Where?

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Seventh Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 21 May 2024
James 4:1-10     ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*>     Mark 9:30-37

"Beloved:
Where do the wars and
where do the conflicts 
among you come from?"
(James 4:1)

What a beautiful question
to ponder upon on this
second day of Ordinary Time,
Lord Jesus: the "where",
the origin,
the source,
the root
of our many desires
in life;
ultimately,
the question You have asked
Your disciples "What were
you arguing about on the
way?" (Mark 9:33)
leads also to the same
question of James of
"where".

Many times, 
O Lord, we presume
and insist we are on the 
right tracks,
on the right path
following the world
even if deep inside
we know we are lost,
we have gone astray,
that we are on the wrong
bearings in life
because we merely
follow the rest that like 
everybody, we end up
lost and more confused
than ever.

You covet but do not possess. You kill and envy but you cannot obtain; you fight and wage war. You do not possess because you do not ask. You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

James 4:2-3

Teach us, Jesus,
to bravely ask ourselves
from "where" are we coming from
in everything we are doing,
saying, and pursuing;
help us to be sincere
and humble of our "where"
wherever it may be;
most of all, 
let us ask too
"where" we are going to
"where" do we want to be.

During these 33 to 34 weeks
in Ordinary Time,
let us find, 
our bearing in YOU, Jesus
so that our "where" from
and "where" to would only
be YOU.
Amen.