Monday, Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo, 04 November 2019
Romans 11:29-36 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 14:12-14
Sculpture of a homeless man sleeping on a bench fronting the Franciscan Fathers’ Residence in Capernaum, the Holy Land. On closer examination of the sculpture, one realises it is in fact Jesus Christ living in our midst! Photo by the author, May 2019.
Praise and glory to you, our heavenly Father!
Thank you very much for never changing your mind regarding your gifts and call to us as St. Paul reminds us today in our first reading:
Brothers and sisters: The gifts and call of God are irrevocable.
Romans 11:29
It is always a struggle with us to come to grip with this truth and reality.
Very often, we tend to forget your gifts and call to us to be holy, to be like you in Christ Jesus, always kind and loving, forgiving and merciful, just and understanding.
There is always that inner temptation within us to think too much of ourselves, to have our rewards or share of the fruits of our labor.
Help us to keep in mind like St. Charles Borromeo, who despite his very colourful and illustrious background, he lived out his call and vocation to the priesthood exactly as your servant, Lord.
Help us to forget our selves so we may always see you, Lord, among the poor and needy, the ones who cannot pay us back, or invite us to dinner. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 03 November 2019
My cousin Joyce Pollard-Lopez with Tony during their honeymoon 40 years ago in Greece, still together and very much in love with each other!
It’s the end of a long weekend of bonding and prayers for the All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day that ushered in the penultimate month of every year that is November.
Let us not forget that on these days dedicated for our departed loved ones, we are also reminded to remember more of God and those people he sends us to experience his immense love for us.
They are the people who have profoundly changed us into who we are today, that made us live like we never existed before…
So you ask me what do I see When I look in your eyes I see things that have never existed before Shall I tell you all that I find In those beautiful eyes I can try But it never existed before
The silvery moon… a walk in the park The tunnel of love… a kiss in the dark The light of the stars… the clouds in the sky The fireworks on the fourth of july And you ask me what do I hear When you whisper my name Music plays that has never existed before
Oh, and I don’t know why But it’s there just the same And it’s plain that it never existed before The song of the rain the flowers in spring The wind in the willow trees murmuring The laughter that falls the children at play Like church bells that call all the people to pray So you ask me why do I glow Well, I think you should know I’m in love and I never existed before
Minnie Riperton co-wrote this song released in May 9, 1979 as part of her fifth and final album called Minnie.
Two months later, Minnie died of cancer at the age of 31.
Never Existed Before speaks so well of how Minnie had experienced the great love of her husband Richard Rudolph especially in her long struggle against cancer.
The song leaves no trace of her great sufferings as Minnie herself was filled with joy by actively working for her advocacies in cancer prevention and research.
Beautiful voice, beautiful woman, and beautiful song.
Just like Zacchaeus.
He only had one desire – to see Jesus who surprised him by coming into his house as a guest!
It is a story of faith, no matter how little it may be for as long as there is that desire for God.
Jesus comes first in our hearts, to those who truly seek him in their hearts.
And the mark of being saved and loved by Jesus is to be filled with joy like Zacchaeus who promised to change his life and even repay those he had cheated.
Truly, any encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ can change us deeply to live differently, like we never existed before.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe, Week XXXI-C, 03 November 2019
Wisdom 11:22-12:2 ><}}}*> 2 Thessalonians 1:11-2:2 ><}}}*> Luke 19:1-10
A giant sycamore tree at the center of Jericho, the world’s oldest city. Photo by author, May 2019.
Jesus is now on the final leg of his “resolute journey to Jerusalem” as he passed by the world’s oldest city of Jericho. Next week, he would be teaching at the Temple area in Jerusalem where his enemies would gang up against him, eventually sending him to death as we shall hear on the 24th of this month, the Solemnity of Christ the King.
Today we find a very interesting story that is in stark contrast with last Sunday’s parable of the Pharisee and tax collector praying at the Temple.
And this time, our story is not a fiction but an event found only in St. Luke’s gospel about a real tax collector named Zacchaeus, a very wealthy man indeed.
The fictional Pharisee Jesus narrated in his parable last week was a very proud one, of high stature literally and figuratively speaking that he would always stand and pray inside the Temple to be seen by everyone.
He was a self-righteous man who despised everyone else, especially tax collectors.
But, according to Jesus, the Pharisee’s prayer was not heard by God because he was not really seeking God but seeking adulation for himself!
Treetop of a sycamore tree in Jericho today.
Contrast that Pharisee with the chief tax collector in Jericho named Zacchaeus: he was of small stature, literally and figuratively speaking, that he had to climb a sycamore tree in order to see “who Jesus was” (Lk.19:3).
We can safely surmise that from St. Luke’s narration, nobody loved Zacchaeus in Jericho: he must be really so small in their eyes that he is hardly noticed maybe except when people paid taxes.
And that is why when he learned Jesus of Nazareth was passing by their city, he went to climb a sycamore tree to have a glimpse of the man he must have heard so often performing miracles and doing all good things for sinners like him.
Then, a strange thing happened…
When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.” And he came down quickly and received him with joy. When they all saw this, they began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.” But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.”
Luke 19:5-10
Was it serendipity or divine destiny?
Jesus was just passing through Jericho while Zacchaeus was merely interested in seeing the Lord. Never in his wildest dream, so to speak, did he intend to meet him personally.
From Google.
But, as we all believe and have realised, there are no coincidences or accidents in life.
Everything that happens in our lives has a purpose, a meaning that may either make us or unmake us.
It all depends on us whether we make the right decision in making the most out of whatever life offers us, of what comes to us. Either we become better or bitter – so choose wisely.
More so with salvation from God who never stops coming to us everywhere, anytime like with Zacchaeus when Jesus suddenly came to meet him.
The Catholic Parish Church in Jericho run by the Franciscans, May 2019.
Here we find again a story about faith that leads to conversion and salvation or justification.
It does not really matter how little faith we have like when the Apostles asked Jesus on the first Sunday of October, “Lord, increase our faith in God” (Lk. 17:5,Wk. 27). What matters is that we always have that option for God, a desire for God.
This is specially true as St. Paul assures us in the second reading that Christ will come again at the end of time. Nobody knows when or how he will come again but like Zacchaeus, we must have that desire for Jesus who first comes into our hearts before entering into our homes or churches, no matter how grandiose they may be.
Every desire for God in itself is an expression of faith in him. And God comes to those who truly seek him because that is how great God is: not in his power to do everything but to be small and forgiving!
Before the Lord, the whole universe is as a grain from a balance, or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth. But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook people’s sins that they may repent. But you spare all things, because they are yours, O Lord and lover of souls.
Wisdom 11:22-23, 26
Inside the Catholic Parish of the Good Shepherd in Jericho, May 2019.
Like in the parable of the persevering widow and judge as well as that of the Pharisee and tax collector praying at the temple last Sunday, today’s story of Zacchaeus meeting Jesus shows us how God never abandons us his children, always ready to grant our desires and wishes even beyond what we are asking for — if we have faith in him.
Our salvation depends solely in our faith to God in Christ Jesus, like Abraham in the Old Testament that we can now rightly be called as his children like Zacchaeus.
No one is excluded from this tremendous grace of God brought to us through Jesus Christ who had come to seek those who are lost.
Like Zacchaeus upon receiving salvation from the Lord on that simple day, may we joyfully turn away from sins and most of all, cheerfully rid ourselves of so many other things that hamper us from following Jesus resolutely to Jerusalem. Amen.
Wisdom 3:1-9 ><}}}*> Romans 5:5-11 ><}}}*> John 6:37-40
Dominican Hills, Baguio City, January 2019.
Praise and glory to you, our heavenly Father, for the gift of salvation you have given s through your Son Jesus Christ!
Today you give us this special day of remembering not only our dearly departed loved ones awaiting entrance into heaven but most of all, a day to remember our own salvation in Jesus Christ.
Forgive us, Lord, for being so desensitized by the world to our need for to be saved by you, to be reconciled with you. Many of us now take salvation for granted as something due to us, so confident that we would be saved on our own merits.
But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath. Indeed, if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through death of his Son, how much more, once reconciled, will we be saved by his life. Not only that, but we also boast of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Romans 5:8-11
Let us re-member you, Lord, or make you a part, a member of our lives today inasmuch as we re-member too our departed loved ones.
Salvation and reconciliation always come together: no man is an island, even in death.
No one lives alone. No one sins alone. No one dies alone. No one is saved alone.
That is why on this second day of November, we pray together in Jesus Christ, our only boast in life whose love purifies us here and in the afterlife, so that our departed dear ones may finally be with you in eternity. Amen.
Friday, Solemnity of All the Saints, 01 November 2019
Revelation 7:2-4. 9-14 ><}}}*> 1 John 3:1-3 ><}}}*> Matthew 5:1-12
“Mary with the Child and the Angels and the Saints” by Duccio Di Buoninsegna (d. 1319).
Glory and praise to you, O Lord our almighty and loving Father in heaven!
Thank you very much for this celebration of the Solemnity of All Saints — of those all ahead of us and have died now enjoying your company in heaven.
Whenever we think of holiness, we always think of men and women not committing sins, of moral exemplars.
Remind us always that holiness is being filled with you, O God, and that saints are givers of life.
“Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.”
Matthew 5:8
Fill us with your Holy Spirit, Lord, cleanse us of our sins and evil desires and inclinations as we strive to bear all pains and sufferings to lead holy lives.
It is in purifying our hearts, our very selves, when we are able to truly offer our lives for the loving service of the poor and needy so that while still here on earth, we may already see your face, Lord, among the people we meet until that day we are one in you in eternity. Amen.
As the penultimate month of the year, November for me is something like Thursday – so relaxed when people seem to slow down in anticipation of the coming end of the year or week. It acts like a cushion to prepare us for the “stress” of December or Friday. Or, a prelude to leaving, then living.
Cold winds from Siberia we call amihan intensify during this month while autumn is about to end in the western hemisphere. The climate contributes greatly to this laid-back feeling in November almost everywhere, maybe except Down Under where I haven’t been to.
Like autumn’s falling leaves, November is marked with three festivals associated with the dead to signal life and eternity.
On its first day, we celebrate All Saints’ Day in recognition of all the departed souls – including our beloved, of course! -now in heaven considered as “saints” aside from those canonized by the Church.
Day after tomorrow, November 2, we celebrate All Souls’ Day to pray for all those departed, especially our loved ones who are still awaiting entrance into heaven in Purgatory.
Then, on November 11, we celebrate St. Martin of Tours’ feast with a “Martinmas” in the old calendar of the Church after which Advent began for the Christmas countdown. Winter also starts in Europe and North America after the Martinmas immortalised in some poems and literature of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Incidentally, St. Martin of Tours (France) used to be a major saint in Europe because he is one of those first saints recognised by the Church as holy people who have died not as martyrs when persecution finally stopped and Christendom started to rise and “flex” her influence.
Today, November 11 is celebrated as “Remembrance Day” in Europe along with the Commonwealth nations of Britain and “Veterans Day” in the United States in honor of those who have died in the line of duty during the First World War that ended at the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year” in 1918. Red poppies take the centerstage on this day to signify the blood offered by the fallen soldiers in that first world war, something very similar to the Christian thinker Tertullian’s assertion that “the blood of the martyrs are the seeds of the Church.”
So many deaths, but so many lives too!
And that is why we celebrate these feasts, whether in the Church or in our civil society.
This is the tragedy of our time when despite all the technological advances and affluence we now have, the more we have been saddled with fear and pains of death and dying.
Focus is more on death as a solution, as an end.
Or, as an entertainment like the pagans in ancient Rome’s Colesseum and of many benighted Christians today celebrating spooky Halloween that underscores the debunked dark side of death.
Photo by Lorenzo Atienza, Malolos Cathedral, 12 June 2019.
In the Old Testament, death was a curse to man’s sins but with Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection, death has become a blessing because he has made it our passing too into eternal life.
No, there is no gap between this life and life-after. It is a continuum where death is just a prelude to eternity.
November is a wonderful reminder to us all of this truth we seem to have forgotten these days when all we see and even seek is darkness and death.
November is like a door opening us towards the end of the year that leads us to new year. The weather is so lovely, not so cold and not so hot, perfectly reminding of the beauty of life and reality of death that invites us to live fully and authentically.
This long weekend, I strongly recommend you read Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s second encyclical, Spe Salvi that speaks a lot about the beauty of this life and life-after. His reflections are simple yet so profound and so touching like the following.
“Man’s great, true hope which he holds firm in spite of all disappointments can only be God… Life in its true sense is not something we have exclusively in or from ourselves: it is a relationship. And life in its totality is a relationship with him who is the source of life. If we are in relation with him who does not die, who is Life itself and Love itself, then we are in life. Then we “live”.
Spe Salvi, number 27.
One of the beautiful movies I have seen while on vacation in November-December 2005 at the US East Coast was “The Last Samurai” starring Tom Cruise who was asked by the boy Emperor of Japan at the end, “Tell me, how did my samurai die?” Tom Cruise replied, “I shall not tell you how your samurai died but how he lived!”
Live life, share life, enjoy lifein God and with others!
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-29 ng Oktubre 2019
Tula na aking hinalaw sa “The Portal of the Mystery of Hope” ng makatang Pranses na si Charles Peguy (pe-gi). Bagamat hindi siya debotong Katoliko, nang maglaon malaki ang naging impluwensiya sa kanya ng Katolisismo hanggang sa siya ay mamatay noong 1914 sa Villeroy, France.
Sa tatlong pangunahing birtud nating taglay mula sa Kanyang mapagpalang kamay sinabi ng Diyos: "Pag-Asa ang aking pinaka-paborito" sapagkat ito lamang aniya ang "nakasosorpresa" sa kanya.
Paliwanag ng Diyos, hindi siya nasosorpresa sa Pananampalataya dahil sa kanyang kaningningang taglay aba'y bulag at manhid lamang ang sa Kanya'y hindi magkamalay!
Hindi rin Siya aniya nasosorpresa sa Pag-ibig sapagkat maliban na lamang kung sing-tigas ng bato ang puso ng tao at hindi pa sila magmamahalan sila na aniya pinaka-aba at kaawa-awa sa lahat ng kanyang nilalang.
Ngunit itong Pag-Asa ay kakaiba Diyos ay laging nasosorpresa dito nakikita kapangyarihan ng kanyang grasya para mga tao ay umasa pa kahit wala nang nakikita!
Alalahanin sulat ni Apostol San Pablo sa mga taga-Roma: "ang pag-asa ay hindi pag-asa kapag nakikita na ang inaasahan. Sapagkat sino ang aasa sa nakikita na?"
Kakaiba sa pagiging positibo ang Pag-Asa dahil nakabatay ito sa mga nakikitang palatandaan o mga senyales upang mahulaan at matanawan tinatantiyang kalalabasan ng isang inaasam.
Optimistic ang tao na umaasa gaganda panahon o iigi sitwasyon batay sa mga indikasyon na kanyang nakikita; ngunit ang taong umaasa batid niya mas lalala pa mga bagay at sitwasyon, mas malamang hindi na iigi pa.
Ito ang kaibahan at kaibayuhan nitong Pag-Asa na kahit talo na at wala nang nakikita kumpiyansa sa Diyos ay di nawawala.
Sa ating panahon ng social media kung saan ang lahat ay nakikita at ipinakikita, kitang-kita pa rin ang katotohanang mga dakilang bagay sa buhay ay mula sa mga hindi nakikita.
Iyan ang nakasosorpresa sa Pag-Asa, kahit wala ka nang nakikita kitang-kita Kita pa rin Panginoon namin kaya aking hiling ako'y lagi mong sorpresahin!
Romans 8:26-30 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 13:22-30
Photo by Dra. Mai Dela Pena, Chapel of St. John of God Hospital in Barcelona, Spain (August 2019).
Every day, every night, O Lord, we come to you to pray.
But so often, we forget we merely respond to your call when we pray.
How sad that when we pray, we come to you demanding you, asking you for so many things without us realizing that we pray primarily to ask you what you want us to do for you!
We are not the masters telling you, O God, what you must do or give us; we are your “unworthy” servants who must ask what you want from us.
May we allow always the Holy Spirit to direct our prayers the way you would want it to be because…
“We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:28
Instead of being so concerned with how many or how few would be saved, may we focus more on how to “strive to enter through the narrow gate” of salvation.
Direct us, O Lord, to your holy will in the way you would want us to fulfill it. Amen.
But hope, says God, that is something that surprises me…
And my grace must indeed be an incredible force.
Charles Peguy, “The Portal of the Mystery of Hope”
Whenever I come across the word “hope”, O Lord, I always remember this lovely poem by your faithful writer Charles Peguy (1873-1914) of France.
And I agree with Peguy, hope is your favorite virtue because it always surprises you and everybody else!
Again Jesus said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like the yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough is leavened.”
Luke 13:20-21
Hope surprises us, Lord, because it is often so small, almost negligible for some.
And that is how you work, how your wonders perform, Lord.
Hope is not positive thinking because hope is still believing in you even if things do not get any better at all. In fact, things can get worst and that is when hope surprises us!
St. Paul said it so well.
For in hope we were saved. Now hope that sees for itself is not hope. For who hopes for what one sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance.
Romans 8:24-25
In positive thinking, we hold on to at least something tangible, something we can see and feel clearly like the weather or the stock market.
But in hope, we only have you, Lord, whom we cannot see but can simply feel, believe and rely on that we hope would always remain and be still with us til the end.
In this world when size always matters, when everything has to be bigger and biggest, what remains true is the fact that no matter how big or great is anything, it surely came from a minute, little something.
Like the yeast that has become a wonderful bread or any baker’s creation.
Nobody had seen how it would turn out except that hope in one’s heart and mind that teases us with something big and wonderful and surprising.
Please surprise us today, Lord and let us live differently in you! Amen.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-28 ng Oktubre 2019
Mula sa Google.
Todos los Santos na naman at kay laking kabaligtaran naka-ugalian ng karamihan ipagdiwang mga aswang at katatakutan sa halip na mga banal at kanilang kabutihan.
Dati-rati nama'y hindi laganap sa ating kapuluan banyagang kaugalian pagdiriwang ng Halloween na nasira tunay na kahulugan sa kaisipan ng mga makamundong taga-kanluran.
Halloween ang taguring na nagmula sa pinagsamang "hallowed evening" na kahuluga'y "gabi ng mga banal" ngunit pilit binabalikan ng mga hangal maling paniniwala noon pa napasinungalingan.
Akala ng mga paganong Druids ng Scotland at Wales sa Bretanya noong unang-una lumilitaw sa lupa tuwing katapuasan ng Oktubre mga impakto at masasamang espiritu upang makabihag ng mga tao.
Nagdaramit sila at nag-aayos na nakakatakot parang multo, kamukha ng mga lamang lupa sa paniniwalang malilito mga impakto na sila'y kasamahan kampon ng kadiliman at kasamaan kaya sila iniiwan at hindi sinasaktan.
Maraming Kristiyano hindi ito nalalaman ni nauunawaan nakalimutan pangunahing katotohanan ating pinananaligan nang pumarito si Hesu Kristo, kanya nang tinalo kapangyarihan ng demonyo nang pumaroon siya sa dako ng mga yumao.
Nang mabuhay mag-uli ang Panginoong Hesu Kristo napanibago niya buong sangnilikha higit sa lahat, muli nating nakamukha Diyos Ama sa ati'y lumikha, tiniyak ating tahahanan sa piling niya sa kalangitan.
Bakit nga ba ikaw, Kristiyano ang siya pa ngayong lito at sadyong lilo mas ibig pag makamukha mga impakto at demonyo nakukuha pa ninyong matuwa at ikagalak mga anak ninyong mukhang tiyanak?!
Akala ba ninyo demonyo ang mga nalilito sa inyong pagbibihis at pag-aanyong multo? Hindi ba ninyo batid kayo ang nalilinlang sa pagdaramit at pag-aayos ng hunghang at magtataka pa kayo asal ng inyong anak parang animal?
Madalas kay hirap unawain mga gawi natin na katakutan kabutihan at katuwaan ang kasamaan; sadya nga bang atin nakalimutan dakilang karangalang tayo'y nilalang katulad at kawangis ng mabuting Maykapal?
Diyos ang kamukha natin kanyang liwanag sana'y mabanaagan din sa atin upang maghatid ng kagalakang bumubukal sa malinis at magandang kalooban lipos ng kabanguhan ng kabutihan at kadalisayan.
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