Lent Is About Direction, Not Destination

40 Shades of Lent, Ash Wednesday, 06 March 2019
Joel 2:12-18///2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2///Matthew 6:1-6,16-18

Life is a daily Lent. According to St. Benedict, every day we go on our own “exodus” or “crossing over” – a pasch – from sinfulness to holiness, from slavery to freedom, from darkness to light; hence, Lent, like life, is a journey.

But, as a journey, Lent is more about direction than a destination. It is a journey with Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. It is a journey that begins right inside our hearts.

“Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God.”
(Joel 2:12-13)

In the gospel, Jesus stressed to us the importance of this inner journey into one’s heart:

“Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.” (Mt.6:1)
(Mt.6:1)

The 40 days of Lent that begin today in our celebration of Ash Wednesday are not mere number of days to be followed but signify to us perfection which is an ongoing process in life. During the early days of Christianity, all baptisms took place on Easter and the 40 days of Lent (cuaresma) were spent preparing candidates for Baptism. It still remains the key point in this sacred season that during the Easter celebrations, we renew our baptismal promises which we continue to do daily by renewing our faith in God, rejecting temptations of the devil by choosing and doing what is good. The practices of fasting, alms giving, and contrition for sins help us in staying on course in the direction of Christ.

Why do I say direction of Christ, not destination of Christ?

So often we live our lives following a destination. In this age of WAZE and GPS, we can easily seek directions to a particular destination. Focus is more on the destination, not really the directions. Problem with being focused more on destination is we miss the fun and adventure of every journey. When we reach our destination, what do we do? We cross out from our list of travel goals every destination that we make and start looking for new places to visit until we have been to every place on earth! So, we plan to visit the Moon or Marss next? Eventually we get tired with travels and after covering so many distances and destination, we still feel lacking or incomplete.

Just like in life. We set goals which is very important but not everything. First we set our sights to finishing studies like a destination to reach. After graduation, we start a career or a job. We just keep on creating new goals, new destinations, raising our bars further that after proving how good we are, we are still empty. There is no more destination to go to that we confront ourselves with the existential question, is this really what I need most in life? Is this all?

“Ito na nga ba? Dito ba talaga ako?”

When we see life more as directional like in Lent which we celebrate every year and its spirit we live daily, it does not really matter what God wants me to do or if this is what He really wants from me. To see life more as a direction means to find its meaning in God that we keep on maturing, we keep on sustaining our journey in Him and with Him. It does not matter wherever He leads me or where I go or stay. No need to face the dilemma of “should I stay or should I go” because what matters most is I am in and with God.

Lent is entering God in and through Jesus Christ. It is going back to Him, staying in Him and with Him in love. This is the reason why we fast, we empty ourselves even our sights and other senses so that we become more sensitive to God’s presence. Notice how our churches and the liturgy are very plain and simple: no flowers, no decors, no Alleluia, no Gloria. Everything is bare essential so we are not distracted in finding and following God right in our hearts.

Recall the first time you fell truly in love when you see and hear and even smell your beloved everywhere and in everyone. You think every lady you meet is your beloved one like in the song “You Are Everything, and Everything Is You” by the Stylistics. When we truly love, the time and place are no longer important because all we have are the here and the now together.

Oh how easy to say we love God or somebody! But if we try to probe deeper into ourselves, we find that we have not truly loved God or anyone that much because in many instances, we always prevail over them. We choose our own will than God’s or our beloved’s. That is when we sin as we turned away from God and our beloved, changing our direction in life.

Lent is the wonderful season of finding again our direction in life, our true love, God. Love needs no justifications. And we can only love persons, not things. To be able to truly love, we first need to be “reconciled with God” (2 Cor.5:20) which this holy season of Lent offers us in prayers and liturgy. The beauty of finding our life direction in God this Lent is that it is not just a personal journey but a communal one as well. When you find your direction, you find God. If you truly find God as your direction, you would surely meet and find your neighbors.

And that is when you find joy and peace.

And that is Easter, the direction and ultimate destination of every Lent and life.

Amen.

The shore of Tiberias where Jesus asked Simon thrice after Easter if he loves Him; then He asked Simon to “follow me.” Like Simon Peter, we must first love Jesus so we can follow Him to whatever direction, not destination. Photo by author, April 2017.

Education of the Heart

A view from the inside of the Church of the Beatitudes overlooking the Lake of Galilee in the Holy Land. Photo by the author, April 2017.

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe, 03 March 2019, Week VIII, Year-C 1Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23///1Corinthians 15:45-49///Luke 6:27-38

For the past two Sundays we have been listening to some of Christ’s most sublime teachings filled with paradoxes that may sound like a folly for us humans because they all run contrary to the ways of the world. Beginning with His Beatitudes, Jesus taught that true blessedness comes from being poor and hungry, when we are weeping and being maligned. More difficult yet most sublime of all were His teachings last Sunday when He told us to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, and pray for those who mistreat us.

They are very, very difficult but doable in Christ Jesus who have taken all these lessons directly from life. He knows very well how capable is our hearts in truly loving like Him.

And so today, Jesus turns His attention to us His disciples who shall act as guides in putting into practice all His teachings through the education of our hearts. It is in our hearts where all the good and evils around us originate from. All the problems and sufferings we have in the world today like wars and various forms of violence, hunger and sexual exploitation, human trafficking and all kinds of injustice first happen right in our hearts. Not in Syria or Jolo or the slums of Tondo or any other city in the world. Jesus perfectly hit it right when He said, “A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks” (Lk.6:45).

In the first reading we find the same line of thinking during the Old Testament when Ben Sirach wrote, “When a sieve is shaken, the husks appear; so do one’s faults when he speaks. As the test of what the potter molds is in the furnace, so in tribulation is the test of the just. The fruit of a tree shows the care it has had; so too does one’s speech disclose the bent of one’s mind. Praise no one before he speaks, for it is then that people are tested” (Sir.27:4-7). Remember that in the Bible, speech and being always go together like when God created everything by simply speaking.

And that is the whole point of Ben Sirach: people reveal who they really are in the manner they speak as well as in the words they use to express their thoughts and feelings that all come from the heart. Of all the creation by God, it is only the human person whom He had gifted with the ability to communicate intelligibly with speech. Our ability to speak is in fact a sharing in the power of God who created everything by simply speaking. But how do we use this great power of speech and communication? Are we like the Spiderman convinced in our hearts that with great power comes great responsibility?

It is elections again in the country and sadly, it is more like a circus than a democratic process. And the great tragedy we keep on repeating again and again is how most people put into office candidates without any qualifications at all and worst, deeply mired in every form of immorality and scandals. Where is our heart that we allow blind people to lead us? Or, have we become heartless that we have no regard anymore for our country, for our future and the next generation?

Jesus is challenging us today to educate our hearts, to learn from Him, to come to Him and be like Him to have our hearts transformed like unto Him. Though we are all weak and have all the defects as a person, our readings today lead us to the Christ who revealed to us that ultimately, “communication is more than the expression of one’s thoughts and feelings but at its most profound level is the giving of self in love” (Communio et Progression, 11). It is the Lord Jesus Christ who had revealed in His very person and life of self-giving the paradoxical joy of discipleship, the transforming power of love gained in His own pasch that removed the sting of sin and of death in our weak humanity. May we persevere in our education of our hearts in Jesus, “firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord, knowing that in Him our labor is not in vain” (1Cor.15:58). Amen. Have a blessed week!

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

Here is the link to one of my favorite songs, “One More Gift” by Jesuit Fr. Manoling Francisco that speaks eloquently of the need to educate our hearts. Sing it prayerfully.

https://youtu.be/VqGv9jubu9Q

Christ’s “Win-Win” Solution for Humanity

DSCF1159 — *The beautiful Church of the Beatitudes in the Holy Land. Photo by the author, April 2017.*

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe

23 February 2019, Week VII, Year C

1Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23///1Corinthians 15:45-49///Luke 6:27-38

Life, sometimes, is a series of “good news-bad news” situation like the Beatitudes preached by Jesus during His sermon on the plain last week: the blessings are the good news while the woes are the bad news.

But, wait…! Such a view is the way of the world, not of Christ’s disciples!

As we have reflected last Sunday, the Beatitudes are the paradoxical happiness of the disciples of Christ because they all run directly against the ways of the world. Today we hear more paradoxical teachings from Jesus that are actually His “win-win” solution for our many problems like wars and other forms of enmities. Unfortunately, we have never given them a try because we always complain the ways of the Lord as being far from realities of life, impossible to imitate because He is God and we are not.

Today let us set aside all these reservations and arguments to reflect on this new set of paradoxical teachings by the Lord: Jesus said to his disciples: “To you who hear I say, love your enemies.od to those who hate you, bless those who curse, pray for those who mistreat you… But rather, love your enemies and do good to them. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. For the measure with which you measure will in turn be measured out to you” (Lk.6:27-28, 35, 36, 38).

It is very striking that Jesus repeated twice His call to “love your enemies”.

Does He not care about us who have to bear with the sins of evil people? What a good news to those who hate us, curse us, and mistreat us! Suwerte sila! We would surely say they must be so lucky, even blessed with us who strive to heed the calls of Jesus to love them our enemies.

But, on deeper reflections, we are actually more blessed when we try to love our enemies because that is when we elevate – or “level up” as kids would say – our hearts to be merciful like God. Experts claim that the best way to exact revenge against people who have hurt us is to shower them with good deeds and kindness from us they have offended. According to these experts in counselling and psychology, evil people get disappointed and angrier with themselves when their evil plots fail especially when their targets do not react negatively. They sound understandable because evil people derive joy in making people miserable. So, why be miserable?

Far from being their “punching bag”, the Lord simply wants us to teach our enemies to respect us, to be kind to us by not being like themselves. In loving our enemies, we teach evil people that more powerful than sin is the power of love. Sin and evil consume a person while love and kindness make a person grow and mature and bloom to fullness.

Far from being passive, to love our enemies by returning evil with good is always the most active method in fighting sins. When Jesus asked us to offer the other side of our cheeks to those who slap our face or when we give them our tunic when they demand our cloak, we are showing these evil people that love is never exhausted unlike evil. Love is boundless and the more we love, the more we have it, the more we keep on doing it. Evil, on the other hand, reaches a saturation point that we get fed up with it, then we we stop doing it because it is exhausting and worst, consumes us within that in the

process destroys us. Think of the most evil person you have known and surely, you find that person so ugly, so zapped of life and energy, eaten up from within by a festering wound. Evil people will never have peace and joy within, glow on their face and skin because they are rotting inside like zombies.

In the first reading we heard how David as a type of Christ foregoing vengeance by holding on to God, trusting Him completely that he chose not to strike King Saul who was then trying to kill him out of jealousy. As disciples of the Lord, we have to trust in the Word of God that can transform our hearts of stone into natural hearts filled with love and mercy like Him. This is the point being explained by St. Paul in the second reading wherein Christ as the “second Adam from heaven” had made us bear the “heavenly image”despite our “earthly image” that is weak and sinful having come from the “first Adam from earth”. Through Baptism, we have been endowed with all the necessary grace from God, transforming us into better persons of heaven.

One of my favorite sayings came from the desk of a friend of mine I used to visit in their office that says “If you have love in your heart, you have been blessed by God; if you have been loved, you have been touched by God.”

See how God has loved us so immensely without measure! Remember that scene two Sundays ago when Jesus borrowed the boat of Simon as He would do with our voice, with our hands, with our total selves? Who are we or what do we really have and own that the almighty God would borrow from us? Nothing! Yet, Jesus comes to us daily with all His love without measure to bless us with everything we need. So, who are we now to love by measuring everything, loving only those who love us, lending only to those who could repay us?

Imagine how astonishingly disproportionate is the love of God with our kind of love. It is in this light must we see the meaning of Christ’s final lesson this Sunday: “For the measure with which you measure will in turn be measured out to you.” So paradoxical and provocative yet so true! This Sunday, may we share God’s love in our hearts with others, especially with our enemies so they may also experience the loving and merciful touch of God. Then we begin to realize too the “win-win” solution of Christ to humanity. Amen. Have a blessed week! Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

DSCF1160 — *Side garden of the Church of the Beatitudes with the Lake of Galilee at the background. Photo by the author, April 2017.*

Thinking Like Jesus

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Thursday, 21 February 2019, Week VI, Year I

Genesis 9:1-13///Mark 8:27-33

My dearest God and Father, today you remind me of the beautiful story of Noah, of how you had promised through him never again to destroy earth.

What a joy always to my eyes to see your rainbow, its beautiful colors without any definitive origin nor end, reminding me of how you have given us more than a promise but a covenant.

When I was a child, I always heard that at the end of every rainbow is a pot of gold that would make anyone who would find it very wealthy. As I matured, I realized O God that the pot of gold of your rainbow is your Son Jesus Christ our Lord: whoever finds Him becomes wealthy indeed!

Like the song of the psalmist today, “From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth”, Jesus became your rainbow, your new covenant who stretched His arms on the Cross to save us.

Give me the grace O God to think like Jesus as the Christ who willed to suffer and die for us in accordance with your Holy Will.

Give me the grace O God to think like Jesus as the Christ so that my life and those around me are enriched in your love and mercy. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

The Patience and Fidelity of God

DSCF1271 — *Buds starting to grow on one of the many Cherry blossoms of Taiwan’s Yangming National Park near Taipei. Photo by the author, 28 January 2019.*

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Tuesday, 19 February 2019, Week VI, Year I

Genesis 6:5-8;7:1-5, 10///Mark 8:14-21

Thank you very much Lord Jesus Christ for your patience and fidelity in bearing with my mindlessness and lack of understanding in reading your signs in my life.

So many times, despite your many blessings and very presence in my life, I still don’t get it like your disciples that I can feel as so real, O Lord, your seeming desperation, asking me, “Do you still not understand?” (Mk.8:21)

There are times Lord that my mind wanders far into other concerns like the material “bread” being offered by the world that I easily forget the wondrous signs of far more important things you have been showing me like love and mercy, kindness and compassion.

Cleanse my heart, dear Jesus, especially when all I desire are evil like the people during the time of Noah. Let me be on guard against the leaven and understanding of the world that is fleeting and temporary. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

Of Sighs, Signs, and Sin

Words-may-be-false-Quotes-by-Thomas-Shadwell-By-POPOPICS

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Monday, 18 February 2019, Week VI, Year I

Genesis 4:1-15, 25///Mark 8:11-13

Good morning Lord Jesus Christ! I hope you don’t mind my asking you on this first day of work and studies: why did you sigh in the gospel today?

The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with Jesus, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” Then he left them, got into the boat again, and went off to the other shore (Mk.8:11-13).

Some people tell me it is not good to sigh; but, they have never explained to me why, and so, I sigh even more! Most often, I sigh when I feel helpless and even hopeless with people and situations; but, surely O Lord, you neither get helpless nor hopeless with us as we keep on asking you for more signs.

Did you sigh, O Lord, because you were so tempted to get down to their level?

Did you sigh, O Lord, so that you would not give in to sin and be like Cain who lost sight of himself and of his brother Abel and eventually of God?

What a beautiful sign of your humanity and divinity as well is your sighing, O Lord, reminding us of our need to always reconnect with the Holy Spirit in the depths of our being especially when temptations for us to sin are so strong that we forget we are our brother’s keeper.

Remind us always O Lord when we sigh that we may think of your many signs of wonder before us, of the many signs of your mercy and love so that we remain rooted in you. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

The Beatitudes of Jesus, Paradoxes Of Discipleship

DSCF1155 — *Dome of the beautiful Church of the Beatitudes in Israel. Photo by the author, April 2017.*

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe

17 February 2019, Week VI, Year C

Jeremiah 17:5-8///1Corinthians 15:12, 16-20///Luke 6:17, 20-26

A paradox is a statement that seems contradictory but may be true in fact. From the Greek words para for beyond and doxa for opinion, a paradox promotes critical thinking and deep introspection or reflections. Christian living is a life of paradoxes as we often hear Jesus our Lord telling us to lose our lives in order to gain it. St. Francis of Assisi knew it so well that in his prayer to be an instrument of peace, he rightly claimed that “it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned and it is in dying that we are born into eternal life.” We shall have a taste of some paradoxical teachings by Jesus Christ beginning today until the next two Sundays before we get into the Season of Lent as we listen from the account by St. Luke of the Lord’s “Sermon on the Plain”. For this Sunday, we hear the centerpiece of His sermon on that day, the Beatitudes.

And raising his eyes toward his disciples, he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven” (Lk.6:20-23).

Beatitudes are words of promise that have a strong link from the long line of tradition of Old Testament teachings like the one we heard from the first reading today from Jeremiah: “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord” (Jer.17:7). Recall how last Sunday Jesus called His first four disciples led by Simon whom He had asked to be “fishers of men” (Luke chapter 5). As Jesus went around Galilee preaching and healing the sick, He gained some disciples or followers. In chapter six, St. Luke tells us Jesus departed to a mountain to pray for the night and upon coming down the following morning, He chose 12 men among His disciples whom He called apostles. This is now the setting of our gospel today when a vast crowd have followed Jesus, many of whom are poor people with some pagans from Tyre and Sidon who all wish to listen to Him about the word of God and to be healed from their sickness.

Speaking to His community of disciples that include us now, the Beatitudes by Jesus express the meaning of discipleship which is paradoxical because they run directly against the values of the world. For Jesus Christ, true blessedness and the way of happiness for us His disciples is being poor, hungry, weeping, and hated. What a paradox indeed! Yet, we know deep in our hearts, in our love for Christ and for others especially to those dear to us, we are willing to live with these promise of trials and sufferings because it is the only way to follow Jesus who said “anyone who wishes to follow Him must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow Him” (Lk.9:23). The paradox becomes deeper and more paradoxical that we are willing to go through all pains and trials for our love for Jesus and others because we trust in the Lord’s promise that “He will provide us with wisdom in arguing with our enemies… and most of all, not a hair on our head will be destroyed. By our perseverance we shall secure our lives” (Lk.21:14-19). We forge on with the Beatitudes because we are convinced in the words of Jesus about the complete reversal of fortunes when that “day” comes for our “rewards in heaven shall be great!” (Lk.6:23) And that “day” is the “now” when the scriptures are fulfilled in our hearing, when despite the many hardships we go through, we have that firm assurance within of meaning and joy in life because like St. Paul, we firmly believe in our resurrection in Jesus Christ. Every day we die in our sins, in our sufferings, we share in the passion and death of Jesus; but every day too, we experience rising to new life in Christ in this little deaths we go through in daily living.

It is along this line that we discover how the Beatitudes reveal to us the mystery of Jesus Christ Himself who calls us into communion with Him and in Him. When we examine the Beatitudes, we find Christ being referred to as the one who is poor, hungry, weeping, and hated for He is the first to be so blessed and filled with God when we recall His baptism at Jordan. In His life, Jesus showed us true blessedness as prophesied by Jeremiah, the one “who trusts and hopes in the Lord… like a tree planted beside waters that despite drought, it shows no stress and still bears fruit” (Jer.18:8). Without doubt, Jesus was the first to go through all the sufferings and pains of the Beatitudes and the first to resurrect from the dead as St. Paul insisted to the Corinthians. In following the Beatitudes, we become true fishers of men who catch nothing all night without Christ; but, with Jesus, despite our many losses in life, we continue to cast our nets into the deep so our lives may be fulfilled in Him always. Life is a mystery, filled with paradoxes that make it so wonderful and beautiful in God. A blessed week ahead to you! Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

DSCF1153 — *Sanctuary and altar of the Church of the Beatitudes in Israel. Photo by the author, April 2017.*

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Listening With Our Hearts

openheart — *Image from Google: Open ears, Open hearts, Open minds.*

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Friday, 15 February 2019, Week V, Year I

Genesis 3:1-8///Mark 7:31-37

Our dearest God and loving Father, thank you very much for this month of February when we celebrate Valentine’s, the day of hearts.

It must had been your Holy Spirit guiding us these days when we prayed the other day that we may look inside our hearts to see you and follow your holy will; yesterday as we celebrated Valentine’s, we prayed for the grace to see with our hearts.

Today we pray for the grace to listen with our hearts so we may not repeat the sin of Adam and Eve when they listened to the voice of the serpent who misled them into believing that the moment they eat the fruit of the tree of in the middle of the garden, “their eyes would be opened and they would be like gods who know what is good and what is evil” (Gen.3:5).

Give us the grace to separate ourselves from the crowd, from all the noise and different voices of the world, to listen with our hearts in silence with Jesus Christ like that deaf man brought to Him in Decapolis.

“Ephphatha!” (Mk.7:34)

Let our ears and our hearts be opened to you O Lord.

Let us be “deaf” sometimes to the cacophony of sounds in the world, competing for our attention, listening intently with our hearts to your tiny voice deep within us, telling us to love freely and truly by avoiding sins and doing only what is good. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

heart-reason

Looking Inside Our Hearts

lookinsideheart — *Photo from Bing.com.*

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Wednesday, 13 February 2019, Week V, Year I

Genesis 2:4-9, 15-17///Mark 7:14-23

O God our loving Father, you know so well how we all desire to be good and holy like you. But so often, we look outside for what would make us pure and clean before you, as well as for what defiles us before you.

Thank for reminding us today how from the very start when you created everything including us, we have always been good within. Even from without, everything is good. We just have to look inside our hearts for what is true and good, false and evil.

How sad that until now, we keep on looking outside, searching for more we can have, for more we can know when clearly we are limited: “You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die” (Gen.2:16-17).

Teach us, O Lord Jesus Christ to understand that “Nothing that enters one from the outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile… From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly” (Mk.7:15, 21-22).

May we always look inside our hearts, O Jesus, where you reign supreme when we keep on doing your holy will, avoiding sin. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

The Sword of St. Paul

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Friday, 25 January 2019, Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul

Acts 22:3-16///Mark 16:15-18

Today we thank you O Lord for your gift of St. Paul whom you converted from being a persecutor of the early Christians to becoming your “Thirteenth Apostle” who stands at equal footing with St. Peter in the growth of your Church.

What made him truly great and effective as an apostle, O Jesus, is not his brilliant rhetoric and sophisticated strategies but his willingness to suffer so much for you and your gospel. He had shown us the essence of discipleship which is to live one’s life completely in you alone – “I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20).

St. Paul was able to accomplish this by showing us true conversion that we always misunderstand as something like changing into another person completely like turning around a shirt, from being proud and violent to becoming meek, or from being so shy to becoming daring or being impulsive to almost timid. While his letters teem with so many gems in teaching us how he was converted into loving you until the end, his imposing images with his sword remain his most beautiful symbol of conversion.

All his life as his images rightly portray him everywhere, he had kept that sword: when still called Saul, he had that sword to express his zeal and fire for the Law that he persecuted Christians; but on the way to Damascus, you called him and after a period of prayers and studies, he picked up again his sword to preach your gospel with the same fire and zeal that eventually in the end, he willingly accepted death by the sword in your name. From the sword that inflicted pain on others, it became a sword that slew his defects until later at the end of his life in Rome, it caused his martyrdom.

Help me Lord to keep my sword – my weaknesses and shortcomings – not for their own sake but because that’s me, that’s my personality. Help me to change my ways not my heart by using this same sword to slay the defects within me without extinguishing that fire for you and your gospel. Let these defects I have remind me always like St. Paul that “whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider a loss because of Christ… everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil 3:7-8). Let me fight, O Lord, for your gospel, for your Spirit as I fight pride and other sins within me. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

*Photo from Google, statue of St. Paul in front of the Major Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the- Walls, Rome.