The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday, Memorial of Sts. Martha, Mary & Lazarus, 29 July 2024 1 John 4:7-16 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> John 11:19-27
“The Raising of Lazarus”, 1311 painting by Duccio de Buoninsegna from commons.wikimedia.org
If you have love in your heart, you have been blessed by God; if you have been loved, you have been touched by God (Anonymous author).
What a lovely Monday You have given us today, O God our Father as we celebrate the Memorial of the friends of Jesus Christ, the sisters St. Mary and St. Martha with their brother St. Lazarus - a beautiful and most powerful reminder to us all that Jesus comes first in our family most especially among our siblings.
How sad, dear Father are the growing number of couples having only one child or two the most with kids denied of this most wonderful experience of kinship; on the other hand, there is the growing trend of family disintegration due to divorce and separation of many couples with children as main casualties; likewise, of the growing trend among young people to selfishly pursue many things in life in total disregard of others beginning in their own family circle.
No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us (1 John 4:12).
Help us, dear Father, to rekindle this love we first experienced in our homes, among our siblings like Saints Mary, Martha and Lazarus; let us discover anew the wonderful and amazing gifts of brothers and sisters in the family who remind us of your blessing us with so much love in our hearts; let us feel and experience again your gift of love in our hearts in the mere mention of names of our own brother and/or sister who made us first experience love next from our parents; refresh our memories of those times You touched us with the selfless love, the unconditional love freely shared with us by our brother and/or sister.
We pray, most merciful Father, for all brothers and sisters separated from each other due to misunderstandings, jealousy, betrayals and mistrust; like St. Martha, let us never lose faith and hope for estranged brothers and sisters to rise anew from their deaths into sin, to find again that love You have given them in their hearts and most of all, touch them so they may remember and miss anew those experiences of being loved by their siblings in their childhood to rebuild their ties again in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
An icon of Jesus visiting his friends, the siblings Sts. Lazarus, Mary and Martha. Photo from crossroadsinitiative.com.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, 28 July 2024 2 Kings 4:42-44 ><}}}}*> Ephesians 4:1-6 ><}}}}*> John 6:1-15
Residents wade through knee to waist-deep flood along P. Florentino Street in Quezon City on July 24, 2024. Photo by Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News
There is a new kind of storm sweeping us these days, more disastrous and silently wreaking havoc among us especially in our relationships with one another. It is a kind of storm borne out materialism that had given rise to other thoughts that have left us more lost and empty in life.
Photo from sunstar.com.ph, 22 July 2024.
More powerful than typhoon Carina was that storm in Cebu when a celebrity had a waiter stand in front of him simply for addressing him a “sir”, not as “mam” as he claimed to be a “beautiful” transwoman. The storm swept the whole social media on Monday with negative reactions and memes even from LGBTQ members. Many women rose to speak against this insistence by some in introducing wokism in the country for the sake of inclusivity which is nothing else but an exaggeration of one’s self and of the truncated truth they know.
*As I wrote this Saturday morning, there came the news of how the Paris Olympics made a mockery of the Lord’s Supper with a drag show in its opening ceremony. What a shame on France!
Photo from rappler.com.
Right after the devastation by the habagat, many were shocked to find Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue in Makati changed into “Sen. Gil Tulog” for an advertising stunt. Again, it flooded social media with criticisms that reached the Mayor of Makati who ordered the signages removed with the city official who approved it reprimanded.
Here we find two recent storms indicating how eroded our value system has become. Both are symptoms of our sick society that have allowed these to creep into our social consciousness on the pretext of inclusivity and creativity along with other western idiotic thoughts displayed in the opening of the Paris Olympics. The incidents show how some people have become so conceited without any sense of respect at all to God and to others, whether alive or deceased, as well as lack of sense of history.
Photo by author, Parish of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, Valenzuela City, 24 July 2024.
Sorry for the long introduction. I only wish to invite you my dear friends to stop for a while and honestly ask ourselves this question: what are we pursuing in life these days?
Beginning today until the next four Sundays of August, all our Gospel accounts will be from John’s sixth chapter that opens with the story of the feeding of more than five thousand people. It is the continuation of last Sunday’s gospel scene when Mark narrated how Jesus invited the Twelve to a “deserted place to be by themselves” only to be followed by a vast crowd of people “like sheep without a shepherd.”
Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee. A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. The Jewish feast of Passover was near (John 6:1-4).
The beloved disciple’s account of the event is so rich with many signs that point us closer to Jesus Christ.
Keep in mind that the miracles of Jesus in the fourth gospel are called “signs” because they were not just extraordinary things done like some form of magic; for John, the miracles of Jesus were signs that point and reveal superior realities of the highest order, of God Himself in Christ. This is difficult to understand unless our pursuits are clearly on God and not something else.
Photo by author, Fatima Avenue, Valenzuela City, 25 July 2024.
In his brief introduction of the scene, John tells us that if we really want to find and experience liberation from all the problems besetting us as individuals and as a nation, we must first pursue God, not our self-interests and well-being. See how John declared the great number of people pursued Jesus due to the “the signs he was performing on the sick” that they must have found hope and life in Him amid their many sufferings.
How sad many people today spend and waste time in social media and other material things forgetting the persons around them. In the pursuit for money and fame, persons are made into objects to be possessed; perhaps this is the reason of the growing number of many kamotes and pabebes in our time – the objectification of people, when persons are degraded into mere objects. It is an utter lack of respect for others which only shows too the lack of self-respect among many of us because we have lost our rootedness in God.
Do we still have that desire for God which leads us to higher ideals like virtues and qualities that make us more human and humane?
Pursuing God is not just celebrating the Sunday Mass or praying often but applying these holy activities into our daily lives to experience and find Him working in us and through us in our daily life. As we have reflected last Sunday, the more we get closer to God, the closer we must get with others too!
Many times we are like Philip and Andrew, two of the closest Apostles of Jesus that even if we go to Mass every Sunday or even daily, we never meet Christ at all because we are so absorbed with ourselves and the world. Philip and Andrew saw only saw the huge problem before them, they saw what they lacked – bread – but never found Jesus Christ Himself as the answer to their problem despite their having witnessed His many healings and raising to life of the dead daughter of Jairus.
When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?” He said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many (John6:5-9)?”
I love that small detail by John that “Jesus knew what he was going to do”, of how the Lord was merely testing them in asking where to buy bread.
From psephizo.com
It does not really matter how Jesus multiplied the loaves of bread. What was very clear was the presence of Jesus, the Son of God who can do anything!
It was His person that was most important in this scene set when “The Jewish feast of Passover was near” which would later explain to us the meaning of the Last Supper and Good Friday. It is the very person of Jesus Christ who matters always in life. Recall our most trying moments in life when we have given up hopes but suddenly something happened and everything was reversed that we are still here, very much alive. Until now we are clueless how it all happened except that deep within our hearts, it is only Jesus whom we find as the answer and reason for everything.
In the first reading we heard how Elisha the prophet was given with twenty barley loaves of bread he gave to feed one hundred people that had plenty of leftovers.
Again, we are not told how Elisha multiplied the loaves of bread but one thing was very clear: the barley loaves were given by the man from Baal-shalisha as an offering to God through Elisha. The man clearly desired and pursued God that he baked those bread from “the first fruits, and fresh grain in the ear” of his bountiful harvest (2 Kgs.4:42). It was a thanksgiving offering for God that made wonders not only for him but for everyone. If we could just do the same in desiring God first of all!
Remember what Jesus told the devil during His first temptation in the wilderness, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God” (Mt.4:4).
There in the deserted place, miracle happened because everyone desired God first by listening to the teachings of Jesus. When Jesus saw them opening to God’s words, He then fed them with bread and fish. This week, let us pursue God more sincerely by foregoing our usual pursuits for comfort and easy life so that Jesus may multiply whatever we have. Let us pray:
God our loving Father who is over all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4:6): empty us of our pride that make us pursue worldly things like wealth, fame, and power; let us desire You alone in Jesus Christ so that we may find You again in our hearts and on the face of one another we meet in this world that has become so empty, hostile and unkind. Amen.
Photo by author, view of Jerusalem from the Church of Dominus Flevit, May 2017.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday, Memorial of Sts. Joachim and Anne, Parents of the BVM, 26 July 2024 Jeremiah 3:14-17 <*((((><< + >><))))*> Matthew 13:18-23
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 19 March 2023.
As we reel from the aftermath of the recent storms that caused widespread floods and affected so many lives, Your words today Lord Jesus Christ direct our thoughts to our roots and rootedness in God and with one another especially our grandparents.
The seed sown on the rocky ground is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy. But he has no root and lasts only for a time. When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away (Matthew 13:20-21).
How lovely that on this Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary and grandparents of our Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel invites us to go back and nurture our roots; like any good tree planted firmly that provides shades and food as well as holds water when rains come, roots evoke a sense of interconnectedness, of trust with each other, of our grounding in life and mission that give direction for us in life; without the root, we not only wither and die but lose sense and meaning in life; it is in the root we find our identity and mission; in the root is found our true selves; it is the root that holds us to remain whole despite the many blows we encounter in life. That is why the Prophet Jeremiah invites us in the first reading to go back to God, to be converted always. It is not difficult to find out what kind of people were Saints Joachim and Anne because when we study and reflect the writings we have about the Blessed Virgin Mary and her Son Jesus Christ, the more we discover their roots must be so good indeed.
God our Father, let us be rooted in You always, finding You among the people You gift us beginning with our family and friends; let us realize our roots extend beyond people but also with all your creation so that we may love and care for the blessed environment You have given us called Earth. Amen.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 19 March 2023.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Prayers in the storm and after the storm, 24-25 July 2024
Photo by author, Parish of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, Valenzuela City, 24 July 2024.
We did not sleep well Tuesday night, worried with the serious impact of heavy rains to our brothers and sisters living in shanties and low-lying areas. Electricity was cut off early yesterday as we received reports of widespread flooding in the Parish. Immediately, the Parish Priest with the Parish Pastoral Council gathered dry clothings, jackets, and blankets for the evacuees in a nearby school, sending some breakfast too. This was our prayer on that rainy Wednesday:
God our loving Father, we thank you for the rains we have long been waiting for to fill our dams, to water our fields and plants, to cool our climate; but because of our continued disregard for your creation and for one another, these blessed rains have brought many problems too especially floods that are getting worse every year; forgive us for we never learn to respect not only nature but especially one another; rich and poor alike failed to take care of each other thinking only of one's self. May these rains wash away our selfishness, cleanse our conscience to think more of others and enable us to finally take concrete steps in changing our lifestyle as Pope Francis had long called for in Laudato Si so that we may finally see our interconnectedness in this one home and planet we call Earth. Amen.
Photo by author, the Fatima image we use for procession after Sunday Masses at the Shrine taking cover from the strong rains and winds yesterday.
Rains heavily poured with a lot of thunders before noon yesterday; more parishioners sent help in kind and food for the 60 evacuees near the Shrine. This we composed for our noontime prayer during that thunderstorms:
God our Father, thank you for the midday rest on this stormy Wednesday; many of us are bearing with the discomfort of no electricity, of not being able to move around, of idly staying at home; forgive us for the complaints especially when we forget there are more who are going through severe tests and sufferings at this time: dilapidated and leaky homes with still more moving to evacuation centers; many people have nothing at all in their pockets for these rainy days; help us reach out to our poor brothers and sisters especially the children who haven’t have breakfast nor have rested at all since last night! Father, we pray for the daily wage earners who could not work today due to bad weather; we pray also for those living alone as well as those who could not come home. Bless every home, fill us with more love and kindness to keep warm everyone in this time of calamity. We ask this in Jesus Christ’s name with the Holy Spirit. Amen.
O blessed Mother Mary, our Lady of Fatima, Pray for us!
There was still no electricity and rains continued to pour in the afternoon with a handful people celebrating the 6PM Mass at the Shrine. Up in our rectory, our staff and PPC officers were busy preparing packed meals for the families evacuated in a nearby school. This was our prayer that afternoon:
God our loving and merciful Father, thank you for bringing us to the end of this day; thank you for the gift of life, for the selfless people who served in all rescue and relief efforts for those affected by the heavy rains that still continue; thank you and bless those who remained faithful to their call of duty especially those in the police and military, the journalists who risked their lives to keep us informed of the situations, our weathermen who tracked Carina and the habagat; most of all, we thank you for the doctors and nurses who came to hospitals as extensions of your healing hands in this time of calamity. Keep them all safe. Bring us all home safely tonight guided by your light of love and care in Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Mary our Mother, Our Lady of Fatima, Pray for us.
Photo by author, Blessed Sacrament in the Chapel of Angel of Peace, RISE Tower, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City, 26 June 2024.
Darkness enveloped the whole city of Valenzuela by nightfall as we remained without electricity but the good news of rains finally stopping with the ebbing of the floods were most welcomed news to bring joy to many among us. We continued with our prayers and this is what we shared:
Most loving Father, many of us will not sleep tonight: some are working overnight to ensure tomorrow we’ll have food and power while others are keeping watch for everyone’s safety and wellbeing; bless them, give them the strength to do their tasks and duties, and keep them safe. It has been a very long, cold, and wet day, Father; help us set aside our worries, to trust and hope in You that it is always after the rains and the storms leaves are greenest; it is after the floods when rich top soil are deposited, conducive for farming; it is during calamities when love and charity surprise us most. Amen.
Jesus, King of Mercy, we trust in You!
Our Lady of Fatima, Pray for us!
Photo by author, Fatima Avenue, Valenzuela City after the storm this morning, 25 July 2024 with Our Blessed Virgin’s old statue reminding us of her motherly care.
Finally, we saw the sun at the start of this new day still with some rains and the heavy tasks of cleaning and clearing the debris left by the floods. Will we ever learn to respect nature which is actually an expression of our respect for each other too?
Our prayer after the storm:
Praise and glory to you, God our loving Father! Thank you for this new day, thank you for the gift of life, thank you for guiding us during these stormy days. Bless our doctors and nurses, the selfless volunteers and staffmembers of rescue and emergency units along with our police and military personnel as well as the weathermen who continue to work and serve us today after the storm. Help us to do better in responding to emergencies next time while we finally learn to change our lifestyles in caring for the environment and ultimately, for one another. Let us appreciate each one’s giftedness in Christ Jesus our Lord as we celebrate life in the Holy Spirit today. Amen.
Our Lady of Fatima, Pray for us! St. James the Great, Pray for us!
Photo by author, Fatima Avenue, Marulas, Valenzuela City, 25 July 2024.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday in the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 24 July 2024 Jeremiah 1:1, 4-10 <*((((><< + >><))))*> Matthew 13:1-9
"Ah, Lord God!" I said, "I know not how to speak; I am too young." But the Lord answered me, say not, "I am too young." To whomever I send you, you shall go; whatever I command you, you shall speak (Jeremiah 1:6-7).
I have always heard that expression "age is just a number" without really understanding nor having a grasp of its real meaning until recently after losing my mom and be totally orphaned of our parents; how different it is now to live without our parents and quickly realize time flies so fast indeed because suddenly we are catapulted into that state in life when we are in the very same situations of our parents when we were younger; now I could feel we are never too young nor too old to be called and entrusted by God with a mission in life.
Life indeed is a parable, dear Jesus: You come to us daily whether we are too young or too old to sow your seeds; keep us open to receive You so that we may bear You and share You. Amen.
“The Sower”, a painting by Van Gogh from commons.wikimedia.org.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 23 July 2024
Photo from sunstar.com.ph of that viral incident between a Cebu personality addressed as a “Sir” by a waiter in a mall last Sunday.
It is a classic case of “brouhaha” in the real sense, especially if we consider our Tagalog word buruha or bruha: a waiter was told to stand for more than an hour to be “lectured” on gender sensitivity by a Cebu personality belonging to the LGBTQ community after being addressed as a “Sir”.
Well, at least, the issue had been settled amicably with an apology by the celebrity after a deluge of negative reactions from netizens. Likewise, we can now sigh with some relief that there are no plans among the LGBTQ community to imitate their sistah from the Queen City of Cebu, proof that there are more sane and kind LGBTQ who have better things to do than make a big fuss about themselves or the rainbow. Imagine if every LGBTQ will lecture everyone of us just on how to address them in Metro Manila alone, life would be disrupted and paralyzed, worst than what we went through during the lockdowns during COVID-19!
But kidding aside, what makes that incident disturbingly sad is how it had shown again the sad plight of the poor in our country. Bawal maging mahirap, maging dukha sa Pilipinas. So sad. Even in the church it is very true. We do not have to look far to see how this is so true among us. Kawawa palagi ang mga maliliit.
How do we treat our house helpers and drivers, delivery personnel, janitors and janitresses, even professionals doing not so glamorous tasks like nurses. And security guards, of course. (Kudos to our alma mater, the Faculty of Arts and Letters of UST who had their security personnel joined the march of their recent graduates!)
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, 2018.
The very sight of a waiter standing in front of a customer immediately caught my attention while scrolling my Facebook, asking myself, “what happened?” Gut feelings told me something was very wrong and surely, the guy must have been so disadvantaged.
For addressing that celebrity customer as “sir”, the waiter had to endure the humiliation of standing before him like in a trial. Even if it was just between the two of them. Even if he did not scream or yell at the waiter. What’s the big deal? Iyon lang?
His ego, his femininity more valuable than the very person of the waiter? It is the new pandemic among us spreading these last 20 years. The malady of entitlement, of never making the mortal sin to address some people as Doctor or Attorney or even Father. We have lost touched with our humanity, our being a human being, a person, a tao first of all.
Good thing there was a good soul around that mall who came to the waiter’s rescue.
What we have here is a classic case of “exaggeration of truth, exaggeration of self” – a phrase I have found years ago in one of the many writings of Pope Benedict XVI. It was my parting shot to our graduates of Senior High School last July 05, 2024 during our Baccalaureate Mass.
Many times in this age of so many platforms of communications, we tend to exaggerate the truths, of clamoring for so many things like inclusiveness everywhere when in the process, they have actually become so exclusive! Many times, people exaggerate the truth presenting themselves as disadvantaged and victimized when in fact it is far from reality. Many people are advancing so many things these days when in fact they are actually promoting themselves. Many are exaggerating the truths when they are actually exaggerating themselves (https://lordmychef.com/2024/07/10/exaggerating-truth-exaggerating-self/)
The tragedy of our time characterized by affluence and upward mobility so splattered across social media daily, is how so many among us who have lost touch with our humanity. Everything has become a show – a palabas we say in Filipino. We forget that inside – the loob – as more essential.
And what is inside each one of us?
Our dignity as image and likeness of God or pagkatao that is best seen and expressed in our being small, being little like the children, the very core of Jesus Christ’s teaching.
Look outside even in the countryside now invaded by those giant tarpaulins – why have we become like those tarpaulins, thinking and feeling we are larger than others?
Truth in Greek is aletheia that literally means an opening, of not being concealed like the blooming of a flower.
Simply be yourself. And don’t forget everyone as they are.
God bless everyone!
Photo by Dra. Mai B. Dela Pena, MD at Deir Al-Mukhraqa Carmelite Monastery in Isarel, 2014.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday in the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 23 July 2024 Micah 7:14-15, 18-20 <'[[[[>< + ><]]]]'> Matthew 12:46-50
Restore us, O god our savior, and abandon your displeasure against us. Will you be ever angry with us, prolonging your anger to all generations? Will you not instead give us life; and shall not your people rejoice in you? Show us, O Lord, your kindness, and grant us your salvation (Today’s Responsorial Psalm 85:5-8).
It has been raining for almost a week in many parts of the country of the world with images of floods everywhere, many are perennial ones but many are so unusual and unheard of; everybody is complaining, everybody is blaming everyone for the disaster except one's self.
That is why I love the psalmist's prayer today: "Restore us, O God our savior"; it has so many meanings and applications so relevant these days of rains and floods - repair and renovate the many roads and homes destroyed; but most of all, bring us back to You, O God; let us return to You by finding each one a family as Jesus taught us in today's gospel, "For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother" (Matthew 12:50).
Like the remnants of Israel the Prophet Micah spoke of in the first reading, keep me faithful, standing before You, O Lord in these trying times of natural and human disasters. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday, Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, 22 July 2024 Song of Songs 3:1-4 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> John 20:1-2, 11-18
“The Appearance of Christ to Mary Magdalene” painting by Alexander Ivanov (1834-1836) at the Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia from commons.wikimedia.org.
We rejoice today, Lord Jesus, for this most wondrous Feast of your friend St. Mary Magdalene: in her we find hope and joy that like her, we who are sinners are assured of a grace-filled future, of a trustworthy friend in You, and abounding love and mercy also in You.
We are, dear Jesus,
the modern Mary Magdalene:
sinful and worldly,
perhaps so vain with our
outside appearance and bearing
in public, sometimes on the brink
of giving up in life because nobody seem
to care at all for us;
many times like Mary Magdalene,
we walk alone in darkness
searching for You, Lord Jesus;
many times we wonder too
how we could move the huge
and heavy stone of past sins,
weaknesses and failures,
addictions and vices
that cover us and prevent us
from moving forward, finding You;
many times, O Lord,
we mistake You for somebody else
like Mary Magdalene when she mistook
You to be the gardener at the tomb
because we are so preoccupied
of many things in life.
But, You assure us today
on this Feast of St. Mary Magdalene
our fears and assumptions are not
true at all; help us to stop clinging
to our many past for You are not there,
Jesus; You are always in the here and now,
in the present moment, personally calling us
in our name like Mary!
The Bride says: On my bed at night I sought him whom my heart loves – I sought him but I did not find him. I will rise then and go about the city; in the streets and crossings I will seek him whom my heart loves. I sought him but I did not find him. The watchmen came upon me as they made their rounds of the city. Have you seen him whom my heart loves? I have hardly left them when I found him whom my heart loves (Song of Songs 3:1-4).
Like that lover, the Bride in the first reading, we are Mary Magdalene in search of love and meaning in this world; in search of You, Jesus, our Lord and Savior; so often, we seek You in this world, in its loud noise of too much self bragging as well as in the midst of the world's riches and powers; the more we seek You, the more elusive You have become until You came when like Mary Magdalene we have believed in You, we have listened to You. we have become silent and attentive to You, Lord Jesus; thank You for coming, thank You for finding me, thank You for calling me like Mary to proclaim You are risen to others who believe in You, searching You, waiting for You. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 21 July 2024
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD, Infanta, Quezon, 2020.
We’re back on this lazy but blessed Sunday when our gospel is about rest, “Jesus said to his apostles, ‘Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while'” (Mk. 6:31).
And we thank God for the gift of music that is the easiest, most affordable and most rewarding manner of rest for us next to prayer and the Mass. Most of all, see that every song, every musical piece is always about love who is God Himself!
For this Sunday, we go back to 1977 with Roberta Flack’s romantic ballad The Closer I Get to You that is more than a song of love but a story of love in itself.
According to Ms. Flack, it was her manager David Franklin’s idea that she record a duet of that song with her college friend Donny Hathaway who was then suffering with clinical depression. Both have worked together earlier in several duets. As a way of helping her friend get over his depression, the song was re-written while Ms. Flack had to make a lot of sacrifices in recording and shuttling between New York City and Chicago where Hathaway was confined to a hospital and had refused to travel.
Hathaway never recovered from his depression and eventually died a few years after the release of their duet in 1978 that became an instant hit, earning praises and had them nominated for Grammy the following year.
Ms. Flack said in an interview that their duet would always be her dedication to Hathaway as she donated all the money earned from that song to Hathaway’s widow and two children.
As we have mentioned in our homily today, rest is getting closer with God and the closer we get to Him, the closer we get with others. That is why Jesus was moved with pity to the vast crowds who have followed them to a deserted place to rest: His oneness with the Father moved Him closer to people especially the poor and the suffering. And that is why we find The Closer I Get to You perfect with our gospel this Sunday: the more we get closer with Jesus, the more we get closer with our family and friends and those in need.
The closer I get to you The more you make me see By giving me all you've got Your love has captured me
I love that first stanza of The Closer I Get to You; it says the very essence of the song which is a gospel in itself. It reminds us of St. John’s first letter when he wrote, “No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us” (1Jn.4:12).
The more we get closer with anyone, the more we love, because the more our eyes are opened to see others to love. And God becomes more present among us!
It’s a Sunday, go celebrate the Mass and enjoy some beautiful music to remind us of God’s presence among us. Here now is The Close I Get To You…
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, 21 July 2024 Jeremiah 23:1-6 ><}}}}*> Ephesians 2:13-18 ><}}}}*> Mark 6:30-34
Photo by author, Katmon Nature Sanctuary &Beach Resort, Infanta, Quezon March 2023.
After being sent“two by two” last Sunday, the Apostles now return to Jesus, reporting “all they had done and taught.” What a beautiful gospel scene this Sunday, supposed to be our day of rest that begins in God and must be rooted in God.
The apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat. So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place (Mark 6:30-32).
Last Sunday we were reminded to rediscover the family and friends sent with us “two by two” in this life while today the Lord wants us to be aware of our need to rest in order to rediscover Him first of all, then one’s self and others.
Unfortunately, many people today have entirely forgotten the meaning and importance of rest that we succumb to all kinds of sickness related with stress and fatigue. In fact, Filipino workers were recently ranked as the second worst in terms of work-life balance in a worldwide survey. One factor it cited is the lesser paid vacation leaves our workers have compared with their counterparts in other countries.
Photo by author, Sonnenberg Resort, Davao City, 2017.
Rest is not only stopping from work to be recharged like cellphone batteries; we are not things like robots and drones sent out simply for a task that once achieved, no more. We are inter-related persons meant to form bonds and unity, a family and a community. That is the result of our being sent on a mission to share God’s creative works leading to our union in Him with others.
God rested and made Sabbath holy after creation because He had completed all His works that were all good; we, on the other hand, merely participate in His creative works. That is why no matter how hard we push ourselves with our work, we can’t completely finish them as more things to do come along the way, making us bored or stressed out because we could no longer find life but simply routine. We have been so focused on accomplishing many things as if we are the savior of the world (messianic complex) that we feel so important, bloating our ego. That is when we start literally throwing our weight to those around us like in those reels of road rage. The sad part of this is how we eventually hurt the people we love and supposed to serve like the shepherds of the Old Testament that God through Jeremiah had accused to have “misled and scattered” the people of Israel (Jer.23:1).
Photo by author, border between Jordan and Israel, May 2019.
Today, Jesus is inviting us to “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while (Mk.6:31)” to remind us that in everything we do in this life, what matters most is not the task but us, the persons we love and care for, and Christ who is our only fulfillment in life.
Like the apostles, we have to return to Jesus precisely because our mission, our work is not ours but Christ’s. We need to return to Jesus every Sunday in the Eucharist when we are nourished by His words and strengthened by His Body and Blood to sustain us in our mission.
Rest is neither doing nothing like sleeping all day or doing anything we like that we forget God and in the process, our very self and others. Rest is a time of conversion when we lay aside our plans and agenda by returning to God so that we could have focus again in this life. Rest is actually to be filled with God, to be holy.
This we find expressed perfectly in our Filipino word for rest which is pahinga from the root hinga or breath that is spiritus in Latin. To rest in Filipino is mag-pa-hinga that literally means hingahan, to be breathed on. Genesis tells us how God breathed on man to be alive after creating him while in John’s Gospel we find Jesus breathed on His apostles after greeting them with peace twice on the night of Easter when He appeared to them at the Upper Room. From here we get that beautiful imagery of rest as being breathed on by God – mag-pa-hinga sa Diyos – which is to be closer with God!
Here now is the challenge and best part of the good news this Sunday: the more closer we get to God in Jesus and through Jesus especially on Sunday our day of rest, the more we must get closer with others. The more we pray, the more we rest in the Lord, the more we serve, the more we love.
Mark told us how Jesus invited the Twelve to “come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while” but the people saw them and even got earlier to the other side of the lake!
When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd and he began to teach them many things (Mark 6:34).
Photo by author in the Holy Land, 2019.
Rest is more than the amount of time spent “resting” but the disposition to be with the Lord, to be one with Him that we become holy like Him. That moment when Jesus led the Twelve to rest was already a “rest” for Him that resulted in serving more the people who have followed them.
Jesus being moved with pity for the people indicated His rest and communion with the Father expressed in His oneness with the suffering people who were like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus has always been one with the Father right from the very start until His death on the Cross where He declared “It is finished” and commended His total self to the Father.
The truest sense of us having a real rest, of getting closer with God is when we get closer with others especially those entrusted to our love and care like our loved ones and those who are poor and sick.
Problem these days among us priests including laypeople is our wrong idea about rest; we do not really rest at all but simply indulge in pleasures that are many times scandalous for being godless and unmindful of other people. True rest makes our hearts natural to be aware of the sufferings of others, to be one with them or at least take their plight into consideration in our rest.
We can only say “mission accomplished” to rest when we are one with God through others that St. Paul explains in the second reading at how Jesus Christ reconciled us all through the Cross, “putting an enmity to death by it” (Eph. 2:16). Next Sunday, this we shall see when after teaching and healing the people in that deserted place, Jesus would feed the crowd of over 5000 people from just a few loaves of bread and pieces of fish.
Let us rest in the Lord to prepare our hearts and souls as well as our tired body to be filled with God so we can fill others too with Him. Let us pray:
Lord Jesus Christ, we live in a highly competitive world of 24/7 wherein everyone is so busy that we forget You and the persons You have entrusted to us; remind us we are not the Messiah nor a superhero to save the world; we can only do as much in this life as God had accomplished all for us in You, the Christ; let us take two or three even five steps backwards to let You, Jesus, do your work in us. Amen.
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