The Lord Is My Chef Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Sunday, Feast of the Holy Family, 26 December 2021
1 Samuel 1:20-22. 24-28 ><]]]*> 1 John 3:1-2. 21-24 ><]]]*> Luke 2:41-52
“The Finding of the Savior at the Temple” painting by William Holman Hunt (1860) from en.wikipedia.org.
Dearest Lord Jesus:
It is still your birthday
and how sad that people
insist that Christmas is just
for kids, forgetting there won't be
Christmas at all without adults
like Mary and Joseph,
Elizabeth and Zechariah.
but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at is understanding and his answers.
Luke 2:45-47
Teach us, dear Jesus,
to go back to Jerusalem -
to go back to prayer and
simplicity and humility,
to go back to God as adults
to find you again this Christmas;
so many of us have been so
busy with so many other things
in life like career and earning a
living, or this season when we were
so caught up with the rush and
madness that we have forgotten
about you found first in the family.
Yes, Lord Jesus,
you willed in your becoming
human to dwell among us
that you be born in a family,
in the husband and wife of
Joseph and Mary; we pray for
couples going through crises
in their relationships or have
separated already by choice or
circumstances; we pray for families
where everyone is forgetting one's
role, losing respect for one another
that they can no longer find you
in the love they must have for
each other; we pray for children
who refuse to honor their mother
and father in words and in deeds.
Let us find you again, dear Jesus
like a child in our sense of wonder
and awe among our family members'
daily and simple acts of kindness
and love; let us find you again, dear
Jesus in our being our true selves
as children of the Father belonging
to one family; and most of all, let us
be grateful again for our families
for their gifts of life and presence
despite our many imperfections for
it is only with a grateful heart that we
truly remain like children at heart,
always believing and trusting in God
who is our life and meaning. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Christmas Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
25 December 2021
Photo by author, chapel at Basic Education Department, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City, 24 December 2021.
A blessed happy birthday again to you,
dear Lord Jesus: people were so happy
and joyous this evening as many of them
head home while the rest begin to gather
again as family and friends to keep sharing
stories and selves. And hopefully,
prayers with too!
Thank you, dear Jesus for coming to us:
Thank you, Lord, in passing over from heaven
to earth to renew us and bring us back
to the Father;
Thank you, Jesus, for making us experience
your love and mercy by being one of us - weak
and poor, hungry for attention and care,
thirsting for commitment and kindness;
Thank you, Lord, for coming in the darkness
and stillness of the night so we can be
aware and conscious of others living in
pain and sufferings, crying alone in silence;
Thank you, Jesus, for being an infant, a child
to remind us of losing ourselves to you in
precious sacred moments of your coming
in regular daily miracles amid the ironies of life
with all the drama and humor at the same time.
The night is dark again, dear Jesus,
let us rest in you like the shepherds:
Let us set aside all our worries and fears,
regrets and anxieties to join the angels
in being caught in the moment of your coming
as we put everything on hold, trusting
that something good and better is coming to us.
Let us learn to lose ourselves in this moment
with you, dear Jesus, to join in your pass over. Amen.
Photo by author, chapel at Basic Education Department, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City, 24 December 2021.
The Lord Is My Chef Christmas Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Saturday, Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, 25 December 2021
Photo by author, National Shrine of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, 2019.
Maligayang Pasko sa inyo at inyong mga mahal sa buhay! Of all the Christmas greetings from around the world, perhaps our Maligayang Pasko in Filipino is one that truly captures the spirit and essence of Christmas.
Pasko is from the Hebrew word Pesach that means to “pass over” or simply what we refer to as the Passover or Pasch. It is the same greeting we have during Easter, Maligayang Pasko ng Pagkabuhay that literally means “Merry Passover/Pasch of the Resurrection”.
Yes, it is reminiscent of the exodus of the Chosen People from Egypt into the Promised Land during the time of Moses, the very center and point reference of our salvation history.
Normally, we use the word Pasch more prominently during the Triduum of the Lord’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection from Holy Thursday to Easter because that is the Lord’s Passover from death to life. However, if we reflect more deeply as the Church teaches us, the Lord’s Pasch actually began at Christmas when the Son of God passed over from heaven into earth when Jesus Christ became human born today more than 2000 years ago in Bethlehem.
Photo by author, Basic Education Department Chapel, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City, 24 December 2021.
Like Easter, Christmas is a sacred moment that happens daily, not just a date once a year, when God entered in his immense spiritual reality the world to affect and change to better our material world. It is a passing over by Jesus from eternal to temporal time so that heaven and earth, man and God are again united into one.
Christmas is therefore a blessed event, a most sacred moment of holy communion of man and God in Jesus Christ that continues to this day in the most regular yet miraculous reality of life going on amid many joys and pains, victory and defeats, prosperity and poverty, health and sickness, light and darkness and even in death.
Christmas is a sacred moment where the all-powerful and all-loving God gets intimately involved with the weak and sinful people and the whole limited creation with all the humor and irony in life.
This we immediately find in the mystery of Incarnation of Jesus Christ eloquently expressed to us by John the Beloved:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. all things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. /what came to be through him was life, and tis life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.
John 1:1-5, 14
See and feel the formality yet the simplicity and profundity by John expressing in every line a sacred moment with God who is love and has always loved us immensely. Feel the drama of the Incarnation when the Word became flesh which we take for granted specially in praying daily the Angelus with that beautiful expression, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us” which is Christmas!
What a sacred moment we are reminded daily by our prayers and sacraments that only those willing to pass over from material world to spiritual world – even for a moment – would surely realize and experience God present and coming to us in Jesus every moment of our lives.
How ironic that people today find it so easy to accept Hollywood’s stories of the virgin births of Anakin Skywalker or Darth Vader of Star Wars and John Connor of Terminator but find it so difficult to believe or even accept the virgin birth of Jesus by Mary.
Photo by author, site where Christ was born, Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem 2019.
Pope emeritus Benedict XVI explains to us that there are two moments in history when God intervened directly in the material world: at Christmas with the virgin birth of Jesus by Mary and at Easter when Jesus rose from the tomb in which he did not experience corruption. According to the Holy Father, these two moments are a scandal to the modern man who had kept God merely in the spiritual domain but not in the material world (Jesus of Nazareth, the Infancy Narratives, pp.56-57).
If God does not have power over the material world and would simply be confined in the spiritual world, then he is not God at all. But, as we heard from the gospel accounts, God never acted irrationally nor against nature; in fact, in the virgin birth and resurrection of Jesus, God had enhanced our human nature and the natural world!
See Luke’s wonderful descriptions of the birth of Jesus:
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. So all went to be enrolled , each to his own town. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
Luke 2:1-5
Author with pilgrims outside the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, 2019.
Luke is actually the evangelist par excellence of Christmas (and Easter too!). The most artistic and master storyteller of the four evangelists, Luke has the ability to see every moment in Christ’s life from the big picture like the geopolitics of that time down to the most personal. See how he situated us into the setting of the world at that time, from the wide-angle shot of the Roman emperor trying to establish more control in the world ordering a census that zoomed into the birth of Jesus Christ in a manger “because there was no room for them in the inn”.
What a great moment if we try to enter the scene which happens daily: the more we try to control our lives and others, the more God works in silence in the background without us realizing his coming until that day we realize our mistakes and sins.
In telling us the story of the birth of Jesus, we are reminded how so often in life that what is happening in the world is not the whole story, everything seems to be unrelated at all that we feel so detached when in reality, everything is a result of the Divine Plan, of God working silently for our own good. It is at the end when things finally fall into their right places and we discover how God has always been present with us in every moment of our lives without us noticing him at all!
But there lies the key to Christmas: in the scattered events and fragments of daily living, we try to see the whole picture in the eyes of God, in Jesus Christ who became human like us to link us with the Divine and find meaning and fulfillment in life.
Another things we find with Luke: he is the only one who tells us the story of the shepherds coming to Jesus. On the surface, it seemed like those scenes in true to life movies where some “dramatizations” are staged to add color to the story. Why? Because after this scene, there would be no more shepherd in Luke’s gospel except the parable of the lost sheep. It is in John’s gospel where we find Jesus claiming himself to be the Good Shepherd.
Photo by author, Basic Education Department Chapel, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City, 24 December 2021.
Again, another sacred moment being offered us by Luke: shepherds were the lowliest people at that time, among those considered as the poorest of the poor. They were considered as troublemakers and thieves that is why they worked in the most hostile environment and situation. They were looked down upon at that time because they would not even give contributions to the temple or synagogue. They were outcasts.
But, are we not like them most often? We have our own world to take care that we do not mind at all whatever is happening in the political and economic spheres and much less the religious aspects of life. And Jesus precisely came for us to get us involved with the world and be more engaged with life and living.
This Christmas day, everybody is resting, chillin’ and relaxing, enjoying the cool, crisp weather and wonderful ambience. As we enjoy Christmas, let us savor some moments with Jesus in the silence of our hearts. Let us set aside all our worries and fears, regrets and anxieties to simply join the angels and the shepherds in being caught in the moment of Christ’s birth as we put everything on hold, trusting that something good and better is coming to us. Let us learn to lose ourselves in this moment with Jesus, to join in his passing over. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Simbang Gabi Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Simbang Gabi 9, 24 December 2021
1 Samuel 7:1-5, 8-12, 14, 16 ><]]]*> + <*[[[>< Luke 1:67-79
Photo by author, sunrise at the Lake of Galilee, the Holy Land, 2017.
As we complete today our nine-day novena to Christmas, Zechariah comes to full circle in the gospel when he sings the Benedictus (Latin for “Blessed”) to praise and thank God not only for restoring his speech but for the gift of a son John the Baptist and of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Last Wednesday we have mentioned to you how we priests, monks and the religious along with other dedicated lay people would sing or recite Mary’s Magnificat at the end of our Evening Prayer called Vespers, Zechariah’s Benedictus is what we pray at the end of our Morning Prayer called Lauds (Latin for praises).
It is a wonderful prayer welcoming the new day filled with God’s blessings of life and fulfillment, joy and peace, love and mercy. What a way to start each day already assured of being a blessed one for everyone.
As we prepare for Christmas tonight and tomorrow, it is worth praying the Benedictus today to pause at three important verbs we find at its beginning:
Zechariah his father, filled with the Holy Spirit, prophesied, saying, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has come to his people and set them free. He has raised up for us a mighty Savior, born of the house of his servant David.
Luke 1:67-69
For Zechariah, God is blessed because “he has come (or visited) to his people, set them free (or worked redemption), and has raised up for us a mighty Savior from the house of David”. Like Mary’s Magnificat, we notice in Zechariah’s Benedictus the verbs are in the past tense when everything seems to be just starting with John’s birth who would herald the coming of Jesus still be born six months later.
But, Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit when he sang this that he must have perceived that early – like Mary – the many great things God had done to him personally and to them as a nation. Most of all, he had sensed- finally, after months of forced silence – the most unique wonderful things God is doing for him and everyone including us today.
This is the reason why we pray the Benedictus every morning for it affirms and not just awaits the tremendous blessings God has for us each new day.
Photo by author, altar of the Church of St. John the Baptist, the Holy Land, 2019.
Everyday, God comes to us, visiting us with his gift of life. A few months ago, former US Secretary of State and decorated soldier Colin Powell died of complications from COVID-19. An accomplished military officer and manager, one of his leadership lessons is that “It ain’t as bad as you think.”
Powell explains that after every disaster, there is always a solution and a way out of every mess in life. There is no need for us to worsen the situation with overthinking because in the coming of each new day, things get better.
So true! Zechariah had the worst days of his life of not having a child for the longest time then made mute by an angel for challenging the wisdom of God. After being forced into silence for nine months, he realized how each day is filled with blessings with God himself coming to us.
Rejoice every morning you wake up by first praying and connecting to God who comes to us daily before checking on your gadgets for messages and news that often dampen your mood. Like Zechariah, the first thing to come from his mouth and lips when his tongue was loosened was praise and thanksgiving to God.
When God comes, his first blessing is always our liberation from sins and baggages that have overburdened us, enslaving us for so long that we have practically stopped living. To experience God in Jesus Christ is always to experience freedom to do what is true and good. To be free in Jesus means to be free from sins and anxieties and fears brought about by our bondage to evil and darkness.
Zechariah felt so free that he was able to praise and thank God for his gifts of life and a child. And Savior, Jesus Christ who had come to his home when Mary visited Elizabeth earlier.
Everyday is blessed primarily because God raised up for us a mighty Savior in Jesus Christ. This is the most wonderful part of Zechariah’s Benedictus, “God has raised up for us a mighty Savior, born of the house of his servant David”. It was very clear with him the role of his son John, a herald of the coming of the Savior who is the fulfillment of God’s promise of old.
Photo by author, 2019.
Each day in Jesus promises us to make it better than yesterday. If we were sick yesterday, today we can recover our health. If yesterday we have failed, today we shall triumph. If yesterday we have lost, today we shall gain for Jesus has conquered everything even death for his love for us.
Likewise, we are invited to become a John the Baptist everyday not only to prepare the way of the Lord but most of all be the sign of the Lord’s presence.
As John the Baptist, we are challenged first to examine our very lives, our inner selves. So many times we get carried away with the many parties and activities of Christmas like gifts to give or receive as we focus on the wrong aspects of this most joyous feast of the year.
Like his father Zechariah, let us rejoice in the presence of God who became human like us so we may also rejoice in the presence of every person especially our loved ones who make Jesus present among us. Let us make this Christmas a true celebration of the presence of Jesus in us not only today but throughout the coming 2022 as God continues to bless us with lower COVID infections. Amen.May God bless you always, heal you of your sickness, and fulfill your prayers this Simbang Gabi!
Simbang Gabi Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Day 1, 16 December 2021
Isaiah 56:1-3, 6-8 ><]]]]*> + <*[[[[>< John 5:33-36
Photo by author at San Fernando, Pampanga, 18 November 2021.
The Parol or lantern is a uniquely Filipino sign and reminder of Christmas. When we were in elementary school, we used to make our own parol with colorful papel de japon as part of our subject “work education”. The most beautiful parol submitted was usually the one hanged above the Belen like that star pointing to the Child Jesus born in Bethlehem at the first Christmas.
And that is the truth about the beautiful and colorful parol – a sign leading to Jesus Christ like John the Baptist.
“He was a burning and shining lamp, and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light. But I have testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father gave me to accomplish, these works that I perform testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me.”
John 5:35-36
Since the second and third Sundays of Advent, we have been introduced to the person and mission of John the Baptist. As we begin our nine-day novena to Christmas with our Simbang Gabi, we are reminded again of that important role we have in becoming another John who not only prepares the way of the Lord but must also be very sign of Christ’s presence.
All routes lead to churches every December 16, a beautiful sight to behold with so many devotees trying to fulfill their vows of completing the Simbang Gabi for so many reasons, from thanksgiving to favors granted and for more wishes for the coming year!
But, like other novenas, Simbang Gabi in itself will not make one a better or holier person. It takes a lot of prayer and hard work on our part to be like John the Baptist, a parol “burning and shining” pointing to Jesus who had come 2000 years ago, who comes daily in our lives, and will come again at the end of time.
In our gospel we heard Jesus praising John who did a wonderful job preparing the people for his coming because in his very life, they have found hope and inspiration to strive in what is good and just. In fact, the people felt as if John was already the Messiah they were waiting for!
It was very clear to John that he was not the Messiah, that he was merely the Precursor of the Lord, not even worthy to untie his sandals. This is what we must pray for in every Simbang Gabi, specially at this time of the pandemic: that we beam more of the light of Jesus who is like the sun while we are the moon. What we share is the Light itself – Jesus Christ – not our own light that can sometimes be misleading and not really that bright at all.
Photo by author, National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, Valenzuela City, 08 December 2021.
To reflect the light of Jesus Christ is to be like him, good and kind, just and merciful, exactly what we heard from the first reading which is a call to personal conversion; we cannot convert others to Jesus unless they see first we are converted in Christ.
Thus says the Lord: Observe what is right, do what is just… All who keep the sabbath free from profanation and hold on to my covenant, them I will bring to my holy mountain and make joyful in my house of prayer.
Isaiah 56:1, 6
No matter how good or “holy” as we can be, we are not the Light; our mission is to bring people closer to Jesus and be “conformed to his image” (Rom. 8:29).
How sad these days when “credit-grabbing” has become a hobby and a national past-time not only among those in power but even with everybody else specially those in social media trying to draw attention to themselves to earn precious statistics to be known as “influencers”.
This is our second Christmas in the pandemic: last year was more difficult than this year and we have so much to be thankful to God in tremendously blessing us since last year. We are still alive, many still have their jobs with steady income, others have started to pick up the pieces of their lives but moving on personally, spiritually, emotionally and even financially. Kids still go to school no matter how difficult online classes may be.
We have so many things to thank God this Christmas – first among them are the many John the Baptists who were like a “burning and shining lamp” to us, guiding us and inspiring us to move on with life amid the darkness and gloom of this pandemic
Yes, Christmas this year like last year is still difficult, so unlike the other Christmases we have experienced in the past. Perhaps the only other worst Christmas than we ever had in 2020 and 2021 were the Christmasses experienced by our parents and grandparents during the Japanese occupation at World War II. Ours pale in comparison with those wartime years.
During this Simbang Gabi, let us ask ourselves how much have we changed and matured in our experience of Christmas since the start of the pandemic last year? Do we now have Jesus in our hearts or, are we back to our old selves of having that “Christmas rush” for material things, forgetting Jesus Christ is Christmas himself?
Let the light of Christ burn and shine in you! Amen.
Photo by author at San Fernando, Pampanga, 18 November 2021.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday in the Third Week of Advent, 15 December 2021
Isaiah 45:6-8, 18, 21-25 ><)))*> + ><)))*> Luke 7:18-23
Lord Jesus,
like the disciples of John
the Baptist, we are so
tempted to ask you at this
time of pandemic and confusion:
"Are you the one who is to come,
or should we look for another?"
(Luke 7:18)
Yes, dear Jesus,
you are the One
who is to come because
all these things like healing
of the sick and proclamation
of the good news to the poor
are happening before our very
eyes even to these days.
The problem, Lord Jesus,
is our failure or hesitancy and
sometimes refusal to contribute
our part in making your presence
known and felt in this time of the
pandemic and election campaigns.
Liberate us, Jesus,
from the blindness, deafness,
paralysis and darkness that
prevent us in making your Kingdom
and power felt here on earth;
in the same manner you have used
the pagan king Cyrus, use us, O Lord,
in building your Kingdom here on earth
so that people may finally find that
there is no other God except you alone.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday, Memorial of St. Lucy, Virgin and Martyr, 13 December 2021
Numbers 24:2-7, 15-17 ><]]]]'> + <'[[[[>< Matthew 21:23-27
Photo by Fr. Pop Dela Cruz, June 2021, Binuangan, Obando, Bulacan.
Dearest God our Father:
with the days fast-approaching
to Christmas, we pray you open
our eyes to see you more clearly
so that we can love you dearly
and follow you more closely each day.
As celebrate the memorial of St. Lucy,
your Virgin Martyr who chose to see
the glory of heaven than sin, open our
eyes to see you more in others and in
many occasions in our lives.
Clear our eyes and vision of pride
and evil like Balaam who first came
to curse the Israelites but in your
divine power, he instead blessed
your people upon seeing the coming of
Jesus Christ!
Then Balaam gave voice to his oracle: The utterance of Balaam, son of Beor, the utterance of the man whose eye is true, the utterance of one who hears what God says, and knows what the Most High knows, of one who sees what the Almighty sees, enraptured and with eyes unveiled. I see him, though not now; I behold him, though not near: a star shall advance from Jacob, and a staff shall arise from Israel.
Numbers 24:15-17
Forgive us, Lord, despite your coming
we remain and insist in being stubborn
like the chief priests in your time who
refused to see the hand of God in your
mission nor in John's preaching; let us be
open and willing to find you coming,
to hear your speaking through unexpected
channels and occasions. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, 08 December 2021 Genesis 3:9-15, 20 ><}}}*> Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12 ><}}}*> Luke 1:26-38
Photo by Rev. Fr. Gerry Pascual at Palazzo Borromeo, Isola Bella, Stresa, Italia, 2019.
Recently I saw on a Facebook post the photo of American model Kendall Jenner in a swimsuit showing what for many is the “perfect body” in a woman. The photo had reportedly gone viral last year.
What caught my attention was the other photo posted opposite Jenner: that of 19-year-old Alyssa Carson who became the youngest female in history to pass all NASA aerospace tests to train as astronaut for future travel to Mars! The caption said it so well, lamenting the fact how the world gives so much attention to “fashion models” with many going insane imitating their bodies forgetting the more essential like inner beauty and intelligence.
More sad is how we have fixed our human understanding and analogies of a “model” as someone who poses and remains still to be painted or photographed for glossy magazines and giant billboards that people are willing to buy or pay for just to view and let their senses feast on.
It may sound funny but those two photos accompanied me while praying and preparing for our celebration today of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. Sorry, I am not going to show you the link to those photos but wha I want to share with you are the two beautiful expressions depicting Mary as “advocate of grace” and “model of holiness” found in the Preface of today’s Mass (that is the prayer before the Holy, Holy leading to the consecration): “She, the most pure Virgin, was to bring forth a Son, the innocent lamb who would wipe away our offenses; you placed herabove all others to be for your people an advocate of grace and a model of holiness.”
Photo by Fr. Gerry Pascual at Einsiedeln Abbey, Einsiedeln, Switzerland, 2019.
So often with Marian feasts, many people complain and find it hard to relate with the Blessed Virgin because they find them as celebrations of the privileges of Mary who was so blessed and unique, thinking she’s almost a god, not human anymore whom we cannot imitate and emulate.
That is totally untrue and baseless!
Of course, only she has the distinction of being immaculately conceived, one never stained by sin but, aside from that, Mary is like all of us, so human; and we too can be like her, full of grace and holy!
Brothers and sisters: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will.
Ephesians 1:3-5
Very clear in this reflection by St. Paul in our second reading that our truest destiny is to be holy and without blemish – that is, immaculate. It is the plan of God since the beginning that we all become his people until sin came and destroyed momentarily that divine plan as we have heard in the first reading.
With the coming of Jesus through his sacrifice on the Cross, we were redeemed from sin to become God’s holy people which the same Preface mentions Mary as the “beginning of the Church”. The same prayer reiterates to us our universal calling from God which is to be holy and blameless before God through Jesus Christ. It is very doable and attainable “for nothing is impossible for God” as the Archangel Gabriel told Mary during the Annunciation (Lk.1:37). And Mary is our proof to that!
Photo by Rev. Fr. Gerry Pascual at Santuario di Greccio, Rieti, Italy in 2019.
While it is very true that nothing is impossible for God, today’s celebration of the Immaculate Conception reminds of how God “needs” us to cooperate and participate in his beautiful plans for us like Mary to be his instrument or seedbed for his Divine Word to receive and grow and bloom.
That is the meaning of Mary as “advocate of grace” who became the vessel in the coming of Jesus Christ. See how St. Luke was very clear in narrating Mary’s “supporting” role and place in the plan of God: she remains a human being – not God – like us except she was full of grace, that is, immaculately conceived.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end… The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.”
Luke 1:31-33, 35
The Church Fathers used to call Mary as the “aquaeductus ecclesiae” or neck of the Church connecting Jesus the caput or head and us the corpus or body. Mary as an advocate of grace is that vessel of all blessings we now have in Jesus Christ because of her obedience and participation in that plan of God of sending Jesus.
Keep in mind that as advocate of grace, Mary brings us all to Jesus as the one Mediator, not away from him. True devotees of Mary bring others to Jesus not away from him for he alone is the Mediator. A true and authentic devotion to Mary always result in deeper knowledge and intimacy with Jesus and his gospel. Notice this in her apparitions especially at Fatima in 1911 where her messages call us to get closer to Jesus, not her.
Mary continues as our advocate of grace telling us the very same words she had told the servers at Cana to “do whatever he tells you” (Jn.2:5).
Do we do the same? Or, mislead others into putting Mary at par or even above Jesus her Son and Lord? In this time of pandemic, are we like Mary as an advocate of grace, a vessel and instrument of blessings to others or do we grab every credit of “charity” and “kindness”, grandstanding for more media mileage of “likes” and “followers” to be viral and trending?
Photo by Fr. Gerry Pascual at the Cathedral of Barcelona, Spain in 2019.
From her being an “advocate of grace”, Mary thus becomes our “model of holiness” too as she reminds us of God’s original plan for us, created in his image and likeness destroyed by sin with the fall of Adam and Eve. See how God immediately promised salvation through the woman fulfilled in Mary as he reprimanded the serpent in tempting Eve:
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike you at your head, while you strike at his heel.”
Genesis 3:15
Because of her being the advocate of grace of God by giving birth to Jesus, Mary stands before us as the perfect reminder of Christ’s work of purification and recovery of the image of God in us. Described as the “perfect disciple” and “doer of the Word”, Mary had shown us in her very life which continues to this day in her intercessions and apparitions how discipleship is a life-long process and commitment of holiness. From giving birth to Jesus to his dying on the Cross until his burial, Mary had always been with Jesus that on Easter, it was to her that the Risen Lord first appeared because she was the first to believe totally in him.
At the Pentecost, Mary was with the Apostles awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit that became the coming out party of the Church. In her life, Mary is the model of holiness because she keeps on working with us and in us, guiding us in following Jesus our Lord and Master so that we might be “conformed to his image” (Rom. 8:29).
Photo by author, Christmas 2020.
Holiness is not being sinless but being filled with God who is all-holy, being like Jesus Christ. Mary showed us the way to holiness is being humble before God, seeing herself as the “handmaid” or servant of the Lord.
If there is one thing the world needs now so badly in this time of the pandemic, it is holiness. Before the pandemic came, mankind was so filled with self, so arrogant and proud acting like god, manipulating everything.
How ironic that a microscopic virus with the simplest signs similar to the common colds made the world stood still for some time, reminding us that there is a God all-powerful who is in control of everything.
Through Mary, may this Solemnity of her Immaculate Conception lead us back to God to recover in us his image and likeness, cleansed and purified of our blemishes and wrinkles of sin by having an enlightened devotion to her, the servant of the Lord par excellence. Amen.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-6 ng Disyembre 2021
Larawan kuha ng may-akda sa San Fernando, Pampanga, 18 Nobyembre 2021.
Taun-taon,
halos lahat ng tao
nasasabik sa Pasko
palaging inaabangan
sa mga countdown.
Ngunit bakit nga ba
inaabangan natin ang Pasko?
Petsa lamang ba ito
at panahon na dumarating,
lumilipas din?
Kung gayon lang ang Pasko,
bakit hindi na lang tayo
magbilang ng araw
Bagong Taon pa man?
Higit sa petsa
at panahon ang Pasko
dahil ito ay ang Diyos na naging Tao;
ang Pasko ay si Hesu-Kristo
na sumilang noon sa mundo
at dumarating pa rin sa puso
ng bawat tao kaya't itong Pasko
ay isang katotohanan, isang kaganapan
nang ang Diyos ay makialam
at pumasok sa ating kaguluhan,
pinunan marami nating kakulangan,
pinawi mga kasalanan, pinalitan
ng kanyang kabanalan upang
buhay natin ay maging makabuluhan.
Sa panahon pa ring ito
ng pandemya, sana atin nang
mapagtanto ang Pasko
ay hindi tanong ng kung ANO
kungdi ng kung SINO inaabangan
na tanging si Hesu-Kristo,
dumarating hindi sa sabsaban
kungdi sa ating puso at kalooban
kung saan nagmumula ating mga
gulo at kadiliman; sikaping matagpuan
Kanyang bakas sa ating mga mukha
upang tayo'y makipag-kapwa at
maranasan Kanyang kapanatilihan
kesa tayo magbilang ng mga petsa at buwan.
Larawan kuha ng may-akda sa San Fernando, Pampanga, 18 Nobyembre 2021.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Second Sunday of Advent-C, 05 December 2021
Baruch 5:1-9 ><}}}*> Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11 ><}}}*> Luke 3:1-6
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, 2018.
From “beginning with the end” last Sunday at the start of Advent, we now move into its second week when we are reminded by the readings and gospel that “everything begins small and simple” in God and with God’s kingdom.
So often in life, God’s beauty and majesty are revealed in small, little beginnings that are hidden and obscured, things and persons we take for granted without knowing it is in them and through them that God silently continues his works of wonder among us.
Such is the reality of Christ’s coming – then and now and in the end of time – as presented by Luke who began his account this Second Sunday of Advent with the introduction of John the Baptist.
“St. John the Baptist Preaching In the Wilderness” by Anton Raphael Mengs from en.wikipedia.org.
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.
Luke 3:1-2
Feel the solemnity of Luke’s report, so formal, evoking a sense of power and might, an air of superiority with all the trappings of those in the corridors of power in government and religion.
Then abruptly, he wrote tersely, “the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert”. Boom! So simple yet elegantly emphatic.
Notice Luke’s artistry presenting a list of who’s who living in palaces and Temple with all the comfort and luxury available at that time when in a sudden shift, without losing the building up of the drama that led to the climax that is John “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah: A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths'” (Lk.3:3-4).
In introducing to us the person of John the Baptist which started in the very first chapter of his gospel, Luke is actually telling us how John was already the presence of Christ, that aside from being his precursor, he had Jesus in himself already! For Luke, John foreshadowed Christ’s work of salvation reaching its summit at Easter even while orienting us to Christmas.
The nearness of God
Every year, the second and third Sundays of Advent narrate the preaching and baptism by John the Baptist at Jordan to remind us how Jesus comes to us whenever, wherever the word of God is heard, accepted, and proclaimed that result into repentance and forgiveness of sins.
See how Luke shows us the overlapping of salvation history with our secular history, a clear indication of the presence and nearness of God with us in Christ’s coming. Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate, Herod, Philip, and Lysania with the high priests Caiaphas and Ananias were true persons who have lived in a particular time and specific places when John and Jesus lived too.
Here we find so true that God works silently and subtly in Jesus in our own personal lives and in the whole world for indeed, he is the God of history.
Photo by author, Chapel at the Basic Education Department, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City, 28 November 2021.
This Second Sunday of Advent we are assured of God’s nearness with us in Christ, especially when there are those darkness and obscurity, hiddenness and being unknown. These little and simple things in life are occasions where God reveals himself to us! Take them to heart.
Sometimes in life it is good to be down and even unknown, away from the limelight specially in this age of social media where everything even coffee breaks and new purchases or grades and medals of children are made known to everyone with much noise like blaring trumpets.
This boom in social media is so tiring and even disgusting with nothing hidden anymore, nothing is personal, and worst, nothing sacred any more! God and faith and sacraments have become commodities, persons are cheapened and used for personal advantages that even personal messages or PM’s have become “public happenings”. No more respect and dignity to others and most of all, unknown to those so immersed in the social media, they are the ones in the losing end, losing their very selves as they lose touch and grounding with reality.
Contrast it with John the Baptist in the desert with his balanced life between solitude and community and most of all, his rootedness in God and with realities of life that he can speak about the need for repentance to renew one’s self.
The gift of Advent
It can happen that when we are so filled with our selves, when we are so spread out feeling famous, “viral” and “trending” that we are also most empty and nothing like those powerful men mentioned by Luke, from the Roman emperor to the high priests; hence, the need to be hidden and unknown, little and small once in a while to allow enough room for changes and growth, and most especially to have a room within us for Jesus to work in us.
This is the gift of Advent Season: a time for us to be like John, to withdraw from the busy and toxic world so we may be alone and at home again with one’s true self, with loved ones, and with God in Jesus, through Jesus.
In the first reading we heard the end of a poem by Baruch where God consoles his people personified by Jerusalem, giving them hope of redemption someday from their Babylonian conquerors. It was the lowest point in the Jewish history when Jerusalem and their Temple were destroyed with the entire nation exiled to Babylon as slaves. No country, no Temple, so down and so small yet, God tells them:
Photo by author, Advent 2019.
Jerusalem take off your robe of mourning and misery; put on the splendor of glory from God forever: wrapped in the cloak of justice from God, bear on your head the mitre that displays the glory of eternal name. For God will show all the earth your splendor; you will be named by God forever the peace of justice, the glory of God’s worship.
Baruch 5:1-4
See the beautiful image of God taking possession of his people exiled and enslaved, changing their lot into something so wonderful filled with splendor!
The same thing happens with us when we are down and lost for that is when God doubles his efforts in finding us, redeeming us, uplifting us. It had happened before in the coming of his Son Jesus Christ more than 2000 years ago which continues to happen now and would surely happen again in its fullness at his Parousia.
Nothing happens in life and in the world without God knowing even the minutest, single details we do not notice at all. Let us imitate the confidence of Paul this Season of Advent:
I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1:6, 8
Photo by author, Advent 2020.
This Second Sunday of Advent we are told that even if we do not see Jesus like in the gospel of Luke when it is still concerned with the preaching of John the Baptist, he is already with us in those small and little sacrifices we do out of love for him.
Like John, Advent invites us to withdraw to the wilderness, to the desert to be hidden from the limelight to give God a space to come to us, to be present in us.
Like John, Advent invites us to empty ourselves of our pride and sins, to repent and be washed clean by God’s loving mercy and forgiveness to be filled with his humility, justice and love.
Like John, Advent wants us to be the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy: to be the voice of reason and faith in this noisy world of lies and superficialities; to make straight the path so bended with many excuses and alibis that have moved the lines of morality and propriety; to fill the valleys with sense and meaning; and, to make low every mountain and hill of human pride and arrogance that have left us more empty and lost than before.
Let us all be a John the Baptist, not only a precursor but also a presence of Jesus.
lordmychef.com 