Category: relationships

The Eucharist: our experience of divinity & unity in love

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ-B, 02 June 2024
Exodus 24:3-8  ><}}}}}*>  Hebrews 9:11-15  ><}}}}}*>  Mark 14:12-16, 22-26
Photo by Pranav Jain on Pexels.com

When I was a teacher-administrator of the Immaculate Conception Schoo for Boys (ICSB) in Malolos during my early years in the priesthood, I used to tell my students that in every first date they would have, always bring their girlfriend to a restaurant because what matters most is not the food and drinks but the moments we share together to know each other.

That’s the spirit behind every gathering we host with family and friends. What we really offer our guests are not food and drinks and desserts but our very selves, expressing to them our desire to be closer and intimate in our relationships as family and friends. When we tell them to have more food and drinks including sending home with tons of “Sharon Cuneta”, we actually share to them our selves as food and drinks in the same manner they nourished us with their coming. That’s Filipino hospitality so known even abroad, so appreciated by foreigners as we see in many reels and TikTok in social media.

Photo by author, 24 May 2024.

Universally speaking, every meal is more than eating and drinking but of togetherness, of deepening of our bonds as family and friends nourishing each other, becoming food and drinks for one another.

It is the same thing the happens in a more complete and perfect manner whenever we celebrate the Holy Eucharist. 

By giving us His very self as Body and Blood, Jesus Christ our host in this sacred meal not only nourishes our spiritual and deepest longings but most of all offers us the most intimate communion possible with others and with God. Jesus is the one who makes everything possible for us to be together, calling us to “come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest…for I am humble and gentle of heart” (Mt.11:28-30).

 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples said to him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?”  He sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city and a man will meet you, carrying a jar of water.  Follow him.  Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, “The Teacher says, ‘Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’  Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready.  Make the preparations for us there.”  The disciples then went off, entered the city, and found it just as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover.

Mark 14:12-16
Photo by MART PRODUCTION on Pexels.com

See how Jesus personally prepared everything for their Passover meal when He arranged everything with coded messages like following “a man carrying a jar of water” because at that time, it was the woman who fetched water.  You cannot find a man carrying a jar of water unless there is something extraordinary like in our gospel today.  And that is how much God loves us, always taking the initiative to meet us, to encounter us, to be closest with us. 

It is always Jesus Christ who takes the initiative to meet us and bless us like in the Holy Eucharist.  Imagine at the start of the Mass, right away He welcomes us even if we are sinners, granting us pardon even before we have asked forgiveness.  In the Eucharist, we receive Jesus Christ personally like the apostles at the Last Supper this time under the signs of bread and wine as His Body and Blood, drawing us closer to Him.

That is what really happens in the sacred meal of the Holy Eucharist, a divine communion! 

I tell people that after receiving Jesus in the Holy Communion, speak to Him in the most personal manner, tell Him everything whatever you want, including your cries and complaints. But, like in every meal, listen too to Jesus who has always has something so personal to tell us.

Here we find an essential element in every meal, in every conversation, in a covenant: our responsibility, our response to the offer of our host Jesus Christ. This is the meaning of Moses splashing the blood of the animal offerings to the people in sealing their covenant with God: the blood symbolized life or gift of self, our giving of ourselves to God our Lord. Jesus perfected this in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist as the Letter of the Hebrews tells us:

Brothers and sisters: When Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come to be, passing through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by hands, that is, not belonging to this creation, he entered once for all into the sanctuary, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. For this reason he is mediator of a new covenant: since a death has taken place for deliverance from transgressions under the first covenant, those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.

Hebrews 9:11-12, 15
Photo by author, Chapel of St. Francis Xavier, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.

Here we find the element and essence of sacrifice of Jesus as sacrifice of the Mass. From the Latin words sacra facere that means to make holy or sacred, Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice for us to make us holy like Him. In the Mass, we do not repeat His sacrifice but makes it present, actual in ourselves.

For us to receive Jesus Body and Blood in the Eucharist, we too give ourselves to Him to become His very presence in the world not only in the community gathered as His mystical Body or Church but most of all, in our union as family and friends like in Marriage. But, remember that the sacrament is not everything. We have responsibilities to nurture, deepen and protect the grace every Sacrament bestows us. What do we give? What do we sacrifice?

My dear friends, that aspect of mortification in sacrifice is accidental. We do not sacrifice or give up something merely to deny ourselves of something good. To sacrifice is not to deprive oneself of life but actually to offer oneself to a higher life. That is why we sacrifice for our loved ones and even for ourselves to achieve our dreams and aspirations. God asks us to sacrifice not because He needs us but in order to make us better, to make us holy, more equipped to keep our end in His covenant. Hence, divorce is contrary to the Eucharist, to the covenant of God.

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

There is no perfect marriage nor perfect couples but every marriage is made in heaven, blessed by God. Problems do happen indeed in many marriages or in life in general but these are of human origins – the hardness of our hearts as Jesus declared, not with the sacrament or with life itself.

Everybody has got to give, has to sacrifice. The best things in life are not free, especially a happy marriage. Or a fulfilling ministry or career or whatever. We have to give ourselves too in the same manner Jesus gave us Himself on the Cross. Problem is we no longer sacrifice in these days of instants that even that most wonderful union of man and woman called marriage is being destroyed by some in the pretext of a solution with divorce.

In celebrating the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ today, we experience the love and unity of God expressed in last week’s celebration of the Blessed Trinity, of how the three Persons in their mutual giving of self to each other outpoured upon us life and abundant blessings. 

Like the three Persons bonded in love, we too can achieve that unity with God and with others through the Holy Eucharist when we too learn to sacrifice, assuring us of God’s presence among us in the ordinary instances in life. Experience God in every movement, in every step as He always takes the initiative to meet us, to be with us so we become like Him. 

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus Christ,
You have given me Your total self
in love, Body and Blood
on the Cross and daily in 
the sacrifice of the Mass;
You never asked me to give
myself literally: You merely ask me
to be more loving and kind,
to be more forgiving and merciful,
to be more charitable;
what's more, every good deed 
I am able to do actually comes from You!
I practically just have to be Your lips,
Your hands, Your limbs, Your Body and Blood
and yet, I could not give up myself to You!
Help me Jesus
to learn to sacrifice,
to offer my body,
my total self to You
through the loving service of others.
Amen.

Is It Any Wonder? by Durand Jones & The Indications (2016)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 26 May 2024
Photo by author, San Juan, La Union, 25 July 2023.

Mysteries are like gifts wrapped so beautifully but not meant to be opened to be explained nor understood; rather, we simply have to let ourselves be wrapped by the gift of life’s mysteries to discover its many gifts that can enrich us in the process.

Just like the mystery of God, His being One in Three Persons called the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity which we celebrate this Sunday. Contrary to common beliefs, mysteries can be explained and understood but, not fully.

Yet, why live explaining and understanding everything?

That is why when God revealed Himself to us, He did not come explaining terms and concepts to us humans and instead conducted Himself in a most unique, personal manner. God related to us in a very personal way like another person by letting us experience His loving presence, His kindness and mercy, His justice and salvation, His healing and liberation as Father, Son and Holy Spirit (https://lordmychef.com/2024/05/25/the-gift-of-persons/).

That is why we have chosen for this Sunday’s music the 2016 Is It Any Wonder? by the American contemporary and R&B soul trio of singer Durand Jones, singer/drummer Aaron Frazer and guitarist Blake Rhein who call themselves as Durand Jones & The Indications. I accidentally discovered them along with other young musicians during the 2020 lockdown of COVID-19 pandemic. Their music is so cool coupled with lyrics so thoughtful. And mysterious. Like Is it Any Wonder? that sounds so matured yet so young, reminding us of our first crushes or first love when we got so lost in what to do and say whenever near the girl of our dream. 

This road
Is gonna take us back now
You look so fine
I don't know how to act now
They say, "My child
Don't stroll off easy
'Cause when it's time
You gonna hear what she said"

Is it any wonder?
Is it any wonder?

If you ever leave me alone
I'll be cryin', wishin' you'd come home

When I look in your eyes
I see you starin' at me, girl
And when it's time
I see you holdin' on me, girl

'Cause you
You got a hold on me, yeah
So, I'm
Gonna make you see, yeah
Aw, yeah

Is it any wonder?
Is it any wonder?
Is it any wonder?
Is it any wonder?

With its classic tune and laid-back beat of guitar, drums and horns in the KEXP live version we prefer, Is It Any Wonder? speaks so well of life’s many mysteries that wrap us and move us at the same time to greater heights in believing more and loving more. Very often when we meet people, our tendency to welcome them is a result of their conduct with us, like this girl in the song Is It Any Wonder? Is she warm or cold, inviting or reserved and closed?

See how the song speaks so little – but heavily – of his experiences with his crush, leaving everything into wondering and awe, repeatedly singing, Is it any wonder?

To wonder, to be awed like a child is the beginning of love, of discovery of God and of the other person who fills the emptiness and longings within us. That is the gift of person, of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – there is always that mystery we can’t explain right away but we feel disarmed, wondering why we are drawn to God and others because of their conduct, of their kindness, of their offer of relationship. The key is to always wonder and bask into the beauty and gift of the other person, especially of God. Have a relaxing rainy Sunday!

From YouTube.com.

Ascension is newness in Christ

The Lord Is My Chef Easter Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, Cycle B, 12 May 2024
Acts 1:1-11 ><}}}}*> Ephesians 4:1-13 ><}}}}*> Mark 16:15-20
“The Ascension of Christ” (1304-1306) by Giotto, a fresco at the Arena Chapel, Padua, Italy from wikimediacommons.org.

We laid mommy to rest Saturday morning, the eve of today’s Ascension Sunday which happens to be a Mother’s Day too. I really can’t describe my feelings except having that emptiness in me amid a sense of joy too. Let me explain…

In my 26 years in the priesthood, I have always reflected the Ascension scene from Luke’s gospel in the many funeral Masses I have presided as something unusual to weird, even impossible: “As he blessed them he parted from them and was taken up to heaven. They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy and they were continually in the temple praising God” (Lk.24:51-53).

How could anybody be with great joy after a funeral that is very much like the Ascension where there is a departure or a leaving of a beloved?

Photo by author, inside the chapel built over the site of the Ascension of Jesus outside of Jerusalem, May 2017.

But, after our guests have left at my mom’s funeral yesterday, that was exactly how we felt! Of course we are sad, we are in grief yet joyful with some sense of lightness within us. Like the death of our loved ones, Ascension is more than just the moving of Jesus to somewhere up in the heavens or to any location and place in the universe. Both the Ascension and death are about new state and level of relationships of Jesus and our departed loved ones hopefully entering into final union with God the Father. It is a leveling up not only of their existence with God but also of our own existence with God and one another.

Ascension is newness in our very selves to experience the glory of Jesus Christ now seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. It is a breaking free from our many presuppositions and fears about life and dying.

When they had gathered together they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.

Acts 1:6-9
From the the Catholic Diocese of Little Rock, Arkansas, dolr.org.

We have long been reflecting since Lent into Easter of how Jesus in becoming truly human like us in everything except sin had made us like Him, holy in His resurrection. If we have remained in Christ on His Cross, we have been made new in Him.

That is the lesson of His transfiguration in the second Sunday of Lent. Being new in Jesus, being transfigured in Him is getting out of the trappings of the worldly concerns like Peter offering to build three tents on Mount Tabor. Or worst, even after Easter like the disciples in the first reading today asking Jesus about the restoration of the kingdom of Israel.

Being new in Jesus following His Passion, Death and Resurrection is leveling up in our perceptions and outlook in life wherein we become simpler, taking life’s lessons bravely. We no longer go for “drama” like the disciples asking the restoration of the kingdom of Israel because we have grown in our faith in Christ as we hurdled life’s light and darkness, joy and sadness, triumph and defeat, even death that keeps on hovering above us, enveloping us at times. All these experiences of hardships and difficulties have changed us into better persons in the grace of God in times we did not even realize at all.

Photo by author at the site believed to be the Ascension site of Jesus outside Jerusalem, May 2017.

My ministry as a chaplain Fatima University Medical Center have greatly reshaped and affected my views on life and death, sickness and sufferings that enabled me to decide prudently when my younger sister was diagnosed with cancer in 2022 and lately this time with my mom when she had her second stroke that led to her recent death. As a chaplain face to face daily with the dying, I have come to terms with death by coming to terms with life at the same time. No more false hopes of getting any better but simply following the flow of life by having more meaningful moments especially with everyone, especially my late mom and siblings.

That is what St. Paul was saying in the second reading on the meaning of “he ascended” as the “one who also descended into the lower regions of the earth” (Eph.4:9). The more we go down into pains and sufferings, darkness and failures including sin or even death, the more we get closer to Jesus because we also get closer with our true selves and with others. To ascend with Jesus is to leave behind all those toxic topics and concerns, including persons who saddle our backs with extra luggages that prevent us from being light.

Ascension is also living in the present than wasting precious time and energy on past’s mistakes and failures or worrying about the the coming future. See how Jesus commissioned us all His disciples to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth with two angels later reiterating the Lord’s command.

While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”

Acts 1:10-11

“Why are you standing there looking at the sky?” is a beautiful reminder for us to live in the present moment, to be vigilant always in doing what is true and good, just and kind in this world so marred by the darkness of evil and sin. Remember, the Ascension is not about a place nor a location where Jesus went up to but a “leveling up” or a “shift_” in our relationship with Him and with others.

Therefore, it is also something that happens in the present moment. It is more than a distant moment in history but a reality happening daily.

Following His Ascension, Jesus has become more accessible than ever because He remains with us on a deeper, personal level. Recall how He asked Mary Magdalene not to touch Him upon appearing to her on Easter Sunday; that was to remind her and everyone that our relationships with Him is more than the physical level, that He cannot be bounded by time and space anymore as He is really present in us and among us in the most personal and spiritual manner.

Jesus lives in us that we have to keep on doing His work here on earth. The gospel clearly says it all, of the urgency for us to “stop standing, looking up” to start proclaiming the gospel to everyone. See how mothers are always busy doing something at home for us her family. Mothers never get tired cooking and doing everything for us family members because they love us so much that even after death, unknown to us, we imitate them by being so busy loving too.

Blessed Sunday to all mothers, especially those in heaven! Amen.

Photo by author, pilgrims waiting their turn to enter site of Ascension outside Jerusalem, May 2019.

Love in every turn

The Lord Is My Chef Easter Recipe by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Sixth Sunday in the Easter Season, Cycle B, 05 May 2024
Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48 ><}}}*> 1 John 4:7-10 ><}}}*> John 15:9-17
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 22 March 2023.

Imagine that beautiful imagery of Jesus last Sunday, of Him saying “I am the true vine… you are the branches” calling us to remain in Him to be fruitful (Jn.15:1, 5, 8). What a lovely sight to behold are the vines, climbing and winding up or creeping on the ground with its vast network of leaves and stems, tiny tendrils and shoots, flowers and fruits.

Jesus identified Himself with the vine to show us the immensity and profundity of His love for us as this plant species sprawls widely with its strong roots and stem system extending to its branches that reach out to its flowers and clusters of fruits like grapes. It is as if in every turn of the vine, there is so much life, full of love like God who is both Life and Love Himself.

Photo by Dra. Carol Reyes-Santos, MD at Napa Valley in California, September 2023.

And that is the essence of Jesus as He had explained during their Last Supper, showing its meaning on Good Friday when He died on the Cross, summarizing everything on Easter when He rose again and appeared later to His disciples.

It is love, love, and still, love in every turn just like the vine.

In being the true vine, we find God’s immense love for us expressed in His Son Jesus Christ who now tells us clearly to love one another shortly before He showed and proved that love for us on Good Friday at the Cross.

Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. This I command you: love one another.”

John 15:9, 12, 17

See how Jesus speaks of and lives in love in every turn in this gospel scene this Sunday which is a continuation of His discourse last week during their Last Supper. Nine times Jesus used the word “love” in nine verses.

He began his discourse by laying down the foundation of this love which is the Father’s love in verse 9: it is in “remaining” in His love that we truly have joy which is more than happiness but firm assurance that no matter what happens to us even in the worst situations including death as Jesus went through, there is always God loving us to the end and beyond.

After that, Jesus twice mentioned love as His commandment to us. Actually, Christ’s command to love one another seems pretty simple, and easy if you say so; but, what He added makes it so difficult – “love one another as I love you.”

That part “as I love you” is the challenge of Jesus to each one of us every day because He loved even unto death, literally and figuratively speaking. We do not need to die literally as martyrs but even dying figuratively speaking is already so difficult when we have to make many sacrifices, when we have to love somebody else more than our very selves!

Loving one another like Christ is more than to “feeling good” because…

  • To love like Jesus is to forget ourselves, to think less of our own good and comfort like a mother despite her being sick would still rise early to prepare her family to school and work or a dad going abroad in order to have food, clothing and shelter for his family.
  • Loving like Christ is giving up our wants and needs, including our dreams sometimes like the many Ate and Kuya who remain single in order to send their younger siblings to school until they graduate and be able to stand on their own.
  • To love like Jesus is to die in our own POV (point-of-view) and other long held beliefs in order to find Christ in everyone especially those different from us or from those who hurt us.

Loving one another like Jesus Christ is choosing the Father above all every day.

Admittedly, to love like Jesus is very difficult indeed but, the good news this Sunday is that it is doable as the beloved disciple explains in the second reading, “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins” (1Jn.4:10).

And the best part of this Sunday’s gospel is when Jesus declared twice He loves us, “As the Father loves me, so I also love you… This is my commandment: love one another as I love you” (Jn. 15:9,12).

Wow! Everyone knows so well the deep joy one feels in hearing someone say “I love you”. For as long as it is the true kind of love, these words of “I love you” are not only transformative but also performative because they are powerful, filled with the powers of God that can change us, heal us and inspire us.

The words “I love you” are the nicest and most life-changing things one can always hear but unfortunately we rarely say these words to others because we are afraid of running out of love. The truth is, the more love we give, the more we share love in words and in deeds like Jesus, the more we are filled with His love but by those around us too!

Never say nor claim we cannot love like Christ because we are humans like that cheesy Filipino love song of yore, sapagkat ako’y tao lamang. That ability to love like Jesus is already here in our hearts, in our being, in us because He had lavishly loved us first so that we too can love. Every day Jesus repeats those words of the Last Supper whenever we wake up, telling us, “I love you”.

It was the same experience Peter and later the household of Cornelius have experienced in our first reading when the Holy Spirit came down upon them to fill them with the love of God that prompted Peter to realize earlier how “In truth, I see that God shows no partiality” (Acts 10:34), meaning, God loves everyone lavishly regardless of color, gender, and creed. The problem is with us when we love only those “like us”; hence, the need to remain in Christ to be able to find Him in everyone.

Let us immerse ourselves into that amazing reality that we are personally loved by Jesus as we pray:

Dearest Jesus:
let me remain in Your love
so I may learn to forget myself,
set aside my plans and agenda
so that I may love like You 
by keeping Your commandments,
laying down my life for others,
echoing Your very words of
"I love you"
to those who hardly know You
because they have 
never felt being loved
as they suffer alone in
 diseases, poverty, and injustice;
let me bask in Your love, Lord
to lead others back to You 
in my loving service and kindness
especially those who have lost faith 
in You and humanity.
Amen.
Photo by Natalie Bond on Pexels.com

“So Far Away” by Carole King (1971)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 28 April 2024
Photo by author, somewhere in Bgy. Kaysuyo, Alfonso, Cavite, 27 April 2024.

It is a “frying Sunday” as heat index rose to over 40 degrees today and there’s no stopping at temperature rising in this final week of April. And so, we offer you this Sunday one of the coolest music we have grown up with courtesy of Ms. Carole King.

From her beautiful Tapestry album released in 1971, we find So Far Away perfectly expressing the essence of Jesus Christ’s call for us to remain in him, our true vine:

To remain is more than physical like to stay. A branch remaining, staying intact with the vine but had turned yellow and dried up is clearly not one with the vine. We can be inside the church but be detached with everyone and the celebration. We may be staying or residing in the same address and home but our heart and very self may be so far away from our siblings or parents, or from your wife or husband.

Remaining implies something more than physical presence. To remain is to have a relationship, a bonding that is deep and intimate. To remain is to be of one heart as GMA7 claims to be a kapuso which is more important than being a kapamilya or a kapatid. There is no sense of being a family (kapamilya) when there is no love in the family or at the other hand, a sibling (kapatid) is nothing if the brother or sister is your enemy. We remain with God and everyone when our hearts are attuned or inclined to God and with others in love which is the fruit of the vine, Jesus Christ.

https://lordmychef.com/2024/04/27/remaining-in-christ-2/

So Far Away is a gospel in itself about love which is about oneness. Even if we are apart – temporarily or eternally – for as long as we have that communion and bonding of our hearts, that love will always be truly felt. Perhaps, one reason for the saying “absence makes the heart grow fonder” when lovers are apart. Remaining and presence are more than physical but a bonding of the hearts that Ms. King beautifully sings to us in her classic So Far Away:

So far away
Doesn’t anybody stay in one place anymore?
It would be so fine to see your face at my door
Doesn’t help to know you’re just time away
Long ago, I reached for you and there you stood
Holding you again could only do me good
How I wish I could, but you’re so far away

One more song about movin’ along the highway
Can’t say much of anything that’s new
If I could only work this life out my way
I’d rather spend it bein’ close to you

In this age of modern communications, how ironic that we are brought closer with those so far from us by distance but have caused us too to be distant from those nearest to us. The Risen Jesus Christ tells us this Sunday that being close, remaining in love happens even without seeing the other person for as long as our heart is attuned with the one we love. What really happens is that for as long we keep that love in our hearts, even if our beloved is gone or far from us, the more we experience his/her presence in their absence.

Let Ms. Carole King bring back those loving moments we had.

From Youtube.com.

Failure & Faith

The Lord Is My Chef Easter Recipe by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday in the Fourth Week of Easter, 26 April 2024
Acts 13:26-33     ><]]]]’> + ><]]]]]’> + ><]]]]’>     John 14:1-6
Photo by author, Anvaya Cove, 15 April 2024.

When Paul came to Antioch in Pisidia, he said in the synagogue: “My brothers… The inhabitants of Jerusalem and their leaders failed to recognize him, and by condemning him they fulfilled the oracles of the prophets that are read sabbath after sabbath.

Acts 13:26, 27
Failure.
One of life's many mysteries,
next to pain and suffering
that has baffled us ever since.
Sometimes avoidable,
sometimes inevitable
but surely happens
most of the time.
Like the Apostles 
at the Last Supper,
I fear failures, Lord Jesus;
as much as possible,
I avoid or at least 
minimize failures
to maximize success
and victories.
But, dear Jesus,
it is not enough to avoid
and minimize failures;
You have taught me so many times
that like You, I have to embrace
even befriend failure 
which is part of our lives.
That is why You gifted us
with faith:

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places… I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 14:1-2, 6
More than a virtue
and a gift from Above,
faith is a relationship
with You
and in You,
dear Jesus;
it is in entering
into a personal
relationship with You
in faith,
through faith
that I can embrace
and befriend failure
so that it does not matter
anymore how I got lost
but how I have
remained in You my Way,
a Person and a revelation
of the Father's love,
not just a concept
in philosophy or technology
like the AI pretending
to lead me;
deepen my faith in You,
Jesus so that every communication
in You is true because it is a giving
of my self in love
like You at the Cross;
lastly,
let me grow in faith in You,
dearest Jesus so that
despite the many failures
that may come to me,
everything leads to eternity
because You alone is
life.
Amen.
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD, an orange-bellied flowerpecker (Dicaeum trigonostigma) somewhere in the Visayas, December 2023.

Jesus our Good Shepherd, the Gift & the Giver Himself

The Lord Is My Chef Easter Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Fourth Sunday in the Easter Season, Cycle B, 21 April 2024
Acts 4:8-12 ><}}}}*> 1 John 3:1-2 ><}}}}*> John 10:1-10
Photo by author, dusk at Anvaya Cove in Bataan, 15 April 2024.

My kinakapatid is turning 60 this week with a dinner to be prepared by an Italian chef. His sister texted me for my main course and I chose lamb chops. And immediately she replied, “Pareho tayo. Mary’s little pet… the one who takes away the sins of the world.” Her wit floored me that I had to agree with a text, “Right. The most biblical and holiest food.”

Sorry for some little bragging as we celebrate this fourth Sunday in Easter as “Good Shepherd Sunday”…

We Filipinos have a hard time getting the “feel” of the shepherd because we have never had that image in our culture. Hence, it is a most welcomed development that there is now a growing popularity in tending sheep in the country while the Filipino palate had finally discovered a taste for lamb.

Come to think of this: the sheep exists only for two reasons, for food and clothing. They are meant to be slaughtered unlike dogs or cats or birds kept as pets. Another notable thing with sheep is the fact it is the only land animal that go against the flow when crossing a river like the salmon!

Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD, at Katmon Nature Sanctuary & Beach Resort in Infanta, Quezon, 03 April 2024.

I love those characteristics of the sheep, for slaughtering which is almost like offering and always going against the tide. Exactly just like our Lord Jesus Christ who identified Himself as the good shepherd.

Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep… This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to raise it up again. This command I have received from my Father (John 10:11, 17-18).

See the flow of the Lord’s statements.

Photo from https://aleteia.org/2019/05/12/three-of-the-oldest-images-of-jesus-portrays-him-as-the-good-shepherd/.

First we notice here His use of the “I AM” which for the Jews refers to God when He told Moses “I AM WHO AM.” Clearly, Jesus was declaring to the people at that time that He is the Son of God, the awaited Messiah or Christ.

This scene was shortly before the feast of the dedication of the Jews after Jesus had healed a man born blind, a miracle never heard of at that time. It was a big issue then as authorities refused to accept that Jesus did indeed healed the man born blind.

Secondly, Jesus mentioned four times in just three verses the act of “laying down his life for the sheep” (vv. 11, 17, and 18). It sounded so good to hear how Jesus loves us so much that He would lay down His life for us his sheep; but, those were not just mere words Jesus expressed but a reality that happened at the Cross on Good Friday that He actually explained after this discourse at their Last Supper!

Keep in mind that we are now going back to the earlier discourses and teachings of Jesus that only became clear to the disciples including us today after Easter. We shall be having a lot of these “flashbacks” to understand and love Jesus more and His teachings.

Photo from https://aleteia.org/2019/05/12/three-of-the-oldest-images-of-jesus-portrays-him-as-the-good-shepherd/.

According to Pope Benedict XVI in his first book of the Jesus of Nazareth series, “The Cross is at the center of the shepherd discourse” (page 280). When Jesus said “This is my Body… This is my Blood”, He meant really Himself being given for us; Jesus did not merely give something for us but His very self as seen on the Cross on Good Friday.

That is how Jesus gives life – by giving up His life for us so that when He arose, we then share in His being a good shepherd through our little dying to ourselves because of love, giving life to those around us.

As the good shepherd, Jesus was the first to enter death, to be slaughtered but this time minus the violence and gore of the Cross that was the worst punishment of all time when He said “I lay down my life in order to take it up again”. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.”

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Yes, there was victimhood but more than that was His being an offering never forced nor imposed by anyone or by circumstances. Jesus did it all for love!

Though He was handed over (paradidomi) and betrayed by Judas, Jesus was totally free, actively passive went to his Passion and Death because He was very certain of His Resurrection.

We experience the same thing many times in life when we have to make great sacrifices like when we have to allow a loved one to die after a long illness. Death is a grace and a blessing when freely given too by those around the dying, freeing the dying person of any guilt when he/she finally goes.

The same thing is true when friends and lovers separate either because they have found other loves to pursue or worst, have fallen out of love with us despite all our love for them. It is the most unkindest cut of all breakups and separations, excruciatingly painful as we blindly give up our relationships ironically for love. More than the persons and circumstances involved, we freely choose to let go – magparaya in Filipino – because deep in our wounded and hollowed heart is the hope they may grow in their new love.

Here we are like Jesus the Good Shepherd because even in the death of our relationships is still found our love. Like Jesus Christ, we do not simply give something but our very selves. The Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner beautifully expressed this when he described Jesus is both “the Gift and the Giver.”

Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD of the sheep’s wool, 03 April 2024.

Love is better shown than said. Love cannot be defined but only be described for it is so wide and vast in its nature and scope. Love simply shows itself. That is why when we speak of love, we use comparisons and analogies and yet, they are not enough. How much more when we speak of the love of God?!

This Sunday, Jesus spoke of His love like every human being using the language of parable and allegories. But truly Divine, we find so much more when He claimed “I AM the good shepherd.” It is His total person and self, His being both the Gift and the Giver.

The good news is, because of His giving of self, we too have become like Him able to give ourselves wholly in love. Like Peter in the first reading, we experienced great powers within us not innately ours but God working in us, enabling us to empower others by healing them not literally but figuratively speaking.

When Jesus declared “I AM the good shepherd”, He reminds us of being the children of God, His indwelling, our being an “I AM” of God Himself. Like Him, we are good shepherds able to love in Christ to the point of being foolish as St. Paul experienced.

Like the sheep, let us continue to forge on with life’s many difficulties, even if many times we have to go against the flow of the world that is always selfish and misleading. Let us pray:

Dearest Jesus,
help me to give more of myself
not just of something from me;
help me to lay down my life
for my friends even if it means
not just losing myself but
losing them in order to gain You;
help me to remain in You,
my Good Shepherd,
to never go astray
because life and love
are found only in You,
the Gift and Giver.
Amen.
Have a blessed week ahead!

Walking with Jesus

The Lord Is My Chef Holy Thursday Recipe, 28 March 2024
Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14 > + < 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 > + < John 13:1-15
Photo from wikipediacommons.org of Christ’s washing of feet of Apostles at Monreale Cathedral in Palermo, Italy.

Tonight we start the Easter Triduum – the three holy days of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper and Washing of the Feet. 

In our Mass tonight, there will be no dismissal after Holy Communion that is immediately followed by a short procession inside the church of the Blessed Sacrament to its repository that will be the focus of “Visita Iglesia” (not Stations of the Cross) when people “visit” at least seven churches to pray to the Divine Presence of Jesus. Tomorrow in most parishes is the “via Crucis” or Way of the Cross then in the afternoon after the Veneration of the Holy Cross is the Procession of the Burial of the Lord. 

See how on these most holy days of the year, much of our activities involve a lot of walking – and rightly so because Jesus Christ was always walking even to His Crucifixion and after Resurrection.

Hence, on the night He was betrayed after Supper, He washed the feet of His disciples including us today because He had also known how difficult and tiring it is to always walk in this life.

“…fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God, he rose from supper and took off his outer garments.  He took a towel and tied it around his waist.  Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist.”

John 13:3-5
From IStock/GettyImages.

More than reenacting the washing of the feet, tonight we are reminded by Jesus of the journey ahead to his Crucifixion when – with apologies to Robert Frost – we still have to walk “miles to go before we sleep” by choosing the road less travelled “that made the difference.”

And here lies the problem of our time: with the advancement of technology, our modes of transportation like communication have greatly affected our relationships with others, for better and for worse.  From being peripatetic persons, we have become more accustomed to riding, of getting fast and effortless to our destination that we no longer walk that much unlike before that has affected even our relationships with one another.  How can we continue the work of Jesus when we no longer walk that much? 

Photo by Mr. Raffy Tima of GMA-7 News, 2020.

Observe how it has become so difficult to ask for directions these days because nobody is walking anymore.  Most of us are ensconced in our own vehicles that have become our own little world and tiny universe every time we travel even if it were just a “walking distance”.  Aside from breaking apart from the rest of humanity, we have also become very impersonal in the sense that we now rely more with Google maps and other travel apps than with the ordinary “man on the street.” Worst, we rarely touch the ground with our bare feet that if ever we would walk, it has been relegated to mere physical fitness often done alone with earphones as companions.  We have not only grown apart from others but have also lost touch with earth because we no longer walk that much like Jesus and His disciples.

Two weeks ago during my retreat, I walked around the vast grounds and mini-forests of the Sacred Heart Novitiate in Novaliches when I realized that priesthood is peripatetic in nature because it is a ministry that walks to reach out, search for the missing sheep as per instruction of the Lord.  Jesus even added that in fulfilling our mission, we must carry nothing when we walk except a staff and sandals. 

Walking with our parishioners in the Via Crucis, 01 March 2024.

Moreover, priesthood is a ministry of being companions as shepherds in the journey of the people. That is why Jesus is our Good Shepherd because He is the One who truly journeys with us in this life.  He is the One who continues to walk with us in our many ups and downs, in the many dusty trails and harsh realities of life that no gadget or wealth or media platform could bring comfort and security to any weary traveler. 

It is only in walking when we could truly journey with others in life to converse with them and listen to their doubts and frustrations like the two disciples walking back to Emmaus three days after Good Friday.  It is only in walking can we truly meet the sick, the orphaned and the widowed, the blind and the lame, the sinners and the misfits the world had left behind or pushed onto the margins of the society, far from our superhighways. 

Most of all, when we walk we touch ground, we feel the earth called “humus” in Latin, the origin of the words human and humility.  Could it be that we have become less humble today partly because of our refusal to walk more often?

Forgive us your priests when we have refused to walk with you especially when you are troubled and lost.  Forgive us your priests as we have ceased to be like Jesus who walked most of the time because we have been so obsessed riding and travelling most of the time in our cars and SUV’s as well as mountain bikes and big bikes that have insulated us from your cries and anguish.  We have not only lost the art of walking but have totally forgotten about walking the extra mile to pray and commune with our Lord and Master Jesus Christ found among the poor and the sick, the marginalized peoples forgotten in our upwardly, mobile society. 

Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches 20 March 2024.

We always hear the expression “life is a journey.”  Our first reading tonight attested to this reality when God reminded the chosen people preparing for exodus from Egypt “to eat and dress like those who are in flight”(Ex.12:11). 

The original concept of the restaurant is not just a place where people stop to eat during a long journey.  Restaurants were truly “rest stops” where travelers could rest their feet by soaking them in warm water so that they could travel again to reach their destination. 

The Holy Eucharist is a “sacred restaurant” where we eat and drink the Body and Blood of Christ who nourishes us in our life journey.  Most of all, in the Eucharist and Sacrament of Reconciliation, Jesus continues to wash our feet to cleanse us from our sins and burdens to make this journey of life lighter and easier.  When we receive Him in the Holy Communion, we make Him our “companion” in life filled with darkness and pains, uncertainties and lack of direction.  The word companion literally means “someone you break bread with” – a beautiful picture of the Eucharist described to us by St. Paul in the second reading. 

From istock/GettyImages.

In washing the feet of His disciples, Jesus Christ showed us in His humble gesture that He is indeed our Savior who went down so low even unto death on the Cross to express His immense love and mercy for each of us.  Everything that transpired on the night He was betrayed prefigured the events of Good Friday which we make present every time we celebrate the Eucharist that is summed up in loving service for one another. 

Do we still walk?  And if we walk, who is our companion, the one we break bread with?  Likewise, do we walk our talk of our faith?

May we never leave behind Jesus among our family and friends as we walk through this life.  A blessed Holy Thursday to everyone. Amen.