Giving Jesus

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe, Week XXXII-B, 11 November 2018

1Kings 17:10-16///Hebrews 9:24-28///Mark 12:38-44

Maybe you have heard the story of how the chicken and the cow argued who between them gives the most to their master. The cow said she gives the most because from her supply of milk, the farmer is able to have cheese as well. But the chicken argued that their master have to go through tedious work in milking the cow unlike with her when she simply has to lay eggs in her nest that can be easily obtained every day. The pig heard their discussion, praised them both for their daily supply of milk and eggs to their master but reminded them that for her to give ham and bacon, she has to die first by offering her whole life as food.

Jesus is still in the temple area teaching the people and His disciples some important lessons before His coming Passion, Death, and Resurrection. Last week He had taught us of asking questions of the above and higher things that is actually a search for God which is the most essential in life. Today, Jesus deepens this search for God by reminding us of the need to give our total selves to Him in order to find and have Him. First we ask Jesus, and now we give our total selves to Jesus.

In the course of his teaching, Jesus said to the crowds, “Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes and accept greetings in the marketplaces, seats of honor in synagogues, and places of honor in banquets.” (Mk.12:38-39)

The first step in giving our total selves to God and to others is to go back to what I call as our “hallowed hiddenness” in God. We now live in the midst of social media where everything is “exposed” with nothing hidden from us anymore. Everyone is either a “bida” or in a “pabida” mode. Bida is the star or lead character in a movie or a TV show. It is from the Spanish word vida that means life (contravida is the villain, the opposite of life). Jesus was attacking here the scribes for being so “pabida”, always seeking popularity and admiration from the people. They have entirely forgotten God and most likely must have thought of themselves as God Himself. Sad to say, this continues to our own time. Check Facebook and you see what I mean. We have become a clapping generation because everybody is a bida. Even in church where solemnity of the Mass is sacrificed on the pretext of making it more celebratory and participative that priests encourage so much clapping of hands. How sad that some Masses have become a variety show with the priest becoming a celebrity that in the process, Jesus is forgotten. Today’s warning by Jesus is personally directed to us who have become the modern scribes, reminding us how we must present ourselves more before God than before humans. There is always this danger of hypocrisy and showmanship in every kind of service especially in the Church which is also the reason why laypeople quarrel among themselves on who is the real bida. When this happens especially in the Church, we all become a kontrabida of the real and only bida, Jesus Christ.

CNN reported recently that amid South Korea’s being the most wired country in the world with the fastest internet speed, it is now building many public libraries and centers where people can relax minus the ubiquitous smartphones and other gadgets. The report says how the Koreans have realized the need for silence and stillness to truly progress. Likewise, many companies and offices in Silicon Valley are reportedly encouraging their people to drop all gadgets once in a while during work to recharge and be refreshed in silence to discover new ideas. Some tech companies there have even encouraged their workers to go hiking without bringing their gadgets to reconnect with self, others and nature. Even the latest top of the line model of the iPhone is said to have a built-in monitor that reminds a user for being too focused with the gadget for a certain period of time. These are all wonderful developments of how people are slowly rediscovering anew the need to be alone, to be still, and be silent. We need to recapture our “hallowed hiddenness” with God so we can be whole again as a person. The problem with too much exposure like in FB where even coffee breaks are posted is not only the growth of narcissism and superficiality among us but the grave mistake that one’s meaning in life is measured with the number of likes or followers one gets. Unknown to us, the more we become visible and popular, the more we also become dependent on others for having meaning in life. We can only find our true selves and meaning of life in God, the root of our being. God is always found in emptiness and nothingness, not in abundance of the world.

In the first reading we find this hallowed hiddenness in God in the beautiful story of the faith of Elijah and of that pagan widow of Zarephath. Elijah was fleeing from the soldiers sent to kill him after telling King Ahab and his queen Jezebel that there would be drought in Israel due to their worship of baal. He was first directed to a mountain stream where ravens brought him bread daily. When the stream ran dry, God told Elijah to hide in Zarephath near Sidon in the home of a pagan widow. This story of Elijah obeying God in a land of scarcity and danger (Zarephath was under the rule of Jezebel’s father) shows us his complete faith in God, of abandoning himself entirely with God. The same is true with the pagan widow who gave everything to Elijah, believing in the promise of God told by the prophet. In their hiddenness in God, relying solely on Him alone than with themselves and with others, Elijah and the pagan widow along with her son never went hungry until the rains came. When we try to spend some hallowed hiddenness with God daily, taking a break from our busy schedules and social media, that is when we are purified to become better persons filled with the Spirit and substance.

This is also the point of Jesus in calling His disciples to tell them later while seated opposite the treasury that the poor widow who put in two small coins worth a few cents gave more than the others for she “has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.” (Mk.12:44) The issue at hand is not about big money and little coins or amount of contributions but the spirit behind the act of giving. Jesus was evoking here His coming total gift of self on the Cross that would soon take place which the author of the Letter to the Hebrews underscored in today’s second reading. According to Pope Francis, “Giving and forgiving means reproducing in our lives some small measure of God’s perfection, which gives and forgives superabundantly” (Gaudete et Exsultate, 81). Indeed, God has given us with so much but we have given so little. May we learn to give more of ourselves and more of Jesus in us with others. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022. Email: lordmychef@gmail.com

*Photo by Dra. Mai B. Dela Pena, Showa Kinen Garden in Japan, 2018. Used with permission.

A Prayer to Stop Hurting the Church

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Friday, 09 November 2018, Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran

Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12//1 Corinthians 3:9-11, 16-17//John 2:13-22

On this Feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, I humbly pray to you O Lord Jesus Christ for mercy and forgiveness in having hurt your body, the Church.

It is so painful specially these days when people utter all profanities and blasphemies for your Holy Body, but what is most painful is when we in the Church are the ones inflicting your wounds. You have warned us long ago of how people would try to destroy your Church. We need not be alarmed when we are attacked and maligned. That is part of our lives. Just keep us strong and faithful, Lord.

What we must be concerned with – and ashamed of – is when the attacks on your Holy Church come from within, from us your disciples, especially the priests. You were so angry when you saw how the leaders have turned the Temple into a “marketplace” (Jn.2:16). Cleanse us your Church again, Lord Jesus, whip and overturn us when we your pastors are more concerned with money to be earned and collected than to be shared.

Forgive us, O Jesus, in forgetting we are “the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in us” (1Cor.3:16) and we have played gods, possessing your Church, building monuments to our greatness, forgetting the cries of the poor and the women and the children some of us have abused. Have mercy on us, Lord Jesus, when some of us have driven out many from your flock because of our pride and lack of concern, of insensitivities to the plight of many believers confused and lost. Forgive us when we are so quick to defend and safeguard one another’s bruised ego, disregarding the many victims of all forms of abuses by some priests so lost in sin and evil.

Teach us, Lord Jesus our Eternal Priest, to once again be filled with more of you so that we may give life to your people, like the fresh waters of the river seen by Prophet Ezekiel in the first reading flowing from the heavenly temple that every tree planted along its banks is filled with fruits and greenery. Teach our flock also to be holy and help us priests live our vows of poverty, obedience and celibacy. Merciful Jesus, remind us priests and laity always that we do not become holy because we are in the church but that our church becomes holy because of our presence as your indwelling. AMEN.Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.

PhilipLateran2

*Photos of the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome by my former student at ICSB, Arch. Philip Santiago during a pilgrimage Sept. 26, 2018. It is the Cathedral of Rome whose Bishop is also the Pope. Hence, it is the “mother of all churches” and sign of our unity as the Catholic Church.

Of Blessings And Curses

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 08 November 2018

Events and news reports during the recent long weekend reminded me of the story in the Old Testament of a pagan prophet named Balaam who was commissioned to curse the Israelites while encamped at the plains of Moab, ready to enter the Promised Land 40 years after their Exodus from Egypt. It is a story filled with humorous twists and turns that instead of cursing the Israelites, Balaam blessed them and even prophesied the coming to them of the Savior Jesus Christ. It is a funny story like the movie “Shrek” with a talking donkey.

When Balaam was riding his ass (pun intended) on his way to Moab to curse the Israelites, an angel of the Lord with a sword drawn stationed himself on the road to hinder him from proceeding. He did not see the angel but his ass saw the angel that she turned into the field. Balaam beat his ass to bring her back on the road. As they passed through a narrow lane between vineyards with a stone wall on each side, the ass saw the angel of the Lord again blocking their way that she shrank against the wall and squeezed Balaam’s leg onto it. Again, Balaam did not see the angel that he beat his ass for backing out. Upon reaching a passage so narrow without any space to move either to the right or the left, the ass again saw the angel of the Lord blocking their road. The ass cowered under Balaam and in his anger, beat her again with his stick. God opened the mouth of the ass to speak, asking Balaam why he would always beat her despite her services to him?! It was during his conversation with his ass that God opened the eyes of Balaam to see His angel and get His message to bless the Israelites (cf. Num. 22:20-35).

Is Baguio City a modern Moab with its new law prohibiting “cursing, cussing, expressing insults or the use of foul language to express anger or any other extreme emotion in establishments frequented by students, from pre-school to college level”?

I have always loved and admired Baguio City in its efforts to keep its morals intact despite the growing lamentable practice of many Filipinos these days of spending Holy Week vacationing there instead of praying in their homes and parishes. It is perhaps the only city with a law calling on all people to pause during the Angelus. And now, it is the only city too that prohibits the use of foul language. Members of its city council have noted in their Anti-Profanity Ordinance how the habit of cursing has “already penetrated schools and educational system, business establishments and society as a whole, that even the very fabric of morals and human decency has deteriorated to such a degree that we have to prevent it before the damage would become irreparable.” It defined profanity as “blasphemous or obscene language vulgar or irreverent speech or action; expletive oath, swearing, cursing, or obscene expression usually of surprise or anger.”

Baguio City is deteriorating fast and though this Anti-Profanity Ordinance does not address anything at all in improving environmental conditions there, it shows us that unless we first cleanse whatever is within us, these are reflected with the problems around us. “Ex abudantia cordis” is the Lord’s reminder to us all, “from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matt. 12:34). Though the ordinance is not really clear in its scope and purpose expressed only in three pages of paper, it is a good reminder that whatever is evil and bad would always be evil and bad, with or without any written law. To curse or speak ill of anybody, wishing evil or harm to someone is always bad. And despite the claims by the defenders of the President that saying bad words does not make anyone entirely bad, recent events have shown exactly the opposite of their claims, that anyone speaking of good things does not make him or her good at all.

On Halloween day which the benighted souls have insisted on celebrating the pagan way by dressing as ghosts, actor and former tourism official Cesar Montano’s selfie with a naked woman at the background went viral and spawned many spoofs. How I wish I have the vocabulary of Nabokov but I could not find the proper English words to describe those videos that are salaula, baboy, and kadiri! And of course not to forget during the long weekend is the President’s usual dose of follies of the highest level when he spewed his usual profanities against the Church and the All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day celebrations, a day after calling on the nation to “emulate our saints, pray for the eternal repose of souls and deepen our engagement with our communities as we work for real and lasting change.” Not contented with the foul language, the President even declared himself a saint.

Blessing is from the Latin term benedicere that literally means “to speak or say good things.” To wish somebody “God bless you” in the midst of a malicious situation, in a life far from being a blessed one or simply just because as in “wala lang” is not only a profanity but also a blasphemy. Of course, priests who are supposed to be channels of God’s blessings commit the highest level of profanity and blasphemy if they lead lives of sin and corruption, abusing not only children and women but the entire people of God, including God Himself. This is what the anti-profanity law of Baguio is missing, skipping that portion on who should not use obscene language. The evil of foul language is similar with pornography: it is always immoral regardless of age because it is a lack of respect to the dignity of persons.

Why-Was-God-Mad-at-Balaam--JM2

The story of Balaam and of his ass reminds us that we are all a blessing to everyone. Listen to what the donkey told Balaam: “What have I done to you that you should beat me these three times? Am I not you’re your own beast, and have you not ridden upon me until now? Have I been in the habit of treating you this way before?” (Num.22: 28, 30) How ironic that the dumbest creature in the universe was the one to remind Balaam and us that we should never treat badly and speak ill of anyone because we are all a blessing to everyone. Most of all, the talking donkey of Balaam reminds us how blessings can turn into a curse someday and curses could eventually be a blessing too. It has happened so many times in history, not only to nations and corporations but even in the Church that is still rocked by sexual scandals committed long time ago. The early Christians have depicted the story of Balaam and his ass in their early arts like in the Roman catacombs (photo above) and in some churches in Europe to show how God works in mysterious ways, especially with the power of our words to bless, or to curse. Be a blessing!

*Photos from Google.

On Searching the Lord

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Thursday, 08 November 2018, Week XXXI, Year II

Philippians 3:3-8//Luke 15:1-10

Today, O Lord, I am searching for the meaning of the word…search.

The psalmist sings in our responsorial psalm today, “Let hearts that rejoice who search for the Lord.” In the gospel, you tell us the parables of the lost sheep and lost coin that were both searched and eventually found.

We search for something that is missing, for something or somebody lost. We search for something and someone very important. That is why we search. Therefore, in life, we must first lose everything to realize the most precious ones we must have!

The shepherd searched for the lone sheep because his flock would never be complete without that single, missing sheep. And so did the woman who lost one coin and searched for it because the ten coins would never be a whole without that cent.

St. Paul lost everything and had to start anew in his life to gain you, O Lord Jesus Christ. He had the best of everything like family and lineage, education and position in life. And when he had lost everything in a flash on the road to Damascus, he searched and found you.

We always have you, Lord, but as we grow and mature, and prosper in life, we gained more of the world and start to lose you that sooner or later in life during hardships and trials, we then search for you.

But what is truly amazing and wonderful, O Lord, it is you who is searching for us when in fact you never ever lost us. Besides, it does not really matter if you lose us because you would always be God. Thank you for searching and finding me, O Lord, that made me realize also my true value. Without you, I am nothing.

So, let me always search you even if I have already found you. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.

*Photo from Google.

Allowing God to Work In Us

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Wednesday, 07 November 2018, Week XXXI, Year II

Philippians 2:12-18//Luke 14:25-33

Bless me, O Lord, when sometimes I feel tired in trying to follow you. When I feel tired not really of the cross I have to carry but of living “in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.” (Phil.2:14)

How can some people follow what is wrong, believe in what is false, rejoice in what is offensive and disrespectful, and still project themselves as better and truthful? Where have all our values gone like honor and dignity?

I am not complaining, Lord. I just feel so sad at how things are going on.

Give me the grace to keep on following you, to do your work by holding on to your word of life without grumbling or questioning so that I may shine like a light in the world covered with darkness (Phil.2:13-15). AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.

*Images from Google.

worldunfair

Magtanong Kay Hesus, Sagot Niya’y Nasa Krus

Lawiswis ng Salita//P. Nicanor F. Lalog II//Ika-06 ng Nobyembre 2018

Madalas ako ay nagtatanong

Kay Hesus na ating Panginoon

Mga sari-saring bagay

Kadalasa’y sumasagitsit sa aking pagninilay.

At sa tuwing ako’y may katanungan

Naroon akong lagi sa paanan ng krus Niyang banal

Kung saan din aking natagpuan itong katotohanan

Na sa bawat katanungan kay Hesus,

Sagot Niya’y naroon din sa Kanyang Krus!

Halika, inyong subukan inyong katanungan

Upang masakyan aking pakahulugan:

Hesus, ako ba ay iyong mahal?

Tingnan Kanyang sugatang katawan, huwag nang mag-alinlangan.

Hesus, bakit ako’y laging nahihirapan?

Pagmasdan kanyang pinasan, ika’y magagaanan.

Hesus, ika’y nasaan sa aking kagipitan?

Bago pa man itong aking pinagdaraanan, naroon na Siyang unang nasaktan!

Laging pakatandaan, ano man ang ating katanungan

Sagot matatagpuan sa sugatang Niyang katawan

Na Kanyang inalay bilang katubusan sa ating mga kasalanan

Na siyang pinagmulan nitong marami nating katanungan.

*Salamat sa larawan kuha ng dati kong mag-aaral sa ICSB, Arch. Philip Santiago noong Setyembre 27, 2018 sa Simbahan ng San Giovanni Rotondo, Italya kung saan naglingkod si San Padre Pio. Isa ito sa mga mosaic doon nagsasaad ng malalim niyang debosyon sa nakapakong si Kristo gaya ni San Francisco ng Assisi. Kapwa sila biniyayaan ni Hesus ng stigmata, mga sugat tulad ng tinamo Niya noon sa krus.

A Prayer For Those Who Love Like Christ

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Tuesday, 06 November 2018, Week XXXI, Year II

Philippians 2:5-11//Luke 14:15-24

Lord Jesus Christ, I praise and thank you today for your gift of kenosis, your self-emptying love for us all that even “though you were in the form of God, you did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, you emptied yourself, coming to us as a human, humbling yourself in obedience to death on a cross.” (Phil.2:6-8)

Today Lord Jesus, I pray for all the men and women, including the children from all walks of life who imitate you in their own little ways of self-emptying to express their deep love and concern for others. First among them are the rescuers and relatives coming to Natonin, Mountain Province.

When I first saw the story of how Raffy Tima and his team, along with the rescue workers and relatives of residents walked more than seven hours to the site buried by the landslide, I was moved by their great sacrifice and love to go there when it is already empty of life. Theirs was also a kenosis, an emptying of themselves of so many things to communicate your love for people wiped out by the landslide.

Every day Lord, there are also countless people who dare to walk despite the dangers and discomforts so we can all have a good morning like those who delivered various goods and services during the night, those who have to cut short their sleep and leave their families so we can have fresh vegetables and meat and fish, newspapers to read and newscasts to watch and listen, doctors and nurses to monitor our loved ones in the hospitals, and so many others who do many things that can never be compensated by any amount of money.

I pray most specially Lord Jesus for those closest to us, our family and loved ones, including our helpers who never get tired of patiently walking up to us, emptying themselves even of their dignity and honor, sacrificing everything just to take care of us, to tend our wounds and sickness, to listen to our woes and endless complaints, bearing all our insensitivities.

Bless them, Lord Jesus, in their kenosis or self-emptying to fill many of us empty of respect and dignity within. Bless them Jesus that they may always heed your call to come to your banquet of loving service for others by setting aside their own comforts and concerns like in your parable today. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.

*Photo by Mr. Raffy Tima of GMA-7 News, early Sunday morning at Natonin, 04 November 2018. Used with permission.

A Prayer To Make Our Joy Complete

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Monday, 05 November 2018, Week XXXI, Year II

Philippians 2:1-4//Luke 14:12-14

Heavenly Father, today I join St. Paul in the first reading in praying that our joy may be complete “by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing.” Help me to “do nothing out of selfishness or vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than me, as I look out not for my own interests but also for others.” (Phil. 2:2-4)

Most of the time, we cannot share with the “complete joy” your Son Jesus Christ promised us when He said He is the true vine and we are His branches (Jn. 15:11) because we keep on separating from Him. Worst of all, like in His parable today, we have created divisions among us when we chose to associate only with those who look like us, think like us, expecting like us for rewards, of being repaid for any good things we do unto them (Lk. 14:12).

Let me be the one to make that first move of completing our joy, and your joy too, O God, by reaching out in love to those in the margins like the poor and suffering, the sick and the dying, and those we see as different from us in so many other things whom we take for granted.

Let me bring joy to even just one of them, to let them feel we are one, hoping they can have a brighter Monday today. If I can brighten just one person today, then both of us would be completely joyful! The more joys are completed among persons, the world becomes brighter. And that is when our joy, your joy become truly complete for that is when we live as one in Jesus Christ. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.

*Photo by Dra. Mai B. Dela Pena, Tokyo, Japan 2018. Used with permission.

“(They Long to Be) Close to You” by Gwen Guthrie (1986)

LordMyChef Sunday Music//Week XXXI-B//04 November 2018

Asking Jesus

Been thinking of a song about questions but this piece popularized by the Carpenters in 1970 composed by Burt Bacharach and Hal David kept on playing in my mind with the opening lines “Why do birds suddenly appear, Every time you are near? Just like me, they long to be close to you.” Well, the song is about getting closer to a beloved, exactly the meaning of the question asked by the scribe to Jesus in our gospel this Sunday, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” (Mk.12:28). We can easily identify with that scribe with his honest question because it is more than the most important commandment to follow but about God Himself! It is a deep longing and desire to rise above, to be closer to God, to find God amidst all the many laws and requirements being asked of us most of the time, just like the song (They Long To Be)Close To You.

For our LordMyChef Sunday Music today, we have chosen the more jazzy cover by the late Gwen Guthrie released about this time in 1986. Enjoy the beat, feel the music, and keep asking questions, keep searching. We may not have all the answers right away but we have a loving and merciful God who knows all the answers to our questions, who listens and answers them always in His own time.

Photo by the author at Malagos Bird Sanctuary, Davao City, August 2018.

Asking Jesus

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe, Week XXXI-B, 04 November 2018

Deuteronomy 6:2-6///Hebrews 7:23-28///Mark 12:28-34

We have seen these past two weeks Jesus in His journey back to Jerusalem asking us – through James and John, and the blind Bartimaeus – the quintessential question, “What do you want me to do for you?” But this Sunday, we find a reversal of roles when, One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” (Mk.12:28)

What question would you ask Jesus if given that chance?

Jesus had finally reached Jerusalem, frequenting the Temple area which He had cleansed upon His arrival on Palm Sunday. Mark tells us the building up of antagonism against Him by His enemies asking Him with many questions. First were the chief priests, scribes and elders who asked about His authority in cleansing the Temple and then the Pharisees who teamed up with the Herodians to ensnare Him with the question about the paying of taxes to the emperor. Last to test Jesus were the Sadducees who asked about the resurrection by presenting to Him the case of a woman who had married seven brothers after dying one after the other. Mark tells us how Jesus satisfactorily answered all their questions that people were so amazed with Him. It was at this time when a scribe who had heard them disputing and saw how well Jesus had answered them came forward with the question we also ask up to this time, “Which is the first of all the commandments?”

Like that man who asked Jesus what must he do to inherit eternal life (Mk.10:17), we can also identify with this scribe whose question is without guile. Like him, we find ourselves in many occasions asking the same question due to confusions from the so many things to be followed and fulfilled to be a good person and enter heaven. We know deep in our hearts like him how humans have stretched God’s commandments that have now exceeded more than ten that many could not even recite in order. Like this scribe, we have seen how faith and religion have ceased to be a way of life but more of casuistry, of obeying and keeping rules that made God look like a cop watching over us, ready to apprehend us for any violations instead of being a loving Father living with us. Like that scribe, deep in us is a longing for something higher, of something really akin with God than with our present situation when everything seems to be relative and on ground level.

We are known by the questions we ask, not by the answers we give that are often wrong or far from truth and reality. Asking the right question leads us to the right answer and solution to our problems. Even if we cannot find any ready answer to our questions but for as long as we are asking the right ones, we find clues for their answers as we move on with our lives. Here in our gospel today we find how our questions reveal who we really are, indicating our focus and distractions in life. In preparation for His coming pasch in Jerusalem, Jesus would reveal to us today and next Sunday the more essential things with God regarding our obedience to His laws and our attitude on giving. So, let us reflect on the reply of Jesus to the question of the scribe which is based on the “Shema Israel” prayer that every pious Jew must know by heart: “The first is this: ‘Hear O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your soul, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mk.12:29-31)

Shema Israel is a verbatim quote from Deuteronomy 6:4-5. It is a prayer that evolved from the Jews’ experience and reflection of the Ten Commandments as a love involving their relationship with God and with others. More than a list of laws to be followed, the Decalogue became the sign of God’s covenant with Israel, a relationship to be kept with God at its center whose face is found among everyone as brothers and sisters. Hence, when the scribe asked Jesus which is the first of all the commandments, it was a desire to find God Himself. And when Jesus saw how the scribe had understood His answer, He told him “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” (Mk.12:34)

Observe that child-like attitude of the scribe with his question. He was looking up to Jesus, looking for God in Him. When we ask Jesus any question, that is the only attitude required of us. Recall the different questions asked to Jesus in the daily readings last month like those concerning inheritance or how many would be saved (Lk.12:13, 23), or if His teachings are meant for us or for everyone (Lk.12:41). See how Jesus ignored the questions because they were the least of His concerns. Instead, He proceeded with His teachings to emphasize the importance of storing riches in heaven, passing through the narrow gate and being a wise and faithful steward. When a teacher of the law asked Jesus who is my neighbor, the Lord replied with the parable of the Good Samaritan so that he would realize in himself that we are all neighbors who must show love and concern for one another. When Pilate asked Jesus during His trial, the Lord clarified his questions so as to remind him that He is more than of this world. And speaking of the fourth gospel, it is only John who had recorded Jesus repeatedly saying His being lifted up in glory, that is, His crucifixion when He would draw everyone to Himself (Jn.12: 32). Here we find my dear readers how that every time we ask Jesus a question, the answer would always be found on His Cross because we can only look upward to Christ crucified. It is only on the Cross can we be led to higher things like God Himself! Ask Jesus any question like:

Do you love me, Lord?

Why all the sufferings in the world?

Where are we going?

Try asking Jesus like a child, like that scribe and most likely, when we see His pains and sufferings on His outstretched arms and folded legs, head crowned with thorns with expressive eyes and lips filled with love, we find His answers on the Cross. This is why Jesus is “able to save e to save those who approach God through Him (Heb.7:24-26)” because He is our High Priest who literally hanged high up on the Cross for us. May you be blessed to find God in your questions to Jesus! AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022. Email: lordmychef@gmail.com

*Photo by Richard Val Candelaria. Used with permission.