The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday, Memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church, 20 May 2024 Acts 1:12-14 ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> John 19:25-34
Icon of Mary “Mater Ecclesiae” (Mother of the Church) in St. Peter’s Square from opusdei.org.
What a wonderful way of assuring us today, dear Jesus, at the resumption of Ordinary Time of Your presence and guidance throughout this year in giving us Your Mother the Blessed Virgin Mary as "Mater Ecclesiae", Mother of the Church.
From the very beginning, during Your public ministry until Your death on the Cross, Mary Your Mother has always stood by Your side, Jesus; when You sent the Holy Spirit on that Pentecost day in Jerusalem, Mary was also present with Your disciples praying in the Upper Room: "All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers" (Acts 1:12).
What a beautiful portrayal of the Church on its very first day as Your Body, O Christ, gathered in prayer with Mary whom You have given to us through Your beloved disciple at the Cross: "When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, 'Woman, behold your son.' Then he said to the disciple, 'Behold, your mother'" (John 19:26-27).
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
As we resume today Ordinary Time, may we imitate Mary Your Mother, O Lord, in being a faithful disciple, open to welcome and accept You, Jesus, saying "Yes" to Your will like at the Annunciation; let our faith in You be firm like hers at the wedding at Cana when she told You immediately how the newly-weds have ran out of wine, instructing the servants to do whatever "he tells you"; most of all, like Mary, let us remain intimate with You, Jesus in prayers, her most important trait as Your faithful and model disciple.
Teach us, dear Jesus, to be like Mary, deeply absorbed in You in prayers; her standing at the Cross was not a result of a spur in the moment but the fruit of her long, vibrant prayer life centered in You her Son; unlike us, we come and pray to You only when we are going through trials and difficulties but when everything is going well in life, we hardly remember You, Lord, nor pray at all.
All her life, Mary lived in prayer, in communion and oneness in You, Jesus that is why when the Church was born on Pentecost, Mary was there. She has always been with us as our Mother and companion in mission; let us be like Mary in her discipleship that is essentially a prayer life. Amen.
Photo by author, Della Strada Chapel, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
The Lord Is My Chef Easter Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Pentecost Sunday-B, 19 May 2024 Acts 2:1-11 ><]]]]'> Galatians 5:16-25 ><]]]]'> John 15:26-27, 16:12-15
Illustration from istockphoto.com.
Blessed happy birthday to everyone this Pentecost Sunday, the “birthday” or official coming out party of the Church! In the Ascension of Jesus last Sunday, we have an upward movement that was a “leveling up” in our relationships with God and one another, calling us to be light to rise.
Today’s Pentecost Sunday is opposite, a downward move that “presses” us to “spread” like in compressing a sandwich to make it wider or bigger, calling us to be small and be “dissolved” so we can be mixed or shared with others.
Sorry for sounding a recipe but that’s how we are all as the kingdom of God here on earth – the Body of Christ we His disciples make up as the Church in the power of the Holy Spirit whose very image is us.
When time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire hose in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.
Acts 2:1-4
Pentecost is not just an event in the past but a daily reality calling us to be “dissolved” in ourselves, to be little and small so that we can be one with others to be united in Christ through the Holy Spirit.
Being a Christian is being united, being one in Jesus; remove “Christ” in the word Christian, we are left with the letters -ian that stand for “I-am-nothing”.
That is why we as the Church is the image or icon of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity promised by Jesus to come after His ascension. It is the principle of unity in the Trinity because the Holy Spirit is the love that exists between the Father and the Son. This union between the Father and the Son happens also among us, the community of believers despite our diversities and differences when we allow the Holy Spirit to empower us in our daily dying to ourselves that Jesus likened to the grain of wheat that falls to the ground in order to grow and yield bountiful harvest (Jn. 12:24-26). This is the reason why St. Paul calls us to live in the Spirit in the second reading:
I say, then: live by the Spirit and you will certainly not gratify the desire of the flesh. For the flesh has desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you may not do what you want… Now those who belong to Christ have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit. Let us not be conceited, provoking one another, envious of one another.
Galatians 5:16-17, 24-26
Jesus is inviting us today to go through daily Pentecost by allowing the Holy Spirit to “burn” us with its fire, to dissolve our old selves to become new in Him. It is a process of conversion, of daily dying in our flesh in order to build up His Church.
Here we go back to one of the central theme of Jesus of becoming like a child, becoming small which is true greatness because that is when we no longer live but Christ in us as St. Paul experienced. Today he tells us some of the works of our old self we must turn away from like “immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like” (Gal. 5:19-21).
See how all his examples lead to disunity and divisions instead of unity that is happening today. Some people call for inclusivity but the opposite happens as we get divided so sharply that anyone who opposes them is accused of “gaslighting” or worst, end up being “cancelled”! So sad that some people are exaggeratingtruth when in fact they are exaggerating themselves as new standards of truth, insisting themselves and their beliefs on us.
Why change the rules of grammar or beauty pageants or genders just because they are different? Worst, they want to change even religious feasts like Santacruzan or the praying of the Our Father! Where is the unity in diversity if there is one group insisting on themselves? What happens is a repeat of the Tower of Babel, not of the Pentecost.
Losing ourselves in the Holy Spirit does not hinder our search for truth. The Holy Spirit actually leads us to the whole truth of Jesus revealed in His coming but He is too big to be grasped wholly that He continues to unfold, telling us we can only arrive at truth when we think in Him, with Him, and through Him in the Holy Spirit.
“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak wht he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.”
John 16:12-15
The key here is being small, being dissolved in the Holy Spirit to see the larger whole who is Jesus Christ found in the face of every person next to us. See how we find in the first reading the reality of the Church starting out big right away as “catholic” or universal when it began on Pentecost speaking all the languages of the world, uniting the peoples as one in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Stained glass of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove as background of the Chair of St. Peter in the Vatican in Rome; photo from wikipedia.
The Church never started small like a club spreading into federations to become one. We become a part of that big reality of the Church in Christ by becoming small, by being dissolved by the fire of the Holy Spirit by letting go of our selfish selves.
The Holy Spirit continues to come down to us in daily Pentecost explaining and revealing to us the truth of Jesus through the many events iand persons in our lives. When my mother was still alive, she was the only reason why I came home; but, after she had left us peacefully last week, I have realized I still have to come home for my family and relatives and friends. It is a process of dying in myself amid the pain of seeing her room empty, that she is gone.
Death, like the ascension of Jesus is not about replacing those who have left us but a Pentecost, of allowing the Spirit to come to make us smaller, to be one with those still with us to continue celebrating life. That is when we experience the “fruit of Spirit” like “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23). When that happens, then we have the Church as well as our own family as an image and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Let us pray:
Lord Jesus Christ, make us aware of the coming of the Holy Spirit to us in our daily Pentecost; keep us open and humble, dissolve our selfishness, our pride, our "flesh" so that we may live in the Holy Spirit as the Church, its very image here on earth. Amen. Have a Spirit-filled week ahead!
The Lord Is My Chef Easter Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday in the Seventh Week of Easter before the Pentecost, 17 May 2024 Acts 25:13-21 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> John 21:15-19
Photo by Mr. Gelo Carpio, 2020.
Today, O Lord Jesus, You asked me the loveliest yet most dreaded question of all: "Do you love me?"
And You know very well my answer, "Yes, Lord! I love You!" even if most often my yes to You does not flow to my works and actions: You know so well, dear Jesus, how my yes to You remains only in my lips and in my heart because more often I turn away from Your love to commit sins; yet, despite these, You still love me very much, Jesus.
Yes, I love You, Jesus! Please help me to pray always to You, to center my life in You, to be close and intimate with You, to be one in You because love first of all means being one with the beloved, making time, not finding time.
Yes, I love You, Jesus! Help me to appreciate myself more, to find You in myself despite my sinfulness and weaknesses like Peter whom You have called in his original name, Simon because loving You and others begins in loving myself, being grateful to You that I am alive and most of all, loved.
Yes, I love You, Jesus! Let me love You with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my very self; let me love You first so that I may truly love everyone, especially the poor and the needy You have entrusted to me; let me love You first, Jesus, so that I may love deeply the Church; O my Jesus, let me love You first so I can truly love because without You as basis and foundation of my love, that love could be self-serving, momentary and merely an altruism without meaning and depth that truly liberates the beloved. Amen.
Photo by author, Chapel of St. Francis Xavier, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-16 ng Hunyo, 2024
Larawan kuha ng may-akda, Our Lady of Fatima University-Sta. Rosa, Laguna, 2023.
Mula pa man noong una pinuna ko na pagdiriwang ng araw ng mga ina at araw ng mga ama dahil sa katawa-tawang pagbati nila: "Happy Mother's Day" sa lahat ng Ina! "Happy Father's Day" sa lahat ng Ama! Kanino pa nga ba araw ng mga Ina kungdi sa mga nanay at ang araw ng mga Ama kungdi sa mga tatay? Kaya hindi ko mapigilang matawa sa tila dispalenghagang turing nila na mother's day sa mga Ina at father's day sa mga Ama: e para kanino pa nga ba mga araw na iyon?
Nguni't sadyang mapagbiro itong tadhana nang aming ihatid si ina sa kanyang himlayan noong Sabado, kinabukasa'y ikatlong Linggo ng Mayo, Araw ng mga Ina; hindi na ako natawa bagkus naiyak nang makita sa social media napakaraming pagbati sa kani-kanilang ina ng Happy Mother's Day; noon ko higit nadama sakit ng pagiging ulila sa ina, kalungkutan ng pangungulila sa nanay na hindi na makikita, mahahagkan at mayayakap palaging tanong kung ako'y kumain na?
Larawan kuha ng may-akda sa Benguet, 2023.
Tinakda ang Araw ng mga Ina tuwing ikatlong Linggo ng Mayo upang parangalan kadakilaan nila ngunit kung tutuusin araw-araw ay Araw ng mga Ina dahil wala nang hihigit pa sa pag-ibig nila sa atin katulad ni Jesus sarili'y sinaid at binuhos matiyak ating kaligtasan, kapayapaan at katiwasayan; hindi sasapat isang araw ng Linggo taun-taon upang mga ina ay pagpugayan, parangalan at pasalamatan dahil sa bawat araw ng kanilang buhay, sarili kanilang iniaalay; batid ng mga nanay lilipas kanilang buhay maigsi lamang kanilang panahon kapos buong maghapon walang sinasayang na pagkakataon pipilitin pamilya ay makaahon sa lahat ng paghamon.
May kasabihan mga Hudyo
nilikha daw ng Diyos ang mga ina
upang makapanatili Siya sa lahat
ng lunan at pagkakataon;
hindi ba gayon nga kung saan
naroon ang nanay, mayroong buhay
at pagmamahal, kaayusan at kagandahan
kaya naman sa Matandang Tipan
matatagpuan paglalarawan
sa Diyos katulad ng isang ina:
"malilimutan ba ng ina
ang anak na galing sa kanya,
sanngol sa kanyang sinapupunan
kailanma'y di niya pababayaan;
nguni't kahit na malimutan
ng ina ang anak niyang tangan,
hindi kita malilimutan"; iyan ang
katotohanan ng Diyos at mga ina
mapanghahawakan
hanggang kamatayan.
The Lord Is My Chef Easter Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday, Memorial of St. Isidore Labrador, Farmer, 15 May 2024 Acts 20:28-38 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> John 17:11-19
Photo by Ms. Ria De Vera, one summer morning during COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.
Lord Jesus Christ, "the truth, the way and the life", today I pray to You for more strength and perseverance in working in Your vineyard, in caring for Your flock; You and St. Paul have rightly warned us of the coming time - which is today, in this time of ours - when "savage wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock. And from your own group, men will come forward perverting the truth to draw the disciples away after them" (Acts 20:29-30).
So true, Lord Jesus, when those among us, supposed to be fellow disciples are "perverting the truth" which is more than creating and spreading lies and falsehoods but most of all are allowing evil and sin to continue and prosper in the name of mercy and consolation to others, in the pretext of openness and understanding in all aspects of our faith and teachings, from simple deviations in liturgical norms and rubrics to relativism in morals.
Help us recover our "consecration to truth" You have made after Your Last Supper by being faithful to Your words, Lord Jesus Christ through the centering of our lives to You in the Eucharist like Saint Isidore Labrador. Amen.
Photo of painting of St. Isidore with wife St. Mary Torribia with angels helping them in their farming. From MyCatholicLife.com.
The Lord Is My Chef Easter Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday, Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle, 14 May 2024 Acts 1:15-17, 20-26 ><)))'> + <'(((>< John 15:9-17
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
Dearest Jesus, please pardon me in telling You how it saddens me when I hear of so many stories of Judas Iscariots among us especially in our ministry; why You chose and called them is a total mystery, and I am so sorry how they came out to be; I have no claims to holiness nor being perfect but I thank You, Jesus, for this feast of St. Matthias whom You have called to replace Judas Iscariot to show us how much You love us, most of all, believe in us and trust us even if You know so well we could be unfaithful to You and Your call like Judas Iscariot.
I pray, therefore, O Lord, for the gift to be faithful always to Your call, to fully participate in Your choices, in Your choosing me to Your mission despite my sins and weaknesses; let me keep in mind and heart it was You who chose me and not me who chose You:
“It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.”
John 15:16
How lovely, O sweet Jesus, to find in St. Matthias Your choice to replace Judas Iscariot, a reminder from You of that fact that while there is no lack of unworthy and traitorous Christians everywhere like unfaithful spouses, corrupt officials, callous and self-centered priests and bishops, You still call each of us to counterbalance the evils they have done with our faithful witnessing to You, our Eternal Priest, Lord and Savior.
Like St. Matthias,
let us value Your call, Jesus
to continue Your mission
so maligned and destroyed
by the many Judas Iscariots
among us; like St. Matthias,
let us nourish Your choice
by remaining in You, Lord,
by keeping our choices
according to Your
holy will; in making choices
in this life, help me, Jesus
to be discerning,
to be most prayerful
like the Apostles.
So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this apostolic ministry from which Judas turned away to go to his own place.”
Acts 1:23-24
Lastly, I pray today on this feast of St. Matthias for people having difficulties praying to finally realize Your choices for them; for those afraid to accept Your choices; for those who keep looking for other options despite Your clear choice for them; please enlighten their minds and fill them with courage and trust in You, sweet Jesus. Amen.
Photo by author, Sacred heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
The Lord Is My Chef Easter Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday, Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima, 13 May 2024 Isaiah 61:9-11 ><}}}*> Galatians 4:4-7 ><}}}*> Luke 11:27-28
From cbcpnews.net, 13 May 2022, at the Parish of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, Valenzuela City.
We celebrate today the Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima when she first appeared there in Portugal on May 13, 1917. What a wonderful coincidence the eve of her Memorial was the Solemnity of the Lord’s Ascension that fell on the third Sunday of May, Mother’s Day.
What a wondrous alignment of celebrations this May – the Lord’s Ascension, Mother’s Day and Memorial of Fatima – as they all speak of love and belongingness despite the painful reality of separations we experience while in this life filled with sufferings and darkness due to evil and sin.
When Jesus ascended into heaven, it was not about His going up to a certain place or location in the universe but actually a leveling up of His relationships with the Father and with us. Though He had physically left earth, He is still very much present in the world. In fact, Jesus had to leave us physically to be with us at all time here in this life.
True to His promise of not totally leaving us, Jesus not only sent us the Holy Spirit to dwell in each of us to make us strong and holy but also gave us His Mother the Blessed Virgin Mary to be our Mother too in this world still filled with sufferings and darkness due to the seeming prevalence of sin and evil.
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
John 19:26-27
The Blessed Mother’s apparition in Fatima, Portugal more than 100 years ago was a resounding proof of the reality of God and His abiding love for mankind in this modern time when the world is more bent in denying His very existence.
How lovely that in reminding modern man of Himself to us, God used the most unique yet so common experience of everyone in every race – the mother. Everyone of us, including the most hardened criminals, always have two softest spots in our hearts, for children and our own mother. The umbilical cord with our mothers remain forever with us, even after they have died. This I realized yesterday on Mother’s Day.
While rehearsing my homily for the Mass, I had a hearty cry in my room when I came to the part of inserting the celebration of Mother’s Day. How can I speak of Mother’s Day when I am now “motherless”?
But hey…!!!
As I prayed and reviewed my prepared homily yesterday, I realized we are never “motherless” in this world!
Mothers are like Jesus Christ who ascended into heaven: when a mother dies, she remains a mother to us. Still so loving and caring.
Like Jesus who ascended into heaven, our mothers have to die and depart too to be with us more than ever. Those memories of our mother’s selfless love, from her singing of lullabies to make us fall into sleep to all her sacrifices we never saw and knew but so evident in her wrinkles and gray hair remain fresh until the end of our lives, assuring us of her and God’s love, that we shall get by in this life even when we do not see her like Jesus.
The Jews have a saying that God created mothers so that He can be everywhere. So true! That is why mothers are always lovely, “I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul; for he has clothed me with a robe of salvation, and wrapped me in a mantle of justice, like a bridegroom bedecked with her jewels” (Is.61:10).
Photo by author, December 2023.
Mary’s apparition in Fatima is motherhood at its finest, non pareil in history and the world. She appeared at the most crucial moment when the world was in great transition in all aspects of life that tempted us to go on our own, bragging on our achievements and knowledge.
Just like what happens in most families when many leave their families behind, especially their mother, blinded by success and the limelight. Despite all the hurts, mothers are life’s most enduring proof of God’s mercy and love. Like most mothers appealing to their children to return to their father, to come home, Mary called us in Fatima to go back to the Father in Jesus through the three children of Fatima. Her calls were very similar with every mother’s appeal to her children – pray always and repent.
Mary at Fatima reminds us of our own mothers who would never sleep – and die – until she’s assured her children are safe back home. See how the recent turn of events in history in the last 50 years were still shaped or affected by the Fatima apparition that further bolstered it to be one of the most popular devotion and pilgrimage sites in the world today.
Fatima and Mother’s Day cannot be separated from each other primarily because of all the mothers, the Blessed Virgin Mary is the foremost of all mothers in all time, the model disciple of her Son Jesus Christ not because of her just giving birth to Him but most of all, being the first to believe in Him!
While he was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.” He replied, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.
Luke 11:27-28
May we heed the calls of the Blessed Mother in Fatima. Most of all, let us be like her, a model disciple of Jesus Christ, be a “mother” to everyone, nurturing and inspiring others with our faithful witnessing of the gospel especially in this time when people in many parts of the world are at edge or actually in war already, forgetting we are all brothers and sisters in one Father in heaven.
Our dear Mother Mary of Fatima, thank you for coming to us to remind us of God's love, to assure us we are never motherless in this world; help us to share God's loving tenderness and fidelity to promise to never forsake us; may our lives nurture and inspire others to hope and be open to God in the midst of the seeming meaningless world, striving to do what is true and good, making Jesus present in a humanity so often absent to God. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 12 May 2024
With my sisters Bing and Meg in Egypt, part of our Holy Land pilgrimage in 2019.
Since it is a Mother’s Day this Sunday, we are featuring my late mom’s favorite music as far as I can remember, Jo Stafford’s You Belong To Me that was released in 1952. I am not really sure if it was her favorite music in fact or simply one of the few old records (78 RPM) of my dad she kept playing in our Radiowealth phonograph.
I remembered the song very well because of its opening line “See the pyramids along the Nile” she would sing to my dad. Sometimes they would duet as they danced in our large sala. Truth is, it was only recently when I learned its title You Belong To Me courtesy of YouTube.
I was four years old in 1969 and we have moved to a spacious, two storey apartment of Aling Metring in Alibangbang Street, Project 7 when mommy finally had dad’s old stereo phonograph brought to QC from Bulacan along with albums of 45 rpm records with some LP’s and those rare 78’s. That was how I got hooked with music and radio early in childhood. Through my parents.
It was mommy who made an important impact on my tastes for music. During that time, there was record peddler who came to our apartment once a month offering the latest records. Mommy was so kind to have allowed me to choose and buy a record album I was so fascinated with the jacket design and music. She never said anything negative about my choice, that it was the music of the devil. From Santana, I came to love Led Zep, Steely Dan and the rest. Of course, Beatles was a staple during that time at home and in my elder cousins.
Back to her favorite… You Belong To Me.
Early this morning in my room, I saw the many posts of relatives and friends about Mother’s Day. I cried and remembered mommy. My first motherless Mother’s Day. But, I realized, even after mothers have died, we never become motherless. Mothers are like God: they are always present everywhere!
And that is the meaning of Ascension: Jesus did not go to any place but leveled up in His relationships with the Father and us. Ascension is Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father to assert we all belong to Him. That is what Ascension is, our belonging to God and with each other as Jo Stafford said so well:
See the pyramids along the Nile Watch the sun rise on a tropic isle Just remember, darling, all the while You belong to me
See the marketplace in old Algiers Send me photographs and souvenirs Just remember when a dream appears You belong to me
I’ll be so alone without you Maybe you’ll be lonesome too, and blue
See how every stanza is closed with the line You belong to me, reminding her beloved that no matter wherever he may go, she would still be loving him. So motherly!
Her chorus line speaks well of the Ascension: we’ll be so alone without Jesus who came here to bring us all back to God the Father. Like God, mothers love us her family so much that even in heaven, we still have that invisible umbilical cord connecting us to them.
Blessed happy mother’s day, Mommy and my others moms! This is for you.
The Lord Is My Chef Easter Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, Cycle B, 12 May 2024 Acts 1:1-11 ><}}}}*> Ephesians 4:1-13 ><}}}}*> Mark 16:15-20
“The Ascension of Christ” (1304-1306) by Giotto, a fresco at the Arena Chapel, Padua, Italy from wikimediacommons.org.
We laid mommy to rest Saturday morning, the eve of today’s Ascension Sunday which happens to be a Mother’s Day too. I really can’t describe my feelings except having that emptiness in me amid a sense of joy too. Let me explain…
In my 26 years in the priesthood, I have always reflected the Ascension scene from Luke’s gospel in the many funeral Masses I have presided as something unusual to weird, even impossible: “As he blessed them he parted from them and was taken up to heaven. They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy and they were continually in the temple praising God” (Lk.24:51-53).
How could anybody be with great joy after a funeral that is very much like the Ascension where there is a departure or a leaving of a beloved?
Photo by author, inside the chapel built over the site of the Ascension of Jesus outside of Jerusalem, May 2017.
But, after our guests have left at my mom’s funeral yesterday, that was exactly how we felt! Of course we are sad, we are in grief yet joyful with some sense of lightness within us. Like the death of our loved ones, Ascension is more than just the moving of Jesus to somewhere up in the heavens or to any location and place in the universe. Both the Ascension and death are about new state and level of relationships of Jesus and our departed loved ones hopefully entering into final union with God the Father. It is a leveling up not only of their existence with God but also of our own existence with God and one another.
Ascension is newness in our very selves to experience the glory of Jesus Christ now seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. It is a breaking free from our many presuppositions and fears about life and dying.
When they had gathered together they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.
Acts 1:6-9
From the the Catholic Diocese of Little Rock, Arkansas, dolr.org.
We have long been reflecting since Lent into Easter of how Jesus in becoming truly human like us in everything except sin had made us like Him, holy in His resurrection. If we have remained in Christ on His Cross, we have been made new in Him.
That is the lesson of His transfiguration in the second Sunday of Lent. Being new in Jesus, being transfigured in Him is getting out of the trappings of the worldly concerns like Peter offering to build three tents on Mount Tabor. Or worst, even after Easter like the disciples in the first reading today asking Jesus about the restoration of the kingdom of Israel.
Being new in Jesus following His Passion, Death and Resurrection is leveling up in our perceptions and outlook in life wherein we become simpler, taking life’s lessons bravely. We no longer go for “drama” like the disciples asking the restoration of the kingdom of Israel because we have grown in our faith in Christ as we hurdled life’s light and darkness, joy and sadness, triumph and defeat, even death that keeps on hovering above us, enveloping us at times. All these experiences of hardships and difficulties have changed us into better persons in the grace of God in times we did not even realize at all.
Photo by author at the site believed to be the Ascension site of Jesus outside Jerusalem, May 2017.
My ministry as a chaplain Fatima University Medical Center have greatly reshaped and affected my views on life and death, sickness and sufferings that enabled me to decide prudently when my younger sister was diagnosed with cancer in 2022 and lately this time with my mom when she had her second stroke that led to her recent death. As a chaplain face to face daily with the dying, I have come to terms with death by coming to terms with life at the same time. No more false hopes of getting any better but simply following the flow of life by having more meaningful moments especially with everyone, especially my late mom and siblings.
That is what St. Paul was saying in the second reading on the meaning of “he ascended” as the “one who also descended into the lower regions of the earth” (Eph.4:9). The more we go down into pains and sufferings, darkness and failures including sin or even death, the more we get closer to Jesus because we also get closer with our true selves and with others. To ascend with Jesus is to leave behind all those toxic topics and concerns, including persons who saddle our backs with extra luggages that prevent us from being light.
Ascension is also living in the present than wasting precious time and energy on past’s mistakes and failures or worrying about the the coming future. See how Jesus commissioned us all His disciples to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth with two angels later reiterating the Lord’s command.
While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”
Acts 1:10-11
“Why are you standing there looking at the sky?” is a beautiful reminder for us to live in the present moment, to be vigilant always in doing what is true and good, just and kind in this world so marred by the darkness of evil and sin. Remember, the Ascension is not about a place nor a location where Jesus went up to but a “leveling up” or a “shift_” in our relationship with Him and with others.
Therefore, it is also something that happens in the present moment. It is more than a distant moment in history but a reality happening daily.
Following His Ascension, Jesus has become more accessible than ever because He remains with us on a deeper, personal level. Recall how He asked Mary Magdalene not to touch Him upon appearing to her on Easter Sunday; that was to remind her and everyone that our relationships with Him is more than the physical level, that He cannot be bounded by time and space anymore as He is really present in us and among us in the most personal and spiritual manner.
Jesus lives in us that we have to keep on doing His work here on earth. The gospel clearly says it all, of the urgency for us to “stop standing, looking up” to start proclaiming the gospel to everyone. See how mothers are always busy doing something at home for us her family. Mothers never get tired cooking and doing everything for us family members because they love us so much that even after death, unknown to us, we imitate them by being so busy loving too.
Blessed Sunday to all mothers, especially those in heaven! Amen.
Photo by author, pilgrims waiting their turn to enter site of Ascension outside Jerusalem, May 2019.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 10 May 2024
Photo by Veejay Villafranca/Bloomberg via Getty Images
My most vivid image of mommy’s love for me is from June 1979 when I bid her goodbye in her sari-sari store on my way to the high school seminary. That was the last time I felt I was a kid, her child, when she hugged me tightly, then held my head and kissed me as she fixed by combed hair, telling me “magpapakabait ka doon, anak.”
She had always been against my entering the seminary, saying I was too young to know about the priesthood. She did all the scare tactics to me: “hindi ka mag-aasawa, isda at tuyo araw-araw ang ulam ninyo, hindi masarap pagkain doon…” She finally allowed me to enter the seminary on second year high school I believe after my dad had silently persuaded her.
It was funny because on my fourth year before graduation, I felt I was not ready yet for the major seminary that was eventually confirmed by the results of my entrance exam (psychological tests actually) to San Carlos Seminary that it was suggested I better leave the seminary.
My mother Corazon before their wedding in 1964.
Tama nga si mommy.
It was from then on when we had that kind of not so smooth mother-son relationship. I felt far from her as she would always say something to my plans and decisions. She was not really a contravida but more of an oppositionist. That is why when I felt my vocation anew later in 1988, I never told her about it until I was about to go back to the seminary. That time, there was no more hugging and kissing maybe because I was already an adult, a man bigger and stronger than her.
But what was most memorable for me now that she is gone was the scene every time I would go back the seminary and later to my assignments as a priest.
Whenever I would tell her “mommy, uuwi na po ako”, she would say while smiling, “e nasa bahay ka, paano ka pa uuwi?”
That happened so often that she sounded so corny but still, thank God, I never tired explaining to her, “uuwi sa seminaryo” later to Malolos then to Bagbaguin and now to Fatima. She never failed to banter with me with her dry humor and stroke during those moments of my leaving home. I think she was telling me in those every good bye of ours that my home would always be her, my family. That is why after her body was taken from her room last Tuesday morning, the scene that struck me most on her death was her empty room, vacant big bed.
As I left home pauwi sa Fatima, the morning sunshine were so lovely as it softly brightened mommy’s empty room as she is now “home” in heaven with daddy.
Overall, I feel so joyful and grateful in my mother’s demise. She left so peacefully in her sleep as I have prayed to God daily. The outpouring of love and sympathies and friends are beyond our expectations or imaginations. But, there is that fear, a dread in me about coming home, finding her room empty, telling me she is gone.
Mommy’s room is now empty but our hearts are so full of her love, of her memories, of her gift of self.
During the pandemic, I begged God not to take my mom yet. I told God I was not ready because she was primarily the reason I “go home”. As I reflect on the meaning of that image of her empty room, I realized that it is not about going home but coming home. We go home to the house and place but we come home to persons, to family and friends.
Pag-uwi in Tagalog which is literally coming home. Not going home. Because when we leave, we say uuwi also as we come home to our new home.
We Filipinos express both our kinship and Christian faith in our goodbyes.
Our professor in liturgy Msgr. Andy Valera used to tell us we never say aalis na ako or “I am leaving” because that means we are angry. It is very rude and should never be said when saying goodbye in any Filipino gathering. Instead, we say next to uuwi na ako either tutuloy na ako or mauna na ako. But, how can we make tuloy which is to enter when we are in fact leaving? And why say mauna na ako which means I’ll go ahead when nobody is going with you?
Photo by author.
According to Msgr. Andy, our coming home indicates our theology of heaven: we all come home, uwi to heaven our true home that is why when we leave our gatherings we say tutuloy na ako because in the end, we enter heaven. Most of all, we say mauna na ako because nobody knows who is next to die.
What a beautiful lesson I just realized now after mommy had died; even if she’s gone and her empty is room, I will still come home to my sisters and brother, nieces and nephew, relatives and neighbors.
How lovely that despite the pain and emptiness death creates in us here on earth is also the grace of God to fill each others heart with His loving presence and joy as we await our final coming home to Him with our departed loved ones in heaven.
Jesus told his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.”
John 14:1-3
The best way to come home to heaven is to come home often to our family and friends not only to dine and celebrate but most of all, to praise and thank God in prayers, especially the Sunday Mass. God bless everyone!
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