth"
(Jeremiah 17:5-6).

Forgive us,
merciful Father
for turning away from you,
and turning away from our
neighbors especially the sick
many other Lazarus
we ignore at our doorsteps;
forgive us in believing more
in ourselves,
in our science and technology,
ideologies and philosophies
that stretch our rights and freedom
forgetting all about our responsibilities;
how foolish,
O God,
 that we insist on our
beliefs and misplaced trust
in ourselves,
in everything that is passing
and temporary for as long
as it is self-serving
that we become like
a barren bush
or shrub in the desert,
drying up,
dying,
hoping for the rains
that would never come.
Awaken us,
Lord
from this foolishness
and let us arise
to return to you
until there is time.

*Photo by author, Hidden Valley, Laguna, February 2025.*

Thus says the Lord:
"Blessed is the man 
who trusts in the Lord,
whose hope is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted beside
waters that stretches out its roots
to the stream; it fears not the heat
when it comes, its leaves stay green;
in the year of drought it shows no distress,
but still bears fruit"
(Jeremiah 17:7-8).

Let me find my way back
to you, God our Father;
let me be like that tree
planted beside the stream,
beside you,
in you,
trusting you alone;
let me be rooted in you,
Father,
filled with life
and meaning;
deepen my roots in you,
Father, 
listening more to your voice
of wisdom
and truth
that are inconvenient
in this age of instants
comfort.

*Photo by author, Malagos, Davao City, 18 August 2018.*

Lord Jesus Christ,
you have given me with so much
and I have given so little;
let me give more of myself
to you so I can give 
and share you more
with others;
keep me rooted in you
as I surrender myself to you,
doing your most holy will.
Amen.

Lent is walking with Christ

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Second Week in Lent, 04 March 2026
Jeremiah 18:18-20     + + +     Matthew 20:17-28

*Photo by author, Ephesus, Turkiye, November 2025.*

How lovely is our scene 
today, Lord Jesus,
of you walking towards Jerusalem:
it must have been so dusty
and dirty at that time;
I won't be surprised at all
at how everybody must be
thinking of reaching home,
finding a place for comfort
and ease but here you are,
Lord, reminding the Twelve
and us today of your coming
passion, death and resurrection.

How amazing, Jesus
that as we follow you,
walking with you in this
journey and mission,
you remind us of our own
sufferings but unfortunately,
thoughts of glory seep into our
minds like that day when 
the mother of James and John
made that request of honor and
prestige by your side;
the same thing is very true
during the time of Jeremiah
the Prophet: he was there in the
heat and dirt of the city of
Jerusalem, proclaiming God's
words of conversion and there,
just like today, are the voices 
and thoughts of us thinking of doing
away with pain and suffering,
of insisting on our own thoughts
and desires for fame and glory
without realizing the more
essential realities in life.

O dear Jesus,
let me continue to walk
your path of the Cross,
let me remain in your journey
of Lent,
of life
by your side,
forgetting my self,
taking my cross,
and following you alone.

You have given me
with so much, Jesus
and I have given so little;
take whatever I still keep
to myself when I thought I
have surrendered completely
to you; let me see what you see,
love whom you love,
care for those you care
as we continue together
in this road to Jerusalem.
Amen.

*Photo by Ar. Philip Santiago, Jerusalem, October 2025.*

Lent is setting things right

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Second Week in Lent, 03 March 2026
Isaiah 1:10, 16-20     + + +     Matthew 23:1-12

Praise and glory
to you, O Lord, 
God our Father!
You are most gracious
and kind despite our sins
you still call us to come to
you.

Come now, let us set things right, says the Lord: Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow; though they be crimson red, they may become white as wool (Isaiah 1:18).

You are indeed 
a loving God,
dear Father,
inviting us your sinful
children to "come now",
inviting us to a conversation,
always believing change is
possible even if most often
we are not willing to come
to you; give us the humility
and firm resolve to accept
finally your invitation
to come and set things right
so that we may become 
a people of justice;
let us come to you, 
Lord to be reconciled,
to wash myself clean,
to start anew in you again.

O dear Jesus,
you have been inviting me
for so long to come to you, 
to return to you
but I still refuse to believe,
refusing to accept and welcome
you because I feel 
I am doomed and hopeless;
open my heart to you,
Jesus, make me "willing
and obedient" 
to set things right.
Amen.

*Photo by Ms. Kei Abad, Kawaguchiko Lake (Fujisan), 23 November 2025.*

Lent is mercy of God

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday in the Second Week of Lent, 02 March 2026
Daniel 9:4-10     + + +     Luke 6:36-38

*Photo by Juan Pablo Serrano on Pexels.com*

Your words today,
O Lord Jesus
are short but give
much to reflect on:
"Be merciful...
stop judging...
stop condemning...
Forgive...
Give."

Jesus,
teach me to be
"shamefaced"
like Daniel in the first
reading: it is not enough
that I realize my sinfulness,
of my wickedness in refusing
to love, in turning away from you,
in disregarding your words
over and over and still -
be forgiven and loved.

Jesus said to his disciples: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36).

So often in life,
I forget the Father's
mercy that I have totally
been oblivious to being
merciful; thank you Jesus
in giving this comparison today,
of being merciful as the Father
is merciful.

What a shame
of how often I look up
to myself as so good,
so righteous
against others
that I judge
and condemn them;
teach me to be like
you, Lord: merciful,
non-judgmental,
forgiving;
most of all,
teach me to give
freely like you, Lord;
remind me always
to remember your 
mercy on me
to realize that 
more than an ideal, 
mercy is about 
how it feels
in my own life.

Lord Jesus Christ,
you have given me with
so much love and mercy,
kindness and forgiveness
of sins but I have refused
to be merciful with others;
have mercy on me, Lord
and let me be merciful
like the Father.
Amen.