Category: Spiritual Life

Best gifts of Christmas

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.
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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?

We’ll be glad to hear from you also.

A blessed Christmas weekend to you.

Prayer to keep our “fire burning” for God

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Friday, Memorial of St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr, 22 November 2019

1 Maccabees 4:36-37, 52-59 ><)))*> <*(((>< Luke 19:45-48

Candles seen from our altar onto our church rear, 18 November 2019.

Lord Jesus Christ, Light of the World, please keep your fire burning within us, always aglow with your firm faith, fervent hope and unceasing charity and love.

On this memorial of your virgin and martyr, St. Cecilia who is also the patroness of sacred music, may we imitate her to keep on “singing the song of God in our hearts”, whether in good times or in bad.

Let us praise you both in words and in deeds without ceasing.

How sad that we are like the Jews after their victory over the Gentiles in the Maccabean revolt: very enthusiastic at first that eventually waned, becoming complacent that after a hundred years, the Romans easily conquered and subdued Jerusalem.

On the anniversary of the day on which the Gentiles had defiled the temple, on that very day it was reconsecrated with songs, harps, flutes, and cymbals. All the people prostrated themselves and adored and praised heaven, who had given them success.

1 Maccabees 4:55-56

Forgive us, Lord, on the many occasions when we are so eager and full of zeal in praising you and doing your will after we have gained particular blessings and intentions from you that later on, we become complacent like your contemporaries.

Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out those who were selling things, saying to them, “It is written, my house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.”

Luke 19:45-46
Candle in our sacristy, 19 November 2019.

Let us not be complacent, Lord.

Remind us that our work and mission from you will continue until we rest in you, O Lord.

Keep our lights and fire burning. Amen.

Aral ng kapa ni San Martin ng Tours

Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-11 ng Nobyembre 2019

Larawan mula sa Google.
Madalas ilarawan
itong dakilang kawal ng Diyos
si San Martin ng Tours sa France
hinahati kanyang kapa
upang bihisan dukhang matanda
nakasalubong sa daan.
Kinagabihan 
kanyang napanaginipan
Panginoong Hesus sa kanyang paanan
tangan-tangan
kapang ipinahiram
sa matandang tinulungan.
Ito ang katuparan
ng Ebanghelyong sa atin ibinalita
mismo ni Hesus na ano man
ang ating gawin sa kapwa natin
siyang ginagawa din natin
sa kanyang Panginoon natin.
Kapilya ng Santisimo Sakramento sa UP-Diliman. Kuha ni Bb. JJ Jimeno ng GMA7 News, 2019.
Kay gandang pagnilayan
isa pang aral nitong kapa
ni Martin na Banal:
lingid sa kaalaman
ng karamihan, dito rin nagmula
kataga ng pook na munting dasalan. 
Sinasabi sa kasaysayan,
noong bagong Kristiyano si Martin
kanyang iniiwan mga tauhan
para manalangin sa kagubatan;
hinuhubad kanyang kapa 
upang makapanalangin ng taimtiman.
Kaya tuwing siya ay hahanapin,
tanging tutuntunin 
saan nakasampay o nakalagay 
hinubad niyang kapa, na kanilang tinuring 
sa wikang Frances na "chapelle" 
na naging chapel, o kapilya sa wika natin.
Ang “Ecce Homo” ni Murillo. Larawan mula sa Google.
Hindi ba natin pansin
itong Panginoong Hesus natin
nang siya ay dumating sa atin
hinubad kanyang pagkadiyos
upang makatulad natin,
matubos sa mga pagkakasala natin?
Hari ng mga hari,
tunay na makapangyarihan
ngunit nang nilibak
sinuutan ng purpurang kapa,
pinutungan ng koronang tinik
at hindi umimik hanggang makamit kaligtasan natin.
Kay sarap pagbulaybulayan
halimbawang iniwan sa atin
nitong si San Martin:
ating kapa ng kapangyarihan at pangalan
ating hubarin upang ang Diyos
ay ating makamit at siya ay makatulad natin.

Big little things

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Wednesday, Week XXVIII, Year I, 16 October 2019

Romans 2:1-11 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 11:42-46

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Your gospel today O Lord Jesus Christ is so tasty and testy at the same time.

The Lord said: woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and of rue and every garden herb, but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God. These you should have done, without overlooking the others.

Luke 11:42-44

How funny it is O Lord that we often “tilt the scales” in our favor just to accommodate our whims and selfish motives in fulfilling your will.

So many times we are like the Pharisees who have become so strict with the minutest details of the Laws like “tithes of mint and of rue and every garden herb” forgetting the very reason why these little things were given importance and emphasis.

Most of the time, we forget that the little things in this world are given prominence not because of its being small but for us to realize the impact they can have in our lives, that little things are actually the biggest things in life that when added can make up the bulk of who we really are.

Let us heed St. Paul’s warning in the first reading that you O Lord is impartial: everyone, everything matters to you. May we stope categorizing people and things as useful or not because everyone and everything matters with God. Amen.

Let nothing disturb you…

Quiet Storm by Nick F. Lalog II, 15 October 2019

Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa at Panglao, Bohol, September 2019.

Which is more difficult to confront, the fact of dying or that of suffering through a serious sickness? I have been thinking these for the past couple of days following my recent visitations of sick parishioners.

Today I visited a parishioner sick for the past three months with a lung disease. She’s 76 years old.

Right upon seeing me, Lola Milagros cried, telling me to ask God to take her because she’s so tired of suffering and waiting for death.

I just let her cry, holding her hands, as I listened to her pouring out of her aches and pains.

After that, I whispered to her the words of St. Teresa de Avila whose feast we are also celebrating today:

Nada te turbe… Solo Dios basta! (Let nothing disturb you… only God suffices!)

St. Teresa De Avila

So beautiful to hear and yes, easier said than done.

Can anybody with a serious ailment be not disturbed?

Been asking myself the same questions too. It is difficult not to be disturbed when one is sick. Aside from the costs of treatment are the enormous pains and sufferings one has to go through with the medical procedures and its many effects to the patient, who eventually would die.

It is a reality getting closer to home with me and I must confess, I am disturbed. Worried. And afraid.

Photo by Essow Kedelina on Pexels.com

The other week I visited another sick parishioner named Charlie, a former cook paralysed waist down due to a spine injury. He is only in his early 50’s.

What struck me when I saw him were the ropes tied to his both feet. I could not figure out how he could be restless when he is paralysed that his feet have to be tied?

He explained, “Father, I pity my wife when I have to wake her up every night just to move my legs. So, I improvised these ropes tied to my feet so I can just pull them with my hands in case I have to change positions even at night.”

Oh God! What a great love of a man to his wife!

Charlie loves his wife so much that he does not want her to be disturbed with his ailment and condition.

When there is love, we are not disturbed. And the only true love that can make us undisturbed is the love of Jesus Christ, the only perfect love we can have and find.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Whenever we think of Christ we should recall the love that led him to bestow on us so many graces and favors, and also the great love God showed in giving us in Christ a pledge of his love; for love calls for love in return. Let us strive to keep this always before our eyes and to rouse ourselves to love him. For if at some time the Lord should grant us the grace of impressing his love on our hearts, all will become easy for us and we shall accomplish great things quickly and without effort.

St. Teresa de Avila

“Love calls for love in return.”

So beautiful words by St. Teresa de Avila.

We can only truly feel that personal love of Jesus if we are also personally in love with him.

We are disturbed with so many things in life when there is not enough love in our hearts, when we have not felt loved enough by others too.

Without love, we would always be disturbed.

I told Lola Milagros this morning to thank God for the gift of tears because they are prayers coming straight from her heart. That God knows very well all her pains and sufferings. Most of all, I told her tears are clear signs of love in her heart.

Later on my way home, Lola Milagros’ daughter was also teary-eyed as she told me she was so glad to see her mother cried. According to her, Lola Milagros is a very tough woman of the “old school” who tried to bear everything and even hide what’s inside her so as not to disturb them. She always wanted them to be assured all’s fine.

Lola Milagros and Charlie do not want to disturb their respective family because they love them. It is love that moves the sick not to disturb others and it is also love that enables us to assure them not to be disturbed.

The challenge therefore is not to reflect on whether to die instantly or slowly but to always love truly!

Sacred Heart Novitiate (Novaliches), 2017.

Human love is always imperfect. Only God can love us perfectly. This he did exactly to us when he sent us Jesus Christ who died on the Cross for us.

To love truly is be personally one in Jesus Christ. When we were still seminarians, Fr. Memeng used to tell us in our class “Priestly Spirituality” that “if we can really cultivate a deep prayer life, we can also experience Jesus Christ in the most personal way.” It is the experience of St. Teresa de Avila and all the other saints.

Nothing can disturb us in this life when our love is borne out of a personal relationship with Jesus in prayer.

Prayer life is more than reciting prayers by following a schedule. Prayer life is a relationship, a communing with God, of being our true selves before him, seeing ourselves as he sees us. And because of this assurance of his love despite our many sins and flaws, that is when we are not disturbed because God loves us no matter what.

When we are not disturbed, then we become silent. Presence is more than enough to share and experience God’s love. St. Paul said “love is not pompous” because true love is always silent, more on deeds than on words.

One thing amusing with death is that it always comes in silence, when we least expect it. Whether we die instantly or slowly, it always happens in silence. And that is also why many are disturbed of dying.

But, if we love patiently our self, others and God, nothing can ever disturb us because when we love, we are already in God. That is when we realize too the wisdom and truth of St. Teresa’s contemporary who claimed that

A soul that walks in love is neither tired nor gets tired.

San Juan dela Cruz
From Google.

Let us love, love, and love until the end onto eternity.

Only God suffices because God is love. Amen.

Hope for our difficult personality

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Monday, Memorial of St. Jerome, 30 September 2019

Zechariah 8:1-8 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 9:46-50

St. Jerome painting by El Greco portrayed as wearing the Cardinal’s robe to represent his highly esteemed works and contributions to the Church as one of the Four Western Fathers along with St. Augustine, St. Ambrose of Milan, and St. Gregory the Great. Photo from Google.

Praise and glory to you, God our loving Father! Thank you very much for giving us saints, men and women like us who were sinners with so many weaknesses but through your grace were able to lead holy lives.

Through your saints, you give us so much hope to be become better persons despite our many imperfections like our great Doctor of the Church, St. Jerome, the Father of Catholic biblical studies who immersed himself in the study and prayer of the Sacred Writings right in the Holy Land.

Considered as one of the great theologians of the Church, St. Jerome is said to be approachable but notorious for being a difficult person too due to his temper as well as sarcasm and being argumentative at times.

I confess, O God, that I am exactly the opposite of the kind of person Jesus Christ is telling us to be like – a child. Instead of being childlike, many times I have become childish, difficult to handle with my burst of temper and sometimes annoying sarcasm.

Like St. Jerome, fill me with your grace, with courage and willpower to conquer my irascibility and direct all my negative energies in pursuing you in prayers and good works.

Help me to follow St. Jerome in his call to “let us translate the words of the Scriptures into deeds.”

Fill me with your words, O Lord, cleanse me of my sins and iniquities so that your Holy Spirit may dwell in me, suffuse me with your holiness. Amen.

My favorite depiction of St. Jerome by Italian painter Antonello da Messina (c.1430-79), “St. Jerome in his Study.” Again, we see St. Jerome in red robe and hat like a Cardinal at his study desk with his faithful lion in the background which tradition says he had helped in the forest by removing a thorn in its paw. At the foreground are two birds: a peacock which is an ancient Christian symbol of eternal life that our saint meditated often (reason why he always has a skull in other paintings), and a partridge, a reference to St. Jerome’s notorious temper as the bird often represents jealous rage. Photo from Google.

Arising in Christ

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Wednesday, Week XXIII, Year I, 11 September 2019

Colossians 3:1-11 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 6:20-26

Petra in Jordan. Photo by author, May 2019.

Lord Jesus Christ, today your apostle Paul calls us to “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth” (Col. 3: 2).

Then, in the gospel also today, you raised your eyes toward your disciples and began your “sermon on the plain” (Lk. 6:20)

What is up there, Lord Jesus, that we have to look up, that you have to raise your eyes looking at us?

When I was young, I was so afraid of heights but I have always wanted to be on top to see the beautiful sights that I did my best climbing trees and walls, even rooftops.

Now I am older, I still yearn to be on top to enjoy the sights but too weak to climb even the stairs.

All I can do now Lord is raise my eyes up to the skies, to treetops and mountains to enjoy the moments of looking up, and most of all, wondering at all your wonderful blessings to me — right here in my heart to find you and see you looking up at me!

What a beautiful lesson today of looking up, of seeing ourselves exalted by you despite our weaknesses and sinfulness. What a wonderful teaching about our new stature as your brothers and sisters, O Jesus, redeemed and loved. What a way of teaching us of our new life in you, dearest Christ and of the need to live accordingly as Christians!

So many times, we look down at ourselves, Lord, forgetting our blessedness in being poor and hungry, weeping and rejected in the name of your love and mercy.

Teach us to realise and value our being blessed in you so that our lives and actions may conform to your beatitudes. Amen.

Prayer for knowledge

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Thursday, Week XXII, Year I, 05 September 2019

Colossians 1:9-14 ><}}}*> ><}}}*> Luke 5:1-11

Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte, Atok, Benguet, 01 September 2019.

Brothers and sisters: From the day we heard this, we do not cease praying for you and asking you that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, so as to be fully pleasing, in every good work bearing fruit and growing in the knowledge of God.

Colossians 1:9-10

Once again, you struck me today Lord through St. Paul’s letter to pray for another important grace we badly need these days — “knowledge”.

In this age of Google and Wikipedia, we have taken the gift of knowledge for granted, confusing it with information that often has no meaning and depth. As a result, we have “smart phones” and stupid people who justify everything without any qualms and sense of self-respect and decency!

Remind us, Lord, that knowledge is more than being reasonable and logical; knowledge is embracing the truths of faith, of seeing you in everything.

Like Simon Peter, bless us Lord with the gift of knowledge to enable us to make right judgments regarding earthly things and how they are related with eternal life and holiness.

Like Simon Peter, may we learn to set aside our human knowledge and expertise to take the leap of faith in casting the net into the deep upon your instructions after a night of catching nothing.

What a great gift of knowledge you have given Simon that day when he realised you are “Lord” and he is a “sinful man” (Lk. 5:8). Most of all, in obeying instructions from a carpenter like you, Lord!

Fill us with your knowledge, Lord, to realise the truth of Albert Einstein’s words that “everything in this life is a miracle”! Amen.

True greatness

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul
Tuesday, Memorial of St. Pontian and St. Hippolytus, 13 August 2019
Deuteronomy 31:1-8 >< )))*> <*((( >< Matthew 18:1-5. 10. 12-14
Photo by Jim Marpa, 2018.

The disciples approached Jesus and said, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?” He called a child over, placed it in their midst and said, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 18:1-4

I must confess to you, O Lord Jesus Christ, that so often I act and think like your disciples, asking you “who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?”

And it is not really to know who that person is or what kind of a person is that.

It is more about me – I want to be the greatest and be looked up to. Or, be affirmed and accepted. Especially by you.

When you called that child, you showed me how you have remained a Son of the Father, always humble and open to instructions from the Father above. Most of all, obedient to the Father’s will.

True greatness indeed is in becoming like a child, always young and willing to learn new things, raring to go and follow those above for new adventures in life like Moses and Joshua in the first reading and, St. Pontian and St. Hippolytus whose martyrdom we celebrate today.

As I prayed on that scene at Jordan where the Israelites prepared to enter the Promised Land, the imagery of Moses and Joshua came to me like children ready to take on new tasks and directions in their lives from God as Father.

The same imagery of little children submitting themselves to you, O Lord, despite their old age I have found in St. Pontian and St. Hippolytus who were both greatly at odds with each other at the beginning.

St. Pontian and St. Hippolytus. From Google.

As Pope, St. Pontian was lenient in readmitting Christians who have turned away from the faith during persecution; St. Hippolytus strongly opposed it that later he broke away from Rome to become an anti-pope as he refused to relax his rigid views of the faith.

But you found ways of bringing them together, Lord, as exiles at the island of Sardinia.

In the midst of harsh labor, the fatherly St. Pontian was able to bring back into the Church the rigorist St. Hippolytus.

Help us to keep in mind, Lord, that age is just a number, that we are forever young like children when we humbly abandon ourselves to you, holding on to these words by Moses:

It is the Lord who marches before you; he will be with you and will never fail you or forsake you. So do not fear or be dismayed.

Deuteronomy 31:8

Let me remain as your faithful and trusting child, O loving God our Father. Amen.

Shock preaching the plain truth

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul, Wk. XVIII-C, 04 August 2019
Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23 >< }}}*> Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11 >< }}}*> Luke 12:13-21
Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery

Outside Jerusalem is the Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery. It is one of the world’s oldest, existing for over 3000 years. It is also one of the most expensive cemetery in the world for having the choicest spot to be buried in the planet as it faces the Eastern Gate of Jerusalem where the bible tells us the Messiah would be coming through. Hence, all tombs at the Mount of Olives Cemetery point to that direction so that all those buried there would be the first to rise again to life and welcome the Messiah when he comes.

Of course, we Christians believe Jesus is the Messiah or the Christ who in fact came through that Eastern Gate on Palm Sunday when he entered Jerusalem over 2000 years ago to offer his life for our salvation on Good Friday, resurrecting on Easter Sunday!

And while the Jews await the Messiah and we Christians affirm he has come in Jesus, our Moslem brothers and sisters sealed the Eastern Gate during the Middle Ages that since then, no one could pass through it except literally face a blank wall.

I love telling this amusing story to fellow pilgrims to the Holy Land but find it today as a beautiful springboard for reflection to balance our Sunday gospel that sounds like a “shock preaching” by Jesus Christ.

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” Then he said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” Then he told them a parable… “Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.”

Luke 12:13-16, 21

Beginning this Sunday until the next three weeks, we’ll hear Jesus Christ “shock preaching” us the plain truth we always forget or even disregard: that we all die and what really matters most in life are the good deeds we have done. All our cherished possessions, everything we have labored so hard in this life we shall leave behind when we die because as the Lord had said, “life does not consist of possessions”.

We have known this all along but we rarely realize its full impact until we come face to face with death due to an illness, retirement, or situations when we existentially feel we are mortals after all, contrary to what we have felt and held when we were younger.

So, why wait until it is too late? Start considering now in everything of what will remain after our death.

And if you find this shocking, see also how Jesus coldly refused the man’s plea for his intervention to have his share of inheritance that is rightly his: “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” What had happened to his teachings last week about prayer, of God giving what is best for us like our sinful parents?

Here we find the value of Christ’s shock preaching: his response was not only directed to the man but to us all who always pray to him, asking him for so many things when we forget the more essential, God. As we have reflected last Sunday, we pray to have God because when we have him, we have everything! Jesus is redirecting our attention and focus on things that last even after our death, on “being rich in what matters to God.”

After my father had retired, he was diagnosed with glaucoma. While driving for him on our way home from the hospital, he told me how he had realized that God is not really so concerned about our temporal affairs like wealth. He claimed that everything he had prayed for was granted by God except only that one thing of being rich.

I totally agree with my Dad and that is why I do not pray for any material thing for myself since 1995 while a seminarian until now that I am a priest for 21 years. I do pray for the material well-being of my family, relatives and friends because when they are financially stable, I know they would take care of me and of my needs just like last week when a relative gave me a brand new laptop (a Mac, in fact). I do not pray for things because I am so convinced that whatever I need, God will give me. The only thing I pray for myself is that when I die, God brings me to heaven.

When we try to pray deeper, we also realize that in whatever problem we find ourselves confronted with especially with those pertaining to material things like money, cars, house, and gadgets, Jesus always responds in the same manner he did with that man who requested him on his way to Jerusalem. That is because Jesus came not to be a judge and arbitrator of our inheritance and assets. Jesus came for the salvation of our souls, for the fulfillment of our lives that can never be achieved with money and wealth or power and fame.

Jesus came for us, for you and me. Personally. He wants us to focus more on “what matters to God” like love and mercy, kindness and generosity with others which he lavishly gives us. When we are rich with these gifts that matter to God, we also find ourselves desiring less material things, being more fair and just in our dealing with others. No stealing, no cheating, no character assassination. When we have more of spiritual goods, we have more joy within, more peace and contentment. But when we have more of material goods, we feel more uneasy and most prone to sin.

Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities. All things are vanity! For what profit comes to a man from all the toil and anxiety of heart with which he labored under the sun? All his days sorrow and grief is his occupation; even at night his mind is not at rest. This is also vanity.

Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:22-23
Women pose for photos near a homeless man during the New York Fashion Week , October 2012. Photo by Reuters via The Economist Magazine.

Qoheleth is no “killjoy” but merely telling us that everything on earth vanishes like thin air. Only God lasts for all eternity. And that is also the whole point of St. Paul in the second reading.

Brothers and sisters: If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Colossians 3:1-3

Sometimes in life, we need to be shocked and shaken of the simple facts we take for granted like our relationships with God and with others. Here we find that fear can sometimes be good. In fact, it was our fear of death that led mankind to many medical and scientific breakthroughs in history that have made life today better and safer, and yes, easier. It was also this fear of death that had enabled man to discover new lands to inhabit and is now pushing us to explore the universe.

But most of all, this fear of death can also be holy and blessed too because when we become conscious of our own end in life, that is when we start living authentically in the hope of eternal life in God. A blessed Sunday to you! Amen.