Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog, Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Bagbaguin, Santa Maria, Bulacan
Martes, Ika-5 Linggo ng Kuwaresma, 31 Marso 2020
Bilang 21:4-9 ><)))*> +++ <*(((>< Juan 8:21-30
Ang eskultura ng ginawang ahas na tanso ni Moises sa tikin sa lugar kung saan mismo nangyari na ngayon nasa pangangalaga ng mga Paring Franciscano sa Jordan. Larawan kuha ng may-akda, Mayo 2019.
Batay sa salaysay ng aklat ng buhay
nainip mga Israelita sa paglalakbay sa ilang
nang sila ay dumaing, nagreklamo
kay Moises ng ganito:
"Kami ba'y inialis mo sa Egipto
upang patayin na ilang na ito?
Wala kaming makain ni mainom!
Sawa na kami sa walang kwentang pagkaing ito."
Bakit nga ba hindi na naubos
ating mga reklamo
lalo na kapag mayroong krisis
walang mintis yaring mga bibig
walang hanggang daing
tila hindi aabutin, napakamainipin
nakakasakit na ng damdamin
pati Diyos sinusubok, hinahamon natin?
Kung inyong mapapansin
yung talagang walang makain
hindi na makuhang dumaing
tanging isipin saan hahanapin
kanilang isasaing, lakas ay iipunin
sa pagbabaka-sakaling dinggin
dalanging tulong dumating
kanilang hahatiin at titipirin.
Ang masakit na kapansin-pansin
ngayong panahon ng COVID-19
marami sa mga daing ng daing
sa Facebook pinararating!
Akala mo walang makain
bakit nasa harapan ng computer screen?
Katulad nilang nagmamagaling
ibang natulungan may reklamo pa rin!
Magandang pagkakataon
kaloob nitong COVID-19 sa ating panahon
mabuksan puso at kalooban sa katotohanan
"Hindi lamang sa tinapay nabubuhay ang tao"
na kung uunahin natin si Kristo
makikilala natin bawat kapwa tao
ka-patid at ka-putol na dapat bahaginan
ano man mayroon ako.
Madalas sa maraming reklamo
puso ay sinarahan, pinanlalabuan ang isipan
bibig ang laging binubuksan, hindi mawalan ng laman
pinababayaan kaluluwa at kalooban
tiyan lamang nilalagyan
kaya walang kahulugan ni katuturan
ano mang karanasan hindi mapagyaman
kaunting hirap at tiisin, puro daing at hinaing.
Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7 ><}}}*> Acts 10:34-38 ><}}}*> Matthew 3:13-17
From Google.
Today is our “holy birthday” as children of God, the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus. That explains the sprinkling of Holy Water at the start of our Mass to remind us of continuing the Christmas story the whole year through as sons and daughters of God.
With this feast, we close the Christmas Season by celebrating the great mystery of Christ’s Nativity when he became human like us so that we can become divine like him as children of the Father in heaven.
Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. John tried to prevent him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you and yet you are coming to me?” Jesus said to him in reply, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed him. After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Matthew 3:13-17
We are the children of God
Sunrise at Atok, Benguet. Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte, September 2019.
Every morning when we wake up, the same thing happens with us with Jesus at Jordan: as we arise whether filled with joy or saddled with so many pains and worries from the previous day or night, Christ joins us in every brand new day as his brother and sister in the Father.
Despite all our anxieties and fears with every new day of work and school, the heavens open and the Holy Spirit comes down to us with our Father in heaven declaring to all his creation, “This is my beloved child, with whom I am well pleased.”
That is the mystery of Christmas we must celebrate daily when Jesus became human like us in everything except sin. In Baptism, we have become sons and daughters of the Father in his Son Jesus Christ our Lord through the power of the Holy Spirit.
That coming down of Jesus to John to be baptized in Jordan is the message of Christmas, of how God became human like us to be one with us in our dirt and stain so he may cleanse us in his Passion and Death in order to share in the glory of his Resurrection .
That is why Christmas is a continuing story we have to keep on telling and sharing with our life of holiness with others.
As children of God, we are called to holiness
Please don’t be scared with the call to “holiness”, my dear reader and follower.
Holiness is not being sinless.
Holiness is being filled with God.
Holiness is following Jesus who calls us to be holy like the Father in heaven with all of our imperfections and sinfulness.
Morning in our Parish. Photo by author, 2019.
So many times in our lives, as we strive to lead holy lives by being good individuals, we also feel so tired and exhausted that we question or wonder if we are still doing the right things in life especially when we try to be faithful to God and with others.
There are times we just cry and suffer in silence in order not to hurt with our words and actions those people dearest to us who are oblivious or even do not care at all to the pains and difficulties they cause us.
Like a slave driver boss, demanding and exacting parents, a perfectionist husband or wife or partner, a naive sibling.
It is very difficult to be holy, to be like Jesus who is so loving and merciful, kind and understanding.
And that is why he chose to come to us, to be with us, to help us, to assure us that “the Father is so well pleased with us”!
Flowers at our Altar, Epiphany Sunday 2020. Photo by author.
God is well pleased with us
Three things I wish to share with you this lovely Sunday, especially for some of us feeling tired and exhausted this early with our many tasks and responsibilities at home, the school, the office, and even the church and community.
First is get it done. We all have roles to play in life. Remain faithful and stay focused with the mission not with the person. Yes, it is easier said than done but like Jesus instructing John for his baptism, he said, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Mt.3:15). It must have been so difficult for John to baptize Jesus the Son of God but the Lord told him anyway, get it done! And just as John did his role, everything happened according to God’s plan.
Second is give others the chance to do the will of God. Sometimes many of us have that “messianic complex” as if we are the saviour of the world. No! That is Jesus alone and he has tasked all us with specific roles in doing his mission. Let others do their part. Stop monopolizing all good deeds because when there is a monopoly of holiness, certainly there is already a pervading evil. Jesus as the Christ is the definitely the holy one but he told John to baptize him and he in turn “allowed” the baptism to take place.
Third is do whatever is good. Always. That’s what Jesus told John, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Mt.3:15). Doing what is righteous is doing what is good, what is holy, what is just. But, it is not that easy. I know.
“Minsan nakakapikon na magpakabuti lalo na kapag tila walang pakialam yung mga ginagawan mo ng kabutihan.”
We have felt so many times that being good, doing what is right can take its toll. We always wonder “when is enough really enough” with people who have made it their way of life of hurting us, of stressing us, of being pain in the ass.
We want to scream, to spill the beans, to unmask them to reveal them as fakes and hypocrites!
But, don’t!
Do not be like them.
Be good like Jesus, the one prophesied by Isaiah in the first reading.
Thus says the Lord: Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased, upon whom I have put my spirit; he shall bring forth justice to the nations, not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street. A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not quench…
Isaiah 42:1-3
Baby Jesus on a bed of white roses in our Sanctuary area, Epiphany 2020. Photo by author.
In the second reading, we heard St. Peter preaching after the Pentecost of how “Jesus went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him” (Acts 10:38).
Whatever difficulty you are going through at this very moment, you are still God’s beloved child with whom he is well pleased. God is always with you. Continue the beautiful Christmas story with your life of loving service, even to people who hurt you.
Malaci 3:19-20 ><}}}*> 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12 ><}}}*> Luke 21:5-19
The Wailing Wall of Jerusalem Temple, May 2019.
We are now at the penultimate Sunday of the year as Jesus continues to summarize his teachings today at the Temple area in Jerusalem about his final coming at the end of time.
While some people were speaking about how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings, Jesus said, “All that you see here — the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.” Then they asked him, “Teacher, when will this happen? And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?” He answered, “See that you not be deceived… “
Luke 21:5-8
On the surface, Jesus seemed like to be a “kill joy” in making those bold assertions about the coming destruction of the Temple while everybody was admiring it. But notice how the people reacted: instead of being worried, they asked when it would happen and what would be the warning signs before it takes place as if it is just an ordinary thing!
“Wala lang…” as the young would say these days. Nothing, duh…?
View of Jerusalem from the Church of Dominus Flevit where Jesus wept upon seeing the city from the Mount of Olives.
St. Luke tells us that before Jesus entered Jerusalem, “he wept over it” at the thought that it would be destroyed and that its enemies would not “leave one stone upon another” (Lk.19: 41-44).
If there is anyone deeply hurt and saddened with the Temple’s destruction, it is not other than Jesus Christ our Lord. He certainly shared the people’s admiration for the Temple which he had also claimed as “my Father’s house” (Lk.2:49) when he was accidentally left behind there by Mary and Joseph when he was 12 years old.
Imagine what Jesus must have felt when he spoke of the destruction of the Temple which is the heart of Jerusalem, the jewel of the city, and most of all, the sign of God’s presence among his chosen people!
There must be something deeper with his warning words of the Temple’s destruction that pertains not only to his people at that time but also to us today.
Wailing Wall of Jerusalem, may 2019.
For the Jews at that time, the destruction of the Temple is the end of the world, the signal of the apocalypse. More than a catastrophe involving the destruction of buildings and almost everything including life, it is judgment day that must not be taken lightly.
It is a day calling for conversion as the prophet Malachi in the first reading reminds us that every coming of God is a day of judgment and salvation.
Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire… But for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.
Malachi 3:19-20
Christ had already come and will come again.
This was his promise and this is what he meant at the cleansing of the temple, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up” (Jn.2:19). At his Passion, Death, and Resurrection, Jesus Christ had replaced the old Temple worship with himself!
This is what we celebrate in every Holy Mass, God’s coming to us in Jesus Christ his Son.
Jesus comes in every here and now, and his every coming is a process of destroying our old temple of self to give rise to a new temple in Christ. Our concern need not be about a future date of his Second Coming or specific signs of its fulfillment.
Every day Jesus comes again and the challenge is for us to live authentically as Christians daily and not be bothered about the future. He warns us not to be deceived by all of these apocalyptic predictions and statements.
The key word is conversion, of living in the present. Jesus tells us so many things that can be very frightening and scary because what he wants us to do in preparation for his Second Coming is to love, love, and love.
And to love is to always suffer in Christ, with Christ.
He answered, “See that you not be deceived, for many will come in in my name… Do not follow them! When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end.” Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky. Before all this happens, however, they will seize and persecute you… You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair of on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives.”
Luke 21:8-19
From I.REDD.IT.
Yes, Jesus will definitely come again at the end of time. Like last Sunday, definitely, there is a resurrection of the dead and life everlasting. But both must be seen in the context of the present time, of the here and now.
When Jesus comes again to judge us at the end of time, he won’t be asking us about the things we have been so preoccupied with in this life like how much money we earn, what car do you drive, or how big is your house?
When Jesus comes again, he will be asking us questions we have always refused to answer in our daily lives like how much have you loved, how much have you sacrificed and suffered for a loved one, or how much have you shared to a stranger?
These are the questions we must be asking ourselves as we near towards the end of the year: how close have I followed Jesus Christ in his Passion and Death so I may be with him in his Resurrection?
May we imitate St. Paul in his second letter to the Thessalonians today to faithfully and calmly fulfill our daily tasks in this life, avoiding being idle for each day is the day of the Lord. Amen.
Romans 12:5-16 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 14:15-24
Photo by Mr. Chester Ocampo, October 2019.
Lord Jesus Christ, I come to you in darkness, desolate and sad with so much pains and fears. And anger.
You are the only one I can turn to, Lord.
You alone are the one who can heal me and console me.
You alone can fill me with life and love.
Like the psalmist, it is only in you, O Lord, can I find peace.
Help me to respond to St. Paul’s call today:
Brothers and sisters: Let love be sincere; hate what is evil, hold on to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; anticipate one another in showing honor.
Romans 12:9-10
How can our love be sincere and not hate evil or even show honor to those who continue to do evil against us?
O sweet Jesus, give us the courage to come to your “banquet”; enable us to let go of our many excuses like those you have invited to your banquet.
It is only in communing in you, in being with you can our love be sincere, Lord, when we are able to disarm ourselves of our doubts and anxieties, fears and hatred to receive you and share you with others. Amen.
St. Paul’s “little foolishness” yesterday of taking some pride of himself was therapeutic, Lord, for us feeling low. After all, St. Teresa de Avila said “humility is walking in truth” and like St. Paul, we need to be proud sometimes to let people realize the talents you have blessed us with.
But today, Lord, we thank you anew for this beautiful though trying day. And once again, like St. Paul, we have realized that the only bragging rights you have given us is so opposite with the world’s:
Brothers and sisters: since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast. To my shame I say that we were too weak! But what anyone dares to boast of (I am speaking in foolishness) I also dare. If I must boast, I will boast of the things that who my weakness.
2 Corinthians 11:18, 21,30
Lord, what really sets us apart from others, from what St. Paul calls as “super apostles”, are the wounds and hurts we bear in love for you and others. We are all the same in everything but anyone’s greatness can truly be found in his/her weakness as the world sees it: in taking all the beatings of this life, in being patient, in being forgiving, in being understanding, in being persevering.
Yes, Jesus, everybody talks about their achievements and what they have done, of how great they are. But those who truly love and serve you, those who follow you as Christ-ians, boast only of their weakness.
In our weakness, Jesus, we become your dwelling place, we become like you — our only treasure in this life!
Continue to bless, Lord, those who ” store up treasures in heaven”, those who truly love with sincerity in their hearts, those who sacrifice for others, those who suffer in the name of truth and justice. Let their light shine on in you. Amen.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 07 May 2019
We are now traveling to the Mt. Sinai area to cross into Egypt. As I have been telling you, this is my third time in the Holy Land and Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial of Israel. I shall write later of my reflections but below is my email written the first time I came here:
23 June 2005
Shalom everyone!
Until now, I could still feel the impact Yad Vashem had on me.
I would just like to add here a story shared with us by Ronnie before our tour….
Accdg to Ronnie, he acted as a guide to a group of young Americans at the Yad Vashem last summer. They met a Jewish woman who survived the holocaust after their tour and told them firsthand her own experience from the Auschwitz camp.
The young tourists were so touched with her story, of how she had lost her parents, siblings and friends. As she wiped her tears, a young man asked the survivor: have you forgiven the people who killed your family?
And Ronnie said, the woman replied this way:I could only forgive if you would always remember.
We were also so touched with the story and the woman’s declaration: I could only forgive if you would always remember.
One of my favorite philosopher is Martin Heidegger, a German existentialist who, unfortunately, was blinded by Hitler’s rhetorics in the beginning but later denounced Nazism.
According to Heidegger, we are all “beings of forgetfullness”; he explained that this is the main reason why we always lead “inauthentic living.”
And that is true. We always have to remember the past not to take tally of how we were hurt or maltreated by others; we remember the painful past so that we would not repeat it and do them again onto others.
It is so sad that in our lives, we keep on remembering how we got inflicted with wounds so that we could wound others; hence, what we have is a vicious circle of violence and retributions.
That I think is the essence of “learning from history”—-of not repeating the same mistakes over and over again.
This is often at the root of many of our problems in our dealings with other people: parents, priests, teachers, supervisors or almost anyone who always remember the difficulties they have gone through when they were younger; we are sometimes guilty of harking at our painful past and get even with those presently under us. And the pains and the hurts increase, forgetting the lessons that could have been learned.
Our country is in deep, deep, deep crises because we are mostly “beings of forgetfullness”—we have a poor sense of history, we can’t remember the lessons of the past because we did not learn at all or just maybe, preoccupied with getting even or vengeance.
Forgiving does not mean forgetting because that is impossible; God programmed us to always remember so that we could become more loving, more forgiving, more understanding, and more like Him in seeing what’s good in everyone.
At the back of Yad Vashem is a breathtaking view of Jerusalem below. After seeing and somehow experiencing the horrors of the Holocaust, I can’t help thinking how come God could accept and allow the Jews, Moslems, and Christians live together in His old city when we can’t even stand the sight or the smell of the person next to us because he is not of same color or creed with us?
God bless!
With my parishioners the other day at Yad Vashem. Many cried at the sights in the museum but we were all touched with the personal story and reflections of our guide, a 70 year old man we fondly call Lolo Mendy. Will write his stories later.
The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?”
John 10:31-32
O dear Jesus, my Lord and my God, I could relate so much with you in this episode in your life. Lately, I have been feeling so down, wondering how could people give me in return evil deeds and pains after all the goodness I have shown them? There are still many others out there wondering the same, feeling the same.
We all feel like, you, O Jesus, asking our detractors, our very own relatives and friends, which of the good works we have done to them are they stoning us?
We all feel like Jeremiah too, your the prophet.
I hear the whisperings of many: “Terror on every side! Denounce! Let us denounce him!” All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine. “Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail, and take our vengeance on him.”
Jeremiah 20:10
In our distress, O Lord, hear our calls!
Keep us strong and faithful always to you. If life is Lent, then life is about persecutions, about sufferings. We have accepted it Lord but sometimes we cry, we get weak, we want to rest and stop because things are getting too much.
But, Lent has a spirit and character that refresh us, renew us with the thought that before all these persecutions and sufferings came our way, you were there first for us, Lord Jesus to, bear all these pains. Even dying on the Cross. Amen.
Last Wednesday evening I visited to anoint with oil one of your beloved poor patients in the government hospital. She died eventually two days after.
But what remained etched in my memory was the sight of some children crying in pain at the emergency room.
I have always wondered how difficult it must be for children to be sick when they cannot speak of what they feel that they simply cry and hold on to their mother and maybe trust her and the doctors attending.
“Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me” (Mk.9:37).
Give me O Lord that same grace of children to suffer and bear all pains.
Teach me O Lord “to trust God and wait for His mercy, hope in Him and love in Him so my heart may be enlightened” (Sir.2:6-9).Amen.
Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.
Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto visible to the naked eye at dawn for those willing to go through the darkness of the night. Photo by GMA-7’s Mr. Raffy Tima at Sampaloc Cove in Subic, Zambales, 20 January 2019. Used with permission.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul
Monday, 04 February 2019, Week IV, Year I
Hebrews 11:32-40///Mark 5:1-20
Thank you very much Lord God Almighty for this beautiful Monday. So often, we get the blues on Mondays and yet even if our days get bluer, even darker than ever, there is always that glimmer of hope that you give us, O Lord.
Like the author of the Letter to the Hebrews today, we recall not only the heroes of Old Testament but our very own trying moments too when we chose to bear all the pain and hurts and sufferings because we believe in you, we trust in you.
Thank you very much O Lord God Almighty in sending us your son Jesus Christ at the nick of time when everything is out of control, when everything seemed to be dead… as if there is no more way out because it is all over as it seemed to be. It is something very close with that scene at the Gerasenes where “a man had been dwelling among the tombs, and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain. In fact, he had frequently been bound with shackles and chains, but the chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles smashed, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones” (Mk.5:3- 5).
O Lord, you know how many times we have gone through such situations when we felt a no way out, imprisoned and possessed by sin and evil, sickness and disease, so many problems and difficult situations when all we can do is hide in tombs and cry at night!
Teach us today to always wait for that flicker of hope in Christ our light of salvation. Most of all, teach us to value life over sickness and death, persons over possessions, and above everything else, Jesus Christ our Lord and God. Amen.Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.
Everything you have said in today’s gospel, Lord, is now happening: so many of us are facing so many forms of persecutions, being maligned and hated by so many people filled with evil thoughts and deeds. The other day you told us how false prophets would come claiming to be you as savior and they, too, are now in our midst with mouths full of blasphemies and deceits, sowing confusion and division among us as a people.
I am not complaining, Lord Jesus. I am even thanking you for warning us about these trials and tribulations, assuring us that we need not worry how to defend ourselves from their attacks for not even a hair on our head will be destroyed (Lk.21:14,18).
All I ask you, Lord Jesus Christ is to bless me with the grace of perseverance (Lk.21:19), that amidst this plague that have come upon us as a nation and as a Church, I may sing with the victors of heaven the song of the Lamb John heard in his vision of heaven (Rev.15:2-4).
Let me persevere in loving you Jesus even if I am a sinner.
Let me persevere in following you Jesus even if I often stumble and fall.
Let me persevere in serving you Jesus even if I am self-centered, seeking recognition. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.
*Photo above by my former student, Arch, Philip Santiago, Basilica della Santissima Trinita at Fatima, Portugal during his pilgrimage October 2018. I have always loved this photo shared by Arch. Philip: at the back of the modern metal cross is a mosaic of the Lamb seen by John in Book of Revelation; at the left side is the mosaic of the BVM with Saints Francisco and Jacinta, visionary children of Fatima and to the right is the mosaic of St. John the Baptist. Very modern rendition of old concept in Eastern churches of images above the door of Jesus also at the middle flanked by BVM as the start of the New Testament and John the Baptist who closed the Old Testament. Beautiful images of perseverance in Christ!
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