Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-21 ng Hunyo 2019
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Tinanong sila ni Hesus, “Hindi pa ba ninyo nababasa ang talatang ito sa Kasulatan? ‘Ang batong itinakwil ng mga tagapagtayo ng bahay Ang siyang naging batong panulukan. Ginawa ito ng Panginoon, At ito’y kahanga-hanga!'”
Mateo 21:42
Madalas sa ating buhay Tayo'y nanamlay sa maraming Dagok at kabiguan At ating nalilimutan itong katotohanan:
Kagandahan at kabutihan Ng Diyos sa ating nagmamahal Kanya tayong sinasamahan Kung saan hindi nating siya inaasahan.
Pangunahin niyang katangia'y Magtago at magkubli sa mga tabi-tabi Na sa tingin nati'y mga walang silbi Sa pag-aakala nating Diyos ay naroon lang sa malalaki.
Kaya nang Siya ay magkatawang-tao Hindi siya dumating na malaki Kungdi sinilang na munting baby Inaruga at pinalaki.
Nang si Hesus ay magsimulang magsilbi Doon siya natagpuan sa mga tabi-tabi Humirang mga lalaki na wala namang sinabi At nakisama sa mabababang uri ng babai.
Larawan mula sa Rappler sa pamamagitan ng Google.
Kaya kung ang buhay ay isang laro Natitiyak ko paborito sa lahat ni Kristo Ang taguang pung at hindi patintero Lalo nang hindi ang tumbang preso.
Pag masdan ninyo nang matanto: Abalang-abala tayo sa paghahanap Ng kung anu-anong natatago Gayong tayo naman ang nabuburo.
Palaging taya, palaging kawawa; At kung minsan nama'y nadaraya. Kaya kung si Hesus ay iyong matagpuan at... Pung! Siya na ang taya, ikaw ang malaya.
St. Paul’s “little foolishness” yesterday of taking some pride of himself was therapeutic, Lord, for us feeling low. After all, St. Teresa de Avila said “humility is walking in truth” and like St. Paul, we need to be proud sometimes to let people realize the talents you have blessed us with.
But today, Lord, we thank you anew for this beautiful though trying day. And once again, like St. Paul, we have realized that the only bragging rights you have given us is so opposite with the world’s:
Brothers and sisters: since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast. To my shame I say that we were too weak! But what anyone dares to boast of (I am speaking in foolishness) I also dare. If I must boast, I will boast of the things that who my weakness.
2 Corinthians 11:18, 21,30
Lord, what really sets us apart from others, from what St. Paul calls as “super apostles”, are the wounds and hurts we bear in love for you and others. We are all the same in everything but anyone’s greatness can truly be found in his/her weakness as the world sees it: in taking all the beatings of this life, in being patient, in being forgiving, in being understanding, in being persevering.
Yes, Jesus, everybody talks about their achievements and what they have done, of how great they are. But those who truly love and serve you, those who follow you as Christ-ians, boast only of their weakness.
In our weakness, Jesus, we become your dwelling place, we become like you — our only treasure in this life!
Continue to bless, Lord, those who ” store up treasures in heaven”, those who truly love with sincerity in their hearts, those who sacrifice for others, those who suffer in the name of truth and justice. Let their light shine on in you. Amen.
The Our Father Church outside Jerusalem where Jesus is believed to have taught his disciples the “Lord’s Prayer”. Photo by author, 05 May 2019.
For the second straight day, Lord, I could identify with St. Paul in his feelings deep within, the urge to brag something in your name!
Brothers and sisters: if only you would put up with a little foolishness from me! Please put up with me. For I think that I am not in any way inferior to these “super apostles.” Even if I am untrained in speaking, I am not so in knowledge; in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.
2 Corinthians 11:1, 5-6
You know it so well, Lord Jesus why I have been complaining a lot lately as I have told you yesterday: I feel so tired in life because I feel shortchanged. Not that I am asking anything in return but like St. Paul, it pains me so much when some people miss the love and dedication we pour upon our ministry.
Until now, Lord, we have those “super apostles” St. Paul called, preying on your sheep as false servants who seduce people like the snake only to feed on their egos and fatten their wallets.
They are everywhere, Lord. Not only among priests but also among other professionals.
It is so consoling to hear St. Paul today in our first reading of how we sometimes need to brag a little, to be proud of our efforts so the people may know and realize the sacrifices we make for them because, we love them.
We pray Jesus for all the silent workers, the silent servants who continue to lovingly serve you in others. Send them your proverbial “pat on the shoulder” to console them, O Lord, in their darkness and anguish. Let them shine in their true colors in you! Amen.
Santorini, Greece. Photo by Dra. Mai Dela Pena, 2017.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-19 ng Hunyo 2019
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Bakit ang panahon ng tag-araw at tag-ulan Hinihintay pa ngayon deklarasyon ng PAGASA Hindi pa ba sapat nakikita Basang-basa ka na ng pawis o ng ulan?
Bakit tayo naaaligaga kapag inabuso Aso't pusa at iba pang mga alaga Pero paglapastangan sa kapwa Wala naman tayong ginagawa?
Bakit mga durugistang maralita Tanging nababalitang napapatay Habang susuray-suray, pakaway-kaway Mga nakaririwasang high na high?
Bakit ngayon tikom mga bibig nila Nasaan mga matatapang na salita Nang binangga ang bangka ng mangingisda Sa sariling karagatan at sukat iniwanan?
Bakit kapag mga maliliit nagigipit Lalo pang nalalait sa salitang masasakit Ng mga pinunong mata'y nakapikit, takot sumabit Nakakibit-balikat, dahil wala namang paki?
Bakit nga ba sa ating panahon ngayon Na wala nang hindi nalalaman Lahat puro salitaang walang pinatutungahan Katulad ay balde, maingay at walang laman kasi!
Bakit lahat puro sagot at paliwanag Walang nagtatanong Gayong nakikilala ang tunay na marunong Sa kanyang uri ng pagtatanong.
Larawan kuha ni Dra. Mai Dela Pena sa Tokyo, Japan noong Marso 2018.
Lately I have been complaining a lot. And even if I keep it to myself, you know it very well because you see everything that is hidden.
I’m getting tired of helping and giving.
I’m getting tired of teaching and listening.
I’m getting tired of… living and doing everything.
I just want to stop and rest, Lord.
And the moment you give me that moment to stop and rest to start praying, I realize that whatever little or much do I have in this life is all yours. Nothing is really ours.
Even this very moment of stopping and resting in you. There is nothing we can claim to be totally ours to keep to ourselves. Not even a split second smile or a simple gesture of recognizing the other person.
Even that act of making the sign of the Cross is all yours and from you, Lord.
Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work. You are being enriched in every way for all generosity, which through us produces thanksgiving to God.
2 Corinthians 9: 8, 11
Thank you, O Lord, for everything.
Take everything that I have, even the littlest thing I keep to myself as mine because it is still yours.
You see whatever is hidden and for us to see that too, is a pure grace from you.
Let us give more, love more, and most of all, see you more. Amen.
Wildflowers in the desert of Petra in Jordan. Photo by author, 30 April 2019.
Ceiling of the altar of the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Malolos City. Photo by Lorenzo Atienza, 12 June 2019.
How great and deeply spiritual is your servant St. Paul, Lord Jesus Christ! No problem is too ordinary for him as he resolves them in the light of the gospel. He shows us in so many instances like in our first reading today how the gospel sheds light on seemingly secular matters like sharing treasures.
Now as you excel in every respect, in faith, discourse, knowledge, all earnestness, and in the love we have for you, may you excel in this gracious act also. I say this not by way of command, but to test the genuineness of your love by your concern for others. For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich.
2 Corinthians 8:7-9
Here in St. Paul is the answer to our perennial question to your gospel teaching of how can we “love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us”? (Mt.5:44)
First, dispose us always to prayer, to communing in you and with you. Detach us from this world once in a while in silence and hiddeness. Just be with you. Alone. Listening to you, feeling you.
Then, open our hearts and minds to your words. Enflesh your words in us, through us and with us.
Once we have been emtpied of ourselves and filled with your words and spirit, move us, guide us, O Lord, to your will and direction like St. Paul. Make us your instrument in doing charity for others.
Cleanse our hearts and our lips that we may worthily proclaim your gospel in words and in deeds. Amen.
Rev. Bp. Jesse Mercado of Paranaque blessing the people with the Gospel book during a Mass. Photo by Lorenzo Atienza.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Wk. XI, Yr. I, 17 June 2019
2 Corinthians 6:1-10 >< )))*> >< )))*> Matthew 5:38-42
Ordination of our new deacons, 12 June 2019, Minor Basilica and Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Malolos City. Photo by Lorenzo Atienza.
Our feast is still a month and a half away but Lord Jesus Christ, I just feel like telling you today along with my brothers in ministry that we are happy to be your priests!
Thank you for the gift of vocation, thank you for the gift of three new deacons, and thank you for the gift of a new bishop!
St. Paul’s words in today’s first reading are so touching, reminding us of your great love for us to be your ministers of the word. But, they are also very challenging especially when there are some of us who have received your grace in vain, so attached with the trimmings and perks of your call, forgetting you Jesus, our Caller.
Forgive us in failing you, Lord, and help us find our way back to you.
Thank you for our faithful priests who lead and inspire us especially our fellow workers silently shepherding the flock, smelling like the sheep as Pope Francis had asked us to be, always avoiding the limelight now so glaring in the Church.
Thank you also for our old and sick priests, especially those who have aged gracefully, embracing retirement without much complaints and whines.
With St. Paul, we commend ourselves to you O Jesus “through much endurance, in afflictions, hardships, constraints” (2Cor.6:4) that many of us now evade or, deny.
It is a very interesting time to be your priests today, Lord, when people no longer believe us and your Church, when people doubt and malign us, and when the “faithful” are not so faithful at all, deserting us. Keep us to remain standing by your side at the Cross like the beloved disciple with Mary our Mother.
We are treated as deceivers and yet at truthful; as unrecognized and yet acknowledged; as dying and behold we live; as chastised and yet not put to death; as sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many, as having nothing and yet possessing all things.
2 Corinthians 6:8-10
Fill us with Holy Spirit, Jesus our Eternal Priest, so our minds and hearts may be enlightened to seek and follow and stand by your truth always. Amen.
The Gospel Book on which every new deacon and priest professes his faith before the Bishop shortly before the Mass of his Ordination. Photo by Lorenzo Atienza.
It is Father’s Day and I cannot help being nostalgic because I lost my father 19 years ago at around this time of the year. It was June 17, 2000, the eve of Father’s day when my dad died of a heart attack before dawn. It was also the birthday of my mother.
And that is why I have always loved Luther Vandross Jr.’s “Dancing With My Father” he had co-written with Richard Marx released May 30, 2003.
It is the perfect song on this Father’s Day as it speaks of the tenderness and love of a father to his wife and children. No wonder, when Jesus taught us how to pray, he told us to call God “Dad” or “Daddy” which is the more literal translation of “Abba”.
What I like most in “Dancing With My Father” is at the end of the song:
Sometimes I’d listen outside her door And I’d hear how mama would cry for him I’d pray for her even more than me I’d pray for her even more than meI know I’m praying for much to much But could you send her The only man she loved I know you don’t do it usually But Dear Lord She’s dying to dance with my father againEvery night I fall asleep And this is all I ever dream
My father loved my mother so much. Since childhood until I became a priest, he never ate without my mother with him at the table. He does her coffee and he is our chef. It was doubly hard losing him because he died on her birthday. Every time I would visit my dad’s grave, I asked him only one question: why did you die on mom’s birthday? After two years, I felt his answer that he died on my mom’s birthday so I would also love her as he had loved her. And that is what I have always tried to fulfill.
My father never asked me to become a priest but it was him who unconsciously planted the seeds of my vocation when I would always see him praying before our altar before leaving for work and upon arriving home in the evening. It was from him I have learned and realized what true love is and most of all, that indeed, God is love. He loved us so much and even though it has been 19 years since he died, I can still feel his love.
For all the faithful and loving dads especially those with God our Father in heaven, here’s one for you….
Our second song is another tribute to a late father, Bread’s 1970 hit “Make It with You”.
According to its composer David Gates, he got the inspiration for “Make It With You” not from his girlfriend but from his late father. Gates claimed that during an interview, a reporter asked him with whom would he want to share his success in music with? Right away, he answered it would be his late father, of how he would want to “make it with him” so his dad would see his successful career in music.
Perhaps, that’s what we all miss with our late dads who worked so hard to give us good future, a good career: we all want them to see the fruits of their labors in us, to share with them whatever good things we now have is because of them. It is from these experiences with our loving dads that we have had glimpses of our personal God who became human like us in Jesus Christ, joining us in our pains and sufferings to be one with him in his triumphs and glory.
As we celebrate today the Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity, may we get into the very selves of our dad in Spirit to realize how immense that love God has for everyone meant to be shared with others too. Cheers to all dads!
Proverbs 8:22-31 >< )))*> Romans 5:1-5 >< )))*> John 16:12-15
From Google.
I know.
You must be saying our title is from a hit song by the late Luther Vandross Jr. with Richard Marx, “Dance with My Father”.
Since its release in May 2003, I have always loved that song. Like Vandross Jr., I sometimes ask God to return my father even for a while not only for me but most especially for my mother who was celebrating her birthday when he suddenly died of a heart attack in 2000.
Though my father did not dance much like Vandross Sr., one of the things I miss so much from him were how he would discuss so many things to me especially whenever I would join him in our library. And when I could not understand everything, he would always tell me, “paglaki mo maiintindihan mo rin yan, anak” (you will understand that when you grow up, son).
Eventually those words came to sound like music to me as a I grew up until later in life I realized that indeed, I have come to understand the many things we have discussed when I was still a child! Most of all, now that I am a grown up man still having a hard time comprehending many things in life, my father’s words still soothe me. Although he is no longer around, I always tell myself when facing difficult situations or questions that someday, I’m going to understand this – “paglaki ko maiintindihan ko rin yan”.
Jesus said to his disciples: “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.”
John 16:12-13
Jesus during his Last Supper Discourse telling the Apostles his departure and sending of the Holy Spirit. From a depiction found on the Maesta in Siena by Duccio (1308-1311). From Google.
On this Eleventh Sunday in the continuation of our Ordinary Time after Lent and Easter, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity. In the past Sundays we have been slowly introduced by the Lord in his teachings about the Holy Spirit. Today we come to full circle with this celebration of the Holy Trinity, the highest mystery in our faith that there are three Persons in One God.
For many Christians, especially Catholics, they feel that believing in One God is enough. To speak of God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – matters very little for them that they fail to see what the mystery of the Trinity evokes concretely in our lives.
It is true that we cannot find an explicit statement in the whole Bible telling us there is One God in Three Persons. It is a doctrine that slowly unfolded in the Sacred Scriptures reaching its highest point of revelation in Jesus Christ’s Incarnation and sending of the Holy Spirit.
This is the essence of Christ’s farewell discourse during their Last Supper together: the Holy Spirit will not introduce anything new to them. The Holy Spirit will just enlighten and bring out to the open the many dimensions of the teachings of Jesus that were mostly found also or rooted in the Old Testament. Sometimes in life, there are so many realities already present but we do not recognize right away because of so many factors that hide them from us. But the moment we discover some new dimensions of life’s truth and reality, the more we find its beauty! That is why we have to somehow understand the Trinity to fully appreciate the beauty and wonder of God in our lives.
In the Old Testament, God did not speak about himself being a Person per se, as a full, conscious relating Being like humans. Moreover, God never spoke about his being One in Three Persons to the people at that time because they would never even feel such mystery as they were surrounded by polytheistic nations. It was enough at that time to insist on the people that there is only One God who relates personally like humans, seeking intimacy.
thus says the wisdom of God: “…then was I beside him as his craftsman, and I was his delight day by day, playing before him all the while, playing on the surface of his earth; and I found delight in the human race.”
Proverbs 8:22,30-31
In the first reading, God presents himself as a person, one who relates with others personified in wisdom juxtaposed in two images equally evocative, as an artisan or creator and as a child happy and proud to be around his parent.
Here I find Luther Vandross Jr.’s “Dance with My Father” so applicable: he was seven and a half years old when his father died of complications in diabetes. But his fondest memory of him was how he would dance with his mother at home and would always pull him to dance with them!
Isn’t that beautiful, three people dancing together like one entity?
Incidentally in theology, we also have this explanation of the Trinity as a “circle dance” called perichoresis. It is a way of seeing the Trinity as action than definition. If you ahve been to Turkey, you must have visited Cappadocia where once lived great thinkers of the Church called Cappadocian Fathers who thought of perichoresis.
According to the Cappadocian Fathers, in perichoresis, each Divine Person is like a dance partner who contributes and has a specific role in the choreography so that what they do together make up the dance. The Persons like partners in the dance pull and push against one another, not in resistance or force but in support and unity. The dance is in constant motion and the partners are not focused on themselves but on the others. Likewise as we experience in “club party”, the dance circle is never closed so that more people are invited to join in the celebration until each becomes a part of the dance, sharing in the joy and unity.
From Google.
In perichoresis, the Trinity is presented more as a relationship of Persons: the Father is the Creator, the Son is the Redeemer and the Holy Spirit is the sanctifier. Applied to us, we are all children of the Father who are brothers and sisters in Jesus as indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Blessed Trinity invites us to their dance of life and grace as we find here the gist of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans today that through our faith in Christ, we have found the peace of God through the outpouring of so many gifts upon us by the Holy Spirit that we now have a relationship of friendship and trust in him, culminating in participation “in the glory of God” (Rom.5:2).
This Sunday, we are all invited to join in the dance of God, the dance of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In that dance, the Father reveals to us his hidden plans for us in Christ through the Holy Spirit of how he wants us to live to the fullest in him. It is only in dancing in him and with him can we know this mystery of God, mystery of self, and mystery of life in general. Though we cannot fully understand his mystery, God slowly unfolds to us his many dimensions that little by little, we see more of him, nmore of ourselves, and more of others.
That is when we find GUIDANCE, for God-U-and-I Dance.
When there is guidance, we find direction and do not get lost.
