Embracing life’s paradox

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The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday, Week II in Ordinary Time, Year I, 20 January 2025
Hebrews 5:1-10     <*((((><  +  ><))))*>     Mark 2:18-22

Praise and glory to you,
God our loving Father!
Thank you for this wonderful
Monday as we pray for one 
another, especially to those
still baffled with life's many
mysteries, its many
paradoxes beginning to
appear anew as we dive
into Ordinary Time.

Teach us to take into heart
Jesus Christ's teaching today:

“Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins” (Mark 2:22).

Help us change our attitudes in life,
Jesus: make us realize that like
your life, our life is always a
mixture of joy and sufferings;
most of all,
make us experience
in your coming into our human reality
as our Eternal High Priest,
you have brought newness and
significance in storage and taste
of wine that symbolizes life itself,
as you put a new vigor of spirit
in celebrating life.

“Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him…” (Hebrews 5:8-9).

How lovely and
wonderful to realize
how your true humanity,
dear Jesus, actually makes you
more than less an effective Priest
to truly "bridge" us
with the Father and one another;
like you Jesus,
we pray the Father to take away
our pains but in your example
on the Cross,
we learn how God
is actually found in pain!

Change our attitudes
to be like you, Jesus
 who came to join
us in our many sufferings
to show us that in our dealing
with our own pain and the pain of others,
that is when we grow
in strength and maturity,
in love and compassion
that eventually lead us
to deeper and true joy
in you our Lord.

Help us embrace 
this paradox of life, Jesus,
that a life devoid of the challenge
of pain is an incomplete life;
and when we are puzzled
by the many sufferings in us
and around us, let us gaze into
your Cross to reflect,
"Why did God not spare
you his own Son?"
Amen.