Category: Prayer/Spirituality

Life is not a dress rehearsal

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 15 October 2023
Isaiah 25:6-10 ><}}}}*> Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20 ><}}}}*> Matthew 22:1-14
Photo by Mr. Jay Javier in Taal, Batangas, 15 February 2014.

I grew up in a generation when dressing properly – meaning, decently – was deeply inculcated both at home and the school. It has always been considered in our time as a sign of maturity when we come properly attired in every occasion.

Now, those days are gone along with the expression “Sunday’s best” when sneakers are paired with formal suits and worn even in weddings! Dressing has become so relative with total disregard for basic fashion sense and worst of all, without any sense of propriety at all in the name of personal comfort and style as well as individuality. That culture on “liberal” or “liberated” dressing has encroached into the church with priests refusing to wear the proper garments and dress as required by Code of Canon law. How ironic that while the lay people appreciate us priests dressed properly for the liturgy and ministry, the harshest insults and negative reactions against it come from some priests who argue using the hot weather as an excuse. Many priests have subscribed to the lame excuse of people that clothes do not make us who we are, that there is much more beneath the clothing we wear of who we really are.

True but not absolutely because what we wear, how we look outside is indicative of who we are, what we value, what we believe in. Dress speaks a lot about ourselves whether we like it or not as the Lord’s parable this Sunday teaches us.

The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’ But he was reduced to silence. Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’ Many are invited, but few are chosen.”

Matthew 22:11-14
Photo by Fr. RA Valmadrid, National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, 13 October 2023.

We now come to the third and final series of parables addressed by Jesus Christ directly to his enemies, the chief priests and elders of the people while teaching at the temple area in Jerusalem to underscore to them the need to reform their lives and be converted to his good news of salvation like the tax collectors and prostitutes.

See how in today’s parable some semblances with the parables of the two sons and wicked tenants of the past two weeks to show us God’s loving patience in doing everything to make us come to him like the subjects of the king with all the chances to come to his son’s wedding banquet.

And like with the parables of the past two Sundays, Matthew makes again a crucial twist in today’s parable that can be sufficiently ended in that part when the king was enraged by the continued refusal of his guests to come to his son’s wedding banquet that he ordered them all killed and instead extended his invitation to everyone in the streets.

The wedding banquet is heaven like the vineyard in the parables of the past two Sundays.

But it is not only referring to heaven at the end of time but also speaks so well of the here and now – the present life we live as citizens of the kingdom of God in Jesus Christ. Rejecting the invitation to come to the meal which as an expression of our citizenship in God’s kingdom is an act of disloyalty and treason against him.

Photo by Arch. Philip Santiago, Hearts of Jesus and Mary parish, Malolos City, 2022.

When we were baptized, we became citizens of the kingdom of God. We do our “pledge of allegiance” to God as his citizens every time we pray and most especially celebrate Mass which is just half of the whole deal of being citizens of his kingdom! Like in being Filipinos or whatever nationality we have, we must live up to our citizenship in God’s kingdom by being good and holy. That is the wedding dress referred to in the parable, the life we lead as children and citizens of God and his kingdom.

Jesus invites us today to face squarely the uncomfortable issues that prevent us from being his good and faithful disciples and citizens of God’s kingdom. Many times we are like those invited guests in the parable who allowed something else in their lives like their wealth and possession, businesses and worldly pursuits become more important than their allegiance to the King. Every time we sin, every time we skip the Sunday Mass, that is when we have our new God and King that may be our very selves, gadgets, vices, or the malls we frequent more than the church!

Here we find a deepening in Jesus Christ’s invitation to conversion into conforming our lives into him. St. Paul made a lot of beautiful imageries of “putting on Jesus Christ” as our new clothes and garment which we have retained in the Rite of Baptism when the newly baptized is clothed with the white dress. See how the man caught by the king fell silent when confronted because there was no excuse at all at not wearing the wedding dress in the banquet. The same thing is true with us today. We have no excuse for not being dressed, for not being conformed in Jesus Christ in our lives as his disciples. Everyday he gives us the opportunities of being conformed to him through our daily conversions through prayers and good works. God does not expect us to wear extravagant nor expensive clothes for his wedding banquet; just a clean and decent clothes are enough. Nobody is perfect.

Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD at Tagalag, Valenzuela City, 13 September 2023.

One of the things I used to enjoy in my school and seminary days were joining stage plays. Yes, I love acting but I just don’t know if acting (and singing) love me. Nonetheless, one of our most dreaded moments before the actual play was always the dress rehearsal when everything is considered as the “real thing”, the real play as our teaches and nuns have insisted when we were supposed to have memorized our lines and cues.

But, as I grew and matured, I realized that life is not a dress rehearsal at all; each day is an actual “play”, a “live” presentation where we must “perform” or “act” so well. Yes, we are all required to memorize our lines and cues in life but many times, we forget them. Nobody is perfect. And here lies the immense love and kindness of God to us: he allows us to improvise for our selves in case we have forgotten our lines just like those people instantly invited to the wedding banquet of the King’s son. They were able to improvise to make it to the banquet hall except for that one who came not dressed for the occasion. He was silent because he was so lazy to improvise, to find ways like the chief priests and elders in the time of the Lord. Until now, many of us make a lot of excuses and alibis for not being conformed in Christ, from the ordinary excuse of being “difficult” to the most absurd that “I am only human” or tao lamang, mahina at marupok. Keep in mind St. Paul’s words in the second reading, “I can do all things in him who strengthens me… My God will supply whatever you need, in accord with his glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (Phil.4:13, 19).

Photo by Ka Ruben, National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, 2022.

Every Sunday we are invited to celebrate with others the coming of Jesus and the salvation he has won for us. This wedding banquet is the Sunday Mass we celebrate, a fulfillment of the first reading from Isaiah of that mountain where “the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines” (Is. 25:6). In the Holy Eucharist, we have the choicest food and drinks – the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ – given to us to nourish us and keep us strong in this journey of life into eternity in heaven with the Father.

How amazing that nothing is really imposed upon us in coming to this banquet of the Lord in the Eucharist that is totally free of charge except that we have to come properly dressed on the inside, of being conformed in him.

But please, let’s get dressed also on the outside. No need to wear expensive and beautiful clothes. Just proper and clean ones are more than enough. A good rule of thumb we can rely on is this: God has blessed me tremendously this week and I am coming to celebrate with him, for him. How do I look to to express to him my gratitude and appreciation to his wondrous gifts? Amen. It is a Sunday, go to Mass!

Reconciliation is commitment

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, 106th Anniversary of Last Apparition in Fatima, 13 October 2023
Joel 4:12-21   ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'>   Luke 11:15-20
From cbcpnews.net, 13 May 2022, at the Parish of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, Valenzuela City.
Praise and glory to you,
God our loving Father
in sending us your Son
Jesus Christ who gave us
his Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary
to be our Mother too!

As we remember today
the 106th year 
of her last appearance at
Fatima in Portugal,
we pray most especially anew
for her intercession
for peace in the world,
peace in our Church,
peace in our hearts.
Her apparitions at Fatima
were the most amazing
proofs of your love and mercy
to us in recent history, 
reminding us of the need
to reform our lives,
to be converted,
and be reconciled with you,
Father, 
through Jesus Christ.

Sadly, until now,
we have refused to heed 
her calls of true conversion
so there would be true
reconciliation among us
in Jesus with a new and
stronger commitment
to live our Christian life.
Every year at the start
of Lent on Ash Wednesday
we hear the same words of
your prophet Joel calling
on us today in the first reading
"to gird ourselves and weep and
fast for the day of the Lord is near"
(Joel 1:13-15) but we never heed
them; 106 years ago, the Blessed
Virgin Mary called on the same 
things from us and yet,
we have remained stubborn.
Forgive us, Father.
We have strayed so far
from you; our eyes feast on
the many wondrous deeds 
you continue to do in our lives
but our hearts are so far from you
like those people who tested Jesus
after he had driven out a demon
(Lk. 11:15-26);
how unfortunate and sad
when many of us today
believe more in the power of
the devil under so many
disguises in technologies
and modern thoughts
and lifestyles by
continuing to refuse 
to surrender
ourselves to your 
healing power 
in Jesus Christ.
Through our Lady of Fatima,
teach us humility and simplicity
like her visionaries in 1917,
the siblings St. Francisco 
and St. Jacinta Marto
and their cousin now declared
Venerable Sr. Lucia;
like them, help us put into our
hearts not just in our minds 
your calls of repentance
and conversion so there
will truly be reconciliation 
among us and be committed
in working for lasting peace.
Amen.

Fatima and the number “13”

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Homily for the 106th Anniversary of Last Apparition in Fatima, 13 October 2023
Isaiah 61:9-11 ><}}}}*> Galatians 4:4-7 ><}}}}*> Luke 11:27-28

Today – October 13, 2023 – is the 106th anniversary of the last apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima, Portugal when the “Miracle of the Sun” happened, witnessed by about 70,000 people. It was her sixth apparition to the three young children at Cova da Iria that started in May 13, 1917.

Except for the month of August when authorities jailed the three children on August 13 on their way to Cova da Iria to force them to recant their earlier statements of the apparition, the Blessed Mother appeared to them on August 19 at the nearby Valinhos where she repeated her calls for prayers and sacrifices as well as the request for them to come every 13th day until the coming October when she reveals herself after a great miracle.

What is significant with the 13th day of each month that Mary appeared in Fatima from May to October 1917 that we have continued with this 13th Day Devotion?

From Pinterest.com.

The Blessed Mother never explained to the three children, now St. Francisco and his sister St. Jacinta Marto and their cousin Sr. Lucia dos Santos why she appeared to them every 13th day of each month.

According to later interviews with Sr. Lucia who became a Carmelite sister and the last to die of the three children in 2005, she believed as the fruit of her prayers that the number 13 signified the Blessed Trinity. Sr. Lucia explained that number “13” illustrates to us that there is one (“1”) God in three (“3”) Persons (she was recently declared Venerable by Pope Francis to pave the way for her sainthood).

Here we find anew in the Fatima apparitions the consistency of truths found in our Church teachings and doctrines, specifically, the Blessed Trinity, that there is One God in Three Persons. Saints have also tried to explain the Blessed Trinity in simple analogies like the number 13 reflection of the Venerable Sr. Lucia.

In a 2022 article by Catholic author Joseph Pronechen that appeared in Soul magazine (see, https://www.bluearmy.com/the-significance-of-fatimas-13th-day/), he presented how the number “13” has many biblical foundations to be chosen by the Blessed Mother in Fatima as date of her apparitions. Foremost of this is found in the Old Testament Book of Esther.

Esther was among the Jewish exiles living in Persia after the Babylonian captivity. She was said to be so lovely and beautiful that the Persian king, Ahasuerus chose her to be his Queen among his many wives. Her uncle named Mordecai was the King’s most trusted adviser too that earned the jealousy among Persians in the royal court. Both Mordecai and Queen Esther remained faithful to God despite their royal positions. Esther then discovered a plot by some of the King’s men to exterminate all the Jews in Persia, especially her uncle Mordecai. It was at this instance that she prayed so hard to God for her to be able to warn her King of his men’s evil plot against the Jews even it could have cost her own life.

By the grace of God, Esther was able to muster all the strength and courage to speak to King Ahasuerus to foil the evil plot of his men set on “the 13th day of the twelfth month of Adar” (Esther 3:7).

The Persian king truly loved Queen Esther and ordered the arrest and execution of his aide (Haman) to prevent the murder of so many Jews. Queen Esther thus saved her fellow Jews on the 13th day of the Jewish month of Adar! And because of her intervention, King Ahasuerus ordered Jews in his kingdom to freely worship their God with assurance of protection from enemies.

Like Queen Esther, the Blessed Virgin Mary is also our Queen being the Mother of the King of kings, Jesus Christ. Every August 22 we celebrate her Queenship and in the Glorious Mysteries, we meditate her being Queen of heaven and earth.

Most of all, like Queen Esther, the Blessed Virgin Mary in Fatima intervened on October 13, 1917 to save the world from the ongoing WWI that began in 1914 and ended the following year in 1918. Sad to say, the world was plunged anew into the darkness of WWII that was more deadlier in 1939-1945 as predicted by our Lady at Fatima if the world would not heed calls for repentance and conversion of sinners. In recent history we have witnessed how our Queen Mother Mary saved St. John Paul II on May 13, 1981 – her feast day as our Lady of Fatima – from a deadly assassination attempt at St. Peter Square in the Vatican. Again, the world is in the darkness of deadly wars right in the Holy Land and in Ukraine by Russia whom the Virgin Mary had specifically mentioned in her October 13, 1917 apparition at Fatima.

When are we going to follow her maternal instructions of repentance and conversion, something which she merely repeated from similar calls by Prophets in the Old Testament and by her Son Jesus Christ in the gospels?

If we truly consider Mary is our Queen, why can’t we obey her and follow her instructions more than 100 years ago?

See how in today’s gospel Jesus underscored the importance of listening and following his words as main component of being part of his family. Mary was the first to listen and act on his word at the Annunciation and until now, she does the same thing so we may be saved from the wraths of evil caused by man’s inhumanity to one another.

Page from Ilustração Portuguesa, 29 October 1917, showing the people looking at the Sun during the Fátima apparitions attributed to the Virgin Mary. From en.wikipedia.org.

Going back to the Sacred Scriptures, we find more bases of the significance of number “13” used by the Blessed Mother at Fatima in 1917. In the Book of Acts, we find that when the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost, the 12 Apostles (Matthias replaced Judas Iscariot) were with “Mary the mother of Jesus” (Acts 1:14). Here we find 12 (Apostles) + 1 (Mary) = 13!

In the gospel accounts, we know Jesus Christ’s choice of 12 apostles was from the “12 tribes of Israel” or 12 sons of Jacob who was also called by God as “Israel”. Again, 12 + 1 = 13.

According to an interview by Pronechen of a Jewish rabbi, the meaning of number 13 in Hebrew is “bonding of many into one”. Every time we pray the Apostle’s Creed, we profess our faith not only in God in Three Persons but also to the Catholic Church that bonds us into Christ’s body who was born of the Virgin Mary. In Fatima on October 13, 1917, our Lady called on us to be one in God through Jesus in prayers, fasting and sacrifices, and commitment to live as true Christians.

Most of all, Pronechen explained that according to the Jewish rabbi he had interviewed, every letter in the Hebrew language has a numeric value. The word “love” which is ahava in Hebrew is connected with God with a numeric value of 13. Now, consider that when the Virgin Mary first appeared at Fatima on May 13, 1917, it was the original feast of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament. Here we find another intimate link in our Lady of Fatima’s insistence in celebrating Mass and receiving Jesus in the Holy Communion often because the Holy Eucharist is the Sacrament of Love.

How wonderful to meditate that our Blessed Mother Mary appeared in Fatima 106 years ago today with that singular message and expression of God’s love for us all!

When are we going to listen to her call for us to truly live in the love of God expressed by Jesus Christ on the Cross? Amen. Have a blessed weekend everyone!

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

Our priorities in life

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Memorial of St. John XXIII, Pope, 11 October 2023
Jonah 4:1-11   ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'>   Luke 11:1-4
Photo by Dr. Mylene A. Santos, MD, 2021.
God our Father,
the world is once again
in chaos; when there is war
in your Holy Land of Israel,
it is always something else
that hits each one of us
to our deepest core
because 
it speaks something 
deeper and older
than religion and faith,
convictions and ideologies;
since the time of the 
Old Testament,
every war and turmoil
in your Promised Land
always has its roots
in our hearts.

Jonah was greatly displeased and he became angry that God did not carry out the evil he threatened against Nineveh. Then the Lord said, “You are concerned over the plant which cost you no labor and which you did not raise; it came up in one night and in one night it perished. And should I not be concerned over Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot distinguish their right hand from their left, not to mention the many cattle?”

Jonah 4:1, 10-11
Dear God,
so many times in life
we have our priorities
so misplaced,
so askew,
so inhuman
and lacking with reason
at all.

Like Jonah,
we continue seething 
in anger against each other
with no one willing to
sit and listen,
to give peace a chance;
all we have are mistrust
and animosities against 
each other,
giving more priorities 
with things than with persons;
we allow our old wounds
and hurts to fester
until it blows up beyond 
controls; worst, like Jonah,
we find death as easiest
way out in every misery.

Your Son Jesus Christ
taught us how to pray,
in effect,
taught us how to prioritize
in life by calling out to you
as "Father" - our source of life
and being,
creator of everything!

Help us realize, 
dear Jesus that to pray
calling God "Father" is
to prioritize first on persons,
on humans as my brothers
and sisters regardless of
their religion,
gender,
color,
nationality,
occupation,
and age.

Through the intercession
of St. John XXIII,
the "good Pope",
may we prioritize
God above all so
that we too may seek
openings to lead us
to move closer
as brothers and sisters
in Christ.  Amen.
Photo by Dr. Mylene A. Santos, MD, 2021.

Praying with “worriers” like me…

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Twenty-Seventh Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 10 October 2023
Jonah 4:1-11   Luke 11:1-4
Photo by author, sunflower farm, La Trinidad, Benguet, 12 July 2023.
Today I pray dear God
our loving Father for all 
my fellow worriers who are like me,
always anxious of everything,
afraid of chaos and disorder,
afraid of failing,
lacking in complete trust in you.
Like Martha in today’s gospel,
we are anxious snd worried of many things
because we forget that only you, 
O God, 
is the only one needed.
Many times I am like
Jonah your prophet who believes
more in myself, 
judgmental of others 
without realizing that 
whatever mission you send us to
is all your work, using us only
as your mouth to speak, 
hands to care and 
reach out to those weak and sick,
feet to stand 
for what is true,
just and good.

So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the Lord’s bidding. Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed” when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes.

Jonah 3:3-6
When we worry so much,
we hurt others too because 
that is when we underestimate them,
when we put them in a box
with categories removing
every chance to become better
like how Jonah perceived the Ninivites
or Martha with Mary.

How wonderful
that every time this happens,
you surprise us Lord with
the most unexpected happening
like when the Ninevites proclaimed
a fast and put on a sackcloth,
when Jesus praised Mary in
choosing him over everything
and everyone.
Keep us simple
and humble, Jesus,
with a lot of humor 
like Jonah even if your joke
is always on us so that
we may let go 
of life's many
trials and difficulties.
Amen.
A video I have taken using my iPhone during our visit to this sunflower farm in La Trinidad, Benguet last 12 July 2023.

Running away from God

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday in the Twenty-Seventh Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 09 October 2023
Jonah 1:1-2:1-2, 11   <*((((>< + ><))))*>   Luke 10:25-37
Photo by author, Central Luzon Link Expressway (CLLEx) in Tarlac, 19 July 2023.
As we embark to
our work and duties this
first working day of this new week,
bless us, dear God our Father,
to follow your path;
if we have to cross the street,
if we have to go to the other side
of the road or of life's terrain,
let us follow you.
Like with Jonah,
find ways so we can go back
to your path,
to your mission.

This is the word of the Lord to Jonah, the son of Amittai: “Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and preach against it; their wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah made ready to flee to Tarhish away from the Lord. He went down to Joppa, found a ship going to Tarhish, paid the fare, and went aboard to journey with them to Tarhish, away from the Lord.

Jonah 1:1-3
Forgive us,
merciful Father,
how often we are like
Jonah trying to run away
from you,
always going out the
opposite direction far from you,
refusing to accept your invitation
to a destination where you 
may be found too.
Like the Good Samaritan
in today's gospel,
teach us to be kind
with everyone,
to dare cross the street,
to go to the other side
to care,
to feel,
to know 
others not like us
for you, O God,
comes most often
in people and circumstances
we least expected.
Amen.

We are the vineyard of the Lord

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 08 October 2023
Isaiah 5:1-7 ><}}}}*> Philippians 4:6-9 ><}}}}*> Matthew 21:33-43
Photo by author, San Juan, La Union, 25 July 2023.

A good friend recently came home from a 20-day Marian pilgrimage in Europe. I told him to get some rest and avoid reading the news, “Huwag ka munang magbasa ng balita baka masayang nalanghap mong hangin sa Europe.” He replied that with the very reliable internet service in Europe, they were all updated with the things happening in our country. He added, “parang ayaw ko nang magpunta sa Europe, lalo lang ako naaawa at nahihiya sa Pilipinas.”

Very true.

I rarely travel abroad but with what I have been reading and hearing especially from those visiting Japan and Singapore, the more I feel sad and hopeless for our country the Philippines. At least, God comforts us once in a while in sports like the recent golds in the Asian Games courtesy of EJ Obienna in pole vault, Annie Ramirez in jiu-jitsu, and Gilas Pilipinas in basketball. Aside from sports, nothing good seems to come from the news. Even the newscasts these days are depressing with robots “complementing” sportscasters.

Photo of a vineyard in Southern California by Dra. Carol Reyes-Santos, MD, 01 October 2023.

Our readings this Sunday seem to speak of us Filipinos and the Philippines which is like a wonderful vineyard planted by the Lord, especially when we think of our vast, fertile lands and long coastlines with rich bodies of water but we have to import our food, from rice to galunggong. What a shame that our chicharon producers import pig backfat from the tiny island of Taiwan?! Like Isaiah, we find ourselves asking what happened to our country?

Let me now sing of my friend, my friend’s song concerning his vineyard. My friend had a vineyard on a fertile hillside; he spaded it, cleared it of stones and planted the choicest vines; within it he built a watchtower, and hewed out a wine press. Then he looked for the crop of grapes, but what it yielded was wild grapes.

Isaiah 5:1-2

The vine and wine are important signs widely used in the Old Testament and in the gospel accounts by Jesus. In Isaiah’s writings, the vineyard represented Israel as the chosen people of God, so loved and cared for, saved from Egypt and gifted with a land flowing with milk and honey. Despite these blessings, Israel repeatedly turned away from God with their many sins of infidelity that continued in the time of Jesus Christ who borrowed and perfected this parable of the vineyard of the Lord to make it timely in every generation.

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: “Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey. When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned. Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the same way. Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’ They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

Matthew 21:33-39
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2023.

For the second straight Sunday, Jesus preached again at the temple area of Jerusalem and addressed this lesson to his enemies, the chief priests and elders of the people trying to find a probable cause to have him arrested.

See how this parable of the wicked tenants very similar with Isaiah’s but at the same time speaking a lot of ourselves and of our time, of how we have become like those wicked tenants taking the “vineyard” as totally ours like our body and country, arguing it is mine or ours that we can do whatever pleases us. Like those tenants, we have claimed of not belonging to God nor anyone at all, that we can do whatever we want because we are the owners of ourselves and the world. “It is my body, it is mine” and none of your business kind of thing.

How often we hear others claiming “this is my body, this is mine; therefore, I can do whatever I want with my body” like abort a baby, take contraceptives, or have a sex change, have those tattoos and body piercings? And we have spread this line of thinking to our environment with road rage spreading like a pandemic while bigger countries are grabbing territories ironically from their smaller neighbors.

The most tragic way of thinking that underlies this “mine mentality” is how so many of us have accepted – consciously and unconsciously – that most untrue statement of all that God is dead. Many would say they believe in God when actually what they mean is they know there is God and so often, they play that God, too. Pope Benedict XVI described it as “totalitarianism of relativism” when we see everything relative, no more morals and morality because we have made ourselves the measure and standards of everyone and everything – because, the “vineyard” belongs to us.

Photo of a vineyard in Southern California by Dra. Carol Reyes-Santos, MD, 01 October 2023.

More sad is the fact that we are beginning to see what happens next to us and the world with these things happening like families and relationships disintegrating, climate change and threats of wars, and more emptiness among us.

But, it is not that bad after all. Jesus not only updated Isaiah’s parable of the vineyard to speak to us in the present but also to promise us of a greater future. Notice the blessing and threat he used.

“What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?” They answered him, “He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times.” Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes? Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.”

Matthew 21:40-43

Once again, Jesus Christ’s parable asked a question to involve his hearers, including us today, in the story because the truth is, he had involved himself with us in his coming and eventually in his Passion, Death and Resurrection.

Unlike in Isaiah’s parable of the vineyard, God is distinct from the vineyard; but in Christ’s parable, we are in fact the vineyard of the Lord because Jesus is one with us being the son of the owner sent to gather his share of produce.

That is the good news, the blessing this Sunday and while there is also the threat of the vineyard being handed over to better tenants, there is the promise of better produce to be shared and enjoyed in all eternity, in heaven. There will always be darkness and difficulties in this life caused by selfish, arrogant, and self-righteous people who feel they own everything in this world. Many times, we too have wasted God’s bountiful blessings to us like our talents and abilities not put into use or never harnessed; health taken for granted and separation from our loved ones. Jesus Christ had died for us to repair ourselves and our relationships. Let us grab this opportunity today of taking care of the Lord’s vineyard, of sharing his blessings.

Most of all, like what St. Paul asked us in the second reading, let us be witnesses to others by remaining faithful to God, striving for “whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious” (Phil. 4:8).

Last Thursday was World Teachers Day. I told our teachers during Masses in our university this week to remember St. Augustine’s final lesson to Deogratias his deacon preparing candidates for baptism: “The teacher is the lesson himself/herself.”

Beautiful. If we are the Lord’s vineyard, every time we produce good fruits, every time we share these fruits with others, then we become signs of hope of Christ’s presence among us. That is the most important lesson we can share with others especially in these times of darkness. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead!

Photo by author, Baguio City, 11 July 2023.

The anger of God?

The Lord Is My Chef daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday in the Twenty-Sixth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 06 October 2023
Baruch 1:15-22   <*((((>< +++ ><))))*>   Luke 10:13-16
Photo by author in San Juan, La Union, 24 July 2023.
Of course, 
dear God,
you never get angry
with us nor with any one
for you are love and
kindness yourself,
so rich in mercy 
and forgiveness.
What truly happens,
O Father, is that when
we finally become aware 
of our sinfulness,
of the evils we have done
repeatedly,
shamelessly despite
your goodness,
we become angry with
ourselves because 
that is when we realize
all the bad things happening
to us are the results of our
turning away from you,
from your words,
from your precepts.

And the evils and the curse which the Lord enjoined upon Moses, his servant, at the time he led our ancestors forth from the land of Egypt to give us the land flowing with milk and honey, cling to us even today. For we did not heed the voice of the Lord, our God, in all the words of the prophets who he sent us, but each one of us went off after the devices of our own wicked hearts, served other gods, and did evil in the sight of the Lord, our God.

Baruch 1:20-22
Grant us, merciful Lord, 
the grace of a sense of sinfulness 
because the more we are aware
of our sinfulness,
the more we get closer to you;
when we acknowledge our sins,
that is when we admit
there is a gap between us
and among us we need to close
and make whole anew; 
open our eyes,
our hearts,
our souls to your truth
and presence, Lord Jesus;
let us not be blind 
to your coming
to free us from the
bondage of sins that
have made us more angry
than ever with ourselves
and with others;
let us not be complacent,
Jesus with all the blessings
you have poured upon us
so we may change and be
converted.

Indeed, the motto of the 
Carthusians, an order founded 
by St. Bruno whose memorial 
we celebrate today is so true:
"while the world changes,
the cross stands firm."

Like St. Bruno and 
the Carthusians,
may we strive 
"to seek God assiduously,
to find God promptly,
and to possess God fully."
Amen.

Thanks be to God!

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Memorial of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, Virgin, 05 October 2023
Nehemiah 8:1-4, 5-6, 7-12   <[[[[>< + ><]]]]'>   Luke 10:1-12
Photo by author, sunrise at Camp John Hay, Baguio City, 12 July 2023.
Every day we tell you,
dear Father,
"thanks be to God!"
but what do we really
thank you for?

More than the gift of life,
the joy of a wonderful morning,
or when the universe simply
aligns with us that we get 
what we prayed for,
what we worked for,
and what we like most
is the fact that you,
O God,
is speaking clearly
to us,
that you love us,
that you have forgiven us,
that you believe in us
as you send us forth to a 
mission.
How beautiful to read 
Nehemiah's account today
when your people after getting
back to Jerusalem from their
long exile in Babylon heard
anew your words proclaimed
from the Sacred Scriptures,
many cried even wept
because you have spoken to them
anew; how sad these days
we take your words for granted,
O God, after being proclaimed
in the Mass; many say "thanks
be to God" without realizing
its deep meaning,
its incomparable joy
of hearing your words
again, God.
Let us love your words,
O God; let us immerse ourselves
in your words found in the
scriptures to cleanse us of
our impurities and see 
one another as brother
and sister in you our Father;
most of all, let us open ourselves
to your word who became flesh,
Jesus Christ, and be transformed
to enflesh your words in this world
so empty of meaning
and direction,
most especially of peace.
Let us listen to your words
always, dear God,
 and be witnesses of
your speaking to us.
Amen.