Lord My Chef Recipe by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Holy Monday, 30 March 2026 Isaiah 42:1-7 +++ John 12:1-11
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2026.
Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased, upon whom I have put my spirit; he shall bring forth justice to the nations, not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in street. A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not quench... (Isaiah 42:1-3).
Lord Jesus Christ, our Suffering Servant, let me be your servant too: open my eyes and free me from whatever prison holding me in darkness like Judas your betrayer at Bethany: many times I break a bruised reed, quenching a smoldering wick by looking more at people than seeing you in them, counting things instead of appreciating persons.
Jesus our Suffering Servant, only you can bring peace and justice in this world troubled with wars waged everywhere but especially right in our hearts; fill me with your Spirit so I can love you more and be loving like you silently doing your work. Amen.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2026.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Fifth Sunday in Lent, Cycle A, 22 March 2026 Ezekiel 37:12-14 +++ Romans 8:8-11 +++ John 11:1-45
“The Raising of Lazarus” by Italian painter and architect Giotto di Bondone (1266-1337), fresco inside the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy via commons.wikimedia.org.
We now come to the final Sunday of our Lenten journey into Easter with John still as our guide telling us Jesus Christ’s raising to life of his friend Lazarus who had been dead for four days.
The raising of Lazarus is a prelude for the greatest sign of all by Jesus as the Christ – his Resurrection at Easter after his Passion and Death on good Friday. Though very long, it is a lovely story that speaks of Jesus Christ’s deep friendship with us by being most present in our most painful suffering of all which is death of a loved one as well as our many “deaths” in life.
And like in every true friendship, Jesus invites us like the sisters of Lazarus, Martha and Mary, to believe in him.
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would have not died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world” (John 11:20-27).
When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled… (John 11:32-33).
Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” (John 11:39-40)
“The Raising of Lazarus”, 1311 painting by Duccio de Buoninsegna from commons.wikimedia.org
“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” We are all like Martha and Mary who believed in Jesus Christ. Both expressed to Jesus their faith in him, of believing in him and his powers.
To believe is the starting point of every relationship. With God and with others.
It usually begins in our mind, in our intellect. We believe because we know and have learned their names and backgrounds, their likes and dislikes, and a host of others things. We can truly be friends with others even by believing only with our intellect that is why we understand their predicament and situations, the way they react. Almost everything, we know and have known that we are still the best of friends. Including with God.
Martha exemplified that kind of believing.
Martha is good. If she is the same “Martha, Martha” mentioned by Luke whom Jesus visited, she was well meaning like most of us.
She believed in Jesus. In God. In the scriptures when she told Jesus she knew Lazarus would rise along with all the dead in the resurrection on the last day.
Jesus never argued because it was good. Same with us.
Our friends do not argue nor break away from us with our kind of believing. After all it is reasonable and sane. But, believing from the mind, from the intellect is not enough. For a more intimate and engaging relationship in friendship, believing has to deepen and take root in our heart.
Believing leads to love.
Whatever kind of love, it starts in believing.
We love because we believe as we have claimed last Sunday.
But, believing and loving do not stop there.
How deeply, how truly we believe indicate how deeply, how truly we love.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2026.
Without any intentions of comparing and pitting the two sisters against each other on who is better, John presents to us where believing leads us.
Like Martha, Mary expressed how she believed in Jesus and his powers by telling him “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”But it was not merely coming from her mind, from her head, from what she knew of Jesus but more of how she felt with Jesus.
Notice at the start of this long story (verse 2) how John described Mary as the one who anointed Jesus – six days after this raising of Lazarus – with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair as expression of her faith and love for the Lord on his burial. Getting some help from Luke’s account again, we find Mary’s level of believing as deeper and matured when she chose to seat at the Lord’s feet to listen to his teachings when he came to visit them.
Mary came to Jesus with her total self – unashamed to weep in front of the Lord. She spoke no words, showed no clues of her “theology” like Martha’s faith seeking understanding by studying the scriptures.
It was Mary’s heart that spoke to Jesus that he was “perturbed” twice and “deeply troubled” seeing her. Even the Jews with her felt the Lord so moved by her that led us to the final scene of this beautiful story.
Feel the revelations at the cave where Lazarus was buried:
When Jesus asked the stone removed from the cave, Martha stepped in. And it was reasonable of her. We do it so often in various occasions like in funerals and deathbeds.
That was when Jesus reminded her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?”
Everybody fell dead silent.
Jesus then prayed aloud briefly to the Father, shouting for Lazarus to come out – alive, still covered with cloth. End of scene.
What’s next?
You tell me. Tell me how much you believe Jesus, how much you love Jesus. And how much you love like Jesus especially when everything, everyone is dead, dead silent, dead still for many reasons.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2026.
How much do we believe in Jesus, the resurrection and life?
Think of our many deaths in life. Not only in losing a beloved but our very own deaths – when we were buried and dead to sin and failures, disappointments and losses like the Israelites thrown into exile that Ezekiel the Prophet described in the first reading. What a beautiful imagery of God raising us to life, opening our graves of sins and failures, weaknesses and darkness, breathing into us his spirit, now better. Or maybe still struggling in life.
Believing in Jesus is believing like Martha and Mary most especially, unashamedly pouring out our pains and griefs to Jesus, baring our battered hearts and souls to him because we have felt, we have experienced his very passion and death in our own life, with those we love and serve.
In these trying times, Jesus invites us to believe more than ever in him by believing also with those severely affected by the hard times like the jeepney drivers and minimum wage earners. Let us try to live in spirit as St. Paul reminds us in the second reading by feeling their struggles, their fears, their sufferings so that they may not cry, “Lord, if you were here our families would have not gone hungry, would have not died” because we his disciples were here for them.
That is believing in Jesus the resurrection and life – being present with those suffering and dying. Solidarity.
Jesus is not asking us to think nor understand their pains and miseries. He is asking us to feel within us their pains and miseries so that like Mary we can bring Jesus to them and raise them to new life. Let us pray:
Lord Jesus Christ, before all these pains and sufferings came to me, you were there first to suffer and die for me on the Cross. Let me love you more by loving others especially those also in pain and suffering. Amen.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday, Second Week in Lent, 04 March 2026 Jeremiah 18:18-20 + + + Matthew 20:17-28
Photo by author, Ephesus, Turkiye, November 2025.
How lovely is our scene today, Lord Jesus, of you walking towards Jerusalem: it must have been so dusty and dirty at that time; I won't be surprised at all at how everybody must be thinking of reaching home, finding a place for comfort and ease but here you are, Lord, reminding the Twelve and us today of your coming passion, death and resurrection.
How amazing, Jesus that as we follow you, walking with you in this journey and mission, you remind us of our own sufferings but unfortunately, thoughts of glory seep into our minds like that day when the mother of James and John made that request of honor and prestige by your side; the same thing is very true during the time of Jeremiah the Prophet: he was there in the heat and dirt of the city of Jerusalem, proclaiming God's words of conversion and there, just like today, are the voices and thoughts of us thinking of doing away with pain and suffering, of insisting on our own thoughts and desires for fame and glory without realizing the more essential realities in life.
O dear Jesus, let me continue to walk your path of the Cross, let me remain in your journey of Lent, of life by your side, forgetting my self, taking my cross, and following you alone.
You have given me with so much, Jesus and I have given so little; take whatever I still keep to myself when I thought I have surrendered completely to you; let me see what you see, love whom you love, care for those you care as we continue together in this road to Jerusalem. Amen.
Photo by Ar. Philip Santiago, Jerusalem, October 2025.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II First Sunday in Lent-A, 22 February 2026 Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7 + Romans 5:12-19 + Matthew 4:1-11
Photo from earth.com.
We now live in a world so noisy with many voices competing for our attention. Everybody is talking including cars and elevators, phones and gadgets and apps with names Siri and Alexa. So often, it is from these competing voices come our temptations in life, too.
In his first Lenten Message, Pope Leo XIV invites us to listen more to the word of God in order to be converted anew to Him. He said it so well that “The willingness to listen is the first way we demonstrate our desire to enter into a relationship with someone.”
Very true! And the question this first Sunday in Lent asks us is, whose voice do I follow? Because the voice we listen most is likely the one we prefer or love most – in fact, it could be the voice of the one we keep a relationship with!
That is the tragic truth of the story of the fall of Adam and Eve in the first reading today – they listened more to the voice of the devil signified by the serpent than to God who warned them not to eat the forbidden fruit.
And that continues to happen every day in our lives! That is why to sin is not merely to turn away from God but actually a refusal to love because sin is rejecting a relationship with God to whom we must listen to. This we see today in Matthew’s version of the temptations of Christ in the desert.
At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” He said in reply, “It is written: One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:1-4).
Detail of “The Temptation of Jesus According to St. Matthew” on the wall of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice, Italy. Photo from psephizo.com.
Right at the start, Jesus made it clear by quoting the Sacred Scriptures, the word of God, that “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”
Jesus, the Word who became flesh to live among us tells us clearly today that same truth. God’s word is life when He created everything by just speaking. Any voice that leads to destruction is from the devil, the father of fake news. And the devil’s biggest lie we must always avoid is making and having things easily. See how until now every fake news is always about “instants” like instant food and health, instant solution to everything without realizing its sinful effects as well as side effects that may actually harm us more.
Listening is an art because it teaches us to be patient, to wait and most of all, to persevere which leads us to perfection and excellence. Haste always makes waste. When we listen, we become patient, choosing to wait than take shortcuts or get instants that avoid difficulties and hardships like gambling to be wealthy without working, or cheating to pass exams without learning as well as freedom without responsibilities.
Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on then parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command is angels concerning you’ and ‘with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.'” Jesus answered him, “Again, it is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test” (Matthew 4:5-7).
Photo by author, Domiican Hills, Baguio City, January 2019.
More than an art, listening is a virtue because it demands silence which is a fullness wherein we are able to listen and distinguish every voice and sound so that we may choose which to listen to and follow.
The word “listen” is the palindrome of “silent” – we listen best in silence to hear God, others and our very selves.
When we learn to be silent, we also become more trusting because when we trust, we speak less and listen more. The most silent people are the also the most trusting. When we trust, we wait and avoid shortcuts and instants.
The voice of God stirs our inner self, not just our senses because His voice leads us to deeper realities and meanings in life. Remember that Jesus eventually fed more than five thousand people from just five loaves of bread and two pieces of fish when He saw them already prepared inside their hearts and soul; when Jesus felt them more open to God than to the world, then He gave them bread and fish for their stomach.
Notice how the devil’s temptation to Jesus continues among us with those voices calling us to overly assert ourselves, to be influencers and clout chasers or content creators to be praised and followed by everyone when actually is all about wealth and money, and of course, power. It is the voice of control and manipulation. How sad that many of us gobble their lies completely, consuming everything, filling ourselves even with trash.
The voice of God calls us to sacrifice, to bear pains and sufferings not to be overburdened in life but for us to see God especially among those mostly in need like the poor and marginalized. Often, the voice of God is the softest and tiniest in our hearts calling us to simply trust Him by doing the simplest things like smiling to strangers, easing the pain of those lonely and sad, giving bread to the poor and hungry. Listening to the silence of God enables us to trust Him more that we learn to share and forget ourselves. Then, we grow and mature truly as persons.
Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him, “All these I shall give you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.” Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him (Matthew 4:8-11).
Again, we go back to Pope Leo XIV’s Lenten Message about listening as “the first way we demonstrate our desire to enter into a relationship with someone.”
Don’t you feel sad at the sight of today’s everyday life where everyone has something in their ears, whether the tiny earpods or the headset/headphone?
What used to be insane like talking by one’s self has now become a status symbol as everyone looks crazy speaking by themselves through modern devices amid a crowd while walking or seated anywhere conversing to somebody at the other end of their lines unmindful, oblivious of the persons around them. May sariling mundo.
Many these days have created their own worlds and universe with them at its center through our new Baal, the cellphone – the very first thing everyone is looking for after waking up and the last thing in everyone’s hand before sleeping. How sad many among us today practically live in social media. What is most tragic is that all these modern means of communications were invented to bring us closer together when in fact, the more we have grown apart from each others! We are not only polarized as people but even separated from God.
The third temptation of the devil to Jesus continues with us today with all those voices telling us to forget God and morality and truth so that we become popular by being viral and trending. It is the biggest scam and fake news of all by the devil – of us being the “master” to rule and have world with all of its luxuries and power. The voice seems harmless, as if asserting our true selves but actually destroys our being and relationships with God, with others and eventually with our very selves.
Lent is an inside journey into our hearts, of finding Jesus anew inside our hearts where He dwells. St. Paul tells us in the second reading how Jesus brought us back to God, to grace and salvation.
Lord Jesus Christ, help us not to harden our hearts today so that we may listen anew to Your voice within us to find our way back to God, to peace and to fulfillment in ourselves and in one another.Amen. Have a blessed week ahead!
Photo by author, Carmel of the Holy Family Monastery, Guiguinto, Bulacan, 22 January 2026.
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, 08 December 2025 Genesis 3:9-15, 20 ><}}}}*> Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12 ><}}}}*> Luke 1:26-38
“Cestello Annunciation” by Botticelli painted in 1490; from en.wikipedia.org.
We praise and thank God today on this Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary that formally kicked off the process of the fulfillment of his promised salvation in Jesus born by the Virgin Mother.
According to our official Church teaching called dogma, Mary was conceived by her mother St. Anne without any stain of original sin through the merits of Jesus Christ our Savior. Mary has to be pure and clean because she would bear the Son of God who is perfect and spotless.
God chose Mary to be the Mother of Jesus not because of her having any special traits but purely out of God’s goodness “who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens” (Eph.1:3).
Hence, this feast reminds us too to imitate the Blessed Virgin in saying “yes” to God’s invitation to cooperate in his wonderful plans of bringing Jesus into this world so darkened by sin that has left us broken and fragmented from each other. Rejoice, therefore, because everyday, God sends us his angel to greet us with “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you” (Lk.1:26), inviting us into an intimacy with him like Mary.
Photo by author, left side of the facade of the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Holy Land, May 2019.
Intimacy is more than being close with another; it is an expression of love that is willing to sacrifice, to suffer and get hurt for the sake of the beloved.
God was the first to express his intimacy with us not just by expressing his immense love for us in words by the prophets in the Old Testament but by sending us his Son Jesus Christ who became human like us in everything except sin. Actually, God does not need to become human like us to save us but he chose to be one of us because he loves us so much. As an expression of his intimacy and solidarity with us, Jesus suffered and died on the Cross while going through every pain and hurt we go through in life like grief and sadness in losing a friend, betrayal by a friend, abandonment by friends, no to mention being terrified, going hungry and thirsty. Jesus became like us so that we may become like God – intimately loving him through others.
Actually, God does not need us but he chose to love us, to be with us, to be intimate with us because he loves us so much. God remains God even without us. When we do not pray, when we do not go to Mass on Sundays, when we are bad and not good, God is still God. It is us humans who are lessened when we turn away from from God.
That’s the intimacy of God with us.
How about us, are we willing to be intimate with God in Jesus Christ?
Sadly, many people “create” and “force” intimacy which is a grace, a gift of God freely given to everyone. Like friendship, we cannot force intimacy into someone not meant to be. And like friendship too, intimacy begins in Christ, blooms in Christ.
Photo by author, chapel beneath the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth; see those pilgrims praying behind iron grills at the back of the sanctuary which is the site where the Angel announced to Mary the birth of Jesus Christ.
Underneath the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth is a chapel near the very site where the angel is believed to have appeared to Mary to announce the coming of the Savior. At the back of the sanctuary of this chapel is that holy site of the Annunciation enclosed by iron grills with an altar table at the center with the declaration in Latin, Verbum Caro Hic Factum Est (The Word became flesh here).
Mary’s intimacy with God began long before the Annunciation to her by the Angel cultivated in her prayer life. Every time I pray this scene of the Annunciation, I always imagine Mary deeply absorbed in prayer. Most likely, she must be praying about her coming wedding to Joseph. Luke and Matthew were both consistent about their status as being “betrothed to each other” when God announced through the Angel the birth of the Christ.
Photo by author, close up of the Annunciation site beneath the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth; written on the altar table that says in Latin, “The Word became flesh here.”
Imagine the excitement and joy of two faithful Jews getting married soon when suddenly the Angel appeared to them on separate occasions and diverse situations to announce God’s plan of sending his own Son Jesus Christ for the salvation of the world?
It must have been most painful to both Mary and Joseph but as being truly faithful and loving of God, they both agreed to the Divine plan! And that is the great sign of their immense love for God – eventually for each other. Moreover, in saying yes to God, both Mary and Joseph showed the kind of intimacy they have with the Divine.
Let us focus on the intimacy of Mary with God on this Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception found in our gospel account of the Annunciation.
Photo by Rev. Fr. Gerry Pascual of Iba, Zambales at Santuario di Greccio, Rieti, Italy in 2019.
Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you ahve found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus (Luke 1:30-31).
Notice that in many scenes and prayers about the Blessed Virgin Mary, we find the prominence of her “womb” like here in the Annunciation and when Elizabeth praised her during her Visitation as “blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Lk.1:42).
In Hebrew, the word for womb is “racham, rachamin” which is their word too for “mercy” because for them, God’s mercy comes from his innermost being. Hence, whenever the Jews speak of mercy of God, they point their fingers downward into the womb or uterus and moves it upward to the heart to indicate the flow of mercy of God from his innermost being expressed in love which is he’s very being and core.
This is the reason the Church Fathers translated mercy into “misericordia” from the Latin verb to move or to stir – “misereor” – and word for heart “cor” that literally means “to move or to stir one’s heart”. It is more than a feeling like compassion; mercy is deeper as it encompasses one’s being leading to intimacy that is a communion or oneness with others which is also intimacy.
Photo by author, Church of the Visitation, Ein-Karem, Israel, May 2017.
Where there is love, there is always intimacy with the lover willing to bear all pains and hurts for the beloved. And vice versa. Like Jesus. Then Mary who was willing to sacrifice her wedding and marriage to Joseph by being the Mother of the Son of God.
But why? Because we have experienced too that true joy comes only when there is giving of self, when there is willingness to let go and suffer. At the Last Supper, Jesus described joy as like a mother in the pangs of childbirth when she goes through a lot of pains and worries and fears almost like dying but once the baby is delivered, joy happens because she had brought forth a new life into the world.
True joy is having the firm belief that no matter what happens even in the worst scenarios, God would never leave nor forsake us. Joy happens when we find new life, new directions because there is another person willing to remain with us, assuring us we are never alone. That again is intimacy when you feel not alone especially in the most trying times.
Without intimacy with God and another person, there can be no true joy because no one would dare to take risks in this life like mothers. This is what modern women are missing when they see childbearing more as a chore or a burden or a suffering they can always avoid than self-giving borne out of love which happens in the context of an intimacy. No wonder too that sex has been so trivialized, reduced to an activity and act instead of as a gift of self because there is no more responsibility and intimacy. We cannot have lasting and meaningful relationships without intimacy.
Photo by author, 2021.
On this Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, we are reminded of God’s mercy and intimacy with us, of his loving relationship with us that continues in Christ Jesus with Mary.
Let us nurture this beautiful relationship with God that flows and bears fruit in our relationships with one another.
Like Mary, may we finally say yes to God into an intimate relationship with him through our selflessness. Like Mary, we are blessed and full of grace. The joy awaiting far outweighs the pains and sufferings we shall go through in our gift of self in our relationships. Have no fear for Jesus had suffered first before us so that we can love and be intimate like him. Amen. Have a blessed week.
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Red Wednesday, 26 November 2025 Daniel 5:1-6, 13-14, 16-17, 23-28 <*{{{>< + ><}}}*> Luke 21:12-19
Photo from Fatima Tribune, 27 November 2024.
It’s the Wednesday after Christ the King when our churches and other religious buildings are lit in red to mark Red Wednesday, the annual campaign for persecuted Christians worldwide.
Started in 2016 by the Aid for Church in Need (ACN), it has been an annual Church celebration with other Christian groups and sects participating to heighten awareness of the continuing persecution of Christians in various parts of the world – exactly what Jesus had predicted to his disciples more than 2000 years ago.
Jesus said to the crowd: “They will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name. It will lead to your giving testimony… By your perseverance you will secure your lives” (Luke 21:12-13, 19).
Photo from Fatima Tribune, 27 November 2024.
For us in the Philippines that is majority a Christian nation, Red Wednesday is an opportune time to reflect about our “giving testimony” to Jesus Christ: how “bloody red” is our being a Christian?
Unlike in other countries in Africa or our neighbors in Asia where Christians are persecuted and harassed, we in the Philippines do not go through such sufferings and challenges. Think of any kind of opposition to the Christian faith we have encountered even in the last 100 years. None. The most serious threats ever made against our faith seem to be mere “peer pressures” of being teased as “conservative” in going to Mass and Confession frequently, or upholding the virtue of virginity. Perhaps, the most serious dilemma most of us Christians have ever had in our faith is whether or not we shall pray or at least make the Sign of the Cross when dining in a restaurant or fast food chain. In Europe and the States, chapels and churches are vandalized and burned but here in the country, those who have committed sacrileges in the past three years were “crucified” in social media with one being sued in court.
We do not wish that we also undergo similar religious persecutions like the other Christians abroad whom we pray for today on this Red Wednesday and send with our financial support as concrete actions of our solidarity with them.
In line with this year’s theme of “Living Hope Amidst Suffering” in conjunction with the Jubilee Year celebration “Pilgrims of Hope”, Red Wednesday invites us to simply witness the gospel of Jesus by standing on what is true and good especially these days our country is so deep into the ghost project scandals on flood control.
Giving testimony to Jesus Christ is letting our zeal for him burn anew within us by not bending into the ways of the world that promote a “culture of death” like abortion and contraceptives, or to the many forms of wokism that overextend personal rights contrary to God’s original plan and design like divorce, same sex marriage, and gender manipulation.
Photo by Ms. Kei Abad, Kawaguchiko Lake (Fujisan), 23 November 2025.
Witnessing Christ is being honest and just in a country of such impunity where graft and corruption is a family endeavor, a norm in public service.
Giving testimony to Christ in this time of social media where trending and viral are the new standards is to remain simple and modest even if it is looked down upon, being fair and just even if everyone chooses to disregard them while being concrete in our acts of mercy and charity for the weak and marginalized.
Red Wednesday is reigniting our hope in God which is an expression of our firm faith in him. Religious persecutions happen and abound anywhere God is negated and denied or when a particular group of people insist on their own perception of God.
We Christians are pilgrims of hope because we do believe in the one True and Only God in Heaven who was revealed to us by his own Son Jesus Christ made present up to this day until the end of time by the Holy Spirit. Hope is primarily having faith in God.
In this sense it is true that anyonbe who does not nknow God, even though he may entertain all kinds of hopes, is ultimately without hope, without the great hope that sustains the whole of life (cf. Eph. 2:12). Man’s great, true hope which holds firm in spite of all disappointments can only be God – God who has loved us and who continues to love us “to the end,” until all “is accomplished” (cf. Jn.13:1 and 19:30). (Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi #27)
Hope is not optimism nor positive thinking, believing things will get better. On the contrary, true hope is actually accepting that things and situations could get worst as Jesus mentioned in his predictions of the coming upheavals and persecutions. Hope is putting all our trust in God that no matter what happens in the end when things get worst like death, there is Jesus Christ loving us, comforting us, and saving us.
That’s the kind of faith and hope Daniel expressed in our first reading despite the threats of sure death when he spoke of the God of Israel as the only true God, not the many idols and false gods of the Babylonians. Most of all, because of his fervent hope in God who would raise him up in the end, Daniel delivered his interpretation of the king’s dream of how his days were numbered as the Medians and Persians were soon to conquer them that eventually happened.
Photo by Ms. Kei Abad, Kawaguchiko Lake (Fujisan), 23 November 2025.
Many times in life, all we can have is hope in God especially when pains and sufferings become unbearable, when these get worst without any signs of getting any better.
That is why Red Wednesday’s theme this year is so appropriate, “living hope amidst suffering”.
Hope makes life more worthy and lofty because our sights are not only fixed on this world but even beyond as Jesus assured us in today’s gospel, “By your perseverance you will secure your lives” (Lk.21:19).
And there lies the beauty of hope – it is the most surprising of all virtues as the French poet, essayist and writer Charles Peguy wrote in 1911 in his long masterpiece called “The Portal of the Mystery of Hope.” In this poem, Peguy presents God as the speaker himself, reflecting about the virtue of hope in relation with the other two theological virtues of faith and love. It is so lovely because it is so true especially when I encountered it during my trying months of second year in theology in the seminary.
The faith that I love best, says God, is hope... Faith itself does not surprise me...
Love, says God, that does not surprise me...
But Hope, says God, that is what surprises me. I, myself, find it surprising that my children see what happens and believe things will improve. That is the most surprising, the most marvelous gift. And it surprises me, myself, that my gift has such incredible strength since it first flowed in creation as it always will. Faith sees what is. Hope sees what will be. Love loves what is. Hope loves what has not yet been and what will be in the future and in eternity.
For those suffering, those in pain especially because of faith in Jesus Christ: keep believing, keep hoping and be ready to be surprised by God. Reignite that zeal in Christ and his gospel. Amen.A blessed Red Wednesday to you.
Photo by Ms. Kei Abad, Kawaguchiko Lake (Fujisan), 23 November 2025.
Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul, 23 November 2025 Solemnity of Christ the King, Cycle C 2 Samuel 5:1-3 ><}}}}*> Colossians 1:12-20 ><}}}}*> Luke 23:35-43
I was teasing our campus ministry head for communication last Tuesday after he had presented to me this announcement for our Christ the King celebration today. “Para namang malnourished si Jesus diyan,” I told Darwin as he scratched his head laughing during our meeting.
But, that evening after praying our gospel, I changed my mind the following Wednesday and told Darwin to go ahead with his original artwork because I have realized that the face of Christ the King is also the face of us suffering.
Photo by author, Holy Monday, 2025.
Are you not surprised that on this final Sunday of the liturgical year, we are not presented with an image of a victorious Jesus like that Cristo Rey found in every Catholic home but the gospel scene of Jesus suffering in excruciating pain there on the Cross on Good Friday?
Above him there was an inscription that read, “This is the King of the Jews.” Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us.” The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, “Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied to him, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:38-43).
Photo by author, Chapel of St. Francis Xavier, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Quezon City, 2024.
On this Solemnity of Christ the King, St. Luke invites us for the last time we hear his gospel this year to look at the face and into the eyes of Jesus crucified.
What do you see and feel in him?
Ever wondered what the rulers and soldiers saw on the face of Jesus crucified that they sneered and jeered him from below? They were so filled with pride in finally putting into shame and silence Jesus who had always spoken the truth and exposed their lies and hypocrisies.
What do we see when people are put on the spot and shamed like Jesus crucified or like the woman caught committing adultery Jesus forgave and saved from being stoned by the angry crowd? So sad that in this age of social media, public trials and condemnation have become a hobby for many without even checking the accusations are true or not.
Let us move closer to Jesus on the Cross like those two thieves hanging at each of his side: what do you see and feel about him?
Why did the other thief join those below in deriding and insulting Jesus crucified? Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us” (Lk.23:39).
Have you ever found yourself in the ER or waiting for your turn at the doctor’s clinic with other patients also in pain and suffering? How do you see the other patients and sick people like you? Is there in your mind any tinge of suspicion why or how they got sick? The best and the worst in us come out in such times when we are so down beside another suffering brother or sister.
Or, do we choose the path of humility and sincerity of Dimas, the good thief? What did he see in Jesus there on the Cross? The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, “Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal” (Lk.23:40-41).
Most likely, Dimas must have heard a lot about the teachings and healings by Jesus but he felt something so unique and liberating, so personal during those dark moments of excruciating pains when he finally recognized Christ his Savior, the only true King that is why he asked to be remembered in his kingdom!
Finally, somebody greater than him there beside him, saying nothing to judge nor condemn him nor irritate him like his fellow criminal at the other side. In recognizing Jesus, Dimas also found himself as truly human, weak and finite who can only be whole and complete – saved and redeemed – in Christ who chose to be there on the Cross with him exactly as St. Paul had written in our second reading.
He is before all thing, and in him all things hold together. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he himself might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him reconcile all things for him, making peace by the blood of his cross through him, whether those on earth or those in heaven (Colossians 1:17, 18-20).
Photo by author, St. Scholastica Spirituality Center, Baguio City, August 2023.
Here we find the beauty of the Cross, of how God so perfect without any need to suffer and experience pain yet chose to go through it to express his solidarity and love for us humans.
It is on the cross when we are most able to identify and be one in Jesus Christ. That is why it is also on the Cross that we enter heaven with Jesus amid suffering and death. Jesus said today you shall be with me in Paradise – not later when we die or after three days at Easter. How lovely that Jesus never promised heaven when he was strong and freely moving around but when he was there on the cross, nailed and dying.
Jesus Christ is the King of the Universe not because of his powers and might but primarily of his being one of us in sufferings and death. It was the very feeling the tribes of Israel were telling David when they came to him in Hebron to reaffirm their allegiance to him as their king, “Here we are, your bone and your flesh” (2 Sm. 5:1).
The people we admire most are not always the best nor most powerful nor talented because often we envy them. On the other hand, we are more drawn with those down and burdened because we see in them our own brokenness, too, that it is part of life and of being human. That is why we easily empathize with those grieving or sad than with those happy or rejoicing.
Our humanity reaches its highest point and beauty when broken and weak as we realize our mortality and similarity with others in suffering needing for a Savior. We are most inhuman whenever we enjoy inflicting or causing pains on others or when rejoicing in their agonies. To proclaim Christ is the King of the Universe is to always see him in our sufferings and among those suffering too like us. Amen. A blessed week ahead of you!
Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul, 05 October 2025 Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4 ><}}}}*> 2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14 ><}}}}*> Luke 17:5-10
Photo by author, San Fernando, Pampanga, 03 October 2025.
With all the news happening in our country made worse by recent calamities, most of us Filipinos can identify these days with the Prophet Habakkuk, crying out the same things to God:
How long, O Lord? I cry for help but you do not listen! I cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not intervene. Why do you let me see ruin; why must I look at misery? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and clamorous discord (Habakkuk 1:2-3).
The book of Habakkuk does not really tell us the reasons for the prophet’s cries directed to God. But, does it really matter at all why he was crying in pain? Like Habakkuk, we know very well these days what it feels to be like him. There has always been and there will always be many situations in our personal lives and family, nation and even in the Church that provoke us to cry out to God in distress, complaining all the evil happening when he seems to be so far or not interested.
Photo by Mr. Nicko Timbol, Chapel of the Angel of Peace, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City, 03 October 2025.
Of course, it is not really the case here for Prophet Habakkuk nor with us. We do not complain and cry to someone who could not do anything to our plight; we cry, we reach out to those we trust and know can help us like family and friends. And God!
We find many of such complete trust and faith in God expressed in cries and laments in the Book of Psalms. Despairing calls, questions and petitions to God in the Psalms do not actually endanger the faith and trust of the believer but actually affirm them. That is why it is always good to pray the Psalms. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself prayed Ps. 22:1 while on the cross, crying out “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” to express his deep faith in the Father in his darkest moments.
Habakkuk’s cry is very much similar with those found in the Psalms.
Most of all, Habakkuk teaches us today of God’s response to our cries, calling on us to trust him more than ever, in his Word because it shall be fulfilled for “it will not disappoint; it it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late. The rash man has no integrity; but the just one, because of his faith, shall live” (Habakkuk 2:3-4).
Photo by author, San Fernando, Pampanga, 03 October 2025.
Keep in mind God’s final words to Habakkuk for it remains true to these days especially when we are going through difficulties and trials in life – “we shall live because of faith in God”! What a beautiful catch phrase especially at this time.
Recall how we never realize how deep and strong our faith is until we have crossed over through life’s many challenges, often without others even knowing what we have gone through. As we go through life, we continue to realize too how imperfect is our faith until our next problems and tests come.
That is why we need to pray daily to Jesus like the Apostles in this Sunday’s gospel, “Increase our faith” (Lk.17:5). See how Jesus explained faith to his Apostles and to us today.
First, Jesus clarified that faith cannot be quantified because its power does not lie in its “amount” that can be increased like torque in motor engine or similar devices for it to be powerful. That is why Jesus explained to the Twelve that “If you have the faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you” (Lk.17:6). Just a little amount of faith for as long as it is aligned with God and his plans, we can achieve great things in life.
Photo by Mr. Nicko Timbol, Chapel of the Angel of Peace, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City, 03 October 2025.
This, however, does not mean that the purpose of faith is to perform wonders which brings us to Christ’s second point about faith – it is a relationship.
Faith is for service, for love and charity that is why it can result into great wonders in our lives. That is why we mentioned earlier of faith being aligned with God, being one in God. It is a gift freely given to each one of us by God for our own good. Hence, even though faith cannot be quantified, its power can be impeded and rendered useless when we are separated from God. That is why Jesus narrated the parable of the “unprofitable servants”:
“Who among you would say to your servant who has just come from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’? Would he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat…You may eat and drink when I am finished’? Is he grateful to the servant because he did what was commanded? So should it be with you. When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do'” (Luke 17:7-8, 9-10).
Many will probably find it uncomfortable that faith as a relationship is between servant and master; but, aside from the gospel milieu, it is the reality of our faith in God for we are indeed his servants working for him who is our Lord and Master.
We cannot claim anything for ourselves in this life. Everything is God’s, even our very lives, our body that many today insist as “theirs” to which they can do whatever they want including abort babies. No. We own nothing in this life and we leave everything when we die. What remains are our good works and love that still came from God!
Unlike the masters of the world who think of their own good, God is a faithful Master who thinks only of the good of his servants, of us. He does not impose on us, giving us freedom so as not to force us in doing things but act out of love like him.
Photo by Mr. Nicko Timbol, Chapel of the Angel of Peace, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City, 03 October 2025.
Separated from God, we become worthless or useless or unprofitable servants because we find meaning only in him. When we are aligned with God, faithfully obeying his will, we are able to do the seemingly impossible because it is God working in us like forgive those who have broken our trust, love someone so difficult to deal with, relieve hunger with simple acts of kindness, work on justice where the powerful exploit the weak, remain faithful to prayer even when God seems absent. These are all acts of faith that go beyond normal expectations that reveal to us the power of God, of how deep our faith can be. That faith cannot be quantified.
Truly, as God had told Habakkuk, we live because of faith. When crises and problems seem to overwhelm us, it is to God’s faithfulness we turn to with our cries with despairing overtones that are actually expressions of deep faith and trust in him.
From Paul’s letter to Timothy in the second reading this Sunday, we get our thrid point about faith: this gift of faith is our greatest treasure that we must keep and cultivate to grow deeper, to mature in us. It is this gift of faith that gives us the “spirit of power and love and self-control, not cowardice” (2Tm.1:7).
It is faith as our treasure that gives us the reason “to live on, to live for, and to die for” borrowing the thoughts of the late dissident Swiss theologian Hans Kung. It is faith that sets things right inn our lives because as it moves us closer to God, it likewise enables us to recognize others as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Recent turn of events in our country are so frustrating and yes, very tempting to resort to violent means and measures, including speaking and writing all those expletives and curses against the corrupt. It is normal to be angry but, do we have to be cruel and harsh?
Call me conservative or simply because I am a priest – but, that is what I am that is why I am very much against violence and harsh languages in the midst of all these corruption. I never tire telling people we have proven in 1986 that non-violence works. We have to try it again. However, what we missed after EDSA 86 is we separated from God. We thought we could do it our own ways. This Sunday, we are reminded of our greatest treasure as Filipinos, our gift of faith in God. Let us live in this faith in God. After all, these corruption we see and detest started in our homes, in our schools, in our hearts when we separated from God and one another. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City (lordmychef@gmail.com)
Our Lady of Fatima University Marketing Dept., June 2025.
Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul, 14 September 2025 Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross Numbers 21:4-9 ><]]]]'> Philippians 2:6-11 ><]]]]'> John 3:13-17 *This is a reissue of our 2023 reflection. Salamuch.
Photo by Mr. Gelo Carpio, 27 January 2020, Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.
The cross is one of the most widely used but also abused and misunderstood sign in almost every generation. In fact, we are so accustomed with the cross of Jesus Christ found everywhere like in homes and offices, churches and classrooms, hospitals, restaurants and vehicles. Almost everybody carries it in our persons as an object of veneration, as a badge, or as a jewel.
On the cross we find Jesus shown in glory, peacefully sleeping in death, sometimes with his body broken by suffering. Hence, many times we use the word “cross” like in “cross my heart” to indicate our sincerity and truthfulness. But, are we truly aware of its meaning and significance in our faith, of its centrality as the symbol of God’s love for us expressed by the self-sacrificing death of Jesus Christ his Son?
Photo by author, St. Scholastica Convent, Baguio City, 23 August 2023.
This Sunday we take a break from our cycle of readings to celebrate this Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross which falls on September 14. Due to its centrality in our faith, it is still celebrated even if the date falls on a Sunday like today.
This feast started in the fourth century with the miraculous discovery of the True Cross by Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, on 14 September 326, while she was on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. She then ordered through her son the emperor the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre that was dedicated nine years later with a portion of the True Cross placed inside it in September 13, 335. The following day, the Cross was brought outside of the church to be venerated by the clergy and the faithful.
In the year 627, during the reign of the Emperor Heraclius I of Constantinople, the Persians conquered the city of Jerusalem and removed a major part of the Cross from its sanctuary. The emperor then launched a campaign to recover the True Cross which he regarded as the new Ark of the Covenant for the new People of God. Before embarking into war, Emperor Heraclius went to church wearing black as a sign of penance, then prostrated himself before the altar and begged God for courage. His prayer was granted as he won the war and recovered the Cross from the Persians. He brought the Cross back to Jerusalem in 641 amid great celebrations by carrying it on his shoulders. Upon reaching the gate leading to Calvary, the emperor could not go forward! Heraclius and his retinue were astonished and could not understand what had happened until the Patriarch Zachary of Jerusalem told him, “Take care, O Emperor! In truth, the imperial clothing you are wearing does not sufficiently resemble the poor and humiliated condition of Jesus carrying His cross.”
Upon hearing those words, the emperor removed his shoes and bejewelled robes, put on a poor man’s clothing and was eventually able to proceed to Calvary and replaced the Cross inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where a number of miracles happened during the occasion: a dead man returned to life, four paralytics were cured, ten lepers were healed, 15 blind men were given their sight, with several possessed people exorcised and many sick people totally healed!
Photo by author, Mirador Jesuit Villa & Retreat House, Baguio City, 24 August 2023.
Very notable in this story were the words of the Patriarch of Jerusalem. It was only after the emperor had taken off his royal clothings and put on those of the poor was he able to carry the Cross.
It is the same thing that is asked of us today: it is so easy to display the cross inside our homes and cars, or wear it as a jewelry or even as a tattoo on our skin. But, that amounts to nothing unless we have the cross inside our hearts, our very being. More than the many signs of the cross and imaginary drawing of its lines we draw on our chest is the need for us to empty ourselves of our pride and sins so that we can be filled with Jesus Christ.
Brothers and sisters: Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8).
Called kenosis in Greek, self-emptying is the way of the Cross of Christ. It is choosing love and mercy than self-centeredness and self-righteousness; sacrifice than satisfaction; fairness and justice than greed and possession; bearing all the pains and perseverance than complaining and whining about difficulties and trials in life like the Israelites in the wilderness (first reading); and, thinking more of others than of one’s self.
Photo by author, 02 September 2023.
The recent COVID-19 pandemic had taught something very amusing about the positivity of being negative, when negative was actually positive – healthy and COVID free! Remember how during those days when we would always wish we would yield negative results in our swab tests for COVID?
When we look at the sign of the cross (+), it is a positive sign, a plus sign. Though the cross calls us to let go, to be detached and dispossessed, it is actually an invitation to have more of God, of life and fulfillment! In this time of affluence when everything is easily available for as long as you have the means and the resources, the sign of the Cross reminds us that life is more of letting go and of giving than of having like God who “so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that he who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn.3:16). St. Francis of Assisi said it perfectly why the Cross is an exaltation, a triumph:
For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned. and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen. Enjoy Sunday and have a blessed week ahead!
Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Our Lady of Fatima University Valenzuela City (lordmychef@gmail.com)
Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul, 14 September 2025 Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross Numbers 21:4-9 ><}}}}*> Philippians 2:6-11 ><}}}}*> John 3:13-17 *This is an updated version of our reflection last year; pray for our Marriage Encounter this weekend.
Via Crucis at Fatima University Medical Center, Valenzuela City, 2025.
This Sunday we have a unique celebration, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross that falls on the 14th day of September. It is so important that even if it falls on a Sunday, the more it must be celebrated as it is most central in the teachings of Jesus Christ.
It is so unique because despite its being made up of two ordinary pieces of wood, the Cross is most unique with its deeply extraordinary in meaning as sign of God’s immense love for us humans through Jesus Christ’s Passion and Death.
From being the sign of the most inhuman punishment in history, the Cross is now the very sign of how God “so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that he who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn.3:16). It encapsulates the whole mystery of Jesus Christ, of how this all-powerful God beyond the ordinary became weak like us in everything except sin so that we too may be like Him, divine and more than ordinary. In His suffering and death on the Cross, Jesus made the lowly wood so ordinary to be so exalted to become His sign of love and mercy, power and majesty.
Photo by author, Jerusalem, May 2017.
Hence, in the Cross is the power of God’s love to transform us to better persons.
In the Cross is God’s power to lead us closer to Him with its vertical beam and to others with its horizontal beam.
In the Cross is the power of good if we choose to embrace it with Christ Jesus as our Lord and Master.
The Cross is most unique of all signs in the world because underneath its ordinariness, that is where we see God’s glory and majesty. It was underneath the Cross of darkness and gloom on Good Friday that humanity began to see light and hope in life’s many absurdities. Most of all, it was underneath that Cross of suffering and death of Jesus Christ that we feel and experience the assurance of the Resurrection.
How?
Through our own pains and sufferings that are most uniquely ours too!
With their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!” In punishment the Lord sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died (Numbers 21:4-6).
Photo by author, Dominican Hills, Baguio City, January 2018.
You must have heard that old story of a man who came to Jesus to return the cross given for him to carry; he asked Jesus to have it replaced with a lighter one. Jesus then led the man to a huge room with all kinds of crosses for him to choose which he prefers as the best one for him so that he would stop complaining.
After closely examining the specs of so many crosses, the man finally decided to pick one he deemed as perfect for him after considering its weight and other dimensions, only to find out from Jesus Himself that it was the same cross he had actually returned for exchange!
Many times in life we are like those people in the first reading, never ending in their complaints to God, even challenging Him, accusing Him of forsaking us, of being unfair when life becomes difficult and unbearable. There are times we feel being on the distaff side of life always like a flat tire, never on top. We cry foul to God especially with all our hurts and pains inflicted by others, asking Him where was He when most needed?
Photo by author in Jordan near the Israeli border where Moses put up the bronze serpent as instructed by God to heal those bitten by the snakes after they have complained of their conditions in the wilderness, May 2019.
While it is true life is indeed difficult, the cross reminds us of the fact that the pains and hurts we have are uniquely ours too, something we have to accept and most of all, own.
There are pains that are so deep and won’t go away that have in fact affected us dismally in our lives already. Instead of self-blaming and self-pity, we just have to ask for God’s grace to accept and own them like Jesus Christ. We just have to “bring it home” – that imagery of the Cross planted on the Calvary – into our very selves, in our being as something so true and real. And uniquely ours.
Stop thinking of others’ pains and hurts. We are not all the same. If ever we have similar experiences, the hues and shades even gravity and circumstances are not same because each pain and hurt, like the cross, is uniquely ours. Like every person, every cross is unique because it is also a gift, a mystery, and life. We have to “befriend” our pains and hurts, our own cross instead of resist it. It is in “befriending” our pains and hurts, our cross in life that we grow and mature, becoming more free to love and to be joyful because that is when the cross triumphs over its disgrace and shame in us and with others. That is when our pains and hurts, when our crosses begin to reveal to us the many beautiful truths of Easter awaiting us.
The Cross of Christ triumphed because Jesus carried it wholeheartedly, allowing those two pieces of wood to reveal not only to Him who knew everything beforehand its meaning but most of all to everyone of us the deeper truths the Cross signifies as St. Paul eloquently expressed in our second reading.
The Cross of Christ atop the church of our Lady of Lourdes in France. Photo by my former student Ar. Philip Santiago during his pilgrimage, September 2018.
One thing I realized after my mother died May last year is the fact that while there are so many pains and sufferings in this world, my own pain and suffering in losing her are most difficult to bear; hence, something I must carry because it is uniquely mine.
But, one thing so unique I noticed is that the more I see my cross following my mother’s death, the more I saw also the cross of others. The Cross of Jesus triumphed truly in me when I embraced and owned my cross, when I befriended my pains and hurts that eventually led me to recognize and see, to feel more and experience too the crosses of others.
When we become conscious of each one’s unique cross, slowly we are able to reveal to them the meaning of their personal crosses too because we become more sympathetic, more open, more silent to listen more, love more, care more and be more present with those in their own unique cross. No wonder, I find conversing more engaging with others who also grieve because we can see each other’s unique crosses!
Jesus calls us to imitate Him that by embracing and owning our cross, we too may lead others to finding the meaning of their own cross and thus experience Easter soon. Let us pray:
Give us the grace, dear God to always embrace the Cross like your Son Jesus Christ where we can all be empty of ourselves to be filled with your Holy Spirit and make your love visible in us. Amen.
A blessed week to everyone!
Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Our Lady of Fatima University Valenzuela City (lordmychef@gmail.com)
lordmychef.com 