Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-17 ng Enero 2020
Larawan mula sa Inquirer.net, 12 Enero 2019
Lahat ay nagimbal
nang pumutok bulkan ng Taal:
nagdarasal, nagninilay
kahulugan at mga aral
na sa atin sana'y gumabay.
Isang katiyakang ating mapananaligan
hindi kaparusahan pagsabog ng bulkan
na batay sa kaayusang tinakda
noon pa man nitong kalikasan
sa karunungan ng Poong Maykapal.
Gayon pa man,
mahalaga nating mapaglimi-limihan
kung ano baga mga aral
sa atin ay inuusal nitong
pagsabog ng bulkang Taal.
Larawan ay kuha ni G. Raffy Tima ng GMA-7 News, 12 Enero 2020.
Una kong napagtanto
laganap na pagkalat ng abo
mula nang pumutok ang Taal
upang ipaala-ala sa ating mga tao
ating pinagmulan at hahantungan.
Iyon nga lang
sa inyong pakundangan
bakit nga ba yaring mga kinauukulan
pati na rin sambayanan
tila baga mga isipan walang laman kungdi abo lamang?
Kanya-kanyang bidahan kinabukasan
mayroong ibig magpaulan upang abo ay mahugasan
habang isa pang kasamahang hunghang sa batasan
nagmungkahing imbestigahan diumano'y
kapabayaan ng mga nagbabantay sa bulkan.
Natuyot nang islang kinaroonan ng bulkang Taal. Larawan ay kuha ni G. Raffy Tima ng GMA-7 News, 15 Enero 2020.
Iyan unang aral ng bulkang Taal:
huwag nang ihalal mga upisyal na hangal
na walang ibang kayang gawin kungdi
samsamin kaban ng bayan at palitan
pangalan ng mga lansangan.
Ngayon ibig nilang pakialaman
gawain ng mga nasa agham
matapos pabayaan at bawasan
pondong kinakailangan
sakaling mayroong mga di inaasahang kalamidad.
Mas makakapal pa sila sa abo ng Taal
masangsang pa kanilang amoy sa asupre
mga salot ng lipunan, mga upisyal na walang pakialam
maliban dilaan sino mang nasa Malakanyang
na lihis din takbo ng isipan kahit may kaguluhan.
Mapayapang tanawin ng Taal bagama’t umuusok pa rin. Larawan kuha ni G. Raffy Tima ng GMA-7 News, 17 Enero 2020.
Larawan ng kagandahan at kaayusan
sa kanyang katahimikan itong bulkan
sa loob ng lawa ng Taal na ngayo'y
kay hirap na ring masilayaan
dahil sa mga gusaling nagtataasan sa daanan ng Tagaytay.
Marahil isang hinaing
at pinag-aalburoto ng Taal
ating kawalang galang sa kanya
sampu ng buong kalikasan
na ating winawasak at sinalaula.
Gayon din mga nagkabitak-bitak
na lupa waring nagsasaad
malaon nang mga pitak
sa ating mga kapatiran
maging kaisahan sa Inang Kalikasan.
Kung sakali mang
puputok at sasabog ng tuluyan
yaring bulkan ng Taal
nawa'y walang mapahamak sino man
ngunit aral niya ating matutuhan at matandaan.
Friday, Memorial of St. Anthony, Abbot, 17 January 2020
1 Samuel 8:4-7, 10-22 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Mark 2:1-12
Grotto, Baguio City, January 2019.
Thank you very much, O God for another week of work and school about to close this day. Most of all, thank you for for the rest you have given us these past few days from our restive Taal Volcano. Continue to keep everyone safe and ready for any worst eventuality.
Today we pray, O Lord, for those people who have rejected us, those who have rejected our friendships, those who continue to reject our peace offerings, those who still reject the mercy and forgiveness we have given them.
Our lives have all been marred with so many rejections. Too often, we do not complain and just take them as part of life, the risk in any relationships, though, deep inside, we are hurt.
But, so often, we also forget how we have always rejected you, O God, in our lives. Of how we would rather choose our own ways that often lead us into sins and destruction, rejecting your wonderful plans that simply ask us to trust in you, to believe in you, and to rely in you.
Samuel was displeased when they asked for a king to judge them. He prayed to the Lord, however, who said in answer: “Grant the people’s every request. It is not you they reject, they are rejecting me as their king.”
1 Samuel 8:6-7
Teach us, O God, to open up to you again. To be open to your love and mercy, to your mercy and forgiveness brought to us by your Son Jesus Christ.
Help us to break this cycle of rejections we within that lead us to sin.
Every time we reject you, O Lord, or our brothers and sisters in love and mercy to insist on our own ways, our own ideas and thoughts, and beliefs, that is when we often sin.
Help us to be like St. Antony who left everything in life to be a hermit in the desert in order to find you and follow you. Help us find our own desert of desolation where we can always be alone with you to rely only in you, to accept your truths to guide us in our daily life. Amen.
St. Anthony the Abbot, a.k.a. the Great, pray for us!
1 Samuel 4:1-11 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Mark 1:40-45
Altar of the Church of All Nations beside the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem where Jesus prayed before his arrest on Holy Thursday. Photo by author May 2019.
Lord Jesus Christ, our Master and Divine Teacher, please teach us how to pray like you. Teach us how to truly pray that is pleasing to the Father not in the social media as many of us seem to be doing these days amid the eruptions of Taal Volcano recently.
May we be reminded of the experience of the Israelites in the first reading that despite the presence of God’s Ark of the Covenant in their battle with the Philistines, they were defeated.
Worst, the Ark of the Covenant was captured and among those dead were Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas (1Sm.4:10-11)!
Remind us that it is the Holy Spirit within us who prays and calls out to you, O God, because we do not really know how to pray. Dispose ourselves unto your will, O God, like that who came and knelt to beg before Jesus, saying,
“If you wish, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand, touched the leper, and said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean.” The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Mark 1:40-42
Dear God, may we heed the calls of Pope Francis in Laudato Si that each of us seriously change our own ways of living, to have a shift in our lifestyles that respects nature as part of your creation, part of our lives.
We have long disrespected you and nature, O God.
Cleanse our hearts, strengthen us in facing Taal’s fury and heed her voice hereafter to take care of her. Amen.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, 15 January 2020
From The Times.
Now streaming at Netflix is this excellent original 2019 BBC production, Giri/Haji (Duty/Shame), a Japanese story of two brothers set almost entirely in London seemingly inspired by French existentialist writer Albert Camus with closing scenes set in Paris.
Midway through the series, one notices right away the complexities or, absurdities of life that one cannot simply categorize it between “duty and shame”, or good and evil, right and wrong, black and white.
It is a series that hits our innermost core when we find ourselves in those gray areas of confronting what we believe as right and just versus the value of every human person that Camus beautifully expressed in his 1947 novel “The Plague”:
“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.”
Albert Camus, The Plague
Like most Netflix series, Giri/Haji is rated 18+ for its violence, language, substance, and nudity but everything is done beautifully and artistically.
It is a masterpiece that shows some common threads among us humans regardless of our color and culture, gender and age, belief and language. How the creators were able to perfectly blend these all with the excellent cinematography, music, and fine prints into uncluttered and pure simplicity of Japanese Zen principles are a work of art and film genius.
Simple plot but very personal and universal
The plot is simple: an elder, straight brother is a cop with a younger brother who is a Yakuza member hiding in London after being presumed dead when he got the daughter of his boss pregnant. He staged his revenge in London where he killed a Japanese executive with the knife of his former boss that had sparked a war among Yakuza families in Tokyo that was going out of control. Cop-brother comes to London to bring his gangster brother back to Japan to atone for his sins so that peace is restored among the Yakuzas.
Along the way, the two brothers’ stories converged with the stories of three other main characters that provided the many uneventful twists to be united by the element of deaths in various forms and circumstances.
From Google.
Giri/Haji honestly confronts our basic issues of love and acceptance so lacking or taken for granted in our own families that lead to a host of so many other problems and situations like drugs and other crimes, infidelity and promiscuity, as well as homosexuality and sexual orientations.
What is so unique with the series is how it was able to take these sensitive issues as subjects to be seen in relation with persons, not as objects to be studied or examined apart from anyone that it becomes more of an experience, not just an entertainment.
Giri/Haji is so personal, you can feel yourself “slashed” so you experience the subjects’ pains and hurts, longings and desires, dreams and aspirations.
Like the samurai blade that can cut through almost anything, the series hits you at almost every turn that you find yourself laughing and weeping without realizing that along with the characters, you have also laid your soul bare for serious self-confrontation and examination about your very self and the people around you in the relationships you keep as well as skipped or taken for granted.
Death and new life
There is no glorification of evil and immoralities but Giri/Haji invites us to see these as realities in our imperfect world that must be seen more with our hearts than with our minds and convictions. The series contrasts the Western frame of mind of morals as codes to be followed to the minutest details that slashes even persons into categories with the Oriental point of view of seeing morality in the totality of the person.
How it is resolved in the end is amazing!
And despite its genre being crime and violence, I would still say Giri/Haji is so lovely, even quaint and as Japanese as it can be especially with the depiction of changing of seasons that peaked at autumn.
Despite the dark and gloomy nature of the topics of death in all of its forms, there is the radiance of hope always that will lead to new life. The series teems with other symbolisms and signs including great music selections that add intensity to its drama and tragedy that make us hope the new season comes soonest.
For the meantime, listen to the beautiful music theme of the Giri/Haji by British singer Tom Odell.
Take my mind And take my pain Like an empty bottle takes the rain And heal, heal, heal, heal
And take my past And take my sense Like an empty sail takes the wind And heal, heal, heal, heal
1 Samuel 3:1-10, 19-20 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Mark 1:29-39
Photo by author, Grotto chapel, Baguio City, January 2020.
Thank you very much, O God, to your inspired words today that teach us some important lessons about prayer especially at this time of calamity from Taal Volcano’s eruptions.
Once again, you remind us to always have you first in every situation:
Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. They immediately told Jesus about her.
Mark 1:30
Forgive us, O Lord Jesus especially in this time of social media, we have adored and followed our smartphones as our new gods, replacing you in prominence and importance.
Forgive us that upon waking up, the first thing we do is immediately check our messages, count our likes than kneel and thank you for the gift of life.
Teach us to be like Simon and his companions to always think first of you.
Most of all, teach us to center our lives in you through prayers like Jesus your Son who always went out of the way to pray before and after every ministry.
Give us that attitude of being open to you, of willingly presenting ourselves before you to listen and obey your words, O Lord, like Samuel.
Samuel answered, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
1 Samuel 3:10
Today we pray for all travelers whose work have been seriously affected by Taal’s eruptions as we continue praying for the people of Batangas and Cavite affected by the calamity. Amen.
1 Samuel 1:9-20 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Mark 1:21-28
Inside our church from the altar table. Photo by author, November 2019.
Hanna replied to Eli, “Think kindly of your maidservant,” and she left..
1 Samuel 1:18
While praying over your words, O Lord, of that scene at the temple when Eli mistook Hannah to being drunk while praying intensely to you for a child, it reminded me of Taal Volcano’s restive behavior, of her spewing ashes and causing tremors.
But despite all these, Taal remains lovely and magnificent.
Sometimes, Lord, that is what exactly we need in life: to think kindly of others always.
The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. All were amazed and asked one another, “What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.”
Mark 1:22, 27
Purify our thoughts, Lord, to always think kindly of others.
To always have that disposition for silence and being non-judgmental with others to always listen to them and be open to their thoughts and feelings as well.
Like you, Lord Jesus Christ, enable us to share in the power of your words, to speak with authority by entering into that daily union with you in silence and prayers.
May we learn also from the gentle Taal: to be still and silent, to speak only when necessary so that everyone listens intently to her inner rumblings when she finally “speaks”.
We continue to pray for those severely affected by Taal’s eruptions, most especially that they may remain kind with people and nature alike in this trying moments of a major calamity.
We pray for businessmen to have a heart, to think kindly of those affected by Taal’s eruptions and stop jacking up prices of much needed goods. Amen.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, 13 January 2020
Photo by my high school seminary friend, Mr. Chester Ocampo, taken at the UST Senior High where he teaches art (2019).
Life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone..
John Mellencamp, “Jack & Diane” (1982)
Maybe this is part of getting old, of maturing. Of learning to grapple with life’s mortal realities and still be excited with living. It is a grace that is both fulfilling but also deeply moving and often, chilling.
An uncle and a friend have commented to me in our recent chats how 2020 had come in hard and difficult with so many sickness and deaths in the family.
Some relatives have to fly to Singapore on New Year’s Day to support a cousin whose husband had an office accident that left him in comatose for five days following a brain surgery. He eventually died and had to be cremated a few days later.
December 11 I had to drive to Manila to visit and anoint the father of my best friend from high school seminary who arrived December 2 from the States, fell ill December 4, and had to spen Christmas and New year in the hospital.
Less than 24 hours after being discharged January 3, he died the following morning after talking with my friend based in Chicago, three days short before eldest daughter arrived to accompany him and wife back to New Jersey this week.
Meanwhile last January 2, I had to rush again this time to Quezon City for the wake of our high school seminary classmate Rommel who had died of multiple complications morning of December 31.
He is the third to “rest in peace” in our batch of 18 men who graduated the minor seminary in 1982. We last saw him in our reunion, September 9, 1990 (9-9-90).
Suddenly, I felt myself in some kind of a time warp when everything seemed to be not too long ago, as if we have just graduated recently, or that my dad and their dads have just passed away one after the other these past months.
Death can sometimes be magical when life is lived in love
I realized that when we have so much love for everyone like relatives and friends, including parishioners in the last eight years, time stands still after their deaths. You do not count the days and weeks and months and years you were together and when they have all gone.
They all seem to be still present because you are focused on how those departed have enriched your very life, your very person no matter how fleeting or long ago you were together.
Death can sometimes be magical, most of all grace-filled, when our lives are lived in love.
Life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone…
John Mellencamp, “Jack & Diane” (1982)
Photo by author, our sacristy 2019.
Memories and knowledge fade, but love remains
Finally I had the chance to visit my mom – for Christmas! – evening of January 6. It was so good that just before leaving, a cousin arrived with his family to visit also my mother who is the younger sister of his mother, my Tita Celia.
It was only at that evening we have finally confirmed that Tita Celia has Alzheimer’s, the reason why her ways and attitudes have been noticeably erratic in 2019 as she was slowly losing grip of her senses.
And now, it is almost all gone according to my cousin whose sadness I strongly felt as he narrated to me the deterioration of his mother, of forgetting and losing so many things, of not recognizing familiar people like relatives and friends.
That same night, we also learned from him how our moms’ younger brother seem to be having signs of the onset of Alzheimer’s disease that are very similar with Tita Celia.
Again, I found myself in a “time warp” while they were happily conversing I was silently trying to recall the last time I have seen my mother’s siblings now afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease, wondering if they will still recognize me if I visit them later.
Moreover, I also realized how afraid I am with the prospects of getting sick in old age than of dying, sooner or later!
In fact, I was so scared that I had a nightmare that same night: in my dream I found myself lost, apparently with Alzheimer’s as I was searching for my parish rectory, looking for my bedroom, asking people about my parish staff, crying like a child.
What a relief when I woke up Tuesday morning that it was just a dream, that I was in fact in my bed, inside my room, in my parish rectory, so alive and still whole!
It seems it is easier to think and accept of one’s death than of getting sick and incapacitated later in old age. It is something we have to slowly come to terms with while still younger and stronger, and perhaps wiser.
How?
As I recalled our conversations with my cousin Louie that Monday night at home, I was amazed at his great love for his mother, Tita Celia. I remembered how he would always have pasalubong for his mother even upon coming home from school!
Maybe that is why even she had forgotten most of us her relatives, she always remembers Louie her son because he is the one who has truly loved her next to the late Tito Memo, her husband. The same is true with others taking care of their old parents afflicted with Alzheimer’s: they are recognized and remembered because they love.
Our memories and knowledge may be erased but the love we have in our hearts, the love we have experienced always remain even if everything has failed in life. That is why St. Paul declared that “love is the greatest of all gifts of God”.
Life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone…
John Mellencamp, “Jack & Diane” (1982)
With my former students at the Cubao Cathedral after the wedding of their classmate. I felt so proud, and old, that afternoon seeing them all with their career and family, of how they have maintained their friendships all these years like brothers, of they love one another. Photo by Peter dela Cruz, one in blue.
To live is to love
December 2019 and January 2020 are perhaps my most “marrying months” in my 21 years of priesthood.
Aside from the weddings of friends and students I have officiated these past two months, three more are coming next month of February.
Again, as I saw friends and especially former students getting married, I could not believe at how fast time had passed.
Should I really be surprised when I find out my former students already in their early 30’s, some with families of their own and children whom they instruct to kiss my hand, calling me Lolo Fr. Nick?
It was a very “existential” experience that they are already old, and most of all, I am really that old after all!
Maybe that is what my married friends are telling me of the joy of fatherhood, of having your kids getting married, of having grandchildren, of the inner satisfaction that you have brought life to fruition.
That you have truly loved and now being loved.
It is perhaps the joy of getting old, of maturing, of dying or even forgetting everything when afflicted later with Alzheimer’s that you start to fade from the scene and hand over the stage to the next generation, thinking that life will still go on after us because you have loved much.
What really matters in the end is how we have lived and loved the people around us, of how we have enriched each other’s lives so that as the young ones discover life’s meaning in love, we who are older find life’s fulfillment still in the love from the relationships we keep.
Here’s a hill-billy rock music about love to drive your Monday’s blues away.
Monday, Week 1, Year 2 of Ordinary Time, 13 January 2019
1 Samuel 1:1-8 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Mark 1:14-20
Photo by the author, Taal Lake, July 2019.
Almighty God and Father, we implore your love and mercy today as we start the Ordinary Time to help us find the more essential things of life this 2020.
May the eruption of Taal Volcano yesterday remind us of the need to seek always the meaning of life which is more important than anything else because everything is passing.
How wonderful it is to recall from today’s gospel how your Son Jesus Christ had called his first four apostles at the shores of the Lake of Galilee, something very similar with the setting of Taal Lake and Volcano.
At this trying time of a major calamity, may we also hear his voice, follow his call to be his disciples and find the true meaning of life in you as we pray for the safety of all people affected by Taal Volcano’s eruption. Amen.
“Bridge Over Troubled Water” is a song by American music duo Simon & Garfunkel released in January 1970, 50 years ago today as a follow up single to their other hit classic “The Boxer”.
The following year 1971, it won five awards at the 13th Annual Grammy Awards including Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
Ranked number 48 in Rolling Stones’ 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, Bridge Over Troubled Water became Simon & Garfunkel’s biggest hit single, considered as their signature song covered by more than 50 artists making it also as the most performed songs of the 20th century.
No wonder with its beautiful poetry composed by Paul Simon set in a soothing melody with a touch of gospel music that continues to touch so many lives to this day.
And that is why we have chosen it to be our Sunday Music to accompany our reflections on today’s Feast of the Baptism of Jesus Christ that closes the Christmas Season.
From Google.
When Jesus became human being born as a child in Bethlehem more than 2000 years ago, he became our Bridge both par excellence and non pareil.
In coming down to us, he became one of us truly human in everything except sin so that we can become like him who is divine and holy. In his Passion, Death, and Resurrection we have partaken through the Sacrament of Baptism, we have all become sons and daughters of the Father in heaven through him in the Holy Spirit.
Hence, every morning that we wake up, whether we are filled with joy and anticipation or saddled with pains and anxieties for the new day due to past failures, Jesus joins us in all of our dealings and tasks of each brand new day.
When you’re weary, feeling small When tears are in your eyes, I’ll dry them all (all) I’m on your side, oh, when times get rough And friends just can’t be found Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down
When you’re down and out When you’re on the street When evening falls so hard I will comfort you (ooo) I’ll take your part, oh, when darkness comes And pain is all around Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down
From Google.
No matter what you are going through today, as you strive to be good, to be loving and caring with others even if they do not reciprocate all your love and concern, when your loved ones are oblivious to your sacrifices for them, keep doing good for the Father is so well pleased with you like Jesus Christ, our Bridge over troubled water.
Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7 ><}}}*> Acts 10:34-38 ><}}}*> Matthew 3:13-17
From Google.
Today is our “holy birthday” as children of God, the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus. That explains the sprinkling of Holy Water at the start of our Mass to remind us of continuing the Christmas story the whole year through as sons and daughters of God.
With this feast, we close the Christmas Season by celebrating the great mystery of Christ’s Nativity when he became human like us so that we can become divine like him as children of the Father in heaven.
Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. John tried to prevent him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you and yet you are coming to me?” Jesus said to him in reply, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed him. After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Matthew 3:13-17
We are the children of God
Sunrise at Atok, Benguet. Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte, September 2019.
Every morning when we wake up, the same thing happens with us with Jesus at Jordan: as we arise whether filled with joy or saddled with so many pains and worries from the previous day or night, Christ joins us in every brand new day as his brother and sister in the Father.
Despite all our anxieties and fears with every new day of work and school, the heavens open and the Holy Spirit comes down to us with our Father in heaven declaring to all his creation, “This is my beloved child, with whom I am well pleased.”
That is the mystery of Christmas we must celebrate daily when Jesus became human like us in everything except sin. In Baptism, we have become sons and daughters of the Father in his Son Jesus Christ our Lord through the power of the Holy Spirit.
That coming down of Jesus to John to be baptized in Jordan is the message of Christmas, of how God became human like us to be one with us in our dirt and stain so he may cleanse us in his Passion and Death in order to share in the glory of his Resurrection .
That is why Christmas is a continuing story we have to keep on telling and sharing with our life of holiness with others.
As children of God, we are called to holiness
Please don’t be scared with the call to “holiness”, my dear reader and follower.
Holiness is not being sinless.
Holiness is being filled with God.
Holiness is following Jesus who calls us to be holy like the Father in heaven with all of our imperfections and sinfulness.
Morning in our Parish. Photo by author, 2019.
So many times in our lives, as we strive to lead holy lives by being good individuals, we also feel so tired and exhausted that we question or wonder if we are still doing the right things in life especially when we try to be faithful to God and with others.
There are times we just cry and suffer in silence in order not to hurt with our words and actions those people dearest to us who are oblivious or even do not care at all to the pains and difficulties they cause us.
Like a slave driver boss, demanding and exacting parents, a perfectionist husband or wife or partner, a naive sibling.
It is very difficult to be holy, to be like Jesus who is so loving and merciful, kind and understanding.
And that is why he chose to come to us, to be with us, to help us, to assure us that “the Father is so well pleased with us”!
Flowers at our Altar, Epiphany Sunday 2020. Photo by author.
God is well pleased with us
Three things I wish to share with you this lovely Sunday, especially for some of us feeling tired and exhausted this early with our many tasks and responsibilities at home, the school, the office, and even the church and community.
First is get it done. We all have roles to play in life. Remain faithful and stay focused with the mission not with the person. Yes, it is easier said than done but like Jesus instructing John for his baptism, he said, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Mt.3:15). It must have been so difficult for John to baptize Jesus the Son of God but the Lord told him anyway, get it done! And just as John did his role, everything happened according to God’s plan.
Second is give others the chance to do the will of God. Sometimes many of us have that “messianic complex” as if we are the saviour of the world. No! That is Jesus alone and he has tasked all us with specific roles in doing his mission. Let others do their part. Stop monopolizing all good deeds because when there is a monopoly of holiness, certainly there is already a pervading evil. Jesus as the Christ is the definitely the holy one but he told John to baptize him and he in turn “allowed” the baptism to take place.
Third is do whatever is good. Always. That’s what Jesus told John, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Mt.3:15). Doing what is righteous is doing what is good, what is holy, what is just. But, it is not that easy. I know.
“Minsan nakakapikon na magpakabuti lalo na kapag tila walang pakialam yung mga ginagawan mo ng kabutihan.”
We have felt so many times that being good, doing what is right can take its toll. We always wonder “when is enough really enough” with people who have made it their way of life of hurting us, of stressing us, of being pain in the ass.
We want to scream, to spill the beans, to unmask them to reveal them as fakes and hypocrites!
But, don’t!
Do not be like them.
Be good like Jesus, the one prophesied by Isaiah in the first reading.
Thus says the Lord: Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased, upon whom I have put my spirit; he shall bring forth justice to the nations, not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street. A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not quench…
Isaiah 42:1-3
Baby Jesus on a bed of white roses in our Sanctuary area, Epiphany 2020. Photo by author.
In the second reading, we heard St. Peter preaching after the Pentecost of how “Jesus went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him” (Acts 10:38).
Whatever difficulty you are going through at this very moment, you are still God’s beloved child with whom he is well pleased. God is always with you. Continue the beautiful Christmas story with your life of loving service, even to people who hurt you.
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