Advent Is the Presence of God

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe

Advent Week I, Year C, 02 December 2018

Jeremiah 33:14-16//1Thessalonians 3:12-4:2//Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

Happy New Year everyone! Today we start our new liturgical calendar in the Church with the first of the four Sundays of Advent symbolized by the Advent wreath that would be blessed and lighted after the homily by the priest. Flowers are minimized at the altar and violet or deep blue is the motif while the Gloria is not sung except during the Simbang Gabi in joyful anticipation of Christmas. The word Advent is from the Latin adventus that referred to the coming or arrival of the Roman emperor known as Caesar. At the height of the Roman Empire (the Pax Romana), the emperor used to visit the different provinces under his rule and there would always be elaborate preparations because he was also considered as god by the Romans. With the fall of Rome, the Church eventually adopted that practice to prepare for the birth of the King of kings. And rightly so if we recall what Jesus told Pilate last Sunday at the Solemnity of Christ the King, “You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” (Jn.18:37)

When we look at our liturgical calendar, we celebrate every day in the whole year the Kingship of Jesus Christ who is the presence of God among us. Though Advent has two aspects, beginning today until December 16 when our sights are focused on the Second Coming of Christ and from December 17 to 24 when we focus on His first coming more than 2000 years ago, we celebrate every day in our lives the presence of Jesus in us and among us. St. Bernard of Clairvaux beautifully said that between these two comings of Christ is His third coming in every present time. And that is what Advent is all about: the presence of God. Christmas is more than a date to be remembered but the Person of Jesus Christ. We can never experience His coming at the end of time nor His first Christmas if we do not dare to open ourselves to God, to His presence in every here and now.

“But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand. Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and anxieties of daily life, and that they catch you by surprise like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth. Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.” (Lk.21:28, 34-36)

Like during the Sunday before Christ the King, our gospel for the first Sunday of Advent invites us to focus on the “end time” or eschaton, the days of fulfillment of God’s promise when Christ comes again which nobody knows when except the Father. Unlike in the movies and the other doomsday scenarios portrayed by some, the end of time should never be taken literally because it is a kind of writing called apocalyptic. Such portrayals should never be imagined as they merely try to evoke the very difficult trials and tribulations peoples would experience and have experienced in different periods of time that continue to this day. Are we not all still groaning in pain as St. Paul described from all the sufferings and hardships we go through today? But here lies the good news of Advent: it is during our moments of trials and sufferings when Jesus Christ comes! The more persecutions, the more hardships we go through, the more we need to pray hardest, to be vigilant, to stand erect and raise our heads because it is during those trying times when Jesus Christ comes, and in fact when He is with us.

The key word here is presence from which came also the word present which is the synonym for the word gift. We need to always dare to open ourselves to God in the most unexpected moments of our lives because that is when we truly feel Him present in us and among us. It is in our daring to be open to God’s presence when we can truly experience the giftedness of each day and each moment of life. Too often, we remember God most when we are too far from Him due to our sinfulness. That is when we look inside, examine our hearts, and turn back to Him, searching for His presence. It is a proof that we can only find meaning in our lives in Jesus Christ and that is why He came. On the other hand, we also feel God’s presence most when we are so blessed. But these are two extremes that do not happen every day. That is why we have to be “daring” or adventurous in being open to God especially during ordinary days. The ordinary days are in fact the trying times for us all to be faithful to God, to feel His presence. Too often, we get so used with our lives that we become oblivious to the presence of God. Even in the midst of problems, disappointments and frustrations we just don’t mind them at all, expecting things would get better soon. And God? We just presume He is in charge but we do not really feel Him. God has become a mere given in life that we pray, do our devotions and other spiritual activities just to fulfill them or get them done. They have become empty because we have closed our hearts and selves to God’s many and amazing ways of coming to our lives, that He is always present in the simplest and most ordinary moments of life.

This is the challenge of Advent: that we always dare to open ourselves to God’s presence through prayers and silence. Jeremiah said it well in the first reading, “The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and Judah. In those days, in that time…” (Jer. 33:14,15) God is faithful to His promise and always comes to us, always with us. We need to be daring to open ourselves to His presence to meet Him in our prayers and in silence. To be daring in opening ourselves to God’s presence means being still with Him, “wasting” time with Him by daring to set aside too much social media and gadgets that waste our time and distract us of the more important things in life. On this first week of Advent, let us be daring in opening ourselves to God by doing something different, by being good and better Christians as St. Paul asked us in the second reading. If we fail to experience God during this Advent season, we would never experience Him in Christ coming on Christmas or any time. Be daring and be filled with God this week! AMEN. Fr. NicanorF. Lalog II, Parokya Ng San Juan Apostol At Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan

*Photo by the author, Manor House, Camp John Hay, December 2017.

LMC

Prayer to Persevere

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Wednesday, 28 November 2018, Week XXXIV, Year II

Revelation 15:1-4///Luke 21:12-19

Everything you have said in today’s gospel, Lord, is now happening: so many of us are facing so many forms of persecutions, being maligned and hated by so many people filled with evil thoughts and deeds. The other day you told us how false prophets would come claiming to be you as savior and they, too, are now in our midst with mouths full of blasphemies and deceits, sowing confusion and division among us as a people.

I am not complaining, Lord Jesus. I am even thanking you for warning us about these trials and tribulations, assuring us that we need not worry how to defend ourselves from their attacks for not even a hair on our head will be destroyed (Lk.21:14,18).

All I ask you, Lord Jesus Christ is to bless me with the grace of perseverance (Lk.21:19), that amidst this plague that have come upon us as a nation and as a Church, I may sing with the victors of heaven the song of the Lamb John heard in his vision of heaven (Rev.15:2-4).

Let me persevere in loving you Jesus even if I am a sinner.

Let me persevere in following you Jesus even if I often stumble and fall.

Let me persevere in serving you Jesus even if I am self-centered, seeking recognition. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.

*Photo above by my former student, Arch, Philip Santiago, Basilica della Santissima Trinita at Fatima, Portugal during his pilgrimage October 2018. I have always loved this photo shared by Arch. Philip: at the back of the modern metal cross is a mosaic of the Lamb seen by John in Book of Revelation; at the left side is the mosaic of the BVM with Saints Francisco and Jacinta, visionary children of Fatima and to the right is the mosaic of St. John the Baptist. Very modern rendition of old concept in Eastern churches of images above the door of Jesus also at the middle flanked by BVM as the start of the New Testament and John the Baptist who closed the Old Testament. Beautiful images of perseverance in Christ!

And Life Goes On…with Love

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe, Week XXXIII-B, 18 November 2018

Daniel 12:1-3///Hebrews 10:11-14, 18///Mark 13:24-32

A clockmaker was about to finish a grandfather’s clock when the pendulum spoke and begged him not to be given that task of swinging back and forth to measure time. “I am afraid I might not be able to do my job well when I have to swing every second or 60 times a minute, about 3600 an hour or 86400 a day,” the pendulum explained to the clockmaker who assured him everything would be fine. The pendulum believed his maker. Life goes on with the pendulum, tick-tock, tick-tock, sounding the chime every hour long even after his clockmaker had died. In a sense, our lives are like the pendulum continually swinging, sometimes late, sometimes advanced. When 2018 started, we felt so unsure of how this year would be but here we are, about to end the year as we look forward for the coming 2019.

After celebrating All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, we are now in the penultimate week of our liturgical calendar set to close on Sunday with the Solemnity of Christ the King. Today we are invited to focus on the “end time” called the eschaton or days of fulfillment of all that God has promised. In fact, every celebration of the Mass is oriented towards this end, especially when we proclaim the mystery of faith, “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” In the Apostle’s Creed we profess every Sunday our belief in Jesus Christ “who shall come again to judge the living and the dead” as well as in the “communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of body and life everlasting.”

Jesus said to his disciples: “In those days after that tribulation the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.” (Mk.13:24-25)

Jesus was still in the Temple and the people were marveling at its beauty when he spoke of these words, predicting its fall that would happen in the year 70 AD when Rome sacked Jerusalem. But most of all, Jesus was speaking here in the classical language of apocalypse (from the Greek apocalypsis or revelation). It is the same literary genre used in our first reading from the Book of Daniel. Apocalyptic writings are not meant to be taken literally or even be imagined and pictured in its cosmic upheavals alluded to. Jesus is not scaring us of the coming tribulations but is trying to evoke in us the image of a new creation dawning where the sun will be darkened, the moon will lose its light as the stars fall before His splendor as the returning Son of Man (see Rev. 21:23). Recall how in Genesis God first created light by separating it from darkness when earth was all chaos and formless; then, He created the sun, moon, and stars to light the earth by fixing days and nights and years. “In those days” life was simple and a bliss until sin came and everything was shattered. In His infinite goodness, God preserved His creation and promised salvation to renew everything in the coming Savior. “In those days” though there were disturbances and breaks from all the beauty of creation, life went on. There was no need to destroy everything to start anew. God perfects His creation amidst the many imperfections we are into. Just like in our own experiences with the many tribulations we are going through like sickness, losses and deaths. These words of the Lord and of the prophet Daniel are actually encouraging us to look at the fulfillment of the good news, the Gospel of Jesus Christ Himself personally coming to us, personally involved with us and in us.

“And then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in the clouds’ with great power and glory, and then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.” (Mk.13:26-27)

A cousin in Canada emailed me one early Sunday morning last month of his being diagnosed with advanced stage of liver cancer. A former soldier who had spent ten years in Mindanao as a Scout Ranger, he simply told me to pray for him in his life’s final battle. More than the sadness is the pain still in my heart with his condition that it took me the whole day to write him back to assure him of my prayers. His siblings along with some cousins and relatives flew to visit him in Toronto, all praying for some miracle. I chose to be silent in their prayers for a miracle because that very day he told me of his cancer, I have offered him to God. Like Jesus Christ, it is not being a “kj” or killjoy to focus more on the coming eschaton and apocalyptic realities of present tribulations we are going through. Death surely comes. We are all going through many tribulations at the moment as individuals, as families, as communities and as a nation. And things could even get worst before things get any better, here or hereafter. That’s the reality of life we must face with joy and anticipation. The prophet Daniel mentions in his vision seeing God sending us Archangel Michael to help us in our battle with evil in this life. God recognizes the severity and gravity of our tribulations that He had sent us St. Michael so that life would go on while we await that eschaton that must be our gaze despite not knowing when it would be. What the Lord is telling us is to learn from the fig tree, to always see each passing day as a changing of season, a time of rebirth, of living in His presence which the author of the letter to the Hebrews implies as always standing and faithful in our duties as disciples of Christ now“seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven”.

Life goes on with all the tribulations in and around us because God never leaves us alone. There would always be destructions and endings in life to give way to more recreations and new beginnings. The key is to be like the pendulum, remaining faithful in our task of lovingly serving God among those around us. In 1996, the rock musical “Rent” opened in Broadway. Its theme song is called “Seasons of Love” which says life is measured not in minutes or time but in love. Very true! The most important and memorable events of our lives are those moments we have loved or we have been loved. To live is to love and that is why if you want to be eternal, love for only love shall remain. And it is love that will see us through in this life that is passing. You are loved! AMEN.Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.

*Photo by Mr. Howie Severino of GMA-7 News, Taal Lake, 13 November 2018. Used with permission. Photo below from Google.

romans823

Living In the Lord

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Tuesday, 13 November 2018, Week XXXII, Year II

Titus 2:1-8, 11-14//Luke 17:7-10

Lord Jesus Christ, your birthday is fast approaching as the weather is getting better with chilly mornings, warm sunshine during the day tempered by cool breeze blowing to remind me of the changing of seasons, of the coming end of the year.

What a beautiful reminder to us all of living in your presence, growing and maturing in your loving service, O Lord!

Like Titus in the first reading, help me “to say what is consistent with sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1) based on your teachings. Help me to live as older men and women of faith who are “temperate and reverent in behavior, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, love and endurance.” (Titus 2:2-3) Help me to be “a model of good deeds in every respect, living temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age.” (Titus 2:7, 12)

Let me take delight in you O Lord Jesus Christ, my Master, faithfully doing what I am obliged to do like the “unprofitable servants” in your parable today (Lk.17:10). AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.

*Photo from Google.

Jesus Calls Us In Our Blindness

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe, Week XXX-B, 28 October 2018

Jeremiah 31:7-9///Hebrews 5:1-6///Mark 10:46-52

After my Mass last Sunday evening, a friend sent me a text message about their janitor who had committed suicide at the top floor of their new school building that afternoon. She had sought my opinion a few weeks ago about that janitor suffering from depression, and later brought him to a professional for evaluation and counselling by personally paying for it. But his condition deteriorated until he hanged himself that Sunday afternoon. What is very disturbing with the suicide story is the seeming lack of support for the victim by their school officials. And, as if to rub salt on his wounds, an HR officer of the school went to see the janitor at their home Friday before the suicide to serve his termination paper after going on AWOL for several weeks. It seemed to be the final straw that hit the camel’s back, so to speak, that the poor janitor had totally lost all hopes in life that led to his tragic end Sunday afternoon. My friend was very sad, deeply pained – and rightly so! – as it happened in their Catholic school run by religious priests and brothers. Suicides do happen especially these days and there is no need to blame or pin on anybody, but to hear stories of neglect and lack of concern is another thing. One life is always too many to lose in senseless deaths like suicide. As I prayed over today’s gospel, I cannot resist seeing in that school janitor the blind Bartimaeus, begging and shouting for attention, seeking compassion but alas, many in the crowd were so blind that they ignored him, except maybe Jesus, who knows might be passing by that Sunday afternoon and stopped for another lost soul in our modern Jericho.

As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizeable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging. On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.” And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me.” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage; get up, he is calling you.” He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus. Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.” Jesus told him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way. (Mk.10:46-52)

Last Sunday we reflected how Jesus wanted us to be radical in following Him by going back to the roots (radix in Latin) of our discipleship which is His Cross of suffering and death. To be radical disciples of Jesus, we also reflected of the need to subvert or overturn our secular ideas of leadership based on power and position by imitating Christ’s kind of loving service that is always hidden in humility. Today’s gospel is more than a story of the healing of Bartimaeus but also of responding to Jesus’ call for us to remove our different kinds of blindness that prevent us from closely following Him on the road to Jerusalem. And the first step healing our blindness is deepening our faith in Jesus as the Christ. Recall that the journey of Jesus back to Jerusalem started at Caesarea Philippi last month when He asked the fundamental question every disciple must personally answer, “who do you say that I am?” (Mk.8:29)

Bartimaeus was physically blind but it was very clear with him that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the “Son of David” who would save Israel. Despite his blindness, Bartimaeus “saw” in Jesus through the many stories he must have heard about Him that He is the fulfillment of God’s promise that Jeremiah prophesied in our first reading, “the Lord shall deliver Israel and bring her back from exile, gathering them all especially the blind and the lame, consoling them and guiding them to brooks of water, on a level road, so that none shall stumble.” (Jer.31:7-9) His physical disability did not hinder Bartimaeus in growing in faith, “seeing” God as a loving Father who looks after His children especially the sick like him, healing and consoling them that he shouted “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me.” Observe that despite his being a blind beggar, Bartimaeus neither asked for his sight nor for any money or material thing except for God Himself. When he told Jesus that he wanted to see, it was actually a plea for deeper faith in God! Contrast this with the request of the “seeing” Twelve who were all blinded with ambitions, always debating who among them is the greatest, always seeing selves but not God and others.

In my 20 years of priesthood, I have realized that most people who come for help are more in need of spiritual things like the warmth of friendship, a pair of listening ears for their many burdens with some sprinklings of humor, a lot of affirmation, prayers and compassion. Faith in God always leads to faith with others who are also looking for someone to encourage and guide them to grow and mature in that faith. In our modern Jericho of today, may we share Jesus to the many Bartimaeus longing for that warm and loving human face who can recognize and smile at them, pat their shoulders, and soothe their souls by accompanying them in their journey in life that is often filled with many pains and hurts. Let us not be blinded with life’s many pursuits where there are no real winners that later in life would fill us with many regrets that make us wish to have loved and smiled more, have been more forgiving, kinder or crazier and funnier.

Being healed of our blindness to mature in deep faith in Christ is a long process. This is why Jesus is always passing by, calling us in spite of our blindness for He knows so well our weaknesses. He is willing to stop to heal us so we could regain our sight, asking us with the same question He had asked Bartimaeus and the brothers James and John last week, “What do you want me to do for you?” Like Bartimaeus, we can only answer that question truthfully if we are willing to leave the roadside to follow Jesus on the middle of the road that is always filled with danger and difficulties. Like Bartimaeus, we can only answer that question truthfully if we can throw aside our cloaks, to strip ourselves naked of the many false securities we rely on that hamper us in our journey to Jerusalem. Trust only in Jesus the Christ like Bartimaeus, following Him every Sunday in the Eucharist where He, as our High Priest (second reading) gives us His Body and Blood to restore our sight and strength in this journey. Amen. A blessed Sunday to you!Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022. Email: lordmychef@gmail.com

*Photo by Mr. Raffy Tima of GMA-7 News, sunset in Dubai, October 2018. Used with permission.

Firm Faith, Firm Self

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer Tuesday

17 July 2018, Week-15/Year-2 Ordinary Time

Isaiah 7:1-9///Matthew 11:20-24

Thank you Lord for the reminder that “unless my faith is firm I shall not be firm!”(Is.7:9)

So many times I forget this truth as I try to do everything to make myself strong physically, mentally and emotionally. So many times I forget that everything is fleeting in this world especially my body, including my enemies. So many times I forget that the path to real strength of my person is in having a firm faith in You because only You remain.

Everything passes in this world; nations and peoples, cities and states rise and fall but not You, O Lord! You never stop speaking your words of wisdom into the silence of my heart, calling me to trust in You, to have faith in You as You find ways in saving me from my many problems and miseries. Give me the grace to repent and to harden not my heart when I hear Your voice in Christ Jesus. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II,Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria,Bulacan 3022

*Photo by the author, Sacred Heart Novitiate in Novaliches, 06 July 2018.