Jesus Calls Us In Our Blindness

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe, Week XXX-B, 28 October 2018

Jeremiah 31:7-9///Hebrews 5:1-6///Mark 10:46-52

After my Mass last Sunday evening, a friend sent me a text message about their janitor who had committed suicide at the top floor of their new school building that afternoon. She had sought my opinion a few weeks ago about that janitor suffering from depression, and later brought him to a professional for evaluation and counselling by personally paying for it. But his condition deteriorated until he hanged himself that Sunday afternoon. What is very disturbing with the suicide story is the seeming lack of support for the victim by their school officials. And, as if to rub salt on his wounds, an HR officer of the school went to see the janitor at their home Friday before the suicide to serve his termination paper after going on AWOL for several weeks. It seemed to be the final straw that hit the camel’s back, so to speak, that the poor janitor had totally lost all hopes in life that led to his tragic end Sunday afternoon. My friend was very sad, deeply pained – and rightly so! – as it happened in their Catholic school run by religious priests and brothers. Suicides do happen especially these days and there is no need to blame or pin on anybody, but to hear stories of neglect and lack of concern is another thing. One life is always too many to lose in senseless deaths like suicide. As I prayed over today’s gospel, I cannot resist seeing in that school janitor the blind Bartimaeus, begging and shouting for attention, seeking compassion but alas, many in the crowd were so blind that they ignored him, except maybe Jesus, who knows might be passing by that Sunday afternoon and stopped for another lost soul in our modern Jericho.

As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizeable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging. On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.” And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me.” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage; get up, he is calling you.” He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus. Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.” Jesus told him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way. (Mk.10:46-52)

Last Sunday we reflected how Jesus wanted us to be radical in following Him by going back to the roots (radix in Latin) of our discipleship which is His Cross of suffering and death. To be radical disciples of Jesus, we also reflected of the need to subvert or overturn our secular ideas of leadership based on power and position by imitating Christ’s kind of loving service that is always hidden in humility. Today’s gospel is more than a story of the healing of Bartimaeus but also of responding to Jesus’ call for us to remove our different kinds of blindness that prevent us from closely following Him on the road to Jerusalem. And the first step healing our blindness is deepening our faith in Jesus as the Christ. Recall that the journey of Jesus back to Jerusalem started at Caesarea Philippi last month when He asked the fundamental question every disciple must personally answer, “who do you say that I am?” (Mk.8:29)

Bartimaeus was physically blind but it was very clear with him that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the “Son of David” who would save Israel. Despite his blindness, Bartimaeus “saw” in Jesus through the many stories he must have heard about Him that He is the fulfillment of God’s promise that Jeremiah prophesied in our first reading, “the Lord shall deliver Israel and bring her back from exile, gathering them all especially the blind and the lame, consoling them and guiding them to brooks of water, on a level road, so that none shall stumble.” (Jer.31:7-9) His physical disability did not hinder Bartimaeus in growing in faith, “seeing” God as a loving Father who looks after His children especially the sick like him, healing and consoling them that he shouted “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me.” Observe that despite his being a blind beggar, Bartimaeus neither asked for his sight nor for any money or material thing except for God Himself. When he told Jesus that he wanted to see, it was actually a plea for deeper faith in God! Contrast this with the request of the “seeing” Twelve who were all blinded with ambitions, always debating who among them is the greatest, always seeing selves but not God and others.

In my 20 years of priesthood, I have realized that most people who come for help are more in need of spiritual things like the warmth of friendship, a pair of listening ears for their many burdens with some sprinklings of humor, a lot of affirmation, prayers and compassion. Faith in God always leads to faith with others who are also looking for someone to encourage and guide them to grow and mature in that faith. In our modern Jericho of today, may we share Jesus to the many Bartimaeus longing for that warm and loving human face who can recognize and smile at them, pat their shoulders, and soothe their souls by accompanying them in their journey in life that is often filled with many pains and hurts. Let us not be blinded with life’s many pursuits where there are no real winners that later in life would fill us with many regrets that make us wish to have loved and smiled more, have been more forgiving, kinder or crazier and funnier.

Being healed of our blindness to mature in deep faith in Christ is a long process. This is why Jesus is always passing by, calling us in spite of our blindness for He knows so well our weaknesses. He is willing to stop to heal us so we could regain our sight, asking us with the same question He had asked Bartimaeus and the brothers James and John last week, “What do you want me to do for you?” Like Bartimaeus, we can only answer that question truthfully if we are willing to leave the roadside to follow Jesus on the middle of the road that is always filled with danger and difficulties. Like Bartimaeus, we can only answer that question truthfully if we can throw aside our cloaks, to strip ourselves naked of the many false securities we rely on that hamper us in our journey to Jerusalem. Trust only in Jesus the Christ like Bartimaeus, following Him every Sunday in the Eucharist where He, as our High Priest (second reading) gives us His Body and Blood to restore our sight and strength in this journey. Amen. A blessed Sunday to you!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 Mr. Raffy Tima of GMA-7 News, sunset in Dubai, October 2018. Used with permission.

God’s word, God’s presence

LordMyChef “TGIF” Quote, 26 October 2018:

“God’s word is full of God’s presence. But the full power of the word lies, not in how we apply it to our lives after we have heard it, but in its transforming power that does its divine work as we listen… it is a word to heal us through, and in, our listening here and now.” (Fr. Henri Nouwen, “With Burning Hearts”, pp. 55, 57)

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Photo by Dra. Mai B. Dela Pena, sunset in Athens, Greece 2016. Used with permission.

Blowing In the Wind

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Friday, 26 October 2018, Week XXIX, Year II

Ephesians 4:1-6///Luke 12:54-59

It is a beautiful Friday, loving Father in heaven! As I prayed over your words for today, I can’t help singing the last stanzas of Bob Dylan’s Blowing In the Wind:

Yes, ‘n’ how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, ‘n’ how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, ‘n’ how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind

The answer is blowin’ in the wind

We have always considered the weather as very erratic that we spend so much time studying everything about it to make a more accurate prediction of how it is going to be the following day. And we have been succeeding all these years, especially with the help of modern technology. Yet, Jesus Christ’s observations 2000 years ago remain true to this day: “we can interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, but we cannot interpret the present time.” (Lk.12:56)

We have always been so concerned with the world outside us, forgetting your “call within each of us to live in unity with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love.” (Eph.4:1-2)

Most of the time in our lives, we are more erratic than the weather. We destroy our unity rooted in your Son our Lord by refusing to see for ourselves what is right (Lk.12:57). We always insist to look more at outside appearances that we miss the more essential within us, our “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Eph.4:5-6)

Teach us to reflect more on what we believe because it is our faith that determines what we do, regardless if the weather would be fair or stormy, warm or cool at any given day. 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, Batanes before typhoon Ompong, 14 September 2018. Used with permission.

The Earth Is Full of God’s Goodness

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Thursday//25October2018//Week XXIX, Year II

Ephesians 3:14-21///Luke 12:49-53

Allow me, O God, to borrow St. Paul’s beautiful prayer for the Ephesians and make it my prayer to you this Thursday: “As I kneel before you loving Father in heaven, grant me the riches of your glory to be strengthened in my inner self with your Holy Spirit so that through faith rooted and grounded in love in you, Jesus Christ may dwell in my heart always. Grant me the strength to comprehend the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ’s love that surpasses human knowledge to be filled with all your fullness, O God. For it is only in Jesus Christ, through Him and with Him that I can accomplish far more than all I ask or imagine.” (Eph.3:14-21)

Indeed, “the earth is full of your goodness, O God,” but we miserably fail to discover and keep these because we always run away and hide from you in our sinfulness and selfishness.

Let us become one with your Son Jesus Christ in “setting the earth on fire by being one with Him in His baptism” (Lk.12:49,50) with our commitment to love and serve you, O God, by putting into practice your words and precepts, to make this world a better place to live in peace and harmony. Let us commit ourselves to Jesus Christ so we can build more bridges that unite us as brothers and sisters. Let us commit ourselves to Christ so we can build better and lovelier buildings of dwelling and work where we gather as one family in you, our Father.

Into your loving and merciful hands, O Lord, we commend ourselves today and forever. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.

*Photo of Santorini by Dra. Mai Dela Pena. Used with permission.

Respect In Digital Age

Quiet Storm by LordMyChef, 24 October 2018:

The word “respect” is from the Latin terms “re” and “specere” that literally mean “to look again” from which came the words “spectacular” and“spectacles”. Hence, to respect a person, a place, and a thing means to look at them twice or thrice and see their dignity. On the other hand, disrespecting a person, a place, and a thing means refusing to recognize their worth because we only see ourselves and their differences. For us to be respectful, we need to look again and again at persons, things, and places so we could see and give them the respect they deserve, even when we are apart or when nobody is looking at us.

And here lies our “quiet storm”: respect is becoming rare with the coming of the ubiquitous camera phone. We no longer look at everyone and everything as persons and humans because all of our seeing and looking are now “mediated” by technology. We look at people not as subjects but objects caught on our camera screens, to be kept in memory cards than in our hearts to be cherished. We do not look at people anymore but simply “shoot” them to collect them into our “albums” or “folders” than engage them in conversations, exchanges that excite our souls and being. We no longer see each other eye to eye, person to person, but cellphone to cellphone or iPad to iPad.

Many people have become so accustomed these days to be consumed with their phones and other gadgets in the middle of meals, meetings, and conversations totally unmindful – and disrespectful – of the other persons they are with. We have become more fixed with machines that eventually we manipulate people as if they have buttons and touchscreens. See the folly of most weddings these days, of how phones and cameras shatter the solemnity and intimacy of the occasion, stealing the attention from the bride! Is it lack of common sense or respect, or both, that many guests seem to forget they were invited to personally witness and share in the joy of the new couple and not to take their pictures?

This loss of respect due to abuse of technology extends to our relationships with God, sadly fostered by many priests enslaved by gadgets. Remember how during the Mass presided by Pope Francis at the Manila Cathedral in 2015 when priests were seen on TV taking selfies and groufies from the start to the end of the solemn celebration! And it happens so often when clerics gather among themselves, unmindful (some ignorant) of the Pope’s repeated warning against priests taking pictures during the Mass. How can the people be expected to respect God especially during the Mass or respect sacred spaces like the church when the priests are preoccupied with mundane things like taking pictures or checking cellphones during liturgical celebrations? And so, respect is further lost right within the sphere of the sacred and holy, in the church when during celebration of the Sacraments, people are more concerned adjusting their gadgets than praying. Every celebration of the sacrament is a moment and experience of grace, of encountering God and His holiness among His people.

But the most disturbing area where there is massive erosion of respect due to abuse of digital technology is with how we regard the dying and the dead.

Recently I went to anoint a dying parishioner. His room was dimly lit and I could hardly read the prayers for the dying until a flood of white light in my direction came. Suddenly, it went off and when I looked back to request for the light again, it turned out to be coming from the camera phone of the dying patient’s only daughter who was “recording” my anointing of his dying father. It was a surreal experience that got me thinking after the rites if it was just a case of “generation gap” or a lack of respect and concern for persons? That experience held me for some time, especially when I recalled how I skipped breakfast to run to the side of the dying man, praying hard for his peaceful death with his neighbors while… his only daughter was busy filming his dying moments??? Every week I visit the sick in my parish, in the hospitals and in their homes where there is only one same scene: a deafening silence broken by intermittent cries or sobs of family members gathered around a dying loved one. Not until that sick call last Monday morning that was filmed and uploaded when the patient died later that evening.

And this situation gets worse during funerals where it seems to have become “normal” to have groufies – with all smiles – beside the dead. Are we not supposed to be mourning when we go to sympathize with the bereaved family? Where have all the respect, decency, and decorum or taste and common sense gone during funerals and wakes? TV news is more respectful in keeping its unwritten code to never show the deceased as a sign of respect. The only time this was skipped was during the wake of Ninoy Aquino in 1983 after his mother Dona Aurora allowed him shown on newspapers and television. And that was an extraordinary situation that eventually earned Ninoy tremendous respect.

There is a need to put technology in its proper use, especially in the Church and in our spiritual endeavors to keep our sense of respect, both for the living and the dead. The Book of Ecclesiastes reminds us that “there is a time for everything, a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance.”(Eccl.3:1,4) Technology is a gift from God and Vatican II rightly noted in its document on social communications that “The Church recognizes that these media, if properly utilized, can be of great service to mankind, since they greatly contribute to men’s entertainment and instruction as well as to the spread and support of the Kingdom of God. The Church recognizes, too, that men can employ these media contrary to the plan of the Creator and to their own loss.” (Inter Mirifica #2) Let us limit technology in our interpersonal relationships so we can start looking into each other anew as persons to experience our humanity and rediscover our dignity and, along with it, the nobility of respect. (Photos from Google.)

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God’s Call Is Personal But Not Exclusive

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Wednesday//24October2018//Week XXIX, Year II

Ephesians 3:2-12///Luke 12:39-48

Today, O Lord, I praise and thank you for the gift of your call that is always personal. Like St. Paul telling us today of his own experience in his call, I remember the mystery of the gift of your grace given to me in a very personal way that have touched me and others too. It is not just the gift of priesthood but most of all the grace of being loved by you despite my many sins.

Forgive me, Jesus, when this gets into my head, when I feel very exclusive like Peter asking you today in the gospel if your parables and teachings are “meant for us or for everyone?” (Lk.12:41) When you refused to answer his question by continuing with your teachings to stress the need to be wise and faithful stewards of your gifts and call, the more I am amazed with you as my Lord and Master: you play no favorites as you are very inclusive but at the same time personally relating with each of us full of love and mercy.

As I treasure your gifts, let me grow deeper in your love that I may faithfully serve you by sharing you with others. Let me own the song of the psalmist today, singing “God indeed is my savior; I am confident and unafraid. My strength and my courage is the Lord, and he has been my savior. With joy you will draw water at the fountain of salvation (Ps.12:2-3).” 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 in Iceland, 09 October 2018. Used with permission.

Continuing Christ’s Work

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Tuesday//23October2018//Week XXIX, Year II

Ephesians 2:12-22///Luke 12:35-38

Dear God:

Last night while praying I found myself in a very amusing situation over the words of your Son Jesus Christ telling us in today’s gospel to “Gird your loins and light your lamps.” (Lk.12:35)

Remember how yesterday at the meat section of the supermarket, the butcher was enticing me to buy some loins that are tender and tasty, good for dinner and how I struggled? Thank you for preventing me from falling into that temptation, a little victory in my daily battle of the bulge!

But, as I prayed on your words today, I have realized that is really how it is with life: we always have to gird our loins, to prepare and strengthen ourselves for what is to come. The loin is where our basic instinct and urges emanate from, always evoking pleasures in us that are so powerful and irresistible. And so, keep me always on guard like those faithful servants in today’s parable to gird my loins and light my lamps especially in continuing Christ’s work of reconciliation, of “keeping us all together as a sacred temple for God.” (Eph.2:21)

How sad that we always forget the beautiful preaching of St. Paul of how Jesus Christ have reconciled us all in you, O God, with His precious Blood. How sad when we destroy our unity by looking more at our many differences because we cannot control our urges, our loins. And it is most painful, O God, when we allow it to happen right inside your Church, the Body of Jesus Christ! Help us to embrace the diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds of everyone that we may become new persons in your Son our Lord 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 the author, from the inside of the Church “Dominus Flevit” (the Lord Cried) overlooking Jerusalem as background. How sad that Jesus continues to cry today because we are still divided.

On Decision-Making

LordMyChef “I-Like-Mondays” Quote, 22 October 2018:

“I think success is a series of correct decisions. Every decision that’s made today was made because you thought it was right today; and, as a leader and a business founder, that’s your job- to keep making decisions all day.

For ten decisions you make, maybe seven will be perceived as immediately correct. While others may not perceive the other three decisions as right, if you’re blessed, it will turn out correct in the long run. And that blessing comes about as a combination of instinct and guidance.”

Edgar “Injap” Sia with Kristine Fonacier, “Life Principles”, page 106.

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

You Are the Handiwork of God

POPE JOHN PAUL II HOLDS CROSIER AS HE PRAYS

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Monday//22October 2018//Memorial of St. John Paul II

Ephesians 2:1-10///Luke 12:13-21

My heart is overflowing with praise and thanksgiving to you, O God our loving Father in giving us the wonderful gift of a saint who had lived during our lifetime, the great St. John Paul II whose feast celebrate today. Having lived during his pontificate, I have experienced your love and majesty, your presence, your reality. When I think and remember our beloved JP2, I cannot but be filled with awe that there is a loving, merciful and personal God like you!

In his own life, today’s words by St. Paul are evidently true that each of us is “your handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.” (Eph.2:10) When I recall the early childhood of St. John Paul II, his family, his Poland, his long pontificate along with his many travels and great speeches along with his bubbling sense of humor, the more I see your love and mercy, O God.

Here is a man with so much pains and sufferings until his death who never ceased to echo among us the call of Jesus to be not afraid. Here is a man who had showed us in his very life that “one’s life does not consist of possessions but of being rich in what matters to God.” (Lk.12:15,21)

Give us that grace too, loving Father in heaven, to be like St. John Paul II that we may also see you working in us and through us, despite our many brokenness, that we are not determined by our failures and sins in the past. Make us realize St. John Paul II’s teaching that we can only find fulfillment in your Son Jesus Christ who had come to bring us back into your loving arms. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022. E-mail to lordmychef@gmail.com for free subscription.

*Photos from Google.

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“Guantanamera” Recorded by Pete Seeger (1963)

LordMyChefSundayMusic//Week XXIX-B//21October2018

Jesus is a Radical

This song is my earliest lesson on the universality of music: I was in elementary when I first heard it played by my elders totally ignorant of its lyrics and meaning except that the melody is so lovely, so moving. The music had stayed on with me since then and how glad to finally have it as our Sunday Music after mentioning Che Guevarra in my homily (https://lordmychef.wordpress.com/2018/10/20/jesus-is-a-radical/).

“Guantanamera” as a song was first recorded and popularized in 1929 by Cuban singer Joseito Fernandez. Its lyrics were based on the poem by Cuban poet Jose Marti that eventually became a patriotic song in Cuba. In 1963, the late American folk singer and social activist Pete Seeger recorded it during the Cuban Missile Crisis, eventually becoming a staple in the protest and peace movements of that time into the early ‘70’s. The song speaks well about the radical kind of love and service Jesus asks us in today’s gospel. It is actually the heartaches of a “truthful man” in Guantanamo, Cuba who was deeply hurt at how powerful and rich countries have destroyed his lovely native land. But despite these, he still offered peace and goodwill, a “white rose”.

And for the cruel one who would tear out

This heart with which I live.

I cultivate neither thistles nor nettles

I cultivate a white rose.

Guantanamera, guajira guantanamera

I know about a fatal evil

Among the unspeakable shames:

The enslavement of human beings

Is the great shame of the world!

Guantanamera, guajira guantanamera

With the poor people of this earth,

I want to share my lot.

With the poor people of this earth,

I want to share my lot.

The little streams of the mountains

Please me more than the sea.

Guantanamera, guajira guantanamera

*Photo from Google, Pope Francis celebrating Mass in Havana during his pastoral visit there in 2015.

https://youtu.be/h0gg3-xvMB0