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The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday in the Twenty-Ninth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 26 October 2023 Romans 6:19-23 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Luke 12:49-53
Your words, O Lord, today sound old, even archaic but they evoke so beautiful feelings within that lead us into deeper realities we often ignore and take for granted: slavery and separation.
But now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit that you have leads to sanctification, and its end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:22-23
Many times we wrongly choose to become slaves of sin because of the belief that is when we are most free in doing whatever we want, whatever we like, whatever we desire but always, we are proven wrong, sadly wrong, disastrously wrong; being free O God is being tied up to you, being your slave being at home with what is true and good; your laws and teachings are not burdens but are in fact what lead us to true freedom without guilt, without darkness, without shame. Most of all, it is the slavery that leads us to life and fulfillment in Jesus Christ who had come to liberate us from slavery to sin.
In the same manner, to be your slave, O God, is to be on your side, to separate from those against Jesus; it is always painful like every separation but what makes it a good kind of separation like slavery to you, God, is how the fires of Christ's love and mercy purify us into better persons that enable us to prosper, grow, and mature. In the power of the Holy Spirit, let us choose always slavery to you, dear Father, and separation with you, dear Jesus lest we become like the chaff which the wind drives away (Ps.1:4). Amen.
