The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Week XXIV, Year II in Ordinary Time, 18 September 2020
1 Corinthians 15:12-20 /// Luke 8:1-3
Photo by author, “private Mass” during lockdown, March 2020.
Another week is about to close, loving Father. Praise and thanksgiving to you for the grace of making it through, of passing over doubts to certainty, darkness to light, sickness to health, and death to new life in Jesus Christ your Son.
What a pity indeed if there is no resurrection of the dead nor resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Brothers and sisters: If Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then empty too is our preaching; empty, too, your faith.
1 Corinthians 15:12-14
In this time of so much divisions fueled by dictatorship of relativism without any absolute truth nor good, many among us have stopped believing not only in resurrection of the dead but even in you, O God. Many have created themselves as their own god or have turned to other gods and idols. Sadly, many even have the guts to blaspheme you and dare challenge you and your precepts.
We are sorry, Lord , at how many of us have gone astray from you, relying more on science and technology and modern thoughts, leading lives empty of meaning, without directions. Aimless and worst, homeless.
Show us, Lord, the path we have to take to lead people back to you.
Give us the clarity of mind, purity of heart and intentions of St. Paul in leading our lives in Christ Jesus.
Enable us to embrace the new life in Christ like those women who followed Jesus in his ministry, “providing for them out of their resources” (Lk.8:3).
May our lives glow with your loving presence Jesus to lead others back to you. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Memorial of St. Cornelius (Pope) and St. Cyprian (Bishop), Martyrs,
16 September 2020
1 Corinthian 12:31-13:13 /// Luke 7:31-35
Photo by author, Mt. St. Paul Spirituality Center, La Trinidad, Benguet, January 2020.
Praise and glory to you, God our loving Father!
Thank you for the rains these past three days. Thank you for the feasts of the Exaltation of the Cross and of Our Lady of Sorrows, respectively these past two days.
Most of all, thank you for the present moment!
As I prayed on your words for today, I got fixed on St. Paul’s description of love as the greatest of all your gifts:
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
1 Corinthians 13:7-8
I just prayed on these verbs, Lord. I do not know if I make sense. But, through them I felt your love!
Love bears all things when you keep on carrying, having someone just because you love the person, you feel a link with the person like a brother or a sister, a friend, a parent. Like you, our Father. Or Jesus our brother.
Love believes all things when you give more room, more space for something to be realized and fulfilled in a person just because you love. Like when we feel unworthy with all our sins, you still welcome us back to you, you let us “shower” and clean up to begin anew in you and with our loved ones.
Love hopes all things when you know even if things get worst, you still love us, Lord. I know some things in me and my loved ones will not get any better. Some day we shall die and everything will end. But, you will always love us, dear God, because you are love.
Love endures all things because it bears all things, it believes all things, it hopes all things. That is why love never fails.
Photo by author, Petra, Jordan, May 2019.
In all of these, Lord, I found love is everything because it is the present, the here and the now – the meaning and reality of your name “I AM WHO AM”.
All these verbs describing love are all in the present tense, not in the past nor in the future.
And that is love, always present, also a present — a gift. A most wonderful gift leading to eternity!
That is why love is the greatest!
Teach me, Jesus, to be always present in you, to you, and with you through others around me as you implied in the gospel today. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Week XXIV, Cycle A in Ordinary Time, 13 September 2020
Sirach 27:30-28:7 >><)))*> Romans 14:7-9 >><)))*> Matthew 18:21-35
Photo by author, dusk in our parish, July 2020.
This Sunday we go deeper into the lessons gathered by Matthew from Jesus regarding love as the basis of our relationships. Last week we were told how mutual love is the sole reason why we correct brothers and sisters going stray in life.
But, more sensitive and delicate, not to mention most difficult than fraternal correction is the question of forgiving.
How many times should we forgive?
Peter approached Jesus and asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a kind who decided to settle accounts wit his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before hm who owed him a huge amount. Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all is property, in payment of the debt. At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’ Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan.
Matthew 18:21-27
Forgiving is always difficult because it is from God, calling us to be one with him, one in him, and be like him as that saying perfectly summed up, “To err is human, to forgive is divine.” It is beyond human abilities, reserved only for God until he became human like us in Jesus Christ who made us share in his greatest expression of love which is forgiveness. Hence, every time we forgive, we also become like God, divine and holy that unfortunately, we refuse and even hate!
Yes, it is very difficult because like love, forgiving is the nature of God. In fact, any kind of love is best expressed when it is forgiving. The good news is that we now share in this great love of God in forgiving others like him as we shall see in today’s parable, keeping in mind also that it was the Risen Lord’s commission to his disciples when he appeared to them on that Easter evening (John 20:22-23).
Photo by author, Baguio Cathedral, January 2018.
Forgiving like God our Father
The beauty of forgiving is that it is always a grace from God freely given to us. It is doable in Jesus Christ. The problem is when we refuse to let God work in us, when we refuse to level up our relationships to that of brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.
There is always that pride in us exhibited by Peter at the start of the gospel today when he asked Jesus how many times he must forgive his brother. Must it be seven times?
Of course, seven being a “perfect number” does not specify a numerical figure of times to forgive except that it gives enough room to let go of a sinner or an offender. However, it still connotes some form of “counting” or taking tabs at how many times must one forgive, implying a limit.
But Jesus pushed it further when he told Peter to forgive “not seven times but seventy-seven times” — that is, twice the perfect number he had cited!
The Lord is telling Peter, and us today, to forget all about keeping tabs, of counting how many times you must forgive because God forgives us without limits which his parable tells us.
The king or master in the parable is God, so wealthy that he could lend sums exceeding the normal level of what one can borrow. Most surprising is like God, the master lent so much amount beyond the debtor’s ability to pay!
That is how rich our God is — so rich in love and mercy, giving us with so much even beyond our ability to pay him back in return. Exactly what we have in the responsorial psalm: “The Lord is kind and merciful; slow to anger and rich in compassion.”
And when that servant prostrated before his master, then the more we see in that religious gesture the deeper meaning of the parable: the rich mercy of God forgiving us for our debts even after we have lost everything like that debtor with nothing enough to pay his loans, not even his wife and children.
See the contrast of the king moved with compassion echoing the same attitude of Jesus so often like in the wilderness where he fed more than 5000 people and that servant so lost with nothing else left but still forgiven.
The parable could have stopped there but Jesus went on to continue what happened next to teach us the deeper truth of forgiving, which is imitating God our Father because we are brothers and sisters in him.
From Google.
When this servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him… but he refused. Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison until he paid back the debt. Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair. His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?’ Then in anger is master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt. So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.”
Matthew 18:28-35
Forgiving from the heart
After hearing the second part of the parable, we all felt like the master, angry and indignant with that merciless servant whose action was very shameless and scandalous. But, more than being like the king who properly judged the conduct of that merciless servant, Jesus is also inviting us to probe deeper into our hearts the realities why we felt like the king in the parable?
How many times have we felt so angry and frustrated during this pandemic period at the many occasions when we heard news of injustices and abuse of powers against the little ones like Mang Dodong or the Marawi verteran shot to death in Quezon City? Of those punished in violating the protocols when its chief implementor got away free after attending a mañanita party?
The list goes on specially in our country where laws favor the abusive rich and powerful, those with connections while ordinary citizens with lesser violations, even without any crimes at all suffer the same fate as the servant with lesser debts.
Photo by author, “patak-dugo”, 2019.
We all feel so angry and very sad because more than the injustices and lack of mercies committed by those in powers, they have forgotten we are brothers and sisters in one God our Father. Parang sila lang ang anak ng Diyos…
We feel like the king in the parable because we felt left out, disregarded, and disrespected despite our kindness and mercy with others.
Forgiving from the heart means to forgive others not because we are fellow servants but most of all as brothers and sisters of a loving and merciful Father who forgives us always from our unpayable debts of sin and evil against each other.
This is the very thing St. Paul is telling us in the second reading, that “None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself” (Rom.14:7). Sometimes we need to be in control of our lives but the truth is, when we try to live St. Paul’s message that our lives belong to one another in Christ, the more we become truly free and happy.
It is the same reminder from Ben Sirach in the first reading telling us how we must avoid anger and resentment specially revenge because it is contrary to our faith in God. Most of all, we also know so well that we need the mercy of God in forgiving our countless sins.
The example of St. John Paul II about forgiving like God
I know what I am telling you are easier said than done. And I confess that I also find it so hard to forgive people who have wronged me, specially those I have loved and helped. Allow me to end this reflection with this beautiful bit of history that happened in our lifetime.
We were in high school seminary when Mehmet Agca shot and almost killed St. John Paul II at St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981. We were shocked, so sad for him and very angry with Agca. But, two years later after Christmas in 1983, we were more shocked in disbelief while at the same time in tears with joy when news came out that St. John Paul II came to visit Agca in his cell to forgive him!
It was a major news that landed on TIME magazine the following year with the cover story so relevant with our gospel today:
From Pinterest.
Those who do not forgive are those who are least capable of changing the circumstances of their lives…
Not to forgive is to be imprisoned by the past, by old grievances that do not permit life to proceed with new business.
Not to forgive is to yield oneself to another’s control. If one does not forgive, then one is controlled by the other’s initiatives and is locked into a sequence of act and response, of outrage and revenge, tit for tat, escalating always. The present is endlessly overwhelmed and devoured by the past. Forgiveness frees the forgiver. It extracts the forgiver from someone else’s nightmare. “Unless there is a breach with the evil past,” says Donald Shriver, “all we get is this stuttering repetition of evil.”
Lance Morrow, TIME Magazine, 19 January 1984
As I searched for photos of the assassination attempt on him by Agca, I came across this photo below of their meeting with an accompanying report that made me admire and love St. “JP2” more than ever.
It said that while recuperating in the hospital, St. JP2 learned from the news how people hated Agca, prompting him to ask everyone to “pray for my brother (Agca)… whom I have sincerely forgiven.” That is how holy is this great Pope of our time! Long before visiting Agca in 1983, St. JP2 had already forgiven him, calling him a “brother” despite the evil and sin done to him.
What a great Amen!
Have a blessed and wonderful week ahead, brothers and sisters in Christ!
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Week XXIII, Year II in Ordinary Time, 10 September 2020
1 Corinthians 8:1-7, 11-13 >><)))*> >><)))*> >><)))*> Luke 6:27-38
Photo by author, dusk at my parish, July 2020.
Thank you, dear Jesus, for the grace of being together again with our family and relatives at this time of the pandemic. Your words from St. Paul today are so timely as we now spend more time together at home due to shortened work periods while kids have online classes.
But, despite these grace-filled moments in the pandemic while being together again with our family, frictions happen because we have never been truly at home with each other. We always forget the fact that love of one another is more important than being right.
Brothers and sisters: Knowledge inflates with pride, but love builds up. If anyone supposes he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if one loves God, one is known by him.
1 Corinthians 8:1-3
Oh yes, Lord! We are sometimes surprised at how fast we have grown in age with our parents and siblings. And yes, how we have grown apart too from each other, still carrying those sentiments and memories we have had when younger.
Purify us, Jesus. Heal our memories. Enable us to let our love flow to others specially those dearest and closest to us. Remove all emotional blockages in our hearts and mental blocks in our minds that prevent us from being kind and understanding, and be more spontaneous and more sincere with everyone.
Make us realize that the more we know, the more we must be loving and understanding.
Photo by author, Malagos Garden Resort, Davao City, 2018.
Let our knowledge make us “holier” because to know what is right always leads us to being more loving as we heed your words in the gospel today, “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Lk.6:31).
Inspire us to reflect further on these words by St. Bernard about spiritual life so that it may soothe our souls and calm our minds:
The whole of the spiritual life consists of these two elements. When we think of ourselves, we are perturbed and filled with salutary sadness. And when we think of the Lord, we are revived to find consolation in the joy of the Holy Spirit. From the first we derive fear and humility, from the second hope and love.
Office of Readings, Wednesday of 23rd Week, The stages of contemplation by St. Bernard
We pray in a very special way today, Lord, for our family and relatives, for those we live together at home. Amen.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-09 ng Setyembre, 2020
Larawan kuha ni G. Jim Marpa, 2019.
Kay ganda ng paalala
ni San Pablo sa mga taga-Roma
na hanggang ngayon sa ating panahon
gawin nating tuntunin:
"Huwag kayong magkaroon ng sagutin
kaninuman, liban sa saguting tayo'y mag-ibigan...
Ang umiibig ay hindi gumagawa ng masama kaninuman,
kaya't ang pag-ibig ang kabuuan ng kautusan."
(Roma 13:8, 10)
Ano nga ba ang sagutin natin sa bawat isa?
Hindi ba ano mang sagutin ay pagkaka-utang din?
Kung gayon,
tayong lahat ay mayroong tungkulin
at sagutin na bayaran pagkakautang natin
na walang dili iba kungdi pag-ibig pa rin!
Sa lahat naman ng sagutin at bayarin
pag-ibig ang pinakamamahalin at mainam utangin;
hindi tulad ng salapi, pag-ibig ng Diyos ay hindi tinitingi
walang tinatangi, hindi na kailangan pang humingi
kahit ikaw ay mabaon at hindi makaahon
sagot palagi ng ating Panginoon!
Kaya si Hesus pumarito noon
upang tubusin sangla ng pagkakautang natin
sa pag-ibig ng Ama na tinalikuran at tinanggihan
ng mga unang magulang natin;
Sa Kanyang kabutihang-loob
sa atin ay ipinagkaloob buhay Niyang handog.
Pag-ibig ang siyang pumupuno sa atin
siya ring nagpapairal sa atin
dahil ang mabuhay ay umibig;
sino mang hindi umiibig ay patay
parang naglalakad na kalansay
hungkag at walang laman, puso at kalooban.
Kaya naman sumasama ating loob
kapag minamahal natin ay walang utang na loob
dahil pag-ibig ang tanging nasa ating loob;
kapag pag-ibig ay hindi sinuob
upang humalimuyak gaya ng insenso at bulaklak,
ito'y nakukulob, umaantong, sa kamatayan humahantong.
Katulad ang pag-ibig ng tubig sa ilog
mahirap masundan pinagmumulan at patutunguhan
ngunit iyon ang kagandahan at kainaman
habang tayo'y patuloy sa pag-ibig, dumadaloy, umaagos
hindi ito nasasaid dahil ang Diyos ay pag-ibig
at walang hanggan na Siyang ating hantungan at kaganapan.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog IIMonday, Week XXIII, Year II, 07 September 20201 Corinthians 5:1-8 /// Luke 6:6-11
Photo by Mr. Chester Ocampo, 2019.
Forgive us, loving and merciful Father, for the many times we have chosen to be silent in the face of ongoing evil around us, when we unknowingly conspire in silence against you, against life, against justice.
Both our readings today speak about this deafening silence among us in many situations when we are so afraid to speak for what is good and true.
On a certain sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. The scribes and the Pharisees watched him closely to see if he would cure on the sabbath so that they might discover a reason to accuse him. But he realized their intentions and said to the man with the withered hand, “Come up and stand before us.” And he rose and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?”
Luke 6:6-9
Worst than our silence in standing for life and dignity of persons is our “unwitting support” for evil and sin so as not to disturb our family and community.
Brothers and sisters: It is widely reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of a kind not found even among pagans — a man living with is father’s wife. And you are inflated with pride. Should you not rather have been sorrowful? The one who did this deed should be expelled from your midst.
1 Corinthians 5:1-2
How true is the saying that “the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing” (attributed to both Edmund Burke and John F. Kennedy).
Photo by author, Jaffa, Israel, May 2017.
Forgive us, Lord Jesus.
Strengthen us inside, make our will and our hearts strong to stand for your Gospel specially when friends and families are the ones doing what is wrong and sinful.
Strengthen our firm resolve to be consistent in living our new life in you, Jesus, that is free from what others would say about us and free to be our true selves freed from sin, free to love and be faithful to you and for others.
Enlighten our minds and our hearts with your Holy Spirit on the actions we must take and words we must say to win them back to you.
Most of all, purify our intentions that we do this out of love for you and our beloved going astray. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Week XXIII, Cycle A in Ordinary Time, 06 September 2020
Ezekiel 33:7-9 /// Romans 13:8-10 /// Matthew 18:15-20
Photo by Mr. Gelo N. Carpio, January 2020.
For the next three Sundays beginning today, our liturgy directs our gaze to the nature of the Church as the mystical Body of Jesus Christ. For today we hear from Matthew how we as a church or a community of believers are signs of the presence and love of Jesus Christ.
Recall how two weeks ago at Caesarea Philippi Jesus called Simon as “Peter” (“Rock”) to head his “church”, giving him the keys to the kingdom of heaven that whatever he binds on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever he looses on earth shall be loosed in heaven (Mt.16:17-19).
Matthew is the only evangelist so particular in using the term “church” that he devoted chapter 18 of his gospel on its nature, collecting and giving some of the Lord’s teachings about community life to his own group of disciples or early church.
And off he went to start with the most important part of community life:
Jesus said to his disciples: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you… If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector… Again, amen, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted them by my heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
Matthew 18:15-16, 17, 19-20
Photo by author, dome of the Malolos Cathedral, 2019.
Presence of Jesus in the love and unity of community
In a very short teaching taking a step by step method, Jesus tells us today how our mutual love shall always take precedence above all in our community life as his disciples and sign of presence.
Though we do not find in our gospel this Sunday the word “love”, it is clearly the Lord’s lesson for today: it is mutual love for one another that must guide everyone specially in the delicate matter of fraternal correction when one is going wayward in his/her path of life.
This explains why Jesus spelled out step by step how we correct others primarily because we love, not because we are better than them or that we have such authority or task and duty. Paul beautifully says it in our second reading:
Brothers and sisters: Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.
Romans 13:8, 10
But of course, we need to clarify that all these lessons of love from the Lord and Paul are based on the love of Jesus Christ who clearly mandated us during his last supper how we must love:
I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
John 13:34-35
What makes this loving one another a “new commandment” is loving like Jesus Christ, unlike the pagans in ancient times that are still imitated to this day even by many among us who are also Christians. So often we find specially in media how love is portrayed as mere feelings like physical attraction that always leads up to sex, devoid of any sanctity and inner beauty at all.
St. Augustine called it “disordered love” when we become self-centered and selfish, directing our love solely to attaining what pleases us that we use persons and love things like money.
Love is not just a feeling but a decision, a choice we make and affirm every day specially when times are very rough and tough for us like when we are not loved in return.
Most of all, love is when we find somebody else we can love more than ourselves (Thomas Merton). This is the kind of love that Jesus and Paul as well as all the other saints speak of: the self-sacrificing love Christ showed us when he offered himself on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins.
Photo by author, Chapel of the Monastery of the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at the Milk Grotto in Bethlehem where the Holy Family hid before fleeing to Egypt to escape Herod’s order to massacre the Holy Innocents, May 2019.
Love of Jesus builds, not destroys
Applying the law of love to our community is the most severe test of our being disciples of Jesus when we are challenged to be sincere in our love by hating what is evil and holding on to what is good like blessing those who persecute us, foregoing vengeance against those who have wronged us along with other expressions of mutual love in our community that Paul tells us in Romans 12:9-21.
In teaching us mutual love for one another in a step by step manner, it may seem to be a duty that one must follow in the church. It may even sound as contradictory that Jesus seems to be commanding us to strictly follow his law of command because no law can ever impose love.
However, when we try to reflect the ending of his teachings today – “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” – we find Jesus not ordering us to love but asking us our love because he loves us. He comes to us, grants our prayers because he loves us; therefore, when we love, when we gather as his disciples, we become his presence. And that is when our prayers are most effective because Jesus is in our midst!
Jesus and his love always build people and community; without him and his love, all we have is destruction and divisions. Hence, love is the only debt we owe to anyone. Love as a debt and “duty” is never paid back because the more we love, the more we have love, the more we are indebted to Jesus. It is the only debt that is never burdensome; in fact, the opposite happens when we refuse to love – we are burdened, life becomes heavy and so difficult.
This is what Ezekiel is telling us in the first reading: we are a “watchman”, a brother’s keeper of everyone. St. Pope Gregory the Great wrote a beautiful homily on being a watchman:
Note that a man whom the Lord sends forth as a preacher is called a watchman. A watchman always stands on a height so that he can see from afar what is coming. Anyone appointed to be a watchman for the people must stand on a height for all his life to help them by his foresight.
Office of Readings, Memorial of St. Pope Gregory the Great, 03 September
Photo by author, sunset inside our parish, 25 August 2020.
In the Church, those designated as watchman of the flock of Jesus is the Bishop or episkopos in Greek that means watcher or overseer. It is the bishop’s duty to always be above others in the loving service of the Church that sometimes out of love for Christ, he has to discipline those going astray as instructed in our gospel today, “If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector”, that is, excommunication or suspensions and other measures not meant to punish but to convert and correct the sinner.
Next Sunday, Matthew deepens our lesson on mutual love when he presents us the teachings of Jesus on how often we must forgive our brother or sister who repeatedly sins against us.
See my dear reader, how after presenting to us who is Jesus Christ last month, in how much he loves us and seeks us, these following Sundays we are challenged by the Lord to be like him – loving and merciful – to truly keep our relationship with him.
It is the first Sunday of September, the -ber months that tell us Christmas is around the corner. But, it seems we are still in a long haul in this pandemic. Having a vaccine will not totally eradicate COVID-19 nor guarantee us this won’t happen again in the future because the disease that is truly plaguing us until now is our refusal to love and live as brothers and sisters in Christ. Let us give it a try. Slowly. Jesus is not rushing us. All he is asking us is be open to his words expressed earlier in our responsorial psalm: “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”
Have a heart and have a blessed, lovely week, everyone!
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
First Friday, Week XXII, Year II in Ordinary Time, 04 September 2020
1 Corintians 4:1-5 /// Luke 5:1-11
Photo by author, Lent in our parish 2020.
Dearest Jesus Christ:
Your words today through St. Paul are very edifying but also demanding, even scary and frightening.
But, I would rather have it that way than get them into my head.
Brothers and sisters: Thus should one regard us: as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Now it is of course required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.
1 Corinthians 4:1-2
Yes, it is an honor to be chosen as your servant, Lord, and a steward of the mysteries of God.
It is so pleasant to the ears and so flattering to one’s self to be a steward of the mysteries of God, of his wisdom – of Jesus Christ crucified.
Keep me lowly and humble, Lord. Remind me always that everything is about you and never about me. Keep me faithful to you and your call that whatever others may say about me, let me be concerned solely with your words and with your judgment. At the same time, keep me silent too, never to brag of my mission and most of all, never to judge others for that resides in God alone.
Keep my mind and my heart open to you always, Lord, so I may always be like a fresh wineskin to be poured on with new wine to mature and grow spiritually in you. Amen.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 04 Setyembre 2020Unang Biyernes ng Setyembre, Ika-XXII Linggo sa Karaniwang Panahon1 Corinto 3:18-23 /// Lukas 5:33-39
Larawan kuha ni G. Angelo N. Carpio, Hunyo 2020.
O Kamahal-Mahalang Puso ni Hesus,
tulungan Mo kami na Ika'y matularan sa pakikinig sa kapwa.
Nawa aming mapalampas ano man ang hindi mabuting sinasabi
laban sa amin at sa halip ay aming pagyamanin aming karanasan
at palalimin aming katauhan.
Katulad ni San Pablo sa kanyang sulat sa mga taga-Corinto,
“Walang anuman sa akin ang ako’y hatulan ninyo o ng alinmang hukuman ng tao; ni ako ma’y di humahatol sa aking sarili. Walang bumabagabag sa aking budhi, ngunit hindi nangangahulugang ako’y walang kasalanan. Ang Panginoon ang humahatol sa akin." (1Cor.4:3-4)
Siya namang tunay, Panginoon!
Palaging mayroong masasabi makakating labi
laban sa amin palagi ano mang buti aming mga gawi.
Bakit nga po ba sa gitna nitong pandemya
laganap hindi lamang sakit kungdi galit at pagmamalupit
masasakit na pananalita ng ilan naming kapwa?
Tulungan mo kami, O Hesus
na dalisayin aming puso at kalooban,
maging bukas sa mga pagkakataon na magbago
gaya ng Iyong turo sa Ebanghelyo:
“Walang pumipiraso sa bagong damit upang itagpi sa luma. Kapag ginawa ito, masisira ang bagong damit at ang tagping bago ay hindi babagay sa damit na luma." (Lk.5:36)
Lagi naming panghawakan
na higit na mahalaga ang Iyong sinasabi Panginoon
kaysa sinasabi ng tao dahil Ikaw pa rin sa kahuli-hulihan
ang sa amin ay hahatol at papataw ng kapasyahan
kaya nawa Ikaw ang aming pakinggan
hindi pinagsasabi sa amin ay kumakalaban.
Amen.
Jesus in the gospel today makes his first prediction of his coming pasch or Passion, Death and Resurrection but it was such a terrible “bad news” for Peter that he
… took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
Matthew 16:22-23
With Jesus, there is no such thing as “good news, bad news” because all is good news with him. The good news/bad news question is really a non-question to disciples of Christ because whatever suffering we go through and embrace in him is a sharing in his very life. The key is to think as God does, not as a human beings do as Jesus told Peter (https://lordmychef.com/2020/08/29/when-good-news-bad-news-do-not-matter-at-all/).
And that means avoiding being so vain.
That is why we have Carly Simon singing to us this Sunday her 1972 classic “You’re so Vain” that have left our generation guessing who was she referring to in this superb music and poetry. (Personally, I think there is something “genetic” about this guessing game on whomever Ms. Simon was referring to: it was a non-issue among us males even when I have gone working in a radio station for six years. It has been the women who have kept on raising the issue on who could be that man so vain Ms. Simon was narrating in her number one song. And even if Ms. Simon had already identified him as Warren Beatty 40 years after, I still do not care because the song is so good, filled with gospel values too.)
How many times in our being so vain have we refused to embrace pain and sufferings in life, preferring noise than silence, and popularity than hiddenness that are some of the ways of God taught us by Jesus Christ?
Oh, you had me several years ago When I was still quite naive When you said that we made such a pretty pair And that you would never leave But you gave away the things you loved And one of them was me I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee Clouds in my coffee, and
You’re so vain You probably think this song is about you You’re so vain (you’re so vain) I’ll bet you think this song is about you Don’t you? Don’t you? Don’t you?
About ten years ago, Al Pacino played the role of Satan in the movie “The Devil’s Advocate” where at the end after tempting the gullible small-town lawyer Keanu Reeves, he proclaimed “vanity… vanity is my most favorite sin.”
This Sunday, Jesus is telling us all is good news with him, no bad news and you can never lose in him. Just come to him with our true self, no matter how sinful and incomplete we are. A blessed week to everyone and happy listening!
lordmychef.com 