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!

Opening to God

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 28 March 2024

*Photo by author, sunrise at the Sacred Heart Novitiate in Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.*

As we now enter the holiest parts of the Holy Week called the Sacred Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil beginning tonight with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, please find time to have some silent moments of prayer and reflections.

Do not let this Holy Week pass as one of those days so unique because of the great sights and sounds that have filled our cameras with so much photos and videos but have ironically left us empty inside. Don’t you notice the more we fill ourselves with photos and videos on the pretext and excuse of keeping memories and remembrances, the more we are left empty, lost and alienated because we have missed experiencing the moment itself?

The reason images are covered and no flowers adorn our church altars during Lent until Holy Saturday is for us to focus more inside ourselves than outside.

Lent and the Holy Week remind us that basic truth in life that what is most essential is the inside not the outside we aptly call in Filipino as palabas.

How ironic that despite all the technologies and comforts they have brought humans, we are more lost and empty these days than before with more suicides, more depressions, and more social problems and issues.

Lent invites us to return to our very first love of all, God who patiently awaits us always, right in our hearts. Pray as much as possible today to experience God and your very self this Holy Thursday. Just pray. Very often, the most difficult prayer is also the most meritorious.

And when you pray, I strongly recommend Jesuit Father Eduardo Hontiveros’ classic Buksan Ang Aming Puso, the most beautiful and touching church music that is a prayer in itself during this season of Lent and the Holy Week.

Buksan ang aming puso
Turuan mong mag-alab
Sa bawat pagkukuro
Lahat ay makayakap

Buksan ang aming isip
Sikatan ng liwanag
Nang kusang matangkilik
Tungkuling mabanaag

Buksan ang aming palad
Sarili'y maialay
Tulungan mong ihanap
Kami ng bagong malay

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 18 March 2024.*

I love its progression from opening of heart, then of mind, then of the hand which signifies our whole person.

Our hands is a microcosm of our very selves that is why we shake hands, with give high fives to signify the giving of our total selves in friendship. Fortune tellers read our palms because they signify our whole person. We Filipinos have a beautiful expression during pamanhikan when parents of the groom meet their future balae to ask for the hand of their daughter in marriage, “hihingin namin ang kamay ng inyong anak.”

What is in our hands?

Remember the word betrayal that literally means to hand over from the Greek word paradidomi? Again, our Tagalog translation renders its deepest meaning especially when we recall how Jesus was handed over by Judas to the soldiers who handed Him over to the Sanhedrin who then handed Him over to Pilate who finally handed Him over to the people to be crucified. That repeated handing over of Jesus – or betrayal – is perfectly said in our own expression of “pinagpasa-pasahan si Jesus.”

That is how dirty our hands are with sin and evil when we repeatedly hand over Jesus through our own family and friends whom we take as things to be passed on for something or someone else more useful.

Opening to God becomes complete, from the mind and the heart, when we are able to open our hands to Him, the only One we can really hold on in this life. When we die, we cannot hold and bring anything from this life. Like Jesus, we die with hands opened to God, praying, “Into your hands, I commend my spirit.”

You will notice this afternoon when you come for the Mass, the tabernacle is opened and empty. The Sacred Hosts we shall receive later in the Holy Communion are the ones to be consecrated during the Mass.

Are we also empty to receive Jesus? That is the beauty of Communion by hands when we hold nothing else, we open our hands positioned across our heart supposed to be clean to receive Jesus wholly and responsibly.

As you receive Jesus in the Holy Communion tonight, pray Buksan Ang Aming Puso and ask God to give you a new consciousness (bagong malay) that you are loved and forgiven so you can love and forgive others too.

Ask Jesus to empty your heart of pride so He would reign there to fill you with more of His humility, justice, and love.

Most of all, ask Jesus to dwell in your heart so that every decision you make may come from your heart not from the hatred and bitterness that have covered it all these years.

Be the new person tonight in Jesus as He wash you clean of sins. Amen.

*Usiginanga… you may open your phone to listen and pray Buksan Ang Aming Puso.

From YouTube.com

Hindi ka nag-iisa

Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 24 Marso 2024
Ikaapat na Huling Wika ni Jesus

*Larawan kuha ng may-akda, Kapilya ni San Francisco Javier, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, 20 Marso 2024.*

Mula sa tanghaling tapat hanggang ikatlo ng hapon ay nagdilim sa buong lupain. Nang mag-iikatlo ng hapon, sumigaw si Jesus, “ELOI, ELOI, LEMA SABACHTANI?” ibig sabihi’y “DIYOS KO, DIYOS KO, BAKIT MO AKO PINABAYAAN?”
Mateo 27:45-46

Sa tagpong ito ating mababanaagan kadakilaan ng pagmamahal sa ating lahat ng Diyos, Siya na ganap, walang kapintasan at kakulangan (perefect) ay piniling maging katulad nating hindi ganap (imperfect) bilang tao sa lahat ng bagay maliban sa kasalanan kay Kristo Jesus.

Pinili at mas inibig ng Diyos kay Kristo na maging tao upang maranasan hirap at sakit natin maging ang kamatayan, lalo’t higit ang magdusa at mamatay na nag-iisa at iniwanan ng lahat doon sa Krus.

Ano mang paghihirap at pagdurusa ay nagiging napakabigat kapag ika’y nag-iisa, na walang kasama ni karamay. Ito pinakamasaklap sa panahon natin ngayon maging sa ating bansa na dati rati’y walang mga bahay ampunan para sa matatanda ngunit nagyon ay naglipana na dahil sa maraming matatanda ang iniiwan, tinatalikuran di lamang ng mga kamag-anakan kungdi pati ng lipunan. Ito ang dahilan kung bakit si Santa Mother Teresa ay bumuo noon ng samahan na mag-aalaga sa mga tinaguriang “poorest of the poor” sa India nang makita niya maraming may-sakit sa Calcutta namamatay nang mag-isa. Hindi lamang ito totoo sa mga mahihirap na lugar kungdi maging sa mga mauunlad na lupain ay maraming matatanda ngayon ang namamatay na lamang ng mag-isa sa buhay.

*Larawan kuha ng may-akda, Baguio City, 2023.*

Iyan man ay pinagdaanan ni Jesus lalo na noong ipinako siya sa krus na halos iwanan siya ng lahat. Sa labingdalawang alagad niya, naghudas ang isa habang ang pinuno naman nila ay ikinaila siya ng tatlong ulit kaya’t nagtago noon kasama ang iba pang mga alagad. Tanging si Juan na minamahal na alagad ang nanatili sa paanan ng krus ni Jesus kasama ang kanyang Ina na si Maria at ilan pang mga kababaihan.

Nasaan ang mahigit limang libong tao na pinakain ni Jesus sa ilang? Wala din doon ni isa sa mga pinagaling niyang mga may-sakit. Nawala at naglaho ang lahat ng tao na tuwang-tuwang sumalubong kay Jesus noong Linggo ng Palaspas.

Ngunit kailan man ay hindi naramdaman ni Jesus ang pagiging mag-isa doon sa Krus. Tulad ng sino mang mabuting Judio, dinasal ni Jesus noon ang Salmo 22, ang awit ng panaghoy, ng pagpapakasakit at buong pagtitiwala sa Diyos.

Ito ang mabuting balita ng pagkamatay ni Jesus sa Krus: mula noon tayong mga tao ay hindi na mag-iisa sa mga hirap at tiisin nitong buhay maging kamatayan dahil kasama na natin ang Diyos kay Jesus.

Ito ang ating consolation o consuelo, wika nga.

Mula sa dalawang katagang Latin na con (with) at solare (alone) na ibig sabihin ay samahan ang nag-iisa, naging pinakamalapit at tunay na kaisa tayo ng Diyos sa tuwing tayo ay nasa gitna ng mga tiisin at hirap sa buhay maging kamatayan dahil sa pagdamay sa atin ni Jesus doon sa Krus upang sa gayon sa kanyang muling pagkabuhay tayo man ay kanyang makasama at makaisa.

Sapagkat siya ma’y tinukso at nagbata, kaya ngayo’y matutulungan niya ang mga tiutukso.
Hebreo 2:18

Sa tatlong taon kong pagiging chaplain sa Our Lady of Fatima University at Fatima University Medical Center, nakita ko at naranasan sa maraming pagkakataon paano mga tao – bata man o matanda, mahirap at mayaman, may sakit o karamdaman maging mga malalakas at malusog ang pangangatawan – ay nararanasan ang pangungulila at pag-iisa sa gitna ng kanilang mga paghihirap at pagdurusa sa buhay. Marami sa kanila ang mag-isang umiiyak kasi maraming ginagawa o nasa kung saan-saan kanilang mga mahal sa buhay. Maraming pagkakataon nga naitatanong ko na lang kung mayroon pa bang umuuwi ng bahay o nakatira sa kanilang tahanan? Is anybody still home?

*Larawan ng convolvulus tricolor mula BBC Gardeners World Magazine.*

Halina at ipagdasal ang bawat isa, lalo na yaong mga nahihirapan, nagtitiis ng mag-isa sa buhay:

Diyos Amang mapagkalinga,
ibinigay mo sa amin 
ang Iyong Anak na si Jesus
upang aming maranasan Iyong
pag-ibig at habag,
ang Iyong pagpapagaling at pagkandili,
ang Iyong kapanatilihan at kapayapaan
upang hindi na kami mag-isa pa sa buhay na ito;
maalala nawa naming palagi
na kung kami man ay dumaraan sa 
napakatinding pagsubok sa buhay
na tila nag-iisa at walang karamay,
naroon si Jesus pinakamalapit sa amin
dahil Siya ang unang nagpakasakit
at namatay doon sa Krus
para sa amin.
Amen.

Lent is acceptance

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Memorial of St. John of God, Religious, 08 March 2024
Hosea 14:2-10     ><]]]]]'> + ><]]]]]'> + ><]]]]]'>     Mark 12:28-34

*Photo of convolvulus sabatius from frustratedgardener.com*

Your words today,
dear Father, 
led me back to the 
Monday reflection of another
blogger about the word
"acceptance":

“Acceptance” can be seen as a passive word suggesting that we just put up with something we cannot change.

On the other hand, it can be a positive condition in our spirituality by which we prepare ourselves to hospitably receive that which we had not expected. Such positive acceptance suggests a non-judgmental, wise, and discerning heart.
Sr. Renee Yann, RSM, https://lavishmercy.com/2024/03/03/accepted/

Why are we so fond,
O God, of doing anything
except precisely what you want
us to do?
Why can't we just accept
your words,
your plans,
or your instructions
we always disregard, 
"hoping" there could be 
something better?

Forgive us, Father,
when even in the 
quagmire of sin and evil,
we keep resisting you,
refusing to accept
your suggestions;
let us learn 
beginning this Lent
when to just stop
and simply accept
you and your words.

Thus says the Lord: Return, O Israel, to the Lord, your God; you have collapsed through your guilt. Take with you words, and return to the Lord; say to him, “Forgive all iniquity, and receive what is good, that we may render as offerings the bullocks from our stalls.”
Hosea 14:2-3

Draw us closer to you,
Lord Jesus Christ and your
kingdom by accepting
the basic truth of our faith
that the love of God is
always the love of others;
help us realize
life is more than searching
for what is the best
possible condition
or situation we can have
but to accept our whereabouts
where we can give our best selves
to you through others
to make this world a
better one.
'
Everything, O Lord,
begins in finding you
within each of us
so we may find you in others
especially the sick and
the weakest like St. John of God
who simply accepted
everything that came to his life
as coming from you;
it is in our acceptance
of you, O Lord,
that we begin to lovingly serve
you in others because that is
also when we are able to relate
our lives
with your Church,
with the world,
with our callings;
it is in accepting these
that we become
"not far
from the Kingdom
 of God."
Amen.