Life is a daily Advent, a new beginning in Christ

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Second Sunday in Advent, Cycle B, 10 December 2023
Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11 ><}}}*> 2 Peter 3:8-14 ><}}}*> Mark 1:1-8

*Photo by author, the Forest Lodge, Camp John Hay, Baguio City, 12 July 2023.*

It has been a week since we started our new liturgical year with the Season of Advent. And let’s admit that we have hardly noticed how fast time passes by these days with all the parties and gatherings we have been having since December started!

And that is the joy of patient waiting even in the dark during this time of active waiting for Jesus Christ’s Second Coming which is the first phase of this Season of Advent.

If we remain and persevere to be faithful in Jesus and his teachings, we realize that every day in life is always a new beginning in Christ to start anew in becoming a better disciple. We hardly notice the passing of time when we love and serve God in others because we experience that life is more of a series of beginnings than of endings as Mark reminds us at the start of his gospel account:

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.
Mark1:1

*Photo by author, Malolos Cathedral Advent 2019.*

Mark was the first to write a gospel account, composing it in Rome in the year 70 AD when the early Christians who were mostly of Jewish origins were under persecution. For his audience of Jewish origins, the word beginning meant a lot like the Book of Genesis, connoting how God is always present amid the persecution, of how order comes after chaos.

In simply declaring to us “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God”, Mark is reminding us how God is always starting a new creation, a new order, a new revelation in us and among us.

Very often, beginning connotes an ending; but, not with God nor with the gospel who is Jesus Christ. Remember how Mark’s gospel ended abruptly and unexpectedly in the discovery of the empty tomb by Mary Magdalene, Mary mother of James and Salome who all “fled… bewildered and trembling… in great fear that they said nothing to anyone” (Mk.16:1-8).

By “ending” his gospel account that way, Mark actually wanted his listeners that include us today to continue writing and proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ in our own lives. For Mark, the gospel never ends but simply begins over and over again through the lives of disciples who meet and befriend Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Now, to think of the beginning is to remember our origin or starting point, the person of Jesus Christ.

The late Fr. Henri Nouwen used to say that the word remember means “to make a member a part again”; hence, re-membering our beginning is making God in Jesus Christ a part of our lives again, of our present moment again.

More than just going back to the basics shouted by everyone these days even in the Church, remembering our beginning is bringing back the person of Jesus Christ in our lives today. That is what a new beginning means, a return to the person of Jesus Christ who is the essence of Christmas, of the Church, of the world.

Everything in life becomes clear when we begin in Jesus Christ. All these questions we have been asking inside, the many whys of life, will only be answered and clarified when we begin in Jesus. Many in the world would say it is very simplistic but, the problems of the world then and now are all due to the removal Jesus Christ from our hearts, homes, offices, and classrooms, and relationships. Begin again in Christ and see how everything, everyone becomes new and beautiful again!

Sometimes, Mark’s gospel is called the “Gospel of Beginnings” because of his frequent mention of Jesus “beginning” to do something like when “he began to teach” in many occasions in the synagogue and temple area (Mk. 4:1, 6:2 and 34, and 8:31) or when “he began to speak in parables” (Mk. 12:1); when Jesus came to Jerusalem and entered the temple, “he began to cleanse” it (Mk.11:15) while at the agony in the garden, “he began to be troubled” (Mk. 14:33).

All these indicate how our ministries began in Jesus Christ and nowhere do we find Mark telling us Jesus had ended them all. In fact, in the longer ending of his gospel that was later on added by his followers, we find Jesus telling his disciples that include us today to continue with his works and mission. Every mission we have in life especially in the Church must always begin in Jesus Christ.

After all, when we reflect on Mark’s brief opening sentence to his gospel account that associated the word beginning with the Lord’s name Jesus Christ, we find him telling us that same truth that everything created began in Jesus Christ as expounded by John at his prologue (Jn. 1:1-5) and Paul in his letter to the Colossians 1:15-20.

Examine how John and Paul beautifully expressed in poetry their theology simply expressed by Mark as “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God”.

Here we find that even if Mark’s gospel is the shortest of the four gospel accounts, “brevity is the soul of wit” (Shakespeare in Hamlet). And that is the short of all these things we believe in and hold so dearly in our faith: Jesus Christ as the beginning and the origin of everything.

There lies the challenge to us these days when people no longer remember, and even willing to forget God and Jesus Christ: of how like Mark we can always begin each day, our work and ministries, our missions and everything in Jesus Christ. In the first reading, God calls us through the Prophet Isaiah to comfort his people, especially those sick and weary, those losing hope in life that until now happens. Perhaps because what we keep on offering others are not really the essential one, Jesus Christ, our beginning.

It is a brand new week again as we get closer to Christmas and most especially to Parousia. The problems and darkness remain in our lives. The words of Peter in the second reading today are scary when God “dissolves” everything at the Parousia; however, it is a call for us believers to witness the hope in Christ’s coming not by our words and beliefs but by our witnessing to Jesus Christ, by the holiness of our lives that begin in Jesus Christ. Amen.

Si Ned at si San Martin ng Tours

Lawiswis Ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-15 ng Nobyembre 2023

Ang kauna-unahang may sakit na aking pinahiran ng Banal na Langis ay ang tiyahin ng aking ina na kung tawagin namin ay Ned. Ayon sa nanay ng aming ina na Ate ng Ned, utal daw kasi ang dalawang nauna niyang anak at hindi masabi ang Nana Cedeng (o Chedeng), ang palayaw ng kanyang tunay na pangalang Mercedes.

Kaya, naging Ned na ang nagisnang tawag ng mga mommy ko at pati na kaming magpipinsan na kanyang mga apo. Walang anak ang Ned dahil maaga siyang nabiyuda nang magka-cancer ang kanyang kabiyak na siyang tunay na taga-Bocaue, Bulacan. Mula sa Aliaga, Nueva Ecija ang mga lola ko sa panig ng aking ina na mula sa angkan ng mga Bocobo.

Nang ako ay magdiriwang ng aking Primera Misa Solemne bilang bagong orden na pari noong ika-26 ng Abril 1998, hindi na nakapaglalakad ang Ned kaya bago kami magprusisyon, siya ay aking dinalaw at pinahiran ng Langis ng Maysakit. Pagkaraan ng ilang Linggo, sinugod siya sa ospital dahil sa stroke at nag-comatose kaya kinailangang ipasok sa ICU. Hindi naman siya kaagad namatay tulad ng iba kong pinahiran ng Langis ng Maysakit….

Pagkaraan ng isang linggo, inilipat na siya ng regular na silid at aking dinalaw. Hindi naapektuhan ng stroke ang kanyang pananalita. Tumingin siya ng matagal sa akin at pagkaraan ay hiniling na lumapit sa kanya.

“Mayroon akong ikukuwento sa iyo, Father, pero hindi ko alam kung ikaw ay maniniwala” sabi niya sa akin. Hinagod ko kanyang noo gaya ng ginawa niya sa akin noong ako ay natigdas nang bata pa. “Ano po inyong sasabihin?”, tanong ko sa kanya.

*Larawan kuha ni G. Bryan San Luis, Kapistahan ni San Martin ng Tours, Patron ng Bayan ng Bocaue, Bulacan, 11 Nobyembre 2023.*

“Father… ako e namatay na. Ang natatandaan ko lang ay naglalakad ako mag-isa sa madilim na kalsada. Maya-maya may nakita akong liwanag at bigla mayroong sumalubong sa aking mama na naka-kabayong puti. Sinabi sa akin nung mama, ‘Cedeng, magbalik ka na ika… hindi mo pa oras.'”

Sabi ng Ned, kaagad naman siyang tumalikod at naglakad pabalik ngunit muli niyang nilingon yung mama na naka-kabayo. Tinanong daw niya, “Hindi ba kayo si San Martin ng Tours?” At sumagot naman daw yung mama na siya nga si San Martin ng Tours. “E paano po ninyo ako nakilalang si Cedeng?” tanong daw niya. Sumagot daw si San Martin, “Paanong hindi kita makikilala, Cedeng, e kada piyesta ng Mahal na Krus at kapistahan ko ay nagsisimba ka palagi sa Bocaue?” Nangiti raw si San Martin sa kanya at di na niya nalaman ang mga sumunod maliban sa makita sarili niya naroon na sa ospital.

Wala daw siyang pinagsabihan ng karanasang iyon maliban sa akin dahil ako ay pari. At muli niya akong tinanong, “naniniwala ka ba Father na pinabalik ako dito ni San Martin ng Tours?” Hinagod ko muli ang noo ng Ned at sinabi ko sa kanyang “Opo, naniniwala po ako sa inyo.”

*Larawan kuha ni G. Bryan San Luis, si San Martin aming Patron kasama ang Mahal na Krus sa Wawa na amin ding ipinagpipista tuwing buwan ng Hulyo sakay ng pagoda sa Ilog ng Bocaue.*

Tumagal pa ang Ned ng limang taon bago siya pumanaw noong ika-5 ng Hulyo, 2003. Mismong sa harap ko siya namatay nang siya ay aking dalawin matapos ako magmisa sa kapit-bahay niyang namatay.

Naku, kay laking isyu noon sa aming lugar ang pagkamatay ng Ned. Ako sinisisi ng matatanda kasi daw inuna kong puntahan ang patay bago ang buhay! Ewan ko sa kanila ngunit pagpapala ang aking naranasan at nakita sa pangyayari: nang malagutan ng hininga ang Ned sa harap ko, kaagad kong tinawag ang kanyang tagapag-alaga, pinahiran ko pa rin siya ng Banal na Langis, at nang matiyak na patay na siya, kaagad akong nagmisa mag-isa doon sa kanyang silid kasama malamig niyang bangkay. (Ewan ko ba. Dalawang pari na rin, parehong Monsignor, ang namatay sa harapan ko at sa pangangalaga ko.) .

Palagi ko ikinukuwento ang “near-death experience” na iyon ng aking Lola hindi lamang sa dahil kakaiba kungdi mayroong malalim na katotohanang inihahayag – ang pagmamahal sa ating parokya, ang pananalangin ng mga Banal sa atin at higit sa lahat, ang kahalagahan ng Banal na Misa na siyang “daluyan ng lahat ng biyaya at rurok ng buhay Kristiyano” ayon sa Vatican II. Wika ni San Juan Pablo II, sa Banal na Misa aniya ay mayroong cosmic reality

Nang magkaroon ako ng sariling parokya noong 2011, isa iyon sa mga una kong kinuwento sa mga tao upang ituro pagmamahal sa kanilang parokya. Ipinaliwanag ko sa kanilang ang mga Banal na mga Patron ng parokya ang unang nangangalaga sa mga mananampalataya, ang ating mga tagapagdasal doon sa langit, mga taga-pamagitan.

*Larawan kuha ni G. Bryan San Luis, prusisyon noong Kapistahan ni San Martin ng Tours, Patron ng Bayan ng Bocaue, Bulacan, 11 Nobyembre 2023.*

Naniniwala ako na si San Martin ng Tours ang sumalubong kay Ned kasi nga hindi pa naman niya oras, kaya wala pang paghuhukom na naganap sa kanya na tanging si Jesu-Kristo lang ang makagagawa.

Ang pinaka-gusto kong bahagi ng kanyang kuwento ay ang kanilang usapan kung paano nakilala ni San Martin ang aking Lola sa tunay niyang palayaw na Cedeng. At hindi Ned.

Ipinakikita nito sa atin ang kahalagahan ng pagsisimba tuwing Linggo at mga pistang pangilin sa simbahan lalo ngayon panahon na akala ng marami ay sapat na ang online Mass. Ang Banal na Misa ay “dress rehearsal” natin ng pagpasok sa Langit. Kay sarap isipin na bukod sa Panginoon at Mahal na Birheng Maria na sasalubong sa atin doon ay kasama din ang Patron ng ating Parokya na kinabibilangan natin. Nakalulungkot maraming tao ngayon ni hindi rin alam kung ano at saan kanilang parokya! Alalahanin mga nakita ni San Juan Ebanghelista sa langit habang siya ay nabubuhay pa upang isulat sa Aklat ng Pahayag:

At narinig ko ang isang tinig mula sa langit na nagsasabi, “Isulat mo ito: Mula ngayon, mapapalad ang naglilingkod sa Panginoon hanggang kamatayan!” “Tunay nga,” sabi ng Espiritu. Magpapahinga na sila sa kanilang pagpapagal; sapagkat susundan sila ng kanilang mga gawa.”
Pahayag 14:13

Anu-ano nga ba ating mga pinagkakaabalahanan sa buhay ngayon? Anu-ano ating pinag-gagawa na susundan tayo sa kabilang buhay upang ating ipagpatuloy? Kabutihan ba o kasamaan? Huwag nating sayangin pagkakataong ipinagkakaloob sa atin ng Diyos ngayon. Siya nawa.

San Martin ng Tours, ipanalangin mo kami.

*Larawan mula sa flickr.com ng isang icon ni San Martin ng Tours hinahati kanyang kapa para sa isang pulubi.*

The ones we miss most

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Memorial of St. Leo the Great, Pope & Doctor of the Church, 10 November 2023
Romans 15:14-21 ><]]]]’> + ><]]]]’> + ><]]]]’> Luke 16:1-8

*Photo by author, San Juan, La Union, July 2023.*

I just realized today,
God our Father,
how the word “miss”
has a variety of meanings:
as something we failed or
something or someone we remember
or, someone or something we
forget and neglected.

How sad that very often,
the people we miss - 
those we forget,
even taken for granted 
because they are common,
are those nearest to us like
family and friends,
those in our inner circles.

Thus I aspire to proclaim the Gospel not where Christ has already been named, so that I do not build on another’s foundation, but as it is written: Those who have never been told of him shall see, and those who have never heard of him shall understand.
Romans 15:20-21

Is it not so funny that the 
ones we meet inside the church
every day and every Sunday are
also the very ones who are 
like us - evangelized or simply
know Jesus and his teachings;
but, where are the rest?
the unchurched?
the ones we say who must hear the
good news?

Lord Jesus Christ,
teach us to be wise like 
that steward in your parable today:
to save face and himself, he went to
see his master’s debtors he himself
must have missed,
disregarded and never given any 
importance at all because they
were common, below him in stature;
let us realize like that shrewd steward,
like St. Paul to look for those we 
miss most because of proximity
and ordinariness; they could be our
family members who have stopped praying
or celebrating Mass 
or those living closest to our church
or chapel and have lost interest in the
sacraments and liturgy
or former colleagues in the ministry
who have lapsed in their practice 
of faith.

Let us go out today
to find them and make them
feel and experience they are 
loved,
they are missed most
in Christ Jesus.
Amen.

That parable of the wedding garment

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 18 October 2023

Photo courtesy of Fr. Herbert Bacani, Parish Priest of Immaculate Conception Quasi-Parish in Marungko, Angat, Bulacan, 15 October 2023.. When the pastor is properly dressed, his servers follow; surely, the parishioners are not far behind.

Thank you very much for the warm reception to our reflection last Sunday on the parable of the wedding garment when we took as cue the lack of sense these days of dressing properly even among us priests. So glad many priests reflected too along the same line in their homilies last Sunday. And the message is very clear: we priests have to set the example in dressing properly and decently at all times.

Methinks this deterioration in manner of dressing of people has a direct correlation with the clergy’s “undressing” of their cassocks and clerical shirts after Vatican II’s reforms they have abused and misconstrued into something else. No wonder, it started too the downward slide of credibility of clergy made worst by the reports of sexual abuses.

*Photo courtesy of Fr. Len Hernandez taken during our 25th anniversary with Bp. Dennis at his chapel, 18 April 2023.*

What a shame and pity when people comment how some priests not looking as priests at all at the way they dress. Some at the extreme have become so secular with their worldly fashion senses of designer clothes, jewelries even bling-blings with high end cars and gadgets who look like actors and models than priests while at the other end are those lost hippies or beatniks and rebels of no cause at all with their long hair, maong pants and sneakers in vain efforts to do liberation theology yet too far from the masses.

Again, many will argue our personhood does not depend on our outside appearances like clothes. Of course but not absolutely true! Jesus himself had taught us in the parable of the wedding garment last Sunday that dressing properly is an imperative because whatever is seen outside is always indicative of what is inside. If we, especially us priests, could not even look good outside, how can others believe we are good inside? Besides, if we could not even dress up decently for any occasion, how can we be expected to fulfill other greater things in life? Remember the Lord’s reminder, “The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones” (Lk. 16:10).

When I was in my second year in seminary formation, our former teacher in elementary school, the late Miss Santiago saw me on my way to serve in the Mass at our parish church. When she saw me perspiring a lot, she said, “Naku, Nicanor! Iyang pagsusuot pa lang ng sutana pala e malaking sakripisyo na sa inyo? E basang basa ka na ng pawis.” That compliment by one of our kindest teacher has been etched in my heart ever since, teaching me that valuable lesson that our cassock in itself is a homily. That is why in teaching communications in the seminary, I have always insisted to seminarians that the priest himself – his clothes, his hair, his language and everything – is a sign of God before the people. Hence, I have offered them with these simple propositions:

If the priest is not that good looking and his homily is also not that good and then he comes poorly dressed during the Mass, what would people think? What an ugly God we have! Ang pangit naman ng Diyos!
If the priest is not that good looking, his homily is also not that good but his vestments are beautiful as St. John Vianney would say are a homily in itself, then people are at least consoled to have a glimpse of God’s beauty.
If the priest is not that good looking but his homily is good complemented with his beautiful vestments, people are blessed as they feel God is indeed so good all the time.
If the priest is good looking, his homily is well prepared and prayed for with his matching beautiful vestments, people joyously sing “alleluia!” in their hearts as they are touched by God.

In 403 AD, St. Augustine wrote a catechism manual for his deacon named Deogratias called De Catechizandis Rudibus (On Catechizing Beginners) in preparing candidates for Baptism. Its most important lesson is found at the last part of the thick book when St. Augustine told Deogratias to always remember “the teacher/catechist is the lesson himself/herself.”

In the same manner, the priest is always the homily himself whatever he is doing and especially wearing, 24/7. There is no way of dissecting our being a priest from our being individuals and citizens; everything in us will always be seen and measured in Jesus Christ our eternal Priest and Master. That is why last Sunday in the parable of the wedding garment, Jesus taught us also of the need to be conformed in him, to be like him.

How can we priests demand people to dress properly in coming to the celebration of the Eucharist when we priests are the ones shabbily dressed?

What a shame when priests give as pretexts for not wearing the prescribed garbs because of the hot weather in the country or to be more attuned with the people we celebrate Mass with like the poor. Where is our sense of sacrifice? It is as if saying we are awaiting autumn and winter in the country before we could wear our cassocks and albs and vestments! And for those who insist on being one with the poor that they wear the simplistic white chasuble and stole, I say it is a disgrace because those who have less in life must have more of God. Mahirap na nga sila, titipirin pa natin sa magagandang gamit at damit natin?

How can we be vessels of God’s grace and blessings when we are untidy and dugyot at the altar and after the Mass?

*Pinning and capping ceremony of our nursing students, Our Lady of Fatima University-Valenzuela City with our faculty members acting as Florence of Nightingale, 2022.*

Another pretext many priests use for not wearing the proper clothes in their ministry is practicality which is essentially the capital sin called sloth. How could a priest bless a car or a store or a house no matter how small they may be with just a stole without an alb and still get stipend meant in part so he can be decently dressed? Where is our effort in serving the people if not in proper attire?

The worst case of priests along with their sacristan not dressed properly is in the celebration of the Mass for a wedding. It is so unfair and unjust when priests do not take time to consider polishing the minute details of the Mass for God’s sake as his signs and channels of grace for those embarking on a lifelong journey in Christ as husband and wife.

In my 25 years as a priest, I have always prayed for my family and friends to also love my priesthood. I think the same holds true for the people who need to embrace our priesthood, not us priests! If you love our priesthood, then, you will love our cassocks and albs and chasubles and clerical shirt too. Demand that inasmuch as we must prepare our homily, we must also prepare for our vestments. Inasmuch as you help us to be good, help us to look good too in representing Jesus Christ here on earth, reminding you of eternal life and bliss.

We live in so different a time than before where sentiments against the Church and her clergy are growing. This situation calls us priests to strive harder as witnesses and reminders of Jesus Christ. And that begins with the way we dress, the simplest and most basic sign of our identity.

*Me during my conferral of the cassock, June 1991, Immaculate Conception Major Seminary in Guiguinto, Bulacan.*

One of my unforgettable moments in my vocation history happened in 1991 when I returned to the seminary, nine years after being told to leave in 1982. That Sunday afternoon after being conferred with the white cassock, I felt something so different inside me as if telling God like the Prophet Isaiah, “Here I am, send me” (Is. 6:8).

The same prophet reminds us priests whenever we wear our priestly garments for the liturgy and ministry of that great song to God, “I will rejoice heartily in in the Lord, my being exults in my God; for he had clothed me garments of salvation, and wrapped me in a robe of justice, like a bridegroom adorned with a diadem, as a bride adorns herself with her jewels” (Is. 61:10). Let us sing that song rejoicingly, heartily! Amen.

God in our aspirations

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Twenty-fourth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 19 September 2023
1 Timothy 3:1-13 ><))))*> _ ><))))*> _ ><))))*> Luke 7:11-17

*Photo by author, CLLEX-Tarlac, 19 July 2023.*

Your words today,
O God our loving Father,
are very encouraging
and assuring 
with our varied
aspirations in life:

Beloved: This saying is trustworthy: whoever aspires to the office of bishop desires a noble task.
1 Timothy 3:1

When is an aspiration
to any office or post,
not just in the Church,
is a desire for a noble task?

Help us, 
dear Jesus to make
our aspiration a desire
for a noble task
by first looking at the needs
of others and not for our
personal advantages;
looking at how
to console others,
alleviate their sufferings
and strengthen their
faith and hopes in life
like you did to the widow 
at Nain when you were moved
with pity upon seeing the grieving
mother who had been widowed 
with no one to turn to in life;
awaken and heighten
our sensitivities,
our sense of empathy
to the silent sufferings
of so many people these
days who sometimes hide
their grief because no one
seem to care at all for them.

Secondly,
make our aspirations a
noble task by sincerely
confronting our very selves
if we have the qualifications 
for any office; let us not aspire 
for positions for selfish, personal motives
nor to what would please us;
like the criteria set by St. Paul
for those seeking to become
bishop and deacon, may we
realize that you also give the
gifts necessary to respond 
to your call; let us not insist
on ourselves, Lord.

Lastly,
may we always leave 
your mark, dear Jesus
in our works
as the surest sign
that ours is an aspiration
for a noble task; may God
our Father be the only One
recognized and seen,
felt and experienced
in our tasks like when
you raised the dead 
young man in Nain 
with everyone exclaiming
"God has visited
his people" (Lk. 7:16).

Many times, 
O God, many are losing
that aspiration to serve
you in others lest they be
mistaken for many 
opportunists politicians
who shamelessly aspire
for posts with purely
personal motives;
send us, dear God,
with many people
who would aspire
for noble tasks
of serving you
through our poor and
marginalized brothers
and sisters totally forgotten
in our many social equations.
Amen.

True joy and gratitude

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday in the Twenty-first Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 30 August 2023
1 Thessalonians 3:7-13 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 24:42-51

*Photo by author in Alfonso, Cavite, 2019.*

Loving Father,
it is always good 
to be affirmed,
to be praised, 
to be accepted;
but, like St. Paul,
there is no greater joy
for me than to be your
servant and vessel 
of grace!

Keep me simple
and humble,
to desire nothing 
but to do your will
and bring people
closer to you,
not me.

And for this reason we too give thanks to God unceasingly, that, in receiving the word of God from hearing us, you received it not as a word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which is now at work in you who believe.
1 Thessalonians 2:13

Remind me always,
dear Lord, to share
only Jesus,
always Jesus;
let me learn to leave
the scene immediately
after I have accomplished
your will; most of all,
may the people I serve 
forget me to only remember
you alone.
Amen.

What – and who – is really “good”?

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday, Memorial of St. Pope Pius X, 21 August 2023
Judges 2:11-19 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Matthew 19:16-22

*Photo by author, La Trinidad, Benguet, 11 July 2023.*

It is nice to be back here in Baguio City, this time with my brother priests for our annual clergy retreat at the St. Scholastica Spirituality Center. As usual, we started our brief “vacare Deo” with the Holy Mass and the gospel brought me to the start of my vocation history in elementary school as I found myself in that young man asking Jesus almost the same question:

a young man approached Jesus and said, “Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?” He answered him, “Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments… If you wish to be perfect, go sell, what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.
Matthew 19:16-17, 21-22

*Photo by author, Sacristy of the Manila Cathedral, 07 July 2023.*

Indeed, there is only One good, God himself. Him is what we all seek in life. St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross – St. Edith Stein – said anyone who seeks the truth seeks God, whether or not he realizes it.”

That is easier. In fact, it is God who seeks and finds us always. Not us. Our own seeking for him is a pure grace from him.

The problematique is seeking what is good.

Especially after finding God.

And that is priesthood, which is to constantly affirm and and say yes to God.

More than just obeying his commandments, doing what is good is saying yes to God every day, choosing him above all things and even person, even one’s self! Many times, I must admit, I have been like the Israelites in the first reading: after having God’s immense blessings in life, I turn away from him with my many other new gods.

What is really good who is God is contrary to what is good according to the world like wealth and power, pleasures and comforts, fame and honor, adulations and recognition, and so many other things that exaggerate our bloated ego especially in this age of instant fame and glory. They are not really good because they wane and dissipate like every wealth the world offers. Worst, when gone, we are left empty.

*Photo by author, St. Scholastica Spirituality Center, Baguio City, 21 August 2023.*

There is only One good, God himself whom we must only have as our only wealth, our only treasure, our only valuable. And to have him, we must divest ourselves of our worldly riches, of everything that massages and inflates our ego.

How lovely is that scene when Matthew noted “A young man approached Jesus”.

That is the beauty of every retreat, of every sabbath break. We become young again, we go back to our beginning when we were so simple in seeking what is good. How sad that after finding God in Jesus, we become old not in age but in our face, in our heart because we have become sad and saddled with our many possessions that possess us!

Lord Jesus Christ,
thank you for this retreat,
thank you for making me young again,
for making me go back 
to those days of innocence,
of simplicity in seeking you,
in having you,
and being like you;
help me "divest" of myself,
empty me of my pride
and other "possessions"
to fill me with your humility,
justice and love.
Amen.

Possessed by Christ

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!

Prayer for fellow workers in Christ

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday in the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time , Year I, 19 June 2023
2 Corinthians 6:1-10 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Matthew 5:38-42

*Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD in San Antonio, Zambales, 05 June 2023.*

Thank you dear Jesus
for the call to serve you;
thank you Lord for your
trust and belief in us;
thank you for the grace
to respond to your call
in every present moment
because, indeed, every 
here and now is the acceptable
time and day of salvation.

Help us dear, Jesus,
as your great apostle St. Paul
appealed to us 
in the first reading today, 
may we not receive
the grace of God 
in vain:

on the contrary, in everything we commend ourselves as ministers of God, through much endurance, in afflictions, hardships, constraints, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, vigils, fasts; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, in a Holy spirit, in unfeigned love, in truthful speech, in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness at the right and the left; through glory and dishonor, insult and praise.
2 Corinthians 6:4-8

Nobody said it to be easy
to follow you as your disciples, 
Lord Jesus; you have personally
shown us the way of love and 
mercy, peace and kindness
that the world would never
understand; only someone with
a heart like yours, no matter how
imperfect it may be, will find you 
and the joy and fulfillment you 
give especially when "we are treated
as deceivers and yet are truthful; 
as unrecognized and yet acknowledged;
as dying and always rejoicing; as poor
yet enriching many; as having nothing
and yet possessing all things"
(2 Cor. 6:8-10).

Lord Jesus Christ,
let us not give up easily
in the face of trials and
criticisms; please erase
or delete from our minds
and hearts that our efforts to
be like you, to be your witnesses
in the world should be met
with admiration and respect;
let us keep that in mind
so we may not waste time
and energy complaining
and whining with our
sufferings in doing your work;
O Lord Jesus, open our eyes
and our hearts to find you
always in our ministry
and realize that great 
privilege of sharing 
in your passion, death,
and resurrection daily.
Amen.

God our confidence

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.

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.

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!