Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-19 ng Mayo 2020
Larawan kuha ng may-akda, tabernakulo na walang laman bago magsimula Misa ng Huwebes Santo, 2020.
Kay hirap maunawaan
at hindi ko mailarawan
matay ko mang isipin
ngayong panahon ng COVID-19
pinaiiral nati'y karahasan
sa halip na kahinahunan
at kabutihan.
Minsa'y aking napakinggan
kaya aking tinunghayan
balita sa telebisyon nang
si Mang Dodong ay nakulong
mahigit sampung araw sa Navotas
nang siya ay dakpin dahil
walang papeles ng quarantine.
Asawa niyang si Aling Patring
di malaman gagawin
dahil ayon sa balita,
walang gaanong napag-aralan
mabuti't tinulungan ng mayroong
magagandang kalooban.
Kayo na mga mayroong pinag-aralan
napakaraming kaalaman at nalalaman
tingnan itong larawan kung pagdududahan
kakayahan at katauhan ni Mang Dodong
na kailangan siyang pahirapan
sa tanging pagkukulang sa panahon ng lockdown
hindi nakakuha sa tirahan sa Kalookan
ng quarantine pass upang makahango ng isda sa Navotas.
Sino ang hindi mababagbag
at mababagabag sa mga kuwento
ng karahasan at karanasang ganito
sa panahon ng pandemya
na sa halip tayo ay magtulungan at magdamayan
nagpapahirapan at nagmamatigasan
sa mga bagay na mapapalampas naman.
Hindi ba puwedeng pagbigyan na lamang
kung hindi naman gaanong kabigatan, kalala ang kasalanan?
Nasaan ang katarungan kapag mga makapangyarihan
pinalalampas, kinakatuwiran taglay na husay at galing
samantalang nagkamali rin naman at masahol pa sa karamihan?!
Larawan kuha ng may-akda.
Hindi sasapat kailanman ating isipan
dapat mabuksan din ating puso at kalooban
dahil ang katotohanan hindi lamang
karunungang nababatid, naikakatuwiran
kungdi isang kapatid nararanasan
nararamdaman bawat pintig ng kalooban,
hangad makatawid sa gutom, mabuhay lamang.
Maraming pagkakataon sa iba't-ibang panahon
kapag nabubuksan isipan sa maraming kaalaman
mga kasangkapan pinahahalagahan, kapwa tao nalilimutan
tulad sa mga digmaan at labanan ng kanya-kanyang karapatan
hindi baleng tapakan at yurakan katauhan ng iba
pati sanggol sa sinapupunan
huwag lamang mahadlangan sariling kagustuhan.
O Diyos naming makapangyarihan,
Iyo sanang buksan aming puso at kalooban
upang sa amin Ika'y makapanahan;
Iyong mukha na puno ng awa at kabutihan
sa amin ay mabanaagan, huwag mong hayaan
paghariin kapos naming isipan at baka kami magkaubusan.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Tuesday, Easter Week-VI, 19 May 2020
Acts of the Apostles 16:22-34 <*(((>< +++ 0 +++ ><)))*> John 16:5-11
Photo by author, Chapel of Holy Family, Sacred Heart Spirituality Center in Novaliches, QC, 2016.
Dearest Jesus Christ:
Today I pray to you for a stop of the many forms of violence going on in this time of the corona pandemic.
How sad that in midst of all the sufferings we are going through, we still cannot have prolonged moments of peace with one another.
Can we not just skip some rigidity and selective justice that make the marginalized people suffer more?
My heart is so moved with the news I saw about Mang Dodong, a fish vendor from Caloocan who was detained in Navotas May 07 due to lack of a quarantine pass. It was only tis Monday, after ten days since his detention, that his wife learned of his arrest. His wife is said to be illiterate and knows nothing about procedures for his release.
How can some people let an old man trying to make ends meet be subjected to these kinds of hardships?
It pains our hearts, Lord, to hear this kind of news vis-a-vis of a police official said to be so good that he cannot be sacked and replaced, much less suffer for violating COVID-19 rules of which he is said to be an expert?
Lord, can you not make an instant, sweeping miracle, like Moses with his powerful staff that will suddenly make us all compassionate and sympathetic with those truly deserving of understanding and mercy or clemency?
Why do we have to be so harsh, even violent, in these days of pandemic, something so similar with the experiences of Paul and Silas in the first reading today.
The crowd in Philippi joined in the attack on Paul and Silas, and the magistrates had them stripped and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After inflicting many blows on them, they threw them into prison and instructed the jailer to guard them securely.
Acts of the Apostles 16:22-23
What is most ironic is when after a powerful earthquake that flung open the doors of the jail in Philippi, the guard thought the prisoners including Paul and Silas have all escaped that he tried to kill himself when…
Paul shouted out in a loud voice, “Do no harm to yourself; we are all here.”
Acts of the Apostles 16:28
What a heartless world we have, Lord! We continue to inflict so much violence on others physically, verbally, and emotionally. And the worst part of this is that we inflict them on the most weakest among us, the least and then powerless like Mand Dodong and Aling Patring!
“Do no harm to yourself; we are all here.”
Is it not Lord when there are people around that we should all feel safe and secured, free from all harm? It is the opposite that is happening exactly today!
How I wish we could boldly say these same words by Paul to others to feel safe in buying much needed medicines, or to safely and freely go to work for much needed money to pay electric bills and buy food.
Save us, Lord Jesus, from so much pains and sufferings, and violence we inflict upon others in words and in deeds.
Send us your Holy Spirit to comfort us from all the violence we experience, we feel, we see and hear. Amen.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-30 ng Abril 2020
Isang matandang kasabihan
itong ating masasandigan
na nagsasaad ng katotohanan
na hindi nalilikha ating pag-uugali
sa panahon ng krisis, bagkus dito
ito nahahayag at nalalantad din.
Sa gitna nitong quarantine ng COVID-19,
maraming pag-uugali natin ang nabuking:
nakilala sino ang may tunay at dalisay
na pagtingin at malasakit sa kapwa
sariling kaluguran at kapakanan ipinagkait
upang madamayan, masamahan higit nangangailangan.
Gayon din naman napatunayan higit kailanman
hindi lahat ng kumikinang ay ginto
kungdi tanso din naman
dahil sa asal at pag-uugali
hindi lamang magaspang
kungdi kamuhi-muhi, nakakapangiwi!
Sa kaunting halaga
o anumang ayuda maaring makuha
ipinagpalit ang kaluluwa
dangal ay ipagpapaliban
matiyak lamang hindi siya malalamang
sapagkat sariling kaluguran tanging panuntunan.
Pagkaraan nitong lockdown
kawawa mga nanlamang
hindi na sila pagkakatiwalaan
makitid na isipan, sarili lamang ang tanaw
kaya pag-uugali ay gayon na lamang;
sa kabilang dako naman, pakatandaan
yaong mga sa gitna ng kagipitan
nanatili sa atin at hindi nang iwan
pasalamatan at ituring na tunay na kaibigan
dahil kanilang pagdamay at pag-agapay
nadalisay pang tunay nitong kahirapan.
Lawiswis Ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-19 ng Abril 2020
Maraming aral sa atin
itong COVID-19
ngunit ito muna ibig kong sabihin
dahil kung mayroong mga ningning
sa gitna nitong dilim
na bumabalot sa atin
ay ang tila pagkagising sa kahalagahan
ng pag-ibig at pagtingin
sa bawat kapwa natin.
Bago pa man dumating
itong social distancing
matagal na tayong malamig
at manhid sa nasa paligid natin;
nagsasarili, kapwa di pansinin
nahuhumaling sa texting,
gaming, at social media networking.
Kaya ngayon nakita natin
bagsik at bangis ng COVID-19
hindi malaman gagawin
lahat ibig dalawin
maski makipag-lamayan gagawin
mapadama lang kalinga natin.
Nakakatawang isipin
na mga microorganism
nakapagpagising sa katauhan natin
mahalin at pahalagahan kapwa natin
buhay di natin matitiyak
kung ito'y magniningning
o magdidilim, papanaw sa lilim.
Panatilihin sa puso at kalooban natin
isang buhay hindi kayang himayin
biliangin man o tuuusin
dahil maski isang buhay lang
ito ay mahalaga at napakarami pa rin.
*lahat ng larawan ay kuha ni g. raffy tima ng gma-7 news maliban yaong una sa ibaba, kaliwa na kuha ni bb. lane blackwater nagpost sa kanyang facebook ng kabutihang loob ng mga nagpapanic buying sa isang supermarket nang mapansin ng isang babae ang kakaunting pinamili ni manong na mukhang hirap sa buhay; lahat ng namimili ay nag-ambag sa kanya ng iba’t ibang de lata at pangangailangan kaugnay ng banta ng covid-19.
40 Shades of Lent, Solemnity of St. Joseph, Husband of Mary, 19 March 2020
2 Samuel 7:4-5, 12-14, 16 +++ Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22 +++ Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24
Photo from zenit.org, “Let Mom Rest” figurine
Praise and thanksgiving to you, O God our loving Father in giving us your Son, Jesus Christ our Savior. In sending him to us, you have asked St. Joseph to be not afraid to be the husband of the Blessed Mother of Jesus, Mary Most Holy.
…the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.” When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.
Matthew 1:20-21, 24
We pray today on this Solemnity of St. Joseph that we may also not be afraid in fighting this pandemic COVID-19.
Let us be not afraid to stay home to be with our family again, together and longer.
Photo by author, Chapel of St. Joseph, Nazareth, Israel, May 2017.
Let us be not afraid to talk and converse really as husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters. Help us to be more open and more silent like St. Joseph to hear our family members’ innermost thoughts and feelings again with love and understanding.
Let us be not afraid, O Lord, to seek and work for real peace in our family now disintegrating as we disregard each other, choosing fame and wealth than persons.
Let us be not afraid to reach out also to those living alone like the sick, the elderly, the separated, those abandoned by family and friends or society, those widowed.
Let us be not afraid to share food and money to the needy, time and talent, joy and hope to those living in the margins.
Let us be not afraid to ask for forgiveness, to say again those beautiful words “I am sorry” to those we have hurt in words and in deeds; likewise, let us be not afraid to say also those comforting words “I forgive you” to those who have hurt us in words and in deeds.
Let us not be afraid to show respect anew to our elders. Forgive us, O God, in making disrespect a way of life in our time, in our society, in our government and right in our homes and family as we disregard the dignity of one another.
Let us not be afraid to pray again, to kneel before you, and humbly come to you as repentant sinners, merciful Father.
Let us be not afraid to bring Jesus your Son into this world with your love and kindness, sympathy and empathy so we may be healed of so many brokenness and pains deep within.
Let us not be afraid to be humans again and realize we are not gods, that we cannot control everyone and everything in this world.
Let us be not afraid to be open to you and to others, especially the weak and needy because the truth is, we need you O God and one another.
Please, like St. Joseph, let us not be afraid to wake up to the realities of this life to follow you always in your Son Jesus Christ. Amen.
O blessed St. Joseph, Husband of Mary, pray for us!
Photo by author, site of St. Joseph’s shop in Nazareth beneath a chapel in his honor, May 2017.
40 Shades of Lent, Monday, Week III, 16 March 2020
2 Kings 5:1-15 ><)))*> + <*(((>< Luke 4:24-30
Photo by author, Baguio Cathedral, January 2019.
Praise and glory to you, O God our Father for this Monday, our first working day and most of all, when all plans for community quarantine are put to severe tests. Please give us the grace to be simple and faithful to you.
In the eerie silence of this past weekend while many have finally stayed home and hopefully reconnected with you and family, we still need your tremendous grace to change our ways to become better persons and disciples of Jesus your son.
We pray most especially for our leaders in the government today to be sincere and simple but also professional, efficient and exceptional in serving the people.
Please, we pray O God, enough with our callous and grandstanding politicians who act like the king of Israel in the time of the Prophet Elisha who tore his garment and exclaimed against the friendly request of the king of Aram for Naaman’s healing, always seeking attention:
“Am I a god with power over life and death, that this man should send someone to me to be cured of leprosy? Take note! You can see he is only looking for a quarrel with me!” When Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his garments, he sent word to the king: “Why have you torn your garments? Let him come to me and find out that there is a prophet in Israel.”
2 Kings 5:7-8
Come to us, O God, send us a prophet who can stand up against these people playing gods and cast them down from their thrones. They have long been a burden to your people like those enemies of Jesus at the synagogue of Capernaum.
Likewise, keep us simple and faithful too, O God, that we learn to be obedient and cooperative in this time of serious emergencies. Like Naaman, help us to set aside our biases and other inclinations, thinking only of the good of the country.
Let our prayers and pieties bear fruit in more authentic service especially to the poor and those with less in life. Amen.
40 Shades of Lent, Thursday after Ash Wednesday, 27 February 2020
Deuteronomy 30:15-20 +++ 0 +++ Luke 9:22-25
As we step forward into the second day of Lent, O Lord, you remind us today of your call to conversion which is actually a call to love and a call to life.
Forgive us, O Lord, for those times we have turned away from you in sins, thinking that is the path to life, the path to freedom, the path to fulfillment – only to find out later it is the path to destruction and death.
Moses said to the people: “Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. If you obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving him, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the Lord, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy. I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.”
Deuteronomy 30:15-16, 19-20
Photo by author, our Parish altar candle, Lent 2019.
Help us, Jesus, “to deny ourselves, take up our crosses daily, and follow you” (Lk.9:23) in the path of conversion and fidelity to your everlasting covenant.
Make us realize that Lent is more than a season we yearly celebrate but a reality of life itself, a life so blessed in your coming to be one with us in our sufferings and struggles.
Give us the strength, dear Jesus, to renew your covenant with us, to always choose God, choose life.
May we also share your love and mercy, understanding and patience, kindness and compassion to our fellow pilgrims in this journey of life so that together in the end, we may all enter into the house of the Father in heaven. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul, Week VII-A, 23 February 2020
Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18 ><)))*> 1 Corinthians 3:16-23 ><)))*> Matthew 5:38-48
Altar of the modern Minor Basilica of the Holy Trinity at Fatima, Portugal. Photo by Arch. Philip Santiago, 2017.
Jesus concludes his Sermon on the Mount this Sunday just in time for the start of Lent this coming Ash Wednesday. He taught us last Sunday that righteousness is not only measured by acts but most of all by the purity of the heart’s intentions that we call “education of the heart”.
Today Christ comes to the demands of charity and love, the fullness of the Laws in himself.
Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one as well… You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father..”
Matthew 5:38-39, 43-45
See again the Lord’s pattern in his preaching like last Sunday: a recall of the laws to show his adherence to them contrary to claims of his enemies, and then his infusion of his teaching that perfects the laws: “You have heard… But I say to you…”
Jesus focuses only on two laws today, that of revenge or “lex talionis” (from Latin talio for the word such) and that of hate for enemy which needs some clarifications.
Nowhere do we find in the Laws of Israel “to love your neighbor and hate your enemy”. Experts say Jesus must be citing a popular saying of his time in this part of his teaching. Besides, the Aramiac spoken by the Lord does not connote the harsh meaning we have today for the word “hate”. In short, Jesus is correcting here the norm among Jews of his time to “just love those who love us”.
This is why he adds this beautiful explanation with the most unique conclusion of all.
“For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Matthew 5:46-48
Photo by Lorenzo Atienza, 12 June 2019, Malolos Cathedral.
A fraternity of humanity in the Father
Here we find a beautiful dimension of Jesus Christ’s assertion last week that he had come to fulfill the Laws: more than having a broader approach to the spirit of the laws, education of the heart leads us to see everyone as a brother and a sister.
No one is different. Every one is a family – a kin! which is the root of the word “kind”.
Being kind is more than being good as we say in Filipino, mabait or mabuti.
Being kind is treating the other person as a kin, a relative or family; someone who is not different from us. When we say “he is kind to me”, it means more than being good to me but treating me as a family, a brother or a sister – not as “another” or “iba sa akin” as we say in Filipino.
Photo by author, Mt. St. Paul, Baguio City, 03 February 2020.
This is the essence of our “Year of Inter-religious Dialogue, Ecumenism, and Indigenous Peoples” in preparation next year of our 500 years of Christianity in the country.
Everybody is included in that celebration as we reach out to peoples of other faith and beliefs as well as to the indigenous peoples whose forefathers were actually the first settlers of the country.
This is very important in any dialogue and relationship and partnerships including marriage: there must always be the acceptance of everyone in equal footing with same dignity as a person. It is from here we start that fullness of the Laws in Christ in love.
Human holiness as a reflection of God’s holiness in love
Love can only happen where there is equality and fairness. Love demands we are first of all at equal footing with each other. This is why Jesus became human like us: the Son of God became human to stand on equal footing with us that we cannot argue that he is greater because he is truly human, too, going through everything we have gone through except sin.
When he said that we offer our other cheek, to give our cloak, and go for another mile, he is not referring to criminal or penal codes but more into our humanity, that spirit of universal brotherhood so that even our oppressors and enemies come to realize within them that we are one, that we should be caring for one another, not hating and hurting each other.
Loving our enemies does not mean we let evil continue; loving our enemies means continuing to “love” perpetrators of evils until they realize we are brothers and sisters, keeping each other, caring for each other.
Loving our enemies is making them realize that there are nobody else here on earth for them except us – why fight and perish?
Yes, these are easier said than done. And admittedly, I must confess it is the most difficult part of the gospel, of being a Christ-ian. But it is something Jesus is asking us in the most personal manner.
From Google.
Let it be clear that Jesus is not asking us to behave with naiveté that we give in to injustice, evil, and violence but that we always be peacemakers, the blessed ones he said in his Beatitudes. In our fight for justice and peace, we fight with the moral persuasions of love which is the morality of Christ.
The American civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. had shown in our modern time that the Lord’s teachings are doable: we just have to be convinced and must truly believe in Jesus.
“Love is the most durable power in the world. This creative force is the most potent instrument available in mankind’s quest for peace and security.”
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
When we love truly in Jesus Christ, asserting what is true, what good, what is just, we make God truly present in the world. When that happens, the more we allow him to do his works of changing us within, of transforming us within. It is in our imperfect love that we make God present, the perfect I Am.
The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them: Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your people. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”
Leviticus 19:1-2, 18
Photo by Dra. Mai B. Dela Peña, Santorini in Greece, 2016.
Hubris, our greatest temptation and sin
The Season of Lent is fast approaching us, set to start with Ash Wednesday this week. It is a season characterized by barrenness: no Gloria and Alleluias, no flowers, no decorations, no images to make us turn back to God again, our Lord and Master alone.
St. Paul reminds us today in our second reading that we are “God’s temple… that there is no need to boast of anyone including one’s self” (1Cor. 3:16, 21). Instead of embracing or holding on to anyone including one’s self, we have to embrace the scandal of the cross of Christ, that is, power in weakness, wisdom in what the world considers folly.
For the ancient Greeks as depicted in their epics, the greatest temptation and sin of man is hubris – the arrogant presumption that he is god, that he can do everything, he can have everything that he defies the gods.
Hubris is the sin of pride that has led everyone from Adam and Eve to all the powerful men and women of history into their downfall. It is absolute power crumbling absolutely, always tragically.
In his Sermon on the Mount where we heard many of the Lord’s teachings this whole month of February, Jesus shows us the path away from hubris, his path of love and holiness in the Father. Let us heed his calls, give his teachings a try and a chance to be fulfilled in us.
The thing we dearly miss in Baguio is the beautiful scenery now marred by houses and buildings sprouting everywhere that pose grave risks to lives in case of calamities.
O God our Father, you are so loving and merciful. You have only one desire for each one of us to be fulfilled in life that you always insist on our obedience and fidelity to you.
One thing we fail to see is the reality of evil that is sin found actually within each one of us, not from without or outside of us. Worst part of sin is how we kind of “assert” its reality in the world through us!
In the first reading, you have given David three options to choose from as his punishment for his grave sin (again) in ordering a census of Israel; he chose pestilence than fall into the hands of his enemies as well as three years of pestilence in his kingdom.
But upon seeing the severity of the pestilence that happened during the wheat harvest, David felt so sorry for his people. Most of all, so guilty of his sin. Just like us whenever we commit grave sins, when we never think of its serious repercussions on others, especially those dearest to us.
When David saw the angel who was striking the people, he said to the Lord: “It is I who have sinned; it is I, the shepherd, who have done wrong. But these are sheep; what have they done? Punish me and my kindred.”
2 Samuel 24:17
In the gospel, we also find ourselves among the town folks of Jesus Christ who “took offense at him” (Mk.6:3) that he was not able to perform any mighty deed there because of their lack of faith.
Yes, Lord Jesus, the problem is with us, not with you.
We are the ones who always make life so miserable and unbearable for us and for others because of our sinfulness.
Forgive us, Lord, for those many times when we were so absorbed with our selves that we totally ignored those around us who have to suffer the consequences of our sins.
Today we pray for the gift of sensitivity and consideration for others. Amen.
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