“The (unCatholic and unChristian) Two Popes”

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 23 December 2019

As early as Friday night after my second Simbang Gabi Mass at 8:30, I have been wanting to react on social media against Netflix’s “The Two Popes”.

But I tried to control my self because I have only seen its first 30 minutes – and besides, it is a fiction story. So, in the spirit of fairness, I tried to finish the movie in three installments until Saturday afternoon before making any comments.

And I felt sad in having seen it at all.

“The Two Popes” is not entertaining. It is misleading without any strong elements to build on our faith and appreciate our religion. At its worst, despite its claim of being inspired by true events, the movie is unCatholic and unChristian.

UnCatholic and UnChristian

Movies about religions and religious figures and personalities are always controversial by nature. But for as long as they follow the paths of honesty, sincerity, and truth, these movies eventually emerge as true expressions of art that can truly deepen one’s faith.

But “The Two Popes” at its opening scene is already disturbing and objectionable when it portrayed the Cardinals at the 2005 conclave as having animosity and rivalry among themselves in electing Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

Yes, we priests including bishops and Cardinals are all humans like anybody else but no one among us would ever dare to aspire for the papacy. While it is true there are some priests who are into “careerism” in the diocesan level, everything changes starting with the episcopacy or the office of the bishop.

In fact, part of the problem why we have so many vacant dioceses in the country and the whole world is that many priests refuse to accept their appointment as bishops because of many fears that are so real that come with the immense responsibilities of the position. According to the Vatican, three out of every ten priests offered to become bishops decline the offer personally made by the Pope through his Papal Nuncio in every country.

How much more with the Papacy?!

In the movie, Pope Benedict toured Cardinal Bergoglio inside the Sistine Chapel and showed him the “crying room” where the newly elected Pope may stay and cry – yes – before finally accepting his election as Pope.

That alone is true but not the movie portrayal during the conclave that claim Cardinals aspiring to become the Pope. It is something preposterous and totally untrue.

What is very disturbing in “The Two Popes” is how it presented Cardinal Ratzinger and Cardinal Bergoglio like “lowlife” lawmakers of congress gunning for the top post for prestige and power with their respective bloc members going around in hushed conversations with matching dagger looks at each other.

This is the movie’s weakest point: rather than being seen as something about deepening our faith in God and the institutional Church or any established religion for that matter, it played on “politics” in the guise of showing the flaws and frailties of two popes competing for position and fame.

You might say “it is just a movie” but, not everyone can rightly see whatever good intentions – if it really has – that the movie is trying to present.

Instead of enlightening the viewers in their faith to the Church in general, there was something sinister in the way it presented almost everyone except Cardinal Bergoglio.

Behind the movie’s beautiful cinematography and studio sets are “subliminal messages” as if inciting viewers to dismiss the Catholic Church and other religions because they are all the same – run by egoistic, power hungry people enjoying so many luxuries in life that the common masses could not even imagine to exist.

We priests are sinners and though there are some of us who have sold Jesus like Judas Iscariot for the price of wealth and fame, there are much too many who still work in silence and hiddenness and holiness bringing Christ to the people.

The Catholic Church has continued to exist since Christ’s ascension because the good shepherds like Jesus have always far outnumbered the rotten ones. Hence, those scenes repeated twice or thrice of Pope Benedict worried with his “popularity” are outrageously absurd!

Bias against Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

The movie is supposed to show us how two great men of God, of divergent backgrounds and worlds apart, resolved their many conflicts within themselves and with others regarding their faith and ministry and mission in leading the Catholic Church.

Both actors, especially Anthony Hopkins did superb jobs in playing their roles.

The movie tried to show the triumph of the Divine in mysterious ways we can never explain nor understand using men of limitations and weaknesses.

What makes “The Two Popes” so unkind and unchristian is the fact that it is more about Pope Francis as the vida and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI as contravida. It could have been better if the producers just centered on the present Holy Father as basis of their film and called it “The Pope”. Period.

How can it be a film about faith and religion when the plot itself is unfair and grossly biased against the supposed co-star who is also a Pope?

The movie is also unfair to Pope Francis who would surely never allow himself to be praised and exalted at the expense of the Pope Emeritus or any other person, whether in real life or fiction.

This for me is the most unkindest cut of all in this Netflix movie that fans the many wrong impressions fed on by media against Cardinal Josef Ratzinger since his being the Prefect of Sacred Congregation of Doctrine and Faith during the time of St. John Paul II.

Throughout the film, it is very evident at how the Pope Emeritus is put on the bad light as if he never cared at all about actual situations in the Church and in the world, from the sex scandals to issues on celibacy among other things because he is so absorbed in his intellectual pursuits in the world of books and the academe.

We are of Christ

In 1963, the American film “The Cardinal” was released, earning six Academy Awards and very positive reviews for excellently portraying Catholic religion amid issues of interfaith marriage, sex outside marriage, abortion, racism, and dictatorships set during the Second World War.

It was also inspired by true events based on the life of the late Cardinal Francis Spellman of New York.

Its music theme has become a classic piece too that we have all learned by heart while still in high school seminary.

I can still remember the film that showed in a very positive light the main character with all his flaws and shortcomings as a person, as a priest. No need to put other characters down just to underscore his goodness.

The film had a Vatican liaison officer in the person of the young German priest Fr. Dr. Josef Ratzinger who, after that movie, would be attending Vatican II as a periter or consultant to join the efforts in reforming the Church and make it more responsive to modern time.

Yes, the very same Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI portrayed in the Netflix movie as “ignorant” of the Beatles and of tango and of many other things of the modern world.

“The Two Popes” ended positively with the “unlikely friendships” of Pope Benedict and Cardinal Bergoglio but still with its askewed presentation of the two holy men, of the people in Vatican, and of the Church’s members and leaders.

So unlike the classic “The Cardinal”, “The Two Popes” missed the essence of the papacy and of the Church as an institution and a body of believers – that Christianity is not about categories or labels as conservatives, progressives, or liberals: it is about our being of Jesus Christ alone.

It is deceivingly appealing to the senses but nothing really so profound about faith and Jesus Christ and his Church. With hindsight, though, after seeing the movie, the more I have come to love and admire Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI for his love and faith in Jesus and the Church.

And Jesus told his disciples… “Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me” (Mt.5:11).

Have a blessed Christmas!

The priest is always a radical

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 10 December 2019

Homily for the First Mass of Rev. Fr. Roel Aldwin C. Valmadrid, First Priest from our Parish of St. John Evangelist, Bagbaguin, Santa Maria, Bulacan

In my 21 years of priesthood, I have found so many descriptions and interpretations of being a priest. But there is only one priesthood we all share — the Priesthood of Jesus Christ.

And that is why, every priest has to be a radical like Jesus.

From the Latin word radix which means “roots”, a radical is someone who is always rooted, grounded in being as we say in philosophy.

A priest is a radical because he always has to be rooted in Jesus Christ, our Eternal Priest. He alone is our model and everything in our lives and ministry. Everything and everyone must be seen in relation with Jesus Christ.

I am the true vine… I am the vine, you are the branches.
John 15:1, 5

It is the Caller, Not the Call

Since last year when I was invited to be a guest spiritual director of our School of Theology, I have realized how seminarians and eventually priests give more importance to the vocation or call to the priesthood than to Jesus Christ himself, the Caller.

When we priests and seminarians are focused on the call, we get so many excuses in life: we have every justification for everything like in acquiring material goods and gadgets, indulging in so many luxuries and lifestyles for the rich and famous simply because we are priests.

See how some seminarians and priests alike, despite the many immoralities in life, they cling to the vocation but never to Jesus.

Worst, when we are more focused with our call than with Jesus the Caller, that is when we see more of ourselves that soon enough we play gods and we start making our vocation an excuse for everything, even flaunting them in social media.

Call it triumphalism, exaggeration of devotions when in fact it is the start of a cult around the person of the priest. That is when we start having our own interpretations of everything, starting from Jesus Christ, on the liturgy, morality, scriptures and everything!

Sad and tragic. Most of all, a grave scandal of our time.

When we focus more on our Caller Jesus Christ, then we start praying and discerning.

That’s when everything gets clearer because when we examine things in the light of Christ, we become sensitive of others and sensible as well.

When we see Jesus more than our priesthood, that is when we see more of Christ among others, especially the poor and marginalized.

Yes, when we priests look at Jesus more, the better we see him in others that we get inspired to do more, to serve more with love and kindness.

“I Am”

We have learned in our studies of the scriptures that Jesus Christ’s declarations of “I AM” in all gospel accounts mean a lot, especially in the fourth gospel by our beloved Patron, Saint John the Evangelist. It is indicative in itself of Jesus being the Christ, the awaited Messiah.

Keep that in mind, keep that in your heart, Fr. RA: that “I AM” is Jesus Christ, not you.

A priest is always a radical because every day we have to go back to this very root of our being, Jesus. Without him our Caller, there is no call. No Jesus Christ, no priesthood.

Twice did Jesus declare this I AM: at the opening verse where he used the adjective I AM the true vine then at the fifth verse when he said I am the vine, you are the branches.

Most important part here is the I AM to show how Jesus has let himself planted on earth, never to be uprooted like that story of the vine producing sour grapes in the Book of Isaiah.

His I AM here is the very mystery of his incarnation mentioned by our Patron Saint, John the Evangelist at his prologue to his gospel account. Like what St. Paul had written to the Romans we always read in the Evening Prayer I of each week, “God’s gift and call are permanent and irrevocable.”

Jesus called us to the priesthood, he will never recall that. That is why we are celebrating tonight despite your many sins and heavy warnings in the seminary. He called you Fr. RA and he kept that.

Chapel of the Holy Family, Jesuit Novitiate and Retreat House, Novaliches, 2017.

Now you are priest, Fr. RA, let Jesus dwell in you as you keep grounded in him too.

Have an altar in your room, Father. Keep the TV set outside your bedroom. Upon waking up even if your bladder is full, kneel before your altar, say the Morning Offering, be with Jesus, hear him tell you every morning “I AM the true vine, you are the branches.”

People always ask me what is the most difficult in being a priest?

It is not really being celibate. In fact later in life, ask your married friends, it is a great blessing to be celibate!

Since my first year in the priesthood, I have always been telling people since then until now that the most difficult in being a priest is we have to pray every day. I mean, real prayer where we strip ourselves naked before Jesus. No ifs, no buts. Just our plain, ugly self before him.

It is difficult to pray every day because it means being true to one’s self that requires a lot of discipline and courage.

Bp. Dennis Villarojo ordaining Fr. RA, 10 December 2019, Malolos Cathedral.

Most of all, it is difficult to pray because that is surrendering one’s self to God. It is like being ordained every day when we keep on saying, “yes, Lord…yes Lord.”

Whatever is the fruit of our prayer, that is what we share in our homilies and talks to people.

That is when we come into the most difficult part of our prayer life as priests: when we preach, then people measure us, even judge us. They ask if we “walk our talk”.

When a priest does not preach anymore, when a priest avoids celebrating Mass, pray for that priest. Most likely he is no longer praying. He is already separating himself from the vine, forgetting the Caller.

Remember St. Augustine who told his deacon in De Catechizandis de Rudibus, “the catechist is the lesson himself”. In the same manner, the priest is the homily himself.

It is prayer where we grow deeper in our faith as priests. And people would right away notice this if we believe in God, if we believe in the Mother Church, if we believe in the sacraments we celebrate.

When we experience Jesus our true vine, it is always Jesus whom people would see and feel in us his priests.

“Remain in Me so you will bear fruit”

Our prayer life as priests keeps us one with Jesus our Caller and our true vine. In our gospel today, Jesus repeated the word “remain” about nine times, the most of any word in our gospel this evening.

Remaining in Jesus as a priest is imitating our Patron Saint John the Beloved, the only one who remained and stayed by our Lord’s side at his crucifixion.

To remain in Jesus is stay with him at the Cross.

Notice how Jesus reminded us that as branches, the Father has to prune us always. Pruning means sufferings. Pruning means carrying the cross daily.

Ten years ago I was invited to give a recollection to our students at the Theology Deaprtment with the topic, “The Cross as the Cost of Discipleship”.

People praying for Fr. RA after Holy Communion, 10 December 2019. Chinggoy Futol Photography.

I accepted the invitation to correct their topic because it is absolutely wrong: the Cross is not and should never be considered as a cost of discipleship. When you talk about costs, then you think of rewards and profits. Then it becomes a business. No longer a vocation.

The Cross is the life of a priest because that is the life of our Caller, Jesus Christ!

Remain in Jesus, bear all pains and hurts. Kneel always before his Cross and look at him to realize that before our sufferings came, Jesus was there first to suffer and die for you, Father!

Part of that Cross comes from those nearest to us priests, our family and brother priests!

Every day, especially Sunday, you celebrate life and death, health and sickness with people you hardly know, some of them even hurt you and malign you when you can not even be with your parents, sisters and nieces and nephews.

Worst, there are times it is your brother priests are the ones who would hurt you too!

Rejoice when you are being pruned, when you suffer, Father. Remember the beatitudes, “Blessed are you when people persecute you and malign you.”

Be good and kind to your brother priests, Father RA.

Do not fight back if they hurt you.

Love your parish priest. Help him always in his Masses. Volunteer to him especially when you see the slightest of him catching colds!

When a priest is kind to his brother priest, that priest is surely a good priest, a kind priest.

By being good to fellow priests, you keep them remain in Jesus our true vine too.

And you become fruitful.

Being fruitful is different from being successful.

Sometimes, our failures are the very joys of our Lord Jesus Christ because that is when we are nearest to him.

To be fruitful is to rely more in the powers of God. Relying more on our powers is success.

And there is only one fruit Jesus wants from us: love.

See how after Jesus declared himself as the vine and we are his branches, that is when he would speak eloquently about love, his commandment.

“I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete. ?This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay one’s life for one’s friends.”
John 15:11-13

The new priest with his family. Chinggoy Futol Photography.

Love like Jesus Christ, Father RA.

Be a radical priest, not as a subversive but always go back to our very root, Jesus Christ.

Better, restore Jesus Christ.

Next year, I will be moving to another parish, Father RA.

When you are broken, when somebody maligns you again, you are most welcomed wherever I may be transferred and together, with our aching gouts, we shall kneel to before Jesus our vine, our root, our Caller. Amen.

A prayer for the ordination of the first priest of our Parish

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Tuesday, Feast of Our Lady of Loreto, 10 December 2019

Isaiah 40:1-11 ><)))> ><)))> ><)))> Matthew 18:12-14*

Pope Francis prays at the Holy House of Loreto during his pilgrimage on 25 March 2019. Photo from Vatican News.

How comforting are your words, O Lord, and the celebrations we are having today: the Feast of the Our Lady of Loreto and the ordination to the priesthood of our three deacons in the diocese.

It is a very special day for us parishioners of your “beloved disciple”, Lord, because one of the ordinandi is our first priest, Rev. Fr. Roel Aldwin C. Valmadrid.

Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God.
Isaiah 40:1

To comfort, Lord, is not only to relax and soothe but most of all, to strengthen, cum fortis.

Thank you for comforting us, our loving God with the gift of the first priest of the parish. Despite our many sins and shortcomings as a parish community, you blessed us with a priest, with another coming next year!

Thank you also Lord for comforting our three new priests. Finally, after more than a year of darkness, we see light today with their ordination.

May our new priests give comfort to your people, Lord, for many of them are lost, tired, and confused, “like sheep without a shepherd”.

Most of all, comfort my former seminarian, my parishioner and now a priest, Fr. Roel Aldwin.

You know very well the many trials Fr. Roel Aldwin had faced before this day came: of how his future looked so dark and uncertain with the death of Bishop Jose last year, and after being ordained deacon last June, some wayward souls have tried to destroy his reputation with lies and false accusations.

Comfort, Fr. Roel, Lord, comfort him and teach him to forgive whoever those people have maligned him. Make him realize that trials and tribulations, pains and sufferings are the stuff you allow to come our way as priests in preparing us for bigger and greater mission.

And where else, dearest Jesus, can we truly find more comfort but in the warmth and assuring love of your holy home in Nazareth with St. Joseph and Mother Mary that was miraculously transported to Loreto, Italy in 1260!

It is so difficult to understand, even believe, how your holy house in Nazareth would be carried by angels across the seas into Loreto; yet, it is very comforting and reassuring to hear stories by pilgrims there, including Pope Francis who all claimed to have felt, to have been “comforted” in visiting your holy earthly dwelling place.

Yes, dear Jesus, it is very comforting to realize how you would do everything like a shepherd leaving behind 99 sheep in the hills to look for the lone stray one.

Fill Fr. Roel Aldwin, Fr. Laurence and Fr. Howard with your strength and love so they can comfort many people and lead them back to you, Lord Jesus as your priests. Amen.

Diaconal Ordination of Rev. Howard, Fr. Roel Aldwin, and Rev. Laurence at the Malolos Cathedral, 12 June 2019.

Lord Jesus, we are happy to be your priests!

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Wk. XI, Yr. I, 17 June 2019

2 Corinthians 6:1-10 >< )))> >< )))> Matthew 5:38-42

Ordination of our new deacons, 12 June 2019, Minor Basilica and Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Malolos City. Photo by Lorenzo Atienza.

Our feast is still a month and a half away but Lord Jesus Christ, I just feel like telling you today along with my brothers in ministry that we are happy to be your priests!

Thank you for the gift of vocation, thank you for the gift of three new deacons, and thank you for the gift of a new bishop!

St. Paul’s words in today’s first reading are so touching, reminding us of your great love for us to be your ministers of the word. But, they are also very challenging especially when there are some of us who have received your grace in vain, so attached with the trimmings and perks of your call, forgetting you Jesus, our Caller.

Forgive us in failing you, Lord, and help us find our way back to you.

Thank you for our faithful priests who lead and inspire us especially our fellow workers silently shepherding the flock, smelling like the sheep as Pope Francis had asked us to be, always avoiding the limelight now so glaring in the Church.

Thank you also for our old and sick priests, especially those who have aged gracefully, embracing retirement without much complaints and whines.

With St. Paul, we commend ourselves to you O Jesus “through much endurance, in afflictions, hardships, constraints” (2Cor.6:4) that many of us now evade or, deny.

It is a very interesting time to be your priests today, Lord, when people no longer believe us and your Church, when people doubt and malign us, and when the “faithful” are not so faithful at all, deserting us. Keep us to remain standing by your side at the Cross like the beloved disciple with Mary our Mother.

We are treated as deceivers and yet at truthful; as unrecognized and yet acknowledged; as dying and behold we live; as chastised and yet not put to death; as sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many, as having nothing and yet possessing all things.
2 Corinthians 6:8-10

Fill us with Holy Spirit, Jesus our Eternal Priest, so our minds and hearts may be enlightened to seek and follow and stand by your truth always. Amen.

The Gospel Book on which every new deacon and priest professes his faith before the Bishop shortly before the Mass of his Ordination. Photo by Lorenzo Atienza.

A prayer for the ordination of a parishioner as deacon

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Wednesday, Wk. X, Yr. I, 12 June 2019

2Corinthians 3:4-11 >< )))> >< )))> Matthew 5:17-19

Detail of “Ordination of the Seven Deacons” by Fra Angelico, 1447-49, Cappella Niccolina, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican. From Google.

My dearest Lord Jesus Christ, our Eternal High Priest: Like your Blessed Mother, my soul proclaims your greatness and my spirit rejoices in you O Lord on this great gift of ordination as deacon of our parishioner, Rev. Roel Aldwin and his two classmates, Rev. Howard and Rev. Laurence.

As his ordination day got nearer, the more I realized your goodness, your love and your mercy. So true are the words of St. Paul in our first reading today:

Brothers and sisters: such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that of ourselves we are qualified to take credit for anything as coming from us; rather, our qualification comes from God, who has indeed qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter brings death, but the Spirit gives life.
2 Corinthians 3:4-6

Thank you very much for new brothers in the ministry, for new co-workers in your vineyard, Lord. Indeed, you do not call the qualified but you do qualify your calls! As St. Paul had said, no one can lay claim for this great gift of being your “alter Christus” at the altar.

And so, I thank you for this rare gift of having a new deacon in my parish during my tenure. You know how much I have loved your parish amid the many difficulties and pains that continue up to this moment. I hope and pray that your people here would realize this immense gift of a deacon you have called from among them to serve your Church.

But what I like most Lord in your gift of the first deacon from our Parish is also your gift to me to be a better pastor to encourage Rev. RA to strive and persevere in his vocation with so much love and dedication. I am a sinner, Lord, and you know very well how I have discouraged with my words and actions some members of my flock. And despite all this, you have used me to guide our new deacon in his journey.

Soon, he shall find so many flaws among us priests in the ministry. Soon he shall find the many crosses and many crucifixions we shall go through. Soon he shall find that ultimately, no one else is to be followed except you alone, Jesus.

I pray that our new deacons may be the signs of your fulfillment of the Laws of love and mercy. Keep them faithful and obedient to your commandments, Lord, that they may be your indwelling, your presence in this world slowly plunging into darkness and coldness, like what you described as “a sheep without a shepherd”.

I pray for our new deacons to love you more, Jesus our Caller – and not your call so that as they serve in your name, it is you whom they proclaim, it is you whom they make known above all.

Jesus our High Priest, let us your priests and deacons decrease so that you may increase. Amen.

Loving Jesus First

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Friday, Easter VII, 07 June 2019

Acts 25:13-21 >< }}}> >< }}}> >< }}}> John 21:15-19*

The shore of Lake Tiberias where Jesus asked Simon thrice, “Do you love me?” Photo by author, April 2017.

My dearest sweet Lord Jesus Christ: For the past twenty one years, I have always heard you asking me the same question you asked Simon along the shores of Tiberias. And you always come to me asking me those questions most especially after I have sinned against you, just like when Simon had denied you after you were arrested.

Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep…” And when Jesus had said this, he said to Simon, “Follow me.”
John 21:17b,19b

Lord, you know everything about me: you know my innermost thoughts, you know my sins, you know my weaknesses, you know my insecurities, you know my pains and darkness and most of all, you know how imperfectly I love you.

And that is why I am so in love with you, Jesus: I am not worthy of your love and yet you choose to love me, you choose to be patient with me, you choose to forgive me. And you continue to call me to follow you.

You have given me with so much, Lord, and I have given so little to you. Teach me to give more of your love, more of your fidelity, more of your kindness, more of YOU to others.

Keep us all, especially your priests, to always love you first before following you.

So many times, especially in this age, we have forgotten you our Caller and we have been so focused and madly in love with your call which is secondary.

You will always be our first love, Jesus and it is from that love where everything else follows. Amen.

Bronze statues of Jesus conversing with Simon at the shore of Tiberias before his ascension. We have to love Jesus first before we can follow him. Photo by author, April 2017.

Continue praying for us priests.
Let us be focused more with Jesus our Caller,
not with his call.

Sanctify us, O Lord

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Wednesday, Easter VII, 05 June 2019

Acts 20:28-28 >< )))> >< )))> >< )))> John 17:11-19*

Facade of the Church of All Nations beside the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed his “high priestly prayer” consecrating us to the Father. Photo by author, 04 May 2019.

As I prayed last night, O Lord Jesus Christ, I felt out of words for all the love and joy you have poured me yesterday. As I looked back on the day that had passed and meditate on your words today, I do not know what else to say except thank you, thank you, and thank you.

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying: “Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one. Consecrate them in truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I send them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”
John 17:11,17-19

Wow…! How lovely to hear and experience being prayed for by you, Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. How comforting to dwell on your prayer for us, consecrating us in truth, consecrating yourself for us so that we may be consecrated in truth.

All these despite our unworthiness. You still consecrated us priests, made us holy not because we are good or talented but all because of your love.

Help us to keep in our minds this great honor is not for our own sake but for the world, to continue your work and mission of consecrating the world to the Father.

Keep us united always in you, Jesus who is the Truth, the we may be able to do your work always of making you present among those in need, present especially in our lives, in our prayers, in our church, in our celebration of the Sacraments.

Lord, we have turned away from you. We have forgotten you. Please cast out from us all these prevailing thoughts in the Church of pomp and pageantry on the pretext of glorifying you with so much rituals and decorations in our churches and celebrations.

Consecration and sanctification can never be equated with silver and gold that adorn our churches while the flock go hungry, remaining in the darkness of ignorance and slavery to sins because we have never worked hard to teach them the truth, you.

How can we be holy, O Lord, when we have become of the world? When we have “perverted the truth to draw disciples away from the people” (Acts 20:30).

What a shame, Jesus our High Priest that we your priests cannot sincerely speak like St. Paul as he bid goodbye to his flock in the first reading:

“I have never wanted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. You know well that these very hands have served my needs and my companions. In every way I have shown you that by hard work of that sort we must help the weak, and keep in mind the words of the Lord Jesus who himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'”
Acts 20:33-35

Consecrate us anew, Lord, sanctify us to be one with you again and to serve your truth with fervor and commitment. Forgive us your priests, Lord and let find our way back home to you. Amen.

Please pray for us priests today.

Our life of leaving and loving

The Lord Is My Chef Recipe, Holy Thursday of the Lord’s Passion, 18 April 2019

Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14///1 Corinthians 11:23-26///John 13:1-15

*Altar at the Carmelite Monastery in Israel with a unique Crucifix. Photo by Dra. Mai B. Dela Pena, 2011.*

Today I am celebrating my 21st year in the priesthood. This is the first time our ordination anniversary falls on a Holy Thursday when we celebrate the institution of the two Sacraments most closely linked with us priests and the Church, Holy Eucharist and Holy Orders.

When we were ordained by Archbishop Rolando J. Tria-Tirona 21 years ago at the Malolos Cathedral, there were so many things going on in my mind and in my heart. But there was one thing that had remained very clear with me since that day: I am being ordained priest at the age of 33, the very same age Jesus was crucified on the Cross. From then on until now, I have kept in my heart that priesthood is suffering and dying on the Cross in Jesus and with Jesus centered on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.
John 13:1

Of the four evangelists, it is only St. John who repeatedly mentions the expression “hour of Jesus” in his gospel account. For him, the very life of Jesus is a journey and preparation to his “hour” which is his crucifixion and death. The hour of Jesus is his passion. The word passion is from the Latin verb patior that means to undergo, to pass through, evoking some form of suffering and pain.

The hour of Jesus started in his Last Supper. It was a very long hour so to speak. And very dark. However, it was also the finest hour of Jesus when he poured out his immense love and mercy for us. Beginning at his supper when he washed the feet of the Apostles to his agony in the garden when he perspired with blood to his arrest reaching it darkest point in his crucifixion and death, the darkest hour of Jesus is also his finest hour when he was able to bear all sufferings and insults, including death because of love. Jesus showed us that in fact, love is the very process of passing over, of going beyond our means and capacity in order to transform and become better persons. That is why our darkest hour is also our finest hour when we are transformed in Jesus because precisely that is when we truly love. It is also for this reason that the Eucharist is called an agape which is the Greek word for the highest form of love that does not expect anything in return. That is the love of Jesus Christ. And supposed to be the love of us priests.

Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.

*Jesus washes feet of Apostles. From Google.*

Msgr. Epitacio Castro, one of our retired priests, has a favorite expression with his being a priest: “pinag-uubra lang ako ng Diyos”. True. God is just making do of us as priests because nobody is worthy of being one. We are the worst men around! We are also sinners like you, even more sinful than most of you. In the Eucharist, we priests experience that great love of Jesus Christ when he tries to make us fit as his priests, transforming us into men like him. It happens every time we are one with him in his hour of suffering and death. Priesthood is a life of leaving and loving, of passing over and transformation. The day we were ordained, our Last Supper began, our passion began because that is also our hour in Jesus Christ. Every time we celebrate the Holy Mass, we priests are reminded that our hour had come to pass, challenging us to love more. Pray for priests who no longer love the Eucharist; something is terribly wrong with them.

I am a sinner. But it is a tremendous grace of God through the Eucharist that I continue to leave and pass over, from sin to holiness and grace, from darkness to light, from selfishness to selflessness, from desperation to hope, from grief to joy. And all because of the power of love of God overflowing in the Eucharist. How can I resist to love and to forgive, to let go and move on, to be patient and to persevere when right in the Eucharist I could feel Jesus truly present, entrusting himself to me who is so untidy with sins and weaknesses? How could I not believe in him when Jesus is the first to believe in me despite my many self doubts? Every celebration of the Eucharist is an imitation of Christ when we priests go down to wash and kiss the feet of the people we serve whom we also hurt and hurt us too!

They say the darkest nights are the longest nights. Very true especially for us priests. Be patient with us when we forget so many things, when we change so often in our plans because every time there are celebrations, our hour goes over time too. Bear with us, pray for us when we sometimes become irritable even grouchy because aside from your many problems and burdens we help you carry, we have our own struggles and problems too. That hour of Jesus remains with us even after every Mass when you all go home to your own family while we priests are left alone in our parish thinking about the next celebrations. The hours are long and the nights are so dark and all we have is that flickering light of faith, hope, and love in Jesus in our hearts.

But, though the darkest nights are the longest nights, they also say that only the brave who dare walk the darkness can see the brightness of the stars above. Courage does not mean having no fear but the ability to face our fears. And, oh! We priests have many fears too, including the fears of rejection, of being misunderstood, of being boxed, and most of all, of failing. We are what you call as “warrior is a child” — “They don’t know that I come running home when I fall down. They don’t know who picks me up when no one is around. I drop my sword and cry for just a while, ‘Coz deep inside this armor, The warrior is a child.

In the Eucharist, we priests truly share in the priesthood of Jesus Christ because that is also when we feel transformed in his love, when we pass over with so much pains from the many experiences we have in our very selves and with others. Indeed, without the Eucharist, we are not priests! Every time I raise Christ’s Body and Blood, I pray that Jesus may make me whole in body, mind and heart, that he may wash me of all my sins, doubts and fears. Nobody else in the Mass perhaps, except us priests who truly feel the meaning of praying these words before receiving communion, “Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my shall be healed.”

Maybe you have all seen the photos after the fire that razed the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris this Holy Tuesday. Intact were the altar table with the huge cross beaming with light. What a beautiful reminder to us all, especially us priests, that in this life, our darkest hours are also our finest hours when we are one with Jesus Christ. No fire nor anything can ever destroy us because Jesus had overcome every evil even death for us. Every destruction and darkness are a prelude to the light and new creation of Easter Sunday that begins right here in the hour of the Eucharist of Jesus. Let us remain in Christ in love in passing over, in leaving behind the pains and hurts of the past with much love in our hearts to move on in this life. Amen.

Blessed Are the Children

MarpaKids — *Photo by Jim Marpa. Used with permission.*

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Sou

Thursday, 28 February 2019, Week VII, Year I

Sirach 5:1-10///Mark 9:41-50

Dearest Lord Jesus:

Your Mass readings today complement the disturbing and shocking news headlines of sex abuse in the Church festering for the last 30 years or so.

What is so shameful and disgusting with this news is the fact you have never failed in warning us against hurting the little children including women and the poor who have nothing in life except you.

Those sins are so grave that moved you to harshly declare that “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea” (Mk.9:42).

We make no excuses O Lord for these grave sins against children. No words, no programs and no compensation could ever bring back their lost innocence and dignity from the hands of your priests and servants. It is a betrayal of the highest degree like what Judas Iscariot did to you.

We are angered by their sins, Lord; but, worst of all, we are deeply angered by our inaction that allowed them to continue with their evil deeds in the guise of mercy and compassion.

But, Lord, there is also something sickening than this news when our brother priests are falsely accused of sexual misconduct. We pray you keep and protect them. We pray for faithful priests to be spared of these false accusations.

You know very well O Lord you have more faithful and celibate priests working in silence and hiddenness than the unfaithful ones. Yet, we still pray that you continue to help us heed your words of wisdom through Ben Sirach (Sir. 5:1-10):

“Let us stop relying on our wealth, power, and strength in following the desires of our hearts.

Let us stop being so sure that no one could prevail against us or subdue us for God will surely exact punishment against us.

Most of all, let us not delay our conversion and stop being overconfident with your forgiveness, adding sin upon sin, for your wrath alights with the wicked.”

Have mercy on us all your priests, dear Jesus, keep us faithful to you our Lord and our God. Amen.

Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

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It is where we stand that matters most, not where we sit

Christ_washes_apostles'_feet_(Monreale) — During His Last Supper, Jesus rose from His seat to wash the feet of His apostles to show them what position is all about: loving service to one another. See in this icon from Google there are only 11 apostles present; Judas left the Last Supper to “unseat” the Lord. Above is the word “mandatum”, Latin for “command”, Christ’s command for us to love by leaving our seats of power and comfort to stand with Him at His Cross.

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 22 February 2019

If you are a Catholic and a regular Mass-goer, most likely you always follow the “Roman seating position” – that is, you always sit at the back, avoiding the front seats even in other gatherings outside the church.

According to Msgr. Gerry Santos who used to give us retreats and recollections while we were seminarians, the “Roman seating position” is a carry-over from the martyrdom of the early Christians who were always seated at the front rows of the Colosseum in Rome who were forcibly pushed to be devoured by hungry lions and beasts below.

Of course it is a joke but it holds so much grain of truth because we often refuse to take the front row seats for fears of being put on the spot, of making a stand. How ironic that in this age when seating positions matter so much for us, we have forgotten that more important than the position and prestige that come with the seats we occupy – literally and figuratively speaking – is the stand we take in every issue we face. Protocols dictate in so many occasions how seats indicate power and authority; the throne is always reserved to the highest in rank like kings and presidents. And the closer one is seated to the one in command, the wider is one’s sphere of power and influence too. Unfortunately, this is not everything because every seat of power and authority is always a call to serve, to make a stand for what is true and what is good.

Jesus Christ showed us the true meaning of our seating positions during the Last Supper on Holy Thursday evening when He rose to remove His outer garments to wash the feet of His apostles (Jn.13:1-15). It was a task left for slaves only but Jesus used it as a gospel parable in action to show us that what matters most in life is not where we are seated with Him but where we stand with Him. It was exactly what He meant when He said that anyone who wishes to be the greatest must be the least and the servant of all.

Recall my dear readers how during that evening of the Holy Thursday when John the beloved disciple sat not only beside Jesus but even rested his head on His chest to signify their intimacy as friends (Jn. 13:23). That touching gesture of friendship and love took its summit the following Good Friday when John the beloved was the only one of the Twelve who remained standing with the Lord at the foot of His Cross with the Blessed Mother Mary. In that scene we see how John literally stood his ground as the beloved disciple by remaining faithful and loving with the Lord from His Last Supper to His Crucifixion. Peter, the prince of the Apostles, was nowhere to be found on Good Friday after denying Jesus thrice during His trial before the Sanhedrin the night of His arrest. Very interesting was Judas Iscariot who committed suicide after realizing his grave sin in betraying the Lord. See how he had left the Lord’s Supper to deal with His enemies for His arrest. What an image of the traitor who could not stay on his seat during the Lord’s Supper was the same one who could not stand to face Him again at the foot of the Cross. See how those people who refuse to sit with us are also the ones who never stand with us, stand for us like Judas, a traitor!

I tell you these things even if Holy Week is still more than six weeks from now but in the light of the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter which is about the Primacy of Rome or the Pope as Vicar of Christ and successor of St. Peter. We celebrate this Feast to remember St. Peter and his successors love and service to the Church as examples we must all emulate. In 110 AD, St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote the Christians in Rome to describe to them the Church of Rome as the “primacy of love” and the “primacy of faith”. Every power and every authority signified by the chair or cathedra in the Church as well as in the world when we speak of “seat of power” must always be seen in the light of Jesus Christ’s example of loving service at His Last Supper. This is especially true for us priests who are united in Christ and with Christ in the Eucharist.

This festering problem of sexual abuse in the Church is largely due to our deviation from this primacy in love for Jesus as priests. We have been so focused with our seats – positions and titles – that we have forgotten to stand with Christ at the foot of His cross, standing for what is good and true, just and right. We have been so focused with the “party” of the Supper of the Lord and have forgotten Jesus Himself. Seminarians have been so focused with the vocation and the call, with ordination, forgetting the more essential, the Caller Jesus Himself! And that explains why some in the clergy and those in the hierarchy come up with so many excuses and alibis for the many things we do in our ministry, in our churches, in our parishes, and in our lives because we are only concerned with our office and position but never the Master.

When we love Jesus or any other person, we do not have to justify our actions. Love that is true and pure does not need justifications. But the moment we start making justifications, something is wrong like when we justify our special relationships, no matter how deep or shallow it may be for clearly, there is no primacy in love for Jesus and the Church.

When we justify our vices, our lifestyles, our business endeavors that Canon Law prohibits, clearly there is no primacy in love for we cannot be poor for Christ.

There is no problem with having advocacies as priests but when we are aligned with ideologies contrary to Christ, or when we play in partisan politics, there is neither primacy of faith nor primacy of love. It is the Lord who changes the world, not us, not our programs, not our ideas.

It is our duty as priests to love like Christ but to adopt children and raise them as our own children using our names, there is no celibacy, only stupidity.

Like Jesus, we need money to get our programs going but when we lack transparency and accountability, that is stealing and banditry.

When all we have is the ministry, the priesthood without prayer periods, without the Eucharist, we only have the call but not the Caller Jesus Christ Himself.

More than ever, today Jesus Christ is asking us all His priests to make a stand for Him, to stand with Him, to suffer with Him and to die with Him by leaving our seats of comfort and seats of power.