Taal Lake and Volcano from Tagaytay City. Photo by author, 03 July 2019.
Praise and glory to you, our loving Father for always remembering us, for always loving us. So many times, people doubt you. They feel you do not care at all, that you do not listen to their prayers, that you do not visit them anymore.
We pray today most especially for those losing hope and meaning in life amid their many pains and sufferings, those about to give up on their dreams due to many failures and disappointments, and those who refuse to believe and trust others anymore due to betrayals by family and friends.
Let us be your Moses today to announce to them that you are concerned with us, that you care for us.
“I am concerned about you and about the way you are being treated in Egypt; so I have decided to lead you up out of the misery of Egypt into a land flowing with milk and honey.”
Exodus 3:16-17
Open our hearts and our minds to realize this great truth of your concern for us that you have given us your Son Jesus Christ to help us in our burdens, calling us to receive him in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass every day, especially on Sundays.
Our altar, 18 July 2019.
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
Send us a new Moses, Lord, to lead us out of our modern Egypt today that enslave us, making life so difficult for your people especially those in the margins.
We have become a nation without any sense of sin anymore that we do not care at all with the many deaths going on around us. Our mouths have become so filthy with languages too vile as if you do not exist anymore. Nobody seem to care anymore, no one is concerned.
We pray for our leaders in government as well as in the Church who are like the Pharaoh who make it so hard for the people to go and come to you. Do wondrous deeds among us again, Lord, so we may remember anew that you keep your covenant forever. Amen.
Exodus 3:1-6, 9-12 >< )))*> >< )))*> Matthew 11:25-27
Mt. Sinai range from St. Katherine Monastery in Egypt. Photo by author, 07 May 2019.
But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
Exodus 3:11
It has always been our answer to your every command and mission given to us, O God our loving Father: “who am I to do this thing?” or “who am I to go there?”
Forgive us for our pride, God, when we ask you such questions with some tinge of sarcasm, or worst, when we seem to dare to make you look so dumb as if you have never thought well of every thing you entrust us with.
Yes, there are times when we ask you that way like Moses when we play god better than you, almighty and living, true, God.
We could not believe and accept that you have planned everything well, that all we need to do is trust you like a child.
Like Moses, O God, tell us to remove our sandals to always remember and be reminded that the whole earth where we stand on is a sacred ground, your very presence among us.
Teach us take off things that detach us from you and prevent us from completely trusting you.
Most of all, take away our pride and fill us with your humility so we may be open to your revelations to fully know your will and how to make it happen. Amen.
Inside of this structure is kept remnants of the burning bush Moses saw at Sinai. 07 May 2019.
Tuesday, Wk. XV, Yr. I, Feast of Our Lady Of Mt. Carmel, 16 July 2019
Exodus 2:1-15 >< )))*> <*(((>< Matthew 11:20-24
Photo from the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart, Los Angeles, California via Google.
O blessed and sweet Mother Mary of Mt. Carmel! Thank you for coming to us to remind us of your Son Jesus Christ’s great love for us.
Like the Pharaoh’s daughter who was “moved with pity” (Ex.2:6) upon finding the child Moses on the river, have pity on us too your children here in our own river of sorrows and darkness.
Pray that we may find life and joy like Moses and family in a river flowing with dangers and destruction.
Pray that we may return to God in Christ Jesus so that we may live through daily conversion and repentance of sins.
O Mother of Mt. Carmel, give us a glance of your sweet smile on this feast day of yours to experience the Father’s immense love and care for us. Amen.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 15 July 2019
Photo by John Bonding, Architecture&Design Magazine, 25 May 2019 via Facebook.
This is not another homily about yesterday’s Parable of the Good Samaritan. I am very sure you have heard so much about it. In fact, you must have memorized that parable, too. And most likely, you also believe there is nothing else new in that parable. Its conviction remains true that we are all neighbors, that the question we must be asking is not “who is my neighbor” but, “do I act as a neighbor to others”?
However, in this complicated age of tweets and hashtags when everything is shortened, either abbreviated or initialized, the question “who is my neighbor” has become very legitimate again these days when technology has taken the center stage of our lives and relationships.
Two months ago I officiated the wedding of a friend’s youngest brother who sent me a gist of their “love story” that I may incorporate in my homily. Fact is, I have already worked out the outline of my homily for his wedding except that I really had a hard time deciphering the meaning of the three letters he had mentioned about their love story: “LDR”.
After several minutes, I finally got what he meant with those letters that stand for “Long Distance Relationship”.
Okay, I admit being too old for those kind of talkies with so many abbreviations that litter Facebook posts from “OMG” to “ootd” with a host of other letter combinations that I really do not understand at all even when given with their meanings.
This sudden surge in usage of so many abbreviations and initials is spawned by modern technologies in communication that still continue to evolve. Truly, the medium is the message. When we were growing up in the 70’s and 80’s, typewriters reigned supreme. We knew only two important abbreviations that time, “cc” for “carbon copy” and “asap” for “as soon as possible”.
With the demise of Messrs. Remington and Underwood following the rise of PC’s and Macs along with smartphones that all use the venerable “qwerty” board of old, we are now deluged with all of these initials and abbreviations. At least, those hardly used signs on the typewriter keys like @, #, and _ finally came more alive in this age of dot.coms.
There is nothing wrong with these developments but when these abbreviations and initials as well as signs and symbols are applied onto humans, problems begin to happen. This is when people are “materialized” while things are “personalized”. See how the benighted souls on television, from program hosts and celebrities to journalists using the Filipino personal pronoun “siya” for he/she/his/her when speaking of food and typhoons like “masarap siya” (he/she is delicious) or “siya ay magbubuhos ng ulan” (he/she will pour rains). How insanely they use the Filipino demonstrative pronoun “ito” or this for persons like “ito ang nanay ko” (this is my mother instead of she is my mother) or “ito ang mahal ko” (this is my beloved instead of he/she is my beloved)!
You see how we have now come to regard persons as things and things as persons?
And worst, we now see persons as food to be eaten and consumed when good looking men and women are described as “yummy” and “delicious”. It is utilitarianism at its worst when people are seen like food as if they are good only when “fresh, hot and tasty” but when already old and sickly, they are regarded like leftovers kept on the fridge, even discarded. In the same manner, see how in our country we take people like ice cream with those belonging to the “AB” crowd or the rich and famous as “flavor of the month” or “all-time favorite” while those from the lower segment of the society, the “CDE” or “chineleas-duster-estero” crowd as “dirty ice cream” or sorbetes.
From Google.
Here lies the legitimacy of the question who is my neighbor? — when we not only shorten words for the sake of convenience and do the same to persons, shortchanging them with the respect and dignity we all deserve.
A friend and fellow blogger recently wrote a piece about the growing number of young people who are so inconsiderate in using specific lanes and counters reserved for seniors and PWD’s in malls and stores. Even in churches, there are also inconsiderate, and hypocrite or unChristian, able-bodied people occupying pews reserved for seniors and PWD’s, claiming they will just leave and move when they arrive?! How I really feel like adding to our notes that “This pew is reserved for seniors and PWD’s. And morons too.”
How ironic that in this age when almost everyone is supposed to be tech savvy, being able to read every sign and logo yet refuse to respect give way to our seniors and PWD’s. Here is a classic case of us having smartphones but not so smart people, guided missiles and misguided children. They are like the Levite and the priest in the parable of the Good Samaritan who simply “saw” the victim lying on the road, failing to see him as another person in need. Unlike the Samaritan who saw the victim and was moved with compassion to help him.
From Google.
The question “who is my neighbor” becomes more legitimate and pressing when we in the Church, in our own homes and family are overtaken by things of the world, from money and gadgets to fame and convenience that we not only forget one another but ultimately Jesus Christ our Lord and Master.
When we are more concerned with raising funds or earning money for more buildings, more gadgets, for more privileges and convenience, becoming vain even if beyond our means or not in our calling and state of life, that is when people start asking again “who is my neighbor” because nobody seem to care anymore. No one is with compassion and mercy anymore that everybody seem to have become robots and sadly, inhuman when all we see are things than persons.
The Church since Vatican II has always seen these modern means of communications as gifts from God meant to be used for the the “advancement and unity” of man (Communio et Progressio). Let us put technology and things at their proper place. And that is always at the service of mankind and glory of God.
Monday, Wk. XV, Yr. I, 15 July 2019, Feast of St. Bonaventure
Exodus 1:8-14, 22 >< )))*> <*((( >< Matthew 10:34-11:1
The Sphinx and Pyramids of Egypt. Photo by author, 09 May 2019.
It is that time of the year again, Lord, when life gets harder with the rains, with all the expenses piling up along with a hosts of so many other problems besetting us.
Others call these months of July until August as the “ghost months” when so many difficulties come along our way. But of course, we believe more in you.
Like in our Responsorial Psalm today, we sing “Our help is in the name of the Lord.”
Most of all, like the people of Israel living in Egypt long after Joseph had gone who were subjected to cruel slavery by the Pharaoh and his men, “the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread” (Ex.1:12).
Our almighty Father, keep us close to you through your Son Jesus Christ.
Let us rely more to you in him through the Holy Spirit when life gets harder for us.
May we learn more from him so we may follow him closer than ever especially during times of trials and difficulties.
Keep us faithful in Christ for “whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Mt.10:39).
Jesus is the Good Samaritan par excellence. Photo from America Magazine via Google.
It’s a beautiful, warm and sunny Sunday on this side of the earth, perfect for reflecting anew on the meaning of the parable of the Good Samaritan proclaimed in all churches today.
And of course, we do it with popular music.
For our Lord My Chef Sunday music today, we have a song from the OST of the 2005 Cameron Crow movie “Elizabethtown” starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst.
Though it did not do good in the box office like the critically-acclaimed “Vanilla Sky” and “Almost Famous”, “Elizabethtown” speaks so well of Crowe’s reflections about that inner stirrings or movements within us all, of a longing for something more meaningful than just driving in the fast lane of life like “Jerry Maguirre”.
Written by Crowe with a help from his former wife who used to be a member of Heart, Nancy Wilson, our Lord My Chef Sunday Music “Same In Any Language” speaks a lot about being a neighbor to everyone, regardless of color and creed.
The song teaches us like the parable of the Good Samaritan that the question we should be asking is “am I a neighbor” to others especially to those in need than searching for “who is my neighbor”.
My neighbor is the one with whom I identify myself with, seeing with compassion and mercy when down in sufferings.
My neighbor is the one with whom I get down on the road to help and raise because I also feel his or her pains.
My neighbor is the one with whom I see Jesus Christ, the God who became human reaching out to me, asking me to care for him, to love him, teaching me the things to do so I may inherit eternal life.
Try listening to the laid back music of “Same In Any Language” that is refreshing with lyrics so simple yet very reflective. Better, try also watching “Elizabethtown”.
Have a blessed Sunday and a new week ahead of you!
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul, Wk. XV-C, 14 July 2019
Deuteronomy 30:10-14 >< )))*> Colossians 1:15-20 >< )))*> Luke 10:25-37
From America Magazine via Google.
After teaching us about discipleship these past two Sundays, Jesus shifts his lessons to things “we must do” following a series of questions he encountered from people when he “resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem” (Lk.9:51).
There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He said in reply, You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.”
Luke 10:25-30
And thus Jesus answered the scholar of the law with the beautiful parable of the Good Samaritan that can only be found in St. Luke’s gospel. It has so endeared the world that hospitals and charities including laws and awards everywhere use the “Good Samaritan” title in recognition of the parable’s conviction that we are all neighbors.
Problem is, we have become so familiar with this parable that sometimes we think it teaches us nothing new. Like the Laws or the Ten Commandments, it has degenerated into becoming letters like a code imposed from the outside we simply follow. Moses tells us in the first reading how the Laws are “something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you only have to carry it out” (Dt.30:14). Loving God and loving others is an interior and life principle innate within each of us.
This Sunday, Jesus is inviting us to set aside our thoughts about his parable of the Good Samaritan in order to see it in a deeper and personal perspective.
For most Christians especially Catholics, we always reach that stage in our lives when deep within us there is a longing for something deeper, for something more than what we have been used to. It is a very positive sign of spiritual growth. Like the scholar, we are no longer contented with the usual things we do like praying, Sunday Masses, and keeping the laws. At first we may not be able to verbalize or even identify what are the stirrings within us until we realize it is something more than this life we are having.
Like the scholar, we ask Jesus, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Lk.10:25). But, instead of probing deeper into our hearts, we tend to look outside for answers like the scholar asking, “who is my neighbor?”.
From Google.
Twenty years ago, the sci-fi series “The X-Files” was a hit worldwide with its tagline “the truth is out there” to refer to all kinds of conspiracy theories and paranormal activities by the US government. Of the same genre today is the Netflix series “Stranger Things” that also points us to something “out there” for answers to many mysteries happening to us.
The answer is never out there – it has always been inside us! Always.
From Google.
How strange that we keep on asking “who is my neighbor?”, searching for a theoretical definition of a neighbor we always think as somebody outside us. What we must be asking is, “am I a neighbor to others?”
Observe how Jesus narrated the parable where both the priest and the Levite “saw the victim and passed by the opposite side. But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn, and cared for him” (Lk.10:32-34).
That’s the strangest thing of all! Two Temple officials simply “saw” the victim and passed by while a Samaritan “saw” also but was moved with compassion. To be moved with compassion in Latin is misericordia, a “stirring or disturbing of the heart” which translates into mercy.
Here we find the Samaritan looking deep inside him that he saw in him the plight of the victim that he was moved with mercy to help him. And that is to be a neighbor, to treat somebody with mercy that transcends any color or creed or nationality. See the question of Jesus at the end of his parable, “Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” The scholar answered, “The one who treated him with mercy” (Lk.10:36-37).
City of Jericho, the setting of the parable of the Good Samaritan. Photo by author, 06 May 2019.
My neighbor is the one with whom I identify with, with whom I am drawn near because of the mercy that moved me within to help in his or her sufferings. A neighbor is one who feels his or her own humanity that he or she is always moved with compassion with those who are in suffering and pain.
And the more we reflect on this parable, the more we see Jesus Christ is in fact the Good Samaritan himself. He is “the image of the invisible God, in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:15,17). It was Jesus who went down the road, becoming human like us in everything except sin, picking us up from our sinfulness and miseries, healing us of our wounds, and restoring us to life “through the blood of his cross” (Col. 1:20).
Let us heed his command this Sunday to “Go and do likewise” (Lk.10:37) as the Good Samaritan. Be a blessed neighbor to everyone! Amen.
Genesis 46:1-7, 28-30 >< )))*> <*((( >< Matthew 10:16-23
The pyramids of Egypt. Photo by author, 09 May 2019.
It’s a Friday again, loving Father! Thank you very much for guiding us through, assisting us, helping us through many difficulties and challenges this past week. Indeed, you are our only salvation, O Lord!
In this age when everything is so easy and convenient, with almost everything instantly on our fingertips, please remind us Lord that a little difficulties and sacrifices in life can be good for us too.
Crosses like trials and sacrifices are not punishment but actually blessings for they all make us stronger and better as persons.
Give us the courage to choose what is difficult, to be bold and daring in trying new things, leaving our comfort zones and discarding our old ways so that you may continue to surprise us, Lord.
May your words today to Jacob assure and strengthen those having difficulties in making important decisions about changes and movements in their work and residences, career and directions in life.
“I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you a great nation. Not only will I go down to Egypt with you; I will also bring you back here, after Joseph has closed your eyes.”
Genesis 46:3-4
Fill us with your Holy Spirit, Jesus, that we may be “shrewd as serpents and simple as doves”, not worrying on how to answer our detractors and persecutors (Mt. 10:16, 19).
Let us endure all sufferings and difficulties in your holy name, O Jesus that we may all be saved. Amen.
Thursday, Wk. XIV, Yr. I, 11 July 2019, Feast of St. Benedict
Genesis 44:18-21, 23-29; 45:1-5 >< )))*> Matthew 10:7-15
CICM Retreat House in Taytay, Rizal. Photo by author September 2009.
Praise and glory to you, O God, our kind and merciful Father! You never fail to amaze us with your immense love and goodness to us, most especially whenever you write in straight crooked lines in our lives.
Nothing bad ever comes from you. But, if ever something that is not good happens to us, you always ensure it could lead to something beautiful and wonderful. Like with what happened to Joseph, the son of Jacob, who was sold by his brothers but later became an Egyptian official of the Pharaoh.
Our first reading today when Joseph revealed himself to his brothers in Egypt is one of the most moving drama scenes in the whole bible for me. It shows also the tremendous faith and love Joseph has for you and his brothers.
“Come closer to me,” he told his brothers. When they had done so, he said: “I am your brother Joseph, whom you once sold into Egypt. But now do not be distressed, and do not reproach yourselves for having sold me here. It was really for the sake of saving lives that God sent me here ahead of you.”
Genesis 45:4-5
Increase our faith in you, God, especially when things do not turn out according to our plans and wishes. Let us trust in you that despite our many failures and sins, you will never abandon us to be devoured by the beasts of the forests.
On this feast of St. Benedict, we borrow his prayer for seekers of faith that we may be worthy of our call as Apostles of Jesus sent to “proclaim the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt.10:7).
Gracious and Holy Father,
give us the wisdom to discover You,
the intelligence to understand You,
the diligence to seek after You,
the patience to wait for You,
eyes to behold You,
a heart to meditate upon You,
and a life to proclaim You,
through the power of the Spirit of Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-10 ng Hulyo 2019
Lumang kalsada, may 300 taon bago sinilang si Kristo, patungong Petra sa Jordan. Larawan kuha ng may akda noong 01 Mayo 2019.
Matagal ko nang napatunayan Na totoo nga ang kasabihang Isang paglalakbay itong buhay; Ngunit nitong kamakailan lamang Aking napagnilayan ang higit na katotohanan.
Higit na mahalagang malaman Hindi ang landas na daraanan Na wala namang nakakaalam Kungdi sino ang yaring kasamang Makakasabay na aagapay at aalalay.
Tunay nga na isang paglalakbay ang buhay Ngunit hindi ito isang destinasyon na patutunguhan Kungdi isang direksiyon na dapat sundan Kaya ang tinuran ni Hesus noong Huling Hapunan "Ako ang daan at ang katotohanan at ang buhay".
Maaring maraming lugar tayong narating At marahil marami pa ang mararating Ngunit kung hindi nababago pagkatao natin Para din tayong hindi umalis at walang narating Bagkus nanatili dahil mag-isa pa rin.
Paglalakbay palabas ng sarili ang buhay Sapagkat ang hinahanap nating katuturan at kahulugan, Kailanma'y hindi matatagpuan sa ating sarili lamang O saanmang lunan kungdi sa mukha ng bawat kapwa Na katulad at kapatid natin sa yaring buhay paglalakbay.
Larawan ay kuha ni John Bonding ng Architecture & Design Magazine, 25 Mayo 2019. Mula sa Facebook.
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