Category: holiness

Marriage is a prayer

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 11 June 2024
From stillromancatholicafteralltheseyears.com, January 2022.

What is very sad in this ongoing debate against divorce in our country is how some people claiming to be graduates and professors of Catholic institutions insist on their many “intellectual reasonings” why divorce should be allowed while at the same time declaring it is wrong to profess we are against divorce simply because we are Catholics.

What a tragedy when those educated or teaching in Catholic schools and universities who are supposed to know more and better about Jesus Christ and His teachings are the ones favoring divorce. They cite so many studies and authors even theologians to support their stand in favor of divorce without ever mentioning Christ’s teachings found in the Sacred Scriptures that were explained by the Church in our Catechism as well as in so many other documents by the Popes and bishops.

We understand how journalists could err regarding names and other details that essentially do not effect the veracity of their news like the recent sakalan blues in Gagalangin, Tondo when the interview of a priest was ascribed to another; but, to be one sided in the presentation of a story is something else like Rappler’s “The Problem with I am Catholic, I say no to divorce”. There’s a reliable maxim in journalism that says “Opinions are free but facts are sacred.”

Photo by Joseph Kettaneh on Pexels.com

The main fact we have been holding on the sanctity and indissolubility of marriage for over 2000 years is our Lord Jesus Christ’s teaching against divorce that the pro-divorce everywhere have refused to accept.

Yes, we need to listen to different views about divorce but not to those views condemned by the Church because they are wrong.

Divorce cannot be isolated as merely a political issue to be resolved because marriage as a natural sacrament is spiritual in nature, a path to holiness.

Marriage is a gift and a call from God for men and women to live and work together in order to attain eternal life. This we achieve firstly by having a prayer life, a relationship with God expressed in our love for one another especially between husband and wife.

In arguing against divorce, we need to look for those couples who have made it through thick and thin in their marriage in order to inspire others in following the path of Holy Matrimony.

Joyce and Tony in 2019 with son Atty. JA and wife Kathleen with their two sons, and daughter Rosella.

As a contribution in our fight against divorce, I share with you my homily at the 40th wedding anniversary of my cousin Joyce Pollard to Tony Lopez in October 2019 which I titled as “Married life is a prayer”.

Oh what a joy to officiate weddings especially of relatives and friends!

Hope you find some lessons and inspirations on the beauty of marriage we have to keep.

As I prepared my homily for your anniversary, Joyce and Tony… “the moment I woke up and before your Mommy Fely put on her make-up, I said a little prayer for you.”

Of course that is not the theme song of Joyce and Tony. They haven’t met yet in 1967 when Dione Warwick recorded I Say a Little Prayer. But they were already married when it became one of the tracks in the movie “My Best Friend’s Wedding” starring Julia Roberts.

And since this is my “best cousin’s wedding anniversary” in this part of the city, I have thought of reflecting on married life as a prayer.

In our gospel we have heard Jesus Christ narrating the parable of the unjust judge and persistent widow to underscore “the necessity to pray always without becoming weary” (Lk. 18:1).

Prayer is an expression of faith.

When there is faith, there is also love.

And when there is prayer, faith, and love, what we have is a relationship, a community of believers who love each other.

People who love and believe with each other always talk and communicate. They make time to be with one another. And most often, that is what really matters with people who love and believe – simply to be together.

Even in silence.

Like prayer.

Prayer is more than asking things from God but most of all, prayer is a relationship with God expressed with others. That is the beauty of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony: husband and wife are bound together in marriage to become signs of the saving presence of Jesus Christ.

Marriage as a sacrament means it is a prayer as well, a relationship of a man and woman with God as its source and foundation.

I am sure, Joyce and Tony along with all the other married couples here today will agree that married life requires a lot of prayers. In fact, married life is a prayer, a very difficult one that is much needed.

Like in that movie My Best Friend’s Wedding, there are real forces of evil that are trying to destroy couples. So many couples have already fallen, going their separate lives after several years of being together while on the other hand, more and more couples are refusing to get married at all due to this reality of breakups and separations.

And that is why we are celebrating today Joyce and Tony’s 40th wedding anniversary! We are praying with them in expressing our faith and love for them in Christ Jesus. Prayers have kept them together, transforming them into better persons.

At the end of the parable of the persistent widow and unjust judge, Jesus posed a very crucial question for us, especially to every married couple here today: When the Son of Man comes again at the end of time, will he find faith on earth? (Lk.18:8)

And what shall be our response?

“Yes, Lord, you shall find faith when you come again in Joyce and Tony!”

Like Moses in the first reading, they both prayed hard with arms outstretched on many occasions as they battled life’s many challenges and struggles.

“Yes, Lord, you shall find faith when you come again in Joyce and Tony” because they have both proclaimed your word with persistence, whether it is convenient or inconvenient like St. Paul in his second letter to Timothy. They have weathered so many storms in the past 40 years and your words, O Lord, have kept them together, sharing these with their children and with everyone in their life of fidelity and love.

“Yes, Lord, you shall find faith when you come again in Joyce and Tony” now before your altar to renew their vows to love and cherish each other for the rest of their lives!

“Yes, Lord, you shall find faith when you come again” among the many couples gathered here who have remained faithful to each other despite their many sins and failures, weaknesses and shortcomings.

Joyce and Tony, you are not only a prayer of faith but also a homily of the Holy Matrimony, showing us the light and power of Jesus Christ to transform people in prayer and bring them to fulfillment.

Prayer does not change things like typhoons and earthquakes. We cannot ask God in prayer to spare us from getting sick or be exempted from life’s many trials and sufferings. Prayer cannot stop those from happening.

What prayer does is change us, change our attitude so we may hurdle life’s many blows and obstacles. Especially with couples who always find God in their lives, in good times and in bad.

Prayers transform us into better persons as children of God, especially couples who eventually look like brothers and sisters after living together in faith, hope and love.

Tony and Joyce, I am sure everyone in our family and among your friends here can attest to the many good things that have transformed you in the past 40 years.

You have changed to become the best for each other.

In the bible, the number 40 means perfect.

May God continue to perfect you, Tony and Joyce.

Keep us too in your prayers as we pray for you. Amen.

https://lordmychef.com/2019/10/23/married-life-is-a-prayer/
Joyce and Tony in 1979…may forever basta may prayer!

We are all St. Barnabas!

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Memorial of St. Barnabas, Apostle, 11 June 2024
Acts 11:21-26, 13:1-3     ><]]]]'>  +  <'[[[[><     Matthew 10:7-13
Photo by author, Mt. St. Paul, La Trinidad, Benguet, 2016.
Praise and glory
to You, God our loving Father
for this memorial of St. Barnabas,
one of the first to embrace Christianity
after the Resurrection of your Son
Jesus Christ.

A Levite Jew born in Cyprus,
his original name was Joseph but
upon joining the Apostles in Jerusalem,
he was nicknamed Barnabas 
which means "son of encouragement"
or "son of consolation" whom  
St. Luke described as "a good man,
filled with the Holy Spirit and faith"
(Acts 11:24).
Fill us, dear Jesus 
with the same goodness and faith
of St. Barnabas, truly children of 
encouragement and consolation,
believing in our brothers and
sisters especially those have withdrawn
from the ministry and apostolate 
for various reasons 
including shame and embarrassment 
for past mistakes and sins like St. Paul.

Then he (Barnabas) went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a large number of people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.

Fill us with your gift
of peace, Lord Jesus,
to imitate St. Barnabas
who vouched for St. Paul's sincerity
of conversion
as well as in encouraging
and consoling the early Christians
who were persecuted for their
faith in You.
Help us imitate St. Barnabas
in his beautiful disposition of
focusing more on You, Jesus
than in the problems and personalities
we encounter in fulfilling your mission;
most of all,
grant us the humility of St. Barnabas
to reconcile later with St. Paul
 after a serious disagreement
that led to their parting of ways
as companions in their mission.
Make us realize,
Jesus,
that saints like St. Barnabas
do not fall from Heaven
but are people like us who have many
and complicated problems in life;
let us arise from our sins
and mistakes like St. Barnabas
who showed in his life that holiness
is not being sinless but being humble
to admit one's sins and faults,
going through conversion daily
with a willingness to forgive others
to be reconciled anew
in You, Jesus.
Amen.

St. Barnabas,
Pray for us!
Photo by Ms. Analyn Dela Torre, March 2024.

The “Simon Peter” within us

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Eighth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 28 May 2024
1 Peter 1:10-16     ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'>     Mark 10:28-31
Photo by author, Simon Peter before Jesus after their bountiful catch in Galilee, May 2017.
Forgive me Jesus
for being so like Simon Peter,
so irrepressible on many occasions,
saying things without much
thinking and reflection
like in today's gospel
when he bragged to You,
"We have given up everything
and followed you" (Mark 10:28);
let me be aware always that 
all that I have,
whatever good I can do
are all because of You, Jesus;
like Simon Peter,
let me grow and mature 
in my faith in You
when he wrote us today
"be holy yourselves in every
aspect of your conduct,
for it is written, Be holy
because I am holy"
(1 Peter 1:15-16).
Make me holy, Lord,
fill me with Your Spirit
by first emptying me 
of myself, 
of my pride, 
of my insecurities,
of my sins
in order to be filled
with Your Spirit 
so I may truly conform to You
and be Your presence
in the world today;
I know I have not 
given that much yet 
to You through others
for I still think of myself always;
take away whatever 
I still keep and hide to myself
that I am not aware of,
remind me to abandon
and offer everything to You.
Amen.
12th century mosaic from Sicily of Peter drowning from orthodoxartsjournal.org.

Family life is sacred

The Lord Is My Chef Easter Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker, 01 May 2024
Colossians 3:14-15, 17, 23-24     >>> + <<<     Matthew 13:54-58
“Childhood of Christ” painting by Gerard von Honthorst, franciscanmedia.org.
Praise and glory to You,
God our Father in entrusting
Your Son Jesus Christ to the most
noble and holiest of men,
St. Joseph who came from the
lineage of King David.
Though he never spoke a word
in the Gospel, St. Joseph's obedience
in doing everything as You had
commanded him (Mt. 1:24) proved
his being a model disciple too 
of Jesus like his wife,
the Blessed Virgin Mary.
On this first day of May
when we celebrate his memorial as
St. Joseph the Worker,
our beloved Patron shows us how
family life is so sacred as part
of Your Divine plan, O gracious
Father in heaven.
St. Joseph worked as a carpenter,
a provider to the Holy Family who must
have also experienced every dad's problem
of never making enough for Mary and Jesus;
most likely, the Holy Family he headed
did not live a perfect idyllic life, 
living through scandals and gossips 
as our gospel today showed when 
the people of Nazareth rejected 
the adult Jesus Christ,
taking offense at him by asking,
"Is he not the carpenter's son?"
(Mt. 13:55, 57).
Photo by author, site of St. Joseph’s carpentry shop beneath St. Joseph’s Church in Nazareth, Israel, May 2017.
Dear God,
grant us the same grace
You gave St. Joseph who lived
through scandal and gossip in a 
righteous way, just like what St. Paul
had told us in the first reading,
"And over all these put on love, 
that is, the bond of perfection"; 
help us to be like St. Joseph 
who "let the peace of Christ 
controlled his heart" (Col.3:14-15)
in everything to show us that holiness
in life is not a poster card
but one lived in the ambiguity
and complexity of this world
rooted in Jesus our Lord.
Amen.

St. Joseph,
Protector of the Child Jesus
and Mary,
Pray for us!
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.

Lent is seeing God in others

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday in the First Week of Lent, 19 February 2024
Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18   ><))))*> + + + <*((((><     Matthew 25:31-46
Photo by Mr. Jay Javier in Quiapo, Manila, 09 January 2024.
Today I pray dear God
to your directive since the
Old Testament until the coming
of your Son Jesus Christ:
"Be holy , for I, the Lord your God,
am holy" (Leviticus 19:2).
But, what is really to be holy,
what is to be like you,
God?
Perfect.
Loving.
Kind.
Good.
Merciful.
Forgiving.
Caring.
Understanding.
Warm.
Open.
There are so many other
traits and characteristics I can think
of you as being holy,
O God,
that we have to imitate
to be like
you
that makes holiness
 so difficult,
elusive,
and impossible!

Who can really be like you
when we are so different from you?
But, thank you in sending us
Jesus who not only made it
possible for us to be holy
like you, God,
but also made it
simpler:

“Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me… Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least one, you did not do for me.”

Matthew 25:40, 45
On this blessed season
of Lent,
teach us to fast 
and be empty of ourselves,
of our pride,
and of our sins
so we may be filled with YOU;
holiness is first of all 
being filled
with you, O God,
that we feel,
we see,
we think
of others like you,
that is, of seeing you
in each one of us.
When we begin to
realize and experience 
that you fill us, O God,
then we learn to be
generous in sharing
more of ourselves, 
of our time,
of our talent,
of our treasure,
and most of all,
of you dear God
dwelling in us
with others;
we can only be holy
not when we try being
like you but more of finding
you first in us
in order to find you
in others too!

Then, 
maybe we stop
fighting,
committing every sin
against each other
if only we can see you
dwelling,
filling 
each one of us.
Amen.

New year holiness

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Memorial of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, 03 January 2024
1 John 2:29-3:6 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> John 1:29-34
Photo by Mr. Boy Cabrido, National Shrine of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, New Manila, QC, 21 December 2023.
On this third day of the new year,
O Lord, your words are calling us to
live as children of God,
holy and righteous like you;
many times,
we could not heed this call
and most often,
we laugh at the mere thought
of holiness because
we look down at ourselves
as incapable of being good
because we refuse 
to break free from sin.

Everyone who commits sin commits lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who remains in him sins; no one who sins has seen him or known him.

1 John 3:4-6
Sin is lawlessness
not only in the sense it is
a disobedience
and a breaking of your laws,
Lord;
sin is lawlessness 
because it is a refusal to
love and be true like you,
Lord Jesus;
every time we refuse 
to reflect your love and your truth,
there is disorder in life,
their is disharmony among us,
there is destruction and
dirt in us;
you have come precisely
O Lord Jesus, 
to take away our sins
as the Lamb of God
identified by John the Baptist; 
grant us courage and strength,
determination as well
to live up to our new person,
our new being as forgiven
and loved children of the Father;
may we desire order and peace,
serenity and fulfillment
in our lives,
in our selves,
in our world
by turning away from sins
and turning towards you
in love and truth,
kindness and care
because any failure to find you,
Lord Jesus,
will always lead us 
to selfishness,
to conceit,
and to emptiness
because without you
and others,
we are alone
without any point reference
for our being 
and existence.
Amen.

Advent is waking up to God’s realities

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Misa De Gallo III, Monday, 18 December 2023
Jeremiah 23:5-8 ><))))*> + <*((((>< Matthew 1:18-25
Photo by author, sunrise at the Pacific Ocean from Katmon Nature Sanctuary & Beach Resort, Infanta, Quezon, 04 March 2023.

“This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about” (Mt. 1:18). I love this opening line of our gospel this Monday. So simple and warm, even magical that we know the whole story it is about to tell not only by heart but because it is now fulfilled. 

It evokes in us that scent of Christmas or amoy Pasko whatever that means to you. 

Basta, you know that feeling of being so safe and secured that everything in life will be fine, just like with St. Joseph after being told by an angel in his dream of the coming of Jesus Christ.

Photo by author, San Fernando, Pampanga, November 2021.

“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Matthew 1:20-21

Feel the solemn note of Matthew’s infancy account from the perspective of St. Joseph, the fulfillment of God’s promise that burned slowly through long years of waiting that burst into light with the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem more than two thousand years ago.

Every prophecy and dream and longings were finally fulfilled because “When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home” (Mt. 1:24).

As we enter the final stretch of the week leading into Christmas Day when Christmas rush tries to hijack our souls from its true essence, we are invited to go deeper, to be more intense in our prayers and reflections on the meaning of Christ’s coming to us.

Are we willing to be like St. Joseph?

Very often, St. Joseph is taken so lightly because of his silence. And amusingly, his being portrayed always asleep that God communicated to him at least four times in his dreams about the birth and safety of Jesus Christ.

For anyone fast approaching the senior year of 60 like me, you would exactly know the feeling and frustration of difficulty in having a good night sleep. If my alarm clock were a human, he would have long been fired from the job because I always wake up ahead before it alarms!

Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, Quezon City, 20 March 2023.

First thing we find with St. Joseph sleeping soundly in the midst of a major problem – in fact, a fiasco – which invites us to examine our faith in God. 

Many times we find it hard to fall asleep not really because of our problems but with our indecisions. 

Our failure to confront and solve our problems make us sleepless. If we can be firm in our decisions due to our deep faith and love for God like St. Joseph which is the meaning of his being a righteous man, we too can sleep soundly like him. Go back to the story and you will find how quickly St. Joseph had decided to divorce Mary quietly so as not to expose her to shame. In making that decision, we find St. Joseph’s selflessness and complete trust in God: primary in his consideration was Mary, his beloved. His love for her was the expression of his love for God too.

As we age, can we start our memoir with the similar lines of Matthew, This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about? Can we unabashedly telling everyone in all sincerity “this is how what I am today came about”? Can we wholeheartedly tell straight what really happened amid all the pains and disappointments we went through when God suddenly changed the course of our lives with his own plans? Would we have regrets or none at all like St. Joseph because he obeyed everything upon waking up?

Now, that is the more important part in Matthew’s short infancy narrative: nothing much was told after the St. Joseph awoke except that he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home. The final sentence cemented everything with his total union with God that “He had no relations with her until she bore a son, and he named him Jesus.”

Here we are given a glimpse of the spiritual maturity and holiness of St. Joseph, his being open to God expressed in his taking of Mary as his wife that in doing so, Jesus Christ the Son of God came into the world. What a wonderful flow of events we too must have experienced in our lives when everything falls into its right places simply because we cooperated with God

According to St. John Paul II’s friend, the Orthodox Christian theologian Olivier-Maurice Clement, a lot often we pretend to be real disciples of Christ when in reality we are merely dreaming. He called it “sleepwalking existence”; my Jesuit spiritual director Fr. Danny Gozar calls it “spiritual dwarfism”. Both refer to our spiritual immaturity due to our lack of honesty with our self and with God.

Being righteous like St. Joseph is simply being holy, a spiritually matured person generous enough to confront and consider everything in one’s life with open mind and open heart to set them aside and give way to God’s greater plans. Sleepwalking existence and spiritual dwarfism happen when there are certain things we want to hold on to and pursue or keep even if we could feel it is not God’s will for us. Tendency is to fool ourselves that we delay any decisions as we claim we are not yet certain with God’s will when in fact we are simply hoping against hope God would change his mind.

Photo by author, San Fernando, Pampanga, November 2021.

The angelic annunciations to St. Joseph and to Virgin Mary may not be literal but we can be certain of one truth with God: he is most consistent in communicating his will to us even if he does not speak clearly and directly as humans or angels. Very often, the faintest voice within us that persists, the most ordinary things and events happening daily we take for granted, the simplest truths we realize and deem so little are God’s consistent communication of his will for us.

This Advent Season, let us try to wake up to life’s realities like St. Joseph in order to hear God’s voice in silence. To be silent is to be awake to life’s realities, to be able to listen and discern God from all other voices and noises. It is important that we are awake to life’s realities like St. Joseph because God’s voice may be the very words, silence, tears or smiles of those who love us most but we often take for granted. Amen.

Cleanse us, O Lord!

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran, 09 November 2023
Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12 ><)))*> 1 Corinthians 3:9-11, 16-17 ><)))*> John 2:13-22
Photo by Arch. Philip Santiago, St. John Lateran in Rome, 2022.
Praise and glory to you,
God our loving Father
in choosing to dwell in us
your people
as your temple;
how sad we have always 
desecrated ourselves and 
houses of worship with sin and evil
yet you never stopped 
building us up over and over
in Jesus Christ
as your dwelling place.

Brothers and sisters: You are God’s building. Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

1 Corithians 3:9, 16
Please, come again, Lord Jesus;
come more often to us your people
especially to us your priests,
to cleanse us of all filth of pride and conceit
when we eject you from the Eucharist 
by making it our own celebration, 
making a mockery of your sacrifice 
we have turned into a carnival, 
a spectacle for entertainment 
in the name of money and fame; 
forgive us, Jesus, 
in misleading the people,
 using God like in the temple of Jerusalem;
shame on us when we preach
more of ourselves and interests
than your words that free the people
from bondage to sin and disease;
cleanse us, O Lord, so that life 
may spring forth again from our parishes 
where people experience your love and mercy
that "Wherever the river flows,
every sort of living creature that can
multiply shall live, and there shall be
abundant fish, for wherever this water
comes the sea shall be made fresh"
(Ezekiel 47:9).
Come, Lord Jesus,
bind us again like cords,
whip us if necessary,
awaken our pastors and bishops
who have forgotten your call
to shepherd your people,
choosing to graze in the green
pastures of the rich and powerful
enclosed in their buildings and
ivory towers bereft of
your spirit and life;
awaken your people too
in the spirit of synodality
to stand for what is true and sacred,
to demand from religious leaders
to give only you, Jesus,
always you, Jesus.
Amen.

Our worship, our life

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Sunday in the Thirty-first Week of Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 05 November 2023
Malachi 1:14-2:2, 8-10 ><}}}}*> 1 Thessalonians 2:7-9, 13 ><}}}}*> Matthew 23:1-12
Photo by author, Malagos Orchid Farm, Davao City, 2017.

More than 18 years ago when we were assigned to a parish in our concurrent positions as school administrators in Malolos, an older priest offered to help us think of “gimmicks” so people would come to our parish. He insisted how the Church must have “marketing strategies” to attract more people celebrate Mass especially on Sundays.

After that older priest had left, I told our Rector to dismiss everything he had heard. I explained to him we do not need any marketing strategies because we have the best to offer – God in Jesus Christ. I stressed to him that only two things are essential in the parish: good liturgy that flows to good service.

A few years later, I was assigned to a parish of my own and held on that conviction. Modesty aside, that parish entrusted to me grew and became so vibrant during my nine years of stay there. Even during the pandemic lockdown, we continued with our good liturgies on line and in the ground that enabled us to serve everyone, especially the poor regardless of their religion. We never asked donations but people volunteered to give cash and goods to sustain the parish and our outreach programs.

Photo by Ms. Ria De Vera, Christ the King procession in November 2020.

Our readings today are very timely as the Synod on Synodality concluded in Rome recently that sought new ways in getting everyone in the Church especially those in the margins may journey together in Christ, with Christ to God our Father.

Although we priests and bishops remain as the biggest problems in the Church since the beginning like the Pharisees and scribes during the time of Jesus, having a good and meaningful liturgy that is living and fruitful is everyone’s responsibility.

And now, O priests, this commandment is for you: If you do not listen, and if you do not lay it to heart, to give glory to my name, says the Lird of hosts, I will send a curse upon you and of your blessing I will make a curse. You have turned aside from the way, and have caused many to falter by your instruction; you have made void the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts.

Malachi 2:1-2, 8

How appropriate were the words by Prophet Malachi spoken in 480 BC who invites us too today to examine the manner we celebrate the liturgy in our communities, the spirit and seriousness that animate us, the image of God our celebrations project.

Is God still among us in our liturgy that after every celebration, we find him in our midst?

Is there still a sense of awe and wonder, of mysterium fascinans or we – priests and people – have replaced God in our worship?

Malachi was right on target then and now in echoing God’s anger and frustrations at the sight of our degenerate and perverted worship where anything goes as if God does not see us. And worst, as if we could fool him when our hearts are divided and so far from him and from one another which Jesus tried fixing these past two Sundays.

Photo by Mr. Gelo Nicolas, Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan, February 2020.

Jesus had silenced his enemies today in our gospel, he took it to unleash to them – and us – powerful tirades against their hypocrisies (and ours too), of how far our hearts been from God and one another, lacking in love due to its being so divided.

What a way to conclude his teachings these past two Sundays after failed attempts by his enemies to trick him into saying things that could lead to his arrest and execution.

Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. All their works are performed to be seen.

Matthew 23:1-5

These past two Sundays, Jesus stressed the need of purifying our hearts so that we may give to God what is due to him which is our total selves. To purify our hearts, to have a clean heart to see God as in his beatitudes we heard proclaimed on All Saints Day means to enter into a communion with Jesus Christ, the One with the purest and cleanest heart who truly loves God and all of us.

Photo by author, St. Scholastica Retreat House, Baguio City, August 2023.

Today Jesus is calling us to walk our talk, to mean what we believe and say, to be true as his disciples who choose to love and suffer for God, who finds value in God dwelling in our hearts not in things outside like names and ranks, titles and designations, clothes and other signs.

Today Jesus is calling us to live and relate honestly with others wherein our whole selves – words and actions, body and soul – are united by hearts inclined, resting in God.

Today Jesus is calling us to focus on him alone for he is our only true Teacher and Master who lovingly humbled himself as servant of all to lead us to God our one Father in heaven.

Of course, Jesus is not asking us to disregard nor dismiss all titles and designations that define our roles and functions not only in the liturgy but even in the family and society. When we learn to give what is due to Caesar and what is due to God, then we discover that our proper “seat” is in this life is in the place of a servant and that our true “place of honor” is at God’s kingdom where everyone is equal. When we have this clearly in our minds and in our hearts, then, our words and deeds are no longer in opposition like the Pharisees and scribes who did not practice what they preached because we have become witnesses to integrity of self as disciples of Christ.

Photo by author, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela, 13 September 2023.

Vatican II rightly and beautifully called the liturgy as “fons et culmen” – the fount from which all blessings of our faith flow and the apex or summit of our lives as Christians, as disciples of Christ.

How true is our worship of God?

St. Paul gave us a glimpse of their living worship in Thessalonica, picturesquely telling them how “they were gentle among you, as a nursing mother cares for her children. With such affection for you, we were determined to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our very selves as well, so dearly beloved had tou become to us” (1Thes. 2:7-8).

How I wish we priests could be so sincere like St. Paul to the people and most especially to our Lord! This Sunday, may our worship be our lives too in Jesus like the admonition of St. Augustine to his congregation when distributing the Holy Communion, “Become what you receive: the Body of Christ”. Amen. Have a blessed new week!

Holiness is caring

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday in the Twenty-first Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 01 September 2023
1 Thessalonians 4:1-8   <'[[[[>< + ><]]]]'>   Matthew 25:1-13
Photo by author, Anvaya Cove, Morong, Bataan, June 2023.
Thank you very much,
God our loving Father
for this brand new month
of September;
everybody is so happy
because it is the start
of the "-ber" months
leading to your Son's
birthday in December;
please, dear God,
forgive us for this
kind of thinking,
of being focused with
outside things, 
of everything "palabas"
with nothing inside, "paloob"
nothing substantial.
As we begin the month
of September which the
Holy Father has declared as
World Day of Prayer for the
Care of Creation,
may we heed the calls
of St. Paul to "conduct ourselves
to please you, God, and do so
even more" (1 Thess. 4:1)!
Yes, dear God,
you did not call us
to impurity but to holiness
(1 Thess. 4:7);
help us realize that holiness
is not being sinless but being
filled with your Spirit,
of finding you in every person
and in your creation so that
we care for them all!

Holiness is being caring,
holiness is being loving,
holiness is being wise,
always choosing You,
always choosing 
what is good.
Amen.