Our priorities in life

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Memorial of St. John XXIII, Pope, 11 October 2023
Jonah 4:1-11   ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'>   Luke 11:1-4

God our Father,
the world is once again
in chaos; when there is war
in your Holy Land of Israel,
it is always something else
that hits each one of us
to our deepest core
because 
it speaks something 
deeper and older
than religion and faith,
convictions and ideologies;
since the time of the 
Old Testament,
every war and turmoil
in your Promised Land
always has its roots
in our hearts.

Jonah was greatly displeased and he became angry that God did not carry out the evil he threatened against Nineveh. Then the Lord said, “You are concerned over the plant which cost you no labor and which you did not raise; it came up in one night and in one night it perished. And should I not be concerned over Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot distinguish their right hand from their left, not to mention the many cattle?”

Jonah 4:1, 10-11

Dear God,
so many times in life
we have our priorities
so misplaced,
so askew,
so inhuman
and lacking with reason
at all.

Like Jonah,
we continue seething 
in anger against each other
with no one willing to
sit and listen,
to give peace a chance;
all we have are mistrust
and animosities against 
each other,
giving more priorities 
with things than with persons;
we allow our old wounds
and hurts to fester
until it blows up beyond 
controls; worst, like Jonah,
we find death as easiest
way out in every misery.

Your Son Jesus Christ
taught us how to pray,
in effect,
taught us how to prioritize
in life by calling out to you
as "Father" - our source of life
and being,
creator of everything!

Help us realize, 
dear Jesus that to pray
calling God "Father" is
to prioritize first on persons,
on humans as my brothers
and sisters regardless of
their religion,
gender,
color,
nationality,
occupation,
and age.

Through the intercession
of St. John XXIII,
the "good Pope",
may we prioritize
God above all so
that we too may seek
openings to lead us
to move closer
as brothers and sisters
in Christ.  Amen.