Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday, Thirty-Second Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, 13 November 2026 2 John 4-9 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Luke 17:26-37
Photo by author, Palauig, Zambales, 12 Novvember 2026.
Praise and glory to you God our loving Father!
Guide us, send us the Holy Spirit to discern your presence in Jesus Christ in every present moment amid the growing modern thoughts in the world.
Jesus said to his disciples: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man; they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all (Luke 17:26-27).
In this modern age
of social media
that have shrunk the world
into a global village
that have also spread so many lies
that poison so many with
the overstretching of rights
to life without any regard
for others like the weakest
as well as to your
Divine plan in Creation,
many have blurred your
love and kindness
advocating abortion,
divorce,
and in vitro fertilization
for test tube babies,
now comes the
SOGIE Equality Bill
in our Congress.
Make us heed
the words of John,
the Beloved Disciple of Jesus,
who is also the Elder
reminding us in the first reading today
"Anyone who is so 'progressive'
as not to remain
in the teaching of the Christ
does not have God;
whoever remains in the teaching
has the Father and the Son"
(1John 9).
Grant us, dear Father, the wisdom and freedom to trust more in you in accepting your invitation to live fully, wide awake in every present moment, finding you in our hearts and on the face of every person filled with joy not with anger, guilt, and fears. Amen.
Photo by author, Magalawa Island, Palauig, Zambales, 12 November 2026.
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday, Memorial of St. Leo the Great, Pope & Doctor of Church, 10 November 2026 Titus 2:1-8, 11-14 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> Luke 17:7-10
Fields of Hope by Moroka from Google.
Teach me, Jesus, to serve you freely, without asking anything in return especially recognition because it is my mission, my response to your call as servant.
Jesus said to the Apostles: “Who among you would say to your servant who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’? would he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat’… Is he grateful to that servvant because he did what was commanded? So should it be with you. when you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we havve done what we are obliged to do'” (Luke 17:7-8,9-10).
In this world where being recognized in "likes" and "thumbs up" are the currencies to live even to exist, our praises and recognition have become so empty, even "cringy" because we know it is a mere show, an acting out or a hypocrisy for others to see; we have even become lost on how we want to be thanked because we are confused also of what is to serve with everyone keeping accounts on our every move like selfies and photos in social media.
Your faithful servant, St. Leo the Great whose memorial we celebrate today reminded us of our dignity especially while serving you, Jesus; serving and being loved and valued are not opposites but actually go hand in hand because true service leads to freedom - free to be one's self and express freely what one feels and believes, free from what others say or think that eventually fills us with joy in having experienced you Jesus in our service.
To serve freely, therefore, is simply to be good as St. Paul reminded Titus. And us today. Amen.
Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 13 September 2026 Sirach 27:30-28:7 ><}}}}*> Romans 14:7-9 ><}}}}*> Matthew 18:21-35
Photo by a friend in Seabrook, Washington, 06 September 2026.
You must have heard that quote so often, “To err is human, to forgive is divine” from the English writer Alexander Pope’s 1711 poem An Essay on Criticism where he originally wrote “To err is human, to forgive, divine.”
For many it has become a cliche because it is so difficult to forgive. Especially if it has to be done repeatedly. It is among the hardest teachings of Jesus Christ along with the love of enemies, of doing good to those who hate us, and lending without expecting anything back.
In a sense, forgiving is the twin teaching of fraternal correction which Jesus taught us last Sunday; the more difficult it becomes when the wrong done is against us that we feel much like Peter in asking Jesus how many times must we forgive:
Peter approached Jesus and asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not even seven times but seventy-seven times (Matthew 18:21-22).
NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 11, 2001: (SEPTEMBER 11 RETROSPECTIVE) Smoke pours from the twin towers of the World Trade Center after they were hit by two hijacked airliners in a terrorist attack September 11, 2001 in New York City. (Photo by Robert Giroux/Getty Images)
Like fraternal correction, forgiving is a major concern in this modern time when the means and forms of evil have become sophisticated like terrorism and online scams that unfortunately happen not only on the world stage but right into our personal lives and relationships too.
We have all experienced being pushed to the limits as our patience is exhausted when a beloved is the one sinning against us that is both unacceptable and most unkind of all especially if the sin is committed repeatedly, prompting us to ask God like Peter how many times must we forgive our brother or sister. The figure “seven times” given by Peter is not the literal number but refers to the very many times we have forgiven somebody to wear out our patience.
What Peter was asking was a freedom from calculation of repeatedly forgiving one who repeatedly sins because that kind of forgiveness does not come naturally to any of us humans. Repeatedly forgiving someone who repeatedly sins is most difficult because it abuses our very person, our being Christian.
And there lies the bigger problem and difficulty about repeatedly forgiving someone who repeatedly sins who most often is dearest to us like your husband or wife, our parents or one of your children or a sibling.
The truth is, inasmuch as we ask like Peter so often how many times we must forgive our loved ones, the crux of the problem in forgiving is actually deep inside our hearts we still love them that we just forgive and forgive them. That is the mystery, the most baffling of all: why do we keep on forgiving somebody who keeps on sinning. Recall St. Paul’s words last Sunday “to owe no one except the debt of love” so that the more we love, we realize we can love like Jesus after all because forgiving is actually the work of God in us, with us, and through us in Christ.
Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount… Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan. When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount… Instead, he had him in prison until he paid back the debt. His master summoned him and said to him, “You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you? Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt. So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart” (Matthew 18:22-24, 27-28, 30, 32-35).
St. John Paul II meeting and forgiving his assassin Mehmet Agca in prison two years after the failed assassination attempt to his life at St. Peter’s Square, 13 May 1981.
Jesus explains in his parable that forgiving is actually a work of God, divine in nature as Alexander Pope tells us in his famous line “to err is human, to forgive, divine.”
We forgive because we are forgiven beloved. Jesus grounds this teaching not in willpower but in being like God the master in his parable, “Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?”
Jesus knows us so well as humans, sinful and weak who could not generate forgiveness and mercy out of nothing; it is very clear in his parable that we simply have to let flow towards others something of the forgiveness and mercy we have already received from the Father through him. Ben Sirach stressed this in our first reading, reminding us that our own capacity to receive forgiveness from God is bound up with our willingness to forgive those who have sinned against us.
Worthy of keeping in mind too that Jesus tells at the onset of his parable that forgiving is about the kingdom of heaven, not of this world wherein our debt to God is beyond measure like that servant. While we may argue that we are better than those criminals in jails or those corrupt officials now either sick to stand trial or have fled, it is pointless to compare and “measure” our sins because every sin is not only against another person but to God himself – the Perfect One who is love himself.
Photo from Pinterest.
When we forgive, that is when we level up our existence, when we live in Christ as St. Paul says in the second reading because our lives belong to God and to one another, not as the world tells us to control our lives and be masters of the universe. It is when we forgive that we are truly a church, a body of believers Jesus founded on Peter in Caesarea Philippi because that is when we live and die in Christ, becoming his vessels of mercy and forgiveness.
Most of all, it is in forgiving that we become truly free as a human, when we break free from the past hurts and grievances that pin us down, preventing us from moving forward in life. When we refuse to forgive those who have wronged us, we actually yield to their power and control. Hence, in all practicality, it is always best to forgive.
But there is something most deep and true about forgiving which clearly manifests our own mortality and rootedness in God who is our origin and end, “Remember your last days, set enmity aside; remember death and decay, and cease from sin!” (Sir. 28:6)
This Sunday, we are reminded to check and be aware of any resentments and anger we may still be carrying as we refuse to forgive lest we end like that unforgiving servant. Take this time to forgive for life is really too short to waste in keeping those grudges. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead!
Photo by a friend in Seabrook, Washington, 06 September 2026.
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday in the Sixth Week of Easter, 12 May 2026 Acts 16:22-34 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> John16:5-11
Photo by Ms. JJ JImeno of GMA-News, 27 May 2019 of a man who seem to have lost his head while praying inside the oratory of the UP Parish in QC.
"What must I do?" Many times I find myself in the same situation as the prison guard of Paul and Silas asking the same question, "What must I do to be saved?"
How funny that the prisoners were Paul and Silas but it turned out that after the earthquake shook the prison, it was the guard who was the one really "imprisoned" - just like me in the many times I have been busy "guarding" and "keeping" things around me I believe keep order; there are times I find myself so imprisoned to my duties and responsibilities, fears and apprehensions, endless concerns and worries that I could no longer find myself, my family, my friends, and even God.
What must I do, Jesus?
Help me find my way back home to you, Jesus. Amen.
Commuters hang from the back of a jeepney as it travels along a road in Manila, the Philippines, on Sunday, April 9, 2017. Photographer: Veejay Villafranca/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday, Memorial of St. Agatha, Virgin & Martyr, 05 February 2026 1 Kings 2:1-4, 10-12 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Mark 6:7-13
Photo by author, Taiwan, 15 February 2019.
Thank you, dear God our loving Father for the gift of freedom we often misinterpret as doing whatever pleases us; the prophets and kings of Old Testament like David before his death reminded everyone to remain faithful to you, O God, to always choose you and your ways and commandments but since then until now, we abuse our freedom and still refuse to choose what is good, refusing to follow and obey you, O God.
When the time of David’s death drew near, he gave these instructions to his son Solomon: “I am going the way of all flesh. Take courage and be a man. Keep the mandate of the Lord, your God, following his ways and observing his statutes, commands, ordinances, and decrees as they are written in the law of Moses, that you may succeed in whatever you do, wherever you turn, and the Lord may fulfill the promise he made on my behalf….” (1 Kings 2:1-4).
We know what happened with Solomon and the rest of all their kings with a few exceptions: they all turned away from you, O God that disaster fell on them not as your punishment but as consequences of their abuse of freedom; teach us in Jesus Christ who had come to show us the way to true freedom by choosing you, O God, doing your will, doing and being good by being faithful.
How wonderful, O God, that despite our abuse of freedom, you have remained faithful to us, loving us, forgiving us like King David, and still calling us to follow you in Christ Jesus; let us trust you more by choosing you and your ways, letting go of our baggage and other false securities so we can travel light and preach effectively, totally free and faithful to you through others.
Through the intercession of St. Agatha who witnessed Christ and his gospel at a very young age, may we have the courage to remain true to your call and teachings. Amen.
Photo by author, Mt. St. Paul Retreat House, La Trinidad, Benguet, February 2020.
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 30 September 2025 Tuesday, Memorial of St. Jerome, Priest & Doctor of the Church Zechariah 8:20-23 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Luke 9:51-56
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 19 March 2025.
You were the first, Lord Jesus Christ, to teach us to have the courage to be disliked; you were the first to show us true freedom from what others say to freely follow what God says; you were the first to suffer and die for love, Lord Jesus Christ because your being is always clear, your mission is always clear, and your love is most clear.
When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem, and he sent messengers ahead of him. On the way they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his reception there, but they would not welcome him because the destinations of his journey was Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?” Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they journeyed to another village (Luke 9:51-56).
You knew very well, dear Jesus, what awaited you in Jerusalem yet you "resolutely determined to journey" there and when trouble was brewing in a Samaritan village, you simply took another route to not waste energy and time among the Samaritans.
Grant me the same courage and freedom, Jesus, to be disliked, to be rejected; teach me to let go of my past especially my mistakes and failures, choosing to be better than bitter; keep me anchored in you, Jesus, of how much you love me and believe in me so that I do not have to seek other's approval except that I am doing your holy will; most of all, teach me to be gentle and kind with myself, that I am not God who is perfect; like St. Jerome, let me immerse in your words to continue following you despite my imperfections as Zechariah prophesied. Amen.
Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Our Lady of Fatima University Valenzuela City (lordmychef@gmail.com)
Photo by author, Archdiocesan Shrine of Nuestra Señora De Guia, Ermita, Manila, 28 November 2024.
Lord My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 25 May 2025
Photo by author, Angels’ Hills Retreat and Spirituality Center, Tagaytay City, 18 April 2025.
We shift this Sunday into jazz with Earl Klugh’s sophisticated Living Inside Your Love to slow cool down our simmering summer and to feel more the meaning of the Mass readings today as we enter the penultimate week of Easter.
We were already in our early teens when we discovered Earl Klugh along with other jazz greats with the opening of the country’s first and only jazz radio station 101.9 WK-FM in the late 70’s. Maybe it was part of growing up when we experimented on a lot of things for more adventures that I found myself venturing into jazz from rock and pop music, switching from RJ to RT and then WK.
For me, Earl Klugh was the jazz version of rock’s Eric Clapton or Carlos Santana. Klugh has that certain touch or pluck in his guitar that can make you be in love, not necessarily be in love with anyone. It is a nakaka-in love ma-in love na feeling! That is why we remembered his Living Inside Your Love piece from his second studio album released in 1976 by the legendary Blue Note Records and Liberty Records produced by another jazz great, Dave Grusin.
Actually, we just realized today Living Inside sounds like a prelude to the turn of the century’s new age music where Klugh’s masterful playing of the guitar taking the centerstage of a great symphony backed up with cool vocals repeating just a few lines and stanzas of simple verses over and over that is similar with the vision of John in this Sunday’s second reading from the Book of Revelation when he saw and experienced the “new heaven, new earth” in the great luminous light of God who is himself the temple in the city (https://lordmychef.com/2025/05/24/easter-is-god-dwelling-in-us/). See how Klugh inserted the vocals into his great guitar music enhanced by a symphony like John’s vision of heaven:
Can't get over the feeling Living inside your love I never want to lose the feeling Living inside your love
Baby, you made my life so free Living inside your love You're just where I want to be Living inside your love
Baby, you made my life so free Living inside your love You're just where I want to be Living inside your love
Very interesting with his wonderful guitar music, Klugh’s lyrics – though sparse and repetitive – were loaded in meaning. Consider the line “living inside your love” which is exactly what Jesus said at the Last Supper, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him” (John 14:23).
“Living inside one’s love” is what we call as “Divine indwelling”, that is, our home is in God – and with any one we love!
Moreover, consider also Klugh’s first line in his next stanza, “Baby, you made my life so free/ Living inside your love/ You’re where I want to be/ Living inside your love.”
When we love, we enter a relationship that becomes our dwelling, our home where we become free – free to love more, free to be faithful. When we truly love like Christ, the more we find ourselves more free to love, more free in everything because being free is choosing always what is good. We believe that more than a stroke of genius, it was also a kind of divine inspiration about true love that made Klugh at put at the end of this 1976 classic the longer stanza that actually repeated inn order to stress the truth of his first two stanzas.
Can't get over the feeling Living inside your love I never want to lose the feeling Living inside your love Can't get over the feeling Living inside your love I never want to lose the feeling Living inside your love I can't get over the feeling Living inside your love I never want to lose the feeling Living inside your love I can't get over the feeling Living inside your love
Here is Earl Klugh’s lovely Living Inside Your Love. Have a lovely Sunday and week ahead.
Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe, Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Second Sunday in Easter Octave, 27 April 2025 Acts of Apostles 5:12-16 ><}}}}*> Revelation 1:9-11,12-13,17-19 ><}}}}*> John 20:19-13
Photo by author, Angels’ Hills Retreat & Formation Center, Tagaytay, 19 April 2025.
Locked doors. Exactly what I have dreaded most these days not because of claustrophobia but more of amnesia as I often forget my keys that I get locked out of my room.
Many of you probably know that kind of feeling of being locked out of our rooms or even house: we are so stressed that we go through self-blame and self-pity of being so forgetful to intense annoyance when we have to destroy our locks and knobs to replace them with new ones.
But, surely there must be a great difference of being locked inside a room that is more stressful and even fearful leading to claustrophobia. Imagine how the disciples of Jesus felt on that evening of Easter when they have to hide inside the Upper Room and locked the doors for fears of being arrested too following reports of the empty tomb.
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” – John 20:19
Painting by James Tissot (1836-1902) of Jesus Christ’s appearance to his disciples on Easter evening.
Only John tells us this detail of the evening of Easter of how the disciples hid inside locked doors, that despite that, Jesus Christ still came through. Aside from the darkness and empty tomb that characterized Easter which all evangelists narrated, John seems to be telling us something important about those locked doors.
Do you have any locked doors in your life that is why you can’t experience the joy of Easter?
One thing for sure: John included that little detail of the locked doors of the Upper Room where the disciples hid to show us that no obstacle, no locked doors can prevent Jesus from “coming” to us. Jesus had triumphed over sin and death. He is Risen! Nothing can stop Christ from breaking barriers among us and within us to bring his peace and joy of Easter.
However, the problem could be with us as we refuse to recognize Jesus coming to us.
Our refusal to forgive those who have hurt us, especially if they have tried reaching out to us, even apologizing can be a locked door within us. It could be the other way around when who have hurt others have locked inside ourselves in our refusal to ask forgiveness and be reconciled with a loved one.
There may be other locked doors in our life like our fears of failure and disappointment, of lost and separation from our loved ones due to various reasons like betrayal or death. Think of the other kinds of locked doors in our life that have kept us in the darkness of grief and sadness, bitterness and hatred or anger, even hopelessness.
See how in our gospel there are so many elements linked together in experiencing our Risen Lord – the need to believe like Thomas who was not inside the locked doors when Jesus first appeared. The nice thing with Thomas despite his doubts, he came to the room with locked doors to await Christ’s coming and he was not disappointed!
Like Thomas the Apostle, we have to believe Jesus in order to see him. We have to welcome Jesus inside our locked doors. Most of all, we have to come our from our locked doors to be one with others freed by Jesus.
“The Incredultiy of Thomas”, painting by Caravaggio from artsandculture.googe.com.
Every day amid all our daily darkness and emptiness, Jesus breaks our locked doors, coming into our lives like that Easter evening, bringing peace and forgiveness and most of all, joy of finding him, of seeing him, of experiencing him.
The world tells us to see is to believe but Jesus tells us to believe first so that we may see because it is only when we believe that we truly love and when we love, that is when the miracles of Easter begin to happen. Everyday.
Locked doors isolate us and isolation is separation which is the absence of love. This eventually leads to hopelessness which is the exact opposite of love. When we lose hope, we destroy everything, including life. People without hope are the most angry, the most isolated people who would kill and destroy everything because there is nothing to look for nor expect. They are locked inside their own prisons of selfishness.
Jesus rose from the dead to break all barriers to life especially sin and evil that imprison us so that we may believe again, love and hope to live Easter daily.
Easter does not remove the darkness nor emptiness within us but definitely breaks locked doors in us so we can go free to follow the light of Christ, to spread that light with others imprisoned in their locked doors of unbelief.
In the first reading, we find the Apostles after Pentecost continuing the work of Jesus by preaching and healing the sick while in the second reading we heard John thrown into exile to Patmos and yet, still chose to proclaim the gospel and wrote his visions while in prison.
We all know from the Acts of the Apostles that it was not all good news for the early Church that soon faced persecution. But by remaining open to Jesus Christ’s daily coming in themselves and through others like their persecutor named Saul who became Paul, Christianity flourished.
Today in our modern age, St. John Paul II designated in May 2000 this octave or eighth Sunday in Easter as the Divine Mercy Sunday as an invitation to Christians to face with confidence in the Divine Mercy the difficulties and trials that we still have to experience in the years to come.
There will always be darkness and emptiness in life. Including locked rooms. But, Easter is Christ’s triumph over all these. Rejoice in breaking free today. Many times in life, all we need in life is a simple spark of believing in Jesus risen, with us inviting us to come and follow him in his light and life. Amen.
Photo by author, Angels’ Hills Retreat & Formation Center, Tagaytay, 19 April 2025.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 05 February 2025
Photo by author, Cathedral of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Dumaguete City, 07 November 2024.
Discipline is a word so misunderstood these days that too often, it is frowned upon or even feared by many. In this age of so much “freedom” without any regard to “responsibility”, discipline has become its main casualty.
Discipline has very interesting origins. From the Latin verb discere which is to learn or to follow, its noun is disciplina for teaching or learning from which came the word discipulus for disciple, a follower or a pupil. Hence, a person of discipline is one who follows or obeys teachings.
The more disciplined a person is, the more free a person becomes!
As we have mentioned at the start, due to the wrong perception of “freedom” these days as the ability to do whatever one wants, many see discipline as suppression of freedom. But what is most true is its opposite – the more disciplined a person is, the more free the person becomes!
Photo by author, sunrise at St. Paul Spirituality Center, Pico, La Trinidad, Benguet, 06 January 2025.
When we discipline ourselves in every aspect of our lives like in food and drink intake, in using our time wisely, in budgeting our money and resources among other things, the more we become free to many other things in life. Remove discipline and do whatever you like in your life, eventually you become “unfree” because definitely you will miss your responsibilities and obligations like studies in school and duties at home and the office.
Freedom is never absolute. It has always been limited to choosing and doing what is good. When freedom is abused, it can lead us into being not free at all.
Likewise, some people think discipline is temporary and optional. Many believe that discipline is just for kids and young people who ought to follow their parents and elders. What about adults following their superiors and those above them in the natural and social hierarchy of things and relationships? This perhaps explain the reason why there is a growing complaint against young people lacking respect to elders and those in authority.
Discipline is a life-long process, the one sure thing we would need even rely upon so much as we age and get old. Discipline is imposed and taught in our younger age so that we would mature, grow and develop as persons. It is a lifelong process, a habit, a good that we keep on doing until we die. Or, even if we get old and sick, discipline is our North Star, the Polaris within ourselves especially when everything is dark, when we seem lost in life. Discipline enables us to succeed and be fulfilled in life. Find any bum and surely you shall find no discipline at all; but, you can never find a successful person without any discipline.
“Jesus Unrolls Book In the Synagogue” painting by James Tissot (1886-1894), brooklynmuseum.org
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the most perfect example of a disciplined person, of leading a disciplined life. All evangelists tell us how Jesus always went to the synagogue on a sabbath to worship and to preach. Most of all, Jesus always prayed early in the morning or later in the evening in some deserted place. These were all forms of discipline He must have learned from His parents Mary and Joseph who were both portrayed in the gospels as devout Jews, both with high degrees of discipline in life even before Christ was born.
Prayer after all is a discipline, something we have to cultivate that leads to a loving relationship with God and with others too! And here we find the deeper reality of discipline which is not just a human effort and endeavor. Discipline is the work of God, His gift and grace to each one of us to have fulfillment in life
Discipline is not just a human effort; discipline is the work of God too!
Brothers and sisters: You have also forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as children: My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges. Endure your trials as “discipline”… At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it (Hebrews 12:5-7, 11).
Photo by author, St. Scholastica Spirituality Center, Tagaytay, August 2024.
How I wish parents would still use that analogy by the author of the Letter to the Hebrews regarding discipline. When we were growing up, our parents would always explain to us after scolding us due to misdemeanor or a mistake that it was to discipline us in doing what is right or what is good.
This is something so evident these days, when you hear the older folks saying how life was more orderly before because of discipline unlike today. And one may find this lack of discipline everywhere – in public places not only home, including in churches. Partly to be blamed for that is us, the older folks who have stopped teaching discipline to kids and the youth.
Lately I have been seeing many of my former students in elementary and high school. I have always known many of them hated me when in school because I was a strict teacher (and priest). Including many of our teachers too! That is why whenever we talked about their school days, I always asked them to forgive me for making their lives so difficult as I demanded excellence and precision in their studies and most of all, discipline at all times like cleanliness in their clothing and bearing, order and silence in classrooms, and of course, proper decorum inside the church.
At the wedding of one of my former student with his classmates in January 2020.
Surprisingly, they always ended up thanking me for the discipline I have taught and instilled in them that according to them led to their success in both their personal and professional life. Many of them have their family of their own now with some living overseas. It brings me so much joy with some tears when they tell me how they have taught their own children of the discipline I drilled in them about studies and reading, of prayer, and of simply being the very best for God in everything. It is the same thing with some of our teachers who have remained some of my dearest friends today with some living and working abroad. In fact, they claimed that it was my “terroristic discipline” that greatly prepared them for their lives and work in foreign lands and cultures.
We need to discipline ourselves for God’s grace to work in us. And remember, grace builds on nature – that’s the beauty of discipline: the more we practice it, the more blessed we become! It is a built-in app or program God has installed in each of us. Use it extensively by switching it on always. In case there’s a glitch, still, switch it on and surely it would work. As always. Have a disciplined week ahead.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Feast of the Sto. Niño, Cycle C, 19 January 2025 Isaiah 9:1-6 ><}}}}*> Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-18 ><}}}}*> Luke 2:41-52
I have never liked children especially infants not until these last twenty years of my life. Before, I could not understand when parents especially mothers giggled with joy in seeing babies, describing how handsome or pretty they are when they all look the same to me.
Everything changed when I became a priest especially when I turned 40 and had my own nieces and nephew. Suddenly, I realized how children could be so nice with their energy and laughter and wits too. As I now approach my 60th birthday serving as a chaplain in a University with a hospital since 2021, I have come to love children that I have been telling my sister to push her two daughters to get married so we could have babies again in the family!
As my attitudes with children changed, the more I understand why our Lord Jesus Christ had insisted in His teachings the need for us to become like them. Until His death, Jesus showed us the importance of being like a child not only in trusting and having faith in the Father but most of all on the true meaning of freedom.
Photo by author, Tagaytay City, 17 January 2025.
Contrary to common beliefs of many, freedom is not the ability to do whatever one likes; freedom is choosing to do what is good. That is why freedom is never absolute. In the Book of Genesis we find God telling Adam and Eve to eat every fruit of trees in Eden except the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden (cf. Gen. 3:2-3). And we have seen how in the abuse of their freedom, they including us today have become “unfree”.
In Christ’s coming, He made us recover our freedom, giving us the grace to always choose and do what is good, to be free from sin and free to love, free to forgive, free to be kind. This essence of freedom He taught even at His early age as the true Son of God.
Each year his parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom. After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem but his parents did not know it… After three days they found in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them question, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:41-43, 46-49)
“The Finding of the Savior at the Temple” painting by William Holman Hunt (1860) from en.wikipedia.org.
First thing we notice in our gospel regarding freedom as the ability to choose what is good is Luke’s portrayal of Joseph and Mary as devout Jews who regularly went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
Each year his parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom.
What a simple expression of the essence of freedom of choosing what is good, choosing God: the parents of Jesus devoutly practiced their faith that Jesus fully imbibed. The gospels teem with many stories of Jesus regularly going to the synagogues on sabbath to proclaim the word and to preach to the people.
This is something many parents today are missing, the Sunday devotion. No wonder that many children today do not understand the meaning and importance of the Sunday Mass, even the preeminence of God in our lives. How sad that many families even on holy days of obligation choose malls and vacation than choose God to worship Him in the church.
And many have the gall to defend this as part of their freedom, an expression of unity as family. But, where is God among them? Most of all, have we really become free by not going to the Sunday Mass?
Definitely not. Even at the surface some people would not seem to have any qualms at all in skipping Sunday Masses, deep inside many are bothered. Many of them feel an emptiness within, a kind of darkness that Isaiah described in the first reading. See how despite the affluence of many people today than three decades ago yet more and more are feeling lost and depressed because they have lost their roots in God who leads us to our rootedness in ourselves and with others.
Photo by author, January 2022.
Speaking of roots, its Latin origin is radix from which the word radical came from.
When we hear the word radical, we associate it always with someone who is a revolutionary, someone who literally or figuratively “destabilizes” our status and ways of thinking like Jesus Christ.
Very often, we find Jesus presented to us as one who was radical in His teachings who was thought to have been a revolutionary member of the Zealot party that worked to overthrow the Roman occupiers in ancient Israel. It was one of the accusations hurled against Him at His trial, citing His declaration to destroy the temple that He would rebuild in three days after its cleansing. Of course, these are not true; Jesus was not a radical revolutionary like the communists or power grabbers of modern century.
However, if we examine His teachings and mission, Jesus was a radical revolutionary because He preached and worked to bring humanity back to our very “root” – radix – who is God Himself. Listen to His words to His Mother after being found in 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?"
Photo by author, Parish of St. Joseph, Pacdal, Baguio City, 28 December 2024.
Here Jesus showed His Mother and us today that true freedom is being one always with the Father. Jesus was a truly free person because even at His early age, He was totally united with the Father’s will.
All throughout His life and mission, Jesus helped us all attain that freedom of inner communion with God our Father to be truly free from sin and evil to be free to love, free to understand, free to serve and whatever is good.
See how Jesus spoke so plainly to Mary and Joseph, as if reminding them and us today that our roots is in God alone and that is what we must always be concerned with, of how we must remain rooted in God as His children.
In the fourth gospel, we find this imagery of remaining rooted in God in Jesus Christ so beautifully explained during the Lord’s Last Supper discourses specifically in that of the vine and the branches (Jn. 15:15:1-17).
That’s the paradox of true freedom in Christ: being one in God does not limit but rather expands one’s freedom as a person. Any freedom outside of God is a fake and most likely, leads only to bondage because it is only in doing what is good when we truly grow and mature as persons.
Photo by author, Malolos Cathedral January 2022.
This Sunday we celebrate an extra day of Christmas for the Feast of the Sto. Niño in recognition of its great role in the spread of Christianity to our country since its coming in 1521 when Magellan gifted Queen Juana of Cebu with a Sto. Niño image.
The late Nick Joaquin rightly claimed in his many writings that the Philippines was actually conquered by the Sto. Niño than by the guns and cannons of the invading Spaniards more than 500 years ago. That’s probably because of this lesson on true freedom by the Child Jesus.
Let us learn and grow in true freedom by first choosing God especially on Sundays by celebrating the Lord’s Supper, the Holy Mass. Like the Child Jesus, let us remain in the Father, be free to ask most of all to listen and learn about life.
Like Mary and Joseph, it takes time before we can truly understand the words of Jesus Christ; what matters is like them, we keep on choosing always Jesus, only Jesus because Jesus is the truth. May the Lord “enlighten the eyes of our hearts so we may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance” (Eph.1:18). Amen. Have a blessed and free week ahead!
