To err is human, to forgive, divine.

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 13 September 2026
Sirach 27:30-28:7 ><}}}}*> Romans 14:7-9 ><}}}}*> Matthew 18:21-35

*Photo by a friend in Seabrook, Washington, 06 September 2026.*

You must have heard that quote so often, “To err is human, to forgive is divine” from the English writer Alexander Pope’s 1711 poem An Essay on Criticism where he originally wrote “To err is human, to forgive, divine.”

For many it has become a cliche because it is so difficult to forgive. Especially if it has to be done repeatedly. It is among the hardest teachings of Jesus Christ along with the love of enemies, of doing good to those who hate us, and lending without expecting anything back.

In a sense, forgiving is the twin teaching of fraternal correction which Jesus taught us last Sunday; the more difficult it becomes when the wrong done is against us that we feel much like Peter in asking Jesus how many times must we forgive:

Peter approached Jesus and asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not even seven times but seventy-seven times (Matthew 18:21-22).

NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 11, 2001: (SEPTEMBER 11 RETROSPECTIVE) Smoke pours from the twin towers of the World Trade Center after they were hit by two hijacked airliners in a terrorist attack September 11, 2001 in New York City. (Photo by Robert Giroux/Getty Images)

Like fraternal correction, forgiving is a major concern in this modern time when the means and forms of evil have become sophisticated like terrorism and online scams that unfortunately happen not only on the world stage but right into our personal lives and relationships too.

We have all experienced being pushed to the limits as our patience is exhausted when a beloved is the one sinning against us that is both unacceptable and most unkind of all especially if the sin is committed repeatedly, prompting us to ask God like Peter how many times must we forgive our brother or sister. The figure “seven times” given by Peter is not the literal number but refers to the very many times we have forgiven somebody to wear out our patience.

What Peter was asking was a freedom from calculation of repeatedly forgiving one who repeatedly sins because that kind of forgiveness does not come naturally to any of us humans. Repeatedly forgiving someone who repeatedly sins is most difficult because it abuses our very person, our being Christian.

And there lies the bigger problem and difficulty about repeatedly forgiving someone who repeatedly sins who most often is dearest to us like your husband or wife, our parents or one of your children or a sibling.

The truth is, inasmuch as we ask like Peter so often how many times we must forgive our loved ones, the crux of the problem in forgiving is actually deep inside our hearts we still love them that we just forgive and forgive them. That is the mystery, the most baffling of all: why do we keep on forgiving somebody who keeps on sinning. Recall St. Paul’s words last Sunday “to owe no one except the debt of love” so that the more we love, we realize we can love like Jesus after all because forgiving is actually the work of God in us, with us, and through us in Christ.

Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount… Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan. When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount… Instead, he had him in prison until he paid back the debt. His master summoned him and said to him, “You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you? Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt. So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart” (Matthew 18:22-24, 27-28, 30, 32-35).

*St. John Paul II meeting and forgiving his assassin Mehmet Agca in prison two years after the failed assassination attempt to his life at St. Peter’s Square, 13 May 1981.*

Jesus explains in his parable that forgiving is actually a work of God, divine in nature as Alexander Pope tells us in his famous line “to err is human, to forgive, divine.”

We forgive because we are forgiven beloved. Jesus grounds this teaching not in willpower but in being like God the master in his parable, “Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?”

Jesus knows us so well as humans, sinful and weak who could not generate forgiveness and mercy out of nothing; it is very clear in his parable that we simply have to let flow towards others something of the forgiveness and mercy we have already received from the Father through him. Ben Sirach stressed this in our first reading, reminding us that our own capacity to receive forgiveness from God is bound up with our willingness to forgive those who have sinned against us.

Worthy of keeping in mind too that Jesus tells at the onset of his parable that forgiving is about the kingdom of heaven, not of this world wherein our debt to God is beyond measure like that servant. While we may argue that we are better than those criminals in jails or those corrupt officials now either sick to stand trial or have fled, it is pointless to compare and “measure” our sins because every sin is not only against another person but to God himself – the Perfect One who is love himself.

When we forgive, that is when we level up our existence, when we live in Christ as St. Paul says in the second reading because our lives belong to God and to one another, not as the world tells us to control our lives and be masters of the universe. It is when we forgive that we are truly a church, a body of believers Jesus founded on Peter in Caesarea Philippi because that is when we live and die in Christ, becoming his vessels of mercy and forgiveness.

Most of all, it is in forgiving that we become truly free as a human, when we break free from the past hurts and grievances that pin us down, preventing us from moving forward in life. When we refuse to forgive those who have wronged us, we actually yield to their power and control. Hence, in all practicality, it is always best to forgive.

But there is something most deep and true about forgiving which clearly manifests our own mortality and rootedness in God who is our origin and end, “Remember your last days, set enmity aside; remember death and decay, and cease from sin!” (Sir. 28:6)

This Sunday, we are reminded to check and be aware of any resentments and anger we may still be carrying as we refuse to forgive lest we end like that unforgiving servant. Take this time to forgive for life is really too short to waste in keeping those grudges. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead!

Angry Jesus, magnanimous Jesus

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Memorial of St. Vincent, Deacon & Martyr, 22 January 2025
Hebrews 7:1-3, 15-17 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Mark 3:1-6

Dearest Jesus:
Your words today are
so difficult;
I cannot imagine 
you angry 
as you looked
at the Pharisees 
"with anger and grieved 
at their hardness 
of heart" (Mark 3:5);
but, as I imagined your face, Lord,
I experienced deep in me 
what made you angry enough
to do something so drastic like healing
the withered hand of a man
on a sabbath:
it was purely love,
it was not anger due to
hate and bitterness
but magnanimity
or generosity despite
and in spite of everything
because you are indeed, 
Jesus our High Priest forever 
according to the order 
of Melchizedek:

Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High… His name first means righteous king, and he was also “king of Salem,” that is, king of peace. Without father, mother, or ancestry, without beginning of days or end of life, thus made to resemble the Son of God, he remains a priest forever (Hebrews 7:1, 2-3).

Let me examine myself
what is it about you, Jesus
 that I am so afraid of you
and made me many times
 like the Pharisees
be so hardened against you;
take away my stony heart,
dear Jesus and give me a
natural heart that beats with
firm faith, fervent hope,
and unceasing love and charity
for others especially those
in need and
those lost.

Like your deacon
and martyr St. Vincent,
the first martyr of Spain,
fill me Jesus with your peace
and tranquility
to bear all sufferings that
his jailer repented
and was converted;
make me magnanimous,
Jesus, like you
especially in this time
when losers refuse
to accept defeat
that they insist on their
wrongful ways
due to hardened hearts.
Amen.

*Photo by author, Sakura Park, Atok, Benguet, 27 December 2024.*

When “indignation” seize us

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday in the Thirty-third Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 20 November 2023
1 Maccabees 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63 <*(((>< + ><)))*> Luke 18:35-43

*Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD, at Tagalag, Valenzuela City, 18 November 2023.*

God our loving Father
I feel so much like your psalmist today,
asking you to "Give me life,
O Lord, and I will do your commands."

I have been praying for this for 
sometime with the abuses 
and abominations among us priests,
of how like in the first readings
many of us have turned away from you,
worshipping money and self,
usurping your sacred altar as ours
with all of our grandstanding and inanities,
of how we have become 
beholden to the rich and powerful
always present in all their functions
at the expense of the poor,
always seeking the ways of the world
as influencers than ministers
and pastors shamelessly splashed
all over social media.

Indignation seizes me because of the wicked who forsake your law. Though the snares of the wicked are twined about me your law I have not forgotten. Redeem me from the oppression of men, that I may keep your precepts. I beheld the apostates with loathing, because they kept not your promise.
Psalm 119:53, 61, 134, 158

I have no claims to holiness
nor cleanliness except I strive
to follow your Son Jesus;
and many times, amid my 
indignation at the abuses and
abominations done to our sacred 
duties even by those supposed to
lead us, I never fail to see myself
as the blind man at Jericho,
possibly blinded by my sins
and imperfections;
like him, dear Jesus,
I pray and beg you,
"Lord, please let me see"
(Luke 18:41).

Lord, please let me see
not only the things that make
me indignant;
let me also see you most
importantly:
your gentle mercy
amid your strong conviction
against sin and evil,
your wisdom in confronting
errors and misinterpretations,
your peace and serenity
in the middle of storms
and adversaries.

Let me go against the tide,
and be my guide.
Amen.

Anger & Prayer

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Week XXVII, Year I in Ordinary Time, 06 October 2021
Jonah 4:1-11 ><)))*> + ><)))'> + ><)))*> Luke 11:1-4

Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry that God did not carry out the evil he threatened against Nineveh. He prayed, “I beseech you, Lord, is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I fled at first to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, rich in clemency, loathe to punish. And now, Lord, please take my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.”
Jonah 4:1-3

O God, our loving Father!
How I love your prophet Jonah
for many times, I am so like him!
Do I really have a reason 
to be angry with you,
when I knew very well 
how your kindness and mercy
would always prevail over people
I think deserve your wrath and
punishment?  How many times I felt
my judgment better than yours but,
like Jonah, I let your will prevail and then,
I complain.  Have mercy on me, Lord!

“I have reason to be angry,” Jonah answered, “angry enough to die.” Then the Lord said, “You are concerned over the plant which cost you no labor and which you did not raise; it came up in one night and in one night it perished. And should I not be concerned over Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than and hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot distinguish their right hand from their left, not to mention the many cattle?”
Jonah 4:9-11

Now, you can no longer hide from me
your laughter, O God, to my folly of
being angry with you over simple things
I have no total control at all when I refuse
to do something on things I am capable
of affecting and changing for good 
like caring for people and persons 
more important above all. 
Like Jonah, I can see my problem
with anger lies deep within me when
I cannot accept that I am wrong,
that should have listened and followed you.

Teach me to tame my anger,
teach me to pray through your Son
Jesus Christ who taught us to call you
"Father" so I may learn to entrust 
myself to you fully and let go of the
many angers within that drive me to errors.

How lovely it is to contemplate the
sight of you, Lord Jesus at prayer:  so
peaceful and gentle, stable and sure 
in the Father that prompted your disciples
to ask you to teach them how to pray. 

Teach me to pray, loving Jesus,
to cleanse myself of impurities that
drive me to anger and hate so I may be 
filled with your Holy Spirit; like St. Bruno 
who founded the strictest order of
contemplative men - the Carthusians - 
may "I seek God assiduously, 
to find God promptly,
and to possess God fully".  Amen.

Praying to control anger

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 08 March 2021
Monday, Third Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John of God
2 Kings 5:1-15     ><}}}*>  +  <*{{{><     Luke 4:24-30

Photo by author, NLEX in Pampanga, January 2021.

Yesterday in the gospel you were angry, Lord Jesus, when people turned the temple into a marketplace that made you drove them away along with their animals and doves being sold, scattering the coins of money changers who have set up shops in your Father’s house.

Today we find in our readings some people getting angry and we hope to learn some lessons from you regarding this misunderstood emotion in this season of Lent.

First to get angry was King Joram of Israel when he received a letter of recommendation from the Aramean king seeking a cure for Gen. Naaman’s leprosy.

When he read the letter, the king of Israel tore his garments and exclaimed: “Am I a god with power over life and death, that this man would send someone to me to be cured of leprosy? Take note! You can see he is only looking for a quarrel with me!”
2 Kings 5:7

So many times, we burst into anger not really of a present situation before us but of things that happened in the past or worst, things that are mere imaginations or suppositions we have in our minds like King Joram of Israel. Teach us to be open with the present situation before us; make us understand what is being asked of us. Disarm us of our mistrusts and suspicions of others as if people are always seeking a fight with us (when in fact we are the ones who are quarrelsome like the king of Israel).

Then, there was also the famous Syrian general Naaman who got angry when Prophet Elisha did not come out to meet him, feeling being “snubbed” despite his stature:

Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. The prophet sent him the message: “Go and wash seven times in Jordan, and your flesh will heal, and you will be clean. But Naaman went away angry, saying, “I thought that he would surely come out and stand there to invoke the Lord his God, and would move his hand over the spot, and thus cure the leprosy.”
2 Kings 5:9-11

Much ado about nothing! So often we are like Naaman getting angry more because of pride, of expecting so much from others on how we should be treated with importance.

Forgive us for our fits of anger just because we felt not treated with honor, forgetting the more essential things we need in life like healing than massaging our ego. There are times, Lord, we get angry when we do not get what we expect or demand from others. Teach us openness and humility too. Make us learn to be discerning on the more essential things in life like you, O Lord, the one who truly heals and blesses us!

And lastly, in the gospel we find the people getting angry with you, dear Jesus because you spoke the truth.

When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong.
Luke 4:28-29

Anger is an emotion that must be released positively like with what you did at the cleansing of the temple, Jesus.

Most of the time, the devil rides on our anger to lead us into sin, even to grave sins like murder or slander because we are “hurt” by truth like those people listening to you at the synagogue. They could not handle the hard truth about their pride and bloated egos that they wanted to kill you after telling them of their lack of faith in God.

Help us get to the roots of our anger, to accept who we are so we may not be overcome by anger and thereby not sin that much anymore.

Let us control our anger and not let anger control us. Amen.

The golden calves among us

40 Shades of Lent, Thursday, Week IV, 26 March 2020

***Exodus 32:7-14* ><)))> +++ <(((>< *John 5:31-47***

Like you, O God in the first reading today, we are all angry. We are so mad with our so-called leaders and officials in government. We are angry at their arrogance and total disregard of others especially in this time of global crisis due to COVID-19.

Like you, O God, we also seeth with anger when you at Sinai saw how the Israelites created a golden calf to worship, after you have brought them out from Egypt. We admit our sinfulness and guilt before you in having our own we golden calves like power, money, and fame among many others.

But what we are so mad, O God, is how these leaders and officials in government – whether elected or appointed – have made themselves the golden calves to be served and worshipped by everyone.

They are the golden calves themselves who have brought shame and dishonor to our nation.

They do exactly what your Son and our Savior Jesus Christ had taught us that whoever wants to be great must be the least and servant of all.

But they are certainly not. They have shamelessly acted foolish and selfish since this pandemic started.

Forgive us, too, merciful Father, for our many sins, for being deluded by these many other golden calves in our midst, in the government.

The words of your Son Jesus Christ today are so true:

“I do not accept human praise; moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you. I came in the name of my Father, but you do not accept me; yet if another comes in his own name, you will accept him.”
John 5:41-43

Like you, O God, we are angry at them, at how things are going on.

But like you, O God, let us relent in wishing ill for these misguided leaders whom your misguided people have put in power too.

Like you, O God, let us temper with mercy and charity our feelings and emotions against them.

Most of all, make us truly wiser in the next elections! Amen.

The grudges that fester within us

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Thursday, Passion of John the Baptist, 29 August 2019

Jeremiah 1:17-19 ><}}}> ><}}}> ><}}}> Mark 6:17-29*

Today, O Lord, I pray for my hardening heart. I have a festering anger deep in my heart against some people who have hurt me. And I am harboring a grudge against them like Herodias, the mistress of Herod.

Herodias harbored a grudge against John the Baptist and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so. She had an opportunity one day when Herod, on his birthday, gave a banquet for is courtiers, his military officers, and the leading men of Galilee. Herodias’s own daughter came in and performed a dance that delighted Herod and his guests. The king said to the girl, “Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you.” So she went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” She replied, “The head of John the Baptist.”
Mark 6:19, 21-22, 24

What is so shameful, O Lord, like Herodias, I want to have the heads of those people. I want to get even with the pains they have inflicted against me. I want revenge.

But more shameful, Lord Jesus, is, unlike Herodias, I have not done anything wrong against these people. And no amount of pain can justify my grudge, my anger, my hatred against them.

This is what makes it more painful with me: the festering anger in my heart is slowly poisoning my soul, my very being.

Teach me, Jesus, to bear all pains like John the Baptist, suffering for you, suffering with you.

Give me the courage and strength to “gird my loin” as you told the Prophet Jeremiah so I may be able to control myself and be on guard against becoming like Herodias or, worst, Herod, who beheaded John in prison.

Let me rise above my instincts and feelings to be not like the evil doers and fake people who fight and malign me because you have assured me that they will never prevail over me, that you will deliver me for you are always with me. Amen.