Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, ika-01 ng Abril 2019
Sisihin aking mapaglarong isipan Dahil panahon ng halalan Paano nga kaya kung minsan Mabaligtad naman takbo nitong kwentuhan?
Mayroong magkakapatid Ang ama nila ay hindi maintindihan Hindi nila maramdaman Kung sila'y ganan niya na sobrang yabang.
Wala siyang hindi pinapatulan maging kababaihan man Dinaraan sa mararahas na usapan Pero kung maiipit sa mga salitang binitiwan Sasabihin niya na ang lahat ay biruan at kunwari lamang.
Humingi ng paumanhin nang murahin Santo Papa natin Ngunit nang ang Diyos ang kanyang lapastanganin Hindi na mailihim kanyang tililing at pagka halimaw na rin Nang ang lahat ay ibig patayin maging mga alagad ng Simbahan natin.
Kaibayo pagkakaiba niya sa lahat ng ama Na sa halip buhayin, lahat ay ibig niyang tokhangin Masasamang loob at mga makasalanan sa kanya ay walang kabuluhan Hindi niya alintana kanilang kahirapan dahilan ng kawalanghiyaan.
Sa talinghaga nagdalita ang alibughang anak Nagtika sa malaking pagkakasala saka nagbalik-loob; Kumpara sa ating nararanasan, matatagalan pa pagsadsad sa kailaliman Kaya kahambugan at kasinungalingan hindi matitigilan.
Mas mahirap pala kung ama ang siyang alibugha Dahil higit sa lahat bago maging ama ang sino man Kailangan siya muna kakitaan di lamang ng kahusayan at kagalingan Kungdi higit sa lahat ng kabutihan at katinuan.
Kung paano naluklok ang isang alibughang ama Madaling malalaman bagama't walang pupuntahan ating sisihan Mabuti pa'y tingnan ating kalooban sa sinapit nating kalagayan Di kaya dahil tayong mga anak ay alibughang puno ng pagkukulang?
Good morning, Lord! Thank you very much for this Monday, the first day of the brand new month of April. A new beginning, a fresh start. Help us to make it a good one.
Make true your promise to us, O God, through your prophet that…
“…no longer shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does round out his full lifetime; he dies a mere youth who reaches but a hundred years, and he who fails of a hundred shall be thought accursed.”
Isaiah 65:20
Our lives have no meaning at all without you, when we are separated from you. Without you, O God, life is measured in time as an age that is merely a number; but, with you, life is about finding meaning, having its fullness in you regardless we lead short or long lives.
When Jesus Christ healed the son of a royal official from Capernaum while in Cana, Galilee with the words “your son will live”, it was more than escaping death and living for more years in his life. It was more of living meaningfully, of finding you in our lives.
It has been four weeks since we started this Lenten journey. Continue to lead me back home into you, O God. Help me find my way back home to you especially in those moments I am lost and separated from you. Most especially, help me find your Holy Will O Lord that I may always fulfill it because of love and nothing else. Amen.
Early morning at the Assumption Sabbath Retreat House in Baguio City, January 2019.
Detail of Rembrandt’s painting “Return of the Prodigal Son” from Bing.com.
It was still very dark early yesterday when I left Tagaytay after giving a Friday retreat to a group of couples. There were two things in my mind as I drove back to my parish: watch the sunrise over the picturesque Taal Volcano and think of the song to feature in LordMyChef Sunday music today. Upon reaching the intersection leading to Manila still in darkness, I gave up all hopes of seeing the sunrise up there in Tagaytay, contenting myself with my music and the cold winds keeping me company in my traffic-free driving.
Suddenly, these lovely lyrics wafted through the air…
I have never lost the love that I have given you With all the things that we have all been through I’ve never stayed in love before As much as I have stayed in love with you
The Lord answered my prayer! I have found our LordMyChef Sunday Music – “I’ll Always Stay In Love This Way” composed by US-based Filipino jazz artist Boy Katindig and released in 1983 as part of his album In My Inner Fantasies. The song relates how a man tries to convince the woman of his dream of his great love for her. The words and the music plus the muy simpatico voice of another US-based Filipino singer Baron Barbers make this song so lovely (not cheesy) and relevant with our Sunday gospel on the parable of the prodigal son. Moreover, Boy Katindig’s “I’ll Always Stay In Love This Way” is also attuned with the pink motif of rejoicing in our liturgy as we near our holiest days, the Holy Week and Easter Sunday.
Imagine God the Father singing Boy Katindig’s composition, assuring us of His immense love and mercy despite our sinfulness. Unlike Katindig’s song, God had proven His love for us by sending His Son Jesus Christ who died on the cross in order to save us and bring us back to life again in Him! Here are the rest of the lyrics of “I’ll Always Stay In Love This Way” and hope you like it too!
You, you never thought the feelings Meant for you were true ‘Coz everytime we’re all alone you wonder If I’ll really never change And if I’ll really stay in love with you
Love, it needs just you and me to stay together Even if there’s nothing more The best is there forever Love, we have to stay this way in love forever Even if you change your ways I’ll always stay this way’
Coz I, I will always stay this way in love with you I will always stay this way in love with you I will always stay in love this way
You, you never thought the feelings Meant for you were true ‘Coz everytime we’re all alone you wonder If I’ll really never change And if I’ll really stay in love with you
Love… It needs just you and me to stay together Even if there’s nothing more The best is there forever Love… We have to stay this way in love forever Even if you change your ways I’ll always stay this way
‘Coz I, I will always stay this way in love with you I will always stay this way in love with you I will always stay this way in love with you I will always stay this way in love with you
Sin can be mysterious at times because it can also be a religious experience that leads us back to God and holiness. We have a saying that “every saint has a sinful past and every sinner can have a saintly future.” So many men and women who were so notorious in their lives have proven this so true like St. Paul and St. Augustine.
After reflecting on the call for conversion last Sunday, our gospel today tells us a lot about the nature of sin. Unless we understand what is sin and why we sin, then we get imprisoned by sin as we keep on committing it no matter how hard we try to be better persons. But once we understand even a little bit of it, its hows and whys, then we sin less often as we slowly break free from its bondage.
“A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’ So the father divided the property between them.”
Luke 15:11-12
Sin is when we separate from the Father like the younger son when we ask for our “share of your estate that should come to me” referring to that part of this whole life only God can have in its fullness. We always have the idea that it must be so vast and huge that even just a part of it would be more than enough for us. We want to be on our own that we break away from Him, thinking wrongly that the share we have is more than enough for us without truly realizing how great and so vast is the Father’s estate which is life itself!
And so it happens, we break away from God and live on our own that sooner or later, our share dissipates until we lose everything.
This estate, this very life of God will never be gone like Him, will never diminish nor dissipate. We shall always have it, enjoy it for as long as we are with Him, our loving Father! This is also the point of the Father to the elder son when he refused to join their celebration when his younger brother returned. Life, love, kindness, family, everything that is good dissipates when held individually away from God. But when we share it with the Father through Christ, it is like the river that never runs dry.
When he had freely spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need… And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any.
Luke 15:14,16
Sin always gives us the sense of “freedom” like the young son who “freely spent everything”. There is always that wrong understanding of freedom as the ability to do everything and anything, feeling that everything in this life is ours alone. Freedom is first of all choosing what is truly good. To be free is to be loving, being a part of the whole and never separated from the whole. To be truly free is always to be one. This explains why when we are deep into sin and all alone, separated from others, we suddenly long to be one with others. The sense of belonging suddenly pops up within us because we find ourselves incomplete when in sin.
“My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours.”
Luke 15:31
Here lies the problem also with the elder son who has always been present with their father but had never been one with him, never belonging to him. He is guilty of “sin of omission” when he felt nothing seems to be wrong with him as he breaks no rules of their father – except their relationship and ties. The apostle James wrote in his letter that “a person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by own desire” (Jas.1:14). Sin is always the desire to be sufficiently alone, to be powerful, to be God! See how since the beginning, we have never outgrown that sin of Adam and Eve of becoming like God, of playing god.
My dear sisters and brothers, like Paul in our second reading today, let us be reconciled to God in Christ. To be reconciled is to be one, to belong, to become a part again of God. In the dryness and desolation of sin like the desert in the experience of Joshua and the Hebrew people, God continues to bless us with so many gifts, so many blessings. The two brothers in the parable are both sinners but loved by their father. And so are we.
More than avoiding sins, our gospel parable this Sunday invites us to love God more by seeking His will always. Yes, we have all been hurt by someone else’s sins and we have also caused pain on others with our sins. Let us focus more on this vast gift of life and love expressed in God’s mercy and forgiveness that no sin could ever diminish. And the good news is that it is all free and totally being given to us by Jesus Christ especially in our Sunday Eucharist. A blessed week to you!
40 Shades of Lent, Friday, Week III, 29 March 2019
Hosea 14:2-10///Mark 12:28-34
Dear God: This may sound funny but really, there is no doubt that you are indeed God. And a very loving and patient Father at that!
Like in the gospel today, I really can’t imagine how we would always talk to you, asking you so many things that preoccupy us most of the time like our endless lists.
One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?”
Mark 12:28
Everything has to be categorized with us, from the first to the last, from the biggest to the smallest, from the shortest to the longest, and so forth and so on.
But you, O Lord, never asked us with any lists. You simply ask us to live which is to love.
All these things you have asked through the prophet Hosea mean one thing which is to go back to you in love. Sometimes, the most basic and ordinary thing to do becomes the most difficult and complicated like love when we try to rank everything and even every one among us.
Teach us, O God, to simply love, love, and love.
Because where there is love, you are surely there. Amen.
40 Shades of Lent, Thursday, Week III, 28 March 2019
Jeremiah 7:23-28///Luke 11:14-23
What a shame, dear God, to read in the gospel today your Son Jesus Christ busy confronting evil, driving out a demon that was mute from a man while we in this age deny its very existence.
In the name of modernity and keeping up with the time, we have taken sin and evil for granted, short of imitating the contemporaries of Jesus of accusing Him of driving out demons by the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons.
How true were the words of your prophet Jeremiah that “we have walked in the hardness of our hearts and turned our back, not our faces, to you. Faithfulness has disappeared, even the very word from our speech.” (Jer.7:24,28)
Let us heed today’s responsorial psalm, “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”
Give us the courage, O God, to be like your Son Jesus Christ fighting evil and sin by being firm in keeping your commandments. Amen.
Images from Google; above is The Temptations of Christ, a 12th century mosaic at St. Mark’s Basilica, Venice, Italy.
40 Shades of Lent, Tuesday, Week III, 27 March 2019
Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9///Matthew 5:17-19
Our almighty and loving Father, we thank you for remaining with us, for staying with us despite the many occasions we have left you. There are so many occasions we have not only forgotten but totally disregarded many of your laws in the belief that they no longer apply in our modern time, in our modern situations.
But we are very wrong, loving Father because your ways never go out of date. Always timely and relevant because your teachings set us free to be more loving and more faithful with you and one another.
So many times we have tried to run away from you when we felt held captive or burdened by your laws and teachings. The more we cry for freedom based on our understanding or whims, the more we are imprisoned.
Teach us to have more fresher perspective and view on your teachings and laws in Christ Jesus who had come to make us experience them in a more personal manner. Let us see the fulfillment of your laws and teachings by rededicating our selves to you, renewing our commitment in this spiritual journey so we may be fulfilled in you. Amen.
40 Shades of Lent, Tuesday, Week III, 26 March 2019
Daniel 3:25, 34-43///Matthew 18:21-35
Praise and glory to you, O Lord Jesus Christ!
Here we are now O Lord being confronted by this topic of sin and forgiveness. Every day we pray the “Our Father” and you know very well how mechanical it had become for us asking God “to forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sinned against us.”
Like Peter, we often feel at a loss at how to forgive those who have hurt us. No… not just hurt or wronged us but, hurt or wronged us so deeply.
The pain is so deep in our hearts, Jesus. And that is why you want us all to forgive from our hearts, not from our lips or from our minds but from our hearts where the pains hurt us most.
We really do not know how. Your parable seems inadequate though you make an absolutely valid point of forgiving others because we have been forgiven too.
Like Daniel your prophet in the Old Testament, we beg you to “Deliver us by your wonders” – surprise us O Lord with your gentle mercy, with your kindness that like you we may be moved to forgiving those who have terribly wronged us. Amen.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, ika-25 ng Marso 2019
Larawan mula sa Google.
Minsan ako'y nainip Walang maisip kaya nanaginip Sa pagbabaka-sakaling makamit Sari-saring mithi maging pagngingitngit.
Sa gitna ng aking mga lakbay-diwa Aking nabatid malaking pagkakaiba Nitong panaginip at pangarap Na tila baga ay iisa.
Kapag nananaginip Madalas isipa'y nasa himpapawirin Bahala na kung saan makarating Basta masiyahan kalooban natin.
Napakadaling managinip Dahil mga mata lamang ay ipipikit At dagliang sasagitsit Mga pantasyang katha ng isip.
Ang taong nangangarap o yaong may pangarap Malalim kanyang nilalayon at hinahangad sa hinaharap Inaapuhap kung paanong matutupad Kaganapan ng pangarap sa kinabukasan.
Sino mang nangangarap o basta mayroong pangarap Kanyang diwa ay tiyak na matalas Mga mata'y laging nakadilat at gising Handang abutin at tamuhin mga tanawing siya lamang nakatingin.
Nasasalamin sa buhay natin kung tutuusin Ang mas hilig gawin natin: Ang managinip at magising O mangarap at tupdin misyon natin.
Takip-silim sa Sabbath Reteat House ng mga madre ng Assumption, Baguio. Larawan ng may akda, Enero 2019. Ano ang pipiliin, m,anaginip o mangarap?
The Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord is a Christmas celebration outside the Christmas cycle. Since the middle of the sixth century, it has always been celebrated on March 25 that falls within Lent except when Ash Wednesday comes early February like in recent years that it occurs within the Easter season.
What is very interesting with this Solemnity of the Lord is how its gospel from Luke is proclaimed in Advent and Lent, two major seasons that are similar in varying degrees with its violet motif and with its penitential character that is a call to conversion. Both Advent and Lent invite us to create a space within us so we may receive Jesus Christ in us like the Blessed Virgin Mary. Angel Gabriel continues to come to us, bringing Jesus Christ. But, does anybody willing to listen to the angel to receive the Son of God like Mary?
“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.”
Luke 1:30-31, 35
Yesterday in our third Sunday of Lent, we reflected the Lord’s call to conversion by repenting our sins and changing our life directions in Him. Conversion is finding Jesus in our very self so we may also find Him in other persons and in the events of our lives. This can only happen when there is a room for Jesus in us like Mary. We simply have to create that space in us by emptying our hearts of our pride and other sins so the Holy Spirit may overshadow us to make us God’s presence. It requires a lot of trust on our part in God and His power. How sad that in this age of great technological marvels, we continue to be like Ahaz in the first reading who entered into secret alliances with Israel’s pagan neighbors trusting in their military might than with God. Like Ahaz, we often pretend not to be tempting or testing God with signs from Him yet, the fact is our hearts are so far from Him. Conversion is taking two or three steps backward so that we can allow God to do His works in us. Problem is we have never truly allowed the Holy Spirit to overshadow us with God’s power to be His presence in the world. We are always afraid even ashamed at what others would say. Or sometimes, we are always in great hurry that we cannot wait for God to accomplish His work in us.
A very dear friend last week texted me with a prayer request for her surgery today. She specifically asked me to pray for her doctors that the Holy Spirit may guide their hands in removing cysts in her pancreas. What I liked most in her request is the fact that she herself is an accomplished doctor under the care of perhaps the best doctors in the country in one of the leading hospitals in the city. Imagine her deep faith and complete trust in God! Here is a lady doctor, a woman of science so busy with her profession and family yet always making – not finding – time for God in her prayers especially the Sunday Mass.
I am always amazed by people like her who always have that glow in their face exuding with deep joy and peace within borne out of their deep spirituality. One can always feel in them the transforming power of the Holy Spirit that despite their weaknesses and shortcomings, Christ is seen and experienced among them.
Jesus did not merely come on the first Christmas over 2000 years ago. Most of all, Jesus does not come only every December 25. Jesus comes to us every day throughout the whole day which is the reason we pray the Angelus in the morning, at noon and in the early evening. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us of this reality of Christ’s coming by offering Himself as our perfect sacrifice to the Father. He is real and truly transforms us into better persons if we are willing to cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s work like Mary. Today’s solemnity of the Annunciation falling on the driest and most humid season of the year during Lent reminds us of how God continues to stir us into opening to Him, creating a space for Him to let His Spirit overshadow us not only to change us but also the world around us.
In what instances of your life do you feel God stirring you to do something for Him but you feel afraid or inadequate like Mary at the beginning of her conversation with the angel? Listen first to God or His angel by emptying yourself, creating a space for Jesus Christ. Then imitate Mary in her fiat or expression of faith by praying, “I am the servant of the Lord. Be it done unto me according to your word.” Amen.
A Filipino painting on the perimeter wall facing the front of the Basilica of the Annunciation at Nazareth, the Holy Land. Photo by the author, April 2017.
lordmychef.com 