Lord My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 10 May 2026
Photo by author, 07 February 2026.
Jesus wrapped up this Sunday his teachings about relationships with the commandment to love one another. Five times he repeated the word “love” in our short gospel this Sunday to highlight its centrality in every relationship.
Without love, no relationship will ever mature and grow.
More than a feeling, love is a decision, a choice we make, day in, day out. As such, it cannot be defined but simply described.
And being a Mothers’ Day this Sunday, we find Christ’s description of keeping his commandment to love is exactly the kind of love every mom exemplifies to us captured by the 1986 song Coming Around Again by one of our favorites, Ms. Carly Simon.
Baby sneezes Mommy pleases Daddy breezes in So good on paper So romantic But so bewildering
I know nothing stays the same But if you're willing to play the game It's coming around again So don't mind if I fall apart There's more room in a broken heart (broken heart)
You pay the grocer You fix the toaster You kiss the host goodbye Then you break a window Burn the soufflé Scream a lullaby
I know nothing stays the same But if you're willing to play the game It's coming around again So don't mind if I fall apart There's more room in a broken heart
And I believe in love But what else can I do I'm so in love with you
Photo by author, August 2024.
Written by Ms. Simon in 1986 as soundtrack for the dramatic comedy film “Heartburn” starring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson, the song captures the very essence of its writer Nora Ephron’s fictionalized account of her tumultuous marriage and divorce with her first husband Carl Bernstein, the famous reporter who unearthed the Watergate scandal with fellow Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward. It is a very touching movie with great performances by Streep and Nicholson perfect for this Mothers’ Day too.
Mothers are the best examples of the love Jesus is speaking of in the gospel today that Simon portrayed in her song Coming Around Again.
It is the love that mothers affirm over and over again despite the pains and hurts inflicted by their husband and children; it is the faithful love of every mom even if others are unfaithful; most of all, it is the love that remembers and never forgets, always forgiving, kind and understanding expecting nothing in return.
Yes, it sounds like in a movie like “Heartburn” but it is still so true as we have experienced with our own mother!
That is why I like that part when Simon declared:
I know nothing stays the same But if you're willing to play the game It's coming around again So don't mind if I fall apart There's more room in a broken heart (broken heart)
The love Jesus is commanding us is the very same love mothers exemplify: they are so aware “nothing stays the same” with unfaithful husband, ungrateful children yet, they keep on loving because it is “coming around again”. Most of all, because they “believe in love”.
And I believe in love But what else can I do I'm so in love with you
Without love, humanity will go extinct.
Because of love, as proven by mothers, we have learned that 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.
In that song and movie, you will find how love is the source of constant deep joy when we are suffering especially in silence. It is here we find the coming around in fullness of love in Jesus: his promised revelation of himself to those who keep on loving despite and in spite of everything. (See also our homily this Sunday, https://lordmychef.com/2026/05/09/easter-is-making-jesus-present-in-our-love/)
Here now is Ms. Carly Simon with Coming Around Again that was included in her 1987 album of the same title. Don’t forget to hug your mom today, to thank her and greet her with a happy mother’s day!
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!
Photo by author, June 2024.
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.
Photo by author, March 2018.
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.
Lord My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 04 May 2026
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, 20 March 2026, Novaliches, QC.
We’re back with our Sunday music blog with a Hall & Oates original we hope will soothe our searing weather and wipe too our troubles in Jesus’ name. But before we go into their lovely music, let us try to recall first this Sunday’s gospel that brings us back to the Last Supper scene just before the betrayal and arrest of Jesus.
Imagine the silent stillness of the room heavy with emotion, with lamps flickering in the evening light.
Feel the ebb and flow of intimacy and uncertainty in the impending separation of the Lord from his disciples.
Then, amid the gloom, feel the comforting assurance of Jesus telling his disciples that include us today to “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me”(Jn.14:1)
What’s troubling you lately?
Many times, what really troubles us most is the fear of being left out, of being alone.
Money, sickness, and ultimately death trouble us a lot because of our fears of having nobody by our side not only to defend and comfort us but simply be with us. That is why we are troubled when people we love cheat on us, betray us or simply 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.
This we hear perfectly expressed by Daryl Hall and John Oates in 1980:
And everytime you go away You take a piece of me with you And everytime you go away You take a piece of me with you, you
Everytime You Go Away is from the 1980 “Voices” album of Hall & Oates from which also came their highly popular version of You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling, followed by the smash hits Kiss On My List and You Make My Dreams.
Hall & Oates did not release a single version of Everytime You Go Away that was later covered by Paul Young in 1985 when it became number one for several weeks both in the UK and US Billboard charts. Hall admitted in an interview that Paul’s cover of Everytime You Go Away is his most favorite.
But of course, as a Hall & Oates fan, we prefer their own rendition of Everytime You Go Away that is truly more soulful with the long organ introduction that make it sound so gospel and churchy too. Try listening to Hall’s later versions and be awed with his powerful voice that had aged like an expensive wine. How sad that Hall and Oates have parted ways recently after more three decades of partnership that earned them the title of being music’s dynamic duo.
Since becoming a priest in 1998, we have been mentioning this song, sometimes “singing” it in our homily and spiritual talks because of its gospel values about honesty and sincerity, especially fidelity in our relationships (https://lordmychef.com/2026/05/02/easter-is-jesus-our-home-our-cornerstone/).
Being left out, being alone is the deepest pain one could ever have. And that is why 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. Have a blessed week ahead!
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).
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.
Lord My Chef Easter Recipe by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday, 12 April 2026 Acts 2:42-47 ><}}}*> 1 Peter 1:3-9 ><}}}*> John 20:19-31
Photo by author, Don Bosco Batulao, Batangas, 07 April 2026.
My dear friends, while praying over the gospel this week, this line by the Lord kept on echoing within me. And every time it would echo, the Lord shortened the sentence like these:
“Have you come to believe because you have seen me?”
“Have you come to believe because…?”
“Have you come to believe…?”
“Have you come…?”
Easter is a story of coming and believing amid all the darkness and emptiness in life, of being locked inside like the disciples when Jesus came to visit them “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked.”
Before we can stay and remain in the Lord, we must first come. Like Thomas.
Or Jesus who actually comes first because he believes in us his disciples.
Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst… Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed” (John 20:26, 27-29).
Caravaggio’s painting “The Incredulity of St. Thomas” (1602) from en.wikipedia.org.
We are now on the eighth day of Easter also known as Divine Mercy Sunday that was instituted by St. John Paul II in May 23, 2000 as a “perennial invitation to the Christian World to face with confidence in divine benevolence the difficulties and trials that humankind will experience in the years to come.”
This we can see in Thomas also known as Didymus who was not present when Jesus first came to his disciples on the evening of Easter. See how Jesus as the one actually coming first because he is also the first to believe in us his disciples despite our many flaws. And absences or tardiness.
Joining his fellow disciples, Thomas came and believed on the eighth day after Easter. What Thomas had asked as proofs to believe in the Lord’s Resurrection were not really doubts to be taken negatively. It was not that Thomas did not believe but in fact, he wanted to believe more.
That is why he came the following Sunday. Because he believed.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2026.
Like us, there are times we feel at a loss in our faith in God when difficult and extraordinary things happen to us. We cry in desperation to God, seemingly doubting his presence or if he listens at all to our pleas but we come to pray because we believe. We cry only to someone we believe who can help us in our plight.
Coming and believing happen simultaneously: we come because we believe and we believe that is why we come.
Believing is more than an intellectual assent to a person or something.
Believing is entering into a relationship. There is something deeper that happens when we believe that is why we are moved to come, to draw near especially to a person.
When Jesus told Thomas “do not be unbelieving, but believe”, it was not a reproach but more of an exhortation he tells us too today to be intimate with him, to stay with him, to remain in him.
While the world tells everyone that to see is to believe, Jesus tells us that it is when we believe him, when we believe in him that we shall see. Even more. And clearly!
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2026.
Believing is not actually concerned with proofs and evidence because whether with God or with another person, despite the many “proofs” we have gathered from all sources, none of them is actually the reason for our faith in God and with others. Or whatever like our vocation and profession.
Believing is the gift of faith nurtured in our relationships with God and with others.
It often starts so simple like when we pray the Apostles Creed and say “I believe in God” – in our believing and relating with God, we love, and love, and love even more even if there are pains and sufferings.
This we nurture by imitating the early Christians who devoted themselves to the teachings of the apostles that have been handed down to the Church, in communal life, and in the “breaking of the bread and prayers” which is the Holy Eucharist, the summit of our life as disciples of Christ (first reading).
That is why Peter in the second reading is all praises to those who believe and love Jesus even without having seen him: we continue to strive and persevere in life’s many trials because deep inside we experience the truth and realities of Christ’s resurrection, of his loving presence among us that leads us to profound joy and rejoicing in life. Most of all, with peace, the supreme gift of the Risen Lord.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2026.
Last March during my annual silent retreat as I turned 61 years old, my last reflection was Luke’s account of the Road to Emmaus, the gospel every evening of Easter.
In my meditation, I imagined myself joining the two disciples walking home to Emmaus. I was silent all throughout the journey, listening to their conversations until after the breaking of the bread in their home that opened their eyes to finally recognize Christ who had then vanished so quickly.
It was then when I actively joined the scene, telling the two disciples to return right away to Jerusalem. In my meditation, I felt the two disciples saying it was so dark and dangerous to travel back to Jerusalem. But I insisted, telling them, “maski na, tayo na!”
It was a turning point for me because for the past many years every time I go on my personal retreat and in my prayers, I always expressed to God my many fears in doing his will, refusing to follow him. I have always been like Jonah ever since in my relationship with God.
Last March was different. As I turned 61, I have come to believe more because I have become more daring.
There are still those fears in me about God’s will and plans but this time, I am no longer so concerned about my self but God alone – his will, his plans. And that is only when I felt truly at peace. Indeed, as John concluded his gospel today, Jesus does so many other things in our lives that is impossible to record but these few experiences we have of him are meant for us to believe him more, have life in him. Especially peace. Amen.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2026.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion, Cycle A, 29 March 2026 Isaiah 50:4-7 +++ Philippians 2:6-11 +++ Matthew 27:11-54
From influencemagazine.com.
We begin today the Holy Week with Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. Its long name is derived from the two celebrations that developed separately in Jerusalem and Rome during the first one thousand years of Christianity, one of the oldest in our liturgy.
As early as the fourth century, Christians in Jerusalem celebrated Palm Sunday at the city gate with a procession led by its bishop followed by people holding palms reenacting Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. Meanwhile in Rome, the Pope ushered the Holy Week with the proclamation of the long gospel account from the Lord’s Supper to his Passion, Death and Burial. Eventually in the 12th century, Jerusalem’s practice of a palm procession with the blessing of palms added by the French in year 800 reached Rome and was celebrated separately. After more than a 1600 years, it was only in Vatican II when the two celebrations from Jerusalem and Rome were merged into one that we now have its official designation as Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion.
From vaticannews.va
It is a beautiful story of how two distinct practices in Jerusalem and Rome, of two contrasting liturgies mirrored our different and unique journeys into the mystery of God in Jesus Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection.
And I love that contrast because our life is filled too with many contrasts that make it so beautiful and meaningful.
Contrast is when we compare differences between two or more things in order to highlight distinctive features like light and shadows, or pains and joys that make us see life fullest. Contrasts many times are a grace from God when he works in disguise among us, within us, as he writes straight crooked lines in our lives that eventually lead us to him and be fulfilled.
All our readings today present us with many contrasts that enable us to find and welcome Jesus coming to us like that Sunday in Jerusalem in the midst of our pain and sufferings, joys and fears. Three things I wish to reflect this Sunday.
Photo by author, Hagia Sophia, Turkiye, November 2025.
First contrast we find is the wisdom of God and the folly of man.
Read the longer version of the gospel from Matthew 26:14-27:66 and you find the many contrasts presented by the evangelist to highlight God’s wisdom in Jesus and man’s folly among the Jewish people led by their priests and elders, Pontius Pilate, and even with the prince of Apostles, Simon Peter!
At his trial before the Sanhedrin at the house of the high priest Caiaphas, Jesus was so comp-composed, silently listening to the many false accusations against him, and then shocked when he admitted amnd declared his being the Christ indeed (Mt.26:57-68)! And while all these were going inside the house of Caiaphas, outside was Peter denying Jesus thrice when asked of his being a disciple (vv.69-75)!
Again we see this glaring contrast of God’s wisdom in Christ and man’s folly in Pilate as Jesus remained silent during trial, answering briefly only when necessary that have put his enemies at the defensive posture (Mt.27:11-14). And how foolish they were in choosing to set free a known criminal in order to crucify the Christ (vv.21-26) which continues to these days in our own country as we keep on electing corrupt and inept people into office.
The most tragic of all is how some people while professing to be Christians are like those mob in Jerusalem still defending a known murderer now facing trial for crimes against humanity who had cursed God several times, made fun of women including those raped and under whose administration happened rampant and shameless corruption and decadence.
How sad that despite our supposed to be many advancements in science and technology that have completely altered our way of living and way of thinking, we have actually become more lost and empty than ever. Like Pilate and the Jewish people of that time with their elders, the more we assert our supposed to be superior knowledge on everything, the more we sink into emptiness and meaninglessness.
Let us not be blinded with our intelligence that have sent men to space and moon and shrunk the globe into a village but have made us grow more apart from each other; open our eyes and our hearts in Jesus Christ who is the truth because he is the only way in life.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2026.
Second contrast we find is that true power is in weakness not in strength.
Everybody at the trial and crucifixion of Jesus were at their own kind of “power play” especially the soldiers with the Jewish leaders and their cabal of followers (Mt.27:27-44). Imagine the very act of stripping Jesus or anyone for that matter of clothes – it is the most brazen display of power over someone. Not contented with that, they mocked Jesus while unconsciously recognizing him truly as king with the sign placed above his head, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews” (v.37). They would confirm this later at the death of Jesus when they declared “Truly, this was the Son of God!” (v.54).
At his trial and sentencing until his crucifixion, Jesus showed that true power lies in weakness and surrender as St. Paul eloquently expressed in the second reading today, “Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather he emptied himself” (Phil.2:6-7).
How sad the whole world is now plunged into a great disaster without any clear sight of an end in the war launched by the US and Israel against Iran. Who’s really winning? Despite the sophisticated and powerful weapons of the US and Israel, how come Iran still continues to launch many missile attacks against its neighbors and worst of all, control a supposed to be tiny strait that had sent fuel prices beyond reach of Tomahawk missiles!
Let’s look into our own lives, in those moments we “power tripped” against others: what happened? Have we really won over them or, are we now suffering its dire consequences, even paying the price of our too much pride and display of power and strength? Jesus shows us in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem until his Passion and Death, true power is in weakness and surrender. It is the only path to Easter because it is the path of life and love which we shall see next.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2026.
Third contrast we have seen in the passion of the Lord: life symbolized by blood is for love and caring, not for vengeance nor convenience. Not even a solution to a problem.
At the trial of Jesus, when Pilate felt at a loss that he could not set Christ free, he decided to wash his hands to free himself of any responsibility for his death: “I am innocent of this man’s blood. Look it to yourselves.” And the whole people said in reply, “His blood be upon us and upopn our children” (Mt.27:25-26).
It was the height of human arrogance and pride, of folly and insensitivity that sadly happens right in our homes, in our schools and offices, in the society and even in the church maybe.
Instead of using technology and the sciences for the care and preservation of human life symbolized by blood, these have actually objectified persons into things, from contraceptives to abortions, genetic manipulation and gender redefinition. We have become so impersonal that people are seen more in economic andn utilitarian terms especially infants and children as well as the sick and elderly, the most vulnerable ones among us. Worst, criminals and others labeled as misfits are disposed like things either through judicial or extrajudicial killings. So heartless.
See the contrast presented by Matthew in this aspect when at the Last Supper, Jesus “took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins'” (Mt.26:27-28).
Life is precious because it is vulnerable that is why God became human in Jesus Christ like us in everything except sin. Right after his birth, he faced the murderous threats of a king and now an adult, he offered himself freely to die on the Cross because he loved us so much so that we too may finally be able to love again like him as willed by God since the beginning.
Isaiah’s Song of the Suffering Servant in the first reading showed this contrast of Yahweh’s servant fulfilled in Christ Jesus of how he valued life so much, of bearing all pains and hurts because of love.
In his triumphal entry into Jerusalem up to his Passion and Death, Jesus showed us so many contrasts for us to see the bigger picture of life itself, of one another as brother and sister, of God who loves us so much. Take time to examine every contrast in life for God is surely in there, even sometimes in disguise. Amen. Have a blessed Holy Week ahead!
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Fourth Sunday in Lent (Laetare Sunday), Cycle A, 15 March 2026 1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a + Ephesians 5:8-14 + John 9:1-41
Artwork from thecripplegate.com.
We continue our Lenten journey with John still as our guide this fourth Sunday known as “Laetare Sunday” for “Rejoice Sunday” because we are fast approaching the end of the Lenten journey to celebrate Easter – but not that too easily.
More than that the path is still long, what makes the journey difficult is our own “blindness” that we fail to see and recognize Jesus as the light who had come to illumine us. His healing of the man born blind shows Jesus precisely in the exercise of the mission given him by the Father that John made clear in his gospel prologue about the coming of God’s Word, the Christ, as the light that enlightens everyone which the darkness refuses to accept (Jn.1:5, 9-10).
In a similar manner when Jesus told the Samaritan woman last Sunday that he is the living water who quenches our deepest thirsts in life, he clearly declared in this healing of the man born blind that he is “the light of the world … who had come so that those who do not see might see” (Jn.9:5, 39). But, unlike in the story of the Samaritan woman, Jesus appears only at the start and the end of the scene of our gospel this Sunday. And the most amazing part is how the man born blind eventually turned out to be the one who led those in the crowd including us today in realizing why Jesus indeed is the light of the world.
Photo by author, 25 February 2026, National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, Valenzuela City.
This beautiful story of the healing of the man born blind is like a huge painting or a tapestry best seen by slowly going through certain sections and details little by little until we see the whole picture.
As he passed by he saw a man born blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him” (John 9:1-3).
Actually, the man born blind wasn’t the only one blind in the story: everyone else is blind led by the Apostles themselves who are like us today always looking for someone to blame, a scapegoat for all the miseries in life. Everyday we repeat in various forms their question “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
Its worst part is how we continue to insist like them with the Pharisees and those in the crowds in molding Jesus into the person or God we want him to be, either so stern at one end or too lax at the other extreme to accommodate our own ideas who God is.
The late American Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote that God is not an “object” like a thing our minds can comprehend or grasp, saying that such attitude in seeing God leads to a false, idolatrous understanding of God. According to Merton, God is a pure “Who” and “Thou” we experience in silent prayers, a reality we experience and meet in ourselves and with others.
Maybe that explains why more than half of the wars going on today in various parts of the world are sadly because of religion!
How ironic that in this mass-mediated world where people practically live in social media, the more we see and expose everything, the more we have become blind, forgetting that the deepest truths and realities in life are hidden from our eyes that only our hearts can see. Hence, like the Pharisees and scribes of Jesus’ time, we still demand signs from God about his reality. In the first reading, we find God reminding Samuel and us to go beyond material things and outside appearances “because man sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart” (1 Sm.16:7).
Worst of all blindness is our being blind to those closest to us like family. Notice that John specifically mentioned how the parents of the man born blind refused to attest to their own son’s miraculous healing by Jesus for fear of reprisals from the temple authorities. Like them, we are blinded by power, wealth and prestige. Likewise, we are divided by affiliations and labels with public and moral issues nowadays decided not in its merits of truth and veracity but in its sheer number of followers. Talents and genius take the backstage to whatever viral and trending seen as the best, as the “in” thing. As a result, the more we are plunged into darkness despite the 24/7 “lights” of the world.
Photo by author, January 2025.
Interspersed in the amusing exchanges and conversations among the crowd with the man born blind after his healing by Jesus, we see now why Christ is the light of the world: because he brings hope amid darkness in life.
When Jesus heard they had thrown him out, he found him and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered and said, “Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him and the one speaking to you is he.” He said, “I do believe, Lord,” and he worshipped him (John 9:35-38).
It was in the ensuing drama in the conversations that followed after his healing that John assembled the beautiful pattern of the light of Christ shining through the man born blind as he joyfully and enthusiastically spoke of Jesus. It must have been dark for the healed blind man of being questioned and even laughed at by the Pharisees and crowd, and worst, not supported by his own parents; yet, despite all these, he held on as he affirmed his faith in Jesus as a prophet who had healed him because finally he had found a glimmer of hope and meaning in life. Recall now what St. Paul says in the second reading of our own moments in darkness, of how Jesus our light had enlightened us.
Many times in life our knowledge and experience of God do not happen instantly but slowly, little by little. And like that blind man who was healed, there are even times we could be already in front of Jesus without realizing it was already him because he comes in disguises – often in darkness of failures and sufferings, in our blindness in sin.
Photo by author, La Union, 09 January 2026.
It is in those moments of darkness and blindness we see and realize the light of Christ because that is when we experience hope and meaning in life.
The joy of this fourth Sunday is found in Jesus Christ like shafts of light filling us with hope within amid the darkness and failures, sufferings and pain we go through in life. Jesus is the light of the world because light is brightest in darkness like the stars at night.
When we hope, we believe, then we love despite the suffering we are going through because deep in our hearts we know something good is happening, that darkness is not the final say in life but light when everything becomes clear. In the healing of the man born blind, Jesus offers us hope for something good and better. Without hope, we stop loving because we have darkness within, finding no sense at all in living that we destroy, even kill. With Christ, even a glimmer of light can pierce the wall of darkness to lead us to life and meaning. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead sharing the light of Christ with others, especially those blinded within.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Third Sunday in Lent, Cycle A, 08 March 2026 Exodus 17:3-7 +++ Romans 5:1-2, 5-8 +++ John 4:5-42
Photo by author, an old well somewhere in the desert of Egypt, May 2019.
We continue our lenten journey from the wilderness of temptations of Jesus to the high mountain of his transfiguration. As we have claimed since Ash Wednesday, life is a daily Lent, an inner journey that takes us into different directions that surprise us like this Sunday when Jesus entered an “enemy territory” and even spoke with a Samaritan woman!
It is a very long story but a lovely one with so many layers filled with inexhaustible meanings for us today.
Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land thart Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. the Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water” (John 4:5-10).
Jesus and Samaritan Woman, AI-illustration from stock.adobe.com.
Imagine Jesus going into “enemy territory”. That’s how much Jesus loves us. He goes directly where we are most empty and dark, even tired and exhausted, lost and alienated, perhaps when we are deep into sin like that Samaritan woman who had to fetch water at noon to avoid the Marites, the gossipers speaking about her sixth husband.
It is very clear that what we have here is more than a geographical setting but a revelation of God’s immense love (and thirst) sending Jesus for us all especially the sinners and those neglected by the society, living in the margins like women and children, the poor and the elderly.
We are that Samaritan woman always hiding from everyone even from ourselves, hoping the decay and wounds within us can be hidden or simply be gone. And that is why like that Samaritan woman, we keep on going back to our “well” of comfort and false securities and affirmations to draw “water” that would quench our deeper longings and desire in the heart like mercy and forgiveness
Jesus knew the Samaritan woman was coming at that time. In engaging her into a conversation, the woman opened up and realized her deeper needs she had always been disregarding or setting aside for a long time, hoping there could be a perfect time to fix everything in her.
With Jesus, every day is a perfect day. He does not beat around the bush. He talks straight but never judgmental, calling a spade a spade. No need to soften the impact as we are wont in doing and saying. That is why our responsorial psalm today says it so well, “If today you hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts.”
Let Jesus come into your heart. Don’t be afraid to speak openly. Complain like the Israelites in the wilderness in the first reading. Was it wrong? Not really. Like us, the Israelites complained to God not because we are mad at him but actually because we believe in him. We know he alone can do something to our situation and problem. He alone can quench our thirst not just for water but inner thirst.
Photo by author, Third Week of Lent 2019, Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.
The woman left her water jar and went into the town… (John 4:28)
This is what the Samaritan woman realized in conversing with Jesus: more than the waters of pretensions and false affirmations of friends, the alibis and rationalizations we make, the noise we cover the truths within us, the well will eventually dry up until finally we have to confront and face our true selves in Christ right there in our hearts.
Why wait when we can do it now, this Lent?
Going back in the first reading, we see our situation: our inner longings that deep inside we cry out to God because we believe only him can hear us and satisfy us.
Have you realized this inverse proportionality with God? We come to God because we have nothing, convinced that only God can give what we need. God comes to us always especially when we foolishly believe we have everything that is actually nothing because he knows so well only him can fulfill us.
God knows this so well. As St. Paul tells us in the second reading, “For Christ, while we are still helpless, died at the appointed time for the ungodly. Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhpas for a good person one might even find courage to die. But God proves his love for is in that while we were still sinner Christ died for us” (Rom.5:6-8).
This Sunday, we have come to celebrate this Eucharist believing only Jesus can fulfill our deepest longings in life. Let us leave our jars that hide our many pretensions and false securities, our doubts and dilly-dallying in life. Empty yourself in Jesus, let him fill you for he is the Living Water.
The water in the well invites us to confront our true selves – no alibis, no ifs nor buts. Be our true self to realize we are an empty jar. Which kind of water you wish to be filled with, of the world or of Christ? Have a blessed week and let us pray:
Lord Jesus Christ, you have given me with a jar filled with fresh, living water I have wasted for so long to be filled with the world's water of fame and wealth and power; You know everything about me, Jesus: forgive me, refresh me in your love and mercy, in your words and loving presence; fill me with yourself the only Living Water that may flow and be shared with others so thirsty and untidy with sin. Amen.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II First Sunday in Lent-A, 22 February 2026 Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7 + Romans 5:12-19 + Matthew 4:1-11
Photo from earth.com.
We now live in a world so noisy with many voices competing for our attention. Everybody is talking including cars and elevators, phones and gadgets and apps with names Siri and Alexa. So often, it is from these competing voices come our temptations in life, too.
In his first Lenten Message, Pope Leo XIV invites us to listen more to the word of God in order to be converted anew to Him. He said it so well that “The willingness to listen is the first way we demonstrate our desire to enter into a relationship with someone.”
Very true! And the question this first Sunday in Lent asks us is, whose voice do I follow? Because the voice we listen most is likely the one we prefer or love most – in fact, it could be the voice of the one we keep a relationship with!
That is the tragic truth of the story of the fall of Adam and Eve in the first reading today – they listened more to the voice of the devil signified by the serpent than to God who warned them not to eat the forbidden fruit.
And that continues to happen every day in our lives! That is why to sin is not merely to turn away from God but actually a refusal to love because sin is rejecting a relationship with God to whom we must listen to. This we see today in Matthew’s version of the temptations of Christ in the desert.
At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” He said in reply, “It is written: One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:1-4).
Detail of “The Temptation of Jesus According to St. Matthew” on the wall of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice, Italy. Photo from psephizo.com.
Right at the start, Jesus made it clear by quoting the Sacred Scriptures, the word of God, that “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”
Jesus, the Word who became flesh to live among us tells us clearly today that same truth. God’s word is life when He created everything by just speaking. Any voice that leads to destruction is from the devil, the father of fake news. And the devil’s biggest lie we must always avoid is making and having things easily. See how until now every fake news is always about “instants” like instant food and health, instant solution to everything without realizing its sinful effects as well as side effects that may actually harm us more.
Listening is an art because it teaches us to be patient, to wait and most of all, to persevere which leads us to perfection and excellence. Haste always makes waste. When we listen, we become patient, choosing to wait than take shortcuts or get instants that avoid difficulties and hardships like gambling to be wealthy without working, or cheating to pass exams without learning as well as freedom without responsibilities.
Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on then parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command is angels concerning you’ and ‘with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.'” Jesus answered him, “Again, it is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test” (Matthew 4:5-7).
Photo by author, Domiican Hills, Baguio City, January 2019.
More than an art, listening is a virtue because it demands silence which is a fullness wherein we are able to listen and distinguish every voice and sound so that we may choose which to listen to and follow.
The word “listen” is the palindrome of “silent” – we listen best in silence to hear God, others and our very selves.
When we learn to be silent, we also become more trusting because when we trust, we speak less and listen more. The most silent people are the also the most trusting. When we trust, we wait and avoid shortcuts and instants.
The voice of God stirs our inner self, not just our senses because His voice leads us to deeper realities and meanings in life. Remember that Jesus eventually fed more than five thousand people from just five loaves of bread and two pieces of fish when He saw them already prepared inside their hearts and soul; when Jesus felt them more open to God than to the world, then He gave them bread and fish for their stomach.
Notice how the devil’s temptation to Jesus continues among us with those voices calling us to overly assert ourselves, to be influencers and clout chasers or content creators to be praised and followed by everyone when actually is all about wealth and money, and of course, power. It is the voice of control and manipulation. How sad that many of us gobble their lies completely, consuming everything, filling ourselves even with trash.
The voice of God calls us to sacrifice, to bear pains and sufferings not to be overburdened in life but for us to see God especially among those mostly in need like the poor and marginalized. Often, the voice of God is the softest and tiniest in our hearts calling us to simply trust Him by doing the simplest things like smiling to strangers, easing the pain of those lonely and sad, giving bread to the poor and hungry. Listening to the silence of God enables us to trust Him more that we learn to share and forget ourselves. Then, we grow and mature truly as persons.
Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him, “All these I shall give you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.” Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him (Matthew 4:8-11).
Again, we go back to Pope Leo XIV’s Lenten Message about listening as “the first way we demonstrate our desire to enter into a relationship with someone.”
Don’t you feel sad at the sight of today’s everyday life where everyone has something in their ears, whether the tiny earpods or the headset/headphone?
What used to be insane like talking by one’s self has now become a status symbol as everyone looks crazy speaking by themselves through modern devices amid a crowd while walking or seated anywhere conversing to somebody at the other end of their lines unmindful, oblivious of the persons around them. May sariling mundo.
Many these days have created their own worlds and universe with them at its center through our new Baal, the cellphone – the very first thing everyone is looking for after waking up and the last thing in everyone’s hand before sleeping. How sad many among us today practically live in social media. What is most tragic is that all these modern means of communications were invented to bring us closer together when in fact, the more we have grown apart from each others! We are not only polarized as people but even separated from God.
The third temptation of the devil to Jesus continues with us today with all those voices telling us to forget God and morality and truth so that we become popular by being viral and trending. It is the biggest scam and fake news of all by the devil – of us being the “master” to rule and have world with all of its luxuries and power. The voice seems harmless, as if asserting our true selves but actually destroys our being and relationships with God, with others and eventually with our very selves.
Lent is an inside journey into our hearts, of finding Jesus anew inside our hearts where He dwells. St. Paul tells us in the second reading how Jesus brought us back to God, to grace and salvation.
Lord Jesus Christ, help us not to harden our hearts today so that we may listen anew to Your voice within us to find our way back to God, to peace and to fulfillment in ourselves and in one another.Amen. Have a blessed week ahead!
Photo by author, Carmel of the Holy Family Monastery, Guiguinto, Bulacan, 22 January 2026.
Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 08 February 2026 Isaiah 58:7-10 ><}}}}*> 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 ><}}}}*> Matthew 5:13-16
Photo by author, Carmelite Monastery, Guiguinto, Bulacan, 22 January 2026.
We continue today Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount that started last Sunday when he called “Blessed” are the poor in spirt, those who mourn, the meek, the hungry and thirsty for righteousness, the merciful, the clean of heart, the peacemakers, those persecuted and insulted falsely.
These blessed ones are not different kinds of persons but every disciple of Jesus Christ who is the truly Blessed One who is poor and meek, hungry and thirsty, merciful and clean of heart. Blessedness is an inner disposition, a being than doing.
And so this Sunday, Jesus reminds his disciples that include us today, of our dignity and responsibility in being blessed, as if telling us, “Blessed are you… You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world.”
We whom Jesus called “blessed” already possess the kingdom but in a hidden manner; that is why we as his disciples must make it shine upon the world in our lives, in our witnessing especially in this age that has turned away from God and holiness.
Jesus said to his disciples: “You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father” (Matthew 5:13, 14-16).
Last February two we celebrated the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord at the Temple that is also known as Candlemass or Candelaria where Simeon recognized the Child Jesus as the “light of the nations”.
It is one of the beautiful feasts we have with the blessing and lighting of candles outside the church; then, led by the priest, the people enter the church with lighted candles to signify Jesus Christ as our only light and fulfillment in this life.
Jesus asserts that this Sunday. The Bible itself teems with so many references of God being the source of light with Israel as bearer of that light. This explains our first reading today from the Prophet Isaiah:
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am! If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusations and malicious speech; if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday” (Isaiah 58:8-10).
So beautiful! And what a prophecy fulfilled in Christ that continues to happen today among us, his blessed ones as disciples!
To be a Christian especially nowadays is to be the bearer of the light of Christ, to illumine the darkness among us especially in this world that has become so fascinated with artificial lights like studio lights that emphasize and focus on men and women, on their fame and glory and wealth. How ironic that the more artificial lights we flood the world these days, the darker life becomes with more crimes, more abuses, and more emptiness and meaninglessness within us.
Photo by author, Mt. St. Paul ?Retreat House, La Trinidad, Benguet, January 2025.
Bringing the light of Christ, sharing his light is being holy, being good, being a blessed one, doing what is right, what is true, what is good as Isaiah reminded the people in the first reading.
Bringing the light of Christ, sharing his light is sharing Jesus to the world that we become the God’s answer to the cries and pleas of his people for mercy and justice, for healing and comfort.
Hence, bringing the light of Christ, sharing his light is actually to bring out Jesus within us who had come to us sacramentally in Baptism and continues to come to us in the Sacraments especially the Holy Eucharist we celebrate on Sundays.
Problem is we keep on hiding Jesus within us. This is why he calls us not to hide him like a lamp placed under a bushel basket but let him be like a lampstand that illumines the house.
We are the light of Jesus Christ who shines before others with our good deeds that make God known to others. Not the other way around. Young people call them as “performative” like performative couple, performative student or performative employee. They are all performance, all for the show or the content. Puro palabas, walang paloob kaya walang laman. These are the very ones that Jesus warned to “take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them” (Mt. 6:1) which we shall hear soon in Lent.
How sad that many people today have become “performative” – pakitang-tao as we say in Filipino who would go to great extent of publicizing everything they say and do like many of the so-called content creators and vloggers. This is most painfully true in the Church of priests and laypeople posting in social media everything they do or “perform” that are always empty of meaning and any sense at all.
Bringing the light of Christ, sharing his light always leads to God’s glory, not to us humans.
Let us keep in our hearts the words of St. Paul today in our second reading:
When I came to you, brothers and sisters, proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:1-2).
Photo by Architect Philip C. Santiago, Basilica of the Annunciation, Nazareth, Israel, October 2025.
Being the light of Christ in the world is to bring Jesus Christ himself, not ourselves. It is being one in Jesus in his Cross where there is more of inner fulfillment and joy than mere success and happiness.
Being the light of Christ in the world is more than having all those quotable quotes and lofty proses and poetry nor of those grand plans and visions and programs left on paper but never materialized in reality.
Bringing the light of Christ in the world is being wounded and scarred by the Cross, always fading from the light so that only Jesus remains.
Like John the Baptist his Precursor, may his words be our prayer always: “Jesus must increase and I must decrease. Amen. Have an enlightening and illumining week ahead brothers and sisters in Christ!
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