Tag: social justice

Getting involved

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II
Hosea 8:4-7, 11-13     ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*>     Matthew 9:32-38
Daily scene of commuters in Metro Manila; photo by Veejay Villafranca/Bloomberg via Getty Images, 2024.
Your words today,
O Lord are very inspiring
and challenging,
inviting me to get involved with
those in the margins,
with those suffering,
for those "troubled and abandoned,
like sheep without a shepherd"
(Matthew 9:36).
Give me the wisdom
and charity to be involved
with the voiceless in your
holy name, Jesus,
for the sake of your Kingdom
and not for any self-interests
like those in Israel in 
the first reading who "appointed
kings without God's approval,
making idols out of their gold
and silver, making altars
that became occasions for their sins"
(Hosea 8:4, 11).
Grant me courage,
Jesus to get involved with your
poor little ones who sometimes
would even reject our efforts
but most especially when others
brand us as rebels,
as diabolic.

But the Pharisees said, “He drives out demons by the prince of demons” (Matthew 9:34).

Teach me, Jesus,
the proper way to respond to
your invitation to get involved
with the poor and suffering,
that I may grow in love
and compassion
for those in need.
Amen.

Our 3000 year-old problem

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday in the Thirteenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 01 July 2024
Amos 2:6-10, 13-16     <*((((><<  + >><))))*>     Matthew 8:18-22
Photo by author, Anvaya Cove, 15 April 2024.
Glory and praise to You,
God our loving Father for this
brand new month of July;
we have passed the first half of
2024, help us to make good of its
remaining six months, most especially 
in finding ways to address and mitigate
if not eradicate the social injustices
that continue to happen among us
since 3000 years ago your Prophet Amos
had denounced.

Thus says the Lord: For three crimes of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke my word; because they sell the just man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of sandals. They trample the heads of the weak into the dust of the earth, and force the lowly out of the way. Son and father go to the same prostitute, profaning my holy name (Amos 2:6-7).

What a shame, O God,
how this passage written
in 750 BC remains still the same
these days; give us the sincerity
to confront our selves,
to look into our own lives
to see how these accusations
can be thrown against us too;
let us realize there can be no
real love of God nor even true religion
without the practice of justice
and loving concern for the
weak and marginalized.
Give us the will
to have Jesus our priority in life
in order to build a more humane
and just society in this imperfect world,
instead of relying on our abilities
and expertise as well as comfort 
and ease; both Amos and Jesus
have showed that doing the work
of God is always other-centered, 
entails a lot of sacrifices and 
suffering so that we decrease
and lose our very selves for
God through others.
Amen.