Gaano kadalas ang minsan?

Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-18 ng Nobyembre 2025

Hindi ko po napanood ang pelikulang iyan noong 1982 pero usap-usapan dahil daw sa sobrang ganda lalo ng aming mga mommy at tita na libang na libang sa Betamax. First year college ako noon at sa sobrang sikat ng pelikulang iyan, isang drayber ang nagpinta sa jeepney niyang nasasakyan ko patungong Recto ng signage na “gaano kadulas ang minsan?”

Pero iba po ang kuwento ko sa inyo. Hindi pelikula o pakuwela kungdi sa Bibliya.

Naalala ko ang pelikulang iyan dahil sa Unang Pagbasa sa Misa ngayong araw ng Martes mula sa ikalawang aklat ng Macabeo kung saan ang isang nobenta anyos na Hudyo, si Eleazar ay hinimok ng kanyang mga kaibigan na kunwari ay kumain ng baboy upang hindi siya patayin ng mga paganong mananakop.

Mas gusto ko ang salin sa Ingles nang sabihin ni Eleazar sa kanyang mga kababayan na patayin na lang siya ngayon din kesa magkunwari pa. Aniya ano ang mabuting halimbawa ang maiiwan niya sa mga kabataan kung sa kanyang katandaan ay magtataksil siya sa Diyos sa pagkain ng ipinagbabawal.

“At our age it would be unbecoming to make such a pretense… should I thus pretend for the sake of a brief moment of life, they would be led astray by me, while I would bring shame and dishonor on my old age” (2 Maccabees 6:24, 25).

Ito yung nagustuhan kong sinabi ni Eleazar, should I thus pretend for the sake of a brief moment of life?”

Iyon yung matindi sa sinabi niya, pretend for the sake of a brief moment of life.

Magkukunwari o magsisinungaling ba ako maski minsan sandali sa buhay ko?

Hindi ba kadalasan iyan ang palusot natin mula pa noong panahon nina Eba at Adan marahil? Minsan lang naman titikim… minsan lang naman gagawin… minsan lang naman nagkamali o nagkasala.

Totoo naman minsan-minsan ay sablay ating mga desisyon at nasasabi. Hindi rin maiwasan minsan minsan ang pagkakasala at pagkakamali. Pero, iyon nga ang punto ni Eleazar marahil upang ating pagnilayan, gaano kadalas ang minsan?

Yung minsan-minsan na iyan ang nakakatakot dahil madalas ang minsan katumbas ay wala ng wakas. Minsan ka lang magkamali o magkasala o magkunwari, maaring ikawasak o gumuho at maglaho lahat ng ating mga plano at pangarap na ilang taong pinagpagalan at pinagpagurang mabuti. Kadalasan, marami sa ating mga sablay sa buhay ay dahil lang sa binale-walang minsan.

Mapapatawad tayo ng Diyos sa ating mga kasalanan pati ng ating mga kapwa tao subalit, yung minsang pagkakamali o pagkakasala ay hindi na maibabalik ang dating kaayusan. Madalas yang minsang pagkakamali o pagkakasala ay mayroong tinatawag kong “irreversible consequences”.

*Larawan ni Vincenzo Malagoli sa Pexels.com*

Kapag ikaw ay nakapatay o maski nga lang masangkot sa krimen ng murder, siguradong maiiba ang takbo ng iyong buhay. Tiyak iyon, kahit na ika’y matapagtago at hindi makulong dahil habang buhay kang uusigin ng iyong konsiyensiya. Iyang minsan lang na pagkakamali dala ng init ng ulo o kalasingan ay hindi na mababago ng gaano mang kataimtim na pagsisisi dahil hindi na maibabalik ang buhay na nawala.

Ikalawang halimbawa na palagi kong sinasabi sa mga kabataan noon pa man na mayroong irreversible consequences ay ang mabuntis ng wala sa panahon. Patatawarin kayo ng Diyos maging ng inyong mga magulang ngunit kapwa ang babae at lalake maiiba na takbo ng buhay pagkatapos ng minsang pangyayari. Mapanagutan man o hindi.

LAOAG CITY, PHILIPPINES – MAY 08: A dog walks past campaign posters supporting presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. in a residential neighborhood on May 08, 2022 in Laoag City, Philippines. The son and namesake of ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., who was accused and charged of amassing billions of dollars of ill-gotten wealth as well as committing tens of thousands of human rights abuses during his autocratic rule, has mounted a hugely popular campaign to return his family name to power. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. enjoys a wide lead in opinion polls against his main rival, Vice President Leni Robredo, owing to a massive disinformation campaign that has effectively rebranded the Marcos dictatorship as a “golden age.” Marcos is running alongside Davao city Mayor Sara Duterte, the daughter of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte who is the subject of an international investigation for alleged human rights violations during his bloody war on drugs. (Photo by Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images)

Ikatlong halimbawa naisip ko ngayon lang ay ang maling pagboto sa bawat halalan.

Isang lingkod ng simbahan ang nagtanong sa akin na pagtitiisan na lang daw ba natin ang kasalukuyang pangulo gayong sinabi na ng kapatid nitong siya ay adik?

Bagamat batid kong siya ay DDS, pinagsikapan ko pa ring pagpaliwanagan. Sabi ko sa kanya, sila lang ang magtitiis, hindi kami kasi sila lang ang bumoto sa tambalang BBM at Sara noon.

Hindi sila nakinig sa sinasabi at paliwanag nating iba ang kandidato sa pagkapangulo at bise nito.

Ganyan kako ang demokrasya, parang pag-aasawa: hindi ka nakinig sa paliwanag ng iba, tapos nagkamali ka sa iyong pinili – aba, pagtiiisan mo. Minsan ka lang nga gumawa ng desisyon ngunit hindi mo sinuring mabuti ni pinagdasalan, pagdusahan mo. Ganun talaga. Kaya hindi uubra ang pagpapababa sa kasalukuyang pangulo na katulad ng sinasabi ng ilan na magdiborsiyo ang mag-asawa dahil minsan lang nagkamali.

Huwag tayong palilinlang sa minsan. May kasabihan sa Ingles na the devil is in the details: nasa mumunting bagay o detalye ang demonyo na mismong uri ng ating minsan na madalas ituring lang naman.

Pag-aralang mabuti mga bagay-bagay lahat na may kinalaman sa pagpapasya na makaka-apekto sa takbo ng buhay natin. Hindi maaring sabihin minsan lang dahil kung madalas ang minsan-minsan, bisyo na iyan!

Pagnilayan po natin yung minsan… gaano kadalas yung ating minsan na sa atin ay nagpahamak? Salamuch kaibigan. God bless!

Blessedness of mourning

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 01 November 2025
Saturday, Solemnity of All Saints
Revelation 7:2-4, 9-24 ><]]]'> 1 John 3:1-3 ><]]]'> Matthew 5:1-12

Thousands of people arrive to pray at the graves of their relatives at a cemetery during the annual observance of All Saint’s Day in Manila on November 1, 2019. Millions of Filipinos flocked to cemeteries to visit and pray at the graves of their loved ones to mark the holiday. Photo by *Ted Aljibe, AFP.*

Many are amused even some of us Filipinos why all roads lead to cemeteries during this time of the year to celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints when remembering our departed loved ones actually falls on the following day, November 2.

There’s nothing wrong with this tradition except that people forget celebrating Mass on All Saints’ Day which is the essence of the feast ranked as a Solemnity, the highest in our liturgy. Offer a Mass first for your departed loved ones on November 1 before going to the cemetery!

More than the close connections of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day in its theology and tradition, our celebration of these two feasts collectively referred to as Undas is the classic tension of our experiences of heaven on earth, of the here and not yet, of the mixture of joy and sadness within us when we remember our dead best expressed in our grief and mourning.

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:1-4).

In a world that thrives and promotes so much fun and merry-making, our second beatitude is difficult to understand or even grasp in this time of faith in a mass-mediated culture.

What is “blessed” with grieving and mourning or crying when you have lost a loved one, like a parent or a child or a friend?

Pope Benedict XVI explained in his book “Jesus of Nazareth” there are two kinds of mourning that the gospels offer us exemplified by the two most extreme of the Apostles, Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus and, Simon Peter who denied the Lord thrice (pp.86-89).

*Photo by author, Church of St. Anne, Jerusalem, Israel, May 2017.*

This first kind of mourning as shown by Judas Iscariot is when one has lost hope, succumbing to the miseries of losing a beloved and becomes mistrustful of love that leads to self-destruction. It is the worst kind of mourning that eats away and destroys man within just like Judas Iscariot who hanged himself (see Matt. 27:3-5).

The second kind of mourning according to Pope Benedict XVI that Jesus must be referring to as “blessed” in his Beatitudes which leads to salvation is when the mourning is caused by an encounter with the truth that leads to conversion like what happened to Simon Peter when he was struck by the gaze of Jesus that he burst into healing tears and cleansed his soul to enable him to begin anew in his life in the Lord (see Lk.22:60-61,62).

This will have its lovely conclusion eight days after Easter before Jesus ascended into heaven when he asked Simon Peter thrice, “Do you love me?” (Jn.21:15ff.) to remind him of that episode that eventually pushed him to follow Christ unreservedly “by taking care of his sheep”. Guided by these thoughts of Pope Benedict XVI, let us see reflect the blessedness of weeping…

*Photo by Juan Pablo Serrano on Pexels.com*

Blessed are those who weep because that means they have love in their hearts. Deaths and bad news that befall our loved ones sadden us, even jolt us with deep pain that move us to console them, to suffer with them, and to be one with them by reconnecting with them and their loved ones like when we go to a funeral or a wake.

This did not happen with Judas Iscariot. The little love he had in his heart when he realized his sin was completely wiped out when he chose to surrender totally to evil, finding no more hope for forgiveness and reconciliation with Jesus.

*Photo by Mr. Jay Javier, September 2024.*

Never lose hope in Jesus. Seek that love in your heart. Seek Jesus in that tiny voice telling you to always come home to him. Do not be shy nor ashamed of your loss and failure. Keep that fire of love in Jesus burning.

Do not let grief overcome and consume you, wiping out the embers of love left in your heart with the loss of a loved one. Life goes on in Jesus and in that same love we have in our hearts that surprisingly even grows deeper as we move on after the death of a loved one.

In the recent ghost projects scam by government and elected officials, we too felt the pain of loss too in the billions of pesos stolen from us. We are deeply affected because we love the Philippines; let us keep that love for the country burning within us by taking concrete steps against corruption while preventing opportunists from plunging us into chaos.

Blessed are those who weep because more than the love they have in their hearts, they have been loved first of all. We weep and grieve the death of a beloved family member or relative or friend because of the love they have given us, of the kindness they have shown us, and the care they have lavished upon us.

*Photo by Oscar Millu00e1n on Pexels.com*

Simon Peter did not merely have love in his heart; he was so loved by Christ!

Luke dramatically described to us how Peter’s eyes met the merciful and loving eyes of Jesus while he was denying the Lord. It must have struck him so hard that immediately he felt contrition for his sin, feeling strongly the need to reform himself and reconnect with the Lord. He could not let the imperfect love he has in his heart to just go to waste that is why when he wept bitterly on that Holy Thursday evening, it was not the end but the beginning of another chapter in his beautiful story of love for Jesus. It was precisely what he meant when he told Jesus at Tiberias, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you” (Jn.21:17) – that despite his weaknesses and failures, he loves Jesus, he tries so hard to love Jesus in his little ways.

There’s a saying that “If you have love in your heart, you have been blessed by God; if you have been loved, you have been touched by God.” We are blessed in mourning our departed loved ones because through them, we felt being touched by God. That is why we have to move on after every death – so we may love more those left around us for them to feel God’s loving touch too!

Residents of Hagonoy Bulacan walk their way to flooded portions of premise surrondings St. Anne Parish as they protest this was following exposes of flood control anomalies. The Bulacan has been under scrutiny for receiving multi million worth of flood control projects but still suffers severe flooding. (Photo by Michael Varcas)

Blessed are those who mourn because that is when we actually stand for what is true and good, for what is just and right.

When we weep, it does not mean we have lost; in fact, even in the face of apparent loss like Jesus on the Cross, mourning is the most firm expression of our belief in what is right and just, and what is true and good.

According to Pope Benedict, this blessed mourning that leads to salvation is found at the death of Jesus Christ where his Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary stood by the foot of his Cross with the beloved disciple and other women (Ibid.,p. 87). At the Cross, Mary showed us that mourning is blessed because it is the strongest expression of our solidarity with Christ, of our going against evil and sin.

In this world when conformity to whatever “everyone is doing” is the rule of the game like corruption, dishonesty, infidelity, and lies, mourning and weeping with the victims of oppression and persecution and corruption too can be our strongest signs of protest and resistance against the prevailing evils of our time. When we weep and mourn for victims of violence and evil, that is when we become God’s instruments of his comfort to his people, when we strengthen them in their pains and sufferings.

To comfort means “to strengthen” – from the Latin cum fortis, “with strength”. When we mourn and stand by those weeping and suffering, we are blessed because that is when we resolve to live and love more like Christ on the Cross.

*Photo by Dra. Mai B. Dela Peña, Mt. Carmel, Israel, 2015.*

What are your griefs today?

Blessed are you in your weeping not only in having love in your heart but most of all, for being loved. Dwell in the love of God in Jesus Christ like the saints who have gone ahead of us, resisting all evils and temptations to sin for the Lord comforts us his people always. Amen. A blessed All Saints’ Day to you! Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City

*This is based on our previous blog in 2022. Salamuch.

Stunned

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 20 October 2025
Monday in the Twenty-Ninth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I
Romans 4:20-25     <*((((><  +  ><))))*>     Luke 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” (Luke 12:13-14)

Lord Jesus,
I felt I am 
that "someone in the crowd"
asking you to tell my brother
to share the inheritance with me
and honestly,
I felt so stunned
with your answer.

I was shocked
and surprised,
could not speak a word
to explain to you my side
of the story
but wholly,
I felt so liberated.
I felt so free,
finally.
Because your reply
was so reassuring,
with you even calling me
a "friend".

How foolish for us
to be so engaged with
material pursuits in life
that never truly give us
fulfillment
except success
which is so relative;
so true are your words,
Jesus:
"one's life does not
consist of possessions."

Lord Jesus,
teach me to let go
of my many possessions
that actually possess me
and make me unfree;
instead of possessions,
let me have relationships -
with you in others;
like Abraham,
give me the grace
to know you
so that in knowing you,
I may value the truest
treasure
that remains
forever
and ever.
Amen.

Lord, teach me to….

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 08 October 2025
Wednesday in the Twenty-Seventh Week of Ordinary Time, Year I
Jonah 4:1-11     ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*>     Luke 11:1-4

*Photo by Mr. Nicko Timbol, Chapel of Angel of Peace, OLFU-Valenzuela, 03 October 2025.*

Lord Jesus,
teach me...
not only to pray 
but most of all
teach me to grow
in you,
to reorder my life
in you by reshaping
my will and desires
with yours,
to desire what 
you desire for me
and for others,
to open my heart
than twist your arm
to what I want,
to know and seek 
what brings life,
what builds community,
what reflects your love
and mercy.

Lord Jesus,
teach me to be
angry positively
like you when you
cleansed the temple,
not like Jonah.

Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry that God did not carry out the evil he threatened against Nineveh…But the Lord asked, “Have you reason to be angry?” Then Jonah asked for death, saying, “I would be better off dead than alive.” But God said to Jonah, “Do you have reason to be angry over the plant?” “I have reason to be angry,” Jonah answered, “angry enough to die.” Then the Lord said, “You are concerned over the plant which cost you no labor and which you did not raise; it came up in one night and in one night it perished. And should I not be concerned over Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot distinguish their right hand from their left, not to mention the many cattle?” (Jonah 4:1, 4, 8-11)

Lord Jesus,
teach me to pray
so that I may trust you more,
so that I may be transformed
into the beloved child
of the Father
like you.
Amen.

Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Our Lady of Fatima University
Valenzuela City
(lordmychef@gmail.com)

*Photo by author, Carmel of the Holy Family Monastery, Guiguinto, Bulacan, 25 September 2025.*

Our misplaced priorities

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 25 September 2025
Thursday in Twenty-Fifth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I
Haggai 1:1-8     <*((((><  +  ><))))*>     Luke 9:7-9

God our loving Father,
give us humility and courage
to admit our sins
and faults 
for all the mess
we are into today
as a nation:
the wholesale corruption
and looting of government 
money that resulted in more
floods,
substandard facilities,
inefficient services
and shameless servants;
painful but true,
these are all because 
of our misplaced priorities
in life.

Now thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways! You have sown much, but have brought in little; you have eaten, but have not been satisfied; you have drunk, but have not been exhilarated; have clothed yourselves, but not been warmed; and whoever earned wages earned them for a bag with holes in it (Haggai 1:5-6).

Like the people
at the time of your 
Prophet Haggai,
we have been preoccupied
with our selves,
of gaining so much
money and material
things forgetting you,
O God, and things of the
above like decency,
morality,
and spirituality;
for the right price,
many among us
have brought into power
not just corrupt
but inept officials
to run our government;
many among us
have glorified thievery,
of amassing wealth
even in sinful ways
that everything is now
measured in terms of 
money and gold;
many among us
have forgotten you,
Lord, to live in your ways
and precepts
following more of the world
that led us to destruction
and emptiness;
let us prioritize you
again, Lord
so that we too
may see how you
see things and 
persons unlike Herod
in the gospel;
let us prioritize you,
Lord so that we may
start planting
and building
things you want in life
that delight you
and perfect us
in the process.
Amen.

*Photo by author, Dangwa Flower Center, Manila, September 2018.*

Seek the face of God

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul, 21 September 2025
Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time, Cycle C
Amos 8:4-7 ><}}}}*> 1 Timothy 2:1-8 ><}}}}*> Luke 16:1-13

Scene at a wedding inside the flooded Barasoain Church in Malolos City, 22 July 2025; photo by *Aaron Favila of Associated Press.*

Our readings today are so timely like today’s headlines of rampant corruption – actually looting – of tax payers money by DPWH officials in connivance with some lawmakers and contractors.

The scriptures are very challenging for us, especially the first reading from the Prophet Amos.

Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land! “When will the new moon be over,” you ask, “that we may sell our grain, and the sabbath, that we may display the wheat? We will diminish the ephah, add to the shekel, and fix our scales for cheating! We will buy the lowly for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals; even the refuse of the wheat we will sell!” The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Never will I forget a thing they have done! (Amos 8:4-7)

*Photo by author, Malagos Garden Resort, Davao City, 2018.*

The Prophet Amos is telling us something so true today that he had noticed in his own time almost 3000 years ago.

More than the growing economic disparity among the rich and the poor as well as the growing consumerism during his time still happening today, Amos is not promoting a political agenda nor advocating a revolt against the wealthy and powerful. Moreover, Amos is not like other demagogues encouraging the people to turn away from Money that has become the new god of so many in his time and today.

Amos is a prophet because he speaks in the name of God, denouncing what is inside the hearts of the greedy rich, of their perverse intentions that they keep hidden while observing religious rituals and celebrations – a hypocrisy so rampant even these days. But, with a new twist as it is happening inside the church, among us the clergy.

Workers of a new subcontractor of a flood control structure in Barangay Sipat in Plaridel, Bulacan, lay cement and steels on September 6, 2025 amidst the downpour of rain. Photo by Michael Varcas / The Philippine STAR

In the midst of these shameless flood control scams drowning us, let us take a closer look this Sunday where Amos is directing his strong preaching.

It is not merely to the abusive rich and powerful people but also to us inside the Church – we the priests and bishops and volunteers as Amos warns us how religious practices are easily used by everyone to cover one’s selfish motives especially those inside the church.

How sad that our own diocese is so late in denouncing the flood control scams when the DPWH office that orchestrated the shameful looting is right here in our province of Bulacan, under our pastoral care.

Except for the National Shrine of St. Anne in Hagunoy that is worst hit by the floods, it came out way ahead with a call to action that culminated in a rally on their flooded streets this Saturday led by their Parish Priest, Fr. Rodel Ponce prophetically leading his flock in their town’s flooded streets. Another Amos in our midst the other day was Msgr. Dars V. Cabral who led an ecumenical prayer rally in Malolos City with a letter that is bolder than our statement against the corruption.

Why we find the preaching of Amos directed to us in the church are the many connections and links of the involved DPWH officials with so many priests who have asked them for donations in their parish projects, asking them to be the fiesta hermano and donors of funds for church construction which is all over social media.

Check every treasury office of any LGU in the province and city and surely one could find “receipts” or photos of local executives and politicians with priests and bishops on vacation in expensive resorts or dinner in five-star restaurants. And that’s not just once or twice with some of them acting exactly like the nepo babies in flaunting the “good life” in social media, oblivious to the many implications of their actions like the many poor people who are denied of a decent funeral Mass for their departed loved ones when we are always out with politicians and the rich.

Amos reminds us too in the church of our double standards when we are so quick in condemning corruption and sins of those in government and society but we are so slow, even protective of our own brothers involved in sex and financial scams. And just like in the news, we are willing to sacrifice our lay people to take all the beatings just for the sake of our brothers in cloth lest they be put to shame.

The most pathetic double standard we have in the church is when we patronize politicians friendly to our crusades like pro-life and anti-divorce but ostracize those on the other side of the fence.

What a shame! Are they not all tainted with graft and corruption, not to mention immoralities we are so quick to point out in the church? Why can’t we stop asking politicians for favors? Why can’t we be contented with what we have and what we can?

If there is one thing we in the church must stop right away is asking politicians for any favors because that give them the reason, no matter how askew and flimsy, to commit graft and corruption. When we in the church like priests and bishops keep on pleasing the rich and powerful we teach them the wrong notion that corruption is acceptable, that being rich is the key to be close to God through priests and bishops celebrating Mass and sacraments for them.

This is where the very essence of the preaching of Amos is still so relevant today for us: like the people of his time, we too have stopped seeking the face of God in our lives. Like the people of the time of Amos, what we focus is money, money, and more money, a Mammom or false god we unconsciously worship.

This Sunday, Amos and the Lord Jesus Christ remind us all especially in the church to seek the face of God always – not the face of Mammon that has become the god of many these days.

Let us live in simplicity by being content with what we have. No need to bother the governor or any politician as well as parishioners just for us to have a grand party or a spiritual renewal and retreat out-of-town.

Seek the face of God, not the face of Mammon. That’s the point of Jesus in his parable today of the shrewd steward: the Lord praised the attitude not the person. If we could just be as eager and passionate like him in seeking the face of God in the church, corruption in our government and society would be lessened. Our country would be more humane and decent because in the process, the poor and suffering would realize too that it is God too whom we must first seek, not the face of money.

This Sunday as we all prepare for the rallies in Luneta and EDSA, let us first seek the face of God, let us go to Mass first to pray for our leaders as St. Paul tells us in the second reading. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead!

*We have no claims for holiness or being pure and clean but we have tried as much as possible since our seminary days never to ask donations from politicians that they may construe it as a permission to steal.

Cross my heart?

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul, 14 September 2025
Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross
Numbers 21:4-9 ><]]]]'> Philippians 2:6-11 ><]]]]'> John 3:13-17
*This is a reissue of our 2023 reflection. Salamuch.

*Photo by Mr. Gelo Carpio, 27 January 2020, Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.*

The cross is one of the most widely used but also abused and misunderstood sign in almost every generation. In fact, we are so accustomed with the cross of Jesus Christ found everywhere like in homes and offices, churches and classrooms, hospitals, restaurants and vehicles. Almost everybody carries it in our persons as an object of veneration, as a badge, or as a jewel.

On the cross we find Jesus shown in glory, peacefully sleeping in death, sometimes with his body broken by suffering. Hence, many times we use the word “cross” like in “cross my heart” to indicate our sincerity and truthfulness. But, are we truly aware of its meaning and significance in our faith, of its centrality as the symbol of God’s love for us expressed by the self-sacrificing death of Jesus Christ his Son?

*Photo by author, St. Scholastica Convent, Baguio City, 23 August 2023.*

This Sunday we take a break from our cycle of readings to celebrate this Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross which falls on September 14. Due to its centrality in our faith, it is still celebrated even if the date falls on a Sunday like today.

This feast started in the fourth century with the miraculous discovery of the True Cross by Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, on 14 September 326, while she was on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. She then ordered through her son the emperor the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre that was dedicated nine years later with a portion of the True Cross placed inside it in September 13, 335. The following day, the Cross was brought outside of the church to be venerated by the clergy and the faithful.

In the year 627, during the reign of the Emperor Heraclius I of Constantinople, the Persians conquered the city of Jerusalem and removed a major part of the Cross from its sanctuary. The emperor then launched a campaign to recover the True Cross which he regarded as the new Ark of the Covenant for the new People of God. Before embarking into war, Emperor Heraclius went to church wearing black as a sign of penance, then prostrated himself before the altar and begged God for courage. His prayer was granted as he won the war and recovered the Cross from the Persians. He brought the Cross back to Jerusalem in 641 amid great celebrations by carrying it on his shoulders. Upon reaching the gate leading to Calvary, the emperor could not go forward! Heraclius and his retinue were astonished and could not understand what had happened until the Patriarch Zachary of Jerusalem told him, “Take care, O Emperor! In truth, the imperial clothing you are wearing does not sufficiently resemble the poor and humiliated condition of Jesus carrying His cross.”

Upon hearing those words, the emperor removed his shoes and bejewelled robes, put on a poor man’s clothing and was eventually able to proceed to Calvary and replaced the Cross inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where a number of miracles happened during the occasion: a dead man returned to life, four paralytics were cured, ten lepers were healed, 15 blind men were given their sight, with several possessed people exorcised and many sick people totally healed!

*Photo by author, Mirador Jesuit Villa & Retreat House, Baguio City, 24 August 2023.*

Very notable in this story were the words of the Patriarch of Jerusalem. It was only after the emperor had taken off his royal clothings and put on those of the poor was he able to carry the Cross.

It is the same thing that is asked of us today: it is so easy to display the cross inside our homes and cars, or wear it as a jewelry or even as a tattoo on our skin. But, that amounts to nothing unless we have the cross inside our hearts, our very being. More than the many signs of the cross and imaginary drawing of its lines we draw on our chest is the need for us to empty ourselves of our pride and sins so that we can be filled with Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters: Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8).

Called kenosis in Greek, self-emptying is the way of the Cross of Christ. It is choosing love and mercy than self-centeredness and self-righteousness; sacrifice than satisfaction; fairness and justice than greed and possession; bearing all the pains and perseverance than complaining and whining about difficulties and trials in life like the Israelites in the wilderness (first reading); and, thinking more of others than of one’s self.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic had taught something very amusing about the positivity of being negative, when negative was actually positive – healthy and COVID free! Remember how during those days when we would always wish we would yield negative results in our swab tests for COVID?

When we look at the sign of the cross (+), it is a positive sign, a plus sign. Though the cross calls us to let go, to be detached and dispossessed, it is actually an invitation to have more of God, of life and fulfillment! In this time of affluence when everything is easily available for as long as you have the means and the resources, the sign of the Cross reminds us that life is more of letting go and of giving than of having like God who “so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that he who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn.3:16). St. Francis of Assisi said it perfectly why the Cross is an exaltation, a triumph:

For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen. Enjoy Sunday and have a blessed week ahead!

Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Our Lady of Fatima University
Valenzuela City
(lordmychef@gmail.com)

Uniqueness of the Cross

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul, 14 September 2025
Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross
Numbers 21:4-9 ><}}}}*> Philippians 2:6-11 ><}}}}*> John 3:13-17
*This is an updated version of our reflection last year; pray for our Marriage Encounter this weekend.

*Via Crucis at Fatima University Medical Center, Valenzuela City, 2025.*

This Sunday we have a unique celebration, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross that falls on the 14th day of September. It is so important that even if it falls on a Sunday, the more it must be celebrated as it is most central in the teachings of Jesus Christ.

It is so unique because despite its being made up of two ordinary pieces of wood, the Cross is most unique with its deeply extraordinary in meaning as sign of God’s immense love for us humans through Jesus Christ’s Passion and Death.

From being the sign of the most inhuman punishment in history, the Cross is now the very sign of how God “so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that he who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn.3:16). It encapsulates the whole mystery of Jesus Christ, of how this all-powerful God beyond the ordinary became weak like us in everything except sin so that we too may be like Him, divine and more than ordinary. In His suffering and death on the Cross, Jesus made the lowly wood so ordinary to be so exalted to become His sign of love and mercy, power and majesty.

Hence, in the Cross is the power of God’s love to transform us to better persons.

In the Cross is God’s power to lead us closer to Him with its vertical beam and to others with its horizontal beam.

In the Cross is the power of good if we choose to embrace it with Christ Jesus as our Lord and Master.

The Cross is most unique of all signs in the world because underneath its ordinariness, that is where we see God’s glory and majesty. It was underneath the Cross of darkness and gloom on Good Friday that humanity began to see light and hope in life’s many absurdities. Most of all, it was underneath that Cross of suffering and death of Jesus Christ that we feel and experience the assurance of the Resurrection.

How?

Through our own pains and sufferings that are most uniquely ours too!

With their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!” In punishment the Lord sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died (Numbers 21:4-6).

*Photo by author, Dominican Hills, Baguio City, January 2018.*

You must have heard that old story of a man who came to Jesus to return the cross given for him to carry; he asked Jesus to have it replaced with a lighter one. Jesus then led the man to a huge room with all kinds of crosses for him to choose which he prefers as the best one for him so that he would stop complaining.

After closely examining the specs of so many crosses, the man finally decided to pick one he deemed as perfect for him after considering its weight and other dimensions, only to find out from Jesus Himself that it was the same cross he had actually returned for exchange!

Many times in life we are like those people in the first reading, never ending in their complaints to God, even challenging Him, accusing Him of forsaking us, of being unfair when life becomes difficult and unbearable. There are times we feel being on the distaff side of life always like a flat tire, never on top. We cry foul to God especially with all our hurts and pains inflicted by others, asking Him where was He when most needed?

Photo by author in Jordan near the Israeli border where Moses put up the bronze serpent as instructed by God to heal those bitten by the snakes after they have complained of their conditions in the wilderness, May 2019.

While it is true life is indeed difficult, the cross reminds us of the fact that the pains and hurts we have are uniquely ours too, something we have to accept and most of all, own.

There are pains that are so deep and won’t go away that have in fact affected us dismally in our lives already. Instead of self-blaming and self-pity, we just have to ask for God’s grace to accept and own them like Jesus Christ. We just have to “bring it home” – that imagery of the Cross planted on the Calvary – into our very selves, in our being as something so true and real. And uniquely ours.

Stop thinking of others’ pains and hurts. We are not all the same. If ever we have similar experiences, the hues and shades even gravity and circumstances are not same because each pain and hurt, like the cross, is uniquely ours. Like every person, every cross is unique because it is also a gift, a mystery, and life. We have to “befriend” our pains and hurts, our own cross instead of resist it. It is in “befriending” our pains and hurts, our cross in life that we grow and mature, becoming more free to love and to be joyful because that is when the cross triumphs over its disgrace and shame in us and with others. That is when our pains and hurts, when our crosses begin to reveal to us the many beautiful truths of Easter awaiting us.

The Cross of Christ triumphed because Jesus carried it wholeheartedly, allowing those two pieces of wood to reveal not only to Him who knew everything beforehand its meaning but most of all to everyone of us the deeper truths the Cross signifies as St. Paul eloquently expressed in our second reading.

*The Cross of Christ atop the church of our Lady of Lourdes in France. Photo by my former student Ar. Philip Santiago during his pilgrimage, September 2018.*

One thing I realized after my mother died May last year is the fact that while there are so many pains and sufferings in this world, my own pain and suffering in losing her are most difficult to bear; hence, something I must carry because it is uniquely mine.

But, one thing so unique I noticed is that the more I see my cross following my mother’s death, the more I saw also the cross of others. The Cross of Jesus triumphed truly in me when I embraced and owned my cross, when I befriended my pains and hurts that eventually led me to recognize and see, to feel more and experience too the crosses of others.

When we become conscious of each one’s unique cross, slowly we are able to reveal to them the meaning of their personal crosses too because we become more sympathetic, more open, more silent to listen more, love more, care more and be more present with those in their own unique cross. No wonder, I find conversing more engaging with others who also grieve because we can see each other’s unique crosses!

Jesus calls us to imitate Him that by embracing and owning our cross, we too may lead others to finding the meaning of their own cross and thus experience Easter soon. Let us pray:

Give us the grace,
dear God
to always embrace the Cross
like your Son Jesus Christ
where we can all be empty
of ourselves to be filled
with your Holy Spirit
and make your love
visible in us.
Amen.

A blessed week to everyone!

Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Our Lady of Fatima University
Valenzuela City
(lordmychef@gmail.com)

What impresses Jesus?

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 11 September 2025

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 2023.*

Of course, there is no need for us to impress Jesus Christ for he loves us so immensely beyond measure. However, I have realized this week in my prayers that the Lord is most impressed with us when we are in our weakest.

It has been recurring in my prayers several times with the latest in this Wednesday’s gospel, “Raising his eyes toward his disciples Jesus said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours’” (Luke 6:20).

I just love that scene of Jesus looking up to his disciples, looking up to us because normally we humans are the ones who look up to God his Father where he is seated to his right in heaven. When we pray, we sometimes raise our hands reaching up to God.

There is something so beautiful and wonderful when the Sacred Scriptures tell us of Jesus looking up to us. What an honor and a privilege! Because that happens when we are weakest, most flawed, and dirty with sin.

Imagine being there at that scene of the sermon on the plain and Jesus had to raise his eyes toward his disciples: he must have been at a lower position than them. This scene will have its fullness in the washing of the disciples’ feet after their Last Supper on Holy Thursday.

We who could no longer bow that low to clean and wash our feet as well as trim our toenails know this so well. Imagine all the dirt and flaws Jesus must have seen in the disciples’ feet that evening. Not a word was heard from Jesus. He teased no one nor complained of the dirt and unsightly things he must have seen too. Jesus simply bore everything because he loved them so much.

*Photo from Our Lady of Fatima University website, June 2025.*

Jesus continues to look up to us every time we receive him in our hands during the Holy Communion. That is why I always tell the people especially our students to be very solemn during that occasion when the Son of God most powerful, all-knowing in his simplest form and sign as a thin wafer, enters us body and blood. It is the most perfect time to pray to Jesus, to tell him everything and most of all, to listen to him because that is when he is right inside our body, when he is down inside us, we above him.

Jesus does not need our triumphs and “goodness” because they all came from him actually. What he does not have is what we have a lot- the negative things like sins, hurts and bitterness, anger and resentment festering deep inside us for a long time. Those are the thing Jesus want from us, the very things he is most “impressed” with us that we are able to live with those burdens for so long. But, he is most impressed with us in the truest sense when we are able to surrender these to him because that’s when we are blessed and filled in him.

Raising his eyes toward his disciples Jesus said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man” (Luke 6:20-22).

In this age of affluence brought about by technological advances, being poor and hungry, being maligned and weeping are things to be avoided at all costs. With people so fascinated with money and wealth, fame and power, being poor and hungry for God, weeping and being maligned for what is true and good and just are not impressive at all, even foolish.

But, look at the effect of those shameless social media posts by “nepo babies” of their crass lifestyle sustained by ill-gotten wealth at the expense of the poor – they have all been bashed relentlessly in the country leading to more evidence of corruption among government officials and law-makers while in Indonesia and Nepal, these same practices have sparked social unrest and upheavals recently!

For so long, many have wished to be rich and wealthy, to have all the money to buy good food and drinks, build mansions filled with expensive cars and adorn themselves with signature clothes and jewelries in the belief they can impress others. Maybe with their fellows with the same benighted souls but more often, they only bred jealousies and envies that led to vicious circles of corruption and crimes in the name of having more money.

In truth, no one is impressed with material things because people who feel good only with possessions are actually the most pitiable ones for they could not see their own value as a person. To be able to see one’s value as a person despite one’s sins and weaknesses is the beginning of being truly human.

Recall the Lord’s parable of the Pharisee and the publican praying at the temple: the publican who stayed at the back beating his chest so contrite for his sins went home blessed according to Jesus than the Pharisee who boasted of his own righteousness. “Magpakatotoo ka!” screamed a soda commercial not too long ago but still echoes so true these days.

Jesus is not impressed with what we have done nor achieved but with what we have become – that amid all the beatings and pains of life with all of our shortcomings and sins, we forge on with life, persevering in faith, filled with hope that Christ is our salvation. What impresses Jesus Christ most in us is what we lack because that is when he can be closest to us, one in us. See yourself the way Jesus sees you – as a person, loved and cared for. Regardless of what. Let me end this with a prayer wrapped in a song which I have always loved because it sounds like Jesus speaking to me, so impressed with me despite of everything.

From YouTube.com

We are God’s masterpiece

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul, 07 September 2025
Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C
Wisdom 9:13-18 ><}}}}*> Philemon 9-10, 12-17 ><}}}}*> Luke 14:25-33

“Napasarap ang kuwentuhan” is how we would describe the scene last Sunday continuing to today’s gospel as Jesus pushed through in his journey to Jerusalem.

Recall Jesus dined at the home of a leading Pharisee last Sunday where “people observed him carefully” while “he noticed them” choosing seats of honor at the party that he told them a short parable on humility. One of the guests liked it that Jesus narrated another parable about coming to a banquet where everybody is invited. Many were impressed with his second parable that Luke now tells us great crowds followed Jesus after that dinner on a sabbath.

Great crowds were traveling with Jesus, and he turned and addressed them, “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciples. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion? Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say, ‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish'” (Luke 14:25-30).

*Photo by Mr. Jay Javier in Quiapo, 09 January 2020.*

Keep in mind that Jesus “resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem” (Lk.9:51) to fulfill his mission of offering himself on the cross. This is the second time since he embarked on that journey that he had told those wishing to become his disciples must forget themselves, take up their cross and follow him.

During that time, the cross was the Roman empire’s worst punishment – most humiliating and excruciatingly painful leading to a slow death. Imagine how the audience of Jesus must have felt hearing his words about taking up one’s cross, whether in its literal or figurative meaning. Jesus completely changed that on Good Friday when he totally and freely offered himself to die on the cross because of his immense love for us and the Father. From being a sign of cruelty and shame, the Cross became the sign of love and honor as Jesus the Son of God became one of us in passion and death so that we may be like him in his glorious resurrection.

And that is what Jesus wants for us, to be holy like him that is why he invites us to do the same, “take up your cross and follow me” which we may call as the “Christ project” wherein destruction leads to new creation, death to life, and self-giving to true love.

Here we find the wisdom and gentle mastery of Jesus as a teacher in using a “building project” as an example of discipleship, a world apart from the shameless, scandalous ghost projects of DPWH with some contractors through manipulations by lawmakers stole billions of pesos from the poor people without doing any flood control facilities at all.

*Photo by author, Church of St. Anne in Jerusalem, May 2017.*

The Christ project is the most noble “building project” of all where everyone becomes God’s masterpiece: “Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion? Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say, ‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish'” (Lk.14:28-30).

What is Jesus longing to “construct” in your life?

We have all been disciples of Christ since baptism but many times in life, we have taken for granted his call to follow him and journey in him, with him, and through him. See that in his two parables today, Jesus did not say that we have to be “like them” in preparing to build a tower or go to war; instead at the ending, Jesus said, “In the same way, anyone who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple” (Lk.14:33).

We are all disciples of Christ. It is an inescapable reality in life, an honor and a responsibility because whether we like it or not, our discipleship in Christ plays a major role in our life direction. Or lack of direction. If you are feeling lost, most likely you have veered away from Christ in life’s journey. When life is in a mess, Christ is missing.

The author of the Book of Wisdom tells us how God in his infinite wisdom slowly unfolds to us his grand plans for us as his disciples, his beloved children. See that our most meaningful and fulfilling moments in life were those we were closest to God – not really when we were drowning in wealth and fame and material things. See the simplicity and sincerity of the common folks betrayed by this system of corruption – they can look straight the camera lens without hiding not like the fake, empty fronts of the the well dressed senators, contractors and DPWH officials in the hearings.

*Photo by author, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City, September 2023.*

All our lives we must become a disciple of Christ that is why we must constantly reflect on his demands not only to examine how far we have gone by looking in the past but most especially to renew our commitment to him so we can move forward, nearer to the Father and to one another in loving service. This is what St. Paul was asking Philemon in accepting anew his escaped slave Onesimus.

Jesus invites us this Sunday to stop and reflect about his plans, his project for us to be God’s masterpiece. Discipleship is a call to self-emptying, to daily crucifixion of forgetting one’s self, of always choosing Jesus, choosing what is true and good and just. Of course it is easier said than done but that is the way it is. Better to make the choice freely than wait later when it would be imposed on us by the circumstances.

This is the meaning of our Care for Creation celebration this Sunday when we are called to see the unity of everyone and everything in “Christ Jesus… the image of the invisible God… in him were created all things in heaven and earth, the visible and invisible… For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things for him, making peace by the Blood of his cross through him, whether those on earth or those in heaven” (Col.1:15, 16, 19-20).

Caring for creation and environment is discipleship in action as Pope Francis called on us in his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si of the need to have an inner change, an “ecological conversion” wherein we do our individual part of sacrifice and care for God’s creation. It is always easy to join the many green movements and environmental crusades but if deep in our hearts remain our own comfort and convenience, nothing would ever change in the world around us as we continue with our insatiable consumption of so much goods. What we need is a “shift” in our perspectives in life, to see it wholly as interconnected.

We require a new and universal solidarity. As the bishops of Southern Africa have stated: “Everyone’s talents and involvement are needed to redress the damage caused by human abuse of God’s creation”. All of us can cooperate as instruments of God for the care of creation, each according to his or her own culture, experience, involvements and talents. (Laudato si’, #14)

Caring for creation is discipleship when we choose to follow Jesus in implementing his grand design and project for a better world where peace truly reigns in all creation. Amen. A blessed week ahead of everyone. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City (lordmychef@gmail.com)