Christ comes in the Mass

Lord My Chef Simbang Gabi Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Simbang Gabi-IV, 19 December 2025
Judges 13:2-7, 24-25     <*((((><  +  ><))))*>     Luke 1:5-25

*View of a decorated Christmas tree and tower of the Franciscan Monastery of St Saviour locally also known as San Salvador monastery in the Christian Quarter Old city East Jerusalem*

From Matthew, we now shift to Luke’s account of the story of Christmas which is the most complete and detailed of all gospel accounts. In fact, most artistic renditions of Christmas were inspired by Luke’s gospel.

Very surprising in his Christmas story, Luke started it with the annunciation of the birth of John the Baptist to his father Zechariah who was then serving at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, a beautiful reminder to us all these days that Christ comes in our Holy Mass.

And I wonder – what if I imitate Zechariah in the gospel on this Simbang Gabi: come out late in the altar… totally silent, unable to speak?

Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah and were amazed that he stayed so long in the sanctuary. But when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He was gesturing to them but remained mute. Then, when his days of ministry were completed, he went home (Luke 1:21-23).

A priest recently posted on Facebook an appeal to us all priests to truly pray and reflect to have a good homily this Simbang Gabi and Christmas Season because the people deserve more than jokes, hugot lines and gimicks during these ten days of celebrating the Mass.

And we totally agree with him!

Let us accept the fact that majority of Catholics in the world – not only in the Philippines – celebrate Mass only on Christmas. At least in our country, there is the Simbang Gabi when many Catholics try to complete its nine-days of Masses plus the Christmas Day itself and, that’s it for them – ten consecutive days in December and absent every Sunday from January to November with a few who would return to Mass on Palm Sunday, fiestas and birthdays. Especially these days, most people have no qualms at all of skipping Sunday Masses while there are still some who wrongly believe the online Mass suffices.

The challenge and call for us priests this season is indeed very true when we are able to pray and prepare well our homilies to catechize the once-a-year-Catholics so that they may experience the love and mercy of God in Jesus Christ who had come and continues to come during our celebrations of the Mass and other sacraments.

Problem is, very often we priests are indeed so much like Zechariah on that day when he doubted the good news of John’s birth announced by an Angel. Not only are many priests notoriously late in their Mass schedule, worst of all as the people complain, either they have nothing or too much to say during their homily!

*Photo by Ar. Philip Santiago, Jerusalem, October 2025.*

Like the people awaiting Zechariah during that important feast, people are amazed today why some priests could not say anything substantial at all except to continuously ask people to clap their hands and praise God with such cues as “God is good…” and “all the time…” and soon enough what’s next, collection, then after communion special collection!

On the other hand, like the people awaiting Zechariah during that feast, people are also amazed when their priests speak a lot without any sense at all. Worst, many times, the priests are like Jollibee – puro pabida either by converting the altar into a stage for his stand-up jokes and entertainment or turn the sanctuary into a videoke bar because Father is so bilib in his voice.

Sorry, my brother priests. Let’s listen to what people are saying. Let’s listen especially to God when he speaks to us. Or, do we have time to listen to him in prayers?

One truth we priests could not admit or refuse to admit despite its glaring realities is that many of us have become just like politicians – so corrupted that we simply entertain people, keep them ignorant of the more essential things in life and about God because many of us do not pray or are not even interested of going to heaven at all.

Maybe like Zechariah, many priests have been burned out not only of the tasks and living in near isolation but also due to the long wait for answers to our prayers coupled with the many pains and hurts that came along with the ministry that has become more of duties than relationship with the Caller, Jesus Christ.

In telling us this story of the annunciation to Zechariah, Luke had touched on something very timely and sensitive among us priests including the faithful in this age of social media: we have been so detached from God and the divine, many times so impersonal with one another, and, worst of all, so attached with material and worldly things.

As a result, many people have stopped looking up to some priests as models and inspiration for upright living because we have become so much like them in almost every aspect from clothing to speaking and even thinking!

“Pari pala yun!” is what some people often remark these days when they find priests making tambay dis oras ng gabi in almost every cafe or worst, in places we should not even go like casinos and bars, whether with GRO’s or macho dancers.

A growing concern among us these days is the complaint of lay faithful who feel lost and could not guidance like find definitive answers from their pastors about moral issues so blurred by the modern technologies and Western thoughts like wokism. Imagine a Catholic school allowing gay pride festivities? Or relativistic priests to issues of abortion and contraceptives, sex change and gender manipulations, even cases of pornography and other modern addictions. A growing number of laypeople openly express their disappointment at how lately priests have become so lenient with sins that they are already confused on what to confess!

Zechariah and us priests today face the same problem before God: we talk too much and pray so little that perhaps, we need to be silenced too in order to pray more, to listen more to God, his words, his plans and his people as envisioned by synodality now in oblivion.

Imagine all his life as a priest, Zechariah had been praying for a son but when it was finally answered by God, he refused to believe it. Suddenly, he was so lost at what he was supposed to be an expert like spirituality and prayer, most of all, of God’s goodness.

What happened to Zechariah?

And that is what our gospel is asking us priests today, what happened Father?

In the first reading we have heard of the wife of Manoah who felt “a man of God” approached and told her of the good news of the birth of a son (Samson); how lovely if people could feel the same way like in the old days of their priests as “man of God”!

It is very sad when laypeople complain their priests have become so “ordinary” without any sense of holiness or at least of the holy, from simplest wearing of clerical shirt and proper Mass vestments to good grooming and tidiness.

Maybe because we priests have been so concerned so much with palabas than of paloob, when like the social influencers, many among us are so carried away by media chasing content than substance, especially theology.

One of the most painful cuts in the ministry today that hurts so bad is when priests striving to be holy, speaking and doing what is right and proper would then be called as pharisaical. This is very evident in the celebration of the Mass as some priests would belittle even insult those who follow rubrics as well put on proper vestments.

Luke invites us today, both ordained priests and laypeople who share in the priestly office of Jesus in their baptism, that we look into ourselves, into our hearts amid our worship of God like Zechariah in the very presence of God in the Holy of holies: are we present in the Lord?

Do others feel Christ’s coming in our presence especially in the word and later in our life of witnessing and loving service to them?

Let us strive to have meaningful celebrations of the Mass and other communal worship not only this Advent and Christmas because people await from us ministers of the altar like Zechariah of old the good news of the coming of Christ in every Mass we celebrate with them. Help us your priests, our dear lay faithful by giving us the chance to pray more and serve more instead of inviting us in your activities and other affairs we are not needed. Amen. Have a blessed Friday!

Representing Jesus well

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe, 06 July 2025
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C
Isaiah 66:10-14 ><}}}*> Galatians 6:14-18 ><}}}*> Luke 10:1-12

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

Finally, we hit the fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time with Luke as our guide after a month of Solemnities.

We are at the turning point in the gospel of Luke – chapter 9 and first half of chapter 10 – where Jesus was identified by Peter as the Messiah (9:20) while Jesus for the first time made known his coming pasch (9:22). From this point on, Luke tells us of how Jesus “resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem” (9:51) to fulfill his mission as they took a detour from a Samaritan town that had refused them passage (9:53). After this scene comes our gospel this Sunday.

At that time the Lord appointed seventy-two others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; greet no one along the way. Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household’… Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the laborer deserves his payment. Do not move about from one house to another. Whatever town you and enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God is at hand for you.'” (Luke 10:1-5, 7-9)

First thing we notice about discipleship according to Jesus is that it is never easy, “behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves.” Disciples need to be “resolutely determined” in the mission like Jesus, focused only on Jesus.

Early in his teachings during the Sermon on the Plain, Jesus enunciated in his Beatitudes the contradictions of his life and teachings to the ways of the world his followers have to imitate. Hence, his list of “do’s” and “don’ts” of discipleship in today’s gospel.

Do’s: greet peace every household they entered; stay in same house; eat and drink whatever is offered; cure the sick; and proclaim “the kingdom of God is at hand.”

Don’ts: no money, no sack, no sandals, no greetings along the way, and do not move about from one house to another.

Notice there are five do’s and five don’ts. And there are only two “do’s” that require speaking: to greet every household with peace and then the other is to proclaim to everyone the kingdom of God is at hand (10:5, 9) which is the sum of discipleship in Christ.

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2025.*

“Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household'”…

The only valuable we as disciples of Christ must have is peace that we have to offer generously to everyone.

Peace is the work of the Holy Spirit, a sign of the coming of the Kingdom of God as the angels proclaimed on Christmas, “on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” (Lk. 2:14). Most of all, peace is the fruit of Easter that the Risen Lord offered his disciples upon seeing them on that evening, “Peace be with you” (Jn.20:19).

Vatican II defined peace “is not merely the absence of war… but the fruit of love which goes beyond what justice can provide” (Gaudium et Spes 78). Peace is something we all have to work and strive for, entailing wounds and sacrifices for us to achieve it by cooperating with the grace of Jesus Christ in overcoming sin and evil. It is a process that never stops, calling for perseverance and daily conversion on our part.

Peace comes when we disciples are open for Christ, for others, and for change and transformation. That is why Jesus insisted us his disciples not to bring anything material that may influence our dealings with others, especially with those who are poor.

The great irony of our time is that the more we have grown affluent with wealth and material things, the more we have become empty in meaning and directions in life. So many are disturbed, longing for peace but could not have it because we the disciples are also lost in the things and the ways of the world.

“…cure the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God is at hand for you.'”

In the Luminous Mysteries of the Holy Rosary introduced by St. John Paul in 2002 is its third mystery, the proclamation of the Kingdom of God.

It is truly a mystery of light because Jesus is the Kingdom of God! To proclaim the coming of the Kingdom of God is to proclaim the coming of Jesus Christ in our midst. When John the Baptist’s disciples asked Jesus if he was the One they were waiting for or had to wait for another, Jesus said in reply, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the good news proclaimed to them” (Lk.7:22).

Where there is healing, there is new life, there is proclamation of the good news, there is Jesus Christ! Proclaiming the Kingdom of God is representing Jesus in our lives, in our mission.

In the previous chapter and scenes before our gospel this Sunday, Jesus asked his disciples what people said about him, the very same gospel we have last Sunday during the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul.

Recall how Jesus was mistaken for John the Baptist, Elijah and Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

That’s the problem we still have today: many followers of Jesus do not represent him well that people are lost at who he really is! And it first happens right in the Sunday Eucharist as noted by a Facebook group called Catholic Fortress in its series this past week.

Many reacted positively for the series that was really good and timely for us priests and ministers at the altar who have unconsciously abused the Mass, unknowingly deviating from Christ himself who could no longer be found and experienced by the people. Truly the Mass is about Jesus; but, when it becomes like a showbiz with so many ek-ek and palabas by the priest, the servers and ministers and the choir, then it leads us away from Jesus who is paloob or inside our hearts.

In 400 AD, St. Augustine wrote the first manual for catechism called De Catechizandis De Rudibus (On Instructing Beginners) detailing, step by step the many things to consider and lessons to teach people being prepared for Baptism. From a simple request by his deacon named Deogratias, St. Augustine came up with an entire book on how to catechize with a final lesson that is the heart of his book when he wrote, “Remember, the catechist is the lesson himself.”

The same thing is very true with us priests and altar ministers and every disciple of Jesus Christ! Do we have Jesus Christ or not especially in the celebration of the Holy Mass where we proclaim the Kingdom of God is at hand and share peace with everyone?

How can there be peace of Christ among us when priests fail to love first of all Jesus in prayers as reflected in his love for the people by preparing for the Mass so that the sick and the burdened may experience Jesus – not an actor or actress of a telenovela no matter how popular it may be?

Where is the Kingdom of God when people have to bear the tantrums and antics and hangups of their priest as they already have so much burdens in life? Or, when people have a hard time tightening their belts and the priest keeps on asking for collections without any reports?

Where is the Kingdom of God when priests play favorites among the parishioners and servers, when some support Pride Movement and corrupt officials?

How can there be peace when all we have in the Mass is clapping of hands that we never have time to listen to God speaking to us in silence?

*Photo by author, St. Joseph’s Chapel of the Order of Friars, Tagaytay City, 17 January 2025.*

This Sunday, Jesus invites us to examine our faith journey in him if we are still following him or somebody else.

Let us pray for that grace to represent Jesus well always in our lives as priests and laity alike that we truly become the Body of Christ, his presence on earth.

It is the relationships that we have with God that matters in discipleship which Isaiah likened to that of a mother and child in the first reading. This finds it fulfillment when like St. Paul in the second reading, it is Christ’s Cross that we carry in ourselves – not bags nor money nor self and fame. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City.

Our imperfect love: a Maundy Thursday reflection

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 17 April 2025

*Photo by author, Sacred heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.*

I have always loved Thursday since my first job in 1986 at GMA-7 News and Public Affairs. It was the day-off given to me by our office because I have to write news for our radio stations DZBB-AM and DWLS-FM even on Saturdays and cover news for television on Sundays.

After resigning from my job to enter the seminary in 1991 and got ordained as priest in 1998, I still chose Thursday as my day off from the ministry.

The reason for this is from a news I have found from the wires of United Press International during my GMA days that reported the findings by researchers in a US university that people are more kind on Thursday. According to the report which I used in our two radio stations, people are normally grouchy on Monday because of hangover from the weekend. They only start working on Tuesday, getting so tired on Wednesday, the two most toxic days in the week. Friday is TGIF when employees shelve their work in preparation for the weekend.

It is only on Thursday when people are most human and kind as they wanted to get everything done before TGIF. Hence, it is also the best day in the week to ask for a raise or to ask for favors from anyone. It is also on Thursdays when traffic is lighter because people are more relaxed, not so stressed out than the other days of weekday.

*Photo from wikipediacommons.org of Christ’s washing of feet of Apostles at Monreale Cathedral in Palermo, Italy*.

Perhaps it is no coincidence at all, in fact truly a part of the mystery of Jesus Christ’s Incarnation, i.e., his becoming human like us in everything except sin that he gave us his new commandment during their last supper also on a Thursday.

“I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

This is the reason Holy Thursday is called Maundy Thursday from the Latin word mandatum or commandment when Jesus gave us his commandment of love.

Love is the only thing we all have to do in life. This love is expressed in our love for God through one another. That is why Jesus clarified that during his ministry: love of God is always expressed in our love for one another. Love as a commandment is like a face with two cheeks always together. Isang mukha, dalawang pisngi.

Every time we sin, it is not only a breaking of a law of God or human but most of all a refusal to love, a refusal to obey Christ’s commandment to love. Our Tagalog word for sin says it all: kasalanan from the root word sala which is “to miss” or “to fail”. Every sin – a kasalanan – is a failure, a missing (sala) of our one task which is to love. Every time we sin, we become less of a loving person.

It is indeed a very tall order from the Lord, to love like the way he loves us.

So when he had washed their feet and put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master’, and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master ands teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you shouild also do” (John 13:12-15).

However, Jesus is not the stiff nor strict at all in demanding that we totally be like him right away in our love for one another. All he asks us is to try, to persevere in his love. He knows very well that our love is imperfect, that only him can love us perfectly.

Many times we complain (rightly so!) as we get hurt emotionally, physically and even spiritually from people we look up to like priests and teachers and to those supposed to love us most like parents and siblings and friends.

It is part of the mystery of life and of love specifically that the ones we love most are the ones we hurt most too and vice versa. That pain is from that love that ironically fails always. And that is because we are not God. Our love is always imperfect. We need to have some room within us for others’ sins and failures.

*Photo by author, last supper scene of our youth’s senakulo, 15 April 2025.*

We are all imperfect that is why our love is also imperfect. There are times we think the love we share or give is the very best but to our beloved, it could be misconstrued as not love at all like parents being too strict with their children. There are times when we think our beloved would love our gifts as expression of our love but unknown to us they were expecting something else.

Only God can love us perfectly. That is the love of Jesus Christ for us on the Cross so vividly portrayed in his last supper on Holy Thursday evening when he washed the feet of his disciples.

Jesus washed the disciples’ feet because he knew they would get dirty again. And that would need constant washing by those he would leave behind, including us. To wash another’s feet is the highest or deepest form and expression of love because it is an imitation of Jesus Christ.

Imagine how Jesus bowed down to each of the Twelve that Holy Thursday evening. Every day, Jesus does that to us too!

Normally, we look up to God in the heavens to pray, to beg his mercy, to ask for his favors, to praise and thank him. Jesus reversed this at his last supper: with him washing our feet, Jesus is the one looking up to us mere mortals and sinners?!

That is the love of Christ for us he proved the following Good Friday when he plunged himself to the lowest point of life, of dying on the Cross because of his immense love for each of us that led to his Resurrection at Easter.

At the start of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper this afternoon before sundown, the rubrics instructs that “the tabernacle should be entirely empty, but a sufficient amount of bread should be consecrated in this Mass for the Communion of the Clergy and the people on this and the following day.”

This is a beautiful reminder too for us as we come for the celebration of Jesus Christ’s supper and sacrifice, we too must empty ourselves of our pride, to accept our own imperfections in order to have some room for others also imperfect just like us. Let us empty ourselves of our sins for us to be filled with Christ’s love and mercy, kindness and forgiveness.

This Maundy Thursday, let us reflect on how deep is our love for Christ and for one another. Look at your feet and admit how difficult it is to even wash our own feet. Whose feet do not get dirty in this life’s journey? Everyone does. Let’s admit that and start helping each other in washing our feet. That is love. We do not stop loving because that is all we have to do in life and afterlife. Amen.

Advent & Christmas begin in the church

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Simbang Gabi-4 Homily, 19 December 2024
Judges 13:2-7, 24-25     <*((((><  +  ><))))*>     Luke 1:5-25

*Photo by author, wailing wall of Jerusalem where Jews pray until now being the section closest to the Holy Holies destroyed in year 70AD*.

From Matthew, we now shift to Luke to listen to his account of Christmas which is the most complete and detailed. In fact, most artistic renditions of Christmas were inspired by Luke’s gospel.

Very surprising in his Christmas story, Luke started it with the annunciation of the birth of John the Baptist to his father Zechariah who was then serving at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. It is a reminder to us all these days that Advent and Christmas begin in the church, in our holy celebrations.

In the days of Herod, King of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the priestly division of Abijah; his wife was from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Once when he was serving as priest in his division’s turn before God, according to the practice of the priestly service, he was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord to burn incense. Then, when the whole assembly of the people was praying outside at the hour of the incense offering, the angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right of the altar of incense (Luke 1:5, 8-11).

Luke’s detailed account of the event is the Jewish Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) when their priests incense yearly between September 18-24 the Holy of Holies where they used to keep the Ark of the Covenant. From this detail by Luke we got the reliable timetable in the celebration of Christmas on December 25 by considering this event as the time of Elizabeth’s conception of John who was born June 24 or nine months after. Tomorrow we shall hear in the gospel how “on the sixth month” of Elizabeth’s pregnancy which fell on March 25, the angel Gabriel announced to Mary the birth of Jesus, the Solemnity of the Annunciation we celebrate on that date. Nine months from March 25, we have December 25! Who said our Christmas date is not in the Bible? We got it here in our gospel today courtesy of Luke!

*Photo by author, Parish Church of St. Joseph in Morong, Rizal, January 2021.*

It may sound simple yet, it is so profound. In narrating this to us, Luke reminds us today that the Christmas story began in a holy celebration in the temple of Jerusalem now happening in our Eucharistic celebrations in every church around the world.

Many take our Sunday Masses for granted these days with so many excuses and alibis but, let us set aside all these to reflect on this simple detail from Luke’s first story on Christmas.

First, this is a call for us all to go back to the church by finally putting a stop NOW of online Masses. Online Mass as a term is an oxymoron because it presupposes actual presence of people. There can be no virtual Mass because there is no such thing as virtual sacrament nor virtual grace. That is why God introduced Himself to Moses as “I AM WHO AM”, the One who is perfectly present, always actual never virtual.

Since the waning of the COVID virus last year, both the Pope and the CBCP have called for the ending of online Masses but unfortunately, so many priests have remained stubborn with some making “shameful profit” out of it which is strongly prohibited by Canon Law and other Church and papal documents. Unless online Masses are stopped, people will always find reasons and alibis not to go to church on Sundays.

As we reflect on Luke’s account of the celebration at that time of the annunciation of the angel to Zechariah while he was incensing the Holy of Holies, we get the feel of solemnity and sacredness that are sorely missing these days in many of our celebrations of the Mass.

Like Zechariah and the priests of the Jerusalem temple at that time who were all steeped in traditions and presumably spirituality, we have every reason to expect the same, even more, from our bishops and priests today. They are the ones who set the tone of every celebration and of life in the parish; their spirituality or lack of it is manifested in the parish life, from its building structure to its witnessing.

*Photo by author, pious Jews and Rabbis in another enclosed section of the wall of the temple of Jerusalem, May 2017.*

How sad when priests have lost the sense of the sacred of the Holy Mass when they disregard the solemnity of the celebration with all their antics and gimmicks; worst of all, of coming to Mass unprepared without a homily and good vestments, sometimes without having showered or shaved! What is tragic is when the priest attends all socials in proper attire, but never in the Mass.

The other day, I saw a sticker at the back of a delivery van that asks, “How’s my driving? And my grooming?” Too bad I was not able to get the name of the company of that delivery van but how great are its people must be in giving a premium on how their drivers behave and look!

Some priests shamelessly argue that what is essential is what is inside but they forget that the outward appearance is an indication of what’s inside them too. How can the people feel and experience God if their pastor comes shabbily dressed without any good vestments, so untidy as in dugyot, unprepared for the Mass, without a good homily?

What had become of our churches that have been the shining glory of architecture through the centuries but now look like malls? Some churches look like videoke bars with a lot of giant TV screens while priests serenade the people with their wonderful voices instead of delivering a homily.

How sad that many churches are untidy and ugly. Yes, ugly is the word. And kitschy, bereft of any sense of the holy that people cannot experience God except be played on their emotions with dramas and not to forget, second and third collections. Choirs are on their own with a concert, totally deaf to the fact their music is supposed to lead the congregation into prayerful reflections not to applaud them for a performance. It is about time we restore the dictum of the Roman liturgy of noble simplicity not only of the church and also of celebrations.

Photo by author, *Archdiocesan Shrine of Nuestra Señora De Guia, Ermita, Manila, 28 November 2024.*

Our gospel invites us today, especially us priests and bishops along with those involved in preparing our parish celebrations to be silent like Elizabeth – lest we be silenced and be made mute by the Lord like Zechariah to finally open ourselves to listen to God’s instructions about His Son’s coming.

Let’s face that sad reality of so many of us clergy and laity in the church who are like Zechariah trying to control everything including God, even playing God who give the people enough reasons to turn away from the Church completely.

Photo by author of the beautiful sacristy of the *Archdiocesan Shrine of Nuestra Señora De Guia in Ermita, Manila where even a guest priest could feel at “home” with everything in order.*

Like Elizabeth, let us choose to be silent in order to pray truly, awaiting God in the Holy Spirit to stir us into His Divine Plans like Samson in the first reading, “The boy grew up and the Lord blessed him; the Spirit of the Lord first stirred” (Jgs.13:24-25). We find the same thing in the gospel when Gabriel told Zechariah how John while still in Elizabeth’s womb would be filled with the Holy Spirit (Lk.1:15) in accomplishing his mission as precursor of Jesus.

If we could allow ourselves to be stirred by God first – not by fad or ulterior motives in our church celebrations – then every Mass becomes a Christmas, a coming of Christ.

Let us do away with unnecessary things in the church and in our celebrations that call attention to us, to our abilities and talents, even power like Zechariah by being more daring in silence and noble simplicity to experience God’s coming every Mass.

As we shall see in the coming days from the gospel of Luke, Christmas is both a journey into Bethlehem, Jerusalem and other places as well as into the very hearts of Joseph and Mary and of those who would recognize and accept Jesus Christ. May our churches reflect what is in our hearts as disciples of Christ, always with a space for Jesus to come and dwell inside and among us. Amen.

*Photo by author, Simbang Gabi in our previous parish, 2018.*

Ang demonyong cellphone, nasa loob ng simbahan!

Lawiswis Ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-22 ng Pebrero 2024

Larawan kuha ni Stefano Rellandini ng Reuters sa Manila Cathedral, Enero 15, 2015. Binatikos at binash (dapat lang) ng mga netizens mga pari noong Misa ni Papa Francisco sa Manila Cathedral nang mapansing walang tigil nilang pagkuha ng mga video at larawan, di alintana kasagraduhan ng Banal na Misa.

Ang demonyong cellphone
palaging nasa loob ng simbahan
hindi upang magsimba o manalangin
kungdi upang tayo ay linlangin
mawala tuon at pansin
sa Diyos na lingid sa atin,
unti-unti na nating ipinagpapalit
sa demonyong cellphone na halos
sambahin natin!

At iyan ang pinakamalupit 
na panunukso sa atin ngayon
ng demonyong cellphone 
na ating pahalagahan mismo sa
loob ng simbahan 
habang nagdiriwang 
ng Banal na Misa at iba pang mga 
Sakramento gaya ng pag-iisang dibdib
ng mga magsing-ibig!

Isang kalapastanganan
hindi namamalayan
ng karamihan sa kanya-kanyang
katuwiran gaya ng emergency,
importanteng text o tawag
na inaabangan, higit sa lahat,
remembrance ng pagdiriwang:
nakalimutan dahilan ng paqsisimba
pagpapahayag ng pananampalataya
 sa Diyos na hindi tayo pababayaan
 kailanman; kung gayon,
bakit hindi maiwanan sa tahanan
o patayin man lamang
 o i-silent sa bag at bulsa
ang demonyong cellphone?

Hindi man natin aminin
ang demonyong cellphone ang
pinapanginoon, 
pinagkakatiwalaan
ng karamihan kaysa Diyos 
at kapwa-tao natin  
kaya pilit pa ring dadalhin,
gagamitin sa pagsisimba 
at pananalangin!

Kung tunay ngang 
Diyos ang pinanaligan
habang ating pamilya 
at mga kaibigan 
ang pinahahalagahan,
bakit hinahayaang 
mahalinhan ating buong pansin
ng pag-atupag sa demonyong
cellphone tangan natin?

Pagmasdan sa mga kasalan
sa halip ating maranasan
kahulugan ng pagdiriwang,
kagandahan at busilak ng lahat,
asahan aagaw ng eksena
demonyong cellphone kahit
mayroong mga retratista
naatasang kunan at ingatan
 makasaysayang pagtataling-puso
kung saan tayo inanyayahan
upang ipanalangin na pagtibayin
pagmamahalan haggang kamatayan
na ating tuluyang nakalimutan
matapos tayo ay nalibang at nalinlang
ng demonyong cellphone.

Sa bingit ng kamatayan
naroon ating "last temptation"
ng demonyo sa anyo pa rin ay cellphone
upang sa halip na ipanalangin
naghihingalong mahal natin,
demonyong cellphone pa rin 
sa kahuli-hulihan ang hawak habang
kinukunan huling sandali ng pagpanaw
Diyos na ating kaligtasan, tinalikuran!

*Larawan mula sa rappler.com, Ash Wednesday 2023.*

Life is not a dress rehearsal

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 15 October 2023
Isaiah 25:6-10 ><}}}}*> Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20 ><}}}}*> Matthew 22:1-14

*Photo by Mr. Jay Javier in Taal, Batangas, 15 February 2014.*

I grew up in a generation when dressing properly – meaning, decently – was deeply inculcated both at home and the school. It has always been considered in our time as a sign of maturity when we come properly attired in every occasion.

Now, those days are gone along with the expression “Sunday’s best” when sneakers are paired with formal suits and worn even in weddings! Dressing has become so relative with total disregard for basic fashion sense and worst of all, without any sense of propriety at all in the name of personal comfort and style as well as individuality. That culture on “liberal” or “liberated” dressing has encroached into the church with priests refusing to wear the proper garments and dress as required by Code of Canon law. How ironic that while the lay people appreciate us priests dressed properly for the liturgy and ministry, the harshest insults and negative reactions against it come from some priests who argue using the hot weather as an excuse. Many priests have subscribed to the lame excuse of people that clothes do not make us who we are, that there is much more beneath the clothing we wear of who we really are.

True but not absolutely because what we wear, how we look outside is indicative of who we are, what we value, what we believe in. Dress speaks a lot about ourselves whether we like it or not as the Lord’s parable this Sunday teaches us.

The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’ But he was reduced to silence. Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’ Many are invited, but few are chosen.”
Matthew 22:11-14

*Photo by Fr. RA Valmadrid, National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, 13 October 2023.*

We now come to the third and final series of parables addressed by Jesus Christ directly to his enemies, the chief priests and elders of the people while teaching at the temple area in Jerusalem to underscore to them the need to reform their lives and be converted to his good news of salvation like the tax collectors and prostitutes.

See how in today’s parable some semblances with the parables of the two sons and wicked tenants of the past two weeks to show us God’s loving patience in doing everything to make us come to him like the subjects of the king with all the chances to come to his son’s wedding banquet.

And like with the parables of the past two Sundays, Matthew makes again a crucial twist in today’s parable that can be sufficiently ended in that part when the king was enraged by the continued refusal of his guests to come to his son’s wedding banquet that he ordered them all killed and instead extended his invitation to everyone in the streets.

The wedding banquet is heaven like the vineyard in the parables of the past two Sundays.

But it is not only referring to heaven at the end of time but also speaks so well of the here and now – the present life we live as citizens of the kingdom of God in Jesus Christ. Rejecting the invitation to come to the meal which as an expression of our citizenship in God’s kingdom is an act of disloyalty and treason against him.

*Photo by Arch. Philip Santiago, Hearts of Jesus and Mary parish, Malolos City, 2022.*

When we were baptized, we became citizens of the kingdom of God. We do our “pledge of allegiance” to God as his citizens every time we pray and most especially celebrate Mass which is just half of the whole deal of being citizens of his kingdom! Like in being Filipinos or whatever nationality we have, we must live up to our citizenship in God’s kingdom by being good and holy. That is the wedding dress referred to in the parable, the life we lead as children and citizens of God and his kingdom.

Jesus invites us today to face squarely the uncomfortable issues that prevent us from being his good and faithful disciples and citizens of God’s kingdom. Many times we are like those invited guests in the parable who allowed something else in their lives like their wealth and possession, businesses and worldly pursuits become more important than their allegiance to the King. Every time we sin, every time we skip the Sunday Mass, that is when we have our new God and King that may be our very selves, gadgets, vices, or the malls we frequent more than the church!

Here we find a deepening in Jesus Christ’s invitation to conversion into conforming our lives into him. St. Paul made a lot of beautiful imageries of “putting on Jesus Christ” as our new clothes and garment which we have retained in the Rite of Baptism when the newly baptized is clothed with the white dress. See how the man caught by the king fell silent when confronted because there was no excuse at all at not wearing the wedding dress in the banquet. The same thing is true with us today. We have no excuse for not being dressed, for not being conformed in Jesus Christ in our lives as his disciples. Everyday he gives us the opportunities of being conformed to him through our daily conversions through prayers and good works. God does not expect us to wear extravagant nor expensive clothes for his wedding banquet; just a clean and decent clothes are enough. Nobody is perfect.

*Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD at Tagalag, Valenzuela City, 13 September 2023.*

One of the things I used to enjoy in my school and seminary days were joining stage plays. Yes, I love acting but I just don’t know if acting (and singing) love me. Nonetheless, one of our most dreaded moments before the actual play was always the dress rehearsal when everything is considered as the “real thing”, the real play as our teaches and nuns have insisted when we were supposed to have memorized our lines and cues.

But, as I grew and matured, I realized that life is not a dress rehearsal at all; each day is an actual “play”, a “live” presentation where we must “perform” or “act” so well. Yes, we are all required to memorize our lines and cues in life but many times, we forget them. Nobody is perfect. And here lies the immense love and kindness of God to us: he allows us to improvise for our selves in case we have forgotten our lines just like those people instantly invited to the wedding banquet of the King’s son. They were able to improvise to make it to the banquet hall except for that one who came not dressed for the occasion. He was silent because he was so lazy to improvise, to find ways like the chief priests and elders in the time of the Lord. Until now, many of us make a lot of excuses and alibis for not being conformed in Christ, from the ordinary excuse of being “difficult” to the most absurd that “I am only human” or tao lamang, mahina at marupok. Keep in mind St. Paul’s words in the second reading, “I can do all things in him who strengthens me… My God will supply whatever you need, in accord with his glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (Phil.4:13, 19).

*Photo by Ka Ruben, National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, 2022.*

Every Sunday we are invited to celebrate with others the coming of Jesus and the salvation he has won for us. This wedding banquet is the Sunday Mass we celebrate, a fulfillment of the first reading from Isaiah of that mountain where “the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines” (Is. 25:6). In the Holy Eucharist, we have the choicest food and drinks – the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ – given to us to nourish us and keep us strong in this journey of life into eternity in heaven with the Father.

How amazing that nothing is really imposed upon us in coming to this banquet of the Lord in the Eucharist that is totally free of charge except that we have to come properly dressed on the inside, of being conformed in him.

But please, let’s get dressed also on the outside. No need to wear expensive and beautiful clothes. Just proper and clean ones are more than enough. A good rule of thumb we can rely on is this: God has blessed me tremendously this week and I am coming to celebrate with him, for him. How do I look to to express to him my gratitude and appreciation to his wondrous gifts? Amen. It is a Sunday, go to Mass!

Loving to the end

The Lord Is My Chef Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Maundy Thursday, 06 April 2023
Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14  +  1 Corinthians 11:23-26  +  John 13:1-15

*Photo by author, Holy Thursday 2019, Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.*

Tonight we begin the most solemn days of the year called the “Holy Triduum” of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Vigil. All roads rightly lead to the Parish Church at sundown for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist that begins with the Tabernacle empty. There will be no dismissal at the end of the Mass, it is open ended. Most of unique of all in tonight’s Mass is the ritual of the washing of feet of some members of the community.

But there is something more beautiful to the ritual washing of feet. It is the context and words from John’s gospel that set the mood of tonight’s mood and tone of celebration as well as the hint of the meaning of Good Friday too.

Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.
John 13:1

First thing we have to consider here is the fact that “Jesus knew his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father.” He was never caught by surprise. Jesus knew everything, was never taken over by events. Luke said it beautifully after his identification as the Christ at Caesarea Philippi, When the days for his being taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem (Lk. 9:51).

We have heard in the first reading the story of the exodus of the Israelites, their passover from Egypt to the Promised Land, their passover from slavery to freedom that was perfected by Christ’s own pasch beginning tonight with his Passion, Death and Resurrection. This is our call, to live Christ’s Paschal Mystery daily, to be one in him, one with him, one through him in passing over life’s many challenges and trials.

To passover means to grow, to mature, to overcome, to hurdle. Every day we go through many series of passovers, from sickness to health, from sinfulness to forgiveness, from failures to victory, from our little deaths to our daily rising to new life in Jesus. This we can only accomplish with love, the kind of love by Jesus Christ.

That is the second, most important thing we must consider in John’s brief introduction to our gospel tonight, Jesus “loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end”. The Greek word for the “end” is telos which is not just a terminal end in itself but indicates or connotes direction. Or fulfillment and perfection, not just a ceasing or end or stoppage of life or any operation. Jesus knew everything that is why his life here on earth had direction which is back to the Father, with us. Everything he said and did was out of love for the Father and for us.

Love is the sole reason Jesus came to the world to save us because we have failed to love from the very beginning. It is love that Jesus showed us on that Holy Thursday evening to be fully expressed on Good Friday when he died on the Cross. His whole life was love because he himself is love. This he showed when he washed the apostles feet and after that, asked them and us to do the same with each other. That is love’s highest point when we are able to get to our lowest point of service and love. In our daily passover, it is love that moves us to keep on going with life’s many ups and downs because we love our parents, our siblings, your wife or husband, your children. Our vocation and the people entrusted to us. We go through our passover we because we love.

When Jesus died on the Cross, he said, “It is finished” – meaning, he had fulfilled his mission, that is, he had perfectly loved us to the end by giving us his very life. At his death on the Cross, Jesus showed us perfectly his love for us, the Father’s love for us that he had told to Nicodemus at the start of John’s gospel that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (Jn. 3:16).

This is the love Jesus spoke of during that supper that rightly prompted St. Paul to put into writing, the very first one to do so in the New Testament:

Brothers and sisters: I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you…” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this in remembrance of me.”
1 Corinthians 11:23-24, 25

There on the Cross this was definitively fulfilled and perfected more than ever. Jesus did not have to die on the Cross but he chose to go through it because of his love for us.

Here we find the beautiful meaning of love expressed to us in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. More than obedience to commandments and keeping the laws of God by being good and kind with everyone, love is the perfection of life.

Love is our true destiny – end – in life, our call to life from the very beginning.

Keep on loving until it hurts. Until the end because God is love as John wrote in his first letter where he beautifully expressed, Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us (1 Jn. 4:11-12).

Love, love, love.

*Photo by Ms. April Oliveros, Mt. Pulag, 25 March 2023.*

My dear friends, only God can love us perfectly. Only Jesus can love us perfectly like what he did on the Cross.

Human love is always imperfect. That is why Jesus showed us the example of washing the feet of his apostles at the Last Supper.

In the Holy Mass, we all bow down before God and with everyone at the start to confess our sins, to admit our sinfulness “in what we have done and failed to do.”

In the Eucharist, Jesus fills up, completes our imperfect love with his love found in his words, in his peace we share with others, and most especially in his Body and Blood we receive.

St. Paul rightly reminded us of this meaning of the Eucharist, For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes (1 Cor. 11:26). This is why we have to celebrate Mass every Sunday. Most especially on holy days like tonight and Easter. Please, complete the Holy Triduum until Easter. Go on vacation some other date. Give these days to God who gave us his Son Jesus Christ by dying on the Cross for us.

Let us pray silently, be wrapped and awed by that mystery of the Eucharist Jesus established on that Holy Thursday evening at the Upper room.

Dearest Jesus,
teach us to love you more
by imitating your love,
of humbly going down to serve
even those who betray us,
of bending our hearts
to forego all bitterness
and festering anger within,
"let our tongues sing the 
mysteries telling of your Body, 
price excelling of your Blood"
in a life of loving service,
of daily dying in you
with you and
through you.
Amen.

Have a blessed and meaningful Holy Triduum. Please pray and reflect on God’s love for us these days at home, in the church.

Holiness is being faithful

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Holy Tuesday, 12 April 2022
Isaiah 49:1-6   +   John 13:21-33, 36-38

*Photo by Ms. Ria De Vera, Christ the King Procession, 2020.*

Maybe so many times you have felt nothing seems to be happening with all your efforts in school or office, in your relationships, and even in your prayers and devotions. Everything seems to be going to nothing at all.

Have a heart. Just be faithful in your studies, in your work, with your family and friends, most especially with God.

Though I thoughts I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength, yet my reward is with the Lord, my recompense is with my God.
Isaiah 49:4

When I was still a seminarian, there was a moment after our class when I went straight into our chapel and slouched on a pew, complaining and whining to God for the many problems that never stopped coming my way despite my efforts to be good. With my head bowed down, I had a litany of complaints to God that I felt like packing my things, go home and forget all about the priesthood. But after getting tired with my monologue and as I raised my head, something struck me that I felt so good while looking at our huge image of the Crucifixion at the altar of the chapel. As I looked in silence, I felt myself praying,

"Lord Jesus Christ, 
before all these pains and sufferings came, 
before all these problems happened, 
you were there first on the Cross - 
suffering for me, dying for me first."

*Photo by author, ICMAS Chapel (Theology Dept.), 2020.*

My dear friends, holiness is being faithful to God in Jesus Christ. St. Mother Teresa perfectly said that, “We are called to be faithful, not successful.” In my 24 years in the priesthood, I have realized that many times, our success are actually failures with God while our failures are what he often considers as success!

Of course, we need to plan and set goals in life and in work but we need to focus more on Jesus Christ as center of our lives, trying to see everything in his light not in our own limited views and perceptions. There so many things in life that cannot be quantified like our spiritual and emotional well-being on which actually depend many of our other aims in our personal and professional life.

Notice how in our gospel today the Apostles were so focused on themselves instead with Jesus that they totally missed what he was telling them about his coming betrayal by “one of them”. Particularly interesting was Simon Peter who asked the beloved disciple, John, to clarify it with Jesus since he was seated closest to him.

He leaned back against Jesus’ chest and said to him, “Master, who is it?” Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I had the morsel after I have dipped it.” So he dipped the morsel and took it and handed it to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot. After Judas took the morsel, Satan entered him. So Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.” Now none of those reclining at table realized why he said this to him.
John 13:25-28

Did you see the comedy, the humor?

Everybody was so focused on everyone and with each self except with Jesus! Were they so dumb not to understand the words of Jesus that to whomever he would give the morsel dipped in wine is the one who would betray him? Not really. Most likely, they were not listening, they were not focused on Jesus but with their very selves.

Being faithful is first of all being focused on God, in Jesus.

How can God fill us with his holiness when our thoughts and our being are always somewhere else or with somebody else? How can God fill us with his holiness when we cannot spend time with him every day in prayer?

*Photo by author, Mass by the shore of Galilee, the Holy Land, 2017.*

How lovely is the context of Simon Peter’s question that it happened during their Last Supper because that is where our fidelity to God is first nurtured to grow and deepened – at the Holy Eucharist of the Mass.

Remember, the minimum requirement for anyone to be called a good, practicing Catholic is to go Mass every Sunday. That is the most minimum but, have we kept it? It has been more than two months since we returned to alert level 1 in this time of the pandemic with almost everybody going to the malls and many vacation spots but what a shame when many still refuse to go to churches for the Sunday Mass!

Being faithful to Jesus to become holy begins with the Sunday Eucharist where we are nourished by the words of God and by the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ himself who enables us to overcome the many trials and difficulties of this life and make it into the Father’s house in eternity.

Have you gone back to your parish church for the Sunday Masses?

Forgive us, Lord Jesus Christ,
for being unfaithful to you, 
for betraying you like Judas Iscariot
right in the context of the Holy Eucharist
when we skip Sunday Masses;
when we come to Mass not for you 
but for our friends to whom we listen more; 
and most especially when we refuse or fail 
to practice the essence of the Eucharist
of sharing the love of Christ to everyone.
Amen.