Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday in the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 27 July 2026
Jeremiah 13:1-11     ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*>     Matthew 13:31-35

How lovely and so practical,
O God,
is your portrayal to us today
of your intimacy with us
like a "linen loincloth":
the most simple and
ordinary part of our clothing
we take for granted
yet so important and crucial
because it is so close,
so intimate to our skin,
to our private parts;
an intimacy we take
for granted because
it is something hidden,
too personal.

But,
do we really care at all?

For, as close as the loincloth clings to a man’s loins, so had I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the Lord; to be my people, my renown, my praise, my beauty. But they did not listen (Jeremiah 13:11).

Like that linen loincloth
you asked Jeremiah to hide
and retrieve later from a river,
ending up as "rotted, good for nothing",
we have betrayed you Lord, 
we have abandoned you
to follow our many idols
and false gods by keeping
you in name,
in rituals and rites
yet compromising your
laws and teachings
with the ways of the world;
we pretend to be close
and intimate with you,
Lord while choosing to be
fence-sitters in situations
demanding we make a stand
for you,
for what is true,
for what is good.

True intimacy with you,
O God is found 
in the most private
moments when we
choose you,
when we abide in you,
when we uphold your teachings
and live in your ways
of justice and love,
kindness and mercy
especially with those
closest to us;
may we realize, 
O Lord,
that to whom we are
most intimate
and closest in 
following and imitating
is found our Lord and God.
Or sadly,
our mammon too
for where our treasure is,
there our heart is.
Amen.