Image from Google: Open ears, Open hearts, Open minds.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul
Friday, 15 February 2019, Week V, Year I
Genesis 3:1-8///Mark 7:31-37
Our dearest God and loving Father, thank you very much for this month of February when we celebrate Valentine’s, the day of hearts.
It must had been your Holy Spirit guiding us these days when we prayed the other day that we may look inside our hearts to see you and follow your holy will; yesterday as we celebrated Valentine’s, we prayed for the grace to see with our hearts.
Today we pray for the grace to listen with our hearts so we may not repeat the sin of Adam and Eve when they listened to the voice of the serpent who misled them into believing that the moment they eat the fruit of the tree of in the middle of the garden, “their eyes would be opened and they would be like gods who know what is good and what is evil” (Gen.3:5).
Give us the grace to separate ourselves from the crowd, from all the noise and different voices of the world, to listen with our hearts in silence with Jesus Christ like that deaf man brought to Him in Decapolis.
“Ephphatha!” (Mk.7:34)
Let our ears and our hearts be opened to you O Lord.
Let us be “deaf” sometimes to the cacophony of sounds in the world, competing for our attention, listening intently with our hearts to your tiny voice deep within us, telling us to love freely and truly by avoiding sins and doing only what is good. Amen.Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 10 February 2019
It is a very lovely Sunday despite the very warm weather. Perfect for listening to the music of Seawind with vocals by Fil-Am Ms. Pauline Wilson who would surely touch your heart and delight your soul with “Still in Love” from their self-titled album “Seawind” released in 1980.
How lovely to realize that after all these years, you are still loved by someone you have loved. Exactly the kind of love of Jesus Christ to us all. In the gospel today, we find Jesus calling His first apostles while preaching by the shores of Lake Gennesaret after being rejected at their synagogue in Nazareth. That is how true and faithful Jesus is with His mission to reach out to everyone proclaiming His good news of salvation. Jesus is the only one who would always still be in love with us no matter how often we turn away from Him or reject Him.
Are you still in love with someone special? Or with Jesus?
Rejoice because most likely, you are still loved by that someone.
For the past three weeks we have seen how Luke had been true to his intent of writing in an “orderly sequence” the events in the life of Jesus Christ so we may realize the “certainty of the teachings” handed down to us by the apostles (Lk.1:3-4, Jan. 28). Taking off from the scene at the Nazareth synagogue, Luke showed us how Jesus is the “word who became flesh” when He told the people, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk.4:21). And like those people in the synagogue, we too are so amazed with the words of Jesus but likewise disturbed, even mad when He hits a soft spot within us. That is how Jesus does His mission, always inviting us to listen and act on His word that is fulfilled in the “today” like in the calling of the first four apostles, the brothers Simon and Andrew, James and John. After driving Him out of their synagogue, Jesus went to preach to the crowd who followed Him along the shores of Gennesaret.
While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret. He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat (Lk.5:1-3).
What a lovely sight to behold, my dear readers, of Jesus Christ borrowing the boat of Simon to preach to the people. Imagine the Son of God, through whom everything was created, borrowing the boat of Peter? Imagine how that boat of Simon must have looked like. It must be so ordinary and most likely, even with some holes with nothing so outstanding – just like us! Yet, here is the King of kings borrowing that boat from Simon. Luke is showing us here a “parable in action” of how the Gospel is to be preached to all people with no exception. It is a beautiful imagery of the Church gathered around our Lord and Master with Simon – like us – in supporting role. Today, it is the boat of Simon being borrowed but later on, it would be his voice, his total self that Jesus would borrow, very similar with us too.
After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon said in reply, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.” When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him (Lk.5:4-6,8,10-11).
This is the climax not only of our gospel scene today but also of the whole series these three Sundays that started on a day of rest inside the synagogue of Nazareth when Jesus came to proclaim the word of God. The actualizing power of the word of Jesus Christ fulfilled in every “today” when proclaimed and heard and accepted. See how Simon was filled with fear that he fell into his knees after seeing the bountiful catch after obeying the words of Jesus, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.” Of course, the fish is always in the sea; the key to their great catch was the presence of Jesus Christ. It is the same with our own lives when we work so hard in our jobs or career and in our studies and other pursuits but we are still left empty. But after finding Jesus, we are so overwhelmed with so much blessings not really in material form but something more deeper and lasting. The word of God is His very presence and its effect is always in the here and now, not later. Like the other Sunday, we said it is not enough to enter the church but we enter the person of Jesus Christ. And the moment we enter Jesus, we then become like Simon, filled with His presence that we no longer address Christ as Master or Teacher but also Lord. Like Simon, we also experience a deepening in our recognition and relationship with Jesus: at first, we relate to Him more as a Master and Teacher but later, we realize that He alone is our Lord.
See how by placing the miraculous catch, the call of Simon and his companions, and their response at the beginning, Luke is teaching us the spirit that must guide us in proclaiming and listening to the Gospel Jesus Christ. In these three Sundays, we have seen Jesus Christ as the central figure for He alone is our Master and Lord. He alone is the one calling us all to be fishers of men and to follow Him means to leave everything behind like Simon and company.
Here lies our problem today when we forget Jesus our Master and Lord. So many times we in the Church, especially us priests and those in the hierarchy as well as some laypeople forget Jesus, usurping His Lordship that we speak and act like God. Luke reminds us in this scene at the Gennesaret that we do not replace Christ! In the first place, remember that people come for Jesus in the first place and only Him, always Him whom we must share to everyone. How sad that so often, consciously or unconsciously, some priests create cults around their very selves, we become the standard of everything, we claim everything that people look up to us more than to Christ. Like Simon who would be called as Peter later, our job is to lend our boat and our voice to Jesus and not to replace Him. Like the prophet Isaiah, we are being sent forth by the Lord to bring Him among people, to make Him present among them. As Paul explained also these past three weeks in his first letter to the Corinthians, the Church is the living body of Christ that we all build together. There is the diversity of graces, gifts, and ministries that come from the Holy Spirit to complement each other. Most of all, in proclaiming and listening to the word of God, there must always be love for without it, nothing would have value at all. And that alone proves to us the centrality of Jesus Christ who alone is our Master and Lord, who calls us despite our many defects like Simon. Jesus alone is the one we must love and serve, His very person and not only His call and teachings. A blessed week to you! Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.
Today O Lord we thank you for one of the most unique saints of modern time, St. Josephine Bakhita who had taught us the importance of when and how to listen. Her life proved that indeed, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb.13:8) for you never abandoned her, always speaking to her on many occasions through the many people and events of her life.
Teach us to emulate St. Josephine Bakhita who chose to listen to your voice within her, in her conscience to do what is good, to desire only your will. Despite the many sufferings she had endured as a child sold to slavery from Africa that she had forgotten her name, she chose to listen to her conscience that had remained pure and clean.
So unlike Herod who loved listening to the preaching of John the Baptist though he would always be perplexed because he refused to accept them. Most of all, Herod preferred to listen to the words of the people around him, especially the daughter of Herodias than listen to his conscience that led to John’s beheading.
O Lord Jesus, so many times I confuse your words with the words of the world. Grant me a clear conscience that I may always pursue your holiness. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.
Sunset at the main plaza of Fatima in Portugal by my former student at ICSB Architect Philip Santiago during his pilgrimage there October 2018. Used with permission.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul
Thursday, 07 February 2019, Week IV, Year I
Hebrews 12:18-19, 21-24///Mark 6:7-13
Lord Jesus Christ, thank you in bringing God closer to us, in enabling us to experience of belonging to him as our loving Father unlike in the Exodus when his presence was a fearful spectacle that made even Moses “terrified and trembling” (Heb.12:21).
Thank you Jesus for being our mediator with God whose love and mercy we have experienced in you. Let us not be distracted with so many things of the world like food and clothing, fame and wealth, and other allurements that feed on our ego and blind us from you.
Give us the faith and courage to make God present in this world among the poor, the sick and the sinful. Let us continue your work of bringing joy and salvation, mercy and forgiveness, healing and life. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.
The “amazing” rock formations at Yehliu Geopark in Taiwan: one may see so many images for as long one’s eyes and minds are open. Photo by the author, 30 January 2019.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul
Wednesday, 06 February 2019, Week IV, Year I
Hebrews 12:4-7, 11-15///Mark 6:1-6
How amazing O Lord Jesus Christ is the word “amazed” used today in the gospel.
When you came to your native synagogue at Nazareth, the people were amazed or “astonished” with your speech that immediately they doubted where you have learned so many things when you were just one of them, a son of Joseph the carpenter.
As a result O Lord, you were “amazed at their lack of faith” in you that you did not perform many miracles among them.
To be amazed is a feeling borne out of being surprised that could either lead one to see more or see less. Being amazed is never enough. Amazement leads to more wonder and curiosity, to deeper conviction and faith, to more love and appreciation. But when amazement leads to doubts and skepticism even unbelief, then, we were not really amazed but simply surprised because we simply felt but did not see at all.
Teach us Lord Jesus Christ today not to be contented with being surprised and amazed with you and other things. Open our eyes and our hearts to see more of the bigger picture, more of the details of every scene that comes in our lives, be it good or not so good like those moments we have to go through many trials and difficulties that have disciplined and made us into better persons in you (Heb.12:5-7). Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.
Photo by Mr. Raffy Tima of GMA-7 News, Sampaloc Cove in Subic, Zambales, 20 January 2019. Used with permission.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 03 February 2019
As I was telling you in my last blog, we had a unique weekend yesterday when we celebrated the Feast of the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple because its gospel reading complements our gospel this Sunday. Recall how yesterday we have heard Simeon telling Mary the Mother of Jesus, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted – and you yourself a sword will pierce you – so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Lk.2:34-35). Today in our gospel we have seen the fulfillment of Simeon’s prophecy of Jesus being a sign of contradiction when people at their synagogue were amazed at His “gracious words” in proclaiming the word of God on a Sabbath. Then suddenly, the same people became skeptical of Him, wondering where or how He got such wisdom, asking “is he not the son of Joseph the carpenter?” This deteriorated more when the people became furious of Jesus, trying to hurl Him down headlong a ravine after He had explained to them the meaning of the word of God that revealed their hypocrisies.
So many times we go through the same experiences like Jesus in His own hometown when family and relatives and friends would speak highly of us but later put us down with their gossips and nasty words. Like Jesus when we try to be true and just with everyone, there are those would feel insecure that they would backstab us and even worse, betray us like Judas to Jesus. These are all a part of our being a prophet like Jesus Christ. A prophet is more than being a spokesman of God but someone who makes the word of God happen and fulfilled in every here and now like Jesus declaring in the synagogue on that Sabbath day, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk.4:21). Sometimes, the more we try to truly love, the more we try to truly care and be kind with others, the more we are maligned and disliked by others. Indeed, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.
And that is why I remembered this beautiful song originally sang and recorded in 1970 by the Chicago soul family group called the Five Stairsteps. This song was originally meant to be the B-side of the Five Stairsteps’ version of another song but due to its meaningful and soothing message of hope and love, it became an instant hit at that time. There have been so many versions of this song that has become timeless as it assures everyone in every generation of how things would get better despite the many obstacles and setback in life. It is the very same assurance of God to us all who try to follow His Son Jesus Christ in being a sign of contradiction in this world where the norm nowadays is selfishness and self-centeredness masquerading as love and service. A blessed Sunday to you!
The Cross of Christ atop the church of our Lady of Lourdes in France. Photo by my former student Philip Santiago during his pilgrimage, September 2018.
We had a rare weekend yesterday in the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord that wonderfully complemented our gospel on this Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Recall that last Sunday we were told how Jesus went home to Nazareth, entering the synagogue on a day of rest. Everybody was amazed with His “gracious words” in proclaiming the word of God that we ended the gospel with a very positive note when Jesus declared “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk.4:22). Our gospel today repeated this line as its take off point to continue the story of Jesus at the synagogue but, this time Luke tells us of a twist from the very positive “all spoke highly of him” to their skeptical “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” (Lk.4:22). The mood deteriorated further after Jesus had spoken so that “the people at the synagogue were filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong” (Lk.4:28-29)!
What and how did this sudden turn of events happen? Here we find the complementing Feast of the Presentation yesterday based on the infancy narratives of Christmas by St. Luke when Simeon told Mary the mother of Jesus, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted – and you yourself a sword will pierce you – so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Lk.2:34-35). See how Jesus at the inauguration of His ministry at their Nazareth synagogue last week proclaiming the word of God would now start to be seen as a sign of contradiction among His people as prophesied by Simeon to His mother yesterday. That would reach its highest point 33 years later in Jerusalem where He was presented to the Temple 40 days after Epiphany after resolutely going there to offer or present Himself to the Father on the Cross. This explains why Jesus merely “passed through the midst of them and went away” when the people at the synagogue tried to hurl Him down headlong because His time of final offering had not yet come. But very clearly here at the synagogue of Nazareth, Christ is indeed the sign of contradiction not only to His people but also to us in this generation when we would also speak highly of Jesus, shouting Amen with clapping of hands and suddenly hit people near us with harsh and nasty words or even brutal force. Most of all, like the Lord, we too have experienced being a sign of contradiction when people would speak highly of us then suddenly or over time, turn against us and speak ill of us, betraying us like what Judas did to Jesus on Holy Thursday.
My dear friends in Christ, it is our calling and our life too in living out the word of God through our life of witnessing His immense love in service and mercy for those in the margins. Every time we gather for the Sunday Mass like when Jesus entered the synagogue of Nazareth on a day of rest, He invites us to follow Him to be a prophet by entering Him more than merely the church building. Being a sign of contradiction like Jesus is our prophetic mission in Him. So unlike what most people think, a prophet is not a fortune teller or a seer of the future. As the spokesperson of God, a prophet is one who makes God’s word happen or fulfilled in every here and now. Keep in mind that one feature of Luke’s gospel is the pre-eminence of “listening and doing” the word of God like when he reported how Jesus declared Isaiah’s prophecy fulfilled in their hearing that led into the sharp and sudden shifting in the reaction of people against the Lord, from approval to rejection.
First of all, those reactions were most evidently from His claiming to be the Messiah referred to in Isaiah’s prophecy on whom the “Spirit of the Lord rests upon.” He was the one who proclaimed the word and if we have truly immersed ourselves into this beautiful scene in the synagogue on that Sabbath day, we would really feel Jesus is in fact the one Isaiah is speaking of as being “anointed to bring glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives, sight to the blind, freedom to those oppressed, and to usher in a year acceptable to the Lord” (Lk.4: 18-19). Salvation decisively begins in Christ and through Christ whenever we enter Him in His words. That “today” in Nazareth synagogue is also the today of our own time that continues to provoke astonishment among others when we try to be Christ’s witnesses of authentic love for others. That is perhaps the sad reality of these days when it becomes big news when people do something genuinely good and beautiful like the woman who impulsively rented 20 hotel rooms in Chicago so the homeless could escape the deep freeze this week in the US Midwest; her deed snowballed into other strangers doing the same! That is essentially the meaning of Paul’s lofty words on love being the greatest of all gifts because it makes God most present in our midst. To truly love like Christ is essentially being a sign of contradiction in this world where the norm is selfishness and self-centeredness often masked in different in lofty terms and ideals bereft of any love at all.
Along this line of self-centeredness we find Luke reminding us in this scene at the Nazareth synagogue of the persisting problem self-entitlement among people then and now when we prophetically live out our mission of making Christ present. People always look down and frown upon those who try to be good and holy by striving to do what is right and just while the holier-than-thou sanctimoniously feel they are the only ones anointed to do such things because they are entitled. They are the modern Gnostics according to Pope Francis in his latest encyclical about holiness in our modern time (Gaudete et Exsulatate)” who feel as the only ones gifted in knowing what is right or wrong, true and good as if they are God. Like those people at the synagogue in Nazareth, they refused to accept Jesus of being more knowledgeable because He is the son of Joseph who was a carpenter. Jesus would strike at the very core of their self- entitlement when He told them “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his native place” (Lk.4:24), citing how Elijah and Elisha of the Old Testament days were both sent by God to help pagan peoples and not the Jews who have turned away from Him exactly like them. That filled them with fury against Jesus, wanting to hurl Him down the hill headlong. It is the same feeling those people around us experience like our relatives and friends who could not accept we are better than them that they start spreading all kinds of lies and nasty talks against us as they see their self-entitlement slowly eroding. Such is our life as a prophet like Jeremiah, always going against the flow of the people, choosing Christ to be a sign of contradiction and give way to the fulfilment of God’s word among us. Amen.Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.
Friday, 25 January 2019, Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul
Acts 22:3-16///Mark 16:15-18
Today we thank you O Lord for your gift of St. Paul whom you converted from being a persecutor of the early Christians to becoming your “Thirteenth Apostle” who stands at equal footing with St. Peter in the growth of your Church.
What made him truly great and effective as an apostle, O Jesus, is not his brilliant rhetoric and sophisticated strategies but his willingness to suffer so much for you and your gospel. He had shown us the essence of discipleship which is to live one’s life completely in you alone – “I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20).
St. Paul was able to accomplish this by showing us true conversion that we always misunderstand as something like changing into another person completely like turning around a shirt, from being proud and violent to becoming meek, or from being so shy to becoming daring or being impulsive to almost timid. While his letters teem with so many gems in teaching us how he was converted into loving you until the end, his imposing images with his sword remain his most beautiful symbol of conversion.
All his life as his images rightly portray him everywhere, he had kept that sword: when still called Saul, he had that sword to express his zeal and fire for the Law that he persecuted Christians; but on the way to Damascus, you called him and after a period of prayers and studies, he picked up again his sword to preach your gospel with the same fire and zeal that eventually in the end, he willingly accepted death by the sword in your name. From the sword that inflicted pain on others, it became a sword that slew his defects until later at the end of his life in Rome, it caused his martyrdom.
Help me Lord to keep my sword – my weaknesses and shortcomings – not for their own sake but because that’s me, that’s my personality. Help me to change my ways not my heart by using this same sword to slay the defects within me without extinguishing that fire for you and your gospel. Let these defects I have remind me always like St. Paul that “whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider a loss because of Christ… everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil 3:7-8). Let me fight, O Lord, for your gospel, for your Spirit as I fight pride and other sins within me. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.
*Photo from Google, statue of St. Paul in front of the Major Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the- Walls, Rome.
