40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday, Memorial of Sts. Perpetua & Felicity, Martyrs, 07 March 2024 Jeremiah 7:23-28 ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> Luke 11:14-23
Your words today, O God, are too strong, that we are so bad and, that is so true, too.
Thus says the Lord: When you speak all these words to them, they will not listen to you either; when you call to them, they will not answer you. Say to them: This is a nation which does not listen to the voice of the Lord, its God, or take correction. Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself is banished from their speech.
Jeremiah 7:27-28
Though we are so bad, you are still so good to us, Father; you continue to speak to us even if you know we do not listen nor heed your voice.
What is worst, even in the coming of your Son Jesus Christ who offered himself on the Cross, we still refused to listen and heed his calls, always asking for signs.
Some of them said, “By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons.” Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven. But he knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”
Luke 11:15-17, 23
Lord Jesus Christ, in your dying on the the Cross, you have expressed to us the Father's immense love for us; indeed, your Cross until now remains a sign of contradiction in the world as your calls to love and to forgive, to be humble and be kind, to give than to receive remains a foolishness and weakness for many of us; but you continue to speak to us despite our being deaf and hard-hearted because by your Cross, you have shown us too it is the greatest sign of reconciliation, reminding us of the many contradictions within and around us, of the many contradictions in the world that can be reconciled and be made one in your self-giving in love we must imitate like your martyrs Saints Perpetua and Felicity.
Reconcile us in you, dear Jesus, make us one in you on the Cross! Amen.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-06 ng Marso 2024
Larawan kuha ng may-akda, 2020.
Sa lahat ng panahon sa ating liturhiya ng Simbahan, bukod tangi ang Kuwaresma dahil ito lamang ang nagsisimula ng ordinaryong araw, ang Miyerkules ng Abo o Ash Wedensday at hindi araw ng Linggo.
Kapuna-puna ang nakaraang Ash Wednesday na pumatak ng Pebrero 14, Valentine’s Day na nangyari din noong 2018. Pinag-usapan ng marami sa social media kung alin ang pipiliing ipagdiwang, Valentine’s Day o Ash Wednesday?
Nakatutuwang isipin na marami pa rin ang sumagot sa survey na pipiliin nila ang mangilin sa araw ng pagpapahid ng abo kesa ang makipag-date sa Pebrero 14; iba ang ipinakita ng mga balita at ng social media kung saan panalo ang mga nagdiwang ng Araw ng mga Puso! At tila gayon nga ang nangyari o marahil, pinagsabay nating mga Pinoy ang dalawang pagdiriwang, di alintana mga panawagan ng Kuwaresma at Miyerkules ng Abo na manalangin, magtika ng mga sala, maglimos, at mag-ayuno.
Kaya nga taun-taon, ito ang laging tanong natin, ano nga ba ang kahalagahan ng Kuwaresma sa makabagong panahong ito na kung saan mga tao ay tila hindi na nag-aayuno, wala nang sakripisyo? Higit sa lahat, paunti nang paunti na mga nagsisimba.
Ang problema natin sa Pilipinas ay hindi pa naman katulad sa kanlurang Europa at hilagang Amerika na marami nang tao ang ayaw maniwala sa Diyos. Halos lahat pa rin ng mga tao sa ating bansa ay naniniwala sa Diyos ngunit naguguluhan marahil at hindi makita Kanyang kahalagahan at kaugnayan (relevance) sa buhay sa gitna ng makabagong panahon na wala nang hindi naiimbento at naso-solusyunan. Bagama’t sasabihan ng marami naniniwala sila sa Diyos, mas tiwala kadalasan ang mga tao sa panahong ito sa agham at teknolohiya.
Narito tatlong bagay na binibigyang-diin sa panahon ng Kuwaresma na makatutulong sa ating matagpuan muli at maranasan katotohanan, kahalagahan at kaugnayan ng Diyos sa ating buhay sa gitna nitong makabagong panahon.
Hindi lahat ay nakikita. Sa panahon ng Kuwaresma, pinag-aayuno din kung baga ang ating mga mata upang ituon ating pananaw at pansin sa ating kalooban at sa mga bagay na hindi nakikita, unang una na ang Diyos.
Kaya walang dekorasyon ang mga altar sa panahong ito, walang mga bulaklak at hangga’t maari wala ring mga halaman. “Bare” wika nga sa Inggles ang altar. Pagdating ng Biyernes Dolores bago mag-Linggo ng Palaspas, tinatakpan o binabalutan ng telang lila ang mga imahen at larawan sa simbahan sa gayon ding kadahilanan – upang tingnan natin mga mas malalim na katotohan ng ating buhay.
Sa panahong ito ng social media, lahat na lang ay ibig ipakita at ipangalandakan maski kasamaan, kabastusan, at kasalanan. Bakit nga ba nang magkasala sina Eba at Adan, sila ay nagtago dahil sa kahihiyan samantalang ngayon ipinagmamalaki pa ng ilan kanilang ginawang kasamaan?
Hindi lahat ng bagay sa buhay na ito ay nakikita at lalo din namang hindi lahat dapat ay ipakita. Wika nga ng Munting Prinsipe o Little Prince ni Antoine de St. Exupery, “What is essential is invisible to the eye; it is only with the heart that one can truly see.”
Lahat na lamang sa mundo ngayon ay palabas, showbiz na showbiz ang dating upang ipagyabang mga kayang kainin at bilhin, puntahan at gawin. Ngunit, sadya bang nagbibigay ng kaganapan at katuwaan mga iyon? Hindi ba mas masarap pa ring namnamin mga sandali nating kapiling ang mahal sa buhay? Kung tutuusin nga, kadalasan o palagi, yaong mga bagay na natatago at hindi nakikita ang siyang pinakamakahulugan, pinakamainam sa buhay.
Katulad ng Diyos: “Walang taong nakakita sa Diyos kailanman, ngunit kung tayo’y nag-iibigan, nasa atin siya at nagiging ganap sa atin ang kanyang pag-ibig” (1 Jn. 4:12).
Sa buhay, mas mainam pa rin yung simple at nakukubli, mayroong pa ring misteryo o hiwaga na natatago kaya ang lahat ay nagtataka. At minsan-minsan ay namamangha.
Hindi lahat ay minamadali. Kaya tinatawag na Kuwaresma ang panahong ito ng paghahanda sa Panahon ng Pasko ng Pagkabuhay ay dahil sa bilang na kuwarenta o apatnapung araw mula Miyerkules ng Abo haggang Sabado bisperas ng Palaspas (bagama’t di naman eksakto palagi) na kung tutuusin ay limang Linggo bago ang mga Mahal na Araw. Samakatwid, mayroong paghihintay dahil kailangang makabuo muna ng apatnapung araw o limang linggo.
Ito ang isang bagay na nawawala na sa mundo ngayon, ang paghihintay. Lahat mainipin kaya siguro maiinit ang ulo ng lahat na ultimo mga bata ay stressed out. Minamadali ang lahat na hindi malaman ano at sino nga ba ang hinahabol natin. Lahat ay instant – hindi lang kape at noodles pati pagkakaibigan, pag-aasawa at pagkakaroon ng baby!
Dahil sa teknolohiya, pilit na minamanipula ng tao ngayon ang panahon na madalas ay minamadali kaya marami ang hindi na maranasan ang Diyos pati sariling pagkatao at mga kapwa-tao sa pagmamadali. Hindi kataka-taka, nawawala na rin mga mabubuting ugali ng paghihintay, pagtitiyaga, pagtitimpi at pagpipigil.
Ang lahat na pangyayari sa daigdig ay nagaganap sa panahong itinakda ng Diyos. Ang panahon ng pagsilang at panahon ng pagkamatay; Ang panahon ng pagtatanim at panahon ng pagbunot ng tanim… Ano ang mapapala ng tao sa kanyang ginagawa? Alam ko na ang itinakda ng Diyos sa tao. Iniangkop niya ang lahat ng bagay sa kapanahunan. Ang tao’y binigyan niya ng pagnanasang alamin ang bukas ngunit hindi binigyan ng pakaunawa sa ginawa ng Diyos mula sa pasimula hanggang sa wakas.
Ang Mangangaral (Qoheleth) 3:1-2, 9-11
Minsan-minsa’y matutunan nating maghintay, magrelax o mag-chill wika nga ng mga kabataan. Masyado na tayong abala sa mga bagay-bagay kaya hindi natin napapansin, namamalayan ang Diyos na nagmamahal sa atin ay kapiling natin. Ang Diyos kabaligtaran natin: maski buong buhay natin hinihintay niya tayong lumapit sa kanyang muli sakaling magpasya tayong iwanan ating mga kasalanan at maling pamumuhay upang sa kanya maranasan ang kapanatagan at kapaypaan. Tinuturuan tayo ng panahon ng Kuwaresma na tumigil at manatili sandali sa buhay, maghintay sa Diyos at kanyang biyayang nakalaan para sa atin.
Katahimikan. Sa lahat ng mahahalagang aspekto ng Kuwaresma, ito ang pinakamahalaga sapagkat hindi tayo makapagdarasal, makapagninilay, o magsisi sa ating mga kasalanan ng walang katahimikan. Bahagi ng paghihintay ang pananahimik.
Naalala ko noong bata kami tuwing bakasyon sa halamanan ng aming Lola. Maraming tutubi noon at lahat kaming magpipinsan ang unahan sa paghuli habang nag-aasaran sa kantang “tutubi tutubi huwag magpahuli sa batang mapanghi!”
Wala ka talagang mahuhuling tutubi kapag ika’y malikot at maingay ngunit sa sandaling ikaw ay pumirmi at manahimik, kusa pang lalapit ang mailap na tutubi.
Iyon ang buhay, iyon ang Kuwaresma. Manahimik tayo upang higit nating mapakinggan ating sariling kalooban na madalas hindi natin pinakikinggan dahil bantad na bantad tayo sa iba’t ibang tinig at ingay sa atin nagdidikta ng nararapat. Kaya madalas tayong lito kasi sarili natin di natin pinapansin. Gayon din naman, sa sobrang pakikinig sa mga sabi-sabi, nag-aaway away tayo kasi hindi nating pinakikinggan kapwa natin. Ang pananahimik ay hindi pagiging bingi kungdi pakikinig na mabuti; ang katahimikan ay hindi kawalan kungdi kapunuan na kahit pinakamahinang tinig ay sinisikap nating pakinggan.
Tanging mga tao na kayang manahimik ang tunay na nagtitiwala sapagkat ang katahimikan ang tahanan at lunan ng pagtitiwala. Kaya ito rin ang tinig at wika ng Diyos. Sa ating pananahimik, tayo ay nagtitiwala, naghihintay maski wala tayong nakikita dahil batid natin kumikilos ang Diyos ng tahimik.
Kapag magulung-magulo ang ating buhay, tumigil tayo at manahimik. Pakinggan at higit sa lahat damhin ang sarili at buong kapaligiran upang maranasan kaganapan at katotohanan ng buhay mula sa Diyos na kadalasan ay tahimik na nangungusap sa atin. Madalas sa buhay natin, ang Diyos iyong pinakamahinang tinig na pilit bumubulong-bulong mula sa ating puso. Sikaping tumigil at manahimik, iyon ang pakinggan at sundin at tiyak, ikaw ay pagpapalain.
Sana ay huwag palampasin pagkakataon ng Kuwaresma upang Diyos ay maranasang muli at masimulan natin ugnayang kanyang matagal nang ibig para sa atin. Salamat po.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday in the Third Week of Lent, 06 March 2024 Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9 ><}}}}*> + <*{{{{>< Matthew 5:17-19
Lent is remembering especially because we are beings of forgetfulness; but, teach us Father, that to remember you is not like in remembering an equation or a formula as a task of the mind or intellect; to remember you, O God, in the spirit of Lent is to surrender ourselves to you whom we do not see but present among our brothers and sisters; to remember you, dear God, is to surrender ourselves to your Holy Will that are not mere laws and decrees but the very person of your Son Jesus Christ.
Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to yo, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.”
Matthew 5:17-18
To remember and keep your laws, dear God is to remember and keep you found in our brothers and sisters through your Son Jesus Christ; indeed, the greatness of any nation is measured to a large part in its legal system, in how it is justly implemented and observed:
Moses spoke to the people and said: “Observe them carefully for thus will you give evidence to your wisdom and intelligence to the nations, who will hear of all these statutes and say, ‘This great nation is truly wise and intelligent people.’ For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the Lord, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him? Or what great nation has statutes and decrees that are just as this whole law which I am setting before you today?'”
Deuteronomy 4:1, 6-8
Father, in this season of Lent, may we recover and put into practice, not just remember that your laws are fulfilled in Christ when we love; how sad that love of God and love of neighbors is your law we often forget, and find hard to remember because we keep it in our minds than in our hearts where you dwell.
Most of all, to remember means to make one a member of the present moment again: help us remember in making you present always in our love and good works. Amen.
In this season of Lent, teach us, Lord, to be consistent in our contrition; let us realize that true contrition for our sins is not only when we have cried, nor when we have beaten our breasts with mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa, nor when we say sorry to everyone we have sinned.
Being sorry for our sins before you, God our Father, is being consistent - when our contrition leads us to change our evil ways and most of all, when we become consistent in our prayer and lives that we stop with our sins and evil ways.
Azariah stood up in the fire and prayed aloud: “For we are reduced, O Lord, beyond any other nation, brought low everywhere in the world this day because of our sins. But with contrite heart and humble spirit let us be received; as though it were burnt offerings of rams and bullocks, or thousands of fat lambs, so let our sacrifice be inn your presence today as we follow you unreservedly; for those who trust in you cannot be put to shame.
Daniel 3:25, 37, 39
Most of all, O God, to be contrite for our sins is being consistent also in being forgiving with our fellow sinners; every day, we call you God "Our Father", asking you to forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us but so often, we just say these words without really acting on them, fulfilling them by forgiving our fellow sinners; to be sorry for our own sins is to see also the pure heart of another sinner asking for forgiveness of sins.
To be contrite is to be consistent in forgiving others from one's heart because a truly contrite heart sees and feels a fellow contrite heart too! Amen.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday in the Third Week of Lent, 04 March 2024 2 Kings 5:1-15 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Luke 4:24-30
How amazing it is, God our loving Father, that Lent is often portrayed in shades of violet that signify "modesty" and "humility" - or, simply put, s-i-m-p-l-i-c-i-t-y.
May we rediscover in this Season of Lent the beauty and fulness of simplicity, of just being by our true self, without the ifs and buts, lovingly embracing our weaknesses and shortcomings, contented with our finite humanity you created as good.
Many times, we are like Naaman: despite our feelings of inadequacy deep within in contrast with our stature following our many accomplishments, we still insist on what is complicated, extraordinary and difficult which we often take as more grand and therefore, better.
With this, he (Naaman) turned about in anger and left. But his servants came up and reasoned with him, “My father,” they said, “if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would not have done it? All the more now, since he said to you, ‘Wash and be clean,’ should you do as he said.” So Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times at the word of the man of God. His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
2 Kings 5:12b-14
Keep us simple, Lord, so we may believe more, trust more, dare more, and achieve more!
The world has gone so complicated even with life and relationships we have made into something like our technologies that accomplish so much but still empty; the world has gone so complicated and competitive that unfortunately, we take pride in being so even though deep within us we know it isn't good at all, for you, O God, is perfect because you are first of all simple. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 03 March 2024
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 2018.
Our 40-day Lenten journey gets more intense this Sunday with the gospel scene where Jesus cleansed the Temple in Jerusalem to signify the need for us to recover our zeal for God who is also our first love (https://lordmychef.com/2024/03/02/lent-is-the-zeal-of-jesus/).
In a similar manner, we picked the intensely passionate 1964 hit You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ by The Righteous Brothers matching today’s Sunday gospel as it tells us the similar teaching of Jesus Christ, of how we have lost our zeal for God and the need to bring it back for our own good.
Of course, You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ is a love song with its usual sprinklings of sensuality but its sublimity and accuracy in describing the common experiences of love going bad have made it as the most-played song in American radio and television – perhaps even the world – in the 20th century. It is also the most successfully covered song by artists, including by our favorite Hall & Oates who must literally heed the song’s message after their falling apart as musicdom’s dynamic duo of all time.
Written by music producer Phil Spector with some help from Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ as a ballad is soulfully penetrating with the contrasting vocal ranges of Bill Medley’s bass-baritone voice and Bobby Hatfield’s tenor that enabled them to create a distinctive sound as a duet.
This perfect blending of their voices is felt, not just heard in You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ that is a kind of music that can disturb and awaken one’s callous conscience to put it in order. Or have it cleansed as Jesus did in the Temple when he drove out the oxen and sheep, overturned the tables of money changers and drove the doves away being sold.
Notable also is the song’s slow opening – and video – with Medley’s deep voice so hauntingly cool but not scary at all but simply disarming, making it perhaps the most coveted style in singing.
You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips And there’s no tenderness like before in your fingertips You’re trying hard not to show it But baby, baby I know it
You lost that lovin’ feelin’ Whoa, that lovin’ feelin’ You lost that lovin’ feelin’ Now it’s gone, gone, gone, whoa-oh
All in all, here is a most beautiful music, so universal as a language in its melody and lyrics that reminds us that love is not everything; love is more than a feeling but a decision we have to nurture and deepen in order to grow and mature. And bloom.
Most of all, to remain rooted in our first love of all, in God who gives us the zeal, the spark to keep it burning. Have lovin’ week ahead, everyone.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Sunday Recipe for the Soul, Lent III-B, 03 March 2024 Exodus 20:1-17 ><}}}*> 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 ><}}}*> John 2:13-25
Photo by author, 2019,
It has been 19 days since we started this 40-day journey of Lent as an internal pilgrimage to God our first love. Since the first Sunday of Lent, Mark guided us to Jesus as we joined him in the desert of our poverty and sinfulness to the heights of his transfiguration through the many trials and sufferings we have gone through in life.
Beginning this third Sunday in Lent until the fifth Sunday, all our gospel readings are taken from John as we come closer with God who dwells right in our hearts, his temple within us. Keep in mind that our Lenten itinerary is actually symbolic and theological in nature than an actual road map to follow; hence, our shift to the fourth gospel that is so rich in its narration of the events leading to the Holy Week.
Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well the moneychangers seated there. He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the moneychangers and overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves he said, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” His disciples recalled the words of the Scripture, Zeal for your house will consume me.
John 2:13-17
Photo by author, Jerusalem, 2017.
In the Bible, the Temple is the sign of God’s presence. That is how central is the Temple of Jerusalem for the Jews even until now. And John deepens this sign of the Temple for us with his most unique narration of its cleansing by Jesus in preparation for its new meaning found in Christ when he died on the Cross.
Only John noted how the disciples recalled after Easter this episode of Jesus cleansing the Temple, linking it with that line from the Passion Psalm, “His disciples recalled the words of the Scripture, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me'”. Matthew, Mark, and Luke in their accounts identically quoted Jesus citing Isaiah 56:7 when he said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer but you have made it into a den of thieves” (Mt. 21:13; Mk. 11:17; Lk.19:46).
Here, John is reminding us – like when the Apostles remembered after Easter – that Jesus is the “just man”, the promised Messiah who not only prayed but embodied this psalm that led him to his Passion and Death on Good Friday.
Save me, God, for the waters have reached my neck. For your sake I bear insult, shame covers my face. Because zeal for your house consumes me, I am scorned by those who scorn you.
Psalm 69:2, 8, 10
Photo by author, Jerusalem, 2017.
That “zeal” of Jesus for the Temple and everything it stood for that consumed him was the zeal of his self-giving love on the Cross that we find in the following conversation he had with the Jews.
At this the Jews answered and said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the Scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.
John 2:18-22
So beautiful! Everything now becomes so clear that Jesus is the new Temple; his cleansing of the temple in Jerusalem was a declaration of his “vision-mission” right at the start of his ministry in John’s gospel (experts say John’s narration of events in Christ’s life was more of theology than chronology).
At his Crucifixion, Jesus Christ had replaced the Temple worship with “worship in Spirit and truth” (Jn.4:23) as he had told the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well (Third Sunday Lent-A). The synoptic gospels attest to this same view of John in their accounts that upon Christ’s death, “the veil of the sanctuary was torn from top to bottom” (Mt.27:51; Mk.15:38; Lk.23:45) that signaled the end of temple worship in Jesus Christ as the new Temple of God.
Therefore, this “zeal” of Jesus for the Temple symbolizing the Father is the same zeal every disciple must have for God, for others and his Church. It is the very same zeal laid out by God to Moses at Sinai in the Ten Commandments calling on everyone to be fair and just with each other regardless of age, color, sex, and belief. The first three commandments call us for a zeal in loving God above all expressed in the same zeal we must have in the remaining commandments for our neighbors.
Photo by author, temple of Jerusalem, 2017.
After the success of the movie The Ten Commandments in 1956, reporters asked its director Cecil B. DeMilled which of the Ten Commandments of God we often violate or disobey? DeMille said it is the first commandment because every time we commit a sin, that is when we have other gods besides our one, true God.
Very true!
This is the grace of this third Sunday in Lent as we continue this internal pilgrimage to God: that we also cleanse our hearts by examining our zeal for God and for others. The other word for “zeal” is “enthusiasm” which literally means in Greek as “to be filled with God” (from en theos). To be filled with God, to be with his zeal means to be empty of ourselves first by becoming like Jesus Christ. But, how can we proclaim Christ crucified as St. Paul asserted in the second reading when we are more concerned with money and trade, fame and prestige, especially in the Church? How can we proclaim Christ crucified when we avoid his Cross, always seeking shortcuts and instants in everything? How can we be more loving like Christ crucified when we do not have the zeal for others?
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, "overturn" our many excuses and alibis of being so concerned with things of the world pretending we do them in the name of God and of our family and loved ones; "overturn" our many justifications for not going to Mass, for not receiving the Sacraments, for not making time with our family and loved ones; set us free, Jesus, from our many addictions that have cut off our ties and relationships with You and real persons like our family and friends. Fill us, Jesus, with your zeal for the Father through the Church and everyone we meet. Amen.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday in Second Week of Lent, 01 March 2024 Genesis 37:3-4, 12-13, 17-28 ><)))*> + <*(((>< Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46
Thank you, dear God, for this first day and Friday of March; teach us to learn anew this blessed season of Lent the virtue of respect from two Latin words, re + specere that literally mean "to look again"; many times, we fail or choose not to respect others because we refuse to look at them again, and again, that they are our kin, a brother and a sister in Jesus Christ; many times we see them but do not recognize them as one of us that we look at them with suspicions, jealousies, and mistrust.
So Joseph went after his brothers and caught up with them in Dothan. They noticed him from a distance, and before he came up to them, they plotted to kill him. They said to one another: “Here comes that master dreamer! Come on, let us kill him and throw him into one of the cisterns here; we could say that a wild beast devoured him. We shall then see what comes of his dreams.”
Genesis 37:17-20
Father, instill in our minds and hearts through Jesus your Son, that we own nothing in this world, that we are your stewards, your tenants of the vineyard; how sad and tragic when we lay claim to everything in this world even our very own life and those of others as ours alone, a private matter we alone can decide on who is to live and die; or, too much stress on privacy that this is my body that I alone can decide what to do with my body.
Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’ They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
Matthew 21:37-39
Forgive us, O Lord Jesus! So many times we have acted like those evil tenants who lacked any respect for you and others when from afar, even if we knew, we are mere stewards, we insist and poison others into thinking we can claim ownership of everything including this most precious life.
Forgive us, Lord Jesus, for our lack of respect to you and to one another; how sad that in our rampant disrespect, unknown to us, we have lost respect to our very selves too. Help us regain respect this Lent. Amen.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday in the Second Week of Lent, 29 February 2024 Jeremiah 17:5-10 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> Luke 16:19-31
Photo by author in Tam-Awan Village, Baguio City, March 2018.
Teach us, Father, to realize anew our priorities in life this Lent; make us begin anew in this holy season to prioritize on you and spirituality than material things especially wealth.
Probe our hearts, O God, and remove our many attachments to things that pass and fade, that hinder us from growth and maturity, preventing us from experiencing fulfillment in you.
Thus says the Lord: Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season, but stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord. He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: It fears not the heat when it comes, its leaves stay green; in the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit.
Jeremiah 17:5-8
When you become the priority in our lives, God, then we become more responsible with our neighbors too; we become concerned with everyone, especially the poor and those in need, we become our brother's keeper, thinking about the good of others unlike the rich man in today's parable; grant us the grace in Jesus Christ to have a heart that feels the hunger and thirst of the poor, the pains and anguish of the sick and dying, enabling us to do good in others. Amen.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday in the Second Week of Lent, 28 February 2024 Jeremiah 18:18-20 <*[[[[>< + + + ><]]]]*> Matthew 20:17-28
Photo by author, Dominus Flevit Church in Jerusalem, 2017.
Lord God our Father, your words today are too heavy, so difficult to grasp as they seem to be totally unrelated with each other until they showed me a frightening reality - that Lent is facing rejection, of hearing our enemies speak strongly against us.
The people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem said, “Come, let us contrive a plot against Jeremiah. It will not mean the loss of instruction from the priests nor of counsel from the wise nor of messages from the prophets. And so, let us destroy him by his own tongue; let us carefully note his every word.”
Jeremiah 18:18
Photo by author, near the Dead Sea, May 2017.
Like Jeremiah, so many times we have cried to you his very same words, "Must good be repaid with evil that they should dig a pit to take my life?" (Jeremiah 18:20).
In the gospel today, the other ten disciples heard the mother of James and John asking Jesus to sit her sons on his right and his left in his kingdom, making them "indignant" of their fellow disciples baring their selfish plans before their faces to supersede them, to outsmart them.
Photo by author, Benguet, 12 July 2023.
Many times, O Lord, it happens to us, when before us those we consider as friends, as colleagues have motives of getting ahead of us, of dominating us, of ruling over us.
It is painful and sickening of how people are preoccupied with themselves like the enemies of Jeremiah and the brothers James and John!
Remind us, Jesus, that we only share in your grace of being saved, of being redeemed as beloved children of the Father; when we hear harsh, nasty words against us; when people are so hard against us for whatever reasons; when people compete with us if there is no competition at all; when we are face-to-face with rejections, let us hold on more to you, Lord; in your kindness, save us!
Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte in Atok, Benguet, 01 September 2019.
Help me, Jesus, to be your faithful servant, called to serve not to be served; called to ministry not to me-nistry of popularity; most of all, let me be anchored in your Cross, of being like you, obedient to the Father for his glory. Amen.
lordmychef.com 