The Lord Is My Chef Easter Recipe by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday in the Fourth Week of Easter, 26 April 2024 Acts 13:26-33 ><]]]]’> + ><]]]]]’> + ><]]]]’> John 14:1-6
Photo by author, Anvaya Cove, 15 April 2024.
When Paul came to Antioch in Pisidia, he said in the synagogue: “My brothers… The inhabitants of Jerusalem and their leaders failed to recognize him, and by condemning him they fulfilled the oracles of the prophets that are read sabbath after sabbath.
Acts 13:26, 27
Failure. One of life's many mysteries, next to pain and suffering that has baffled us ever since. Sometimes avoidable, sometimes inevitable but surely happens most of the time.
Like the Apostles at the Last Supper, I fear failures, Lord Jesus; as much as possible, I avoid or at least minimize failures to maximize success and victories.
But, dear Jesus, it is not enough to avoid and minimize failures; You have taught me so many times that like You, I have to embrace even befriend failure which is part of our lives. That is why You gifted us with faith:
Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places… I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:1-2, 6
More than a virtue and a gift from Above, faith is a relationship with You and in You, dear Jesus; it is in entering into a personal relationship with You in faith, through faith that I can embrace and befriend failure so that it does not matter anymore how I got lost but how I have remained in You my Way, a Person and a revelation of the Father's love, not just a concept in philosophy or technology like the AI pretending to lead me; deepen my faith in You, Jesus so that every communication in You is true because it is a giving of my self in love like You at the Cross; lastly, let me grow in faith in You, dearest Jesus so that despite the many failures that may come to me, everything leads to eternity because You alone is life. Amen.
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD, an orange-bellied flowerpecker (Dicaeum trigonostigma) somewhere in the Visayas, December 2023.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-09 ng Abril 2024
Caravaggio’s painting “The Incredulity of St. Thomas” (1602) from en.wikipedia.org.
Sa tuwing maririnig ko ang kuwento kay Santo Tomas Apostol ni Kristo, ako'y nanlulumo dahil batid ko hindi ayon turing natin sa kanya na "Doubting Thomas" gayong tanging tag-uri sa kanya ng Ebanghelista ay "Didymus" o "Kambal"; nag-alinlangan nga si Tomas sa balitang napakita si Jesus na muling nabuhay sa kanyang mga kasama nguni't kailanma'y di nabawasan kanyang paniniwala at pagtitiwala.
Malaking pagkakaiba ng hindi maniwala sa hindi makapaniwala na isang pag-aalinlangan bunsod ng kakaibang pakiramdam tulad ng pagkamangha o ng tuwang walang pagsidlan sa isang karanasang napaka-inam ngunit hindi maintindihan balot ng hiwaga at pagpapala gaya nang mabalitaan ni Tomas paanong nakapasok sa nakapinid na mga pintuan Panginoong Jesus na muling nabuhay.
Katulad ng kanyang mga kasamahan nonng kinagabihan ng Linggo ding iyon, wala ding pagsidlan tuwa at kagalakan ni Santo Tomas nang sa kanya inilarawan ipinakitang mga kamay ni Jesus taglay pa rin mga sugat natamo sa pagpapako sa Krus nagpapatunay na Siya nga ang Panginoong nagpakasakit at namatay noon, nabuhay muli ngayon!
Hindi ba
ganyan din tayo
sa gitna ng ating mga
pag-aalinlangan
bagama't damang dama
natin ang katotohanan
ng mga pagpapala at biyaya
hindi tayo makapaniwala
sa kadiliman ating natagpuan
liwanag ni Kristo habang sa
kawalan naroon Kanyang
kaganapan at kapunuan?
Sandigang ating pinananaligan
dasal na nausal ni Tomas na
banal pagkakita kay Jesus
na muling nabuhay,
"Panginoon ko
at Diyos ko!"
Huwag tayong matakot kung tayo ay mag-alinlangan at kung minsa'y hindi makapaniwala sa mga gawa ng Diyos na sadyang kahanga-hanga; sa mundong ito na ang pinanghahawakang kasabihan ay "to see is to believe", ang kabaligtaran nito ang siyang katotohanang ating mapapanaligan, "believe that you may see" dahil sa dilim at kawalan parati dumarating ang Panginoong Jesus natin!
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday, Feast of St. Peter's Chair, 22 February 2024 1 Peter 5:1-4 <*{{{{>< + + + ><}}}}*> Matthew 16:13-19
Photo by author, Chapel of the Holy Family, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, 2018.
My Lord Jesus, on this Feast of St. Peter's Chair when the Church's authority especially of the Pope and bishops is put into question, even challenged, you remind us also your priests that “the primacy of Peter symbolized by his chair atop the magnificent altar at the Vatican is the primacy of faith and the primacy of love” (Pope Benedict XVI, "Images of Hope", Ignatius Press, 2006).
These beautiful words by your servant Pope Benedict XVI remind us too that discipleship and life itself are about where we stand not about where we are seated; make us realize, dear Jesus, that like St. Peter and all the saints who served you faithfully in love, we need to make a stand as witnesses of your gospel values of love and justice, mercy and kindness; no one can truly be your disciple nor be fruitful in life by remaining seated comfortably by the roadside; let us do our mission not profession, be concerned with persons not programs, focused on ministry and services not in perks and positions. May we remain standing by your Cross, Jesus, even when the world prefers to avoid pains and sufferings, sacrifices and sharing, inefficiencies and waiting. Amen.
Photo by author, Chapel of the Holy Family, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, 2018.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday in the Second Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 17 January 2024 1 Samuel 17:32-33, 37, 40-51 <'[[[[>< + ><]]]]'> Mark 3:1-6
Guillaume Courtois, “David and Goliath,” 1650-1660. Oil on canvas. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
Dear God: Bring out in me the youthful faith and confidence of David your servant who slew the giant Goliath in your most holy name; many times in life I get so afraid of the many trials in life that come my way - sickness and death, problems and difficulties, sufferings and pains, failures and rejections, sins and evil situations that enslave me.
Many times, you know how I wanted to give up the fight, to just quit and leave but thank you for that spark of faith in you from within that reminds me of you, of your abiding love and presence like David before Goliath:
“All this multitude, too, shall learn that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves. For the battle is the Lord’s, and he shall deliver you into our hands.”
1 Samuel 17:47
Most of all, let me hold on to that truth that you sent us your Son Jesus Christ "to do everything that is good than evil, to save life than destroy it" (Mark 3:4); let me do always your work, dear Father, in the way you would want me to do it. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday in the First Week of Ordinary Time, 11 January 2024 1 Samuel 4:1-11 <*[[[[>< + ><]]]]*> Mark 1:40-45
Photo from Inquirer.net, 09 January 2024.
God our loving Father, your words today from the first reading as so similar with our annual experiences at Traslacion of Quiapo's Black Nazarene image; every year, we all ask in awe and wonder as well as with skepticism even cynicism by some if this is faith or fanaticism because after January 9, our nation remains the same - defeated in corruption, defeated in inequality, defeated in poverty, so defeated in fact that many are still suffering from all kinds of impoverishments that like the Israelites at Ebenezer, we ask:
“Why has the Lord permitted us to be defeated today by the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the Lord from Shiloh that it may gointo battle among us and save us from the grasp of our enemies.”
1 Samuel 4:3
We have the Black Nazarene, we have the Sto. Niño, we have the La Naval, we have everything like your Ark of the Covenant, dear God and yet like the Israelites, we are still defeated: we elect into office to govern us men and women without integrity nor abilities, much less concern for our well-being; we ourselves disobey simple traffic rules, could not give the due respect to our parents at home!
Forgive us, dear God, in relying so much on what eyes can see, what hands can do, what mouths can shout or speak as we forget to move our hearts, to deepen our faith like that leper, wholeheartedly believing in Jesus Christ that he was cleansed and healed; but, unlike him, let us obey the prescriptions of the law, of those above us to avoid sensationalisms that may spark faith in many but fail in deepening that same faith when we turn more on ourselves than to you, O God, in Christ Jesus found in everyone whom we eventually forget as we become self-centered. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Feast of the Holy Family, Sunday in the Christmas Octave-B, 31 December 2023 Genesis 15:1-6, 21:1-3 ><]]]'> Hebrews 11:8, 11-12, 17-19 ><]]]'> Luke 2:22-40
Photo by author, 25 December 2023.
After the birth of the Christ in Bethlehem and the visit of the shepherds, Luke tells us how the Child was circumcised on the eighth day and given with the name Jesus. A short while after that, Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to Jerusalem to present him to God in the temple.
And that was when more exciting and wonderful things continued to happen to Mary and Joseph when two elderly people filled with the Holy Spirit, Simeon and Anna, took the Child Jesus and spoke great things about him to his astonished parents.
The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was said about him; and Simeon blessed them… There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple… And coming forward at that very time, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.
Luke 2:33-34, 36-38
Photo from crossroadinitiative.com.
See again the artistry of Luke in showing to us in this scene how Jesus Christ makes every family holy. In narrating to us the story of Christmas, Luke had earlier shown us that Jesus comes first in every family, in every husband and wife and their children.
Clearly we see Luke’s consistency in telling us that in this season and beyond, our focus must always be centered on the person and mission of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, our Savior who makes every family holy like his! How they unfolded through Mary and Joseph is worth reflecting this Sunday.
I have always been amazed since our 30-day retreat in 1995 with this gospel scene of the presentation of Jesus at the temple. The situation of the Holy Family of Joseph, Mary and Jesus was simply an ordinary one with hundreds of other families making the same journey to the temple with nothing unusual happening.
Then all of a sudden, the unforeseen and unforeseeable take place amid all the crowds in the temple on that day. A great revelation by God not only for people at that time but also for us today is made known which allowed us too to perceive the hidden Jesus coming daily in our lives. See the obedience of Mary and Joseph to their Laws and customs. Most of all, their continuing openness to the many revelations still unfolding about their child Jesus.
Photo by author, Nazareth, Israel, May 2019.
It was not a case of exceptional grace to exceptional couple of Joseph and Mary nor to individuals like Simeon and Anna whom I always wondered how were they able to recognize Jesus as the Christ being offered on that day in the temple.
Again, we are invited to be attuned and opened always to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, of keeping that spark of faith within us like Abraham in the first reading who “put his faith in the Lord, who credited it to him as an act of righteousness” (Gen. 15:6). Here we find how God guides us in our steps and those of others in our long and often circuitous journeys in life to have faith in him in finding Jesus the light of our salvation and fulfillment. But faith is more than simply putting ourselves blindly in the hands of God, just moving on with life with a bahala na attitude.
Faith is more than believing and trusting God and persons. It is entering into a communion, a bond with God as our Lord and Master or anyone we love so dearly like our family. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews stressed this aspect of faith as a communion and a bond in our second reading which we find not only in Abraham but also in Joseph and Mary as well as in Simeon and Anna, too.
Recall those moments when you felt like Abraham who was already too old, when you felt it was already “game over” for our plans in life, the end of your rope or when you felt everything is down the drain that you simply accepted it as the reality when suddenly, because of that firm faith and union in God, something happens like a twist or a turn when everything in your life just falls into its right places!
Remember those moments in the past when we dared to walk in the right direction of Jesus – full of humility amid the pains and sufferings of his Cross – when we find later on how his words jibed perfectly with our experiences, so intertwined with our dreams and aspirations along with other people especially with our family that eventually get fulfilled – if not in us, in those next to us. This is the gist of the beautiful movie Firefly.
From GMA Films and GMA Public Affairs.
Firefly is one exceptional film in every aspect. Everything is so good. Watching it convinced me of a renaissance in Filipino film industry. It is a fantasy movie everyone must see this Season because it is a Christmas story, a Christ-film in fact.
Its main character is a small child named Tonton who lost his mother at a young age and embarked on a long journey to bring his mother’s ashes to her birthplace in an island in Bicol said to be inhabited by fireflies.
All Tonton had was faith and love for his mother played by Alessandra de Rossi. His map was actually his scrapbook of his colorful illustrations of the story narrated to him by his mother. Along the way, he met three individuals living in the darkness of their past, uncertain of their future: an ex-convict heading home, doubtful if he would be accepted by his wife and son; a broken-hearted man cheated by his girlfriend at a loss what to do with her name tattooed on his bicep; and a lovely lady on a backpack trip with a camera and some envelops she used to scam money from people for her supposed outreach programs for kids.
From GMA Films and GMA Public Affairs
They all found the light of life through the life and words of Tonton whom they helped reached his mother’s home island where he too eventually came to terms with his own ghosts of the past.
I won’t tell you any details any more. Do watch the movie and be enthralled with its attention to details, the many symbolisms, most of all, of the good news about the beauty of this life made manifest by the Child who opened our eyes to see the light of love and life. Amen. Have a blessed family in Christ Jesus this new year of 2024!
A short poem I wrote after watching Mallari and Firefly:
Two fantasy movies, One so scary The other a thing of beauty!
The best in cinematography Indeed is Mallari: How they sew together seamlessly Fiction into a true story so eerie Of the evil reality But sadly sank deeply In vicious circle of sin And infamy.
But if you have to see A movie do not miss Firefly Everything is about beauty Despite the ugly reality Of life we all see; The slum by the sea The kid and his bullies The story of his mommy Led him into a journey Intertwined with a many Treading blankly from each one’s past Into their present afraid of what will be Only to see through this kid’s story That many times a fantasy Is in fact the reality We refuse to believe That is why we can’t see; How lovely is the movie Though not about history Or social malady But deep theology Of how a child brought Fire and light And made us see We are loved so immensely So that someday We too can rise and fly High to the sky.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Misa De Gallo III, Monday, 18 December 2023 Jeremiah 23:5-8 ><))))*> + <*((((>< Matthew 1:18-25
Photo by author, sunrise at the Pacific Ocean from Katmon Nature Sanctuary & Beach Resort, Infanta, Quezon, 04 March 2023.
“This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about” (Mt. 1:18). I love this opening line of our gospel this Monday. So simple and warm, even magical that we know the whole story it is about to tell not only by heart but because it is now fulfilled.
It evokes in us that scent of Christmas or amoy Pasko whatever that means to you.
Basta, you know that feeling of being so safe and secured that everything in life will be fine, just like with St. Joseph after being told by an angel in his dream of the coming of Jesus Christ.
Photo by author, San Fernando, Pampanga, November 2021.
“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Matthew 1:20-21
Feel the solemn note of Matthew’s infancy account from the perspective of St. Joseph, the fulfillment of God’s promise that burned slowly through long years of waiting that burst into light with the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem more than two thousand years ago.
Every prophecy and dream and longings were finally fulfilled because “When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home” (Mt. 1:24).
As we enter the final stretch of the week leading into Christmas Day when Christmas rush tries to hijack our souls from its true essence, we are invited to go deeper, to be more intense in our prayers and reflections on the meaning of Christ’s coming to us.
Are we willing to be like St. Joseph?
Very often, St. Joseph is taken so lightly because of his silence. And amusingly, his being portrayed always asleep that God communicated to him at least four times in his dreams about the birth and safety of Jesus Christ.
For anyone fast approaching the senior year of 60 like me, you would exactly know the feeling and frustration of difficulty in having a good night sleep. If my alarm clock were a human, he would have long been fired from the job because I always wake up ahead before it alarms!
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, Quezon City, 20 March 2023.
First thing we find with St. Joseph sleeping soundly in the midst of a major problem – in fact, a fiasco – which invites us to examine our faith in God.
Many times we find it hard to fall asleep not really because of our problems but with our indecisions.
Our failure to confront and solve our problems make us sleepless. If we can be firm in our decisions due to our deep faith and love for God like St. Joseph which is the meaning of his being a righteous man, we too can sleep soundly like him. Go back to the story and you will find how quickly St. Joseph had decided to divorce Mary quietly so as not to expose her to shame. In making that decision, we find St. Joseph’s selflessness and complete trust in God: primary in his consideration was Mary, his beloved. His love for her was the expression of his love for God too.
As we age, can we start our memoir with the similar lines of Matthew, This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about? Can we unabashedly telling everyone in all sincerity “this is how what I am today came about”? Can we wholeheartedly tell straight what really happened amid all the pains and disappointments we went through when God suddenly changed the course of our lives with his own plans? Would we have regrets or none at all like St. Joseph because he obeyed everything upon waking up?
Now, that is the more important part in Matthew’s short infancy narrative: nothing much was told after the St. Joseph awoke except that he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home. The final sentence cemented everything with his total union with God that “He had no relations with her until she bore a son, and he named him Jesus.”
Here we are given a glimpse of the spiritual maturity and holiness of St. Joseph, his being open to God expressed in his taking of Mary as his wife that in doing so, Jesus Christ the Son of God came into the world. What a wonderful flow of events we too must have experienced in our lives when everything falls into its right places simply because we cooperated with God
According to St. John Paul II’s friend, the Orthodox Christian theologian Olivier-Maurice Clement, a lot often we pretend to be real disciples of Christ when in reality we are merely dreaming. He called it “sleepwalking existence”; my Jesuit spiritual director Fr. Danny Gozar calls it “spiritual dwarfism”. Both refer to our spiritual immaturity due to our lack of honesty with our self and with God.
Being righteous like St. Joseph is simply being holy, a spiritually matured person generous enough to confront and consider everything in one’s life with open mind and open heart to set them aside and give way to God’s greater plans. Sleepwalking existence and spiritual dwarfism happen when there are certain things we want to hold on to and pursue or keep even if we could feel it is not God’s will for us. Tendency is to fool ourselves that we delay any decisions as we claim we are not yet certain with God’s will when in fact we are simply hoping against hope God would change his mind.
Photo by author, San Fernando, Pampanga, November 2021.
The angelic annunciations to St. Joseph and to Virgin Mary may not be literal but we can be certain of one truth with God: he is most consistent in communicating his will to us even if he does not speak clearly and directly as humans or angels. Very often, the faintest voice within us that persists, the most ordinary things and events happening daily we take for granted, the simplest truths we realize and deem so little are God’s consistent communication of his will for us.
This Advent Season, let us try to wake up to life’s realities like St. Joseph in order to hear God’s voice in silence. To be silent is to be awake to life’s realities, to be able to listen and discern God from all other voices and noises. It is important that we are awake to life’s realities like St. Joseph because God’s voice may be the very words, silence, tears or smiles of those who love us most but we often take for granted. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Memorial of the Presentation of Mary, 21 November 2023
Revelation 11:19a, 12:1-6a, 10ab <*((((>< + ><))))*> Luke 1:39-47
On this Memorial of the
Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
in the temple, we pray, O God,
you make us presentable too
before you like our Blessed Mother.
The words presentation
and presentable connote
things of beauty on the outside:
a presentation can be a show
like a play or a dance
while to be presentable means
to be pleasing to the eyes.
But deep its external connotations
is its inner meaning with
religious roots actually,
like to be dedicated as
being good and beneficial
to you, O God.
Like the Blessed Mother Mary,
teach us to present ourselves wholly
to you, dear God, by believing
in you and your words,
to have that firm faith on what is
not seen and sure or certain,
not carried away by all those
fancy and make-believe
images and promises of the world
based on superficialities
of materialism and consumerism.
In this age when fame and wealth
are the measure of what is good,
may we always choose true blessedness
like Mary who believed your words
would be fulfilled;
in this age when everyone prefers
to listen to outside noise and sounds
especially of media, may we always
choose to be silent like Mary,
listening to your voice O God within,
contemplating on its meaning;
in this age with so many false idols
being followed or with everyone
playing god, may we have the courage
and humility of Mary
to always be with Jesus,
never abandoning him even at the Cross,
standing by his side,
choosing to love and sacrifice,
to bear than complain,
to witness your mercy and majesty,
to be your presence and peace.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday in the Twenty-Eighth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 20 October 2023
Romans 4:1-8 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Luke 12:1-7
Photo by author, Liputan Island, Meycauayan City, Bulacan, 31 December 2021.
Our loving God and Father,
help us learn St. Paul's beautiful
teaching today about your
righteousness and our justification -
that, essentially, everything
in this life is our relationship with you
and with one another.
You justified and redeemed us
in your Son Jesus whom you
sent to restore that relationship with you
broken by sin in Adam and Eve;
to renew and make that relationship
work, you made us new in Christ
to make us worthy before you
and with one another in your grace.
How wonderful as St. Paul explained
that long before your Laws came,
that relationship has always been there
wondrously expressed most especially
by Abraham in his deep faith in you;
faith is a relationship which Abraham
proved thrice to you:
when he obeyed your command for him
to leave his family and city to go to
the land you would show him;
when he believed even in his old age
you would give him a son in his wife
Sarah to become the father of all nations;
and when Isaac was finally born
as he grew up, Abraham willingly
gave him up to you when you asked
him to be offered.
In all three instances,
Abraham never sinned to you
because he upheld and
valued so much your relationship
with him.
Help us, God,
to be like Abraham in
upholding and preserving
most dearly this relationship
with you and with one another
we keep and nurture in faith.
For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. A worker’s wage is credited not as a gift, but as something due. But when one does not work, yet believes in the one who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.
Romans 4:3-5
Forgive us,
merciful Father,
for being so proud,
always proving our worth
with all our works without
realizing that you have done
everything in our favor,
that there is nothing we can do
nor we may do for us to be saved
in ourselves, by ourselves
except to believe in you like
Abraham; let us not be hypocrites
like the Pharisees who do not
realize that everything is revealed
in you, including our thoughts;
let us remember that sin is
more than the evil acts we do
but most of all, our lack of faith
in you that we destroy
our beautiful relationships with
you and with one another.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 01 October 2023
Ezekiel 18:25-28 ><}}}}*> Philippians 2:1-11 ><}}}}*> Matthew 21:28-32
White roses for devotees of St. Therese whose feast is today, October 01; may she intercede for your much needed miracle!
American writer Anne Lamott wrote in one of her books that “The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty.” This is most true in our gospel this Sunday as we shift scene when Jesus finally entered Jerusalem and preached in the temple area among his enemies, the chief priests and elders of the people.
Again, we are familiar with today’s parable of the man who had two sons he asked to go and work at their vineyard. The first son refused but later changed his mind and obeyed the father; the second son said “yes” but did not go to the vineyard. Like the chief priests and the elders, we too can easily answer Jesus Christ’s question, “which of the two did his father’s will?” Of course, the first son – but, Matthew’s story did not end there as he recorded the Lord’s words to his enemies that say a lot to us too today:
Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you. When John came to you in the way of righteousness, you did not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did. Yet even when you saw that, you did not later change your minds and believe him.”
Matthew 21:31b-32
Photo by author, 2019.
Keep in mind that Matthew insists in his gospel account the matching of our words and actions because “not everyone who says ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 7:21).
In the next three Sundays, we hear parables having this as its theme: the two sons today, the evil tenants next week and the wedding banquet after that. Notice too that although we still have nine weeks to go before Advent Season in preparation for Christmas, our gospel setting beginning this Sunday will be at the temple area just before the Lord’s Passion, Death and Resurrection. That means Christ’s teachings are getting more intense and challenging to everyone as well.
The sin of the chief priests and elders that Jesus mentioned today – “you did not later change your minds and believe him” – was their refusal to change their minds to accept him as the Christ despite the overwhelming proofs and evidence they have heard and seen, even experienced. They were fixated with their own beliefs and interpretations of the Laws and scriptures; nothing and no one, not even the Son of God Jesus Christ could change their minds, perspectives and opinions.
The same is true with us Christians today! Many times our faith has become so static, could not be changed anymore to become deeper and stronger and vibrant to recognize God present in the changing times. The danger we have today is not only many people are losing their faith but a greater number of us faithful have come to believe more in ourselves than in Christ and his Church led by the Pope! How sad that since last year, there have been so many people, including clergymen casting doubts and refusing to recognize the synod of bishops set to begin this month in Rome.
Photo by author, 2019.
Faith in God is a process that grows and deepens through time. It calls for openness to God in his daily coming to us even in the most unusual people and circumstances. Faith is a daily process of conversion, of kenosis or self-emptying like Jesus which Paul beautifully expressed in our second reading today:
Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interest, but also for others. Have in you the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness.
Philippians 2:3-7
Here we find faith is about relationships and commitment, both to God and to one another. It is never static. That is one of the lessons Jesus is emphasizing in his parable today about the father and two sons. Obedience to their father is an expression of their relationship with him. Many times, we are either like the first or the second son. God our Father gives us all the chances and opportunities to make up for our lapses and sins.
That is why in the first reading, God reminds us through Ezekiel that his ways are not unfair because he gives us all every chance to change and become better, the very same principle we have heard in the three teachings of Christ recently about fraternal correction, forgiving, and generosity.
Have you noticed how often people seem unreasonable when they tell us we have changed or have not changed at all? I find those comments insane, even stupid because only change is permanent in this world. We always change. And we must change for the better.
One of my favorite series in the 1980’s was the American comedy “Newhart” starring Bob Newhart. In one of its episodes, Bob and his wife celebrated their anniversary amid so many mishaps and quirks. As usual, Bob saved the day at their renewal of vows when he told his wife that indeed, he had changed through their years of marriage as he had come to love his wife more than ever. So sweet and beautiful, and true!
Many times in weddings, I tell newly wed couples this prayerful wish, “May this day be the least joyful day of their lives.” Weddings and ordinations call for a lot of daily conversions, of growing and maturing, of finding Jesus in our loved ones and people we serve, and in new directions in our lives and ministry.
Photo by author, La Trinidad, Benguet, 12 July 2023.
Every relationship with God and with others can never be fixed for it must grow daily. Don’t worry, we will never run out of space for maturity and deepening of faith and commitments with God and with others. The more changes and flexibilities we go through no matter how difficult they may be physically, emotionally and spiritually, the more surprises and joys and fulfillment we shall experience.
Everyday, ask yourself, “Where did I see God today?” And, what does it mean to me?
Our answers to these two questions will determine how we live differently each day as Christ’s disciples because of what God has revealed to us! Amen. Have a fulfilling week in Jesus this start of October!
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