Understanding the parables, getting close to Jesus

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 26 July 2026
1 Kings 3:5, 7-12 ><}}}*> Romans 8:28-30 ><}}}*> Matthew 13:44-52

*Photo by author, Anvaya Cove, Morong, Bataan, 20 July 2026.*

We now come to the final installment of the last three parables by Jesus that began two Sundays ago that speak of the mystery of the kingdom of heaven, its unfolding and demands from us his disciples.

There are a total of seven parables in Matthew 13 known as discourse in parables which started with the parable of the sower until last Sunday where Jesus repeatedly told his listeners that included us today that “whoever has ears ought to hear”; now at its final installment, Jesus asks us after explaining everything, “Do you understand all these things?”

“Do you understand all these things?” They answered “Yes.” And he replied, “Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from the storeroom both the new and the old” (Matthew 13:51-52).

From the French word parabolein for “along the road/path”, parables are stories taken from daily life that offer us deep, profound lessons and realities especially about God and his loving presence among us, of the coming of his kingdom in Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, most of us dismiss them because they are so plain and simple. Or ordinary, not realizing that the deepest truths in life actually come from the simplest aspects of daily living. That is why Jesus kept reminding everyone to always listen, not just hear.

Listening is more intentional, deliberate and conscious, leading to understanding which is an internalization of the lessons and message said. Our Filipino translation shows this so well: to listen is makinig while to hear is madinig or marinig.

Makinig demands attention while dinig is passive, indicating more of the surface level of sounds and words, not really minding the meaning and context. That is why, listening is more reliable, more certain than hearing that has no intention of understanding at all what is meant by being said.

*Photo by author, “St. Joseph Protector of the Child Jesus”, 20 March 2024.*

Listening leads to knowing and understanding the what, where, when, how and why of events and things of the story or lessons. When there is understanding, relationship happens because more than the facts and details we listen to, we encounter persons. Pope Leo XIV beautifully said this in his first Lenten Message in February that “listening is the first sign of our willingness to enter into a relationship.”

Now we see the intention of Jesus in teaching in parables which is to have a personal relationship with us his listeners and disciples. Moreover, the very act of listening leading to understanding is a process of formation and transformation which is the bigger picture of Jesus teaching in parables – that we may be transformed in him especially when he asked today, “Do you understand all these things?”

Again, its Filipino translation reveals its true meaning and inner dynamics, Nauunawaan ba ninyo ang mga ito? To understand is maunawaan, from the root word una or first in order.

More than knowing, to understand or maunawaan is to realize which is the first of all others because that is the most essential, the most important. “To understand all these things” is not a question of human intelligence that is often short and lacking, and unreliable. “To understand all these things” is a spiritual intelligence, of the humble and lowly, the child-like whom Jesus praised the other week in our weekday gospel (15th week, Wednesday, 15 July 2026, Mt.11:25-27).

Jesus asks us this Sunday “do you understand all these things” to stress that the kingdom of heaven which is actually the person of Christ himself is a treasure beyond price like that treasure found by a man in the field or that precious pearl a trader had found that we are willing to renounce everything to have and possess him!

Understanding the parables of Jesus is finding “God first” before anything or anybody else. In the first reading, we find why King Solomon is the wisest person of all because when asked by God for any gift, he asked for “an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong” (1Kings 3:9) which delighted God so much. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom indeed!

God is the first One we must always desire, think and search in life. Without God, we only come in vicious circles of addictions and emptiness and meaninglessness. It is no surprise at all that the most corrupt and vicious people are also the ones who disregard God, who live as if there is no eternity. Without God, we are reduced to mere creatures meant to just eat and survive. Nothing else. That is why some people do not mind at all looking stupid (mukhang tanga at tunay na tanga), without any self respect because only matter matters for them like money (mukhang pera) and things like power or popularity.

With God, we find meaning and direction in everything in life as St. Paul tells us in the second reading, “Brothers and sisters: We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

*Photo by author, flower of a Balibago Tree, Anvaya Cove Resort, Bataan, 21 July 2026.*

“All things”… including trials and tribulations for they make us stronger and better persons. When we look back to our past, we see there are more things we have to be thankful to God than be sorry and have regrets. Many times, our past failures and sufferings and tears have become our gateway to our victory and comfort and joy.

Understanding the parables of Jesus and of life in general is actually a movement into getting closer to Christ, of being “every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from the storeroom both the new and the old” (Mt. 13:52).

Here we find the coming into full circle of Christ’s discourse in parables: from listening to understanding which is a process of communion and oneness with the Master, Jesus whose very Person is the kingdom of heaven.

Looking back to these past three Sundays of listening and understanding the various parables of Jesus, we find a remarkable stage in his teachings that bring us closest to him, leading us for the next route of his itinerary which is actually an inner journey into our hearts where he alone dwells. Amen. A blessed week ahead of listening and understanding Jesus among the people we meet and happenings we experience.

*Happy Feast Day to all Lolos and Lolas for today is the feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne, parents of the the Blessed Virgin Mary, grandparents of Jesus Christ.

Our inexpressible groanings

Lord My Chef SundayRecipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 19 July 2026
Wisdom 12:13, 16-19 ><))))*> Romans 8:26-27 ><))))*> Matthew 13:24-43

*Photo by author, Lake of Galilee, the Holy Land, May 2017.*

Before reflecting on the second set of parables by Jesus this Sunday, let us take a brief stop at the very short second reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans; it is so lovely and we cannot resist reflecting on the word “groaning” by the great Apostle.

Last Sunday, St. Paul said “We know all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now… we also groan within ourselves as we await for adoption, the redemption of our bodies” (Rom. 8:22,23). And then this Sunday, he spoke again of “groaning”:

Brothers and sister: The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings. And the one who searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the holy ones according to God’s will (Romans 8:26-27).

To groan or to sigh according to Mr. Webster is a deep, prolonged sound made involuntarily in response to pain, grief or frustration. We have a very picturesque translation of those words in Filipino which is magbuntung-hininga that many of our old folks frowned upon because it is a sign of surrendering, of giving up.

*Photo by author, St. Michael Retreat House, Antipolo City, 16 June 2026.*

Is it bad? Not at all. Even Jesus sighed at the disbelief among the Jews with him (Mk.8:12). To groan, to sigh is to be fully human and even Christian if we go by the line of thought of St. Paul last week and this Sunday.

Groaning for him is the most profound spiritual response to brokenness. That is why I love our Filipino word magbuntung-hininga that evokes an image of digging deep inside – halukayin – for breath to breathe and forge on in life. It is like gulping a handful of air to breathe before taking a plunge or meeting head on a difficult situation in life. It is actually a kind of spirituality, an expression of holiness of surrendering everything to God, of letting go and letting God.

St. Paul spoke of three kinds of groaning: the first two we heard last Sunday, creation groaning and believers groaning as we have cited earlier. Creation groaning means the world is subject to decay while Christians groan inwardly, bearing all pains and hardships in clear hopes of redemption in Christ.

This Sunday, St. Paul spoke anew of “inexpressible groaning”, of sighing because it is too deep for words that the Holy Spirit within us is doing all the expressions of our deepest feelings. It is the one fact of life we often forget when in deep trials and tribulations: that the Holy Spirit is already within us in all our weaknesses. Actually, we do not have to come before God with perfect words, clear thoughts or settled hearts when praying because he knows everything we are going through. Simply be still for God is with us.

And this my friends is the very meaning of Jesus Christ’s second set of parables this Sunday, the weeds among the wheat.

Jesus proposed another parable to the crowds, saying: “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well… His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ He replied, “No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn” (Matthew 13:24-26, 28-30).

We live in an imperfect world, of weeds growing among the wheat. There will always be diseases and sickness, failures and death along with scammers and criminals, liars and idiots, suckers and ungrateful and traitors among us. Add to these all the other woes we have in life like that ongoing war in the Middle East that have kicked up gas prices so high like drones and missiles. Hayyyy…!

And we ask, where is God?

How could God allow all these things to happen like when a poor, hardworking motorcycle taxi rider in Caloocan City trying to make ends meet died after being stabbed with an ice pick then robbed by his passenger still at large?

We wonder as a nation how long do we have to bear all the stupidities and idiosyncrasies of those corrupt, evil people in government even in the church when the majority of us have to suffer at the consequences of their excesses and abuses?

The author of the Book of Wisdom reflected on these realities thousands of years ago and had asked the same questions we ask today. He invites us to prayerfully reflect God’s goodness and kindness:

But though you are master of might, you judge with clemency, and with much lenience you govern us; for power, whenever you will, attends you. And you taught your people, by these deeds, that those who are just must be kind; and you gave your children good ground for hope that you would permit repentance for their sins (Wisdom 12:18-19).

*Photo by author, Carmel of the Holy Family Monastery, Guiguinto, Bulacan, 21 January 2026.*

Despite the weeds – the evil men and women who seem to always prevail – the author of Wisdom in his reflections reminds us to be like God, “the just must be kind.”

It is a very tall order, even difficult but we have to give it a chance because we have seen and proven that many times our human response to the evils and injustices happening end up becoming more brutal like the wars happening right now. Many times, human solutions actually create bigger problems.

That is why all three readings this Sunday tell us to be patient, to dive deeper in prayer where the Holy Spirit enlightens us clearly.

*Photo from inquirer.net, Pandacan Church fire, 11 July 2020.*

We have seen and experienced in recent years that indeed, “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Rom. 5:20) like with those two good men in the NBI testifying at the impeachment of the Vice-President or of that most decent lawyer from Cebu, Atty. Amando Virgil Ligutan smashing all the lies and grandstanding of her lawyers. Every day we experience grace after grace of deliverance from all dangers through people including strangers who have helped us kindly.

That is why we have to go back to this Sunday’s second reading where St. Paul reminds us that even when we cannot say what is happening within us, the Holy Spirit is praying in us and for us. There are more things happening in us that we have to be thankful with than be sorry or complain about.

Let go of all those negative feelings and thoughts; life is already difficult, don’t make it harder. Instead, may we come to Jesus and learn from him to be patient like God who “gave us good ground for hope that you would permit repentance for their sins” (Wis.12:19).

Let us cultivate our hearts – the field where the seeds are sown that despite the weeds they shall still bear fruit with good works and peace for everyone.

Our classes in the University have begun recently; every time I celebrate Mass with our students, I always remind them these things which I hope may help you too: study hard, work harder, pray hardest. May you have a Holy Spirit-filled week ahead. Amen.

Our interconnectedness in God’s abundance: the parable of life

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 12 July 2026
Isaiah 55:10-11 ><}}}}*> Romans 8:18-23 ><}}}}*> Matthew 13:1-23

*Photo by author, Lake of Galilee, the Holy Land, May 2019.*

Matthew’s opening lines in today’s gospel present us a beautiful image of God’s abundance we often take for granted just like the parables of Jesus that remind us of our interconnectedness as brothers and sisters.

On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood along the shore. And he spoke to them at length in parable, saying: “A sower went out to sow” (Matthew 13:1-3).

For the next three Sundays beginning today, all our gospel readings are taken from this 13th chapter of Matthew known as the “Discourse in Parables” that forms one whole unit of the Lord’s teachings in parables.

From the French word parabolein or “along the way”, a parable is a simple story often taken from ordinary things and events in life that offers valuable lessons about life; but, because it is a story taken from ordinary things and events, a parable is often taken for granted.

Many times we only realize later that the most profound realities in life are those found in most ordinary like God who comes to us daily in simplest ordinary things and people and events we take for granted or even refuse to recognize.

Our Filipino word for parable which is talinghaga captures this very well. From the phrase natataling hiwaga that means “tied mystery”: tali is a rope or a tie that binds things together like mystery or hiwaga. Hence, we have talinghaga for parable that indicate how a mystery is tied with the ordinary and simple things and persons and events.

That is the purpose of Jesus in teaching us in parables: that we may learn to find the hidden truths and mysteries of life in the most ordinary things. His teaching in parables is a continuation as well as a deepening of his call to us last Sunday to “come to him and learn from him” so that we may find rest and fulfillment in him.

What I find amazing in our gospel scene this Sunday is how Jesus was by the shore of the Lake of Galilee yet, his parable is about the sower.

Why not narrate something about the life of fishermen or fish vendors?

Again, let us situate ourselves in Matthew’s opening line, “On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea.”

Imagine the scene, it was early morning, the sun had just risen, and people were starting to go about their usual lives when they heard Jesus teaching while seated on a boat perhaps owned by Peter. More than the parable of the sower itself, Matthew is showing us in this scene the very parable of our life that the whole world is God’s.

Every pilgrim to the Holy Land can attest to this unique beauty of the Lake of Galilee that is so lovely, so peaceful and yes, divine. It tells us of God’s superabundance in all of his creation, interconnecting us as brothers and sisters in him our Father.

This is the same parable and truth of life that God had spoken through the Prophet Isaiah in the first reading:

Thus says the Lord: Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come own and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; my word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:10-11).

Nothing happens by accident in life; God knows everything. And the good news is, he gives everything that is good like the sower. Not just the seeds but the bread we eat, the water we drink, even the very breath we breathe.

Moreover, there is the connectedness of everything in God’s superabundance like that of the rain and snow making the earth fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the sower so that there would be bread for everyone, even clothes to wear.

*Painting by Van Gogh, “The Sower on Sunset” from wikipedia.org.*

God is the Sower always coming to us, tending us, sowing us with seeds that are absolutely good. It does not really matter what kind of soil receives the seed that even the pathway becomes a conduit in feeding the birds of the air!

The seed is definitely good because God is good. In all instances where the seed had fallen, we find God the Sower himself moving in each step of our life. Observe how in this image of the sower moving from his home to his field, it shows us also the journey of the word and the purpose of God in our life. There is no problem with the seed that is so fecund and definitely efficacious as God had told Isaiah that “my word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.”

If ever the word is not fruitful, it is due to our poor disposition as listeners or recipients. That is why St. Paul reminds us in the second reading of how we must responsibly be true to our call and role as disciples of Christ. It is a process we have to be patient but must be consistent. What we are working for is not just for this time or for one’s self or society or country: we have to see the whole reality of life from here to eternity in Christ’s work of salvation is for all. We are all interconnected so that whatever good we do will always bear fruit, “some a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”

This Sunday, in this beautiful scene by the Lake of Galilee, or right there on your comfortable seat or wherever you are, Jesus is asking, “where do I see myself in this wide picture and chain of events?” What have I done with the “word”, the “seed” Jesus had sown in me?

In this age of relativism worsened by social media that have blurred reality with algorithms manipulating the way we see and understand truth and reality, the more we have become empty and alienated from one’s self and one another despite the abundance of material things.

How sad that despite the worldwide connections we now have, the more we have been detached from each other, even from one’s self and ultimately from God so that indeed, many of us “look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand” (v.13) because we have taken life in the ordinary things for granted. We live in Facebook or social media where everything has to be spectacular, even “imeldific” or at least, enhanced if not AI-generated. This Sunday, let’s get real. Enough with fakes and AI’s. Amen. Have a blessed, fruitful week ahead everyone!

Discipleship is hospitality in Christ

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 28 June 2026
2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16 ><}}}}*> Romans 6:3-4, 8-11 ><}}}}*> Matthew 10:37-42

*Photo by author, Kennon Road, January 2020.*

Recent news in our country had gone worst this week, from dismal to very disturbing with that school shooting incident in Tacloban City leaving three dead, two critically wounded and about 20 others injured. It was the third school violence to have happened in the country in just seven days with two stabbing incidents in two different schools in Cavite province earlier.

And this Friday night while we were working on this blog, we saw raw videos uploaded in social media by some witnesses of a shooting incident at the Bocaue Toll Plaza southbound involving a white van and several police officers.

What is happening in our country, to our people especially to our youth, and to our much admired Filipino hospitality known worldwide?

The word hospitality is from the Latin hospes that means to welcome; hence, hospital where the sick are welcomed or hospitality business referring to hotels that welcome guests.

Very close in sound is its opposite word also in Latin – hostis which is to reject and turn away from which came our words hostile, hostility and hostage. It is the opposite of to welcome.

Discipleship is being hospitable, welcoming others in Jesus Christ. It is showing Christ to others and finding Christ in others too.

Jesus said to his disciples: “Whoever receives you, receives me, and whoever receives me, receives the one who sent me… And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because heis a disciple – amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward” (Matthew 10:40, 42).

Remember two Sundays ago (11th Sunday, June 14) how Jesus was moved with pity upon seeing the crowds following him, describing them like sheep without a shepherd, declaring “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of harvest to send out laborers for his harvest” (Mt. 9:37-38). After that, he called his Twelve Apostles and sent them on their first mission with specific instructions on discipleship which continues this Sunday in our gospel.

We have to go back to that background where Jesus laid down one of the foundations of discipleship which is to care for people. Jesus never asked us to pray for more money or food or medicines; he said pray for more laborers, for more people who are person-oriented, people who take every person as a subject to be loved and cherished, not an object to be possessed or controlled.

We need people who welcome people, hospitable people. Not hostile ones.

*Our Lady of Fatima University students in their outreach for special children, February 2025.*

But, the opposite is happening made worse by social media that fan the hostilities among us with the spread of fake news. Due to its algorithm, we are not only divided but polarized too that we are grouped as alike in thinking and everything that we could no longer see the whole picture of the situation we are into.

Not until tragedies struck. First were the deaths in drowning of two athletes in basketball training held in a treacherous beach resort, then we have the school stabbings and shooting this week.

The more we give more importance and emphasis on material and created goods, the more we disregard God and everything spiritual that eventually leads to our disregard for humans and persons.

Thus, the world has become inhospitable. Lifestyle has replaced life with algorithms manipulating our lives to consume more for more profits, more honor, more votes – more of everything except of love and care, kindness and openness for others.

*Photo by author, Los Banos, Laguna, June 2022.*

See the beautiful story of the Prophet Elisha welcomed by a woman of influence in Shunem. At first he was merely invited to dine with the woman and her husband whenever he would pass by until eventually he was given a room where he could stay – complete with bed, table, chair, and lamp (2 Kgs.4:8-11).

The hospitable woman saw Elisha as a “holy man of God” that is why she welcomed him into her home. We are not given her name but she foreshadowed the women in the gospels who supported Jesus and his disciples with their generous hospitality. And that continues to these days with so many other people generously helping priests and lay missionaries.

Generosity as a hospitality in Christ is like a two-way traffic: first is the integrity and holiness of the disciples like priests and bishops. Are we like Elisha the prophet who witness the love of Christ above all?

*Photo by author, Morong, Bataan, June 2023.*

So sad when we hear complaints by parishioners of priests and bishops living in luxury – frequent trips abroad with some traveling business class, dining at expensive restaurants, driving high-end cars, so deep into gambling or so vain in clothing. Not to mention some having luxurious residences. Most embarrassing is how they flaunt these in social media, relishing their ties and closeness with the rich and powerful, even corrupt government officials.

Times have changed when people so eager to welcome their pastors whenever they came to visit because today, it means handing of envelops for endless donations for various projects. What’s the use of having beautiful churches and facilities with no good relationships among priests and parishioners?

See the attitude of Elisha: his simplicity in knowing that all those hospitality accorded to him is because of his being a man of God; his discretion to the private life of his hosts, maintaining a safe distance, no trace of abusive behavior at all; and his desire to express his gratitude to the generosity of the woman and her husband. Hindi puro kabig at the expense of liturgical practices.

On the other hand, we find also the other side of discipleship as hospitality in Christ with the woman of Shunem: her discretion to be not too “rubbing” or insisting on Elisha that she never overwhelmed the prophet with her admiration, her excessive attention, and other personal concerns that could lead to precarious and scandalous situations. Many times, lay people forget that they are also to be blamed when priests and bishops become abusive when parishioners have become “enablers” of clerical excesses. The truly hospitable parishioners are those who help their priests become holy and faithful in ministry by giving them the space and time to pray and rest.

Discipleship as a hospitality in Christ means having the love of Jesus taking possession of us in our dealing with one another. It is sharing the Christ in me, finding the Christ in you. It is what St. Paul is telling us in the second reading: we are called to the highest moral standards of witnessing the gospel by being “dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus” (Rom.6:11). Of course, we are all weak and still sinful but being a Christian is to have the love of Christ before all else which is what forgetting one’s mother and father or son and daughter by taking our cross is all about.

Hospitality in Christ is thinking more of God in Jesus than of one’s self so that others may have the space and chance to find and bring out Christ in them. Amen. Have a blessed, safe week ahead.

Brave. And gracious. Like Alex Eala.

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 21 June 2026
Jeremiah 20:10-13 ><}}}}*> Romans 5:12-15 ><}}}}*> Matthew 10:26-30

BERLIN, GERMANY – JUNE 18: Alexandra Eala of the Philippines reacts to defeating Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan in the second round on Day Four of the 2026 Berlin Tennis Open at LTTC Rot-Weiß e.V. on June 18, 2026 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Robert Prange/Getty Images)

God has a most amazing way of consoling us Filipinos when everything is so dismal in the country, sending us athletes who uplift our spirits and make us proud as a nation. In the not so distant past we have had Manny Pacquiao and Olympic gold medalists Hidilyn Diaz and Carlos Yulo cheering us up.

And now, we have the lovely but tenacious and gritty Alex Eala who just made history anew this week with her two upset wins in the ongoing Berlin Tennis Open when she prevailed over WTA number 2 Elena Rybakin Thursday then Friday crushed number eight Elina Svitolina. (Update: Eala lost to Linda Noskova last night.)

Watch her interviews in both victories where Eala mentioned her being “brave” in her games as she described too both matches filled with “grace” – so very much like this Sunday’s gospel where Jesus mentioned thrice the need to be brave!

Jesus said to the Twelve: “Fear no one. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known… And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul… So do not be afraid” (Matthew 10:26, 28, 31).

*Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD, in Ericeira, Portugal, 16 June 2026.*

After choosing and sending his Twelve Apostles last Sunday, Jesus reminds them including us today of the need to have courage in working in the Lord’s “abundant harvests” because the good news goes directly against the ways of the world.

This we have learned at the start of this year in the Lord’s sermon on the mount where he taught us the Beatitudes last February 1, fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Though the Beatitudes like being poor, being hungry and thirsty are not to be taken literally, they still run contrary to the ways of world of power and wealth, fame and convenience.

As the world advances in science and technology, the more it veers away from God and do away with morals that in the process, the Church has always faced many contradictions, some with violent reactions even persecutions for her stance against abortion and population control, divorce and same-sex marriage and other anti-life measures now so widespread through the social media.

It is not only difficult and painful for the Church as an institution but most especially for each of us disciples of Christ that we can easily identify with the Prophet Jeremiah in the first reading.

Of the four major prophets, Jeremiah was the youngest and the only one sent by God to his own people to prophesy. That is why it was so painful for Jeremiah to experience in the hands of his own folks and kin being maligned and rejected, and betrayed just like most of us today!

Jeremiah said: “I hear the whisperings of many: ‘Terror on every side! Denounce! Let us denounce him!’ All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine. ‘Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail, and take our vengeance on him.’ But the Lord is with me, like a mighty champion… Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, for he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked!” (Jeremiah 20:10-11, 13)

Like Jeremiah, we have complained and even cried to God many times for our sufferings in doing his will to be just and fair, kind and merciful, even charitable; and like him, we could not resist God’s call and mission despite the pains and hurts because we too felt “duped” and “seduced” by the Lord (Jer.20:7) as we felt deep inside us his love and protection. Like all the saints who suffered much in witnessing the gospel, we felt deep inside God as our very strength as we pray more to forge on in the difficult mission of doing his works.

*Photo by author, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City, 10 June 2026.*

When Jesus asks us to “fear no one”, he is inviting us to primarily fear God most of all for he knows everything and will judge us in the end. It is a kind of reverential fear, not the kind of fear of a slave to a master of being reprimanded and punished.

To “fear no one” and “be not afraid” do not mean that we disregard our fears of being hurt or killed physically and emotionally; it is call to have courage which is facing our fears. Having no fears in life is not normal. As we say in the province, yung walang takot sira tuktok!

To fear the Lord means to recognize the sanctity of life, the blessedness of every person. See Eala’s attitude of being magnanimous in victory and in defeat as she would always praise and recognize the talents and greatness of her opponents. In her we find the truth that the “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” – that every person is a subject to be loved and cherished, not an object or thing to be used or possessed, without feelings and dignity.

This is the tragedy exposed by the recent deaths of the two Ateneo athletes, and it involves almost all UAAP members these past decades who have given more priorities in winning trophies above all, forgetting the value of every person. True enough, it is a secret slowly becoming known.

Likewise, to be not afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul is to recognize the soul in each one of us, of Christ’s indwelling within us, enabling us to overcome every obstacle in life.

It is like being a pencil: remember the inside is more essential than the outside. That is our identity as God’s beloved child.

Our physical strength actually draws much of its power and stamina from our inner core than merely from our bones and muscles. Hence, the need for prayers and meditation, for conditioning to realize our giftedness and value.

When this happens, the third call of Jesus becomes automatic which is to be not afraid because we are worth more than many sparrows or anything else in this world.

Why? Because God is gracious!

To recognize our fears and vulnerabilities as well as weaknesses is in itself courage, fearing no one except God who alone heals us. Most of all, who alone is our strength in our weaknesses. Let us not be afraid in this life to do what is good, to stand for what is right and just, to proclaim the gospel of Christ’s salvation because God is gracious especially to those who abide in him through Christ. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead! And say a prayer for Alex Eala.

We are the Lord’s “harvest”. And “laborers” too.

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 14 June 2023
Exodus 19:2-6 ><}}}}*> Romans 5:6-11 ><}}}}*> Matthew 9:36-10:8

A very good friend in the States texted me the other night, requesting for prayers as she was about to go through an MRI; the following day, she texted me anew asking for more prayers because it seemed her cancer had recurred, this time attacking her liver.

I felt her fears and worries. And pain.

She told me how she wanted to call her parents that evening but had to wait until this weekend so that her younger brother would be home to be present especially by her mom’s side when she breaks to them that her cancer had metastasized. Despite her condition, she was thinking of her parents in their “empty nest”, thinking how they might react in receiving the bad news.

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novlaiches, QC, March 2026.*

This crucial factor is what is most missing in the agony of Ms. Rovelyn Baterbonia when her son Rene died Monday after drowning in the treacherous beach of Aurora during their varsity training.

We all felt her pain not only of losing a son but most of all the agony of being alone, perhaps even left out in the dark so far from her dead son with no one from the university nor basketball team immediately informing her of the circumstances of the accident.

It was so heartwrenching – nakakadurog ng puso – watching her grieved upon arrival at the airport, lamenting at how somebody texted her that Monday if they can call her: “Hindi naman siya tumawag. Ako na lang nag-tawag… tapos, nang tumawag na ako sabi niya, mam naaksidente po si Rene. Nalunod po…”. After that, she said she heard nothing from the people supposed to be with Rene. “Wala maski pictures sila send sa akin”, she complained.

This is the most crucial part of every misery and tragedy: is there someone present with those grieving, with those suffering?

At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send our laborers for his harvest” (Matthew 9:36-38).

*Our Lady of Fatima University, February 2025.*

We are the Lord’s “harvest” and his “laborers” too. Jesus reminds us today that the answer to all our problems and pains in the world is never found in material things, in money and gadgets, nor well-crafted statements and other publicities. We are the harvest and the harvesters too!

What we need are more people who care, who journey, who are present with majority of the population so lost like sheep without a shepherd. And that is where I felt the pain most when Ms. Baterbonia repeatedly said that “kahit mahirap kami, hindi ko papayagan anak ko mag-training ng ganun.”

*Photo by Oscar Millu00e1n on Pexels.com*

She said it all – the harsh reality in our country, the most Christian nation in this part of Asia, where the poor remain neglected, forgotten, and taken for granted especially by those in the Church.

See how the poor have shied away from the church primarily due to so many collections in every Mass every Sunday while in the parish office, almost everything comes with a fee. They could not even get a free smile from some staff members often masusungit.

If Matthew were with us today, he would surely repeat with intensity his report that day of how “At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd” because that is how our Church is today – sheep without a shepherd.

And where are the shepherds? Check their social media accounts and you find them most frequently in malls and hotels, traveling abroad via business class, unwinding on a yacht, communing with nature riding big bikes or their expensive mountain bikes. Go to any buffet and ribbon-cutting ceremonies of the newest Jollibee store or even gas station and you find more than two priests and a bishop present while the poor could not even have a decent funeral rite nor blessing for the burial of their dead because the priest is out, could not come to the slum area.

But of course, there are still more blessed and dedicated priests and bishops like Bishop Pabillo of Palawan who brave the seas and mountains just to celebrate the Mass and other Sacraments to the great number of their harvests in far-flung areas.

For Jesus, it is always the person who matters that is why his proposal has always been to send us another person, another companion, a fellow to accompany us in our brokenness and darkness. There is his move of gathering us, calling us, and sending us forth to a mission.

Jesus never taught us to ask for more money nor food nor gadgets to solve the problems of the world. Recall his temptation in the desert when he rejected the devil’s challenge to change stones into bread because man does not live by bread alone but with every word from God.

For the world, everything is a problem to be solved, including mysteries of God and of the human person. As we have reflected the past two Sundays, mysteries are not problems to be solved but non-logical realities we must embrace or even allow ourselves to be wrapped to discover the richness and meaning of this life like God and persons.

When people are down and lost in life, feeling troubled and abandoned, where do we focus more, to their woes and problems or their very persons?

Try thinking of the people you consider as “heaven sent” and helped you in your darkest moments. Are they not the ones who brought out our giftedness as a person, as a beloved child of God with Christ’s gospel?

A few months after his election as Pope in 2005, Benedict XVI heard of a bishop in Austria dying of cancer. He reportedly wrote that bishop, assuring him of his prayers as a brother priest, reminding him that “Jesus saved the world by suffering and dying on the cross, not with activities.” I remembered that news so well because what is mostly happening in our parishes and dioceses are activities. We have become program oriented than people oriented.

Worst is when some of us priests and bishops see the “abundant harvest” as business ventures of all sorts including churches and fiestas as tourist attractions. When economics become our major consideration in the church, how can “we also boast of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” as St. Paul reflected in the second reading?

Let us return to our “desert of Sinai” spoken of in the first reading, a reminder of our turning point in life and history when God called and sent us to be a “kingdom of priests, a holy nation” – his abundant harvest at the same time his laborers too. We are the new apostles called and sent by Jesus to others like us who are weak and tired, confused and lost, hurting and crying but also blessed and joyful! As God’s abundant harvest, each one of us is a gift to be cherished and valued always; but, at the same time, a brother and a sister entrusted to each one for God’s greater glory, not ours. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead.

Body & Blood of Christ for the life of the world

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Solemnity of the Most Holy Body & Blood of Christ-A, 07 May 2026
Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 3:14-16 ><}}}*> 1Corinthians 10:16-17 ><}}}*> John6:51-58

*Photo from wikimedia.org of the nave with the classic altar of the Sta. Cruz Church in Manila.*

Of the many churches I have been to, the Sta. Cruz Church in Manila remains my favorite. Since childhood, I have always loved its beautiful apse of Byzantine glass mosaic of a sacrificial lamb symbolizing Jesus Christ whose blood flows like a river to the tabernacle amid a setting of mango, banana and fire trees.

The mosaic gives that feeling of the divine presence that may be a contributing factor too in keeping the solemnity of the many successive Masses celebrated there daily.

After leaving the high school seminary in 1982 while in college at UST, I still went to Sta. Cruz church by taking the Love Bus to Escolta after which I would walk across the street to my dad’s barber for a haircut then lunch at Panciteria Ramon Lee. It remained my refuge whenever I found myself deep into sins and troubles, with problems and difficulties, feeling lost and empty especially later in life while working.

It had played a significant role in my vocation story and that is why I remembered it while reflecting this Sunday’s gospel on the Solemnity of the body and Blood of Christ.

More than a gift offered to us individually in the Eucharist, Jesus intends his Body and Blood “for the life of the world” like that sacrificial lamb depicted at the apse of the Sta. Cruz church.

Jesus said to the Jewish crowds: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (John 6:51).

*Photo by author, Chapel of St. Anthony De Padua, Alta D’Tagaytay Hotel, 02 June 2026.*

On this Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, we are invited to reflect on the meaning of the Holy Eucharist in our lives where the mystery of God in Three Persons, the Blessed Trinity we celebrated last week is revealed and becomes most real.

Faith in God is faith in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ present to us in the Eucharist under the signs of bread and wine. But, what does it mean really for us especially in the light of today’s gospel where Jesus said “and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” How can our individual life contribute in giving the life of the world, Jesus Christ himself?

In his encyclical letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia issued in 2003, St. John Paul II beautifully expressed that if Jesus can transform the bread and wine into his Body and Blood in every Eucharistic celebration, then he can transform us into better persons too.

So true! That is why the bestest time to pray is right after receiving Holy Communion because that is when Jesus Christ, Body and Blood, is present in our own body – speak to him in your most natural way. If you want, complain to him. Magsumbong ka rin sa kanya. Pour your heart out to Jesus who is Body and Blood inside you.

However, make sure too that you listen intently to him. When we listen to Jesus, we then enter into a relationship with him as we make him part of our lives as we too become part of his very life. That is when we are filled with his life which we in turn share with others and thus, give life to the world.

In the first reading we heard Moses calling us to “remember” not only those forty years in the wilderness by the Israelites but our own journey in the many desert of this life.

The word “remember” is from the root word “member” which means “part” plus the prefix “re” meaning again; to re + member a person and an incident is to make them a part of the present moment again which is the very commandment of Jesus at the Last Supper, “do this is remembrance of me.”

Now look: every week we go through our many exodus like in the first reading. We remember them especially at the start of every week because life is a daily exodus, of coming out from sickness into health, of darkness into light, of slavery into freedom, of sin into grace, of death into life. Yes, our many desert experiences in life were painful but they were all moments of grace too because that is when we realized that we do not live by bread alone, by material things alone – that we need God.

Hence, the first step for us experience this life of Christ as life for the world is to go back to the church, go back to the Holy Mass. These online Masses must be stopped. COVID pandemic is long gone.

The Mass presupposes actual presence because Christ is truly present with us in every celebration. We must learn anew to desire Jesus more in the Eucharist especially on Sundays.

In the Mass, we re-member Jesus in our lives after a week of busy activities and work; as we make Jesus a part of our lives anew, we see also ourselves needing much needed rest and comfort too in Jesus! Inasmuch as we re-member Jesus into our lives, it is actually us being re-membered into Christ who is also our food and drink to nourish us in this daily exodus in life.

Notice how in verse 14 Moses reiterated his call to the people to “remember” but this time what he told them including us today is “do not forget the Lord”: every Mass as our exodus is a way of casting off the temptation to live one’s life without God.

When we come to celebrate the Mass, especially when we are well disposed and prepared, we realize that we are always poor before God who alone can satisfy all our longings and needs.

To forget this is the sure path to catastrophe as many of us would attest.

With God, life; without God, no life.

This we find so clear with the Corinthians during the time of St. Paul that is why he addressed them in the interrogative tone:

Brothers and sisters: The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf (1 Corinthians 10:16-17).

The Corinthians at that time were already well aware of how the Eucharist make the Church whose head is Jesus Christ. Hence, the need for a communion or “participation” which is the word used in our translation. St. Paul was reminding them of what they knew in faith, that is, a Holy Communion in Christ which they must put into practice. This communion among the Corinthians would be put into risk when quarrels and divisions plagued their community later that prompted St. Paul to write them a second letter.

As part of the Mass, the Communion is when we receive the Body and Blood of Christ; but, in a deeper sense, Communion is unity in charity. It is Jesus Christ becoming human like us in everything except sin so that we can become holy and divine like him. This mysterious exchange of ourselves with Jesus, in Jesus, and through Jesus happens in the Eucharist where we are nourished and filled with the life of Christ whenever we receive the Holy Communion. May we share this life we have gained in Christ with others by witnessing his Gospel to give life to this sick and dying world – like that sacrificial lamb at the apse of my favorite church in Sta. Cruz. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead.

Our daily Pentecost

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Pentecost Sunday-A, 24 May 2026
Acts 2:1-11  ><}}}}*>  1 Corinthians 12:3-7, 12-13  ><}}}}*>  John 20:19-23

One of the reels I love watching in Instagram is Yuji Belleza, a young Japanese who speaks different languages, going around Europe talking to all kinds of people by speaking their native tongues.

What I like most with him is his openness to learn many things not just words and languages from those he interviews in his popular Instagram reels. It is precisely what Luke is telling us this Solemnity of the Pentecost: more than language facility, the most important in the spread and growth of the Church then and now is “openness” of Christ’s disciples.

When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues of fire, which parted and came to rest on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as te Spirit enabled them to proclaim. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem. At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, “Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans?” (Acts 2:1-7)

From the Greek word pente for 50, Pentecost is a Jewish feast celebrated fifty days after the ratification of their covenant with God by Moses in Sinai; eventually, it became a feast of their first harvests upon entering the Promised Land that it was like a new beginning in life for them.

And rightly so for us Christians too. The Church started to spread from Jerusalem on that Pentecost Sunday to become the largest in the world today. More than a feast we remember today fifty days after Easter, Pentecost is an event we recognize and affirm to be happening daily in our lives as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Like the popular Japanese linguist Yuji on Instagram, we too experience “being at home” abroad when we find countrymen, people who speak our native tongue. Thank God for the millions of Filipinos spread around the world that you can surely meet anywhere, anytime you go abroad.

*Photo by author, Istanbul, Turkiye, 31 October 2025.*

Last year we went to Turkiye and found a Catholic church run by Franciscans near our hotel in Istanbul. We went early to introduce ourselves to the pastor, hoping we could concelebrate the Mass with him. The Irish pastor gladly welcomed us, telling us that the choir and lectors in charge that Sunday were Filipinos. Sure enough after the Mass, they all followed us to the sacristy to make mano and of course, picture picture!

You know that feeling of being “home” – safe and secured, peaceful and joyful upon finding someone who speaks your own language in a foreign land with different culture and language. And weather!

Many times God comes to us in a similar way – speaking and feeling exactly like us but, unfortunately, we disregard his words and instructions because we have our own agenda and plans until finally we realize in the end after losing everything how we should have listened and obeyed him.

On the other hand, there is also that feeling of being home even abroad when you are able to communicate and understand foreigners using only sign languages while uttering some words like you are in a charades game. Despite our many differences, there are those feelings of safety and peace, of forging on in our journey because understanding is always possible by simply being open. We can even communicate with deaf mutes for as long as we are open and creative. And patient too.

Many times, God communicates with us in the same manner – through signs but problem is we do not have the interest to engage with him because we have other plans in life so that when things go wrong, there is always that sigh of missed opportunities in disregarding God.

Pentecost asks us how open are we to God and others as disciples of Christ?

From last Sunday’s upward shift for us to rise in our relationships with God and one another, Pentecost shows us its downward movement to open ourselves to the leading of Holy Spirit to become one in our relationships despite our many differences.

Matthew told us last Sunday that when Jesus ascended into heaven, some of his disciples were still doubting him. Today, Luke tells us how all those doubts were finally cleared at the descent of the Holy Spirit who emboldened the disciples with wisdom and knowledge, courage and perseverance to proclaim Christ’s gospel to all nations despite the persecutions and other difficulties that followed.

*Painting by El Greco, “Pentecostes” (1597) from commons.wikimedia.org.*

Pentecost continues in our present time when we shatter those walls and locked doors of pride, selfishness and conceit, opening ourselves to the daily coming of the Holy Spirit. Luke used a simple word in his story that can help us have that attitude of openness to the Holy Spirit.

The word is devout – in Filipino it is “deboto” connoting a person so closed with his religious beliefs like “Catolico cerrado.”

But, devout as used by Luke means a person with a “good heart, ready to believe, and then act openly and with courage” (Timothy Clayton, Exploring Advent with Luke; page 125).

Only Luke used the word devout in the Sacred Scriptures when in his gospel he described Simeon as “righteous and devout” (Lk.2:25) who sang the Nunc Dimittis during the presentation of Jesus at the temple. He then used it thrice in the Acts as we have heard today of the “devout Jews” staying in Jerusalem on that Pentecost day when the Holy Spirit came (2:5); then “the devout men who buried” the first martyr Stephen (8:2), and finally calling Ananias a “devout observer of the law” whom God instructed to pray over and heal Saul of his blindness after meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus (22:12).

More than being faithful to God and the Catholic faith, a devout person is one who is always open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit like Simeon and Anna awaiting the coming of the Messiah at the temple. Moreover, a devout person is one who makes happen the plans of God like Ananias who at first hesitated with Jesus in taking in Saul.

Our Filipino Missal used an interesting translation of Luke’s devout as palasamba sa Diyos that literally means one who worships God often. Or, someone who prays always.

Openness happens in prayers because that is when we become rooted in God, when we allow him to form us like the clay in the potter’s hand. More than the recitation and expression of ourselves in words, prayer is entering a relationship with God whom we call “Abba” as St. Paul explained in the second reading. That explains too why the Holy Spirit came on that Pentecost while the disciples with Mary were at prayer.

When we have prayer life, we grow in our sensitivity of God in others that we learn to become respectful, fair and just, and kind. Thus, we promote peace and goodwill with others too.

This Pentecost Sunday, let us allow the Holy Spirit to work in us by focusing more on Jesus than in ourselves in our many devotions and practices filled with pomp and pageantry that only divide us disciples of Christ

Let us open ourselves to Jesus by being devout in the truest sense wherein we are more open with persons especially the poor and disadvantaged than with things and numbers in measuring development as a nation like the GDP/GNP and infrastructures.

Yes, Jesus is now seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven but he remains with us here in this life, in this world in the Holy Spirit, day in, day out through us making Pentecost a reality daily. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead.

Easter is making Jesus present in our love

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Sixth Sunday of Easter, Cycle A, 10 May 2026
Acts 8:5-8, 14-17 ><}}}*> 1 Peter 3:15-18 ><}}}*> John 14:15-21

*Photo by author, Bucharest, Romania, November 2025.*

Jesus wraps up this Sunday his Last Supper discourse into its very meaning of love as basis of our relationships in him who is both our “gate” as the Good shepherd (April 26) and our “home” (May 3). It was at his Last Supper when Jesus gave his new commandment of love that is why Holy Thursday is also known as Maundy Thursday from the Latin mandatum for “command.”

Jesus said to his disciples: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments… In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and reveal myself to him” (John14:15, 19-21)

See how Jesus mentioned the word “love” five times in our short gospel this Sunday.

Love is the basis of every relationship; without love, any relationship will not last, will not grow, will not mature and deepen into what it is meant to be.

This is most true in our relationship as disciples of Christ wherein love is more than a feeling but a decision, a choice we make daily in favor of Jesus through the persons around us like your spouse and children, our parents, and fellow disciples. And mothers!

Happy Mothers’ Day to every mom especially those in their sick bed, those widowed, and those who gone ahead of us to eternity.

Mothers are the best examples of the love Jesus is speaking of in the gospel today.

It is the love we affirm despite the pains and hurts of misunderstanding from people we love; it is the love calling us to remain faithful even if others are not; it is the love that remembers and never forgets; it is the love that forgives, that cares and understands without asking anything in return.

It is a love that unfolds, like a process going through stages that calls us to be patient as St. Paul described it in one of his letters. That is why Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit later to his disciples to understand better his lessons and mission for them.

See how in the first reading we have a glimpse of the kind of love of Jesus calling us – the conversion of the people of Samaria: first was Philip coming to them like preparing the ground for the gospel in them and when they seem to be ready, Peter and John arrived to pray over them to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit. More than to show us how the Holy Spirit works, the story is all about the love that bound the early Church together especially when the persecution begun.

I prefer the word “unfolding” in describing love wherein slowly there is the sort of “unveiling” of the cover of the face because love is more than a concept and thought or experience: love is a person as John wrote in his first letter, Deus caritas est, God is love (1Jn.4:8).

It is the title of the first encyclical by Pope Benedict XVI who wrote that true love involves transformation wherein the lover seeks to become like his beloved, moving from selfish desires known as eros into the self-sacrificial and other-centered love called agape, the Greek word used by John in writing his account of the Last Supper.

The love that Jesus is calling us is that love of his on the Cross we make present in the Eucharist, that even though we repeat it over and over daily, we never get fed up because something is happening in us, there is something changing, making us better, more matured, more loving that we keep coming back to the Holy Mass to listen to his words and receive him Body and Blood under the signs of the bread and wine.

Every true love is always a person. This is the reason why those who love persevere and forge into every obstacle, fight for their love, bear all pains because we find our fulfillment in being with our beloved, whether physically or spiritually. The mode does not really matter because true love touches our very personhood always.

Here lies the beauty of Albert Camus’ 1947 novel The Plague that had a sort of rediscovery during the 2020 COVID pandemic where he wrote that “A loveless world is a dead world, and always there comes an hour when one is weary of prisons, of one’s work, and of devotion to duty, and all one craves for is a loved face, the warmth and wonder of a loving heart.”

*Our Lady of Fatima University-GawadKalinga in Bagac, Bataan.*

Without love, humanity will go extinct.

Because of love, every tragedy, every suffering and problem we go through leads to happy ending primarily because we discover something in ourselves and in someone beyond far more important than any situation or plight we may be into.

And that is the joy of the love of Jesus Christ when God is revealed in us in his love when we love like him. It is Jesus Christ whom we “sanctify as Lord in our hearts” (1Pt.3:15) is the one we imitate and follow, the one we see and, most of all, the only one we must share when we love, when we serve.

I know, these are easier said than done.

Specially when we who love are not loved by those we love. Or taken for granted, even forgotten.

Again, let us return to that love of mothers that is most closest to the love of Jesus Christ, a love so willing to give up one’s self in spite and despite of everything.

One of the hardest things many of us go through like priests and nuns, the eldest in the family and the newly widowed or anyone looked up to as someone without a problem: very often people forget us or take us for granted including those supposed to be closest to us, thinking we are fine or doing great without any hint of the sufferings we are going through.

But, it is a source of constant deep joy while suffering in silence, God’s grace is always overflowing because Jesus is within each one of us who believes in him and tries hard to keep his commandments.

We just have to do our part, to keep on believing in Jesus, loving Jesus, and most of all, keeping his commandments because Jesus is the “explanation to anyone who asks us for a reason for our hope” (1Pt.3:15).

We are about to close the Easter Season in two weeks: next Sunday will be the Solemnity of the Lord’s Ascension and after that the Pentecost Sunday. This Last Supper scene perfectly captures the very kind of love Jesus is asking us – a love so personal like his, a love that unfolds and grows deeper as we love more despite the pains and sufferings, and a love that often looks absurd to others and even to us because it is not physical. And beyond logic.

Jesus invites us to continue to be his loving presence in this selfish world, where everyone demands of deserving so many perks in life. Let us do away with that expression “dasurv ko” this or that. Let us pray for more love to conquer all. Don’t forget to hug or remember your mom this Mothers’ Day. Have a blessed Sunday and keep cool and hydrated too! Amen.

Easter is Jesus, our home, our cornerstone

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Fifth Sunday of Easter, Cycle A, 03 May 2026
Acts 6:1-7  ><}}}}*>  1Peter 2:4-9  ><}}}}*>  John 14:1-12

*Photo from Our Lady of Fatima University official page at FB.*

We are celebrating our 60th foundation anniversary at the Our Lady of Fatima University (OLFU) and the Fatima University Medical Center (FUMC) next year. As part of our year-long celebrations beginning last February, we are building 60 homes in two Gawad Kalinga sites in Bagac, Bataan and Trece-Martirez, Cavite.

It is the second time we have embarked on the same project when our administrators, faculty and employees as well as students volunteered to build and delivered 50 homes through GK too ten years ago in celebration of our golden anniversary.

Our University President Dra. Caroline Santos-Enriquez explained that it is not enough for us to provide our people with good, quality education we have always strived in the last 60 years when many are without a home because when people have homes of their own, they are filled with hopes and that is when they truly start to dream for a better future.

Such a desire in having one’s own home is deeply rooted in the Bible. Jesus Christ’s third beatitude in his sermon on the mount, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land” (Mt.5:5) refers to the longing of the Israelites not only for their own homeland but also for their own homes too.

That is why at his last supper, he mentioned something so similar to that aspiration of his disciples but this time on a deeper level.

Jesus said to his disciples, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going you know the way” (John 14:1-4).

*Photo by MART PRODUCTION on Pexels.com*

It is very interesting that in the Hebrew language, the name they use to commonly address God is HaShem written as השם for “The Name” because they cannot utter the word YHWH or Yahweh as we pronounce written as יהוה which is so sacred for the Jewish people.

Now take a look at the first letter of HaShem shaped like a house, השם while its third last letter looks like a door or a small “n” in our english alphabet. It is the same shape of the letter Yod they use to write YHWH – יהוה.

According to a spiritual writer I have read, God’s very name connotes a house, a home and a door that imply “relationships”. Remember last Sunday when Jesus introduced himself as the “gate” through whom the shepherd and his sheep pass through?

Jesus now deepens this lesson he taught us last Sunday as he moved to its next scene which is his last supper.

Imagine the silent stillness of the room heavy with emotion.

With lamps flickering in the evening light, we feel the ebb and flow of intimacy and uncertainty just like in our own homes during times of crisis.

And in the midst of it all is Jesus speaking with comforting assurance.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.”

What is troubling you at this very moment or lately these past days or weeks?

Many times, what really troubles us most is the fear of being left out, of being alone. That is why money and sickness as well as death trouble us a lot. We are afraid of having nobody by our side not only to defend and comfort us but simply be with us. Here we find the value of having our own home where we feel safe and secured with loved ones.

Being left out, being alone is perhaps the deepest pain one could ever have. That is why we are troubled when people we love and care for threaten us of walking away from us to be on their own. Every time a beloved leaves us by choice or by circumstances, whenever we feel “apart” from others and separated, we feel losing a part of very selves because each one is also our part. Jesus came, suffered and died for us on the Cross so that in his Resurrection, we would never be apart from him and everyone anymore, here on earth and hereafter.

*Photo by author, Manaoag Basilica, Pangasinan, 09 January 2026.*

Jesus assures us today of his presence among us, of being with us and in us – a relationship so personal like having our own home and dwelling place in heaven. But, are we ready and willing to walk his path, to stand by his truth and live his life?

Vis-a-vis the things that trouble us, what is our deepest yearning at the moment? Are we still in the same level with Philip relying more on the physical and material aspects of relationships?

In my previous post after my annual retreat, I have mentioned to you my dear friends of my decision to rest a little from my daily blogs. Not really as a respite from my busy schedules but more of finding Jesus anew. During that retreat in March, I realized the thing that most bothered me lately was being far from God. I have been praying to blog, not for God.

Many times, we serve God in others without really being centered in Him, without any relationship at all with Him in Christ Jesus. And we priests are often guilty of it, of too much ministry without Jesus that lead us to burnout and exhaustion, most especially the lack of love for others. Anything especially relationships without Jesus eventually dies naturally because he indeed life himself.

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2026.*

The Apostles realized this early in the Church as we have heard in the first reading that they assigned seven deacons to serve the Greek-speaking converts to Christianity lest they forget Jesus Christ in prayers.

The same is true with us. It can happen that we feel we are doing God’s work, following his will but we are not in him in Christ. That is why Jesus clarified with Thomas: his very person is the way the truth and the life. And that is because he is the “cornerstone” of our very lives as explained by Peter in the second reading.

We are the “living stones” who make up the Church, the mystical body of Christ both visible and invisible. As God’s “chosen people” and “royal priesthood”, we have a deep spiritual bonding in Christ nourished and sustained in our prayers and liturgy. As disciples of Christ, we move visibly adjusting and innovating in our ways like the Apostles by remaining focused on the person of Jesus who is our everything.

Going back to our housing project at OLFU at FUMC, I was amazed at the faith of some of our recipients of the new homes we’re building in Trece-Martirez, Cavite who came to see me after the groundbreaking ceremonies. They told me how for so many years they prayed together as families to have their own homes and now it is slowly becoming a reality; hence, if I could bless – finally – their images of the Virgin Mary, Sacred Heart and Divine Mercy they have kept in their rented homes for many years.

They were so thankful for the blessing but, unknown to them, I felt more blessed in them as I felt God reassuring me that whatever troubles me in life, Jesus places great trust in us in continuing his mission here on earth. Let us remain in him and hold on to his words, “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.” A blessed week ahead to everyone! Amen.