Job, St. Francis of Assisi, and… Pocahontas

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi, 04 October 2024
Job 38:1, 12-21; 40:3-5 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> Luke 10:13-16

*Photo by Fr. Bien Miguel, Diocese of Antipolo, 25 September 2024.*

This is actually a rejoinder to our prayer earlier published today on the Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi. And how I love the first reading today, of God’s “speech” to Job’s lamentations that remind us all of the wonder and majesty of creation St. Francis of Assisi highly regarded in his life and teachings.

The Lord addressed Job out of the storm and said: “Have you ever in your lifetime commanded the morning and shown the dawn its place for taking hold of the ends of the earth, till the wicked are shaken from its surface? Have you entered into the sources of the sea, or walked about in the depths of the abyss? have the gates of death been shown to you, or have you seen the gates of darkness? Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth? Tell me, if you know all” (Job 38:1, 12-13, 16-18).

How interesting too these words written about 2700 years ago in the Middle East are echoed in our own time in theme song of the Disney movie Pocahontas, “The Color of the Wind”:

Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountain?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

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

Like Job, who was a fictional character, Pocahontas went through a lot of great sufferings beyond explanations which is the aim of the authors of the Book of Job – to reflect on the mystery of human sufferings and misery amid a loving God.

It is easy to understand our sufferings in life when we are the ones who have caused them like making wrong choices and decisions or simply not exerting enough efforts to our endeavors or projects.

The most painful sufferings that are really bothersome are those we feel “undeserved” at all like getting a rare cancer and disease, being offended by someone close to us despite our being good to them, or like Pocahontas who was then living in peace and quiet until the English colonizers came to America who kidnapped and gang raped her.

I have never seen that Disney movie Pocahontas that is loosely based on the life of a native American Indian woman Pocahontas whose actual name was Matoaka; she was the daughter of the Chief of the Powhatan tribe in Chesapeake, Virginia during the early 1600’s.

According to historians, there was really no romance at all between Pocahontas and the British colonizer Captain John Smith as portrayed in the Disney movie. After getting pregnant from that gangrape, Pocahontas was forced to marry the English explorer John Rolfe as a condition for her release that only made her life filled with great sufferings and humiliations until her death.

Though a work of fiction but a fruit of prayerful reflections about life’s realities unlike the Disney movie Pocahontas, Job suffered severely when he lost his children, properties and livestock in a single day. Worst of all, he was stricken with a rare disease and left to the care of a “nagging” wife and three friends who wanted him to curse God or admit his guilt for a sin for which God was punishing him.

But Job’s conscience was clear, remaining faithful to God throughout all his sufferings. His complaints and cries were actually a voicing out of his inner pains to God, an expression of his trust in Him, “But as for me, I know that my Vindicator lives, and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust… And from my flesh I shall see God; my inmost being is consumed with longing” (Job 19:25, 27).

Job like us today was not seeking any answer nor explanation at all for his sufferings; he cries to God like us because we believe only God can save us. We do not cry or air our pains to someone we do not trust or believe in; the same is true why we cry and complain to God!

God’s response to Job’s laments remind us today of the need for us to see the whole picture we are into in this vast universe, of how everyone and everything is interconnected in God through His own Son Jesus Christ.

Notice how the author structured the speech of God of seeming opposites in life: commanding the morning and being shown the dawn in verse 12; sources of the sea and depths of the abyss in verse 16; and, gates of death and gates of darkness in verse 17. Jewish thought at that time was so structured that they saw everything distinctly different like morning and dawn, sea and abyss, death and darkness. That explains why they were so strict with the letters of the law that they eventually forgot the primacy of the human person which Jesus tried to emphasized to them in His teachings and healings. Jesus came to show us how everything and everyone in this whole creation is linked together, interrelated in God through Him.

This He did when He died on the Cross.

*Photo by Fr. Gerry Pascual of the fresco at the Assisi Basilica, Italy, 2019.*

It is sad that St. Francis of Assisi is often “romanticized” by many nature lovers even by some “new agers” for his love for nature and animals. More than sentimental reasons, St. Francis’ love and concern for nature and animals were all the result of his deep love and devotion to Jesus Christ crucified found daily in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist.

St. Francis realized and experienced the interconnectedness of everything and everyone in his own sufferings and pains in life he humbly embraced and accepted as we see in that verse we pray at every Station of the Cross he had composed:

V. We adore You, O Lord Jesus Christ, and we bless you. R. Because by Your holy Cross, You have redeemed the world.

For his love for the Cross and his own sufferings, Jesus blessed St. Francis with the stigmata, His five wounds at His crucifixion.

*Photo by Fr. Gerry Pascual, Sculpture of the young St. Francis in Assisi, Italy, 2019.*

After receiving those wounds, St. Francis was blinded as he went through severe sufferings after going through well-intentioned surgeries that went so bad. He was in his 40’s at that time and despite his great sufferings, it was during that period when he produced so many great writings we all cherish until now, notably the Canticle of the Sun where we find his famous expressions “brother sun, sister moon, and cousin death” – the very same things God expressed to Job in that speech out of the storm in our first reading today that is echoed by Disney’s Pocahontas in the theme “The Color of the Wind”.

But unlike that Disney movie that sugarcoats life’s realities of sufferings and pains, both Job and St. Francis of Assisi remind us today that the more we embrace our pains and sufferings in life like them, the more we see life’s wholeness, our oneness in God and the rest of His creations when seen in the light of the Cross of Jesus Christ.

When we see this oneness and interconnectedness in life, that is when we actually grow and mature, become fruitful as we find fulfillment in life despite the difficulties and pains we go through. Have a blessed weekend everyone! Happy feast day too to our Franciscan brothers and sisters!

From YouTube.com.

Praying for the patience of Job

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday in the Twenty-sixth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 03 October 2024
Job 19:21-27 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Luke 10:1-12

*Photo by Mr. Jay Javier, 07 September 2024.*

God our loving Father:

Grant me the "patience of Job".
Like him, everyday I go through many
trials and sufferings:
some are of my own-making,
some can be explained and understood,
but most often,
many of them are a mystery,
beyond explanations,
beyond comprehension.
Yes, Lord:
many times I have so many
questions in life that are left
unanswered but like Job,
I believe You alone knows
everything I am going through,
especially the pains and hurts,
the difficulties and hardships.

But as for me, I know that my Vindicator lives, and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust; Whom I myself shall see: my own eyes, not another’s, shall behold him, And from my flesh I shall see God: my inmost being is consumed with longing (Job 19:25-27).

Lord Jesus Christ:

Thank you for calling me,
for sending me into your
great harvest;
how lovely are your words,
"The harvest is abundant
 but the laborers are few;
so ask the master
to send out laborers
for his harvest" (Matthew 10:2);
so many times,
we think the solution to our
problems are found in things
without knowing nor realizing
what we need are more people
willing to labor with somebody else's
pains and hurts,
people willing to labor
for people so lost in the mysteries
of life saddled with many things
without clear explanations
except to be patient like Job,
trusting that in the end,
our vindication is in You.
Amen.

The uniqueness of the Cross

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Saturday, Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, 14 September 2024
Numbers 21:4-9 ><}}}}*> Philippians 2:6-11 ><}}}}*> John 3:13-17

*Photo by author in my previous parish, 2017.*

Today we celebrate a most unique Feast, the Exaltation of the Cross.

It is so unique because first of all, the cross is perhaps the most unique thing on earth made up of two pieces of wood that are so ordinary yet so deeply extraordinary in meaning, a 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.

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 Philip Santiago during his pilgrimage, September 2018.*

One thing I realized after my mother died in May 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, O 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 
to make your love visible in us.  
Amen.

True Wisdom

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday in the Twenty-first Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 30 August 2024
1 Corinthians 1:17-25 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 25:1-13

*Photo by author, Chapel of angel of Peace, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City.*

For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength (1 Corinthians 1:22-25).

One of the most enduring
and endearing
words by the great St. Paul,
O Lord this final Friday
of August.

In a milieu
when even the Church
is threatened by interest groups
and ideologies running down to
the many parishes
sowing distractions and divisions,
let us find our unity anew
in the crucified Jesus Christ;
let us be like the five wise virgins
who brought extra oil in waiting
the groom's coming,
accepting the situation of darkness
and bringing along extra oil
of faith, hope, and love
in Christ;
make us humble, O Lord,
that whatever we have achieved
and gained are all
 by your grace, O God;
let us not be complacent like
the five foolish virgins;
let us choose
whatever is difficult like Christ crucified
allowing each of us to change
for the best in God;
let us choose
whatever is painful like Christ crucified
allowing us to empathize more;
let us choose
always Christ crucified
because the Cross is a plus sign,
an addition than a subtraction
in this life
through eternity.
Amen.

Walking life’s hills with Jesus

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 15 August 2024
Revelation 11:19;12:1-6, 10 ><}}}}*> 1 Corinthians 15:20-27 ><}}}}*> Luke 1:39-56

Glory and praise,
God Almighty Father
in sending us Jesus our Savior
who gave us His Mother
the Blessed Virgin Mary,
the very first fruit as St. Paul said 
of Christ's wondrous work 
of salvation due her oneness in Him.

Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-40).

Right after the Annunciation
to Mary, her path to her Assumption
began when she "set out and 
travelled to the hill country in haste"
to share Christ in her with Elizabeth;
what a beautiful imagery of the same
path to the Calvary, another hill
outside Jerusalem to be with Christ
her Son.

Bless us with the same grace 
You gave Mary your Mother, Lord Jesus,
to follow your path to every hill in this life,
to be one with those especially who are
in pain and suffering; let us trust in You
fully in faith, hope and love that the 
sufferings we may endure in setting out
to travel to the hills of this life is 
the very path of our assumption 
in You; let us realize that despite the
many comforts and ease of technology
today, it is not what life really is, that
we all have to go through your 
Passion, Death, and Resurrection.
Like Mary, may we believe
your words, Jesus, 
will be fulfilled.
Amen.

*“The Assumption of the Virgin” by Italian Renaissance painter Titian completed in 1518 for the main altar of Frari church in Venice. Photo from en.wikipedia.org.*

Why are you here?

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday in the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 14 June 2024
1 Kings 19:9, 11-16 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 5:27-32

*Photo by Mr. Vigie Ongleo, Sagada, Mt. Province, 2014.*

O God, dear Father,
how I have loved so much
ever since today's story 
of Elijah fleeing from death 
at the hands of Jezebel's army;
so many times I have felt like Elijah,
so tired, fed up fighting,
hoping for death when the going
gets tough and rough; 
and so many times too, 
You have never forsaken me,
Father like Elijah,
asking me many times 
that question,
"Why are you here?" 
(1 Kings 19:9, 13).

Very often, I get confused, Father,
if I am that zealous for You 
like Elijah or just me so insistent 
with what I believe,
with what I know,
with what I hold so dear
in You and for You;
many times I do not know
if I am still doing your will
especially when it is so difficult,
so uncomfortable and,
yes, I have asked You many times
why not just make me
an ordinary man,
instead of being your prophet....

But your question remains,
Lord, that I rarely face nor
answer squarely: 
"Why are you here?"

You know me so well,
Lord: like Simon Peter in
Capernaum after your discourse
on the bread of life,
my favorite response to You is
"Master, to whom shall we go? 
You have the words of eternal life.
We have come to believe and 
are convinced that you are the
Holy One of God" (John 6:68-69).

But most of all,
I am here because like the
psalmist,
"I long to see your face,
O Lord" (Psalm 27:7-8);
and for me to see your face
means to love more
until it hurts me;
to see your face, Lord,
is to be still and silent
amid the noise of this world
for you are always there in our
midst among the weak
and voiceless,
among those in the margins
and underneath the heaps
of scraps and garbage;
to see your face, O Lord,
is to remember always
it is your work,
not mine that I must
accomplish.

Why am I here, Lord?
Because You told me so.
Thank you so much
in bringing me here this far,
no matter what
for as long I feel
 getting closer
with You.
In that case,
I shall always be here
for You!
Amen.

Drought & blessedness

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday in Tenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 10 June 2024
1 Kings 17:1-6 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 5:1-12

Your words today, O Lord,
seem to be so apart,
unconnected, even disconsonant
to some respect:
in the first reading,
You declared a drought as
punishment against Israel
who turned their backs from You,
worshipping Baal;
in the gospel,
Jesus preached His Sermon
on the mount, declaring as 
"blessed" are those who are poor,
the meek, the hungry and thirsty,
the persecuted and insulted -
conditions and situations
directly contrary to the ways of the world,
so uncomfortable and difficult.

Every time we are facing
trials and difficulties in life,
we consider it as a drought,
a time when You, O God,
seem to be so far from us
when in fact, it is us who have gone
astray and away from You!

Let us see, dear Jesus,
your blessings
in every drought,
in every hardship,
in every poverty,
 and persecutions
we go through;
 let us realize the blessedness
of these moments of drought
and trials and difficulties
when we can examine what's
in our hearts,
who's in our hearts.

Many times we unconsciously
drift apart from You, O Lord,
when we are carried away by
our modern baals and gods
that separate us from You
and one another;
help us find our way
back to You,
rejoicing always in times of drought
to seek You and follow You.
Amen.

*Photo by Ms, Analyn Dela Torre, March 2024.*

Priesthood is the Cross

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal High Priest, 23 May 2024
Hebrews 10:11-18 <*{{{{>< + <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> Mark 14:22-25

Praise and glory to You,
Lord Jesus Christ for reminding us
this Thursday after the Pentecost
of Your call for us to be like You, 
our Eternal High Priest,
in gentleness and mercy,
kindness and love;
and the good news is
all these are already in us
when we were baptized
to share in Your priesthood
the Father had promised
to Jeremiah fulfilled in You:

The holy Spirit also testifiesd to us, for after saying: “This is the covenant I will establish with them after those days, says the Lord: ‘I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them upon their minds,'” he also says: “Their sins and their evildoing I will remember no more.” Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer offering for sin.
Hebrews 10:15-18

Two Sundays ago,
we celebrated Your Ascension
that is more relational in nature
than spatial, the leveling up of
our relationships with You and
with one another that is affirmed
today by this feast of You,
Jesus our Eternal High Priest
and Mediator when You
established the New Covenant
on that Last Supper:

As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.”
Mark 14:22-24

*Photo by author, Chapel of St. Francis Xavier, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.*

These words, dear Jesus
You fulfilled on the Cross 
the following Good Friday; 
in Your self-offering on the Cross,
You fulfilled the temple worship
by putting an end to 
those bloody sacrifices,
rites and rituals of the Old that
were empty due to the sins 
and weaknesses of
the priests and people;
in Your dying on the Cross
as fulfillment of Your words at
the Last Supper as our 
Eternal High Priest and Mediator,
You have consecrated us as
Your holy people;
this perfect offering 
is what we celebrate,
what we remember,
what we make present daily 
in the Holy Eucharist;
help us, therefore, dear Jesus,
to be faithful and true to You
by being more loving with one
another as we face the Father 
in the Sacrifice of the Mass
in You, through You and with You
Jesus by sharing in Your Priesthood,
help us laity and priests alike
to be true in our witnessing,
in our loving sacrifices for each other.

Every priest stands daily at his ministry, offering frequently those same sacrifices that can never take away sins. But this one offered one sacrifice for sins, and took his seat forever at the right hand of God. For by one offering he has made perfect those who are being consecrated.
Hebrews 10:11-12, 14

Forgive us,
 Your priests and bishops,
dearest Jesus
whom You have called
to act in "persona Christi"
but have become more like
the priests of the Old Testament
so concerned with our
name and position,
power and wealth;
forgive us, Lord Jesus,
when we Your priests and bishops
look and move like matinee idols
or think and speak like managers
than pastors of souls;
forgive us, O Lord,
when we Your priests and bishops
have no more time to kneel daily
be with You in prayers
because we prefer
to socialize and party
with the rich and powerful
that we miserably fail
 in finding You
among the poor
 and the suffering.

Transform us
priests and bishops
to be more like You
Jesus Christ,
our Eternal Priest and Mediator
in thinking,
in speaking,
in doing,
in living,
most especially in loving.

Let us not forget
that You saved mankind
by suffering and dying on the Cross,
not with with programs
and activities
because Your glory
can only be found on the Cross
where death is conquered
and led to life and light.
Amen.

Praying & Dying with Jesus

The Lord Is My Chef Good Friday Recipe, 29 March 2024
Isaiah 52:13-53:12  > + <  Hebrews 4:14-16;5:7-9  > + <  John 18:1-19:42

*Photo by author, Chapel of the Holy Family, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, June 201*6.

The evangelists tell us that Jesus died on the Cross on a Friday at about 3PM. And they tell us too that our Lord died praying, exactly what most of the Seven Last Words expressed.

But from the gospel we have heard this afternoon written by the beloved disciple, we discover something very beautiful about the death of Jesus, that He was very calm and peaceful in His prayer unto death.

After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I thirst.” There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth. When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.” And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.
John 19:28-30

When we are deep in suffering, in severe pain like Jesus on the cross, what do we usually pray? Most often, we pray that the terrible ordeal we are going through would finally end, would be finished.

And sometimes, due to desperation, we even pray for death, of how we wish God would finally end our life to be free from all the problems we are going to.

One of the things I keep telling to sick people I visit came from Meryl Streep who acted as mother of Winona Ryder in the 1990’s movie “House of Spirits” when she said, “Do not pray for death because death surely comes.” Sometimes in our desperation, we feel death is the solution to our problems and sufferings. But when Jesus died on the Cross, He made death an offering, a gift of self in love.

In the original Greek text, the word used to express Jesus Christ’s final prayer “It is finished” is tetelestai from the root word telos meaning the final end and direction. It is not just an ending but a direction too.

From the very start, Jesus was clear with His mission and how it would be accomplished. He has always been sure of Himself, of who He is. Notice how the beloved disciple repeated many times in his account of the Last Supper how Jesus was “fully aware” of everything that was going to happen to Him that He was actually in control and never left to the whims and powers of His enemies when He went through His Passion and Death.

Last night we heard how Jesus knew everything was coming to end that He washed the feet of His disciples after their supper. Most of all, Jesus was so composed and serene that He even gave bread to His betrayer Judas Iscariot during their meal. In fact in the washing of the feet of His disciples to His agony in the garden, Jesus calmly and courageously faced death that in the end, on the Cross, He had the upper hand that He was able to pray “It is finished” because He was never made under the power of death completely as He would rise again on Easter.

In praying “It is finished,” Jesus consecrated not only Himself but also all humanity to the Father so that we are able to bear and face death squarely like Him. Very notable in this part is how we find only in the fourth gospel how Jesus died by “handing over his spirit to the Father.”

Remember the verb to hand over is the literal meaning of the Greek word used paradidomi or betrayal. But here at the death of Jesus, handing over has no negative connotation but purely positive; Jesus never betrayed or handed anyone over to sufferings. He bore all sufferings and handed these over to the Father. That is true passion in the active sense when we let things happen not because we are helpless and resigned to the situation but we passively take everything in the positive sense because we have that firm faith and deep conviction that being silent, being patient, being persevering will eventually bear fruit for us like the death of Jesus that led to Easter.

Suffering and death thus are not resignation nor mere surrender but submission to the higher power of God to convert darkness into light, sadness into joy, and death into life. There on the Cross Jesus showed that true power is in weakness.

After the consecration of the bread and wine into Christ’s Body and Blood in the Mass, we proclaim “Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.” We call it as “the mystery of our faith” because when we say “Christ has died,” we admit that truly, the Son of God went through all kinds of sufferings in life we all go through like betrayal, rejection, loneliness, sickness, hunger, thirst, and yes, even death. And His sufferings continue as we suffer more in this world marred by evil and sins, making us cry, asking when would these end and be finished.

There lies the mystery of our faith on the Cross that led to Easter: when we look at Jesus Christ on His Cross, we see our own pains and agony as God’s pains and agony too. Jesus joined us in our anguish and death so that we could experience all the more His immense love for us. Without Jesus and His Cross, we would never be able to bear or even face the many deaths we go through daily. May we recognize God’s immense love for us again this afternoon when we venerate the Cross and see it as the merging point of human and Divine suffering. Keep praying with Jesus who has the final say with death in Easter. Amen.

*Photo by Ka Ruben, National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, Valezuela City, August 2022.*

Our hands & the hands of God

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Solemnity of the Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion-B, 24 March 2024
Isaiah 50:4-7  ]]+[[  Philippians 2:6-11  ]]+[[  Mark 15:1-39

As you all know by now, I turned 59 years old last Friday, March 22. For the second consecutive year, I have moved my personal annual retreat to my birthday so I can pray more, thank God more for his gift of life to me. This is one of my realizations in turning 59 years old:

"The more we enter the heart of Jesus
 where we find peace and fulfillment, 
joy and security, 
the more we also discover 
the dark and ugly sides of life.  
Darkness, pains, sickness, failures, 
and other forms of sufferings 
come to the fore when we are 
in God’s loving presence,
and vice versa."

The more we see and experience God’s beauty, we also see and experience Christ’s agony and passion within our very selves and among our brothers and sisters. These two faces of life ever present in our earthly journey are perfectly shown to us by today’s celebration called “the Solemnity of the Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion.”

What we have this Sunday is actually a twin-celebration.

Palm Sunday came from the liturgy of the early Christians living in Jerusalem in the fourth century who started the Holy Week tradition with a procession of palm branches that later spread to France and Germany where the blessing of palms was introduced. Later in Rome in the 12th century, the Pope began the tradition of commemorating the Lord’s Passion on this Sunday with a proclamation of that long gospel narrating Christ’s entry into Jerusalem leading to His Last Supper until His Crucifixion and Death. It was only in 1965 during Vatican II when these two celebrations were combined into what we now have as the Solemnity of the Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion.

The merging of these two celebrations sums up the mystery we celebrate during Holy Week as well as the mystery of our everyday life wherein we have the glory of Palm Sunday in one hand and at the other hand, the darkness of our own passion as a sharing in the Pasch of the Lord.

*Photo by author, Chapel of St. Francis Xavier, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, 20 March 2024.*

I have intended a play in the word “hand” there as I prayed over our gospel this Sunday during my recent retreat. As directed by my Jesuit guide, I reflected on the four gospel accounts of the Lord’s Passion where I found the word “hand over” used so many times.

“To hand over” is the more literal translation of the Greek word paradidomi used by the evangelists in the “betrayal”of Jesus by Judas Iscariot. In Filipino, it is ipasa and ibigay that are more picturesque than ipagkanulo which is our equivalent of “to betray”.

Now, look at how our Filipino word ipasa takes on a deeper meaning when we reflect on how Jesus was “handed over” first by Judas Iscariot to the chief priests who then “handed him over” to Pilate who eventually “handed him over” into death by crucifixion. Pinagpasa-pasahan nila si Jesus! And that is how evil we are humans with God and with one another, using our very own hands, handing them over by manipulating them for our own selfish ends.

Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went off to the chief priests to hand him over to them. When they heard him they were pleased and promised to pay him money. Then he looked for an opportunity to hand him over… He (Judas Iscariot) came and immediately went over to him and said, “Rabbi.” And he kissed him. At this they laid hands on him and arrested him.
Mark 14:10-11, 45-46

As soon as morning came, the chief priests with the elders and the scribes, that is, the whole Sanhedrin, held a council. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate… So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas to them, and after he had Jesus scourged, handed him over to be crucified.
Mark 15:1, 15

This handing over of Jesus – pinagpasa-pasahan si Jesus in Filipino took its lowest point in Matthew’s account when Pilate “took water and washed his hands in the sight of the crowd” (Mt. 27:24) to claim innocence in the Lord’s death. That’s how dirty our hands as humans have become! How ironic and tragic that the more we wash our hands in repeatedly handing over our family and friends, colleagues and even country, the more our hands have become dirty.

This Sunday, Jesus is inviting us to examine our hands, to clean our hands so that they become His hands of loving service, mercy and forgiveness, kindness and understanding and care for each other and nature. Let us remember the lessons of COVID-19 four years ago today when we constantly washed and disinfected our hands to be more responsible with each other, with nature and with life. Our problems are often the results of things getting off hand, out of control or too much control as we manipulate everything even God, persons and nations through elections as well as habits and patterns for economic and social reasons

*“Ecce Homo” painting by Vicente Juan Masip (1507-1579) from masterapollon.com*

It is so different with the hands of God expressed so beautifully in our first reading from the Prophet Isaiah’s Song of the Suffering Servant who was fulfilled in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

The Lord God has given me a well trained-tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them… and I have not rebelled, have not turned back.
Isaiah 50:4, 5

Here is a beautiful picture of God in Jesus Christ whose hands we have tied so many times as we insisted on our own ways, in seeking instant gratifications, in manifesting power through sheer strength. Here lies the beauty of God’s hands in Jesus Christ so opposite with our manipulating and controlling hands because His is of submission. Or passion.

The word “passion” is from the Latin patior that means to suffer or to undergo. It is related with the words passivity and patience – exactly like patients who just lie and wait on their beds, waiting for the doctors and nurses, for them to be healed and get better.

Passion here connotes passivity in the positive sense when we strip ourselves naked before God in order to be open to new possibilities like Jesus Christ eloquently expressed by St. Paul in the second reading when He “emptied and humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil.2:7, 8).

In his Passion, Jesus taught us that true power is in weakness like him dying on the Cross. Now here we find something so interesting with the synoptics account of Christ’s death when “he breathed his last” (Mk. 15:37) leading to the faith of a Roman soldier, a pagan.

When the centurion who stood facing him saw how he breathed his last he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
Mark 15:39

What was in Christ’s final breath that convinced the Roman centurion that Jesus was indeed the Son of God? The fourth gospel gives us the answer: When Jesus has taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.” And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit (Jn. 19:30).

Here again we find the words “handing over” but this time in the positive sense. Jesus never betrayed the Father nor anyone; he instead handed over Himself to God and to us. That is passion when we suffer passively in the positive sense because we love, we care, we understand.

For us to enter into the heart of Jesus this Holy Week, we have to enter into His passion too. That is to submit, to surrender all our powers to God through our parents and superiors by emptying ourselves of our pride to be filled with Christ’s humility, justice and love. Amen. A blessed Holy Week to everyone!

Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moonOr asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?Can you sing with all the voices of the mountain?Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountain?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?