Tag: love

Getting married in time of pandemic

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 25 June 2024
Photo by Joseph Kettaneh on Pexels.com

It’s been more than four years since the breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic that threw many of us out of sync in life, especially those planning to get married during those critical years of 2020-2022.

I had four weddings affected by the COVID-19 lockdowns in that period; three were postponed but I was able to officiate at the two weddings when reset to another dates except the first one that did not fit my schedule. The fourth wedding I was not able to officiate because I got the virus and had to be isolated.

This is the homily I delivered at one of those three weddings postponed I officiated, between Cris my former student at the Immaculate Conception School for Boys (ICSB) in Malolos City and Tim whom I met when they were going steady while we were all taking MA courses at UST.

More funny than that was the fact Cris and Tim have planned of getting married in 2020 but have to move it to 2021 due to the pandemic; but, when COVID still persisted that year, they finally fixed their altar date to early 2022. Alas! Just as they were all set in January 2022, the church was closed on the week of their wedding after its priests got the virus!

Cris and Tim were at a loss when their wedding would finally take place until they were offered by the parish the date February 22, 2022 after the weddings of those others postponed like them. I told them to go for it than wait further for other dates lest they in turn get the virus too!

Looking back to their wedding day, I have realized how God always finds ways in helping married couples in all their problems for as long as they are willing to cooperate. This is why we cannot allow divorce to be legalized in the country for God never fails in His grace and blessings. We just have to work on them.

From stillromancatholicafteralltheseyears.com, January 2022.

You must have heard the saying that “God writes straight crooked lines”. And today that proves so true not only with how God wrote so crooked His straight lines in your life, Cris and Tim, but even wrote in circles to make this date your wedding day – 22 February 2022!

Cris and Tim, God has always been so sure in calling you before His altar on this date, which will similarly happen again in 200 years – 22 February 2222! God writes straight crooked lines because everything in him is perfect, like numbers. Precise and exact. Like this date you never chose, 02-22-2022.

When you consulted me last month when priests here offered you this date due to their recent lockdown, right away I told you it is the most wonderful date for your wedding being the Feast of St. Peter’s Chair… St. Peter as in San Pedro like Cristopher Tabafunda San Pedro and later, Mrs. Fatima Macam San Pedro!

It was God who willed in all eternity that you, Cris and Tim, be married today — not last year, not the other week nor next week because today is the day that the Lord has made!

Cris and Tim are both very prayerful and good, practicing Catholics.

You are both good with numbers like God, a mathematician who is very precise and exact like an economist and stock trader (Cris) and a marketing and sales executive (Tim) who used to do a lot of chemical research before.

But God has better and deeper plans for you that numbers cannot count nor quantify.

God wants you to always go back to basic numbers, not to those found in equations only you two can understand or multiple digits only you can count.

Jesus said it so well in the gospel today: two is equal to one. So mathematical ba?

Photo by author, 2021.

“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”Matthew 19:5-6

Life is not about having the most but the least. That is where faith grows and deepens.

When we have so much in life, when we feel so sufficient, when we are so filled with things, we forget God. We stop believing in him, we believe more in ourselves.

And when we stop believing in God, we lose our faith and then, we stop loving, too. Sooner or later, we become empty and miserable.

So, be simple, Cris and Tim.

Reduce everything to the barest and simplest. Simplify, simplify, simplify as Henry David Thoreau said: “let your affairs be two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand.”

When we get complicated like our Facebook, life becomes difficult as we can’t find right away who and what matters most to us.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Kaya nga isa lang ang asawa, Cris at Tim, kasi hindi puwede marami. Hindi lang magulo. Magastos pa. Imagine kung dalawa o tatlo wedding rings? Pag isa lang, kita agad at alam na this – married na ang mamang ito na may cute na dimple o itong girl na ito na naka glasses at dalawa pa ang dimples! Hayaan ninyo sabihin ng mga makakita singsing ninyo na sayang at taken na pala siya!

You see, the lower the number, the simpler, the better. Madaling tumaya at manampalataya.

That’s faith!  Parang PBA game kung saan kayo nagkakilala. And you have both experienced, walang tatalo sa faith in God ninyong dalawa!

God is greater and more than the numbers the wiz kids and supercomputers of the world can calculate and predict. His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor His ways. He first created just one man and one woman – just two – to be one with each other in Him, and to be faithful to Him and each other.

Because the more we become faithful, the more we become loving.

That is the message of this Feast of the Chair of St. Peter which is the “Primacy of Rome” or of the Pope: it is the primacy of faith and the primacy of love together which cannot be separated.

Chair of St. Peter in Rome, from Wikipedia.

Forget all those numbers Cris and Tim, focus only in the One – God in Jesus Christ. Just focus on Jesus, always Jesus.

Love is not about counting or keeping tabs and tallies, like how many “likes” and “followers” we get in our posts.

The true measure of love is when we love without measure, when we simply love, love, love. And love.

That is why we only have one heart so we can love with all our heart. Forget Sana Dalawa ang Puso Ko. It is just a song.

When you have LQ (lover’s quarrel), who should blink first, or smile? Who should take the first move to reconcile, the first to offer the hand of peace?

Whenever lovers and couples or even friends quarrel, I always say, whoever has more love to give must be the first one to initiate reconciliation, the first to blink, or smile, the first to offer the hand of peace.

To have the most love to give and share does not mean to be better or superior than the other; to have the most love to give and share is to have more faith, to have a deeper faith the he/she is ready and willing to lose everything for the sake of the loved one.

Like Jesus Christ who gave everything for us on that Cross because of love.

God bless you more, Cris and Tim. Amen.

You may check our original post at https://lordmychef.com/2022/02/23/faithful-and-most-loving/.

Into the sea of life & love

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Twelfth Sunday in the Ordinary Time, Cycle B, 23 June 2024
Job 38:1, 8-11 ><}}}}*> 2 Corinthians 5:14-17 ><}}}}*> Mark 4:35-41
Photo by author, San Juan, La Union, 25 July 2023.

From examples of trees in the forest and sowing of seeds in the fields last week, our readings this Sunday situate us at the middle of the sea with a raging storm to remind us of God’s immense power and most of all, love and care for us in Jesus Christ. Right away we get that hint from our short first reading:

The Lord addressed Job out of the storm and said: Who shut within doors the sea, when it burst forth from the womb; when I made the clouds its garments and thick darkness its swaddling hands? When I set limits for it and fastened the bar of its door, and said: Thus far shall you come but no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stilled!” (Job 38:1, 8-11).

Photo by author, San Juan, La Union, 25 July 2023.

Nothing so struck humans since time immemorial as the sea that is so immense, seemingly without limits. It has been so loved yet dreaded with many literatures around the world teeming with all kinds of stories about the sea’s many mysteries that still baffle us in this age of computers and satellites. Experts say that big ships and jumbo jets are so minuscule compared with any area of the sea where they could still get lost like the missing Malaysian Airlines not too long ago.

That is the imagery of the sea, similar with life itself that is lovely to behold yet frightening with many mysteries and dangers. Life like the sea must be crossed and lived out to experience its boundless beauty, joys, and gifts waiting to be discovered by those willing to have faith in Jesus who assures us today that He had come to accompany us in crossing this great sea of life with His love and power.

A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up. Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. They woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!” The wind ceased and there was great calm (Mk.4:37-39).

Photo by author, Anvaya Cove in Morong, Bataan, 15 April 2024.

“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

Most likely we have also asked God the same question especially when everything seems to be so wrong in our lives with God seemed to be so far from us, not caring at all. That was the situation of the fictional character Job we have in the first reading. Towards the end of the book, God assured Job that as the Creator of this universe, He is in control of everything in this life. This became more real in the coming of Jesus, the Son of God, our Emmanuel or “God-is-with-us” that Mark showed in his story of Christ’s calming of the sea.

See Mark’s details as so weird and exaggerated to show us that even in the worst scenarios in life, God is present in Jesus Christ. Remember that Mark wrote his gospel account to inspire and strengthen the faith of early Christians persecuted and felt exactly like the disciples in the boat caught in a violent squall with nowhere to go except to Jesus soundly asleep in the stern on a cushion.

Both the incident at the sea and the persecution of early Christians must be so terrifying, reminding us of the times we felt the same way too in many instances in our lives like when the whole world stood still during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Photo by author, Lake of Galilee, the Holy Land, May 2017.

This was the same gospel scene Pope Francis used in his reflections at the special Urbi et Orbi benediction in March 2020 at the start of COVID-19. That surreal scene of an empty St. Peter Square with the Pope alone limping his way to the altar was so much like this scene in the gospel. How sad that four years after crossing modern history’s stormiest sea, many have forgotten while others refuse to recognize that it was Jesus who pacified the virus that caused the pandemic.

Jesus reminds us today that He is always in the boat, silently sailing with us in this stormy sea of life. Do not expect Him to be like most stage mothers or protective parents who keep on interfering in the lives of their children especially when there are difficulties.

During a vacation in Canada more than a decade ago, I noticed the big difference between Filipino and Canadian parents when relatives brought me to experience “apple picking”. While waiting at the entrance, I observed how Canadian parents simply looked at their children playing, never intervening except when kids were hurt and started to cry. So amazing at how the parents would just smile and carry their children to comfort them, so unlike Filipino parents who acted like Secret Service agents watching, reprimanding every move of their children. Worst was when children got hurt and cried as parents scolded them! – which continues even after their children have all grown up with families of their own. Maybe we never progressed as a nation because so many of us have never really matured as individuals partly due to our “stage parents”.

Photo by author, Lake of Galilee, May 2019.

Going back to the boat caught in a violent squall in the middle of the Lake of Galillee, see the dramatic contrast of Jesus soundly asleep in the stern while His disciples were deep in anguish and fears. Like those Canadian parents I have observed, Jesus prefers to be silent during storms in life than to interfere so that we would grow and mature in our faith and prayers, becoming stronger inside and out.

Instead of frantically shouting and scrambling on what to do like the disciples in the boat when trials come our way, let us go inside to Jesus in the stern, no need to wake Him up nor speak. Simply stay, be still and be one with Him in prayers, trusting Him more than anyone.

That’s how we are transformed into better persons by letting Jesus live inside our hearts, the stern of our boat.

To let Jesus live in our hearts is to live in love of Christ despite the many storms and darkness we encounter like St. Paul who implored us in the second reading, “Brothers and sisters: The love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that one died for all; therefore, all have died (2Cor.5;14).

Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD in Infanta, Quezon, 2023.

St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians is his most personal letter where he poured his heart out in response to the nasty talks hurled against him. Throughout this letter, we find St. Paul narrating all the trials and sufferings he endured in following Jesus that led him to experience Christ’s love in the most personal way that gave him the conviction to live in Christ, to love Christ. Hence, his call every Paulinian knows by heart, Caritas Christi urget nos.

Last Sunday, Mark portrayed God’s presence in Jesus Christ among us like the seed sown in the field that grows without us knowing how, always present among us. Today, Mark portrayed Jesus present among us in exaggerated manner like sleeping in the stern while the boat filled with many leaks crosses this sea of life in a violent storm. How interesting that in crossing the sea – on the Cross itself – Jesus reconciled us with God, with others and with our very selves so that we may pass over and cross to the other side of life and love in Christ. Let us pray:

Lord Jesus Christ,
cast away our fears 
in this sea of life we cross
filled with darkness and storms;
many times, our boat is filled with
many leaks of our sins
but You chose to stay with us,
sleeping soundly in the stern;
teach us to be silent,
to trust You more
when the going gets rough
and tough like during an exam:
You are our Teacher,
You know all the answers,
You are silent because 
You want us to learn,
You want us to pass.
Amen.

Two gifts to pray for always

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Memorial of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious, 21 June 2024
2 Kings 11:1-4, 9-18, 20     ><]]]]'>  +  <'[[[[><     Matthew 6:19-23
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
On this Friday,
Lord Jesus Christ,
there are two things I pray:
give me a pure heart 
and eyes like a lamp.

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be (Mt. 6:19-21).”

Help me realize, Jesus,
that to "store up treasures 
in heaven" is not just to pile up
a lot of good works in heaven
that will be to our credit in the 
next life for they too can be lost
when we slide down into sin and evil;
rather, like in your beatitudes,
give me a clean or pure heart
that is like yours, that is inclined
to You always; a clean heart, O Lord,
is not of "doing" but of "being" and
"becoming" that truly becomes a 
treasure, something we value most.

How sad in this world so materialistic
that many believe there is 
nothing money cannot buy, 
nothing money cannot solve
even though this belief is proven
false all the time!

Cleanse our hearts of
pride and sins,
fill it with your humility,
justice and love, Lord Jesus!
Dwell in our hearts,
reign over us!

“The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be” (Mt.6:22-23).

Give us that light
and vision, Jesus
to see the most essential,
the most valuable in life
that are beyond
wealth, fame, and power;
free us from the darkness
and blindness
of not seeing beyond material things
so we may discern
the real treasures,
what is most valuable
in this life
like You and others,
love and peace
and joy.
Amen.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.

Understanding sin

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, 18 June 2024
1 Kings 21:17-29     <'[[[[><<  +  ><]]]]'>     Matthew 5:43-48
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
God our merciful Father,
grant me the grace today
to understand my sins more
clearly so that I may come to
sorrow for them,
sorrow that leads to love
of your Son Jesus Christ
and not despair;
let me keep in mind
that sin is not just a breaking
of your laws and rules but
simply a refusal to love
You and others around me;
and the worst part of sin
we are not aware of is how
it seriously affects our personality,
our personhood
because whenever we sin
we become a less-loving
person.

So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:48
Being perfect,
being holy like You,
dear Father,
means being filled
by You
which is a process
of daily conversion
when we ask
your forgiveness Father,
to gain a better self-knowledge
of ourselves
to identify our weaknesses
and sinfulness
so that in your grace,
we become a better person
than before.
Let us have within us
that sense of sinfulness
and sense of sin,
Father
so that we
we may grow in your love.
Amen.

Going the extra mile…

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday in the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 17 June 2024
1 Kings 21:1-16     <*((((><<  +  >><))))*>     Matthew 5:38-42
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD in Infanta, Quezon, April 2020.
Your words today, O God
are so agitating,
"nakaka-init po ng ulo":
it is an old story we have 
all memorized but every time
we hear it, we are so moved
in anger because it continues
to happen in our own time,
especially the truth 
that we never run out of scoundrels, 
of corrupt and evil people
willing to sell their souls,
to lie and malign others,
even kill for money and
wealth.

This is what Jezebel wrote in the letters: “Proclaim a fast and set Naboth at the head of the people. Next, get two scoundrels to face him and accuse him of having cursed God and king. Then take himmout and stone him to death.” His fellow citizens – the elders and the nobles who dwelt in his city – dis as Jezebel had ordered them in writing, through the letters she had sent them… On hearing that Naboth was dead, Ahab started off on his way down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.

1 Kings 21:9-11, 16
Forgive us, merciful Father
in conniving with the modern
Jezebels and scoundrels
with our nasty talks and comments
against others especially
in social media;
we may not be committing sin
at the same scale as that of
Jezebel and her cohorts but
still, we continue this cycle of
evil and violence in what we
consider at small talks that are
true after all...
Oh God, forgive us in taking
away the honor and dignity
of so many people with our careless
comments and even likes in social media
posts.
Teach us in Jesus Christ
your Son, Father,
to go the extra mile in fighting
this vicious circle of evil; 
give us the courage in Jesus 
to turn the other cheek
by firmly standing on our ground
at His Cross in resisting  
violence and revenge,
in showing others that
love always prevails,
the love is the most potent
force in the universe not
greed nor hatred,
that only love conquers all.
Amen.
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD in Infanta, Quezon, April 2020.

“Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree.”

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, 16 June 2024
Ezekiel 17:22-24 ><}}}}*> 2 Corinthians 5:6-10 ><}}}}*> Mark 4:26-34
Photo by author, Camp John Hay, Baguio City, 12 July 2023.

While preparing this homily, I cannot resist thinking of this poem by Joyce Kilmer because of its similarities with the first reading from the Book of Ezekiel and partly with the parables of Jesus in the gospel.

Kilmer tells us in his poem that trees are God’s presence among us, a sign of His own majesty, a reminder of life’s mysteries, something many of us seem to have learned only recently after the scorching heat of last summer when everyone was posting on Facebook the need to plant trees!

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD, April 2020 in Infanta, Quezon.

In the first reading, the Prophet Ezekiel picturesquely imagined how God would plant a great Lebanon cedar on a mountain as a sign of His divine intervention for our salvation that was eventually fulfilled in Jesus Christ’s coming.

Ezekiel lived during the Babylonian exile, the lowest point in life of Israelites when they did not have a country, nor a temple, not even a future. They felt abandoned, punished by God due to their sins; hence, Ezekiel was sent to give them hope. Through this beautiful allegory of the future Israel, Ezekiel tells his countrymen including us today how God would eventually intervene in a very personal manner to fulfill His promise of salvation. 

Thus says the Lord God: I, too, will take from the crest of the cedar, from its topmost branches tear off a tender shoot, and plant it on a high and lofty mountain. It shall put forth branches and bear fruit, and become a majestic cedar. Birds of every kind shall dwell beneath it, every winged thing in the shade of its boughs. And all the trees of the field shall know that I, the Lord, bring low the high tree, lift high the lowly tree, wither up the green tree, and make the withered tree bloom. As I, the Lord, have spoken, so will I do.

Ezekiel 17:22-24
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD, April 2020 in Infanta, Quezon.

That beautiful imagery of the cedar tree planted in Israel reminds us that in whatever state of life we may be – whether we are like a tall or a lowly tree, a green or withered tree – it is always God who has the final say in life because He is the very reason for our existence. 

Jesus declared to us in one of the Sundays of Easter, “I am the true vine and you are the branches…without me you cannot do anything” to show that more than a giver of life, He is life Himself because He is the tree planted firmly by God in our midst.

Incidentally, the word “tree” which is treowe in Old English is the root of the word true which connotes something firmly rooted, steadfast and faithful. From the same word treowe came trust because the roots of a tree signify relationships or interconnectedness. That is why the Anglo-Saxons have always traced their ancestors and family by using the diagram of a tree from which came our concept of “family tree” today.

How lovely to imagine that tree planted by God in our midst is Jesus Christ, “the Way, the Truth and the Life”, the One we must trust always!

Hence, Mark invites us today to listen more attentively to the Lord’s teachings, asking us to not just sit beside or around Him but try to “get inside” Him by taking into our hearts His words like Mary His Mother as we have reflected last Sunday.

Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD, April 2020 in Infanta, Quezon.

Again, Mark surprises us in his story of Jesus teaching the people about seeds and plants, and ordinary activities like sowing we take for granted but so rich in meanings. That is what a parable is – a simple story with deep meanings about life.

Our life itself is a parable wherein we find the most profound realizations in the most ordinary things and events in our lives. And that is where Jesus Christ comes too often. He is in fact the kingdom of God He spoke so often in His teachings and parables.

Jesus said to the crowds:  “This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and through it all the seed would sprout and grow he knows not how (Mk.4:26-27).”

Mark 4:26-27

This parable of the seed growing by itself tells us of that reality of God living among us, right with us in Jesus Christ. The seed is His word germinating in us if we cultivate it daily in prayer and good works.  Just like the fecundity of the tiny seed planted in the field, God grows in us beyond all our hopes and expectations because He is never absent nor distant from us. 

Photo by Ms. April Oliveros on Mt. Pulag, 2023.

Look back in your life this past week or past month, examine how many times you were blessed, of how you were pulled out and saved from a dire situation in the nick of time.  Surely you can offer a lot of rational explanations but, when you come to think of it, there’s always an “Invisible Hand” saving you, guiding you. 

That’s the point of the parable of the seed planted without the farmer knowing how it grows:  God works best in our lives in silence. 

This is the reason why St. Paul tells us to “walk in faith, not by sight” (2Cor.5:7): our life is a journey of faith wherein we cannot see everything clearly, cannot appreciate right away the extent of how God works His miracles in us daily.

Yesterday we celebrated the 40th day of my mom’s passing then tomorrow, June 17, is her 85th birthday which is also the 24th death of my dad. I told my sisters and brother that maybe that is the reason why dad died on mom’s birthday 24 years ago: so that it would not be difficult for us to visit their graves on June 17. Isang lakad at punta na lang para matipid!

But kidding aside, though it is so difficult and painful to be ulilang lubos (orphaned), I still feel so positive more than a month after my mother’s death because in those 24 years when my father died, God never abandoned us. With mom’s passing, I’m sure God will never forsake us too.

When I look back at how many times God has blessed us in the past, I also see that soon in the future, if we remain faithful to Him, Christ shall unfold in us and around us in ways we never imagined.

Photo by Ms. Analyn Dela Torre, March 2024.

Time flies so fast indeed these days; we are almost done with the first half of the year. In a short while we shall be hearing Jose Mari Chan singing again “Christmas In Our Hearts” as the Christmas countdown begins even before September first.

And that’s what I have noticed these past 20 years: with all the comforts in life, we have become impatient that we rush everything, even Christmas and holidays. We live in a world of instants that we cannot wait anymore like the farmer in the parable of Jesus. Or the Prophet Ezekiel imagining God coming soon.

We don’t have to discard the modern amenities we have in life today for most of these are gifts from God Himself. However, we must remember these are not everything, that many times in life despite all our careful planning, things still do not turn out as we expect.

There is only one thing we can be sure of, Jesus Christ silently in our midst. Look at any tree around you, the many years it had weathered all kinds of storm and heat. Still standing, still green, reminding us of Jesus. Let us pray:

God our Father,
teach us to be patient
like the farmer who sows seeds
to his field, not knowing at all
how these germinate and grow;
teach us to be faithful to You
in Christ Jesus, always open
to find Him and embrace Him
in the ordinary things in life;
teach us to have more of You,
God in Jesus through prayers
and Sacraments,
to have more faith than gadgets,
more hope than instant gratifications
and more love than social media.
Amen.

Why are you here?

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday in the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 14 June 2024
1 Kings 19:9, 11-16     <*((((><  +  ><))))*>     Matthew 5:27-32
Photo by Mr. Vigie Ongleo, Sagada, Mt. Province, 2014.
O God, dear Father,
how I have loved so much
ever since today's story 
of Elijah fleeing from death 
at the hands of Jezebel's army;
so many times I have felt like Elijah,
so tired, fed up fighting,
hoping for death when the going
gets tough and rough; 
and so many times too, 
You have never forsaken me,
Father like Elijah,
asking me many times 
that question,
"Why are you here?" 
(1 Kings 19:9, 13).
Very often, I get confused, Father,
if I am that zealous for You 
like Elijah or just me so insistent 
with what I believe,
with what I know,
with what I hold so dear
in You and for You;
many times I do not know
if I am still doing your will
especially when it is so difficult,
so uncomfortable and,
yes, I have asked You many times
why not just make me
an ordinary man,
instead of being your prophet....
Photo by Mr. Vigie Ongleo, Sagada, Mt. Province, 2014.
But your question remains,
Lord, that I rarely face nor
answer squarely: 
"Why are you here?"

You know me so well,
Lord: like Simon Peter in
Capernaum after your discourse
on the bread of life,
my favorite response to You is
"Master, to whom shall we go? 
You have the words of eternal life.
We have come to believe and 
are convinced that you are the
Holy One of God" (John 6:68-69).
But most of all,
I am here because like the
psalmist,
"I long to see your face,
O Lord" (Psalm 27:7-8);
and for me to see your face
means to love more
until it hurts me;
to see your face, Lord,
is to be still and silent
amid the noise of this world
for you are always there in our
midst among the weak
and voiceless,
among those in the margins
and underneath the heaps
of scraps and garbage;
to see your face, O Lord,
is to remember always
it is your work,
not mine that I must
accomplish.

Why am I here, Lord?
Because You told me so.
Thank you so much
in bringing me here this far,
no matter what
for as long I feel
 getting closer
with You.
In that case,
I shall always be here
for You!
Amen.
Photo by Mr. Vigie Ongleo, Sagada, Mt. Province, 2014.

Inside, outside of Jesus

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, 09 June 2024
Genesis 3:9-15 ><}}}}*> 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1 ><}}}}*> Mark 3:20-35
Photo by author, from the refectory of Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 18 March 2024.

In this age of so much emphasis on appearances, social media never run out of lists of what’s in, what’s out not only in fashion and lifestyles but practically in everything we do. Everybody wants to be “in” and nobody wants to be left out of the latest trends.

Yet, the irony is, we do not realize that the more we try to be “in”, the more we are actually “out” as in passe and baduy or jologs; in our efforts to be “in” and always on top of the latest in everything, the more we are actually lost, the more we become ordinary. The more we try to be “in”, the more we become “out” like in the gospel this Sunday.

Jesus came home with his disciples. Again the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat. When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” the scribes who had come from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “By the prince of demons he drives out demons.” A crowd seated around him told him, “Your mother and your brothers and your sisters are outside asking for you.” But he said to them in reply, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

Mark 3:20-22, 32-35
Photo from https://santoninodecebubasilica.org/chronicles/viva-pit-senor-viva-senor-santo-nino/

Mark wrote the first gospel account of Jesus Christ that is very short and straight to the point, making it so engaging with its quick pace that brings us his readers right inside the scene he describes like our gospel this Sunday.

Jesus in Mark’s gospel is portrayed as a person so filled with mystery that the only way to know Him is to enter into a personal relationship with Him. It is not enough to be physically close with Jesus. For Mark, there is an inner dynamics of faith involved in knowing Jesus as we have seen in the last three Sundays before Lent interrupted our Ordinary Time in February this year when people began following Him as He spoke with authority that He could drive away demons (Mk.1:21), heal the sick like Peter’s mother-in-law (Mk.1:29) and cleanse lepers (Mk.1:40).

Let us come with Mark inside that house with Jesus to see if those inside with Him were really “in” or “out”.

Photo by author, sculpture of Jesus wandering Galilee, sleeping on a bench in Capernaum; taken in May 2019 at the entrance to Capernaum.

In that house perhaps owned by one of the Lord’s disciples, we find through Mark that not everybody inside was “in” with Jesus. Many did not actually believe Him like His relatives who have come to get Him out, claiming “He is out of his mind”. Likewise, there were inside His enemies from the start like the scribes who accused Him of being possessed by demons.

Very clear that not everybody inside the house believed Jesus nor were one with Him. That is why Jesus narrated the parable of a kingdom and a house divided against itself, asking those present, “How can Satan drive out Satan?”

Mark reminds us here that physical presence is not enough with Jesus as well as with everyone. It is always easier to go inside without really coming inside. As we have reflected after my mother’s death, going home is going to one’s place but coming home is being one with persons like our loved ones (https://lordmychef.com/2024/05/10/coming-home-going-home/).

That’s when Mark dropped his kicker in the story towards end when Jesus declared about the sin against the Holy Spirit:

“Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.” For they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Mark 3:28-30
Image from shutterstock.com.

Notice how Mark explained why Jesus declared sin against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven: because they had said “He has an unclean spirit.” What’s the big deal? It is so big!

We are able to learn and follow the path of right living in Christ through the Holy Spirit who was sent by Jesus to explain to us everything He had taught us while still here. Therefore, to sin against the Holy Spirit is to reject God Himself, to reject Jesus and His teachings!

How can we be forgiven if we do not believe God forgives sins, that Jesus has redeemed us already? How could one be healed of one’s sickness if the person does not believe in doctors or nurses?

That was precisely the sin of the Lord’s relatives and the scribes who were there inside with Him in the house: instead of seeing the power of God in Jesus Christ, His love and mercy and healing, they saw the devil. If they have opened themselves to the guidance and light of the Holy Spirit, they would have recognized Jesus indeed is the Christ just like the people of Nain after Jesus brought back to life the widow’s only son, exclaiming, “The Lord has visited his people” (Lk.7:16).

Photo by author, 2010.

But wait… there is still the punch line of Mark in today’s gospel when those around Jesus told Him, “Your mother and your brothers and your sisters are outside asking for you.”

That’s the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of the Lord whose Memorial of the Immaculate Heart we celebrated yesterday after the Sacred Heart Solemnity.

Now look at that great irony in our gospel today. There was the Blessed Mother Mary outside with the Lord’s cousins wanting to see Him when in fact, she was the one Jesus was referring to when He replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

So, who’s really inside and outside of Jesus?

Of course, it is so easy to answer that but what about us? Where are we in this gospel scene? Inside but one of the relatives and scribes or, one of the disciples? Or, outside like the Blessed Mother who has always been inside Jesus her Son?

It is not enough to be inside the church and the Catholic Church or simply inside your house or wherever there is a gathering of people. Or, in marriage. We have to be one in Christ with the persons around us.

In the first reading we have heard how our first parents, Adam and Eve were already inside Paradise, with God face to face but still, not really inside Him for inside themselves were pride and desires to become like God. Deep inside them they wanted to be outside of God without realizing its dire results that have been passed on to us in this generation too, keeping us away and apart from each other. Worst, we have refused to follow the Holy Spirit’s promptings that until now, peace and justice have both remained elusive to us because we could not trust Jesus, always finding easier for many to just quit or leave marriages and family by having a divorce.

Jesus came to change us along with our many perceptions and beliefs of who God is. Many times, we find the ways of Jesus so different, even far out from our own ideas and wishes and desires for ourselves and for others.

Photo by author, 13 September 2023.

Last Sunday, we reflected how Jesus saved the world by suffering and dying on the Cross, not by programs and activities. Today, Mark invites us to come inside the crowded house to join the true family of Jesus, to be His mother and brother and sister by doing the will of His Father.

In this age marked by so many divisions among us due to our own making like divorce and wars, our readings remind us how it had always been the trend that is why the Son of God, Jesus Christ became human to fulfill the Father’s promise of salvation and wholeness right after Adam and Eve sinned against Him.

Everything can be overcome in Christ Jesus who is our only fulfillment and salvation in life. St. Paul instructs us in the second reading to always search Jesus in every suffering we are going through especially in our family or marriages so that we are not “discouraged because although our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day”(2Cor.4:16).   

Let us pray:

Dearest Jesus:
help me find my way home
back to You
into the Father's house;
forgive for always running
away from You,
always trying to get inside
the world only to find myself
more lost and outside;
home is where the heart is,
Jesus, as they say;
and it is so true with You
especially in this time when
"place" is no longer physical location
but wherever You are proclaimed
and made known.
Let me believe in every possibilities
in You, Lord Jesus.
Amen.

Praying for tenderness of heart

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus-B, 07 June 2024
Hosea 11:1, 3-4, 8-9 ><}}}*> Ephesians 3:8-12, 14-19 ><}}}*> John 19:31-37
Photo by PhotoMIX Company on Pexels.com
Being tender and
caring are essentially your works,
O God, made known to us
by your Son Jesus Christ
in His Most Sacred Heart
where there is enough room
for each one of us
wounded and hurting to find healing;
bitter and disgusted to have rest
and solace; lost to find way back home.

Thus says the Lord: When Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, who took them in my arms; I drew them with human cords, with bands of love; I fostered them like one who raises an infant to his cheeks; Yet. though I stooped to feed my child, they did not know that I was their healer.

Hosea 11:1, 3-4
I must admit, O God,
that I have not yet really known You
that until now, I lack your tenderness
and care for others;
to have tenderness like You, Lord,
is first of all for me to be intimate
with You, my Father,
my Life,
my Mission;
You have nurtured me as your son
but I never recognized You fully
that is why many times I followed
my doubts and negative thoughts
than You.
So many times I pray
yet still so far from You,
O God!
Lord Jesus Christ,
"dwell in my heart through faith
so that I may be rooted
and grounded in love"
(Ephesians 3:17)
because when my love with God
is superficial,
all my relationships are also skin-deep
that make me forget my love experiences,
giving more emphasis on others'
shortcomings, expectations,
and returns;
tenderness is being like You, O God,
 of having a big heart able to accommodate
 those suffering because You know and realize
 the gravity of what others are going through;
more than a feeling,
tenderness is love and mercy in action
because it is to feel what others
are going through.
Jesus,
meek and humble of heart,
make my heart like Thine,
close to the Father,
close to His children.
Amen.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.