The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday in the First Week of Advent, 06 December 2023 Isaiah 25:6-10 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> Matthew 15:29-37
Photo by author, St. Scholastica Retreat House, Baguio City, 23 August 2023.
God our loving Father, may we go back to you our very life; forgive us who have easily forgotten you especially after these difficult years of the pandemic; now that COVID has waned and life is back to "normal", we are back to our unholy ways.
May we always search you, Father, and dwell in you; destroy the “veil that veils all peoples, the web that is woven over all nations” (Is.25:7) that mislead and imprison us with false hopes in superficial relationships and materialistic briberies of this world.
Let us go "hungry and thirsty" to realize the most essential in life are you, dear God and the people who truly care for us and love us like our family and friends.
Like the crowd who have followed Jesus in the wilderness for three days with nothing to eat: they experienced advent, your coming, O God, when Jesus fed them after they were finally disposed to desire the longings of their soul than of their bodies; it was only then when Jesus fed them through the miraculous multiplication of the loaves of bread for the second time.
May the darkness and gloom that envelop us this season of Advent like the wars in Gaza and Ukraine and other military show of force by other nations and groups elsewhere, the barbaric terror attack last Sunday in Marawi and the frequent earthquakes we have been experiencing along with our other personal crises dispose us to desiring you alone, God our Father, so we may finally enter your heavenly banquet in the Holy Eucharist with “rich food and choice wines” (Is.25:6). Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II First Sunday in the Season of Advent, Cycle B, 03 December 2023 Isaiah 63:16-17, 19; 64:2-7 ><}}}*> 1 Corinthians 1:3-9 ><}}}*> Mark 13:33-37
Photo by author, National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, 08 December 2022.
I was literally waiting the “advent” or coming of my doctors last Thursday as I wrote this homily for this first Sunday of Advent, the new year in our Church calendar. It was a hazy morning with some drizzle when I arrived for my doctors’ appointments.
But, it was a graceful moment too as I rediscovered the virtue of patience by being a patient myself again.
Sick people are called patients precisely because healing requires a lot of patience. Tons of patience in fact, especially if we are incapacitated or too weak to move. And the most difficult part of patience is waiting, from the simple waiting for doctors and nurses, waiting for the end of the day to waiting for our complete healing until we are well again.
Photo by author, First Sunday of Advent 2021, Basic Education Department, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City.
The difficult part of waiting is that we are so conscious of time which we find to be flowing so slowly, making us irritable even doubtful if ever the one we are awaiting would ever come or materialize at all. That is why patience has become a virtue so rare these days.
Many people reject, even abhor patience in this age of instants when everybody wants to bear fruit but resent how it takes time to ripen. We want to have everything now na! We do not want to wait because we are no longer contented with whatever comes to us so that we advance our salaries and buy things in credit cards. Worst is this notorious practice of advancing public holidays to other dates closest to weekends to have “long weekend” celebrations. Even Christmas is not spared from our impatience! See how malls and local government buildings, homes and radio stations could not wait after the Halloween with all the lighting of Christmas trees and decors everywhere.
Unknown to us, we are robbing ourselves of very essence of the event of Christ’s coming to us when we manipulate time and its natural flow. When we lose patience, we stop waiting, then we miss the essence of life, of persons, of everything because we think waiting is being empty.
That is not true! Waiting is never empty. On the contrary, waiting is actually fullness because the very fact that we wait means we have.
Photo by author, lanterns for sale in San Fernando, Pampanga, November 2020.
When we were growing up, we loved waiting for dad’s coming home from work. We were filled with joy the moment we heard jeepneys stopping, hoping it was dad. Even if he would come home later in the evening when it was dark, we always felt so sure and excited of his arrival with pasalubong because he was always in our hearts.
That is the greatest joy of patient waiting – it is fullness of love due to our relationships. People who can’t wait, who are impatient are often loners, even complainers because they always feel empty within without any regard at all for relationships. Most likely, they have no relationships at all!
Photo by author, lanterns for sale in San Fernando, Pampanga, November 2020.
The first reading reminds us of this great beauty of patient waiting, of already having God himself within us with Isaiah calling God “our father, our redeemer” that both indicate kinship and relationships with him.
You, Lord, are our father, our redeemer you are named forever.
Isaiah 63:16
Very notable is the word “redeemer” that is go’el in the Hebrew language – the family relative who pays off debts or redeems a foreclosed property so that their family or tribe could keep it.
That is exactly what Jesus came for – to redeem us, to ransom us from our debt we could not repay God which is love. By dying on the Cross, Jesus saved us, redeemed us from the clutches of death and evil to be filled with life again. And that is why he is coming again to ultimately vanish all evil and sin to bring us to new heaven and new earth.
Physically we do not see Jesus but realistically, spiritually, we are certain he is with us, within us. Therefore, our waiting for him is never empty but always full of Jesus precisely due to the relationship we have in him and with him.
Photo by author, Advent 2019 in our former parish.
Waiting for Jesus is an expression of our faith. And we wait with him, just like the apostles in the agony of the garden. Notice how Mark narrated to us this calls for being watchful by Jesus; unlike Matthew, Mark mentions the time of Christ’s coming – at night.
Jesus said to his disciples: “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come… whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!'”
Mark 13:33, 35-37
This may be a minute detail for us but not for Mark who was the first to write the gospel of Jesus which happens to be the shortest and most concise. Night time in the Bible evokes darkness when evil seems to dominate the time which we continue to think of in the present.
But, we are children of light as St. Paul reminds us in one of his letters. And this Sunday he assures us in the second reading that “God is faithful” who “called us to fellowship” in him through Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:9). Let us not be afraid of the dark and long waiting for Jesus because he had conquered it when he walked on water, when he stilled the storm in the sea, when he rose again on Easter. Do not forget too that Jesus was born during the darkest night of the year, a reminder and assurance to us that no matter how dark our lives may be, Jesus is near, Jesus is here. So, have no fear in him, our brother and kin who had saved us!
Photo by author, Advent 2019 in our former parish.
Watch and be on guard on Christ’s coming and presence in darkness because too often, we are the ones who miss the Lord. Keep in mind that it is at night, it is in darkness when it is best to believe in the light. Here, we again find that waiting even in darkness in never empty because that is when we are so sure there would be great light bursting forth soon as Isaiah had prophesied that was eventually fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Sometimes, we get bored even impatient or sleepy waiting for Jesus like the five wise virgins who brought extra oil waiting for the groom to arrive. The key is to remain in Jesus, only Jesus, always Jesus as we pray like John the Beloved, Maranatha, “Come, Lord Jesus!” Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday in the Thirty-fourth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 27 November 2023
Daniel 1:1-6, 8-20 ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> Luke 21:1-4
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD in Tagalag, Valenzuela City, 17 November 2023.
Praise and glory to you,
our loving Father!
Thank you
in bringing us closer to you
in Jesus everyday
especially in this final stretch
of our church calendar
as we come to prepare for Christmas soon.
But, rather than focusing
on the outside appearances
and material inclinations
of our Christmas feelings,
teach us to empty ourselves
to be filled by you in Jesus Christ!
Let us be poor, O God!
Let us embrace poverty
and simplicity
to experience you,
your coming,
your presence
in Jesus,
our Emmanuel!
Let us treasure poverty
for it is our true wealth
in this life
like that “poor old widow”
who gave everything she had
into the temple collection box;
let us realize that it is in poverty
that we find true wisdom
and strength
like what Daniel and his companions
have taught the chief chamberlain
of King Nebuchadnezzar
(Daniel 1:11-20).
Let us be poor, O God,
like Jesus Christ to find
power and strength in weakness,
glory and honor in humility,
and life in death.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus, King of the Universe, Cycle A, 26 November 2023
Ezekiel 14:11-12, 15-17 ><}}}*> 1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 28 ><}}}*> Matthew 25:31-46
Detail of Jesus Christ at the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey; photo from wikipedia.org.
We now come to the final Sunday celebration of the year, the Solemnity of Christ the King. See how we close the liturgical calendar celebrating Christ’s kingship, only to open it anew next Sunday with Advent Season in preparation for Christmas, the birth of the King of kings.
Far from the connotations of power and authority of kings of the world, Christ’s kingship is more pastoral in nature by taking its cue from the image of a shepherd prevalent in the ancient Middle Eastern culture. In fact, Jesus is more perfect than any shepherd being the Good Shepherd himself, the fulfillment of the promise of God we heard in the first reading who would come to personally tend his flock.
As I prayed over our readings of this Solemnity which is one of the youngest feasts we have in the church at less than 100 years old since its introduction in 1925 by Pope Pius XI, my thoughts wandered during that first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 when churches were closed and public Masses were prohibited.
Photo by Ms. Ria De Vera, Christ the King celebration in our former parish during pandemic, November 2020.
Right on the first Sunday when lockdown was imposed, we started our weekly “motorized procession” of the Blessed Sacrament around our former parish in Bulacan. I was so moved at the piety of our parishioners who knelt on the streets whenever we passed by.
We continued the practice until the Solemnity of Christ the King on that year of 2020. As usual, the people knelt on the streets when we passed by with the Blessed Sacrament. Even passengers of buses and other vehicles that chanced upon our procession paid homage to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
Photo by Ms. Anne Ramos, March 2020.
Looking back to those days during my prayer periods this week, I realized that it was on that first year of the pandemic when we had the most meaningful liturgical celebrations in the Church when people felt intensely the need for God, when they clearly had Jesus alone as King and Lord.
Everyone’s faith was put to test as we were all gripped in fears and uncertainties with the deadly effects of COVID virus. Almost every family prayed the Rosary daily or nightly, so many trying to sneak inside churches to attend Mass celebrations. Of course, there were still some who went on their evil ways during those difficult times with the tokhang still implemented while those in power shamelessly grabbed the opportunity to rake in millions of pesos from corruption at the expense of the poor and suffering people.
When we recall that year 2020 of the pandemic, it was at that time we experienced Christ’s Second Coming as everyday was a judgment day, the end of the world — though not entirely fearful because it was also during that time we felt closest to God in Jesus our Lord and King!
Behind all those acts of kindness and goodness of the people are the immense love and mercy of God in Jesus Christ we have experienced in the recovery of infected loved ones or in the simple negative results of our COVID tests.
It was during those days when we experienced and felt Jesus truly present in us and among us that we simply radiated him on many occasions. That first year of the pandemic proved to many of us that being good, being kind, being helpful would never destroy nor diminish our person but had actually strengthened us as individuals and as a community. Recall how the “community pantry” caught the whole country on fire in just a matter of weeks when a young lady started it in their neighborhood at Maguinhawa Street, UP Village in Quezon City.
When families and communities banded together in love and kindness to help the poor and needy, the sick and those who have lost loved ones, the experience did not pulverize them but actually crystallized them as family or friends or neighbors. Walang nadurog sa pagdadamayan bagkus nabuo ang lahat ng nagtulungan!
That is the kingship of Jesus Christ. His power and authority were never meant to destroy us. In fact, when he came to us, he showed us and made us experience that the power and authority of his kingship is found not in force but in love and mercy that sadly many see these days as weaknesses.
Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Matthew 25:37-40
Photo by Ms. Marivic Tribiana, April 2020.
Christ the King today reminds us that true authority and power lead to humility which is more than being lowly but also of seeing the other person as another human in need, vulnerable and weak. Being humble is not only accepting our humanity but recognizing the humanity of those around us who need to be respected, loved and cared too.
Moreover, Christ the King reminds us that whatever authority and power we have is a sharing in God’s power and authority; hence, these must be used to help others, not lord over them. True power and authority lead to compassion, enabling us to feel the sufferings of others that move us to do something for them like Jesus.
This is what St. Paul reminds us in the second reading: the kingship of Jesus Christ – his power and authority – are a sharing in God. Unlike the worldly kings, Christ’s kingship is intimately related to the rule of God and ultimately subjected to the Father that is why it is transformative and performative to borrow one of Pope Benedict XVI’s favorite terms.
Artwork by Fr. Marc Ocariza based on Ms. Tribiana’s photo, April 2020.
The Kingship of Jesus Christ is the power to love, the most potent force in the universe. Yes, there are still evil and sin in the world today but soon, they shall be finally removed in Christ’s return as king. The present moment calls us to see Jesus in everyone we meet so that we act like him in loving service to others.
Notice how Jesus ended today his teachings at the temple area with a parable of the judgment of nations where people are separated according to their deeds. At the end of time, that is what Jesus will ask and judge us: how much have we loved like him? What have we done in this world, in life?
For us to better answer that, let us keep in mind what Jesus had done and still does to us and for us, of how much he loves us as our King and Protector. Recall the countless times he poured us his love for us. The moment we see his kingship in God’s way, then we follow Christ’s power and authority in the name of love and mercy, kindness and gentleness. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead!
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, Religious, 17 November 2023
Wisdom 13:1-9 <'[[[[>< <'[[[[>< + ><]]]]'> ><]]]]'> Luke 17:26-37
Photo by author, St. Scholastica Retreat House, Baguio City, 23 August 2023.
Arouse us, dear God,
our loving Father,
awake us from our sleep,
let us open our eyes,
our hearts,
our very selves
to your divine presence
around us and within us;
let us bask in this most
lovely divine milieu
so many have tried so hard
to negate and discard
as not true.
How true are your words
again this day from the
Book of Wisdom:
All men were by nature foolish who were in ignorance of God, and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing him who is, and from studying the works did not discern the artisan.
Wisdom 13:1
How foolish have we become
to reject you, to abandon you,
to not believe nor recognize
you, O God, who can be gleaned
from nature and creation,
most especially in our studies
and search for truth and meaning;
but twice foolish are those who
believe only in themselves,
playing gods, worshipping their
body and beauty,
amazed with their strength and power
full of conceit and self-centeredness
(cf. Wisdom 13:2-4).
Keep us simple, Father,
to find you in little things,
in the unseen realities of this life
that point us to your divine milieu;
let us not wait for that sign
of gathering of vultures
when we lay wasted,
and dead to sin
and blindness.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday in the Thirty-Second Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 16 November 2023
Wisdom 7:22-8:1 <*(((>< + ><)))*> = <*(((>< + ><)))*> Luke 17:20-25
Photo by Dra. Eunice Nikki A. Vergara, MD in Victoria, Laguna, 2020.
Your words are so lovely
today, O God our Father,
citing to us your many attributes
as Wisdom, "a spirit intelligent,
holy, unique, manifold, subtle"
and some 30 others that beautifully
present to us your transcendence
and immanence not only around us
but most of all within us!
What I like most, O God,
are these:
For Wisdom is mobile beyond all motion, and she penetrates and pervades all things by reason of her purity. And she, who is one, can do all things, and renews everything while herself perduring; and passing into holy souls from age to age, she produces friends of God and prophets.
Wisdom 7:24, 27
You are so great and awesome,
dear God, yet so close to us your
mere creatures like our breath,
so personal indeed as a friend,
so loved and always forgiven,
renewed and made pure
in your presence.
Forgive us for those moments
when like the Pharisees in
the gospel continue to ask you
for visible signs of the Kingdom of God;
we just have to feel you inside us,
we just have to recognize your dwelling
in us in Jesus Christ,
we just have to open our selves,
our minds and our hearts
to your little comings
until we have grown so big
in you and your presence,
in your love and mercy.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Thirty-Second Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 14 November 2023
Wisdom 2:23-3:9 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Luke 17:7-10
Photo by author, Ubihan Island, Obando, Bulacan, 31 December 2021.
Your words today, O God,
remind me of your fidelity,
of your being always faithful
even beyond death.
How reassuring are your words
in the first reading of your great love
for us, "forming us to be imperishable;
the image of your own nature.
But by the envy of the Devil,
death entered the world,
but the souls of the just are
in the hand of God,
no torment shall touch them"
(Wisdom 2:23-24, 3:1).
From the very beginning,
you have assured us of
grace and mercy;
keep us faithful to you always,
seeing everything we have
is a blessing by living a life in faith
in Jesus Christ which is
a life of love
too!
What an honor to serve you,
dear Father, in love and fidelity;
like those servants in the parable,
may we seek only Jesus,
always Jesus so that
in the end of our lives,
we may truly know you
by being with you
in Heaven in all eternity.
Amen.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 10 November 2023
Lady of Sorrows from a triptych by the Master of the Stauffenberg Altarpiece, Alsace c. 1455; photo from fraangelicoinstitute.com.
There’s a beautiful interplay between crying and living. And dying.
When we were growing up as kids, siesta was obligatory at home. It was a moral ought that my mom would tell us stories in bed to fall asleep, always holding a copy of the Reader’s Digest with its beautiful pictures and illustrations.
One siesta time, the image of a newborn baby being delivered caught my eyes from the copy of the Reader’s Digest my mom was holding. Then the next illustration struck me – I was about four or five years old – as it showed the doctor held the baby upside down, crying so hard after being spanked by the doctor! My mom explained to me that’s the way it is with babies when they are born: if they cry, that means they are alive but if they do not cry, the doctor had to spank the baby in order to cry and be alive.
That was my first lesson about life strongly etched in my mind. As I grew up and matured, especially after being ordained as priest, I realized deeper meanings from that simple explanation of my mom: crying is part of our lives. If we get hurt, if we suffer, if we cry, that means we are still alive.
Many times in life for us to live, we have to kick hard and cry so hard enough like newborn babies to breathe and be alive. It is in crying we realize so many things in life, about real friendships and relationships, about joy and sadness. There are times we cry not only when in pain and agony but even when we experience joy. In fact, our most profound experiences in life are best expressed with tears when we cry, best when in silence and alone.
But, death had also taught me something so amazing and lovely about crying. I consider it as the other side of crying. And of life.
Photo by author, Baguio City, August 2023.
It happened when my best friend, Gil died in 2015. He asked me in February that year to pray for his long-delayed medical checkup; that same night, he called me again that his doctor had him confined for suspected cancer. After a series of tests, he had radiation then surgery after which followed his series of chemotherapy.
Gil cried a lot when diagnosed with cancer. He was angry and bitter with his sickness. And for a good reason because among us from high school seminary, he was the healthiest and most health conscious! I knew it because when news of that mad cow disease from Europe broke in early 2000, he stopped eating beef even burgers!
In mid September, her Ate Lily called me that doctors had told them Gil’s cancer cells were very aggressive and would have a short time to live. It was a Sunday and we his friends rushed to Makati Med that afternoon. I came to visit him for another three days before he died early Sunday morning, September 22, 2015.
It was during his final week in the hospital when he asked me for a “permission to die” (see our blog, https://lordmychef.com/2023/11/08/giving-permission-to-die/). Gil simply told me he was ready to go. His face was radiant and light, he was so at peace on his hospital bed as he gave me other final instructions for his kids and ex-wife.
I could not say anything except cried. And I cried so hard, especially as I anointed him with holy oil and prayed the commendation to the dying. It was from Gil that I realized the dying receive that special grace of knowing the end, possibly even of seeing heaven that is why they are always so composed like Jesus Christ on the Cross on Good Friday. I told him how I wish I could have that same courage in facing death when my time comes. He assured me God would give me that grace too.
From that experience, I realized when people get sick, they cry because that’s when death faced them. Who would not cry and be terrified? We their friends and family in turn, console them. The inverse happens when they approach death: they are so composed, we their family and friends are the ones crying. And the one dying are the ones consoling us! When they die, we cry. Why? Because we do not know what happens next, of what lies ahead when our loved ones are gone. Paano na tayong naiwan? That’s the saddest and scariest part of life when someone dear to us dies.
In 1999, St. John Paul II wrote a letter to his fellow elderly where he said that the grace of getting old is to be able to look back to the past with gratitude and to look forward to the future with joyful anticipation of eternity. That holy Pope must have been seeing heaven while still here on earth!
Photo by author, National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, 06 November 2023.
It is in death when we see its strange contrast with life, of how when we were born, we cried and kicked hard to be alive while those around us rejoiced with the gift of life; when we die, we do not cry because we are already joyful with the coming bliss while those around us are filled with grief and sadness, crying not only with our demise but because they do not know what lies ahead.
In both instances, we find the grace of God so pronounced, so present that indeed, St. Paul was absolutely right:
None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.
Romans 14:7-8
When we were growing up, there was a baby shampoo that advertised itself so mild that would not hurt your eyes, marketing itself with the words “No more tears”. It also played a commercial of a young boy going to shampoo his hair declaring, “a man should not cry” to bolster that old belief that crying is weakness.
At the sermon on the mount, Jesus taught us one of the beatitudes as “Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Mt. 5:4). I love using this gospel in funeral Masses. Where is the blessedness of mourning the death of a loved one? What is good with mourning, with crying?
Answer: love.
Blessed are those who mourn because they have love in their hearts. We cry at the death of a beloved because we love them. But, the greatest blessing we have when we mourn is from the love we have experienced from the one who had died. It is said that “if you have love in your heart, you have been blessed by God; if you have been loved, you have been touched by God.”
We are blessed when we mourn, when we cry at the death of a beloved because they loved us, they gave us a glimpse of God, they made us experience God’s love in their love! Is it not a tremendous blessing indeed?
We are so blessed these days that crying is no longer considered as a sign of weakness but actually of strength – the strength to live and the strength to forge on in life after the death of a beloved. Cheers to our tears that keep us alive! Have a wonderful weekend!
Photo by author, National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, Valenzuela City, 2021.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday in the Thirty-first Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 06 November 2023
Romans 11:29-36 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> Luke 14:12-14
Photo by author, St. Scholastica Retreat Center, Baguio City, August 2023.
Dearest God our loving Father,
I join St. Paul today in praising
you through Jesus Christ your Son
who made us experience personally
your transcendence and
immanence:
"Oh, the depth of the riches
and wisdom and knowledge
of God! How inscrutable
are his judgments and how
unsearchable his ways!
For who has known the mind
of the Lord or who has been
his counselor? Or who has
given him anything that he may
be repaid?
For from him and through him
and for him are all things.
To God be glory forever.
Amen."
(Romans 11:33-36)
Photo by author, Katmon Nature Sanctuary & Beach Resort, Infanta, Quezon, 04 March 2023.
Forgive me, O God,
in always trying to reduce you
to our human level when I try
to explain how and why things
are happening in my life,
in the world;
you are simply beyond and
transcendent, surpassing all
we can think about you -
the moment we realize a truth
about you, it is never enough;
at the same time, you are
immanent, totally present in
everything you have made,
yet still, so close and so far
at the same time!
Deepen my faith in you,
Father through Jesus Christ;
let me trust you as St. Paul
assured us today that your gifts
and call are permanent and
irrevocable (Romans 11:29);
let me follow Christ's admonition
in the gospel to think more of
others than of myself especially
the poor, the crippled, the lame,
the blind and those who could
never repay me (Luke 14:13);
let me realize that it is in
sharing your gifts to me with
others that I am truly enriched
not when I insist on my own interests.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Sunday in the Thirtieth Week of Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 29 October 2023
Exodus 22:20-26 ><}}}}*> 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10 ><}}}}*> Matthew 22:34-40
Photo by Dra. Mai Dela Peña, Mt. Carmel, Israel, 2017.
The enemies of Jesus continued with their barrage of questions to trick him into saying something that could lead to his arrest and execution. After failing last Sunday, the Pharisees sent today an expert – a “scholar of the law” – to test him anew with the question:
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:36-40
For the second straight Sunday, Jesus not only responded to his enemies’ malicious questions with brief and brilliant answers but also taught them, including us today, with important lessons on discipleship.
Once again, Jesus is inviting us to have a wholistic view of life centered on God by healing the divisions within our hearts that are reflected in our broken relationships as individuals and family, church and community, and nation. How often do we reveal that same division in our hearts whenever we ask that same question 2000 years ago by the Pharisee, “which of the commandment in the law is the greatest”?
Photo by author, view from temple of Jerusalem, May 2017.
After receiving the Ten Commandments from God through Moses at Mount Sinai, the Jews dissected them into 613 instructions with 248 of these as positive laws every individual “should do” and the other 365 as negative laws everyone “should not do”.
Naturally, it was very difficult – if not impossible – for them to remember and observe these 613 precepts to guide them in their daily living so that their rabbis devised ways in which the Law could be prioritized with some categorized as “important” or “heavy” that should be followed more than those considered as “less important” or “lighter” in gravity. For example, laws pertaining to persons like parents are more important than those concerning animals that included about bird’s nest (Dt. 22:6-7)! Problem with this was when they circumvented the Law to give priority to lesser things that disregard the more important ones as Jesus pointed out so often to their religious leaders who have emphasized the sabbath by neglecting the human person like the sick.
Photo by author, St. Anne’s Church, Jerusalem, Israel, May 2017.
Another solution they have devised was to establish summary statements of the Law that could help put it all in perspective like “whatever is hateful to you, don’t do it to others”. Again, like in categorizing the Law, putting them into perspectives eventually led to their lost of essence because in our human experience, when many factors are weighed into our daily life, the way we see things are often narrowed and dimmed; then we begin making excuses and alibis to be exempted from our religious instructions. That is why Jesus “leveled up” the people’s perspectives in their views of the Law by telling them to shift their sights to higher level not just its letters but its spirit and source – God himself like the love enemies and the beatitudes.
Here we find the beauty and nobility of Jesus Christ’s answer to the scholar’s question by leading us all into the very essence of the Law which is love who is God too! Eventually on the Cross on Good Friday just like during the sermon on the mount, Jesus would show to everyone he was not only the fulfillment of the Law but the Law himself when he gave himself in love – to God our Father and to us his brothers and sisters. Today he deepens his teaching last Sunday that inasmuch as we have to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s like paying of taxes, then, we have to give our total self, our whole heart to God because that is what is due to God, our Maker and Master. To give our hearts to God is to always choosing to love God and love others as one loves one’s self.
Photo by author, garden beside St. Anne’s Church in Jerusalem, Israel, May 2017.
The moment we start categorizing or putting God’s laws into perspectives, into our own points of view, then we deviate from God himself and his plans. When we divide, separate and split the laws of God to find which could best suit us, then it becomes a DIY (do-it-yourself) Christianity where we choose laws applicable to us and disregard the rest we find difficult, calling them as outdated and conservative like divorce, contraceptives, and abortion.
In summarizing the commandments into the law of love, Jesus is inviting us today to welcome him into our hearts to let him alone dwell and reign over us so that when we are confronted with any issue and dilemma or confusion in life, we resolve them in the light of Christ which is always love. Letting Jesus reign in our hearts is choosing to find him in the other person we must respect and love and care.
Photo by author at Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, May 2017.
To choose Jesus and his love is to always choose the human person above material things and even with one’s self. And to choose Jesus and his love is choosing his Cross too because he said there is no greater love than to offer one’s self for another. The true sign that we have really loved is when we love somebody more than ourselves like Jesus!
It is difficult and even insane as St. Paul declared “we are fools for Christ” (1 Cor. 4;10) because anyone who loves like Jesus who loves God with one’s total self and loves others like one’s self is crazy in the world’s point of view and standard. It has always been the way of Christianity ever since, always suspected as a threat to the ways of the world because the ways of Christ and his disciples are opposite the ways of the world as St. Paul explained to the Thessalonians “who received the word in great affliction, with joy in the Holy Spirit” (1 Thes. 1:6).
When I was still a young priest giving Marriage Encounter weekends to couples, I used to ask them this question: when husband and wife have an LQ or “lover’s quarrel”, who should make the first move to say sorry and be reconciled?
Many couples laugh, saying it should be the man first while men claim it must be ladies first. Still others reason out it should be the one who had sinned.
My answer: whoever has more love to give must be the first to make the move to reconcile because whoever has more love should love more!
The more we love, the more we are able to love because love is infinite like God. It is the only thing that will remain in the end because God is love. His laws are his expressions and manifestations of his love expressed in his compassion being a personal God relating with us through men and women around us (first reading). His laws fulfilled as love in the person of Jesus Christ light and guide our path in life often darkened by sin and imperfections. Choose love always and you shall never get lost! Amen. Have a lovely long weekend!
Photo by author, Pater Noster Church, Jerusalem, the Holy Land, May 2019.
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