Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-11 ng Marso 2019
Apatnapung araw nag-ayuno si Kristo Nang siya ay tinukso ng diyablo: “Kung ikaw ang Anak ng Diyos, Gawin mong tinapay itong bato.”
Gutom at walang laman tiyan ni Kristo Ngunit hindi napatangay sa tukso ng diyablo Hindi siya nalito, naging matibay tulad ng bato Na buhay ng tao higit nakasalalay di lamang sa tinapay Kungdi sa Salita ng Diyos na bumubuhay, gumagabay na tunay.
Ito ang pangunahing katotohanang Dapat nating pakatandaan Na hindi sapat, at lalong di dapat Tayo ay mapuno at mabusog Ng mga bagay ng mundo upang hindi matukso at malito.
Maraming pagkakataon Lalo tayong nababaon Sa balon ng pagkagumon Kapag lahat tayo ay mayroon Na malayo naman sa naaayon.
Sa pag-aayuno tayo napapanuto Tumitibay ating pagkatao Nawawala pagkalito sa higit na totoo Na si Hesu-Kristo naparito upang samahan tayo Maiwaksi at malampasan maraming tukso.
Mangyayari lamang ito kung tulad ni Kristo Masasaid natin ating sariling kalooban Di lamang bawasan kungdi mawalan ng laman Magkaroon ng puwang sa ating kalooban Diyos na ating tanging yaman.
Larawan ng ilang sa Israel tulad marahil ng pinuntahan ni Hesus nang Siya ay tuksuhin ng Diyablo. Kuha ng may-akda noong Abril 2017. Ang unang larawan sa itaas ay mula sa Google.
40 Shades of Lent, Monday, Week 1, 11 March 2019 Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18///Matthew 25:31-46
Your readings today, O Lord, invite us to examine the choices we have made recently in our lives. It is always easy to say “I love you, Lord” but when we examine the decisions we have made, it seem to show we really do not love you at all because we have been selfish. Most of the time in making choices, we think first of our self. And that is when we sin.
Every time we have more of our selves – that big, personal, pronoun “I” – in every choice and decision we make, we s-I-n.
When we refuse to be like you who is holy, when we disregard you as our Lord and God whom we must see in everyone, we s-I-n because we see only our self.
When we disregard the hungry and the thirsty, the stranger and the naked, when we do not care at all to those ill or in prison, we s-I-n because we refuse to love.
Help us, Lord Jesus, to have less of our self and more of your Holy Spirit so that we may be attentive and docile to the Father speaking to us in our hearts and crying out to us among the suffering people around us. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, Lent Week 1-C, 10 March 2019
Every year on this first Sunday of Lent, we always hear the story of the tempting of Jesus by the devil in the wilderness. According to St. Luke, Jesus was “filled with the Holy Spirit” when He went to the desert to pray and fast for 40 days. He was able to resist the temptations of the devil because Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit.
To be filled with the Holy Spirit means to be docile to the Holy Spirit. Being docile is not merely being obedient; from the Latin word docilitas, being docile literally means being “attentive”. Lent is the season that invites us to bring back the spirit of docility in our lives, that is, to be attentive to one’s self, to God and to others. How sad that in this world of advanced technologies, we have become more attentive with things and gadgets than with persons. Maybe if we are more attentive to our inner selves, to God and to others, we could have prevented the many disasters and problems we now have.
If we have been attentive to our self, to God and to others, we would not be “stuck in a moment we can’t get out” – the very same title of a cut from the U2’s 2000 album All That You Can’t Leave Behind. I have always loved that song – and that album which I feel is their second best after Joshua Tree – that I used it so many times in my talks and recollections with young people. According to Bono, it was written after his friend from another band committed suicide, of how he wished he had exerted more effort to prevent his friend from killing self, of being stuck in a moment you can’t get out.
The song perfectly suits our gospel today. Every time the devil tempts us, its aim is not merely for us to commit a sin. The devil’s ultimate goal in tempting us to sin is to destroy our lives, to get us stuck in a moment we can’t get out. The good news is that Jesus had shown us how we can get over every temptation by the devil. Moreover, He has filled us with the Holy Spirit so that like Him, we can be docile – attentive – to God, to others and to our self so that we avoid sins and avert destroying our lives.
You've got to get yourself together You've got stuck in a moment And now you can't get out of it Don't say that later will be better Now you're stuck in a moment And you can't get out of it
Photo above from Bing.com; music video from Youtube.
40 Shades of Lent Week I, Year C, 10 March 2019 Deuteronomy 26:4-10//Romans 10:8-13//Luke 4:1-11
Our gospel story on this first Sunday of Lent about the tempting of Jesus at the desert sets the prevailing mood and disposition we must have on this holy season: docility to the Holy Spirit.
Docility is obedience. A docile person is an obedient one who is also attentive which is the literal translation of the Latin root docilitas. On the other hand, “obedience” is also from two Latin words “ob audire” that literally mean to listen intently. Here we find that Lent is a season that invites us to be attentive God and with others. Most of all, Lent is the season that calls us to recover this beautiful trait of docility and obedience by submitting and surrendering our selves to God and those above us like our parents.
How ironic and unfortunate that in our highly advanced world, we have become inattentive with persons and more attentive with things and gadgets. We have not only become less obedient but even less caring and kind with others because we no longer care at all with persons next to us. We cannot listen intently to parents and teachers, friends and almost everybody because our ears are always plugged with earphones while our eyes are fixed on screens! And maybe that explains why we always find ourselves into so many disastrous situations in our lives that could have been prevented had we been more attentive with our selves, with others and with God. According to a study in 2015, the average attention span of audience is 8.25 seconds while a goldfish has 9 seconds. This maybe the reason why looking at fish in an aquarium can be therapeutic… at least a goldfish can spare you with more attention than anyone!
Going back to our gospel this Sunday, we sense this spirit of docility of Jesus in the introduction and conclusion of Luke’s version of the temptation in the desert that follows right after His baptism at Jordan.
Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry.
Luke 4:1-2
“Filled with the Holy Spirit.” What a beautiful expression to describe Jesus after His baptism at Jordan and in going to the wilderness to pray and fast, later to be tempted by the devil!
Docility in the Spirit is being filled with the Holy Spirit we first received in our Baptism, in Confirmation, in the Holy Communion and the sacraments. Every day like Jesus during His baptism at Jordan, we are filled with the Holy Spirit upon waking up because we are all beloved children of the Father. We have to claim the Holy Spirit who fills us, comes to us day in and day out. Docility in the Spirit is being attuned with God like a radio or any communication device that must be “connected” to a power or signal source. This is the reason we have to fast and do some sacrifices as well as pray during Lent so that we may be empty of our selves to be filled with the Holy Spirit and be docile to God. Without the Holy Spirit, there can be no docility.
Docility in the Spirit is entrance into the very person of Jesus Christ who is the beloved Son of God. The five Sundays of Lent are like doors that lead us closer into the innermost room of God. It is a journey that begins in our hearts. It is a journey we said last Ash Wednesday that is more about direction than destination. We enter the person of Jesus Christ, just like when He entered the synagogue at Nazareth to proclaim the reading from Isaiah that said “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…” (Lk.4:14-21). The people were amazed at Jesus because He was so filled with the Holy Spirit that they really felt the part of the scripture fulfilled in His proclamation. Recall also the gospel last Sunday when Jesus said “from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks” (Lk.6:45) to remind us that whatever good or evil comes from us comes from what is in our hearts, from the kind of spirit that fills us.
Jesus was consistently filled with the Holy Spirit up to the end, was consistently docile to the Father that reached its summit at the Cross because he was also continuously tempted on many occasions by the devil up to His crucifixion. That final temptation at His crucifixion was first heard in the wilderness when the devil said “if you are the Son of God” very similar with the words of the bystanders at the foot of the Cross. Most of all, that final temptation at the crucifixion was foreshadowed in the desert when the devil led Jesus to parapet of the temple in Jerusalem, teasing Him to throw Himself down for the angels would surely support Him.
Every time the devil tempts us to sin, his intention is not only for us to sin but for our lives to be destroyed by making us turn away from God signified by jumping from the top of the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus knew this so well that is why from the desert to the Cross, Jesus remained docile to the Father, remained filled with the Holy Spirit by relying on the powers of God than of Himself or of anyone else. And that is always the temptation we also encounter daily: to abandon God, to rely on ourselves and various forms of human powers. Every temptation faced by Jesus was always a temptation to abandon God’s plans, to be ordinary, to remain stuck in the level of the of the world.
The good news is not only that Jesus had overcome every temptation from the devil but most of all, enables us to do so by filling us with the Holy Spirit. Like Moses in the first reading, remember how God saved us in the past. He will never forsake us for as St. Paul reminds us today, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom.10:13). May we be attentive to the Holy Spirit always. Amen.
The imagery of the wilderness every Lent invites us to be docile, i.e., literally attentive in Latin, to the Holy Spirit, to the things of God and of the more sublime than merely human and material. Photo by author, Holy Land, April 2017.
40 Shades of Lent Saturday after Ash Wednesday, 08 March 2019 Isaiah 58:9-14///Luke 5:27-32
Our loving Father, we are now about to enter the first Sunday of Lent. We have been trying to be serious with this season with our prayers and fasting. But, let us not lose sight of the fact that Lent is a joyous season too as we wait for Easter!
There are times O Lord some of us feel like Levi, sitting alone at the customs post, surrounded with all the wealth and trappings of the world, longing for some meaning in life. Maybe like Levi in that little customs post, some of us feel trapped in our sinfulness with no help in sight.
But, then you came, O Lord Jesus, like a shaft of light amid the darkness, just passing by, saying “follow me” (Lk. 5:27) without even asking our sins or work or world. You asked us nothing but you know everything about us. And that is the mystery that caught us!
What a joy being called to follow you, despite our sinfulness. Remind us always of that joy of Lent that in the midst of our sinfulness and darkness, you still come to call us to follow you.
Help us, O Lord to “remove oppression from our midst, false accusation, and malicious speech… bestow bread to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted” (Is.58:9-10). Help us to sustain our efforts in following you in every direction by being good and just with one another. Amen.
The Calling of St. Matthew (Levi), a painting by Caravaggio which is one of the favorite masterpieces frequently visited by Pope Francis in Rome while still a student and Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Let us keep in mind that Lent, despite it penitential character, is a joyful season of Christ’s coming. Images from Google.
40 Shades of Lent Friday after Ash Wednesday, 08 March 2019 Isaiah 58:1-9///Matthew 9:14-15
God our loving Father, in this 40-day journey of Lent in and with your Son Jesus Christ, help us to imbibe anew the value of “fasting”. How unfortunate that in this age when we have made everything so fast and quick, we have forgotten or totally disregarded the other meaning of that word “fasting” that seemed to have been stuck with the past.
We have ceased to fast not only during Ash Wednesday and Good Friday but even before receiving the Holy Communion in the Sunday Mass, making all kinds of excuses with bold claims of having sacrificed so much in doing good deeds that we need not fast from food anymore.
And if ever we fast these days, we repeat the very same mistakes of the people in the Old Testament of having themselves as the focus of their fasting rather than you, O God, through others.
“Why do we fast, and you do not see it? Afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?” Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits, and drive all your laborers. Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw. Would that today you might fast so as to make your voice heard on high!”
Isaiah 58:3-4
In this age of superabundance of almost everything in the world like food, clothes, money, gadgets and other things except YOU, teach us to let go of some comforts and pleasures to be one with those in suffering.
Most of all, let us fast to be empty of our very selves so we can create a space for you and for others. Fill us with your Self to become your very presence here on earth:
“Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am!”
Isaiah 58:9
What a joy it would be if more people experience you, O Father, through us. Amen.
40 Shades Of Lent Thursday after Ash Wednesday, 07 March 2019 Deuteronomy 30:15-20///Luke 9:22-25
Dearest God:
Life is a mystery, life is Lent. Of course, we always choose life over death but in reality, you know it is not so: though our lips, our minds agree in the words of Moses, our hearts are so far from you.
“Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. If you obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving him, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the Lord, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy.”
(Deut.30:15-16)
Teach us, O God, through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord to rightly choose life by being responsible with this gift of life, of taking care of others by forgetting our very self; of bearing with all the pains of life by carrying our cross daily; and most of all, by following his direction, being present and one in him and with him in every persecution.
Life is a daily Lent when we lose ourselves in you to be renewed into a better person more like you, our true image and likeness. Amen.
40 Shades of Lent, Ash Wednesday, 06 March 2019 Joel 2:12-18///2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2///Matthew 6:1-6,16-18
Life is a daily Lent. According to St. Benedict, every day we go on our own “exodus” or “crossing over” – a pasch – from sinfulness to holiness, from slavery to freedom, from darkness to light; hence, Lent, like life, is a journey.
But, as a journey, Lent is
more about direction than a destination.
It is a journey with Jesus
Christ and in Jesus Christ. It is a journey that begins right inside our
hearts.
“Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God.”
(Joel 2:12-13)
In the gospel, Jesus
stressed to us the importance of this inner journey into one’s heart:
“Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.” (Mt.6:1)
(Mt.6:1)
The 40 days of Lent that begin today in our celebration of Ash Wednesday are not mere number of days to be followed but signify to us perfection which is an ongoing process in life. During the early days of Christianity, all baptisms took place on Easter and the 40 days of Lent (cuaresma) were spent preparing candidates for Baptism. It still remains the key point in this sacred season that during the Easter celebrations, we renew our baptismal promises which we continue to do daily by renewing our faith in God, rejecting temptations of the devil by choosing and doing what is good. The practices of fasting, alms giving, and contrition for sins help us in staying on course in the direction of Christ.
Why do I say direction of Christ, not destination of Christ?
So often we live our lives following a destination. In this age of WAZE and GPS, we can easily seek directions to a particular destination. Focus is more on the destination, not really the directions. Problem with being focused more on destination is we miss the fun and adventure of every journey. When we reach our destination, what do we do? We cross out from our list of travel goals every destination that we make and start looking for new places to visit until we have been to every place on earth! So, we plan to visit the Moon or Marss next? Eventually we get tired with travels and after covering so many distances and destination, we still feel lacking or incomplete.
Just like in life. We set goals which is very important but not everything. First we set our sights to finishing studies like a destination to reach. After graduation, we start a career or a job. We just keep on creating new goals, new destinations, raising our bars further that after proving how good we are, we are still empty. There is no more destination to go to that we confront ourselves with the existential question, is this really what I need most in life? Is this all?
“Ito na nga ba? Dito ba talaga ako?”
When we see life more as directional like in Lent which we celebrate every year and its spirit we live daily, it does not really matter what God wants me to do or if this is what He really wants from me. To see life more as a direction means to find its meaning in God that we keep on maturing, we keep on sustaining our journey in Him and with Him. It does not matter wherever He leads me or where I go or stay. No need to face the dilemma of “should I stay or should I go” because what matters most is I am in and with God.
Lent is entering God in and through Jesus Christ. It is going back to Him, staying in Him and with Him in love. This is the reason why we fast, we empty ourselves even our sights and other senses so that we become more sensitive to God’s presence. Notice how our churches and the liturgy are very plain and simple: no flowers, no decors, no Alleluia, no Gloria. Everything is bare essential so we are not distracted in finding and following God right in our hearts.
Recall the first time you fell truly in love when you see and hear and even smell your beloved everywhere and in everyone. You think every lady you meet is your beloved one like in the song “You Are Everything, and Everything Is You” by the Stylistics. When we truly love, the time and place are no longer important because all we have are the here and the now together.
Oh how easy to say we love God or somebody! But if we try to probe deeper into ourselves, we find that we have not truly loved God or anyone that much because in many instances, we always prevail over them. We choose our own will than God’s or our beloved’s. That is when we sin as we turned away from God and our beloved, changing our direction in life.
Lent is the wonderful season of finding again our direction in life, our true love, God. Love needs no justifications. And we can only love persons, not things. To be able to truly love, we first need to be “reconciled with God” (2 Cor.5:20) which this holy season of Lent offers us in prayers and liturgy. The beauty of finding our life direction in God this Lent is that it is not just a personal journey but a communal one as well. When you find your direction, you find God. If you truly find God as your direction, you would surely meet and find your neighbors.
And that is when you find
joy and peace.
And that is Easter, the direction and ultimate destination of every Lent and life.
Amen.
The shore of Tiberias where Jesus asked Simon thrice after Easter if he loves Him; then He asked Simon to “follow me.” Like Simon Peter, we must first love Jesus so we can follow Him to whatever direction, not destination. Photo by author, April 2017.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-04 ng Marso 2019
Kuwaresma.
Kuwarenta dias ng paghahanda Bawat araw balot ng hiwaga Ng mga salita nagmumula Sa ating Bathala.
Apatnapung araw ng pagtitiis Maraming naiinis, naiinip Ayaw subukang namnamin ang tamis Dahil ang lahat ay pinabibilis.
Ang susi ay naroon sa ating budhi Kung tayo ay makapananatili ng ilang sandali Sa bawat araw ng ating paglagi Kapiling ating Hari na kanyang sarili ibinahagi.
Tuwing kuwaresma Ating kinukuwenta mga ligayang ipinauubaya Ngunit di natin alintana Biyaya at pagpapala kapag tayo’y nagpaparaya.
Akala kasi natin tayo ay nawawalan Sa paghuhunos dili, pag-aayuno At iba pang mga gawain ng kabanalan Gayong ang totoo, napupuno tayo ng Espiritu Santo.
Kung tutuusi'y isang munting Kuwaresma Itong ating buhay araw-araw Ating pananaw namumulat na pinakamahalaga Hindi ang ating taglay kungdi ang ating inaalay at binibigay.
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