God’s Kingdom is for children

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Feast of the Sto. Niño, Cycle B, 21 January 2024
Isaiah 9:1-6 ><}}}*> Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-18 ><}}}*> Mark 10:13-16

*Photo by Ms. Anne Ramos, 22 March 2020 in Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria,Bulacan during our “libot” of the Blessed Sacrament at the start of the COVID-19 lockdown.*

Our Lord Jesus Christ’s attitude to children is perfectly clear in our gospel this Sunday, “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it” (Mk 10:15).

Being like a child is actually the main teaching of Jesus Christ who came to us precisely as one. Right at his infancy like most babies these days, Jesus faced a lot of great risks of being harmed or even getting killed.

See how Jesus insisted in all his teachings on this need to become like a child, to go back to one’s beginnings in order to get into God’s kingdom which is actually him, his very person. Keep in mind that the kingdom of God is not a territorial domain but the very person of Jesus Christ himself. It is from this fact we realize that being a child as taught by Jesus is a mystery that can never be explained nor solved in our minds and mental faculties. This we find in that occasion when Nicodemus, a Pharisee, came to Jesus hiding in the darkness of the night to discuss the kingdom of God. When Jesus told him of the need to be born from above (or, be born again in earlier translations) which is to become like a child, he thought it to be in the literal manner.

Jesus chided Nicodemus by saying, “You are the teacher of Israel and you do not understand this?” (Jn. 3:9-10). It was not sarcasm nor an insult by Jesus but a clarification to everyone including us today that being a child to enter the kingdom of God is a mystery we have to embrace and experience and feel in the heart not deduced in the mind.

And this is exactly what the Feast of the Sto. Niño is all about that we celebrate every third Sunday in January.

The Vatican has given us this special celebration as an extension of the Christmas season in recognition of the great role played by the image of Sto. Niño Magellan gifted Queen Juana of Cebu in 1521.

After leaving our shores after Magellan was killed in Mactan, the Spaniards returned in 1565 under Miguel Lopez de Legazpi to claim our islands for the King of Spain. Upon their arrival in Cebu, they found the Sto. Niño enshrined in a house of worship prominently displayed as the main God of the natives along with their other idols and gods. Historians say the people of Cebu during those years between 1521 to 1565 have found the Sto. Niño as the most powerful and effective in granting their prayers for children (fertility), rains and bountiful harvests that rightly it was the Sto. Niño who actually conquered the Philippines that we have become the only Christian nation in this part of the world. In those 44 years after Magellan and his men left the Philippines, the Sto. Niño had remained and stayed with the natives keeping them safe and secured all those years until the Spaniards returned to be colonized through Legazpi.

What a beautiful imagery of the Sto. Niño staying behind with our forefathers conquering them not with swords nor force but with love and mercy, and youthfulness of the Child Jesus!

*Photo from https://santoninodecebubasilica.org/chronicles/viva-pit-senor-viva-senor-santo-nino/*

Recall how last Sunday we have reflected the words stay and remain when Andrew asked Jesus where he was staying: to stay, to dwell mean more than its spatial nature as a place or location but also in a deeper sense, a communion. It is in dwelling in Jesus who is the kingdom of God that we belong, we become a part of that kingdom.

When Jesus spoke of “being born from above” to Nicodemus, he was not only referring to the Sacrament of Baptism but to the very fact how he as the Christ from the very start has always dwelled and remained in the Father.

Three days after being found in the temple in Jerusalem when Jesus was 12 years old, he told Mary his Mother, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”(Lk.2:49). What a beautiful expression of that union in “being in my Father’s house” to show us this mystery of Jesus being like a child, the Son of God who has remained the Father’s beloved One into his adulthood because he had always been in union with the Father. Jesus is inseparable from the Father because he himself takes abode and dwelling in God.

*“The Finding of the Savior at the Temple” painting by William Holman Hunt (1860) from en.wikipedia.org.*

When Jesus was approaching his Passion and Death, he repeatedly told everyone how everything he had said and done were not his but his Father’s to indicate his communion and union in him. Ultimately there on the Cross, his final words expressed the same truth that he is the Son of God obedient unto death especially when he called out, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Lk.23:46).

Therefore, to accept and welcome a child in Jesus’ name is not just an act of charity nor of a simple finding of Jesus among children. It is ultimately being one, of remaining in the Father because Jesus also said “whoever welcomes such a child in my name, welcomes me” (Mt 18:5).

That is why the kingdom of God is for those who are like children always one with God like Jesus.

To be a child is to remain in God, to always love expressed in kindness and care for others especially the weak, being forgiving and merciful and compassionate with those lost like the Father.

To be like a child is being a light who brightens the life of others just like a babies whose very sight and smiles can ease our pains and sorrows, giving us the much needed boost to forge on in life. We are filled with hope whenever we encounter or see infants because they remind us too of God dwelling in them, of a God who assures and ensures us with s bright future.

This the reason we have in our first reading that part of the Book of Isaiah we heard proclaimed on Christmas day to remind us that Jesus is the light born on the darkest night of the year to illumine our lives and the world darkened by sins and evil like wars, poverty, and diseases. We see light in being like a child because that is when we are one in the Father too in being like a child.

Let me cite again that beautiful movie Firefly where the main character, the child named Tonton loved his mother so much that he totally believed her stories that sent him into a journey to search for the magical island filled with fireflies. Tonton dwelled in his mother’s love that he eventually found the magical island with the many fireflies that in the process also brought light into the darkness within the three adults he befriended in the bus going to Bicol.

Many times in my ministry as chaplain in our hospital, I have seen the great powers within every child – of how a sick baby, a sick child could send his/her parents to summon all their faith in God to heal them, to save them.

Listen to the stories of those who join the Traslacion every year in Quiapo: most of them had their panata borne out of answered prayers for their sick children. Every parent knows it so well how they have moved mountains and did the most extraordinary for the sake of their infants and children.

That is the mystery of the kingdom of God belonging to children when God gives us every spiritual blessing we need to achieve the impossible (second reading) to become like children by remaining in God as the only power and salvation in this life.

Be with a child, stay with a child and you shall find God’s kingdom.

Be like a child and you shall experience the kingdom of God! Amen. Have a blessed week ahead!

God listens to our prayers. Always.

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 10 October 2023

Yes! I have proven this most truest when we pray for the sick, especially for babies and children. And when we are also sick or, very sick.

The late Fr. Henri Nouwen said in one of his writings that “life is precious because it is fragile.” I have gradually grasped and experienced this most wonderful truth of life only these past two years when I was assigned as chaplain at the Fatima University Medical Center in Valenzuela City.

Every Sunday after Mass at the University chapel, I visit our patients to bring them communion (viaticum), hear their confessions and anoint them with oil. One of our patients last Sunday was a young mother named Rachel who delivered a sickly baby boy Saturday with difficulties in breathing.

Rachel was crying when we entered her room. After receiving the Communion, she asked me to visit and pray over her baby at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). I readily said yes to her request then asked her if I can baptize her baby and what name would she like to give him. “Daniel Steven, Father,” she said softly as she wiped her tears.

After putting on my hairnet and gown and slippers, the nurse led me inside the NICU where I saw two doctors and three nurses gathered around Rachel’s baby. Soon enough, both doctors came to me to explain the delicate – “toxic” – situation of the infant as we walked closer to him.

It was “solemnly silent” inside the NICU that morning with the warm light above the baby giving that holy feel like being before a Belen or a creche; the scene was so “disarming” that I just felt praying to God deeply from my heart, begging him to please bless and heal this baby who is much like Jesus Christ who was right away subjected to dangers upon birth in Bethlehem. I prayed too to God to remember Christ’s special love and concern for children, warning anyone who would harm them that angels look after them (Mt. 18:10) to keep them safe always.

At that moment, the baby opened his eyes – and sparkled as I saw his face lit up despite the little tubes connected to him. At that instance, I just felt something like a giant wave gushing within me like a tsunami and, boom! I burst into tears as if that giant wave inside washed me.

It was a very good cry, like a catharsis, so pure that seemed to have cleansed me resulting in joy within with the baby seemed to be looking at me, making sounds from his little mouth.

“My God, did he hear me praying?” I asked myself while standing there, praying with my arms still outstretched as tears rolled profusely to my face mask. After a few minutes, I wiped my tears and came forward to pour Holy Water on his head, saying, “I baptize you, Daniel Steven, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

I have visited many sick children in our hospital with the most unique even bizarre sickness and diseases and accidents. They have all moved me in pity but it was only Daniel Steven who had made me cry.

That moment when he opened his eyes and “looked” at me even though I knew infants could not recognize nor actually see, I felt God was ultimately the one really looking at me, listening to my prayers. At the same time, it was then when God fully opened my eyes and my heart to see him in baby Daniel as the One always listening to our prayers especially when we are facing dangers like death – the greatest and ultimate danger we all face in life. It is in such moments of great dangers when God is most closest to us in Jesus Christ who became human like us to be one with us in everything including death (but except sin).

Less than 80 days from now it would be Christmas but, have we realized this reality of how Jesus Christ have seriously faced death right after his birth being born in an “unsanitary” manger to being transported in harsh conditions to Egypt when Herod tried to kill him?

It is in sufferings and death when we truly experience the preciousness of life, the value of every person, no matter how small like a child or how old like any senior citizen. It is in the face of death when we are most human, truly and naturally weak and fragile that we also realize deeply, existentially the meaning of being alive when we are close to its end. That is when we feel life is precious because that is also when we feel it slipping away from us, slowly losing it.

That fragility of life is most evident when we struggle for breath, gasp for air, and reach out to someone’s hands to hold and clasp in order to rise again, to cling to another human and simply to be alive. From that we experience life’s meaning and value when it is shared and lived in God who is life himself through others. That is why we also feel closest to him at those moments when we see those sick and suffering and dying when we are close to God who comes most nearest to us in those grave moments.

Back in 2007 when I was in my first assignment as one of the teacher-administrators of a school in Malolos while we concurrently ran a parish, I felt burned out being there since 1998. One Friday afternoon during a Holy Hour, I begged God to give me one good reason why I should stay in that assignment when I was asked to answer a sick call in a nearby hospital. When I got in the hospital, the doctors and nurses were resuscitating the patient I was supposed to anoint.

Quickly upon seeing me, they let me come to the patient to pray over him and anoint him with oil. After that, I stayed in the room to watch the doctors and nurses struggled to revive the patient. Then another doctor arrived who turned out to be the son-in-law of the dying patient (also an ex-seminarian ahead of me in the minor seminary). After conversing with them, that doctor told them to stop the procedures as he would explain everything to his wife, the daughter of the patient.

Soon enough, the patient flatlined and died. His son-in-law called me and told me the patient had died and if I could bless him again. I did bless him again with Holy Water. As the doctor thanked me for being there at that crucial moment, I also thanked God for listening and answering my prayer in giving me a sign why I should remain in my assignment. What a precious sign he had given me, the first patient I have seen dying in front of me.

Now as a hospital chaplain, I have lost tracked of how many patients have died before me after praying and anointing them. But in each one of them, I have felt God present among us, saving their souls in eternity. But most of them, God had kept alive and healthy until now because he always listens to our prayers. Amen.

*Photo by Mr. Red Santiago of his son Cayden praying in our former parish in January 2020.*

*Daniel Steven is still in the NICU, fighting for his life that is so fragile, so delicate. And most precious. Doctors said these first 72 hours are very crucial. Please help us pray for him so he would get better and live life into maturity like most of us. Thank you.

God, our only credential

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 18 July 2023
Exodus 2:1-15 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Matthew 11:20-24

It is still too early,
God our loving Father,
but your words today smell 
so Christmassy,
reminding us of Jesus Christ's 
coming in the story of Moses
being drawn from water
by the Pharaoh's daughter:

On opening it, she looked, and lo, there was a baby boy, crying! She was moved with pity for him and said, “It is one of the Hebrews’ children.”
Exodus 2:6

Yes, dear God,
your Son came as an infant,
a baby, the most wondrous sight
to behold in this life who can
soften the most hardened heart
because every child reminds us
of you, O Lord, our life;
every child calls us to be
loving and kind because
every baby reminds us of our
credential as your image and likeness,
dear God.

Forgive us, Father,
when we close our eyes and our hearts
and dare ask others of their
credentials, like Moses who was asked
"Who has appointed you ruler
and judge over us?" (Ex.2:14);
or, Jesus who lamented at how
his own folks refused to recognize him
as the Christ despite his wondrous 
words and works,
"Woe to you, Chorazin! 
Woe to you, Bethsaida!
For if the mighty deeds done 
in your midst had been done
in Tyre and Sidon 
they would long ago have repented
in sackcloth and ashes"
(Mt.11:21).

But most of all, 
loving Father,
enable us to live up 
to our credentials as your
beloved children,
forgiven and blessed
to make you known and
present in this world that has
turned away from you,
from some people who think
more of themselves in having
earned their credentials
and hence, be so entitled in the world.

Help us to keep our lines,
our boundaries intact,
of what is sacred and holy,
of what is essential
and true that you are 
our Father.
Amen.

*Photo by author, Nile River in Egypt, May 2019.*

Promise ain’t enough

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 07 June 2023

*Photo by Mr. Paulo Sillonar, 07 June 2023.*

Celebrated Mass this noon in our Basic Education Department’s chapel with 19 students from our Grade 4-Visionary attending. They turned out to be the second batch of first communicants I have prepared since 2021 when I was assigned as chaplain of Our Lady of Fatima University (OLFU) in Valenzuela City.

While preparing them for our Mass, I was overjoyed when they still remembered most of the responses I have taught them more than a year ago that prompted me to promise them of treating them to ice cream after.

Naturally, the kids were so happy when suddenly, something flashed in my memory during my first year in the priesthood as prefect of discipline in our diocesan school in Malolos. During that time, I would go and visit our elementary students during their lunch break just to talk with them and see them. Many of them would invite me to join them to their table, even offering me their baon usually rice with adobo or hotdog. Of course, I would always tell them that someday, I would have lunch with them which I never fulfilled for a semester until a spunky girl told me, “Promise naman po kayo ng promise Father pero hindi naman nagkakatotoo.”

*Photo by Ms. April Oliveros at Mt. Pulag, March 2023*

Whoa! I felt like being kicked by a little Shaolin master on the face as I remembered it, forever etched in my memory in the early years of my priesthood that taught me to always have that palabra de honor in keeping my promises, no matter how simple and trivial it may be.

How sad that the saying “Promises are made to be kept, not to be broken” has become so ordinary like a cliche so memorized but never realized as nobody seems to fulfill their promises these days. Every day we read and watch of stories of unfaithful couples and lovers, of irresponsible leaders and officials betraying the people’s trust and worst, of clergymen not only disregarding but even prostituting their sacred vows of poverty, obedience and celibacy.

It all begins in childhood when we fail kids with our words to them no matter how simple these may be. Kids eventually grow up frustrated, disappointed and mistrustful because the grown ups never meant what they said, never keeping their promises. Thus becoming a vicious circle of children realizing promises are never meant to be kept that probably when they grow up, they take kids also for granted and never fulfilled their promises.

Promises have lost their sanctity, becoming a mere “carrot” to entice or appease even dupe everyone, from kids to grown ups into believing into something never meant to be kept and fulfilled. It is a very sad truth we have often made a reality when we carelessly promise things we are not bent on fulfilling or would simply forget.

Perhaps, it is not yet too late for us to strive daily in making true our broken promises, especially to the young like the children.

What moved most in fulfilling my promise to our Grade 4 students in giving them ice cream after our Mass this afternoon was when a little girl seated in front approached to inform me that they still have four other non-Catholic classmates who stayed behind in their classroom. She was so concerned they might not have a Cornetto later.

Ohhh… this time my heart melted just like ice cream in the sun.

First, again I realized how kids hold on to our promises. That girl in front must have been so convinced I would buy them Cornetto ice cream after. And secondly, I felt God touching me, consoling me, assuring me of a great future in the next generation represented by that little girl about nine or ten years old so concerned with her other four classmates left behind in their classroom!

Just an ice cream that would cost so little to me amounted to so much, maybe everything to that little girl. How amazing and lovely, is it not?

When I got to their classroom with four flavors of Cornetto, everybody was so glad I have fulfilled my promise, saying thank you as I handed each with an ice cream cone. And that was when I also asked them to promise they would be good, would study their lessons daily and would pray always. As I left their classroom amid their screams enjoying their ice cream, I felt humming this part of one of my favorite love songs by Daryl Hall and John Oates from 1997:

If a promise ain't enough
Then a touch says everything
Got to hold you in my arms
Till you feel what I mean
Know that my heart just tells me what to say
But words can only prove so much
If a promise ain't enough
Hold onto my love

What have you promised lately, to yourself and to others? Have a fulfilling evening ahead.

From YouTube.com.

Sino ang “special”?

Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-30 ng Mayo 2023

*Larawan kuha ng may-akda, exhibit ng Sto. Nino sa Malolos Cathedral, Enero 2022.*

Kailan ko lamang napag-ukulan ng pansin – at pagninilay – itong isang bagay ukol sa mga tinagurian nating “special child”, yaong mga isinilang na mayroong iba’t-ibang kapansanan sa pangangatawan, pag-iisip at pandamdam (emotional).

Mabuti nga sa panahong ito ay “special” na ang tawag sa kanila kesa noong dating panahon namin na wala pang mga “sped” o special education. At least, hindi pa laganap lalo sa mga lalawigan. Noon basta hindi normal ika nga ang isang tao lalo na mga bata na ipinanganak na mayroong kapansanan na tinatawag na Down Syndrome, “mongoloid” ang tawag. Kaya naman ako noon sa mura kong isipan at katangahan, hindi ko mawari bakit siya kumain ng lapis o pencil na noo’y Mongol ang tatak?! Sorry po pero yun talaga naisip ko noong elementary ako lalo na nang biniro ng guro namin isang kaklase na palaging kagat-kagat ang lapis niya na magiging mongoloid siya sa ginagawa niya! Siyempre, ako man noo’y palaging kinakagat ang lapis at marahil kaya ako kung minsan ay parang special din.

Pero wala pong biro at mabalik tayo sa ating paksa, pansin ko lang sa pamilya ng mga kapatid nating mayroong mga naturang kapansanan na madalas at mabilis nila kaagad sinasabi na ang kanilang anak o kapatid ay “special”. Minsan mararamdaman mo rin kanilang lungkot marahil hindi sa ano pa man kungdi ang pag-aalala paano magiging buhay ng kanilang special child lalo na sa pagtanda nila.

Noong ako ay batang pari pa sa isang barrio na aking minimisahan ay mayroong special child na palaging nagsisimba. Masayang-masaya ang batang iyon sa pagsisimba at halos sumigaw sa pagsagot at pag-awit sa Misa. Napansin ko tumatahimik siya at masugid niyang tinitingnan ang lahat ng nangungumunyon.

Kinausap ko ang bata na siguro ay labing-limang taong gulang na noon. “Ibig mo ba na magkomunyon? Alam mo ba ko kung ano yun tinatanggap?” Sabi niya sa akin ay si Jesus daw iyong nasa Banal na Ostiya. Kaya kinausap ko kanyang magulang na di makapaniwalang pwede iyon. Inihanda ko ang special child at makaraan ang ilang linggo, siya ay binigyan namin ng “first communion”. Tuwang-tuwa ang bata at kanyang mga magulang. Hanggang ngayon siya ay masayang nagsisimba sa kanilang bisita.

Dati naman sa pinanggalingan kong parokya ay ipinahanap ko sa mga katekista ang lahat ng mga bata na sampung taong gulang pataas na hindi pa nakukumpilan. Isang teenager na special child ang kanilang natagpuan sa aming depressed area. Pinuntahan namin upang kausapain at himukin ang mga magulang ng special child na siya ay pakumpilan yamang libre naman. Nagulat ang ama na puwede daw palang kumpilan kanyang anak at noon siya ay naiyak nang ikuwento sa akin na kaya dalawa lang kanilang anak. Natakot daw siyang special muli ang ikatlong anak nila.

*Larawan kuha ng may-akda, Baguio Cathedral, 2018.*

Bakit nga ba tinatawag na special child mga batang isinilang na mayroong iba’t-ibang kapansanan at pangangailangan? Hindi ba kapag special dapat ay mahusay at magaling. Halos perfect, hindi ba?

Special child ang tawag sa kanila kasi sila ay espesyal sa Diyos. At higit na espesyal sa lahat ang kanilang mga magulang at kapatid na pinili ng Diyos upang ipagkatiwala sa kanila ang Kanyang mga special children. Sila lang marahil sa dami ng iba pang ama at ina at mga kapatid ang may higit na pagmamahal at malasakit upang arugain at palakihin ang special child ng Diyos.

Noong magbuntis ang kapatid ko sa kanyang ikatlong anak, siya ay nakunan. Malungkot na malungkot ang kapatid ko noon dahil hirap siya sa pagbubuntis. Ipinaliwanag sa akin ng kanyang doctora na kapag daw ang sanggol sa sinapupunan ng ina ay na-detect na magkakaroon ng kapansanan o sakit, mayroon daw mekanismo mismo yung baby na mag automatic shut off para di na siya lumaki at mabuhay pa. Kaya nakukunan ng baby.

Samakatwid, natural sa plano ng Diyos na lahat ng isisilang ay buo at walang kapansanan ngunit kung sakaling mayroong makalusot at mabuhay hanggang mailuwal ng kanyang ina bilang special child, ito ay kalooban ng Diyos. Siya ay biyaya ng Diyos. Regalo ng Diyos. Kaya sinasabi ng iba “suwerte” daw ang special child. Malaking biyaya ng Diyos ang bawat buhay, lalo na kung mayroong kapansanan dahil sila ay pinahintulutan niyang isilang at mabuhay para sa isang misyon para sa ating lahat. At ito iyon: espesyal bawat isa sa atin sa Diyos.

Noong isang linggo ay nagmisa ako sa pumanaw na kapatid na special child ng isang ka-opisina. Natapat noong araw na iyon ang ebanghelyo ay napakaganda sa wikang Inggles na ganito ang sinasabi:

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying: “Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”
John 17:24

Kay sarap namnamin mga salita ni Jesus, “Father, they are your gift to me.” Sa Tagalog ay hindi ganoon ang pagkakasalin at hindi binanggit ang kataga na regalo o gift. Ito yung tagpo ng kanyang pananalangin para sa kanyang mga alagad matapos ang kanilang Huling Hapunan bago siya dakpin noong Huwebes Santo.

Sino ba tayo para ituring ni Jesus na regalo o gift sa kanya ng Ama?

Sa kabila ng ating maraming kapintasan, kakulangan at kasalanan, iyan ang katotohanan: regalo tayo ng Diyos Ama di lamang sa isa’t-isa kungdi maging sa Anak niyang si Jesus.

Tayong lahat ay regalo ng Diyos. Napakahalaga, lalo na yaong mga mayroong kapansanan at iba’t ibang kahinaan sa pangangatawan at buhay.

Sa bawat special child ay mayroong extra-special na ina at ama at mga kapatid. Kaya kung ibig mo ring maging extra-special sa Diyos, kaibiganin, tulungan, at pahalagahan mga special children at kanilang pamilya. Amen.

The human child, mystery of God’s love

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Sunday in the Second Week of Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 15 January 2023
Isaiah 9:1-6 ><]]]]'> Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-18 ><]]]]'> Matthew 18:1-5, 10

The photo above is a sculpture called “Love” by Ukrainian artist Alexander Milov he created in 2015. I have kept the photo as a bookmark in one of the books I have read and saw it recently. Milov rightly called it “Love” because it shows how that mystery of love expressed to us by God in Christ’s coming continues if we could only be like a child!

See how the sculpture depicts two adults after a disagreement sitting with their back to each other while their inner child in both of them wanting to connect. What a beautiful expression of our condition when despite our vast learning and knowledge, we seem to can’t live without ego and pride, hatred and grudges that prevent us from forgiving and moving on in life. The free spirit exhibited by children in this sculpture shows our true nature which is the very core of Jesus Christ’s teaching, of being a child always.

At that time the disciples approached Jesus and said, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven… See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.”
Matthew 18:1-3, 10

On this Sunday of the second week in Ordinary Time, we extend our Christmas celebration for a day with the Feast of Sto. Niño or Child Jesus in honor of the crucial role of that image gifted by Magellan to Queen Juana of Cebu 500 years ago. It was the Sto. Niño who actually conquered our country to become the only Christian nation in this part of the world – proof enough of Christ’s teaching about being a child so powerful in God’s eyes!

This Feast is a very timely for us too as we go into the busyness of our lives to be reminded anew even for a day of the meaning of Christmas, of Jesus Christ’s coming in love. He came because of love, coming as love himself by being a child, an infant.

It was only recently as a chaplain in the hospital have I felt and realized why a baby is called a “bundle of joy” – my heart melts whenever I visit mothers with their newborn babies especially twins. It is said that even the most hardened criminals are softened upon seeing babies and children. And that is because of what Jesus told us today in the gospel,

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.”
Matthew 16:10

What is there with children and the face of God?

I think that is God’s gift of love in each of us, so innately in us right during our moment of conception when life begins as the Church rightly insists based on Sacred Scriptures. It is nurtured and cared for first by the mother that even after we have matured, we call on our mother when surprised or shocked as in “Inang ko po!” or “Nanay ko po!”. See how those approaching death would always speak of seeing their departed mother, coming and visiting them.

This shows and proves to us the deep impact of a mother’s love to each of us because she is always the first to make us experience God’s love in her womb that even long after our umbilical cords have been cut off at birth, there remains an invisible line always between us and our mothers.

It is not only with our mother but also with everyone. This love innately gifted upon each of us by God who is our very first love remains in us through our family and friends and later the people we meet in life as living representatives of that invisible love of God in us. This is what Jesus meant when he warned his disciples in the gospel today,

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.”
Matthew 18:10

How sad when this love that has always been in us and in the world suddenly becomes unrecognizable – even unrealistic – because of the darkness of sins and evil. When the child is born and begins to see, experience and realize the absence of love in the family, of a lack of that love between the child’s mother and father who quarrel or separate, or when the child himself/herself is threatened or hurt by anyone he/she looks up to, then trouble happens.

Children can only grasp the gift of life and of their existence when they experience the concreteness, the reality of love first right in their homes. One thing we adults always forget which I insist on every man and woman entering marriage that it is always the children who bear all the pains and sufferings when they separate. Experts claim that criminals mostly come from families where children witness domestic violence, especially when the husband beats the wife.

It is unfortunate that today’s gospel did not include Jesus Christ’s most terrible curse against those inflicting harm on children when he said in the same scene that “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and drowned in the depths of the sea” (Mt. 16:6).

As chaplain of a university, I have been hearing the confessions of our students, recently from junior and senior high school. After listening to their stories and woes, I tell them point blank about their parents and family, of the love among them and they start crying. I do not blame parents for their apparent lack of love for their children nor for their separation nor for their need to work abroad; I stress to young people human love is always imperfect. Only God can love us perfectly.

When the world and the people around us miserably fail in showing us the face of our loving God, that is when all the more we have to be like children anew as Jesus tells us today. It is is in going inside our inner child within, in becoming like a child trusting in the great love of God in us like when we were in our mother’s womb can we grasp again this invisible love poured upon us in Jesus Christ.

This is the challenge for us of the Sto. Niño: let us keep the face of God aglow in us, on our face and in our lives like the light Isaiah spoke of in the first reading when the Messiah comes. Anyone who lives in the gospel of Jesus Christ, even amid all pains and sufferings, would always be aglow with that radiant face of God filled with love and mercy, kindness and compassion despite our many imperfections. The beloved disciple said it so well, “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 Jn. 4:12). Simply love, love, and love. No ifs nor buts. Just love.

Let us remain children of God most especially in our adulthood like Jesus Christ who upon his death on the Cross called God Abba – Father – because he has always been the Son, the Child of God. Remember how at the Last Supper when he gave the new commandment of loving one another as he loves us: it is “new” because unlike the love the world knows which is all feelings and self-centered, Christ’s love is rooted in God through him, in him, and with him.

Let us pray:

Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in Christ
every spiritual blessing in the heavens (Eph. 1:3),
as he chose us to be born
and be filled with his love as 
icons and representatives of his love;
enlighten the eyes of our hearts, Father,
so we may always answer your call
in your Son Jesus Christ for us to follow
him in being like a child
manifesting your face full of
warmth and love,
kindness and care
especially to those 
feeling unloved.
Amen.

Benedict XVI, the modern John the Baptist

The Lord Is My Chef Christmas Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Christmas Weekday, Memorial of the Holy Name of Jesus, 03 January 2022
1 John 2:29-3:6 ><000'> + ><000'> + ><000'> John 1:29-34

Keep me true to you,
God our loving Father,
and most of all true to myself
as your beloved child so I would
always recognize Jesus Christ
in our midst like John the Baptist.

See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
1 John 3:1

How did John recognize Jesus
coming to him for baptism in 
today's gospel?

I am sure that it was because
of this truth, of being your child,
loving Father;
indeed, beautiful souls
recognize beautiful souls;
John was so genuine and
Jesus was the purest
because he is truth himself
that John could boldly claim
Jesus is the lamb of God,
the one he had said as coming
though he did not know him
(cf. Jn.1:29-31).
What a beautiful scene of two
genuine souls
recognizing each other!
If we could just replicate it daily
in our lives too,
beginning in our home!

In our modern time that
is so very much like the time of Jesus
when people have turned away from you, God
including those who claim to be Christians
yet promoting abortion and same sex union
as well as priests and bishops
supposed to be the light of reason,
decency, and morality but are not,
we are so blessed with your humble servant,
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.
His was a genuine soul,
a most genteel person so maligned
by many especially the Western press
 and some clergymen
for his fidelity to the Lord's teachings,
truly a John the Baptist who pointed us all
to go back to Jesus Christ especially
in the light of the sex scams that have rocked
the Church;
his writings are simply the best,
in itself like the gospel exposing your
truth in words so understandable;
most of all,
he lived in all simplicity and humility
that he was able to see
eternity.

Most dearest Jesus,
grant me the grace you gave
Pope Benedict XVI:
may I also say before my death
in all sincerity and truth,
"Lord, I love you".
Let these words be
impressed on my soul
and be my guide
in life.
Amen.

Christmas is recognizing the face of Christ in everyone

The Lord Is My Chef Christmas Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday in the Octave of Christmas, Feast of Holy Innocents, Martyrs, 28 December 2022
1 John 1:5-2:2 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Matthew 2:13-18

Beloved: This is the message that we have heard from Jesus Christ and proclaim to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say, “We have fellowship with him,” while we continue to walk in darkness, we lie and do not act in truth. But if we walk in darkness, we lie and do not act in truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another, and the Blood of his Son Jesus cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 1:5-7

God our loving Father,
thank you for sending us your Son
Jesus Christ, the light of the world;
we have experienced many times in life
especially during these three years of pandemic
that no matter how dark our lives may be,
for as long as we walk in Jesus Christ,
there is always light.

Forgive us, Father,
that many times we look for other lights;
we are so tempted and delighted in 
following the lights of the world with its
vast array of colors that blind our eyes
or with klieg lights that put us on spot like stars
yet leave us groping in emptiness after;
forgive us, Father, in following other lights 
that turn us away from one another and you;
until now, many of us act and think like Herod
and the experts of Jerusalem who refuse to
follow the light of Jesus that make us recognize
you on the face of one another.

Let the light of Jesus born on Christmas
enlighten our minds and our hearts to see
and follow you, O God our Father,
found on the face of every child still in the womb,
on the face of every child who must be cared and protected,
on the face of every woman, especially mothers
and grandmothers forgotten after nurturing us,
on the face of every dad especially those working 
away from family and loved ones, rarely seen
crying and rejoicing for their loved ones,
on the face of young people so lost with no one
to listen to them, be with them, assure them of love,
on the face of our health workers considered heroes
yet still taken for granted and even forgotten,
on the face of farmers and fishermen marked with
so many lines of hardships and sufferings under the sun
to feed us yet totally left on their own,
on the face of others in the margins and the disadvantaged,
those forgotten by the society and unfortunately by families:
this Christmas, call us into our own Egypt,
into a retreat and soul-searching for enlightenment
to find your face anew within us
so we may find you on one another.
Amen.

Praying for those who grieve

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Memorial of St. John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor of Church, 13 September 2022
1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 27-31 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Luke 7:11-17

Yesterday, O Lord,
your words reminded us of
those people we value in life,
those nearest to us;
today, you remind us of those
people grieving especially
parents who have lost
a child.

Jesus journeyed to a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd accompanied him. As he drew near to the gate of the city, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. A large crowd from the city was with her. When the Lord saw her, he was moved with pity for her and said to her, “Do not weep.” He stepped forward and touched the coffin; at this the bearers halted, and he said, “Young man, I tell you, arise!” The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.
Luke 7:11-15

Indeed, dearest Jesus,
it is the sight of parents
crying over the death of their
children that is more unbearable;
normally, the children bury their
parents but when parents bury
their children, it is doubly and even
triply hard and painful; truly a big loss
for them for they lose a large part of their
very selves.

Help me dear Jesus to be like you,
to be more sensitive of others 
going through great trials in life, 
especially the lost of a loved one;
give me the courage to reach out,
to simply be present and be with them
when they are most empty;
most of all, may I be your means in 
making them rise anew to new life
amid their pains and despair;
in reaching out to them, let me focus 
on them, not in me as I "strive eagerly for 
the greatest spiritual gifts that will build 
others through me" (1Cor.12:31).
Amen.

What surprises you?

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 25 August 2022

I recently attended a children’s party when the youngest daughter of a friend, Mimi, turned seven years old. And I was so glad that I came because of the great fun I had at the magic show, clapping my hands and cheering along with all the kids and their parents.

It was so “aliw” as we say in Filipino.

Very comforting.

Not just entertaining.

There was total sense of wonder in me, of pure joy seeing doves and flowers suddenly coming out of the magician’s clenched fists or folded handkerchief even if I knew it was just a trick or a sleigh of hand.

The most beautiful part of the party, of the joy and comfort was the chance for me to be like a child again as Jesus had repeatedly told us in the gospel that “unless you become like little children, you shall never inherit the kingdom of heaven.”

Imagine the great joy and comfort of believing again at what one sees and hears.

Of suspending reason and logic.

Of just enjoying the moment, of not thinking so much.

Of being like a child again at the circus or fair – “perya” as we call it in the province.

Most of all, of being caught in the magic of wonder and surprise, eagerly awaiting what’s next or how did it happen as you scratch your head while looking at the person next to you with those eyes so bewildered as you laugh out loud because you both know it was just a trick yet so true, so real.

It was so comforting because I had lost senses of time, of reason and of reality that often lead us to many anxieties of things to do and accomplish. Like Mimi the birthday celebrator, I felt I have grown and matured after regaining life, of enjoying life, of believing again in the many mysteries of this life that we can never explain nor even understand at all except to accept simply as it is like children.

*Photo by Mr. Red Santiago of his son in our former parish in Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan, January 2020.*

To be like a child means to owe one’s existence to another, of being open to every possibility in life, of trusting that there is someone greater than us or anyone we call God who can talk to us through others who may even be different from us like the magician in his tuxedo and magic wand. That is why magic shows are not only entertaining but also comforting or nakakaaliw in Filipino. The word comfort is from the two Latin words cum fortis that literally mean “to strengthen”.

This is the reason why I think children “grow so fast” – they are always surprised because they are open that they are emboldened to try everything, trusting they can do it, that somebody is watching over them, that they are in good hands. Try observing an infant asleep in a crib when suddenly would kick his/her feet or move hands. My mom used to tell me that when babies are surprised – nagugulat – that means they were growing.

*Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte, sunrise at Atok, Benguet, 01 September 2019.*

See how the Blessed Virgin Mary had grown and matured after being told by the angel that she would be the Mother of the Messiah to be sent by God. She was probably 15 or 16 at that time but had kept that child-like attitude of openness, of being surprised which her Son would be teaching later. Mary must have been so wrapped in awe and wonder upon hearing the angel’s annunciation to her.

But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Luke 1:29

Try to feel the resulting joy and fear of Mary in hearing the good news of the birth of the Messiah through her!

Right there, we could feel her faith in God at work, listening intently as the angel explained everything to her.

In the Old Testament, we find Jacob the younger son of Isaac having that same attitude of being like a child, of being open to God coming in every possibility. Remember when he fled to escape the murderous plot of his elder brother Esau after he had duped their father in bestowing his blessing to him?

On his way toward Haran, Jacob stopped at a certain shrine at sundown and took one of the stones there to place under his head as he slept for the night. It was then when he dreamt of “stairway to heaven” where angels were going up and down before God who spoke to assure him of his protection.

When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he exclaimed, “Truly, the Lord is in this spot, although I did not know it!” In solemn wonder he cried out: “How awesome is this shrine! This is nothing else but an abode of God, and that is the gateway to heaven!”
Genesis 28:16-17

*Photo by Dr. Mai b. Dela Peña, Mt. Carmel, Israel, 2016.*

Every time we are surprised by something or someone, it brings out the child in us, our wonderful sense of wonder, of believing, of trusting, of being open. Ultimately, of living again, of forging on in life amid all the darkness and uncertainties around us because we have that firm faith in a loving and merciful God who is also a Father to us.

See how this call for us to be childlike, of being surprised has become difficult even almost impossible to achieve in our world that has become so technical and “sophisticated” as we seek to shape and manipulate everything according to our own design.

In this age of the social media all around us, nothing is hidden anymore. Everything is bared open even to the skin and bones we enjoy so much like in Tiktok as if we are a planet of sex-starved, foul-mouthed, filthy rich and wanna-be’s flaunting everything and anything that can be shown by the camera.

Unfortunately, the world of “macho” men and glamorous women we love to relish with delight in the secular and even religious world in all of its trappings of fads and fashion and “hard talks”, of showmanships that we try so hard to project cannot hide the hypocrisies within, of keeping grips and control on everyone, leaving us more empty, more lost, and more alienated with one another and with our very selves.

Many times in life when we feel tired and burned out, we go somewhere for some “me time”, of recharging. But, after some time, we feel lethargic again that we go out of town to find one’s self until we find nowhere else to go for retreats because the problem is actually within us.

Be like a child. Stop insisting of being an adult who knows what he/she is doing.

Set aside everything, especially your own agendas in life and open yourself to God and others to allow yourself to be surprised again, to regain that spark of rediscovering simple things without much thinking and reasoning, of just believing and be comforted that everything in this life is taken cared of by God. Like that magician in a children’s party.

May your week be filled with more surprises to gladden your heart and your spirit! God bless!