Lawiswis Ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-03 ng Enero 2020
Ikalawa ng Enero
binati ko ng "Maligayang Pasko"
magandang kahera
ng paradahan sa Trinoma.
Ngumiti at bumati
sabi ng binibini, "Happy New Year!
Tapos na po ang Pasko"
kanyang nawika mula sa munti niyang bintana.
Nagpaliwanag ako
habang kanyang binibilang bayad ko.
"Miss, hindi pa tapos ang Pasko;
kaya may bagong taon kasi sinilang si Kristo!"
Bakit nga ba tayo ganito
turing sa Pasko isang petsa sa kalendaryo
kaya pagsapit na Enero a-primero
akala'y tapos na ito?
Sana'y ating mapagtanto
na isang kuwentong nagpapatuloy
sa pamumuhay nating mga Kristiyano
itong Pasko nang ang Diyos ay maging tao.
Kapag ang Pasko ay tinuring nating
isang bilang lamang ng mga araw at buwan
maski ilang libong taon pa iyan -
pagsusuma at pagtutuos lamang hahantungan.
Magkano napamaskuhan o
mayroon bang Christmas bonus diyan
mga katanungan pumapailanlang
pagsapit ng Kapaskuhan sa karamihan.
Diwa at kahulugan ng pagsilang
ni Hesus tiyak malilimutan
kapag sarili lamang ating tiningnan
kaya ating minamadali pati pagbati ng happy new year muli.
Hanaping muli si Kristo sa Pasko
at tiyak ating matatanto
di natatapos pagdiriwang na ito
na kailangan nating ihatid palagi si Kristo sa ating mundo!
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 30 December 2019
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, Carigara, September 2019.
Today we conclude our series on the best Christmas gifts we have received following Christ’s coming more than 2000 years ago: the gift of childhood, of being child-like.
What a joy to keep in mind how God the Almighty chose to become human like us to show us that the path to true greatness and power is in becoming small like an infant, being like a child.
How foolish that we always “play” God to be great and powerful!
The central mystery of Christianity is our transformation from world-wise, self-sufficient “adults” into abiding children of the Father of Jesus by the grace of the Holy Spirit. All else in the Gospel, from the Incarnation of the Lord to his hidden and public lives, his miracles and preaching, his Passion, Death and Resurrection has been for this, of becoming like a child.
The late Cardinal Hans Urs von Balthasar, “Unless You Become Like this Child” (1991, Ignatius Press)
The child-like attitude of Jesus Christ
The best gift we can have this Christmas is to be child-like, to regain and reclaim our sense of childhood, of attending to that “inner child” within us when we trust more, believe more!
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, Carigara, September 2019.
See how Jesus Christ entrusts himself not only to his Father but most of all to us!
That is the touching message of the Nativity scene, of how our Lord and God, the King of kings through whom everything was created giving himself to us like a baby, asking us to love him, to take care of him, to be gentle with him, to protect and keep him safe from all harm.
And the key to claiming this great gift of being like a child is for us to learn again how to trust more and fear less like Jesus who showed us by example, not only with words his being child-like.
His constant acknowledgement of God his Father always speaking and doing his will tells us how Jesus from childhood into is adulthood remained like a child by entrusting his total self to God, reaching its highest point on the Cross when he cried out, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Lk.23:46).
Trust more, fear less
To be like a child according to the example of Jesus Christ is to always trust God and others, and fear less.
Like us, Jesus experienced fears, getting afraid of death but unlike us, he courageously faced death by trusting the Father by “resolutely” going to Jerusalem to be crucified!
When the days for his being taken up were fulfilled, Jesus resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem.
Luke 9:51
It is normal to have fears, to be afraid.
Fear is not totally negative; it has its good effects that have actually led mankind to every great progress in life like the discovery of new lands and territories, new medicines, new inventions and other things.
Fear becomes a liability when it prevents us to trust more like little children.
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, 2018.
Kids and young people are often “positively” fearless because they trust so much nobody would hurt them or no one would forsake them.
As we age, our fears increase because our trust decreases: we fear so many things because we are afraid of losing the little we have, we are afraid of getting hurt, we are afraid of starting all over again.
We are afraid of getting old, of getting sick, and of dying.
What an irony how we started in life fearing almost nothing as babies and kids that we grew up so fast but as we aged and matured, we fear so many things that we have stopped growing and stopped living even long before we actually die.
The other day, December 28, we celebrated “Niños Innocentes” or “Holy Innocents” to remember those male children below two years old ordered killed by King Herod for fears of the “newborn king of Israel.”
Herod lived in constant fears of being deposed in power that he ordered the killing of his three sons and ten wives after suspecting them of trying to overthrow him.
We may not be like Herod with the way we react with our many fears but like him, we end up with same effects like death of friendships, death of love, death of everything, the end of life and adventure.
Maybe that explains why somehow as we get older, we “mellow” and become like children again, realizing we cannot control everything in life, that it is always best to act than to react in every situation.
Do not miss out this great gift of Christmas of becoming like a child.
Trust Jesus Christ who called on us not to be afraid for he is with us always!
Sirach 3:2-7, 12-14 ><}}}*> Colossians 3:12-21 ><}}}*> Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23
One of the many bas reliefs at the Cavern Church complex in Cairo, Egypt where the Holy Family fled to escape Herod’s wrath when he ordered the murder of all male children below three years old after learning from the Magi the birth of the “new king of the Jews”.
Among the celebrations during this Christmas Season, the Feast of the Holy Family is something peculiar because it was not borne out of liturgical origins but more of the changing times in the past 126 years since it was first celebrated as a devotion.
In the beginning, it was designed to counteract the growing attacks against family life and morality of the rapidly changing times.
Since 1969 when Vatican II designated its feast to be celebrated within the Christmas octave, the feast of the Holy Family has proven to be a major contribution in helping us understand the mystery of the Lord’s nativity in our modern time.
When the magi had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.” Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. He stayed there until the death of Herod, so that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, out of Egypt I called my son.
Matthew 2:13-15
A diptych mosaic depicting the story of the flight to Egypt of the Holy Family on the walls of the Saint Virgin Mary’s Coptic Church in Cairo, Egypt beside the Cavern Church. It is one of the oldest churches in Egypt that dates back to the third century.
Christmas, a living story continuing in our family
The feast of the Holy Family reminds us that Christmas is a living story that continues to this day wherein God comes first in and through our family.
We go back to Matthew’s gospel to hear again the important role of Joseph not only in taking Mary as his wife in order to give name to Jesus but also to protect them from all harm.
We have seen during Christmas how Jesus had always been subjected to suffering right in his mother’s womb when Joseph and Mary have to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem to comply with Augustus Caesar’s directive to all subjects of the empire to register.
Now, they have to travel outside Israel to flee to another country to escape the murderous plot of Herod against Baby Jesus.
We have heard again the continuation of Joseph’s mission revealed again to him by an angel in a dream. But, Matthew added something very interesting that is the key to understanding our gospel today and our feast of the Holy Family.
He (Joseph) stayed there until the death of Herod, so that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, out of Egypt I called my son.
Matthew 2:15
Entrance to the Cavern Church where the Holy Family lived for about three years while in Egypt before going back to Israel.
Remember Matthew’s audience and followers were Christians of Jewish origins.
The Holy Family’s flight to Egypt is very similar to the story of Jacob’s migration into that country during the great famine when one of his sons, Joseph the dreamer, became a governor there.
Many years later, the Egyptians would make them suffer that God sent them Moses to bring them back to the Promised Land through Exodus that has become the single most important date in their entire history. Also known as the “passover”, it was at that time when Israel passed over from slavery in Egypt into freedom in the Promised Land.
But, the result was not favorable because after settling back into the Promised Land, the people would repeatedly break God’s covenant by worshipping foreign gods and idols that eventually led to their Babylonian exile, not to mention the division of the kingdom into two after David’s death.
By citing a prophecy by Hosea, Matthew is now telling us how Jesus, the Son of God, is the new beginning of fidelity to the covenant. Like Moses, God took out Jesus from Egypt; but greater than Moses and unlike him, Jesus would never be unfaithful to the covenant.
As the new beginning not only for Israel but also for the whole world, Jesus in fact passed us over from sin to grace with his own passover or pasch – his Passion, Death and Resurrection.
Welcoming Jesus in our family through our love and care for each member
The family is the basic unit of every society. Destroy the family, we destroy the society. Eventually, we destroy our nation.
The same is true with us in the Church: the family is a domestic church. Jesus comes first in our family.
But how can he now come when our family is disintegrating, when it is right in the family where women and children are first abused?
How can Jesus come in our family when we have lost all senses of the holy, of God that we no longer pray and gather together in the Sunday Mass and other sacraments?
See how the giant flatscreen has become every family’s altar and deity, replacing the Christ the King or any other Poon in our homes. Malls have replaced our places of worship. Worst of all, the great feasts and seasons of Christmas and Easter have become so commercialized, reduced to become our modern excuses for much needed breaks and supposed family bonding in beaches and abroad.
The Holy Family’s flight to Egypt brought them closer with one another and most especially with God. Unfortunately, our own “flight to Egypt” has become our excuse to leave God behind and focus more with our own lives.
A portion of a larger mix of bronze reliefs on one of the doors of the Duomo Cathedral in Florence, Italy depicting the harsh conditions the Holy Family have to face in Egypt while escaping Herod. Photo by Ms. Janine Lloren, 2015.
A friend had shared this photo with me which she had taken while on a trip in Italy, home to thousands of our OFW’s who, like the Holy Family, have to leave our country to find life, to escape “death”.
Like Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, God “sends” us out to our own, different “flight to Egypt”, pulling us out from the comforts of our family and home, career and other comfort zones in order to gather ourselves so we can start anew in Christ to be more free to love and be faithful to him and our loved ones.
Many times in our lives, separations and other adversarial situations make us better persons, enabling us to be more fruitful in life than just having everything for granted and so easily.
The adversarial conditions the child Jesus have experienced very early on – from his birth to early childhood in Egypt – strike many similarities with our situations today.
It is hoped that with this Feast of the Holy Family, we may be reawakened again with our sense of mission in bringing Jesus Christ more present especially when life is threatened, when persons are denied of justice and freedom.
May the first and second readings remind us that every relationship we have here on earth, starting in our families must always be based on our relationship with God our Father. Amen.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 28 December 2019
Italian artist Giorgione’s “Adoration of the Shepherds” (1510) showing an intimate scene set up against a distant landscape. The shepherds’ gently kneeling and bowing their heads down show their humility and fascination with the Infant Jesus while the long road behind them shows the long and tiring journey they have taken before reaching their destination.
We continue with our enumeration of the best gifts of Christmas which is above all the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And because of his coming as human like us, we have come to share in his dignity and glory, thus, making us also the best gifts to share and receive every Christmas!
We await Christmas every year because we await Jesus Christ, the most beloved person of all we can know and have as friend.
We wait only for persons, not things.
Waiting is beautiful because we never wait alone. There is always another person waiting with us, waiting for us. And when we finally come and meet with the other person also awaiting us, then we become present, a gift for one another.
In our presence with each other comes the wonderful gift of intimacy.
“God became a human being so that in one person you could both have something to see and something to believe.”
St. Augustine, Sermon 126, 5
The spot where Jesus Christ is believed to have been born now covered and protected by this hole under the main altar of the Church of the Nativity of the Lord in Bethlehem. May 2019
Christmas is a story about persons called by God to bring us his Son Jesus Christ. It is a living story that continues to our own time. Here are some of the best gifts of Christmas coming from the gift of our personhood.
The gift of family. Christmas happens in a family of husband and wife and children. Very much like Joseph, Mary, and Jesus. Remove one and the Nativity scene becomes incomplete. Let us be thankful for our family, let us pray for the unity of our family. When Jesus was lost at the age of 12, Joseph and Mary decided to return to Jerusalem – symbolizing God – and eventually found him there in the temple. Let us always turn to God, ask for his guidance and protection of every family, for the healing of our family, for the mending of our broken relationships. Let us pray for all broken families whose members from the husband and wife to their children are all aching deep inside for the pains of separation.
The gift of women and of motherhood. When God created man, he found “it is not good for man to be alone” that is why he created the woman as man’s “suitable partner” (Gen.2:18). What a beautiful term for woman, part-ner, a part of man who is never complete by himself alone. How sad that until now, it is right inside the home where every woman first experience physical, verbal and emotional pains. Women are the best signs of fidelity and faith: Elizabeth called Mary “blessed” because she believed the words spoken to her by the angel from God will be fulfilled. Let us pray for the women in our lives especially own own mother and sisters, lola and aunties, cousins and nieces. Remember, the way we relate with women reflect to a great extent the way we relate with God. Love and bless the women!
The gift of men and fatherhood. When Jesus taught us how to pray, he taught us that God is like a “Father” whom we shall call “Our Father”. There is a crisis in fatherhood and manhood these days because many men have forgotten to be truly man enough like God our Father: a giver of life and protector of life as well. Most of all, when children lose this gift of life, it is the father who restores the life lost like the merciful father of the prodigal son in Luke’s gospel chapter 15.
Aleteia, December 2019.
This Christmas break, spend time with your family, hug your mommy and your daddy tightly and feel their presence again.
Thank your family, your mom and dad.
Pray for your departed loved ones, visit the cemetery and say a prayer for them, talk to them. Most of all, listen to them and feel them again.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 27 December 2019
Dome of the chapel at Shepherd’s Field near Bethlehem where the angels appeared to some shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus Christ more than 2000 years ago.
By this time, many of you must have opened the gifts you have received this Christmas. Some are happy, some are not – even disappointed – while there are others who simply do not care at all with the gifts they have received.
But gifts are not everything. What really matters most are the persons and the love and thoughts that come with every gift we have received this blessed season.
Below are some spiritual gifts I feel we need to be thankful too!
The “little door” that leads into the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem that has come to mean the need to bow low and be humble in order to meet Jesus Christ not only inside but also in our daily life. Photo by author, May 2019.
The gift of hope. Hope is not thinking positively that things can get better like the weather. Hope is having a firm belief that even if things get worst, there is God who always loves us, who takes care of us. People with hope always look forward in the future whether here or in eternal life. They are also the most loving people around, the most understanding and most forgiving. They always strive, work hard to make things better for them and for others. Those without hope are the most evil: they will kill and destroy everything and everyone because they have nothing to look forward to in this life or hereafter. The kind of life we live always indicates the kind of hope we have. Or do not have.
The gift of desert. Sometimes, life becomes a desert for us, when we are desolate and so barren with everything dry and even lifeless. But it is during our desert moments in life when we not only meet our true selves but most of all, that is when we meet God. It is in this meeting with God in our desert we experience healing from all our hurts and disappointments in life. We need to withdraw once in a while to our desert to silently pray in order to hear God’s voice anew in our inner selves. In our mass mediated world today when we are bombarded with wants and needs to be rich and famous, the more we end up empty and lost. But when we dare stay in our desert and try to listen in silence, the more we are attuned with life’s realities, the more we are enriched and deepened in our lives.
The gift of intimacy. From our desert experiences of barrenness and desolation, of silence and prayer, and a lot of reflections and introspections come the great gift of intimacy with God and with others. We come to realize who our true friends are when our chips are down, when we are alone and badly bruised and beaten in life. How ironic that when we are so filled with material things, that is when life for us becomes superficial and shallow. But whenever we go through many desert storms, that is when we come to realize the most important in life – the persons who have touched us for better or for worse, the persons who make us experience to be loved and to love.
An oasis at the Dead Sea desert. Photo by author, May 2017.
We shall continue with our other lists of spiritual gifts this Christmas tomorrow.
How about you, what are the spiritual gifts you wish to share with us that may also help us deepen our Christmas celebrations this 2019?
The Lord Is My Chef Recipe for the Soul, Christmas 2019
“The Adoration of the Shepherds”, a painting of the Nativity scene by Italian artist Giorgione before his death at a very young age of 30 in 1510.
A blessed Christmas to you and your loved ones! As we celebrate this single event that has made the most impact on mankind in our entire history, I share with you my thoughts and reflections in a Christmas prayer based on our midnight Mass gospel:
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, wen Quirinius was governor of Syria. So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Luke 2:1-7
Jesus, both the giver and the gift
A most blessed happy birthday to you dear, Lord Jesus Christ!
How funny that you are the one celebrating birthday but we are the ones expecting and receiving gifts on this day. And that is why we all celebrate your birthday – it is a living story that continues to this day when you gave us yourself as a gift to each of us!
Thank you very much for being both the gift and the giver.
Thank you for coming to us, for being like us in everything except sin to accompany us in our lives, to help us carry our cross and lighten our many burdens.
In becoming human like us, you have taught us and made us experience true humility so we can also be like you, holy and divine. Indeed, the words of St. Augustine are so true when he preached in one of his Christmas sermons:
“God became a human being so that in one person you could have both something to see and something to believe.”
St. Augustine, Sermon 126, 5
Thank you for coming to us, being born like us that we have found meaning in our lives, in our struggles, in our pains and hurts.
Because of your coming to us, we have come to believe in better future, we have come to hope and most of all, we have experienced tremendous joy in living.
Your great servant St. John Paul II perfectly said of every human person that
“Every birthday is a small Christmas because with the birth of every person comes Jesus Christ.”
Evangelium Vitae
Help us to find something good always in us and something to believe in us because you are dwelling in us!
Chapel at the Shepherds’ Field in Bethlehem where the angels announced the birth of Jesus to the the shepherds tending their sheep under the darkness of that night. Photo by author, May 2019.
Life is what we make on earth, you planned in heaven
I love that opening phrase by your evangelist St. Luke, O Lord: “In those days” which in some versions has a more literal translation from the original Greek that says, “It came about in those days”.
As a child starting to learn how to read, I quickly memorized the letters and words of every storybook’s opening line, “Once upon a time”. Then, I got fed up with the expression as I grew up and matured because I have realized they are not true at all.
In these past 21 years being your priest, Jesus, eight years here in my first parish assignment of about 12,000 souls, you have taught me with something to see and something to believe in myself “In those days”.
In those days when I feel so insignificant, when I feel so little with my shortcomings and failures and sins, when I doubt my gifts and talents, when everything seems so wrong, that is also when I feel so close with you, when you console me too.
Like you being born during the time of the great Roman emperor Augustus, the more you came closer to us, the time you were born amid the many hardships of your Mother Mary. Even if there was no room in the inn, there was the lowly manger that welcomed you.
Yes, my sweet Jesus, life is what we make of here on earth, so difficult, so trying, sometimes frustrating but you are always there making us look up above to the Father that we just hang on with life for you have planned everything for our good in heaven.
Do not allow us to be troubled and disturbed by the mundane things of the world that are all passing.
Do not let us to be robbed of your glory and joy by being overtaken by pains and anger, hardships and struggles for you know very well what we are going through in life, of how tired we are in keeping up with our duties and responsibilities, of how hard we have tried to follow you like Joseph and Mary.
How lovely, dear Jesus, to imagine you were born in the darkness and stillness of the night of the shortest day of the year to remind us of the coming light, of the lengthening of days after.
It is in that same dark night when we see and experience our littleness and insignificance in this vast, wide world when you also make us feel our worth and value being cupped in your mighty hands, assuring us of your protection and love.
Help us to let go of our grudges and vengeance against those people who have hurt us, duped us, insulted us and be rather filled with your peace and goodwill as the angels proclaim your glory in the darkness of the night.
Atop Mt. Sinai in Egypt at midnight. Photo by Atty. Grace Polaris Rivas-Beron, May 2019.
Are we not?
Thank you Jesus for the gift of a beautiful poem I have read from a fellow blogger tonight after hearing confessions of my parishioners.
This Christmas, dear Lord Jesus, let me hug you in my brothers and sisters who have made me see something good, something beautiful, something joyful amidst the many evil, ugly, and sad events of life.
It is Christmas, in those days so ordinary when you came to bless us, to make us a part of your story so beautiful, so lovely. Let me believe more in you so I can see you more, love you more, and follow you more! Amen
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 06 December 2019
Advent 2019, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Bagbaguin, Santa Maria, Bulacan.
Advent and Lent are two beautiful seasons in our Church calendar that prepare us for the great feasts of Christmas and Easter, respectively. Both have violet as motif though Advent is supposed to have a more bluish hue to distinguish it from Lent’s penitential character.
They both invite us to “look forward” into that future glory of Jesus Christ when he comes again at the end of time to establish “new heaven and new earth” where peace would finally reign, removing all sufferings and pains, wiping away all our tears to fill us with perfect joy.
On that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book; and out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see. The lowly will ever find joy in the Lord, and the poor rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
Isaiah 29:18-19
Advent is renewed relationships
More than the promise of a new order of things in the Second Coming of Christ, Advent invites us also to look forward into renewed relationships with God through others.
Our Advent Candle 2019.
Jesus Christ comes first in our hearts, his new manger. Unfortunately, we seem to have forgotten Jesus, remembering only his birthday and its trimmings. Fanned by social media, people are going crazy as early as August with their own Christmas countdown with those memes of Jose Mari Chan poised to sing his popular “Christmas in Our hearts”, forgetting its beautiful message of opening our hearts to Jesus through one another.
How sad that more than ever, people are so excited with Christmas for the wrong reasons like gifts and money, parties and vacations but not Jesus himself.
Advent invites us to “actively wait” Christ’s coming by renewing our relationships with our family and friends in every here and now of our daily living.
As Jesus passed by, two blind men followed him, crying out, “Son of David, have pity on us!” When he entered the house, the blind men approached him and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I can do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they said to him. Then he touched their eyes… and their eyes were opened.
Matthew 9:27-29, 30
Need to remove our “blindness”
Advent is a season to remove our blindness to Jesus present in us and in every person we meet. Our gospel today tells us a short story of Christ’s healing of two blind men with a twist of humor.
According to St. Matthew, the two blind men kept following Jesus after teaching a crowd, begging him to restore their sight.
How they were able to follow Jesus, your guess is as wild as mine… but, most funny is how they followed Jesus home to finally heal them!
Go figure it out. How did it happen if both men were blind, following Jesus every step of the way into his home?
But they both teach us a valuable lesson not only for this Advent but for everyday living: of the need to remove our blindness so we may see Christ coming to us day in, day out.
How sad when most of us have eyes but cannot see or even refuse to see Jesus Christ coming to us personally and among other people especially our family and friends, among the ordinary and usual people we meet everyday in our lives.
Last Tuesday amid heavy rains and winds of Supertyphoon “Tisoy”, two elderly couples in the parish requested for the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.
After hearing their confessions, anointing them with Oil, and giving them the Holy Communion, I decided to stay longer when I found out they live by themselves despite having six children living in the vicinity with their many apos!
Making things worst for the couple are the two children living abroad: one in the States have totally cut ties with them without any communication in 15 years while the other living Down Under refusing to help them in their medical needs.
May the light of Christ heal us of our many blindness so we may see him among our families and friends.
The way we live and what we hope
I have been told the elderly couple I have visited were not really that “good parents” and neighbors as well. But, I explained to everyone after my visitation that is not important, nor the issue at hand.
What matters most is who would take care or look after these two elderly people, an arthritic father and a mother stricken with stroke? Must we allow ourselves to be blinded by past sins and hurts and pains that we fail to see Christ coming in the present?
Yes, this is easier said than done but, in this life, we only have two choices to make, either we become better or bitter. Make the right and better choice always!
Last Sunday I told my congregation that the way we live dictates our hope.
Photo by Jo Villafuerte at Atok, Benguet, 01 September 2019
Those who strive in life to do what is good, to become better in whatever form are those who truly hope. And truly love because they believe in the future, they look forward to something better if not in this life, maybe after.
But those who do nothing in this life, those who feel resigned, “enjoying” their miseries in life are the ones who do not hope. And surely do not love at all for they see only death and destruction, nothing to look forward to. They do not mind hurting even killing others because they believe there is no future at all.
Indeed, as TIME Magazine’s Lance Morrow wrote in 1991, the opposite of love is not really evil but hopelessness. Very true.
As we end this first week of Advent moving closer to Christmas, let us pray for the grace of Jesus Christ to heal us of our many blindness in life so we may see him anew in us and in others too. A blessed weekend to you!
A friend from the mid-80’s recently invited me for lunch when in the midst of our conversation she asked me how I unwind and take breaks as a priest considering my toxic schedules.
Suddenly, I just felt so light inside being filled with joy when I answered, “good old friends like you”!
We had a hearty laugh together as we remembered those good old days and nights with our other friends, wondering together how far we have all come in life, hurdling all those many struggles of our younger years.
When I was ordained priest in 1998, I promised to “leave behind” my family and relatives as well as friends to give myself totally in serving Jesus Christ among those people entrusted to my care.
I am so glad when I recently found out that I have not really turned away from them when I embraced a lifetime service to God because they have continued to keep me too as friend!
Old friends are always special because they have stood the test of time, standing by our side, believing in us during those many dark nights we have gone through even without us knowing it!
True friends are indeed a treasure especially those we have known and kept over the years because even if we no longer see each other so often or even communicate with them despite the suffocating social media around us, we have remained good friends deep in our hearts.
It is something we mutually feel deep inside for each other because despite our separation from college and from work or residence, we have never grown apart from each other as if there is an invisible thread that links us together.
I used to tell young people in my recollections that friends are always a gift from God. Each friend is unique, each with his/her own strengths and limitations. There are no perfect friends but if we can allow our friendships to have spaces for love and kindness, respect and understanding, mercy and forgiveness, friends can truly be the best gifts we can have in life.
Friends are a gift because they are always wrapped in mystery: the moment we receive them, we really do not know what is in store for us. In a similar manner like the lyrics of a song we loved singing in our daily Masses in the Minor Seminary (high school), friends are “gifts of God to me, who come all wrapped so differently: others so tightly, others so loosely, but wrappings are not the gift.”
Our task in every friendship is to uncover a friend’s “giftedness” to us, something which we cannot change. We can nurture and cultivate our friendships but we cannot force our friends into becoming someone they are not meant to be.
Every friend’s giftedness is from God because every friend is a signpost for us to be closer with God: some eventually become partners in life as husband and wife while others become the bestest of friends as “emotional shock absorbers” or a inspirations to another.
That, my friend, is something we cannot and must not dare alter because as the saying goes, people come to our lives for a reason, for a season, and for love.
Lately I have been seeing – “catching up” – some good old friends. What I like best when we are together is the ability and gift to laugh our hearts out like never before. There is something so deep with old friends laughing together not only with old jokes and anecdotes we cannot forget but also with some new realizations that come with our age.
And we laugh together, we realize we are not alone after all. There is still somebody very much like us, somebody we continue to grow up with, somebody who understands our fears and anxieties because he/she is also going through the same phase in life or have just gone through something similar.
That is why good old friends are the best because despite our long separation, we still find each other traveling, walking through the same path albeit for sometime in parallel manner.
They are the best because good old friends eventually teach us to be more appreciative and grateful with life and with friends who continue to journey with us no matter how slow and cranky we have become.
Cheers to all our old friends! Make time to reach out to them. Your message or text or call could mean so much to them!
Tuesday, Memorial of St. Josaphat, 12 November 2019
Wisdom 2:23-3:9 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 17:7-10
Our altar at St. John Evangelist Parish, 12 Nov. 2019.
Let your mystery embrace me, Lord.
Better, let me be wrapped in your mystery, Lord!
So many times, I have always tried to analyze everything – myself, my life, including you, O God.
And I have realized that most of the time, this is because I cannot trust you completely.
I am afraid of being lost, of being hurt, of failing.
Those who trust in him shall understand truth, and the faithful shall abide with him in love; because grace and mercy are with his holy ones, and his care is with his elect.
Wisdom 3:9
Dearest God, help me to live life, instead of analyzing it.
Reflect on its wonder and mystery but eventually, let me be wrapped in their beauty despite its incomprehensibility, knowing you will never abandon me.
Remind me always that I am just like “the unprofitable servants” of the Gospel today who does what we are obliged to do. No need to please or be affirmed by anybody for you alone is our life.
Give us the courage, Jesus, to be like St. Josaphat to strive working for unity in ourselves, in you and with one another. Amen.
St. Josephat (+1623) was an Orthodox bishop who worked hard to unify the Ukrainian Church and Rome for which he was attacked and shot to death by local fanatics while he was praying. We pray for his intercession this coming 2020 dedicated by the CBCP as the year of ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue in preparation of our 500th year of Christianization in 2021.
Love can never be defined because it is a reality that cannot be restricted to certain parameters unlike other words or virtues or concepts for that matter.
The most we can do about love is describe it.
And, live it — as St. Paul has been telling us this week in our daily readings.
Let love be sincere; hate what is evil, hold on to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; anticipate one another in showing honor.
Romans 12:9-10
Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte, Atok, Benguet, 01 September 2019.
There lies the beauty of love, in being sincere, being true.
Not fake as we know and must have experienced somehow.
Sincere literally means “without plaster” that came from two Latin terms, sin for without and cerofor plaster.
In ancient Rome, good sculptures were highly prized, must be “sin cero” – no plaster and purely carved out from wood or stone. Like in the usual practice today, some sculptors “fake” their work with plasters (masilya) to cover uneven surface or disfigured portion that eventually wears out.
To love sincerely means loving like Jesus without strings attached, not expecting anything in return.
But, how can we love sincerely when others are so untrue with their love to us? How can we hate evil and hold on to what is good when people continue to hurt us, or oblivious to their wrongdoing and sins? Most of all, how can we anticipate one another with honor when nobody seems respectable at all these days?
It is always difficult to love because it is also difficult to be true when everything is artificial these days.
And that makes love beautiful not only because it is true but it is something we assert and insist despite the many evils around us.
Violets in our old sacristy, 2016.
Love becomes more beautiful when it is hurt and rejected, continuing to love, doing good and showing kindness even if others are not true because it is only then in pains and sufferings when more love is born and summoned from within us.
The more tears we shed, the more love flows to clean the mess.
Love never runs out, never dries up like a well or a river. It is the greatest virtue and gift we can have as St. Paul tells us in another letter because in the end, only love remains as it is from God who is Love himself.
When our love is true, no matter how untrue are the people around us, for as long as we love in Christ, the more we are able to love, the more love we have to share and give. The more we love, the more love we receive; withhold love, keep love to yourself, that is when you lose love.
Photo by Mr. Chester Ocampo, multi-media artist, and teacher (October 2019).
Brothers and sisters: owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
Romans 13:8
During his last supper, Jesus mentioned to his Apostles about his new commandment of loving each other as “I have loved you”.
Though other ancient sages have taught about love or similar attitudes especially in the East long before Jesus Christ’s coming, his commandment was new because it is a love rooted in God. More than a moral prescription or a code of conduct as seen in other religions and cultures, Christian love is so unique because it is rooted in God who is love himself.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s first encyclical issued on Christmas 2005.
Love is the only thing asked of us by God; hence, any failure to love is always a sin.
How sad that in this age of affluence and sophistication in terms of technology and knowledge, men and women are getting more isolated and alienated, giving rise to hosts of mental illnesses that lead into rising incidence of suicides worldwide.
One usual complaint of many people, young and old alike, is the lack of love. They always ask “where is the love?” even in the midst of every relationship that have become transactional in nature, forgetting the human face longing for affection, crying inside, alone.
Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another because it is love that defines us; without love, we are nothing.
To live is essentially to love.
If you have love in your heart, you have been blessed by God; If you have been loved, you have been touched by God.
lordmychef.com 