Tag: life

Lent is life and healing

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Lent, 12 March 2024
Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12     ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*>     John 5:1-16
Photo by author, 2017.
As we prepare for Easter
in this season of Lent,
you also remind us, 
dear Jesus of our Baptism,
of our being cleansed
to new life in you;
it is in Baptism we have come
into new life in you, Jesus,
becoming children of the Father,
sharing in God's life.

In this season of Lent
amid the dry and sweltering 
summer we now have,
remind us of our true identity
as children of God through Baptism,
that without Jesus our living water,
we die, we lose life, we lose meaning;
keep us one in you,
one with you, Jesus,
our abundant life giving river
like what the Prophet Ezekiel saw
in a vision:

Wherever the river flows, every sort ofn living creatures that can multiply shall live, and there shall be abundant fish, for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh. Along both banks of the river, the fruit trees of every kind shall grow; their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail.

Ezekiel 47:9-12
Most of all, Lord Jesus,
thank you for coming to us,
for approaching us like what 
happened at the pool of Bethesda
to cleanse and heal us 
of our so many infirmities
especially in this highly competitive
world that has become so impersonal;
cleanse and heal, dear Jesus,
our inner hurts due to our own sins
or sins by others, knowingly or unknowingly;
in your mercy, 
wash and cleanse us,
of our many 
fears and anxieties,
anger and bitterness,
frustrations and failures
to start anew in you
this Season of Lent.
Amen.

Lent: God “now here”, we “nowhere”?

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday in the Fourth Week of Lent, 11 March 2024
Isaiah 65:17-21     ><)))))*> + <*(((((><     John 4:43-54
Photo by author, September 2020.
God our Father,
you are so amazing!
You never fail to surprise us,
never runs out of mysteries
that convey deep truths so
difficult to dissect and understand
but just enough to be experienced
and savored to be delighted
again and again
when remembered
and realized
like when you said
through the Prophet Isaiah:

Thus says the Lord: Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind. Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness in what I create; for I create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be delight.

Isaiah 65:17-18
Later, John the Beloved
in his Book of Revelation linked
this idea of new heaven and new earth
with the new Jerusalem (Rev. 21:1-2)
with both passages speaking of a world
free of pain and sickness,
no weeping nor wailing
with no kids dying before
their time and no one living
below 100 years old.
Wonderful!

Of course, your words are
symbolic though we are sure
it would literally happen some day;
but what we are sure now is how
your words have paved the way
for the coming of Jesus Christ
who bridged the gaps
among us;
in Jesus Christ,
the reality of physics
is experienced daily like
in that remote healing of
a royal official's son in
Capernaum.
Our loving Father,
we do not expect to live
lives without pain,
sickness,
or tragedy
even though we wish
that so often;
grant us the grace
to remain committed
to Jesus and his Way of the
Cross to experience the peace
only he can give for he is always
NOW HERE, present in us
and among us
when so often
we are NOWHERE
by his side.

Let us remain in you,
O Lord,
let us stay with you,
in you, 
even if nothing seems to happen 
because 
that is when 
our faith and trust 
in you are deepened
like with that royal official.
Amen.
Photo by author, September 2020.

Nicodemus and James Taylor

Lord My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 10 March 2024
“Nicodemus and Jesus” painting by James Tissot (1836-1902) from SuperStock/GettyImages via learnreligions.com.

One of our favorite singer-songwriters James Taylor is coming next month for a one-night concert at the Mall of Asia Arena; hence, we are featuring two of his songs we find so related with the gospel message this fourth Sunday in Lent also known as Laetare or Rejoice Sunday.

But first, let us take a slight deviation from our usual manner of coming up with the music right away as we realized too the strong links between Nicodemus and James Taylor in their experiences.

Nicodemus belonged to the group of Pharisees, one of the enemies of Jesus at that time. But he admired and believed in Jesus that is why he chose to visit the Lord at night so that people would not notice. Eventually, Nicodemus became a disciple of Jesus after Good Friday after he and another Pharisee named Joseph of Arimathea took the body of Christ and buried him in a tomb (https://lordmychef.com/2024/03/09/lent-is-the-love-mercy-of-god-in-me/).

Nicodemus’ coming to see Jesus at night evoked his situation of being in the darkness of fears and confusions, trying to find directions in life which he found in Christ. It was similar with James Taylor’s plight he beautifully expressed in his 1970 hit Fire and Rain which is about the suicide of a childhood friend as well as his coping with his addiction and depression following his fame.

Just yesterday morning, they let me know you were gone.
Suzanne, the plans they made put an end to you.
I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song,
I just can’t remember who to send it to.
I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain. I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end.
I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend, but I always thought that I’d see you again.

Won’t you look down upon me, Jesus, You’ve got to help me make a stand.
You’ve just got to see me through another day.
My body’s aching and my time is at hand and I won’t make it any other way.
Oh, I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain. I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end.
I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend, but I always thought that I’d see you again.

From https://www.wildflowersprovence.fr/plant/convolvulus-lanuginosus/

Many times, we find ourselves in situations like Nicodemus when everything is all dark like the night, or James Taylor going through fire and rain.

Now look, Jesus is most present with us when we are in the darkest darkness of the night, right in the middle of a raging storm. Many times we could not see him because he hugs us, embraces us to shield us from more harms.

When Jesus told Nicodemus about his coming crucifixion – “when the Son of Man is raised up” – it was an assurance to us all too that Christ is with us in our worst situation because he suffered first for us on the Cross. I am so glad that JT mentioned Jesus in his song, pleading to the Lord to “look down upon me and help me make a stand.”

That is why we rejoice this Sunday: in the midst of our troubles and sufferings, there are bursts of joy and relief from Jesus within us dwelling in our hearts. And that is why, we find JT’s 1976 hit, Shower the People, so related too with our gospel this Sunday.

When Jesus told Nicodemus how “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn.3:16), it was also a call for us all to be the love and mercy of Christ in the world.

Nicodemus eventually became a disciple of Jesus while JT is still very much around, having weathered so many fires and rains or storms in his life, both telling us how God finds ways to save us, even extricate us from our worst situation. Hence, the need for us to become the presence of Christ’s joy and mercy to people especially those closest to us so that they may realize and experience that God so loved the world because of the way we shower them with love through us.

You can play the game and you can act out the part,
even though you know it wasn’t written for you.
Tell me, how can you stand there with your broken heart ashamed of playing the fool?
One thing can lead to another; it doesn’t take any sacrifice.
Oh, father and mother, sister and brother, if it feels nice, don’t think twice,
just shower the people you love with love, show them the way that you feel.
Things are gonna work out fine if you only will do as I say, just
shower the people you love with love, show them the way you feel.
Things are gonna be much better if you only will.

Here is our doubleheader from the “Sweet Baby James”. Have a blessed, lovely week ahead!

*Both materials are not ours without any intentions at all of infringing its copyrights.

From YouTube.com
From YouTube.com.

Lent is the love & mercy of God in me

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Sunday Recipe for the Soul, Lent IV-B, 10 March 2024
2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23 ><}}}}*> Ephesians 2:4-10 ><}}}}*> John 3:14-21
Photo of pink convolvulus from the Botanical Gardens of Jerusalem, flora.org.il.

Many times during prayer periods I banter with God especially when I feel overwhelmed by his kindness and love. Like last Thursday on my way to the adoration chapel when I passed by a row of banks.

As I knelt before the Blessed Sacrament to pray, I just felt like asking God: “BDO (Banco De Oro) ka ba, Lord? Kasi…you always find ways.”

That, for me, my dear friends is the meaning of this fourth Sunday in Lent – God never stops in finding ways to reach out to us, to be with us, to make us experience his love and mercy, kindness and forgiveness despite the hardness of our hearts.

Photo by author, 2019.

Our altars burst in shades of pink this Sunday called Laetare (Latin, rejoice) Sunday from the entrance antiphon that says, “Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her. Be joyful, all who were in mourning; exult and be satisfied at her consoling breast.”

It is a misconception to see Lent as dull and drab due to its penitential nature; while there is the sober tone in our liturgy, let us keep in mind that it is also a season filled with joy and excitement for the coming Easter, the mother of all feasts in the Church.

And today we rightly rejoice because John reminds us in our gospel scene only him narrates – Nicodemus meeting with Jesus in the cover of the darkness of the night – of God’s immense love for us manifested in the dying of Jesus on the Cross.

Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”

John 3:14-16
“Nicodemus and Jesus” painting by James Tissot (1836-1902) from SuperStock/GettyImages via learnreligions.com.

John saw a deeper meaning, of a sign pointing to Jesus as the Christ in this conversation with Nicodemus at night. Nicodemus was a Pharisee afraid to come out in the open to show his admiration and belief in Jesus. He eventually joined the disciples on Good Friday with another Pharisee, Joseph of Arimathea when they buried Jesus in a tomb.

See the deep perception of John in this recalling by Jesus to Nicodemus of the bronze serpent raised by Moses in the wilderness (see Num. 21:4-9) as a prefiguration of his own crucifixion.

In the gospel of John, the “lifting up” of the Son of Man refers to Jesus on the Cross. After that scene with the woman caught committing adultery, Jesus declared, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM…” (Jn.8:28). Then on Palm Sunday while in the temple area, Jesus told the crowd “‘And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.’ He said this indicating the kind of death he would die” (Jn.12:32-33).

John’s gospel teems with other similar passages showing the inseparability of Christ’s Cross and glory. And so with our life, that is why in the middle of Lent, we rejoice this Sunday!

Photo by author in Petra, Jordan, May 2019.

Like last Sunday, here we find again early in the gospel of John how Jesus laid his vision-mission statement of coming to save us by dying on the Cross during his conversation with Nicodemus that night.

Jesus assured Nicodemus and us today that even while we are in the darkness of life’s many confusions and fears, problems and sufferings, we just have look up to him crucified lighting up our way to life and salvation. That night in their conversation, Jesus assured Nicodemus and us today that even in the worst situations in life when “darkness is our only light and hopelessness is our only hope” as T.S. Eliot wrote in his Four Quartets, God is in us, with us and for us in Christ. Just as when the world was covered in darkness on Good Friday when Jesus died on the Cross, it was the precise moment too of Christ’s glory when he conquered death and sin in obedience to the Father.

Yes, it is true these things are easier said than done but like Nicodemus, even in the darkness of the night we have to dare come close to Jesus, to speak to him and most of all, to hear and listen to him. As one poet had said, “only the brave who walk the darkness of the night shall see the brightness of the stars above.” Most of all, Jesus calls us today to be his love and mercy, his joy and light to the many other Nicodemus groping in the darkness of sin and evil.

From https://www.wildflowersprovence.fr/plant/convolvulus-lanuginosus/

In my three years as chaplain in a hospital, I have experienced personally and through others that truth so clear as crystal of God most closest with us in the worst days of our lives. Sometimes, we just sigh deeply as we feel him inside us, assuring us how everything is taken cared of, that everything would be fine.

Like the Israelites in the first reading, we too have to go through an “exile”, a kind of “punishment” not from God but as a result of own our sins and wrongdoing. Many times God let bad things happen to us because we insist on our ways; as God retreats to the back or sides of our lives, he never stops finding ways to save us, even “extricate” us from our imprisonment to sin and sufferings!

Indeed, as St. Paul had said in our second reading today, God is “rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us” (Eph.2:4). Let us not waste that gift. Even though God forgives every sin no matter how bad it may be, do not forget some of our sins have irreversible consequences we shall face and suffer. Of course, God would still be there to help and guide us but, why wait for that to happen?

There lies the joy and grace – and challenge – of this fourth Sunday in Lent: even while we are in our worst situations in life, in our darkest nights, Jesus is always there for us, in fact, the first to have suffered and died for us so that with him on Easter, we may rise again to new life.

Be the sower of his love and mercy. Be his presence. Be another Nicodemus in the night leading others to the light of Jesus. Let us, therefore, rejoice in the Lord as we pray:

Praise and glory to you,
dearest Father 
in giving us your Son 
Jesus Christ our Lord,
our light,
our life,
our joy;
make us, O Lord,
your love and mercy
in this world 
so everyone may experience
that indeed, God loves the world
that He gives us Jesus through me;
let your Holy Sprit enlighten 
my mind and my heart
like Nicodemus 
leading those in darkness
into the light of Christ.
Amen.

A joyful week to everyone!

From https://www.wildflowersprovence.fr/plant/convolvulus-lanuginosus/

Lent is simplicity

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday in the Third Week of Lent, 04 March 2024
2 Kings 5:1-15    ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'>     Luke 4:24-30
Photo by Skyler Ewing on Pexels.com
How amazing it is,
God our loving Father,
that Lent is often portrayed
in shades of violet that signify
"modesty" and "humility" -
or, simply put,
s-i-m-p-l-i-c-i-t-y.
May we rediscover 
in this Season of Lent
the beauty and fulness 
of simplicity,
of just being by our
true self,
without the ifs
and buts,
lovingly embracing
our weaknesses
and shortcomings,
contented with our
finite humanity
you created as good.
Many times,
we are like Naaman:
despite our feelings of
inadequacy deep within
in contrast with our stature
following our many accomplishments,
we still insist on 
what is complicated,
extraordinary
and difficult
which we often take 
as more grand
and therefore,
better.

With this, he (Naaman) turned about in anger and left. But his servants came up and reasoned with him, “My father,” they said, “if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would not have done it? All the more now, since he said to you, ‘Wash and be clean,’ should you do as he said.” So Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times at the word of the man of God. His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

2 Kings 5:12b-14
Keep us simple,
Lord,
so we may believe more,
trust more,
dare more,
and achieve more!
The world has gone
so complicated
even with life and 
relationships we have made
into something like our  
technologies that accomplish
so much but still empty;
the world has gone
so complicated
and competitive
that unfortunately, 
we take pride in being so
even though deep
within us
we know it isn't good
at all, for you, O God,
is perfect because
you are first of all
simple.
Amen.
Photo from petalrepublic.com.

Lent is for respect

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday in Second Week of Lent, 01 March 2024
Genesis 37:3-4, 12-13, 17-28     ><)))*> + <*(((><     Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46
Photo by Natalie Bond on Pexels.com
Thank you, dear God,
for this first day and 
Friday of March;
teach us to learn anew this
blessed season of Lent
the virtue of respect from
two Latin words, re + specere
that literally mean "to look again";
many times,
we fail or choose not
to respect others
because we refuse to look
at them again, and again,
that they are our kin,
a brother and a sister
in Jesus Christ;
many times we see them
but do not recognize them
as one of us that we look
at them with suspicions,
jealousies, and mistrust.

So Joseph went after his brothers and caught up with them in Dothan. They noticed him from a distance, and before he came up to them, they plotted to kill him. They said to one another: “Here comes that master dreamer! Come on, let us kill him and throw him into one of the cisterns here; we could say that a wild beast devoured him. We shall then see what comes of his dreams.”

Genesis 37:17-20
Father, instill
 in our minds and hearts 
through Jesus your Son,
that we own nothing
in this world,
that we are your stewards,
your tenants of the vineyard;
how sad
and tragic when we lay claim
to everything in this world
even our very own life
and those of others
as ours alone,
a private matter we alone
can decide on who is to live
and die; or, too much stress
on privacy that this is my body
that I alone can decide what to do
with my body.

Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’ They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

Matthew 21:37-39
Forgive us, O Lord Jesus!
So many times we have acted
like those evil tenants
who lacked any respect
for you and others
when from afar,
even if we knew,
we are mere stewards,
we insist and poison
others into thinking
we can claim ownership
of everything
 including this most
precious life.
Forgive us,
Lord Jesus,
for our lack of respect
to you and to one another;
how sad that in our
rampant disrespect,
unknown to us,
we have lost respect
to our very selves too.
Help us regain
respect this Lent.
Amen.
Photo by author, 2019.

Shamefaced in Lent

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday in the Second Week of Lent, 26 February 2024
Daniel 9:4-10     <*((((>< + + + ><))))*>     Luke 6:36-38
Thank you, Lord,
"great and awesome God"
(Daniel 9:4) for another month
about to end as we entered 
the second week in Lent;
by this time,
let us feel more your mercy
and forgiveness,
your immense love
despite our repeated sins
that have actually
habitual to many of us.
Like Daniel your prophet,
make us "shamefaced"
before you instead of being
shameless.

Justice, O Lord, is on your side; we are shamefaced even to this day: we, the men of Judah, the residents of Jerusalem, and all Israel, near and far, in all the countries to which you have scattered them because of their treachery toward you. O Lord, we are shamefaced, like our kings, our princes, and our fathers, for having sinned against you.

Daniel 9:7-8
Before we can be
merciful as you are 
merciful dear Father
according to Jesus Christ,
let us be shamefaced first
of all for our sinfulness;
many of us have lost that
sense of sinfulness,
becoming shameless
and so thick-faced
that saying it in Tagalog
is best, "makapal
ang mukha".
This Lent,
teach us to be
ashamed of our sins
and iniquities;
teach us to let go 
of our many excuses
and alibis that only
make our face grow
thicker like the soles
of our feet; make us
realize the more shame 
we put on our selves 
when we feel so
self-righteous
that we have no room
to be kind and understanding,
even caring and 
forgiving of others.
This Lent,
let us start
being shamefaced,
of having a healthy 
mistrust of our selves
so that we begin to trust you more,
O Lord, and become like you,
loving and merciful,
and eventually a vessel
of your blessings for others.
Amen.

“Yesterday” by the Beatles (1965)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 25 February 2024
Photo from petalrepublic.com.

It is the last Sunday in February, the second in the Season of Lent and most likely, everybody is feeling like “suddenly” the month is over with everything happening so fast just like in the song Yesterday by the Beatles.

Released in 1965 from their album Help!, Yesterday was actually written by Paul McCartney after a dream while staying with his former girlfriend, Jane Asher. It is a sad love song that speaks, as usual, of break-up.

The lyrics and music are simple that McCartney had to research for sometime if he had copied its melody from an existing music at that time. But, its simplicity and eloquence caught so many generations then and now as the song speaks so well of everyone’s experience. Yesterday one of the most covered songs of all time, being interpreted by almost every artist in all continents over 2000 times since its release!

You may check our Sunday blog today on the correlation of Yesterday with the transfiguration of Jesus (https://lordmychef.com/2024/02/24/troubles-on-the-road-to-easter/).

What I wish to share with you this lovely Sunday is my realization that aside from old music getting better with age as it takes on a life of its own, there is also a simultaneous change and maturity among us listeners and fans of our favorite artists and bands of their music.

I practically grew up listening to the music of the Beatles, being born in 1965, the same year Yesterday was released. I have never understood all their songs but growing up at that time surrounded by their music, I have also fallen in love with the sound of Beatles like most of my generation.

And now, I just felt everything so “suddenly” too, of how fast time flies that indeed, “I’m not half the man I used to be”! 

Yesterday all my trouble seemed so far away
Now it looks as though they're here to stay
Oh I believe in yesterday

Suddenly I'm not half the man I used to be
There's a shadow hanging over me
Oh yesterday came suddenly

It was that line that actually moved me to link Yesterday with the transfiguration of Jesus, “Suddenly I’m not half the man I used to be.”

The lesson is very simple but many times, it could take us a lifetime learning or realizing. Most of all, accepting and owning.

Like the road to Easter, our lives are always marked with so many light and darkness, failures and triumphs, tears and laughter, even little deaths. Jesus tells us in his transfiguration that the scandal of the Cross cannot be removed from the glory of his Resurrection. There can be no Easter Sunday without Good Friday.

The good news is that in every passages in life we go through, every difficulty we hurdle, every pain and sufferings we endure, we always emerge a different person after – not half the man I used to be.

Of course, it still depends on us if we become better or bitter with every pain we go through. But, like the song Yesterday that went through a long process of ups and downs even before being recorded and released, it had emerged a very great music, a classic in our own time.

How consoling to think that great men and women, like McCartney and all the other artists we look up to went through a lot of troubles in life and have emerged better and wiser as persons.

And that’s because Jesus Christ was there first to suffer and die for us so that when he rose again from the dead, we too shall rise with him. Have a blessed week ahead, folks!

From YouTube.com.

Troubles on the road to Easter

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Sunday Recipe for the Soul, Lent II-B, 25 February 2024
Genesis 22:1-2, 9, 10-13, 15-18 ><}}}}*> Romans 8:31-34 ><}}}}*> Mark 9:2-10
Photo by Ms. Analyn Dela Torre, 12 February 2024 in Bgy. Caypombo, Santa Maria, Bulacan.

While praying our gospel this Second Sunday in Lent, the song Yesterday by the Beatles kept playing at the back of my mind, especially the first two stanzas that say:

Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away.
Now it looks as though they're here to stay.
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be.
There's a shadow hanging over me.
Oh, yesterday came suddenly.

Written by Paul McCartney and recorded by the Beatles in 1965, Yesterday is a sad love song about break up that greatly changed the lost lover who was “Suddenly, I’m not half the man I used to be.”

Beautiful music, beautiful lyrics on this beautiful Sunday with another beautiful gospel as Mark leads us from the wilderness last week to Mount Tabor with Jesus Christ and his three disciples whose experiences were like the Beatles in Yesterday.

Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.

Mark 9:2-3
Basilica of the Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor, Israel from custodia.org.

See how the three apostles were overjoyed with the sight of Jesus transfigured, conversing with Moses and Elijah with Peter feeling so “high” that he offered to make three tents for them to remain there. It was the same experience of joy in the Beatles’ Yesterday when McCartney had that great feeling of being loved he thought would last forever.

But, both moments of joy were so brief with the transfiguration cut off immediately after Peter had spoken while McCartney felt his troubles came “suddenly”.

Like his account of Christ’s temptation last Sunday, Mark’s version of the transfiguration is so short unlike those by Matthew and Luke; however, Mark never lost attention to important details that showed the solemnity of the scene from start to finish despite a sudden shift in the mood as they went down the mountain.

As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant.

Mark 9:9-10

For Mark, the transfiguration of Jesus led the disciples to deepen their faith in Jesus amid his growing mystery especially in the light of his oft-repeated Passion, Death and Resurrection, as if telling us of the many troubles ahead on the road to Easter.

Hence, it is no coincidence that like the transfiguration, Mark ended abruptly his gospel account when Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome saw an angel who spoke to them inside the empty tomb of Jesus very early on Easter: Then they went out and fled from the tomb, seized with trembling and bewilderment. They said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid (Mk. 16:8). Both in the transfiguration and in the Resurrection, the disciples were dared to reflect deeply on those events that later enabled them to make a firm response in their faith in Christ.

Mosaic inside the Basilica of the Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor, Israel from commons.wikimedia.org..

The same thing applies to us today. Many troubles lie ahead our lives, inviting us to follow Jesus more closely in prayers and reflections to find the meanings and lessons of life’s light and darkness, joy and sadness, triumph and defeat, even of death that keep on hovering above us, even enveloping us at times. We need to deepen our faith in God who had sent us his Son Jesus never stops doing to be our companion in this journey of life especially when we are passing through mountains and valleys, rivers and seas. In the song Yesterday, McCartney sang of our most common experience of having loved and lost yet taught us so much lessons in life. And music.

One thing was clear with the Apostles – and McCartney too – that even though troubles and problems were always with them along the way, they just lived through it and made the most out of them like the Church, including a classic love song!

How about us today, what is our faith response to the many darkness and light we have gone through in life’s journey?

Photo by Roger Buendia/Presidential Museum and Library via esquiremag.ph.

It is always easy to blame others for our many woes in life as we fail to see our own moments of transfiguration. Jesus gifts us with a personal transfiguration event to make us better to be like him but, do we welcome or, run away from them?

Today is the 38th anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolution when we must ask ourselves how we have personally responded to that great moment of grace from God, a transfiguration in itself, a pasch like the Lord’s. Have we truly valued EDSA 1986, until now?

How unfortunate that EDSA now stands for everything that is wrong with us, especially our wrong choices and wrong decisions in the past 38 years. EDSA invites us to examine our very selves as a Filipino and as a Christian, a disciple of Christ.

Photo from iStockphoto.com of Mount Tabor in Israel where Jesus is believed to have transfigured.

At his transfiguration, Jesus showed the inseparability of the mystery of the Cross and of his glory on Easter, the closeness of Mount Tabor with Golgotha. The mountain in the bible is always a coming to God, a communion in him.

Every nature lover knows very well the mountain is life itself, difficult to climb, easy to descend. Here now is the beautiful part of the gospel. And song Yesterday. Mountains surely change us but the choice is ours if we want to become better or bitter.

Set on what is believed to be Mount Tabor, the transfiguration was a passage, a foretaste of Christ’s pasch that not only brought him to his glory but transformed too the whole human race and the world itself. In the same manner, McCartney expressed poetically in Yesterday his transformation when “Suddenly, I’m not half the man I used to be.”

From en.wikipedia.org.

This is the good news of this Sunday: every mountain in life is a grace of transfiguration, of being better persons than before. We never come out – or down – the same persons every time we enter through whatever passages or climb any mountain in life. We are always changed, we always emerge different than who we were before after each passages we came through in life.

God gives us the grace and power to choose to be better and stronger, wiser and holier than bitter or resentful with every trials we hurdle in life. This was the experience of Abraham in the first reading when he completely trusted God who asked him to offer his son Isaac on a mountain. It was a very tough test for Abraham who waited in his old age to have a son only to be sacrificed later? But Abraham never doubted God that he still went up the mountain, and as he was about to sacrifice Isaac, an angel stopped him, telling him how God was so delighted with his faith and obedience that he was eventually blessed abundantly after.

Each of us is passing through different trials at this very moment. Many times we feel we suffer more than others, that our tests are tougher than the rest. It is useless and a waste of time to compare ourselves with others. One thing is clear: God does not stop doing something good for us in Jesus, ensuring we get better each day than yesterday. Let the words of St. Paul today assure us that “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not give us everything else along with him? (Rom. 8:31-32)” Have a blessed week ahead, fellow traveler in Christ! Let us pray:

God our loving Father,
thank you for the gift of 
this Season of Lent so we may
experience more your Son
Jesus Christ's coming to us
in this journey of life,
our companion amid the
darkness and light
and many troubles 
including the little deaths
we experience in life;
give us the faith and trust
of Abraham to offer you those
 dearest to us because 
if ever you ask something from us, 
it is to make more room in ourselves
for your abounding grace 
and gifts of transformation 
in Christ Jesus with Mary, 
our Lady of Fatima.
Amen.
This Sunday, 25 February 2024, is also the Canonical Coronation of the National Pilgrim Image of Fatima here in Valenzuela City, the very image raised at EDSA in 1986. Photo from cbcp.net.