Married life is being surprised always in order to believe and to keep loving

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 08 July 2024

Love is more than a feeling; it is a decision we make and renew daily especially when expressed in marriage. It is indeed very difficult but the most wonderful thing about being human. That is the reason why the first miracle of Jesus happened at a wedding in Cana and not in any festivity in the temple or a synagogue.

When couples love and keep that love alive, they level up in their existence, becoming holy like God because love, after all, is a gift from God. To be holy in a state of life is not being sinless but simply being filled with God, being open to God, to His surprises in order for us to believe in Him more and continue to love more.

Do not let divorce thwart this beautiful gift and plan of God to many men and women He calls to share in His love in marriage. Divorce will never solve the problems of married couples as it does not consider the spiritual and deeper human aspects of married life. Divorce is just intent on ending marriage that eventually result to more problems especially to the children.

Here is our sixth wedding homily exactly a year ago when my nephew Immi exchanged “I do” with Pat at the Manila Cathedral. We hope this may lead others to a deeper appreciation of marriage being a gift from God we have to care and protect.

All praise and thanksgiving to God our loving Father for this day, Immi and Pat! This is the day God had set to be your wedding day. Not last year, not next month nor any other day except this seventh day of July 2023.

Jesus Christ said in our gospel today, “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you” (John 15:16).

Surprised? Yes, Immi and Pat, you have both felt God surprising you many times since you met each other, mysteriously weaving your lives seamlessly together that today you are before Him at this altar to pledge your love for each other.

That is what I wish to share with you this afternoon: keep that element of surprise in your lives together, Immi and Pat. Never lose that sense of wonder because it is when we are surprised that we start to believe; when we believe, we get closer and then we love. The more we love, the more we are surprised and the more we believe until that love matures into more than feelings but a decision and commitment to love until death.

Hindi ba, Immi and Pat, that is why you are here today because you have finally decided to grow together in this love because you believe in each other and most of all in God?

There were many occasions you were both surprised at the twists and turns in your lives as individuals, beginning at how you got to know each other in the office.

Hindi naman love at first sight iyon. Hindi nga kayo magka-type pareho kaya nag-aasaran kayo palagi.

*Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte, Atok, Benguet, 01 September 2019.*

You were opposites but the more you were surprised in discovering new things about each other, the more you gravitated to each other, the more you believed in each other, surprisingly realizing that actually, you are not opposites but shared a lot in common.

That’s when you became good friends caring for each other, conversing more often with topics getting deeper like plans and views in life until one day, Pat had so much of these surprises as she juggled many things in her life and asked to speak with you, Immi, to avoid confusion and complicate things further in your friendship.

Wala pa siyang sinasabi maliban sa “mag-usap tayo” and you just told her, “Let’s go out on a date”. Iyon na yun! Kayo na! Dehins na hangout, date na. Wow, tamis!

The problem in our time is that everything, everyone is exposed. Even overexposed!

With social media all around us, everything is shown and displayed for all to see, leaving no room at all for surprises.

Many people these days want everything to be certain. Lahat segurista na ngayon.

No more surprises, no more faith because many of us have stopped believing. Remember, “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). That is why, when we are surprised, we believe; as we believe more and get surprised more, we love.

Immi and Pat, always have faith, believe and be surprised with each other and with God.

The world tells us, “to see is to believe” but our faith teaches us, “believe so that you would see.” Remember when Jesus told Thomas a week after Easter, “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed “(John 21:29b)?

Keep that childlike attitude in you of being surprised always, of having that sense of awe and wonder. That is why kids believe and trust always.

Being surprised is being open with the simple realities of life, of the joys of being alive and sharing this life with a special someone in love. Being surprised is being open to getting hurt because we believe there is that special someone who would always take care of us, with whom we can be our true selves no matter what. Being surprised is being open to the realities and ecstasy of loving and of being loved in return. Being surprised is believing in God who is a God of surprises because he loves us so much.

In the Book of Genesis, we find Jacob falling asleep at Bethel with a stone as his pillow, dreaming of a stairway to heaven. It was so good because he saw God and his angels ascending and descending the stairway to heaven that upon waking up, Jacob had that sense of wonder and awe, “Truly the Lord is in this spot, although I did not know it!” (Gen.28:16). Jacob was surprised. Then he believed. And loved and served God. In 1971, we heard Jimmy Page and Robert Plant singing, “makes me wonder” over and over in their hit Stairway to Heaven.

But, Edith Piaf said it best in 1946, of how she was surprised in finding love with her classic song La vie en rose. No, I will not sing it but will just read it to remind you God’s many surprises for you, Immi and Pat.

I thought that love was just a word
They sang about in songs I heard
It took your kisses to reveal
That I was wrong, and love is real

Hold me close and hold me fast
The magic spell you cast
This is la vie en rose

When you kiss me heaven sighs
And though I close my eyes
I see la vie en rose

When you press me to your heart
I’m in a world apart
A world where roses bloom
And when you speak, angels sing from above
Everyday words seem to turn into love songs

Give your heart and soul to me
And life will always be
La vie en rose.

Immi and Pat, God has a lot of surprises for you. Remain faithful with each other, remain faithful to Jesus Christ who has called and chosen you. Have Christ always between you in your relationship. Pray, believe and have trust in Him so you both would see more surprises, more life, more love in your married life. God bless you, Immi and Pat! Amen.

For those wishing to listen and perhaps use this classic piece, here is its English version.

From YouTube.com

Blessedness of desert

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday in the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 08 July 2024
Hosea 2:16,17-18, 21-22 <*((((><< + >><))))*> Matthew 9:18-26

Thus says the Lord: I will allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart… I will espouse you to me forever: I will espouse you in right and in justice, in love and in mercy; I will espouse you in fidelity, and you shall know the Lord (Hosea 2:16, 21-22).

Praise and glory to You,
God our loving Father!
Lead us back to You,
lead us back to the desert -
to that state of dryness,
of emptiness,
of nothingness
for us to find and 
experience You again;
lead us to the desert,
Father, for us to feel 
our heart again
that You are our first love
after all!

Forgive us, Father,
when life is in abundance
we are filled of our selves
we forget You and others;
when life is affluent,
we disregard what is right
and just, we become so greedy
with nothing enough;
when life is going on smoothly
without problems, we disregard
love and mercy as we see more
of things than persons as we veer
away from You,
sinking into infidelity,
not knowing You.

I do not ask for too much
pain and suffering;
just something enough to
knock our heads
like that father in the gospel
and woman suffering hemorrhages
for 12 years who both felt so 
isolated from the rest
like in a desert
to realize there is only You
in Jesus Christ to restore us
back to life,
back to community,
back to our real selves
and back to You.
Amen.

How to fail in marriage

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 01 July 2024

Many people today see marriage in the human level, downplaying or outrightly refusing its supernatural dimension being a gift and a grace from God. What is most funny with them is how they also insist on giving weddings some semblance of “spiritual” meanings with all the crazy symbolisms and dramatics conjured by some wedding planners that have prompted – rightly so – many parishes to impose strict rules and guidelines to stop all these follies that have robbed Matrimony of its holiness and sanctity.

We in the Church have never failed to remind couples getting married that more important than their weddings becoming Instagrammable is their spiritual preparation because marriage is a vocation, a call from God to a life of holiness for husband and wife to become Christ’s saving presence in the world.

Divorce has always been the easiest way out of many failed marriages even among God’s chosen people in the Old Testament, an attempt to free couples of moral responsibility and culpability in their failures they could not humbly admit. Jesus had explained and clarified it 2000 years ago and still, here we are insisting for divorce which is a symptom of pride, the first sin of Adam and Eve when they broke away from God. That is why, divorce is a breaking away from God too.

There are many ways to succeed in marriage but there is only one sure way to fail which is to turn away from God, to disregard God, to stop believing in God. Here now is a homily I shared two years ago at the wedding of a very good friend in my former parish in Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

*Photo by author, Don Bosco Chapel on the Hill, Bgy. Cahil, Calaca, Batangas, 03 January 2023.*

My dearest Gracie and Chino:

Congratulations on this most joyous day of your lives. Finally, after much prayers and waiting, following so many detours in your lives, you are now before the altar of the Lord to exchange vows in the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.

I am sure you must have heard so many things on being successful and fruitful in marriage. In fact while praying over this homily since last year (yes, believe me), a lot of things have also come to my mind that I felt very important so you may grow and mature in your married life. But, as I prayed more, I realized lately that while there are many ways to be successful and fruitful in marriage, there is only one sure way in order to fail as husband and wife.

Disregard God.

Stop believing in God.

Live as if there is no God.

Do not pray. Do not celebrate the Sunday Mass.

Forget God. And you will surely fail in marriage.

Without God, Gracie and Chino, you cannot truly love each other because the only true love we must all imitate despite our weaknesses and imperfections is the love of Jesus Christ poured out on us there on the Cross. He said it so clearly today in our gospel, “This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you. There is no greater love than to offer one’s life for a friend.”

Remember, Gracie and Chino, human love is always imperfect; only God can love us perfectly.

Here lies the great mystery and joy of human love, of marriage: God willed from the very start that man and woman be united in marriage. When His Son Jesus Christ came to the world, He not only reminded us of this wonderful plan of the Father for us but also elevated marriage into a sacrament, a sign of the saving presence of God.

In sharing His life with us, we are able to love like Jesus that is why He tells us too that it was Him who chose and called you, Gracie and Chino, not you who chose Him. God willed that on this day, Gracie and Chino that you get married. It was also part of His plan that you met during the COVID pandemic when we were locked down and when many weddings were either postponed or cancelled.

Very clear, Gracie and Chino, it was God who designed your marriage! Do not disregard Him. Invite Him daily into your lives in the same manner you invited Him on this day of your wedding.

*Photo by author, Don Bosco Chapel On The Hill, Bgy. Cahil, Calaca, Batangas, 08 February 2023.*

Let me warn and remind you, Gracie and Chino, that a wedding nor a sacrament is not everything. Love is difficult because love is not just a feeling but a decision we renew daily. You must have heard how some couples ran out of love that eventually, they split up, separated and failed. When we have that deep faith, fervent hope and unceasing charity and love of God, you will never run out of love, Gracie and Chino, because God is love.

Keep that in mind. If you want to remain in love, love God. That is what marriage is all about: in loving your wife, your husband, you are actually expressing your love to God who is after all our very first love. That’s what Tobias realized when he married Sarah in our first reading. Tobias went to a far away land not only to look for a wife and a cure for his father Tobit’s blindness but also for God! When he found Sarah, he also found God.

Is it not the same thing happened with you, Chino, upon meeting Gracie? It was not love at first sight but more like the experience of Tobias when God revealed by silently speaking into your heart Gracie is the woman whom you shall marry. In a flash, you felt so certain about it, Chino, and despite your distance from each other, you felt this love growing deeper every day.

There is no perfect marriage, Gracie and Chino, but every couple is surely blessed by God. Cooperate with Him, do whatever He tells you as the Blessed Mother told the waiters in the wedding at Cana where Jesus transformed water into wine. Imagine, the first miracle by Jesus Christ was in a wedding just like this!

You know why? Because love is most truest when there is forgiveness and mercy. As I have told you, human love is imperfect, only God can love us perfectly. Without God, it is impossible for us to forgive and move on with life. Without God, it is impossible for us to say sorry and ask forgiveness too. It is God who gives us the grace to be sorry and to be merciful and forgiving like Him.

When couples become hardened in their hearts as they keep tabs of each other’s sins and mistakes and misgivings, they get tired and fed up with each other and then separate.

With God, we are able to clean our slate, delete our memories and restart/refresh our programs like the computer to begin anew each day.

Without God, the festering anger within us gets worst and soon, everything crashes. That is when we fail because we do not have God as our foundation and root.

Try seeing it this way: human relationships are like two hands together.

Without God, they are like interlocking fingers where the partners are both so good, so bilib in themselves, filling each other’s needs that soon, they get filled with themselves. Like interlocking fingers that get painful, they eventually breakaway or separate from each other because love has become a demand than a gift, sex an obligation than an offering, with each one becoming more an object to be possessed than a person to be loved.

With God, human relationships are like two praying hands. Very flexible. You keep your identities and personalities intact, growing together, maturing together in love as you both create an empty space for each one’s shortcomings and most especially for God to have a place in your lives.

Like Tobit and Sarah in our first reading, pray always. Handle your lives with prayer, Gracie and Chino. The more you pray and believe in God, the more you will love Him, and the more you will believe each other too and hence, love more each other too! Keep God in your life as husband and wife. Whatever you do to each other, that you do first to Jesus who is always between you.

You see, Gracie and Chino, there are so many ways to be fruitful in marriage for as long as you are rooted in God. Take away God and you will surely fail as an individual and as a couple.

My prayer for you, Gracie and Chino is that today may be the least joyful day of your lives. Live in God through Jesus Christ with Mary our Mother. Amen.

How to fail in marriage

Getting married in time of pandemic

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 25 June 2024

*Photo by Joseph Kettaneh on Pexels.com*

It’s been more than four years since the breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic that threw many of us out of sync in life, especially those planning to get married during those critical years of 2020-2022.

I had four weddings affected by the COVID-19 lockdowns in that period; three were postponed but I was able to officiate at the two weddings when reset to another dates except the first one that did not fit my schedule. The fourth wedding I was not able to officiate because I got the virus and had to be isolated.

This is the homily I delivered at one of those three weddings postponed I officiated, between Cris my former student at the Immaculate Conception School for Boys (ICSB) in Malolos City and Tim whom I met when they were going steady while we were all taking MA courses at UST.

More funny than that was the fact Cris and Tim have planned of getting married in 2020 but have to move it to 2021 due to the pandemic; but, when COVID still persisted that year, they finally fixed their altar date to early 2022. Alas! Just as they were all set in January 2022, the church was closed on the week of their wedding after its priests got the virus!

Cris and Tim were at a loss when their wedding would finally take place until they were offered by the parish the date February 22, 2022 after the weddings of those others postponed like them. I told them to go for it than wait further for other dates lest they in turn get the virus too!

Looking back to their wedding day, I have realized how God always finds ways in helping married couples in all their problems for as long as they are willing to cooperate. This is why we cannot allow divorce to be legalized in the country for God never fails in His grace and blessings. We just have to work on them.

*From stillromancatholicafteralltheseyears.com, January 2022.*

You must have heard the saying that “God writes straight crooked lines”. And today that proves so true not only with how God wrote so crooked His straight lines in your life, Cris and Tim, but even wrote in circles to make this date your wedding day – 22 February 2022!

Cris and Tim, God has always been so sure in calling you before His altar on this date, which will similarly happen again in 200 years – 22 February 2222! God writes straight crooked lines because everything in him is perfect, like numbers. Precise and exact. Like this date you never chose, 02-22-2022.

When you consulted me last month when priests here offered you this date due to their recent lockdown, right away I told you it is the most wonderful date for your wedding being the Feast of St. Peter’s Chair… St. Peter as in San Pedro like Cristopher Tabafunda San Pedro and later, Mrs. Fatima Macam San Pedro!

It was God who willed in all eternity that you, Cris and Tim, be married today — not last year, not the other week nor next week because today is the day that the Lord has made!

*Cris and Tim are both very prayerful and good, practicing Catholics.*

You are both good with numbers like God, a mathematician who is very precise and exact like an economist and stock trader (Cris) and a marketing and sales executive (Tim) who used to do a lot of chemical research before.

But God has better and deeper plans for you that numbers cannot count nor quantify.

God wants you to always go back to basic numbers, not to those found in equations only you two can understand or multiple digits only you can count.

Jesus said it so well in the gospel today: two is equal to one. So mathematical ba?

“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”Matthew 19:5-6

Life is not about having the most but the least. That is where faith grows and deepens.

When we have so much in life, when we feel so sufficient, when we are so filled with things, we forget God. We stop believing in him, we believe more in ourselves.

And when we stop believing in God, we lose our faith and then, we stop loving, too. Sooner or later, we become empty and miserable.

So, be simple, Cris and Tim.

Reduce everything to the barest and simplest. Simplify, simplify, simplify as Henry David Thoreau said: “let your affairs be two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand.”

When we get complicated like our Facebook, life becomes difficult as we can’t find right away who and what matters most to us.

Kaya nga isa lang ang asawa, Cris at Tim, kasi hindi puwede marami. Hindi lang magulo. Magastos pa. Imagine kung dalawa o tatlo wedding rings? Pag isa lang, kita agad at alam na this – married na ang mamang ito na may cute na dimple o itong girl na ito na naka glasses at dalawa pa ang dimples! Hayaan ninyo sabihin ng mga makakita singsing ninyo na sayang at taken na pala siya!

You see, the lower the number, the simpler, the better. Madaling tumaya at manampalataya.

That’s faith! Parang PBA game kung saan kayo nagkakilala. And you have both experienced, walang tatalo sa faith in God ninyong dalawa!

God is greater and more than the numbers the wiz kids and supercomputers of the world can calculate and predict. His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor His ways. He first created just one man and one woman – just two – to be one with each other in Him, and to be faithful to Him and each other.

Because the more we become faithful, the more we become loving.

That is the message of this Feast of the Chair of St. Peter which is the “Primacy of Rome” or of the Pope: it is the primacy of faith and the primacy of love together which cannot be separated.

*Chair of St. Peter in Rome, from Wikipedia.*

Forget all those numbers Cris and Tim, focus only in the One – God in Jesus Christ. Just focus on Jesus, always Jesus.

Love is not about counting or keeping tabs and tallies, like how many “likes” and “followers” we get in our posts.

The true measure of love is when we love without measure, when we simply love, love, love. And love.

That is why we only have one heart so we can love with all our heart. Forget Sana Dalawa ang Puso Ko. It is just a song.

When you have LQ (lover’s quarrel), who should blink first, or smile? Who should take the first move to reconcile, the first to offer the hand of peace?

Whenever lovers and couples or even friends quarrel, I always say, whoever has more love to give must be the first one to initiate reconciliation, the first to blink, or smile, the first to offer the hand of peace.

To have the most love to give and share does not mean to be better or superior than the other; to have the most love to give and share is to have more faith, to have a deeper faith the he/she is ready and willing to lose everything for the sake of the loved one.

Like Jesus Christ who gave everything for us on that Cross because of love.

God bless you more, Cris and Tim. Amen.

You may check our original post at https://lordmychef.com/2022/02/23/faithful-and-most-loving/.

Expect the unexpected

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday, Solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist, 24 June 2024
Isaiah 49:1-6 ><}}}}*> Acts 13:22-26 ><}}}}*> Luke 1:57-66.80

*Photo from Wikipedia, mosaic of Jesus with Mary and John the Baptist at the Hagia Sophia in Turkey.*

Praise and glory to You,
God our loving Father
in sending us John the Baptist
as Precursor of your Son
Jesus Christ our Savior;
on this Solemnity of his birth
six months before Christmas
during the summer solstice to
remind us of John's vocation,
"a burning and shining lamp"
(John 5:35) set to decrease 
when the Light that illuminates
the world appeared in December,
the winter solstice.

Everything about John pointed 
to the unexpected - his conception
in the womb of his old, barren mother
Elizabeth, his being named not after
his father Zechariah, and his life being
spent in the wilderness, not in the
temple to follow the footsteps of
his father; most of all, his "manifestation
to Israel"  (Lk.1:80) was not about himself 
but pointed to the Christ, Jesus our Lord
and Savior.

What is not unexpected, dear Father,
is the connection between John and
Jesus and the salvific events that have
everyone filled with joy and fear at the
same time for "surely your hand hand
was with him" (Lk.1:66).

*Photo by author, Binuangan Is., Meycauayan, Bulacan, 31 December 2021.*

Open our eyes and our hearts, 
merciful Father, to always expect 
the unexpected in this life and mission,
to learn to withdraw in the wilderness 
of our lives like John 
to realize that our whole being 
like his is directed to our relationship
with Jesus the Christ.

Let us decrease
so that Jesus may increase!
Let us strive to go to the wilderness
to empty ourselves to be filled
by the Holy Spirit;
most of all,
let your words comfort us
when life becomes so difficult
in being a herald of Jesus by proclaiming
repentance and conversion (Acts 13:24):

“You are my servant, he said to me, Israel, through whom I show my glory. Though I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength, yet my reward is with the Lord, my recompense is with my God” (Isaiah 49:3,4).

How wonderful
that when I learn to expect
the unexpected from You,
O God,
that is when I am less,
Jesus becomes more in me,
then truly,
You are most gracious,
 Father through me,
like John.
Amen.

*Photo by author, birthplace of St. John the Baptist beneath the church in his honor in Ein Karem, Israel, May 2019*

“Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree.”

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, 16 June 2024
Ezekiel 17:22-24 ><}}}}*> 2 Corinthians 5:6-10 ><}}}}*> Mark 4:26-34

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

While preparing this homily, I cannot resist thinking of this poem by Joyce Kilmer because of its similarities with the first reading from the Book of Ezekiel and partly with the parables of Jesus in the gospel.

Kilmer tells us in his poem that trees are God’s presence among us, a sign of His own majesty, a reminder of life’s mysteries, something many of us seem to have learned only recently after the scorching heat of last summer when everyone was posting on Facebook the need to plant trees!

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

*Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD, April 2020 in Infanta, Quezon.*

In the first reading, the Prophet Ezekiel picturesquely imagined how God would plant a great Lebanon cedar on a mountain as a sign of His divine intervention for our salvation that was eventually fulfilled in Jesus Christ’s coming.

Ezekiel lived during the Babylonian exile, the lowest point in life of Israelites when they did not have a country, nor a temple, not even a future. They felt abandoned, punished by God due to their sins; hence, Ezekiel was sent to give them hope. Through this beautiful allegory of the future Israel, Ezekiel tells his countrymen including us today how God would eventually intervene in a very personal manner to fulfill His promise of salvation.

Thus says the Lord God: I, too, will take from the crest of the cedar, from its topmost branches tear off a tender shoot, and plant it on a high and lofty mountain. It shall put forth branches and bear fruit, and become a majestic cedar. Birds of every kind shall dwell beneath it, every winged thing in the shade of its boughs. And all the trees of the field shall know that I, the Lord, bring low the high tree, lift high the lowly tree, wither up the green tree, and make the withered tree bloom. As I, the Lord, have spoken, so will I do.
Ezekiel 17:22-24

That beautiful imagery of the cedar tree planted in Israel reminds us that in whatever state of life we may be – whether we are like a tall or a lowly tree, a green or withered tree – it is always God who has the final say in life because He is the very reason for our existence.

Jesus declared to us in one of the Sundays of Easter, “I am the true vine and you are the branches…without me you cannot do anything” to show that more than a giver of life, He is life Himself because He is the tree planted firmly by God in our midst.

Incidentally, the word “tree” which is treowe in Old English is the root of the word true which connotes something firmly rooted, steadfast and faithful. From the same word treowe came trust because the roots of a tree signify relationships or interconnectedness. That is why the Anglo-Saxons have always traced their ancestors and family by using the diagram of a tree from which came our concept of “family tree” today.

How lovely to imagine that tree planted by God in our midst is Jesus Christ, “the Way, the Truth and the Life”, the One we must trust always!

Hence, Mark invites us today to listen more attentively to the Lord’s teachings, asking us to not just sit beside or around Him but try to “get inside” Him by taking into our hearts His words like Mary His Mother as we have reflected last Sunday.

Again, Mark surprises us in his story of Jesus teaching the people about seeds and plants, and ordinary activities like sowing we take for granted but so rich in meanings. That is what a parable is – a simple story with deep meanings about life.

Our life itself is a parable wherein we find the most profound realizations in the most ordinary things and events in our lives. And that is where Jesus Christ comes too often. He is in fact the kingdom of God He spoke so often in His teachings and parables.

Jesus said to the crowds: “This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and through it all the seed would sprout and grow he knows not how (Mk.4:26-27).”
Mark 4:26-27

This parable of the seed growing by itself tells us of that reality of God living among us, right with us in Jesus Christ. The seed is His word germinating in us if we cultivate it daily in prayer and good works. Just like the fecundity of the tiny seed planted in the field, God grows in us beyond all our hopes and expectations because He is never absent nor distant from us.

*Photo by Ms. April Oliveros on Mt. Pulag, 2023.*

Look back in your life this past week or past month, examine how many times you were blessed, of how you were pulled out and saved from a dire situation in the nick of time. Surely you can offer a lot of rational explanations but, when you come to think of it, there’s always an “Invisible Hand” saving you, guiding you.

That’s the point of the parable of the seed planted without the farmer knowing how it grows: God works best in our lives in silence.

This is the reason why St. Paul tells us to “walk in faith, not by sight” (2Cor.5:7): our life is a journey of faith wherein we cannot see everything clearly, cannot appreciate right away the extent of how God works His miracles in us daily.

Yesterday we celebrated the 40th day of my mom’s passing then tomorrow, June 17, is her 85th birthday which is also the 24th death of my dad. I told my sisters and brother that maybe that is the reason why dad died on mom’s birthday 24 years ago: so that it would not be difficult for us to visit their graves on June 17. Isang lakad at punta na lang para matipid!

But kidding aside, though it is so difficult and painful to be ulilang lubos (orphaned), I still feel so positive more than a month after my mother’s death because in those 24 years when my father died, God never abandoned us. With mom’s passing, I’m sure God will never forsake us too.

When I look back at how many times God has blessed us in the past, I also see that soon in the future, if we remain faithful to Him, Christ shall unfold in us and around us in ways we never imagined.

*Photo by Ms. Analyn Dela Torre, March 2024.*

Time flies so fast indeed these days; we are almost done with the first half of the year. In a short while we shall be hearing Jose Mari Chan singing again “Christmas In Our Hearts” as the Christmas countdown begins even before September first.

And that’s what I have noticed these past 20 years: with all the comforts in life, we have become impatient that we rush everything, even Christmas and holidays. We live in a world of instants that we cannot wait anymore like the farmer in the parable of Jesus. Or the Prophet Ezekiel imagining God coming soon.

We don’t have to discard the modern amenities we have in life today for most of these are gifts from God Himself. However, we must remember these are not everything, that many times in life despite all our careful planning, things still do not turn out as we expect.

There is only one thing we can be sure of, Jesus Christ silently in our midst. Look at any tree around you, the many years it had weathered all kinds of storm and heat. Still standing, still green, reminding us of Jesus. Let us pray:

God our Father,
teach us to be patient
like the farmer who sows seeds
to his field, not knowing at all
how these germinate and grow;
teach us to be faithful to You
in Christ Jesus, always open
to find Him and embrace Him
in the ordinary things in life;
teach us to have more of You,
God in Jesus through prayers
and Sacraments,
to have more faith than gadgets,
more hope than instant gratifications
and more love than social media.
Amen.

Drought & blessedness

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday in Tenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 10 June 2024
1 Kings 17:1-6 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 5:1-12

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.*

Your words today, O Lord,
seem to be so apart,
unconnected, even disconsonant
to some respect:
in the first reading,
You declared a drought as
punishment against Israel
who turned their backs from You,
worshipping Baal;
in the gospel,
Jesus preached His Sermon
on the mount, declaring as 
"blessed" are those who are poor,
the meek, the hungry and thirsty,
the persecuted and insulted -
conditions and situations
directly contrary to the ways of the world,
so uncomfortable and difficult.

Every time we are facing
trials and difficulties in life,
we consider it as a drought,
a time when You, O God,
seem to be so far from us
when in fact, it is us who have gone
astray and away from You!

Let us see, dear Jesus,
your blessings
in every drought,
in every hardship,
in every poverty,
 and persecutions
we go through;
 let us realize the blessedness
of these moments of drought
and trials and difficulties
when we can examine what's
in our hearts,
who's in our hearts.

Many times we unconsciously
drift apart from You, O Lord,
when we are carried away by
our modern baals and gods
that separate us from You
and one another;
help us find our way
back to You,
rejoicing always in times of drought
to seek You and follow You.
Amen.

Tenderness of God, sweetness of Mary

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 31 May 2024
Romans 12:9-16 ><]]]]'> + >>]]]]'> + >>>]]]]'> Luke 1:39-56

*Photo by author, statues of Mary and Elizabeth at the Church of the Visitation in ein-Karem, the Holy Land, May 2017.*

What a lovely way to end the month with this feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s Visitation of her cousin Elizabeth after starting off May on its very first day with another feast, St. Joseph the Worker that remind us of God’s coming to us in Jesus Christ.

Visit and visitation may seem to be one and the same, sharing the common Latin root word of the verb vide, videre “to see” from which came the word video.

But, a visit is more casual and informal without intimacy at all. We say it so well in Filipino, napadaan lang or just passing by which is more concerned with the place or location and site, not the person there. Napadaan lang ako kaya dinalaw na rin kita (I was just passing by and decided to see you). There was really no intention in seeing the other person there.

*Photo by author, Church of the Visitation, Ein-Karem, Holy land, May 2017.*

Visitation is more intentional. Mr. Webster described it as a more formal visit commonly used in church language like when bishop and priests come to see their parishioners. This explains why we refer to a chapel as a visita which is actually a small church in remote places that missionaries used to visit for the sacraments. Likewise, visitas became venues too for catechism classes and other religious even social gatherings in places far from the town itself where the parish is usually situated too.

Thus, visitation connotes a deeper meaning because there is an expression or implication at least of care and concern among the people, a kind of love shared by the visitor like Mary to the one visited, Elizabeth.

Visitation is more of entering into someone’s life and personhood as reported by Luke in Mary’s visitation of Elizabeth when “Mary entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth” (Lk.1:40). There was a communion and sharing of their common experience of being blessed with the presence of God in their wombs.

Visitation is a sharing, a oneness in the joys and pains of those dear to us. The word becomes more meaningful when we examine its Filipino equivalent pagdalaw from the root word dala or something you bring like food or any gift when visiting relatives and friends. What you bring or dala is called pasalubong from the root salubong that literally means “meeting” or “encounter”. When the visitor and ones visited meet, they salubong.

Here it becomes more colorful and meaningful because more than the gifts we bring or dala in our visitations, we bring our very selves as a gift of presence. In every visitation, it is our very selves we gift, we share with those we visit, offering them our time and talent, joys and sadness and ears and heart to listen to their stories and absorb their woes and whatever they may have to unload upon us.

That was what Mary did exactly in her visitation of Elizabeth with an extra gift, the most precious pasalubong to share with everyone, Jesus Christ in her womb, right in her very self and body!

We too are invited every day to be like Mary, a bringer or taga-dala of Jesus Christ to everyone we meet, the best pasalubong we can share with everyone. If we can only be like Mary in our dealings with others, trying to make every encounter a visitation that is a willful bringing and sharing of Christ with others, then we also bring with us God’s tenderness and mercy for this dark world that admires toughness and roughness.

How sad are those news of daily road rages happening almost everywhere, many times resulting in the loss of lives like the recent fatal shooting of a family driver in Makati.

Through the Blessed Mother’s humility and obedience before God, Christ came into the world to make us experience the Father’s tenderness in the many healings and miracles He performed. This tenderness of God in Jesus we saw too in Mary His Mother in the Visitation: Mary visited Elizabeth because she knew and felt her many wounds who for a long time bore no child, living in “disgrace before others” as she had claimed (Lk.1:25). A tender person like Jesus and Mary is one who comes to comfort and heal the wounds of those hurt in life, trying to lullaby the restless and sleepless, never adding insult to injuries.

One last thing about the Visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth. One of the best things we can experience from visitations and visits of family and friends like during wakes and funerals is that quality of sweetness.

Sweetness always goes with tenderness. It is the essence of God who is love. Anyone who loves is always sweet that always comes naturally from within, bringing out good vibes. It is never artificial like Splenda, always flowing freely and naturally that leaves a good taste and feeling to anyone.

In the Hail Holy Queen, Mary is portrayed as “O clement, O sweet Virgin Mary” to show her sweetness as a Mother. Recently I have seen some posts making a meme (?) of the Hail Holy Queen’s part that says “to you do we cry poor banished children of Eve”. I have not really dealt it with much attention because too often, there are a lot of generation gaps in many posts in social media; I really cannot relate much to the young perhaps due to my age. I just hope that post on the Hail Holy Queen is not derogatory. Back to our reflection…

Tenderness and sweetness are the most God-like qualities we all have but have unconsciously buried deep in our innermost selves, refusing them to surface because of our refusal to love for fears of getting hurt and left behind or lost. When Mary heard Elizabeth’s pregnancy, she simply followed her human and motherly instincts that in fact so Godly that she went in haste to hill country of Judah. How lovely!

Tomorrow it is already June, reminding us all we are halfway through the year. And it would be surprisingly quick that soon, it is already Christmas again! This feast of the Visitation reminds us of Mary’s great role in making Christmas a reality when God almighty became human, little and vulnerable like us to experience His sweetness and tenderness in Jesus Christ. Through Mary.

Let us pray:

God our loving Father,
thank for coming to us,
for staying with us,
not just visiting us;
help us imitate Your Son
Jesus Christ's Mother,
the Blessed Virgin Mary
whose "love is so sincere",
loving one another like Elizabeth
with "mutual affection,
showing honor,
fervent in spirit,
serving the Lord;
help us imitate Mary
to always rejoice in hope,
endure afflictions and
most of all, persevere in prayer"
(cf. Romans 12:9-12)
so we may always bring 
Jesus Christ with everyone
we meet.
Amen.

*From cbcpnews.net, 13 May 2022, at the Parish of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, Valenzuela City.*

Is It Any Wonder? by Durand Jones & The Indications (2016)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 26 May 2024

*Photo by author, San Juan, La Union, 25 July 2023.*

Mysteries are like gifts wrapped so beautifully but not meant to be opened to be explained nor understood; rather, we simply have to let ourselves be wrapped by the gift of life’s mysteries to discover its many gifts that can enrich us in the process.

Just like the mystery of God, His being One in Three Persons called the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity which we celebrate this Sunday. Contrary to common beliefs, mysteries can be explained and understood but, not fully.

Yet, why live explaining and understanding everything?

That is why when God revealed Himself to us, He did not come explaining terms and concepts to us humans and instead conducted Himself in a most unique, personal manner. God related to us in a very personal way like another person by letting us experience His loving presence, His kindness and mercy, His justice and salvation, His healing and liberation as Father, Son and Holy Spirit (https://lordmychef.com/2024/05/25/the-gift-of-persons/).

That is why we have chosen for this Sunday’s music the 2016 Is It Any Wonder? by the American contemporary and R&B soul trio of singer Durand Jones, singer/drummer Aaron Frazer and guitarist Blake Rhein who call themselves as Durand Jones & The Indications. I accidentally discovered them along with other young musicians during the 2020 lockdown of COVID-19 pandemic. Their music is so cool coupled with lyrics so thoughtful. And mysterious. Like Is it Any Wonder? that sounds so matured yet so young, reminding us of our first crushes or first love when we got so lost in what to do and say whenever near the girl of our dream.

This road
Is gonna take us back now
You look so fine
I don't know how to act now
They say, "My child
Don't stroll off easy
'Cause when it's time
You gonna hear what she said"

Is it any wonder?
Is it any wonder?

If you ever leave me alone
I'll be cryin', wishin' you'd come home

When I look in your eyes
I see you starin' at me, girl
And when it's time
I see you holdin' on me, girl

'Cause you
You got a hold on me, yeah
So, I'm
Gonna make you see, yeah
Aw, yeah

Is it any wonder?
Is it any wonder?
Is it any wonder?
Is it any wonder?

With its classic tune and laid-back beat of guitar, drums and horns in the KEXP live version we prefer, Is It Any Wonder? speaks so well of life’s many mysteries that wrap us and move us at the same time to greater heights in believing more and loving more. Very often when we meet people, our tendency to welcome them is a result of their conduct with us, like this girl in the song Is It Any Wonder? Is she warm or cold, inviting or reserved and closed?

See how the song speaks so little – but heavily – of his experiences with his crush, leaving everything into wondering and awe, repeatedly singing, Is it any wonder?

To wonder, to be awed like a child is the beginning of love, of discovery of God and of the other person who fills the emptiness and longings within us. That is the gift of person, of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – there is always that mystery we can’t explain right away but we feel disarmed, wondering why we are drawn to God and others because of their conduct, of their kindness, of their offer of relationship. The key is to always wonder and bask into the beauty and gift of the other person, especially of God. Have a relaxing rainy Sunday!

From YouTube.com.

Easter is signs & Scripture together. Always.

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Easter Sunday of the Lord's Resurrection, 31 March 2024
Acts 10:34, 37-43 ><}}}}*> Colossians 3:1-4 ><}}}}*> John 20:1-9

A blessed happy Easter to everyone! The Lord is risen. Let us rejoice amid all the darkness and sufferings still hovering over our lives at this time as Easter gives meaning to these all, enabling us to experience God closest with us in Jesus Christ.

Let Christ’s assurance of deliverance, of salvation burst forth from your heart, from the depths of your soul that amid all these sufferings, we have already won in Jesus. It is in those darkness and emptiness where Jesus is found as the first disciples realized that first Easter morning.

On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved… When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there… Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.
John 20:1-2, 6, 8-9

*Jesus Christ resurrection. Christian Easter concept. Empty tomb of Jesus with light. Born to Die, Born to Rise. “He is not here he is risen”. Photo from iStock/GettyImages.*

We can never experience the joy of Easter if we skip going through or deny the agonies and pains of Good Friday. See how in the glory of Christ’s Resurrection is found the empty tomb set in the darkness of dawn, evoking in us the realities of life.

The problem in our time is when people see life only as Easter without Good Friday like those who want to get rich by gambling without working hard or students who want to pass exams without studying. At the other extreme are those who see life only as all Good Friday without Easter, becoming indifferent to joy and life itself.

Absence of sufferings can happen only in heaven after we have died. In rising from the dead, Jesus enables us today to taste heaven, to have a glimpse of eternal bliss which Easter makes a reality within us. That is why all the 50 days of Easter beginning today until Pentecost Sunday are actually counted as one big day because we can never grasp the fullness of Christ’s Resurrection in just one day or one month. As we have reflected last Sunday, life is like the Palm Sunday in the Lord’s Passion, a daily movement from the Lord’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection.

Actually, every celebration we have in the Church, from Christmas to feasts of Mary and the saints are images of Easter, of Jesus Christ’s Resurrection, of His triumph and glory. This we find in that last line of our gospel account today:

Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.
John 20:8-9

*Crucifixion and Resurrection. He is Risen. Empty tomb of Jesus with crosses in the background and cinematic lighting. From IStock/GettyImages.*

Many times our life is an empty tomb with nothing inside except signs of Jesus. John used the word sign to refer to the Lord’s miracles, words and actions that point to Him as the Christ, the awaited Messiah. Hence, his gospel is also known as “the book of signs” with seven miracles and teachings by Jesus that signify Him as the Son of God.

Here at the last two chapters of his gospel we find John’s wisdom in using both explicitly and implicitly the word and concept of sign to point at Jesus as the Christ. The empty tomb itself is the sign pointing to Jesus who had risen; since He was not there, He must be somewhere alive! How do we prove it? Again with another signs, the burial cloths neatly folded inside the empty tomb that showed the body of Jesus was not stolen.

*From wikipedia.commons*, healing of a leper,

John have used this formula repeatedly in his gospel, slowly building up to prepare his readers for the great signs of Easter like the changing of water into wine at Cana, the many cures, the feeding of more than 5000 in the wilderness, the thrusting of lance into the Lord’s side while on the Cross from which flowed blood and water. All of these he consistently claimed as signs that he as “the other disciple” had seen or witnessed.

Whenever we prayerfully read and reflect John’s gospel, we too see and hear Jesus is the Christ in the signs he presents us until finally, we find Jesus present in the many experiences of our lives! John wants us to understand the interaction between signs and Scripture which Luke explained beautifully in the story of the road to Emmaus which is the gospel proclaimed on the evening of Easter Sunday.

For John and the evangelists which Vatican II stressed in Dei Verbum, the Scripture allows us to understand the signs that also lead to understanding the Scripture. If the Apostles have not learned from the Scriptures that Jesus must rise from the dead, the empty tomb would have remained a puzzle to them. Likewise, it was the sign of the empty tomb that led them to understanding fully the Scripture. And that has always been the case in our lives until now that is why it is so essential we cultivate a prayer life which is a relationship with God in Jesus not just a recitation of prayers or celebration of the Mass.

Easter invites us to enter into a relationship with God in Jesus, through Jesus and with Jesus through the many signs He joined us through our trials and tribulations in life so we can be one with Him in His Resurrection.

Detail of the Anastasis (Resurrection) fresco in the Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora, in Istanbul, Turkey. It depicts Jesus’ descent into limbo to liberate Adam and Eve and all the righteous who have been waiting for him there. Photo and caption from Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation (slmedia.org).

How sad in this age when many people have stopped joining church celebrations and communal prayers when they choose to go on vacation during Christmas and Easter, totally unmindful of Jesus Christ’s outpouring of love for us.

How sad when many of us practically live in the media, so concerned with the palabas (the outside peripherals) than the inside, the more essential even in our spiritual celebrations.

How sad when people preferred to video the procession of the Blessed Sacrament on Holy Thursday than to kneel and pray in recognition of Christ’s real presence.

How sad for those who skip Masses on Sundays but would devoutly join the Good Friday processions that have become more of fashion show and picnic when people are busy talking, texting, taking videos or pictures, eating and drinking than praying and meditating the various scenes of the Lord’s Passion and Death.

How sad for those who have made their carrozas a pompous spectacle and display of family wealth than catechism and devotion. One would seriously wonder where is the dolor of Viernes Dolores or the grief and sadness for the Lord’s passion, death and burial depicted by the Holy Week processions. Not to mention the kabaduyan and ka-ek-ekan by priests at the repositories of Holy Thursday that after Visita Iglesia you hardly hear people talking how they were edified at the solemnity of the church they visited; people now talk more after Visita Iglesia of how they were awed by the decors and effects of repositories, not of Christ’s real presence.

Worst, the most crazy and foolish of all is how most Catholics end their devotions at Good Friday without realizing the most important of all celebrations is Easter which is the Mother of all feasts in our Church, the very heart of our faith.

This Easter, let us salvage the remaining gifts and grace God pours upon us in Jesus through this Season by opening our hearts, our minds, our total selves to the Risen Lord we encounter in the Scripture and many signs in our lives. Amen. Have a blessed Easter!