Tag: Easter

We the Church, an image of the Holy Spirit

The Lord Is My Chef Easter Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Pentecost Sunday-B, 19 May 2024
Acts 2:1-11 ><]]]]'> Galatians 5:16-25 ><]]]]'> John 15:26-27, 16:12-15
Illustration from istockphoto.com.

Blessed happy birthday to everyone this Pentecost Sunday, the “birthday” or official coming out party of the Church! In the Ascension of Jesus last Sunday, we have an upward movement that was a “leveling up” in our relationships with God and one another, calling us to be light to rise.

Today’s Pentecost Sunday is opposite, a downward move that “presses” us to “spread” like in compressing a sandwich to make it wider or bigger, calling us to be small and be “dissolved” so we can be mixed or shared with others.

Sorry for sounding a recipe but that’s how we are all as the kingdom of God here on earth – the Body of Christ we His disciples make up as the Church in the power of the Holy Spirit whose very image is us.

When time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire hose in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

Acts 2:1-4

Pentecost is not just an event in the past but a daily reality calling us to be “dissolved” in ourselves, to be little and small so that we can be one with others to be united in Christ through the Holy Spirit.

Being a Christian is being united, being one in Jesus; remove “Christ” in the word Christian, we are left with the letters -ian that stand for “I-am-nothing”.

That is why we as the Church is the image or icon of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity promised by Jesus to come after His ascension. It is the principle of unity in the Trinity because the Holy Spirit is the love that exists between the Father and the Son. This union between the Father and the Son happens also among us, the community of believers despite our diversities and differences when we allow the Holy Spirit to empower us in our daily dying to ourselves that Jesus likened to the grain of wheat that falls to the ground in order to grow and yield bountiful harvest (Jn. 12:24-26). This is the reason why St. Paul calls us to live in the Spirit in the second reading:

I say, then: live by the Spirit and you will certainly not gratify the desire of the flesh. For the flesh has desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you may not do what you want… Now those who belong to Christ have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit. Let us not be conceited, provoking one another, envious of one another.

Galatians 5:16-17, 24-26

Jesus is inviting us today to go through daily Pentecost by allowing the Holy Spirit to “burn” us with its fire, to dissolve our old selves to become new in Him. It is a process of conversion, of daily dying in our flesh in order to build up His Church.

Here we go back to one of the central theme of Jesus of becoming like a child, becoming small which is true greatness because that is when we no longer live but Christ in us as St. Paul experienced. Today he tells us some of the works of our old self we must turn away from like “immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like” (Gal. 5:19-21).

See how all his examples lead to disunity and divisions instead of unity that is happening today. Some people call for inclusivity but the opposite happens as we get divided so sharply that anyone who opposes them is accused of “gaslighting” or worst, end up being “cancelled”! So sad that some people are exaggerating truth when in fact they are exaggerating themselves as new standards of truth, insisting themselves and their beliefs on us.

Why change the rules of grammar or beauty pageants or genders just because they are different? Worst, they want to change even religious feasts like Santacruzan or the praying of the Our Father! Where is the unity in diversity if there is one group insisting on themselves? What happens is a repeat of the Tower of Babel, not of the Pentecost.

Losing ourselves in the Holy Spirit does not hinder our search for truth. The Holy Spirit actually leads us to the whole truth of Jesus revealed in His coming but He is too big to be grasped wholly that He continues to unfold, telling us we can only arrive at truth when we think in Him, with Him, and through Him in the Holy Spirit.

“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak wht he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.”

John 16:12-15

The key here is being small, being dissolved in the Holy Spirit to see the larger whole who is Jesus Christ found in the face of every person next to us. See how we find in the first reading the reality of the Church starting out big right away as “catholic” or universal when it began on Pentecost speaking all the languages of the world, uniting the peoples as one in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Stained glass of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove as background of the Chair of St. Peter in the Vatican in Rome; photo from wikipedia.

The Church never started small like a club spreading into federations to become one. We become a part of that big reality of the Church in Christ by becoming small, by being dissolved by the fire of the Holy Spirit by letting go of our selfish selves.

The Holy Spirit continues to come down to us in daily Pentecost explaining and revealing to us the truth of Jesus through the many events iand persons in our lives. When my mother was still alive, she was the only reason why I came home; but, after she had left us peacefully last week, I have realized I still have to come home for my family and relatives and friends. It is a process of dying in myself amid the pain of seeing her room empty, that she is gone.

Death, like the ascension of Jesus is not about replacing those who have left us but a Pentecost, of allowing the Spirit to come to make us smaller, to be one with those still with us to continue celebrating life. That is when we experience the “fruit of Spirit” like “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23). When that happens, then we have the Church as well as our own family as an image and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Let us pray: 

Lord Jesus Christ,
make us aware of
the coming of the Holy Spirit
to us in our daily Pentecost;
keep us open and humble,
dissolve our selfishness,
our pride, our "flesh"
so that we may live in
the Holy Spirit
as the Church,
its very image
here on earth.
Amen. 
Have a Spirit-filled week ahead!

Perverting the truth

The Lord Is My Chef Easter Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Memorial of St. Isidore Labrador, Farmer, 15 May 2024
Acts 20:28-38     <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*>     John 17:11-19
Photo by Ms. Ria De Vera, one summer morning during COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.
Lord Jesus Christ,
"the truth, the way 
and the life",
today I pray to You
for more strength and 
perseverance in working in
Your vineyard,
in caring for Your flock;
You and St. Paul have rightly
warned us of the coming time -
which is today, 
in this time of ours -
when "savage wolves will come
among you, and they will not spare
the flock. And from your own
group, men will come forward
perverting the truth to draw the
disciples away after them"
(Acts 20:29-30).
So true, Lord Jesus,
when those among us,
supposed to be fellow disciples 
are "perverting the truth" 
which is more than creating
and spreading lies and falsehoods
but most of all are allowing evil
and sin to continue and prosper
in the name of mercy and consolation
to others, in the pretext of openness
and understanding in all aspects of
our faith and teachings, from simple
deviations in liturgical norms and
rubrics to relativism in morals.
Help us recover our 
"consecration to truth" 
You have made after Your Last Supper
by being faithful to Your words,
Lord Jesus Christ through the
centering of our lives to You
in the Eucharist like
Saint Isidore Labrador.
Amen.
Photo of painting of St. Isidore with wife St. Mary Torribia with angels helping them in their farming. From MyCatholicLife.com.

Replacing the Judas Iscariots among us

The Lord Is My Chef Easter Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle, 14 May 2024
Acts 1:15-17, 20-26   ><)))'>  +  <'(((><   John 15:9-17
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
Dearest Jesus,
please pardon me
in telling You
how it saddens me 
when I hear of so many
stories of Judas Iscariots
among us especially
in our ministry;
why You chose
and called them is a total mystery,
and I am so sorry
how they came out to be;
I have no claims to
holiness nor being perfect
but I thank You, Jesus,
for this feast of St. Matthias
whom You have called
to replace Judas Iscariot
to show us how much You
love us, most of all,
believe in us and 
trust us even if You know
so well we could be unfaithful
to You and Your call like
Judas Iscariot.
I pray, therefore, O Lord, 
for the gift to be faithful always
to Your call,
to fully participate in Your choices,
in Your choosing me
to Your mission
despite my sins
and weaknesses;
let me keep in mind
and heart it was You
who chose me
and not me who chose You:

“It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.”

John 15:16
How lovely,
O sweet Jesus,
to find in St. Matthias
Your choice to replace 
Judas Iscariot, a reminder from
You of that fact that while
there is no lack of unworthy 
and traitorous Christians 
everywhere like unfaithful spouses,
corrupt officials,
callous and self-centered priests
and bishops,
You still call each of us to
counterbalance the
evils they have done
with our faithful witnessing
to You, 
our Eternal Priest,
Lord and Savior.
Like St. Matthias,
let us value Your call, Jesus
to continue Your mission
so maligned and destroyed
by the many Judas Iscariots
among us; like St. Matthias,
let us nourish Your choice
by remaining in You, Lord,
by keeping our choices
according to Your
holy will; in making choices 
in this life, help me, Jesus
to be discerning,
to be most prayerful
like the Apostles.

So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this apostolic ministry from which Judas turned away to go to his own place.”

Acts 1:23-24
Lastly,
I pray today on this
feast of St. Matthias
for people having difficulties
praying to finally realize
Your choices for them;
for those afraid to accept
Your choices;
for those who keep looking
for other options
despite Your clear choice for them;
please enlighten their minds
and fill them with courage
and trust in
You, sweet Jesus.
Amen.
Photo by author, Sacred heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.

“You Belong to Me” (1952) by Jo Stafford

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 12 May 2024
With my sisters Bing and Meg in Egypt, part of our Holy Land pilgrimage in 2019.

Since it is a Mother’s Day this Sunday, we are featuring my late mom’s favorite music as far as I can remember, Jo Stafford’s You Belong To Me that was released in 1952. I am not really sure if it was her favorite music in fact or simply one of the few old records (78 RPM) of my dad she kept playing in our Radiowealth phonograph.

I remembered the song very well because of its opening line “See the pyramids along the Nile” she would sing to my dad. Sometimes they would duet as they danced in our large sala. Truth is, it was only recently when I learned its title You Belong To Me courtesy of YouTube.

I was four years old in 1969 and we have moved to a spacious, two storey apartment of Aling Metring in Alibangbang Street, Project 7 when mommy finally had dad’s old stereo phonograph brought to QC from Bulacan along with albums of 45 rpm records with some LP’s and those rare 78’s. That was how I got hooked with music and radio early in childhood. Through my parents.

It was mommy who made an important impact on my tastes for music. During that time, there was record peddler who came to our apartment once a month offering the latest records. Mommy was so kind to have allowed me to choose and buy a record album I was so fascinated with the jacket design and music. She never said anything negative about my choice, that it was the music of the devil. From Santana, I came to love Led Zep, Steely Dan and the rest. Of course, Beatles was a staple during that time at home and in my elder cousins.

Back to her favorite… You Belong To Me.

Early this morning in my room, I saw the many posts of relatives and friends about Mother’s Day. I cried and remembered mommy. My first motherless Mother’s Day. But, I realized, even after mothers have died, we never become motherless. Mothers are like God: they are always present everywhere!

And that is the meaning of Ascension: Jesus did not go to any place but leveled up in His relationships with the Father and us. Ascension is Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father to assert we all belong to Him. That is what Ascension is, our belonging to God and with each other as Jo Stafford said so well:

See the pyramids along the Nile
Watch the sun rise on a tropic isle
Just remember, darling, all the while
You belong to me

See the marketplace in old Algiers
Send me photographs and souvenirs
Just remember when a dream appears
You belong to me

I’ll be so alone without you
Maybe you’ll be lonesome too, and blue

See how every stanza is closed with the line You belong to me, reminding her beloved that no matter wherever he may go, she would still be loving him. So motherly!

Her chorus line speaks well of the Ascension: we’ll be so alone without Jesus who came here to bring us all back to God the Father. Like God, mothers love us her family so much that even in heaven, we still have that invisible umbilical cord connecting us to them.

Blessed happy mother’s day, Mommy and my others moms! This is for you.

From YouTube.com

Ascension is newness in Christ

The Lord Is My Chef Easter Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, Cycle B, 12 May 2024
Acts 1:1-11 ><}}}}*> Ephesians 4:1-13 ><}}}}*> Mark 16:15-20
“The Ascension of Christ” (1304-1306) by Giotto, a fresco at the Arena Chapel, Padua, Italy from wikimediacommons.org.

We laid mommy to rest Saturday morning, the eve of today’s Ascension Sunday which happens to be a Mother’s Day too. I really can’t describe my feelings except having that emptiness in me amid a sense of joy too. Let me explain…

In my 26 years in the priesthood, I have always reflected the Ascension scene from Luke’s gospel in the many funeral Masses I have presided as something unusual to weird, even impossible: “As he blessed them he parted from them and was taken up to heaven. They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy and they were continually in the temple praising God” (Lk.24:51-53).

How could anybody be with great joy after a funeral that is very much like the Ascension where there is a departure or a leaving of a beloved?

Photo by author, inside the chapel built over the site of the Ascension of Jesus outside of Jerusalem, May 2017.

But, after our guests have left at my mom’s funeral yesterday, that was exactly how we felt! Of course we are sad, we are in grief yet joyful with some sense of lightness within us. Like the death of our loved ones, Ascension is more than just the moving of Jesus to somewhere up in the heavens or to any location and place in the universe. Both the Ascension and death are about new state and level of relationships of Jesus and our departed loved ones hopefully entering into final union with God the Father. It is a leveling up not only of their existence with God but also of our own existence with God and one another.

Ascension is newness in our very selves to experience the glory of Jesus Christ now seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. It is a breaking free from our many presuppositions and fears about life and dying.

When they had gathered together they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.

Acts 1:6-9
From the the Catholic Diocese of Little Rock, Arkansas, dolr.org.

We have long been reflecting since Lent into Easter of how Jesus in becoming truly human like us in everything except sin had made us like Him, holy in His resurrection. If we have remained in Christ on His Cross, we have been made new in Him.

That is the lesson of His transfiguration in the second Sunday of Lent. Being new in Jesus, being transfigured in Him is getting out of the trappings of the worldly concerns like Peter offering to build three tents on Mount Tabor. Or worst, even after Easter like the disciples in the first reading today asking Jesus about the restoration of the kingdom of Israel.

Being new in Jesus following His Passion, Death and Resurrection is leveling up in our perceptions and outlook in life wherein we become simpler, taking life’s lessons bravely. We no longer go for “drama” like the disciples asking the restoration of the kingdom of Israel because we have grown in our faith in Christ as we hurdled life’s light and darkness, joy and sadness, triumph and defeat, even death that keeps on hovering above us, enveloping us at times. All these experiences of hardships and difficulties have changed us into better persons in the grace of God in times we did not even realize at all.

Photo by author at the site believed to be the Ascension site of Jesus outside Jerusalem, May 2017.

My ministry as a chaplain Fatima University Medical Center have greatly reshaped and affected my views on life and death, sickness and sufferings that enabled me to decide prudently when my younger sister was diagnosed with cancer in 2022 and lately this time with my mom when she had her second stroke that led to her recent death. As a chaplain face to face daily with the dying, I have come to terms with death by coming to terms with life at the same time. No more false hopes of getting any better but simply following the flow of life by having more meaningful moments especially with everyone, especially my late mom and siblings.

That is what St. Paul was saying in the second reading on the meaning of “he ascended” as the “one who also descended into the lower regions of the earth” (Eph.4:9). The more we go down into pains and sufferings, darkness and failures including sin or even death, the more we get closer to Jesus because we also get closer with our true selves and with others. To ascend with Jesus is to leave behind all those toxic topics and concerns, including persons who saddle our backs with extra luggages that prevent us from being light.

Ascension is also living in the present than wasting precious time and energy on past’s mistakes and failures or worrying about the the coming future. See how Jesus commissioned us all His disciples to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth with two angels later reiterating the Lord’s command.

While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”

Acts 1:10-11

“Why are you standing there looking at the sky?” is a beautiful reminder for us to live in the present moment, to be vigilant always in doing what is true and good, just and kind in this world so marred by the darkness of evil and sin. Remember, the Ascension is not about a place nor a location where Jesus went up to but a “leveling up” or a “shift_” in our relationship with Him and with others.

Therefore, it is also something that happens in the present moment. It is more than a distant moment in history but a reality happening daily.

Following His Ascension, Jesus has become more accessible than ever because He remains with us on a deeper, personal level. Recall how He asked Mary Magdalene not to touch Him upon appearing to her on Easter Sunday; that was to remind her and everyone that our relationships with Him is more than the physical level, that He cannot be bounded by time and space anymore as He is really present in us and among us in the most personal and spiritual manner.

Jesus lives in us that we have to keep on doing His work here on earth. The gospel clearly says it all, of the urgency for us to “stop standing, looking up” to start proclaiming the gospel to everyone. See how mothers are always busy doing something at home for us her family. Mothers never get tired cooking and doing everything for us family members because they love us so much that even after death, unknown to us, we imitate them by being so busy loving too.

Blessed Sunday to all mothers, especially those in heaven! Amen.

Photo by author, pilgrims waiting their turn to enter site of Ascension outside Jerusalem, May 2019.

When we “miss communication”

The Lord Is My Chef Easter Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday in the Sixth Week of Easter, 08 May 2024
Acts 17:15, 22-18:1     <*((((>< + ><))))*>     John 16:12-15
Photo by Ekaterina Belinskaya on Pexels.com
Your words today,
Lord Jesus remind us 
in the most amusing way
our state of miscommunication:

When they heard about resurrection of the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, “We should like to hear you on this some other time.” And so Paul left them.

Acts 17:32-33
Many times in life
we are like the Athenians of old,
so proud of what
we know,
of what we believe,
of what we
hold on as true
without having them tested;
we refuse to open
our minds and our hearts
to truly listen
to the other person,
especially to You,
dear Jesus;
help us realize
that we cannot know
the whole truth
and everything in this life
and world
in an instant;
help us realize
how truth unfolds
in time
in persons;
most of all,
help us realize
we do not know
that much.

Jesus said to his disciples: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming.

John 16:12-13
Teach us to be patient
and humble, Jesus,
to listen with our hearts,
to reach out and wait
for the other person;
teach us to have that
sense of wonder like a child,
eager to learn,
always asking questions
without getting right away
the answers to them
because many times in life,
the answers
we seek are found right within
 our questions,
right in our hearts
where You dwell.
Amen.

What “joins” us?

The Lord Is My Chef Easter Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Sixth Week of Easter, 07 May 2024
Acts 16:22-34     <*((((>< + ><))))*>     John 16:5-11
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, March 2023.

The crowd in Philippi joined in the attack on Paul and Silas, and magistrates had them stripped and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After inflicting many blows on them, they threw them into prison and instructed the jailer to guard them securely.

Acts 16:22-23
Lord Jesus,
thank You for joining us
in our humanity,
in everything except sin
so that we too are able
to join You in Your
divinity.
Unfortunately,
most often we join
the wrong causes,
the wrong people,
the sinful and evil ways
of the world
instead of joining You
and Your works.
Until now
this scene in Philippi
continues in our days
when we join others
in bringing down
those doing good,
to hurt and put
 to shame
 those doing Your work.
Teach us, Jesus,
to join,
to connect,
to link,
to unite,
and to attach
ourselves
with You,
in You
and through You
like the jailer of
St. Paul
who chose to join
life and light
than join his masters
in evil;
keep us attuned
always to the Holy Spirit
to be aware
and conscious always
of Your ways and moves
we must follow
so that eventually at the end
of this journey on earth,
we join You in
eternal life.
Amen.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, March 2023.

God bless all women!

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday in the Sixth Week of Easter Season, 06 May 2024
Acts 16:11-15     ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'>     John 15:26-16:4
Photo by author, Our Lady of the Poor (also of Banneaux), Sacred Heart Novitiate, 20 March 2024.
Today Lord Jesus
I pray in the most special way
all the women of the world,
especially the women most
dearest to me like my mother
who brought me forth in this world,
who taught me about You and
how to pray, my sisters and 
girl friends who have guided me
and opened my mind,
heart and soul to the many
wonderful things about life
and living!

On the sabbath we went outside the city gate along the river where we thought there would be a place of prayer. We sat and spoke with the women who had gathered there. One of them, a woman named Lydia… a worshiper of God, listened and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying.h

Acts 16:13-14
How lovely to be reminded
today in our first reading that
like during Your time, Lord,
when women were some of the
first to help You in Your ministry,
it was also the women 
who made the great impact in the 
growth of the early Church
which continues to this day with
majority of the church-goers
are women, most of our volunteer
catechists and servants in the
parish are also women
while the mothers remain
as primary evangelizers
in this modern age
that tries so hard 
to remove God from
life's picture.
How sad,
dear Jesus,
that until now,
it is still the women
who are on the distaff
side of life, whether at home
or school or office, 
even in the Church!
Bless the women 
of the world, Lord Jesus,
especially those neglected
and taken for granted
especially by their own
family; bless and set free
those women held captive 
by the systematic crimes 
and oppression
still going on against them
like human trafficking;
heal those women
suffering not only in body
but also in heart, mind and
soul; touch the hearts
and lighten the load
of women crying in silence
for the many pains they
endure.
Thank You, dear Jesus
for the gift of women
who so often disguise 
as our Holy Spirit,
the Advocate 
pointing us to the right
directions and decisions 
in life; keep them safe 
always in Your loving arms,
assure them of Your 
presence.
Amen.
Photo by author, 12 July 2023, Baguio City.

Love in every turn

The Lord Is My Chef Easter Recipe by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Sixth Sunday in the Easter Season, Cycle B, 05 May 2024
Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48 ><}}}*> 1 John 4:7-10 ><}}}*> John 15:9-17
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 22 March 2023.

Imagine that beautiful imagery of Jesus last Sunday, of Him saying “I am the true vine… you are the branches” calling us to remain in Him to be fruitful (Jn.15:1, 5, 8). What a lovely sight to behold are the vines, climbing and winding up or creeping on the ground with its vast network of leaves and stems, tiny tendrils and shoots, flowers and fruits.

Jesus identified Himself with the vine to show us the immensity and profundity of His love for us as this plant species sprawls widely with its strong roots and stem system extending to its branches that reach out to its flowers and clusters of fruits like grapes. It is as if in every turn of the vine, there is so much life, full of love like God who is both Life and Love Himself.

Photo by Dra. Carol Reyes-Santos, MD at Napa Valley in California, September 2023.

And that is the essence of Jesus as He had explained during their Last Supper, showing its meaning on Good Friday when He died on the Cross, summarizing everything on Easter when He rose again and appeared later to His disciples.

It is love, love, and still, love in every turn just like the vine.

In being the true vine, we find God’s immense love for us expressed in His Son Jesus Christ who now tells us clearly to love one another shortly before He showed and proved that love for us on Good Friday at the Cross.

Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. This I command you: love one another.”

John 15:9, 12, 17

See how Jesus speaks of and lives in love in every turn in this gospel scene this Sunday which is a continuation of His discourse last week during their Last Supper. Nine times Jesus used the word “love” in nine verses.

He began his discourse by laying down the foundation of this love which is the Father’s love in verse 9: it is in “remaining” in His love that we truly have joy which is more than happiness but firm assurance that no matter what happens to us even in the worst situations including death as Jesus went through, there is always God loving us to the end and beyond.

After that, Jesus twice mentioned love as His commandment to us. Actually, Christ’s command to love one another seems pretty simple, and easy if you say so; but, what He added makes it so difficult – “love one another as I love you.”

That part “as I love you” is the challenge of Jesus to each one of us every day because He loved even unto death, literally and figuratively speaking. We do not need to die literally as martyrs but even dying figuratively speaking is already so difficult when we have to make many sacrifices, when we have to love somebody else more than our very selves!

Loving one another like Christ is more than to “feeling good” because…

  • To love like Jesus is to forget ourselves, to think less of our own good and comfort like a mother despite her being sick would still rise early to prepare her family to school and work or a dad going abroad in order to have food, clothing and shelter for his family.
  • Loving like Christ is giving up our wants and needs, including our dreams sometimes like the many Ate and Kuya who remain single in order to send their younger siblings to school until they graduate and be able to stand on their own.
  • To love like Jesus is to die in our own POV (point-of-view) and other long held beliefs in order to find Christ in everyone especially those different from us or from those who hurt us.

Loving one another like Jesus Christ is choosing the Father above all every day.

Admittedly, to love like Jesus is very difficult indeed but, the good news this Sunday is that it is doable as the beloved disciple explains in the second reading, “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins” (1Jn.4:10).

And the best part of this Sunday’s gospel is when Jesus declared twice He loves us, “As the Father loves me, so I also love you… This is my commandment: love one another as I love you” (Jn. 15:9,12).

Wow! Everyone knows so well the deep joy one feels in hearing someone say “I love you”. For as long as it is the true kind of love, these words of “I love you” are not only transformative but also performative because they are powerful, filled with the powers of God that can change us, heal us and inspire us.

The words “I love you” are the nicest and most life-changing things one can always hear but unfortunately we rarely say these words to others because we are afraid of running out of love. The truth is, the more love we give, the more we share love in words and in deeds like Jesus, the more we are filled with His love but by those around us too!

Never say nor claim we cannot love like Christ because we are humans like that cheesy Filipino love song of yore, sapagkat ako’y tao lamang. That ability to love like Jesus is already here in our hearts, in our being, in us because He had lavishly loved us first so that we too can love. Every day Jesus repeats those words of the Last Supper whenever we wake up, telling us, “I love you”.

It was the same experience Peter and later the household of Cornelius have experienced in our first reading when the Holy Spirit came down upon them to fill them with the love of God that prompted Peter to realize earlier how “In truth, I see that God shows no partiality” (Acts 10:34), meaning, God loves everyone lavishly regardless of color, gender, and creed. The problem is with us when we love only those “like us”; hence, the need to remain in Christ to be able to find Him in everyone.

Let us immerse ourselves into that amazing reality that we are personally loved by Jesus as we pray:

Dearest Jesus:
let me remain in Your love
so I may learn to forget myself,
set aside my plans and agenda
so that I may love like You 
by keeping Your commandments,
laying down my life for others,
echoing Your very words of
"I love you"
to those who hardly know You
because they have 
never felt being loved
as they suffer alone in
 diseases, poverty, and injustice;
let me bask in Your love, Lord
to lead others back to You 
in my loving service and kindness
especially those who have lost faith 
in You and humanity.
Amen.
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