Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 06 October 2026
While preparing my homily yesterday for the second day of the novena in honor of the 109th apparition of the Blessed Virgin in Fatima, Portugal, I came across this interesting piece of information in my Facebook feeds about the two American space probes, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 having “left” our solar system and now the farthest man-made objects from planet Earth.
According to NASA, Voyager 1 had covered about 25.6 billion kilometers as of August 2026 since its launch September 5, 1977 – that’s 49 years and two months ago!
Its travel speed is expected to slow down due to some intergalactic forces which would take time for me to understand and explain; nonetheless, NASA engineers say it would continue sending data from deep space to planet Earth until 2036.
Meanwhile, also found this report yesterday that scientists have detected for the first time a radio signal from an “exoplanet” – a planet outside our Solar System; however, it is not from an intelligent life or some alien but from “a colossal magnetic field”.
These are very interesting bits of information from space science that show us how far we have advanced technologically. You could just imagine where our latest technologies would bring us! Fact is, all these techs and gadgets we now enjoy were science fiction to us when we were growing up like phones capable of sending videos anywhere, anytime.
What I like most in these developments is that great wonder of how vast is this universe indeed – so unimaginable. The more they prove to us the existence of an all-knowing, all-powerful God. Here we find science actually corroborating the truth that the Bible has been telling us of who made the heavens above us.
And the good news is, in this vast universe, our God is not only omniscient and omnipotent but most of all, all-loving God who chose to love and care for us earthlings in this tiny planet called Earth.
In an apparent conspiracy by the universe in my favor as I prepared my homily yesterday for the Fatima novena, my laptop suddenly alerted me after lunch of a new article on space travel but this time from a spiritual writer I follow at WordPress.com called The Devotional Guy by Rainer Bantau!
As I read Rainer’s thoughts on the relationships of faith and science fiction, what caught my attention was this part of his blog, of how would you explain Christianity to an alien?
What happens when someone encounters Christianity who has absolutely no Christian context?
Imagine trying to explain the Gospel to someone who looks at you and says:
“Wait. You believe the Creator of the universe became one of His creatures?”
Suddenly, Christianity sounds pretty astonishing again. We’ve heard the story so many times that we forget how completely outrageous and beautiful it actually is.
When humanity rebels against the God who created it, God doesn’t walk away. Instead, He enters our world.
Love takes on flesh as grace meets us in our mess. Just as death appears to win, Jesus walks out of the grave.
That’s not small. It’s cosmic. (https://thedevotionalguy.blog/2026/10/05/going-to-space/).
Let us read anew these words by The Devotional Guy: “When humanity rebels against the God who created it, God doesn’t walk away. Instead, He enters our world. Love takes on flesh as grace meets us in our mess. Just as death appears to win, Jesus walks out of the grave. That’s not small. It’s cosmic.”
So lovely! But, sadly too, considering the great amounts of money and time and talents humans have spent sending people and objects into space to detect life forms outside our planet, we still ask the same question of the scribe to Jesus, “who is my neighbor?”
There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho” (Luke 10:25-30).
How sad that while we are awed by the vastness of the universe that envelop us whether at night or at daytime, here we are separated by an equally great space often with those supposed to be closest to us like family and friends and colleagues at home or anywhere.
As a chaplain giving recollections and talks to our students, I have seen many young people today are over thinkers but not critical thinkers.
I remind them that critical thinking is about comprehension and analysis of data and information gathered.
Over thinking is different. It is a vice when we worry a lot – over think – because we lack trust with others and with ourselves. And ultimately with God!
The scholar of the law was overthinking when he asked “who is my neighbor?” because for them at that time, their neighbors were just their fellow Jews. Until now we think the same way, putting people into categories like ice cream with the old rich and famous as “all-time favorites”, the popular as “flavor of the month” and the ordinary folks as “dirty ice cream” cheaply sold in carts.
Over thinking happens when we forget to feel more the other person, when we feel different from them instead of being same kin from which the word kind came from. A kind person is one who treats you as one of his kin, and kind.
St. Therese of the Child Jesus whose feast we celebrated recently wrote in her journal more than a hundred years ago, “I have understood that true greatness is found not in the name but in the soul.”
If we look more into our heart, into our soul, we find Jesus, we find our true self, and we find everyone our neighbor to be loved and respected, cared and understood.
Twenty years ago there was a popular TV series called The X-Files of two good looking detectives handling cases of paranormal of paranormal nature like aliens and other out-of-this-world things. Its famous line says “The truth is out there.”
Nope. The truth is not out there. It is right here inside our heart, always longing for the ultimate truth that leads to eternal life, beyond this vast universe.
That truth is a person, our Savior Jesus Christ dwelling in our hearts, leading us back to heaven by first being a neighbor to everyone. After all, greater than the stars we marvel above us, we are a universe in ourselves, a vast network of interrelated galaxies of immense beauty so closely within our reach. Amen.
