Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday, Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus-B, 07 June 2024 Hosea 11:1, 3-4, 8-9 ><}}}*> Ephesians 3:8-12, 14-19 ><}}}*> John 19:31-37
Being tender and caring are essentially your works, O God, made known to us by your Son Jesus Christ in His Most Sacred Heart where there is enough room for each one of us wounded and hurting to find healing; bitter and disgusted to have rest and solace; lost to find way back home.
Thus says the Lord: When Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, who took them in my arms; I drew them with human cords, with bands of love; I fostered them like one who raises an infant to his cheeks; Yet. though I stooped to feed my child, they did not know that I was their healer.
Hosea 11:1, 3-4
I must admit, O God, that I have not yet really known You that until now, I lack your tenderness and care for others; to have tenderness like You, Lord, is first of all for me to be intimate with You, my Father, my Life, my Mission; You have nurtured me as your son but I never recognized You fully that is why many times I followed my doubts and negative thoughts than You. So many times I pray yet still so far from You, O God!
Lord Jesus Christ, "dwell in my heart through faith so that I may be rooted and grounded in love" (Ephesians 3:17) because when my love with God is superficial, all my relationships are also skin-deep that make me forget my love experiences, giving more emphasis on others' shortcomings, expectations, and returns; tenderness is being like You, O God, of having a big heart able to accommodate those suffering because You know and realize the gravity of what others are going through; more than a feeling, tenderness is love and mercy in action because it is to feel what others are going through.
Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like Thine, close to the Father, close to His children. Amen.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday, Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus-B, 07 June 2024 Hosea 11:1, 3-4, 8-9 ><}}}*> Ephesians 3:8-12, 14-19 ><}}}*> John 19:31-37
You must be wondering why this photo of a quote from Tom Hanks’ 1994 character Forrest Gump on the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. What’s with shoes and the Sacred Heart of Jesus? Let me explain…
Last Tuesday while checking on my Facebook, I saw the post of a former seminarian who said, “Buying us shoes has been the love language of my parents to us… It will not change.” Posted below were photos of him buying two kids with new pairs of shoes.
How I admired him for being a father to those less fortunate kids! And that’s why I remembered Forrest Gump too who said how his mother used to tell him that shoes tell a lot about people, “Where they are going. Where they been.”
There’s something special with our feet, with the shoes we wear. Or do not wear. One is clear, though: our feet being at the lowest part of our body are most cared when we are growing up but later forgotten though overworked. That is why, it is so wonderful to go back to those days of childhood when our parents used to buy us with new pair of shoes, of how they would stoop down to help us fit the right ones for us. Just like God who is a Father to each one of us!
Thus says the Lord: when Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, who took them in my arms; I drew them with human cords, with bands of love; I fostered them like one who raises an infant to his cheeks; Yet, though I stooped to feed my child, they did not know that I was their healer.
That’s the tenderness of God, so Fatherly to us in taking care of us, teaching us to walk, taking us to his arms, lovingly raising us to his cheeks while we burst in laughter. Try reading that whole quotation to include the second verse skipped by our lectionary today, the more you can feel God’s tenderness. And our sinfulness.
Thus says the Lord: When Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the farther they went away from me.
Hosea 11:1-2
Is it not this is how our love relationship is with our parents and family including God?
When we were kids, we loved running to our parents, taking pride for being their son or daughter, always clinging to their big hands. Or, like couples at their early years in marriage who seem to be inseparable and always together. Then, as years passed by as we find new friends and new relationships, we drift apart from our parents or spouse, including God. And worst, we drive them away, even feeling ashamed of them especially when they come near us with their gestures of love and concern. But, when problems arise like betrayal and infidelity, failures and losses, we return to our parents or to our original spouse or family, and most especially to God, rediscovering their genuine love that is so tender and very comforting again: “I took you in my arms, drew you with human cords with bands of love. I fostered you like one who raises an infant to his cheeks; yet, though I stooped to feed you my child, you did not know I am your healer” (Hos.11:3-7).
From GettyImages.com.
That “stooping down” by God He had spoken to Hosea hundreds of years earlier took its deepest plunge when He sent us Jesus Christ His Son as our Savior by dying on the Cross. In fact, Jesus literally “stooped down” on the night He was betrayed when He washed the feet of His disciples to portray to them the depth of His love for us all.
From His birth to His passion and death, Jesus Christ, therefore, is the Father’s love language.
This was very evident on Good Friday as John narrated how the soldiers broke the legs of the other two thieves crucified with Jesus to hasten their death; but, when they saw Jesus “already dead, they did not break his legs, but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out. For this happened so that the Scripture passage might be fulfilled: Not a bone of it will be broken. And again another passage says: They will look upon him whom they have pierced” (Jn.19:33-34, 36-37).
Jesus Christ is the Father’s love language to us all because His death on the Cross is the most tender moment of love in history when our God who personally loves us by becoming like us in everything except sin loved us until the last drop of His blood because we are His beloved brothers and sisters in His loving and faithful Father in heaven we have always deserted in our many sins.
Photo by author, Baguio City, 2023.
Indeed, when blood and water flowed out from His pierced side on the Cross, the ocean of Divine Mercy flowed out for us, forgiving our most grievous sins, regardless of our many weaknesses.
In His Most Sacred heart, Jesus is inviting us to have tender moments with Him, to have the same “love language” of sacrifice and giving of self for others so that “He may dwell also in our hearts through faith so that once we are rooted and grounded in His love, we may have the strength to comprehend the breadth and length and height and depth of His love that surpasses knowledge and be filled with the fullness of God”(Eph.3:17-19).
Unlike us humans, God makes no mistakes in loving. He remains faithful to us with His love, even “allowing” us often to sin and commit mistakes so that eventually, when we hit rock bottom, we rediscover Him and His love that is so real and so personal.
That is why we must heed St. Paul’s admonition in the second reading to be “rooted and grounded in His love” because human love is always imperfect. Only God can love us perfectly in Christ Jesus who offered Himself on the Cross to fulfill what we have failed since the beginning – that is, to love God and others.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
Today we complete the series of three Solemnities in Ordinary Time right after the great season of Easter: Trinity, Body and Blood of Christ, and now, the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. All three Solemnities tell us how great is this God we believe in, someone so immense and powerful, yet so loving and so gentle; most of all, a God so personal that He is much like us but at the same time so different from us.
This Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is an occasion for us to meditate deeply on how God touches us in the most intimate manner when He stooped down in Christ through the Cross to experience His love and mercy so that we could make others feel that too.
Like John who witnessed everything on the Cross, we need to see more with the eyes of faith the realities of God’s immense love for us who gave His Son Jesus as the new Lamb offered for our many sins and that is why, in accordance with the Jewish law and with the Old Testament, not one of His bones were broken on the Cross. May we learn to stoop down like God in Jesus by looking down to our feet by first examining our hearts as we pray, Jesus meek and humble heart make my heart like thine! Amen.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday, Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 31 May 2024 Romans 12:9-16 ><]]]]'> + >>]]]]'> + >>>]]]]'> Luke 1:39-56
Photo by author, statues of Mary and Elizabeth at the Church of the Visitation in ein-Karem, the Holy Land, May 2017.
What a lovely way to end the month with this feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s Visitation of her cousin Elizabeth after starting off May on its very first day with another feast, St. Joseph the Worker that remind us of God’s coming to us in Jesus Christ.
Visit and visitation may seem to be one and the same, sharing the common Latin root word of the verb vide, videre “to see” from which came the word video.
But, a visit is more casual and informal without intimacy at all. We say it so well in Filipino, napadaan lang or just passing by which is more concerned with the place or location and site, not the person there. Napadaan lang ako kaya dinalaw na rin kita (I was just passing by and decided to see you). There was really no intention in seeing the other person there.
Photo by author, Church of the Visitation, Ein-Karem, Holy land, May 2017.
Visitation is more intentional. Mr. Webster described it as a more formal visit commonly used in church language like when bishop and priests come to see their parishioners. This explains why we refer to a chapel as a visita which is actually a small church in remote places that missionaries used to visit for the sacraments. Likewise, visitas became venues too for catechism classes and other religious even social gatherings in places far from the town itself where the parish is usually situated too.
Thus, visitation connotes a deeper meaning because there is an expression or implication at least of care and concern among the people, a kind of love shared by the visitor like Mary to the one visited, Elizabeth.
Visitation is more of entering into someone’s life and personhood as reported by Luke in Mary’s visitation of Elizabeth when “Mary entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth” (Lk.1:40). There was a communion and sharing of their common experience of being blessed with the presence of God in their wombs.
Visitation is a sharing, a oneness in the joys and pains of those dear to us. The word becomes more meaningful when we examine its Filipino equivalent pagdalaw from the root word dala or something you bring like food or any gift when visiting relatives and friends. What you bring or dala is called pasalubong from the root salubong that literally means “meeting” or “encounter”. When the visitor and ones visited meet, they salubong.
Here it becomes more colorful and meaningful because more than the gifts we bring or dala in our visitations, we bring our very selves as a gift of presence. In every visitation, it is our very selves we gift, we share with those we visit, offering them our time and talent, joys and sadness and ears and heart to listen to their stories and absorb their woes and whatever they may have to unload upon us.
Photo by author, 2019.
That was what Mary did exactly in her visitation of Elizabeth with an extra gift, the most precious pasalubong to share with everyone, Jesus Christ in her womb, right in her very self and body!
We too are invited every day to be like Mary, a bringer or taga-dala of Jesus Christ to everyone we meet, the best pasalubong we can share with everyone. If we can only be like Mary in our dealings with others, trying to make every encounter a visitation that is a willful bringing and sharing of Christ with others, then we also bring with us God’s tenderness and mercy for this dark world that admires toughness and roughness.
How sad are those news of daily road rages happening almost everywhere, many times resulting in the loss of lives like the recent fatal shooting of a family driver in Makati.
Through the Blessed Mother’s humility and obedience before God, Christ came into the world to make us experience the Father’s tenderness in the many healings and miracles He performed. This tenderness of God in Jesus we saw too in Mary His Mother in the Visitation: Mary visited Elizabeth because she knew and felt her many wounds who for a long time bore no child, living in “disgrace before others” as she had claimed (Lk.1:25). A tender person like Jesus and Mary is one who comes to comfort and heal the wounds of those hurt in life, trying to lullaby the restless and sleepless, never adding insult to injuries.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
One last thing about the Visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth. One of the best things we can experience from visitations and visits of family and friends like during wakes and funerals is that quality of sweetness.
Sweetness always goes with tenderness. It is the essence of God who is love. Anyone who loves is always sweet that always comes naturally from within, bringing out good vibes. It is never artificial like Splenda, always flowing freely and naturally that leaves a good taste and feeling to anyone.
In the Hail Holy Queen, Mary is portrayed as “O clement, O sweet Virgin Mary” to show her sweetness as a Mother. Recently I have seen some posts making a meme (?) of the Hail Holy Queen’s part that says “to you do we cry poor banished children of Eve”. I have not really dealt it with much attention because too often, there are a lot of generation gaps in many posts in social media; I really cannot relate much to the young perhaps due to my age. I just hope that post on the Hail Holy Queen is not derogatory. Back to our reflection…
Tenderness and sweetness are the most God-like qualities we all have but have unconsciously buried deep in our innermost selves, refusing them to surface because of our refusal to love for fears of getting hurt and left behind or lost. When Mary heard Elizabeth’s pregnancy, she simply followed her human and motherly instincts that in fact so Godly that she went in haste to hill country of Judah. How lovely!
Tomorrow it is already June, reminding us all we are halfway through the year. And it would be surprisingly quick that soon, it is already Christmas again! This feast of the Visitation reminds us of Mary’s great role in making Christmas a reality when God almighty became human, little and vulnerable like us to experience His sweetness and tenderness in Jesus Christ. Through Mary.
Let us pray:
God our loving Father, thank for coming to us, for staying with us, not just visiting us; help us imitate Your Son Jesus Christ's Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary whose "love is so sincere", loving one another like Elizabeth with "mutual affection, showing honor, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; help us imitate Mary to always rejoice in hope, endure afflictions and most of all, persevere in prayer" (cf. Romans 12:9-12) so we may always bring Jesus Christ with everyone we meet. Amen.
From cbcpnews.net, 13 May 2022, at the Parish of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, Valenzuela City.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday in the Eighth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 30 May 2024 1 Peter 2:2-5, 9-12 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Mark 10:46-52
Illustration from linkedin.com.
Teach us, Jesus, to be like Bartimaeus; let us admit our blindness to what true and good and beautiful that is YOU; teach us to be like Bartimaeus to cry out to You, Jesus, to wait for You always, to believe in You as the Only One who can heal us of our blindness; most of all, teach us, Lord, to leave the side of the streets, to come to You, Jesus to the middle of the road to follow You on the way to the Cross!
He threw his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.
Mark 10:50
Forgive us, dear Jesus for being so afraid, to confront head on the many ongoing debates and attacks against Your teachings we hold so dearly like the value of every person, the inviolability of human life, the sanctity of marriage; forgive us, Jesus when we hide in being "open" choosing to be silent just to accommodate the few noisy people advocating for too much rights without any responsibilities, speaking about equality without any regard at all for God and religion, spirituality and theology.
Let us be like Bartimaeus shouting louder than ever amid calls of some to be silent, to not insist Your teachings on others when it is indeed the only one true and just; let us be like Bartimaeus by affirming who we are - "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that we may announce Your praises who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light" (1 Peter 2:9).
Have pity on us, Jesus, we want to see You and follow You. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday, Memorial of St. Paul VI, Pope, 29 May 2024 1 Peter 1:18-25 ><}}}}"> + ><}}}}"> + ><}}}}"> Mark 10:32-45
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
What a lovely Wednesday we have, God our loving Father right in the middle of so many issues that make us examine our heart and soul, what we truly value in this life as Peter reminds us of how much You value us so much as a people, every individual person:
Beloved: Realize that you were ransomed from your futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb… You have been born anew, not from perishable but from imperishable seed, through the living and abiding word of God.
1 Peter 1:18-19, 23
Through Your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, help us realize dear Father these truths and realities of Your immense love for each one of us while we waste and take for granted the value of human life especially at its most vulnerable stages of infancy and old age as well as the sanctity of marriage; enlighten our minds and our hearts, especially those of our lawmakers and policy makers, most of all, the masses who are misled by so many into believing in the need for contraceptives and abortions, and divorce.
Forgive us, dear Jesus for the "hardness of our hearts" in insisting our own rules and laws, blinded by glory of power and wealth like the brothers James and John; let us heed your call that "whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant" (Mark 10:43).
In this great period in our history as a Christian nation when some people claiming to know more, claiming to know better totally disregard facts and true wisdom from the Spirit in advocating divorce and other agenda promoting the "culture of death", grant us O Lord Jesus Christ the courage You gave St. Paul VI to go against the tide by standing firm on Your truth in upholding human life by choosing the minority report "Humane vitae": St. Paul VI did not mind at all being maligned and persecuted even within the Church for he believed firmly at how You, O God value every person; how beautiful that in the end, You proved him right when You allowed St. Paul VI to intercede twice in the miraculous birth of two babies recommended by doctors for abortion due to difficult pregnancy and disability that eventually paved the way for his beatification and canonization.
Like St. Paul VI, let us be rooted in You, O God as we "dialogue with the modern world" by leading people to You in order to find fulfillment and meaning in life in the name of Christ. Amen.
St. Paul VI, Pray for us!
Pope Paul VI is seen in this portrait made in early 1969 (CNS photo) via wikipedia.org.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday in the Eighth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 28 May 2024 1 Peter 1:10-16 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Mark 10:28-31
Photo by author, Simon Peter before Jesus after their bountiful catch in Galilee, May 2017.
Forgive me Jesus
for being so like Simon Peter,
so irrepressible on many occasions,
saying things without much
thinking and reflection
like in today's gospel
when he bragged to You,
"We have given up everything
and followed you" (Mark 10:28);
let me be aware always that
all that I have,
whatever good I can do
are all because of You, Jesus;
like Simon Peter,
let me grow and mature
in my faith in You
when he wrote us today
"be holy yourselves in every
aspect of your conduct,
for it is written, Be holy
because I am holy"
(1 Peter 1:15-16).
Make me holy, Lord, fill me with Your Spirit by first emptying me of myself, of my pride, of my insecurities, of my sins in order to be filled with Your Spirit so I may truly conform to You and be Your presence in the world today; I know I have not given that much yet to You through others for I still think of myself always; take away whatever I still keep and hide to myself that I am not aware of, remind me to abandon and offer everything to You. Amen.
12th century mosaic from Sicily of Peter drowning from orthodoxartsjournal.org.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday, Memorial of Our Lady of the Way (Madonna Della Strada), 24 May 2024 James 5:9-12 ><))))"> + ><))))"> + ><))))"> Mark 10:1-12
Photo by author, Santa Maria Della Strada Chapel, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
Lord Jesus Christ, on this 24th of May, I join the Society of Jesus in honoring Your Mother they have affectionately called Santa Maria Della Strada, Our Lady of the Way; thank You for introducing me to her last year, a wonderful title of Mary reminding me always of You, Jesus, who declared Yourself as "the Way, the Truth, and the Life" (John 14:6).
Help me, O Lord, along the way, to be faithful to You, keeping in mind the reminders of St. James today to "not complain about one another... to persevere like the prophets... and do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath, but let your 'Yes' mean 'Yes' and your 'No' mean 'No'" (James 5:9, 11, 12).
How timely are Your words, O Lord, in this world where promises and oaths are made only to be broken; make us more sincere in our words, to really mean what we say, to be committed and persevering always in standing by who we are as children of the Father, called to love and be merciful like Him.
We pray for all couples as well as priests and religious having crises in keeping their vows to You, Jesus, to lovingly serve You among the people You have entrusted us; through Mary Your Mother, our Lady of the Way, may we find You always Jesus in every turn and stop we make, to persevere especially when the path is so narrow and difficult, never to turn away when we find the Cross looming in sight.
Forgive us, dear Jesus, for the "hardness of our hearts", especially in those moments we refuse to listen and even stifle Your tiny voice of truth and compassion in our hearts, when we insist on following our own ways of pride and power than Your ways of peace and justice, kindness and care; take away our stony hearts, Lord, and give us natural hearts that beat with firm faith, fervent hope and unceasing charity and love in You like Mary, our Mother. Amen.
Photo by author, Santa Maria Della Strada Chapel, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday, Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal High Priest, 23 May 2024 Hebrews 10:11-18 <*{{{{>< + <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> Mark 14:22-25
Praise and glory to You, Lord Jesus Christ for reminding us this Thursday after the Pentecost of Your call for us to be like You, our Eternal High Priest, in gentleness and mercy, kindness and love; and the good news is all these are already in us when we were baptized to share in Your priesthood the Father had promised to Jeremiah fulfilled in You:
The holy Spirit also testifiesd to us, for after saying: “This is the covenant I will establish with them after those days, says the Lord: ‘I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them upon their minds,'” he also says: “Their sins and their evildoing I will remember no more.” Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer offering for sin.
Hebrews 10:15-18
Two Sundays ago, we celebrated Your Ascension that is more relational in nature than spatial, the leveling up of our relationships with You and with one another that is affirmed today by this feast of You, Jesus our Eternal High Priest and Mediator when You established the New Covenant on that Last Supper:
As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.”
Mark 14:22-24
Photo by author, Chapel of St. Francis Xavier, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
These words, dear Jesus You fulfilled on the Cross the following Good Friday; in Your self-offering on the Cross, You fulfilled the temple worship by putting an end to those bloody sacrifices, rites and rituals of the Old that were empty due to the sins and weaknesses of the priests and people; in Your dying on the Cross as fulfillment of Your words at the Last Supper as our Eternal High Priest and Mediator, You have consecrated us as Your holy people; this perfect offering is what we celebrate, what we remember, what we make present daily in the Holy Eucharist; help us, therefore, dear Jesus, to be faithful and true to You by being more loving with one another as we face the Father in the Sacrifice of the Mass in You, through You and with You Jesus by sharing in Your Priesthood, help us laity and priests alike to be true in our witnessing, in our loving sacrifices for each other.
Every priest stands daily at his ministry, offering frequently those same sacrifices that can never take away sins. But this one offered one sacrifice for sins, and took his seat forever at the right hand of God. For by one offering he has made perfect those who are being consecrated.
Hebrews 10:11-12, 14
Photo by author, 2023.
Forgive us, Your priests and bishops, dearest Jesus whom You have called to act in "persona Christi" but have become more like the priests of the Old Testament so concerned with our name and position, power and wealth; forgive us, Lord Jesus, when we Your priests and bishops look and move like matinee idols or think and speak like managers than pastors of souls; forgive us, O Lord, when we Your priests and bishops have no more time to kneel daily be with You in prayers because we prefer to socialize and party with the rich and powerful that we miserably fail in finding You among the poor and the suffering.
Transform us priests and bishops to be more like You Jesus Christ, our Eternal Priest and Mediator in thinking, in speaking, in doing, in living, most especially in loving.
Let us not forget that You saved mankind by suffering and dying on the Cross, not with with programs and activities because Your glory can only be found on the Cross where death is conquered and led to life and light. Amen.
I have reflected last Sunday that Pentecost is not just an event in the past but a daily coming of the Holy Spirit upon us, enlightening us of so many things in life we used to take for granted. Like the value of every person, especially when there is a death of a loved one.
In fact, death is a Pentecost when the Holy Spirit comes to remind us that we never – and can never – replace our departed loved ones. Every person is irreplaceable, especially family members. The sooner we realize this, the better for us to avoid those guilty feelings later that we should have been more loving and kind, that we should have said “I love you” more often because we never know for how long we can be with our loved ones. One thing is for sure: we do not replace our deceased loved ones but simply re-member them.
Photo by author, Bgy. Kaysuyo, Alfonso, Cavite, 27 April 2024.
The word “remember” is very interesting.
It is from the root word “member” or “part”. When we put the prefix “re” which means “again”, “remember” means to make a part again of the present moment.
Every time we remember a person or an event, we make them part of our present moment. And they are most real, most present when our re-membering happens in the context of a family or a community. Re-membering someone by one’s self surely does happen a lot but very often, it is more of looking back to the past, recalling the days we used to be together. But when we remember somebody as a family or a community, the one we remember is indeed re-membered in our present, becomes real in everyone around celebrating his/her memory. Something concrete happens and the joy is more intense, leading to freedom from past, from pains and hurts of losing a loved one.
That is when death becomes a Pentecost. When the Holy Spirit came down upon the Apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary in Jerusalem 50 days after Easter, the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity did not come to replace Jesus. The Holy Spirit is a distinct Person of the Trinity in whose power all the followers and believers of Christ have been empowered to make Him present until now in our collective re-membering of Him in the Church and the Sacraments. In the Holy Spirit who comes to us daily, we overcome and transcend every death we go through in life, enabling us to re-member our departed loved ones by being a member of those left behind.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 18 March 2024.
Since mommy’s death, I have gone home thrice already. How I loved to walk inside her room, trying so hard to get those feelings or vibes when she was still alive I miserably miss most as the days moved on.
One thing I have noticed, though, is that strange feeling of our home suddenly so empty as in “kakalog-kalog” as we say in Tagalog. Mommy ko lang nawala sa amin pero parang nawala ang lahat sa bahay?
Now I know better why the mother is the light of the family or “ilaw ng tahanan” because after she had died, her light in our home was turned off that seemed to have made our home so dark, so light and hollowed. However, when we gathered as siblings together with our nieces and nephew and relatives, the warmth of our home returns as if mommy is with us , still with us.
That is when the Holy Spirit comes amid the darkness of every death. A Pentecost when we are reminded of those still with us who must band closer together to make our departed more present in our collective re-membering. No wonder, it was also the final instruction of Jesus to His disciples at their Last Supper when He told them as He gave them the chalice to “Do this in memory of me” or “in remembrance of me”. In Greek, it is called anamnesis which is more than remembering or recalling but making present, making a reality.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
And the reality is this – every person is valuable beyond measure.
So fragile too! Because we can easily lose them in a snap.
We realize and feel this most true in death when we experience deeply “someone like me” whom I love, whom I care for is gone because in every death of a beloved, a part of us dies too. Even if he/she is an enemy or somebody we are not in good terms with, we feel a loss within because for better or worst, the deceased made us feel our humanity.
It is said that “one life is too many.” Very true. Today God gives us the gift and power to re-member those not with us by connecting with those still living with us. Make that connection now and soon you too shall see the face we sorely miss together. Have a blessed remaining half-week!
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday in the Seventh Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 21 May 2024 James 4:1-10 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> Mark 9:30-37
Photo by author, September 2020.
"Beloved: Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from?" (James 4:1)
What a beautiful question to ponder upon on this second day of Ordinary Time, Lord Jesus: the "where", the origin, the source, the root of our many desires in life; ultimately, the question You have asked Your disciples "What were you arguing about on the way?" (Mark 9:33) leads also to the same question of James of "where".
Many times, O Lord, we presume and insist we are on the right tracks, on the right path following the world even if deep inside we know we are lost, we have gone astray, that we are on the wrong bearings in life because we merely follow the rest that like everybody, we end up lost and more confused than ever.
You covet but do not possess. You kill and envy but you cannot obtain; you fight and wage war. You do not possess because you do not ask. You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
James 4:2-3
Teach us, Jesus, to bravely ask ourselves from "where" are we coming from in everything we are doing, saying, and pursuing; help us to be sincere and humble of our "where" wherever it may be; most of all, let us ask too "where" we are going to "where" do we want to be.
During these 33 to 34 weeks in Ordinary Time, let us find, our bearing in YOU, Jesus so that our "where" from and "where" to would only be YOU. Amen.
Photo by Mr. Vigie Ongleo, Sagada, Mt. Province, 2014.
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