The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist, 24 June 2020
Isaiah 49:1-6 ><)))*> Acts of the Apostle 13:22-26 ><)))*> Luke 1:57-66, 80
Photo by author, chapel beneath the Church of St. John the Baptist in Eim Karen, birthplace of our saint.
Every birthday is a small Christmas because with the birth of every person comes Jesus Christ.
St. John Paul II, “Evangelium Vitae” (1995)
Thank you very much, O God our loving Father for the gift of sharing in your life, for the grace of being alive. As we celebrate today the birth of the your Son’s precursor, St. John the Baptist, we remember with joy our own birthdays, our giftedness, your graciousness.
Birthday is always special because of the gift of life, and the gift of direction and purpose that everybody looks forward into the future, of what is in store for us here on earth like in the birth of St. John the Baptist.
All who heard these things took them to heart, saying, “What, then, will this child be?” For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.
Luke 1:66
With the coming of St. John the Baptist, you have taught us Lord that in life, what we must look forward to is to be one with your Son Jesus Christ.
May our lives be like of John, a precursor of Jesus, always pointing people to Jesus, leading people to him who is the Christ who takes away the sins of the world.
Photo by author, marker at Eim Karen, 2019.
Teach us to be strong in spirit, always creating a space for silence and hiddenness where we can meet you often, Lord, so that at the end of our life journey, you remain our reward like the prophets of old.
Though I thought 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
That is the meaning of John – grace of God and graciousness of God.
It is a grace for us all to be alive, to share Jesus with others, to be a glimpse of himself and of his truth and kindness.
But, ultimately, your greatest grace for us all is to share in the Cross of Christ like John the Baptist for that is only when people realize you have come indeed in us. Amen.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 17 June 2020
Today is my mother’s 81st birthday and my father’s 20th year of death.
Since June 17, 2000, we have “stopped” celebrating my mother’s birthday as she ordered that date to be remembered more as my father’s birth into heaven.
So many things have happened in our lives as a family, most especially with me as a man and a priest being the eldest.
Yes, I always dread this date, feeling at a loss until now at how to behave or what to say when I come home. There is always a “drama” we have to go through when we get together, with a lot of “dead air” moments during Mass and later at the dinner table.
Though somehow they have lessened in these past 20 years, the sadness is still there.
I thought time heals.
True.
But the pain remains. And the more it gets painful.
Lalong bumabaon, as we say.
With her apos when still able to move freely; Sunday after Mass was always at my father’s gravesite.
Since her 61st birthday, Mamu as she preferred to be called when the apos came, she had “stopped” living because my dad was really her life. We believe her sorrow contributed to her stroke in December 2004.
Growing up until I have become a priest, I have always seen my father preparing coffee and breakfast daily for her. She had in fact forgotten how to cook or learn new dishes because my father was a superb cook — that is why we all have gout in the family.
Most of all, as I would always tell my students before, since childhood until I have become a priest, dad never ate his meals without Mamu at his side or at least to personally tell him to eat because she had gone to a party or some prayer meeting.
Every Sunday after my Masses in a nearby town, I would visit my father’s grave and surely find fresh flowers and candles earlier placed by my mom and sister’s family.
After praying and blessing his gravesite, I would talk to him, telling him, “Dad, there are 365 days in a year. Why did you die on June 17, 2000?”
It took my father more than a year before answering my question.
Yes, he spoke to me in his usual deep, whispering voice I heard from within as I looked down on his grave, “Nick, I died on your mother’s birthday so you would love her more like I have loved her.”
Tears swelled in my eyes and eventually rolled down my cheeks that I almost watered the grass on his gravesite!
It was a very tall order that until now, I really do not know if I have fulfilled.
Mothers are like God
God cannot be everywhere that is why He created mothers.
Jewish saying
Every Thursday I come home to visit Mamu on my day off, as well as during special occasions and gatherings like birthdays of my siblings and pamangkins.
Sometimes I ask myself if I have loved my mom that much as my dad had wanted me to.
This comes strongest to me when going to a sick mother in my parish to anoint with Holy Oil or when presiding at a funeral Mass of a deceased mother; I would listen intently to the “thank you speech” of a son or a daughter and marvel at how great his/her love for the deceased parent.
As a priest, I have always been with so many mothers but not so much with my own mom. But one thing I have experienced since my father died on my mother’s birthday 20 years ago is the life that continues to flow from her very self and presence which flows unto me and spills even up to my parish and community.
My mom as a teenager.
She’s from the “old school” who had taught me a lot about sacrifices, of keeping things in order like telling me after lunch that while resting, I should mop the floor and dust off the jalousies of our windows downstairs. Resting meant doing something worthwhile like removing cobwebs at ceilings; so, you can just imagine what is housecleaning for her!
Another thing I have learned from her is harimunan wherein you try to save little amounts of money with things you may forego like instead of taking tricycle, I walked for three kilometers or instead of buying soda, drink from the water fountain at school.
The only lesson that I have refused to learn from her which I now admit I should have taken into heart is the art of bargaining or asking “tawad” in the “palengke” (market). It is a gift from God I think reserved for mothers.
One important lesson I have learned from Mamu came via a picture I have found in a copy of a Reader’s Digest. I was five years old then while scanning the new copy of my dad’s magazine, I saw the picture of a baby crying so hard after being delivered.
I asked her why the baby was crying and her explanation had stuck into my mind since then that later as a priest I realized it so existentially true! According to her, when a baby is born crying, that means she/he is alive; if the baby does not cry, that means she/he is dead.
So simple yet so deep.
When we cry, we are alive.
And sometimes, to be alive, we have to cry. A lot.
And I believe that is why mothers continue to give life to us despite the passing away of their husband because they are the ones who cry a lot.
Mothers cry in silence, alone because they are the ones who can truly feel the flowing of life, the slipping away of life.
In a few hours I will be coming home and I could already visualize and feel my mother’s crying on her birthday.
As much as possible I hold my tears, praying that in God’s time, we would just be the ones crying so that finally, Mamu would no longer be crying.
But, that’s another thing I dread so very much…I hope not yet that soon because I really do not know how life will be for me and my siblings.
Thank God for all the Mothers who have given and nurtured our lives even in old age.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Week X in Ordinary Time, Year II, 12 June 2020
1 Kings 19:9, 11-16 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Matthew 5:27-32
Photo by author, sunrise at Camp John Hay, Baguio City, November 2018.
At the mountain of the God, Horeb, Elijah came to a cave, where he took shelter… After the fire, there was a tiny whispering sound. When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave. A voice said to him, “Elijah, why are you here?” He replied, “I have been most zealous for the Lord , the God of hosts. But the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to the sword. I alone am left, and they seek to take my life.”
1 Kings 19:9, 12b-14
The rainy season has started, Lord, and we have covered almost half of the year, making it through more than two months of quarantine period and here we are, before you… tired and exhausted, a bit lost, and frankly, your question to Elijah echoes within, stirring our inmost being.
Why are you here?
It is both a mystery and a gift why we are here.
Some of us have lost family and friends these past six months, some to the dreaded disease of COVID-19. Many of us have lost money and time due to the pandemic. This early, 2020 is practically gone for many of us.
Many of us are just awaiting for you, to your tiny voice to tell us what is next.
That is why we are here, Lord.
Like Elijah, we await your coming.
Unlike before when we await dates and occasions, now, we await you, O God for you alone are sure and guaranteed in coming.
Photo from NCCA.
On this day, Lord, we also celebrate our Independence Day that has become more of a festivity than a reality. Forgive us for wasting, for throwing away our country to undeserving people who have all been puppets of foreign powers with same personal interests.
Yet, one reason why we are here is also because we believe we can change our country for the best.
Help us, O God, by cleansing our hearts, purifying our desires and motivations so that we may be more faithful to you.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe, Wednesday, Easter Week-II, 22 April 2020
Acts of the Apostles 5:17-26 <*(((>< +++ 0 +++ ><)))*> John 3:16-21
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa in Carigara Market, Leyte, 2019.
Lord Jesus Christ, everybody is talking about the “new normal” these days, of how the corona virus pandemic imposed on the whole world a paradigm shift in the way we live, the way we deal with others and even way of thinking.
It is funny, Lord, when as they speak of this “new normal”, it is actually a return to the old ways when we have more of love and kindness, more of compassion and empathy, more of persons than things, and most of all, more of you, O God, is it not?
But during the night, the angle of the Lord opened the doors of the prison, led them out (Peter and company), and said, “Go and take your place in the temple area, and tell the people everything about this life.”
Acts 5:19-20
And what is “this life” you have always insisted since then that we must all preach up to the present generation?
It is the sharing in God’s life through you, Jesus Christ our Lord who suffered and died for us in our sins so we may rise with you and in you to new life grace and holiness, fulfillment and meaning!
For God so loved the world that he gave us his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.
John 3:16
This is the life you have always told us to preach but unfortunately we have always rejected and refused to accept because we have turned away from you, when we do not believe in you, when we would rather hide in the dark thinking we have the light that momentarily shines for us, but never for you.
Forgive us Lord in turning away from you, despite your many graces poured out on us like your angels opening our prisons to set us free from sin and bondage, from ignorance and darkness, from meaninglessness and lack of directions in life as we succumbed to the lures of the world.
Today as we battle the corona virus, help us to be more faithful to you, that we may represent you more even without using our lips, we may “tell the people everything about this life” of simplicity and humility, fidelity and charity, of sacrifice and love without expecting anything in return.
Most of all, with the many lessons of COVID-19, may we start telling the world anew of your love. Amen.
First Mass of the first priest from our Parish, Fr. RA Valmadrid, December 2019.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe, Tuesday of Easter Octave, 14 April 2020
Acts 2:36-41 ><)))*> +++ <*(((>< John 20:11-18
Detail of Italian painter Giotto’s “Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not)” of the Risen Lord appearing to Mary Magdalene.
Lord Jesus Christ, you know very well how on this blessed season of Easter, so many of us are crying, weeping due to the threats and deaths brought about by corona virus worldwide.
Yes, it is the saddest Holy Week and Easter for many people in recent history.
But behind all these sadness, deep inside us, many have experienced your more meaningful presence and coming this Easter amid our tears of sadness, of weeping because this is also the time we have missed you so much, we have sought you so much.
How lovely, O dear Jesus, to contemplate the two occasions in the gospel today when Mary was asked why she was weeping.
Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there… And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said, “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and said to him, “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.”
John 20:11-15
We cry, we weep whenever we lost someone or something so precious and valuable like the people we love – or even hardly knew – due to COVID-19.
Give us the grace of tears and realization that in this life, the most beautiful reason we can have in weeping, in crying is that of losing you, dearest Jesus. It is the most beautiful reason for us to cry and weep at this time of the corona virus as it leads us back to you like Mary Magdalene!
Like the listeners of Peter on that Pentecost day, “cut us in our hearts” and may we be like Mary Magdalene desiring only you, searching for you, longing for you alone for in you is our fulfillment in life.
Let us not waste our tears on trivial things and most specially “toxic persons” to help us move forward in your new directions in life amid this pandemic of COVID-19.
At the same time, we pray today for those crying and weeping for varied reasons, too, that they may see you soon to experience comfort and assurance in you. Amen.
What have you been praying for since the start of this Holy Week amid the threat of COVID-19? Aside from being spared by this dreaded corona virus, what have you been praying for?
For almost a month, I have always been praying to God for one special thing: that we may all go back to our “normal lives” soon.
Since the first Sunday of our lockdown last March 22 that happened to be my 55th birthday, until after the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday, I have been going around our parish with the Blessed Sacrament and Santo Entierro on Good Friday mounted on a truck to bless the people.
And every time I would go around – with strict orders on the people to observe social distancing – I have strongly felt how they were so hungry and thirsty for Jesus, kneeling along the highway, some with lighted candles while others have their little altar in front of their homes.
Photo by Mr. Randy Cajanding, 09 April 2020.
Except for some few people, almost everyone would make the sign of the Cross, take a bow or raise their hands, asking for blessings, praying silently in their hearts.
I really wonder what they were praying for.
Photo by Ms. Ria De Vera, 22 March 2020.
Photo by Ms. Anne Ramos, 10 April 2020.
Me?
Next to the request that we may all be spared of the corona virus in our parish, I always prayed silently to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and in his Santo Entierro, to please, “bring us back to our previous normal lives Lord… I am will to sacrifice everything, to bear all these pains and hardships… just bring us back to our previous normal lives… magbalik lang kami sa dating normal naming buhay, Lord, lahat titiisin ko po.”
Photo by Ms. Anne Ramos, 10 April 2020.
Easter is moving forward to new life, never a going back
But early this Holy Saturday morning as I prayed, I realized God is not going to answer that special prayer of mine.
God will never bring back our previous normal lives before this time of the corona virus when we take control of everything because Easter is leaving the past behind, the old misconceptions, the old sins, the old ways of life far from God.
Easter is moving forward to Jesus, with Jesus, in Jesus.
Then the angel said to the women in reply, “Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him.”
Matthew 28:5-7
After this time of the corona virus in the year 2020, we shall never go back to our previous normal lives because Easter is a call to renewal, to going back to God, to going back to love and kindness.
Easter is going back to God, centering our lives anew in him because he is our life!
Entrance to our church during our Easter Vigil, 11 April 2020. Photo by Ms. Ria de Vera.
Jesus is inviting us on this Easter 2020 in the time of COVID-19 to come to him in his new life, to leave the previous normal lives when we spend Sundays on our own, when we just pray and celebrate Mass on special occasions or when we have problems or when going through calamities and disasters.
Jesus is inviting us on this Easter 2020 in the time of corona virus to come to him in his new life to renew our ties with our family and friends, to forgive and bridge gaps among us because life is too short, so fragile.
Jesus is inviting us on this Easter 2020 in the time of COVI9D-19 to come to him in his mercy and justice, to leave our previous lives when we take people for granted, especially those in the health sector like nurses or ordinary folks we call like janitors and garbage collectors.
Easter is rediscovering anew the more essential in lives like the value of each person, the value of health and education, the value of wisdom and sound judgement and decisions.
Jesus is demanding us on this Easter 2020 in the time of the corona virus to never go back to our “normal lives” of before when it was normal to be corrupt, to use foul language, to lie and malign others, to kill and disregard human life, to use violence and force.
Never again must we be silent when people and nature are taken for granted.
Jesus is inviting us on this Easter 2020 in the midst of COVID-19 to never go back to our old politics of trapos and vote buying, to rediscover how blessed is our country with great, talented people equally blessed with a country rich in natural resources ravaged by greedy politicians.
Jesus is inviting us on this Easter 2020 in the time of the corona virus to come to him in his new life by working for justice and truth, speaking against violence and disregard for lives, fighting corruption, rejecting the normal things of life of deception and lies in government, in the church, in school, and in our own families.
Photo by author, 02 April 2020.
If you have listened to our readings, from the story of the creation to the time of Abraham and Moses and then Jesus, people were blessed materially and spiritually because they never went back to old ways of lives but always moved forward in God, in selfless giving of self in service to others.
Without any doubt, Holy Week 2020 is the most unforgettable – even unbelievable we have ever had in our lifetime or even in recent history. And with the extension of the ECQ until the end of April, that makes our Holy Week 2020 as the longest one too!
But, it is not that bad at all.
Holy Week is “Mahal na Araw” in Filipino: mahal means valuable that is why it is the same word we use for expensive. Most of all, mahal is the root of pagmamahal or love because to love is to value another person.
Extended lockdown, extended Holy Week means longer “Mahal na Araw” — that is, more time to love God, others, and self.
So, it is still a blessed Easter to everyone!
Photo by Ms. Ria De Vera, Easter Vigil in our parish, 11 April 2020.
Soon afterward Jesus journeyed to a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd accompanied him. As he drew near to the gate of the city, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. A large crowd from the city was with her. When the Lord saw her, he was moved with pity for her and said to her, “Do not weep.” He stepped forward and touched the coffin; at this the bearers halted, and he said, “Young man, I tell you, arise!” The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, exclaiming, “A great prophet has arisen in our midst,” and “God has visited his people.”
Luke 7:11-16
Today, we are like at the city of Nain. Traffic is so heavy outside as many of us – family and friends, former classmates, colleagues at work from all over and neighbors – gather to pray and pay our last respects for Archie.
Celebrating a funeral Mass for a young person is always difficult for me. Like Jesus, I feel so sad for their parents. Normally, it is the children who bury their parents. It must be so painful for parents burying a son or a daughter. That is why in our gospel, Jesus was “moved with pity” with the widow of Nain.
But today, amid the pains and sorrows with the sudden death of Archie last week at a very young age, we actually celebrate life in Jesus Christ.
Photo by author of the hills of Galilee from the Walls of Jerusalem, May 2017.
Jesus comes to visit us always
Like in that scene at Nain, we remember and celebrate the life of Archie who had come to visit us even for a short time.
I love that part of the gospel where the people at Nain exclaimed at how “God has visited his people” when Jesus raised the dead young man.
Jesus continues to visit us everyday through one another like Archie.
Despite his many sins and imperfections, Archie made us experience Jesus Christ’s love and friendship, warmth and kindness, especially to his two sons, family, and friends.
Surely, Jesus must have visited Archie, too, during those dark moments of his life.
And the good news is, Archie visited Jesus so often especially these last two years when he started to pick up the pieces of his life.
Last time I saw Archie was last November when he came to celebrate Mass in our Parish. And I have heard how he had sought spiritual guidance from Fr. Carl, driving that far to Paco every month as he renewed his relationship with Christ, trying to follow anew the Lord he had served since elementary as a sacristan and later as a seminarian in our high school seminary.
It is Jesus who first finds us always
Photo by author at Mt. St. Paul Spirituality Center, Baguio, 04 February 2020.
We all know Archie’s tocayo is one of ancient Greece’s great scientist and inventor, Archimedes.
It is said that he discovered the principle of buoyancy – the “Archimedes’ principle” – while taking a bath.
When Archimedes sat onto his bathtub, he observed that “when a body is submerged in a fluid, it experiences an apparent loss in weight that is equal to the weight of fluid displaced by the immersed body.”
Archimedes was so ecstatic with his accidental discovery that he jumped naked from his bathtub out to the streets, shouting “eureka!” or “I have found” the solution to a problem he was trying to solve at that time.
Archimedes had not only enriched the field of mathematics and sciences with his discoveries but also the English language with the word “eureka” or “eureka moment”: when somebody discovers something very significant in business and economics, the sciences especially medicine, and practically in every field and subject.
Most especially in life.
Photo by author, Mt. St. Paul Spirituality Center, Baguio, 04 February 2020.
Archie had the same eureka moment in life: he had found Jesus Christ again that he went back to Mass and Confessions.
He had found meaning in life again after losing hope and directions.
Most of all, Archie had found love again.
Like his namesake of ancient Greece, Archie is now exclaiming “eureka” ecstatically into heaven – naked – with nothing but the love and mercy of Jesus Christ who first found him and brought him back to life a few years ago.
Today as we bring the remains of Archie into his final resting place, we thank God who never stops looking for us, finding us so that we can find him again and finally rest in him.
Today it is Jesus who is most ecstatic of all because he is the first to have found Archie and that is why, he had called him back to him, never to get lost again.
But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace. In the time of their visitation they shall shine.
Thursday, Memorial of St. Pedro Bautista and companion priest-martyrs, Week 4, Year 2, 06 February 2020
1 Kings 2:1-4, 10-12 ><)))*> 0 <*(((>< Mark 6:7-13
Our merciful God and Father, on this memorial of your great priest-missionaries and martyrs – St. Pedro Bautista, St. Paul Miki and companions who have also worked in the Philippines – we pray today in a very special way for our dearly beloved mentor and brother priest, the Rev. Fr. Danny Bermudo.
We are not complaining, Lord, but year 2020 is a very tough year for many of us, right into January that continues to this month of February with many deaths and sickness, problems and trials not only in our own circles of family and friends but also in our country and the whole world in general.
We trust in you, O God, and can clearly see now in your readings especially that essentially, in life and in death, we are commissioned only to one thing — be faithful to you and your instructions, Lord.
While nearing his death, King David perfectly said it to his son and heir to the throne, Solomon:
“I am going the way of all flesh. Take courage and be a man. Keep the mandate of the Lord, your God, following his ways and observing his statutes, commands, ordinances, and decrees as they are written in the law of Moses, that you may succeed in whatever you do, wherever you turn…”
1 Kings 2:2-3
In a similar manner, at the start of his ministry, Jesus said the same thing while sending the Twelve two by two with authority over unclean spirits: leave everything behind in life and solely be focused on you, Lord, so we may fulfill your work and mission.
Photo by author, 2019.
Thank you, O God, for the gift of Fr. Danny who taught us in his classes and most especially in his personal way of being our seminary formator to always be faithful to you and your laws; to always be good and holy like you, our Heavenly Father.
In words and in deeds, in life and in death, Fr. Danny lived out his life totally for you, Lord, dying after fulfilling his mission and ministry of celebrating the Eucharist.
Bless Fr. Danny, O Lord, and may we carry on his lessons until our death like him. Amen.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, 04 February 2020
Photo by author, St. Paul Spirituality Center, Mt. Pico, La Trinidad, Benguet, 04 February 2020
My life may be rife
with so many strifes
causing me to struggle,
be pained leading into fruition
making life golden.
When I reviewed my life and see
the past so vast and also fast,
then I realize my life
is not all mine but His, Divine.
Here in my life
I can see within
where it is going;
calming, assuring and so promising
the Divine leading me to final joining
for my life is really in HIM.
Amen.
Photo by author, St. Paul Spirituality Center, Mt. Pico, La Trinidad, Benguet, 04 February 2020
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, 15 January 2020
From The Times.
Now streaming at Netflix is this excellent original 2019 BBC production, Giri/Haji (Duty/Shame), a Japanese story of two brothers set almost entirely in London seemingly inspired by French existentialist writer Albert Camus with closing scenes set in Paris.
Midway through the series, one notices right away the complexities or, absurdities of life that one cannot simply categorize it between “duty and shame”, or good and evil, right and wrong, black and white.
It is a series that hits our innermost core when we find ourselves in those gray areas of confronting what we believe as right and just versus the value of every human person that Camus beautifully expressed in his 1947 novel “The Plague”:
“A loveless world is a dead world, and always there comes an hour when one is weary of prisons, of one’s work, and of devotion to duty; and all one craves for is a loved face, the warmth and wonder of a loving heart.”
Albert Camus, The Plague
Like most Netflix series, Giri/Haji is rated 18+ for its violence, language, substance, and nudity but everything is done beautifully and artistically.
It is a masterpiece that shows some common threads among us humans regardless of our color and culture, gender and age, belief and language. How the creators were able to perfectly blend these all with the excellent cinematography, music, and fine prints into uncluttered and pure simplicity of Japanese Zen principles are a work of art and film genius.
Simple plot but very personal and universal
The plot is simple: an elder, straight brother is a cop with a younger brother who is a Yakuza member hiding in London after being presumed dead when he got the daughter of his boss pregnant. He staged his revenge in London where he killed a Japanese executive with the knife of his former boss that had sparked a war among Yakuza families in Tokyo that was going out of control. Cop-brother comes to London to bring his gangster brother back to Japan to atone for his sins so that peace is restored among the Yakuzas.
Along the way, the two brothers’ stories converged with the stories of three other main characters that provided the many uneventful twists to be united by the element of deaths in various forms and circumstances.
From Google.
Giri/Haji honestly confronts our basic issues of love and acceptance so lacking or taken for granted in our own families that lead to a host of so many other problems and situations like drugs and other crimes, infidelity and promiscuity, as well as homosexuality and sexual orientations.
What is so unique with the series is how it was able to take these sensitive issues as subjects to be seen in relation with persons, not as objects to be studied or examined apart from anyone that it becomes more of an experience, not just an entertainment.
Giri/Haji is so personal, you can feel yourself “slashed” so you experience the subjects’ pains and hurts, longings and desires, dreams and aspirations.
Like the samurai blade that can cut through almost anything, the series hits you at almost every turn that you find yourself laughing and weeping without realizing that along with the characters, you have also laid your soul bare for serious self-confrontation and examination about your very self and the people around you in the relationships you keep as well as skipped or taken for granted.
Death and new life
There is no glorification of evil and immoralities but Giri/Haji invites us to see these as realities in our imperfect world that must be seen more with our hearts than with our minds and convictions. The series contrasts the Western frame of mind of morals as codes to be followed to the minutest details that slashes even persons into categories with the Oriental point of view of seeing morality in the totality of the person.
How it is resolved in the end is amazing!
And despite its genre being crime and violence, I would still say Giri/Haji is so lovely, even quaint and as Japanese as it can be especially with the depiction of changing of seasons that peaked at autumn.
Despite the dark and gloomy nature of the topics of death in all of its forms, there is the radiance of hope always that will lead to new life. The series teems with other symbolisms and signs including great music selections that add intensity to its drama and tragedy that make us hope the new season comes soonest.
For the meantime, listen to the beautiful music theme of the Giri/Haji by British singer Tom Odell.
Take my mind And take my pain Like an empty bottle takes the rain And heal, heal, heal, heal
And take my past And take my sense Like an empty sail takes the wind And heal, heal, heal, heal
lordmychef.com 