The companionship of Christ

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Third Sunday in Easter, 22 April 2023
Acts 2:14, 22-33 ><)))*> 1 Peter 1:17-21 ><)))*> Luke 24:13-35
The Road to Emmaus” painting by American Daniel Bonnell from fineartamerica.com.

As I have been telling you, the beauty and joy of Easter is in its “nothingness” like the empty tomb of Jesus and its “darkness” found in the setting of the Lord’s appearances. We have found these in the past two Sundays when Jesus appeared to the Twelve “on the evening of the third day” and “eight days later” amid locked doors.

This Sunday is very different. It is the story of two disciples going back home to Emmaus whom St. Luke did not identify except the one named Cleopas. There is still the setting of darkness as it happened at sunset to early evening while news of the empty tomb was still trending amid reports Jesus had appeared to some women but still nowhere to be seen. But this time, darkness is more evident inside the two disciples walking away from Jerusalem – sad, disappointed and frustrated, forlorn.

Now that very day two of them were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. He asked them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?” They stopped, looking downcast.

Luke 24:13-17
From https://www.clarusonline.it/2017/04/29/i-discepoli-di-emmaus-andata-e-ritorno/

Did you feel the sadness of the two disciples? Today, Jesus assures us of his companionship especially when we are in a “perfect storm”, when everyone and everything are against us, when it is all darkness within us, when we are at our lowest low awaiting for the next worst thing that could happen to us.

It is during these times we think of quitting, of just going home, going back where we have been before, abandoning everything because it seems better to start all over again as everyone/everything have been lost. There need not be tragedies in life for these to happen. Many times it could be when we are in the midst of grave sins or even with our most common sins repeated over and over like venial sins. We feel discouraged, even depressed we could not see any sense at all in going back to God in prayers and the sacraments especially the Holy Eucharist. Those moments we tell ourselves and everyone, “para que?” or “para saan pa?” that we would go back to God, our Jerusalem.

Like the two disciples, we have become so nega that as we walk to the opposite direction in life, we fail to notice Jesus accompanying us, making sakay (ride on) with our trip, just listening to our woes and complaints, stories of sins and failures, pains and hurts, disappointments and frustrations.

Here we find Jesus our only true friend who allows us to be our truest self, even our worst self. He walks with us not only in darkness but in the opposite direction, waiting for the prefect timing to gently bring us back to the right path to Jerusalem. And sometimes, he does it with a splash of humor like when he told the two disciples “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that prophets spoke!” (Jn. 21:25).

Many times, we fail to bring back to God and to the right path our lost family and friends because we lack the compassion and gentleness of Jesus. Very often, fail because we react than act like Jesus who’s companionship and compassion opened the hearts of the two disciples: it was only after they have unloaded their burdens when Jesus loaded them or filled them with his words and eventually with his very presence at the breaking of the bread.

“Supper at Emmaus” by renowned painter Caravaggio from en.wikipedia.org. See the emotion depicted by Caravaggio with his trademark of masterful play of light and shadows. At the center is the Risen Lord blessing the bread that caught the two disciples who are seated in disbelief, one outstretching his arms and the others pushing back in his chair. The third character in the painting is the innkeeper unaware of the significance of the gesture of Jesus. It was at this instance that the two disciples recognized Christ as the traveling man with them to Emmaus.

Human transformation happens only in Christ, with Christ and through Christ in the Eucharist where we also experience a reversal of roles in our relationships with God and with others. Notice how the attitudes and perspectives of the two disciples changed when Jesus broke the bread. Remember it was the two disciples who invited Jesus inside to stay because it was getting dark, hosting a meal for him as their guest but that changed at the table: the two disciples ended up as guests of Jesus who merely joined them in their journey!

And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?” So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

John 21:30-35

One thing I have found in life these past 25 years as a priest is that we can only realize and understand, even see the clearer and bigger picture of our life later after so many years of series of trials and tribulations, joys and celebrations. And often, what we see is the Lord, the companionship of Jesus Christ even in those times we were in sin and away from him. St. Peter said it so well in the second reading that we are in a “sojourning, realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Pt. 1:17, 18, 19).

Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2023.

Many times in life we feel as if we are really the captain of our ship, we direct everything, we control everything but it is actually Jesus. There is always Christ our companion in this journey of life, our true host and we are his guests who shared himself with us on the Cross so we can share in the mystery and victory of his Resurrection. In being one with us in our brokenness, Jesus immediately vanishes the moment we recognize him so we may keep on following him by changing course and direction in our lives.

In this time when people have lost interests in the Church, the Sacraments especially the Holy Eucharist, and the Scriptures along with prayers and devotions, we who are inside the church especially us priests are reminded of this important truth by Jesus, that he is the one in command, he is our host. We only share him in our co-journeyers in life, he is the one who opens our eyes, the one who effects transformation and changes within us. Not us.

Are we one with Jesus, especially in the Eucharist we manipulate so much with our many rituals and acts not necessary? See that the more we manipulate the Mass and other devotions, the more Christ disappears and persons especially priests become the focus.

In Emmaus, Jesus walked with the two disciples going the opposite direction to lead them back and never the other way around as it happens when we priests and volunteers are the ones who mislead people away from Jesus with our lack of warmth and charity for people like the unchurched.

Jesus is truest in the Eucharist when we touch people literally with our hands, when we get our hands dirty in taking care of the sick and needy, when we are truly present with them especially in their griefs, emptiness and sinfulness. That is when they experience, not just know that Jesus is real and true in the Eucharist when they first experience him in us his disciples, in our companionship and compassion with those suffering.

Nobody is perfect. As St. Peter had noted in the first reading, we are all responsible for the suffering and death of Jesus with our sinfulness; however, God’s love for us is far greater than our sins so that in our darkness and emptiness, we are able to see and have fulfillment in Jesus his Son. Amen. Have a blessed week!

Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2023.

When we are lost, then found

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 17 April 2023
Photo by author, 08 February 2023, Taal Vista Hotel, Tagaytay City.
We all know 
that feeling happening
more often lately
a foreboding of senility?
when we go like crazy
why can't we see suddenly
some things we have
held or kept momentarily
until we sound the alarm
and call everyone
to join in the search
but still nowhere to be found.
It could be the key
or the glasses or the phone
that in exasperation
we say begone
only to make us
forlorn figures
in our own home
or tiny room
but sometimes too soon
other times would take
too long, our lost 
things are suddenly found!
Is it part of the riddle
of that black hole they call
when missing things
suddenly appear
without being sought
much less thought?
But here is the thrill:
when things even persons
are missing,
are we not the ones 
who are lost
and waiting to be found?
More than the
naked shouts of eureka
is our profound joy
when missing things
even persons suddenly
appear because the truth
is, we were the ones lost
and could not be found
in our cluttered minds
and hearts shut and closed
by our fears and doubts, 
anxieties and insecurities.
In this life
far wider than the world
where planes still go missing
amid modern technologies
and endless searching,
could it be that we are 
missing our bearings
as beings, forgetting 
God and others when we are
lost to our own beliefs or
locked in our small world
of lies and prejudice?
To find those missing 
persons or things dear to us
it might help if we first lose
whatever is holding us
for the world is so wide
for anyone or anything 
to just disappear 
they surely must be here
awaiting for our hearts 
to be clear until we hear
that sweet voice
giving us peace within.

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 

John 20:19-20
Photo by PhotoMIX Company on Pexels.com

Powerful prayer

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday in the Second Week of Easter, 17 April 2023
Acts 4:23-31   ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'>   John 3:1-8
Photo by author, sunrise at Bolinao, Pangasinan, 18 April 2022. 
When is a prayer powerful,
Lord Jesus Christ?

Many times in prayer,
I shake and tremble in fear;
afraid of what would happen
next, if things would work out
in my favor or not.

Many times in prayer,
I rationalize, not really
understanding your words
like Nicodemus.

Many times in prayer,
Lord, I remain here below
on earth, could not level up
with you, of being above,
of being born again.

How I wish I could pray
like Peter and John with your
early followers after their 
release from prison!

And when they heard it, they raised their voices to God with one accord and said, “And now, Lord, take note of their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with all boldness, as you stretch forth your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” As they prayed, the place where they were gathered shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

Acts 4:24, 29-31
How beautiful was that scene, Lord:
your followers were of one accord,
praying for courage and boldness,
most especially for "healing"
of your people as many continued
to resist change;
and the place "shook" while they
were filled with the Holy Spirit.

Let us not be shaken by events, Lord;
shake our world and fill us with your
Holy Spirit to heal each one.  Amen.

Ultimate joy of Easter: the Divine Mercy of God

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Divine Mercy Sunday in the Octave of Easter, 16 April 2023
Acts 2:42-47 ><}}}*> 1 Peter 1:3-9 ><}}}*> John 20:19-31
Photo by author, 08 February 2023.

The ultimate joy of Easter is God’s Divine Mercy, of how his Son Jesus Christ became human like us in everything except sin, searching and finding us to bring us back to the Father by dying on the Cross. Now he is risen, Jesus overflows us with his Divine Mercy right here, right now.

Unlike other religions, Christianity is so unique because it is about God looking for us humans by becoming like us so that we may become like him in Jesus Christ. In Christ, we have come to know and experience God as a person, relating with us in all tenderness and love because he himself had gone through all our pains and hurts, betrayals and disappointments, even death! Read the Bible and you shall see from the Old Testament to the New Testament, we find series of stories of God searching for man, beginning with Adam and Eve who hid after eating the forbidden fruit reaching its highest point in the coming of Jesus Christ who on this second Sunday in Easter came looking again for us represented by the disciples who have gone hiding in a locked room for fears of their leaders who have threatened to arrest them following reports of the empty tomb.

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” 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 and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

John 20:19-20, 24-28
“The Incredulity of St. Thomas”, painting by Caravaggio (1601-02) from commons.wikimedia.org.

“The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.” But we wonder, what kind of rejoicing was it? It must have been more than the rejoicing of passing the Bar or any board exam. There was something else in their rejoicing if we try to imagine being there on that Sunday evening of the third day.

What do I mean? Have you ever felt being the one actually lost when some friends or loved ones as well valuable things have gone “missing”?

That feeling of being the one actually lost because the “missing” persons and things have never left us entirely but just there waiting to be found and rediscovered like when things get hidden underneath the car seat or misplaced somewhere else and forgotten. Once “found” again, there is that deep sense of joy coupled with a sense of wonder and astonishment because the truth is, it was not us who have found the lost person or thing but they were the ones who actually found us too! Here is a case more profound than the “eureka” experience for we were the ones who were lost and finally found again.

And that’s the rejoicing of the disciples in seeing Jesus again that evening of Easter Sunday! They were the ones who were actually lost and found by Jesus!

Just like us today in many instances in life when we have been running away from God, locking ourselves inside our very selves because of fears, insecurities and false securities, pride and sinfulness, as well as doubts and incredulity, unbelief and disbelief in God and in one another. Like Thomas, many times we have been so unreasonable in our demands for proofs of God and everything, insisting that “to see is to believe” without realizing that it is when we believe that we actually see.

Recall during the ministry of Jesus in Galilee how he kept telling his disciples to search for the “lost sheep” of Israel first and later everyone who have sinned and been away from God. That was Divine Mercy in action. Consider these other concrete expressions of Divine Mercy by Jesus:

At the Last Supper, John told us that Jesus “loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end” (Jn.13:1); this he proved by washing the feet of the Twelve! He further proved his love the following Good Friday by dying on the Cross and immediately at Easter, to prove his love again, he looked for Mary Magdalene to break the news of his resurrection to his disciples.

Jesus is the one who finds us unaware of his presence like on this second Sunday after Easter when he appeared to Thomas who was so shocked and surprised that all he could tell Jesus was “my Lord and my God”! I doubt if ever had the chance to examine the Lord’s wounds at all!

Next Sunday we shall hear in the gospel how it is always Jesus who searches and finds us when we least expect him like in the opposite directions in life when he walked with the two disciples to Emmaus Easter evening, only to be recognized by them at his breaking of bread.

Last Friday we have heard in the gospel how Jesus again for the third time appeared after finding them in a fruitless night of fishing in Lake Tiberias by telling them to cast their net to the right side of the boat; their nets almost teared with the bountiful catch of fish!

“The Road to Emmaus” painting by American Daniel Bonnell from fineartamerica.com.

In life, it is always Jesus who searches and finds us. We are the ones always getting lost. Many times in life we cry, asking where is God but the fact is he never leaves us, he is always with us, coming to us everyday, especially on Sundays in the Holy Mass where Jesus leads our celebrations.

On Tuesday, I will celebrate my 25th year of ordination to the priesthood. How I got ordained was a long story of getting lost for nine years when I was sent out of the high school seminary after graduation in 1982. I went to college in UST and finished AB Journalism in 1986, working as a writer then a reporter for GMA Channel 7 News until 1991 when I gave my vocation a second chance by entering the seminary again.

All those years from 1982 to 1991, I felt lost and empty despite a promising career with good pay and all the perks that went with it and a sense of security but, deep inside me was a big hole of being incomplete. That was how I went back to God in prayers, then slowly to the Mass and Confessions, and the more I moved closer to God, the more I felt empty yet eager for him that I finally consulted some priests. After a few years of discernment, I decided to leave everything and started anew in God in the seminary in 1991.

It was not easy going back to the seminary but God had such wonderful ways of finding me, even at the nick of time, to save my vocation. My turning point happened during our Ignatian retreat of 30 days when I finally committed myself to God as I felt his love and presence so irresistible, even himself so true. In 1998 with six other classmates, we were ordained priests at the Malolos Cathedral. Again, it was not an easy 25 years with so many times I often felt lost and empty mostly by my own making when I sin. But like before, Jesus in his Divine Mercy has always been the One searching and finding me even in the opposite directions when I hid amid rejections, failures, fears, sadness and weeping.

Like the early Christians in our first reading, I have found God most present in those 25 years as a priest and as an individual in the communal celebrations of the Holy Eucharist, aka, the breaking of bread as I realized too that priestly celibacy is lived in a community not only of priests but with you the laity.

With the responsorial psalm this Sunday as our prayer, “let us give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting” because as Peter tells us in the second reading, God our Father “in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pt. 1:3). Let us rejoice in him who finds us always when we are lost. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead. Say a prayer for me this Tuesday. Thank you.

Prayer I have composed after our 30-day retreat in 1995 that until now, I still pray because it is so personally true. That is Divine Mercy for me. And hope with you too!

The joy of Easter: Christ comes in our rejections

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday in the Easter Octave, 14 April 2023
Acts 4:1-12   ><]]]]'> + <'[[[[><   John 21:1-14
Photo by author, Mt. Nebo in Jordan overlooking the Israeli border, May 2019.
How wonderful to ponder,
to think over and over,
Lord Jesus,
how you yourself experienced
rejection - big time -
that now you come to us
in our own rejections too!

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, answered them, “Leaders of the people and elders: If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a cripple, namely, by what means he was saved, then all of you and all the people of Israel should know that it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead; in his name this man stands before you healed. He is the stone rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.”

Acts 4:8-11
Many times, Lord,
we keep on going back
to our previous way of life
like Peter and company on
that third time you appeared
to them at the Lake of Tiberias;
actually, O Lord,
the most crushing rejections
we have gone through are nothing
compared to yours because very often,
most rejections we experience 
actually come from our very selves:
our self-rejections
of our worth,
of our abilities,
most of all,
of us being loved
and forgiven by you!

Help us to find you in
every rejection that comes
our way when you appear
like after a night of fruitless
catch of fish when you told 
the disciples to cast their net
to the right side (Jn. 21:6);
open our eyes to recognize you,
Jesus, like your beloved disciple
in every bountiful catch
after every rejection as you
firmly establish us
for your task 
and mission.
Amen.
Photo by author, June 2019, Macapagal Blvd., Pasay City.

Ang “isa pang Maria”

Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-13 ng Abril 2023
Larawan ng painting ni American painter Henry Osawa Tanner, “The Three Marys” (1910) mula sa biblicalarchaeology.org. 
Magkakatulad 
ang mga ebanghelista 
sa paglalahad 
ng mga kababaihang naiwan,
sinamahan si Jesus sa Krus
hanggang sa kanyang kamatayan;
tatlo sa kanila ating nakikilala
na sina Maria na Ina ni Jesus,
Maria Magdalena at 
Maria asawa ni Clopas.

Subalit, sino 
iyong "isa pang Maria"
na binabanggit sa ebanghelyo
ni San Mateo na kasama
ni Maria Magdalena
"nakaupo sa tapat ng
libingan" ni Jesus (Mateo 27:61)
na hindi naman niya kinilala
nakatayo rin sa paanan
ng Krus?

Kataka-taka sino nga ba
itong kasama ni Maria Magdalena
"Makaraan ang Araw ng Pamamahinga,
pagbubukang-liwayway 
ng unang araw ng sanlinggo, 
pumunta sa libingan ni Jesus 
si Maria Magdalena
at isa pang Maria" (Mateo 28:1)
na unang pinagpakitaan
ng Panginoong muling nabuhay?
Hindi na natin malalaman
tunay niyang pangalan
maliban sa "isa pang Maria"
na hindi kasing tanyag
 ni Magdalena,
 ni walang nakakakilala
ni pumapansin
bagama't matitiyak natin
hindi siya mahuhuli
 pagbibigay ng kanyang sarili
bilang tapat na alagad
ng ating Panginoon din!
Bawat isa sa atin
katulad ni Maria Magdalena,
dapat ipagpasalamat
 kasama at kaibigan
maituturing din na
  "isa pang Maria" - 
tahimik at walang kibo
subalit buo ang loob
tayong sinasamahan
saanmang kadiliman
basta patungo kay Kristo
na kapwa nating sinusundan!
Larawan ng painting ni French painter James Tissot ng “The Two Marys Watch the Tomb” (1894) mula sa paintingmania.com.

The joy of Easter: Christ comes despite our ignorance and sins

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday in the Easter Octave, 13 April 2023
Acts 3:11-26   ><]]]]'> + <'[[[[><   Luke 24:35-48
Photo from Facebook, Easter 2021: “There is an urgency to announce the Joy, the joy of the Risen Lord.”
Praise and glory to you,
Lord Jesus Christ who still
comes to us in our
sins and ignorance
(Acts 3:17),
doubts and incredulity
(Luke 24:37),
even disbelief or unbelief.

Like the psalmist today,
we sing of your glory:
"O Lord, our God,
how glorious is your name 
over all the earth!
What is man that you should
be mindful of him, 
or the son of man that 
you would care for him?"
(Psalm 8:2) that you never stop 
coming to us 
to call and send us,
to forgive and convince us
of your love!

Then he said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.”

Luke 24:38-39
Dearest Lord Jesus,
let us come closer to you
to know you better,
to love you truly,
and to follow you closely
so we may share you
with others
and be your loving presence
especially among
the unloved and neglected,
to be the extensions of your healing 
hands to the sick and old,
and most especially,
your gift of peace.
Amen.
Photo by author, 08 February 2023.