Lord My Chef Daily Recipe by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday, First Week of Advent, 01 December 2025 Isaiah 4:2-6 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Matthew 8:5-11
Photo by author, Malolos Cathedral, December 2018.
Blessed are you, O God our Father for this first day of December, the first working day in this blessed Season of Advent as we prepare for your Son Jesus Christ's Second Coming; cleanse our hearts, O Lord so that you may dwell in us, come to us as as we dwell in you, come to you, "our shelter and protection; shade from parching heat of day, refuge and cover from storm and rain" (Isaiah 4:6).
How lovely are your words today, O Lord, as you fulfill in Jesus Christ our gathering in you as your people, this time not just in a building like the old temple of Jerusalem nor our modern churches; teach us to be more humble like that centurion in recognizing your supreme authority for you are Authority yourself; despite his not being a Jew, the centurion had the faith and humility in Jesus Christ's healing of his servant without touching nor seeing him.
O dear Jesus, you are the New Temple, you are our Temple, our dwelling no longer made by hands: grant us the grace of genuine faith and humility in you especially during the Mass right before we receive you in the Holy Eucharist saying the very same words of that centurion you praised, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed" (Matthew 8:8). Amen.
Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe, 31 August 2025 Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29 ><}}}*> Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24 ><}}}*> Luke 14:1,7-14
“Meal in the House of a Pharisee” 1886-1896 painting by James Tissot from brooklynmusueum.org.
For the next three Sundays beginning today, Luke gathered teachings of Jesus Christ all set on the dining table, a sort of some “table talks” about the great banquet in the end of time and how we could all get in to share in the eternal meal with the Father.
On a sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, and the people there were observing him carefully. He told a parable to those who had been invited, noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table (Luke 14:1, 7).
I love the way Luke presented this scene when he said “the people there were observing Jesus carefully” while the Lord told them a parable after “noticing how they were choosing places of honor at the table.”
How lovely! People observe, Jesus notices.
As it had happened in every instances of gatherings with Jesus, people carefully observed him, trying to find something to accuse him in of disregarding their traditions and laws like healing the sick on a sabbath day. They have “boxed” and judged Jesus as a dissident and a trouble-maker among them in his apparent disregard of laws and traditions.
Photo by author, Manila Club, BGC, June 2025.
In a funny twist, Luke tells us in this scene the immense love of Jesus then and now for everyone that despite his noticing and knowing everything in us, he neither counted those things against us nor ever judged us. How sad many of us with that habit of putting God in a box like a cop keeping tabs of our infractions when in fact God simply noticed our actions and behavior to invite us to become better without any judgment at all.
Keep in mind this scene reveals to us its context of the heavenly banquet which took place after the sabbath services at the synagogue where Jesus participated, hosted by a Pharisee, a VIP of the synagogue and of the society at that time. It was a party where every who’s who was supposed to be present, with everyone competing for the best seats closest to the host. And so, Jesus the keen observant but never judgmental used the occasion to teach us the essence of humility to make it to heaven or eternal life that is signified by a wedding banquet like that big meal he attended.
“When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor. A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him… For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:8, 11)
These past Sundays, we have seen Christ’s insistence of the Father’s desire to have everyone welcomed into heaven by giving us some instructions of what to do to gain eternal life.
This Sunday while in a big party, Jesus took the occasion to teach us the value of humility to get into heaven. From doing, Jesus now moves into being, our disposition and attitude to make it into heaven where what matters most is not where we are seated but where we stand. Recall how Jesus reminded the brothers James and John with their mother that he has nothing to do with the seating arrangements prepared by the Father in heaven after she requested her two sons to be seated beside him when he comes into his glory.
Heaven is more of where we stand with Jesus where his virtue of humility is most pronounced when he “humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Phil.2:8). That is why St. Augustine taught that “humility is a sign of Christ”, a revelation of Jesus that allows us to recognize him our Lord and Master leading us to the Kingdom of heaven without any feelings of inferiority and despair.
On the Cross which he prefigured at his Last Supper, Jesus showed himself as the most humble of all who went to life’s lowest point of suffering and dying to meet us as he noticed everything in us to lift us up and be like him, humbly standing in our sufferings. It is on the Cross that we find humility as the basic and essential requirement to get into the heavenly banquet of the Lord.
Very often when we examine our state of humility, what comes to our mind are the many negativities we have like our sins and failures, vices and weaknesses, our being unworthy. But, that is when we bow down most to beg for Christ’s mercy like before the Holy Communion when we pray, “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you under my roof but only say the word and I shall be healed.”
That is both the humility of Jesus and of us humans so vividly expressed at the washing of the feet after the Last Supper. Normally, we look up to Jesus in heaven but at the washing of feet, like every time we receive Holy Communion, we take the higher position, looking down at him not with pride but with all humility because Jesus humbled himself first before us. Here we find humility as seeing ourselves the way Jesus sees us – weak and sinful, yet so loved and forgiven. This is what Ben Sirach taught us in the first reading: humility is the fundamental attitude of wisdom because it opens us to the splendor of God when we find our self-worth and value too!
Without humility, it is either we see only the best or the worst in us as a person, without God, without others.
This is the bigger issue with the “nepo babies” now being bashed on social media after flaunting their wealth and ostentatious lifestyles. Their posts were far from inspiring, at most are tasteless and most convulsive. All we have noticed in their posts is their pride not only in lacking humility but most precisely in not finding value in themselves. Sadly but I dare say they are the ugliest and most pitiable persons because they find value only in wealth and things, not in themselves as persons. Hence, the flaunting of their possessions that only make them so pathetic because along that came their utter disregard for others especially the poor who suffer most with their parents’ greed for money through corruption.
Humility is always uplifting in the positive sense, not looking at others as below us but to realize despite our sins and weaknesses, we are loved, we are noticed as a person so worthy, so valuable. When we are humble, then we become joyful too because we are assured of love and acceptance despite our flaws. This is the gist of the message to us this Sunday of the author of the Letter to the Hebrews: unlike the Israelites in the Old Testament who were so fearful to approach God who spoke to them with thunder and lightning, we can get close to God in Jesus who humbled himself to be one with us by dying on the Cross.
True humility keeps us rooted with our selves, with others and with God. It is this rootedness best expressed in the Sunday Eucharist that we are able to follow Jesus in his journey to Jerusalem and eventually into heaven in all eternity. Amen.Have blessed Sunday and most blessed September too!
Photo by the Marketing Office, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City, June 2025.
A wedding homily for Sir Vicente R. Santos III & Ms. Jillian Bianca Carpio St. Michael the Archangel Parish, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, 12 July 2024 Tobit 8:4b-8 >><}}}}*> + <*{{{{><< John 15:9-12
Photo by author in La Trinidad, Benguet, 12 July 2023.
Congratulations, Sir Teng and Mam Jill on your wedding day. Your decision to get married in the Church is an expression of love itself because love is a decision, not just a feeling. Making a decision to get married is a choice to be small, to be broken into pieces to be united, to be one with the other person, your beloved.
Every time we make that decision to love, we renounce our very selves, our selfishness. The truest sign that we love is when we are able to love somebody more than our self; and to grow in love is to always choose the other person by a daily renunciation of one’s self which Ben&Ben sang so well, “Mahiwaga… pipiliin ka sa araw-araw…”
Photo by author, Camp John Hay, 12 July 2023.
This we saw in our first reading in the beautiful prayer by Tobiah with Sarah on their honeymoon when he mentioned God’s original plan in Genesis in creating woman as a suitable partner of man.
The root word of “partner” is part. A part is always small that makes up the whole. Every whole is made up of small parts.
A part-ner means you are both a part of each other and you both have to be small in order to be whole as married couple.
In that beautiful story of Tobiah and Sarah, we find them choosing to become small in order to become part of the bigger whole, of each other, and of God.
Tobiah is the son of Tobit who lived in exile in Nineveh, the capital of Assyria that had conquered Israel in the Old Testament. Tobit used to be wealthy but had a reversal of fortunes later in life made worse with his going blind. He sent his son Tobiah to Media to collect a debt from a fellow Jew with hopes he could also find there a bride for himself among their kindred.
God then sent Archangel Raphael who disguised as a traveler to Tobiah who was so kind to welcome him as companion. On their way to Media, Tobiah was attacked by a large, strange fish while taking a bath at the Tigris River. Tobiah was able to subdue the creature while Raphael instructed him to take out its heart, liver and gall due to its medicinal properties. Tobiah obeyed Raphael and they proceeded to Media to collect the debt owed to his father. There he met and fell for a Jewish woman named Sarah.
But, there was a major problem with Sarah: she had been widowed seven times because the devil Asmodeus would always come and kill her husband just before their honeymoon!
Engraving of Raphael instructing Tobiah to gut the fish by Georg Pencz (1543) from en.wikipedia.org.
Raphael pushed Tobiah to still marry Sarah, teaching how to drive away the devil Asmodeus on their honeymoon by burning the heart and liver of the strange fish he had killed. Tobiah followed Raphael’s instructions and Asmodeus was finally driven away that is why we have this scene of them praying in thanksgiving for their marriage. (This is the reason St. Raphael is portrayed with a fish and why arbularyos burn fish intestines to drive away evil spirits.)
Tobiah returned home to present his wife Sarah to his parents in Nineveh; Raphael again instructed Tobiah to apply the dried gall of the fish onto the eyes of his father Tobit to regain his sight. Amid their celebrations for Tobit’s healing and Tobiah’s marriage, Raphael revealed himself as God’s archangel sent to them to bring their healing which is the meaning of the name Raphael, “God has healed”.
See how Tobiah and Sarah, as well as Tobit even Archangel Raphael chose to be small and humble before God and everyone, to play mere parts in the grand plan of God in their lives. They were all willing to be humble and small.
Photo by author, St. Michael Archangel Parish, BGC, Taguig City, 12 July 2024.
Sir Teng and Mam Jill, you were sent for each other by God like St. Raphael to Tobiah and Sarah and Tobit. Handle your life with prayer. Always invite Jesus into your life as a married couple just like today you when you invited Him to bless your wedding. Do not forget to celebrate Mass every Sunday, to pray daily, as much as possible together as husband and wife.
True greatness is in becoming small like a little child as Jesus Christ repeatedly told His disciples. In this world where we compete on being the biggest and most powerful, God tells us the key to fulfillment is in being small, being humble, to become a part of the whole. The greatness of every person depends on the measure of his or her ability to share because it is only in participating in the whole does one becomes truly great.
Marriage is becoming small to become one. Husband and wife cannot be one unless they let go of themselves first. Marriage is not a competition of who has more love to give and share but simply of loving and loving, giving and giving.
When you reflected Sir Teng on what to do with your life and realized you will never be complete without Mam Jill, that is being small, that is truly loving because you are willing to let go of yourself to be a part of Jill.
Remember, there’s no perfect husband nor perfect wife but you can be the ideal husband, the ideal wife by forgetting yourself through daily conversion in Jesus Christ who gave His total self out of love for us. And you do not have to die on the cross literally, Sir Teng and Mam Jill.
Sir Teng, the ideal husband is someone who is deaf. Bingi. You know how women are. They talk a lot as they remember everything in detail even from long, long time ago. The moment Mam Jill starts talking, play deaf. So you don’t quarrel or debate.
Mam Jill, the idal wife is someone who is blind. Bulag. Problem with women is you see everything, kahit wala naman, may nakikita pa rin mga babae. When you see something with Sir Teng, play blind. Wala yun. Mabait siya talaga.
You two were brought together by your love for the French language. Every language is made up of small parts called letters used to form words put together in a sentence to express a thought or a feeling so we can communicate.
But, “communication is more than the expression of one’s thoughts and feelings; at its most profound level, it is the giving of self in love like Jesus Christ on the Cross” (Communio et Progressio #11)… just like every husband and wife too.
So, be small, Sir Teng and Mam Jill for you to remain in love, to grow in love, and be great in love. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday in the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 17 July 2024 Isaiah 10:5-7, 13-16 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> Matthew11:25-27
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD in Infanta, Quezon 2020.
Praise and glory to You, God our loving Father who has the whole world in your hands; nothing happens by chance, all good things come from You and if ever something bad happens, You know it for sure; You never punish us for our sins and whatever bad happens to us is a result of our transgressions, of turning away from You; therefore, let us always hope and trust in You for You never abandon us your children especially in our times of trials and tribulations; in the same manner, let us not be so proud when we are in the height of our success believing we are the best because You have the final say in history; let us not be proud like Assyria of old:
“My hand has seized like a nest the riches of nations; as one takes eggs left alone, so I took in all the earth; no one fluttered a wing, or opened a mouth, or chirped!”
Will the axe boast against him who hews with it? Will the saw exalt itself above him who wields it? As if a rod could sway him who lifts it, or a staff him who is not wool! Therefore the Lord, the Lord of hosts, will send among his fat leanness, and instead of his glory there will be kindling like the kindling of fire (Isaiah 10:14-16).
Teach me, dear Jesus, to be small like a child, simple and trusting in You; feeling more than thinking more, kind and loving than analyzing and sizing up others, most of all, lowly and humble because You alone has the whole world in your hands. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday in the Ninth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 04 June 2024 2 Peter 3:12-15, 17-18 <*((((><< + >><))))*> Mark 12:13-17
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD, an orange-bellied flowerpecker (Dicaeum trigonostigma) somewhere in the Visayas, December 2023.
Therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, be on your guard not to be led into the error of the unprincipled and to fall from your own stability.
2 Peter 3:17
Your words of caution
through St. Peter are so timely,
Lord Jesus in this time
of discussions and debate
on the proposed law on divorce;
how sad there are some
supposed to be learned and
knowledgeable, seemingly stable
in their positions as teachers
and educators and journalists
calling for more openness
in the discussions
of moral and social issues
are the ones who are really
closed to their own thoughts
and ideas they have labeled as
progressive and liberal,
insisting their own interpretations
of Scriptures and moral laws;
what is most sad,
even deplorable at times,
is when they cite so many
thinkers without even citing You,
dear Jesus
regarding Your own words
and teachings
that are clearly against divorce.
Forgive us, Jesus, when we look so highly of ourselves, believing so much to whatever we know like those Pharisees and Herodians who banded together to test You; keep us humble, Lord with whatever sense of stability we feel we have or know; let us grow in grace by constantly affirming that feeling and experience of being loved by God and most of all, to grow in Your knowledge which is to grow in a deeper and personal relationship with You. dear Jesus.
Lord Jesus, let us not only fall from our own stability but most of all. may we not mislead others to joining us in our follies. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Easter Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday in the Sixth Week of Easter, 08 May 2024 Acts 17:15, 22-18:1 <*((((>< + ><))))*> John 16:12-15
Your words today, Lord Jesus remind us in the most amusing way our state of miscommunication:
When they heard about resurrection of the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, “We should like to hear you on this some other time.” And so Paul left them.
Acts 17:32-33
Many times in life we are like the Athenians of old, so proud of what we know, of what we believe, of what we hold on as true without having them tested; we refuse to open our minds and our hearts to truly listen to the other person, especially to You, dear Jesus; help us realize that we cannot know the whole truth and everything in this life and world in an instant; help us realize how truth unfolds in time in persons; most of all, help us realize we do not know that much.
Jesus said to his disciples: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming.
John 16:12-13
Teach us to be patient and humble, Jesus, to listen with our hearts, to reach out and wait for the other person; teach us to have that sense of wonder like a child, eager to learn, always asking questions without getting right away the answers to them because many times in life, the answers we seek are found right within our questions, right in our hearts where You dwell. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Easter Recipe by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday in the Third Week of Easter, 16 April 2024 Acts 7:51-8:1 <*((((>< + <*(((>< + ><)))*> + ><))))*> John 6:22-29
Photo by Ms. Ria De Vera, November 2020.
Lord Jesus, teach me to bend my knees before You starting today; let me bring back those vanishing gestures of kneeling and genuflection almost unknown these days among the people; we live in a clapping culture where we give so much emphasis on what our hands can do that only end up in manipulating everything and everyone, especially when we clap senselessly or ridiculously so often especially in our liturgical celebrations.
My dearest Jesus, teach me to exercise my powerful muscles of the legs and knees, to bend and kneel more often, to get low to the ground to remember my origins, to be humble before You, my Lord and my God.
As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them”; and when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Acts 7:59-60
Photo by Mr. Red Santiago, January 2020.
Help me realize, dear Jesus, that it is in being humble before you like a child, kneeling before You when we truly find You, when You truly answer our prayers; very often, we come to You without looking at You, seeing only what You can give like those in the crowd who asked You to give them bread from heaven without realizing You are the bread Yourself whom we must receive. Because they have forgotten to kneel and bow low before in order to find You. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday in the Thirty-fourth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 27 November 2023
Daniel 1:1-6, 8-20 ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> Luke 21:1-4
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD in Tagalag, Valenzuela City, 17 November 2023.
Praise and glory to you,
our loving Father!
Thank you
in bringing us closer to you
in Jesus everyday
especially in this final stretch
of our church calendar
as we come to prepare for Christmas soon.
But, rather than focusing
on the outside appearances
and material inclinations
of our Christmas feelings,
teach us to empty ourselves
to be filled by you in Jesus Christ!
Let us be poor, O God!
Let us embrace poverty
and simplicity
to experience you,
your coming,
your presence
in Jesus,
our Emmanuel!
Let us treasure poverty
for it is our true wealth
in this life
like that “poor old widow”
who gave everything she had
into the temple collection box;
let us realize that it is in poverty
that we find true wisdom
and strength
like what Daniel and his companions
have taught the chief chamberlain
of King Nebuchadnezzar
(Daniel 1:11-20).
Let us be poor, O God,
like Jesus Christ to find
power and strength in weakness,
glory and honor in humility,
and life in death.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Sunday in the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 09 July 2023
Zechariah 9:9-10 ><}}}*> Romans 8:9, 11-13 ><}}}*> Matthew 11:25-30
Photo by Ms. Nikki Vergara, 2020.
Today we hear the final installment of Jesus Christ’s instructions to the Twelve as he sent them to their first mission which started two Sundays ago. Discipleship is essentially becoming like Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master who is meek and humble of heart.
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
For the third straight Sunday, Jesus has been teaching the Twelve including us today some important lessons in discipleship: first is to fear no one except God, then to be never influenced by others except God, and now, to learn from him who is “meek and humble” of heart.
Photo by author at the sacristy of the Manila Cathedral, 07 July 2023.
In the whole Bible, we find that “meekness” is the most remarkable quality of any one sent by God to his people, especially with Moses and King David.
Despite some instances of them getting angry and even being harsh sometimes, both were described as being meek especially Moses described as “the meekest man on the face of the earth” (Num.12:3).
When Jesus came and brought salvation to mankind by obediently dying on the Cross, he became the embodiment of meekness.
To be meek means being gentle and obedient, exactly who Jesus Christ is. All throughout his life, Jesus had repeatedly expressed everything he said and did were in total obedience to the Father who sent him to save us. That is why that we too find Christ’s words and actions as the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies of God coming to save his people, of sending someone so different from the other kings and servants before him. This is very evident in the gospel of Matthew who emphasized on the meekness of Jesus Christ that in narrating to us his version of the Palm Sunday entry of Jesus to Jerusalem, he actually cited (Mt. 21:4-5) our first reading today from Zechariah:
Thus says the Lord: Rejoice heartily, O daughter Zion, shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem! See, your king shall come to you; a just savior is he, meek, and riding on an ass, on a colt, the foal of an ass.
Zechariah 9:9
Unlike the kings and other powerful men of the world who rode on prancing horses symbolic of their power and strength, here is Jesus Christ riding a placid donkey, symbolic of his meekness and humility, most especially of his message of peace.
Meekness in Tagalog is maamo, from the root word amo referring to “master”, connoting one’s recognition of master by being submissive in the positive sense. Maamo also means being tame as opposite with being wild. Hence, the English word of being gentle, or gentility.
The good news of Jesus being “meek and humble” is that we need not be afraid of becoming his disciples, of becoming truly Christians in this age relativism when anything goes, no more absolutes like God and morality. Now more than ever, St. Paul’s admonitions in the second reading are so real when we are challenged to live in solidarity with Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit, or to live in solidarity with the old humanity enslaved to sin.
Yes, the Gospel of Jesus is demanding. And so is true love which is most demanding.
Photo by author, La Mesa Forest Reserve seen from Our Lady of Fatima University-Quezon City with the Sierra Madre as background, January 2023.
There will always be pains and hurts but these occasions make our discipleship, our love for Christ and for others most meaningful and fulfilling. The Lord’s “yoke is easy and his burden is light” because it is naturally human and divine like him made possible with his paschal mystery. Being loving and kind, forgiving and merciful, caring and helpful are never painful nor tiring because they liberate us, setting us free from the imprisonment and shackles of sin due to our pride and self-centeredness, leading us to true freedom and fulfillment.
Why is it now life has become so complicated? It is not because of Jesus nor of his Church who simply echoes his teachings as he had commanded. Life has become complicated ever since we have allowed and accepted all these modern thoughts of freedom that actually “unfreed” us like these trends from the “sex revolution” that have spawned all the evils plaguing us, from divorce to contraceptions and abortions that not only destroy human life but most especially the family, society’s basic unit. There are some insisting on altering the most basic and natural of God’s creation like gender as either male or female, nothing in between; and, marriage solely between man and woman.
See how life has been reduced to lifestyle characterized by commercialization of everything including persons with sex casually portrayed as an act or activity and a mere part of the body. Everything has become relative, to each his own. That is why life has become so tiring, even empty despite all the comforts and modern amenities we now enjoy.
We have been removing God from everything, from all his creation. That is why Jesus comes to us today, calling us all to come to him, all who are burdened to find rest in him.
Find Christ in yourself, you find Christ in others. When we find Christ, we find God, we find truth, we find life, we find rest.
Our gospel this Sunday comes as a fitting closing to the Lord’s lessons on discipleship. It is never easy in becoming a Christian, of standing for what is right and true, just and fair, in being kind and forgiving, in lovingly serving others without expecting anything in return.
Let’s not make it more difficult on our part. Examine the demands of Christ are actually simple, love him by obeying him. What are the demands of those trying to lord over us these days like those so-called wokes and liberals who are so harsh in insisting their views that are self-serving and unnatural.
Remember, our series of these instructions came when “At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd” (Mt.9:36, June 18, 11th Sunday). Jesus added that we pray for more laborers to work in the bountiful harvest, for more persons who are loving and warm, not demanding nor insistent on themselves and their beliefs. Have a restful week ahead! Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Homily, Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, 16 June 2023
Deuteronomy 7:6-11 ><}}}*> 1 John 4:7-16 ><}}}*> Matthew 11:25-30
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, Quezon City, 20 March 2023.
It has been two months since I celebrated by silver anniversary of ordination to the priesthood. Until now, I still continue to reflect and relish on this immense gift of priesthood, still asking with the same sense of awe and wonder since ordination day, “why me, Lord?”
As I reflected this week the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus which is dedicated for the sanctification of us priests, I have realized how I have remained the same sinful, insecure and fearful man ordained 25 years ago with my six other classmates. As I get closer to becoming a senior citizen in 2025, the more my past sins and stupidities, carelessness and vices are coming back like “Facebook Memory”, reminding me how I have them kept under control, that they could burst and be out in the open if I get careless.
But in the midst of all these darkness and weaknesses still in me, the more I feel so blessed and consoled, and overjoyed by the fact that I still have that same desire to proclaim Jesus Christ to everyone, of how beautiful this life is because of the Lord’s immeasurable love for each of us. Whenever I look back to my past with all my sinfulness and weaknesses amid my getting older, the more I am eager to make Jesus known to everyone while I am still strong and able. There is that feeling of being like St. Paul in saying, “To me, the very least of all the holy ones, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the inscrutable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for all what is the plan of the mystery hidden from ages past in God who created all things” (Eph. 3:8-9).
Or, like in our first reading, I could identify with the Israelites being reminded by Moses in the wilderness that “You are a people sacred to the Lord, your God; he has chosen you from all the nations on the face of the earth to be his people peculiarly his own. It was not because you are the largest of all nations that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you, for you are really the smallest of all nations. It was because the Lord loved you” (Dt.7:6-8).
Beautiful!
Love, love, and love!
That is the “inscrutable riches of Christ”, his immense love for us, dying for us, coming for us even if we are worth nothing at all. And it is because of that love of God for us that we have become so worthy that he gave us even his only Son, Jesus Christ.
That is the essence of this celebration of the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Love.
A reality we all experience and know but could not define for it has no limits. Love can only be described and best expressed in actions than in words.
See this Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus comes right after the Solemnities of the Most Holy Trinity and of the Most Precious Body and Blood of Jesus these past two Sundays. Both celebrations speak of love: the latter is about relationships based on love and the former is about giving of self in love.
Now that we are well into the Ordinary Time of our liturgical calendar, our celebration today tells us to remember throughout this year this most basic truth and reality of our faith – that we are so loved by God.
Beloved, let us love one another because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him.
1 John 4:7-9
Love is symbolized by the heart, the very core of every person. That is why I love the Spanish word for heart which is corazon, evocative of the core, of the deeper self. And of course, love is the very the person of God.
Of all the writers in the Bible, St. John is the one who most frequently used the word “love”, an indication of its centrality in his thoughts. Moreover, he clarified that this love is not human love because its origin, motives and effects are supernatural in nature who is God himself.
Being the very self and also the riches or wealth of Christ, love is for sharing, for giving. Never for keeping. Because of its supernatural nature, love is inexhaustible. The more you give it, the more you share, the more you have it!
In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. 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 John 4:10-12
Photo by Ms. April Oliveros, March 2023 at Mt. Pulag.
Let me repeat that last sentence, “if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.”
The more we love, the more we are able to see and recognize God and other people amidst the darkness around us. Likewise, the more we love the more we see our true selves too despite dark spots within us.
Love is the law of life. To love God by loving ourselves and others is not an obligation imposed from outside. It is the very proof of our faith and union with God in Jesus Christ.
Jesus makes this very clear to us today in the gospel that opens with him praising the simple people, those who were child-like who welcomed him and his preaching. They were the ones Jesus referred at his sermon on the mount, “Blessed are the poor” because love is not an intellectual structure or system to be learned or analyzed. Love is a call to be disarmed of everything we hold onto so we can totally love and follow Jesus Christ.
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
Jesus came to reveal to us God our Father. And to know the Father is not through the head or intelligence but through our heart that is like Christ’s, meek and humble, filled with love.
By becoming human like us in everything except sin, Jesus who is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15) enables us to feel and experience God now closest to us than ever. Most of all, we are able to love and still love especially when the going gets tough and rough.
Here Jesus shows us that love is not absence of sufferings. In fact, love is truest and noblest when there are sacrifices and sufferings as exemplified by Jesus in his life and death on the Cross.
There are times we feel grouchy, so sensitive when people seem to ask even demand so much from us.
From Facebook, 2021.
Sometimes we wonder why are we the ones always giving, always loving, always forgiving. Sometimes we even ask God why are we the ones going through all these trials in life, why are we the ones afflicted with this sickness, why are we given with a special child, why your child had gone ahead of you to eternal life?
So many whys, so many questions.
Rest today in Christ. Feel his embrace. Listen to his silence. Be filled with his love. As you ask Jesus with all those questions, realize that each cry, each lamentation is the “inscrutable riches of Christ”, his very love perfected in your labors and burdens. Amen.
Jesus, meek and humble of heart,
Make my heart like thine!
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