The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year I, 04 July 2023
Genesis 19:15-29 <*(((>< <*(((>< + ><)))*> ><)))*> Matthew 8:23-27
Photo by author, November 2020.
Your words today, O God
our Father, are all about
chaos and destruction,
storms and calamities
in the sea and the land;
just like so many of us these days
who are in the "eye of the storm",
in the midst of great trials
and sufferings in life
due to their own making
or somebody else's sins and
wrongdoing, or simply
being in the wrong place
at the wrong time.
The whole world is yours,
O Lord; you have the whole world
in your hands and you know
everything that is happening.
Grant us the trust and confidence
in you of Jesus your Son
and the deep faith of Abraham
as you kept your promise to save
his nephew Lot and family
from the catastrophe that fell on
Sodom and Gomorrah.
As Jesus got into a boat, is disciples followed him. Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves but he was asleep.
Matthew 8:23-24
When he (Lot) hesitated, the men, by the Lord’s mercy, seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughter and led them to safety outside the city.
Genesis 19:16
Keep us strong, O God,
in the face of trials and tribulations of life;
calamities inevitably happen,
it is how we face and deal with these
that truly matter;
cleanse us of our impurities,
of our stubbornness,
of our sins,
never to needlessly look back
like Lot's wife but instead move
forward in life learning your important
lessons of being morally upright and holy.
Amen.
Photo by author, Katmon Nature Sanctuary & Beach Resort, Infanta, Quezon, 04 March 2023.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 02 July 2023
2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16 ><}}}}*> Romans 6:3-4, 8-11 ><}}}}*> Matthew 10:37-42
Photo by author, Our Lady of Fatima University-Quezon City with the La Mesa Dam Forest Reserve at the back, 01 July 2023.
Jesus continues to instruct the Twelve with important lessons on discipleship as he sent them on their first mission the other week. Last Sunday he taught them – including us today – to face all fears not to be fearless of anything or anyone but to fear only God.
Today, Jesus cautions us not to be unduly influenced by people especially those closest to us in fulfilling our mission in him. Very often, intimidation and influence can be used to adversely affect our ministry that eventually veer us away from our Lord Jesus Christ in the process. Hence, his encouragement too for us to persevere through those influences as we follow him.
Jesus said to his apostles: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Matthew 10:37-39
James J. Tissot, ‘The Exhortation to the Apostles’ (1886-94) from Getty Images.
Being a Christian is being possessed by Christ. That is why he told us last week to “be not afraid of those who kill the body but not the soul” so that we fear only him our Lord Jesus Christ in the sense that we lose all meaning in life without him.
To be possessed by Jesus Christ is to have a life centered in him, detached from undue influences including from our family and friends especially us priests and religious. When priests focus more with self and family or with other people instead of Jesus Christ, everything crumbles – pati sutana nalaglag na! That is when priesthood becomes a career and a means for social mobility and livelihood with money as the priest’s new “lord and master”.
Priesthood is Jesus Christ, the Caller, not the call as I have always insisted to seminarians I teach and direct. Problems happen when the Caller is dislodged from the top spot and focus shifts on the call or priesthood when priests literally and figuratively throw their weight around when we hear the notorious lines “matutulog ang pari, pagod and pari, unawain ang pari”.
Photo by Ka Ruben, National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, August 2022.
Discipleship in general of which the priesthood is just a part is indeed a very difficult life. Nobody said it would be easy as the opening instructions of Jesus to the Twelve clearly stated, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.”
Jesus is not asking us to disregard our family and friends. What Jesus is telling us is actually a warning against too much expectations that our family and friends would love and embrace him too inasmuch as we have given ourselves to him. Not true at all, sad to say.
There are times that those closest to us are the ones who could not accept Jesus Christ’s call of discipleship. There are times that the most difficult people to be catechized and evangelized are those dearest to us.
Many of us must have felt in many instances how our family or friends are the ones who reject the ways of Jesus, the values of Christ. In this highly competitive world so exaggerated by the social media when everyone feels so entitled and deserving for everything, people have become so impersonal in dealing with each other, forgetting the basic courtesies in life, especially respect and kindness. Many are blinded by fame and wealth forgetting God and the people around them.
Photo by Mr. Mon Macatangga, 12 May 2023.
This Sunday, Jesus is teaching us to always have him as the basis and foundation of our relationships. Remember the gospel two Sundays ago when upon seeing the crowds Jesus was “moved with pity because they were troubled and abandoned like sheep without a shepherd” that he taught us to pray for more workers in the harvest (Mt.9:36-37). The problems in the world can never be solved by money and any material thing but only by another person, by someone with the heart and face of Christ filled with his warmth and his loving presence, someone not afraid to love, not afraid to get hurt, not influenced by fads and trends or by what others say.
Everything in this life, in our ministry and in our discipleship has to be seen in the light of Jesus Christ. Things become cloudy or dull and shady when Jesus is absent that can greatly affect, for better or for worse, our relationships with one another. This we see in the first reading about the hospitality offered by that Shumenite woman to Elisha the prophet whom she recognized as a man of God. Elisha clearly saw the woman’s basis of hospitality – God – that he never abused it. In fact, we find a trace of humor when Elisha had to ask his servant what their graceful hostess most needed to reward her hospitality. Sometimes like Elisha in our being so focused in serving the Lord, we become so ignorant of the most obvious with those closest to us; imagine Elisha asking his servant what to reward the Shumenite woman, his seeming oblivious to the fact she and husband were childless! Eventually, Elisha would grant the couple the gift of a son whom he would later bring back to life.
At my 25th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood with friends from UST’s the Varsitarian, 18 April 2023.
To be possessed by Christ means to be “dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus” as St. Paul explained in our second reading today (Rom.6:11). For some it may sound foolish but that is the reality and mystery of life we have been reflecting since the resumption of Ordinary Time last month. It is what we call as Christian paradox when in our sharing in Christ’s paschal mystery of his suffering and death, that is also when we find and experience our resurrection and life.
Last Monday, a very dear friend died, Sr. Gina of the Religious of Good Shepherd. We met in 1984 when I joined UST’s the Varsitarian where she was an outgoing staff member. She was the one who proclaimed the first reading at my celebration of my 25th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood last April 18.
Photo by author, Chapel of the RGS Mother House in Quezon City, 29 June 2023.
When I first invited her to my anniversary, she declined due to a big retreat of priests at their spirituality center in Tagaytay; within a few hours, she texted me back and told me she would fix her schedule so she could come to my anniversary celebration. She later texted me twice to insist she had to be present at my silver anniversary.
Unknown to us all, her cancer had recurred and metastasized last November which we learned only June 28 when the RGS Sisters issued a health bulletin about her condition. Sr. Gina had decided to stop all medications to wait for the inevitable at their mother house in Quezon City two weeks earlier. June 29 she texted me to inform me of her condition. I was so happy to chat a few lines with her, asking her if I could visit her this week.
She never replied.
When I learned her condition the other Wednesday night, I cried as I realized the very reason why she insisted on coming to my anniversary in April: to remind me we are possessed by Jesus, only Jesus, always Jesus. Please pray for her beautiful soul. Thank you and God bless!
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Memorial of the First Martyrs of Rome, 30 June 2023
Genesis 17:1, 9-10, 15-22 ><]]]]'> + <'[[[[>< Matthew 8:1-4
Photo by author, sunrise at Bolinao, Pangasinan 18 April 2022.
Today we close the month of June,
the first half of 2023.
Praise and glory to you,
God our loving Father
for past six months,
grateful for the next
six months coming
to finally close the year.
And then a leper approached, did him homage, and said, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” He stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, “I will do it. Be made clean.” His leprosy was cleansed immediately.
Matthew 8:2-3
Dear Father, you will only good things for us like to that leper that is why you sent us your Son Jesus Christ; both Jesus and the leper knew his cleansing was very possible; Jesus made no fanfare except in asking the leper to fulfill the requirements of the Law as the leper simply believed him.
Lord, we are a "walking good news", ourselves a blessing, a grace from you; there is no need for us in trying so hard in touching another person, in making a difference in this world so sick and so stressed; many times we just have to smile and be extra nice to someone, be kind and forgiving.
Let us share your good news in the way we live, at least not like the first martyrs of Rome who were burned as living torches at evening banquets; let us share your good news like Abraham who walked in your presence blamelessly by trusting you, obeying you, loving you. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday in the Thirteenth Week of Ordinary Time, 26 June 2023
Genesis 12:1-9 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> Matthew 7:1-5
Photo by author, Sonnen Berg, Davao City, August 2018.
Another month soon to close,
another month soon to open
at the end of this week;
thank you very much, God
our loving Father for the wonderful
journey in life.
Continue to call us,
continue to lead us
to new directions,
to new challenges
to new stages in life
to newer selves.
Like Abraham,
teach us to leave
our comfort zones,
teach us to trust in you,
teach us to realize we are
never too old to move out
and grow; most of all,
teach us to chill,
to slow down, to stop rushing
and worrying in life.
Make us move in "stages", Lord,
like Abraham for you are the
first to know who we are,
where we are,
and how we are.
The Lord said to Abram: “Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.” Then Abram journeyed on by stages to the Negeb.
Genesis 12:1,9
Let us follow Jesus,
"the way and the truth
and the life" in this journey
in life in whatever stages
we may be;
may we stop judging
so we may not be judged
and simply enjoy this
journey in life
in whatever stage
we may be.
Amen.
*Since last night after praying for today's readings, I was struck by that passage of Abram journeyed by "stages" that instantly reminded me of David Benoit's 1982 album and single, "Stages". Blessed Monday!
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 25 June 2023
Jeremiah 20:10-13 ><]]]]'> Romans 5:12-15 ><]]]]'> Matthew 10:26-33
The recent news this week of the implosion of the submersible “Titan” with the death of its five passengers trying to reach the Titanic wreckage at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean had elicited a lot of different reactions from various people around the globe.
While I wonder what’s really behind this obsession by some whites with the Titanic, they made me imagine the kind of courage those five men have to dare journey into the bottom of the sea on board their craft despite its highly questionable worth in safety and reliability. At least as I prayed over this Sunday’s gospel, OceanGate’s “Titan” passengers made me examine and contemplate my courage and fears in life both as a person and as a priest.
How much am I willing to risk in pursuing God, in serving his flock? Will I be able to give my life wholly like those five passengers in trying to see the wreckage of the Titanic that sank in 1912?
Jesus said to the Twelve: “Fear no one. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. So do not be afraid…
Matthew 10:26-28, 31
James J. Tissot, ‘The Exhortation to the Apostles’ (1886-94) from Getty Images.
Jesus chose his twelve Apostles last Sunday to proclaim his good news of salvation to “the lost house of Israel” after seeing them “tired and troubled, like sheep without a shepherd” (Mt.9:36).
As he sent them to their first mission, Jesus gave them some important instructions which the gospel tells us today and next Sunday. And leading the list of those instructions is the need to take courage when he told them to “fear no one” and twice to “do not be afraid”.
But first, let us clarify that courage is not the same with bravery that often refers to being able to do great feats like those extreme sports we see in social media. Most often, bravery is closely associated with skills like bungee jumping, sky diving, and skateboarding. Courage is different. It is from the Latin word cor or corazon in Spanish, the heart. To fear no one and be not afraid are expressions of courage, of drawing strength from one’s inner core – the heart – where God dwells. To draw strength from the heart which is the core of every person means to give one’s total self, more difficult than just risking a part of ourselves like an arm or a leg that is often the case with bravery.
Secondly, when Christ told his Apostles that included us today to fear no one and do not be afraid, he was not only instructing us to have courage but most of all showing us too the contrast of fear of human beings and the world with the fear of God.
Photo by author, Anvaya Cove, 19 May 2023.
What do I mean?
Courage is not everything. True courage is still having fears – of being afraid of God, of not being able to follow him, not being able to stand by him, of turning away from him in sin as St. Paul reminded us in the second reading. There will always be fears within us but with courage, we face all fears because we realize in our own weaknesses and shortcomings, there is the power and love of God who values us so much than sparrows and knows the number of our hair (vv.29-31).
Most beautiful example is the Prophet Jeremiah who revealed in his book his weaknesses like his being inadequate in himself due to his being timid and hypersensitive. Read the preceding verses before our first reading today to see how Jeremiah could not resist God who had duped/seduced him that he chose to remain faithful despite the great pains and sufferings he had to face as God’s prophet (Jer. 20:7ff). More than the fears of men who were actually his compatriots bent on hurting him, there was still that greater fear of turning away from God who gives him so much strength to overcome his trials in life. Here we find true courage in Jeremiah when amid his great fears for his life, his trust in God becomes a song of praise:
“O Lord of hosts, you who test the just, who probe mind and heart, let me witness the vengeance you take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause. Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, for he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked!”
Jeremiah 20:12-13
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD in San Antonio, Zambales, 05 June 2023.
What matters most in this life above all is God. Every pursuit we make, no matter how great are the dangers may be, may we have the courage to examine ourselves, our motives: is it for God or for myself? This is the essence of discipleship.
If what we pursue is for God, it would surely bring joy and fulfillment to people though it would entail sufferings and hardships, even death for us. By all means, go for it like Jeremiah and St. Paul and all the saints including the men and women of science and letters who toiled so hard amid great dangers and obstacles to serve God and people.
But, if our pursuit is for money or fame or position – for one’s self – it could bring only a little and fleeting joy, perhaps make a noise in the world or social media for a little while but we end up sorely losing everything, feeling disgusted and more fearful than ever in losing God.
May the Lord grant us the courage to be always true to him and his call. Amen. Have blessed week as you welcome July!
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Memorial of Sts. John Fisher & Thomas More, Martyrs, 22 June 2023
2 Corinthians 11:1-11 <'[[[>< <'[[[>< + ><]]]'> ><]]]'> Matthew 6:7-15
Photo by author, sunset over the Caloocan-Malabon-Navotas-Valenzuela district, January 2023.
Glory and praise to you,
God our almighty and loving Father
for the gift of two great saints,
John Fisher and Thomas More
whose memorial we celebrate today
after giving their lives in defending
the gospel of Jesus Christ
before the powerful king of England
in 1535.
Like St. Paul in today's first reading,
St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More
spoke their hearts out to everyone,
opposing King Henry VIII's divorce
and call to break away from Rome;
for standing for what is true and good
like the sanctity of marriage
and primacy of Rome,
they were both beheaded.
What a beautiful example for us
to emulate today when so many of us
professing to be Catholics yet
have turned their backs from
the Church and especially from the Gospel,
choosing to be oblivious
to you dwelling in our hearts;
like St. Paul, they have taught us
that standing firm on our faith
is the best expression of our love
not only for God but for everyone;
help us realize that when we allow
ourselves to follow modern trends
that are contrary to the life and teachings
of Jesus our Lord,
that is when we do not love at all
because that is when we allow evil and sin
to spread its errors and destruction
of persons and life in general.
But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts may be corrupted from a sincere and pure commitment to Christ. For if someone comes and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it well enough.
2 Corinthians 11:3-4
Forgive us, dear God,
when we would call you "Father"
but could not stand for what is
true and just, good and holy
there in our hearts;
forgive us, dear God,
when we would call you "Father"
but would keep on holding to our
anger and bitterness,
refusing to forgive
from our hearts;
forgive us, dear God,
when we would call you "Father"
but would always push the lines
and limits in our hearts
until we fall into temptations and sin.
Forgive us Father,
in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 19 June 2023
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, Quezon City, 20 March 2023.
Forgive me for always having reservations in the celebration of Father’s Day as well as of Mother’s Day. I am not against these celebrations but often wary that being a secular observance, they often miss out the spiritual aspect of fatherhood (and motherhood) that are both gifts of God. In fact, the Ordo of the Mass, that little reference book we use in our daily celebrations of the liturgy, reminds us priests that Fathers’ Day celebration “should not diminish the primary focus of this Sunday as the celebration of the Paschal Mystery.”
Consider also the fact how religious celebrations like Christmas have been “corrupted” to mere commercialisms by our world so driven by consumerism and materialism; how much more a secular celebration like Father’s Day could end up that way too?
As we reel from yesterday’s celebrations with a lot of gifts, food and drinks to all the great dads, join me in reflecting on God as our Father which I have learned from one of my spiritual fathers, the late Msgr. Sabino S. Vengco Jr.
Photo by Arch. Philip Santiago, 2022.
God is our Father because he is the giver of life. This is the first meaning of fatherhood: the father is the source of life. Genetically speaking, even though we inherit equal genetic materials from our parents that make us who we are, researchers say that we “use” more of the DNA from our fathers. Maybe this is the reason why we have that expression in Filipino, “Anak ka ng tatay mo”. Recall how St. Joseph had to marry the Blessed Mother, Virgin Mary when he had to stand as the “foster father” of the Savior by giving him the name “Jesus”. Likewise, being from the house of David, his being the “foster father” of Jesus fulfilled God’s promise in the Old Testament that our Savior shall come from the lineage of King David.
Unknown to many including priests, the rite of Baptism states that in the administration of the sacrament to the infant, it is the father who gives the name to the child being baptized because that child came from him!
But Dads as giver of life is more than in the biological sense. A father inspires and motivates his children to become better and matured persons. As a giver of life, the father shows the best examples of leadership, wisdom and prudence in dealing with life’s many complexities. It is the father who opens the minds and hearts of the children to become better citizens of the nation, not as burdens of the society in the future.
Cheers to all the Dads who have stood by their sons and daughters, working hard not only to provide food and clothing to their children but most especially a brighter future for them with their good examples of being responsible and committed fathers.
Photo by author, St. John the Baptist Parish, Calumpit, Bulacan, 2022.
God is our Father because he protects life. It is always easy to be a parent but not truly a father (or a mother). How sad these days many young men have become like rabbits, lacking the maturity of giving one’s self into marriage and commitments.
A father does not only give life but must also sustain and most of all, protect life. Having lived during those times of frequent brownouts, I have learned this sense of protecting from my dad who would always tell us to be still as he rose to get the flashlight or find the match and candles whenever lights suddenly went off in the middle of our dinner. I grew up with that certainty that dads are men of courage, the ones who would always go first into dangerous situations to protect the family like my dad. When the father is the first to be scared or to scream in the event of dangers, there is surely a big problem at home.
Moreover, I have also observed that though wives outlive their husbands as proof that the female species is stronger than us males, there is still something so noble about fathers as protectors of life and family. Dads are always the first to die because they are the first to go into the great unknown called eternal life in order to watch over us his family. So many times since my father died in year 2000, I have felt him by my side whenever I faced big problems and difficulties. Many times I talked to him in my prayers, asking him for clarifications when I have to make crucial decisions for the family or in my ministry. He would sometimes appear to me in dreams or would make “paramdam” as we call it in Filipino when he sends signs of his presence to convey something important. Even in eternal life, Fathers remain close to us to protect and keep us safe from harm. And perhaps, he goes ahead of us to prepare the welcome party when our turn to die comes.
Rembrandt’s “The Return of the Prodigal Son” rom en.wikipedia.org.
God is our Father because he brings back life when we lose it. This is the most beautiful imagery of God being a Father like that loving father of the prodigal son in Luke’s gospel. That is the height of fatherhood when children even wife lost life to wrong decisions, to sins, or anything that completely alters our way of living, it is always the father who assures us of how life would go on or continue, of how he would do everything to give us back our lives.
Have you noticed how despite being considered as the authority figure at home with their being strict and firm, fathers are actually more easier to approach than mothers when it comes to serious problems? A lot often, we tell our dads first of our major mishaps or accidents or misadventures because they are more calm and serene, always thinking ahead of finding solutions. Unlike mothers who are hyper ones, tending to nag and voice out their feelings inside. When I was in the seminary, a classmate borrowed my new tennis racquet. Unfortunately, he lent it to other seminarians until it was left behind at the tennis court that was picked by some outsiders who used to enter our compound after our recreation time. As vacation time approached, I prayed hard and told my dad if he could give me 300 pesos (that was quite a fortune in the early 1980’s) so I could get a new tennis racquet lest my mom would discover it was lost and I would be scolded, even spanked!
Many times, I have heard from many young people how it was their father who literally saved them by forgiving them and even helping them pick up the pieces of their lives when they got involved into teenage pregnancies. It seems those stories of fathers disowning their children especially the daughter for being disgrasyada is more of an exception than a rule, perhaps true only in telenovelas and movies.
During my final years in my seminary formation until my ordination to the priesthood in 1998, every time I would come home I would look intently at my father’s hands and face, observing his many wrinkles, burned and sagging skin. Whenever I would look at his hands and face, I thought of those days and nights and years when my dad would take the jeep and bus to work so we could have good food and good education, those many sacrifices he had to make for us to have some of the simple pleasures in life, of his fidelity to my mom and to us all that we are his only beloved and nobody else.
That is why when he died on the eve of Father’s Day on that third Sunday of June, the 17th in the year 2000 that coincided with my mom’s birthday, I felt a great part of me had gone too. It was very difficult. The pain has always remained but somehow, in his death, I have continued to feel his fatherhood with the great love he had showered us while still alive. That is why, unlike others, I choose to remain silent on Fathers’ Day, praying and reflecting fatherhood, a most precious gift of God whom Jesus revealed to us is also a Father. God bless all the fathers of the world! Amen.
My dad at his dest at the Bureau of Forestry (later Forest Development), 1972.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 18 June 2023
Exodus 19:2-6 ><}}}}*> Romans 5:6-11 ><}}}}*> Matthew 9:36-10:8
Photo by Ms. April Oliveros at Mt. Pulag, March 2023.
I recently had a long lunch that extended to a longer dinner recently with a good friend who was widowed last January. It was the first time we met again after the funeral of her husband who died three weeks after I had anointed him last Christmas Day.
She was still grieving and yes, angry with God why her husband had to go at an early age. She told me how during her daily prayers she would complain to God, and how she wanted her husband to be still alive, not minding at all of nursing him again.
Likewise, she was worried God might be fed up with her, even mad and angry with her negative feelings and attitudes even though she prays and celebrates Mass more often these days since her husband’s demise.
Photo by Ms. April Oliveros at Mt. Pulag, March 2023.
Does God get angry with us?
The psalmist says, “But you, Lord, are a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, most loving and true” (Ps. 86:15). If God is slow to anger, does it mean he gets angry, even sometimes?
No. Never.
God does not get angry at all because God is love. God is perfect unlike us who easily get angry and could remain angry over a long period of time because we are imperfect. But God, who is also spirit, does not have emotions, neither gets angry nor irritated with us and yet, always one with us in our feelings especially when we are down in pain and sufferings.
In Christ Jesus who became human like us in everything except sin, God became more one with us to prove his love and oneness for us.
At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send our laborers for his harvest.”
Matthew 9:36-38
Photo by Mr. Raffy Tima, GMA-7 News, June 2020.
See how Matthew noted that “At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.” So beautiful. So powerful.
That expression his “heart was moved with pity” is the literal meaning of the Latin word misericordia – mercy in English – that means “a heart moved strongly” like disturbed or thrown off perhaps. More than just a feeling, that virtue of mercy is expressed into compassion which is another Latin word that means “to suffer with” or cum patior. Matthew here is telling us it was more than a feeling for Jesus to have his heart moved with pity but a firm resolve to uplift the crowds because in the first place he has that oneness with them.
Until now in our own time, that heart of Jesus is moved with pity for us whenever he sees us troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Just like my friend grieving the loss of her husband. Or anyone who had lost a beloved, a leg or a part of the body, maybe a job or a career, a dream or a future.
For Jesus, it is always the person who matters that is why his proposal has always been to send us another person, another companion, a fellow to accompany us in our brokenness and darkness. There is his move of gathering us, calling us, and sending us forth to a mission.
Jesus never taught us to ask for more money nor food nor gadgets to solve the problems of the world. Recall his temptation in the desert when he rejected the devil’s challenge to change stones into bread because man does not live by bread alone but with every word from God.
For the world, everything is a problem to be solved, including mysteries of God and of the human person. As we have reflected the past two Sundays, mysteries are not problems and therefore not solvable at all. Mysteries are non-logical realities we must embrace or even allow ourselves to be wrapped with to discover the richness and meaning of this life like God and persons.
When people are down and lost in this life, feeling troubled and abandoned, where do we focus more, to their woes and problems or their very persons? Try thinking of the people you consider as “heaven sent” and helped you in your darkest moments. Are they not the ones who brought out our giftedness as a person, as a beloved child of God with Christ’s gospel?
Photo by author, December 2022 at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, Valenzuela City.
Problem these days, many people no longer believe in God totally, not giving a care at all with the value and meaning of justification and salvation, of reconciliation and communion in Christ through one another that St. Paul explained in the second reading.
Modern man has become so complacent that he would be saved by a loving and merciful God. It is a wrong kind of confidence because it is a confidence in one’s own powers than in God’s saving act through Jesus Christ as St. Paul preached.
Sad to say, such kind of confidence afflicts mostly the so-called religious and pious ones in the Church, especially us priests and bishops who lose sight of the flock and of Christ in the process. No synod nor meetings and documents would make the local even Philippine Church attuned with the present time unless we the clergy and other disciples must first have our confidence in God, not in ourselves.
How tragic that we are still a Church so steeped in being a hierarchy, lightyears away from being any of the other models of the Church proposed by the late Jesuit Cardinal Avery Dulles: sacrament, herald, communion, and servant. Despite our many denials, priesthood is power and prestige where ministry is more of an office and a privilege. We are more concerned with the call, the vocation of priesthood totally ignoring the Caller, Jesus Christ. Visit any parish and chances are, you find the priest throwing his weight around – literally and figuratively speaking so that the sheep remain without a shepherd.
In the Old Testament, the image of Israel as a lost sheep was the result of failures and even of sins of infidelity of their religious and political leaders. History has proven not only in Israel but everywhere especially the Philippines that when there are failures in leadership in both the political and religious spheres, it is always the common people who suffer most.
Photo by Mr. Mon Macatangga, 12 May 2023.
If we think about it, Jesus could have reacted negatively at the sight of the crowds and even with us today. He could have felt angry and irritated, even annoyed, frustrated and disappointed with how we are wasting all his gifts and grace, his call and his mission. But Jesus chose empathy and sympathy because he always looks into our hearts, into our total person than to our sins and failures, mistakes and errors.
Let us return to our “desert of Sinai” spoken of in the first reading, a reminder of our turning point in life and history when God called and sent us to be a “kingdom of priests, a holy nation” whose confidence is in him alone, not in our very selves nor our programs and structures to find again the many lost sheep of our flock. It is never too late to make a U-turn for God is full of mercy and compassion, slow to anger, loving and true. Amen.Have a blessed week ahead!
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Homily, Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, 16 June 2023
Deuteronomy 7:6-11 ><}}}*> 1 John 4:7-16 ><}}}*> Matthew 11:25-30
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, Quezon City, 20 March 2023.
It has been two months since I celebrated by silver anniversary of ordination to the priesthood. Until now, I still continue to reflect and relish on this immense gift of priesthood, still asking with the same sense of awe and wonder since ordination day, “why me, Lord?”
As I reflected this week the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus which is dedicated for the sanctification of us priests, I have realized how I have remained the same sinful, insecure and fearful man ordained 25 years ago with my six other classmates. As I get closer to becoming a senior citizen in 2025, the more my past sins and stupidities, carelessness and vices are coming back like “Facebook Memory”, reminding me how I have them kept under control, that they could burst and be out in the open if I get careless.
But in the midst of all these darkness and weaknesses still in me, the more I feel so blessed and consoled, and overjoyed by the fact that I still have that same desire to proclaim Jesus Christ to everyone, of how beautiful this life is because of the Lord’s immeasurable love for each of us. Whenever I look back to my past with all my sinfulness and weaknesses amid my getting older, the more I am eager to make Jesus known to everyone while I am still strong and able. There is that feeling of being like St. Paul in saying, “To me, the very least of all the holy ones, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the inscrutable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for all what is the plan of the mystery hidden from ages past in God who created all things” (Eph. 3:8-9).
Or, like in our first reading, I could identify with the Israelites being reminded by Moses in the wilderness that “You are a people sacred to the Lord, your God; he has chosen you from all the nations on the face of the earth to be his people peculiarly his own. It was not because you are the largest of all nations that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you, for you are really the smallest of all nations. It was because the Lord loved you” (Dt.7:6-8).
Beautiful!
Love, love, and love!
That is the “inscrutable riches of Christ”, his immense love for us, dying for us, coming for us even if we are worth nothing at all. And it is because of that love of God for us that we have become so worthy that he gave us even his only Son, Jesus Christ.
That is the essence of this celebration of the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Love.
A reality we all experience and know but could not define for it has no limits. Love can only be described and best expressed in actions than in words.
See this Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus comes right after the Solemnities of the Most Holy Trinity and of the Most Precious Body and Blood of Jesus these past two Sundays. Both celebrations speak of love: the latter is about relationships based on love and the former is about giving of self in love.
Now that we are well into the Ordinary Time of our liturgical calendar, our celebration today tells us to remember throughout this year this most basic truth and reality of our faith – that we are so loved by God.
Beloved, let us love one another because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him.
1 John 4:7-9
Love is symbolized by the heart, the very core of every person. That is why I love the Spanish word for heart which is corazon, evocative of the core, of the deeper self. And of course, love is the very the person of God.
Of all the writers in the Bible, St. John is the one who most frequently used the word “love”, an indication of its centrality in his thoughts. Moreover, he clarified that this love is not human love because its origin, motives and effects are supernatural in nature who is God himself.
Being the very self and also the riches or wealth of Christ, love is for sharing, for giving. Never for keeping. Because of its supernatural nature, love is inexhaustible. The more you give it, the more you share, the more you have it!
In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.
1 John 4:10-12
Photo by Ms. April Oliveros, March 2023 at Mt. Pulag.
Let me repeat that last sentence, “if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.”
The more we love, the more we are able to see and recognize God and other people amidst the darkness around us. Likewise, the more we love the more we see our true selves too despite dark spots within us.
Love is the law of life. To love God by loving ourselves and others is not an obligation imposed from outside. It is the very proof of our faith and union with God in Jesus Christ.
Jesus makes this very clear to us today in the gospel that opens with him praising the simple people, those who were child-like who welcomed him and his preaching. They were the ones Jesus referred at his sermon on the mount, “Blessed are the poor” because love is not an intellectual structure or system to be learned or analyzed. Love is a call to be disarmed of everything we hold onto so we can totally love and follow Jesus Christ.
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
Jesus came to reveal to us God our Father. And to know the Father is not through the head or intelligence but through our heart that is like Christ’s, meek and humble, filled with love.
By becoming human like us in everything except sin, Jesus who is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15) enables us to feel and experience God now closest to us than ever. Most of all, we are able to love and still love especially when the going gets tough and rough.
Here Jesus shows us that love is not absence of sufferings. In fact, love is truest and noblest when there are sacrifices and sufferings as exemplified by Jesus in his life and death on the Cross.
There are times we feel grouchy, so sensitive when people seem to ask even demand so much from us.
From Facebook, 2021.
Sometimes we wonder why are we the ones always giving, always loving, always forgiving. Sometimes we even ask God why are we the ones going through all these trials in life, why are we the ones afflicted with this sickness, why are we given with a special child, why your child had gone ahead of you to eternal life?
So many whys, so many questions.
Rest today in Christ. Feel his embrace. Listen to his silence. Be filled with his love. As you ask Jesus with all those questions, realize that each cry, each lamentation is the “inscrutable riches of Christ”, his very love perfected in your labors and burdens. Amen.
Jesus, meek and humble of heart,
Make my heart like thine!
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Solemnity of the Body & Blood of Jesus Christ, 11 June 2023
Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16 ><}}}}*> 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 ><}}}}*> John 6:51-58
Photo by author, 2018.
There is a weird British series in Netflix called the Inside Man about a professor of criminology at the death row in the States for the murder of his own wife. He had deep perceptions and analysis of events that people came to see him in prison to consult in locating their missing loved ones. One of them is an American journalist trying to do a story about him while at the same time seeking his expertise in locating her missing friend, a math tutor in England held hostage in the basement by a pastor and his wife.
Though the series is weird, it has some interesting lines about life and death like when the wife of the pastor told him how she had spent the whole afternoon searching the internet how to kill their son’s math tutor they have thrown in their basement. The wife found it unusual there was nothing in Google that tells of ways of killing another person (so weird, is it not?); however, she was surprised that almost everything she had found in the internet and social media was mainly about sex as he teased her husband that it is not love that makes the world go round but sex!
Yes, it is very funny and weird but her observations seem to be true because nobody in his right mind would ever want to destroy life except terrorists and lunatics. People generally love life that our social media are saturated with contents that try to show how we can enjoy this life through sex, food, and travels in that order. Also with cars for boys aged 5 to 95.
Photo by author, March 2020.
Of course, we all know that is not what life is all about that is filled with mysteries.
Last Sunday we reflected in the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity that mysteries are not problems to be solved but realities to embrace to discover life’s truest meaning found in our relationships with God and with others
This Sunday we celebrate the second most important doctrine and mystery of our faith, the Incarnation of the Son of God Jesus Christ. It is a mystery not only how the Son of God became human like us in everything except sin but most of all, of how he has given us his very flesh and blood as our food and drink in this journey called life.
Jesus said to the crowds: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” The Jews quarreled among themselves saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”
John 6:51-53, 55
My favorite front page photo during the Delta outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic published by the Inquirer on 20 August 2021. So evocative of the truth of Jesus himself being our true food and drink – and medicine.
As we have reflected last Sunday, a mystery is a divine truth revealed by God we learn through the gift of faith. It is non-logical but not illogical. It can be explained and understood but not fully.
Here in the mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ we call as the Eucharist, the mystery of our Triune God becomes a reality in our life truly present in perceptible signs of bread and wine. From relating, we now come to the mystery of sharing of our selves like God who shared us his Son Jesus Christ who in turn gave himself for us on the Cross that continues today in the Holy Eucharist as his everlasting sign of his loving presence and service.
See how Jesus spoke clearly in this passage of his giving us his physical body and blood that to receive it, we have to actually eat it too.
First we notice is how in other parts of the New Testament that the term soma is used to refer to the Eucharist which is the Greek word for “body” that may have symbolic meanings; but in this passage, Jesus used the word sarx which means “flesh” in Greek that means only one thing, the corporeal reality of his physical body. Jesus is telling us in no uncertain terms in this passage after the miracle feeding of more than 5000 in the wilderness that he himself is truly and really present as flesh and blood in the Eucharist. Recall that at his Prologue to his gospel, John also used the same term sarx in declaring “the Word became flesh” (Jn.1:14) to correct misunderstandings and doubts that were already developing during the first century of Christianity regarding the physical Incarnation of Jesus the Eternal Word and his true presence in the Eucharist.
Second term used by Jesus four times as he emphasized the reality of his Body and Blood in the Eucharist is the word trogein which in Greek means “to munch” or “bite”; the other Greek word for the verb to eat is phragein which evokes many symbolic meanings like “digesting” a book or “assimilating” the culture. Again, when Jesus said we have to eat his flesh and drink his blood, he truly meant himself as a true food and true drink to nourish and sustain us in this life and hereafter.
Photo by Kuya Ruben, 04 August 2022.
There lies the beauty of this mystery of the Eucharist: Jesus himself is the one we receive, who comes to us personally, physically to be one with us in our very selves. We do not have to wait for death and be in heaven to experience fullness of life in Christ because he comes truly to us while in this life when we receive him in the Holy Communion.
St. Paul reminds us in the second reading with his rhetorical questions, “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break: is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Cor. 10:16) of this reality of Christ’s presence in us and among us. He was not waiting for answers of yes or no but posed those questions to affirm the very truth we all know that Jesus is really present in us and among us especially when we are broken like the Israelites in the first reading. This is where the mystery deepens, becomes more real and more fascinating. Jesus the Son of God emptying himself to be like us in everything except sin so that we may become like him, holy and divine.
This I have learned in my two years of being a chaplain in the hospital. Admittedly, it is difficult especially for me as I could easily be carried away by emotions in seeing the sick and suffering while at the same time, can often have my stomach overturned by sights of blood and wounds of others. But, there is always that indescribable feelings of joy and fulfillment after visiting and anointing our sick patients.
Photo by Kuya Ruben, June 2022.
I have no claims to holiness as I am a sinner too but the Eucharist has become most truest to me these past two years in the hospital and university as well as I get into contact with the sick and the students. When I touch patients to pray over them or help in moving them, when students cry to me or ask for hugs after confessions, they all flash to me during the consecration as I raise and say, This is my Body… This is my Blood. Jesus is most truest in the Eucharist when we too imitate him in giving ourselves to others to be broken and shared.
The Eucharist is the most wonderful gift of God to us when we receive his Son Body and Blood to make us strong and holy like him in this life.
That is why we have to go to Mass every Sunday. That is why a priest has to celebrate Mass daily for the people to be strengthened like him in this journey of life filled with trials and sufferings. That is why Moses kept on reminding the Israelites of their many hardships from their exodus into their wandering in the wilderness. That is why this coming Friday, we cap these three weeks of transition into the Ordinary Time with the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, another mystery of Christ truly among us and within us as we experience his love most truly right here in our hearts.
What an awesome God we have indeed who has become so small and so simple like us so we can be great like him. Like the simple bread and wine, in the Mass through the Holy Spirit, they become Christ’s Body and Blood. Let’s make it happen this Sunday in our celebration of the Mass. Amen.Have a blessed week ahead.
lordmychef.com 