Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, ika-16 ng Abril 2019
Ngayong Semana Santa aking naalala Aking nabasa isang tunay na istorya Tungkol kay Santa Mother Teresa Noong nabubuhay pa siya sa Calcutta.
Minsan daw isang alaga nilang kulang-kulang Sinidlang bigla ng galit na di maintindihan Krusipihiyo sa dingding nabalingan ng pansin Ibinato sa Santa nating taimtim nananalangin.
Walang nakapansin nang ito'y kanyang gawin At nang ito'y pulutin ng butihing Mother natin Nakita niyang bali-bali ngunit nakapako pa rin Si Kristong Panginoon natin.
Larawan mula sa Google.
Kanyang pinagdikit-dikit bali-baling katawan Na parang nabendahan tulad ng isang sugatan Saka inutusan ng madreng maalam kanyang mga kasamahan Kanyang tinuran sa kanila, mahigpit na tagubilin:
Isabit muli sa ating dingding nabaling Krusipihiyo natin At inyo ring idikit kalapit yaring panalangin, "Hayaan po ninyo Panginoon na paghilumin Nitong aking mga kamay nawasak mong katawan."
Larawan ng mosaic sa kripta ng Katedral ng Maynila. Kuha ni Arch. Philip Santiago, Oktubre 2016.
Ito ang aral na lagi nating pakantandaan Kaya minsan-minsan dapat nating pagnilayan Paano nasugatan at patuloy nating sinasaktan Ng ating mga kasalanan yaring Mahal na Katawan.
Sa naturang kuwento ng ating banal Kanyang dasal sana'y di lamang natin mausal Katulad niya'y ating maisabuhay Paano ating mga kamay makakaramay.
Mula sa Google.
Mga kamay ni Hesus sa krus katulad ay tulay Nag-uugnay, nagbibigay-buhay Sa mga handang abutin Diyos at kapwa natin Sa pag-ibig na walang kapalit na hinihiling.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe, Holy Monday, 15 April 2019
Isaiah 42:1-7///John 12:1-11
Dominican Hills, Baguio City, January 2019 by the author.
This Monday is supposed to be different from all the other Mondays of the year for it is supposed to be holy. It is a step to your Paschal Triduum, Lord Jesus Christ, that begins on Holy Thursday evening leading to the glory of your Easter Sunday.
Being holy, O Lord, is being filled with you, being like you, Isaiah’s “Suffering Servant”:
Here is my servant whom I uphold…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 nto quench, until he establishes justice on the earth.
Isaiah 42:1-4
Yesterday I found a beautiful quotation from the Facebook page of the Franciscans that I strongly feel making it my prayer this Holy Monday. It is easier said than done, Lord, but it is doable with your grace.
From Be Like Francis/FB
Give us the courage and grace Lord Jesus this Holy Monday to break the cycle of evil in our midst, to act not like some of those people of your time who tried to plot not only against you but also against your friend Lazarus whom you have raised from the dead.
It is very difficult, and even crazy but it is your way as the Suffering Servant, our Christ who broke our cycle of hate and violence. Amen.
Today we begin the Holy Week. And here is my piece of good news for you: you do not have to necessarily listen to religious music to reflect on the immense love and mercy of God for us expressed in the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Exactly twenty years ago today, St. John Paul II asserted in his “Letter to the Artists” that every artistic inspiration is always from the Great Artist himself, God. This is very true in music which always speaks about love.
For our LordMyChef Music on this Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, I offer to you one of my favorite from David Benoit’s 1986 album “This Side Up” called “Land of the Loving” featuring the vocals of the great Diane Reeves. Of course, the song is about romantic love, of how a woman had found a love so true and sublime with a another person, with a man who must be so rare. Raise it to the highest level, it is no one else but Jesus Christ.
Photo from Google.
Deep in your eyes is a promise Love can be ours if we want it Starting tonight Every dream I ever knew Here in your arms I’m believin’ Finally my life has A meaning of its own Here in the land of the loving I am home
In today’s gospel, one can find the remarkable – even striking – character of Jesus who, after being crucified, prayed for his enemies, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” No hatred nor revenge. But pure love and friendship. Sometimes, our sins become our religious experience for it is through its darkness that God makes us experience him or find him.
Photo from bing.com.
I was alone in the city Searchin’ for someone to find me Cold empty nights and a million strangers’ eyes Here in your arms I’m beginning To leave behind all the loneliness I knew Here in the land of loving there is you.
In this simple room magic is made Though the world seems unchanged Leave the lights on I’m a bit afraid This might be just a sweet dream.
Deep in the night love is growing Though I had no way of knowing That when I found you I found ev’rything I need Here in your love I’ll be staying Fin’lly my life won’t be living all alone Here in the land of the loving I am home.
May Jesus find you, fill your heart with more peace and joy this Holy Week so you may rejoice in his Resurrection in Easter. Amen.
Sunset at San Juan, La Union. Photo by the author, January 2018.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe, Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, Year C, 14 April 2019
Isaiah 50:4-7///Philippians 2:6-11///Luke 22:1-49
Photo from Bing.com.
Today we begin the Holy Week with two celebrations merged into one, Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. The Palm Sunday is a tradition started by the early Christians in Jerusalem in the fourth century while in Rome during the 12th century, the Pope proclaimed the long gospel account of the Lord’s Passion on this Sunday to signal the start of Holy Week. Almost 2000 years later in reforming the liturgy, Vatican II merged these two traditions into one to usher in our holiest days of the year.
Like in the four Sundays of Lent except last week, St. Luke guides us today in reflecting the Lord’s Passion with emphasis on the Cross with its call to conversion. For St. Luke, the cross is the object of discipleship in Christ. Join me in reflecting on the last three words our evangelist had recorded when Jesus was crucified.
First word:
When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him and the criminals there, one on his right, the other to his left. Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”
Luke 23:33-34
Mosaic of the Crucifixion at the crypt of the Manila Cathedral. Photo by Arch. Philip Santiago, October of the Jubilee of Mercy 2016.
This is very striking. Immediately upon his crucifixion, Jesus prayed for the forgiveness of his enemies! It is a total adherence to his preaching during his sermon on the plain, “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Lk. 6:27-28, Seventh Week Ordinary Time, 24 February 2019). Here we find the immense love and mercy of Jesus — no hatred, no calls for revenge or threats like “karma” against those who crucified him. He simply begged for their forgiveness because “they know not what they do.”
In Jewish thought, to know means more than an intellectual knowledge for it implies relationship. Knowing somebody for them is more than knowing one’s name but having ties with the person. And to know something is always to see things in this perspective, always in relation with a person. Had they known Jesus is the Christ, they would have not crucified him! Exactly the preaching of St. Peter at the healing of a lame man after Pentecost at the temple when he told them they have “acted in ignorance” in “killing the Author of life whom God raised from the dead” (Acts 3:15). St. Luke also notes in his Acts of the Apostles how the crowd upon hearing St. Peter’s preaching were moved or “cut to the heart” (2:37) that many were baptized on that day. Recall also how at the arrival of the wise men from the East searching for the child Jesus: the scholars of Jerusalem “knew” from the books how the Christ would be born in Behtlehem yet he was found by the pagan magis! Even the most learned man in the New Testament, St. Paul admits how ignorant he had been in persecuting and blaspheming Jesus before (1Tim.1:13) experiencing God’s loving mercy.
In the bible we always see this combination of knowing and ignorance at the same time to indicate that more than factual and cerebral knowledge, there is that deeper knowing of relating and of loving. If we really know somebody, the more we love, the lesser we sin. St. Thomas Aquinas used to say that the more we know and become intelligent, the more we realize the truth, the more we must become good and holy. That is why saints are the most intelligent people that they were able to do what is good and what is right.
In this age of Google and Wikipedia , Jesus is challenging us that if we truly know so much that we have become smart and more intelligent, then, how much do we really love and care for others?
Photo from Google.
Second word:
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied to him, “Amen, I say to you, today you shall be with me in Paradise.”
Luke 23:42-43
The Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen used to claim that Dimas was indeed a great thief who was able to steal or snatch Paradise from Jesus just before dying on the Cross. It may be funny but very true. But more than “stealing” his salvation from the Lord, Dimas had displayed on the cross what we have discussed earlier about the combination of knowing and ignorance. I would say Dimas is perhaps the “most learned thief” of all time who truly knew what is most essential in life which is to know Jesus. The moment he called out to him “Jesus”, Dimas expressed his knowing Jesus, of belonging to Jesus. As we have reflected earlier, to know is to relate. Anyone who truly relates must first believe in order to love dearly. Dimas believed in Jesus that he called out to him while hanging on the Cross.
Today, Jesus is reminding us that the door to Paradise is him alone. And we begin to enter Paradise the moment we entrust our total self to Jesus like Dimas who came to know Christ at the Cross, and then believed him and loved him. If we really know, do we believe?
Altar of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre over the exact site where Jesus was crucified outside Jerusalem. Photo by Arch. Philip Santiago, October 2017.
Third word:
Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,” and when he had said this he breathed his last.
Luke 23:46
One of St. Luke’s unique feature is always presenting to us Jesus at prayer. Especially here at his crucifixion. See how his first words were prayer of forgiveness for his persecutors. Now at his death, St. Luke presents Jesus again at prayer, reciting Psalm 31:5, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
Here we find the whole picture of Jesus Christ’s life which is a prayer and his prayer is his very life. From the very start, Jesus has always been one with the Father which is the essence of every prayer called communion. And that is the important aspect of his being our Savior: everything he said and did was everything the Father had told and asked him. There is that perfect communion of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit so that in his death, Jesus offered his total self with us to God. Everyone and everything is thus sanctified anew in Christ. This became possible only with his kenosis, his self-emptying eloquently expressed to the Philippians by St. Paul in our second reading.
On the Cross, everything in the life of Jesus Christ came to a full circle, God’s whole picture emerged. Now more than ever, we have become closest to God in love. In his dying on the Cross, Jesus made known to us God, brought him closest to us so we can relate and be intimate with him more than ever. In his becoming human like us by bearing all the pains and sufferings expressed in the first reading from Isaiah, God proved to us his love in Jesus. Most of all, he enabled us too to be capable of knowing and loving like Jesus Christ by being intimate with him always. This is why these days are called Holy Week when we are filled with God so we experience him anew and have him more than ever in our hearts, in our very selves. Amen.
40 Shades of Lent, Saturday, Week-V, 13 April 2019
Ezekiel 37:21-28///John 11:45-56
From Google.
After forty days, we are finally home in you, God our Father. Finally. But, are we really home? Are we ready for the holiest of all your days, Lord, set to begin tonight with the Palm Sunday of your Passion?
Continue to cleanse our hearts and our souls, Lord.
Continue to guide us into your direction, not like some of the people of your time.
Many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what Jesus had done began to believe in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
John 11:45-46
Lead us home into the Father, Lord Jesus.
Fulfill in us Ezekiel’s prophecy:
My dwelling shall be with them; I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Thus the nations shall know that it is I, the Lord, who makes Israel holy, when my sanctuary shall be set up among them forever.
Thank you Lord for Lent, for the 40 days of journey. May each day be always a journey with you and in you always. Amen.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-12 ng Abril 2019
Larawan mula sa Google.
Papatapos na ang Kuwaresma Malapit na ang Semana Santa Halina't magtika sa ating mga pagkakasala Upang madama dakilang pag-ibig Niya.
Minsa'y aking nakita estatwa sa karosa Paglalatigo sa haliging bato ni Hesu-Kristo; Natigilan at nagmuni-muni ako Pinagnilayan kaawa-awang larawan.
Ayon sa kuwento sa ebanghelyo Ng minamahal na disipulo ni Kristo Nagkakagulo mga tao kaya natakot si Pilato Na palayain si Kristo sa mga bintang na di totoo.
Naramdaman ko sa pagninilay ko Pagbabakasakali ni Pilato Kung ipahampas niya sa haliging bato Baka maawa mga tao kay Kristo.
Simbahan ng Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Espana. Kuha ni Arch. Philip Santiago, Oktubre 2018.
Nagkamali si Pilato, hindi nabago mga lilo Kaya binabaran ko tagpong ito sa praetorio Sinikap kong sulyapan habang pinagninilayan Sugatan niyang katawan labis pinagmalupitan.
Sa aking katahimikan at kalungkutan Aking napakinggan kanyang tinuran: "Masdan kagagawan tuwing katotohanan Ay hindi ninyo mapangatawanan."
Natigilan ako, totoo ba aking napakinggan Muli sa aki'y tinuran ng Poong sugatan: "Hindi naman ako talagang inyong sinasaktan Sa ginagawa ninyong mga kasalanan."
Sa katahimikan nitong aking pagninilay Ako nasaktan nang makita siyang duguan Sa mga mata niyang malamlam aking ramdam Kanyang habag at kaamuhan.
Ginawa ni Pilato alalaong-baga Sa kasabihan nating mga Filipino Ay namangka sa dalawang ilog Kanyang pinagsabay mga bagay na magkahiwalay.
Hindi makapamili kung susundin ang budhi Nahihirati sa kiliti ng ilang sandali Hindi alintana mga sugat at hapdi Lalo lamang tayo nasasawi.
Halina't magsuri ng maigi Baka tayo ma'y ganyan ang gawi at ugali Katotohanan at kabutihan hindi kayang panindigan Inaasam kusang bubuti masamang kalagayan.
Ipahahampas mo ba muli si Kristo Sa haliging bato ng ating pagkalito? Hahatol ka ba tulad ni Pilato Na tiyak naman tayo ang talo?
The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?”
John 10:31-32
O dear Jesus, my Lord and my God, I could relate so much with you in this episode in your life. Lately, I have been feeling so down, wondering how could people give me in return evil deeds and pains after all the goodness I have shown them? There are still many others out there wondering the same, feeling the same.
We all feel like, you, O Jesus, asking our detractors, our very own relatives and friends, which of the good works we have done to them are they stoning us?
We all feel like Jeremiah too, your the prophet.
I hear the whisperings of many: “Terror on every side! Denounce! Let us denounce him!” All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine. “Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail, and take our vengeance on him.”
Jeremiah 20:10
In our distress, O Lord, hear our calls!
Keep us strong and faithful always to you. If life is Lent, then life is about persecutions, about sufferings. We have accepted it Lord but sometimes we cry, we get weak, we want to rest and stop because things are getting too much.
But, Lent has a spirit and character that refresh us, renew us with the thought that before all these persecutions and sufferings came our way, you were there first for us, Lord Jesus to, bear all these pains. Even dying on the Cross. Amen.
40 Shades of Lent, Thursday, Week-V, 11 April 2019
Genesis 17:3-9///John 8:51-59
From Google.
Almost forty days ago since we started this journey on Ash Wednesday, we have reflected that “life is Lent”. Today, O Lord, as we nearly conclude this Season of Lent on Saturday morning, we come full circle to that reality.
Life is Lent because it is about being with you, our God, our Father following your direction in Christ Jesus.
With you, God, we find life.
Without you, God, we lose life.
Help us to remain in you, dear God. To always stay with you as you have told Abraham from the very beginning.
God also said to Abraham: “On your part, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages.”
Genesis 17:9
Help us to remember and keep this always as you remind us too, that Jesus Christ your Son is our Savior primarily because everything he said and done were said and done in obedience to you his Father.
Jesus is the obedient one just like Abraham who first showed us how life is a daily Lent, of being centered on you, always listening to you, always doing your will.
In a few days we shall enter the Holy Week. May we always bring with us the lessons of this Season of Lent, that life will always be Lent, of being with you, staying with you, our God and Master. Amen.
40 Shades of Lent, Wednesday, Week-V, 10 April 2019
Daniel 3:14-20, 91-92, 95///John 8:31-42
From Google.
If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
John 8:31-32
Very often Lord Jesus, when you talk of us being set free, we feel like the people of your time bragging
…we have never been enslaved to anyone.
John 8:33
Very often, Lord, we feel so proud to claim being one with you, truly serving you when in fact we are enslaved by so many pleasures in life.
There are many ways of serving you, of being free for you, of being faithful to you.
But there is only one sure way of being enslaved: when we desire to please our very selves and others.
Like in the first reading, it is very easy to please King Nebuchadnezzar in serving false gods, thinking these would not harm us, that we can control ourselves, that we would not completely fall into it. There are many instances we think that with these modern times with the modern thoughts and modern ways of life sweeping all around us, just a little pleasure would not mean anything at all, would never have a control over us until we are trapped, enslaved, and have lost everything.
Knowing the truth is being one with you, O Lord: remaining in you, staying with you. Loving you, serving you. Through others. Not pleasing myself. Amen.
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