Tag: sunday homily

Prayer is a relationship

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe, Week XXIX-C, 20 October 2019

Exodus 17:8-13 ><}}}*> 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2 ><}}}*> Luke 18:1-8

A pilgrim writing petitions inside a “cave” chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary in St. George’s Church in Madaba, Jordan. May 2019.

We have seen these past two weeks the importance of faith in our lives. The other Sunday Jesus assured us that faith is a gift freely given to us by the Father that enables us to make it through this life’s many challenges. It is also faith that heals and saves us as seen in the healing of the ten lepers last Sunday.

For the next three Sundays beginning today, faith would still be the main theme of our gospel but, each week we are offered with its different aspects that enrich and fulfill our lives.

Today, Jesus shows us that where there is faith, there is always a relationship that springs forth nourished by prayer.

Jesus told them a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. He said, “There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, ‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’ For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, ‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.'”

Luke 18:1-5
Mirador, Baguio City, January 2019.

Everybody is saying we should pray. Especially us priests.

But rarely do we explain why we should pray. Worst of all, many among us teach the misconception that we have to pray so God would pour out his blessings upon us, the so-called “health and wealth” preaching to collect more donations!

Prayer is not merely for asking favors from God because he knows what we need and grants these even before we ask him or even without us asking him. Praying for special favors is the lowest form of prayer, the one at the bottom, if you remember our acronym “ACTS”: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication.

Prayer is primarily about relationships, of keeping our ties with God closer and personal. It is an expression of our faith in God, something innate within us that we must cultivate for it to blossom and bear much fruit for us.

Prayers do not change things and situations like typhoons and earthquakes.

Prayers change us – our person and attitudes in dealing with life’s blows. It makes us more humane, more kind, more like God to whom we cling to when we pray.

See how the widow pleaded to the heartless judge because she not only believed she deserved justice but she saw a glimmer of humanity in him that even for a small chance he would render her with a just decision because she’s a fellow human being.

And she succeeded in pursuing it!

The widow had such deep faith that the evil judge would recognize their “link” or relationship as humans.

This we find clearer in Jesus explaining the parable.

Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa at Palo, Leyte, September 2019.

The Lord said, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Luke 18:6-8

The title “Lord” is a post-Resurrection address given to Jesus Christ by the disciples when their faith had been deepened by the Holy Spirit. Here, Jesus is introducing something more profound about the necessity to pray always without becoming weary – we pray to be with God, to be one in him by being “justified” or being saved!

Here now is the deeper reason why we must pray always: to be one with God.

And from that comes the crux of the gospel today when the Lord asked, “will he find faith on earth when he comes?”

That question sheds light to the parable which is more than praying unceasingly to God for some favors but to deepen that faith and relationship with God who is our very life, our healing, and our salvation.

That question sheds light to the parable which is about the need to constantly reawaken that faith with prayers as expression of our deep love for Jesus Christ, himself the “word who became flesh” we must proclaim always until he comes again according to St. Paul in the second reading.

That question by Jesus challenges our faith to be like Moses and Joshua remaining focused with God in prayer as we battle life’s many trials and difficulties, challenges that sometimes force many of us to abandon him or change our religious affiliations as if there are different Gods!

Finally, that question probes our hearts not only for faith but also for love for God expressed in our prayers. Where there is faith, there is always relationship, and therefore, there is also love.

And here, we do not merely mean reciting prayers but having a “prayer life” – a communion and intimacy with the Lord cultivated in a disciplined life of prayer because people who truly love always talk and communicate with each other.

Most of all, people who love and have faith in each other always spend time together even in silence. Just like in prayer!

Handle life with prayer always. Have a blessed week ahead!

“Losing One’s Head and Self in Prayer”. Photo by Ms. JJ Jimeno of GMA-7 News at the Blessed Sacrament Chapel of the Holy Sacrifice Parish, UP Diliman, QC, June 2019.

“You Don’t Have To Be a Star” by Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. (1976)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 13 October 2019

Photo by Atty. Polaris Grace Rivas-Beron atop Mt. Sinai, Egypt, May 2019.

The husband and wife duo of Billy Davis, Jr. and Marilyn McCoo enlivens our Sunday with their signature tune “You Don’t Have To Be a Star (To Be In My Show)” released in September 1976 from their album I Hope We Get To Love In Time. It stayed on top of the music charts for six months until 1977 becoming a crossover success that also gave the duo a Grammy that same year.

Billy and Marilyn are former members of The 5th Dimension where they first met where their friendship blossomed into a love that has kept them together as married couple for more than 40 years until today.

It is a fitting song to our readings this Sunday wherein God healed even pagans afflicted with leprosy: General Naaman of Syria in the first reading from the Old Testament and the Samaritan, the only one of the ten lepers healed who came back to thank Jesus.

Jesus assures us in the gospel that the gift of faith is always freely given to us by God regardless of who we are. We just have to cultivate and grow deeper in that faith to fully experience his blessings and salvation.

It is like Jesus singing this song to you, telling you don’t have to be somebody or so perfect to be loved by him. God’s love is so immeasurable that even the most sinful, the most unloveable Naaman and the ten lepers can always be given a chance to new life if he/she simply believes.

Baby come as you are with just your heart
And I’ll take you in
You’re rejected and hurt
To me you’re worth what you have within
Now I don’t need no superstar
Cause I’ll accept you as you are
You won’t be denied cause I’m satisfied
With the love that you can inspire
You don’t have to be a star, baby, to be in my show (2x)
Somebody nobody knows could steal the tune
That you want to hear
So stop your running around cause now you’ve found
What was cloudy is clear, oh honey

Have a blessed Sunday with your loved ones!

Going beyond the skin

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe Week XXVIII-C, 13 October 2019

2 Kings 5:14-17 ><}}}*> 2 Timothy 2:8-13 ><}}}*> Luke 17:11-19

Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, September 2019.

This Sunday readings tell us about the skin, the healing of people afflicted with the dreaded “Hansen’s disease” or leprosy. Since ancient time, it has always been seen with deeper implications than mere wounds on the skin that scars not only the leper but also the community. At its worst, it is regarded as a divine punishment that lepers have to be separated from others to live in designated areas for their treatment.

Skin plays a major role in our social status and mobility. Being the largest organ of the human body, the skin is always the first to be seen and noticed that whatever its condition would always have a big impact on the person, for better or for worst.

This is specially true for us Filipinos who are so concerned with our skin color that we still regard being white or maputi is maganda (beautiful) and having dark skin or maitim is pangit (ugly). No wonder everybody is going crazy to get whiter skin with all those soaps and creams and medicines advertised on billboards everywhere!

In a very funny twist unknown to most Filipinos who idolise white skin, many of our popular devotions in the Catholic faith actually have dark skin like Quiapo’s Black Nazarene and Our Lady of Antipolo?!

But, that’s another story of how skin-deep we can be…..

Going back to our reflection of today’s readings, Jesus is inviting us to go deeper than the skin to realize the richer meaning of having faith in him.

As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem, he traveled through Samaria and Galilee. As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him. They stood at a distance from him and raised their voice, saying, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” And when he saw them, he said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” As they were going they were cleansed. And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan.

Luke 17:11-16
View from the walled city of ancient Jerusalem, May 2019.

Since June 30 of this year, the 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time, we have been following Jesus when “he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem” (Lk.9:51). More than a destination to reach, Christ’s journey to Jerusalem is about directions in life because it is spiritual and theological in nature than spatial or geographical.

It is the same truth every pilgrim to the Holy Land realizes too!

And now that Jesus is nearing Jerusalem to fulfill his mission, his teachings are getting clearer and closer to home, indicating also our own “passing over” or pasch with him with the many verbs and movements found in our gospel scene today.

Let’s try reflecting on them one by one. Please bear with me…

“As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem” …. Jesus never stops in his journey to Jerusalem to suffer with us, to cry with us, to die with us. He is committed in being one with us in our many struggles and battles in this life until we make it with him to heaven.

“he travelled through Samaria and Galilee.” This is beautiful. Samaria and Galilee are the regions where the poor and marginalized lived, where sinners abound. But, that is where Jesus would always come. When we are in our darkest moments in life due to sickness, failures and disappointments, especially sin – that is when Jesus comes closest to us! In the first reading, we have heard how God’s Prophet Elisha told the Syrian Army General Naaman to bath in the Jordan River to be healed of his leprosy even if he were a pagan and an enemy of Israel! God loves us all.

“As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him.” Keep in mind that Jesus came for the lost like us. Be open and ready for him for he is always passing by. Jesus surely comes to those who patiently wait for him.

“They stood at a distance from him, and raised their voice, saying, ‘Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!’ and when he saw them, he said, ‘Go show yourselves to the priests.’ As they were going they were cleansed.” This episode of the healing of ten lepers can only be found in St. Luke’s gospel filled with many meaningful expressions. First is how “the lepers stood at a distance from Jesus.” This is our usual stance with the Lord when we are full of sin, so ashamed to look at him. But, it does not really matter with the Lord who looks more into is our hearts full of contrition than into our ego full of pride as we shall hear three weeks from now in the parable of the Pharisee and tax collector (Lk. 18:9-14).

The lepers cried to him, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” and when Jesus saw them, he told them to see the priests and they were cleansed. This is an extraordinary profession of faith in Christ by the ten lepers who were crying out not only for pity but also mercy. There are only three instances in the gospels when Jesus is addressed in his name, once in Matthew and twice in Luke. This is the first and the second is when Dimas the thief called on him saying, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” To say his name “Jesus” in itself is a prayer, an admission of guilt and sin. That is why, as the ten lepers went their way to the priests, they were “cleansed” like Dimas on the cross was instantly promised with paradise.

“And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan.”

Here we find every encounter with Jesus in prayer and the sacraments as well as in various events in our life is a passage to salvation and new life. See the transition from being cleansed into being healed: that is something deeper than the skin, so to speak. The Samaritan was not merely cleansed of his skin blemishes but most of all, his soul and inner being that Jesus later told him to “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.”

Sometimes in life, we stop at being cleansed by the Lord; after obtaining our prayers and wishes, we never go back to him until we face another problem again. Are we willing to keep on going back to Jesus to kneel before him and to thank him?

Last Sunday we prayed to Jesus to increase our faith and today like the ten lepers from a distance, we cry out to him as our Master to have pity on us. We always have that gift of faith in us but we have to deepen and cultivate it daily in our prayer life and most especially in the Sunday Eucharist, the highest expression of giving thanks to God.

Let us live in our faith and trust in God’s gift freely given to everyone regardless of who we are. Let us rely in the words of St. Paul that

“if we have died with him we shall also live with him; if we persevere we shall also reign with him. But if we deny him he will deny us. If we are unfaithful he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.”

2 Timothy 2:11-13

A blessed Sunday to everyone!

“Beautiful in My Eyes” by Joshua Kadison (1994)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 29 September 2019

Our gospel today speaks a lot about our eyes, of what we see and recognize, of sights and vision. For the third straight consecutive Sunday, we hear again another parable by Jesus proper only to St. Luke called “the rich man and Lazarus”.

Jesus said to the Pharisees: “There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor named Lazarus, covered wit sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores. When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.”

Luke 16:19-23

The rich man went to hell because amid his affluent lifestyle, he did nothing to help the poor Lazarus. He was so blinded by his wealth that he was so oblivious of the plight of Lazarus. Sadly, the same scene continues in our days despite the social media around us.

The famous blind American Helen Keller wrote, “the only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”

Very true!

Many people are like the rich man who only have sight that can only see what is material and temporary, failing to see the face of God especially among brothers and sisters in need. Only a few people are like Lazarus with a vision who dare to look at things beyond what can be seen, even beyond time. They are the visionaries who dream with eyes wide open, working hard to make their dreams a reality.

Having a vision, of seeing beyond what is material and physical is essential in being a Christian tasked with a mission to lovingly serve others especially those living at the margins of the society.

No one can truly love and serve without having a vision, of seeing beyond the ordinary and the present moment. This is the reason why I always tell young people in choosing a wife or a husband, choose someone with a vision who would always look beyond sights and time.

This is the message too of American singer-songwriter Joshua Kadison’s 1993 hit “Beautiful in My Eyes” that delighted the romantic side of us Filipinos in 2009 and 2007 when Christian Bautista and Jericho Rosales respectively covered the song.

The song speaks of the great vision of the lover in seeing in his beloved everything wonderful and lovely. Most of all, the man is also a dreamer and a visionary who could see their future as a couple still in love because she’s always “beautiful in his eyes”.

You’re my peace of mind,
in this crazy world.
Your’re everything I’ve tried to find,
your love is a pearl.
You’re my Mona Lisa, you’re my rainbow skies,
and my only prayer, is that you realize,
you’ll always be beautiful, in my eyes.
The world will turn,
and the seasons will change.
And all the lessons we will learn,
will be beautiful and strange.
We’ll have our fill of tears, our share of sighs.
My only prayer, is that you realize.
You’ll always be beautiful, in my eyes.
You will always be, beautiful in my eyes.
And the passing years will show,
that you will always grow,
evermore beautiful, in my eyes.

Our eyes that see God in others

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe XXVI-C, 29 September 2019

Amos 6:1.4-7 ><)))*> 1 Timothy 6:11-16 . ><)))*> Luke 16:19-31

Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, 2018.

Last Sunday we focused on our hands that we use to pray and serve in reflecting the parable of the wise steward. Today, let us “look” into our eyes that see God in others as we reflect on another parable only St. Luke has, the rich man and Lazarus.

Eyes are the “windows of one’s soul”.

Eyes reveal what is inside us: how we look and move our eyes, the sparkle or dullness in our eyes indicate the kind of person within. Eyes never lie for they reveal if we are telling the truth or not. Most of all, eyes do not only direct us to sights outside but even visions to beyond what we can see.

This is very clear in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, inviting us to take a deeper look into ourselves, on others, and with the things we possess like money and wealth.

Jesus said to the Pharisees: “There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores. When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.”

Luke 16:19-23
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, September 2019.

For the third consecutive Sunday, we again heard another well-known parable proper to St. Luke like the prodigal son two weeks ago and the wise steward last Sunday. Today’s parable of the rich man and Lazarus follows the same thread of last week’s wise steward which is about the thorny issue of money. But again, there is something deeper than that which is the call for daily conversion by always looking beyond what we can see.

In this parable, Jesus never said the rich man was bad that is why he went to hell or the “netherworld”. Neither did he also claim that the poor man was holy that led him into the “bosom of Abraham” which is heaven. Jesus only described their daily life: the rich man lived in affluence with fine clothings and sumptuous meals while the poor was very destitute feeding on scraps falling from the former’s table as dogs licked the sores that covered his body.

The only critical clues Jesus gives us are the name of the poor man – Lazarus – which means “God has rescued” or El’azar in Hebrew and the final scene in the afterlife.

Let it be clear that the issue here is how people, rich and poor alike, can be blinded by money and wealth that they fail or even refuse to see God and others as brothers and sisters that lead them into evil and sins.

Abraham replied (to the rich man), “My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.”

Luke16:25-26
Photo by Noelle Otto on Pexels.com

The sad reality is that this parable continues to happen in our days when so many of us are oblivious of the poverty and miseries afflicting many of the poor among us.

We are that rich man who has no name but have eyes that refuse to see and recognize Jesus in everyone especially the poor and suffering. How tragic in this age of social media where everything and everyone is exposed and seen, we have become blind to the plight of those around us. No need to look far but right in our own family when members are on their own without bothering to know how everyone is doing in life.

In my 21 years of priesthood, I have realized that most often, the people who truly suffer are often the Lazarus among us who prefer to be silent, to bear all their pains trusting only in God who would vindicate and raise them in the end. The Lazarus are the poor not just in material wealth but “poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 5:3) who completely trust in God.

Reading further that version of the Beatitudes of St. Matthew, we find Jesus saying

Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.

Matthew 5:8
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

The clean of heart are the Lazarus, the poor who try to find God in this life even amid the many sufferings. Our minds and intellect, including our eyes can never see God. As the Little Prince would say, “what is essential is invisible to the eye; it is only with the heart that one can truly see”. Very true!

A clean heart is a loving heart. When we speak of the heart, we also mean person for the heart embodies the whole person. Therefore, a loving heart is the Lazarus, the one who tries to see God, the one who envisions the end that he is willing to sacrifice, to forgive and to welcome the lost.

Lazarus the poor beggar went to heaven because he has a clean heart unlike the rich man who refused to see beyond himself and his affluence. They are the ones being reprimanded in the first reading by the Prophet Amos, the “complacent” people who may have also included the priestly class of Israel unmindful of the real situation of the people because they have been insulated from realities by the perks and good life of wealth and power (Amos 6:1).

Most people have eyes that have sights but only a few have a vision in life. People with a vision in life are the ones who can see beyond the ordinary, they are the dreamers who dream with eyes wide open working hard to make their dreams happen in reality.

Lazarus is a visionary and a dreamer who saw beyond the door of the rich man, beyond his hunger and sickness the glory of God in eternal life. The rich man on the other hand only had sights for what is “here and now”; and, that is what he is so afraid of with his five brothers still alive who have no vision of the afterlife, no vision of God among others in the present life like him.

My dear friends, Jesus is inviting us today while there is still time to go back to the path of conversion, to see beyond ordinary things and see the more essential, the more lasting things that according to St. Paul in the second reading prepare us for eternal life like “righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness” (1Tim. 6:11).

Let us listen to the words of God found in the Sacred Scriptures that Abraham referred to in the parable as “Moses and the prophets” (Lk.16:29).

Most of all, let us listen to Jesus Christ, the only one who had risen from the dead (cf. Lk. 16:31) who enables us to see him on the face of everyone we meet, giving us a vision of heaven by helping us in fulfilling our mission as his disciples in proclaiming the coming of the kingdom of God. Amen.

Our hands that pray and serve

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe Week XXV-C, 22 September 2019

Amos 8:4-7 ><}}}*> 1 Timothy 2:1-8 ><}}}*> Luke 16:1-13

Photo by Roberto Nickson on Pexels.com

Our hands are a microcosm of our very selves.

They always reveal something about us. Medical doctors say our hands’ texture and color indicate our health condition. Psychics always read our palms to see our past, present and future. And every suitor always asks for the hand of his beloved for marriage.

In fact, it is always fascinating to observe the hands of a man courting a woman. See how he would always hide his hands inside his pockets or at his back as he puts his best foot forward to impress the lady he is courting. If he wins her heart, they get engaged and that is when they keep on holding each other’s hands until they get married.

There are a lot great beauty and profundity in our human hands that always come in handy for daily living!

“It is my wish, then, that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger or argument.”

1 Timothy 2:8

I love St. Paul’s expression of men praying “lifting up holy hands” which is the sum or integration of prayer and action. Very picturesque, showing us how we must conduct ourselves with God and one another by living in peace and harmony as brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. That is why today until next Sunday, our gospel from St. Luke would be challenging us on how authentic our life is as seen from last week’s parable when we experienced God as a loving Father embracing us despite our sins.

This Sunday, the Lord is asking us, “what’s in our hands”?

What are we holding on, literally and figuratively speaking?

Whatever our hands touch and hold are always linked with our whole selves. They cannot be separated from our body for our hands extend us to other people and even with things. Our hands reveal the balance or imbalance within us, the truth and lies we hold on deep inside us.

Photo by Jim Marpa in Carigara, September 2019.

“No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

Luke 16:13

In our gospel today, Jesus is not asking us to “dirty our hands” with sin. What he wants us to realize from his parable is to be like the wise steward or “hired hand” who used all his resources and intelligence in securing a sound future by doing something finally good to those he had cheated.

Like that hired hand, what are the main concerns of our hands? Do we use our hands for good or for evil? Would we dare to use our hands extensively to achieve eternal life by entering through the “narrow door” Jesus told us last month by keeping our hands busy in doing good, serving the poor and needy?

Our hands are a blessing from God, including the fruits of its labor.

How unfortunate that like during the time of the prophet Amos whom we have heard in the first reading today, we use these very blessings from God to curse and trample others especially the poor and the weak. How ironic and sad that the very hands we use to care for others are the very same hands that beat and even kill others perfectly expressed in the term “blood in one’s hands”. Worst of all, the very hands that pray to God are the same hands that hurt others!

Betania Tagaytay, August 2017.

The late Jaime Cardinal Sin of Manila used to narrate a short story about the gracious hands of God. He said that most of the time, the hands of God caress us, pat our shoulders and even soothe us whenever we are in pain. But, sometimes, the hands of God tap us, even “spank” us when things do not seem to favor us. What matters most, according to Cardinal Sin, whether we are caressed or tapped, the same touches come from God’s loving and healing hands always filled with grace.

In the gospels, we find many instances of Jesus using his hands to raise the sick, to touch the eyes and mouth in restoring senses, and to bless, break and share bread with his friends and sinners alike. When he expressed his immense love for us and the Father, Jesus stretched out his arms and offered his hands on the cross on Good Friday.

Just imagine how with all our sins, God with a stroke of his hand can make us all vanish but chose not to do so and let our trespasses pass. Like the master in the parable we have heard, God is giving us all the opportunities to work with our hands in lovingly serving the people he has entrusted to us in our homes and offices, school and parish, and community.

But unlike that master who still fired his hired hand despite his resourcefulness, God is not judging us into doom. In is infinite love, God gave us Jesus Christ his Son to bring us back to him in eternal life. It is for this that we lift up our hands to him every day, especially in the Holy Mass we celebrate. The best prayer we can offer God is for these “blessed hands” to reach out to everyone in love and forgiveness, kindness and peace. Amen.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

“Time After Time” cover by Tuck & Patti (1988)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 15 September 2019
Photo by Vincenzo Malagoli on Pexels.com

Our gospel this Sunday of the parable of the prodigal son speaks so well of what we may describe as the “wildness and wideness” of God’s love and mercy for each one of us, especially the lost and rejected. It is a love that goes “time after time”….

Lying in my bed I hear the clock tick
And think of you
Caught up in circles
Confusion is nothing new
Flashback, warm nights
Almost left behind
Suitcase of memories
Time after
Sometimes you picture me
I’m walking too far ahead
You’re calling to me, I can’t hear
What you’ve said
Then you say, go slow
I fall behind
The second hand unwinds
If you’re lost, you can look and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall, I will catch you, I will be waiting
Time after time

Written and originally performed by Cyndi Lauper, “Time After Time” is her second single she co-wrote with Rob Hyman that was released in January 24, 1984. It was an instant hit and earned very positive reviews for Lauper.

It is a story of unconditional love despite its being over.

The lover promises to continue loving her beloved despite their separation.

It is a kind of love that is so divine like the merciful father in the parable of the prodigal son. A love so true as it recognises the other person as a “somebody”, a part of the lover. A love that persists time after time because we remain a family despite our separation of distance or even of feelings.

We have chosen the 1988 cover by the jazz duo of husband and wife Tuck and Patti because of its more solemn rendition. The guitar and voice ensemble of the duo for me is one of the music world’s great treasure we are so thankful not only in delighting our senses but most of all in making us experience some of the most beautiful songs of our time.

Enjoy!

The wildness – and wideness – of God’s love and mercy

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe, Week XXIV-C, 15 September 2019

Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14 ><)))*> 1Timothy 1:12-17 ><)))*> Luke 15:1-32

Camp John Hay, Baguio City, 23 August 2019.

Today we conclude the series of “table talks” by Jesus with three parables narrated while dining; but, unlike the other Sunday when he was with prominent people, this time we find the Lord among the notorious ones of his time.

Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Luke 15:1-2

It is the perfect setting where Jesus bared what we may call as “the wildness and wideness” of God’s love and mercy for everyone, especially the lost and rejected. This explains why Luke 15:1-32 is the “heart” of the third gospel also known as the Gospel of Divine Mercy. So, please bear with me reflecting today’s long but lovely gospel.

The first two parables are about things – a sheep and a coin – that were lost and later found. There is nothing extraordinary about losing things that we also experience today. But, in narrating these parables, Jesus ended both with a saying to explain their meanings and significance to introduce the third parable of the lost son.

“I tell you, in just the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.”

“In just the same way, I tell you, there will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Luke 15: 7, 10
Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte, Atok, Benguet, 01 September 2019.

For the past two Sundays, we have been reflecting about the importance of our personhood, of how God comes first to our very persons, of the need for us to be true and humble because God meets us right in our weaknesses and sinfulness. Jesus warned us the other Sunday that “for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk.14:11). As they say, bloom wherever you are planted for God’s grace is more than enough for each one of us!

Such is God’s love us that Jesus demands total faith in him that “if anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Lk.14: 26). In our lives as his disciples, there would be countless times when no explanations, no reasons are enough why we choose to love and forgive, to be kind and understanding except the very person of Jesus Christ. That is what we call as communion, oneness with the Lord, of always preferring Jesus above anyone and anything!

This is the very reason why the Pharisees and scribes were complaining against him: the tax collectors and sinners were turning to Jesus and not to the Laws they represent! And that continues to happen in our time when some people insist more on religion and vocation, roles and rituals, totally forgetting and even disregarding the very person of God who calls us to himself in Christ!

The Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt (c.1661-1669). From Google.

Then he said, “A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’ So the father divided the property between them. After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings and set off to a distant country where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation.”

Luke 15:11-13

Feel the solemnity of Jesus in introducing this parable, shifting from lost sheep and lost coin to lost son, from things to persons because the elder son is also lost. It is the father who eventually restored the lost personhood of the two sons when he lavished them with his love and mercy towards the end of the story. And that is why this parable is so lovely as it reminds us of how unconsciously we are “dumping” our own personhood despite our bloated egos. Slowly we are becoming robots or worst, even zombies without feelings and personal relations with others and with one’s self.

Just like the two sons in our parable who both define sonship in terms of servile obligations that is utilitarian and contractual in relationships, not as a family.

The Prodigal Son by John Macallan Swan, 1888. From Google.

Coming to his senses he thought, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here I am, dying from hunger. I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.”

He (elder son) said to his father in reply, “Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughtered the fattened calf.”

Luke 15:17-19, 29-30

The prodigal son remembered his father when he was starving, thinking more of the food he could have if he returns home as a servant, not as a son. See how in the midst of sin, he never thought of his father as his parent, of himself as a son. He was convinced that the path to reconciliation with his father was becoming a hired worker, forgetting the very fact he is the youngest son.

The same is true with the elder son who refused to join the celebration when his brother had returned home, feeling so bad that his long years of service to his father deserve him a reward. In a sense, he is worst than the prodigal son: no father, no brother – just himself alone!

Both sons have a slanted view of their father, a very truncated one that is self-isolating, very constricting like the Pharisees and scribes who have forgotten their being persons, of being interrelated with one another in God. Very much like us today that slowly as the ties that bind us as family and friends are slowly being severed by so many things, we also start to lose many of our values like “malasakit” or concern for one another.

The father redefined their – and ours, too – relationships as family that lead to joy and celebration.

He (father) said to him, “My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.”

Luke 15:31-32
Santorini. Photo by Dra. Mai Dela Pena, 2016.

Today, Jesus reminds us, and assures us too that no matter what happens with us, we will always be his brothers and sisters, beloved and forgiven children of the Father.

We call and relate with God as Father because as his children, he is our giver and keeper of life.

And should this life get lost, God as our Father, can also be so “prodigal” to “wastefully” love us and bring back this life to us for we are more valuable than anything else in this universe. That’s how wild and wide is his love and mercy. Amen.

“Stand by Me” by Ben E. King (1961)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 08 September 2019
Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte at Atok, Benguet, 01 September 2019

Our gospel today is so personal.

Sometimes, we have to be unreasonable — and be personal — when the only explanation and justification we can have for continuing to love and forgive, to care and accept people is “because of Jesus Christ”.

“If any one comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”

Luke 14:26

There are times in our lives when we are so down and everything is so dark when all we need is the warmth of a loving heart and a loving face of another person. No ifs, no buts but just because of you.

This is the reason Jesus is very clear today with his words, “hate” one’s self as well as those closest to us to stress that when things get worst, our only reason is him alone. We love, we forgive, we care despite all the pains and hurts because of our communion in Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the only one who would really stand us, offering himself up on the Cross for you and for me.

That is why for this Sunday we have chosen Beng E. King’s 1961 hit “Stand By Me” that was rereleased in 1986 as theme of a movie with the same title.

The song speaks of the undying love and fidelity of a man to the woman he loves. It is partly the same story of the friendship of those for boys in the said movie.

King’s music has been covered by so many other artists over the years for its reflective music and poetry that evoke deep personal love that transcends reason and conventions. No wonder, it was sang at the wedding last year of Prince Harry and American Meghan Merkle, a true-to-life love story that seems can only happen in Hollywood.

But that is the beauty of the song and Christ’s gospel: everything can happen when we are willing to give up everything including our very selves in the name of love for another person.

A blessed Sunday to you!

Up close and personal

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe, Week XXIII-C, 08 September 2019

Wisdom 9:13-18 ><)))*> Philemon 9-10, 12-17 ><)))*> Luke 14:25-33

Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte at Atok, Benguet, 01 September 2019

“A loveless world is a dead world, and always there comes an hour when one is weary of prisons, of one’s work, and of devotion to duty, and all one craves for is a loved face, the warmth and wonder of a loving heart.”

Albert Camus, “The Plague”

I always tell people not all days are bright and sunny but, there comes a time when we are so down, when all is so dark and even hopeless that the only thing left for us is to believe, to hope, and to love.

There is really nothing we can do except to patiently wait for the storm to pass while we suffer alone and cry alone. That is when we are surprised and even shocked at how the gospel of Jesus and the commandments of God can sometimes be so rigid that we want it modified even a little because we want to get even, we want to fight back. If we are not busy thinking of revenge, we complain, asking God why me who should suffer?

But, the more we pray and submit ourselves to God, the more we realise that God’s ways are not our ways. That despite the difficulties, we feel deep inside God is with us, guiding us, leading us to something better!

“Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what our Lord intends? Or who ever knew your counsel, except you had given wisdom and sent your holy spirit from on high? And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight.”

Wisdom 9:13, 17-18
Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte at Atok, Benguet, 01 September 2019

Here we find the importance of Christ’s teaching last Sunday, of the need to be humble, to be our true selves by being where we should be for “those who humble themselves will be exalted and those who exalt themselves shall be humbled.”

It is in our poverty, in our weakness, even in our incomprehension when the Holy Spirit works well to reveal to us the higher realities of life often wrapped in every pain and suffering we go through. And that is why sometimes in life, it is best to be unreasonable when the only explanation and justification we can have in still being loving and forgiving, merciful and understanding, kind and patient is the person of Jesus Christ.

“If any one comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sister, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”

Luke 14:26
Photo by the author, Holy Family Chapel, Sacred Heart Novitiate (Novaliches), July 2016.

Our gospel today is a continuation of last Sunday when Jesus was invited to a Sabbath dinner by a Pharisee. After giving them some “table talks”, Jesus told them another parable about the great feast to stress that God’s mercy is so vast that there is room for everyone in heaven.

People started to follow him after that meal and lesson on heaven, wanting to become his followers and disciples. To further motivate them in following him, Jesus challenged them with these powerful words using a figure of speech. The word “hate” may be too strong and harsh but such is the gravity of discipleship: we have to lose our very selves even those dearest to us when we have to see everything and everyone in the person of Jesus. To “resolutely follow Jesus in his journey to Jerusalem”, we must be ready to be totally his with him alone as the basis in every decision that can be sometimes foolish like St. Paul who claimed in one of his writings he was a fool for Christ!

See the “foolishness in Christ” of this great apostle: St. Paul was in prison at Rome awaiting trial and judgement. A slave named Onesimus escaped his Christian master named Philemon. It was definitely against the law to harbor escaped slaves yet St. Paul welcomed Onesimus in his prison as his companion and servant! More than that, without really knowing him well, St. Paul baptised Onesimus to become a Christian!

Imagine St. Paul’s adherence to the gospel of Christ even to the point of being unreasonable when he could have just told Onesimus to go back or go somewhere else and spare him all the troubles! But no. It was very clear with St. Paul in asking Philemon to receive Onesimus back that he was not sticking to any moral standards or laws but solely on the person of Jesus Christ, in our communion in him as brothers and sisters.

“Perhaps this is why he was away from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a brother, beloved especially to me, but even more so to you, as a man and in the Lord. So if you regard me as a partner, welcome him as you would me.”

Philemon 15-17
Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte at Atok, Benguet, 01 September 2019.

Next Sunday we shall hear the very long but beautiful parable of the merciful father also known as parable of the prodigal son. Like God our Father, the merciful father would reassure his two sons of his immense love for them despite their sins because of their very persons as his sons.

Today in our Sunday Eucharist, Jesus welcomes us all as persons, his brothers and sisters despite our sins and weaknesses. Like Mary whose birth we also celebrate today inspire us to receive Jesus our Savior in his total person in ourselves by receiving the persons around us in him. Amen.