The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday in the Thirteenth Week in OrdinaryTime, 06 July 2023
Genesis 22:1-19 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Matthew 9:1-8
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, Quezon City, 20 March 2023.
God our loving Father,
teach me to offer to you,
to give up like Abraham
the most precious
and the best I have in life;
give me that same kind of
faith and trust in you, O God,
that in life, you are the only
most precious and best
I have in life.
So many times in life,
dear Father, I always question
your will,
your plans,
your instructions
to me;
worst, many times,
I even question and doubt
your goodness to me
and to others like those scribes
who questioned Jesus Christ's
authority to forgive sins.
We have strayed so far from you,
O God; we have believed
so much in ourselves,
in our beliefs,
in our technologies,
in our strengths
and achievements
as if we are gods like you!
Forgive us, merciful Father;
help us find our way back to you
in your Son Jesus Christ.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Memorial of the First Martyrs of Rome, 30 June 2023
Genesis 17:1, 9-10, 15-22 ><]]]]'> + <'[[[[>< Matthew 8:1-4
Photo by author, sunrise at Bolinao, Pangasinan 18 April 2022.
Today we close the month of June,
the first half of 2023.
Praise and glory to you,
God our loving Father
for past six months,
grateful for the next
six months coming
to finally close the year.
And then a leper approached, did him homage, and said, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” He stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, “I will do it. Be made clean.” His leprosy was cleansed immediately.
Matthew 8:2-3
Dear Father, you will only good things for us like to that leper that is why you sent us your Son Jesus Christ; both Jesus and the leper knew his cleansing was very possible; Jesus made no fanfare except in asking the leper to fulfill the requirements of the Law as the leper simply believed him.
Lord, we are a "walking good news", ourselves a blessing, a grace from you; there is no need for us in trying so hard in touching another person, in making a difference in this world so sick and so stressed; many times we just have to smile and be extra nice to someone, be kind and forgiving.
Let us share your good news in the way we live, at least not like the first martyrs of Rome who were burned as living torches at evening banquets; let us share your good news like Abraham who walked in your presence blamelessly by trusting you, obeying you, loving you. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Memorial of St. Irenaeus, Bishop & Martyr, 28 June 2023
Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> Matthew 7:15-20
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, Quezon City, 20 March 2023.
Thank you very much,
God our loving Father
for the grace of believing,
the beginning of everything
like what Abram experienced
in the first reading today,
"Abram put his faith in the Lord,
who credited it to him as an act
of righteousness" (Gen.15:6).
Only you, O Lord,
would know
what was going inside
the mind and heart
of Abram at that time
when he instantly believed and
trusted in your promise despite
his many questions and clarifications;
later on, St. Paul and St. James
including the author of the Letter
to the Hebrews would cite this
beautiful account of Abram's
humble submission to you,
O God, as a model of faith
and believing in you.
Perhaps, Lord, the problem
with us is that we believe in
everything,
in everyone:
we profess to believe in
you, O God,
the Father almighty
and yet we also believe
in luck,
in occults,
and in so many other things
and persons and yes,
powers and spirits;
we believe in you
but do not
trust you completely;
many times we believe
in what or who would
accommodates us,
pleases us,
and go for us.
Teach us, dear Jesus,
like Abram and St. Irenaeus
who offered his life by standing
on what he truly believed in you;
keep us simple, Jesus,
in looking at the fruits
as the unmistakable proof
of believing in you.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Memorial of St. Cyril of Alexandria, Bishop & Doctor of Church, 27 June 2023
Genesis 13:2, 5-18 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> ><]]]]'> Matthew 7:6, 12-14
Photo by author, the narrow door into the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, the Holy Land, 2019.
Lord Jesus Christ,
teach us to be generous
by choosing to enter
through the narrow gate
that leads to life (Mt. 7:13);
let us realize that generosity
is choosing which is more
difficult, which is less,
forgetting one's self
in order to give others better
chances,
better choices,
better portions.
Like Abraham
in today's first reading,
generosity is being able
to give the best freely
when we completely trust
God's generosity;
God promised to bless
Abraham more abundantly
not only with wealth but
most of all of being the father
of all nations with descendants
more than the dust of earth
after Lot had chosen
the plains of Jordan with
its abundant water
not realizing the wicked
inhabitants of Sodom.
Above all,
generosity is thinking more
of persons than objects
like when Abraham felt the
need for him and Lot to part
ways lest their slaves
quarrel.
Remind us, dear Jesus,
to be always generous
not only with our goods
but most of all with
persons because
we can only find you
and fulfillment
in others we
consider as
brothers and sisters
in you.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Homily on Solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist, 23 June 2023
Isaiah 49:1-6 ><}}}}*> Acts 13:22-26 ><}}}}*> Luke 1:57-66.80
Painting of Zechariah giving name to his son John by Italian painter Riccardo Cessi (1892) from commons.wikimedia.org.
You must have heard a lot of “Dad jokes” from Instagram. Let me now share with you a “Father joke” or priest joke. The world’s first techie was the Jewish priest Zechariah, father of St. John the Baptist because he “asked for a tablet and wrote, ‘John is his name'”.
Ok. It is corny and dry but may I invite you, friends, on something wonderful about this gospel scene in celebration today of the Solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist, the precursor of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Remember how Zechariah was punished by Archangel Gabriel by becoming deaf and mute after he had doubted the good news that he and his wife Elizabeth would soon have a son to be named John. Actually, Zechariah not only doubted but even questioned “how” his barren wife could still bear a child at an old age. As a result, he was forced into silence by the Lord’s angel until everything he had announced was fulfilled.
Photo by author, May 2019, Church of St. John the Baptist, Ein Karem, Israel.
When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her, and they rejoiced with her. When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child, they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother said in reply, “No. He will be called John,” But they answered her, “There is no one among your relatives who has this name.” So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called. He asked for a tablet and wrote, “John is his name,” and all were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke blessing God.
Luke 1:57-64
Imagine the sight narrated to us by St. Luke: everybody so happy, trying to take a piece of action while Zechariah, father of the new-born child, old and deaf and mute was so silent like a nobody in a corner. In the Jewish society, it is the father who gives name to the children, especially to the son; but, due to Zechariah’s condition, nobody bothered to ask him so that their neighbors, like the typical epal or pakialamera we call in Filipino, assumed the role.
But Elizabeth the mother who had gone into a self-imposed silence upon bearing her child, declared their son would be called “John” or Jehohanan that means “God is gracious” or “graciousness of God” in Hebrew.
Finally amid all the noise and talk, Zechariah made the bold move by writing on a tablet “John is his name” to confirm and reaffirm the name given by his wife Elizabeth. It was a crucial moment when Zechariah boldly made a stand about his faith in God, obeying the angel’s instruction to name his son “John”.
Photo by author of the site believed to be the birthplace of St. John the Baptist at the side of the Church of St. John the Baptist in Ein Karem, Israel, May 2019.
What really happened was the assertion of the plan of God when Zechariah faithfully wrote “John is his name”. That’s what amazed the people so that “fear came upon the neighbors for surely the hand of the Lord was with him” (Lk.1:65, 66).
With a single stroke of hand, everyone felt God present among them as they realized something very special with the child. So amazing too as experienced by the people was when Zechariah asserted God’s plan by naming his son “John”, he was finally able to speak and hear again!
Whenever we assert the plan of God in our lives, in our community, in our family and country, new possibilities open as we break free from all obstacles and hindrances that prevent us from growing and maturing, from being joyful and fulfilled.
Whenever we assert the plan of God in our lives, in our community, in our family and country, that is when we “switch on” the grace of God, when we make God’s blessings operable among us and thus we become like John, a precursor of the Lord whose name means “God is gracious”.
Whenever we obey and assert the plan of God in our lives, in our community, in our family and country, that is when we take that leap of faith, believe again and experience God again.
Many times we could not see nor experience nor realize God’s blessings around us and within us because we do not actually believe and trust him. God’s grace is like a “switch” we have to turn on to operate like the electric light or any appliance and gadget. And the good news is, that grace and “switch” is in us already! We just have to switch it on.
Here we find anew the importance of silent, deep prayer.
Photo by author, Anvaya Cove, 19 May 2023.
The imposed silence on Zechariah made him realize how he had been held prisoner by his disappointments and frustrations over a long period of time when God did not hear his prayers for a child. Imagine their shame being childless despite their being good persons and as husband and wife. At that time, childlessness was seen as a punishment from God, a curse. It must have been a strong blow too to Zechariah’s ego as a priest consulted by everyone for advise and prayers yet could not sire his wife with a child!
All those negative feelings of humiliation and dejection could have caused Zechariah’s trust and faith in God to wane that even his priestly duties have become perfunctory that he never saw the tremendous grace and blessing of incensing the Holy of Holies of the temple. Such duty was a pure grace in itself because it happens only once a year during the holiest celebration of the Jewish of Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement. Priests went through a long process of drawing lots on who among them would incense the Holy of Holies because they were so many in number.
Many times we have been like Zechariah, numb and even indifferent to the movements and works of God in our lives following our many failures in life. Though we may be praying with many devotions doing so many religious activities, we have actually become “spiritual dwarfs” who never grew and matured in faith. Our prayers and devotions have become mere “habits hard to break” that are empty and meaningless.
Photo by author taken in May 2022, Parish of St. John the Baptist in Calumpit, the oldest church in Bulacan province.
Today God is calling us to do a Zechariah, to take that bold step of asserting and insisting God’s plan like when Zechariah boldly declared in writing “John is his name”. The first reading beautifully reminds us of one reality we all go through by wrongly thinking God does not care at all for us when nothing seems to happen with our prayers and efforts in life, in our ministry and mission.
Hear me, O coastlands; listen, O distant peoples. The Lord called me from birth; from my mother’s womb he gave me my name. Though I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength, yet my reward is with the Lord, my recompense is with my God.
Isaiah 49:1, 4
We cannot be another John – a graciousness of God within us and for others unless we rediscover the courage and clarity to do a Zechariah by asserting God’s command and plans entrusted specifically to us.
See also that upon regaining his sense of hearing and ability to speak, Zechariah “spoke blessing God” by singing the Benedictus in the following verses. The Benedictus is the morning hymn of praise to God we priest sing or recite daily in praying the Liturgy of the Hours. It mentions the blessedness of God and his many blessings to Israel while towards its end, we find Zechariah sending forth his son John to fulfill his mission from God in preparing the way of Jesus Christ. It is prayed in the morning to make us aware of our mission to prepare the way of the Lord Jesus.
Let us be patient, never lose hope and enthusiasm in doing the works of God even if nothing seems to happen at all. Everything we do matters a lot with God and with those around us as St. Paul explained in the second reading on the role of St. John the Baptist in salvation history.
Let us keep in mind that God remembers and keeps his promise always because he is gracious all the time. The name Zechariah in Hebrew means “God remembers” while Elizabeth is “God has promised”. John, as we have earlier said, means “God is gracious.” Let us do our part to bring Jesus into this world so fragmented and tired. Have a grace-filled weekend! Amen.
Photo by author taken in May 2022, altar of the Parish of St. John the Baptist in Calumpit, the oldest church in Bulacan province.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 20 June 2023
2 Corinthians 8:1-9 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Matthew 5:43-48
Photo by author, Anvaya Cove in Morong, Bataan, January 2023.
How deep are your mysteries,
O Lord Jesus Christ,
so irresistibly true
but at the same time daring
and challenging for us
who are focused
on what we have
without realizing
everything
comes from you.
Many times, dear Lord,
we are like the Corinthians
rich in so many things
yet not convinced
we are so blessed
that we are also afraid
of losing whatever we have;
make us emulate the
solicitude of the Macedonians
in sharing their treasures
with the needy churches
even if they were less affluent
than the Corinthians;
make us realize that true wealth
is freedom from our possessions,
of being free for sharing our gifts
and talents and treasures.
Help us realize, Jesus,
that true excellence in faith
is expressed in charity,
in oneness with those in need.
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 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
Teach us to immerse ourselves
to your mystery of self-denial
and self-sacrifice,
to your process of being
perfect like the Father
in heaven.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday in the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time , Year I, 19 June 2023
2 Corinthians 6:1-10 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Matthew 5:38-42
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD in San Antonio, Zambales, 05 June 2023.
Thank you dear Jesus
for the call to serve you;
thank you Lord for your
trust and belief in us;
thank you for the grace
to respond to your call
in every present moment
because, indeed, every
here and now is the acceptable
time and day of salvation.
Help us dear, Jesus,
as your great apostle St. Paul
appealed to us
in the first reading today,
may we not receive
the grace of God
in vain:
on the contrary, in everything we commend ourselves as ministers of God, through much endurance, in afflictions, hardships, constraints, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, vigils, fasts; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, in a Holy spirit, in unfeigned love, in truthful speech, in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness at the right and the left; through glory and dishonor, insult and praise.
2 Corinthians 6:4-8
Nobody said it to be easy
to follow you as your disciples,
Lord Jesus; you have personally
shown us the way of love and
mercy, peace and kindness
that the world would never
understand; only someone with
a heart like yours, no matter how
imperfect it may be, will find you
and the joy and fulfillment you
give especially when "we are treated
as deceivers and yet are truthful;
as unrecognized and yet acknowledged;
as dying and always rejoicing; as poor
yet enriching many; as having nothing
and yet possessing all things"
(2 Cor. 6:8-10).
Lord Jesus Christ,
let us not give up easily
in the face of trials and
criticisms; please erase
or delete from our minds
and hearts that our efforts to
be like you, to be your witnesses
in the world should be met
with admiration and respect;
let us keep that in mind
so we may not waste time
and energy complaining
and whining with our
sufferings in doing your work;
O Lord Jesus, open our eyes
and our hearts to find you
always in our ministry
and realize that great
privilege of sharing
in your passion, death,
and resurrection daily.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Homily, Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, 16 June 2023
Deuteronomy 7:6-11 ><}}}*> 1 John 4:7-16 ><}}}*> Matthew 11:25-30
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, Quezon City, 20 March 2023.
It has been two months since I celebrated by silver anniversary of ordination to the priesthood. Until now, I still continue to reflect and relish on this immense gift of priesthood, still asking with the same sense of awe and wonder since ordination day, “why me, Lord?”
As I reflected this week the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus which is dedicated for the sanctification of us priests, I have realized how I have remained the same sinful, insecure and fearful man ordained 25 years ago with my six other classmates. As I get closer to becoming a senior citizen in 2025, the more my past sins and stupidities, carelessness and vices are coming back like “Facebook Memory”, reminding me how I have them kept under control, that they could burst and be out in the open if I get careless.
But in the midst of all these darkness and weaknesses still in me, the more I feel so blessed and consoled, and overjoyed by the fact that I still have that same desire to proclaim Jesus Christ to everyone, of how beautiful this life is because of the Lord’s immeasurable love for each of us. Whenever I look back to my past with all my sinfulness and weaknesses amid my getting older, the more I am eager to make Jesus known to everyone while I am still strong and able. There is that feeling of being like St. Paul in saying, “To me, the very least of all the holy ones, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the inscrutable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for all what is the plan of the mystery hidden from ages past in God who created all things” (Eph. 3:8-9).
Or, like in our first reading, I could identify with the Israelites being reminded by Moses in the wilderness that “You are a people sacred to the Lord, your God; he has chosen you from all the nations on the face of the earth to be his people peculiarly his own. It was not because you are the largest of all nations that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you, for you are really the smallest of all nations. It was because the Lord loved you” (Dt.7:6-8).
Beautiful!
Love, love, and love!
That is the “inscrutable riches of Christ”, his immense love for us, dying for us, coming for us even if we are worth nothing at all. And it is because of that love of God for us that we have become so worthy that he gave us even his only Son, Jesus Christ.
That is the essence of this celebration of the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Love.
A reality we all experience and know but could not define for it has no limits. Love can only be described and best expressed in actions than in words.
See this Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus comes right after the Solemnities of the Most Holy Trinity and of the Most Precious Body and Blood of Jesus these past two Sundays. Both celebrations speak of love: the latter is about relationships based on love and the former is about giving of self in love.
Now that we are well into the Ordinary Time of our liturgical calendar, our celebration today tells us to remember throughout this year this most basic truth and reality of our faith – that we are so loved by God.
Beloved, let us love one another because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him.
1 John 4:7-9
Love is symbolized by the heart, the very core of every person. That is why I love the Spanish word for heart which is corazon, evocative of the core, of the deeper self. And of course, love is the very the person of God.
Of all the writers in the Bible, St. John is the one who most frequently used the word “love”, an indication of its centrality in his thoughts. Moreover, he clarified that this love is not human love because its origin, motives and effects are supernatural in nature who is God himself.
Being the very self and also the riches or wealth of Christ, love is for sharing, for giving. Never for keeping. Because of its supernatural nature, love is inexhaustible. The more you give it, the more you share, the more you have it!
In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.
1 John 4:10-12
Photo by Ms. April Oliveros, March 2023 at Mt. Pulag.
Let me repeat that last sentence, “if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.”
The more we love, the more we are able to see and recognize God and other people amidst the darkness around us. Likewise, the more we love the more we see our true selves too despite dark spots within us.
Love is the law of life. To love God by loving ourselves and others is not an obligation imposed from outside. It is the very proof of our faith and union with God in Jesus Christ.
Jesus makes this very clear to us today in the gospel that opens with him praising the simple people, those who were child-like who welcomed him and his preaching. They were the ones Jesus referred at his sermon on the mount, “Blessed are the poor” because love is not an intellectual structure or system to be learned or analyzed. Love is a call to be disarmed of everything we hold onto so we can totally love and follow Jesus Christ.
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
Jesus came to reveal to us God our Father. And to know the Father is not through the head or intelligence but through our heart that is like Christ’s, meek and humble, filled with love.
By becoming human like us in everything except sin, Jesus who is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15) enables us to feel and experience God now closest to us than ever. Most of all, we are able to love and still love especially when the going gets tough and rough.
Here Jesus shows us that love is not absence of sufferings. In fact, love is truest and noblest when there are sacrifices and sufferings as exemplified by Jesus in his life and death on the Cross.
There are times we feel grouchy, so sensitive when people seem to ask even demand so much from us.
From Facebook, 2021.
Sometimes we wonder why are we the ones always giving, always loving, always forgiving. Sometimes we even ask God why are we the ones going through all these trials in life, why are we the ones afflicted with this sickness, why are we given with a special child, why your child had gone ahead of you to eternal life?
So many whys, so many questions.
Rest today in Christ. Feel his embrace. Listen to his silence. Be filled with his love. As you ask Jesus with all those questions, realize that each cry, each lamentation is the “inscrutable riches of Christ”, his very love perfected in your labors and burdens. Amen.
Jesus, meek and humble of heart,
Make my heart like thine!
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday in the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time, Philippine Independence Day, 12 June 2023
2 Corinthians 1:1-7 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> Matthew 5: 1-12
Sunrise at Atok, Benguet by Ms. Jo Villafuerte, 01 September 2019.
Glory and praise to you,
God our loving Father
for this gift of Independence Day;
forgive us for the many times
we have taken it for granted,
when we waste all opportunities
to love and serve our blessed
Motherland.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.
Matthew 5:5
Help us to be "meek" or better,
be "gentle to inherit the land"
by having that inner strength within us
to stand for what is true and just,
for what is good and holy
by first being a good citizen
of this country so hurt,
so forgotten by its own people
since the beginning.
Dearest Jesus,
fill us with encouragement
to never lose hope for our country,
to inspire more people to love
our blessed Motherland by
choosing the right persons to lead us,
those willing to suffer and sacrifice
for the sake of the least and marginalized
and most especially,
to care for this only country we got
you have blessed abundantly
up to future generations of
Filipinos serving fellow Filipinos.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Solemnity of the Body & Blood of Jesus Christ, 11 June 2023
Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16 ><}}}}*> 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 ><}}}}*> John 6:51-58
Photo by author, 2018.
There is a weird British series in Netflix called the Inside Man about a professor of criminology at the death row in the States for the murder of his own wife. He had deep perceptions and analysis of events that people came to see him in prison to consult in locating their missing loved ones. One of them is an American journalist trying to do a story about him while at the same time seeking his expertise in locating her missing friend, a math tutor in England held hostage in the basement by a pastor and his wife.
Though the series is weird, it has some interesting lines about life and death like when the wife of the pastor told him how she had spent the whole afternoon searching the internet how to kill their son’s math tutor they have thrown in their basement. The wife found it unusual there was nothing in Google that tells of ways of killing another person (so weird, is it not?); however, she was surprised that almost everything she had found in the internet and social media was mainly about sex as he teased her husband that it is not love that makes the world go round but sex!
Yes, it is very funny and weird but her observations seem to be true because nobody in his right mind would ever want to destroy life except terrorists and lunatics. People generally love life that our social media are saturated with contents that try to show how we can enjoy this life through sex, food, and travels in that order. Also with cars for boys aged 5 to 95.
Photo by author, March 2020.
Of course, we all know that is not what life is all about that is filled with mysteries.
Last Sunday we reflected in the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity that mysteries are not problems to be solved but realities to embrace to discover life’s truest meaning found in our relationships with God and with others
This Sunday we celebrate the second most important doctrine and mystery of our faith, the Incarnation of the Son of God Jesus Christ. It is a mystery not only how the Son of God became human like us in everything except sin but most of all, of how he has given us his very flesh and blood as our food and drink in this journey called life.
Jesus said to the crowds: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” The Jews quarreled among themselves saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”
John 6:51-53, 55
My favorite front page photo during the Delta outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic published by the Inquirer on 20 August 2021. So evocative of the truth of Jesus himself being our true food and drink – and medicine.
As we have reflected last Sunday, a mystery is a divine truth revealed by God we learn through the gift of faith. It is non-logical but not illogical. It can be explained and understood but not fully.
Here in the mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ we call as the Eucharist, the mystery of our Triune God becomes a reality in our life truly present in perceptible signs of bread and wine. From relating, we now come to the mystery of sharing of our selves like God who shared us his Son Jesus Christ who in turn gave himself for us on the Cross that continues today in the Holy Eucharist as his everlasting sign of his loving presence and service.
See how Jesus spoke clearly in this passage of his giving us his physical body and blood that to receive it, we have to actually eat it too.
First we notice is how in other parts of the New Testament that the term soma is used to refer to the Eucharist which is the Greek word for “body” that may have symbolic meanings; but in this passage, Jesus used the word sarx which means “flesh” in Greek that means only one thing, the corporeal reality of his physical body. Jesus is telling us in no uncertain terms in this passage after the miracle feeding of more than 5000 in the wilderness that he himself is truly and really present as flesh and blood in the Eucharist. Recall that at his Prologue to his gospel, John also used the same term sarx in declaring “the Word became flesh” (Jn.1:14) to correct misunderstandings and doubts that were already developing during the first century of Christianity regarding the physical Incarnation of Jesus the Eternal Word and his true presence in the Eucharist.
Second term used by Jesus four times as he emphasized the reality of his Body and Blood in the Eucharist is the word trogein which in Greek means “to munch” or “bite”; the other Greek word for the verb to eat is phragein which evokes many symbolic meanings like “digesting” a book or “assimilating” the culture. Again, when Jesus said we have to eat his flesh and drink his blood, he truly meant himself as a true food and true drink to nourish and sustain us in this life and hereafter.
Photo by Kuya Ruben, 04 August 2022.
There lies the beauty of this mystery of the Eucharist: Jesus himself is the one we receive, who comes to us personally, physically to be one with us in our very selves. We do not have to wait for death and be in heaven to experience fullness of life in Christ because he comes truly to us while in this life when we receive him in the Holy Communion.
St. Paul reminds us in the second reading with his rhetorical questions, “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break: is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Cor. 10:16) of this reality of Christ’s presence in us and among us. He was not waiting for answers of yes or no but posed those questions to affirm the very truth we all know that Jesus is really present in us and among us especially when we are broken like the Israelites in the first reading. This is where the mystery deepens, becomes more real and more fascinating. Jesus the Son of God emptying himself to be like us in everything except sin so that we may become like him, holy and divine.
This I have learned in my two years of being a chaplain in the hospital. Admittedly, it is difficult especially for me as I could easily be carried away by emotions in seeing the sick and suffering while at the same time, can often have my stomach overturned by sights of blood and wounds of others. But, there is always that indescribable feelings of joy and fulfillment after visiting and anointing our sick patients.
Photo by Kuya Ruben, June 2022.
I have no claims to holiness as I am a sinner too but the Eucharist has become most truest to me these past two years in the hospital and university as well as I get into contact with the sick and the students. When I touch patients to pray over them or help in moving them, when students cry to me or ask for hugs after confessions, they all flash to me during the consecration as I raise and say, This is my Body… This is my Blood. Jesus is most truest in the Eucharist when we too imitate him in giving ourselves to others to be broken and shared.
The Eucharist is the most wonderful gift of God to us when we receive his Son Body and Blood to make us strong and holy like him in this life.
That is why we have to go to Mass every Sunday. That is why a priest has to celebrate Mass daily for the people to be strengthened like him in this journey of life filled with trials and sufferings. That is why Moses kept on reminding the Israelites of their many hardships from their exodus into their wandering in the wilderness. That is why this coming Friday, we cap these three weeks of transition into the Ordinary Time with the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, another mystery of Christ truly among us and within us as we experience his love most truly right here in our hearts.
What an awesome God we have indeed who has become so small and so simple like us so we can be great like him. Like the simple bread and wine, in the Mass through the Holy Spirit, they become Christ’s Body and Blood. Let’s make it happen this Sunday in our celebration of the Mass. Amen.Have a blessed week ahead.
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