Category: person

Abundant harvest?

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 09 July 2024
Hose 8:4-7, 11-13     ><))))*>  +  <*((((><     Matthew 9:32-38
Photo by Onnye on Pexels.com

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to sent out more laborers for his harvest” (Matthew 9:38).

Lord Jesus,
teach us to examine
again the meaning of your words
"the harvest is abundant" -
how do we look at,
what do we see at
this abundant harvest
of your people,
"troubled and abandoned,
like sheep without a shepherd"?
What do we see at your flock,
at your people?
Forgive us, Lord Jesus,
when we are like the wayward
kings of Israel of Hosea's time
who misled the people away
from God; what an abundant harvest
laid to waste by corrupt
and sinful laborers some of whom
were never sent by God while
others turned away from God.
Forgive the laborers among us
who see the abundant harvest more
as a business venture,
a shameful tourist attraction
for the display of our delusions of grandeur;
forgive us, Lord when some of us
your laborers label others 
as troublemakers,
as oppositionists,
even daring to call declare 
others using the power of the devil
like You!
Nothing much had changed
since the time of Hosea and
your time, Lord Jesus:
your abundant harvest wasted
by selfish laborers who see only
themselves and their well-being
instead of seeing your people as a 
gift and a responsibility entrusted
to our care; help us, O Lord, to value
your abundant harvest meant for
your greater glory
not ours.
Amen.

The gift of persons

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity-B, 26 May 2024
Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40 ><}}}*> Romans 8:14-17 ><}}}*> Matthew 28:16-20
Photo by author, the Holy Trinity as depicted at the Parish of St. John the Baptist, Calumpit, Bulacan, March 2021.

We are now into the Ordinary Time and for the next two consecutive Sundays we are celebrating three important Solemnities in the next three weeks.

First in these series of Solemnities in Ordinary Time is that of the Most Holy Trinity, the highest truth in our faith which is our belief in One God in three Persons. Contrary to common beliefs, mysteries can be explained and understood, but, not fully well. After all, mysteries are not really meant to be solved but simply be lived and enjoyed like the mystery of the person which is in the heart of the Most Holy Trinity: How can there be three Persons in one God?

Moses said to the people: “Ask now of the days of old, before your time, ever since God created man upon the earth; ask from one end of the sky to the other: Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard of? Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live? Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, with his strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terror, all of which the Lord, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?”

Deuteronomy 4:32-34
Photo by author, sunrise at the Lake of Galilee in Israel, May 2019.

Our first reading this Sunday invites us too to examine ourselves and our lives to see how God has been so personal, so relational with us. As we say in Tagalog, “Sigue nga, paano mo naranasan ang Diyos?”

How did you experience God? Was it not just like the way we experienced other people in our relationships?

Very often when we meet people, our tendency to welcome or accept them were a result of their conduct, of their approach to us. If they are kind and good natured and warm, we are easily disarmed and we feel like knowing them.

That is what Moses was telling his people at that time, including us today: recall how personal was God in dealing with us with all His warmth and love because they indicate relationships and therefore, another person to relate with.

“The Trinity” (1425-27), an icon by Russian artist Andrei Rublev from wikipedia.org.

Remember how the books of the bible were written: the first questions the biblical writers asked were not the origins of the world but those asked by Moses today. After they have experienced the kindness and love of God that they eventually asked and reflected on the origins (genesis) of everything on earth and the universe.

In that experience, they felt a relationship with a Father as source of all life like dads giving life as well as protecting life and giving back life to those who may have lost it. That personal experience of God as a Father so loving and caring moved the biblical writers too to ask and reflect on the presence of evil and sufferings as we find in the Wisdom books like the Psalms and the Book of Job.

There is always the primacy of God’s personal relationship and of His conduct towards us humans that prompt us to “know” Him, to believe Him. Like people dear to us, God first revealed Himself to us in the most personal manner through a succession of events and other people we have met and known. That is why when we say “I believe in God”, we not only express a concept but also a relationship. Most of all, in this relationship is a commitment too to get to know God as a person! Before knowing any details about God or people, we first have relationships no matter how little it may be at the start. Later, we get phone numbers and other contact details with people we meet because we feel “committed” to getting to know them more in the future. In a sense, we believe them that is why we keep in touch with them. The same is true with God.

Photo by author, St. Catherine’s Monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai in Egypt, May 2019.

The word person means “a conscious relating being”. Whether with God or with others, we experience the person and the relationship unfolding through time. There is always first the experience of a conduct like kindness before questions and details of a person come.

That word “kindness” actually indicates a relationship because its root is kin that means “one of us” or “of same tribe”. When we say “he is so kind to me”, it means he treats me as one of his family or his own. In that kindness and whatever good conduct present, there seems to be an “invisible line” linking us with people we meet. Or with God which the Holy Spirit does.

Of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is the most elusive in nature and yet, it is the most frequently and concretely in contact with us. It is the principle of unity in the Trinity and among us as we have reflected last Pentecost Sunday. Today, St. Paul explains to us how the Holy Spirit as a Person keeps these relationships among us and with God united and strong, enabling us to cry out “Abba” or “Our Father”. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us the courage to keep our relationships as persons and with God especially at this modern time when some people refuse to recognize God and worst, some are bent in deleting God entirely from life.

That is why in today’s gospel, Jesus instructed His disciples including us today to “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt.28:19-20). Persons always presuppose relationships; hence, the need to gather others always like what God did and continues to do in His Church.

It has been three weeks since my mother peacefully passed away. People ask me how am I doing. Truth is, I am not so well. I miss mommy so much. It is true we only realize the value of a person after he/she is gone. And it is most difficult with mothers!

Photo by author, Mt. Sinai in Egypt, May 2019.

Every time I come home, I have that strange feeling, wondering deep inside me of that great mystery, how did it happen that it was my mom – just one person – who had left us but our home has become so empty? Since May 7, that image of mommy’s empty room after her body was taken to the funeral had remained in my mind and as days passed, I have noticed how our home has been so hollowed when there are still my siblings and niece staying in the house?

That is the gift of person. A person fills not only spaces and homes but most of all, fills us. Every person fills another person in the same manner God first fills us with His love through persons dearest to us. That is why we believe in God.

Let us have good relationships with others so they may experience God too in their lives. Let us gather in the Father’s love in Jesus Christ to celebrate the gift of life together in the Holy Spirit through one another. Let us pray:

God our loving Father,
thank you for the gift of life,
for my gift of person
and for the gift of so many
persons in my life;
dwell in me, Holy Spirit,
fill me with your fire and life,
animate me with the Son's
justice and love
so that in myself
the mystery 
of the Blessed Trinity
be alive.
Amen.

Lent is remembering

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday in the Third Week of Lent, 06 March 2024
Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9     ><}}}}*> + <*{{{{><     Matthew 5:17-19
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Lent is remembering
especially because we are
beings of forgetfulness;
but, teach us Father,
that to remember you
is not like in remembering
an equation or a formula
as a task of the mind
or intellect;
to remember you, O God,
in the spirit of Lent is 
to surrender ourselves to
you whom we do not see
but present among our
brothers and sisters;
to remember you, dear God, 
is to surrender ourselves
to your Holy Will
that are not mere laws
and decrees
but the very person
of your Son Jesus Christ.

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to yo, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.”

Matthew 5:17-18
To remember and keep your laws,
dear God is to remember and keep you
found in our brothers and sisters
through your Son Jesus Christ;
indeed, the greatness of any
nation is measured to a large part
in its legal system, in how it is justly
implemented and observed:

Moses spoke to the people and said: “Observe them carefully for thus will you give evidence to your wisdom and intelligence to the nations, who will hear of all these statutes and say, ‘This great nation is truly wise and intelligent people.’ For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the Lord, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him? Or what great nation has statutes and decrees that are just as this whole law which I am setting before you today?'”

Deuteronomy 4:1, 6-8
Father, in this season of Lent,
may we recover and put into practice,
not just remember that your laws
are fulfilled in Christ when we love;
how sad that love of God
and love of neighbors
is your law we often forget,
and find hard to remember
because we keep it in our minds
than in our hearts where you dwell.

Most of all, to remember
means to make one a member
of the present moment again:
help us remember in making
you present always in our love
and good works.
Amen.

Sowing the seeds of love

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Memorial, St. Francis Sales, Bishop & Doctor of the Church, 24 January 2024
2 Samuel 7:4-17  <*((((>< + ><))))*>  Mark 4:1-20
“The Sower at Sunset” by Vincent Van Gogh, oil on canvas painted in June 1888 from wikimedia commons.
Lord Jesus Christ,
as you narrated to us today
the parable of the sower,
I wonder what were the other
seeds you have sowed 
aside from your word?

On another occasion, Jesus began to teach by the sea. A very large crowd gathered around him so that he got into a boat on the sea and sat down. And the whole crowd was beside the sea on land. And he taught them at length in parables, and in the course of his instruction he said to them, “Hear this! A sower went out to sow.”

Mark 4:1-3
Photo by Onnye on Pexels.com
We are not just the different
kinds of soil where your seeds
fell, Lord Jesus;
like you, may we also be 
sowers of your word and teachings,
sowers of your love and mercy,
sowers of compassion and kindness,
sowers of your light and life,
sowers of your hope and healing,
sowers of your very presence.

When God told David not to build
him a temple as he promised to raise 
a house for him from whom 
shall come the Christ,
that was when the Father also
sowed the seeds of redemption 
and fulfillment in you,
Lord Jesus!
On this feast of St. Francis Sales,
patron of Catholic journalists and 
media practitioners,
we pray for all communicators
to sow unity and peace,
not division
nor misunderstanding,
nor animosities;
we pray for all journalists
of different platforms
to sow understanding
and clarity,
to sow justice and equality
among peoples,
and to sow respect for life
at all times because every
communication must promote
first of all the dignity
 of every person.
Amen.

Choose love. Always.

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Sunday in the Thirtieth Week of Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 29 October 2023
Exodus 22:20-26 ><}}}}*> 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10 ><}}}}*> Matthew 22:34-40
Photo by Dra. Mai Dela Peña, Mt. Carmel, Israel, 2017.

The enemies of Jesus continued with their barrage of questions to trick him into saying something that could lead to his arrest and execution. After failing last Sunday, the Pharisees sent today an expert – a “scholar of the law” – to test him anew with the question:

“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Matthew 22:36-40

For the second straight Sunday, Jesus not only responded to his enemies’ malicious questions with brief and brilliant answers but also taught them, including us today, with important lessons on discipleship.

Once again, Jesus is inviting us to have a wholistic view of life centered on God by healing the divisions within our hearts that are reflected in our broken relationships as individuals and family, church and community, and nation. How often do we reveal that same division in our hearts whenever we ask that same question 2000 years ago by the Pharisee, “which of the commandment in the law is the greatest”?

Photo by author, view from temple of Jerusalem, May 2017.

After receiving the Ten Commandments from God through Moses at Mount Sinai, the Jews dissected them into 613 instructions with 248 of these as positive laws every individual “should do” and the other 365 as negative laws everyone “should not do”.

Naturally, it was very difficult – if not impossible – for them to remember and observe these 613 precepts to guide them in their daily living so that their rabbis devised ways in which the Law could be prioritized with some categorized as “important” or “heavy” that should be followed more than those considered as “less important” or “lighter” in gravity. For example, laws pertaining to persons like parents are more important than those concerning animals that included about bird’s nest (Dt. 22:6-7)! Problem with this was when they circumvented the Law to give priority to lesser things that disregard the more important ones as Jesus pointed out so often to their religious leaders who have emphasized the sabbath by neglecting the human person like the sick.

Photo by author, St. Anne’s Church, Jerusalem, Israel, May 2017.

Another solution they have devised was to establish summary statements of the Law that could help put it all in perspective like “whatever is hateful to you, don’t do it to others”. Again, like in categorizing the Law, putting them into perspectives eventually led to their lost of essence because in our human experience, when many factors are weighed into our daily life, the way we see things are often narrowed and dimmed; then we begin making excuses and alibis to be exempted from our religious instructions. That is why Jesus “leveled up” the people’s perspectives in their views of the Law by telling them to shift their sights to higher level not just its letters but its spirit and source – God himself like the love enemies and the beatitudes.

Here we find the beauty and nobility of Jesus Christ’s answer to the scholar’s question by leading us all into the very essence of the Law which is love who is God too! Eventually on the Cross on Good Friday just like during the sermon on the mount, Jesus would show to everyone he was not only the fulfillment of the Law but the Law himself when he gave himself in love – to God our Father and to us his brothers and sisters. Today he deepens his teaching last Sunday that inasmuch as we have to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s like paying of taxes, then, we have to give our total self, our whole heart to God because that is what is due to God, our Maker and Master. To give our hearts to God is to always choosing to love God and love others as one loves one’s self.

Photo by author, garden beside St. Anne’s Church in Jerusalem, Israel, May 2017.

The moment we start categorizing or putting God’s laws into perspectives, into our own points of view, then we deviate from God himself and his plans. When we divide, separate and split the laws of God to find which could best suit us, then it becomes a DIY (do-it-yourself) Christianity where we choose laws applicable to us and disregard the rest we find difficult, calling them as outdated and conservative like divorce, contraceptives, and abortion.

In summarizing the commandments into the law of love, Jesus is inviting us today to welcome him into our hearts to let him alone dwell and reign over us so that when we are confronted with any issue and dilemma or confusion in life, we resolve them in the light of Christ which is always love. Letting Jesus reign in our hearts is choosing to find him in the other person we must respect and love and care.

Photo by author at Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, May 2017.

To choose Jesus and his love is to always choose the human person above material things and even with one’s self. And to choose Jesus and his love is choosing his Cross too because he said there is no greater love than to offer one’s self for another. The true sign that we have really loved is when we love somebody more than ourselves like Jesus!

It is difficult and even insane as St. Paul declared “we are fools for Christ” (1 Cor. 4;10) because anyone who loves like Jesus who loves God with one’s total self and loves others like one’s self is crazy in the world’s point of view and standard. It has always been the way of Christianity ever since, always suspected as a threat to the ways of the world because the ways of Christ and his disciples are opposite the ways of the world as St. Paul explained to the Thessalonians “who received the word in great affliction, with joy in the Holy Spirit” (1 Thes. 1:6).

When I was still a young priest giving Marriage Encounter weekends to couples, I used to ask them this question: when husband and wife have an LQ or “lover’s quarrel”, who should make the first move to say sorry and be reconciled?

Many couples laugh, saying it should be the man first while men claim it must be ladies first. Still others reason out it should be the one who had sinned.

My answer: whoever has more love to give must be the first to make the move to reconcile because whoever has more love should love more!

The more we love, the more we are able to love because love is infinite like God. It is the only thing that will remain in the end because God is love. His laws are his expressions and manifestations of his love expressed in his compassion being a personal God relating with us through men and women around us (first reading). His laws fulfilled as love in the person of Jesus Christ light and guide our path in life often darkened by sin and imperfections. Choose love always and you shall never get lost! Amen. Have a lovely long weekend!

Photo by author, Pater Noster Church, Jerusalem, the Holy Land, May 2019.

The beauty of praying

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday in the Twenty-fourth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 18 September 2023
1 Timothy 2:1-8   ><]]]]'> _ ><]]]]'> _ ><]]]]'>   Luke 7:1-10
Photo by Ms. Rose Anne, Our Lady of Fatima University Campus Ministry, Valenzuela, 13 September 2023.
Blessed be you,
O God our loving Father
for always hearing our prayers!
As I get older and hopefully
mature in life,
I have realized 
dear Lord
that the most beautiful
thing with prayer is how
you have mellowed us 
as persons, 
of how we have become
more personal 
with each other,
caring for each other,
accepting one another
as unique and a gift.
Indeed,
prayer changes more 
the person than the situation;
thus, prayer changes too
the way we relate with each
other, dissipating the anger
and mistrust among us, 
bringing about more peace and
harmony among us.
Oh how difficult it is to
hate a person we are 
continually praying!

Beloved: First of all, I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgiving be offered for everyone, for kings and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity.

1 Timothy 2:1-2
How lovely is the gospel
scene, dear Jesus, when your
fellow Jews sort of "prayed"
for the centurion that you may
come to heal his servant
for he "deserves to have you
do this to him" because 
he "loves our nation and he built
a synagogue for us" (Lk.7:4-5);
despite his being a pagan,
your fellow Jews highly
regarded him
that was quite a rarity
at that time!
Dearest Lord Jesus,
may we learn to pray 
specifically for some people
by naming them for those
we personally know
and at least mentioning
or identifying the kinds of
people we are praying for.
You know them all, Lord,
but when we name them,
when we identify them,
the more we know them
and find our relationships
with them as brothers and
sisters to love and respect
always.
Amen.

The parable of our lives and time

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday in the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 27 July 2023
Exodus 19:1-2, 9-11, 16-20   <*{{{{><< + >><}}}}*>   Matthew 13:10-17
Photo by author, Mt. Sinai in Egypt, May 2019.
You said it perfectly well,
Lord Jesus Christ,
our very own parable
of life
and of time:
"because they look but do not see
and hear but do not listen or understand"
(Matthew 13:13).

Why, O Lord,
 despite the modern communications 
meant to bring us closer,
the more we have actually
grown apart from each other?

Why, O Lord,
despite the great speed
 of our communications,
the more we cannot be reached,
or slower we have become
in reaching out, 
in coming to everyone
especially those in need?

Why, O Lord,
despite the clarity of signals
of communications, the more things
and persons are blurred,
including our relationships?
When you spoke 
to your people in the Old Testament
with peals of thunder and lightning,
they were scared to death;
when your Son Jesus came 
and lived among them, 
speaking their language,
they found him too ordinary, 
even a nobody;
today, you continue to speak
to us in nature and in person,
through our many experiences,
through the people we meet,
through the sacraments,
through many means and occasions
even right in our hearts
but still, 
we neither see,
nor hear nor listen.
What a parable we live!
Open our hearts, O Lord,
so we may believe,
hear and listen,
allow ourselves to be surprised
and amazed by you with the 
most simple things to make us
realize you are 
true and so real
right within us.
Amen.
Photo by PhotoMIX Company on Pexels.com

Thank God for life’s mysteries

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity-A, 04 June 2023
Exodus 34:4-6, 8-9 ><}}}*> 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 ><}}}*> John 3:16-18
Photo by author, sunrise at Anvaya Cove, 19 May 2023

Our Sunday gospel on this Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity is one of the shortest proclaimed in the year with just three verses that may be finished in just two minutes. And yet, it contains the most popular verses from the whole Bible used in the song “Tell the World of His Love” when St. John Paul II visited our country in 1995.

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

John 3:16-18
Photo by author at the Anvaya Cove, 19 May 2023

See how these three verses powerfully summarize our Christian faith of a personal, relating God who is love himself, doing everything in love which is the very meaning of the doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity.

The word mystery is from the Greek mysterion, something hidden but now revealed by God. While it is true that a mystery is beyond human reason because it is divine, it may still be explained and understood though not fully. That is why it is described as non-logical or beyond reason but not illogical which lacks reason.

Most of all, a mystery is not a problem to be solved because it simply cannot be solved at all. In fact, we need to keep mysteries like secrets because mysteries give meaning and depth to our very existence, to our lives. This is the problem with so many people these days lacking mysteries in life when everything about them is shown, even overexposed in the social media. Perhaps that is why so many people are losing meaning in life because they no longer have depth as everything is bared and opened. Life has become so artificial for many not realizing that the most wonderful things in life are those hidden and not seen. Like mystery of God!

Photo by author at the Anvaya Cove, 19 May 2023

There lies the beauty of mystery that is not a problem to be solved but a reality we need to accept and embrace, or better, to allow ourselves to be wrapped by it. As we try to learn and understand more of every mystery in life, especially of God and of our very selves, the more we find life meaningful, the more we appreciate it especially our gift of faith.

When we allow ourselves to be absorbed by life’s mysteries, primary of which is the mystery of God in three Persons, the more we appreciate life itself and our very selves who are in fact a mystery too to ourselves. As we move on in life, as we age and mature, we realize life is not about covering distances but going deeper within ourselves, being transformed into better selves and persons like God, loving and merciful. Eventually we realize too that each one of us is in fact an indwelling of the Holy Trinity, an image and likeness of God himself.

Here we find mystery as a call to a relationship, a communion with God and with others that is why Jesus told Nicodemus in the opening verse of our gospel today that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.“

A mystery is a mystery because it is shared. It is nothing if it is merely in itself. We are intrigued with stories and reports because they create relationships in us and with us. That is why God in himself as a mystery is a community of persons. Person implies relationship. From the Latin word persona which is a translation of another Greek word prosopon or the mask worn by stage actors/actresses to indicate their roles in a play or drama.

Remember the term dramatis personae or list of actors in a play and their roles? To a certain sense, there are three persons or personae, that is, roles in our God as we profess in our Creed: the Father as Creator of everything, the Son as the Savior, and the Holy Spirit as the Sanctifier. With God, his persona is eternal while in drama or play, it is temporary.

The more we enter into relationships, the more we relate with other persons, the more we discover the many mysteries of this life, of God because we sooner or later find out we in our selves and humans are not enough. Things cannot relate no matter how hard Steve Jobs and his successors tried their best to design Apple gadgets that conform to human form to give them a sense of relating. Not even animals nor plants no matter how intimate we grow closer to them. Only God suffices.

Photo by author at the Anvaya Cove, 19 May 2023. Though I do not know how to swim, I have always loved the beach where everything and me becomes one in God like the sky that is so far and yet so close. A mystery so lovely!

That is the good news of this Sunday – our awesome and all-knowing, all-powerful God opening himself to us to enter into a personal relationship in him and with him through his Son Jesus Christ who sent us the Holy Spirit to enable us in this sacred mystery.

In sending us Jesus Christ his Son, God took the initiative to be close to us. In fact, closest to us as our breath in sending us the Holy Spirit.

Every time we think of God, when we marvel at him and his creations, the more we find ourselves so different, even too distant from him while at the same time we also feel and experience in the most unique manner how closest we are to him. That is one of life’s most profound and deepest mysteries when are so surprised to our very core of our being that despite our sinfulness and worthlessness, we are still so loved and cared for by God. Difficult to explain but go back to our lowest moments in life when suddenly we sighed for a brief relief that amid our pains and tears, God suddenly comes to comfort us like when Moses met God face-to-face at Mount Sinai.

Having come down in a cloud, the Lord stood with Moses there and proclaimed his name “Lord.” Thus the Lord passed before him… Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship.

Exodus 34:5-6, 8

Note that God is called “Lord” or “Adoni” in Hebrew because the Jews do not speak out loud the name of God spelled as YHWH, or Yahweh as we say. It is interesting to know that the first letter for God in Hebrew, Yoda, is pronounced like a breath, yahhh. Because that is who God is, our breath, our life, so closest to us but we rarely recognize him because we are so busy with our selves and many endeavors.

That is why I always insist until now to everyone especially seminarians to seriously and faithfully do the sign of the Cross which is more than a prayer but an expression of the mystery of the Trinity not far from us. Every time we make the sign of the Cross properly, that is when we let our selves be wrapped by God and his mysteries.

Photo by author, Anvaya Cove, 05 January 2023.

In the sign of the Cross, God comes closest to us in our very selves and body, relating to us in our head being the Father who is over and above us always, the creator of everything; as the Son who became human like us born by the Virgin Mary passing through her womb, experiencing everything we went through except sin; and as the Holy Spirit on our shoulders giving us balance in this life.

See that at the resumption of Ordinary Time last Monday, we transition to Ordinary Sundays today and next week celebrating the two most important doctrines and mysteries of our faith, the Most Holy Trinity and the Incarnation of Jesus which is what is next Sunday’s Body and Blood of Christ is all about.

Today we reflect on the highest truth of our faith, the mystery of one God in three Persons to remind us that our faith is more than knowing the teachings but most of all of relating in love and mercy, kindness and service like God. Finding that mystery of the Trinity in ourselves leads us to finding God in others too. Amen. Have a blessed week.