Finding Jesus in Easter darkness

The Lord Is My Chef Recipe in the Octave of Easter, also Divine Mercy Sunday, 19 April 2020

***Acts 2:42-47* ><)))> 0 <(((>< 1 Peter 1:3-9 ><)))> 0 <(((>< *John 20:19-31***

Carrying around our parish the Blessed Sacrament every Sunday afternoon since lockdown began.

I have almost forgotten – and it is only now amid this extended lockdown – that I have realized the first Easter happened in darkness! We are in the same situation with the Apostles when Jesus rose from the dead.

What we need is to “quarantine” ourselves more, our heart and soul within to see and recognize our Risen Lord among us like during that first Easter.

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.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
John 20:19-23

Stained glass at the back of our parish church depicting the appearance of the Risen Jesus with Thomas, aka, Didymus. Photo by author, 02 April 2020.

Jesus always comes in darkness to bring light of peace

In our reflection last Holy Wednesday, we have mentioned how Jesus was born during the darkest night of the year to bring us that light of hope and salvation. The same is true with Easter when he resurrected in the darkest part of the day just before dawn.

Jesus indeed is the light that bursts and pierces through the darkest darkness of the world and of our very lives, our sinfulness. This is the reason we also celebrate this Sunday the Feast of the Divine Mercy of God in Jesus Christ.

Through his Passion, Death and Resurrection, Jesus is the only one who can penetrate through whatever blockages and imprisonment we have or we are into like sin and evil, pains and hurts in the past that filled us with so much guilt.

In his Divine Mercy, Jesus had come to give us our life back complete with the gift of freedom that we have all lost to sin and evil.

And that is why on Easter, Jesus gave us his greatest gift of all which is peace or shalom in Hebrew that means wholeness or holiness. To be whole literally is to have a good relationship with one’s self, with others, and with God.

Vatican II asserts in its Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World:

Peace is more than the absence of war: it cannot be reduced to the maintenance of a balance of power between opposing force not does it arise out of despotic dominion, but it is appropriately called “the effect of righteousness” (Is.32:17). It is the fruit of that right ordering of things…
Gaudium et Spes, no. 78

Righteousness in the bible means justice that is also equivalent to holiness which is, to be filled with God, not necessarily to be sinless. That is why after greeting them with peace the second time, Jesus breathed on them the Holy Spirit, an imagery that reminds us of the story of creation when God breathed on the first humans to have life.

At Easter, we were breathed on again by the Risen Lord to renew our lives, to fill us again with God and be closest to him in our breath and thus enabling us to be free again from sin and evil, free for God and for others.

What a joy to read these days due to lockdowns worldwide that the Sierra Madres and Mt. Samat can be seen again from the metropolis or the Himalayas from India after 30 years due to clearer skies with less pollution. Or, the lions in Africa’s wildlife parks lazily sleeping without being disturbed by humans.

These are proofs that there is life indeed amid the darkness of this pandemic when Jesus restores life and balance, making everything new and alive again!

Peace and mercy, unity and mission

At his Supper before his arrest, Jesus prayed to God our Father that we may all be one – ut unum sint – like him and Father (John 17:21) are one. This would be partly fulfilled on Easter and eventually at the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost when the Church is eventually launched.

It is in our faith that we enter into communion with the Father in Jesus Christ and with one another as a community, as a church.

That is why it was a beautiful imagery of Thomas eventually joining them the following Sunday not because he lacked faith; he had faith that is why he came to see and experience Jesus. And that faith bloomed upon encountering Jesus again that according to tradition, Thomas preached the good news to India where he died a martyr by being skinned alive.

We have always said in our previous reflections that whenever and wherever there is faith, there is always union and unity with God and others.

Eventually, from every unity and community, there is always mission.

In our first reading today we have heard how the early Christians were one in their faith, always praying, that is, celebrating the Eucharist from which flowed out their mission.

All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one’s need.
Acts 2:44-45

In his entire life, we have seen that Jesus had always been clear in his being sent, that the words he had spoken and things he had done were not all his but from and by the Father.

Watch closely John’s narration of after the Lord’s Resurrection:

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.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
John 20:19-21

After giving them the gift of peace and filling them with his breath of life to signify they have been forgiven for their sins and failures when they left him on Good Friday, Jesus is now drawing them into his great mission: As the Father has sent me, so I send you.

This is the defining and definitive characteristic of the Church, of any community of disciples in every age, most especially in this time of the corona virus pandemic.

Our mission continues in the darkness of COVID-19

Churches may be closed, public Masses are banned but the mission of proclaiming in words and in deeds the good news of the Risen Lord continues very loud and clear.

Detractors would always malign us, would spend for trolls just to ask “where is the Church in this time of crisis” but the people know best that we have never been remiss nor even flinched a single second whenever disasters strike anywhere in the world.

In the darkest moments of history in the past up to the present, the Church as a community of disciples of Jesus has always shine so brightly in Christ standing up for the poor and oppressed, the marginalized and forgotten, the sick and the hungry, those suffering in the most far-flung areas with its extensive networks of parishes and BEC’s.

This is also the reason why people always malign us in the Church about what we are doing amid the poverty and sufferings of the world: we work in silence because we are merely being sent by Jesus Christ. Like him our Lord and Master, whatever we say and do are not ours but the One who sent us, the Father in heaven.

We merely represent Jesus Christ who represents the Father and guided by the Holy Spirit, together we forge onto the darkness of this pandemic despite the many sufferings we go through, “tested by fire so that we may prove to be for the praise, glory, and honor of revealing Jesus Christ” (cf. 1 Peter 1:6-7).

This is who we are, disciples of Jesus sent to proclaim his love and mercy especially in the midst of all darkness.

This Sunday amid the darkness and threats of COVID-19, let us join the psalmist in his song, “Give thank to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting” (Responsorial Psalm , Ocatve of Easter).

A blessed week to everyone. Stay safe but keep working for the Lord! Amen.

Easter Vigil in our Parish, 12 April 2020.

Photos in the collage clockwise: Malolos Diocese Social Action Center, Inc. with Caritas Manila spearheading relief operations in Bulacan; Sisters from the Daughters of St. Anne walking through fields and mountains to reach out to our poorest of the poor; trays of thousands of eggs to be given away to fisherfolks in Binuangan, Obando by Fr. Ramon Garcia III; last two photos, beneficiaries of the 10-m Php worth of Gift Certificates given throughout Bulacan before Holy Week that included everyone even those from other faith and beliefs.

Celebrating in time of corona virus

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe, Saturday within the Octave of Easter, 18 April 2020

***Acts 4:13-21* ><)))> +++ <(((>< *Mark 16:9-15***

Mass in my parish without a congregation, except for two birds.

Praise and glory to you, O Lord Jesus Christ, our Eternal High Priest for this most joyous day of our lives with my six other classmates, our 22nd Presbyteral anniversary that coincides with the birthday of or fifth Bishop, the Most Rev. Dennis Villarojo!

In a few minutes I will be celebrating your Holy Sacrifice of the Mass alone – no congregation, no families and friends except for the birds keeping me company since last month.

First, it was my birthday last month; today, our presbyteral anniversary still in lockdown and on my third “self-quarantine” after exposing myself to some possible carriers. At first, I felt tired like the Simon Peter and the rest in yesterday’s gospel when I felt like going back to my old ways. But, the day dragged on without catching any fish at all when in the afternoon, a sudden burst of your light made me realize to search you more in this time of darkness. You taught us through St. Ignatius of Loyola in our 30-day retreat to always be positively indifferent to you, that I may be poor than rich, sick than healthy…

I do not complain, sweet dear Jesus, that we are still in a lockdown or in self-quarantine again. These are all part of my life in you and with you. Besides, I have no plans of great celebrations as it has always been slightly like this in the past 22 years. And maybe, this is one way of you telling us to be alone with you longer, more intensely.

Praying at the Garden of Gethsemane in the Holy Land, 2019. Photo by Atty. Polaris Grace Rivas-Beron.

What do I have to pray for today, Lord?

Nothing really but the usual things I ask you day in, day out: when I die, I will be with you in Paradise like that thief on the Cross. I have no desire of going anywhere or having anything more than what I need because only you suffice.

Make me your faithful servant that everyday I may know you more, love you more, and follow you more closely. May I do your holy will in every here and now in the way you would want it to be done, not mine. And always, give me the gifts of hiddenness, of stillness for this is not really about me at all but more of YOU.

You have given me with so much, Jesus, but I have given so little. Teach me to give more of my talents, more of my love, more of my patience, more of myself, and most of all, more of YOU to others.

In my prayers yesterday and last night, I saw myself somehow with Peter and John in the first reading…

Observing the boldness of Peter and John and perceived them to be uneducated, ordinary men, the leaders, elders, and the scribes were amazed, and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus.
Acts 4:13

Let me be recognized more than ever as your companion, Lord Jesus. I have nothing special to be chosen as your priest. It is all your love and grace freely given to me.

May I have the courage like that of Peter and John to be bold and daring to proclaim you are risen, you are alive, that you are the Christ especially in this time of quarantine.

Keep me faithful to your mandate to “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature” (Mk.16:15).

Just be mine, LORD, for I am wholly THINE. Amen.

Huwag matakot tulad ni San Jose

Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-19 ng Marso 2020

Larawan ng mosaic ng panaginip ni San Jose mula sa clarusonline.it

"Huwag kang matakot, Jose
na tuluyang pakasalan si Maria",
mga salita na atin ding kinakailangan
sa panahong ito ng pagsubok at kagipitan.

Ating tularan si San Jose
huwaran ng kabanalan 
lalo ng mga kalalakihan 
at ama ng tahanan.

Kaya naman katulad niya,
manalangin tayo na huwag matakot
magsama-sama muli sa tahanan
mabuo muli pamilyang ating pinabayaan.

Huwag matakot 
mag-usap muli mag-asawa
di lamang makapakinig
kungdi muling magkaniig.

Huwag matakot
mga anak lumapit sa magulang,
magtapat ng saloobin
ihinga mga hinaing.

Gayon din mga magkakapatid
huwag matakot magkalapit-lapit
madalas kulang na sa malasakit
palaging mayroong hinanakit.

Larawan mula zenit.org, figurine ng “Let Mom Rest”.

Huwag matakot
tingnan din pangangailangan
ng mga maliliit sa lipunan
mga may-sakit, nag-iisa at aba.

Sila palagi nating
kinakalimutan at pinababayaan
higit ngayong nangangailangan
ng tulong at kaibigan.

Huwag matakot
ipadama pagmamahal
kapwa ay igalang
itigil na mga kabastusan.

Huwag matakot
humingi ng tawad
gayon din ng magpatawad
tunay na sukatan ng pagmamahalan.

Larawan kuha ng may-akda, dating gawaan ni San Jose sa kanilang tahanan sa Nazareth, Israel (Mayo 2017).

O aming San Jose
taong matuwid at banal
kami man ay ipinalangin
maging matapang tulad mo.

Huwag kaming matakot
lumuhod at manalangin muli
sa Diyos upang kanyang kalooban
aming malaman, masundan, at mapanindigan.

Higit sa lahat
katulad mo kami ay gumising
sa pagkakahimbing ng pagkamakasarili namin
upang si Kristo ay muling dumating!  Amen.

Larawan kuha ng may-akda, kapilya ni San Jose sa Nazareth, Israel (Mayo 2017).

Lent is for “debugging”

40 Shades of Lent, Friday, Week-I, 06 March 2020

***Ezekiel 18:21-28* +++ 0 +++ *Matthew 5:20-26***

Photo by author, Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Bagbaguin, Santa Maria, Bulacan, Lent 2020.

Once again, our loving Father, I take the computer as my point of comparison for my prayer reflection on this second Friday of Lent.

Thank you in giving us this blessed season of Lent when we are able to “debug” our “internal hard drive” – the heart – to be cleansed of bugs and virus as well as unnecessary materials that slow us down to be holy and perfect like you.

Your words are very reassuring of how you want us to be “fixed” always, to be in good condition, filled with life and holiness.

Thus says the Lord God: “Do I indeed derive any pleasure from the death of a wicked?” says the Lord God. “Do I not rather rejoice when he turns from his evil way that he may live? Hear now, house of Israel: Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair? When someone virtuous man turns away from virtue to commit iniquity, and dies, it is because of the iniqity he committed that he must die. But if the wicked, trning from the wickedness he has committed, does what is right and just, he shall preserve his life; since he has turned away from all the sins that he committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.”
Ezekiel 18:23, 25-28

Educate our hearts, O Lord.

Help us “surpass the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees” in Jesus Christ who have come to perfect the laws in himself, in love.

May your purifying love, sweet Jesus, cleanse us of our sins, delete our painful memories that continue to hold us back, preventing us to move forward and forgive others and especially our very selves.

Make us rejoice, O Lord, in your immense love and share it with others so that we may grow more in holiness in you. Amen.

Lent is restoring God as our “default”

40 Shades of Lent, Thursday, Week I, 05 March 2020

***Esther C:12, 14-16, 23-25* +++ 0 +++ *Matthew 7:7-12***

Photo by author, Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, 01 March 2020, Bagbaguin, Santa Maria, Bulacan.

O God our Father, you know very well how ignorant I am with computers and the Internet. But, somehow, Lord, I have learned something very important with computers like the “default system” whereby a computer setting is on a desired preexisting configuration useful to the user.

On this season of Lent, help us to restore our default system in you, O God!

Make us stop “surfing” the universe for better default systems for there is no one better than you whom we must always have as our first option in everything, whether in good times or in bad.

Like Queen Esther in our first reading today who only had you as her recourse in seeking help for her countrymen:

“Now help me, who am alone and have no one but you, O Lord, my God… come to help me, an orphan. Put in my mouth persuasive words in the presence of the lion, and turn his heart to hatred for our enemy, so that he and those who are in league with him may perish. Save us from the hands of our enemies; turn our mourning into gladness and our sorrows into wholeness.”
Esther C: 13, 24-26

Create a clean heart in me, O God, so that I may always seek and follow you.

Most of all, incline my heart to you always so you may dwell in me to let justice and love and mercy reign in me. Amen.

Lent is sharing and giving life

40 Shades of Lent, Monday, Week I, 02 March 2020

***Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18* +++ 0 +++ *Matthew 25:31-46***

Photo by author, Mt. St. Paul Spirituality Center, Baguio City, 03 February 2020.

“Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.”
Responsorial Psalm

Today, Lord, I borrow your psalmist’s words for they summarize the two beautiful readings on this first Monday of Lent 2020.

Thank you for reminding us that we are your Holy Spirit’s indwelling, that we must be holy for you, O God, are holy (Lev.19:2).

Continue to fill us with your holiness so that we continue to do whatever is good to our brothers and sisters, especially the least among them for whatever we do to anyone, that we do also to you, dear Jesus (Mt.25:40, 45).

May your holy season of Lent remind us that it is our nature to share and give life because we have you Jesus in us. That’s the implication of those like the sheep on your right side, Lord, who were surprised and could not believe asking “when were you Lord hungry we gave you something to eat, when were you Lord…?”

When we let your Spirit of holiness animate us, that is when we are never bothered to think of anything else upon seeing the poor and suffering except to love, to practice charity.

May our Lenten practices of fasting and abstinence, sacrifices and alms-giving empty us of our selves and be filled with you, sweet Jesus, the Word who became flesh to dwell in our hearts for you alone are Life and Spirit.

Teach us to examine today our attitude towards everyone who may be unknown to us silently poor and suffering. Let us reacquire that nature in us we fondly refer to as “second-nature” of being kind and charitable to everyone because he/she has you, Jesus, in him/her.

That need not be difficult for us because in the first place, YOU, O Lord, is in us too! Amen.

Who we are vs. who we are not

40 Shades of Lent, Sunday Week I-A, 01 March 2020

***Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7* +++ Romans 5:12-19 +++ *Matthew 4:1-11***

Lent has always been associated with the Sacrament of Baptism since the beginning of the Church. In fact our Sunday readings this 2020 (Cycle A) are among the oldest in our liturgy used in the preparation of candidates or catechumens to Baptism on Easter Vigil.

This intimate link between Lent and Baptism is very evident in our synoptic gospels as Matthew, Mark, and Luke present to us how after Jesus was baptized by John in Jordan River, his temptations by the devil in the desert immediately comes next.

At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.”
Matthew 4:1-3

The Season of Lent and the Sacrament of Baptism

Let us go back a little to that Baptism scene of Jesus at Jordan so we can understand this link between Lent and Baptism as well as to appreciate the meaning of our celebration this first Sunday of Lent.

It was during his Baptism at Jordan when the Father formally launched and made known the mission of Jesus as the Christ or the “Anointed One” of God, that is, the Messiah in Hebrew or Christo in Greek from which we derived the word Christ in English.

As a prefiguration of his coming Pasch – Passion, Death, and Resurrection – Jesus Christ’s Baptism became his “investiture” or “commissioning” when the Father declared, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Mt. 3:17).

In his Baptism, Jesus entered into solidarity with us sinners when he plunged into Jordan River to be one with us in everything except sin. It is here we find very clear the intimate link of Baptism with Lent when we are called to be faithful children of God like Jesus Christ

An anatomy of temptation and sin

Detail of the mosaic of the “Temptations of Christ” at the St. Mark Basilica in Venice. Photo from psephizo.com.

Every temptation by the devil, every sin is always a turning away from God, a deviation from our identity as children of the Father in Jesus Christ.

Whenever we would wake up, the Father reminds us like at the Baptism of Jesus at Jordan that we are his beloved son or daughter with whom he is well pleased despite our many sins, failures, and weaknesses.

And like Jesus Christ right after his Baptism at Jordan, the devil also comes every day to tempt us to turn away from the Father, echoing to us his same words in the desert with the Lord, “If you are the Son of God” to lure us into becoming someone we are not.

The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” He said in reply, “It is written: One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written…”
Matthew 4:3-6

See this pattern of the devil in his first two temptations, “If you are the Son of God” – very enticing to be somebody else, to prove one’s worth and being.

This pattern will significantly change at the third temptation when the devil took Jesus to a high mountain to show him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence. No more “If you are the Son of God” but a more direct temptation that is affront and “garapal” as we say in Filipino:

“All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.”
Matthew 4:9

Observe how cunning was the devil in his temptations of Jesus until finally, he brings out his sinister plot: worship him, turn away from God!

The same is true with us: the devil will lure and deceive us in so many ways with just one objective which is for us to turn away from God. In every temptation, in every sin, the issue has always been the primacy of God which Jesus Christ firmly affirmed in his triumph over the devil’s temptations at the desert.

And this issue on the primacy of God is always attacked by the devil in every temptation when he confuses us on who we really are like the woman in the first reading after the serpent had told her that she would be like God:

The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its frit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
Genesis 3:6-7

Do we not feel the same way after every sin? We feel naked – ugly, dirty, and alienated from our very selves precisely because we have not become our true selves!

These temptations of Jesus by the devil would persist up to his crucifixion where some people jeered and taunted him, telling him “if you are the Son of God” or “if you are the Messiah” so that he would turn away from the Father and forget all about his mission and Divine plan of salvation.

Notice that the last temptation of Jesus is exactly our last temptation too: abandon God the Father and simply be like the devil, with no dignity, with nothing at all because he is separated from God, our only grounding of being.

Hubris, our greatest temptation and sin

Photo by Mr. Raffy Tima of GMA-7 News, Batanes, 2018.

Last Sunday we have mentioned how the Greeks have always held that man’s first and greatest temptation and sin is hubris – that is, the arrogant presumption of man that he is god, or that he can defy the divine to do everything and have anything.

We call it pride which is at the very core of every temptation and sin. The director of the classic film “Ten Commandments”, Mr. Cecil de Mille was once asked which of the Lord’s commandments is most often violated by man?

According to Mr. De Mille, it is the first commandment of God that we always violate because whenever we sin, that is when we also have another false god or idol aside from the true God.

Very true!

Our problem in the world is not really hunger or war or poverty but our refusal to be faithful to God, to be who we really are as his blessed sons and daughters. In some instances, there are some who have totally rejected and denied God, believing more in themselves, in the sciences and technologies.

Jesus is not indifferent to hunger or wars still going on in many parts of the world today; he had come to show us the path to our problems is to reclaim our being children of the Father, listening and living his words, worshiping and trusting him alone.

In going through his Pasch, in fighting all temptations, Jesus shows us the path to see and experience the God we can meet when we come to our desert where we rely only in him alone. It involves hard work, without any shortcut and quick fixes or instants that have become our norm these days.

It is not a simplistic approach to the many problems we are facing, but if you read the newspapers or watch the news, we see how humanity is still in solidarity with Adam, with sin, with the material world as St. Paul explained in the second reading.

On this first Sunday of Lent, we are reminded anew of our identity as beloved children of the Father in Jesus Christ who showers us with every grace and blessing that we need. Let us live in him, trust in him, hold on to him to experience life anew.

Let us give Jesus a chance to work in us, rise with him to our being beloved children of the Father! Amen.

Photo by author at the ancient city of Jericho, Israel, May 2019.

The joy of Lent

40 Shades of Lent, Saturday after Ash Wednesday, 29 February 2020

***Isaiah 58:9-14* +++ 0 +++ *Luke 5:27-32***

“The Calling of St. Matthew” by Caravaggio. From Google.

Dearest Jesus: I have been imagining in prayer of myself being Levi the tax collector sitting at his post.

It must be so lonely being like him, rich but deep inside longing for something deeper and meaningful than money and wealth. He had been thinking of making a “lifestyle shift” but he felt hopeless with nobody to help him.

Like in the first reading, your invitation Lord through the Prophet Isaiah seem to be too good to be true that anyone like Levi – or me – could make a big difference in life by “giving food to someone hungrier, abandoning my own comfort to care for someone afflicted, substituting a kind word for a malicious gossip, and worshipping you than pursuing my own interests” (Is.58:10,13).

I felt like Levi – there in his little customs post – that is impossible because everything is hopeless and there is no chance to change. Everything is doomed, especially for me, a sinner, Lord.

Then, suddenly you came, saying, “Follow me” (Lk.5:27).

How I love looking back, Lord, to those dark days when you suddenly came calling me to follow you!

It was so simple.

Like Levi, I just stood and followed you and everything changed in my life!

That was so nice of you, Lord Jesus, to take such a bold step of coming to Levi’s post to call him and, me. It was – and still is – a gamble on your part to call us sinners to follow you. And since then, you have never stopped calling us sinners Lord Jesus to follow you, even on our darkest and lowest days and hours, Lord, when everything seemed to be so doomed.

As we prepare for the first Sunday of Lent, remind me, O Lord, that this holy season is not all that drab and dry. After all, Lent originally means “springtime”, the coming joy of Easter which happens every time we turn our hearts to you like Levi. Amen.

Lent is making God present

40 Shades of Lent, Friday after Ash Wednesday, 28 February 2020

***Isaiah 58:1-9* +++ 0 +++ *Matthew 9:14-15***

Have mercy on us, O God, have mercy… for we are still totally lost on the real meaning of fasting and abstinence. We have lost its spiritual meaning, focusing more on ourselves for vanity reasons like losing weight and looking good, totally forgetting fasting is all about you and others than us!

How unfortunate, dear God, that we no longer fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday but even on Sundays before receiving your Son Jesus in the Holy Communion by making all kinds of excuses with bold claims of having sacrificed so much in doing good deeds for you.

Thus says the Lord God: Cry out full-throated and unsparingly, lift up your voice like a trumpet blast. Tell my people their wickedness, and the house of Jacob their sins. They seek me day after day, and desire to know my ways, like a nation that has done what is just and not abandoned the law of their God. They ask me to declare what is due them, pleased to gain access to God. “Why do we fast, and you do not see it? Afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?” Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits, and drive all your laborers. Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw. This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own.”
Isaiah 58:1-4, 6-7

Make us realize that fasting is not punishing ourselves, of denying ourselves with goods and pleasures of the world that leave us empty, wanting for more but never fulfilled deep inside.

Fasting is actually rewarding ourselves with you, O God, our only wealth and treasure, our only fulfillment.

Help us create an empty space within ourselves through fasting and abstinence so that your Son Jesus may dwell and reign in our hearts, saying from within us, “Here I am!” (Is. 58:9). Amen.

Lent is a call to life

40 Shades of Lent, Thursday after Ash Wednesday, 27 February 2020

Deuteronomy 30:15-20 +++ 0 +++ Luke 9:22-25

As we step forward into the second day of Lent, O Lord, you remind us today of your call to conversion which is actually a call to love and a call to life.

Forgive us, O Lord, for those times we have turned away from you in sins, thinking that is the path to life, the path to freedom, the path to fulfillment – only to find out later it is the path to destruction and death.

Moses said to the people: “Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. If you obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving him, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the Lord, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy. I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.”
Deuteronomy 30:15-16, 19-20

Photo by author, our Parish altar candle, Lent 2019.

Help us, Jesus, “to deny ourselves, take up our crosses daily, and follow you” (Lk.9:23) in the path of conversion and fidelity to your everlasting covenant.

Make us realize that Lent is more than a season we yearly celebrate but a reality of life itself, a life so blessed in your coming to be one with us in our sufferings and struggles.

Give us the strength, dear Jesus, to renew your covenant with us, to always choose God, choose life.

May we also share your love and mercy, understanding and patience, kindness and compassion to our fellow pilgrims in this journey of life so that together in the end, we may all enter into the house of the Father in heaven. Amen.