Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 25 August 2025 Monday, Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time, Year I 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5, 8-10 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 23:13-22
Photo from The Fatima Tribune, Red Wednesday at the Chapel of Angel of Peace, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City, 27 November 2024.
Today I wonder, God our Father, what if Paul your Apostle or Jesus Christ your Son were to visit our church today, what would they find out? Would Paul be proud of us like the Thessalonians of his time?
We give thanks to God always for all of you, remembering you in our prayers, unceasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of love and endurance of hope of our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father, knowing, brothers and sisters loved by God, how you were chosen… In every place your faith in God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything (1Thessalonians 1:2-4, 8).
Oh how I envy the Thessalonians that Paul along with Silvanus and Timothy were so proud of their "faith and labor of love and endurance in hope"; most of all, of their "conviction" that he had no need to say anything, as in, "walang masabi". So beautiful! How I wish Paul could say the same things today to our parish, to our community of believers with their vibrant faith, hope and love.
What I dread, O Father is when Jesus comes and begins speaking the same way to us his priests and bishops:
Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter (Matthew 23:13).
Shame on us, Lord Jesus, your priests and bishops! If you were here today, you would surely say the same things to us: many of us your priests do not pray at all that many have forgotten to pray properly and celebrate liturgy meaningfully; many would rather go on vacation and recreation than celebrate Mass and sacraments for your people; yes, Lord Jesus, "woe to us" your servants for many of us have no plans of going to heaven at all with the kind of Eucharist we celebrate that people have lost faith in you and your church. Forgive us, Jesus, your priests for being blind fools, following the limelight of the world than your path of the Cross; lead us back to you, Jesus, so that your flock may be enlivened again in their faith, hope and love like the Thessalonians of your great Apostle Paul. Amen.
Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Our Lady of Fatima University Valenzuela City (lordmychef@gmail.com)
Photo from The Fatima Tribune, Red Wednesday at the Chapel of Angel of Peace, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City, 27 November 2024.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday in the Twenty-seventh Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 09 October 2024 Galatians 2:1-2, 7-14 ><]]]]'> + <'[[[[>< Luke 11:1-4
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 2017.
And when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he clearly was wrong… (Galatians 2:11).
For so long, I have always wondered how You look like, Lord Jesus, of what or how your face looks like really; your face deeply in pain on the Cross has always been the face I have known when thinking of You; how I wished I could see your face moved with pity with that widow of Nain or how your face looked full of love to the rich young man whose face fell after You asked him to sell his belongings, share them to the poor and follow you.
St. Paul's account of "opposing Cephas to his face" invites me today to see face in a more deeper sense than something physical; as I immersed into the scene, I could sense and picture the courage and sincerity on St. Paul's face in telling St. Peter into his face his double standards in dealing with early Christians, that is, of having two faces: one with Jewish converts and another with Gentile converts!
The lithography of Sts. Peter and Paul in Missale Romanum by unknown artist with initials F.M.S (19. cent.) printed by Typis Friderici Pustet. (Renáta Sedmáková | us.fotolia.com)
How sad, dear Jesus, that until now, we your disciples are like St. Peter before: many of us are not only double-faced but even multiple-faced with one another, never our true selves at all! Worst, many of us can't even show our true face as we put on masks that literally in Greek are called hypokritein --- hypocrites!
Teach us, Lord Jesus, how to pray, that is, to be single-faced in our prayers: to face up before our Father as His children forgiving each other's debts, living as brothers and sisters; teach us, Lord Jesus, to face up our prayers, of living out what we pray not with many faces nor with masks on our face; teach us, Lord Jesus, to face You more often in prayers to transform our face into your face that is truly an image and likeness of God, radiating with your loving presence. Amen.
Photo by author, CAS Chapel, Our Lady of Fatima University, August 2023.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, 01 September 2024 Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8 ><}}}*> James 1;17-18, 21-22, 27 ><}}}*> Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
After five Sundays of journeying with John, we now return to Mark’s Gospel and shall continue to read it through the 33rd Sunday before we cap the current liturgical calendar with the Solemnity of Christ the King on November 24, 2024.
Oh yes! It’s beginning to feel like Christmas but the liturgy cautions us this Sunday through Mark that there are still many things we have to fix and cleanse in our hearts in the remaining stretch of the year, particularly our motivations in doing things. After dwelling on the “bread of life discourse” from John for five Sundays that gave us time to examine our faith, Mark brings us now to the other side of the lake in Gennesaret to listen to a discussion about the Jewish customs and traditions of ritual cleansing and washing in chapter seven.
When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, “Why do your disciples not follow tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?” He responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition” (Mark 7:1-3, 5-8).
Photo by author, St. Scholastica Spirituality Center, Tagaytay City, 20 August 2024.
It is easy to see in this scene how Mark must have tried to explain the many Jewish rituals and traditions that was a source of clashes among Jewish and pagan converts to Christianity in the early Church like circumcision and of eating of meat offered to gods. These were finally resolved in the Council of Jerusalem in year 50 when the Apostles acted upon instructions by the Holy Spirit “not to place on the pagan converts any burden beyond these necessities” (Acts 15:28).
However, it is unfair and a misreading to limit ourselves to this as a lesson in history because the practices criticized in this scene continue among us when we focus on the externalities of any ritual and tradition while missing their more essential and deeper meanings. Worst of all is the strong temptation among us to believe that by our actions and good deeds, like the Pharisees and scribes of that time, we make ourselves worthy of God or of anyone!
That is why Christ’s teaching in this Sunday gospel on the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and scribes of that time refers also for us today.
From Facebook, 29 August 2024.
From the halls of Congress to our own homes, classrooms and offices, pulpits and parish halls, we find many of us acting like the Pharisees and scribes who have come from Jerusalem to test and intimidate Jesus through people around us and under us by flexing their muscles in insisting strict adherence to their rituals and traditions that were passed on from Moses we have heard in the first reading. Observe how the Pharisees and scribes capitalized on these as “tradition of the elders” without really going into its very core and essence because they have forgotten or were totally unaware of Moses’ reminder that faithful observance of the Law and its tradition and rituals is a form of witnessing to God before all the peoples.
Observe them carefully, for thus you will give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations, who will hear of all these statues 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, it is to whenever we call upon him? Or what great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today?” (Deuteronomy 4:6-8)
Photo by author, St. Scholastica Spirituality Center, Tagaytay City, 20 August 2024.
Every adherence and compliance to the Laws, to its accompanying rites and rituals must come from the heart, a result of the conversion of heart, of purification of one’s heart, especially the celebration of the liturgy we refer to as “the summit and font of our Christian life”. Every Mass celebration is an outflowing of what is in our hearts, beginning with the priest as celebrant.
But, what is the reality we have? As we concluded last Sunday Jesus Christ’s “bread of life discourse”, we realized the “shocking truths” of so many Catholics who have totally stopped coming to Sunday Masses, of some priests not giving the proper respect in prayerfully celebrating the Eucharist and the other Sacraments, and of most faithfuls just simply coming without seriously taking part in the Mass. That is why this gospel scene applies to us this time too as Jesus asks us, do we understand the things we are doing in the Church? What is in our hearts in doing these?
He summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile. “From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile” (Mark 7:14-15, 21-23).
Photo by author, St. Scholastica Spirituality Center, Tagaytay City, 20 August 2024.
This Sunday, Jesus is inviting us to a new perspective at looking at things, not just from what is clean and not clean, or simply what is good and evil, what is traditional and modern; Jesus wants us to examine our motivations, of what is in our hearts in doing things, anything and everything.
Ultimately, it is a question of who is in our heart, Jesus or somebody else or another thing?
It is reality versus hypocrisy. Reality is the truth and meaning that things, events, persons, most of all, of our very selves have before God and for God. It is in this reality that we must scrutinize to strip ourselves naked of the hidden hypocrisies, the many masks and alibis we use to justify our selves.
Photo by author, 13 August 2024.
I have something to confess to you, my dear followers: I have been sick these past three weeks with different ailments. All my lab tests were good. Doctors find nothing wrong with my body with everything normal.
Last Tuesday I saw my longtime doctor for my scheduled check-up. As I explained everything to her, I broke down in tears as I admitted the fact I am in denial stage of my mom’s passing last May. I have repressed my griefs, trying to fill in the void within me with workloads as if I am still young that finally, it manifested in my body. That same Tuesday evening, I dreamt of my mom: she looked younger and healthier without signs of stroke but she wore a black dress and looked to have cried. I hugged her tightly in my dream, we cried together as I said sorry to her, promising that I would finally come home even if it hurts me to see her room empty.
Two days after that, we celebrated John the Baptist’s passion with a reading from Mark telling us of the “grudge” Herodias had on him that led to his beheading. Many times, grudges and other negative things that Jesus cited in today’s gospel not only cover us but actually destroy us, eating us up in the process. The festering negativities in our hearts cannot be hidden, eventually erupting like blisters, not only hurting others around us but most especially us.
In the Mass, Jesus knows very well we are not worthy with our hypocrisies to receive Him but only say the word, we are healed. And blessed to cleanse ourselves. Let us pray:
God our loving Father, "all good giving and every perfect gift is from You with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change"; empty our hearts of pride and evil to welcome Jesus your Word who became flesh to dwell inside us so that we may be "doers of the word not just hearers" (James 1:17, 22) by being more loving to others without any strings attached. Amen.
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