The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday in the First Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 13 January 2023 Hebrews 4:1-5, 11 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Mark 2:1-12
O God our loving Father! You are so wonderful and amazing, so marvelous that you lavish us daily with love and mercy. What else can I ask you except that I "enter your rest" which the author of the Letter to the Hebrews had enunciated so well in the first reading today. In fact, I have counted six times he had used in six verses that little yet powerful word "rest" we often take for granted especially in this restless world.
Let us be on our guard while the promise of entering into his rest remains, that none of you seem to have failed… Therefore, let us strive to enter into that rest, so that no one may fall after the same example of disobedience.
Hebrews 4:1, 11
How ironic, O God that while we all desire to enter your eternal rest in heaven, no one really cares to value your day of rest in this life as we busy ourselves with everything except you and our loved ones; make us realize that rest is primarily about you, being with you, returning to you just like when you rested after creating everything. Make us realize that to rest is to be one in you and with you in Christ Jesus; to rest is to let your will be done again like in paradise before the fall; to rest is enter you in Jesus.
That is why I love our Filipino word for rest which is "pahinga" - to be breathed on. By whom? By you, O God! Let us rest and be breathed on through your words and sacraments, through our private and communal prayers, through our personal experiences and through one another.
Dear Jesus, help us imitate those courageous men who opened up the roof above you to lower their paralytic friend because to rest is of God, from above; enable us, Jesus, to rest in you always in every here and now so we may finally rest in eternity. Amen.
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