Tuesday, Easter Week II, 30 April 2019, Amman, Jordan
We are all pilgrims on this earth, Lord God Almighty.
May we be like the early followers of Christ, “one heart and mind” in you. Let us keep in our hearts and minds that everything here on earth is yours to be shared with one another.
Let us seek more of the things of the above like Nicodemus.
Let us follow your directions in Christ through the Holy Spirit like the wind that blows.
Bind us all your children – fellow pilgrims -that we may care for this beautiful planet earth as we walk home to you O God our Father. Amen.
Photos on our way to Petra this morning via the King’s Highway or the ancient desert way.
We Filipinos have an expression that best captures the faith of Easter experience, something very close with the universal expression “aha!”. It is what I call as the “a basta!” experience.
From the Spanish word “basta” which means “enough” like what St. Teresa of Avila said in her poem, “Solo Dios basta” (Only God is enough/suffices), our “a basta!” expression is often used to insist on something to be accepted as true. Its closest English equivalent is “that’s it” to show that the issue at hand is settled because I have confessed it so.
On this octave of Easter which means eternity (because there are only seven days in a week but if you count the days since Easter, this Sunday is the eighth, an octave), the beloved disciple reminds us that Jesus said other things not recorded in his book; and most likely, he had had other appearances too not recorded simply because they are impossible to do. According to John, these were all written so we may all believe Jesus is the Christ and have eternal life in him. Moreover, there is no need for him to go into so many details about the appearances of Jesus after his Resurrection because what really matters most is the intensity of his presence. It is from that intensity of his presence we derive that “a basta!” experience of him. To be open to accept such intense moments of Christ’s presence leads us to deeper faith in him and eventually, to a relationship with him and in a community.
Thomas meets the Risen Jesus. From Google.
Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
John 20:26-
“Do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
Last Sunday we have reflected how the Easter stories are always set in darkness like in the early morning, at sunset, and in the evening: the joy of Easter always comes bursting in the darkness of our lives, when we are down and suffering, sick or feeling lost, and fearful. It is during those dark moments of our lives when Jesus silently comes to us even in locked doors and windows. Problem is the moment Jesus comes to us, that is when we doubt him like Thomas! We could not believe Jesus is really alive though deep inside us, we do believe if only there could be be something within us that could give that final big push for us to say “a basta!”.
A week after his first appearance to his disciples at night, Jesus appeared anew today despite locked doors, darkness, and shadows of doubts within Thomas. When Jesus told him to “do not be unbelieving, but believe” , the Lord was not reproaching him but actually exhorting him to believe. And that is likewise addressed to us today: believe!
To believe is first to accept the gift of faith from God who opens himself to us, inviting us to a relationship with him. To believe in God is to meet him who always comes to meet us, to be with us. To believe in God is most of all to enter into a relationship with him so that that more we believe, the more we “see” him, the more we experience him. Most of the time we learn and get so many proofs of the existence of Jesus Christ in our prayers, studies, and experiences. Through time, we also grow in our personal conviction and acknowledgment of the Risen Lord, surpassing all proofs and logic until eventually even if we can enumerate our many reasons for believing, in the end, we admit that not even one of them is the very reason for our faith in Jesus Christ. And that is when we give that burst of “a basta!” – – – Jesus is alive! Then we learn to confess like Thomas, “My Lord and my God.”
From Google.
The Resurrection of Jesus is both historical and beyond history that made so much impact in human life, affecting us in the most personal manner. Sometimes we really wonder like the Apostle Jude Thaddeus who asked the Lord during the Last Supper why he would only manifest to them and not to everyone (Jn.14:22) so as to cast out all doubts and set the record straight that there is God indeed. When we examine our life journey, we find there is really no need for Jesus to appear at all for everyone to believe his existence, that he had risen from the dead, that there is God.
The Easter stories show us how God works silently in our midst, always slowly and surely, gradually through history and in our personal life. It is not really his appearances that matter but the intensity of his presence felt only in silence when we learn to trust more and believe more. How wonderful that on this eight day of Easter we also celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday that invites us to trust more than ever Jesus Christ our salvation. May we entrust ourselves to Jesus anew like Thomas, touching his wounds, confessing “My Lord and my God” or “Jesus, King of Mercy, I trust in You.” Amen.
While praying your words today O Lord Jesus Christ, I remembered your servant Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI who explained the great importance of professing “I believe in God”.
It is a fundamental affirmation, seemingly simple in its essence, but it opens on to the infinite world of the relationship with the Lord and with his mystery. Believing in God entails adherence to him, the acceptance of his word and joyful obedience to his revelation… The ability to say one believes in God is therefore both a gift — God reveals himself, he comes to meet us — and a commitment, it is divine grace and human responsibility in an experience of conversation with God who… speaks to us, so that, in faith and with faith, we are able to enter into communion with him.
General Audience, 23 January 2013
Since then until now, believing in you Jesus to have risen from the dead, to be from God the Father has always been a problem because we have always refused to accept your opening to us. We always want to manipulate everything, especially God.
The problem with believing is we have refused to live by God, always leaving him behind because we feel he is outdated, old-fashioned and too conservative for our modern thoughts and perceptions of how life should be lived.
The problem with believing God then and now is we have stopped recognizing God as the foundation of our lives that like the chief priests and elders in the Acts of the Apostles, we would rather be blind from the glaring truth of your loving presence before us. Like the Apostles too during Easter, we have refused to believe others in proclaiming your rising from the dead because of many reasons and one of these is the hardness of our hearts.
Lord Jesus Christ, take away our stony hearts and give us with a natural heart that beats with firm faith in you, fervent hope and unceasing charity and love. Amen.
Choir loft of Parish Church of the Holy Family in Taipeh. Photo by author, January 2019.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Friday of Easter Octave, 26 April 2019
Acts 4:1-12///John 21:1-14
From Google.
Today O Lord I wish to offer to you my favorite morning prayer hymn we sing during Ordinary Time called “We plough the fields and scatter” (Wir Pflugen):
All good gifts around us Are sent from heav'n above, Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord for all his love.
You are “the author of life” indeed Lord Jesus Christ because all good gifts around us can only come from you!
When your Apostles were arrested and questioned by the priests and elders of Jerusalem “by what power or by what name” did they heal the crippled man since birth, Peter boldly answered them it was “in your name, Lord Jesus Christ!” (Acts 4:7-10)
When your Apostles caught so much fish after following your instruction to cast their net over the right side of the boat without really knowing it was you who gave the instruction from the shore, it was the beloved disciple who right away recognized you, “It is the Lord.” (Jn.21:7)
Lord Jesus, teach us to be humble always, to recognize YOU alone as the source of every good thing in life. So many times Lord, we always grab the honor in doing many great things in this life that we unconsciously divert people away from you and more closer to us.
O Lord…we priests are very notorious in doing that, grabbing all the credits for everything that is achieved as if we are the gods! Forgive us Lord. And let us proclaim always your goodness and your greatness. Amen.
“The Apparition at Tiberias after Easter” by Italian painter Duccio di Buoninsegna (1255-1318). Photo from Google.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe, Thursday, Easter Octave, 25 April 2019
Acts 3:11-26///Luke 24:35-48
From Google.
Today O dear Jesus Christ, St. Peter called you as “the author of life” in our first reading — a very beautiful and unique way of describing you who had resurrected from death.
From you alone, Lord, comes life indeed. Most of all, only you can restore and bring back life in case we lose it for you are indeed the author of life. St. Mark the Evangelist whose feast we celebrate today perfectly said it at the start of his gospel account:
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ (the Son of God).
Mark 1:1
You O Lord Jesus is the good news yourself because you are life, the author of life. Whoever believes in you, accepts you has life, regains life.
Sometimes we are like your disciples in our gospel today who doubted you when you suddenly appeared to them in their room. Sometimes we are overwhelmed with your presence. And most of the time, we think you might be a ghost or an imagination.
But the moment we try to feel you and experience your saving power, then we realize how scary it can be sometimes to believe you than to believe in ghosts because you are REAL, ghosts are not.
Help us to be like St. Mark the Evangelist who wrote the first gospel ever written now bearing his name and symbol of a lion. May we have the courage to write with our very lives your good news of salvation whose only author is you alone. Amen.
The beautiful west facade of St. Mark’s Cathedral Basilica in Venice, Italy with a statue of its patron atop with a winged lion with a bible below him as symbols. Photo from Bing.com.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe, Wednesday, Easter Octave, 24 April 2019
Acts 3:1-10///Luke 24:13-35
Road to Emmaus. From Google.
How interesting is Easter becoming, O Lord! Yesterday, Peter’s listeners were “cut to the heart” upon hearing your good news of salvation. Today, as you walked along with two disciples going to Emmaus feeling so sad with your death and news of missing body, you expressed great surprise at their being “slow of heart to believe”.
And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures.
Luke 24:25-27
So many times Lord, we are slow of heart to believe because we refuse to see the bigger picture in life when setbacks and failures can be staging points for greater growth and maturity. We choose to be mediocre and be contented with whatever is before us, refusing to strive and rise.
So many times Lord, we feel like that man crippled from birth at the Beautiful Gate of the temple contented in begging alms without realizing that negative things in our lives can enable us to receive the gift of life.
Like that crippled man from birth at the Beautiful Gate, let us seize every moment of meeting you, having you in our lives. Amen.
Healing of a Lame by Peter and John on a tapestry by Raphael at the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. Photo from Google.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Tuesday, Easter Octave, 23 April 2019
Acts 2:36-41///John 20:11-18
Photo from Google.
Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they asked Peter and the other Apostles, “What are we to do, my brothers?”
Acts 2:37
What a powerful expression, O Lord Jesus Christ: “they were cut to the heart” upon hearing the preaching by St. Peter about you on Pentecost day, on how the people have killed you, on how they failed to recognize you as the Christ.
They were cut to the heart, they were so moved.
Yesterday O Lord, many of us were also cut to the heart with the powerful earthquake that rocked us hard late afternoon. Many prayed, many wondered what’s going to happen next. And many asked what are we to do?
Suddenly, people remembered you and called on you. That is always the case when calamities strike us, when problems arise in our families. We are cut to the heart. Our faith is awakened, we become conscious not only of you but of others we used to take for granted.
But there is something more wonderful in being cut to the heart, O Lord.
Mary Magdalene was also cut in the heart upon discovering your empty tomb that Easter morning. Give us that same grace of always seeking you, looking for you whenever we feel we have lost you.
So often, you come to us, calling us with our name but we never listen to you, always forgetting how much you love us, how much you have forgiven us with our many sins, how you have changed us.
Remind us like Mary not to touch you because from now on, we must relate with you in a higher level, that the most important thing to do is to proclaim to others most especially with our lives that we have seen you, that you are risen.
That is the most kindest and wonderful kind of cut of all, Jesus. Amen.
Jesus telling Mary Magdalene not to touch him in a painting at the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Italy. Photo from Google.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, ika-22 ng Abril 2019
Larawan mula sa Google.
Busilak at ningning ng Pasko ng Pagkabuhay Hindi magiging makulay Kung hindi naging mapanglaw at madilim Malagim na Viernes Santo ni Kristo.
Ito ang katotohanang dapat nating matanto Walang Pasko ng Pagkabuhay kung walang Viernes Santo; Kaya itong si Hesu-Kristo unang tinungo ayon sa katesismo Kinaroroonan ng mga yumao noong Sabado Santo.
Sa kanyang pagtatagumpay sa kadiliman Hindi na tayo maaring panaigan ng kamatayan Kaya pati lagim ng kadiliman kanya nang nakaibigan Upang tayo ay magwagi kapag nasasawi.
Larawan mula sa Google.
Katulad noong kinagabihan ng Pasko ng Pagkabuhay sa Emaus Tayo ay sinasabayan sa paglalakad sa buhay nitong si Hesus Nakikinig sa ating mga karaingan at kabiguan At sa gitna ng kadiliman, ibinabahagi sa atin kanyang katawan.
Buksan ating mga isipan, lawakan ang pananaw Puntahan ang kadiliman sa ating kalooban upang maliwanagan Buhay ay hindi isang palabas lamang, parang pelikula Palaging bida sa bawat eksenang nililiwanagan ng artipisyal na ilaw.
Kaya nga kataka-taka, namamangha ka ba? Sa ating panahon at mundo na puro palabas ang tao Lalong nalilito, mga lilo nananalo sa puwesto Lahat pasikatan, patalbugan pero malayo sa katotohanan.
Starry Night ni Van Gogh mula sa Google.
Tanging liwanag ni Kristo ang totoo dahil siya ito mismo Maningning, maliwanag ang busilak Katulad ng mga bituin at buwan sa gabing madilim Hatid ay tiwala at sampalataya dahil sa pag-asa ng bagong umaga!
Halina at pumaloob sa kaibuturan ng ating pagkatao Doon ating makakadaop si Kristong muling nabuhay Nililiwanagan ating puso at kalooban ng kanyang katotohanan Upang tunay tayong makapamuhay at hindi magpalabas lamang.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for Monday, Easter Octave, 22 april 2019
Acts 2:14, 22-23///Matthew 28:8-15
Photo from Google.
Glory and praise to you, O Lord Jesus Christ! Thank you very much for the gift of Easter, the gifts of new life, of hope, and most of all, of love. Thank you very much for sharing with us your glory of rising from death.
But what is worst that could happen with us this Easter is when we choose to remain in the darkness of ignorance and sin, of not truly believing you are risen. And leading others away from you like those terrorists in Sri Lanka yesterday.
The chief priests assembled with the elders and took counsel; then they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him while we were asleep.’ And if this gets to the ears of the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.'” The soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed.
Matthew 28:12-15
Until now, O Lord, there is still that spirit of your enemies living in us, of those soldiers bribed who chose to disregard what they have experienced, to lie of your Resurrection. Until now, we continue to betray you, replacing you with people and things we find more valuable to us. And worst is when we mislead others away from you.
Let us go to meet you, “fearful yet overjoyed” like Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to announce your rising from the dead. Let us accept the truth of what Peter boldly proclaimed after Pentecost in Jerusalem that indeed, we have “killed” you now risen from the dead.
Let our ignorance of you, Jesus, be an opening for our faith in you so we may grow in intimacy with you. Amen.
Sunset in San Juan, La Union, January 2018. Photo by author.
A blessed happy Easter to everyone! Sorry for the delay with our LordMyChef Sunday Music – I can’t really think of a song that can go well with our reflection about Easter: the need to “internalize” our faith in our Risen Lord Jesus Christ while still being joyful filled with life. And so, we are having two songs in a row for our reflections. After all, it is Easter, the Mother of all our feasts!
Easter stories are always filled with shades of darkness. Unless we are willing to go through the darkness of Good Friday, we shall never experience the brightness of Easter. It is in darkness when we learn to trust more and believe more, hope more and love more.
To help us examine our selves, we share with you Marvin Gaye’s classic “What’s Going On” released in 1971. Aside from the timeless meaning of the song, the lyrics are very poetic.
Mother, mother There’s too many of you crying Brother, brother, brother There’s far too many of you dying You know we’ve got to find a way To bring some lovin’ here today
Father, father We don’t need to escalate You see, war is not the answer For only love can conquer hate You know we’ve got to find a way To bring some lovin’ here today, oh oh oh
Picket lines and picket signs Don’t punish me with brutality Talk to me, so you can see Oh, what’s going on What’s going on Yeah, what’s going on Ah, what’s going on
Mother, mother, everybody thinks we’re wrong Oh, but who are they to judge us Simply ’cause our hair is long Oh, you know we’ve got to find a way To bring some understanding here today Oh oh oh
For our second song in our twin header this Easter Sunday, we have the joyful 1983 hit by Christopher Cross “All Right”. Amid all the darkness we are going through in our lives, Jesus continues to walk with us, listening to us, and most of all sharing with us. With Jesus we can all make it!
I know, I know what’s on your mind And I know it gets tough sometimes. But you can give it one more try to find another reason why, You should pick it up and try it again â??Cause it’s all right – I think we’re gonna make it, I think it might just work out this time. It’s all right – I think we’re gonna make it I think it might work out fine this time It’s all right – I think we’re gonna make it I think it might just work out, cause it’s not too late for that too late for me.
A painting of the road to Emmaus with Jesus from Google.
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