The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday, Memorial of St. John XXIII, Pope, 11 October 2024 Galatians 3:7-14 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Luke 11:15-26
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
Lord Jesus Christ, fill me with your Holy Spirit, enliven my faith, hope and love in You; in this age of so many divisions when we are being pulled by the strong forces of the past to go back to what was before due to the excesses of modern time, let us look for your Cross, O Lord, to let the "finger of God" work in us to cleanse us of all evil and filth that make us "scatter" than "gather".
“But if is by the finger of God that I drive out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you… Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. When an unclean spirit goes out of someone, it roams through arid regions searching for rest but, finding none, it says, ‘I shall return to my home from which I came.’ But upon returning, it finds it swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and brings back seven other spirits more wicked than itself who move in and dwell there, and the last condition of that person is worse than the first” (Luke 11:20, 23-26).
Let us realize, like what St. Paul tells us in today's first reading that we who "have faith in You are the children of Abraham, that the blessing of Abraham might be extended to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (Galatians 3:7, 14).
Let us embrace that truth, Jesus, that You have done everything for our salvation, for our freedom, for our being children of the Father; You have cleansed us, come fill us with your Spirit for us to see our similarities not differences to build a more humane society here on earth; fill us with your Spirit, Jesus, let not the bonds and shackles of sin hold us, isolated from others, always competing that prevent peace in finally happening.
Help us imitate your faithful servant St. John XXIII who convened the Second Vatican Council to open the windows of the Church and welcome this modern age so we may find You Jesus ever more present in this changing time; most of all, to share You, Jesus who is still most needed in this troubled age.
You have done everything for us, Jesus. Let us rest on that by remaining in You, doing your work and make us stop playing god, savior of the world. Amen.
Photo by Ka Ruben, new stained glass of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, Valenzuela City to be blessed on Sunday, the 107th anniversary of the last Apparition of the Virgin Mary in Fatima, Portugal.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 27 August 2024
Photo of St. Monica from the cover of the book “St. Monica Club: How to Wait, Hope and Pray For Your Fallen-away Loved Ones by Maggie Green, Sophia Institute Press, 2019.
Today we celebrate the Memorial of St. Monica, mother of St. Augustine. She has always been associated with her son Augustine who is considered as one of the great saints of the Church with so much impact in our theology and almost every Catholic teaching. It was through the prayers and many sacrifices by St. Monica that St. Augustine was converted to Christianity who eventually became a priest then later as Bishop and Doctor of the Church. That is why during the Vatican II reforms of the liturgy, her memorial celebration was moved from May 4 to August 27, a day before St. Augustine’s memorial too.
Next to the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Monica is perhaps the best example of motherhood beyond compare. Patron saint not only of wives and mothers, St. Monica is also the Patroness of those seeking patience and victims of abuse.
Most probably, stories about her suffering in silence in being married to an abusive and philandering pagan husband named Patricius were “overextended” to the extent we Filipinos got a very wrong impression of a “martyr” as being a wife who willingly bears without complaints the abuses by her husband.
St. Monica was very far from that kind of “martyr” but was in fact a “martyr” to the truest sense of its meaning from the Greek word martyria that means to witness Jesus Christ. Witnessing for Christ by bearing sufferings does not mean allowing one’s self to be abused freely by anyone; witnessing for Christ is primarily living a life centered on Jesus in prayers that flow into good works and holiness. Martyrdom is overcoming evil with goodness that is why many times, it ends with death – but, it is not as a defeat but as a triumph that leads to conversion of sinners and unbelievers, exactly how Christianity spread before and until now wherever Christians are persecuted.
According to St. Augustine’s own account in his book Confessions, although domestic abuse was prevalent during their time, their ill-tempered father never beat their mother. Her daily prayers especially her frequent going to the Mass with so many acts of charities to the poor irritated their father Patricius and yet led him to respect St. Monica. Eventually, her prayer life that found expressions in her almsgiving and kindness to everyone won the heart of Patricius, calmed his violent tendencies until he finally converted to Christianity before his death.
Before calming and converting her husband, St. Monica first won over her equally difficult to deal with mother-in-law! So, for those having problems with in-laws, St. Monica is the go-to saint for you!
But it is not that easy at all. We need to do the efforts, to cultivate a prayer life and allow God to work in us in order to grow in faith, hope, and love as well as the virtues especially patience. All these aspects of her faith flowed in her remaining so sweet and gentle despite her problematic husband and three children (whom Patricius refused to be baptized as Christians) that she was able to exercise a good influence over abused wives and suffering mothers who were so moved by St. Monica’s example.
Now here is the funny thing that most likely mothers and wives today would surely laugh at – St. Monica’s advise: “If you can master your tongue, not only do you run less risk of being beaten, but perhaps you may even, one day, make your husband better.”
Huwag daw po kuda nang kuda, mga Nanay at mga Misis…
Having spent most of my 26 years as a priest ministering to students and young people (exactly 17 years and counting), I used to tell them how often our mothers’ nagging is actually their love language; they may be saying a lot even without thinking at all but that’s because they love us, they care for us. That is why I find it amazing, so prophetic when Filipino mothers speak the same thing when children come home, hurt and beaten after not listening to their words of caution: “Sinasabi ko na nga ba…!”
Photo from shutterstock.com
Many times, mothers are prophetic; listen to whatever they may be saying because so often, they tell the truth. About us or of then people we go out with.
One thing I miss these days after my mom’s death in May are her words of love and wisdom as well as her nagging with accompanying threats (tatamaan ka sa akin or lalayasan ko kayo). Psychologists say that is wrong for parents to threaten their kids. I don’t really know but from my own experience those were perfectly examples of tough love that made us strong.
Now Mommy or Mamu as we called her since becoming a grandma is gone, no one reminds us or nags us anymore. And the worst part of that is, you have no one to make sumbong. We have lost somebody willing listen to all of our kuda.
That I think makes every mother to suffer a lot because they keep so many of her children’s pains and hurts, including anger and complaints in their hearts: many times they explain but we refuse to listen, accusing her of bias and favoritism. There are times she would say “hayaan mo na lang anak”… she would be talking and talking again of many things.
Every Nanay is a Sta. Monica, suffering in silence because she has always been loving us in silence. Truly, when a mother dies, our links are never cut off from her as if the umbilical cord remains intact. And wireless up to heaven. How funny that we complain often our our mother’s nagging and endless talking but when she becomes silent, we miss her. Now because we are sure she loves us so much.
Sharing with you this most beautiful tribute of four brothers to their Nanay I found last night in the internet now with 4M views. Pray for all mothers today, thank God for their great gift of life.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, 18 August 2024 Proverbs 9:1-6 ><}}}}*> Ephesians 5:15-20 ><}}}}*> John 6:51-58
Photo by author, James Alberione Center, QC, 15 August 2024.
It is our fourth consecutive Sunday listening to the sixth chapter of John’s gospel that opened with the miraculous feeding by Jesus of more than five thousand people in a deserted place; Jesus fled from there, went back in Capernaum where people caught with Him and disciples as He began three Sundays ago His “Bread of Life” discourse now getting deeper while the drama among the crowd is heating up.
From murmuring last Sunday about Jesus who said “I am the bread that came down from heaven” (Jn.6:41), the people today quarreled among themselves after Jesus said “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (Jn. 6:51).
Photo by author, James Alberione Center, QC, 15 August 2024.
Notice the beautiful contrast of reactions by people to Jesus: from murmuring last Sunday, they sank deep into quarreling while Jesus leveled up to “the living bread from heaven” from merely “the bread from heaven” last week. For us to live well, we have to eat well by having Jesus Himself as our food and drink.
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me” (John 6:52-57).
Photo by Ms. Ria De Vera in Banff, Alberta, Canada, 07 August 2024.
Eating is the most common human activity anywhere, any time. Human life basically revolves around eating as we have seen since time immemorial how we have progressed following our search for food. We work to feed ourselves and loved ones. Without food, we die. Food is so essential that there is always food to share in our gatherings.
That is why Jesus chose the bread and wine as the signs of His living presence among us in the Holy Eucharist He established during the Last Supper on Holy Thursday. In the Eucharist, Jesus elevated the most ordinary human activity of eating as most sublime and Divine. In the Holy Mass, we share in Christ’s Body and Blood so we too may share our very selves with one another.
When Jesus said in Capernaum that the bread He is giving is His own flesh with His blood as drink, He was already preparing the people for the Eucharist while at the same time teaching them that eating is not everything. We have to eat well to live well. When tempted by the devil in the wilderness, Jesus right away taught us to remember that man does not live by bread alone but with every word from God. At the start of this discourse last August 04, Jesus challenged the people, “Do not work for the food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (Jn.6:27).
Photo by Ms. Ria De Vera in Banff, Alberta, Canada, 07 August 2024.
Many times, we get so used in our many activities that unconsciously, we miss life itself as we punish ourselves with exhaustion and sickness as well as emptiness.
Food is not just something that fills our stomach but must also lead into our heart and soul. Observe any cuisine and you get a taste of the culture and people it represents, even with strong hints of its geographical origin. In the first reading we find how the Book of Proverbs personified Wisdom as God to remind us that though He is transcendent and so above us, God is easily accessed even in the most ordinary instances like eating.
Wisdom has built her house, she has set up her seven columns; she has dressed her meat, mixed her wine, yes, she has spread her table. She has sent out her maidens; she calls from the heights out over the city: “Let whoever is simple turn in here; to him who lacks understanding, I say, Come, eat of my food, drink of the wine I have mixed! Forsake foolishness that you may live; advance in the way of understanding” (Proverbs 9:1-6).
How lovely is that part of God calling us to come like Jesus in the gospel when He said “come to me all who are burdened” or when He ordered to “let the children come to me”. Is it not the same thing we say when we are about to eat, to come and get it?
Sadly these days, we seem to have retrogressed in our manner of eating. Social media rightly labeled it as “food porn” when we are flooded with everything about food and drinks minus its deeper meanings. Food is sadly seen in its material aspect that eating is more on filling the stomach, forgetting the soul because we have totally forgotten God and the people around us. No wonder that despite the growing food production and plethora of food we have these days, many still starve while the rest of us remain lost in life, more sick.
Photo by Ms. Ria De Vera in Banff, Alberta, Canada, 07 August 2024.
See, my dear friends, the great coincidence on the very Sunday Jesus began his bread of life discourse, it was also the opening of the Paris Olympics with a mockery of the Last Supper that led us into a kind of “quarrel” as organizers and their supporters insisted it wasn’t the Last Supper at all despite the clear indications and proofs.
“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Suddenly, we heard anew that same question by the people in Capernaum to Jesus reechoed in the Olympics at the capital city of the Church’s so-called “eldest daughter”, France. Of course, we know this bread of life discourse by Jesus refers to the Holy Eucharist and surely, the many defenders of the Paris Olympics are aware for many of them are Catholics. But, Jesus must have willed this gospel be proclaimed at this time coinciding with the Olympics for us to evaluate anew our faith in Him because at the very core of this bread of life discourse is the mystery of faith.
“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” In the gospel of Luke, we find a similar question by Mary at the Annunciation that is filled with faith, “How can this be?” (Lk.1:34); but today, like in Capernaum as exemplified by the Paris Olympics, that question is a renewed refusal to believe in the words of Jesus Christ. Worst of all as we noted earlier in our perceptions of food and eating these days, that question shows modern man’s insistence on everything material, totally disregarding our spiritual nature.
Photo by Ms. Ria De Vera in Banff, Alberta, Canada, 07 August 2024.
Like in Capernaum, many people today who refuse to believe Christ’s words resort to malicious and insidious arguments that it becomes useless to really converse with them as they would rather insist on their grossly material understanding and perception of life these days. Many prefer to quarrel these days than accept life’s many mysteries not merely seen nor tasted by the senses but experienced and realized through faith in God.
Life for them has become merely material which in Greek is bios as in biology. There is another Greek word for life which is zoe that refers to the eternal, divine life of God that Jesus repeatedly used in our gospel today.
Like last Sunday, Jesus did not engage Himself into debating with the crowd in Capernaum by simply repeating the words living and life to emphasize the total acceptance of Him – Body and Blood – in faith: “I am the living bread… my flesh for the life of the world. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.” These are the very same words too, life and living that Jesus would mention before His Passion and Death as well as after His Resurrection because eating His flesh and drinking His blood is to share in His life that is also the fullness of life. It is only in Christ Jesus can we find fulfillment in life. Let us pray:
Lord Jesus Christ, help me watch carefully how I live, not as a fool but as wise as St. Paul taught us today in his letter to the Ephesians; let us not be intoxicated with life's pleasures and worldly pursuits but let us be filled with the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I had published my Sunday homily that Saturday morning when I decided to unwind by watching any movie on Netflix which I do only on weekends. So glad it was the first movie I saw, very related with the story of Prophet Elijah and Jesus Christ’s “Bread of Life Discourse” that Sunday.
First think I liked with Lolo and the Kid is its fast-paced story that revolved around the two characters played by veteran Joel Torre and GMA7’s famed Firefly star Euwenn Mikael Aleta.
Second thing so interesting with me is how Lolo and Kid have no proper names at all (I just learned Lolo’s name was Mario after reading the various write ups) maybe because they stand for all of us who are caught in this great race for money and material things but deep inside longing for the more essential and truly lasting in life like love. And people who love us too, who care for us, and would stand by us.
We are Lolo and Kid who many times have traded our principles for momentary satisfaction but despite our seemingly strong facades of pragmatism and “resourcefulness” or madiskarte as Lolo taught Kid in the movie, deep inside us is still our conscience where God dwells, telling us to pursue good and shun evil. Joel Torre perfectly portrayed this beautiful side in each one of us (with his Ilonggo accent) of keeping a conscience despite our sinfulness, like a soft shell we delicately keep whole and intact inside lest we lose everything in life.
Photo from de.flixable.com
Recall our first reading last Sunday about Elijah fleeing to the mountain from an army pursuing to kill him. Elijah felt a total failure like Lolo and us many times in life when after all our goodwill and love, we are dumped by the very people we care for.
Elijah went a day’s journey into the desert, until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it. He prayed for death, saying: “This is enough, O Lord! Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers” (1 Kings 19:4).
In one of the scenes of Lolo and the Kid, we find Lolo crying, cursing everyone and murmuring just like in last Sunday’s gospel. As he tried to end his life with a knife, Lolo suddenly heard the cry of an infant from the heap of garbage around him. What a beautiful portrayal of that infant left in the trash like Jesus Christ born on a manger becoming the savior of Lolo, a definitive message of mercy and love from God after his apparent cry of “This is enough, Lord!”
How many times have we found ourselves in the same situation, often in less momentous ones than Elijah or any prophet and saint, crying out to God in the heavens “this is enough”?
But, what is also most true behind every cry of “this is enough” that we make, we continue to believe and to hope in God that there is still a way out of our plight. And very often like in the story of Elijah last Sunday and in that scene in Lolo and the Kid, God comes at the nick of time like that infant crying in the garbage heap, a reminder of life and beauty found within us despite all the dirt we may have around us.
From netflixlovers.it
Here we find the Kid, perfectly played by Euwenn like in Firefly, as the saving grace, the Christ-figure in the movie bringing salvation to Lolo. Kid was “the bread of life from heaven” who “fed” Lolo with life with its meaning and direction. And joy found in Kid, the image of Christ Jesus.
Now, joy according to Jesus at the Last Supper is like a woman at the pangs of childbirth (Jn.16:21-22); it is deeper than happiness. True joy is borne out of self-sacrifice, a fruit of self-denial, of loving somebody more than one’s self. This we find at the end of this moving film.
Now all grown up, Kid finally met again Lolo in the hospital a day after his college graduation. Kid brought Lolo while seated on a wheelchair to visit Taba (another character without a name), their suki in fencing. From there, they went to their usual stop, a videoke bar to eat and drink, singing repeatedly Kenny Roger’s Through the Years.
Then, Lolo died, singing the only tune he knew that summed their beautiful relationship.
Photo from list23.com.
After Lolo’s body was taken out of the videoke bar, Kid opened Lolo’s bag that had a tin can of biscuit filled with old photographs taken with their stolen Polaroid camera. The photos did not merely remind Kid of their happy times together but most especially when they were already apart!
Unknown to Kid, Lolo hid to take photos when he moved to his adoptive parents, from his first ever birthday party to his college graduation! Through the years, Lolo, like God, was always there, present in all of Kid’s milestones in life because he is truly loved.
I have never liked that song Through the Years even when it was a hit during our high school days in 1981 but since Saturday, I have been humming it silently, hearing it inside me as an LSS until now. We hear the song playing throughout the end of the movie with scenes of how Lolo secretly took Kid’s photos filled with love and joy amid the strong current of pain within he had to endure to be far and away yet so near to his beloved apo.
If the Kid is the Christ figure in this film, Lolo is the God-the-Father figure, the One who seems so far from us as if He does not care at all. In Lolo and the Kid, there is that message of God never leaving us wherever we may be, whether we are in the squalor of poverty and sin or in the purity and cleanliness of affluence and grace maybe. God like Lolo to Kid is always with us but never interferes, silently doing many things to ensure that despite our many faults and failures in life, we end up in Him and His love.
We go back to Elijah’s cry of “This is enough, Lord!”, our very same cry like Lolo in the movie.
It is a cry that is also a prayer coming from our innermost being when we feel so saddled with no one to unload our woes except to God – who after all is the very reason why we cry! Watch for Lolo’s soliloquy on this reality we often do.
Photo by author, James Alberione Center, QC, 08 August 2024.
It is a cry of faith so akin with love because to believe and to love go hand in hand. It is during that moment when we feel like giving up to God, crying “this is enough” when in reality we surrender everything to God because we have been caught up by Him that we cannot resist His attraction.
It is that moment when we feel so “fed up with life” but deep inside, we hear God telling us like Lolo with the cries of an infant or like Elijah with an angel instructing him, “Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!” (1 Kings 19:7).
Yes, our life journey is still long but we have a companion in Jesus, our bread of life from heaven, nourishing us, strengthening us, teaching us that essential beauty of love found only in sharing one’s life for the other. As we have said in last Sunday’s homily, it is when we cry “it is enough, Lord” when God gives us more than enough to sustain us sometimes in the form of a good movie like this one. May we have more “bread” like Lolo and the Kid that feeds our soul and gladdens our heart.
*BTW, we are not paid to endorse this movie; simply sharing with you its good news.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday in the Eighteenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 07 August 2024 Jeremiah 31:1-7 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 15:21-28
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
Yes, a day will come when the watchmen will call out on Mount Ephraim: “Rise up, let us go to Zion, to the Lord, our God.” For thus says the Lord: Shout with joy for Jacob, exult at the head of the nations; proclaim your praise and say: The Lord has delivered his people, the remnant of Israel (Jeremiah 31:6-7).
How refreshing are your words today, God our loving Father; so upbeat with hope for the divided nation of Judah and Israel to finally be one just like us today: so divided recently with all the mockery and sacrilege in the Paris Olympics only to be united by Carlos Yulo's recent harvest of two gold medals; what a beautiful lesson in faith in You that is also hope itself; from being the least supported and known sport in the country, Yulo remained faithful filled with hope in You while persevering in gymnastics; like Yulo and Jeremiah's command, let us shout with joy to You, proclaiming your redemption that literally means "Hosanna" in Hebrew, the very shouts of joy when Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
She said, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” Then Jesus said to her in reply, “O woman, great is uyour faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed from that hour (Matthew 15:27-28).
Like that Canaanite woman who begged Jesus, even bantered with Him about dogs and puppies, bread and crumbs for mercy and healing to her sick daughter, help us realize that faith is hope; that hope is more than positive thinking of how things would get better but could even get worse yet still believe in God!
Thank you Jesus for always coming to "pagan" territories like Tyre and Sidon; keep our faith and hope burning to await You, to recognize You, to meet You coming in the midst of our many darkness and brokenness. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday, Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, 16 July 2024 Isaiah 7:1-9 <*((((>< M+ ><))))*> Matthew 11:20-24
Photo by author, Holy Family Monastery of Our Lady of Carmel, Guiguinto, Bulacan 2019.
Thank You, dear God our Father to your reminder today through your prophet, "Unless your faith is firm you shall not be firm!" (Isaiah 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; 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 with Mary our Lady of Carmel. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, 07 July 2024 Ezekiel 2:2-5 ><}}}}*> 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 ><}}}}*> Mark 6:1-6
Photo by Mr. Gelo Carpio, Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan, January 2020.
Last week’s readings clarified with us the disturbing mystery of death and sickness are not from God but from the evil enemy. Nothing bad could come from God who is love Himself that is why He sent us Jesus Christ to heal and save us. Should something bad happen to us, God works silently to ensure everything would turn out good for us. Hence, the need for faith.
Today our readings clarify another mystery in life that happens so often that we encounter daily despite our efforts and sacrifices, demanding us for more faith too. It may be lighter than death or tragedies but still a kind of suffering that is most persistent, even troublesome we refer to as failures like rejections and other weakness we have as humans.
Jesus departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples. When the Sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished… And they took offense at him (Mark 6:1-2,3c).
Photo by author, 2023.
Mark tells us today how our Lord Jesus Christ embraced failure and rejection. Though perfect and powerful, Jesus chose to be weak and powerless, experiencing rejections so that we may become like Him, holy and divine.
If we go by the world’s standard, Jesus and His mission were actually a “failure” after He was rejected by the crowds, shamed and crucified along with two other criminals. But, it was in that failure that Jesus rose again on Easter!
See that small detail Mark noted so well in his story this Sunday, “they took offense at him (Mk.6:3c).” It is that classic case among us humans we say so well in Filipino, “walang personalan, trabaho lang”. Everything is personal because we are all relating beings. Every rejection is personal. However, Jesus is teaching us too that rejection and failures become a problem when we are not able to accept them as a part of our weaknesses as humans.
Photo by author, 2019.
Of course, it is painful. And that’s the good news this Sunday – Jesus is with us in every failure and rejection we go through as He joins us in crossing this life right in our own home and among our own people with all the negative things they throw on us. Jesus must have felt sad too when His own folks “took offense at him.” Rejection is humiliating as we feel to have failed in life. Or worst, as if we are a failure. Even that simple act of being “unfriended” in Facebook is painful, is it not?
However, when we examine failures and rejections, these are not really about us but more on those around us, on those “who took offense at us” that like Jesus, we really can’t perform anything at all because those around us lack faith and not that we are powerless or could not do anything at all.
This Sunday, Jesus is telling us not to take every failure and rejection personally though it is really very personal. See the other sides of failures in life as these are not really that bad at all! Oftentimes, we are not the problem but those who reject us. Have a heart. Stop those self-pity. Next Sunday after this rejection in Nazareth seen by the Twelve, Jesus would even send them to preach and heal;surely, part of their mission was to face rejection first hand too.
Photo by author, 2023.
Once again, Mark is revealing to us who is Jesus Christ really – truly Divine, the Son of God who spoke with authority, who could heal the sick and raise the dead but at the same time, truly human who embraced rejections and failures, even becoming “powerless” that would reach its highest point on Good Friday.
And to know Jesus more is to have that deep faith in Him which is most essential like a hinge connecting us to Him and other virtues. Even God cannot do anything at all if we do not have faith in Him, if we do not believe Him. Jesus had said this a few weeks ago when He mentioned the sin agains the Holy Spirit. We can’t even talk of any relationships unless we have faith from which springs love and understanding.
Most of our failures and pains in life came from this lack of faith in our family like mistrust among husband and wife or among children and parents. Failures begin when we refuse to believe or have faith in our very selves, with others, and with God. When people lack faith, we have no relationships, no common ground to start anything like simple conversations and dialogue that is more of being with others than a way of thinking through issues and problems.
Photo by author, 2022.
Lately I have been going through some serious reflections in life as friends and colleagues in my former work and past ministries are retiring and getting sick with some of them dying. One thing I have realized is that no one is really so good, so brilliant because each one of us has imperfections and limitations.
The best managers and pastors I have met and known are those who knew so well how to gather and inspire the best people to work together.
Most of all, when I look back to these great men and women who have taught and formed me in school and work, their most outstanding trait is their courage to be imperfect. They do not hide their fears and failures, insecurities and mistakes that they were able to see more of what is possible than impossible because they believed in God, in themselves and in others.
Faith is infectious like disbelief or unbelief. Better choose faith which leads us to life. See how the men and women in the Church who have become saints like St. Paul along with the many statesmen, thinkers, writers, and scientists who were able to shape and change the world by being courageous enough to be imperfect due to their faith.
Photo by author, Malagos Garden Resort, Davao City, 2018.
God knows our limitations and weaknesses; most of all, our sinfulness yet, He never loses hope in us that He continues to call us to be converted, even sending us prophets who at the start are already aware of the failures and rejections they would face in such difficult mission.
This is one important aspect we priests have forgotten or disregarded – the courage to be imperfect as we always play God. Nobody’s perfect except God; the challenge in this life is to overcome every failure and defeat we encounter for that is how we are perfected. Remember that term “blessings in disguise” that are our many imperfections in life.
When facing a failure in life, the best thing to do is to be silent and to pray, be the presence of God like the prophets, “And whether they resist— for they are a rebellious house — they shall know that a prophet has been among them” (Ez.2:5). After all, God’s “grace is always sufficient” for us because “power is made perfect in our weaknesses so that when we are weak, then we are strong in Christ Jesus” (1Cor.12:9,10).
During His lifetime here on earth, Jesus was “amazed” only twice. First was when a Roman centurion asked Him to cure his slave from afar, saying “I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the words and my servant will be healed.” Jesus was “amazed” that He cured the servant from afar, declaring that He had not seen such great faith in Israel (Mt.8:5-13). The other time Jesus was amazed was when He returned home narrated in our Gospel this Sunday when people “took offense at him” that “He was amazed at their lack of faith” (Mk.6:3,6).
When Jesus comes, would He be amazed with our great faith, or with our lack of faith?
Be amazed. Choose Jesus, choose faith in Him, the Christ! Let us pray:
Lord Jesus Christ, thank You for always believing in me despite my sins and many flaws; remind me always I am not You, and therefore, imperfect and weak; keep me faithful and persevering in You, crossing the turbulent sea of life, helping others cross to make it through to the side of life; let me your voice of hope and your presence in this world fascinated with anything that glitters and sparkles, afraid of the dark, of emptiness, of failures, of faith. Amen.
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.
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