The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Memorial of St. Albert the Great, Doctor of the Church, 15 November 2023
Wisdom 6:1-11 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> Luke 17:11-19
Photo by author, Jesuit Cemetery, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 21 March 2023.
Thank you dear God
for the gift of authority,
a share in your authority
to govern other people regardless
if they are a few or a handful of
loosely organized people like
family and friends
or a large number of subjects
in our work or organization,
community and the Church,
and the whole nation.
But most especially,
we pray for our civil and
Church people of authority
to heed your counsel:
To you therefore O princes are my words addressed that you may learn wisdom and that you may not sin. For those who keep the holy precepts hallowed shall be found holy, and those learned in them will have ready a response. Desire therefore my words; long for them and you shall be instructed.
Wisdom 6:9-11
You have sent us your Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ as the
perfect example of authority figure,
who spoke with authority during his time
because his authority is a sharing
in your authority, Father,
an expression of his perfect
obedience to you;
let us realize that every authority
must be lived in total obedience
to you, O God, like Jesus.
When authority is lived in obedience,
those in authority become humble,
getting closer to their subjects
especially those in the margins
like the weak and the sick;
the Samaritan leper was the only one
who returned to Jesus to thank him
because not only because
he was the least of the ten
lepers being an outsider;
but, most of all, he humbly
and gratefully returned to thank Jesus
because he lived his obedience with
authority, Jesus whom he called Master.
Like St. Albert the Great
whose feast we celebrate today,
patron of scientists and a man
of learning and wisdom who held
great authority in his Order
and in the Church in Germany
during his time, may we always
live our authority in obedience
and live obedience with authority
to lead us all into humility
like Jesus Christ.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday in the Twenty-first Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 30 August 2023
1 Thessalonians 3:7-13 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 24:42-51
Photo by author in Alfonso, Cavite, 2019.
Loving Father,
it is always good
to be affirmed,
to be praised,
to be accepted;
but, like St. Paul,
there is no greater joy
for me than to be your
servant and vessel
of grace!
Keep me simple
and humble,
to desire nothing
but to do your will
and bring people
closer to you,
not me.
And for this reason we too give thanks to God unceasingly, that, in receiving the word of God from hearing us, you received it not as a word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which is now at work in you who believe.
1 Thessalonians 2:13
Remind me always,
dear Lord, to share
only Jesus,
always Jesus;
let me learn to leave
the scene immediately
after I have accomplished
your will; most of all,
may the people I serve
forget me to only remember
you alone.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday in the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 19 July 2023
Exodus 3:1-6, 9-12 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> Matthew 11:25-27
Photo by author, sunrise at Camp John Hay, 12 July 2023.
Praise and glory to you,
God our loving Father!
You are so "kind and merciful
for you pardon all our sins,
heals all our ills;
you redeem us
from destruction,
and crowns us with
kindness and compassion"
(Psalms 103:3-4).
Therefore, I pray, O God
for each day that I may
always receive and cherish
your gifts, recognize your love
for me despite and in spite
of my sinfulness and weaknesses
like Moses whom you have called
after he had fled Egypt for a crime;
let me have that same sense of wonder
and curiosity in finding you,
in hearing you, in following you;
the whole earth indeed is sacred,
belonging to you, O Lord;
let me take off my shoes,
walk barefooted to feel your presence
and answer your call to send me
to those crying for your help,
for those numb in experiencing
your presence and coming.
Let me be like children
open and trusting to your
revelations found in the simplest
and most ordinary things in life
unlike the learned who overthink,
holding on to their
beliefs and convictions,
without any room for surprises,
seeking certainties, solving
the unsolvable mysteries
in life long revealed
in Jesus Christ your Son
and our Lord.
Amen.
Photo by author, sunrise at Camp John Hay, Baguio City, 12 July 2023.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Sunday in the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 09 July 2023
Zechariah 9:9-10 ><}}}*> Romans 8:9, 11-13 ><}}}*> Matthew 11:25-30
Photo by Ms. Nikki Vergara, 2020.
Today we hear the final installment of Jesus Christ’s instructions to the Twelve as he sent them to their first mission which started two Sundays ago. Discipleship is essentially becoming like Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master who is meek and humble of heart.
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
For the third straight Sunday, Jesus has been teaching the Twelve including us today some important lessons in discipleship: first is to fear no one except God, then to be never influenced by others except God, and now, to learn from him who is “meek and humble” of heart.
Photo by author at the sacristy of the Manila Cathedral, 07 July 2023.
In the whole Bible, we find that “meekness” is the most remarkable quality of any one sent by God to his people, especially with Moses and King David.
Despite some instances of them getting angry and even being harsh sometimes, both were described as being meek especially Moses described as “the meekest man on the face of the earth” (Num.12:3).
When Jesus came and brought salvation to mankind by obediently dying on the Cross, he became the embodiment of meekness.
To be meek means being gentle and obedient, exactly who Jesus Christ is. All throughout his life, Jesus had repeatedly expressed everything he said and did were in total obedience to the Father who sent him to save us. That is why that we too find Christ’s words and actions as the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies of God coming to save his people, of sending someone so different from the other kings and servants before him. This is very evident in the gospel of Matthew who emphasized on the meekness of Jesus Christ that in narrating to us his version of the Palm Sunday entry of Jesus to Jerusalem, he actually cited (Mt. 21:4-5) our first reading today from Zechariah:
Thus says the Lord: Rejoice heartily, O daughter Zion, shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem! See, your king shall come to you; a just savior is he, meek, and riding on an ass, on a colt, the foal of an ass.
Zechariah 9:9
Unlike the kings and other powerful men of the world who rode on prancing horses symbolic of their power and strength, here is Jesus Christ riding a placid donkey, symbolic of his meekness and humility, most especially of his message of peace.
Meekness in Tagalog is maamo, from the root word amo referring to “master”, connoting one’s recognition of master by being submissive in the positive sense. Maamo also means being tame as opposite with being wild. Hence, the English word of being gentle, or gentility.
The good news of Jesus being “meek and humble” is that we need not be afraid of becoming his disciples, of becoming truly Christians in this age relativism when anything goes, no more absolutes like God and morality. Now more than ever, St. Paul’s admonitions in the second reading are so real when we are challenged to live in solidarity with Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit, or to live in solidarity with the old humanity enslaved to sin.
Yes, the Gospel of Jesus is demanding. And so is true love which is most demanding.
Photo by author, La Mesa Forest Reserve seen from Our Lady of Fatima University-Quezon City with the Sierra Madre as background, January 2023.
There will always be pains and hurts but these occasions make our discipleship, our love for Christ and for others most meaningful and fulfilling. The Lord’s “yoke is easy and his burden is light” because it is naturally human and divine like him made possible with his paschal mystery. Being loving and kind, forgiving and merciful, caring and helpful are never painful nor tiring because they liberate us, setting us free from the imprisonment and shackles of sin due to our pride and self-centeredness, leading us to true freedom and fulfillment.
Why is it now life has become so complicated? It is not because of Jesus nor of his Church who simply echoes his teachings as he had commanded. Life has become complicated ever since we have allowed and accepted all these modern thoughts of freedom that actually “unfreed” us like these trends from the “sex revolution” that have spawned all the evils plaguing us, from divorce to contraceptions and abortions that not only destroy human life but most especially the family, society’s basic unit. There are some insisting on altering the most basic and natural of God’s creation like gender as either male or female, nothing in between; and, marriage solely between man and woman.
See how life has been reduced to lifestyle characterized by commercialization of everything including persons with sex casually portrayed as an act or activity and a mere part of the body. Everything has become relative, to each his own. That is why life has become so tiring, even empty despite all the comforts and modern amenities we now enjoy.
We have been removing God from everything, from all his creation. That is why Jesus comes to us today, calling us all to come to him, all who are burdened to find rest in him.
Find Christ in yourself, you find Christ in others. When we find Christ, we find God, we find truth, we find life, we find rest.
Our gospel this Sunday comes as a fitting closing to the Lord’s lessons on discipleship. It is never easy in becoming a Christian, of standing for what is right and true, just and fair, in being kind and forgiving, in lovingly serving others without expecting anything in return.
Let’s not make it more difficult on our part. Examine the demands of Christ are actually simple, love him by obeying him. What are the demands of those trying to lord over us these days like those so-called wokes and liberals who are so harsh in insisting their views that are self-serving and unnatural.
Remember, our series of these instructions came when “At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd” (Mt.9:36, June 18, 11th Sunday). Jesus added that we pray for more laborers to work in the bountiful harvest, for more persons who are loving and warm, not demanding nor insistent on themselves and their beliefs. Have a restful week ahead! Amen.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Holy Monday, 03 April 2023
Isaiah 42:1-7 >>> + <<< John 12:1-11
“Ecce Homo” painting by Vicente Juan Masip (1507-1579) from masterapollon.com
How glorious and yet so
gentle of You, dear Jesus Christ
to be our Lord and Servant at
the same time!
This You shall show at the
Last Supper when You knelt
and washed the feet of the Twelve,
reaching its highest point when
You offered Yourself on the Cross.
Give us the grace to be like You, Jesus:
may we work for justice,
not crying out,
not shouting;
help us to be gentle like You,
not breaking a bruised reed
nor quench a smoldering wick;
may Your light shine upon us, Jesus,
enabling the blind to see,
prisoners free and those in darkness
see light with our life of
witnessing Your servanthood
through our loving service
to others
(cf. Isaiah 42:1-3, 7).
Do not let us serve You
only in lip-service like
Judas Iscariot in the gospel
when he commented how Mary's
oil used to anoint You could have been
sold with proceeds given to the poor
(John 12:4-5);
in everything I do,
in everything I say,
let it all be in the spirit of
love and charity
based on my hope and trust
in You, Lord Jesus,
my light and my salvation.
Amen.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion, 02 April 2023
Isaiah 50:4-7 > + < Philippians 2:6-11 > + < Matthew 27:11-54
Photo by author, Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion 2019, Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.
We now enter the holiest week of the year, the height of our Lenten preparations for Easter. What we have today are two ancient celebrations merged by Vatican II in 1963: the blessing of palms practiced in Jerusalem as early as the fourth century and the papal tradition of proclaiming the very long gospel of the Lord’s Passion in Rome about year 500. Hence, the title “Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion”.
And it is a beautiful innovation in our liturgy showing us so many truths in our lives like we begin Holy Week with the triumphal entry of Jesus to Jerusalem, leading to the Holy Triduum of Passion and Death on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday into the bursting joy and glory on Easter.
That for me is life itself.
We come into this world in triumph like Jesus with everybody rejoicing with our birth until we grow up, going through a lot of pains and sufferings with little deaths right in the hands of those supposed to love us but always, there is the joy of maturity, of fulfillment in Christ with many Easter moments of triumphs and consolations. Today’s celebrations remind us that while there will always be the disappointing manifestations of sin and evil in life, overall, there is always the immense and immeasurable love of God expressed in Jesus Christ dying on the Cross.
“Ecce Homo” painting by Vicente Juan Masip (1507-1579) from masterapollon.com
Our gospel is very long even in its shorter version. Let us focus on the Lord’s silence from his arrest to His crucifixion.
The Lord God has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them. I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting. The Lord God is my help, therefore, I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
Isaiah 50:4, 6-7
Jesus is the fulfillment of the so-called Suffering Servant of God in the Book of Isaiah. What is striking is how he claims to have been given with a well-trained tongue but He rarely spoke when tried and crucified, choosing to be silent in the midst of great sufferings. What a great display of love for us!
In a world drowning in a cacophony of sounds and noise with everyone and everything speaking like elevators and cellphones, the more God is silent, waiting for us to stop and listen to Him in Jesus Christ who speaks within us. From Pilate to the soldiers to the Pharisees and priests with their rabid packs of demagogues who ceaselessly mocked Jesus even while slowly dying on the Cross, Jesus remained silent.
Because He loves us.
Because He waits for us to stop and listen.
Because life is more true and fulfilling in silence, not in sounds and noise.
Last Monday we celebrated the Feast of St. Joseph where we heard in the gospel how an angel told him to take Mary as wife with the specific task of naming her child “JESUS” which means “God saves”. See how God gave that specific mission to the most silent man in the Bible, St. Joseph who must have taught Jesus the value of silence!
That is how God saved us in Jesus by remaining silent even on the Cross. If ever He spoke, it was mostly to pray the psalms. In Jesus, God saves us in silence while we are in the din of noises of sin. Oh how we speak a lot these days against God, still putting Him on trial, blaming Him for all the problems and woes we have in our lives and in the world.
Photo by author, August 2020.
Like Pilate and the crowd with their religious leaders, we say a lot about God that are often not true but He never argued nor debated with us just like then because Jesus loves us, because His name means “God saves” and that was exactly the meaning of His silence.
How could be God so demanding as many would claim with His many words of instructions and commandments of things to do and not to do plus warnings against sin just to obey Him when He has always been silent?
Today we are reminded how we talk too much and accomplish so little, even nothing, while Jesus is silent because His name means “God saves”, witnessing it in fact in silent sufferings that was a scandal for many at that time.
Moreover, Jesus showed us today in His sufferings how silence is ultimately the expression of trust in God. When we are able to slow down and be silent in the face of many trials, that is a clear indication of our deep faith and trust in God. People who trust are the most silent because simply wait for their deliverance or salvation. Like Jesus Christ.
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
Photo by author, Betania-Tagaytay City, 2018.
More scandalous than the silence of Jesus Christ during His trial was His crucifixion, the supreme expression of His name’s meaning, “God saves”. See how since the fall of Adam and Eve, sin has always been an attempt by humans in becoming like God. There has always been that conscious or unconscious feeling of competition with God whom many see as controlling, manipulative and even power-hungry.
But right there on the Cross, Jesus showed us that indeed, in His very Person how God saves by utterly being weak and powerless.
God saves us in Jesus through the path of powerlessness and weakness, docility and humility, of simplicity before men and before His Father.
That is why even at His triumphal entrance to Jerusalem, He rode a lowly donkey never been used by anyone, a fulfillment of many Old Testament allusions and prophecies that “your king comes to you, meek and riding on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden (donkey)” (Mt. 21:5; Zech. 9:9). His triumphal entry into Jerusalem was the fulfillment of the words of God to his prophets, showing us that indeed, everything Jesus did and said were in accordance with the Father’s will, never on His own.
Photo by author, 2018.
Because His name Jesus means, “God saves”.
What is most beautiful in the reading earlier at the blessing of palms was how Matthew described the Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem – exactly just like the coming of the wise men from the East!
And when he entered Jerusalem the whole city was shaken…
Matthew 21:10
Imagine how a very large crowd welcomed Jesus, spreading their cloaks on the road where He passed, chanting “Hosanna to the Son of David” (Mt.21:9).
Like when Jesus was born and Magis from the East came to Jerusalem inquiring about the newborn king of Israel, they were also shaken! And the irony then at His birth and at His triumphal entry, the learned have refused to recognize Him despite their having all the knowledge and writings available to them.
Is it not the same thing continues to happen to us in our lives, when despite all the kindness and mercy of God, we refuse to recognize His Son’s coming Jesu Christ including the salvation He had gained for us? Where have all the people gone on Sundays? Does God still matter to us? Do we not care at all whenever Jesus comes to us most especially in the Eucharist during the Sunday Mass?
Both the rites of the blessing of palms with the procession and the Mass on this Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion are not merely a recalling of a past event, but a making present, a re-membering of Jesus our King triumphantly coming daily – still in silence – to us in the simplicity of bread and wine to become His Body and Blood for us to offer and share in order to experience Him, our Resurrection and Life because His name means “God saves”.
In the Eucharist, Jesus comes to us as “God saves us”, fulfilling us, blessing us.
This Holy Week, especially at the Holy Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil, we are reminded of our task to witness to everyone the meaning of the name of Jesus, “God saves” by being present to Him in the Eucharist. Inside the church. With our family. Not in the beach nor a resort unmindful of history’s greatest moment when God saved us from sins by dying on the Cross. Amen. Please, have a meaningful Holy Week to experience the joy of Easter!
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday in the Fourth Week of Lent, 22 March 2023 Isaiah 49:8-15 >>> + <<< John 5:17-30
Photo by author, sunrise at the Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 22 March 2023.
Loving God our Father,
Your words say it all today,
my birthday:
Thus says the Lord: In a time of favor I answer you, in the day of salvation I help you; and I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people… Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.
Isaiah 49:8, 15
The Lord is gracious and merciful.
Responsorial Psalm, Ps. 145:8
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, QC, 22 March 2023.
More than words, dear Father,
I praise and thank you
for your boundless love
and kindness to me all these
58 years!
You have always been present with me,
in me, for me, and through me in Jesus Your Son.
And so, I pray this to you:
Dearest Lord,
you have given me with so much,
I have given you so little;
teach me to give more
of my time and talents,
to give more of my self
so I can give Christ Jesus to others,
especially his love and mercy,
kindness and forgiveness;
empty me of my pride, Lord,
and fill me with your humility,
justice and love.
Amen.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, QC, 22 March 2023.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday in the Second Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 18 January 2023
Hebrews 7:1-3, 15-17 ><)))*> + <*(((>< - ><)))*> + <*(((>< Mark 3:1-6
Photo by author, Ubihan Is., Meycauayan, Bulacan, 31 December 2021.
Beginning today
until next Wednesday,
Mother Church invites us
to observe the Week of Prayer
for Christian Unity especially
for the evangelization of peoples
and for the persecuted Christians
around the world; may our prayers
lead us to work for peace
most especially in our home,
in our parish and community,
and in our country.
May we stop and
put an end to those cliches
of wishing for peace like in
most beauty contests that
make a mockery of peace;
may we realize that peace is
God's greatest gift to us which
we have often taken for granted,
something God freely gives
if we are willing to give up and
sacrifice our very selves
for the sake of peace like
Abraham in the Old Testament.
Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High, met Abraham as he returned from his defeat of the kings and blessed him. And Abraham apportioned to him a tenth of everything. His name means righteous king, and he was also “king of Salem,” that is, king of peace.
Hebrews 7:1-2
Peace finally came to us
in Christ Jesus who is likened
to Melchizedek, God's high priest
in the Old Testament; like Melchizedek,
Jesus is our High Priest for he is
"without father, mother, or ancestry,
without beginning of days or
end of life" (Heb.7:3); but,
unlike Melchizedek, Jesus is our
High Priest because he is
the Son of God who offered himself
for us as a sacrifice, dying on the
Cross but rose to life on the
third day! On the evening of that
Easter, Jesus appeared to his
disciples, greeting them with
"peace" as his precious gift of
his resurrection.
Loving Father,
give us the grace to
value this immense gift
of peace by Jesus Christ
won through his Cross;
like Jesus, may we choose
the path of peace by doing
what is good not evil;
of choosing persons not
things and rituals and laws;
of choosing God above all
than selfish interests.
As we close our hands to pray
for peace and unity, may we learn
to let go of whatever we are holding,
of being empty handed like Jesus;
like that man with withered hand
Jesus healed in the temple on a sabbath,
may we stretch out our hands to reach
out to those in need,
to those persecuted,
to those sick and dying,
to those forgotten.
Let your peace, O God,
begin within me,
right in my heart empty of
pride, filled with the humility,
justice, and love of Jesus.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Third Sunday in Advent-A, Gaudete Sunday, 11 December 2022
Isaiah 35:1-6, 10 ><}}}*> James 5:7-10 ><}}}*> Matthew 11:2-11
Photo by author, 2019.
Today our altar bursts in lovely shades of pink in celebration of the third Sunday of Advent also known as Gaudete Sunday from the Latin gaudere that means “to rejoice”. We rejoice this third Sunday because the Lord’s Second Coming is getting nearer each day and so is our awaited celebration of Christmas with the start of Simabang Gabi.
There are still many reasons for us to rejoice but when we reflect deeper in life, our rejoicing in itself is a paradox.
Because rejoicing is more joyful when seen amid darkness and uncertainties, disappointments and failures.
Because joy is more than feeling happy but that certainty within us that no matter what happens in this life, even if things get worst, everything ends according to God’s plans.
Because God loves us so much!
That is why we rejoice this Sunday – and everyday in our lives – that no matter what happens to us, God is with us in Jesus Christ, loving us, saving us.
When John the Baptist heard in prison of the works of the Christ, he sent his disciples to Jesus with this question, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” Jesus said to them in reply, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.”
Matthew 11:2-6
Photo by author, 2021.
How fast things happen and change in life, especially when there is a sudden change or reversal, from good to bad, from top of the world to bottom into the unknown like John the Baptist.
Last week, John was on top of the world as people were coming to him for baptism, listening and believing his preaching; today, we heard him in prison!
Herod Antipas, the son of King Herod when Christ was born, had him imprisoned after John told him that it was wrong for him to take as wife his brother Philip’s former wife, Herodias. Eventually, John was beheaded in prison upon Herod’s order after making a promise to grant whatever request the daughter of Herodias would ask him after entertaining guests in his birthday party; the daughter asked for John’s head on a platter and immediately, Herod dispatched his executioner.
Now at his lowest point in life awaiting certain death, John was “disappointed” with what he had been hearing about the works and preaching of Jesus Christ whom he had baptized at Jordan. Recall how John preached a message of “fire and brimstone” as he expected the Christ would bring punishment and destruction to those doing evil, warning them that the “ax lies at the root of the trees…ready to cut down those not bearing fruits” while his “winnowing fan in his hand is gathering his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (Mt. 3:10, 12).
John was expecting the Christ would immediately make sweeping changes in the world, punishing the evil doers but what he heard and perhaps may have witnessed too was the gentleness of Jesus, always ready to forgive the sinful, heal the sick, and most of all, keeping company with the most sinful people of that time like the tax collectors and the prostitutes!
Many times in life we find ourselves very much in John’s situation – so disappointed with God because what happens in reality are exactly the opposite of what we expected based on what we are taught or what we have read in the Bible! That is why John sought clarification from Jesus himself. We too, when disappointments happen in life along with other pains and sufferings especially after trying our very best to serve God through others, must always have that disposition of humility to seek clarifications from God. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we must be open like John in welcoming the Lord in the way he wishes to reveal himself.
Photo by author, November 2022.
How ironic that John who stood preaching the coming of Christ Jesus, of demanding justice and kindness from the people was imprisoned, himself a victim of injustice! Sometimes in life, it is so easy to preach Jesus Christ and his values not until we find ourselves on the distaff side like getting sick or being unjustly accused of something we did not commit. Like John, when we become the very people suffering those things we preach, our expectations even of God may blind us and fail us to see Christ’s coming, becoming so difficult to see God’s mercy and healing acting in other people’s lives but not in our own lives like John who was imprisoned unjustly for telling the truth.
The Season of Advent, especially this third Sunday we call “Rejoice” or “Gaudete” Sunday invites us to examine our own expectations and knowledge of God that may sometimes blind us to his actions and presence in our world.
The key is to have that humility to just let God be God!
Let God do his work and just chill.
Let us allow ourselves to be surprised by God always! It is from those surprises by God when joys burst in our lives even in the most difficult or simplest situations in life.
Photo by author, 2018.
One of my favorite subjects in photography are mosses – lumot – those green clumps or mats found thriving in damp, shady spots and locations. I am no green thumb but I love mosses and ferns because they are very refreshing to the eyes. They evoke hopes and surprises that despite the little sunlight and care they get, they live and thrive so well, teaching us a lot of valuable lessons about darkness and failures in life.
That is what Isaiah and St. James were reminding us in the first two readings, of the need for us to be patient like the farmers in awaiting the sprouting and blooming of crops and plants in the fields, of strengthening each other because the hard times are sure to end. Most of all, the Lord is faithful, always working silently when we are in the most dead situations in life, preparing great surprises for us.
Let us set aside our expectations, even our goals and agenda in life to let God do his work in us, to surprise us with his more wondrous plans because he knows what is best for us.
There are times in life when we are disappointed even frustrated at how things are not going according to our plans even if God had confirmed it in our prayers and in many instances in life – that feeling of suddenly being abandoned by God?
There are times we complain and feel undeserving of the many failures and pains that come our way because we have been so faithful to God, even prayerful that we cry to him, asking him like John for clarifications of whether he is with us or should we still wait more.
Most often in life, we get blinded even by our noble intentions and goodness, of our image and expectations of God that in the process, we are hurt, leaving us with scars and empty spaces within…
Be patient, my friend. Trust God.
The same empty spaces and holes in life would soon be filled with blessings so unimaginable because, remember, God is “greater than our hearts and knows everything” (1 Jn. 3:20). It is only when we are hurt and bruised and emptied, even dried and dead when life and joy burst forth because that is when God can freely work in us in Christ Jesus. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog
Monday, Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 21 November 2022
Revelation 14:1-3, 4-5 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Luke 21:1-4
Lord Jesus Christ,
as we enter today this final stretch
of the current liturgical calendar,
you gave us the Memorial of the
Presentation of your Blessed Mother
as an occasion for us to present ourselves
to you fittingly like her.
Help us to always remember your love
and mercy, Lord, so we may remain on track
on your path of humility and obedience
like Mary; may we always remember
your call to holiness and to mission
being sent like you by the Father;
may we always remember like Mary
to be always truthful and clean in our lips.
These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been ransomed as the first fruits of the human race for God and then Lamb. On their lips no deceit has been found; they are unblemished.
Revelation 14:4-5
Help us imitate, dear Jesus,
that poor widow at the temple area
who gave everything she had -
"two small coins" - into the treasury box;
grant us the grace to be like her,
to be like your Mother Mary,
to be like your grandparents St. Joachim and St. Anne
who offered their whole lives,
their whole livelihood to God
because they believed,
they trusted, and hence,
they loved without measure.
Amen.
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