Living Hope Amidst Suffering

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Red Wednesday, 26 November 2025
Daniel 5:1-6, 13-14, 16-17, 23-28   <*{{{>< + ><}}}*>   Luke 21:12-19

*Photo from Fatima Tribune, 27 November 2024.*

It’s the Wednesday after Christ the King when our churches and other religious buildings are lit in red to mark Red Wednesday, the annual campaign for persecuted Christians worldwide.

Started in 2016 by the Aid for Church in Need (ACN), it has been an annual Church celebration with other Christian groups and sects participating to heighten awareness of the continuing persecution of Christians in various parts of the world – exactly what Jesus had predicted to his disciples more than 2000 years ago.

Jesus said to the crowd: “They will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name. It will lead to your giving testimony… By your perseverance you will secure your lives” (Luke 21:12-13, 19).

For us in the Philippines that is majority a Christian nation, Red Wednesday is an opportune time to reflect about our “giving testimony” to Jesus Christ: how “bloody red” is our being a Christian?

Unlike in other countries in Africa or our neighbors in Asia where Christians are persecuted and harassed, we in the Philippines do not go through such sufferings and challenges. Think of any kind of opposition to the Christian faith we have encountered even in the last 100 years. None. The most serious threats ever made against our faith seem to be mere “peer pressures” of being teased as “conservative” in going to Mass and Confession frequently, or upholding the virtue of virginity. Perhaps, the most serious dilemma most of us Christians have ever had in our faith is whether or not we shall pray or at least make the Sign of the Cross when dining in a restaurant or fast food chain. In Europe and the States, chapels and churches are vandalized and burned but here in the country, those who have committed sacrileges in the past three years were “crucified” in social media with one being sued in court.

We do not wish that we also undergo similar religious persecutions like the other Christians abroad whom we pray for today on this Red Wednesday and send with our financial support as concrete actions of our solidarity with them.

In line with this year’s theme of “Living Hope Amidst Suffering” in conjunction with the Jubilee Year celebration “Pilgrims of Hope”, Red Wednesday invites us to simply witness the gospel of Jesus by standing on what is true and good especially these days our country is so deep into the ghost project scandals on flood control.

Giving testimony to Jesus Christ is letting our zeal for him burn anew within us by not bending into the ways of the world that promote a “culture of death” like abortion and contraceptives, or to the many forms of wokism that overextend personal rights contrary to God’s original plan and design like divorce, same sex marriage, and gender manipulation.

*Photo by Ms. Kei Abad, Kawaguchiko Lake (Fujisan), 23 November 2025.*

Witnessing Christ is being honest and just in a country of such impunity where graft and corruption is a family endeavor, a norm in public service.

Giving testimony to Christ in this time of social media where trending and viral are the new standards is to remain simple and modest even if it is looked down upon, being fair and just even if everyone chooses to disregard them while being concrete in our acts of mercy and charity for the weak and marginalized.

Red Wednesday is reigniting our hope in God which is an expression of our firm faith in him. Religious persecutions happen and abound anywhere God is negated and denied or when a particular group of people insist on their own perception of God.

We Christians are pilgrims of hope because we do believe in the one True and Only God in Heaven who was revealed to us by his own Son Jesus Christ made present up to this day until the end of time by the Holy Spirit. Hope is primarily having faith in God.

In this sense it is true that anyonbe who does not nknow God, even though he may entertain all kinds of hopes, is ultimately without hope, without the great hope that sustains the whole of life (cf. Eph. 2:12). Man’s great, true hope which holds firm in spite of all disappointments can only be God – God who has loved us and who continues to love us “to the end,” until all “is accomplished” (cf. Jn.13:1 and 19:30). (Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi #27)

Hope is not optimism nor positive thinking, believing things will get better. On the contrary, true hope is actually accepting that things and situations could get worst as Jesus mentioned in his predictions of the coming upheavals and persecutions. Hope is putting all our trust in God that no matter what happens in the end when things get worst like death, there is Jesus Christ loving us, comforting us, and saving us.

That’s the kind of faith and hope Daniel expressed in our first reading despite the threats of sure death when he spoke of the God of Israel as the only true God, not the many idols and false gods of the Babylonians. Most of all, because of his fervent hope in God who would raise him up in the end, Daniel delivered his interpretation of the king’s dream of how his days were numbered as the Medians and Persians were soon to conquer them that eventually happened.

Many times in life, all we can have is hope in God especially when pains and sufferings become unbearable, when these get worst without any signs of getting any better.

That is why Red Wednesday’s theme this year is so appropriate, “living hope amidst suffering”.

Hope makes life more worthy and lofty because our sights are not only fixed on this world but even beyond as Jesus assured us in today’s gospel, “By your perseverance you will secure your lives” (Lk.21:19).

And there lies the beauty of hope – it is the most surprising of all virtues as the French poet, essayist and writer Charles Peguy wrote in 1911 in his long masterpiece called “The Portal of the Mystery of Hope.” In this poem, Peguy presents God as the speaker himself, reflecting about the virtue of hope in relation with the other two theological virtues of faith and love. It is so lovely because it is so true especially when I encountered it during my trying months of second year in theology in the seminary.

The faith that I love best, says God, is hope...
Faith itself does not surprise me...

Love, says God, that does not surprise me...

But Hope, says God, that is what surprises me.
I, myself, find it surprising
that my children see what happens and believe things will improve.
That is the most surprising, the most marvelous gift.
And it surprises me, myself, that my gift has such incredible strength
since it first flowed in creation as it always will.
Faith sees what is.
Hope sees what will be.
Love loves what is.
Hope loves what has not yet been
and what will be in the future and in eternity.

For those suffering, those in pain especially because of faith in Jesus Christ: keep believing, keep hoping and be ready to be surprised by God. Reignite that zeal in Christ and his gospel. Amen. A blessed Red Wednesday to you.

Red Wednesday 2024

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Red Wednesday, the Thirty-Fourth Week of Ordinary Time, 27 November 2024
Revelation 15:1-4 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> Luke 21:12-19

*The Colosseum in Rome is lit in red to draw attention to the persecution of Christians around the world. (CNS photo/Remo Casilli, Reuters, posted in February 26, 2018.)*

Today we bathe our churches and other religious buildings in red to mark Red Wednesday, Aid to the Church in Need’s (ACN) annual campaign for persecuted Christians that started in 2016.

Since then, participation in the campaign has increased steadily in more than 30 countries including the Philippines which is one of the early supporters of the initiative to make known the realities of anti-Christian persecution in this modern time. According to ACN’s biennial report called “Persecuted and Forgotten?” published in October this year, Christian persecution has significantly worsened in most countries surveyed between 2022 and 2024 as it highlighted incidences of displacement, forced marriage of women and girls, and anti-conversion laws.

This year’s campaign focuses on Christian children and young people displaced by persecution and violent conflicts in Africa, the Middle East, and elsewhere. Persecutions of the faithful come in various forms, sometimes hiding in conservatism and the laws of the land. In Iraq last week, conservative lawmakers have moved closer to slashing the country’s legal age of consent from 18 to nine years old that would allow men to marry young children that could give rise to many grave abuses against women.

Red Wednesday aims to emphasize the importance of religious freedom as a fundamental human right often circumvented in many countries these days, particularly those under totalitarian regimes.

For the first time this year, the Church of England is joining Red Wednesday as ACN-UK spearhead a signature campaign to ask the British Foreign Ministry to channel more taxpayer-funded Overseas Development Aid to support Christians and other religious minorities worldwide, recognizing their unique vulnerabilities.

Significance of Red

Red is the color of blood, signifying the countless people especially children and women who have lost their lives and those who continue to suffer in systematic persecutions perpetrated not only by some regimes but by criminal syndicates too.

On this day, we remember and pray for them all as we also try to reflect on what kind of opposition to our faith have we experienced here in our country the Philippines which is 90% Christian.

This is something for us to ponder every Red Wednesday which happens after the Christ the King: while we are so free – not just free but so free in fact without any opposition or costs at all to celebrate the Mass and other religious feasts and festivities all year round, how can the words of Jesus in today’s gospel apply to us?

Jesus said to the crowd: “They will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name. It will lead to your giving testimony… You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives” (Luke 21:12-13, 16-19).

The red color signifies courage that vividly portrays the blood shed by our many brothers and sisters in faith facing persecution in other parts of the world like those singing the song of the Lamb before God in heaven as seen by John in the first reading.

But, we wonder, will it be bloody red too for us here in the Philippines? What kind of opposition to the Christian faith have we encountered here in the country? What is the most serious threat ever made against our faith or to anyone personally?

Maybe nothing that much like chapels being burned or altars being vandalized. Or, maybe none at all except for peer pressure when we are teased for being so “conservative” in going to Mass or to Confessions. Perhaps, the most serious dilemma we have had in our faith is whether or not we shall pray or at least make the Sign of the Cross properly when eating in a restaurant or a fast food!

We are not trying to denigrate our being Christians nor are we insulting our fellow faithful; we simply want everyone to praise and thank God for this tremendous blessing of being so free to worship Him in our country.

Let us value this religious freedom we have and enjoy by being faithful to our Sunday Mass as God commands in His Ten Commandments (3rd) by cultivating a deep, personal prayer life that flows into our good deeds as Filipino Christians.

Let us stand for that freedom by safeguarding our democracy from threats within and outside the country.

Let us thank God for this religious freedom we enjoy by being more responsible and truly inclusive of everyone, not just for the rich and powerful or those like us. Jesus dared us to “give testimony” to Him in today’s gospel – that is, be a witness which is literally speaking in Greek, martyria. At least, we do not have to shed blood literally speaking like in other countries. So, let us be witnesses of Christ’s love and presence. Let us pray:

Lord Jesus Christ,
help us to truly express our
oneness in suffering,
oneness in consolation
with our persecuted 
brothers and sisters
by witnessing to Your
love and mercy
through our personal
and communal prayers
as Your Body, the Church;
may our liturgies flow into
our loving service to those 
in need especially those in the margins,
those forgotten by their loved ones
and by the society,
and those disadvantaged in life;
may this Red Wednesday
illumine our hearts and minds
not only to see the plight of others
but most of all of our many blessings
so that we may make the right decisions
to make ourselves truly Your temple,
O God, here on earth amid
the persecutions going on;
may our voices one day join
those blessed in your presence
to sing the song of the Lamb.
Amen.

*Campus Ministry, Our Lady of Fatima University-Valenzuela City.*

Praying for those persecuted

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday in the Thirty-Fourth Week of Ordinary Time, Red Wednesday, 23 November 2022
Revelation 15:1-4 ><000'> + ><000'> + ><000'> Luke 21:12-19

Today, O Lord Jesus Christ,
we join your whole Church in 
observing "Red Wednesday"
to voice our concern
and make our stand against
the persecution of Christians
and all faiths globally that sadly
remain unnoticed.

According to the 
Pew Research Centre,
"Christians suffer persecution -
from harassment to murder -
in more countries than any other
faith group.  What a disturbing fact
that too often we thought have ended
many centuries ago!

You have warned us about this persecution
a long time ago while still here on earth;
it had never stopped but simply persisted
maybe partly because many of us have chosen
to be silent and deaf to its realities especially
where Christians are a minority.

Jesus said to the crowd: “They will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name. It will lead to your giving testimony. By your perseverance you will secure your lives.”
Luke 21:12-13, 19

No action,
no contribution,
no prayer
is too small for each of us
to make a difference this year
in supporting our persecuted 
brothers and sisters
and most of all, 
in putting an end to this kind of hatred
and violence simply because
of faith and belief in you our God!

We pray that one day.
we will finally sing face to face
with you Lord Jesus Christ in heaven
the hymn of praise and adoration
John saw in his vision those
"who had won the victory over the beast";
enable us to make the right choices 
like them on this Red Wednesday to
both pray and act 
for the suffering members of
your Body, the Church.
Amen.

Red without fear: the Church journeying as one

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Red Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Revelation 15:1-4   ><)))*> + <*(((><   Luke 21:12-19

It is this time of the year again,
dear God our Father, when we 
your people unite with the Pope's
official charity for persecuted Christians
worldwide through the Aid to the
Church in Need (ACN) to celebrate
Red Wednesday.

Yes, your Church continues to suffer
persecution in various forms, some
very subtle while in others very violent;
but this year, we pray most specially not
only for our Filipino martyrs who sacrificed
their lives for the Gospel but most of all
for each one of us to be a living witness
in taking the path of your Son Jesus Christ
as one Church.

As we come to the closing of our 500 years of
Christianization while preparing for the 
Synod of Bishops in 2023, help us to 
remember, celebrate, and promote 
oneness and unity in faith as we journey 
as one Church.

Banish all our fears, let us persevere
amid the trials and persecution that 
come specially from those closest to
us, those who refuse and continue to
deny you, choosing a life of sin and evil.

Inflame us, O Lord, with your fire of love
and zeal to always seek and stand by your
truth and justice; let us not, through our 
stupid choices, face your "anger" or "fury"
John saw in his vision at the "sea of glass
mingled with fire" (Rev.15:1-4) and be 
denied entry for not being worthy. Amen.

Righteous acts of God

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Red Wednesday, 25 November 2020
Revelation 15:1-4     >><)))*>  +++  <*(((><<     Luke 21:12-19

Once again, dear Jesus, we pray in the most special way this Red Wednesday for your persecuted Church including those severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic like the medical frontliners, the survivors and their families, and the poor who have sank deeper into poverty due to the prolonged lockdowns we have had.

We pray that we may find your good news behind every persecution we suffer and go through as a community of your believers and disciples because where there are sufferings, there are hearts and souls willing to comfort, willing to share, willing to sacrifice.

When there are sufferings, there is the color RED that means LOVE because that is when we have your Cross, Jesus Christ, and therefore share in your own destiny of glory!

It is in every shade of red like the blood poured out by Christ and the martyrs after him that the Father’s “righteous acts have been revealed” (Rev.15:4), that is, when we experience more of God’s protection and salvation in the face of grave dangers and even death.

Grant us the grace, Lord Jesus, to persevere in your words and ways so we may secure our lives in you. Amen.