Blessed hunger & thirst for God

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Solemnity of All Saints, 01 November 2026
Revelation7:2-4, 9-14  ><}}}}*>  1 John 3:1-3  ><}}}}*>  Matthew 5:1-12
Thousands of people arrive to pray at the graves of their relatives at a cemetery during the annual observance of All Saint’s Day in Manila on November 1, 2019. Photo by Ted Aljibe, AFP.

The way we Filipinos say goodbyes illustrates vividly – with a dash of some humor – the theology of our celebrations of All Saints Day and All Souls Day we collectively call as Undas.

When we are in a party or any gathering, we never say we are leaving like alis na ako that sounds rude, or layas na ako that is tinged with anger while diyan na kayo could mean burning of one’s bridges, a sort of total separation.

Normally, we say goodbyes either by saying tutuloy na po ako or mauna na po ako. The po is optional but both are the most kind and accepted way of telling everuyone we are leaving. our hosts we are leaving. Tutuloy na ako literally in English is “I’m coming in”when you are actually going out to leave while mauna na po ako means I’m going first or will go ahead of everybody whereas no one is following you especially the host.

But here are the twists in these Filipino goodbyes: both indicate our being Christians, of our deeply ingrained religiosity no matter how hard some would deny. Whenever we say tutuloy na ako, mauna na ako, we unconsciously or subconsciously express our hunger and thirst for heaven, for eternal life.

To say tutuloy na ako is to express that basic truth we all die with one final destination which is heaven in eternal life.

To say mauuna na ako is an affirmation of our other famous maxim about death, una-una lang yan, that nobody knows who’s going to die among us next.

Every time we bid goodbye to anyone, we express this holy desires to be in heaven, to be with God, to be like all the Saints we celebrate on this first day of November.

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied” (Matthew 5:1-2, 6).

Photo by author, Baguio City, July 2018.

In this time of faith in a mass-mediated culture that thrives in promoting pleasures and merry-making alongside with overflowing food and drinks while more others are starving and dying in hunger and still more are without potable water to drink, we find the fourth beatitude a rarity.

Notice how bacchanalian our generation has become with all the food apps and restaurants offering a plethora of food and drinks so glorified in social media called “food porn”, a prostitution of food and drinks. How sad so many people has become so insensitive in posting all their food in social media without any deference for the poor who could barely make ends meet for a decent meal thrice daily. See how so few among us Catholics really fast or go on abstinence every Ash Wednesday and Good Friday with all of our excuses and alibis.

Photo by author, side entrance to Church of Beatitudes, the Holy Land, May 2019.

Very sad.

Hence, Jesus called “blessed” those who hunger and thirst for righteousness because it is an affirmation of our faith in him who told the devil in the wilderness that “man does not live by bread alone but by every that comes forth from the mouth of God” (Mt.2:4). To hunger and thirst for righteousness is to value more the soul than the body. It is an appetite for the sacred and for things of deeper value and importance than those that are fleeting and superficial like food and drinks and other pleasures including those that bloat our egos.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness because it is a desire to be holy first of all, a desire for God himself, a desire for heaven. Righteousness for the Jews is holiness which is the observance of God’s Laws and Commandments. But, problem with this frame of mind as we have seen since the other Sunday is the tendency to be legalistic, to see more the Laws than the person that ultimately, fails to see God in one another.

Holiness is being filled with God like the souls already in heaven called Saints. They are holy because they have been purified of their sins and therefore filled with God as John tells us in his vision of heaven of great multitudes wearing white robes washed in the Blood of the Lamb.

But for us still on earth, still battling with sin and evil, holiness is being filled with God but not sinless. And because we are filled with God, we strive always to work alongside with Christ, bearing all the pains and sufferings he bore first for us for the sake of righteousness, of justice and peace. In this world when conformity to whatever “everyone is doing” is the rule of the game like corruption, dishonesty, and infidelity, being hungry and thirsty with the poor and suffering is our strongest signs of protest and resistance against the prevailing evils of our time. Being hungry and thirsty for righteousness is also being hungry and thirsty for the Kingdom of God because that is a sharing in Christ’s Passion and Death leading to his glorious Resurrection.

Photo from bloomberg.com of a homeless man in New York City during a fashion week in summer 2019.

The most difficult daily struggle we all contend with is our hunger and thirst, our most basic instincts for the most basic needs of food and water in order to live; without food and water, we grow weak and die. However, hunger and thirst tend us to overindulge with food and drinks because these readily give us pleasures, making us forget the more essential things in life.

That is why the need for some forms of sacrifices like abstinence and fasting not only with food and drinks but anything that gives us pleasure and comfort so that we learn to desire for higher things like God, holiness and virtues.

The fourth beatitude is most timely in a world that has become so consumerist where only matter matters with everything reduced to pera pera lang with God slowly being deleted from daily life scenes. See how our world has become like showbiz with all the glitz and glamor with everything for show or palabas that despite the abundance we now enjoy not only in food and drinks but almost everything, the more we have become empty and alienated within.

Blessed are you if you hunger and thirst for righteousness because it is a grace reminding you of that fact many forget that the world and everything here passes. Being hungry and thirsty for righteousness is having God in your heart, of experiencing his love, of working to love others so that they too may experience God because they have been so hungry and thirsty for love and kindness, care and concern from others.

What do you hunger and thirst for these days?

How sad that with all these technologies we now have meant to bring us closer with one another have actually brought us apart. Worst of all, the very technologies meant to work for us now enslave us, becoming not only the gods of many but masters too. Blessed are you in your hunger and thirst for God because he alone in Christ Jesus can truly satisfy us here and hereafter. Dwell in the love of God in Jesus Christ John tells us in the second reading like the saints who have gone ahead of us, resisting all evils and temptations to sin for only the Lord satisfies us. Amen. A blessed All Saints’ Day to you!

A panel of Fra Angelico’s painting (1423-24) “The Forerunners of Christ with Saints and Martyrs” from wikipedia.

Pagninilay sa Undas: Halaman at bulaklak, tanda ng buhay maging sa kamatayan

Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-30 ng Oktubre 2026
Larawan kuha ng may-akda, Anvaya Cove, Hulyo 2026.

Isang kaibigan nakita kong dumaing sa kanyang post sa Facebook sa sobrang mahal daw ng mga bulaklak isang linggo pa man bago mag-Undas. Sa mga panahong ito, pangalawa sa mga sementeryo, mga tindahan ng bulaklak gaya ng sa Dangwa ang puntahan ng maraming tao.

Buhay man o patay, bulaklak palagi ang ating handog sa ating mga mahal sa buhay. Wika nga sa Inggles, “say it with flowers” sapagkat ito na ang pinakamabisang pagpapahayag ng tunay na saloobin sa lahat ng pagkakataon. Wala ka na talagang sasabihin pa kapag ikaw ay nagbigay ng bulaklak kanino man. Ano man ang okasyon. Hatid ng mga ito ang tuwa at kagalakan sa sino man nagdiriwang ng buhay at tagumpay, maging ng kagalingan at lakas sa may tinitiis na sakit at hilahil. Sari-saring kulay, hugis at anyo, iisa ang pinangungusap ng bulaklak sa lahat ng pagkakataon, buhay at kagalakan at kaisahan ng magkakaibigan at magkasintahan, mag-asawa at mag-anak, magkaano-ano man.

Maliban sa tao, ang mga bulaklak at halaman na ang pinakamagagandang nilikha ng Diyos upang ipadama at ilarawan sa atin ang Kanyang kagandahan at kabutihan, katamisan at pagmamahal. Gayon din tanda ang mga ito ng Paraiso kaya bawat kasalan at lamayan, pinupuno ng mga bulaklak at halaman paalala ng langit na ating pinagmulan at hantungan.

Isang tagpo tuwing Biyernes Santo at Sabado Santo ang hindi nabibigyang halaga ng marami, ang paglilibing kay Jesus.

Sa pinagpakuan kay Jesus ay may isang halamanan, at dito’y may isang bagong libingang hindi pa napaglilibingan. Yamang noo’y araw ng Paghahanda ng mga Judio, at dahil sa malapit naman ang libingang ito, doon nila inilibing si Jesus (Juan 19:41-42).

Hindi nagkataon lamang na inilibing si Jesus sa may halamanan dahil pagsapit ng Pasko ng Pagkabuhay, kay sarap namnamin ang Kanyang Pagkabuhay doon sa halamanan ay isang uri ng “return to Paradise”, “return to Eden” wika nga.

Kaya nga nang lapitan ni Jesus si Magdalena habang umiiyak dahil wala ang Panginoon sa libingan, napagkamalan niya si Jesus bilang hardinero. Paalala ito na ang Paraiso ay di lamang ating patutunguhan kungdi doon din nagsimula ang lahat sa Paraiso bago nagkasala mga unang tao.

Pagtatagpo nina Magdalena at Jesus noong Pasko ng Pagkabuhay sa kanyang libingan mula sa commons.wikimedia.org

Noong Martes, sinabi ni Jesus sa ebanghelyo na ang paghahari ng Diyos ay “Katulad ng isang butil ng mustasa na itinamin ng isang tao sa kanyang halaman” (Lk.13:19).

Bawat isa sa atin ay halamanan ng Diyos, a garden of God. A paradise in ourselves.

Katulad ng ano mang halaman, kailangan natin ng mainam na lugar, taniman.

Noong ako ay naka-assign pa sa paaralan sa Malolos, palagi kong tinitiyak sa mga magulang kapag kami ay nagki-kick out ng estudyante na hangad pa rin namin kabutihan ng kanilang anak na ay isang halaman, minsan mainam na ilipat ng paso o taniman upang tumubo at lumago. May ilan naman sa mga na-kick out ko noon ang nagpapasalamat naman sa akin ngayon dahil daw nakabuti rin yung karanasan at sila ay nakapagtapos ng ibat ibang kurso.

Iyon din ang sinabi kamakailan sa Wimbledon ng ating tennis sensation na si Alex Eala, “kapag lumago, hindi na hihinto” at naging tanda niya ang bulaklak ng halamang Sampaguita.

Maraming pagkakataon pinababayaan natin ating mga sarili tulad ng halaman na hindi dinidilig ni nililinang. Kung minsan naman, hindi nating maintindihan sa kabila ng ating pangangalaga, tila walang nangyayari sa ating sarili, tulad ng halamanang walang tumubo o lumago, mamunga o mamulaklak sa kabila ng pagaasikaso.

Nguni’t maraming pagkakataon din naman na namumulaklak, nagbubunga tayo tulad ng halamanan dahil ang tunay na lumilinang sa atin ay ang Panginoong Diyos na mapagmahal. Ayon kay Sta. Teresa ng Avila, ang pananalangin ay ang tubig na ating dinidilig sa ating sarili na katulad ng halaman upang lumago at mamulaklak.

Kamakailan ay nagpalit ako ng tubig ng mga alaga kong water plants sa aking silid at ako’y natigilan nang maalala ko bigla aking yumaong Ina na napakahusay sa paghahalaman. Mayroon siyang “green thumb” na hindi ko namana sa kanya.

Kahit maliit lamang aming lupain noon sa lumang bahay namin haggang sa kanyang munting tindahan, sagana siya sa pananim tulad ng mga rosas at orchids, cactus, mayana, violets at mayana, sari-saring halaman sa paso at lupa gaya ng papaya, atis, langka, pati kamote at sili sa gilid ng bahay namin ay mayroon siya.

Ako naman, hindi makabuhay ng ano mang halaman. Katunayan noong first year high school kamuntik ako bumagsak sa gardening dahil wala akong nabuhay na pananim. Umani na ng pechay at talong mga kaklase ko, walang tumubo sa aking plot kaya sabi ng mommy ko, kamote ang aking itanim. Kapag daw yun hindi ko pa nabuhay, ako na raw ang kamote! (Nabuhay naman po at ako ay nakapasa.)

Nang magkaroon ako ng sariling parokya noong 2011, kapag dumadalaw sila sa akin isa sa mga inaalam ni Mommy ay ang aking mga alagang halaman na galing sa kanya. Madalas hindi ako makasagot kasi, palaging mayroong namamatay sa mga iyon tuwing darating siya. Pati water plants! Sabi niya sa akin noon, “ano ka ba naman anak, water plant na lang napapatay mo pa? Masyadong mainit iyong mga kamay,” aniya.

Isa sa aking mga waterplants na buhay pa mula 2021.

Isang bagay nakalimutan kong sabihin kay Mommy bago siya mamatay noong 2024 ay nakakabuhay na ako ng water plant sa kuwarto ko sa bago kong assignment sa Fatima Valenzuela.

Kaya noong Martes na ang ebanghelyo ay tugkol sa halaman ng mustasa, habang ako ay nagpapalit ng tubig ng aking mga water plants, naisip ko marahil masaya na sa kabilang buhay si Mommy kasi nakabuhay na ako ng halaman.

Sinabi din niya sa akin noong bata pa ako, dapat daw marunong akong mag-alaga ng halaman at hayop dahil tanda raw iyon na makakabuhay na rin ako ng tao.

Siguro nga. Kaya ko nang mabuhay maski wala na siya, paalala marahil nitong aking mga halaman.

Di alintanang paglapastangan sa mga yumao

Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-28 ng Oktubre 2026
Larawan mula sa inquirer.net file photo, 2022.

Undas na naman at wika nga sa Inggles, all roads lead to the cemetery sa panahong ito upang alalahanin sa pananalangin habang nagtutulos ng kandila, naglalagay ng bulaklak mga pamilya at angkan sa puntod ng kanilang mga yumaong mahal sa buhay.

Siyempre, mayroon din salu-salo doon sa sementeryo habang ang iba naman ay nagtitipon sa kolumbaryo upang gayon din, ipanalangin kanilang mga yumaong mahal sa buhay na isinaabo ang mga labi o pina-cremate.

Mula sa wikang Latin, langit o “sky” ang columbarium habang ang ossuary na halos katulad nito ay libingan naman ng mga buto ng yumao na mula din sa Latin, os o buto kaya yaong sakit sa buto ay osteoporosis kung tawagin. Ang ating kataga na sementeryo o cemetery sa Inggles ay nagmula din sa wikang Latin na hiniram sa Griyego, cemeterion na kahulugan ay “dormitoryo”. Malinaw sa mga katagang gamit sa libingan noon pa man ay nagpapahiwatig ng buhay na walang hanggan na siyang ating tunay na hantungan sa pagwawakas ng buhay sa lupang ibabaw.

Larawang kuha ng may-akda, Anvaya Cove, Bataan, Abril 2026.

Ito ang dahilan mula simula pa lamang ay pinahahalagahan na ang labi ng mga yumaong mahal natin sa buhay dahil mismong ating Panginoong Jesu-Kristo na nagpakasakit at namatay ngunit muling nabuhay ay nalibing din. At dahil doon, pinabanal ni Jesus ating libingan habang inaabangan ang kanyang muling pagbabalik sa wakas ng panahon na kung saan ang lahat ng namatay ay ibabangon niya upang ang kanilang mga labi ay makaisa kanilang mga kaluluwa sa buhay na walang hanggan na siya nating ipinahahayag tuwing magsisimba ng araw ng Linggo, “Sumasampalatay ako sa Espiritu Santo, sa Simbahang Katolika, sa kasamahan ng mga Banal, sa pagkabuhay mag-uli ng mga namatay na tao hanggang sa buhay na walang hanggan.”

Kaya naman itinuturo ng Simbahan batay sa Ebanghelyo at Banal na Kasulatan na pakaingatan at pangalagaan palagi ang mga labi ng mga yumao.

Subalit nakababahala, nakakabagabag itong nauuso na pag-uuwi sa bahay at pagkuha ng kahit kaunting sinaabong labi ng yumao na nilalagay sa kuwintas at ibang alahas bilang remembrance at alaala. Kasama na rito pag-iingat sa tahanan ng tinaguriang “green bones” dahil ito man ay bahagi, labi ng yumao.

Pinahihintulutan naman ng Simbahan ang cremation noon pa man ngunit ito ay alinsunod sa mga tagubilin at alituntunin dapat tuparin upang matiyak na mapananatili ang dangal at pangangalaga sa labi ng mga yumao.

At pangangahasan ko nang sabihin na malaking kahangalan at paglapastangan sa mga yumao ang nauusong pagkuha ng sinaabong labi upang itago sa tahanan at higit sa lahat, pagparte-partehan ng pamilya mga ito – kahit kaunti – upang ilagay sa alahas tulad ng kuwintas bilang remembrance ng kanilang mahal na yumao.

Juice colored! Anong kalokohan iyan?

Sa halip na maparangalan kanilang mga yumaong mahal sa buhay, kabaligtaran ang nangyayari. Nagiging katulad na lamang ng ordinaryong gamit gaya ng balat ng kendi o talulot ng bulaklak na paalala ng inyong first date ang sinaabong labi ng mahal na yumao. Matay ko mang isipin na nakasabit sa leeg ang kuwintas na mayroong abo ng yumaong mahal sa buhay na dapat ay namayapa na e hanggang ngayon ay kayag-kayag pa rin sa mga pinagkakaabalahan sa buhay pati na sa hirap at tiisin.

Paano kung mahablot, ma-snatch kuwintas na mayroong abo ng inyong yumao? Sana ay maisip ng mga gumagawa nito ang kalapastanganang iyan sa kanilang yumao.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Kung tunay nating minamahal mga yumao natin sa buhay, ilagak sila sa mga takdang libingan tulad ng sementeryo at kolumbaryo upang doon kanilang labi ay mapangalagaan at higit sa lahat, maipagdasal at maalala palagi di lamang ng pamilya at kamag-anak kungdi ng bayan ng Diyos, ang Simbahan sa tuwina ay nananalangin para sa mga yumao.

Noong 2016 niliwanag at muling ipinaalala sa isang Instruction ng Offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith sa Vatican ang paglalagom ng mga katuruan at alituntunin ng Simbahan ukol sa paglilibing lalo ng mga sinaabong labi ng namatay. Unang-una na dito ang paglagak ng mga ito sa natatanging libingan gaya ng sementeryo at kolumbaryo. Narito ang buong sitas upang kayo mismo ang bumasa sa mga bahagi ng naturang Instruction na pinamagatang Ad Resurgendum cum Christo na ibig sabihi’y “bumangon muli kay Kristo”:

When, for legitimate motives, cremation of the body has been chosen, the ashes of the faithful must be laid to rest in a sacred place, that is, in a cemetery or, in certain cases, in a church or an area, which has been set aside for this purpose, and so dedicated by the competent ecclesial authority.

From the earliest times, Christians have desired that the faithful departed become the objects of the Christian community’s prayers and remembrance. Their tombs have become places of prayer, remembrance and reflection. The faithful departed remain part of the Church who believes “in the communion of all the faithful of Christ, those who are pilgrims on earth, the dead who are being purified, and the blessed in heaven, all together forming one Church”.

The reservation of the ashes of the departed in a sacred place ensures that they are not excluded from the prayers and remembrance of their family or the Christian community. It prevents the faithful departed from being forgotten, or their remains from being shown a lack of respect, which eventuality is possible, most especially once the immediately subsequent generation has too passed away. Also it prevents any unfitting or superstitious practices (#5, Instruction Ad Resurgendum cum Christo).

For the reasons given above, the conservation of the ashes of the departed in a domestic residence is not permitted. Only in grave and exceptional cases dependent on cultural conditions of a localized nature, may the Ordinary, in agreement with the Episcopal Conference or the Synod of Bishops of the Oriental Churches, concede permission for the conservation of the ashes of the departed in a domestic residence. Nonetheless, the ashes may not be divided among various family members and due respect must be maintained regarding the circumstances of such a conservation (#6, Instruction Ad Resurgendum cum Christo).

Larawan kuha ni Santi San Juan ng Manila Bulletin, Angono, Rizal, 31 Agosto 2024.

Malinaw ang paalala ng Simbahan: hindi pinapayagan itago sa tahanan ang na-cremate na labi ng mahal sa buhay. At hindi rin tama na pagparte-partehan ng mga naulila kahit katiting ng sinaabong labi ng kanilang yumao.

Nakakalungkot na mayroong mga pari na sa halip ituro ang tama at nararapat, sila pa nagkukunsinti ng kamalian at kalapastanganang ito sa pagbabasbas ng mga kuwintas na mayroong sinaabong labi ng mga yumao.

Nararapat at napapanahon nang pagbawalan ng Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) ang mga punenarya sa pag-aalok sa mga namatayan ng mga sinaabong labi na nilalagay nila mismo sa mga kuwintas na kanila ring binebenta na isa pang dagdag na kalapastanganan sa mga yumao na pinagkakitaan pa!

Mahigpit ding ipinagbabawal ng Simbahan ang pagsasaboy ng mga sinaabong labi sa himpapawirin at karagatan katulad ng mga eksena sa pelikula; walang puwang sa pananampalatayang Katoliko ang mga gawaing ito sapagkat turo nga ni San Pablo, templo at tahanan ng Espiritu Santo ang bawat tao (1Cor.6:19) kaya kahit namatay na ay sagrado pa rin kanilang mga labi kaya mga ito ay binabasbasan pa rin.

In order that every appearance of pantheism, naturalism or nihilism be avoided, it is not permitted to scatter the ashes of the faithful departed in the air, on land, at sea or in some other way, nor may they be preserved in mementos, pieces of jewelry or other objects. These courses of action cannot be legitimized by an appeal to the sanitary, social, or economic motives that may have occasioned the choice of cremation (#7, Instruction Ad Resurgendum cum Christo).

Ngayong Undas, kung mayroon kayong mga sinaabong labi ng inyong mahal sa buhay na nasa bahay pa rin o kahit kaunti sa kuwintas at ibang alahas, alang-alang sa kapayapaan ng inyong mahal na yumao, ilagak na mga ito sa sementeryo o kolumbaryo. Kumausap ng pari para sa inurment of remains upang maging makabuluhan at banal inyong pagdiriwang ng Undas simula ngayong taon hanggang sa magkasama-sama tayo balang araw sa buhay na walang hanggan kapiling ang Diyos at kanyang mga Banal. Amen.

Larawan kuha ni Santi San Juan ng Manila Bulletin sa Angono, Rizal, 31 Oktubre 2024.

“Through the Eyes of Love” (1979) by Melissa Manchester

Lord My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 25 October 2026
Photo by author, Bram Castle, Romania, Novvember 2025.

Many people say love is blind but this Sunday’s gospel shows us how love can actually enable us to see better and clearer one another as brothers and sisters who must be loved and respected and cared for (https://lordmychef.com/2026/10/24/love-and-you-shall-see-2/).

And while preparing for our early morning Masses today, we just felt like humming the very lovely piano introduction to Melissa Manchester’s Through the Eyes of Love that was the theme of the 1978 movie Ice Castles starring Robby Benson and Lyn Holly-Johnson. One of their co-stars in that movie was Tom Skerritt who just died last Wednesday who played father to Johnson, an acctual former American figure skater.

In that romance movie, Benson and Johnson were high school sweethearts: he a hockey player while she, a figure skater. When she moved to another high school that offered her better options for her talent in figure skating, she met another man, dumping Benson in the process. They reunited after Johnson had a bad fall while practicing that left her partially blind; Benson took care of her, convincing her to practice anew to join a competition with him as her guide. Eventually she won in the competition with no one knowing her blindness until she tripped on the roses thrown at her by the fans after winning.

It is one of those unforgettable romantic movies we all fell in love with while in second year high school, especially its lovely theme sang by Manchester. Though it never became a hit, the song has endured all these years as one of the favorite songs in wedding receptions, often as the first dance of the couple. And why not with these realizations of someone who had experienced true love despite everything.

Please, don't let this feeling end
It's everything I am
Everything I want to be
I can see what's mine now
Finding out what's true since I found you
Looking through the eyes of love
Now, I can take the time
I can see my life
As it comes up shining now
Reaching out to touch you
I can feel so much since I found you
Looking through the eyes of love

When Jesus said in today’s gospel that the greatest and first commandment is to love God with all of our heart, and mind, and soul or total self and that the second is to love others as you love yourself, he also revealed to us one of the most profound truths we fail to recognize and even reject so often.

Our love for God and for others unfold first in us, in our love for our self. We cannot love God unless we love and accept who we are – whatever is good and bad in us. Many times, some of us hate ourselves that we change even our gender, manipulate our appearances, fantasize on so many what ifs and wishful thinkings.

The key to loving God totally is to first love our very self; Jesus became human like us to show us that is good to be human. It is only when we have come to embrace and accept wholly our gift of self can we give ourselves to God totally and to others. What I am to myself becomes what I am to others and vice versa. And together we all go to God as he comes to us—in love. Exactly how Johnson who had gone blind in the movie realized. 

And now I do believe
That even in a storm
We'll find some light
Knowing you're beside me
I'm all right
Please, don't let this feeling end
It might not come again
And I want to remember
How it feels to touch you
How I feel so much since I found you
Looking through the eyes of love

Just like us in many instances, it is often in those trying moments we realize how much we are loved by God, never leaving us despite our many sins and failures. Imagine in this song Through the Eyes of Love Jesus is our beloved guiding us through our many blindness in life, enabling us to see persons and events in our lives more clearly that we succeed and most of all, become fruitful and fulfilled. Have a blessed week ahead filled with love!

Love and you shall see

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 25 October 2026
Exodus 22:20-26  ><}}}}*>  1 Thessalonians 1:5-10  ><}}}}*>  Matthew 22:34-40
Photo by author, Don Bosco Batulao Retreat House, Batangas, April 2026.

A few months before the death of Pope Francis last year, a controversy arose among some people regarding St. Augustine’s teaching “Love and do what you like” when they overstretched its meaning as if one can do anything that may hurt others in the process.

St. Augustine never meant we can do whatever we like; most of all, the learned Saint had extensively taught on the need to distinguish “love” from a disordered one. When he said “Love and do what you like”, St. Augustine meant the kind of love that Jesus had taught his disciples at the Last Supper, love that is willing to offer one’s life for another. It is a love rooted in God that enables one to see more completely one’s self and others so that when we love, everything changes in our being so that our every doing is because of love and out of love. When we truly love, the sky is the limit in every good deed we can do for God through others.

This we find in today’s gospel when Jesus answers another test from his enemies at the temple area.

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law, tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:34-40).

Photo by Ar. Philip Santiago, Jerusalem, September 2024.

Unlike last Sunday’s encounter with the disciples of the Pharisees and Herodians, today’s testing of Jesus is “mild”, seemingly honest because many Jews were confused at that time with the so many laws they have to observe.

From the Ten Commandments given by God to Moses at Mount Sinai, they have dissected these into more than 600 precepts that they wondered if there was any single law which touched the core of people’s relationship with God. Perhaps that is where the malice in this test lies: the Pharisees wanted to know if there would be a simpler approach by Jesus that they felt impossible especially with their very legalistic frame of minds.

But Jesus surprised them anew in the way he addressed the question by first citing the Book of Deuteronomy when he answered, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment.” They knew it very well by heart but what was new and probably troubling for them was when Jesus followed up with “The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

First of all, the scholar of the law was asking Jesus to pick the one most important of all commandments at the core of their relationship with God and with their life in general. They were hoping for a simplistic approach, a sort of panacea and shortcut. Instead of reducing the hundreds of laws into just one, Jesus gave them two commandments that are actually one and inseparable: love of God and love of others. They are like the cheeks of the human face best expressed in Filipino: Ang pag-ibig ay katulad ng isang mukha na mayroong dalawang pisngi; walang tao na iisa ang pisngi. Isang mukha, dalawang pisngi palagi.

“Hapag ng Pag-Asa” painting by the late Joey Velasco.

Most troubling for the enemies of Jesus was actually this other “face” of love of God: for them, the term neighbor was limited only to their fellow Jews which Jesus addressed in his parable of the good Samaritan found only in Luke’s gospel. In linking love of God with love of neighbor, Jesus reminded his enemies and listeners including us today of what the whole bible has been saying that religious observance is not enough like fasting, alms-giving and other ritual observances in the temple or synagogue, or church, and home.

One cannot love God without loving one’s brothers and sisters at the same time. No one can just love for God’s sake, to please God or observe his commandments. One must go further than the letters of the laws because one seeks, finds and loves God in others. In the following chapter after this episode we find Jesus identifying himself with the poor, the hungry and thirsty, the naked, the sick and prisoners and aliens so that whatever we do unto them, we do unto him too (Mt.25:31-46)!

Hence, we have our first reading from Exodus God telling Moses to remind the people to be kind to strangers and foreigners for they were aliens too in Egypt before; that they should never oppress nor molest the poor and widows nor charge interests in loans, warning them of how he would listen to the cries of the oppressed.

More than teaching us the most important commandment of all, Jesus is inviting us to a new approach to life and to our relationships with God and with others in love. He is not disregarding the laws and commandments because their absence means presence of evil and sin as we have seen recently in France. Clearly, the looters and vandals in the many rallies there are those who believe they can do whatever they like without any sense of what is right and wrong.

Photo by author, Bran Castle in Romania, Novvember 2025.

This is what St. Paul is reminding the Thessalonians and us today in the second reading: Christianity is really difficult to understand and appreciate by people then and now without love at all.

In answering the scholar of the law, Jesus revealed the truth of this immense love of God already present in us which enables us to see even beyond persons and things. When he said that the greatest and first commandment is to love God with all of our heart, and mind, and soul or total self and that the second is to love others as you love yourself, Jesus is revealing to us one of the most profound truths we fail to recognize and even reject so often.

Our love for God and for others unfold first in us, in our love for our self. We cannot love God unless we love and accept who we are – whatever is good and bad in us. Many times, some of us hate ourselves that we change even our gender, manipulate our appearances, fantasize on so many what ifs and wishful thinkings. The key to loving God totally is to first love our very self; Jesus became human like us to show us that is good to be human. It is only when we have come to embrace and accept wholly our gift of self can we give ourselves to God totally and to others. What I am to myself becomes what I am to others and vice versa. And together we all go to God as he comes to us—in love especially in the midst of all these shadows and darkness of things happening in our country and around the world. May we lead others to God by finding them first in us. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead.

“Guilty, your Honor!”

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 18 October 2026
Isaiah 45:1, 4-6  ><}}}}*>  1 Thessalonians 1:1-5  ><}}}}*>  Matthew 22:15-21
Photo by dp singh Bhullar on Pexels.com

Ever since, I have never been fascinated with court scenes except with those television series like LA Law, the Lincoln Lawyer and Law & Order that was actually more of police stories. Hence, I have never followed up the Impeachment trial of the Vice President except read reports or watch reels of what transpired in each day because I simply don’t have the patience. Imagine the comedies happening daily courtesy of the defense team.

However, while praying over our gospel this Sunday, it looked like a sort of trial scene in court for me where Jesus seems to be on trial by his enemies. Beginning this Sunday until next, Christ’s enemies would take turns in entrapping Jesus with questions hoping to find grounds for his arrest.

The Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech. They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. And you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion, for you do not regard a person’s status. Tell us, then, what is your opinion: Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” Knowing their malice, Jesus said, “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? Show me the coin that pays the census tax.” Then they handed him the Roman coin. He said to them, “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” They replied, “Caesar’s .” At that he said to them, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God” (Matthew 22:15-21).

“Ecce Homo” by Swiss-Italian painter Antonio Ciseri (ca.1860-1880), from wikimediacommons.org

The scene is actually a prelude to Jesus Christ’s trial before Pontius Pilate after his enemies eventually made up charges against him.

Reflecting on the trial of Jesus by Pontius Pilate, St. John Paul II wrote that until now we put God on trial, accusing him of so many crimes and negligence in the world. And the most ironic part of it is that the more we accuse God of “crimes”, the more we incriminate ourselves actually into the very crimes we accuse him. Every trial, every testing of God is a self-indictment of our very selves.

Self-incrimination is the act of making a statement, providing testimony, or sharing information that exposes one’s self to criminal liability or possible criminal prosecution. Self-indictment is a slight variation of self-incrimination or to describe an action, statement, or work that acts as a severe, self-generated criticism or condemnation of oneself (from wikipedia).

See how the bitter enemies, Pharisees and Herodians joined forces against Jesus: the Pharisees were against the Roman occupiers while the Herodians were pro-Romans. They are a perfect example of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Though they hated each other, they hated Jesus even more, foolishly deciding to set aside their differences momentarily to settle a score against Jesus.

But Jesus smelled their rancid odor right away, asking them of their motive, calling them hypocrites!

But their hypocrisy lies not only in their joining forces against Jesus but most of all in knowing how Jesus is so fair and just, “teaching the way of God in accordance with the truth”, then, why did they not finally accept him as the Christ and followed him? After all their praises, they have the gall to test him?

It was a hypocrisy to the highest degree actually. That is why we always have to beware of people who lavish us with praises with their lips smooth as butter but sharp as dagger.

The Pharisees and all enemies of Jesus have seen how he loved the poor and the sick, the marginalized, the women especially the widows, the children, the sinners and even them despite their being self-righteous. Jesus never drove them away nor rejected their invitations to dinner. Yet, they still refused to believe in Jesus and they wanted to test him.

It is the same tactic we have against one another, against Jesus. We go into secret alliances with our “enemies” against a common enemy without realizing it is in itself a self-indictment of our own sinfulness. It is one reason why I have strongly opposed priests and church organizations aligning with some groups like the so-called progressives, leftists or left-leaning who are mostly wokes: many times we may share a common stand against certain issues like capital punishment but what about their hard-core stance on divorce, contraceptives and abortion, gender-redefinition and same-sex marriage?

How much do we really believe in God? Then why do we have to “sleep with the enemies” like the rich and powerful politicians for donations and favors?

Flemish painter Peter Paul Ruben’s “The Tribute Money” (ca. 1612) from commonswikimedia.org.

Inasmuch as we view this as a sort of a court trial scene with the Pharisees and Herodians on the offensive, Jesus is not on the defensive mode here because he has nothing to defend in the first place. In fact, his enemies have conceded earlier on the good character of Jesus which we have just mentioned earlier.

Reminiscent of the tempting by the devil in the wilderness and later his trials with the Sanhedrin then with Pilate, here we find Jesus always with the “upper hand”, never swayed for he is sure and certain of himself. Plaudits and flatteries can never deviate Jesus from the truth that he is the Christ, the Son of God. And this is what he is telling us here: believe in yourself. Stand with your conviction in Christ always. Do not be bothered or affected by what others say.

This we shall see at how Jesus addressed his enemies with their entrapment by asking for a Roman coin. It was the strongest case of his enemies’ self-incrimination, of hypocrisy: they really have no plans of knowing whether it was lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not because in giving Jesus the Roman coin, they have betrayed themselves as in fact paying the tax to Rome after all, even the Pharisees who were anti-Rome.

Most of all, they were not supposed to bring into the temple area idolatrous objects, images of other gods, exactly what a Roman coin was with the image and inscription of the Roman emperor who believed in himself as a god. It was the height of their stupidity to bring out that Roman coin, their clear self-indictment. Though they professed faith in God as Jews, they still followed the false gods of Rome like its emperor.

“Ecce Homo” painting by Spanish painter Juan de Juanes (ca.1570), from commons.wikimedia.org

Every day, this happens among us, always complaining, always ranting to God, even sometimes testing him like the Pharisees and the Herodians; but, if we search our hearts, if check on what we have, who we follow, we too are guilty like the enemies of Jesus having aligned with the new gods of today like cellphone and other gadgets, wealth and fame.

How unfortunate many these days live in social media where what is most accepted even glorified and followed is whatever that is shallow and superficial, rude and obscene, stupid and idiotic.

Jesus tells us this Sunday to look beyond what we see on things to find God who is the source of our very life, of every blessings we enjoy. Let us hold on to that assurance by St. Paul in the second reading that we were chosen by God in Christ Jesus to receive all his abundant blessings in life. Hold on to Jesus. Look beyond and find the face of Jesus in everything and everyone like the Persian emperor Cyrus in the first reading used by God as instrument in setting free the Jewish exiles in Babylon. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead!

Sealed with the Holy Spirit

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, 16 October 2026
Ephesians 1:11-14     ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*>     Luke 12:1-7
Photo by author, Bella Rosa Gardens, Silang, Cavite, 07 October 2026.
What's happening in the world,
Lord where everyone seems to thrive 
in chaos?
Trash talks like cussings,
making fun of other people's
disabilities, smart shaming and
body shaming are so glorified and
imitated especially in social media;
many have no more sense of shame at all,
stretching their rights without any regard
for their responsibilities nor rights of others
that we are like in that gospel scene today:

At that time, so many people were crowding together that they were trampling one another underfoot. Jesus began to speak, first to his disciples, “Beware of the leaven – that is, hypocrisy – of the Pharisees (Luke 12:1).

Photo by author, Bella Rosa Gardens, Silang, Cavite, 07 October 2026.
Are we not like those
people crowding together,
already trampling just to hear you
speak, Jesus?
Give us the wisdom,
awaken us from our glorification of
everything that is crass and low,
giving only emphasis on the body
forgetting about the soul,
its dignity and value
along with virtues:
"I tell you,
 my friends,
do not be afraid of those
who kill the body
but after that can do no more"
(Luke 12:4).
Photo by author, Bella Rosa Gardens, Silang, Cavite, 07 October 2026.
Let us see St. Paul's
alternative vision for the world
in which God's plan is to restore
all things in you, Christ;
let us see more the love and 
mercy you have lavished upon us
when you suffered and died 
on the Cross to save us,
rising from the dead on the third day
to reconcile us to the Father 
and with everyone;
how consoling that we are
not our own,
that despite the chaos 
and darkness all over us these days,
"In Christ we were also chosen,
destined in accord with purpose of
the one who accomplishes all things
according to the intention of his will...
were sealed with the Holy Spirit"
(Ephesians 1:11, 13).
How lovely are
these words, Lord!
May we be like St. Paul
in proclaiming to this sick and dark world
that there is an alternative, 
better vision of the world 
from the Father
in Christ Jesus.
Give us the courage to work on this,
to cooperate with your grace in
showing the world 
life is so beautiful!
Amen.

True blessedness

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, 15 October 2026
Ephesians 1:1-10     ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*>     Luke 11:47-54
Photo by Ms. Kei Abad in Kyoto, Japan, October 2025.
Glory and praise to you,
O God our loving Father in
Jesus Christ our Lord!

Your words today through
St. Paul are so reassuring
and soothing amid all the many
sad things going on in the world,
in our country, in our family,
and in ourn very selves:

… grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him (Ephesians 1:2-4).

What a magnificent prayer of blessing,
a tremendous outpouring of blessing
from you, Father,
of your loving plan for each one of us,
of your grand design of love
inviting us to an open-hearted
relationship of life and joy,
not with our rigid and defensive
approaches like the scribes and
Pharisees in the gospel.
True blessedness is found
only in you, Lord God,
not in our imposed rigidity
that prevents us from truly
opening to you to be led back
anew in Christ Jesus.
Teach us to have the faith
and openness of St. Teresa of Avila 
who dared to disturb the complacency
of her contemporaries,
immersing herself in deep prayers
to listen attentively
in order to follow you closely
and courageously in the path 
of reforming the Carmelites
during her time;
in doing so,
she led the way in reforming
their lives by being open to you,
O God and thus allowed the richness
of your grace to touch her heart and
those of her companions and followers.
Amen.
St. Teresa of Avila,
let nothing disturb us,
pray for us to completely
trust in God.
Amen.
The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa (1645 and 1652), a sculpture by renowned Italian artist Bernini now in Cornaro Chapel at the Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome based on St. Teresa’s vision of an angel who drove the point of a golden arrow repeatedly through her heart that caused an indescribable happiness and pain in her. The memory of this experience would inspire her for the rest of her life, becoming the motivation in her lifelong desire to identify with sufferings of Jesus expressed in her prayer, “Lord, either let me suffer or let me die.” Photo from artnet.com.

Be my everything, Jesus

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, 14 October 2026
Memorial of St. Callistus, Pope and Martyr
Galatians 5:18-25     ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'>     Luke 11:42-46
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, March 2024.
Be my everything,
Jesus: it is not enough
I follow you because along
the way, I can still stop and roam
around, following my many desires,
the restless longings of my heart
for selfish interests;
teach how to imitate St. Paul
in "crucifying my flesh with its
passions and desires" (Galatians 5:24).
But, 
what is to crucify my flesh
with its passions and desires?

Simply let me focus on you alone,
Jesus, making you the measure of
everything I shall do,
to search for you in everyone I meet,
to bring you out with everyone I meet;
to see more the bigger picture 
of life by resisting the works
of the flesh like "immorarilty,
impurity, licentiousness, idolatry,
sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy,
outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness,
dissensions, factions, occasions of envy,
drinking bouts, orgies, and the like"
(Galatians 5:19-21).


Keep me aware, 
Jesus,
that as my desires for comfort and ease
are bottomless, 
I shall never be satisfied within
if I see more the things than the persons,
or give much emphasis on my self
than others like the sick and suffering;
let me search for the bigger pictures
of life's many realities like your
plans for eternity so that I may strive more
to crucify my flesh with its passions
and desires by forgetting my little self
I always inflate to look larger than others;
may I give the chance for the Holy Spirit 
to win me over, bearing fruits of
“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
generosity, faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23).
Amen.
Photo by author, Chapel of Our Lady of Ephesus, Bella Rosa Gardens, Silang, Cavite, 07 October 2026.