Husband & Wife, “suitable partners” in life

Lord My Chef Wedding Recipe by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Homily for the Wedding of Luiz & Jana Aranda
San Antonio de Padua Chapel, Alta D' Tagaytay Hotel, Tagaytay City
02 June 2026

*Photo by author, St. Anthony de Padua Chapel, Alta D’Tagaytay Hotel, Tagaytay City, 02 June 2026.*

Congratulations, Jana and Luiz! Finally, the day has come which we all waited for two years since you announced your plans of getting married. And of all present here today in this lovely chapel, Jesus is the most joyful of all.

Yes, Jana and Luiz: Jesus set aside this date of June two, 2026 in all eternity, not last year or next year, yesterday or tomorrow. Jesus set this date apart for you Jana and Luiz to make you “part” of each other as husband and wife – magkataling puso, magkabiyak.

Our first reading from Genesis tells us how God after creating the first man said, “it is not good for man to be alone…. let us create a suitable partner for him.”

I love that word “partner” from the root “part” which we call as bahagi and kabiyak in Filipino. Every whole is made up of a part; without a part, there is no whole.

That is what marriage is all about. As a sacrament or visible sign of Christ’s saving presence, marriage is two people – a man and woman becoming one, becoming a whole in Jesus.

Long before you met each other at 7-11 near Capitol Medical Center where you both worked as nurses, long before you were finally introduced to each other during a badminton game in 2017, when God created you Luiz, he said “it is not good for Luiz to be alone…let us create a suitable partner for him”.

And not just suitable partner, a very lovely one – Jana!

Of course, there are no perfect couples nor perfect marriage but every wedding like this is made in heaven because it is God who calls and brings together every man and woman to become husband and wife.

A couple becomes suitable partner for each other the moment they started dreaming of getting married, of spending one’s life someday with another person even they have not met yet. Any one who makes that vision of sharing his or her life with a beloved automatically becomes a suitable partner.

Kaya always have vision in life, Jana and Luiz.

Having a vision is looking beyond one’s self, looking beyond the present moment, and looking beyond material things. Most of all, having a vision is finding Jesus Christ in your lives always, Jana and Luiz because he was the one who really made ways for you to meet and finally become a part of each other in marriage.

Hindi ba Luiz?

Kaya nga walang kang isinama na iba nang manood kayo ng UST-FEU game noong 2017 UAAP season kahit na usapan ay magsama ka dapat ng ibang friends kasi noon pa lang feel mo na si Jana yung hinahanap mong maging part ng iyong sarili.

Kaya maski na ikaw ay FEU graduate, ipinadama mo kaagad kay Jana na graduate ng UST na part siya ng buhay mo kaya nag-cheer ka sa Tigers, hindi sa Tamaraw. At maski panalo kayo ng FEU sa game noon, pinili mong samahan ang pagdadalamhati ni Jana at marami pang taga-USTe para ipakita mo sa kanya na lalo’t higit sa gayong pagkakataon, ikaw ay bahagi – parte – sa kanyang kalungkutan.

At na-feel mo rin iyon, Jana.

At natiyak mo na si Luiz ang part ng buhay mo nang kahit hindi mo siya kaagad sinagot noon, hindi siya nagbago ng pagtingin at respeto sa iyo. Patuloy ka niyang niligawan, sinuyo at sinamahan sa lahat ngn pagkakataon upang madama mo na bahagi ka ng buhay niya. Palagi kang kasali hindi lang sa mga jokes at kuwento ni Luiz kungdi pati sa kanyang mga baon pagkain!

Hindi nagtagal, napasuko ng Tamaraw ang Tiger at naging kayo na noong January 2, 2018 matapos ninyong mag-usap pagkapanood ng “Coco.”

Hindi na ninyo maikaila pareho na kulang kayo kapag wala ang isa’t isa.

Lalo ito naging maliwanag sa inyong dalawa nang mag-COVID pandemic noong 2020: noon mo nadama Jana na nabubuo ka lang kay Luiz na tunay namang ipinadama sa iyo na ikaw ay bahagi na ng buhay niya. At pati ng kanyang pamilya nang kupkupin ka niya na bahay nila lumagi sa gitna ng maraming panganib at hirap ng panahon ng COVID.

You have always been a part of each other, Jana and Luiz. As well as your moms and siblings. Then, in God’s mysterious ways, you both got accepted to work at UK at the same time and the more you realized and felt each other as a part of each one. Most of all, that everything is a part of God’s plan.

Don’t stop in being a part of each other.

Most of all, inasmuch as you invited Jesus into your wedding today, make him a part of your daily life as husband and wife. Remember that Jesus is in your midst always – not in front, not at the back. Between the two of you so that whatever you do to each other, you do it first to Jesus.

Like in our gospel today.

How lovely to think that the first miracle of Jesus happened not in a temple nor a synagogue but in a wedding feast at Cana. the Sacrament of Matrimony is not everything and I assure you Jana and Luiz, a lot of difficulties would come along your way especially when you have children, when you get old and sick.

But, do not be afraid. You always have Jesus by your side to bless you and keep your love alive as you hurdle life’s many challenges.

Luiz when you work hard and stay faithful to Jana, you first work hard and stay faithful to Jesus. Same with you Jana: when you are loving and sweet to Luiz, you are first sweet and loving to Jesus. But, the moment you hurt each other with lies and infidelities, it is Jesus whom you first hurt.

Tuwing nagkakasal ako, mayroon akong tanong: sino ang unang babati kapag nag-away ang mag-asawa?

Sabi sa akin ng iba, iyon daw may kasalanan pero, mayroon kayang aamin sa dalawa ng kasalanan? Sabi naman ng karamihan, dapat daw lalake ang unang bumati pero hindi ba palaging sinasabi, ladies first?

I don’t want to put you on the spot, Luiz and Jana.

My take on this is simple: when couples and lovers have LQ or even friends have tampuhan blues, the one with most love to give is always the first to make the move for peace and reconciliation. Ang may higit na pagmamahal ang siyang unang babati.

That is why, let me close this homily with a simple request to you Jana and Luiz: please “delete” from your mind, from your consciousness that concept of “dasurv.”

It seems our society these days is afflicted with this disease of asserting each one of “deserving” a reward for various reasons. The moment we assert that we “dasurv” this or that because we worked hard or whatever, that is the time we become selfish, self-centered, and conceited.

When we insist on deserving something more, we forget our being a part of the whole.

When a husband or a wife claims to deserve something more, he or she then forgets his or her part-ner. We do not deserve anything at all in this life. Whatever we have is because of Jesus who made us deserving as you have realized in your life journey, Jana and Luiz.

Thank you for inviting us all to be a part of your wedding day. For our part, we promise to pray for you always that God may bless you abundantly with his grace of love and joy, kindness and mercy. Amen.

*Photo by author, Taal Lake from St. Anthony de Padua Chapel, Alta D’Tagaytay Hotel, Tagaytay City, 02 June 2026.*

Life is a mystery

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Solemnity of the Holy Trinity-A, 31 May 2026
Exodus34:4-6, 8-9  ><}}}*>  2Corinthians13:11-13  ><}}}*>  John 3:16-18

*Photo by author, Dolmabahce Palace, Istanbul, Turkiye, November 2026.*

“Life is a mystery.” It is the favorite expression of my Jesuit retreat master during our 30-day retreat in Cebu 1995, the late Fr. Arthur Shea. He would always tell me “life is a mystery” while touching his long, white beard whenever he could not answer my many questions about life and God.

After that retreat and 28 years later as a priest, it had become my favorite expression too not only when I could not find answers to my own questions but when people come to consult and ask me on almost everything.

And thank God for life’s many mysteries, especially his very own mystery of being one God in Three Persons as we celebrate this Sunday the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity.

The word mystery is from the Greek mysterion, something hidden but now revealed by God.

While it is true that a mystery is beyond human reason because it is divine, it may still be explained and understood though not fully. That is why it is described as non-logical or beyond reason but not illogical which lacks reason.

Most of all, a mystery is not a problem to be solved because it simply cannot be solved at all. In fact, we need to keep mysteries like secrets because mysteries give meaning and depth to our very existence, to our lives. In this age of social media when everyone thinks that everything needs to be shown to the point of being overexposed, life has become so artificial and hence, for many, empty of meaning. Unknown to many of us, the most wonderful things in life are those hidden and not seen by everyone like the mystery of God within us!

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life (John 3:16).

Our gospel this Sunday is very amusing like a mystery in itself; it is the shortest one we have in the entire year yet the most popular verse in the whole bible. But, how can it explain or enlighten us of God’s oneness in three persons?

As we have expressed at the very start, a mystery is not meant to be solved and explained but experienced. Our gospel is not even trying to prove to us about the existence of God because in our very being, it is already a given there is God. God does not prove himself but always shows himself.

Recall that it was taken from the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, a Pharisee who felt drawn to the Lord but was so ashamed to be seen by his fellow Jews that he came to visit him at night. We are all like Nicodemus “feeling” God so true deep within us but often afraid to accept it or even show it for fears of being called as old-fashioned and conservative or someone less scientific, less reasonable and less modern.

In that gospel scene, Jesus was inviting Nicodemus to enter into a relationship with him to fully experience God’s mystery because at that time, they tried explaining God like a concept to be learned and even memorized through their many laws and instructions. Unlike the Pharisees, Jesus simply taught Nicodemus that basic truth of God who “so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.“

Nicodemus eventually became a disciple of Jesus along with another Pharisee named Joseph of Arimathea who gave Christ’s burial site on Good Friday.

A mystery is a mystery because it is shared. It is nothing if it is merely in itself.

We are intrigued with stories and reports because they create relationships in us and with us. That is why God in himself as a mystery is a community of persons. Person implies relationship, taken from the Latin word persona which is the mask worn by stage actors/actresses to indicate their roles in a play or drama; hence, the term dramatis personae or list of actors in a play and their roles.

To a certain sense, there are three persons or personae, that is, “roles” in our God as we profess in our Creed: the Father as Creator of everything, the Son as the Savior, and the Holy Spirit as the Sanctifier. With God, his persona is eternal while ours like in drama or play, it is temporary.

The more we enter into relationships, the more we relate with other persons, the more we discover the many mysteries of this life and of God while realizing too in the process that we can only relate with persons and not with things nor even plants and animals. This is the gist of the similarly brief second reading from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, telling us to be close with one another as the Father’s children in Christ through the Holy Spirit. In sending us Jesus Christ his Son, God took the initiative to be closest to us as our breath in the Holy Spirit.

Every time we think of God, when we marvel at him and his creations, the more we find ourselves so different, even too distant from him while at the same time we also feel and experience in the most unique manner how closest we are to him.

Imagine this another great mystery of God that despite our sinfulness and worthlessness, he still so loved us and always caring for us. Like Moses in the first reading, we have experienced many times in life when God seemed to have actually walked beside us, even carried us during our lowest moments that in an instance we realized quickly the many “whys” he deals with us in life. We learn that God is so true and so close with us yet, remains the “All-Other” and the “Unknowable” whose mystery we cannot totally penetrate.

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2026.*

As we move on in life, we realize it is not about covering distances but going deeper within ourselves, of being transformed into better selves and persons like God, loving and merciful. Eventually we realize too that each one of us is in fact an indwelling of the Holy Trinity, an image and likeness of God himself. This we can easily learn through our most basic and simple prayer of all, the Sign of the Cross that many of us take for granted.

Every time we make the sign of the Cross properly, that is when we let God embrace us and wrap us with his mysteries.

In the sign of the Cross, God comes closest to us in our very selves, relating to us in our head being the Father who is over and above us always, the creator of everything; as the Son who became human like us born by the Virgin Mary passing through her womb, experiencing everything we went through except sin; and as the Holy Spirit on our shoulders giving us balance in this life. Next Sunday, we shall deepen this mystery of God in three Persons in ourselves with the solemnity of Christ’s Body and Blood we receive in the Holy Eucharist. Amen. Have a blessed week filled with God’s wonderful mysteries!

Love covers a multitude of sins

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Eighth Week, Memorial of St. Paul VI, Pope, 29 May 2026
1 Peter 4:7-13 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> Mark 11:11-25

*Photo by author, 05 May 2019, Jerusalem, Israel.*

As we come to  nearly closing
the month of May,
your Prince of Apostles,
St. Peter leaves us with 
beautiful reminders so timely
and appropriate in this period 
of darkness and evil:

Beloved: The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be serious and sober-minded so that you will be able to pray. Above all, let your love for one another be intense, because love covers a multitude of sins (1Peter 4:7-8).

How lovely,
how powerful,
and so true
are your words to us
today through St. Peter:
we are living at the end of all
things and still,
here we are living as if
there is no end,
as if there is no death,
as if there is no judgment.

We have become so bad,
so dismal is the world
like that fig tree you have cursed,
Lord Jesus: so delightful in the eyes
but fruitless like us,
especially the rich and powerful
among us like our lawmakers
and public officials
so affluent,
dressed in fineries
without any benefit at all
for the society they have abused;
oh yes,
even our church is like
the temple of Jerusalem that
has become a den of thieves
than a house of prayer
when priests and bishops are
more concerned with money
and clout,
with self,
leaving You Jesus trapped
inside the Tabernacle.

Teach us conversion,
Jesus:
give us strength and will
to turn away from evil,
to closely examine our selves
for all our sins when we have
refused to love;
love can truly cover a multitude
of sins because when we truly love,
that is when we turn away from sin,
when we return to You, Jesus
found in the least
and taken for granted among us;
may our love for You through
one another be constant
because wherever there is love,
there is God;
when there is love,
there is no sin.

May we be
witnesses of Your love
dear Jesus
in this world so wounded by
sins and evil;
like your servant Pope St. Paul VI,
may we witness Your love
in our daily lives
caring for those in the margins,
for those sufferings
and especially for those
who are weak.
Amen.

*Photo by author, May 2017, in Ein Karem, Israel near the Church of the Visitation.*

“Coming Around Again” by Carly Simon (1986)

Lord My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 10 May 2026

Jesus wrapped up this Sunday his teachings about relationships with the commandment to love one another. Five times he repeated the word “love” in our short gospel this Sunday to highlight its centrality in every relationship.

Without love, no relationship will ever mature and grow.

More than a feeling, love is a decision, a choice we make, day in, day out. As such, it cannot be defined but simply described.

And being a Mothers’ Day this Sunday, we find Christ’s description of keeping his commandment to love is exactly the kind of love every mom exemplifies to us captured by the 1986 song Coming Around Again by one of our favorites, Ms. Carly Simon.

Baby sneezes
Mommy pleases
Daddy breezes in
So good on paper
So romantic
But so bewildering

I know nothing stays the same
But if you're willing to play the game
It's coming around again
So don't mind if I fall apart
There's more room in a broken heart (broken heart)

You pay the grocer
You fix the toaster
You kiss the host goodbye
Then you break a window
Burn the soufflé
Scream a lullaby

I know nothing stays the same
But if you're willing to play the game
It's coming around again
So don't mind if I fall apart
There's more room in a broken heart

And I believe in love
But what else can I do
I'm so in love with you

Written by Ms. Simon in 1986 as soundtrack for the dramatic comedy film “Heartburn” starring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson, the song captures the very essence of its writer Nora Ephron’s fictionalized account of her tumultuous marriage and divorce with her first husband Carl Bernstein, the famous reporter who unearthed the Watergate scandal with fellow Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward. It is a very touching movie with great performances by Streep and Nicholson perfect for this Mothers’ Day too.

Mothers are the best examples of the love Jesus is speaking of in the gospel today that Simon portrayed in her song Coming Around Again.

It is the love that mothers affirm over and over again despite the pains and hurts inflicted by their husband and children; it is the faithful love of every mom even if others are unfaithful; most of all, it is the love that remembers and never forgets, always forgiving, kind and understanding expecting nothing in return.

Yes, it sounds like in a movie like “Heartburn” but it is still so true as we have experienced with our own mother!

That is why I like that part when Simon declared:

I know nothing stays the same
But if you're willing to play the game
It's coming around again
So don't mind if I fall apart
There's more room in a broken heart (broken heart)

The love Jesus is commanding us is the very same love mothers exemplify: they are so aware “nothing stays the same” with unfaithful husband, ungrateful children yet, they keep on loving because it is “coming around again”. Most of all, because they “believe in love”.

And I believe in love
But what else can I do
I'm so in love with you

Without love, humanity will go extinct.

Because of love, as proven by mothers, we have learned that every tragedy, every suffering and problem we go through leads to happy ending primarily because we discover something in ourselves and in someone beyond far more important than any situation or plight we may be into.

In that song and movie, you will find how love is the source of constant deep joy when we are suffering especially in silence. It is here we find the coming around in fullness of love in Jesus: his promised revelation of himself to those who keep on loving despite and in spite of everything. (See also our homily this Sunday, https://lordmychef.com/2026/05/09/easter-is-making-jesus-present-in-our-love/)

Here now is Ms. Carly Simon with Coming Around Again that was included in her 1987 album of the same title. Don’t forget to hug your mom today, to thank her and greet her with a happy mother’s day!

From YouTube.com.

Easter is making Jesus present in our love

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Sixth Sunday of Easter, Cycle A, 10 May 2026
Acts 8:5-8, 14-17 ><}}}*> 1 Peter 3:15-18 ><}}}*> John 14:15-21

*Photo by author, Bucharest, Romania, November 2025.*

Jesus wraps up this Sunday his Last Supper discourse into its very meaning of love as basis of our relationships in him who is both our “gate” as the Good shepherd (April 26) and our “home” (May 3). It was at his Last Supper when Jesus gave his new commandment of love that is why Holy Thursday is also known as Maundy Thursday from the Latin mandatum for “command.”

Jesus said to his disciples: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments… In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and reveal myself to him” (John14:15, 19-21)

See how Jesus mentioned the word “love” five times in our short gospel this Sunday.

Love is the basis of every relationship; without love, any relationship will not last, will not grow, will not mature and deepen into what it is meant to be.

This is most true in our relationship as disciples of Christ wherein love is more than a feeling but a decision, a choice we make daily in favor of Jesus through the persons around us like your spouse and children, our parents, and fellow disciples. And mothers!

Happy Mothers’ Day to every mom especially those in their sick bed, those widowed, and those who gone ahead of us to eternity.

Mothers are the best examples of the love Jesus is speaking of in the gospel today.

It is the love we affirm despite the pains and hurts of misunderstanding from people we love; it is the love calling us to remain faithful even if others are not; it is the love that remembers and never forgets; it is the love that forgives, that cares and understands without asking anything in return.

It is a love that unfolds, like a process going through stages that calls us to be patient as St. Paul described it in one of his letters. That is why Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit later to his disciples to understand better his lessons and mission for them.

See how in the first reading we have a glimpse of the kind of love of Jesus calling us – the conversion of the people of Samaria: first was Philip coming to them like preparing the ground for the gospel in them and when they seem to be ready, Peter and John arrived to pray over them to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit. More than to show us how the Holy Spirit works, the story is all about the love that bound the early Church together especially when the persecution begun.

I prefer the word “unfolding” in describing love wherein slowly there is the sort of “unveiling” of the cover of the face because love is more than a concept and thought or experience: love is a person as John wrote in his first letter, Deus caritas est, God is love (1Jn.4:8).

It is the title of the first encyclical by Pope Benedict XVI who wrote that true love involves transformation wherein the lover seeks to become like his beloved, moving from selfish desires known as eros into the self-sacrificial and other-centered love called agape, the Greek word used by John in writing his account of the Last Supper.

The love that Jesus is calling us is that love of his on the Cross we make present in the Eucharist, that even though we repeat it over and over daily, we never get fed up because something is happening in us, there is something changing, making us better, more matured, more loving that we keep coming back to the Holy Mass to listen to his words and receive him Body and Blood under the signs of the bread and wine.

Every true love is always a person. This is the reason why those who love persevere and forge into every obstacle, fight for their love, bear all pains because we find our fulfillment in being with our beloved, whether physically or spiritually. The mode does not really matter because true love touches our very personhood always.

Here lies the beauty of Albert Camus’ 1947 novel The Plague that had a sort of rediscovery during the 2020 COVID pandemic where he wrote that “A loveless world is a dead world, and always there comes an hour when one is weary of prisons, of one’s work, and of devotion to duty, and all one craves for is a loved face, the warmth and wonder of a loving heart.”

*Our Lady of Fatima University-GawadKalinga in Bagac, Bataan.*

Without love, humanity will go extinct.

Because of love, every tragedy, every suffering and problem we go through leads to happy ending primarily because we discover something in ourselves and in someone beyond far more important than any situation or plight we may be into.

And that is the joy of the love of Jesus Christ when God is revealed in us in his love when we love like him. It is Jesus Christ whom we “sanctify as Lord in our hearts” (1Pt.3:15) is the one we imitate and follow, the one we see and, most of all, the only one we must share when we love, when we serve.

I know, these are easier said than done.

Specially when we who love are not loved by those we love. Or taken for granted, even forgotten.

Again, let us return to that love of mothers that is most closest to the love of Jesus Christ, a love so willing to give up one’s self in spite and despite of everything.

One of the hardest things many of us go through like priests and nuns, the eldest in the family and the newly widowed or anyone looked up to as someone without a problem: very often people forget us or take us for granted including those supposed to be closest to us, thinking we are fine or doing great without any hint of the sufferings we are going through.

But, it is a source of constant deep joy while suffering in silence, God’s grace is always overflowing because Jesus is within each one of us who believes in him and tries hard to keep his commandments.

We just have to do our part, to keep on believing in Jesus, loving Jesus, and most of all, keeping his commandments because Jesus is the “explanation to anyone who asks us for a reason for our hope” (1Pt.3:15).

We are about to close the Easter Season in two weeks: next Sunday will be the Solemnity of the Lord’s Ascension and after that the Pentecost Sunday. This Last Supper scene perfectly captures the very kind of love Jesus is asking us – a love so personal like his, a love that unfolds and grows deeper as we love more despite the pains and sufferings, and a love that often looks absurd to others and even to us because it is not physical. And beyond logic.

Jesus invites us to continue to be his loving presence in this selfish world, where everyone demands of deserving so many perks in life. Let us do away with that expression “dasurv ko” this or that. Let us pray for more love to conquer all. Don’t forget to hug or remember your mom this Mothers’ Day. Have a blessed Sunday and keep cool and hydrated too! Amen.

Easter is friendship in Jesus

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday in the Fifth Week of Easter, 08 May 2026
Acts 15:22-31     <*((((><  +  ><))))*>     John 15:12-17

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, March 2024.*

Thank for reminding
me today, Jesus,
that we are friends:
"I no longer call you slaves,
because a slave does not know
what his master is doing.
I have called you friends,
because I have told you everything
I have heard from the Father"
(John 15:15).

Forgive me, Jesus,
in being so caught up
in the hustle and bustle 
of daily life,
of the ministry,
doing so many things for you
that I forget you have called
us friends,
not slaves.

How lovely
it is, Lord, to be
called as your friend,
that we are called and chosen
to be friends in order to love
like how you have loved us;
teach me to have that attitude
of your Apostles at the early
stage of your Church
who decided 
"not to place any burden
beyond" (Acts 15:28)
your command to love
one another;
many times, 
we forget that we are friends
loving one another like you
because unconsciously
we have made you into an earthly master
so demanding for results from us
that in turn made us a slave driver
to everyone.

Let us never forget
that truth that we are friends,
Lord Jesus in you, 
that we too must be a friend
to everyone.
Amen.

Easter is the joy of Jesus

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday in the Fifth Week of Easter, 07 May 2026
Acts 15:7-21     ><)))*> + ><)))*> + ><)))*>     John 15:9-11

*Photo by author, Anvaya Cove, Bataan, May 2023.*

Let me abide in you,
Jesus,
our true vine;
let me abide in you,
so that my joy
may be complete 
in you,
Jesus.

More than mere
happiness when our lips
express our good feelings,
joy comes from the heart,
deep down there where 
we feel wholeness,
security,
contentment,
and assurance of
being one in you,
Jesus,
our way,
our truth,
our life.

Joy is fulfillment
in you, Jesus,
in standing by your truth,
bearing all pains of
being misunderstood,
of fighting for what is
right and just,
most of all,
of simply loving
beyond measure
by seeing you on the
face of those different
from us like during
the Council of Jerusalem
in the first reading.

Today, 
we debate a lot,
Jesus, without even
facing each other,
throwing insults,
invectives and
threats in social media;
true discussions result
in joy, unity and
magnanimity, 
not anger
and animosity;
grant us the grace
to seek you, Jesus,
in our discussions of
everything that are often
centered on our own 
selfish interests;
make us open to others
and to you, Jesus,
so that our joy 
may be complete
in you by adhering 
to your gospel of life 
and love.
Amen.

Holiness in Silence

Lord My Chef Recipe for Holy Saturday, 04 April 2026

A blessed Holy Saturday to you.

One of the most unforgettable scenes of COVID-19 pandemic when it started in the summer of 2020 was like what we have every Holy Saturday – empty streets with everyone away.

And silent.

What a blessed Holy Saturday we have again today like six years ago as we are in the midst of another worldwide crisis in oil prices due to the US-Israeli war against Iran, inviting us to rediscover the beauty and value of silence.

Because holiness is found in silence, the very language of God.

In the Bible, silence always precedes God’s appearances and revelations:

From the Book of Genesis in the story of creation when there was nothing – therefore, silent – to John’s gospel that said, “In the beginning was the word” to indicate there was only silence until “the word became flesh” (Jn.1:1, 14) in Jesus Christ who was totally silent during his growing up years in Nazareth and later frequently went into deserted places to rest and pray in silence during his ministry.

Here we find in Jesus that holiness is first found in silence and in rest, when we listen more to God to do his will.

On that first Holy Saturday when Jesus was buried in a tomb, the whole creation came to full circle.

See how after completing creation, God rested on the seventh day and made it holy (Gen.2:3) while Jesus was laid to rest on the seventh day too after completing his mission of salvation.

Silence and rest always go together.

This we vividly find in our Filipino word for rest which is magpahinga that literally means “to be breathed on”, to be filled with God which is what holiness is all about.

Like in the creation of the first man who was breathed on by God to be alive, Jesus breathed on his disciples locked in the upper room after greeting them with peace twice on the evening of Easter.

Silence is not being quiet, not an emptiness when we shut off all sounds and noise.

Silence is actually a fullness, of trying to listen to all sounds and noise in order to distinguish which to listen to. It is in silence when we hear our true selves, when we understand and feel others and most especially become one in God.

That is why when we rest, we return to Eden, like the garden where Jesus was buried.

Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried. So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day; for the tomb was close by (John 19:41-42).

What a lovely image of God’s rest and silence in Eden and of Jesus laid to rest at a tomb in a garden because to rest in silence is to stop playing God as we return to him as his image and likeness again.

Today let us cultivate anew the practice of silence, of listening to the various sounds around us and within us and most of all, trying to listen to the most faint, the softest sound that is often the voice of God within us, reassuring us that in the midst of his silence, he never leaves us, that with him we are rising again to new life like Jesus Christ.

Let us be like those women who rested on the sabbath when Jesus was laid to rest. That like them, we may trust God more by being true to ourselves even in the midst of this oil crisis.

The women who had come from Galilee with him followed behind, and when they had seen the tomb and the way in which his body was laid in it, they returned and prepared spices and perfumed oils. Then they rested on the sabbath according to the commandment (Luke 23:55-56).

Imagine the more difficult situation those women were into during that time. But they dared to rest in silence in the Lord. Unlike us today worried only with prices of oil and other goods, without threats at all to our lives.

Silence is the domain of trust; people afraid of silence are afraid to trust.

Perhaps that explains why almost everyone is glued with their cellphones or stuck with earphones and EarPods to have each one’s own world, unmindful of others.

On the other hand, the most trusting people are the silent ones. And always, the most loving ones too.

Let us pray:

Help us to be silent today, 
O God our Father 
as we remember your Son Jesus Christ’s 
Great Silence – Magnum Silentium – 
when he was “crucified, died and was buried; 
he descended to the dead and on the third day he rose again.”
Breathe on us your Spirit of life and joy,
O God as we rest in you,
listening to your voice within us
so that we may follow always Jesus Christ's
path to Easter in the Cross.
Amen.

A rockin’ playlist for Holy Week

Lord My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 29 March 2026

*Photo by author, St. Ildephonse Parish, Tanay, Rizal, January 2021.*

If you have a lot of cash to spend for a unique Holy Week just outside Metro Manila, I suggest you visit St. Ildephonse Parish in Tanay, Rizal and look for the Seventh Station of the Cross when Jesus fell for the second time on his way to the Calvary.

You won’t miss it as you enter the main door immediately to your left. Done by local artisans in 1785, these huge woodcarvings depict one of the most unique Stations of the Cross in the world where soldiers and characters including Jesus Christ have Malay features of brown complexion, large and round eyes, and “squared” body features. Everything was given a local taste to make the Station so Filipino like the soldier leading them blowing a carabao horn for a tambuli while another carried a bolo instead of a sword.

But, the most astonishing of all is a man so prominently portrayed at the middle wearing sunglasses, looking far outside. Yes, the dude wore shades!

Historians we consulted told us smoked glasses have been available in the Philippines during that time courtesy of Chinese traders. According to the catechists and volunteers we talked to while at the parish, they were told by their elders that man with sunglasses is the high priest Caiaphas who led the Sanhedrin trial of Jesus who declared him guilty of blasphemy in claiming himself to be the Christ, the Son of God.

But, why wear shades? Was it because he refused to see and accept the truth that Jesus indeed is the Christ, the Son of God just like us today who wear all kinds of colored glasses presenting our own image God too far from who he really is. Or, as my kinakapatid Dindo Alberto (+) who was my roadtrip companion at that time said it shows that rock and roll had long been in existence since the time of Jesus Christ, the real Superstar.

I believe Kuya Dindo that is why I prepared two rock and rollin’ music this Holy Week for you to listen and reflect while driving on your way to a visita iglesia to pray and be with family and friends.

I have always loved The Smiths since college especially when NU107 came out at the other end of the FM band in the late 80’s. Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now remains one of my personal anthems since it first came out in 1984.

When I was assigned as chaplain here at the Our Lady of Fatima University in Valenzuela in 2021, I was surprised to hear some of our college students singing and posting on their socmed There Is A Light that Never Goes Out – kids so young almost like my own pamangkins! And that’s one thing I like most with the Gen Zs and Millennials who also love and embrace our music and artists because they are simply the best. Period.

A week after Ash Wednesday last February 24, I used There Is A Light That Never Goes Out by The Smiths in my monthly spiritual talk to our employees at the University and the Fatima University Medical Center as a fitting music and guide in our 40-day journey of Lent which is more of an inner journey into our hearts to find Jesus Christ, the Light who never goes out amid life’s many darkness. Moreover, Jesus is the Light who never goes out as he restores our sight from the blindness we go through like in the healing of the man born blind that was the gospel last March 15, fourth Sunday in Lent. See how its lyrics also apply either to Jesus speaking to us or to anyone seeking Jesus.

Take me out tonight
Where there's music and there's people
And they're young and alive
Driving in your car
I never, never want to go home
Because I haven't got one
Anymore

Take me out tonight
Because I want to see people
And I want to see life
Driving in your car
Oh please, don't drop me home
Because it's not my home, it's their home
And I'm welcome no more

Of course, composer Johnny Marr and lyricist-vocalist Morissey may have other meanings behind this song considered as their finest but still, it speaks about finding hope that leads us to believe in ourselves, in others and in God. In this mass-mediated world that declares to see is to believe, Jesus tells us the other way around, believe that you may see!

When we believe, then we truly “see” and that is when we love, love, and still love until it hurts even unto death because that is when we find meaning in life and everything. And everyone.

And if a double-decker bus
Crashes into us
To die by your side
Is such a heavenly way to die
And if a ten tonne truck
Kills the both of us
To die by your side
Well, the pleasure, 
the privilege is mine

Jesus Christ did just that that is why we have Good Friday; he rose from the dead at Easter and since then, has remained the Light who never goes out, lighting our paths in this time of many darkness in life.

Sometimes, sunglasses help us see clearly as they filter distracting lights and contrasts that blur our vision with the naked eyes. And so, here is our second rock n’ roll song for Holy Week, Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga’s Die With A Smile which we used also in our employees’ Lenten recollection at the University and Hospital last February 24.

Aside from the striking contrast of The Smiths’ There Is A Light That Never Goes Out that represented the punk, alternative, dark side in me, Die With A Smile represented the 1970’s funky groove I grew up with. And that is why I love and follow Bruno Mars: aside from having a Filipino blood in his Pinay mother, his experiments with music strongly rooted in the 1970’s make us from the older generation feel so welcomed and relate so well with him and his message of faithful love until the end of time.

Along with its lyrics that speak from the heart, the melody and great combination of the voices and talents of Bruno and Lady Gaga make Die With A Smile so lovingly touching, even mesmerizing that make you think of the only one you truly love most that you want to spend the rest of your life with until the end of the world – to die with a smile.

Ooh
I, I just woke up from a dream
Where you and I had to say goodbye
And I don't know what it all means
But since I survived, I realized

Wherever you go, that's where I'll follow
Nobody's promised tomorrow
So I'ma love you every night like it's the last night
Like it's the last night

If the world was ending, I'd wanna be next to you
If the party was over and our time on Earth was through
I'd wanna hold you just for a while and die with a smile
If the world was ending, I'd wanna be next to you

Holy Week remind us of our only one true and first love of all – God. We call this the Holy Week in Filipino as mga Mahal na Araw from the word mahal that means mahalaga or important and essential. That is why another word for love in Filipino is pagmamahal, literally to give importance. Not just pag-ibig which is more about liking as ibig means.

In these days of rising costs of fuels and commodities, anything expensive is described too as mahal in Filipino because they are so important and essential. Like the ones we love. Holy Week is mga Mahal na Araw, the holiest days when Jesus Christ expressed his deepest love – pagmamahal – for each of one of us by dying on the Cross because everyone is loved so immensely by God.

Again, Jesus was the first to have “died with a smile” because he offered his very self completely and freely, willingly for us because he loves us. And he had promised that he shall come again at the end of time. Are we willing to wait for him by loving truly those persons he had entrusted to us in this life?

Until our next music, have a blessed Holy Week and most blessed Easter everyone!

Welcoming Jesus in life’s many contrasts

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion, Cycle A, 29 March 2026
Isaiah 50:4-7  +++  Philippians 2:6-11  +++  Matthew 27:11-54

We begin today the Holy Week with Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. Its long name is derived from the two celebrations that developed separately in Jerusalem and Rome during the first one thousand years of Christianity, one of the oldest in our liturgy.

As early as the fourth century, Christians in Jerusalem celebrated Palm Sunday at the city gate with a procession led by its bishop followed by people holding palms reenacting Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. Meanwhile in Rome, the Pope ushered the Holy Week with the proclamation of the long gospel account from the Lord’s Supper to his Passion, Death and Burial. Eventually in the 12th century, Jerusalem’s practice of a palm procession with the blessing of palms added by the French in year 800 reached Rome and was celebrated separately. After more than a 1600 years, it was only in Vatican II when the two celebrations from Jerusalem and Rome were merged into one that we now have its official designation as Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion.

It is a beautiful story of how two distinct practices in Jerusalem and Rome, of two contrasting liturgies mirrored our different and unique journeys into the mystery of God in Jesus Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection.

And I love that contrast because our life is filled too with many contrasts that make it so beautiful and meaningful.

Contrast is when we compare differences between two or more things in order to highlight distinctive features like light and shadows, or pains and joys that make us see life fullest. Contrasts many times are a grace from God when he works in disguise among us, within us, as he writes straight crooked lines in our lives that eventually lead us to him and be fulfilled.

All our readings today present us with many contrasts that enable us to find and welcome Jesus coming to us like that Sunday in Jerusalem in the midst of our pain and sufferings, joys and fears. Three things I wish to reflect this Sunday.

*Photo by author, Hagia Sophia, Turkiye, November 2025.*

First contrast we find is the wisdom of God and the folly of man.

Read the longer version of the gospel from Matthew 26:14-27:66 and you find the many contrasts presented by the evangelist to highlight God’s wisdom in Jesus and man’s folly among the Jewish people led by their priests and elders, Pontius Pilate, and even with the prince of Apostles, Simon Peter!

At his trial before the Sanhedrin at the house of the high priest Caiaphas, Jesus was so comp-composed, silently listening to the many false accusations against him, and then shocked when he admitted amnd declared his being the Christ indeed (Mt.26:57-68)! And while all these were going inside the house of Caiaphas, outside was Peter denying Jesus thrice when asked of his being a disciple (vv.69-75)!

Again we see this glaring contrast of God’s wisdom in Christ and man’s folly in Pilate as Jesus remained silent during trial, answering briefly only when necessary that have put his enemies at the defensive posture (Mt.27:11-14). And how foolish they were in choosing to set free a known criminal in order to crucify the Christ (vv.21-26) which continues to these days in our own country as we keep on electing corrupt and inept people into office.

The most tragic of all is how some people while professing to be Christians are like those mob in Jerusalem still defending a known murderer now facing trial for crimes against humanity who had cursed God several times, made fun of women including those raped and under whose administration happened rampant and shameless corruption and decadence.

How sad that despite our supposed to be many advancements in science and technology that have completely altered our way of living and way of thinking, we have actually become more lost and empty than ever. Like Pilate and the Jewish people of that time with their elders, the more we assert our supposed to be superior knowledge on everything, the more we sink into emptiness and meaninglessness.

Let us not be blinded with our intelligence that have sent men to space and moon and shrunk the globe into a village but have made us grow more apart from each other; open our eyes and our hearts in Jesus Christ who is the truth because he is the only way in life.

Second contrast we find is that true power is in weakness not in strength.

Everybody at the trial and crucifixion of Jesus were at their own kind of “power play” especially the soldiers with the Jewish leaders and their cabal of followers (Mt.27:27-44). Imagine the very act of stripping Jesus or anyone for that matter of clothes – it is the most brazen display of power over someone. Not contented with that, they mocked Jesus while unconsciously recognizing him truly as king with the sign placed above his head, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews” (v.37). They would confirm this later at the death of Jesus when they declared “Truly, this was the Son of God!” (v.54).

At his trial and sentencing until his crucifixion, Jesus showed that true power lies in weakness and surrender as St. Paul eloquently expressed in the second reading today, “Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather he emptied himself” (Phil.2:6-7).

How sad the whole world is now plunged into a great disaster without any clear sight of an end in the war launched by the US and Israel against Iran. Who’s really winning? Despite the sophisticated and powerful weapons of the US and Israel, how come Iran still continues to launch many missile attacks against its neighbors and worst of all, control a supposed to be tiny strait that had sent fuel prices beyond reach of Tomahawk missiles!

Let’s look into our own lives, in those moments we “power tripped” against others: what happened? Have we really won over them or, are we now suffering its dire consequences, even paying the price of our too much pride and display of power and strength? Jesus shows us in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem until his Passion and Death, true power is in weakness and surrender. It is the only path to Easter because it is the path of life and love which we shall see next.

Third contrast we have seen in the passion of the Lord: life symbolized by blood is for love and caring, not for vengeance nor convenience. Not even a solution to a problem.

At the trial of Jesus, when Pilate felt at a loss that he could not set Christ free, he decided to wash his hands to free himself of any responsibility for his death: “I am innocent of this man’s blood. Look it to yourselves.” And the whole people said in reply, “His blood be upon us and upopn our children” (Mt.27:25-26).

It was the height of human arrogance and pride, of folly and insensitivity that sadly happens right in our homes, in our schools and offices, in the society and even in the church maybe.

Instead of using technology and the sciences for the care and preservation of human life symbolized by blood, these have actually objectified persons into things, from contraceptives to abortions, genetic manipulation and gender redefinition. We have become so impersonal that people are seen more in economic andn utilitarian terms especially infants and children as well as the sick and elderly, the most vulnerable ones among us. Worst, criminals and others labeled as misfits are disposed like things either through judicial or extrajudicial killings. So heartless.

See the contrast presented by Matthew in this aspect when at the Last Supper, Jesus “took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins'” (Mt.26:27-28).

Life is precious because it is vulnerable that is why God became human in Jesus Christ like us in everything except sin. Right after his birth, he faced the murderous threats of a king and now an adult, he offered himself freely to die on the Cross because he loved us so much so that we too may finally be able to love again like him as willed by God since the beginning.

Isaiah’s Song of the Suffering Servant in the first reading showed this contrast of Yahweh’s servant fulfilled in Christ Jesus of how he valued life so much, of bearing all pains and hurts because of love.

In his triumphal entry into Jerusalem up to his Passion and Death, Jesus showed us so many contrasts for us to see the bigger picture of life itself, of one another as brother and sister, of God who loves us so much. Take time to examine every contrast in life for God is surely in there, even sometimes in disguise. Amen. Have a blessed Holy Week ahead!