Crisis & decision = life & salvation

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 11 October 2026
Isaiah 25:6-10 ><}}}}*> Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20 ><}}}}*> Matthew 22:1-14

*Photo by author, Our Lady of Ephesus Chapel, Bella Rosa Gardens, Silang, Cavite, 07 October 2026.*

We are a nation always in all kinds of crises: financial crisis, water crisis, energy crisis, transportation crisis, moral crisis. We are practically a nation of crises because we never face every crisis that confronts us!

Crisis is from the Greek word krisis, a time for decision; every crisis calls for a decision to resolve the situation. And that’s the problem with us Filipinos: we either refuse to make a firm decision or waste an opportunity to decide properly that would have solved the many crises we continue to endure to this day like reelecting incompetent and corrupt public officials.

The Gospel accounts these past three weeks may be considered as “parables in times of crisis” because each calls us to decide and choose God: the parable of the two sons reminds us of harmony in what we believe, in what we think, what we say, and what we do; the parable of the wicked tenants tells us we are the Lord’s vineyard, everything is God’s including our very lives meant to be fruitful in Christ.

Today we hear the last installment of parables narrated by Jesus to the elders and chief priests of Jerusalem at the temple area, the parable of the wedding feast that clearly shows anew how God invites everyone to come to Him, to make that decision of choosing Him. There are many similarities in the three series of parables but this Sunday, Jesus injects a “mini-parable” towards the end during the wedding feast of his son:

“But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’ But he was reduced to silence. The king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’ Many are invited, but few are chosen” (Mt.22:11-14).

I grew up in a generation when dressing properly and decently were deeply inculcated both at home and the school. It has always been considered in our time as a sign of maturity when we come properly attired in every occasion. Those days are now gone along with the expression “Sunday’s best”.

For some, it may seem to be so trivial but if we truly regard the Eucharist as the highest form of worship, of encountering God through the sacraments and one another, how come we could not even prepare our external appearances? Why can’t we give that proper importance to meeting the Lord and one another in the supposed to be holy occasion of the Mass?

What a tragedy that some priests lead the pack in this aspect of coming not properly, even shabbily dressed during the Mass, saying it is too hot to wear those vestments. Everyone is bragging that fallacy there is more beneath the clothing we wear of who we really are; that is not totally true because how we look outside is indicative of what ‘s inside us, of who we are, of what we value, and what we believe in.

*Photo by author, Bella Rosa Gardens, Silang, Cavite, 07 October 2026.*

How we dress – not the clothes we wear – speaks of ourselves as the Lord’s parable this Sunday teaches because external appearances are indications of the internal realities.

If we push that further, if we seem to find it so difficult in dressing properly for the Mass, how much more difficult we could find it turning away from sins, in dressing our souls properly?

Jesus said in his parable the man was “reduced to silence” when confronted by the king; he could not speak a word because deep inside him he knew something was wrong, something was missing, that he should not be there at all! Maybe he is a Filipino who must have thought baka makalusot as we always reason out in life. Unfortunately, as we all learn later, there are no shortcuts in life: we either hit the mark or miss it.

Our Sunday Eucharist is a fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy calling on all peoples to come to the mountain of the Lord where He shall provide us with “rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure choice wines. On this mountain he will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, the web that is woven over all nations; he will destroy death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face” (Is.25:6-8). Every Sunday Mass is an invitation to celebrate with the Lord this great feast of salvation, a foretaste of the coming heaven!

But, are we properly dressed for the occasion?

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2026.*

Related with being properly dressed is another similar English expression, of “wearing different hats” which means we must learn to adjust and adapt to the many circumstances in our lives where we take on multiple jobs and roles and responsibilities.

We find this present in our Filipino expressions of ilagay sa lugar ang pagkilos or matutong maki-bagay like when we have to professional especially with superiors in the office but remain friends when outside unwinding in a cafe or when parents act strictly as disciplinarians because they are the father or mother but sometimes as a friend or an Ate or Kuya to their children.

This is what St. Ignatius of Loyola expressed in his teaching of “positive indifference” where we choose to become poor than rich, sick than healthy that is not to be taken literally but of being open in imitating Jesus Christ’s simplicity. It is the attitude of contentment in life choosing Jesus above all like St. Paul in today’s second reading:

Brothers and sisters: I know how to live in humble circumstances. I know also how to live with abundance. In every circumstance and in all things I have learned the secret of being well fed and going hungry, of living in abundance and of being in need. I can do all things in him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:12-13).

In this highly consumerist society, many of us sadly live in crises because of so much desires and wants for material things. We see everywhere the glaring realities of some living in super abundance of wealth while majority are in dire poverty.

Peace does not come from abundance of material goods anymore than a lack of such goods can deprive one of peace. The key is living with one’s circumstances especially when they cannot be changed and are beyond one’s control. That is learning to wear one’s hat and dressing properly in every situation.

Let us close this reflection by going back to the word crisis. According to my Chinese friends, crisis is represented by two characters in Chinese, indicating danger and opportunity. Like its Greek counterpart, crisis in Chinese calls for a decision too because of the dangers present; it is only in making that decision when one can experience the many opportunities life offers. Are you ready to make that decision of choosing Jesus, of putting on His clothes of love and kindness, mercy and forgiveness as He invites you in His banquet in this Sunday’s Mass?Amen. A blessed week ahead to everyone!

“Harvest for the World” (1976) by The Isley Brothers

Lord My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 04 October 2026

You must have noticed our blogs the other week when we were inspired incorporating music into our daily prayer reflections starting September 22 with “Everybody Hurts” that was actually the title of an REM song in 1992 (https://lordmychef.com/2026/09/21/everybody-hurts/); the following day, we borrowed the title and the 1962 song by Bob Dylan “Blowin’ in the Wind” (https://lordmychef.com/2026/09/23/blowing-in-the-wind-3/); then finally on that Friday we prayed and played Pete Seeger’s original take from the Book of Ecclesiastes which the Byrds recorded in 1965 as “Turn, Turn, Turn” (https://lordmychef.com/2026/09/24/turn-turn-turn-to-know-gods-time/).

As we have been saying since we started this blog in June 2018, we have always wished to show how God continues to speak to us in this modern time through secular music by linking our Sunday gospel with every genre like rock and jazz, punk and disco, R&B and even OPM (Original Pilipino Music).

And there have been many instances in the music scene when artists were actually inspired by the Sacred Scriptures in their composition like Seeger we have featured last week.

This Sunday, we go back to year 1976 with The Isley Brothers’ Harvest for the World whose title was a complete take from Matthew’s gospel.

In an interview published six years ago in The Guardian by Dave Simpson, composer Ernie Isley said he had just bought a new 12-string acoustic guitar and was trying it out in their basement in New Jersey in 1976 when words simply flowed that became the song’s first stanza:

All babies together, everyone a seed
Half of us are satisfied, half of us in need
Love's bountiful in us, tarnished by our greed
When will there be a harvest for the world

Ernie was still playing the song in his new guitar when his brother Marvin who played bass came to their basement with their brother-in-law and keyboardist Chris Jasper; they were so impressed with Ernie’s music and later they were joined by their other brothers O’Kelly Jr., Rudolph and Ronald who all contributed lyrics and additional musical arrangements to finally complete Harvest for the World.

According to Ernie, they were largely inspired by the news they have witnessed at that time, from the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy to the growing protest movements following Nixon’s resignation in 1974 due to the Watergate Scandal and the end of Vietnam War in 1975 with the Fall of Saigon.

For the title, they remembered Matthew’s gospel scene of Jesus telling his disciples upon seeing the vast crowd that have followed them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest” (Mt. 9:37-38).

They first released the song as a single in May 1976 and later became the title track of their album Harvest for the World that same year that reaped a lot of harvest for The Isley Brothers, peaking the top ten songs in the Billboard and UK charts that year. It became one of the most memorable music of that era that continues to be covered until now by new artists, including our very own Gary V.

For our part, we have chosen Harvest for the World because of its close links with today’s gospel on the parable of the wicked tenants who have refused to give the owner’s share of the harvest of grapes in his vineyard (https://lordmychef.com/2026/10/03/chosen-to-be-fruitful/).

Both the song and the gospel speak of too much greed among us, not realizing we are indeed the Lord’s vineyard.

Our very life itself is actually not ours to possess and own completely in total disregard of others and of God.

The same is true with our beloved planet Earth: it is the Lord’s vineyard and no one, whether individuals or governments can lay total claim for its land and other resources meant by God for everyone. Here we find its lyrics very prophetic and relevant until now:

A nation planted, so concerned with gain
As the seasons come and go, greater grows the pain
And far too many feelin' the strain
When will there be a harvest for the world

We were in elementary school, perhaps in grade five or six when we first heard Harvest for the World; the song is unforgettable for me because I felt so fortunate to have found its lyrics in one of the very few issues of JINGLE magazine I have bought at that time – just four maybe – because it was so expensive. But, the first time I heard it on radio, I instantly loved it for its music so suave and cool; beat is so inviting especially with the claps in the background. A classic indeed of a gone era of great poetry and philosophy in music.

Before listening to this beautiful music that is truly a gospel too in our time, we quote Ernie from that interview six years ago by The Guardian’s Simpson which we find so fitting in closing this piece:

The world today is at least as turbulent as when we recorded it. There’s a great amount of fear. The only way things will change is if people come together in peace instead of war. That’s what we try to do with the music. When we play the song in concert, you see smiles on people’s faces, like the harvest for the world is something they’re waiting for. (https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jul/06/ernie-and-ron-isley-how-we-made-harvest-for-the-world-isley-brothers?CMP=share_btn_url)

Together let us work in the Lord’s vineyard to enjoy this harvest of the world! God bless and thank you for the visit.

Chosen to be fruitful

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 04 October 2026
Isaiah 5:1-7 ><}}}}*> Philippians 4:6-9 ><}}}}*> Matthew 21:33-43

*Photo by a friend in Washngton State, 01 October 2026.*

A friend recently sent me this photo of the start of autumn that brought back memories of my vacation on two occasions in the States and Canada during that most wonderful season. It even made me wondered lately why God did not give us four seasons like in other countries.

I know. It is kind of crazy and weird, even stupid especially at how a Chinese friend who took his priestly formation at UST twenty years ago used to tell me the Philippines is a paradise where we can work and play all year round unlike them who have to work hard for six months to stock food and wood because the other half of the year is so cold that they have to stay indoors most of the time. Until now he is all praises to our country so blessed abundantly in resources and natural wonders.

And indeed! Our country is a paradise – so blessed, so beautiful, so rich. And yet so poor and miserably mismanaged by us all that we perfectly fit in the first reading and gospel this Sunday:

Let me now sing of my friend, my friend’s song concerning his vineyard. My friend had a vineyard on a fertile hillside; he spaded it, cleared it of stones and planted the choicest vines; within it he built a watchtower, and hewed out a wine press. Then he looked for the crop of grapes, but what it yielded was wild grapes (Isaiah 5:1-2).

*Photo by author, Pundaquit, San Antonio, Zambales, 14 May 2025.*

Our country is exactly that wonderful vineyard planted by the Lord with its vast, fertile lands and long coastlines with lush greeneries of plains and mountains and despite all these, we import much of our food like rice and vegetables and fruits including fish like galunggong, even pig skins for chicharon! Like Isaiah, we ask what happened to our country?

For Isaiah, the vineyard represented Israel as the chosen people of God, so loved and cared but produced bitter fruit with their repeated infidelity and sins against God that went on until the coming of Jesus who used the same imagery into a parable of the kingdom of heaven so applicable to our own time.

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: “Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey. When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned. Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the same way. Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’ They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him (Matthew 21:33-39).

Jesus was still in the temple area where his enemies have gathered to seek ways of putting him under arrest. His parable of the wicked tenants is so similar with Isaiah’s that speaks too at the same time of ourselves and of our time, of how we have become like those wicked tenants taking the “vineyard” as totally ours. Like those tenants, we have claimed and possessed on our own this very life as “mine” and therefore, “owner” with every right to do whatever we want like have abortion, take contraceptives, have casual sex, even decide which gender to choose!

We have “overstretched” our rights without any regard at all to others and to environment. Consciously or unconsciously, we have deleted God from life that we have become relativistic without absolute morals and morality because we have made ourselves the measure and standards of everyone and everything – because, we own the “vineyard”.

*Photo by Dra. Carol Reyes-Santos, MD, in Southern California, October 2023.*

Then we wonder like Isaiah why we harvest bitter, wild grapes of broken relationships and emptiness despite the plethora of technologies and gadgets we now have? Or, like the chief priest and elders so angrily telling Jesus how the wicked tenants must be punished for usurping the vineyard and putting the owner’s son to death when in fact we are them?

Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes? Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit” (Matthew 21:40-43).

Here now lies the good news this Sunday: in Isaiah’s parable of the vineyard, God is distinct from the vineyard but in Christ’s parable, we are the vineyard of the Lord because Jesus is one with us being the Son of the owner sent to gather his share of produce.

Jesus promises us today of better produce to be shared and enjoyed not only in eternity but right here in this life for we are the Lord’s vineyard called to be fruitful. As a continuation of last Sunday’s parable of the two sons, Jesus gives us today the chance to make that wise and good decision of finally doing what is right, just and good. Of finally obeying the Father as St. Paul beautifully reminds us in the second reading to be like him, an imitator of Christ becoming someone who could be imitated by others as witnesses of Jesus, striving for “whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious” (Phil. 4:8).

Recent news of how a group of ordinary people on board a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv prevented the crash of their plane is a remarkable story of taking care of the Lord’s vineyard, of how it always bear good fruits. The so-called heroes of FlyDubai were all very ordinary like us; what enabled them to be heroes was their being true and faithful in their responsibilities like the mother who went to attend to her daughter in the toilet and became the first to notice trouble in the cockpit; the Indian captain who for many years of flying had always thought of the lives depending on him who struggled to rise and opened his cockpit door to be helped by men who knew nothing about flying and martial arts except the need to save lives by stabilizing the plane and subduing the terrorist co-pilot.

It was a story like the parables today and last Sunday of how people chose to uphold what is good, what is right, what is just. They are heroes not because of any special skills nor talents but were simply faithful in life, most likely always present for their families and friends, clients and patients. And to God ultimately.

Isaiah and Jesus invites us this Sunday to look into ourselves, at how we have tended and cared for our lives, for others in this vineyard of the Lord. Think of those many occasions we have wasted God’s blessings like our talents not put into use or never harnessed, health taken for granted and loved ones we have ignored and refused to love. Let us grab this opportunity of taking care of the Lord’s vineyard he had entrusted to us to be fruitful. It is us who benefit most in these fruits meant to make us better here and hereafter. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead!

*Photo by Ms. Kei Abad in Japann, October 2025.*

Time In A Bottle

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, 27 September 2026
Ezsekiel 18:25-28 ><}}}}*> Philippians 2:1-11 ><}}}}*> Matthew 21:28-32

*Photo by Joshua Woroniecki on Pexels.com*

Yes, our Sunday reflection title is from that same 1972 Jim Croce classic, Time In A Bottle. It just popped out in my mind while praying for our Sunday homily – like last Tuesday when we remembered REM’s Everybody Hurts (https://lordmychef.com/2026/09/21/everybody-hurts/), Thursday Bob Dylan’s Blowing In The Wind (https://lordmychef.com/2026/09/23/blowing-in-the-wind-3/) and Friday with the Byrds’ Turn! Turn! Turn! (https://lordmychef.com/2026/09/24/turn-turn-turn-to-know-gods-time/).

It was a week of prayers aided by music I grew up with as it happens most of the time which I believe is part of my being old while unconsciously feeling fearful of the inevitable, death.

But, it isn’t morbid at all. I regard it as simply being realistic.

Like our liturgical calendar that is about to end in nine weeks on November 22 with the Solemnity of Christ the King followed the next Sunday after that on November 29 with the Season of Advent or the four Sunday preparation for Christmas!

Hence, all gospel accounts beginning this Sunday will focus on the coming end of time and the need for us to change our ways to make it to heaven, our final destination in this life.

Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people: “What is your opinion? A man had two sons. He came to the first and said, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’ He said in reply, ‘I will not,’ but afterwards he changed his mind and went. The man came to the other son and gave the same order. He said in reply, ‘Yes, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the father’s will.” They answered, “The first” (Mt.21:28-31).

*Photo by author, Jerusalem as seen from the altar of Dominus Flevit Church, May 2017.*

Jesus and his disciples have finally reached Jerusalem and this scene today is the day after Palm Sunday when he angrily drove away the traders and money changers in the Temple area that have prompted his enemies led by the elders and priests to come and questioned his authority.

Before giving his answer, Jesus asked them the origin of John’s authority to baptize, God or the people? They declined to answer because they have refused to recognize John’s baptism and that is why Jesus gave them a chance to change their minds and their hearts with this parable of the two sons. It was like Jesus telling them and everyone else including us today to obey follow God.

See now its link with last Sunday’s parable of the workers in the vineyard: Jesus continues to call us to come and work in his vineyard no matter how late; our work in his vineyard never stops and we need to keep doing what is good even if sometimes we fail and falter. Remember too that Matthew presents Jesus as always insisting the need to harmonize and blend what we believe with what we say and most of all, with what we do because “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Mt.7:21).

*Photo by author, Anvaya Cove, Bataan, 21 July 2026.*

What counts most for Jesus in this parable is not just what or who is in our hearts but what flows from our hearts. Do we walk our talk? There has to be a unity in our faith wherein what we believe is what we say and what we do and live by.

Like the younger son in the parable, we are invited today to be humble and accept our mistakes to do what is right, what is good, what is moral than become like the elder son who said yes to their father but did not obey at all. Many times despite our absolute belief in God, we still think more of ourselves, insisting our own ways and agenda even to our loved ones, unmindful of the disunity we cause in our relationships aside from the pains and hurts we inflict on them whenever our words of love and peace do not match our actions.

There is a saying that goes “A single act of kindness is better than the best intention.” So true! – because our actions prove the veracity and sincerity of our every intention. That’s what God did for us by not merely promising a Savior but fulfilled it in sending us Jesus Christ who died obediently on the Cross which St. Paul eloquently explained today in our second reading we also hear during Christmas and Easter Seasons.

*Photo by author, Anvaya Cove, Bataan, 20 July 2026.*

We are so blessed this Sunday not only because God fulfills his promises of love and forgiveness but he always gives us endless chances to change our ways, to continuously work things out for the best.

Every Eucharist is a celebration of God’s patience and mercy for us sinners who must be converted again and again and again to make it to His kingdom in heaven. We must always be on guard not to fall into the mistake of the laborers last week who were so focused on their work than on the goodness of the landowner as if they deserved something extra than others which the Prophet Ezekiel echoed in the first reading:

“Hear now, house of Israel: Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair? When someone virtuous turns away from virtue to commit iniquity, and dies, it is because of the iniquity he committed that he must die. But if he turns from the wickedness he has committed, and does what is right and just, he shall preserve his life” (Ezekiel 18:25-27).

God is not a store nor a credit card who gives “rebates” for whatever good points we “earn” for past purchases for he will judge us with our actions and not intentions. We simply have to strive in doing what is good like that second child in the parable.

Let me end this reflection with this funny story about the talking centipede.

A young man decided life would be more fun if he had a most unique pet. So he went to the pet store and told the owner about it. After some discussions, he finally bought a talking centipede, which came in a little white box to use for his house.

The guy took the box back home, found a good spot to place it with the centipede inside and decided he would start off by taking his new pet to church with him.

So he asked the centipede in the box, “Would you like to go to church with me today? We will have a good time.”

But there was no answer from his new pet.

This bothered him a bit, but he waited a few minutes and then asked again, “How about going to church with me and receive blessings?”

But again, there was no answer from his most unique pet. So he waited a few minutes more, thinking about the situation. The guy decided to invite the centipede one last time by putting his face up against the centipede’s house and shouted, “Hey, in there! Would you like to go to church with me and learn about God?”

Then suddenly, a little voice came out of the box, “I heard you the first time! I’m putting my shoes on.”

Smile everyone, God loves you so much! He knows that like the centipede, you have so many shoes to wear, so many shoestrings to tie but God is not in a hurry….just keep on putting on those shoes and keep walking on His path! Amen. Have a blessed end of September.

Doing the work of God

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 20 September 2026
Isaiah 55:6-9 ><}}}}*> Philippians 1:20-24, 27 ><}}}}*> Matthew 20:1-16

*Photo by a friend at Seabrook, Washington, 06 September 2026*

From fraternal correction to forgiving those who sin, Jesus continued teaching his disciples on their way to Jerusalem about some important aspects of living together as a community of disciples, his Church he had founded on Peter the Rock while in Caesarea Philippi five Sundays ago.

Today we hear Jesus teaching us about “work” – another issue in our time that has become so complicated as more employees and workers assert to the point of overextending their rights and privileges without any consideration to others.

We have a Tagalog word for that, pananaghili.

It may sound so beautiful but it is so negative in meaning. Pananaghili is an ill-feeling of envy and jealousy toward another person’s better lot like success, possession, or pleasures like when we complain of others more compensated in doing less or nothing when we did all the work. Exactly like the parable of Jesus this Sunday:

Jesus told his disciples this parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard, and I will give what is just.’ So they went off. And he went out again around noon, and around three o’clock, and did likewise. Going out about five o’clock, the landowner found others standing around and said to them… ‘You too go into my vineyard.’ When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first… So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage. And on receiving it they grumbled agains the landowner… ” (Matthew 20:1-6, 7-8, 10).

*Photo by Mr. Raffy Tima, Batanes, September 2018.*

Let us return to that Tagalog word pananaghili which often starts at home when we feel being “cheated” by a sibling, when a brother or a sister getting more favors because we feel our parents play favorites. Well, sometimes our pananaghili may be valid with a lot of basis, and sometimes nothing at all except a feeling of entitlement on our part.

But, here is the point that work is lined up with fraternal correction and forgiving: our attitude toward work always result in our kind of relationships with one another and ultimately with God.

Jesus reminds us anew to level up ourselves in looking at all these things especially work. Notice that at the start of his parable, Jesus clarified that work is something to be seen in the realm of the kingdom of heaven, always in relation with God.

Actually, work is always a call and gift from God that is why we must always be grateful by being responsible in our work. This is best expressed by another Tagalog word, hanap-buhay for work not just trabajo. Hanap-buhay literally means to “search life” or life’s meaning. Work is not just trabajo from the Spanish trabajar tinged with that curse in the Old Testament after the fall of Adam and Eve when God said “by the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat” (Gen.3:19).

*Photo by author, RISE Tower, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City, August 2025.*

In the New Testament, right here in this parable, Jesus shows us that work is a sharing, a participating in the work of God. The whole earth is God’s vineyard we are cultivating, we are harnessing. Here we find the interrelationships of man and creation, of environment we all have to care for. In our work, it is God whom we please and seek. We do not work simply to eat and survive; we work to reflect God in whom we are all created in his own image and likeness which is love.

That is why Isaiah invites us in the first reading to seek the Lord, to call upon God while he is near even in our work, in our ministry, in our duties and responsibilities wherever we may be. And when, where do we feel closest to God?

I find it very striking that most often, there is only a hairline difference when we are closest and farthest from God that happens in the realm of sin. What a paradox that we feel God closest when we are most contrite of our sins, and God farthest when we are deep in sin.

Sometimes sin is not that bad at all: when our conscience is bothered with an evil we have done, we become aware of God’s presence, whether near or far. The mere fact we are bothered by our conscience, that is God so near us. Like what the workers hired first felt – they could not outrightly complain to the landowner directly that they just grumbled. Sounds like us, is it not?

This is the purpose of Christ’s parable this Sunday: to bother our selves to examine our nearness and distance from God that is most clear in the area of our work where we are most challenged to be responsible and faithful. See how the landowner representing God confronted one of those workers grumbling against him:

‘My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one then same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish my own money?’ (Matthew 20:13-15)

Remember what we reflected last Sunday: when we sin we not only transgress against another person but firstly with God that it is useless to compare our sins with others that we simply have to forgive because we all sin against God.

In our work whether at home or in the office or wherever, we complain a lot of God being unfair, that we deserve more when in fact God is most just. We forget that truth and reality that God has been most generous with us always. Problems happen the moment we start thinking of being superior than others, of being entitled, assuming a lot of things in our own favor.

Although we cannot deny the fact of many unfair practices happening especially in our country, it all leads to each one’s fidelity to God: if we are truly the disciples of Christ called Christians, whether as an employer or employee, justice must prevail all the time among us. That is why the Church through Pope Leo XIII issued in 1891 Rerum Novarum for the protection of the rights of workers especially women following the excesses of the Industrial Revolution. Historians agree Rerum Novarum is one of the most important document ever produced in the past century with most impact that gave the world the principles of just and living wage, eight hour shifts, private ownership among others.

This Sunday, all our readings affirm God’s words through the Prophet Isaiah that “my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways”, calling us to rise above our very selves in the service of one another for the glory of God.

Retired Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban expressed this perfectly last week when he reminded the senators to not just see the impeachment proceedings in the eyes of laws but most of all to serve justice to the people. His words apply not only to the senators but to everyone especially those with direct impact to the lives of the majority of people so loaded with too much sufferings from the horrendous traffic to poor basic services. Like St. Paul, retired Chief Justice Panganiban seemed to be telling everyone to “conduct yourselves in a way worthy of the gospel of Christ” especially those in government. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead.

Good grief

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows, 15 September 2026
Hebrews 5:7-9     <*{{{{><  +  ><}}}}*>     John 19:25-27

*Photo by the late Mr. Noli Yamsuan, Manila Cathedral, 15 July 2012.*

A day after the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, we celebrate the Memorial of our Lady of Sorrows or Mater Dolorosa, the grieving Mother Mary at the foot of the Cross of Jesus Christ.

For a better appreciation of the scene, I recalled the one particular detail provided by Matthew, Mark, and Luke at how the area was enveloped in darkness from noon to three in the afternoon situating it in John’s most unique element of the Crucifixion:

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home (John 19:25-27).

*Photo of painting from stswithuns.org.uk.*

As I prayed over this scene, the expression “good grief” came to my mind.

Good grief is an expression so similar with the second Beatitude of Christ taught at his sermon on the mount, “Blessed are those who mourn (grieve), for they will be comforted” (Mt.5:4).

What is blessed with mourning or good with grief when you have lost a loved one or in pain and suffering? Or, when things are not going well with one’s self and life?

As we reel from the recent monsoon rains or habagat, grieving cleanses out eyes and whole body system like the rains that wash away all dirt and trash in the surroundings. Though grief and storms inconvenience, even immobilize us for some time, overall crying and rains enable us to reassess our priorities and directions in life like the painful lessons the floods have taught us, if we have indeed learned.

There at the Cross, John noticed and presented us this most moving scene before the death of Jesus to show us the new reorientation also in our lives as disciples led by the first and model disciple of all, Mary with the beloved disciple. Clearly here we find a new direction in their lives and eventually in the life of the Church Jesus had founded.

Grief is good and blessed because it leads us to God, to self, and to others as both Mother Mary and the beloved disciple exemplified in their lives.

Grief is the default browser of faith, enabling us to hold on to God when everything and everyone slip from our grasps, when we realize God looming over us despite the darkness that envelops us like during the Crucifixion. Imagine the tremendous faith the Blessed Virgin Mary and the beloved disciple both have during that most crucial moment when they were the only ones who have remained with Jesus while all the other disciples have gone hiding in fear.

In the many artistic depictions of the Crucifixion, we can find that like Mary and the beloved disciple, we are are most human when in the face of grief because that is when we accept and affirm our weakness as a person – whether we are the one grieving or comforting someone grieving. Grief is good because that is when God calls us most to be his very presence in the darkest hours of sufferings and pain.

*Lady of Sorrows from a triptych by the Master of the Stauffenberg Altarpiece, Alsace c. 1455; photo from fraangelicoinstitute.com.*

In my 28 years as a priest, I have comforted and grieved with so many people, family and friends, even strangers. And it seems that of all the things I have said and done as a priest and an individual, it was those moments of grieving with those who have lost a loved one or going through difficulties are what people most remembered of me because I have realized too with the deaths of my dad and mom, grieving is the pathway to home – to ourselves, to our beloved and to God. John tells us how since that day on the beloved disciple took Mary into “his home.”

Our Filipino word for home literally came from crying and grieving – tahanan which is from “tahan na” or stop crying. We stop crying or tahan in our own home, tahanan because that is where we feel loved and cared, safe and accepted no matter what.

During funerals, I tell people to simply grieve and please, do not ask anybody to stop crying or tahan. When we allow those in pain to cry and grieve, eventually in the process they stop when they finally find a reason to moving on and start living.

*“Mater Dolorosa” also known as “Blue Madonna” (1616) by Carlo Dolci. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.*

It is here where we find too the goodness in the good grief of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Lady of Sorrows: she was deeply in pain minus the theatrics of some during funerals. It was purely good grief for Mary because at that most crucial moment, she must be lovingly praying.

That is the beautiful reminder to us of this memorial of Mater Dolorosa: the more we must handle life with prayer in order to believe more and love more when everything is dark and even dead. At the Crucifixion, we find the words of the author of the Letter to the Hebrews so fulfilled and true not only in Jesus but also with those who stood with him like his Mother Mary and beloved disciple:

In the days when he was in the flesh, he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him (Hebrews 5:7-9).

Amid all the hardships and difficulties many of us are facing these days of rains and floods, of corruption among our officials and leaders as if we are again standing at the foot of the Cross of Jesus Christ, it is a most opportune time of “good grief” for us to stand for what is true and good, fair and just, honorable and honest. Like our Lady of Sorrows the Blessed Virgin Mary, let us draw out faith and strength and courage from Jesus Christ who had won over death and sin on the Cross. Amen.

What goes up must first go down

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday, Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, 14 September 2026
Numbers 21:4-9 ><}}}}*> Philippians2:6-11 ><}}}}*> John 3:13-17

*Photo by author, Basilica of Our Lady of Manaoag, Pangasinan, 09 January 2026.*

Today’s celebration of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross started in the fourth century with the miraculous discovery of the True Cross by Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, on 14 September 326, while she was on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Being the queen Mother, she ordered through her son the emperor the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre that was dedicated nine years later with a portion of the True Cross placed inside it on September 13, 335. The following day, the Cross was brought outside of the church to be venerated by the clergy and the faithful.

In the year 627, during the reign of the Emperor Heraclius I of Constantinople, the Persians conquered the city of Jerusalem and removed a major part of the Cross from its sanctuary. The emperor then launched a campaign to recover the True Cross which he regarded as the new Ark of the Covenant for the new People of God.

Before embarking into war, Emperor Heraclius went to church wearing black as a sign of penance, then prostrated himself before the altar and begged God for courage. His prayer was granted as he won the war and recovered the Cross from the Persians. He brought the Cross back to Jerusalem in 641 amid great celebrations by carrying it on his shoulders. Upon reaching the gate leading to Calvary, the emperor could not go forward! Heraclius and his retinue were astonished and could not understand what had happened until the Patriarch Zachary of Jerusalem told him, “Take care, O Emperor! In truth, the imperial clothing you are wearing does not sufficiently resemble the poor and humiliated condition of Jesus carrying His cross.”

Upon hearing those words, the emperor removed his shoes and bejewelled robes, put on a poor man’s clothing and was eventually able to proceed to Calvary and replaced the Cross inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where a number of miracles happened during the occasion: a dead man returned to life, four paralytics were cured, ten lepers were healed, 15 blind men were given their sight, with several possessed people exorcised and many sick people totally healed!

*Photo by author, inside the upper chapel of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where the site of Crucifixion is believed to be located, May 2017.*

Very notable in this story were the words of the Patriarch of Jerusalem to Emperor Heraclius: it was only after he had taken off his royal clothings and put on those of the poor was he able to carry the Cross into Jerusalem.

It is the same thing that is asked of us today: it is so easy to display the cross inside our homes and cars, or wear it as a jewelry or even as a tattoo on our skin and mean nothing at all unless we have the cross inside our hearts, our very being. More than the many signs of the cross and imaginary drawing of its lines we draw on our chest is the need for us to empty ourselves of our pride and sins so that we can be filled by Jesus Christ.

*Photo by author, Chapel of St. Francis Xavier, Sacred Heart Novitiate, QC, March 2024.*

Brothers and sisters: Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8).

Called kenosis in Greek, self-emptying is the way of the Cross of Christ. It is choosing love and mercy than self-centeredness and self-righteousness; sacrifice than satisfaction; fairness and justice than greed and possession; bearing all the pains and perseverance than complaining and whining about difficulties and trials in life like the Israelites in the wilderness (first reading); and, thinking more of others than of one’s self.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic had taught something very beautiful and amazing about the positivity of being negative, when negative was actually positive – healthy and COVID free! Remember how during those days when we would always wish we would yield negative results in our swab tests for COVID?

When we look at the sign of the cross (+), it is a positive sign, a plus sign. Though the cross calls us to let go, to be detached and dispossessed, it is actually an invitation to have more of God, of life and fulfillment!

For us to rise, to go up, we must first go down that is contrary to the ways of this time of affluence when everything is practically easily available even fame and wealth. Today’s feast reminds us that like the Cross of Christ, life is more of letting go and of giving than of having like God who “so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that he who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn.3:16). St. Francis of Assisi said it perfectly why the Cross is an exaltation, a triumph:

For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen. Have blessed week ahead!

*Photo by author, St. Paul Spiritual & Renewal Center, Alfonso, Cavite, 19 August 2026.*

To err is human, to forgive, divine.

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.

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!

Small. And blessed.

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 08 September 2026
Micah 5:1-4 ><]]]]*> + ><]]]]*> + ><]]]]*> Matthew 1:18-23

“The Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary”, a 1305 painting by Renaissance artist Giotto in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy. The two babies depicted are both the Virgin Mary: below is Mary upon birth wrapped in swaddling cloth and washed by attendants and then above being handed to St. Anne her mother. Photo from en.wikipedia.org.

Feasts of saints are often based on the date of their death when they enter eternal life; sometimes it may also be the date when their remains were transferred for proper burial.

There are only three birthdays we celebrate in our liturgy, two are of the highest order as a Solemnity, our Lord Jesus Christ on December 25 and his precursor St. John the Baptist on June 24; the third is that of the Blessed Virgin Mary which is a rank lower as a Feast, falling on this date, eighth of September which is nine months after her Immaculate Conception.

In this age of social media when every platform has its unique way of alerting everyone of someone’s birthday so that nobody can no longer hide to celebrate silently one’s birthday, the Blessed Mother’s nativity offers us a beautiful opportunity to reflect on the significance of a birthday always seen in relation with Jesus Christ’s birth and coming. St. John Paul II perfectly expressed this in his 1995 Encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), declaring that “Every birthday is a small Christmas because with the birth of every person comes Jesus Christ” (sorry I can’t recall the citation).

What makes that so true with every birthday beginning with the Blessed Virgin Mary is God’s great mystery of becoming small, of being “insignificant” in the birth of his Son Jesus Christ which we find even in his birthplace prophesied by Micah:

“You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah too small to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel; whose origin is from of old, from ancient times” (Micah 5:1).

*Photo by Ar. Philip Santiago, Angels’ Field Chapel in Bethlehem, October 2025.*

And if we go further, this true greatness of Jesus Christ in being small is found also in his Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary who came from the obscure town of Nazareth, the only place in the New Testament never mentioned in the Old Testament.

Recall how Nathanael or Bartholomew the Apostle belittled the Lord’s hometown after being told by Philip that they have found the Messiah from Nazareth, saying, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (Jn.1:46) because Nazareth was totally unknown during that time.

And so was Mary!

That is why it is so disappointing and sad when many Catholics unfortunately led by some priests have the misimpression of portraying Mary as a “beauty queen” with flawless skin and Western features when she is clearly Middle Eastern woman. Worst of all is the pomp and pageantries we have in the recent fads of processions and coronations in many dioceses and parishes.

*Photo by author, St. Paul Spiritual & Renewal Center, Bgy. Tanyawak, Alfonso, Cavite, 19 August 2026.*

How sad we have missed the Blessed Virgin Mary as the model disciple of Jesus was the first to embody his teaching of being small like little children with her simplicity and humility so very well expressed in her 20th century apparitions in Fatima, Portugal and Banneux, Belgium.

Enough with the extravagant sometimes imeldific celebrations of Marian feasts and events that have become egregious display of wealth and power.

Being simple and small like Mary, both as a child and as an adult, enable us to see again the value of life and of every person.

Aside from the lack of any account on the birth of Mary, we heard proclaimed today the birth of Jesus to teach us that truth expressed by St. John Paul II that in every person Jesus actually comes. The more simple and true we are like Mary and Joseph, the more Jesus is seen and experienced in us!

That is why when we greet somebody a “happy birthday”, what we really mean telling him/her is “I love you, I thank you for making me who I am today.” Through one’s simplicity and littleness in Christ, we are transformed into better persons because we are able to have glimpse of God’s love and kindness.

The true joy of celebrating a birthday is not found in the externalities of gifts and parties and guests with all the fun that come along but in the silent, prayerful reflection of our life’s beginning and direction into eternal life. See how there are still people who only celebrate Mass on two occasions each year – on their birthday and on Christmas, a clear recognition of our origin and direction in Christ in life.

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, March 2023.*

In the birth of Jesus Christ, we are reminded by every birthday that life is precious because it is so fragile – any infant and every person can be easily hurt and harmed, be sick and eventually die.

Like Mary and Joseph, the little Child born in Bethlehem asks us, even begs us to take care of him found in everyone among us.

Let us be more loving and kind, understanding and caring, even merciful and forgiving with one another especially in this time of calamities.

Such is the wisdom of God in making life small and fragile so that we may care and value it because there lies also its greatness. The best birthday greeting we can express to the Blessed Mother Mary today is to start being small and simple like her to share Jesus with everyone. Not with those many cakes we buy and “offer” – tayo rin naman kakain! Amen.

Debt of Love

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 06 September 2026
Ezekiel 33:7-9 ><}}}}*> Romans 13:8-10 ><}}}}*> Matthew 18:15-20

*From Facebook post by Marvin Germo, 04 September 2026.*

Thanks be to God for Alex Eala – not only an excellent tennis player, a bright and intelligent lady but most of all, most kind and humble of all.

Her recent landing on the front page of New York Times that prides itself with the motto “All the News Fit to Print” in its 175 years of existence cemented Eala’s stardom. That’s real influence no blog stats nor Hollywood walk of fame could match.

Side by side with the major events and newsmakers in the world, the editors of New York Times featured Eala on their front page not entirely because of her prowess and grit in tennis but of her expressions of love, community and unity of Filipinos – a far, far cry from news coming from our forsaken country of calamities and crooks in government. Eala – along with other athletes like EJ Obienna – are the only good news we now have, with her practically a walking gospel like St. Paul in today’s second reading.

Brothers and sisters: Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law (Romans 13:8).

What kind of love is Paul exhorting the Romans then and us today? For St. Paul, love is the self-sacrificing love that Jesus showed us when he offered himself for us on the cross.

Recall last Sunday St. Paul reminded us “to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice” (Rom. 12:1) like Jesus. In that same chapter, he spoke of not retaliating or seeking vengeance while in the following chapter we now have, he expounded the themes of obedience to authority and a sort of social responsibilities like justice (Rom. 13:1-7).

And while justice demands we pay off our debts and other dues to one another, to the state and public officials, it is a totally different scenario when it comes to love. For St. Paul, love is the imitation of Jesus Christ, a love that can never be measured at all and even be demanded and decreed.

Love is not a possession that anyone can receive nor give in an exactly measured quantity like a pound or a kilogram of love. St. Mother Teresa said the measure of love is when you love without measure. It is either you love or do not love! And when we do not love, then we sin which is a refusal to love.

That sin can only be repaired and corrected by love.

Therefore, to overcome sin, you have to love more!

That is why we hear Jesus teaching us today the importance of fraternal correction based on love not anything else.

Jesus said to his disciples: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two other along with you, so that every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector” (Matthew 18:15-17).

*Photo by a friend in Swan Island Dahlia Farm, Canby, Oregon, 29 August 2026.*

Jesus is now heading to Jerusalem to fulfill his mission. Along the way, he taught his disciples important lessons about the Church he had just established upon Peter, the Rock, while at Caesarea Philippi the other Sunday.

For three Sundays beginning today, Jesus will touch on three moral issues we face with seeming complexity in our modern time like fraternal correction, forgiving, and work. These are crucial because they are expressions of mutual love for one another. Most of all, it is in these realms we fall into “sin of omission” particularly with fraternal correction as we tend to detach ourselves from others when they are committing sin. By distancing from them or refusing to make a clear stand against evil, we unconsciously allow sin to persist.

The dark side of the sin of omission lies in that tendency within us to not care at all with those into serious sins when we separate and distance from them, even telling them “bahala ka na sa buhay mo…pinili mo iyan, pagdusahan mo.”

Fraternal correction is the antidote to sins of omission because it is about keeping our relationships intact as family, friends, brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ who becomes truly present in the world among us when we live in harmony because “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt. 18:20).

This is the good news of Eala, whether she wins or loses a match, she speaks of love and kindness. And she has been consistent with it!

Since the Old Testament, God had already insisted on this moral precept as his children that we look after one another like a sentinel – a watchman or a guard – as he told the Prophet Ezekiel in the first reading.

At that time, the enemies of Judah were closely approaching their borders that they designated watchmen as their first line of defense. Failure by these watchmen to warn the people – as it turned out later – could spell disaster for the kingdom.

The same thing is true with us. We are all interrelated with each other. One rotten tomato can spoil the whole batch like allowing corruption in every form to continue as well as electing corrupt officials into office. How sad we have not learned our lessons; maybe not until we have sank deep into flood…

We cannot be indifferent and be mere bystanders amid the evil and sins happening around us perpetrated especially by those closest to us. It is not enough either that we do no wrong on others yet allow those into corruption to continue with their evil doings. Fraternal correction is an expression of our love – for God and for others. We correct those into sin because of love, not because we are better or holier.

St. Paul beautifully declared in 2 Corinthians 5:14, “Caritas Christi urget nos” – the love of Christ urges, impels us – to love more especially in these times of calamities and disunity in the country.

*Photo by a friend, Swan Island Dahlia Farm, Canby, Oregon, 29 August 2026.*

This love of Jesus Christ the Lord himself described as “new commandment” at his last supper (Jn.13:34) is a love rooted in God himself, a love that “levels up” every disciple into the mystical plane of existence.

Recall those moments you have truly loved without strings attached, unselfish and selfless: that is when we realize that love is a debt we can never pay off because love is a gift from God, something that is never exhausted nor depleted. In fact, we realize that we too can love like Jesus Christ!

God does not “order” nor “command” us in the strict sense to love him. He asks for our love because he loves us, because he is love. When we love, we fulfill the commandments of God, we live in peace and harmony with one another like in heaven. That is why it is only love that will remain in heaven where there will be no more fraternal corrections. Most of all, love can never be paid off as a debt because love is all that shall remain to become our very person in Christ. Amen. Have a blessed, loving week!