40 Shades of Lent, Wednesday, Week-IV, 03 April 2019
Isaiah 49:8-15///John 5:17-30
How lovely are your words for us today, O God our loving Father! So refreshing, so reassuring especially at times when dark clouds loom above us, when we are in deep turmoils or when our pains hurt so much.
Thus says the Lord: In a time of favor I answer you, on the day of salvation I help you, and I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people, to restore the land and allot the desolate heritages, saying to prisoners: Come out! To those in darkness, Show yourselves! Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.
Isaiah 49:8-9, 15
What an amazing God indeed! So close, so personal like anyone.
Yet, O God, how unfortunate that so often we are tempted to doubt your love, your truth, your presence! So often we choose not to believe that we are loved by you or by those closest to us.
We keep on denying you have chosen to love us, preferring to live trapped in the many worries of this life.
Give us the grace of faith to embrace your truth, your love, especially Jesus Christ your Son who had come to make you closest to us as our breath. Let us see your work continuing in Christ that may eventually continue them in us and among us. Amen.
A snapshot from the painting exhibit we viewed at the Davao City Museum, August 2018. Too bad never had the chance to get artists and title of artworks.
40 Shades of Lent, Tuesday, Week IV, 02 April 2019
Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12///John 5:1-16
Dearest Jesus: Last night as I prayed amid the heat of summer, I realized that since the start of our 40-day journey of Lent, it is only now I have been reminded of one of the highlights of this Season, the sacrament of Baptism symbolized by water in the two readings today.
So often, Lord Jesus, we take water for granted, not realizing its value until it is gone.
Just like you, Lord.
Cleanse us, O Jesus, with your purifying waters of Baptism, keep us nourished like the trees seen in Ezekiel’s vision planted near the rivers, always filled with life, always green, always bearing fruits of good works.
Most of all, come to us Lord Jesus like in the pool at Bethesda or “house of mercy”.
Quench our thirsts for life’s meaning. Without you as our water, we are dehydrated, weakened, dried up by life’s so many demands and concerns. May you always refresh us, awaken us to many possibilities of life especially when the well runs dry. Amen.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, ika-01 ng Abril 2019
Sisihin aking mapaglarong isipan Dahil panahon ng halalan Paano nga kaya kung minsan Mabaligtad naman takbo nitong kwentuhan?
Mayroong magkakapatid Ang ama nila ay hindi maintindihan Hindi nila maramdaman Kung sila'y ganan niya na sobrang yabang.
Wala siyang hindi pinapatulan maging kababaihan man Dinaraan sa mararahas na usapan Pero kung maiipit sa mga salitang binitiwan Sasabihin niya na ang lahat ay biruan at kunwari lamang.
Humingi ng paumanhin nang murahin Santo Papa natin Ngunit nang ang Diyos ang kanyang lapastanganin Hindi na mailihim kanyang tililing at pagka halimaw na rin Nang ang lahat ay ibig patayin maging mga alagad ng Simbahan natin.
Kaibayo pagkakaiba niya sa lahat ng ama Na sa halip buhayin, lahat ay ibig niyang tokhangin Masasamang loob at mga makasalanan sa kanya ay walang kabuluhan Hindi niya alintana kanilang kahirapan dahilan ng kawalanghiyaan.
Sa talinghaga nagdalita ang alibughang anak Nagtika sa malaking pagkakasala saka nagbalik-loob; Kumpara sa ating nararanasan, matatagalan pa pagsadsad sa kailaliman Kaya kahambugan at kasinungalingan hindi matitigilan.
Mas mahirap pala kung ama ang siyang alibugha Dahil higit sa lahat bago maging ama ang sino man Kailangan siya muna kakitaan di lamang ng kahusayan at kagalingan Kungdi higit sa lahat ng kabutihan at katinuan.
Kung paano naluklok ang isang alibughang ama Madaling malalaman bagama't walang pupuntahan ating sisihan Mabuti pa'y tingnan ating kalooban sa sinapit nating kalagayan Di kaya dahil tayong mga anak ay alibughang puno ng pagkukulang?
Good morning, Lord! Thank you very much for this Monday, the first day of the brand new month of April. A new beginning, a fresh start. Help us to make it a good one.
Make true your promise to us, O God, through your prophet that…
“…no longer shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does round out his full lifetime; he dies a mere youth who reaches but a hundred years, and he who fails of a hundred shall be thought accursed.”
Isaiah 65:20
Our lives have no meaning at all without you, when we are separated from you. Without you, O God, life is measured in time as an age that is merely a number; but, with you, life is about finding meaning, having its fullness in you regardless we lead short or long lives.
When Jesus Christ healed the son of a royal official from Capernaum while in Cana, Galilee with the words “your son will live”, it was more than escaping death and living for more years in his life. It was more of living meaningfully, of finding you in our lives.
It has been four weeks since we started this Lenten journey. Continue to lead me back home into you, O God. Help me find my way back home to you especially in those moments I am lost and separated from you. Most especially, help me find your Holy Will O Lord that I may always fulfill it because of love and nothing else. Amen.
Early morning at the Assumption Sabbath Retreat House in Baguio City, January 2019.
Detail of Rembrandt’s painting “Return of the Prodigal Son” from Bing.com.
It was still very dark early yesterday when I left Tagaytay after giving a Friday retreat to a group of couples. There were two things in my mind as I drove back to my parish: watch the sunrise over the picturesque Taal Volcano and think of the song to feature in LordMyChef Sunday music today. Upon reaching the intersection leading to Manila still in darkness, I gave up all hopes of seeing the sunrise up there in Tagaytay, contenting myself with my music and the cold winds keeping me company in my traffic-free driving.
Suddenly, these lovely lyrics wafted through the air…
I have never lost the love that I have given you With all the things that we have all been through I’ve never stayed in love before As much as I have stayed in love with you
The Lord answered my prayer! I have found our LordMyChef Sunday Music – “I’ll Always Stay In Love This Way” composed by US-based Filipino jazz artist Boy Katindig and released in 1983 as part of his album In My Inner Fantasies. The song relates how a man tries to convince the woman of his dream of his great love for her. The words and the music plus the muy simpatico voice of another US-based Filipino singer Baron Barbers make this song so lovely (not cheesy) and relevant with our Sunday gospel on the parable of the prodigal son. Moreover, Boy Katindig’s “I’ll Always Stay In Love This Way” is also attuned with the pink motif of rejoicing in our liturgy as we near our holiest days, the Holy Week and Easter Sunday.
Imagine God the Father singing Boy Katindig’s composition, assuring us of His immense love and mercy despite our sinfulness. Unlike Katindig’s song, God had proven His love for us by sending His Son Jesus Christ who died on the cross in order to save us and bring us back to life again in Him! Here are the rest of the lyrics of “I’ll Always Stay In Love This Way” and hope you like it too!
You, you never thought the feelings Meant for you were true ‘Coz everytime we’re all alone you wonder If I’ll really never change And if I’ll really stay in love with you
Love, it needs just you and me to stay together Even if there’s nothing more The best is there forever Love, we have to stay this way in love forever Even if you change your ways I’ll always stay this way’
Coz I, I will always stay this way in love with you I will always stay this way in love with you I will always stay in love this way
You, you never thought the feelings Meant for you were true ‘Coz everytime we’re all alone you wonder If I’ll really never change And if I’ll really stay in love with you
Love… It needs just you and me to stay together Even if there’s nothing more The best is there forever Love… We have to stay this way in love forever Even if you change your ways I’ll always stay this way
‘Coz I, I will always stay this way in love with you I will always stay this way in love with you I will always stay this way in love with you I will always stay this way in love with you
Sin can be mysterious at times because it can also be a religious experience that leads us back to God and holiness. We have a saying that “every saint has a sinful past and every sinner can have a saintly future.” So many men and women who were so notorious in their lives have proven this so true like St. Paul and St. Augustine.
After reflecting on the call for conversion last Sunday, our gospel today tells us a lot about the nature of sin. Unless we understand what is sin and why we sin, then we get imprisoned by sin as we keep on committing it no matter how hard we try to be better persons. But once we understand even a little bit of it, its hows and whys, then we sin less often as we slowly break free from its bondage.
“A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’ So the father divided the property between them.”
Luke 15:11-12
Sin is when we separate from the Father like the younger son when we ask for our “share of your estate that should come to me” referring to that part of this whole life only God can have in its fullness. We always have the idea that it must be so vast and huge that even just a part of it would be more than enough for us. We want to be on our own that we break away from Him, thinking wrongly that the share we have is more than enough for us without truly realizing how great and so vast is the Father’s estate which is life itself!
And so it happens, we break away from God and live on our own that sooner or later, our share dissipates until we lose everything.
This estate, this very life of God will never be gone like Him, will never diminish nor dissipate. We shall always have it, enjoy it for as long as we are with Him, our loving Father! This is also the point of the Father to the elder son when he refused to join their celebration when his younger brother returned. Life, love, kindness, family, everything that is good dissipates when held individually away from God. But when we share it with the Father through Christ, it is like the river that never runs dry.
When he had freely spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need… And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any.
Luke 15:14,16
Sin always gives us the sense of “freedom” like the young son who “freely spent everything”. There is always that wrong understanding of freedom as the ability to do everything and anything, feeling that everything in this life is ours alone. Freedom is first of all choosing what is truly good. To be free is to be loving, being a part of the whole and never separated from the whole. To be truly free is always to be one. This explains why when we are deep into sin and all alone, separated from others, we suddenly long to be one with others. The sense of belonging suddenly pops up within us because we find ourselves incomplete when in sin.
“My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours.”
Luke 15:31
Here lies the problem also with the elder son who has always been present with their father but had never been one with him, never belonging to him. He is guilty of “sin of omission” when he felt nothing seems to be wrong with him as he breaks no rules of their father – except their relationship and ties. The apostle James wrote in his letter that “a person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by own desire” (Jas.1:14). Sin is always the desire to be sufficiently alone, to be powerful, to be God! See how since the beginning, we have never outgrown that sin of Adam and Eve of becoming like God, of playing god.
My dear sisters and brothers, like Paul in our second reading today, let us be reconciled to God in Christ. To be reconciled is to be one, to belong, to become a part again of God. In the dryness and desolation of sin like the desert in the experience of Joshua and the Hebrew people, God continues to bless us with so many gifts, so many blessings. The two brothers in the parable are both sinners but loved by their father. And so are we.
More than avoiding sins, our gospel parable this Sunday invites us to love God more by seeking His will always. Yes, we have all been hurt by someone else’s sins and we have also caused pain on others with our sins. Let us focus more on this vast gift of life and love expressed in God’s mercy and forgiveness that no sin could ever diminish. And the good news is that it is all free and totally being given to us by Jesus Christ especially in our Sunday Eucharist. A blessed week to you!
40 Shades of Lent, Friday, Week III, 29 March 2019
Hosea 14:2-10///Mark 12:28-34
Dear God: This may sound funny but really, there is no doubt that you are indeed God. And a very loving and patient Father at that!
Like in the gospel today, I really can’t imagine how we would always talk to you, asking you so many things that preoccupy us most of the time like our endless lists.
One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?”
Mark 12:28
Everything has to be categorized with us, from the first to the last, from the biggest to the smallest, from the shortest to the longest, and so forth and so on.
But you, O Lord, never asked us with any lists. You simply ask us to live which is to love.
All these things you have asked through the prophet Hosea mean one thing which is to go back to you in love. Sometimes, the most basic and ordinary thing to do becomes the most difficult and complicated like love when we try to rank everything and even every one among us.
Teach us, O God, to simply love, love, and love.
Because where there is love, you are surely there. Amen.
40 Shades of Lent, Thursday, Week III, 28 March 2019
Jeremiah 7:23-28///Luke 11:14-23
What a shame, dear God, to read in the gospel today your Son Jesus Christ busy confronting evil, driving out a demon that was mute from a man while we in this age deny its very existence.
In the name of modernity and keeping up with the time, we have taken sin and evil for granted, short of imitating the contemporaries of Jesus of accusing Him of driving out demons by the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons.
How true were the words of your prophet Jeremiah that “we have walked in the hardness of our hearts and turned our back, not our faces, to you. Faithfulness has disappeared, even the very word from our speech.” (Jer.7:24,28)
Let us heed today’s responsorial psalm, “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”
Give us the courage, O God, to be like your Son Jesus Christ fighting evil and sin by being firm in keeping your commandments. Amen.
Images from Google; above is The Temptations of Christ, a 12th century mosaic at St. Mark’s Basilica, Venice, Italy.
40 Shades of Lent, Tuesday, Week III, 27 March 2019
Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9///Matthew 5:17-19
Our almighty and loving Father, we thank you for remaining with us, for staying with us despite the many occasions we have left you. There are so many occasions we have not only forgotten but totally disregarded many of your laws in the belief that they no longer apply in our modern time, in our modern situations.
But we are very wrong, loving Father because your ways never go out of date. Always timely and relevant because your teachings set us free to be more loving and more faithful with you and one another.
So many times we have tried to run away from you when we felt held captive or burdened by your laws and teachings. The more we cry for freedom based on our understanding or whims, the more we are imprisoned.
Teach us to have more fresher perspective and view on your teachings and laws in Christ Jesus who had come to make us experience them in a more personal manner. Let us see the fulfillment of your laws and teachings by rededicating our selves to you, renewing our commitment in this spiritual journey so we may be fulfilled in you. Amen.
40 Shades of Lent, Tuesday, Week III, 26 March 2019
Daniel 3:25, 34-43///Matthew 18:21-35
Praise and glory to you, O Lord Jesus Christ!
Here we are now O Lord being confronted by this topic of sin and forgiveness. Every day we pray the “Our Father” and you know very well how mechanical it had become for us asking God “to forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sinned against us.”
Like Peter, we often feel at a loss at how to forgive those who have hurt us. No… not just hurt or wronged us but, hurt or wronged us so deeply.
The pain is so deep in our hearts, Jesus. And that is why you want us all to forgive from our hearts, not from our lips or from our minds but from our hearts where the pains hurt us most.
We really do not know how. Your parable seems inadequate though you make an absolutely valid point of forgiving others because we have been forgiven too.
Like Daniel your prophet in the Old Testament, we beg you to “Deliver us by your wonders” – surprise us O Lord with your gentle mercy, with your kindness that like you we may be moved to forgiving those who have terribly wronged us. Amen.
