The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday in the First Week of Ordinary Time, 11 January 2024
1 Samuel 4:1-11 <*[[[[>< + ><]]]]*> Mark 1:40-45
God our loving Father,
your words today
from the first reading
as so similar with our
annual experiences at
Traslacion of Quiapo's
Black Nazarene image;
every year, we all ask in
awe and wonder
as well as with skepticism
even cynicism by some
if this is faith or fanaticism
because after January 9,
our nation remains the same -
defeated in corruption,
defeated in inequality,
defeated in poverty,
so defeated in fact that
many are still suffering
from all kinds of impoverishments
that like the Israelites
at Ebenezer, we ask:
“Why has the Lord permitted us to be defeated today by the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the Lord from Shiloh that it may gointo battle among us and save us from the grasp of our enemies.”
1 Samuel 4:3
We have the Black Nazarene,
we have the Sto. Niño,
we have the La Naval,
we have everything like your
Ark of the Covenant, dear God
and yet like the Israelites,
we are still defeated:
we elect into office
to govern us men and women
without integrity nor abilities,
much less concern for our well-being;
we ourselves disobey simple
traffic rules,
could not give the due respect
to our parents at home!
Forgive us, dear God,
in relying so much on what eyes
can see, what hands can do,
what mouths can shout or speak
as we forget to move our hearts,
to deepen our faith like that leper,
wholeheartedly believing in Jesus Christ
that he was cleansed and healed;
but, unlike him,
let us obey the prescriptions
of the law, of those above us
to avoid sensationalisms
that may spark faith in many
but fail in deepening that same faith
when we turn more on ourselves
than to you, O God, in Christ Jesus
found in everyone whom
we eventually forget
as we become self-centered.
Amen.
lordmychef.com 