Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Second Sunday in Advent-A, 07 December 2025
Isaiah 11:1-10 ><}}}}*> Romans 15:4-9 ><}}}}*> Matthew 3:1-12

A few weeks before the Holy Father visited Turkiye recently, we were also in Istanbul and had the great chance of visiting the magnificent Hagia Sophia. And we wonder why Pope Leo XIV skipped the more historical and popular Hagia Sophia to visit instead the Blue Mosque just across.

The Hagia Sophia or “Holy Wisdom” was the largest church in the Eastern Roman Empire when Istanbul was called Constantinople until the Ottoman Turks conquered the city and converted the church into a mosque. More than a hundred years ago when Turkiye became a republic, the government made Hagia Sophia a museum until recently when it was reverted into a mosque again.

My initial feeling when I got inside Hagia Sophia was deep sadness. “Malaking panghihinayang” as in “sayang na sayang” in Filipino because it used to be ours but due to the Great Schism of 1054 when the Eastern Roman Church broke away from Rome, it fell into the hands of the Moslems who made it into a mosque, altering or hiding the many great works of art there that date back to the Byzantine era 1200 to 1400 years ago.

One of its many treasures you might be familiar found in history books and magazines is the “Deesis Mosaic” of Jesus flanked to his left by his Mother Mary and John the Baptist to his right.

From the Greek word “deesis” that means supplication or intercession, the mosaic features Mary and John beseeching Jesus to forgive mankind at his Second Coming. Though the three images have been badly deteriorated due to the elements passing through the window beside it, its beauty remains intact, especially the evocative faces of Mary, Jesus and John.

Seeing it personally, one could feel the pagsusumamo of John the Baptist and Mother Mary expressed in the softness of their face in earnestly asking Jesus to forgive mankind on the day of judgment. And it seems to be working so well as you could feel too the tender compassion of Jesus Christ’s look as he raised his right hand in a blessing position while holding with his other hand a thick book that is perhaps a Bible.

The Deesis Mosaic is very Advent in character because it is about God’s mercy and forgiveness in Christ Jesus at his Second Coming at the end of time.

Here we find how early on in the ancient Church they have been preoccupied in this first aspect of Advent, the Second Coming of Christ at the end of time and of Advent’s essence – our conversion from sins. At the forefront of that call is the Lord’s Precursor, John the Baptist, that is why every second and third Sundays of Advent we hear in the gospel his ministry at Jordan.

John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said: A voice crying out in the desert, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. … At that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region aroun d the Jordan were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins (Matthew 3:1-3, 5-6).

John the Baptist remains relevant in preparing for the Lord’s coming, whether at the end of time or in preparation for our Christmas celebration. Like him, we are all called to be an Advent person, vigilantly preparing ourselves for Christ’s coming at the end of time that happens in every here and now, right in our own desert in this modern time.

Yes, we are like John the Baptist living in our own desert, a world we describe as a global village wired and connected by the internet yet so apart from each other. Instead of bringing us closer with one another, all these modern inventions have actually grown us more detached from one another like when eating in a fast food. It is so alienating especially for us seniors to be placing our orders on those tall electronic boards programmed for us to order more food and drinks not healthy at all.

Or, take those TNVS or Transport Network Vehicle Services like Grab. We no longer travel in the real sense as we just move to destinations with that desert feeling when inside a Grab car with the driver too far from us passengers in front, following instructions from apps while we at the back sit silently scrolling our phones or pounding a laptop. See also how driving has become going in the wilderness with the horrendous traffic where humans turn into monsters in road rage while machines and CCTVs monitor who’s violating traffic rules and who gets through the RFID.

This Second Sunday in Advent, John the Baptist invites us to be aware of the desert we are living into where we have become less personal, less human as we move away from God that we have lost our sense of sin, acting more on impulses without much thinking its effects and consequences.

We think more of ourselves than of God and others, overextending our rights insisting on our ways that actually destroy lives through abortions and gender manipulations. We no longer speak of what is true and good by simply following trends and what is convenient. No more feelings, no more compassion. No more others. No more God nor heaven and eternity.

We do not have to dress on camel’s hair nor eat locusts and wild honey like John but simply make a space within us for God and for others.

We would be gravely wrong to think John was only speaking to the people of his time especially to the Pharisees and Sadducees; Matthew wrote his gospel account at that time to nourish the faith of early Christians facing persecutions and many challenges in life like in our own time when it is so tempting to follow the evil ways of the world.

John continues to warn us today of the sure return of the Christ when everyone shall face judgment which is not something to be feared like a sword of Damocles hanging above our heads ready to strike us anytime. It is a call and a demand for concrete actions of conversion, of leaving our sinful ways to follow Christ’s path of holiness.

“Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:10-11).

Advent assures us of Christ’s Second Coming when he shall purify and renew us to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy in the first reading when “the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid… the calf and young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them… the cow and bear shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest, the lion shall eat hay like the ox… the baby shall play by the cobra’s den, and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair”(Isaiah 11:6-8).

As we have reflected last Sunday, every coming of Jesus is a day of judgment but not a catastrophe. It becomes a disaster for those unprepared, living in sin. But for those like John the Baptist, striving to live the gospel amid the desert of this world, Christ’s coming is salvation and peace for Jesus is full of love and compassion and tenderness for his people.

Life is so difficult these days especially when we see our great disparities with the corrupt who simply steal our money and those we call “lumalaban ng patas sa buhay”. Imagine how in our country the world is like a desert, so hostile with the weak and the poor who have to wrestle with 500 pesos – if ever they have – to stretch it for a noche buena on Christmas Eve.

St. Paul reminds us in the second reading that in times like these, we look up to God and his Sacred Words, to keep hoping, trusting and believing in Christ’s coming already happening especially in the Sunday Eucharist. Let us gather together as one community, encouraging each other in Christ like John in Jordan while awaiting the Lord’s coming, rejoicing like the psalmist today who sang, “Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace forever” (Ps. 72:7). Amen. A blessed Second Week in Advent everyone!