The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, 14 July 2024
Amos 7:12-15 ><}}}*> Ephesians 1:3-24 ><}}}*> Mark 6:7-13

It is always easy to spot any flight back to Manila if you happen to travel abroad by searching for for a long line of passengers with so much luggage, including giant boxes of pasalubong. No doubt about it, surely those are Filipinos going home.

We Filipinos are so notorious in having so many bibit whenever we travel here and abroad. Perhaps, it is an indication of our common affliction with excess emotional baggage which the 2014 movie That Thing Called Tadhana beautifully explored and now our gospel this Sunday also tells a lot about travelling in Christ, with Christ:

Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits.  He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick – no food, no sack, no money in their belts.  They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic (Mark 6:7-9).

We have been “travelling” with Jesus these past weeks with the Evangelist Mark as our guide. We have heard His teachings, been amazed at His powers that calmed the storm in the sea and healed the sick, and deeply touched by His perseverance amid the failure when rejected in His native Nazareth last Sunday. 

Today and next Sunday, Mark would reveal to us more of the mystery of who Jesus Christ is as He sent forth His disciples to preach His Good News of salvation. We in the present time are all disciples of Jesus too who are sent to continue not only His work of salvation but also of revealing Himself, His love, mercy and compassion.

In giving the instruction “to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick- no food, no sack, no money in belts,” Jesus is not asking us to turn away from the material world but simply for us to examine the spirit and values that have imbued us as a person. 

We are in the world but not of the world. We need money, cellphones, cars, and other things but we don’t need to be enslaved by these that they become our master or even gods! 

Disciples need not be denied of the basic necessities of life symbolized by the “sandals, tunic, and a walking stick” but we must be aware always of “extra  baggage” lest we forget the essence of the mission – Jesus Himself and the people. St. Mother Teresa used to tell priests to “give us only Jesus, always Jesus” whom we must always have and share. Jesus comes to us daily in our prayers and the sacraments and most especially with the people we live and work with.

In sending the disciples “two by two”, Jesus gives us the gift of one another, of companions in the ministry, a co-journeyer and co-worker in Him because as He had said, “where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst.” Therefore, in sending His disciples two by two, Jesus tells us that He is in fact the very gift we have to share in our mission. Every disciple is the sign Christ’s presence.

Likewise, every person who comes to our lives is always a gift from God; we just have to discover his or her giftedness in becoming a presence of Christ with us and in us so that with them and through them, we are able to reveal Him too. 

We discover that giftedness through our daily breaking and giving of our selves with others. Actually, the literal meaning of the word “companion” is “someone you break bread” from the two Latin words cum panis. Next month, we shall hear Jesus revealing Himself as the bread from heaven, the living bread.

Inasmuch as each of us is a presence of the Christ, then truly the Lord is the greatest gift, the most precious One we all have in this life. But, the question is, do we value Christ and the people He sends us more than our gadgets and things?

Can we not leave our phones in our bags or pockets during meals to enjoy the company of others? Can we spend a whole rainy afternoon with a loved one just smiling, holding hands or simply being together instead of tinkering or even cuddling that iPad or laptop?

This intimacy we have with our loved ones, with our companions in life and ministry is ultimately a reflection too of our communion with Jesus Christ.  As disciples of the Lord, we always act in the name of Jesus, in His authority only if we are truly one with Him, in Him and through Him.

How sad many people these days complain of their priests not available when they need them. There are some priests who insist on just sticking to whatever time is most convenient with them regardless of the needs of the people like early morning funerals? Or, scheduled sick calls? What a shame when priests and bishops prioritize the rich and famous, rubbing elbows with them daily as seen on social media. The tragedy in the ministry these days is how we have veered so far from Christ our Eternal Priest found among the poor and marginalized as we have alibis and reasons as well as justifications for everything except loving service to all.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.  In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ in accord with the favor of his will… In him we have redemption by his blood (Ephesians 1:3-5,7).

How solid is the theology of St. Paul laced with his lovely poetry and prose, truly a fruit of his deep spirituality. Following the expressions of in Christ, in him, and through Jesus Christ, we find St. Paul presenting to us the intimacy we all have in Jesus patterned after His very communion with the Father. 

Everything that Jesus said and performed are rooted in His intimate union with the Father which is the very authority He had given us that must be exercised in His name alone and never for our own advantage.  It is only from such intimacy with Christ can we have that thing called “spirituality”, the real mark of the work of God in our midst.  Being prayerful does not make a person spiritual though prayer is a prerequisite to spirituality.

Like St. Paul in the Old Testament, we find Amos in the first reading providing us with a glimpse of what is to be spiritual, of acting in the name of God as a prophet when he was told to leave Bethel to go back home in Judah “to earn his bread by prophesying” and Amos answered Amaziah, “I was no prophet… I was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores. The Lord took me from following the flock, and said to me:  Go, prophecy to my people Israel (Amos 7:14,15).”

Amos was “taken” by God, plucked from a comfortable life to become the presence of God in Israel that had become so prosperous yet so evil.  This Sunday, Amos is telling us that as a prophet, he speaks more from the inside than from the outside, of his very union with God.  He had nothing except God who had taken him. 

This is perhaps the problem with us Catholics today, starting with us your priests and bishops: we speak more of the extrinsic than of what’s or who’s really inside our hearts that in the process, we have replaced our ministry with career, making programs and second collections and bloated egos superseding the persons we must serve.  Worst of all is when all we have and give are activities that we forget the fact that Jesus saved us by dying on the cross, of being one with the Father and with the people.

More than being His representatives, we are in Christ that whatever we do and say is always the fruit of our intimate union with Him through others.  We say and do nothing separately from Him, even in the midst of all these technologies and activities around us today.  Let us rediscover our companions in life, the ones given and sent with us by Jesus. Let us pray:

Dearest Lord Jesus Christ,
let me go of my baggage
and possessions that posses me;
let me go wherever You send me
and let me go with the people 
You send me with;
help me to empty my heart
of my self,
of my pride,
of other things
so that You may dwell inside me
and find You always
in the people You send me
to serve and to work with.
Amen.

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Memorial of St. Benedict, Abbott, 11 July 2024
Hosea 11:1-4, 8-9     <*[[[[><  +  ><]]]]*>     Matthew 10:7-15

Jesus said to his Apostles: “As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give” (Matthew 10:7-8).

God our loving Father:
thank you for the gift of our hands
that are a gospel in themselves;
Your Son Jesus Christ said it again today
to each of us to make this proclamation
that "the kingdom of heaven is at hand";
hands are so essential for us 
to do so many things 
that they mean
so many things too - 
it is a microcosm of our very selves
that it is why we offer our hands 
to meet new friends,
to seal a deal,
to accept a peace offer;
we use our hands to touch
others literally and figuratively
speaking to ensure them of our
love; it is with our hands that 
we can hold and grasp other
hands for love and support,
help and assistance;
to proclaim your kingdom of heaven
is at hand is to make it present,
to make it nearer
like our hands
touching, 
caressing,
holding especially those
in need.

Thus says the Lord: When Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the farther they went from me… Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, who took them in my arms; I drew them with human cords, with bands of love; I fostered them like one who raises an infant to his cheeks; yet, though I stooped to feed my child, they did not know that I was their healer (Hosea 11:1-2, 4).

Forgive us, Father,
when we use our hands
to hurt others
the way we have turned away
from You,
when we have disregarded
the loving gestures of your hands
like teaching us to walk,
raising us to your cheeks,
and feeding us your children;
forgive us
when we refused to reach out
to your hands in Jesus Christ
offering His outstretched arms
 with hands wide open
with mercy and forgiveness.

On this Memorial
of your great Saint Benedict
whose rule was "Ora et Labora",
let us put our hands into
their most noble and divine
usage of praying and working.
Amen.