Category: Christmas

Advent is “putting on Christ”

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul

First Sunday of Advent-A, 01 December 2019

Isaiah 2:1-5 ><}}}*> Romans 13:11-14 ><}}}*> Matthew 24:37-44

From Google.

A blessed first Sunday of Advent to you my dear reader and follower! Today we begin another new year in our Church calendar with this season of Advent. Both the word “Advent” and its concept were borrowed from ancient Rome when provinces prepared for the coming, or “adventus” of the emperor to visit the occupied territories of his empire.

But, Jesus is more than any emperor of the world for he is true God and King of kings, the one who had come, always comes, and will be coming again at the end of time to judge us, both the living and the dead. This Season of Advent gives us the opportunities to intensely prepare for the Lord’s adventus that always begins in our hearts.

Advent has a two-fold character: beginning today until December 16, the readings and prayers set our sights to the Second Coming of Christ at the end of time or the parousia. From December 17-24, focus shifts to the first Christmas when Jesus was born in Bethlehem more than 2000 years ago.

According to St. Bernard of Clairvaux, between these two comings of Christ is his third coming that happens daily in our lives, so ordinary but very sudden like in the time of Noah.

Photo by author, sacristy of our Parish, Advent 2018.

Jesus said to his disciples: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man.

Matthew 24:37-39

Staying awake, actively waiting for the Lord.

Jesus is definitely coming at the end of time. It is useless to be concerned when that would be because it will be sudden and unexpected. What matters most is our attitude of “staying awake, actively waiting” for the Lord’s coming again.

The Lord cites to us the example of Noah whom God had instructed to build an ark in the Old Testament for the coming great flood meant to cleanse the earth of sins and evil.

To actively wait for the Lord’s parousia means to be a sign of contradiction like Noah who faithfully obeyed God’s will in building an ark and later gathering into it all the animal species of earth.

Imagine the insults Noah had to endure from people laughing at him while building the ark. Yet, he never wavered and faithfully fulfilled his task before the Lord.

From Google.

Jesus cites three other instances of displaying the right attitude in actively waiting for his Second Coming: the two men out in the field, the two women grinding, and the master of the house.

One of the two men in the field was taken while one of the two women grinding was also taken because they were responsibly fulfilling their tasks when the parousia comes; their respective counterparts were most likely doing nothing or very lazy that they were left behind.

The mini parable Jesus inserted at the end shows us the imagery of the master of the house staying awake to keep the thief from breaking into the house in the middle of the night.

These are all about having the right attitude as disciples of Jesus actively awaiting his return. From Noah to the other man in the field, the other woman grinding, and the master of the house, we find from their attitudes of active waiting budding forth their hope in God.

Generally speaking, the way we live our lives determines also how we hope in the Lord.

And this we find in St.Paul’s exhortation to the Christians of Rome:

Brothers and sisters: you know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed; the night is advanced, the day is at hand. Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and lust, not in rivalry and jealous. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provisions for the desires of the flesh.

Romans 13:11-14
Altar table at the Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Bagbaguin, Santa Maria, Bulacan, Advent 2018.

Putting on Christ to show his light to dispel darkness.

St. Paul wrote the Christians in Rome more than 2000 years ago to remind them of the fierce spiritual warfare between good and evil, light and darkness while they were living in the midst of a pagan world and culture.

It was a very difficult time to be truly Christians but St. Paul felt the need to remind everyone of the ever-present reality of the parousia. Like in most of his letters, he captured by the grace of the Holy Spirit the beautiful imagery of disciples with the right attitude awaiting the Second Coming as “putting on the Lord Jesus Christ”.

Putting on our Lord Jesus Christ is not just a mere call to be morally perfect persons but for us to strive in making the light of Christ shine on us so that we may manifest Jesus more in us and in our lives.

Simply put, it is becoming “Christ-like”, a true Christian who is “dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11), one who lives differently by making Jesus more present especially in these difficult and troublesome times.

The time of St. Paul was no different with our present age with growing materialism and consumerism among peoples, including Christians afflicted with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s “dictatorship of relativism” that have removed God from every aspect of human life, including Christmas itself!

See how we are so focused on Christmas countdowns than with the very reason of the Season, Jesus Christ. See how the media equate Christmas with material things, sugarcoating it with sentimental feelings as most Christmas songs nowadays indicate.

Advent is seeing more of Jesus, than of time.

On this first Sunday of Advent, our sights are redirected anew into Christ’s Second Coming with our important task of making him present in our very selves.

As children of the light, we slowly discover and realize how our definitive salvation is slowly moving towards its fullness in Christ’s parousia when everything is totally changed by God with peace finally reigning supreme over all.

Violets on the pedestal of our Patron Saint, John the Evangelist.

This was the vision of Isaiah a long, long time ago.

It had been fulfilled in Christ’s first coming in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago and it is being fulfilled daily through people filled with hope in God’s justice and love.

In the days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills. All nations shall stream toward it; many people shall come and say: “Come, let us climb the Lord’s mountain…” They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. O God of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!

Isaiah 2:2-3, 4-5

People who keep on wondering and asking when will Jesus come again are not really interested with the Lord’s Second Coming but only with themselves like the people during the time of Noah – oblivious to anything else and busy with their own pursuits.

The more we think of the WHEN, the less we think of the WHO of Advent. Let us put on the Lord Jesus Christ to be filled with his light until all darkness in life is dispelled. Amen.

Meeting Christ, the Light of the Nations

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14 Giotto Presentation of Christ in the Temple 1310s Fresco North transept, Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi….Web Gallery Of Art

The Lord Is My Chef Special Recipe, 02 February 2019
Feast of the Presentation of the Lord at the Temple
Malachi 3:1-4//Hebrews 2:14-18//Luke 2:22-40

            Here’s good news to those who have not yet removed their Christmas decors:  today’s Feast of the Presentation of the Lord is the actual end of Christmas Season when the Child Jesus was presented at the Temple in Jerusalem 40 days after Epiphany.  According to this tradition, it is also on this day when the Vatican removes its giant Christmas tree at the St. Peter’s Square.   And so, after this day and you still have your Christmas tree and other decors hanging, then you must be a certified slob or simply one who refuses to move on to meet Jesus Christ.

            Today’s feast has many names because it has many facets.  This was first celebrated in Jerusalem in the early year 300 as “the Feast of Presentation at the Temple” based on the Gospel account of St. Luke we have heard earlier.  The Syrians adopted the feast 300 years later, reaching the seat of the Eastern Church in Constantinople where it came to be known as “the Encounter” or Ypapante in Greek, emphasizing the “meeting” of the Savior and the two elderly people, Simeon and Ana.  At about that same time in Rome, Pope Sergius I adapted the same feast from Jerusalem with a procession of lighted candles to show Jesus as the “light for revelation” to Simeon and everyone.  When it reached France in the year 800, the French adapted it further with a new designation as “Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary” or“Chandeleur” which came to be known as “Candlemass” in English-speaking countries and “Candelaria” in Spain and her colonies like the Philippines.  Over a thousand years later in 1969 during the Vatican II reform of the liturgy, the Church decreed it to be known in its original name, Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.

            That’s the beauty of our Catholic faith when certain feasts evolved depending on the various emphases of the many periods in history yet remaining true to its very essence who is Jesus Christ our Savior and Son of God.  Anyone who truly meets or encounters Jesus is always enlightened by Him to meet Him among other peoples.  Recall how we started the celebration with the paschal candle also at the entry to our church.  It is the same paschal candle we have lighted and blessed during the Easter Vigil last year to symbolize the risen Christ lighting our path of salvation.  Today in our procession, the light of Candlemass announces that paschal candle:  inasmuch as we celebrate today the presentation of Jesus at the Temple by His parents, 33 years later or a little more than two months from now, Jesus would be back in Jerusalem to offer – or present – Himself to the Father in fulfilling His pasch or Passion, Death, and Resurrection.  This is the meaning of Simeon’s beautiful canticle we all sing at bedtime:  “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in sight of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel” (Lk. 2:29-32).

            Jesus is the light of the nations – lumen gentium – or light of men or peoples because He enables us to see the face of every human being as a brother and a sister in Him.  How sad that this human face has so often been disfigured, trying to hide or even remove the face of Christ in whose image we have all been created.  Imagine how Simeon and Anna were able to recognize Christ among the many infants being offered that day at the Temple in Jerusalem because both have always been opened with God.  We can never meet God unless we also meet others as brothers and sisters.  Remember during our Simbang Gabi how we reflected about true holiness through St. Joseph who always found God in everything so that upon learning Mary’s pregnancy, he decided to divorce her silently so as not to put her into shame.  But upon learning from an angel in a dream the circumstances about her pregnancy, St. Joseph took her as wife and Christmas happened with him standing as the Lord’s legal father.  When Joseph saw God in Mary, Jesus came; when he saw Jesus coming, Joseph accepted Mary.  That is the light of Candlemass when we are able to see God in each one’s face – most especially among our senior citizens.

            In a society where old age is seen like a disease with ads telling everyone to “arrest ageing”, giving so much premium on being young and looking young so glorified in media, we all fail to see the significance of this stage in life.  Worst, we abhor it, refusing to talk about it as if it is a curse.  Wrong!  Actually, most of the people God called for His mission in the Old Testament were mostly old people starting with Noah and Abraham as well as Moses who all performed great wonders for Him in their advanced ages!  Today’s gospel is no exception as it invites us to see Christ among our elderly brethren in the church and community, especially in the family whom we often take for granted.  See how St. Joseph and Mary shared Jesus with Simeon and Anna.  In 1999, St. John Paul wrote a letter to his fellow elders, saying that “The line separating life and death runs through our communities and moves inexorably nearer to each of us.  If life is a pilgrimage to towards our heavenly home, then old age is the most natural time to look towards the threshold of eternity (14).”

             Today’s Feast of the Presentation of the Lord at the Temple reveals to us the mystery of every encounter with God is often preceded with an encounter with another person, even strangers.  Every encounter with God is often verified by our encounter with others because through them, we experience that “invisible line” that seems to bind all of us as one big family.  And this is most true when we encounter the elderly people, especially those who have “aged gracefully” who often confirm with us the presence of God in our lives which they have already started to experience.  Every encounter with an elderly is an encounter with Jesus Christ because it is a prelude to our final encounter with Him in eternity.  And all these encounters are made possible by the grace and light only of Jesus Christ.  Remember:  the moment we are able to recognize the face of the person next to us as the face of a brother and sister in Jesus Christ, then we are sure that darkness has ended and day has begun.  Amen.  Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

Photos from Google.

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“Better Days” by Dianne Reeves (1987)

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The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 20 January 2019

            It is still Christmas this Sunday here in the Philippines as we celebrate today the Feast of the Child Jesus known as Señor Sto. Niño.  The feast reminds us of the most central teaching of Jesus Christ which is to be like a child for He said that “unless you become like children, you shall never inherit the kingdom of heaven.”

             One distinct quality of being a child like Jesus Christ is to be always filled with love for everyone.  In this age of modern technologies, how sad that we have become more technical than personal that slowly, real love has become so rare among us.  Too often love is not only abused and misused but also misunderstood as mere feelings alone.  No!  Love is always a decision, a choice we make after the interplay of our mind and heart that leads to growth and maturity.  And the more we stand on that decision and choice to love, the more it is deepened and perfected in God.  So often, love is symbolized by the heart but its truest meaning can only be found in the great sign of the Cross of Jesus where we can find the perfect expression of Christian “childlikeness” and Christian maturity when we choose whatever is more painful and more difficult because we have found someone to love more than our self.

            This is the child-like love that Dianne Reeves tells us in her 1987 crossover hit “Better Days” also known as the “Grandma Song” where she spoke of her grandmother not only teaching her but making her experience love that leads to better days.  We find in the song her grandmother somehow portraying to us what we have said as Christian “childlikeness” and Christian maturity so that in the end, she peacefully joined God because she had always been faithful and loving as a child of the Father like Christ.  That is also the challenge to us of this Feast of the Sto. Niño:  to remain children of God even as adults like Jesus Christ.  Or Dianne’s grandmother.  If only we can be child-like like Jesus or Dianne’s Grandma, we can be assured of better days too not only here but in eternity.

Photo by the author, Dominican Hill, Baguio City, 18 January 2019.

Living As God’s Children

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The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe, 20 January 2019
Feast of the Sto. Nino, Week II, Year C
Isaiah 9:1-6///Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-18///Luke 2:41-52

            Sometimes when we look at our religious celebrations we get the impression that we as a people seem to be very ritualistic and even fanatics.  But, on deeper examinations, we find in these feasts the expressions of our deep faith nurtured through our history and culture as a nation by God’s invisible hand.  A perfect example is today’s Feast of the Sto. Nino celebrated every third Sunday of January that is proper only to our country in recognition of the important role played by the image of the Child Jesus in our Christianization almost 500 years ago.  All the readings and prayers of today’s Mass are taken from Christmas Season even if we are already in the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time because the Sto. Nino is an extension of Christmas.  Recall also that two weeks ago right after the Epiphany of the Lord we have celebrated the Traslacion in Quiapo featuring the adult Jesus Christ carrying the Cross more known as the Black Nazarene.  They are the two most popular Christ devotions in our country that every region and province, town and barrio up to the smallest sitio has its own version of celebrating Traslacion and/or Sto. Nino.  In both devotions we find the finest examples of our vibrant faith in Jesus Christ who became like us in everything except sin in order to save us, heal us, and bring us closer with one another as one big family with God as our Father.  And in both devotions too, Christ calls us to continue living into our adulthood as God’s little children like Him the Sto. Nino and the Black Nazarene.

            After three days of searching, Mary and Joseph found the 12 year-old child Jesus at the Temple and he said to them, “Why were you looking for me?  Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”  But they did not understand what he said to them.  He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart.  And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man (Lk. 2:51-52). 

           From His childhood into His adulthood, Jesus remained a child of His heavenly Father and of His parents Mary and Joseph.  In this scene on His finding at the temple, we again see the centrality of Christ’s teaching of remaining like a child in order to belong to the kingdom of heaven.  And it was not only Him who showed it in this short account by St. Luke but also Mary and Joseph who “both did not understand” what Jesus had told them but still took care of Him very well as “He advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.”  Here we find the importance of love in remaining children of God as shown by the deep love among the members of the Holy Family that is rooted in the Father’s love.  Notice how in this age of so much advancement in technologies that we have become more technical than personal, love has also suffered so greatly.  It is not only abused and misused but most of all, misunderstood.  Love has become a commodity that people think could be had simply and instantly like anything in a store or a vending machine, forgetting that love is more than a feeling but a decision we must keep.  Most of all, love is a choice we make by choosing what is most painful and most difficult because true love is found only on the Cross of Christ.

            This is what I am telling you at the beginning, the seemingly funny or weird flow of our celebrations after Christmas:  Traslacion and then Sto. Nino that are both anchored on love of God that did not merely happen in Christ’s birth and coming but most of all in His suffering and death on the Cross.  Love is often symbolized by the heart but its total meaning can only be found in the great sign of the Cross where we can find the perfect expression of Christian “childlikeness” and Christian maturity.  Recall how Jesus on the Cross remained a child of the Father to whom He entrusted His total self while at the same time remained faithful to His mission, resolutely going to Jerusalem to face His fate as a matured adult.  That is love when we can be tender and docile to our beloved and at the same time stand our ground to keep our promise, no matter what or how painful it could be.  It is a love until the end that is always willing to share and give, never thinking of anything in return.

              To be able to love like a child and remain loving as a matured adult like Jesus Christ, we need to always live in the present moment.  God revealed Himself to Moses as “I AM WHO AM” while in the gospels particularly in John’s, we find Jesus always declaring the great “I AM” as the Resurrection and life, the way, the truth and the life, as well as the good shepherd and the true vine.  God is love because He is always in the here and now, the present, not in the past and not in the future.  See how a child always has a time to take time as it comes, one day at a time, so calmly without advance planning and thinking or greedy hoarding of time.  Unlike us adults, we need planners and schedules to follow, finding or making time like a sausage to be sliced into portions to be eaten at a desired time.  Kids always live in the fullness of time like a cup of milk or water that has everything that for them, any time is a time to sleep, a time to eat, a time to play.  And that is why they love all the time!  We adults are so pressured and stressed that even in loving others and especially God, we always bargain with time as if it can be done.  We love to postpone time because we are not yet ready, even refusing to move on as we dwell with our painful past.  Remember the warning of Jesus that nobody knows the time when He shall come that we must always be on guard and ready for that time by always loving God and others all the time.  Recall our quotation last week that says, “For people who rush, time is fast; for people who wait, time is slow; but, for people who love, time is not.”  A child of God lives in the present because he knows, like Jesus Christ, every moment is the fullness of time we must receive with gratitude because in every present moment we have everything.  This is totally different from the young people’s concept of “YOLO” that is actually about living in the future now being advanced without realizing the beautiful present moment.

             To be a child of God like the Senor Sto. Nino is to walk in the “great light” of Christ, our “Wonder-counselor, God-hero, Father-forever, and Prince of Peace” (Is.9:1,5) who calls us to love every moment of our lives by living in the present.  May Jesus “enlighten the eyes of our hearts that we may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones” (Eph.1:18).  AMEN.  Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

*Photo is a painting of Sto. Nino devotees by Bulakenyo artist Aris Bagtas.  Used with permission.

This 2019, Handle Life with Prayer

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The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe
Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, 13 January 2019
Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-10///Titus 2:11-14; 3:4-7///Luke 3:15-16, 21-22

            Today is the last Sunday of the Christmas season that closes with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.  But that does not mean we stop celebrating the coming of Jesus Christ.  In fact, this feast of His baptism reminds us of the great importance of praying daily to celebrate His coming the whole year through.

            The people were filled with expectation… After all the people had been baptized and Jesus had also been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove.  And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Lk.3:15, 21-22).

            One thing we shall notice this year when St. Luke guides us in our gospel every Sunday is how he always presents Jesus Christ at prayer like here at His baptism.  Only St. Luke records this detail that Jesus was praying after His baptism when the “heaven was opened.”  That is the meaning of Christmas, the opening of heaven for us through Christ’s coming after it was closed when Adam and Eve were banished following their Fall.  See how St. Luke situated the Lord’s baptism like his Christmas story to show us that Jesus lived at a specific time and period in history, that He had really come!  “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas” (Lk.3:1-2).

            The same is very true today in our own time.  In this specific period when everything seems to be so dark and in disarray, when we are filled with expectation after a long period when God had seemed forgotten us, suddenly there comes a voice in the wilderness, not in the desert of Jordan but right here inside our hearts of new hope, new beginnings this 2019!  Jesus had opened heaven with His coming to us more than 2000 years ago and He continues to call us to come to Him, to be one with Him and be in Him.  He is here inside our hearts inviting us to open up with Him, to converse with Him, to speak to Him and to hear Him in the context of prayer.  This feast of the Baptism of the Lord reminds us of that invitation from God for us to open up to Him too because He is now more accessible to us than ever in Christ.  In becoming human like us in everything except in sin, Jesus brought God nearer to us that we can converse with Him to air our concerns and innermost feelings to Him.  Most of all, experience in prayer God’s great love for us when we listen to His voice and heed His calls to discover far more great things in this life than we have ever imagined!  Why waste this great grace in Him?

               Second reason why we need to handle life with prayer is because it purifies us, cleanses us like the waters of the river.  Jesus need not be baptized because He has no sins; but, He chose to be baptized by John to show His solidarity with us sinners.  This is the main point of the prophecy by Isaiah in the first reading as well as the letter of St. Paul to Titus:  Jesus is the mercy of the Father to us sinners who had come to expiate our sins by taking upon Himself – the sinless one – our sins.  It is very sad that fewer people are now praying in the real sense because many of us have lost that sense of sinfulness.  Everything has become relative especially morality as if everything is now acceptable and therefore, nothing is sinful.  When people refuse to see and accept their sinfulness, when they feel being sinless, then they start acting like God, even claiming to be the Messiah and stop praying altogether.  We pray because we are sinful, because we have failed in doing what is right and what is good.  We pray to be cleansed of our sinfulness so we can be with Jesus to follow and imitate Him.  Real prayer happens when we admit before God our sins to be purified in Him.

                   Most of all, we have to pray always because life is difficult.  After the scene of the baptism of Jesus at Jordan, the next chapter tells us about His temptation by the devil in the wilderness.  After the long Christmas vacation, almost everybody had gone back to “reality of life”, of work and studies, of constant struggles and sufferings as well as sacrifices.  Jesus came to the world to help us in this life, calling us to come to Him for His yoke is easy and His burden is light.  That is the beautiful symbolism of Jesus plunging into Jordan.  For the Jewish thought, bodies of water like the sea, the lake and the river are symbols of the nether world, of the powers of darkness and evil.  When Jesus plunged into Jordan River and when He walked on water, they both mean the power of Jesus over darkness and sins.  That is why we pray to be purified, to be cleansed from our sins.  Now, flowing river is symbolic of life in the Old Testament as attested by the Nile in Egypt, the Tigris-Euphrates in Babylonia, and the Jordan in Israel.  There is always the danger of losing one’s life in the river especially when it is swollen but at the same time, there is also the abundance of life from its waters that nourish plants and teem with marine life.  Jesus choosing to be baptized at Jordan River tells us His coming to us in our lives marked with many dangers as well as with opportunities.  In fact, right in His baptism at Jordan, Jesus was already giving us a hint at the inauguration of His ministry about His coming Passion, Death and Resurrection symbolized by the river.  We all know this too for sure that great opportunities await us this 2019 but we all know we can attain these all if we are willing to take the plunge and meet head on the many challenges that would entail sacrifices and pains on our part.  Life is very much like a river and the good news is Jesus is here with us to help us and assure us of being fruitful if we can open to God in prayer.

            Every morning when we wake up, the heavens open with the Father telling us that due to the oneness of Christ with us, we too are His beloved children with whom He is well pleased.  Noteworthy in this part how St. Luke inserted after Christ’s baptism his version of the genealogy of Jesus, starting it backwards to end up with Adam, “the son of God” (Lk.3:38).  Aside from showing us the humanity of Jesus, St. Luke fittingly closed his baptism account of reminding us how in the Lord we have become God’s children too.  And that is enough reason for us to always pray not only because God converses with us and we need to be purified of our sins but most of all because we are the children of the Father in Christ Jesus.  With that in our minds and in our hearts, 2019 looks so promising indeed!  AMEN.  Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

*Photos from Google.

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Love is Being a Food for Others

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The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul
Tuesday after Epiphany of the Lord, 08 January 2019
1 John 4:7-10///Mark 6:34-44

            “In this is love:  not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins” (1 Jn. 4:10).

             Today as we move on to new directions and new beginnings this 2019 on this first full week of work and school – when we claim to be back to “normal” in life – you remind us also Lord Jesus Christ of the nature of love:  that everything is because of you because “God is love.”

            As we return to the usual grind of life, teach us always Lord to feel with the people like you when you were moved with pity upon seeing the vast crowd following you.  Most of all, teach us Lord that love is being a food myself for others to receive, to share with.  Yes, this is precisely what you meant when you told your disciples in the wilderness to “give the crowd some food yourselves” (Mk.6:37).  Whenever we share food and drinks to others, when we offer them to partake of our meals, we actually share ourselves with them.  That is the meaning of your sacred meal, the Eucharist.  And that is why such meal is also called agape, the highest form of love when nothing is expected in return.

             Give us the grace O Lord this New Year to be more loving, more caring with others by giving more of ourselves to others. AMEN. Fr.Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

*Photos from Google.

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“Waiting for Love” by Sergio Mendes and Brazil ‘77

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The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 06 January 2019

            It’s the first Sunday of 2019 and we are celebrating in the Church today the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord used to be known as feast of the Three Kings.  From the Greek word epiphanes that means appearance or manifestation, today’s celebration reminds us that Jesus came for everyone especially those forgotten and unloved, the poor and marginalized, the sinner and those lost.  Most of all, Christ became human like us except in sin so that it would be easier for us to find God.  In fact, it is actually God who searches for us and always finds us.  Whenever we think we are looking for God and have found Him, it was actually God who first sought us and found us.

            While praying over the scriptures for today’s celebration, one song kept playing at the back of my mind, “Waiting for Love” by Sergio Mendes and the Brazil ’77.  Composed by Randy McNeill, it is from their 1974 album “Vintage 74” that features for the second time around the vocals by Gracinha Leporace and Bonnie Bowden.  It is a very beautiful song with a haunting music because it is so true with many of us who are so afraid to love, afraid to follow our stars, and perhaps afraid to fail and get hurt in life.  “Waiting for Love” challenges us like the Epiphany if who among us are wise enough to recognize and follow Jesus appearing daily in our lives in many occasions and circumstances?  Surely, there were other people who have seen the bright star of Bethlehem when Christ was born but why only the three magi from the East came to follow it and search for Jesus?  Matthew tells us how the whole Jerusalem along with Herod were greatly troubled upon hearing the magi looking for the newborn king of the Jews as indicated by the bright star!  This is what the song “Waiting for Love” is saying, of how often that “(And) it seems I’ve spent my whole life, Waiting for love, And when it comes, I always run away.”  This 2019, stop being “afraid of being close where I need to be the most” – follow and believe in the bright star of Jesus Christ!  Cheers to more love this 2019!

Photo from Google.

Epiphany: New Beginnings in Christ

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The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe
Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, 06 January 2019
Isaiah 60:1-6///Ephesians 3:2-3, 5-6///Matthew 2:1-12

            Metro Manila’s main thoroughfare is called EDSA for Epifanio delos Santos Avenue.  Its namesake is a famous scholar from the province of Rizal whose name means “manifestation” or “appearance” from the Greek epiphanes.  EDSA today may be considered as the epiphany of everything that is wrong in the country, from government inefficiency to people lacking in discipline and patriotism.  Mention the word EDSA and you feel sad and gloomy all of a sudden. On the other hand, the Epiphany we celebrate today brings joy and jubilation because it is the manifestation of the universal kingdom of Jesus Christ to the pagans symbolized by the magi from the East.  After the octave of Christmas, it is celebrated within this joyous season to remind us that while deep within each one of us is a natural search or inclination for God, it is actually God who looks for us and eventually finds us.  Though it is God who appears to us or “epiphanies” to us, we have to be like the magi who must look and find Him as well as lead others to Him too!

            When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews?  We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.” (Mt. 2:1-2)

            It takes a wise person to search for Jesus – and a wiser person to lead others to Him!  How sad that so many people today feel so lost and could not find the right directions to Jesus because as we have reflected last Christmas, there are so many of us who pretend to be the Christ.  When somebody comes to us, seeking comfort or counsel or simply company, do they find the newborn King in us?  When people come to our homes, do they experience Jesus in our family?  When people come to pray and celebrate the sacraments in our parish or chapel, do they find Christ present there among the people and the place itself?  How sad that so many churches are desecrated in the name of finding Christ among the people that we have allowed everything and everyone to disregard their sanctity with so much pomp and pageantry that tend to manifest more the pride and ego, or insecurities of those in charge of these sacred places.  People continue to search for that Bethlehem where they could find rest and comfort, solace and consolation in the newborn king Jesus Christ. The Epiphany of the Lord reminds us that Christ came to the world to be the fulfillment of everyone and He had become human like us in everything except sin so we can find Him easily.  There are many symbolisms that may be gleaned from these wise men representing us today.

            They are sometimes called as kings as attested from our first reading, “Rise up in splendor!  Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you… Nations shall walk by your light; kings by your shining radiance.  Caravans of camels shall fill you, dromedaries from Midian and Ephah; all from Sheba shall come bearing gold and frankincense, and proclaiming the praises of the Lord” (Is.60:1, 4, 6).  From this part of Isaiah’s prophecy we also got that picture of the three wise men travelling as kings from the farthest parts of the world of that time riding on camels to show that even the most powerful men of the world recognize Jesus as the King of Kings.  In our responsorial psalm today, we heard ancient places that extend from the extreme west like Tarshish which is in Tartessos, Spain up to the isles off the coast of Africa and the Middle East which is part of Asia to represent rulers of the world who would come to worship Christ.  Notice how these places mentioned in Isaiah and Psalms refer to the three continents known during that time, namely, Africa, Asia, and Europe symbolizing the whole world coming to Christ.  Some Church Fathers even preached that the three kings symbolize the three stages of our life where Christ leads and guides us:  youth, maturity and old age.  In whatever state or stage of life we are, true wisdom and peace can only be found in Christ Jesus regardless of our differences.

            But above all of these we find that with the wise men coming from the East where the sun rises is that they show us the Epiphany as a new beginning in our lives.  The magi represent our inner journey in life to find and follow Jesus Christ.  Last year, I have dwelt a lot in that realization that life is more of a directional than a destination.  What matters most in life is that we keep on following Jesus Christ our light, our star.  That is direction, where He is leading us.  It never stops.  We just keep on following Him until we reach our final destination in heaven for we are all “coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Eph. 3:6).  This direction we have to follow in life never stops for the discovery of God is not the end but the beginning of a journey.  And in this journey in Jesus Christ, we do not simply go as followers but are expected to eventually become believers too.  Matthew noted at the end of the gospel today how the magi“departed for their country by another way” (Mt. 2: 12), meaning they have become believers eventually of Christ.  Their lives have changed and must have never been the same as before after finding Jesus because they have believed.  That is their big advantage and difference with Herod and the experts of Jerusalem who knew everything about the Messiah being born in Bethlehem but refused to believe Him.  This is the danger with us today:  many Christians today are mere followers but not wise enough to be believers of Christ.

            Like those young people aspiring to follow their stars at GMA-7’s talent search program “StarStruck”, we also need to dream, believe,and survive.  We all dream to be fulfilled in life.  And every lofty dream is always from above, from God as Matthew told us this Christmas the dreams of Joseph and now the dream of the magi.  It is said that those who dream with their eyes wide open are the real dreamers, the trailblazers who change the world.  That is because they did not only believe in their dreams and with themselves but most of all, they believed in God.  On this Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, He is inviting us to dream and believe so that we may live fully in Him.  Every day is a new beginning to search and follow and believe Jesus Christ our light.  Today we are given with over 350 days to begin anew in Jesus.  Be wise.  Search Him.  Follow Him.  Believe Him.  Happy Epiphany of the Lord! AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan

*Photos from Google.

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Let the Light of Christ Shine In You

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Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 02 January 2019

            I come from the fireworks capital of the country, Bocaue in Bulacan about 25 kms. north of Manila.  Unlike most of my town mates, I have always advocated for the total ban of manufacture and sale of fireworks and firecrackers long before I became a priest.  My first reason is because I have seen firsthand how many lives were lost in the manufacture and use of these products meant to bring good luck and more life.  My second reason is simply because it is a pagan practice.  What an irony it is so widespread in our country considered to be the only Christian nation in this part of the world!  The best way to welcome every New Year is to pray in silence to thank God for all the graces of the past year and to ask Him to keep us anew and to guide us through 2019.

             My third reason why fireworks and firecrackers must be banned is the fact these destroy and damage our already fragile environment.  While many are rejoicing that firecracker injuries are down by 68% this New Year celebrations, air quality almost everywhere remained dismal and even hazardous especially for the sick and elderly people.  Coming home to my parish after midnight of January 01, I thought my staff members have forgotten to turn on the lights outside the church or worst, there was a brownout because our whole neighborhood was so dark.  It turned out that thick smokes from the fireworks and firecrackers lit earlier to brighten our lives this 2019 have actually darkened our whole surroundings!  The scene was very surreal that spoke a lot of our inconsistencies and stupidity as a nation and most of all, as Christians.  How crazy that we as Christians are not only imitating the pagans in welcoming the New Year in the hope to better our lives when in fact we are destroying life itself in damaging the environment!

             Jesus Christ was born more than 2000 years ago during the darkest night of the year at winter primarily to be our light.  This is what Christmas reminds us at the end of each year as we usher in the new one that we have no other light but Christ alone.  And the light of Christ shines not from any bright star or comet up in the sky but right from the faces and hearts of every believer to whom Jesus is born within.  This is the daily challenge we all face that we must let the light of Christ shine in us so that people are illumined by His light not by our selfish, bloated ego projected by our supposed to be bright ideas.  How sad that even in the Church and among us priests, what we really project is our own light not Christ’s.  We cannot have the humility of John the Baptizer to admit that we are not the Christ because like during the first Christmas, so many modern day Caesars and Herods continue to claim these days that they are the Messiah or Savior of the world, even in the name of Jesus.

            To be a light of Christ in the world requires us His disciples to first withdraw from the limelight and go back to Jesus in prayer and meditations.  We are now living our faith in a mass-mediated culture but it does not mean we have to immerse into social media and other modern forms of communication.  We in the Church, both the clergy and the lay people have to realize and understand that while these modern communications are a gift from God, we do not have to allow it to overwhelm us that eventually, unknown to us, become our guide replacing Jesus Christ.  What a pity that many churches today look like conference halls with giant TV screens everywhere, tarpaulins covering every wall even the altar that people could no longer feel the sense of the sacred.  See how some priests have become as entertainers even clowns with all the jokes and antics without delivering any homily at all.  Or act like marketing agents using power points to deliver homilies without any point at all.  There are churches that have become ballrooms in total disregard of the sanctity of the place complete with all kinds of lights for dramatic effects with giant ceiling fans hovering above that do not necessarily complement the interiors.  People are rightly complaining of the commercialization of some churches that have become to look like a giant birthday cake than a house of worship due to so many decorations that are mostly cheap and kitschy.  Worst of all are those churches that have become like a perya (fair) with all gimmicks and publicity stunts that fool people by heightening their feeling levels only to get more collections but never to share Jesus Christ.   

                What a shame!  People come to church for Jesus, only Jesus and always Jesus.  And they would always come because that is something natural within each of us, even unbelievers.  The Church does not need public relations as advertisements for media mileage because we offer only Jesus Christ alive within each one of us.  I have always believed that there are only two essential things needed to share Jesus Christ and let His light shine in a parish:  meaningful liturgy and true charity and service to everyone.  Our dignified worship and celebrations of the sacraments along with our loving service and kindness to everyone who comes to our parish are more than enough to be the presence of Christ, to beam His light.  Stop making the church and everything in it a spectacle or a show we call palabas because Christ came in silent simplicity of the darkness of the night to be felt more deep inside by the heart not to be feasted on by the eyes.  The late German-born thinker Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy who converted into Christianity from the Jewish faith after World War II said that “A Christian is a person to whom Christ speaks.  The body of Christ is those who listen to him.”  How beautiful!  All we really need is Jesus Christ alone, not so much of things and gadgets, gimmicks and publicity stunts for He alone is our light who gives life.  The beloved disciple said it so well last Christmas Day, “through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (Jn.1:4-5).  Bring out that light of Christ in you this New Year!

*Photo by Dra. Mai Dela Pena, from a church in Sydney, Australia many Christmas ago.  Used with permission.

 

Meeting Jesus in 2019 with Mary

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The Lord Is My Chef New Year Recipe
Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, 01 January 2019
Numbers 6:22-27///Galatians 4:4-7///Luke 2:16-21

            One of my favorite sayings came from the waiting the room of our former family dentist Dr. Eddie Calalec of Meycauyan, Bulacan that says, “Time is fast for those who rush; Time is slow for those who wait; but, Time is NOT for those who love.”  We all complain of time being so fast.  Everybody is always in a hurry.  According to an elderly man I have talked to a couple of years ago, time moves so fast these days because people are always busy.  He explained that before, time was so slow because after farming earlier that day, they just waited for sunset and for time of harvest.  Life was so laid back at that time that truly time was so slow.  But life is not about time being fast or slow but of love.  The Church rightly celebrates today not the New Year which is time; remember that we celebrated the new year in the Church calendar last first Sunday of Advent.  Today we are celebrating the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God to celebrate her great love for Jesus that we hope to emulate this 2019.

             Mary embodies the whole meaning of that saying “TIME is not for those who love” as she presents to us not only the first but the perfect disciple of Jesus who loves Him so much.  St. Paul beautifully expressed in the second reading when time is not because of love which is “the fullness of time” (Gal.4:4).  When we love, there is fullness of time as if everything is suspended in animation, everything is frozen.  Every man who had courted any woman knows this very well of how time freezes when conversing with a beloved, not realizing the passing of time.  Old couples experience the same thing and so are good friends who could “waste” time together doing nothing, saying nothing to one another that after a few hours are all surprised at how long we have been together.  Time and space cease to bound people who truly love.  And that is why“if you want to be eternal, then, love” like God.

             People who love are always in haste not to do things or accomplish tasks but to be with their loved ones.  Luke tells us how “The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger” (Lk.2:16) after a heavenly host of angels proclaimed to them the good news of the birth of Jesus Christ.  We also heard from Luke during our Simbang Gabi after the annunciation of the birth of Jesus when “Mary set out and travelled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah” (Lk.1: 39).  This is the kind of haste – to come quickly to meet God, to be with a beloved, dear one – that is slowly fading away among us in this crazy world always on a mad race.  Everybody is rushing, running around, multitasking to accomplish so much that deplete us of energy even of time to be with our loved ones.  Many parents are guilty of this who turn nights into days making money to send their kids into expensive schools because of love; yet, when you ask them to attend a school meeting, to get the card of their children, they send the grandparents or nannies because they are busy at work.  More so with God as seen in the steady decrease of Mass attendance with people coming in late and then rushing to leave for meals and other things.  And admittedly, this is partly because so many priests are also in a rush to celebrate more masses and sacraments sadly for the wrong reasons and most of all, many of us could not share Jesus in homilies because we could not even come to Him for prayers.  It is simply a case of lack of any concern for God despite professions of faith or belief in Him.  Would we be like the shepherds if a host of angels appear tonight or today to tell us where Jesus Christ is?  Would we go in haste to find God, to meet God?  Would we be in haste to be with our loved ones, really?

         In this age of instant connections and social media via modern communications, actual meetings and coming together person to person have been replaced by mediated interactions.  We hardly experience anyone’s presence anymore that relationships have become superficial without any depths and meaning at all.  There is always the TV and the gadgets to entertain everyone, forgetting the tremendous blessing of everyone’s presence.  In the first reading we heard how God instructed Moses and Aaron to bless the people whenever they gather because every human presence is a blessing, a gift or a present.  And the highest blessing we can all have is the presence of God among us in Christ Jesus!  Mary as the Mother of Jesus is teaching us today that God is always present within us and with one another.  Let us not waste our time rushing for so many things that we only realize the giftedness of everyone most especially of our very selves when we are already old or sick.  Mary as the Mother of God and our Mother too shows us the need to always be in haste to meet Jesus right here inside us for He is here to stay with us, to be with us for the next 365 days of 2019, come rain or shine, no matter what.  AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

Photo of another painting by Bulakenyo visual artist Aris Bagtas depicting Mary with the child Jesus in lively colors, going out perhaps to meet the rainy new year.  Used with permission.