The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday in the Eighteenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 07 August 2024 Jeremiah 31:1-7 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 15:21-28
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
Yes, a day will come when the watchmen will call out on Mount Ephraim: “Rise up, let us go to Zion, to the Lord, our God.” For thus says the Lord: Shout with joy for Jacob, exult at the head of the nations; proclaim your praise and say: The Lord has delivered his people, the remnant of Israel (Jeremiah 31:6-7).
How refreshing are your words today, God our loving Father; so upbeat with hope for the divided nation of Judah and Israel to finally be one just like us today: so divided recently with all the mockery and sacrilege in the Paris Olympics only to be united by Carlos Yulo's recent harvest of two gold medals; what a beautiful lesson in faith in You that is also hope itself; from being the least supported and known sport in the country, Yulo remained faithful filled with hope in You while persevering in gymnastics; like Yulo and Jeremiah's command, let us shout with joy to You, proclaiming your redemption that literally means "Hosanna" in Hebrew, the very shouts of joy when Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
She said, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” Then Jesus said to her in reply, “O woman, great is uyour faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed from that hour (Matthew 15:27-28).
Like that Canaanite woman who begged Jesus, even bantered with Him about dogs and puppies, bread and crumbs for mercy and healing to her sick daughter, help us realize that faith is hope; that hope is more than positive thinking of how things would get better but could even get worse yet still believe in God!
Thank you Jesus for always coming to "pagan" territories like Tyre and Sidon; keep our faith and hope burning to await You, to recognize You, to meet You coming in the midst of our many darkness and brokenness. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday, Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, 06 August 2024 Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14 ><}}}}*> 2 Peter 1:16-19 ><}}}}*> Mark 9:2-10
Photo from commons.wikimedia.org of mosaic inside the Basilica of the Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor, Israel.
Thank you very much, Lord Jesus, "in taking us always with You, apart from others by ourselves like Peter, James, and his brother John to a high mountain” (cf. Mark 9:2); many times You set us apart from others amid many darkness like that night on Mount Tabor just to be with You, to experience You; how ironic in this age of so much light everywhere with a world running 24/7, the more we are plunged in darkness that we feel lost and empty. Continue to invite us to detach from so much worldly attachments that are so irresistible due to social media and the glamor that come with them.
And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them… Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; then from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him” (Mark 9:2-3, 7).
Like Peter, James, and John we also wonder at the meaning of your Passion and Death when You are the Christ? Why all the sufferings happening in us and among us with all the confusions and divisions going on?
Like Peter during the Transfiguration, we do not know what we are saying to you, Lord; whether we are filled with joy or burdened with sorrow, we speak without thinking much even if you know what is in our hearts. Open our hearts, dear Jesus, to always listen to You by remaining with You on the path to Your Cross; let us listen more than talk or click more without much reflections; two ears form the image of heart, never the mouth nor the lips. Let us heed Peter in his words today:
Moreover, we possess the prophetic message that is altogether reliable. You will do well to be attentive to it, as to lamp shining in a dark place, until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts (2 Peter 1:19).
Bring us back to your path of faith, Jesus; amidst all these noise and divisions of relativism and wokism, open our hearts by listening intently to your voice when all is dark and even dead or as it happens these days, blindingly so bright with artificial lights because for as long as we return to You, sin and failures become means for us to be changed and transformed - or transfigured when we rise in your Resurrection. Amen.
A 1311 painting of the Transfiguration by Italian artist Duccio di Buoninsegna from commons.wikimedia.org.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday, Memorial of Dedication of St. Mary Major in Rome, 05 August 2024 Jeremiah 28:1-17 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 14:13-21
From en.wikipedia.org
God our loving Father, teach us to appreciate bad news that comes our way because most often from it comes too the good news; like in the life of your prophet Jeremiah who spoke always of bad news, of gloom and doom to the people of Judah so that they would repent and be converted; but they chose to listen to the good news of Hananiah you have not authorized to speak on your behalf, greatly misleading them with false hopes of liberation from the Babylonians that actually worsened as Jeremiah had told them.
Truth hurts but we must always hear and accept it so that we may grow and mature like the Apostles when Jesus told them, "There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves" (Matthew 14:16); from that bad news, the Apostles were able to surrender themselves and their loaves of bread to Jesus who multiplied them to satisfy the great crowds with so many leftovers!
The construction and dedication of St. Mary Major in Rome happened during those problematic years of the fourth century Church with many bad news like Nestorianism that denied Christ's divinity; in accepting all the bad news at that time, the church of St. Mary Major was miraculously built and finally named in honor of Mary, Mother of God after resolving the heresy of Nestorianism.
In this time of so many bad news especially when immorality and decadence seem to prevail and govern lives these days, help us dear Jesus to hold on more to you, to implore the Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds and our hearts in seeking, following and standing by your truth to finally win over people back to sanity and deceny. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Eighteenth Sunday in the Ordinary Time, Cycle B, 04 August 2024 Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15 ><}}}}*> Ephesians 4:17, 20-24 ><}}}}*> John 6:24-35
Photo by author, Lake of Galilee, the Holy Land, May 2017.
We are now back in Capernaum where Jesus used to frequently teach in its synagogue during His ministry.
Remember last Sunday how Jesus fled from the crowd when He felt them wanting to take and make Him a king upon seeing His miraculous feeding of over five thousand people from five loaves of bread and two pieces of fish with a lot of leftovers. The people looked for Him and found Him in Capernaum, the setting of all of our gospel scenes these four Sundays of August.
There at Capernaum was a beautiful exchange in the conversation between Jesus and the people that eventually led to the Bread of Life discourse of the Lord in this sixth chapter of John’s gospel. Remember too that for John, the miracles Jesus performed were signs that pointed to Him as the Christ. Hence, this important reminder to the crowd who have sought Him that day as well as to us living in these interesting times today:
“Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternalnlife, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.” So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent” (John 6:27-29).
Photo by author, tourists and pilgrims alike at the ruins of the Capernaum synagogue, May 2017.
“Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”
Jesus knows very well the importance of work for us humans, of how hard we have to work to earn our daily bread, to buy and pay for things so needed in life. But, these earthly food we are all busy working for can sustain us only for a life timeas we very well know that we surely die one day.
There is another food that is more essential that “endures for eternal life” we can only receive from Jesus Himself – His words and His Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist which is the “summit of Christian life.”
Of course, we have to work for this food because it does not come on its own. We must receive and welcome this food as a gift of Jesus Christ whom the Father has sent. We have to work and exert efforts to pray and listen to God’s words, to wake up early and prepare ourselves for the Sunday Mass and other devotions we have. Hence, the second question of the crowd to Jesus:
“What can we do to accomplish to the works of God?”
Photo by Mr. Boy Cabrido, Quiapo Fiesta 2024.
Very striking here is their eagerness to know what they can do to have that food that “endures for eternal life.”
Are we not the same with our desire to really know things about religion and spirituality or just anything we heard to be so good?
It sounded so much like that same zeal displayed by a young man who approached Jesus and asked, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mk.10:17). Nothing is wrong with this attitude of openness to God but, the problem is when we expect the work to be given to us is something like a shortcut or easy access in having that “food that endures for eternal life” like that young man. Sometimes, we ask self-serving questions about faith and religion not only for the benefits we can have but also for fame like that young man who proudly declared to Jesus he had followed all commandments since childhood; but, when the Lord told him to go and sell his properties to give it to the poor and come follow him, his face fell and left sad. This eventually would become the scene in Capernaum as we shall see in the coming Sundays.
For now, let us reflect on Christ’s answer to the crowd’s question.
“This is the work of God of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”
Photo by author, Mass in Capernaum, May 2017.
This will be the start of the revelation of the true motives of the crowd who have come looking for Jesus. Last Sunday, we reflected how they have followed Jesus because of the many signs they have seen from Him like healing of the sick and raising to life the dead daughter of Jairus.
Slowly we see this Sunday the conceit and pride in their hearts, and perhaps within us too! Jesus is neither proposing new works to accomplish and fulfill in God’s name nor alter or change the commandments given through Moses. As the Christ or Anointed of God, Jesus is demanding complete faith in Him!
It was a most unique and unprecedented demand by Christ from the people then and now, asking us all to have total commitment in Him whom we believe. Whatever we want to do or do not want to do depends entirely in our imitation of Jesus Christ.
Like last Sunday, it is the very person of Jesus Christ that is being stressed here that unfortunately, even the closest disciples Philip and Andrew failed to “see” when they saw more of the problem with the crowd and the scarcity of bread and fish they have. They did not see Jesus despite their having witnessed and experienced His many miracles like us today.
Instead of being humble, the crowd asked Jesus for signs He can do so they would believe Him, even challenged Him with the works by Moses in the desert in feeding their ancestors with manna in their wandering. Like in resisting the temptations of the devil in the wilderness, Jesus declared the basic truth people often forget: the manna fed to the people was not the work by Moses alone but entirely and truly by God the Father in heaven!
This is something we must always remember: the work we have in this life is not ours but God’s so that in everything we do and say, it is God who is proclaimed and made known for He alone can fulfill us in Jesus who said today in closing our gospel scene, “I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst” (Jn.6:34).
Jesus is the bread from heaven sent down to us by God, prefigured by the manna in the first reading we have heard, the food who brings us to fulfillment in God expressed during the Last Supper that was confirmed the following Good Friday at His Crucifixion.
Life is a call from God for us to do our part in His work through Jesus Christ. We need to collaborate with Him, in Him and through Him as He had declared at the Last Supper to “do this in memory of me.” That is why it is so sad and deplorable how the people behind the opening show of the Paris Olympics made a mockery of the Lord’s Supper. (Even if we shall accept their explanations it wasn’t about the Last Supper, it was still a show so ugly and tasteless, an affront to any person.)
What is most undeniable is the pride of the people behind the Paris Olympics including their defenders who insist until now how everything is clearly about “what can we do” like the proud crowd with Jesus in Capernaum.
What was supposed to show the wonderful contributions and achievements of France to the world in terms of culture and intellectual advancements have all crumbled into a disgraceful display of what is now wrong in France and even the Western world. They have exaggerated the relative truths they hold on to exaggerate themselves. In their claims of being inclusive, they have become exclusive and divisive, so far from the “sign” of the Olympics. Very sad but still, may you all have a blessed week ahead. It is a Sunday, go celebrate Mass with your family and loved ones. Let us pray:
God our loving Father, thank you in giving us Jesus Christ your Son as our bread from heaven; remind us always not about what we can do or must do for we just do your work here on earth but to simply remember and keep in mind we are your children in Christ, to "stop living in the futility of our minds by putting away our old self of corrupted and deceitful desires renewed in the spirit of our minds, to put on our new self in Christ", created male and female "in your way in righteousness and holiness of truth" (Ephesians 4:17, 22-24) Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday in the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 02 August 2024 Jeremiah 26:1-9 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> Matthew 13:54-58
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
Thus says the Lord: Stand in the court of the house of the Lord and speak to the people… whatever I command you, tell them, and omit nothing (Jeremiah 26:2).
Omit nothing?
What a tall order from You,
God our Father;
and You know how much
I have tried to omit nothing
of your words when I spoke:
always, I am the first
to be shaken and affected!
Many times, people do not
see nor realize that when
we speak your words,
omitting nothing,
we are always the first to be affected
because your words cleanse
and purify us, committing us more
to You and your mission;
therefore, help us to "enflesh"
your words always in our witnessing
and omit nothing as You wished.
In this time when people clearly omit many of your very words like "male and female You created them" as well as teachings, making gender more of a preference than of nature and part of your grand design, grant us more perseverance and charity when we speak and omit nothing of your words and teachings deemed by wokes and liberals as not being cultured and inclusive; let us remember that even Jesus your Son was reviled and crucified not only then but until now by those who consider themselves as learned and politically correct, refusing to accept your words and teachings and very Self. Amen.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-01 ng Agosto 2024
Larawan kuha ng may-akda, bukang liwayway sa Lawa ng Galilea, Israel, Mayo 2019.
Unang araw sa buwan ng Agosto, buwan ng wika ako ay nakatunganga sa pagkamangha sa isang salita: PALIWANAG sa wikang Inggles, "explanation" at kung gagamiting pandiwa "to explain" ito ay magPALIWANAG.
Kay sarap namnamin
at damhin mga kataga
nitong ating wika
tulad ng PALIWANAG
nagsasaad ng pagbibigay
liwanag dahil mayroong
kadiliman minsa'y panlalabo
kaya nililinaw upang
matanaw, makita kahit man lang
maaninag upang matukoy, makilala.
Mahirap kasi mag-apuhap sa gitna ng kadiliman na kawalan ng katiyakan: ika'y nangangapa at nangangamba kung ano iyong mahawakan, makuha kaya nakakatakot sa dilim na wala kang nakikita dahil pati ikaw baka tuluyang mawala pa!
Inyong pagmasdan malaking kadiliman na sa ati'y bumabalot kamakailan kaya kay raming nagpapaliwanag naglilinaw dahil sa mga ginawa at ipinahayag na puro kaguluhan:
Waiter sa Cebu pinagpaliwanagan ng halos dalawang oras habang nakatindig sa harapan ng customer na tinawag niyang "Sir" na ibig ituring siya na "Mam"; kay daming paliwanag ni "Mam" pero malabo pa rin dahil malinaw pa sa araw maski sa mga larawan na siya ay Sir!
Hanggang ngayon nagpapaliwanag pa rin mga pasimuno ng paglapastangan sa Huling Hapunan ng Panginoon na lalong nababaon dahil maliwanag kanilang kasinungalingan na ang kadiliman ng kapalaluan at kasamaan kanilang pagpugayan taliwas sa layuning magkaroon ng pagbubuklod at kaisahan.
Hindi lang minsan ating narinig masabihang "ang labo mo naman" kaya kinakailangang magpaliwanag upang maunawaan at maintindihan na siyang daan sa magandang pagsasamahan.
Heto ngayon ating pagnilayan pagbulayan aking katanungan: nagPALIWANAG ba ang Panginoong Jesus sa Kanyang mga pangangaral? Maliban sa pagpapaliwanag ng mga talinghaga ng sarilinan sa mga alagad, walang ipinaliwanag si Jesus dahil maliwanag Siyang palagi at higit sa lahat Siya ang Liwanag ng Sanlibutan.
Madalas hindi Siya maunawaan, maintindihan at matanggap ng mga tao noon hanggang ngayon ngunit kailanman walang binawi na salita ang Panginoong Jesus dahil maliwanag ang lahat: "Ako ang daan at katotohanan" (Jn.14:6), "Ako ang muling pagkabuhay at ang buhay" (Jn. 11:25) "Ako ang pagkaing bumaba mula sa langit; ang kumakain ng aking laman at umiinom ng aking dugo ay may buhay na walang hanggan, at muli ko siyang bubuhayin sa huling araw" (Jn. 6:54).
Nang linisin ni Jesus ang templo sinabi sa mga tao na gibain iyon at kanyang itatayo sa loob ng tatlong araw; Siya ay pinagtawanan ng mga kalaban ngunit malinaw na sinasaad sa kasulatan nang muli Siyang mabuhay ay naunawaan ng mga alagad ang tinutukoy Niyang templo ay ang Kanyang Banal na Katawan (Jn. 2:18-22); maliwanag si Jesus ay palaging malinaw kaya kahit sa gitna ng kadiliman Siya ay maliwanag.
Lumapit tayo kay Jesus at hayaang liwanagan Niya kadiliman sa ating puso at kalooban katulad nina Nicodemo at Dimas na umamin sa kanilang kamangmangan at kasalanan kaya natamo ang liwanag at kaligtasan; hindi mahirap tuntunin katotohanan at liwanag ng Panginoon natin kung ating aaminin at aalisin mga piring sa ating paningin upang mabuksan puso at kalooban sa kagandahan at dangal ng kabutihan ng bawat nilalang hindi ang ipangalandakan sariling husay at kaalaman maging antas ng kalinangan!
Tandaan at panghawakan, tiyak na kaliwanagan ng mga salitang binitiwan ng Panginoon sa atin sana ay magpaalaala: "Ang nagpapakataas ay ibababa, at ang nagpapakababa ay itataas" (Mt.23:12)
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday, Memorial of St. Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop & Doctor of Church, 01 August 2024 Jeremiah 18:1-6 ><))))*> + <*((((>< Matthew 13:47-53
God our Father, I love your words today, of You being like a potter that "Whenever the object of clay which he was making turned out badly in his hand, he tried again, making of the clay another object of whatever sort he pleased. Then the word of the Lord came to me: Can I not do to you, house of Israel, as this potter has done? says the Lord. Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hands, house of Israel" (Jeremiah 18:4-6).
Teach me, Lord to be docile and to have faith in You when things turn out badly in my life; let me be like the clay, pliant and flexible, permeable and absorbent easy to be formed; like St. Alphonsus Liguori who was at first a very able lawyer but after losing a case due to a simple neglect, he was depressed that he left his legal profession to become a priest who later became a bishop.
How lovely to remember accomplished people like St. Alphonsus committing costly mistakes in life still given a chance to become even greater in your new calling; remind us, dear Lord, especially in moments of failures, in times things turn out so badly in our lives how all the beautiful potteries we see came from the same process of failures and destruction in order to be formed into something even more beautiful than before. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday, Memorial of St. Peter Chrysologus, Bishop, 30 July 2024 Jeremiah 14:17-22 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Matthew 13:36-43
How fitting are your words today, O God our merciful Father, that it is the same thing we feel in the midst of that irreverent show in Paris: "Let my eyes stream with tears day and night, without rest, over the great destruction which overwhelms the virgin daughter of my people, over her incurable wound" (Jeremiah 14:17).
Have mercy on us, Lord. Like in the time of Jeremiah your prophet, people refused to hear your words spoken through him; people had all the excuses and alibis for their evil deeds; most of all, believed so much on themselves forgetting You were simply merciful and forgiving, allowing the weeds to thrive among the wheat.
Let us continue to listen to your words, to do your will despite what others supposed to be intellectual and cultured would say; let us not be faithful hearers only but most of all faithful doers of your words too.
Let us be reminded always by the words of St. Peter Chrysologus whose memorial we celebrate today: "If you jest with the devil, you cannot rejoice with Christ." Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday, Memorial of Sts. Martha, Mary & Lazarus, 29 July 2024 1 John 4:7-16 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> John 11:19-27
“The Raising of Lazarus”, 1311 painting by Duccio de Buoninsegna from commons.wikimedia.org
If you have love in your heart, you have been blessed by God; if you have been loved, you have been touched by God (Anonymous author).
What a lovely Monday You have given us today, O God our Father as we celebrate the Memorial of the friends of Jesus Christ, the sisters St. Mary and St. Martha with their brother St. Lazarus - a beautiful and most powerful reminder to us all that Jesus comes first in our family most especially among our siblings.
How sad, dear Father are the growing number of couples having only one child or two the most with kids denied of this most wonderful experience of kinship; on the other hand, there is the growing trend of family disintegration due to divorce and separation of many couples with children as main casualties; likewise, of the growing trend among young people to selfishly pursue many things in life in total disregard of others beginning in their own family circle.
No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us (1 John 4:12).
Help us, dear Father, to rekindle this love we first experienced in our homes, among our siblings like Saints Mary, Martha and Lazarus; let us discover anew the wonderful and amazing gifts of brothers and sisters in the family who remind us of your blessing us with so much love in our hearts; let us feel and experience again your gift of love in our hearts in the mere mention of names of our own brother and/or sister who made us first experience love next from our parents; refresh our memories of those times You touched us with the selfless love, the unconditional love freely shared with us by our brother and/or sister.
We pray, most merciful Father, for all brothers and sisters separated from each other due to misunderstandings, jealousy, betrayals and mistrust; like St. Martha, let us never lose faith and hope for estranged brothers and sisters to rise anew from their deaths into sin, to find again that love You have given them in their hearts and most of all, touch them so they may remember and miss anew those experiences of being loved by their siblings in their childhood to rebuild their ties again in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
An icon of Jesus visiting his friends, the siblings Sts. Lazarus, Mary and Martha. Photo from crossroadsinitiative.com.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, 28 July 2024 2 Kings 4:42-44 ><}}}}*> Ephesians 4:1-6 ><}}}}*> John 6:1-15
Residents wade through knee to waist-deep flood along P. Florentino Street in Quezon City on July 24, 2024. Photo by Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News
There is a new kind of storm sweeping us these days, more disastrous and silently wreaking havoc among us especially in our relationships with one another. It is a kind of storm borne out materialism that had given rise to other thoughts that have left us more lost and empty in life.
Photo from sunstar.com.ph, 22 July 2024.
More powerful than typhoon Carina was that storm in Cebu when a celebrity had a waiter stand in front of him simply for addressing him a “sir”, not as “mam” as he claimed to be a “beautiful” transwoman. The storm swept the whole social media on Monday with negative reactions and memes even from LGBTQ members. Many women rose to speak against this insistence by some in introducing wokism in the country for the sake of inclusivity which is nothing else but an exaggeration of one’s self and of the truncated truth they know.
*As I wrote this Saturday morning, there came the news of how the Paris Olympics made a mockery of the Lord’s Supper with a drag show in its opening ceremony. What a shame on France!
Photo from rappler.com.
Right after the devastation by the habagat, many were shocked to find Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue in Makati changed into “Sen. Gil Tulog” for an advertising stunt. Again, it flooded social media with criticisms that reached the Mayor of Makati who ordered the signages removed with the city official who approved it reprimanded.
Here we find two recent storms indicating how eroded our value system has become. Both are symptoms of our sick society that have allowed these to creep into our social consciousness on the pretext of inclusivity and creativity along with other western idiotic thoughts displayed in the opening of the Paris Olympics. The incidents show how some people have become so conceited without any sense of respect at all to God and to others, whether alive or deceased, as well as lack of sense of history.
Photo by author, Parish of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, Valenzuela City, 24 July 2024.
Sorry for the long introduction. I only wish to invite you my dear friends to stop for a while and honestly ask ourselves this question: what are we pursuing in life these days?
Beginning today until the next four Sundays of August, all our Gospel accounts will be from John’s sixth chapter that opens with the story of the feeding of more than five thousand people. It is the continuation of last Sunday’s gospel scene when Mark narrated how Jesus invited the Twelve to a “deserted place to be by themselves” only to be followed by a vast crowd of people “like sheep without a shepherd.”
Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee. A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. The Jewish feast of Passover was near (John 6:1-4).
The beloved disciple’s account of the event is so rich with many signs that point us closer to Jesus Christ.
Keep in mind that the miracles of Jesus in the fourth gospel are called “signs” because they were not just extraordinary things done like some form of magic; for John, the miracles of Jesus were signs that point and reveal superior realities of the highest order, of God Himself in Christ. This is difficult to understand unless our pursuits are clearly on God and not something else.
Photo by author, Fatima Avenue, Valenzuela City, 25 July 2024.
In his brief introduction of the scene, John tells us that if we really want to find and experience liberation from all the problems besetting us as individuals and as a nation, we must first pursue God, not our self-interests and well-being. See how John declared the great number of people pursued Jesus due to the “the signs he was performing on the sick” that they must have found hope and life in Him amid their many sufferings.
How sad many people today spend and waste time in social media and other material things forgetting the persons around them. In the pursuit for money and fame, persons are made into objects to be possessed; perhaps this is the reason of the growing number of many kamotes and pabebes in our time – the objectification of people, when persons are degraded into mere objects. It is an utter lack of respect for others which only shows too the lack of self-respect among many of us because we have lost our rootedness in God.
Do we still have that desire for God which leads us to higher ideals like virtues and qualities that make us more human and humane?
Pursuing God is not just celebrating the Sunday Mass or praying often but applying these holy activities into our daily lives to experience and find Him working in us and through us in our daily life. As we have reflected last Sunday, the more we get closer to God, the closer we must get with others too!
Many times we are like Philip and Andrew, two of the closest Apostles of Jesus that even if we go to Mass every Sunday or even daily, we never meet Christ at all because we are so absorbed with ourselves and the world. Philip and Andrew saw only saw the huge problem before them, they saw what they lacked – bread – but never found Jesus Christ Himself as the answer to their problem despite their having witnessed His many healings and raising to life of the dead daughter of Jairus.
When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?” He said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many (John6:5-9)?”
I love that small detail by John that “Jesus knew what he was going to do”, of how the Lord was merely testing them in asking where to buy bread.
From psephizo.com
It does not really matter how Jesus multiplied the loaves of bread. What was very clear was the presence of Jesus, the Son of God who can do anything!
It was His person that was most important in this scene set when “The Jewish feast of Passover was near” which would later explain to us the meaning of the Last Supper and Good Friday. It is the very person of Jesus Christ who matters always in life. Recall our most trying moments in life when we have given up hopes but suddenly something happened and everything was reversed that we are still here, very much alive. Until now we are clueless how it all happened except that deep within our hearts, it is only Jesus whom we find as the answer and reason for everything.
In the first reading we heard how Elisha the prophet was given with twenty barley loaves of bread he gave to feed one hundred people that had plenty of leftovers.
Again, we are not told how Elisha multiplied the loaves of bread but one thing was very clear: the barley loaves were given by the man from Baal-shalisha as an offering to God through Elisha. The man clearly desired and pursued God that he baked those bread from “the first fruits, and fresh grain in the ear” of his bountiful harvest (2 Kgs.4:42). It was a thanksgiving offering for God that made wonders not only for him but for everyone. If we could just do the same in desiring God first of all!
Remember what Jesus told the devil during His first temptation in the wilderness, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God” (Mt.4:4).
There in the deserted place, miracle happened because everyone desired God first by listening to the teachings of Jesus. When Jesus saw them opening to God’s words, He then fed them with bread and fish. This week, let us pursue God more sincerely by foregoing our usual pursuits for comfort and easy life so that Jesus may multiply whatever we have. Let us pray:
God our loving Father who is over all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4:6): empty us of our pride that make us pursue worldly things like wealth, fame, and power; let us desire You alone in Jesus Christ so that we may find You again in our hearts and on the face of one another we meet in this world that has become so empty, hostile and unkind. Amen.
Photo by author, view of Jerusalem from the Church of Dominus Flevit, May 2017.
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