“My Ever ChangingMoods” (1984) by the Style Council

Lord My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 13 April 2025

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.*

Today we begin the Holy Week with the celebration of Palm Sunday in the Lord’s Passion.

See how since the entry of Jesus to Jerusalem more than 2000 years ago, nothing much have really changed among us – we are still the same fickle-minded people who would sing “Hosanna in the highest” and later shout “crucify him! crucify him!”.

Everybody wants to become better, each one wishing for so many things without really realizing the good things we are hoping for are all right in front us if we could just open our eyes or listen more or perhaps have a change of heart to realize everyday is a Palm Sunday too for us when God comes right into us to fulfill us.

However, many times whether in our wishful thinking or future-looking and planning, it is highly probable that what we long for is already present to us.

As we begin the Holy Week with the celebration of Palm Sunday in the Lord’s Passion, we are reminded by the liturgy with its long readings how so often in life, we just need to see with different eyes, hear with different ears, expect with different hearts to find fulfillment, peace and joy.

The sad truth is that many times, we really do not know what we want and most of all, we also do not know what we are doing because we are so far from Jesus Christ. https://lordmychef.com/2025/04/12/when-we-do-not-know-what-we-are-doing/

The night before I wrote my homily yesterday, I was posting some reels in my Instagram account when one of the music I used was the Style Council’s 1984 hit “My Ever Changing Moods”. Composed by the group founder Paul Weller who shot to fame in the 1970’s as lead singer and guitarist of the British rock band The Jam, “My Ever Changing Moods” is the Style Council’s fifth single.

Aside from Weller’s superb vocals, “My Ever Changing Moods” is so remarkable in what shall we describe as “subtle intensity” – ang tindi ng dating as we say. Despite the message conveyed by its title, the song is heavy in meanings that can stir one’s soul with its light and easy poetry yet so penetrating. That is why we right away felt its direct link with Palm Sunday.

Daylight turns to moonlight and I'm at my best
Praising the way it all works, and gazing upon the rest, yeah
The cool before the warm, the calm after the storm
The cool before the warm, the calm after the storm

I wish to stay forever, letting this be my food
Oh, but I'm caught up in a whirlwind
And my ever changing moods, yeah

Many times in life, we forget that reality of how everything is like the weather that shifts and changes in a rhythmic pattern, “Daylight turns to moonlight…the cool before the warm, the calm after the storm.” The key is openness to these changes happening in us and around us.

Though Weller and critics claim of the song’s political undertones, we see something deeper, something spiritual that we find it so appropriate in this time as we enter the holiest days of the year. Notice these final four stanzas how they convey love and order, something so similar to Jesus Christ’s first words when crucified more than 2000 years ago, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” (Lk.23:24).

Teardrops turn to children who've never had the time
To commit the sins they pay for through another's evil mind
The love after the hate, the love we leave too late
The love after the hate, the love we leave too late

I wish we'd wake up one day, an' everyone feel moved
Oh, but we're caught up in the dailies
And an ever changing mood, yeah

Evil turns to statues and masses form a line
But I know which way I'd run to, if the choice was mine
The past is knowledge, the present our mistake
And the future we always leave too late

I wish we'd come to our senses and see there is no truth
In those who promote the confusion
For this ever changing mood, yeah

What do we really know at all that we continue to crucify Jesus today, nailing him on the cross with our many sins as we pretend and assume to know so many things in life?

To know in the Jewish mind is to have a relationship, an activity more of the heart than of the mind. To know is to love, to care. Therefore, when Jesus prayed to the Father to forgive them for they know not what they do is to forgive them because they refuse to love which is what sin is all about. And that is what we still do not know until now – to love, to care for one another that we keep on crucifying Jesus Christ.

Until now, we pretend to know a lot that some nations resort to wars while some blind followers insist on what they know as right while evading the truth with their fake news being spread to cover crimes and atrocities. Until now we pretend to know what we are doing that everyday everywhere is a road rage happening often costing lives senselessly because many insist on their rights. And the confusions and quarrels and deaths continue because we do not know what we are doing. Like Paul Weller, we pray to Jesus that we’d come to our senses and see there is no truth// In those who promote the confusion// For this ever changing mood, yeah.

For this piece, we chose the slow version on piano of Style Council’s “My Ever Changing Moods” to be more attuned with Palm Sunday; you may check their original music video which is equally excellent.

From YouTube.com

When we do not know what we are doing

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion, Cycle C, 13 April 2025
Isaiah 50:4-7   ++   Philippians 2:6-11   ++   Luke 22:14-23:56

*Photo by author, Palm Sunday in our previous parish, 2019.*

If we were given one wish with a guarantee that it would be fulfilled, what would that wish be?

Of course, each of us would have different wishes depending on what really matters for us like healing or good health for someone who is sick, wealth for one who is poor, even youth for someone already old. No matter what our wish, it is always a desire for a better future, a chance to change any dissatisfaction we have in our present condition.

However, many times whether in our wishful thinking or future-looking and planning, it is highly probable that what we long for is already present to us.

As we begin the Holy Week with the celebration of Palm Sunday in the Lord’s Passion, we are reminded by the liturgy with its long readings how so often in life, we just need to see with different eyes, hear with different ears, expect with different hearts to find fulfillment, peace and joy.

The sad truth is that many times, we really do not know what we want and most of all, we also do not know what we are doing because we are so far from Jesus Christ.

Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)

*Photo by author, Chapel of the Holy Family, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 2016.*

Consistent with his theme of the mercy and forgiveness of God to us as shown the other Sunday in the parable of the prodigal son, Luke presents to us again this most wondrous and touching trait of God in Christ even while crucified.

Again, only Luke has this detail of Jesus praying for forgiveness for his enemies while being reviled and mocked by them on the cross. It is one of the many examples of Luke’s artistry in presenting to us God’s mercy and forgiveness in Christ in a sort of play of words, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do” as we confront our selves with the question, “what do we really know?”

What do we really know at all that we continue to crucify Jesus today, nailing him on the cross with our many sins as we pretend and assume to know so many things in life?

Until now we pretend to know the truth by waging wars in various parts of the world with more than half of them ironically due to our different religious beliefs! Debates continue on who must live and who must die as lawmakers pretend to know the truth with their proposals for abortions and artificial contraceptives as well as capital punishment.

Until now we pretend to know the truth as some sectors push for divorce and same sex marriage that destroy the family. Out in the streets are the daily road rage happening with everyone pretending to know the truth on who has the right of way even at the cost of life and dignity of a person.

Until now we pretend to know the truth in all those fake news and speeches defending immoralities and crimes committed against many poor people never given a fair chance to defend themselves from accusations as drug users and pushers. What a shame when some people claim to know the truth asserting freedom of expression by making fun of women and sex as well as those terminally sick or taking advantage of those with disabilities just to win votes in the coming elections.

See how almost everyone would claim to know the truth but what we actually show is our ignorance and lack of any knowledge at all of the realities around us as our problems become more complex that lead to more deaths, more disillusions, more anxieties and more emptiness in life.

Until now as we pretend to know the truth when in fact we know nothing at all that we continue to crucify Jesus Christ who – thankfully continues to pray to the Father to forgive us for we do not know what we are doing.

See how in his passion narrative Luke invites us to enter every scene, to find our roles, of whether we are on the side of Jesus or not because neither the Jewish leaders nor the Roman officials even the Apostles understood anything at all. Jesus was crucified because they did not know what they were doing.

Notice how Luke shuffled different scenes, contrasting the ignorance of characters with the certain knowledge of Jesus: Peter denied him thrice while he blanked all lying efforts of the Sanhedrin; Pilate sent Jesus to Herod to find the truth but both were too coward to acquit him that though enemies for a long time, they eventually became friends because of Jesus(!); and while crucified there on the cross, the people who reviled Jesus are contrasted with the centurion who realized him as the Christ at his death.

See? Who knows anything at all? And the most wonderful part of the passion narrative of Luke, he tells us about that beautiful conversations of the three men crucified on that day. One insulted Jesus while the other, the good thief, had a conversion by calling out, “Jesus remember me in paradise” and thereby stole heaven for himself!

Here we find what we were saying at the start: we keep on projecting ourselves to a better future but right here with us is Jesus Christ not knowing he is our fulfillment.

We do not know like the Jewish leaders, the Roman officials and soldiers as well as the Apostles who kept on pinning their hopes in the worldly kingdom, totally unmindful of the kingdom of God that had come in Jesus Christ’s coming.

This Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion invites us to slow down in our lives.

In this Holy Week, let us empty ourselves of our pride, of everything we know about life, of ourselves and of others for us to listen really to God’s voice within us. The kingdom of God is Jesus Christ. It is not a territorial domain protected by armies and navies or tariffs and laws; we become a part of God’s kingdom in Jesus Christ when we learn to commend our spirit like him to the Father amid our crosses in life.

Please, the Holy Week is meant for God, for us to meditate and pray his great love for us in Jesus Christ who suffered and died for us on the Cross. Let us return to him so we may know him, love him and follow him. Amen.

Jesus sitting among us

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, 10 November 2024
1 Kings 17:10-16 ><}}}}*> Hebrews 9:24-28 ><}}}}*> Mark 12:38-44

Our Sunday readings are so lovely, so picturesque where you find in both first reading and gospel the character of a poor widow standing side by side with great men of faith in God as the main focus, the Prophet Elijah and Christ Jesus, respectively.

In the first reading, we find humorously the Prophet Elijah asking for water, then some bread from a widow gathering sticks outside her home in Zarephath.

Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid… For the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, until the day when the Lord sends rain upon the earth.'” She left and did as Elijah had said. She was able to eat for a year, and he and her son as well; The jar of flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, as the Lord had foretold through Elijah (1 Kings 17:13, 14-16).

Elijah had fled Israel after proclaiming a drought because the people turned away from God to worship baals or false gods brought by the wife of King Ahab, Queen Jezebel. God then directed Elijah to Zarephath outside the city of Sidon to hide where the king was the father of his archenemy, Queen Jezebel!

Imagine Elijah hiding in the most hostile place of all with a pagan widow who worshipped baal so denounced by him. But, here is a marvelous story of faith of Elijah who trusted God completely in obeying Him to move to the pagan region ruled by his enemies. Similar was the faith of the pagan widow who surprisingly believed Elijah and God’s power that she did not mind putting her life and her son’s at risk in harboring their enemy. Their admirable faith both remind us how God accomplishes His great acts of mercy and love when we surrender ourselves totally to Him.

*Photo by author, Wailing Wall of Jerusalem, May 2019.*

Nine hundred years later after Elijah, we had Jesus in Jerusalem like the prophet in a very hostile place and situation too – in the Temple that was the very domain of His enemies. This was the Holy Week after Jesus had entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday leading to Good Friday.

And like Elijah who approached a widow worshipper of baal, Jesus dared to sit at the temple area after harshly castigating the scribes there:

He sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, all her livelihood” (Mark 12:41-44).

Jesus sat down 
opposite the treasury and observed 
how the crowd put money into the treasury.

Throughout this week, that scene of Jesus seated at the Temple had so absorbed me. What was Mark trying to tell us in reporting this? Jesus seated at the temple opposite the treasury observing the crowd is something else.

See the genius of Mark in weaving this Sunday’s gospel scene: right after castigating the corrupt leaders of Israel who were affiliated with the temple, Mark segued into this poor widow dropping some coins into the treasury box. In ancient Israel, the poor like the widows were not required to give those contributions. In a stroke of genius, Mark tells us something is wrong in this scene which Jesus rightly attacked because that widow was one of those widows whose house was devoured by the scribes!

*“The Widow’s Mite” painting by French painter James Tissot, from brooklynmuseum.org.*

And Mark never intended the story only for the Christians of his time but also for us as we have continued in the Church that malpractice by priests and scribes of Jerusalem. Woe to us priests and bishops who go around in “long robes and accept greetings, seats of honor” and worst of all, “devour houses of widows”, forgetting the poor, preferring always to be with the rich and powerful that social media attest.

Like Zarephath and the Jerusalem Temple, there is Jesus sitting in the middle of our Church under attack on all fronts and within in order to be closer with us especially the widows and the poor who are victims of an unjust society and systems perpetrated by same men and women supposed to be servants of God, or, at least men and women of God.

That image of Jesus seated at the Temple opposite the treasury was in fact a reminder of His being the victim too of injustice in the temple like the poor widow, of His Crucifixion on Good Friday. In fact, the 30 pieces of silver the priests have paid Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus must have come from that treasury.

In the midst of the hostilities and hurts, the divisions and abuses of power by priests and lay alike, in the Jerusalem Temple then and now in our Church, there has always been Jesus sitting among us, observing our offerings after first offering Himself for us all as our perfect High Priest (second reading) who finally freed us from these injustices and inhumanity of the past.

That is why I love this scene so much.

More than tithing, Jesus tells us this Sunday that like that generous heart of the poor widow, despite her plight, she continued to give because she believed, she hoped, most of all, she loved God. She need not give but still insisted because the treasury was for the upkeep of the temple, the very house of God, therefore, for God Himself.

There are times I hurt deep inside for the pains of the many scandals some priests and bishops have caused the Church but I choose to remain, even to sit in this Church or be a victim like Jesus amid all these because I love Jesus. Yes, amid all these sorrows, there is one “first” I see above all, Jesus Christ. This is concretization of last Sunday’s “which is the first of the commandments” – God who is love above all!

Jesus is telling us this Sunday through the poor widow that it is recognizing God in us and in one another that matters, and that is why we give at all.

If we love God, if we find God in us and in others, when we find Jesus seated among us, then we realize we are the Church, we are the Temple we love. The moment we realize this, the more we feel at home “sitting with Jesus in the temple”, then we start giving totally because we love as well as know for a fact that whatever we give is actually what we receive from God in Jesus.

Why give so little? Give all, give everything because you never have anything to begin with! Everything is from God. That is why it is in giving that we truly receive. In every Mass, we do not give anything except our mere presence that is not even complete and yet, we get abundant blessings, primarily Jesus Christ whom we receive wholly, Body and Blood.

In every Mass we celebrate, we sit with Jesus in the midst of this inhospitable world we live in, even right in the church we love and hate sometimes. We do not give up. We persevere because we believe, we trust, we hope. Most of all, we love like Elijah and Jesus and believe like the poor widows of Zarephath and Jerusalem Temple. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead!

Our hands & the hands of God

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Solemnity of the Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion-B, 24 March 2024
Isaiah 50:4-7  ]]+[[  Philippians 2:6-11  ]]+[[  Mark 15:1-39

As you all know by now, I turned 59 years old last Friday, March 22. For the second consecutive year, I have moved my personal annual retreat to my birthday so I can pray more, thank God more for his gift of life to me. This is one of my realizations in turning 59 years old:

"The more we enter the heart of Jesus
 where we find peace and fulfillment, 
joy and security, 
the more we also discover 
the dark and ugly sides of life.  
Darkness, pains, sickness, failures, 
and other forms of sufferings 
come to the fore when we are 
in God’s loving presence,
and vice versa."

The more we see and experience God’s beauty, we also see and experience Christ’s agony and passion within our very selves and among our brothers and sisters. These two faces of life ever present in our earthly journey are perfectly shown to us by today’s celebration called “the Solemnity of the Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion.”

What we have this Sunday is actually a twin-celebration.

Palm Sunday came from the liturgy of the early Christians living in Jerusalem in the fourth century who started the Holy Week tradition with a procession of palm branches that later spread to France and Germany where the blessing of palms was introduced. Later in Rome in the 12th century, the Pope began the tradition of commemorating the Lord’s Passion on this Sunday with a proclamation of that long gospel narrating Christ’s entry into Jerusalem leading to His Last Supper until His Crucifixion and Death. It was only in 1965 during Vatican II when these two celebrations were combined into what we now have as the Solemnity of the Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion.

The merging of these two celebrations sums up the mystery we celebrate during Holy Week as well as the mystery of our everyday life wherein we have the glory of Palm Sunday in one hand and at the other hand, the darkness of our own passion as a sharing in the Pasch of the Lord.

*Photo by author, Chapel of St. Francis Xavier, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, 20 March 2024.*

I have intended a play in the word “hand” there as I prayed over our gospel this Sunday during my recent retreat. As directed by my Jesuit guide, I reflected on the four gospel accounts of the Lord’s Passion where I found the word “hand over” used so many times.

“To hand over” is the more literal translation of the Greek word paradidomi used by the evangelists in the “betrayal”of Jesus by Judas Iscariot. In Filipino, it is ipasa and ibigay that are more picturesque than ipagkanulo which is our equivalent of “to betray”.

Now, look at how our Filipino word ipasa takes on a deeper meaning when we reflect on how Jesus was “handed over” first by Judas Iscariot to the chief priests who then “handed him over” to Pilate who eventually “handed him over” into death by crucifixion. Pinagpasa-pasahan nila si Jesus! And that is how evil we are humans with God and with one another, using our very own hands, handing them over by manipulating them for our own selfish ends.

Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went off to the chief priests to hand him over to them. When they heard him they were pleased and promised to pay him money. Then he looked for an opportunity to hand him over… He (Judas Iscariot) came and immediately went over to him and said, “Rabbi.” And he kissed him. At this they laid hands on him and arrested him.
Mark 14:10-11, 45-46

As soon as morning came, the chief priests with the elders and the scribes, that is, the whole Sanhedrin, held a council. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate… So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas to them, and after he had Jesus scourged, handed him over to be crucified.
Mark 15:1, 15

This handing over of Jesus – pinagpasa-pasahan si Jesus in Filipino took its lowest point in Matthew’s account when Pilate “took water and washed his hands in the sight of the crowd” (Mt. 27:24) to claim innocence in the Lord’s death. That’s how dirty our hands as humans have become! How ironic and tragic that the more we wash our hands in repeatedly handing over our family and friends, colleagues and even country, the more our hands have become dirty.

This Sunday, Jesus is inviting us to examine our hands, to clean our hands so that they become His hands of loving service, mercy and forgiveness, kindness and understanding and care for each other and nature. Let us remember the lessons of COVID-19 four years ago today when we constantly washed and disinfected our hands to be more responsible with each other, with nature and with life. Our problems are often the results of things getting off hand, out of control or too much control as we manipulate everything even God, persons and nations through elections as well as habits and patterns for economic and social reasons

*“Ecce Homo” painting by Vicente Juan Masip (1507-1579) from masterapollon.com*

It is so different with the hands of God expressed so beautifully in our first reading from the Prophet Isaiah’s Song of the Suffering Servant who was fulfilled in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

The Lord God has given me a well trained-tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them… and I have not rebelled, have not turned back.
Isaiah 50:4, 5

Here is a beautiful picture of God in Jesus Christ whose hands we have tied so many times as we insisted on our own ways, in seeking instant gratifications, in manifesting power through sheer strength. Here lies the beauty of God’s hands in Jesus Christ so opposite with our manipulating and controlling hands because His is of submission. Or passion.

The word “passion” is from the Latin patior that means to suffer or to undergo. It is related with the words passivity and patience – exactly like patients who just lie and wait on their beds, waiting for the doctors and nurses, for them to be healed and get better.

Passion here connotes passivity in the positive sense when we strip ourselves naked before God in order to be open to new possibilities like Jesus Christ eloquently expressed by St. Paul in the second reading when He “emptied and humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil.2:7, 8).

*Photo by author, Chapel of the Holy Family, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, June 201*6.

In his Passion, Jesus taught us that true power is in weakness like him dying on the Cross. Now here we find something so interesting with the synoptics account of Christ’s death when “he breathed his last” (Mk. 15:37) leading to the faith of a Roman soldier, a pagan.

When the centurion who stood facing him saw how he breathed his last he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
Mark 15:39

What was in Christ’s final breath that convinced the Roman centurion that Jesus was indeed the Son of God? The fourth gospel gives us the answer: When Jesus has taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.” And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit (Jn. 19:30).

Here again we find the words “handing over” but this time in the positive sense. Jesus never betrayed the Father nor anyone; he instead handed over Himself to God and to us. That is passion when we suffer passively in the positive sense because we love, we care, we understand.

For us to enter into the heart of Jesus this Holy Week, we have to enter into His passion too. That is to submit, to surrender all our powers to God through our parents and superiors by emptying ourselves of our pride to be filled with Christ’s humility, justice and love. Amen. A blessed Holy Week to everyone!

God saves

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion, 02 April 2023
Isaiah 50:4-7 > + < Philippians 2:6-11 > + < Matthew 27:11-54

*Photo by author, Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion 2019, Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.*

We now enter the holiest week of the year, the height of our Lenten preparations for Easter. What we have today are two ancient celebrations merged by Vatican II in 1963: the blessing of palms practiced in Jerusalem as early as the fourth century and the papal tradition of proclaiming the very long gospel of the Lord’s Passion in Rome about year 500. Hence, the title “Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion”.

And it is a beautiful innovation in our liturgy showing us so many truths in our lives like we begin Holy Week with the triumphal entry of Jesus to Jerusalem, leading to the Holy Triduum of Passion and Death on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday into the bursting joy and glory on Easter.

That for me is life itself.

We come into this world in triumph like Jesus with everybody rejoicing with our birth until we grow up, going through a lot of pains and sufferings with little deaths right in the hands of those supposed to love us but always, there is the joy of maturity, of fulfillment in Christ with many Easter moments of triumphs and consolations. Today’s celebrations remind us that while there will always be the disappointing manifestations of sin and evil in life, overall, there is always the immense and immeasurable love of God expressed in Jesus Christ dying on the Cross.

Our gospel is very long even in its shorter version. Let us focus on the Lord’s silence from his arrest to His crucifixion.

The Lord God has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them. I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting. The Lord God is my help, therefore, I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
Isaiah 50:4, 6-7

Jesus is the fulfillment of the so-called Suffering Servant of God in the Book of Isaiah. What is striking is how he claims to have been given with a well-trained tongue but He rarely spoke when tried and crucified, choosing to be silent in the midst of great sufferings. What a great display of love for us!

In a world drowning in a cacophony of sounds and noise with everyone and everything speaking like elevators and cellphones, the more God is silent, waiting for us to stop and listen to Him in Jesus Christ who speaks within us. From Pilate to the soldiers to the Pharisees and priests with their rabid packs of demagogues who ceaselessly mocked Jesus even while slowly dying on the Cross, Jesus remained silent.

Because He loves us.

Because He waits for us to stop and listen.

Because life is more true and fulfilling in silence, not in sounds and noise.

Last Monday we celebrated the Feast of St. Joseph where we heard in the gospel how an angel told him to take Mary as wife with the specific task of naming her child “JESUS” which means “God saves”. See how God gave that specific mission to the most silent man in the Bible, St. Joseph who must have taught Jesus the value of silence!

That is how God saved us in Jesus by remaining silent even on the Cross. If ever He spoke, it was mostly to pray the psalms. In Jesus, God saves us in silence while we are in the din of noises of sin. Oh how we speak a lot these days against God, still putting Him on trial, blaming Him for all the problems and woes we have in our lives and in the world.

Like Pilate and the crowd with their religious leaders, we say a lot about God that are often not true but He never argued nor debated with us just like then because Jesus loves us, because His name means “God saves” and that was exactly the meaning of His silence.

How could be God so demanding as many would claim with His many words of instructions and commandments of things to do and not to do plus warnings against sin just to obey Him when He has always been silent?

Today we are reminded how we talk too much and accomplish so little, even nothing, while Jesus is silent because His name means “God saves”, witnessing it in fact in silent sufferings that was a scandal for many at that time.

Moreover, Jesus showed us today in His sufferings how silence is ultimately the expression of trust in God. When we are able to slow down and be silent in the face of many trials, that is a clear indication of our deep faith and trust in God. People who trust are the most silent because simply wait for their deliverance or salvation. Like Jesus Christ.

Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.
Philippians 2:6-8

*Photo by author, Betania-Tagaytay City, 2018.*

More scandalous than the silence of Jesus Christ during His trial was His crucifixion, the supreme expression of His name’s meaning, “God saves”. See how since the fall of Adam and Eve, sin has always been an attempt by humans in becoming like God. There has always been that conscious or unconscious feeling of competition with God whom many see as controlling, manipulative and even power-hungry.

But right there on the Cross, Jesus showed us that indeed, in His very Person how God saves by utterly being weak and powerless.

God saves us in Jesus through the path of powerlessness and weakness, docility and humility, of simplicity before men and before His Father.

That is why even at His triumphal entrance to Jerusalem, He rode a lowly donkey never been used by anyone, a fulfillment of many Old Testament allusions and prophecies that “your king comes to you, meek and riding on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden (donkey)” (Mt. 21:5; Zech. 9:9). His triumphal entry into Jerusalem was the fulfillment of the words of God to his prophets, showing us that indeed, everything Jesus did and said were in accordance with the Father’s will, never on His own.

Because His name Jesus means, “God saves”.

What is most beautiful in the reading earlier at the blessing of palms was how Matthew described the Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem – exactly just like the coming of the wise men from the East!

And when he entered Jerusalem the whole city was shaken…
Matthew 21:10

Imagine how a very large crowd welcomed Jesus, spreading their cloaks on the road where He passed, chanting “Hosanna to the Son of David” (Mt.21:9).

Like when Jesus was born and Magis from the East came to Jerusalem inquiring about the newborn king of Israel, they were also shaken! And the irony then at His birth and at His triumphal entry, the learned have refused to recognize Him despite their having all the knowledge and writings available to them.

Is it not the same thing continues to happen to us in our lives, when despite all the kindness and mercy of God, we refuse to recognize His Son’s coming Jesu Christ including the salvation He had gained for us? Where have all the people gone on Sundays? Does God still matter to us? Do we not care at all whenever Jesus comes to us most especially in the Eucharist during the Sunday Mass?

Both the rites of the blessing of palms with the procession and the Mass on this Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion are not merely a recalling of a past event, but a making present, a re-membering of Jesus our King triumphantly coming daily – still in silence – to us in the simplicity of bread and wine to become His Body and Blood for us to offer and share in order to experience Him, our Resurrection and Life because His name means “God saves”.

In the Eucharist, Jesus comes to us as “God saves us”, fulfilling us, blessing us.

This Holy Week, especially at the Holy Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil, we are reminded of our task to witness to everyone the meaning of the name of Jesus, “God saves” by being present to Him in the Eucharist. Inside the church. With our family. Not in the beach nor a resort unmindful of history’s greatest moment when God saved us from sins by dying on the Cross. Amen. Please, have a meaningful Holy Week to experience the joy of Easter!

“When It Was Done” by Hugo Montenegro (1970)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, 10 April 2022

*Photo by Arch. Philip Santiago, Lourdes, France, 2015.*

All roads lead to churches today as we begin the holiest week of the year with the celebration of the Palm Sunday in the Lord’s Passion today reaching its highest point on Saturday evening with the Easter Vigil that leads to Easter Sunday, the mother of all feasts in the Catholic world.

Our celebration today is actually a combination of two practices in the earliest times of the Church that were only merged in 1963 during the reform of the liturgy at Vatican II: the procession and blessing of palms was the practice in Jerusalem as early as the 4th century while a hundred years later, the Pope in Rome ushered in the Holy Week with the proclamation of the passion narrative of Jesus Christ.

Hence, the long title of our celebration, Palm Sunday in the Lord’s Passion; however, it is not something we look back in the past but one that we make present in the here and now as we look forward in that future when we shall all be together celebrating eternal life in God’s presence in heaven.

That is the challenge of this Holy Week: how we can follow Jesus in his Passion and Death in order to be one with him in all eternity. Like the people in Jerusalem when he entered the city more than 2000 years ago, would we side with those who followed and believed him or be with those who mocked and jeered him? (https://lordmychef.com/2022/04/09/the-cross-our-door-to-heaven/)

That is the problem of the main character in the song When It Was Done which is a list of wishful thinkings of a man to a woman already in a relationship with another man. It seems the man was too slow or came late to do everything in order to win over the woman he loves and all he could do at the moment now is to wish of having her perhaps in the afterlife in the future.

If I could bind your mind to mine
In time I'd keep you from that world of his
If I could change the strangeness in your kind
Then I'd know where your soul is

Then I'd know what song I'd have to sing
To touch that chord within you
And I would weave such wonders
That when I was done I'd win you

If I could stand with the stars on either hand
And say, "This ain't the answer"
If I had been where you're goin'
But then I'll never be no dancer

And if I was I'd know what step to take
And laugh at what had freed me
And smash the great wall down, girl
When it was done you'd need me

If I could face the fait that waits to cast me
In the scramble
And sit across the velvet boards from God
Then I'd gamble

Then I'd know what chance I'd have to take
And before somebody sold you
I'd bet my soul against the stars
When it was done I'd hold you
When it was done I'd hold you

Composed in 1969 by Jimmy Webb and originally recorded that same year by Walter Wanderly Set, it became popular in 1970 after Hugo Montenegro released his version. Montenegro was a former US Navy musician who pioneered research and recordings in electronic music. His biggest break came in 1966 when he covered Ennio Moricone’s theme for the Clint Eastwood starrer The Good, the Bad and the Ugly that paved his way into a long career in creating music for movies and television series.

When It Was Done is one of the 200 songs covered by Montenegro he had waxed with his cool arrangements using modern electronic instruments and technologies of his time that gave his music a different feel, like in this piece that is very soothing with a sense of sublimity.

It is a very lovely and feel good music that reminds us too to do every effort in the present moment to express our love for others like Jesus Christ who until the end never ceased from doing good for everyone. It is in being like Jesus that we can truly sing Monetenegro’s When It Was Done more convincingly and truly. Amen.

*We have no intentions of infringing into the copyrights of this music and its uploader except to share its beauty and listening pleasure.

From Youtube.

The Cross, our door to heaven

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, 10 April 2022
Isaiah 50:4-7 +++ Philippians 2:6-11 +++ Luke 23:1-49

*Photo by Mr. Chester Ocampo, ICS Chapel, 2016; sculpture by National Artist Ed Castrillo.*

Officially we begin today the Holy Week leading to the Triduum of the Lord with Easter, the Mother of all feasts in the Church. Today we enter the “innermost room” of the house of God our Father after our 40 day journey in Lent.

We are actually celebrating today two distinct rites merged into one, the procession and blessing of palms to commemorate Jesus Christ’s entry into Jerusalem that led to his arrest and crucifixion on Good Friday which we heard in the gospel proclaimed earlier. As early in the fourth century, Christians in Jerusalem have been commemorating the Lord’s entry to Jerusalem from the city gate while a hundred years later, the Pope ushered in the Holy Week in Rome by proclaiming the long gospel we have heard of the Lord’s crucifixion and death. With the reforms of the liturgy in 1963 at Vatican II, these two celebrations were merged as one with the designation as “Palm Sunday in the Passion of the Lord”.

More than a going back to the past, our celebration today reminds us of the ever-newness of Christ’s saving work and love for us while at the same time assuring us of the future that would bring us into the fullness of life in him with the Father in heaven. This we find in the last three words recorded to us by Luke while Jesus was on the Cross.

*Photo by author, Chapel of the Holy Family, Sacred Heart Spirituality Center, Novaliches, QC, 2016.*

The mercy and forgiveness of God

Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”
Luke 23:34

Very consistent with his theme of the mercy and forgiveness of God to us as shown the other Sunday in the parable of the merciful father, a.k.a. the parable of the prodigal son, Luke presents to us again this most wondrous and touching trait of God in Christ even while crucified.

Again, only Luke has this detail of Jesus praying forgiveness for his enemies while being reviled and mocked by them on the cross.

It is another example of Luke’s artistry in presenting to us God’s mercy and forgiveness in Christ in a sort of play of words, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do” as we confront our selves with the question, “what do we really know?”

What do we really know at all that we continue to crucify Jesus today, nailing him on the cross with our many sins as we pretend and assume to know so many things in life?

Until now, we still have wars raging in various parts of the world, and more than half of these conflicts according to studies are ironically due to our different religious beliefs! Until now debates continue as everyone would want to have the power to decide for themselves who shall live and who shall die, from abortions to artificial contraceptives to capital punishment. Until now we pretend to know the truth and yet the more we have shown our ignorance as our problems become more complex than ever leading to more deaths, more disillusions, more anxieties and more emptiness in life.

And right there on the cross, Jesus continues to pray to the Father to forgive us for we do not know what we are doing to pave the way for the conversion of more others like Paul who realized he “acted out of ignorance in my unbelief” (1 Tim. 1:13). In his other book the Acts of the Apostles, Luke tells us how Peter said in a speech to the people how they “acted out of ignorance in putting Jesus to death” (3:17). Here we find Luke driving at the basic truth how so often it is in our sinfulness and “ignorance” that eventually we come to “know” and realize God who is always ready with his unfailing mercy and forgiveness. The key is to emulate Dimas, the good thief crucified at the other side of Jesus on that Good Friday.

The promise of Paradise

He replied to him, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
Luke 23:43

Imagine the evil that men do portrayed by Luke in Christ’s crucifixion, of the relentless insults and mockery by the people on the ground and even up there on the cross when one of those hanging reviled Jesus, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us”(Lk.23:39).

See how we are not contented and satisfied in putting others to shame but would even bury them deeply with insults as we say in Filipino, “baon na baon”. But, all is not lost as there is always a glimmer of hope. especially among the sinners and the ignorant who open themselves to god’s grace like Dimas who rebuked his fellow criminal, reminding him how they deserved the punishment but not Jesus “who has done nothing criminal” (Lk.23:41). It was at that instance when he snatched heaven by telling the Lord, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Lk.23:42).

And we all know the response of Jesus, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

What a great God do we really have in Jesus Christ! Despite the pains and sufferings of being nailed on the cross, he not only begged the Father for our forgiveness because we do not know what we are doing but most of all, readily handed our salvation, promising Paradise to anyone who would humbly surrender one’s self to him like Dimas.

See that Jesus was very precise in assuring Dimas and us with Paradise – right at the very moment we are in him, with him on the Cross of pain and suffering, of truth and righteousness – not later when they die nor on Sunday when he rises from the dead but TODAY, right now!

The very moment we open ourselves to accept Jesus Christ our Savior, that is also precisely the very moment he is very present in us and among us. The other moment Luke used the word TODAY to indicate the very moment of here and now was at the birth of Jesus when the angels told the shepherds “For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord” (Lk.2:11).

What a beautiful reminder to us all of God present among us in every here and now, not yesterday nor tomorrow, but today for indeed our God is “I AM WHO AM”!

Anyone who is always one in Jesus, one with Jesus is assured of Paradise, in fact already entering Paradise, our end and ultimate destination in life. This leads us to the third important words of Jesus on the Cross according to Luke…

Coming home to the Father

Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit”; and when he had said this he breathed his last.
Luke 23:46

All four evangelists attest in their respective gospel account that Jesus died on the cross at the ninth hour or about 3:00 PM. Most of all, they tell us that Jesus died while praying.

In Luke’s account, Jesus’ final prayer was from Psalm 31:6, “Into your hands I commend my spirit.” As we have mentioned in our previous reflections, Luke presents Jesus always at prayer like during the second Sunday of Lent during his transfiguration; only Luke tells us why Jesus went up that high mountain with his three Apostles in order to pray. Inasmuch as the transfiguration was a prayer moment, the crucifixion is the Lord’s prayer moment par excellence. Recall how we truly learn to “pray” when in deep pain and trials like before a surgery, when we no longer know how to pray or even have forgotten what is prayer all about except that we give ourselves entirely to God and to our doctors.

There on the Cross at his final moments, Jesus never ceased from doing good, always praying, always united and one in his Father in heaven. In commending his spirit into the Father’s hands, Jesus shows us exactly what discipleship is all about: everything we have, all we are are God’s. We have nothing to lay claim as ours in this life and that is the challenge to us daily: to live for God in Jesus through our loving service to others.

In this long passion narrative we heard today is the gospel, the very good news of our salvation as proclaimed by Paul in the second reading of how Jesus gave his total self in love to the Father for us all.

May we keep our eyes and our hearts open to Jesus, relying only in him like the Suffering Servant for he shall never put us to shame. We cannot experience the joy of his Resurrection unless we imitate Simon Cyrene, Dimas, John and the Blessed Virgin Mary in welcoming and following him in our daily life whether in the comforts of Jerusalem or the sorrows of Calvary for that is where we truly enter Paradise with Jesus, in Jesus. On the Cross. Amen.

Palm Sunday in the Lord’s palms

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, 28 March 2021

*Photo by Ms. Kysia Cruz, 28 March 2021.*

Dearest Lord Jesus Christ:
Today we started the most holy week
of the year celebrating Palm Sunday 
listening to your Passion story proclaimed;
but, today was so different 
when people were gone
and all we have were palms
and more other fronds.

It pained my heart, dear Jesus
when all the people and familiar faces
I see every Sunday morning
were all praying and standing
outside, hoping they could come in
while we are under strict quarantine
as between our glancing, my heart was shrinking
so I raised my hands, and began praying on them.

Lord, I cannot understand nor see clearly
things happening except hear people silently crying;
all I know is that you are passing
still on a donkey riding
a king not domineering but serving;
open our eyes of faith to see your indwelling
so we may learn self-emptying
thus, becoming like you, an offering.

As we begin this Holy Week journey
in the most unholy time of our history
let us not miss this opportunity
to be filled by you in our being empty 
joining you to the calvary
with the cross that we carry
to rest and trust in your palms fully
serving you in others lovingly and faithfully.

*Photo by Ms. Ariane Distor, 27 March 2021.*

Holiest week in most unholy time

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, 28 March 2021
Isaiah 50:4-7  +  Philippians 2:6-11  +  Mark 14:1-15:47

*Photo by Mr. John Karol Limjuco, Parish of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, Valenzuela City, 26 March 2021.*

For the second straight year, we are again celebrating our holiest week in the most unholy time of our lives in this COVID-19 pandemic. The timing could not escape everybody’s suspicion of something so sinister, if not diabolic, that religious gatherings are again limited.

But on a closer look and deeper reflection, we find what is happening right now is something similar with what Jesus went through that made these days so holy.

Notice that the official designation of our celebration today is “Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion” when Vatican II fused the two earliest preparations by the Church for Easter: the palm procession by Christians at Jerusalem in the fourth century and the proclamation of the long gospel of the Passion of the Lord in Rome by the Pope in the fifth century.

Both ancient celebrations set our sights to the Paschal Mystery of Jesus beginning this Sunday stretching it through this whole week to remind us of the triumph and tragedy, of darkness and light, of death and life. These contrasts shall be most pronounced when we enter the Triduum of the Lord’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection on Holy Thursday evening, Good Friday, and Easter Vigil.

Then everything becomes light and pure joy in Easter!

And the key to understanding, appreciating, and deeply imbibing the meaning of all these confluences of mixed emotions and feelings, colors and hues like our situation while under this time of the corona is to have the same attitude of Jesus Christ expressed so beautifully by St. Paul in our second reading:

Have among yourselves the same attitude (mind) that is also yours in Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.
Philippians 2:5-8

The mind and heart of Jesus Christ

Having the mind and heart of Jesus Christ is opening ourselves to the Father by trying to see everything in his light as we go through life especially during this pandemic. It is what Jesus has always reminded us of “reading the signs of the times”.

God is telling us something in this pandemic but we are not listening to him as we continue to see it as a medical and social issue, refusing to recognize its spiritual and moral implications. In a lot of senses, this pandemic and quarantine we are undergoing is similar with situation when Jesus entered Jerusalem more than 2000 years ago when Israel under Roman rule and life was so difficult but nobody recognized him as the Christ and Savior!

In his entire life here on earth, Jesus always saw everything in the light of his Father in heaven. He never got involved into politics and other temporal concerns or subject but throughout the course of history since then until now, his teachings remain relevant in addressing our social issues and problems.

Seeing things and events in our lives and history in the light of God demands that we have the same attitude of Jesus of opening ourselves to be empty of our pride, of our plans and agenda, of our self-interests as well as of our illusions and insecurities in life.

We will never see God nor find him when we are filled with our selves, especially with our bloated egos when we think we know everything, when we presume we are always right, when we play gods.

Like the people who welcomed Jesus entered Jerusalem holding palms, singing “Hosanna in the highest!”, soon we would also be shouting “Crucify him!” unless we get emptied of ourselves and be filled with God.

St. Paul could eloquently present the mind and heart of Jesus in this beautiful hymn because he himself went through a process of kenosis, of self emptying. He had experienced in himself how when Jesus emptied himself and went down to his lowest point obediently accepting death on the cross, that is also when he was at his closest union with the Father who raised him to his highest glory at Easter.

That is why St. Paul called it the “scandal of the cross” for when we empty ourselves and offered everything to God out of love for him and for others that we are willing to go down to our lowest point in life, that is when God raises us up to “meet” him, to be one in him that miracles begin to happen, when things change for the best not only for us but also for others and those around us.

Hence, while we are in the most unholy period of our history, the Lord is giving us every chance to have the holiest Holy Week of our lives by examining our very selves in this time of quarantine to cleanse and empty ourselves of sins and evil to be filled with God of his holiness and grace through Christ’s cross.

*Photo by author, St. Joseph Parish, Baras, Rizal, 15 January 2021.*

The logic of the Cross

As we go to another Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) or lockdown like last year, I am convinced that while we are sad at how things are going on, it is actually God who is most “sad” of all as we go through all these pains and difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

God cannot suffer because he is perfect; but, he can suffer with us that is why he sent his Son Jesus to become human like us to join us in all our sufferings including death and thus, “console” us in Christ.

“To console” is from the Latin terms “con” (with) + “solatio” (solace/comfort) that means not only to comfort or delight those in suffering but to also “strengthen” or make strong those weakened by trials and difficulties which is the literal meaning of cum fortis, with strength.

And here lies the “logic” of Christ’s Cross: Jesus died by the hatred of others so that we may live again by his love. Only God can give us the evidences of his love to render us capable through Jesus Christ to forge on amid our pains and sufferings, hoping against all hope that love is always stronger than suffering, death, and sin.

When we persevere in our sufferings, especially in silence for the sake of others out of love, imitating the self-emptying of Jesus, that is when God showers us with more of his love and mercy, strength and vigor to overcome everything in Christ.

This he had promised and fulfilled in Christ who is the “Suffering Servant” we heard in the first reading from the Prophet Isaiah:

The Lord God has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them. Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear; and I have not rebelled, have not turned back. I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting. The Lord God is my help therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
Isaiah 50:4-7

See how everything Isaiah had written was fulfilled in Jesus as we heard in the gospel today when at the praetorium “They clothed him in purple and, weaving a crown of thorns, placed it on him. They began to salute him with, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ and kept striking his head with a reed and spitting upon him. They knelt before him in homage” (Mk.15:17-19). It went on up to the calvary when “They gave him wine drugged with myrrh, but he did not take it. Then they crucified him…” (Mk.15:23-24).

In my reflections this Lent, I have been dwelling lately on tenderness and compassion as mercy of God in action, as mercy of his hands. To be tender and compassionate is to be one with the suffering even if you are suffering too – just like our medical frontliners who risk not only their very lives but even their families.

Last Friday I was asked to give a talk via webinar about development of compassionate teachers and staff at Our Lady of Fatima University where I serve as chaplain. A doctor asked if there is such a thing as “over compassion” wherein she can already feel chest pains in seeing and hearing all the sufferings of their patients in this time of the pandemic.

I was so touched by her question because I felt it too; I told her she is not alone feeling that way when I also feel overwhelmed with the sufferings of the people but cannot do so much. I told her it is a grace to feel that way, that she had to find ways how her mercy in the heart can flow to mercy of the hands while ensuring safety protocols as a doctor.

But that is where the grace of God works fullest, when we believe and trust more in Jesus Christ when the chips are already down, when we feel defeat is inevitable that we just surrender everything to Divine grace and intervention.

*“Ecce Homo” by Murillo from wikipediacommons.org.*

That is the meaning of Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion when we see life in its total weakness and even wreak, whether in our selves or among others, and yet we continue to persevere, to hope against hope because deep in us we know God is with us, God is working in us, and God will save us.

French poet Charles Péguy wrote in one of his great poems at the turn of the century that hope is God’s favorite virtue because “hope surprises him”.

Péguy described hope like the end of a play or a movie in our time; we know the show had ended but we stay on refusing to leave the theater because we believe that something is still coming up like a preview or a surprise scene!

See how St. Mark tells us at the end of his Passion Story when everything was so dark after Jesus had died when “he breathed his last” that the centurion standing there believed that “Truly this man is the Son of God!” (Mk.15:39)

Sometimes in life, God becomes clearest and most truest when we have lost everything, including what is most precious and dearest to us.

Have a heart with a lot of faith, hope and love that this may be the holiest Holy Week in our lives because it is the most unholy period in our history like when Jesus entered Jerusalem more than 2000 years ago. Amen.

Keep safe, be blessed, and be a blessing to others!

Hosanna in the time of corona

The Lord Is My Chef Recipe for the Solemnity of Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, 05 April 2020

***Isaiah 50:4-7* >>+<< Philippians 2:6-11 >>+<< *Matthew 26:14-27:66***

*Photo by author, altar of Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan, Palm Sunday 2020.*

“Hosanna!” is the song of the day and despite the ongoing lockdown now entering its penultimate week, we have every reason to praise God this Solemnity of Palm Sunday in the Lord’s Passion.

Let us continue to sing “hosanna” even if our churches are closed due to threats of COVID-19 because even with all the difficulties arising from this enhanced community quarantine, it also gives us much needed time and space to reflect on the meaning of our Holy Week celebrations.

Let us make this Holy Week holy indeed so we may discover God anew in our sacred celebrations and right in our very hearts in this time of the corona pandemic.

The “ascent” to Jerusalem

Photo by author, ancient city of Jerusalem from the Church of Dominus Flevit (The Lord Wept) where Jesus came from towards the holy city via the eastern gate as prophesied in the Old Testament, May 2019.

Geographically speaking, to go to Jerusalem is to go up, to ascend to higher level as it rises to 754 meters above sea level (2,474 feet) compared with Galilee from where Jesus spent his three years of ministry which is just 209 meters (686 feet) above sea level.

Jesus Christ’s “trip to Jerusalem” was both literally and figuratively speaking an “ascent” in all aspects: he went up to Jerusalem to offer himself on the Cross to replace temple worship so people can finally worship in “truth and spirit” as he had told the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well three Sundays ago.

More than the outward sign of ascending Jerusalem is the inner sign of Christ’s ascent in his outpouring of love for the Father and us.

That is the beautiful imagery of his triumphant entrance to Jerusalem which will reach its climax on Good Friday capped by the glorious Easter.

Every day, Jesus invites us to welcome him and most of all to join him in his ascent to Jerusalem, to the Father by forgetting one’s self, taking our crosses, and following the Lord in giving of self in love.

Now is the perfect time to sing “hosanna” – to welcome and follow Jesus in our inner ascent when everything and everyone is “down” due to COVID-19. The only way to rise again from this misery of the corona pandemic is to ascent in Jesus, with Jesus, and through Jesus.

For so long, we have been following the upward path of “social mobility” measured in income and material things without considering the emotional and spiritual imbalances that result in these worldly pursuits. In our rat race for higher productivity, more money and less costs, we have become distant from persons especially family. Now, we have to practice social distance not only to stop spread of virus but most of all, to realize anew that above all is always the human person.

And the best route to encounter each person is in Jesus Christ who leads us from Jerusalem to the Cross and into Easter; hence, the liturgies this Holy Week are the oldest and simplest we have in the Church so that we can truly sing “hosanna” and focus only to Jesus ever present to us.

Death and Love

*Photo by author, parish altar, Lent 2019.*

Now playing at Netflix is the fourth part of its hit series “Money Heist”. I had the chance to watch its first episode that opened with a scene of the professor escaping police in the forest with a narration by “Tokyo” trying to control the situation in the bank they have taken over. She said, “His (the professor) heart held two words that should not be together: love and death.”

Perfect sound bite for Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion – “two words that should not be together: love and death” when in fact, its opposite is the exact reality! For love to be very true, it must be willing to suffer and die as the Lord Jesus Christ had shown us more than 2000 years ago.

Love and death are always together! That is why we have a Holy Week leading to Easter!

It is a basic reality we have always tried to negate and escape that have only left us more empty and lost within. The undeniable sign of love is when we are able to love somebody more than our very self – and that includes willing to die for the beloved!

We can never ascend, never arise for as long as we have too much of self, like the characters opposite our Lord Jesus Christ this Holy Week.

One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests, and said, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.
Matthew 26:14-16

Selflessness and silence of Jesus, Selfishness of man

One distinct characteristic of Jesus throughout his life that is most especially clear from Palm Sunday to Good Friday is his selflessness and silence in the face of too much pressure and suffering.

Rather than being a sign of weakness, it is Jesus Christ’s shining moment of mastery and control as we have noted last Sunday when he cried in meeting Martha and Mary at the tomb of Lazarus who had been dead for four days.

This becomes more evident starting this Sunday reaching its highest point on Good Friday to be capped by his glorious Resurrection on Easter.

See how during his entrance and ascent into Jerusalem, Jesus was silent. Because he knew what was going to happen! He was even looking forward into it.

His entrance into Jerusalem to assert his being the Christ by offering himself on the Cross is the culmination of what St. Luke had noted in his account early on at Caesarea Philippi that “when the days of his going up to heaven was nearing completion, Jesus resolutely journeyed to Jerusalem.”

Despite the dangers and the certainty of death, Jesus did not balk nor even thought of backing out. He resolutely went into his death because of his immense love for us and the Father. He never cracked under pressure!

Even during his trials first before the Sanhedrin and before Pontius Pilate, there was the mastery and surety of Jesus very evident in his silence. He was totally composed, wholly entrusting himself in total obedience to the Father in heaven.

How about us these days of lockdown in the face of the growing threats of COVID-19?

What a shame that our officials and their families finally revealed their true colors as the modern Judas Iscariots seeking VIP treatment for COVID-19 testing! So afraid of dying because love they have none whatsoever for the country and the people but for themselves alone.

Like Judas, they think only of themselves, keeping their loot of more than 30 pieces of silver, looking for the opportune time to betray us again, totally quiet in the comfort of their homes when thousands are facing hunger and uncertainties.

They are the modern Pontius Pilates who mumble in public, who could not make a definitive stand on anything at all, more at home in accusing and blaming others for the confusions and lack of order, always washing their hands, without guts to humbly accept lack of foresight despite the grave dangers that did not happen overnight.

Most of all, look inside ourselves too for those moments we think more of “what we can have” than “what we can give or do” in these trying times? Do we hoard and panic buy? Do we cower in fear by hiding it with our anger and demands for assistance and relief goods?

Above is a nice guide I found on my friend’s Facebook, indicating three zones to show where are in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic. It can be very useful too in indicating where we can meet Jesus in ascending and entering Jerusalem to fulfill his mission and our mission too.

Entering Jerusalem, entering Jesus

My daily Mass attendees since the lockdown.

When the Luzon lockdown started last March 18, I cried on my first Mass: it was simply unbelievable – until now – for me celebrating Mass without people because a Mass always presupposes people and community to celebrate Christ’s presence!

But now, everybody is gone.

Except me. And the birds who keep constant company for me.

Every morning after pealing our bell as I celebrate Mass alone, I bow before the giant crucifix looming above our altar and look on the metal engraving of the Lamb of God on the cover of our Tabernacle where the Blessed Sacrament of Jesus is kept.

This week as I looked more often onto the lamb during prayer periods, I felt it to be looking at me too. That’s when I realized how the lamb perfectly signifies Jesus Christ entering Jerusalem, the “Suffering Servant” of God prophesied by Isaiah in the first reading today. But what struck me most is the song’s latter part not included in our first reading, referring to Jesus Christ:

Though he was harshly treated, he submitted and opened not his mouth; Like a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearers, he was silent and opened not his mouth.
Isaiah 53:7

That lamb is indeed Jesus Christ, coming to us day in, day out in the Holy Eucharist we priests continue to celebrate even if our churches are closed. Every day especially in the Mass, Jesus invites us to ascend with him to the Father, little by little with our selfless acts of charity and kindness to others.

Looking into that lamb of our Tabernacle, I see the eyes of Jesu telling me how much he loves me, how much he has forgiven me from my sins despite his knowing me through and through.

And that is Jesus Christ: always silent, gazing with his eyes full of love, full of knowledge about us and what’s going to happen next, inviting us to join him, to come with him to ascend to our higher selves especially in this time of crisis. All despite his knowing our sins because he sees us too with eyes full of mercy!

These my dear readers are more enough reasons to sing “hosanna” today despite the many difficulties and uncertainties around us because Jesus is with us and will never leave us especially when we reach the cross. Amen.

A blessed holy week to you!

The mercy and forgiveness of God

The promise of Paradise

Coming home to the Father

The mind and heart of Jesus Christ

The logic of the Cross

The Lord Is My Chef Recipe for the Solemnity of Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, 05 April 2020

Isaiah 50:4-7 >>+<< Philippians 2:6-11 >>+<< Matthew 26:14-27:66

The “ascent” to Jerusalem

Death and Love

Selflessness and silence of Jesus, Selfishness of man

Entering Jerusalem, entering Jesus

***Isaiah 50:4-7* >>+<< Philippians 2:6-11 >>+<< *Matthew 26:14-27:66***