Advent & Christmas begin in the church

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Simbang Gabi-4 Homily, 19 December 2024
Judges 13:2-7, 24-25     <*((((><  +  ><))))*>     Luke 1:5-25

*Photo by author, wailing wall of Jerusalem where Jews pray until now being the section closest to the Holy Holies destroyed in year 70AD*.

From Matthew, we now shift to Luke to listen to his account of Christmas which is the most complete and detailed. In fact, most artistic renditions of Christmas were inspired by Luke’s gospel.

Very surprising in his Christmas story, Luke started it with the annunciation of the birth of John the Baptist to his father Zechariah who was then serving at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. It is a reminder to us all these days that Advent and Christmas begin in the church, in our holy celebrations.

In the days of Herod, King of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the priestly division of Abijah; his wife was from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Once when he was serving as priest in his division’s turn before God, according to the practice of the priestly service, he was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord to burn incense. Then, when the whole assembly of the people was praying outside at the hour of the incense offering, the angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right of the altar of incense (Luke 1:5, 8-11).

Luke’s detailed account of the event is the Jewish Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) when their priests incense yearly between September 18-24 the Holy of Holies where they used to keep the Ark of the Covenant. From this detail by Luke we got the reliable timetable in the celebration of Christmas on December 25 by considering this event as the time of Elizabeth’s conception of John who was born June 24 or nine months after. Tomorrow we shall hear in the gospel how “on the sixth month” of Elizabeth’s pregnancy which fell on March 25, the angel Gabriel announced to Mary the birth of Jesus, the Solemnity of the Annunciation we celebrate on that date. Nine months from March 25, we have December 25! Who said our Christmas date is not in the Bible? We got it here in our gospel today courtesy of Luke!

*Photo by author, Parish Church of St. Joseph in Morong, Rizal, January 2021.*

It may sound simple yet, it is so profound. In narrating this to us, Luke reminds us today that the Christmas story began in a holy celebration in the temple of Jerusalem now happening in our Eucharistic celebrations in every church around the world.

Many take our Sunday Masses for granted these days with so many excuses and alibis but, let us set aside all these to reflect on this simple detail from Luke’s first story on Christmas.

First, this is a call for us all to go back to the church by finally putting a stop NOW of online Masses. Online Mass as a term is an oxymoron because it presupposes actual presence of people. There can be no virtual Mass because there is no such thing as virtual sacrament nor virtual grace. That is why God introduced Himself to Moses as “I AM WHO AM”, the One who is perfectly present, always actual never virtual.

Since the waning of the COVID virus last year, both the Pope and the CBCP have called for the ending of online Masses but unfortunately, so many priests have remained stubborn with some making “shameful profit” out of it which is strongly prohibited by Canon Law and other Church and papal documents. Unless online Masses are stopped, people will always find reasons and alibis not to go to church on Sundays.

As we reflect on Luke’s account of the celebration at that time of the annunciation of the angel to Zechariah while he was incensing the Holy of Holies, we get the feel of solemnity and sacredness that are sorely missing these days in many of our celebrations of the Mass.

Like Zechariah and the priests of the Jerusalem temple at that time who were all steeped in traditions and presumably spirituality, we have every reason to expect the same, even more, from our bishops and priests today. They are the ones who set the tone of every celebration and of life in the parish; their spirituality or lack of it is manifested in the parish life, from its building structure to its witnessing.

*Photo by author, pious Jews and Rabbis in another enclosed section of the wall of the temple of Jerusalem, May 2017.*

How sad when priests have lost the sense of the sacred of the Holy Mass when they disregard the solemnity of the celebration with all their antics and gimmicks; worst of all, of coming to Mass unprepared without a homily and good vestments, sometimes without having showered or shaved! What is tragic is when the priest attends all socials in proper attire, but never in the Mass.

The other day, I saw a sticker at the back of a delivery van that asks, “How’s my driving? And my grooming?” Too bad I was not able to get the name of the company of that delivery van but how great are its people must be in giving a premium on how their drivers behave and look!

Some priests shamelessly argue that what is essential is what is inside but they forget that the outward appearance is an indication of what’s inside them too. How can the people feel and experience God if their pastor comes shabbily dressed without any good vestments, so untidy as in dugyot, unprepared for the Mass, without a good homily?

What had become of our churches that have been the shining glory of architecture through the centuries but now look like malls? Some churches look like videoke bars with a lot of giant TV screens while priests serenade the people with their wonderful voices instead of delivering a homily.

How sad that many churches are untidy and ugly. Yes, ugly is the word. And kitschy, bereft of any sense of the holy that people cannot experience God except be played on their emotions with dramas and not to forget, second and third collections. Choirs are on their own with a concert, totally deaf to the fact their music is supposed to lead the congregation into prayerful reflections not to applaud them for a performance. It is about time we restore the dictum of the Roman liturgy of noble simplicity not only of the church and also of celebrations.

Photo by author, *Archdiocesan Shrine of Nuestra Señora De Guia, Ermita, Manila, 28 November 2024.*

Our gospel invites us today, especially us priests and bishops along with those involved in preparing our parish celebrations to be silent like Elizabeth – lest we be silenced and be made mute by the Lord like Zechariah to finally open ourselves to listen to God’s instructions about His Son’s coming.

Let’s face that sad reality of so many of us clergy and laity in the church who are like Zechariah trying to control everything including God, even playing God who give the people enough reasons to turn away from the Church completely.

Photo by author of the beautiful sacristy of the *Archdiocesan Shrine of Nuestra Señora De Guia in Ermita, Manila where even a guest priest could feel at “home” with everything in order.*

Like Elizabeth, let us choose to be silent in order to pray truly, awaiting God in the Holy Spirit to stir us into His Divine Plans like Samson in the first reading, “The boy grew up and the Lord blessed him; the Spirit of the Lord first stirred” (Jgs.13:24-25). We find the same thing in the gospel when Gabriel told Zechariah how John while still in Elizabeth’s womb would be filled with the Holy Spirit (Lk.1:15) in accomplishing his mission as precursor of Jesus.

If we could allow ourselves to be stirred by God first – not by fad or ulterior motives in our church celebrations – then every Mass becomes a Christmas, a coming of Christ.

Let us do away with unnecessary things in the church and in our celebrations that call attention to us, to our abilities and talents, even power like Zechariah by being more daring in silence and noble simplicity to experience God’s coming every Mass.

As we shall see in the coming days from the gospel of Luke, Christmas is both a journey into Bethlehem, Jerusalem and other places as well as into the very hearts of Joseph and Mary and of those who would recognize and accept Jesus Christ. May our churches reflect what is in our hearts as disciples of Christ, always with a space for Jesus to come and dwell inside and among us. Amen.

*Photo by author, Simbang Gabi in our previous parish, 2018.*

God has the whole world in His hands

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday in the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 17 July 2024
Isaiah 10:5-7, 13-16 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> Matthew11:25-27

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

Praise and glory to You,
God our loving Father
who has the whole world
in your hands;
nothing happens by chance,
all good things come from You
and if ever something bad happens,
You know it for sure;
You never punish us
for our sins and whatever bad
happens to us is a result of our
transgressions, of turning away
from You; therefore,
let us always hope and trust in You
for You never abandon us your children
especially in our times of trials
and tribulations;
in the same manner,
let us not be so proud when
we are in the height of our success
believing we are the best because
You have the final say in history;
let us not be proud like Assyria
of old:

“My hand has seized like a nest the riches of nations; as one takes eggs left alone, so I took in all the earth; no one fluttered a wing, or opened a mouth, or chirped!”

Will the axe boast against him who hews with it? Will the saw exalt itself above him who wields it? As if a rod could sway him who lifts it, or a staff him who is not wool! Therefore the Lord, the Lord of hosts, will send among his fat leanness, and instead of his glory there will be kindling like the kindling of fire (Isaiah 10:14-16).

Teach me, dear Jesus,
to be small like a child,
simple and trusting in You;
feeling more than thinking more,
kind and loving than
analyzing and sizing up others,
most of all,
lowly and humble because
You alone has the whole world
in your hands.
Amen.

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?

“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.

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/.

Lent is simplicity

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday in the Third Week of Lent, 04 March 2024
2 Kings 5:1-15    ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'>     Luke 4:24-30

How amazing it is,
God our loving Father,
that Lent is often portrayed
in shades of violet that signify
"modesty" and "humility" -
or, simply put,
s-i-m-p-l-i-c-i-t-y.

May we rediscover 
in this Season of Lent
the beauty and fulness 
of simplicity,
of just being by our
true self,
without the ifs
and buts,
lovingly embracing
our weaknesses
and shortcomings,
contented with our
finite humanity
you created as good.

Many times,
we are like Naaman:
despite our feelings of
inadequacy deep within
in contrast with our stature
following our many accomplishments,
we still insist on 
what is complicated,
extraordinary
and difficult
which we often take 
as more grand
and therefore,
better.

With this, he (Naaman) turned about in anger and left. But his servants came up and reasoned with him, “My father,” they said, “if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would not have done it? All the more now, since he said to you, ‘Wash and be clean,’ should you do as he said.” So Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times at the word of the man of God. His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
2 Kings 5:12b-14

Keep us simple,
Lord,
so we may believe more,
trust more,
dare more,
and achieve more!

The world has gone
so complicated
even with life and 
relationships we have made
into something like our  
technologies that accomplish
so much but still empty;
the world has gone
so complicated
and competitive
that unfortunately, 
we take pride in being so
even though deep
within us
we know it isn't good
at all, for you, O God,
is perfect because
you are first of all
simple.
Amen.

The riches of Christ

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Homily, Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, 16 June 2023
Deuteronomy 7:6-11 ><}}}*> 1 John 4:7-16 ><}}}*> Matthew 11:25-30

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, Quezon City, 20 March 2023.*

It has been two months since I celebrated by silver anniversary of ordination to the priesthood. Until now, I still continue to reflect and relish on this immense gift of priesthood, still asking with the same sense of awe and wonder since ordination day, “why me, Lord?”

As I reflected this week the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus which is dedicated for the sanctification of us priests, I have realized how I have remained the same sinful, insecure and fearful man ordained 25 years ago with my six other classmates. As I get closer to becoming a senior citizen in 2025, the more my past sins and stupidities, carelessness and vices are coming back like “Facebook Memory”, reminding me how I have them kept under control, that they could burst and be out in the open if I get careless.

But in the midst of all these darkness and weaknesses still in me, the more I feel so blessed and consoled, and overjoyed by the fact that I still have that same desire to proclaim Jesus Christ to everyone, of how beautiful this life is because of the Lord’s immeasurable love for each of us. Whenever I look back to my past with all my sinfulness and weaknesses amid my getting older, the more I am eager to make Jesus known to everyone while I am still strong and able. There is that feeling of being like St. Paul in saying, “To me, the very least of all the holy ones, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the inscrutable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for all what is the plan of the mystery hidden from ages past in God who created all things” (Eph. 3:8-9).

Or, like in our first reading, I could identify with the Israelites being reminded by Moses in the wilderness that “You are a people sacred to the Lord, your God; he has chosen you from all the nations on the face of the earth to be his people peculiarly his own. It was not because you are the largest of all nations that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you, for you are really the smallest of all nations. It was because the Lord loved you” (Dt.7:6-8).

Beautiful!

Love, love, and love!

That is the “inscrutable riches of Christ”, his immense love for us, dying for us, coming for us even if we are worth nothing at all. And it is because of that love of God for us that we have become so worthy that he gave us even his only Son, Jesus Christ.

That is the essence of this celebration of the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Love.

A reality we all experience and know but could not define for it has no limits. Love can only be described and best expressed in actions than in words.

See this Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus comes right after the Solemnities of the Most Holy Trinity and of the Most Precious Body and Blood of Jesus these past two Sundays. Both celebrations speak of love: the latter is about relationships based on love and the former is about giving of self in love.

Now that we are well into the Ordinary Time of our liturgical calendar, our celebration today tells us to remember throughout this year this most basic truth and reality of our faith – that we are so loved by God.

Beloved, let us love one another because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him.
1 John 4:7-9

Love is symbolized by the heart, the very core of every person. That is why I love the Spanish word for heart which is corazon, evocative of the core, of the deeper self. And of course, love is the very the person of God.

Of all the writers in the Bible, St. John is the one who most frequently used the word “love”, an indication of its centrality in his thoughts. Moreover, he clarified that this love is not human love because its origin, motives and effects are supernatural in nature who is God himself.

Being the very self and also the riches or wealth of Christ, love is for sharing, for giving. Never for keeping. Because of its supernatural nature, love is inexhaustible. The more you give it, the more you share, the more you have it!

In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another. 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 4:10-12

*Photo by Ms. April Oliveros, March 2023 at Mt. Pulag.*

Let me repeat that last sentence, “if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.”

The more we love, the more we are able to see and recognize God and other people amidst the darkness around us. Likewise, the more we love the more we see our true selves too despite dark spots within us.

Love is the law of life. To love God by loving ourselves and others is not an obligation imposed from outside. It is the very proof of our faith and union with God in Jesus Christ.

Jesus makes this very clear to us today in the gospel that opens with him praising the simple people, those who were child-like who welcomed him and his preaching. They were the ones Jesus referred at his sermon on the mount, “Blessed are the poor” because love is not an intellectual structure or system to be learned or analyzed. Love is a call to be disarmed of everything we hold onto so we can totally love and follow Jesus Christ.

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus came to reveal to us God our Father. And to know the Father is not through the head or intelligence but through our heart that is like Christ’s, meek and humble, filled with love.

By becoming human like us in everything except sin, Jesus who is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15) enables us to feel and experience God now closest to us than ever. Most of all, we are able to love and still love especially when the going gets tough and rough.

Here Jesus shows us that love is not absence of sufferings. In fact, love is truest and noblest when there are sacrifices and sufferings as exemplified by Jesus in his life and death on the Cross.

There are times we feel grouchy, so sensitive when people seem to ask even demand so much from us.

Sometimes we wonder why are we the ones always giving, always loving, always forgiving. Sometimes we even ask God why are we the ones going through all these trials in life, why are we the ones afflicted with this sickness, why are we given with a special child, why your child had gone ahead of you to eternal life?

So many whys, so many questions.

Rest today in Christ. Feel his embrace. Listen to his silence. Be filled with his love. As you ask Jesus with all those questions, realize that each cry, each lamentation is the “inscrutable riches of Christ”, his very love perfected in your labors and burdens. Amen.

Jesus, meek and humble of heart,
Make my heart like thine!

God saves

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion, 02 April 2023
Isaiah 50:4-7 > + < Philippians 2:6-11 > + < Matthew 27:11-54

*Photo by author, Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion 2019, Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.*

We now enter the holiest week of the year, the height of our Lenten preparations for Easter. What we have today are two ancient celebrations merged by Vatican II in 1963: the blessing of palms practiced in Jerusalem as early as the fourth century and the papal tradition of proclaiming the very long gospel of the Lord’s Passion in Rome about year 500. Hence, the title “Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion”.

And it is a beautiful innovation in our liturgy showing us so many truths in our lives like we begin Holy Week with the triumphal entry of Jesus to Jerusalem, leading to the Holy Triduum of Passion and Death on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday into the bursting joy and glory on Easter.

That for me is life itself.

We come into this world in triumph like Jesus with everybody rejoicing with our birth until we grow up, going through a lot of pains and sufferings with little deaths right in the hands of those supposed to love us but always, there is the joy of maturity, of fulfillment in Christ with many Easter moments of triumphs and consolations. Today’s celebrations remind us that while there will always be the disappointing manifestations of sin and evil in life, overall, there is always the immense and immeasurable love of God expressed in Jesus Christ dying on the Cross.

*“Ecce Homo” painting by Vicente Juan Masip (1507-1579) from masterapollon.com*

Our gospel is very long even in its shorter version. Let us focus on the Lord’s silence from his arrest to His crucifixion.

The Lord God has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them. I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting. The Lord God is my help, therefore, I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
Isaiah 50:4, 6-7

Jesus is the fulfillment of the so-called Suffering Servant of God in the Book of Isaiah. What is striking is how he claims to have been given with a well-trained tongue but He rarely spoke when tried and crucified, choosing to be silent in the midst of great sufferings. What a great display of love for us!

In a world drowning in a cacophony of sounds and noise with everyone and everything speaking like elevators and cellphones, the more God is silent, waiting for us to stop and listen to Him in Jesus Christ who speaks within us. From Pilate to the soldiers to the Pharisees and priests with their rabid packs of demagogues who ceaselessly mocked Jesus even while slowly dying on the Cross, Jesus remained silent.

Because He loves us.

Because He waits for us to stop and listen.

Because life is more true and fulfilling in silence, not in sounds and noise.

Last Monday we celebrated the Feast of St. Joseph where we heard in the gospel how an angel told him to take Mary as wife with the specific task of naming her child “JESUS” which means “God saves”. See how God gave that specific mission to the most silent man in the Bible, St. Joseph who must have taught Jesus the value of silence!

That is how God saved us in Jesus by remaining silent even on the Cross. If ever He spoke, it was mostly to pray the psalms. In Jesus, God saves us in silence while we are in the din of noises of sin. Oh how we speak a lot these days against God, still putting Him on trial, blaming Him for all the problems and woes we have in our lives and in the world.

Like Pilate and the crowd with their religious leaders, we say a lot about God that are often not true but He never argued nor debated with us just like then because Jesus loves us, because His name means “God saves” and that was exactly the meaning of His silence.

How could be God so demanding as many would claim with His many words of instructions and commandments of things to do and not to do plus warnings against sin just to obey Him when He has always been silent?

Today we are reminded how we talk too much and accomplish so little, even nothing, while Jesus is silent because His name means “God saves”, witnessing it in fact in silent sufferings that was a scandal for many at that time.

Moreover, Jesus showed us today in His sufferings how silence is ultimately the expression of trust in God. When we are able to slow down and be silent in the face of many trials, that is a clear indication of our deep faith and trust in God. People who trust are the most silent because simply wait for their deliverance or salvation. Like Jesus Christ.

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

*Photo by author, Betania-Tagaytay City, 2018.*

More scandalous than the silence of Jesus Christ during His trial was His crucifixion, the supreme expression of His name’s meaning, “God saves”. See how since the fall of Adam and Eve, sin has always been an attempt by humans in becoming like God. There has always been that conscious or unconscious feeling of competition with God whom many see as controlling, manipulative and even power-hungry.

But right there on the Cross, Jesus showed us that indeed, in His very Person how God saves by utterly being weak and powerless.

God saves us in Jesus through the path of powerlessness and weakness, docility and humility, of simplicity before men and before His Father.

That is why even at His triumphal entrance to Jerusalem, He rode a lowly donkey never been used by anyone, a fulfillment of many Old Testament allusions and prophecies that “your king comes to you, meek and riding on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden (donkey)” (Mt. 21:5; Zech. 9:9). His triumphal entry into Jerusalem was the fulfillment of the words of God to his prophets, showing us that indeed, everything Jesus did and said were in accordance with the Father’s will, never on His own.

Because His name Jesus means, “God saves”.

What is most beautiful in the reading earlier at the blessing of palms was how Matthew described the Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem – exactly just like the coming of the wise men from the East!

And when he entered Jerusalem the whole city was shaken…
Matthew 21:10

Imagine how a very large crowd welcomed Jesus, spreading their cloaks on the road where He passed, chanting “Hosanna to the Son of David” (Mt.21:9).

Like when Jesus was born and Magis from the East came to Jerusalem inquiring about the newborn king of Israel, they were also shaken! And the irony then at His birth and at His triumphal entry, the learned have refused to recognize Him despite their having all the knowledge and writings available to them.

Is it not the same thing continues to happen to us in our lives, when despite all the kindness and mercy of God, we refuse to recognize His Son’s coming Jesu Christ including the salvation He had gained for us? Where have all the people gone on Sundays? Does God still matter to us? Do we not care at all whenever Jesus comes to us most especially in the Eucharist during the Sunday Mass?

Both the rites of the blessing of palms with the procession and the Mass on this Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion are not merely a recalling of a past event, but a making present, a re-membering of Jesus our King triumphantly coming daily – still in silence – to us in the simplicity of bread and wine to become His Body and Blood for us to offer and share in order to experience Him, our Resurrection and Life because His name means “God saves”.

In the Eucharist, Jesus comes to us as “God saves us”, fulfilling us, blessing us.

This Holy Week, especially at the Holy Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil, we are reminded of our task to witness to everyone the meaning of the name of Jesus, “God saves” by being present to Him in the Eucharist. Inside the church. With our family. Not in the beach nor a resort unmindful of history’s greatest moment when God saved us from sins by dying on the Cross. Amen. Please, have a meaningful Holy Week to experience the joy of Easter!

Lent is simplicity

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday in the Third Week of Lent, 13 March 2023
2 Kings 5:1-15   >>> + <<<   Luke 4:24-30

*Photo by author, Tagaytay City, 07 February 2023.*

Praise and glory to you,
God our loving Father 
on this first working day of Monday
in the third week of Lent!
Teach me to be simple,
teach me to simply
follow my "thirst for you,
my soul's longing for you
to behold your face, O God"
(Psalm 42:3).

How wonderful and amazing
that you used, dear God,
simple people in the healing 
of Naaman the Syrian army general:
first was the servant of Naaman's wife,
 a little girl captured after their 
victory over Israel in a battle who
informed her mistress, "If only my master
would present himself to the prophet in Samaria,
he would cure him of his leprosy"
(2 Kings 5:3);
second were Naaman's servants
who pleaded with him to obey 
Prophet Elisha's instruction to wash
himself seven times in Jordan for his
skin be cleansed of leprosy
(2 Kings 5:13).

But the servants came up and reasoned with him. “My father,” they said, “if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would you not have done it? All the more now, since he said to you, ‘Wash and be clean’ should you do as he said.” So Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times at the word of the man of God. His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
2 Kings 5:13-14

Many times, O God,
we forget that you are perfect
because you are simple;
many times, we humans 
prefer to do things
that are complicated,
that are difficult to show our
greatness and prowess,
not realizing your power
lies in weakness and lowliness;
deepen our faith in you,
teach us to learn submission
and obedience to you like
your Son Jesus Christ our Lord
to effect change in ourselves,
in our lives,
and in the world.
Amen.

Being small and powerless, God’s path to power

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday in the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time, 13 July 2022
Isaiah 10:5-7, 13-16 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Matthew 11:25-37

*Photo by Mr. Red Santiago, January 2020.*

Your words today, O God our Father
remind us of your oft-repeated
wisdom and reality that the path
to real power and greatness is in
being small and powerless like children.

How foolish are we, Lord, 
since the beginning when our
common knowledge always taught
us that size does matter, that the 
bigger a nation and its army like
Assyria, the more powerful it is:
partly true for a moment because
you are always greater than anyone,
O God with every nation, every individual
surely in your mighty hands!

Will the axe boast against him who hews with it? Will the saw exalt itself above him who wields it? As if a rod could sway him who lifts its, or a staff him who is not wood! Therefore the Lord, the Lord of hosts, will send among his fat ones leanness, and instead of his glory there will be kindling like the kindling of fire.
Isaiah 10:15-16

Your Son Jesus Christ himself
had revealed that in knowing
and discovering you, O God and your ways
it is not about being a genius nor of 
knowing all but in being simple, being
open and knowing less because everything
is God's work, not ours even if everything
seems to be clear and fixed with us and in
our points of view.

At that time Jesus exclaimed: “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.”
Matthew 11:25

Lord Jesus, 
keep me simple,
let me rely only in you
for you have all the answers
in the world.
Amen.

The “Little Way” to God

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Virgin & Doctor of the Church, 01 October 2021
Baruch 1:15-22 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]*> + ><]]]]'> Luke 10:13-16

Glory and praise to you,
God our loving Father in heaven
who opens so many ways for us 
to be with you, to experience heaven
while here on earth; Tuesday you showed us
the path of martyrdom of St. Lorenzo Ruiz 
and companions; today, we celebrate
your Little Flower, St. Therese of the Child Jesus
who taught us her "Little Way" to you 
with her writings, prayers and short life.

But we all know that whether 
it is the "big" way of martyrs or the "little way" 
of St. Therese, it is always one and the same path 
of Jesus Christ our Lord who is "the way and 
the truth and the life" (Jn.14:6) that we implore
you dear Father through him your Son
that we may be gifted with docility and trust
in you like that of a child.

Most of all, may our obedience and trust 
in you dear God be rooted in that love for you
which you have sowed ever since in our heart
and soul if we could only be humble enough like
St. Therese to admit:

“Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love.”
St. Therese of the Child Jesus

O merciful God our Father,
in this age of social media where
everyone is vying for exposures
and shots to prominence,
make us realize that life is not a show
to perform but a gift to cultivate and
nurture in our relationships with you
through others; give us the sense of
sinfulness to be ashamed of our arrogance
and pride before like Baruch and St. Therese:

During the Babylonian captivity, the exiles prayed, “Justice is with the Lord, our God; and we today are flushed with shame, we men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem… We have neither heeded the voice of the Lord, our God, nor followed the precepts which the Lord set before us… but each one of us went off after the devices of our own wicked hearts, served other gods, and did evil in the sight of the Lord, our God.”
Baruch 1:15, 18, 22

May this pandemic period
be a purifying process for us, O God,
that in the midst of sufferings and
hardships like St. Therese we rediscover
and realize your loving presence
in Christ Jesus.  Amen.

Being small, and blessed

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 08 September 2021
Micah 5:1-4 ><]]]]*> + ><]]]]*> + ><]]]]*> Matthew 1:18-23

“The Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary”, a 1305 painting by Renaissance artist Giotto in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy. The two babies are Mary: below is Mary upon birth wrapped in swaddling cloth and washed by attendants and then above being handed to St. Anne her mother. Photo from en.wikipedia.org.

We rarely celebrate birthdays in our liturgy, except for the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ on December 25 and of his precursor John the Baptist on June 24. Feasts of the saints are often based on the date of their death or when their remains were transferred for proper burial.

Today is different: it is the birth of the Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin Mary. And so we celebrate!

Nine months after her Immaculate Conception celebrated as a Solemnity on December 8, we now have the Feast of her Nativity which is lower in status or ranking of celebrations. Nonetheless, aside from Jesus and John the Baptist, her birth is still celebrated as it is the completion of her Immaculate Conception by St. Anne.

But in this time of the pandemic when everyone’s birthday celebration is kept at the simplest level unless you are a police general or a corrupt government official or a callous lawmaker, it is good to reflect anew on the significance of a birthday. Thanks a lot to Facebook in making every birthday so special, alerting everyone of someone’s birth every day.

"Every birthday is a small Christmas 
because with the birth of every person 
comes Jesus Christ."

In his 1995 Encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), the great St. John Paul II beautifully expressed that “Every birthday is a small Christmas because with the birth of every person comes Jesus Christ.”

What makes that so true with every birthday beginning with the Blessed Virgin Mary is God’s great mystery of becoming small, of being a little one. In the birth of his Son Jesus Christ, God revealed to us that true greatness is in becoming small, in being silent. Even insignificant.

This we find right in the place of birth of the Christ prophesied in the Old Testament.

“You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah too small to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel; whose origin is from of old, from ancient times.”
Micah 5:1

And if we go further, we find this true greatness of God in being small found also in the Mother of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary who came from the obscure town of Nazareth, the only place in the New Testament never mentioned in the Old Testament. Recall how the Apostle Bartholomew (Nathanael) belittled the Lord’s hometown after being told by Philip that they have found the Messiah from Nazareth, saying, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (Jn.1:46).

Nazareth was totally unknown.

And so was Mary!

That is why it is so disappointing and sad when many Catholics unfortunately led by some priests have the misimpression of portraying Mary as a “beauty queen” with flawless skin and Western features when she is clearly Middle Eastern woman. Worst of all is the pomp and pageantries we have in the recent fads of processions and coronations.

*Photo by author, La Niña Maria at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, Valenzuela City, 07 September 2021.*

How sad we have missed how the Blessed Virgin Mary as the model disciple of Jesus was the first to embody his teaching of being small like little children with her simplicity and humility so very well expressed in her 20th century apparitions in Fatima, Portugal and Banneux, Belgium.

Thanks in part to the COVID-19 pandemic that has given us so much time and opportunities to “reboot” or “reset” our priorities in every aspect of our lives, including in our religious devotions and faith itself.

With a total stop to those Marian “extravaganzas” that have been going out of control in recent years, the pandemic is now teaching us in this Feast of the Nativity of Mary of the need for us to rediscover the values of being small and simple, silent and hidden.

Enough with our imeldific celebrations even in our religious gatherings that have sometimes become egregious display of wealth and power.

Being simple and small like Mary, both as a child and as an adult, enable us to see again the value of life and of every person.

The more simple and true 
we are like Mary and Joseph, 
the more Jesus is seen 
and experienced in us!

Aside from the lack of any account on the birth of Mary, we heard proclaimed today the birth of Jesus to teach us that truth expressed by St. John Paul II that in every person comes Jesus Christ. The more simple and true we are like Mary and Joseph, the more Jesus is seen and experienced in us!

That is why when we greet somebody a “happy birthday”, what we really mean telling him/her is “I love you, I thank you for making me who I am today.” Through one’s simplicity and littleness in Christ, we are transformed into better persons because we are able to have glimpse of God’s love and kindness.

The true joy of celebrating a birthday is not found in the externalities of gifts and parties and guests with all the fun that come along. In this time of the pandemic as we learn to celebrate simpler birthdays, we are reminded of life’s beginning and direction that is eternal life.

And how do we get there? Through death or dying – the one reality in life Jesus has taught us in his Cross which we have avoided that has suddenly become so common these days of the pandemic.

Like in the birth of Jesus Christ, we are reminded by every birthday that life is precious because it is so fragile – any infant and every person can be easily hurt and harmed, be sick and eventually die.

Like Mary and Joseph, the little Child born in Bethlehem asks us, even begs us to take care of him found in everyone among us. Let us be more loving and kind, understanding and caring, even merciful and forgiving with one another not only in this time of the pandemic.

Such is the wisdom of God in making life small and fragile so that we may care and value it because there lies also its greatness. The best birthday greeting we can express to the Blessed Mother Mary today is to start being small and simple like her to share Jesus with everyone. Amen.