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Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 07 July 2025 Monday in Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I Genesis 28:10-22 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 9:18-26
If. A conjunction so short we often use to express a condition or a supposition, expressing something not certain like when we say, "If it rains, then we stay." But today, dear God, you taught me another dimension of this conjuction "if" just like that verb "to doubt" last week at the Feast of St. Thomas Didymus.
Like the verb "to doubt", to use the conjunction "if" is not necessarily negative in meaning; it could even be a grace too in itself as it already implies certainty like when the woman suffering hemorrhages for 12 years came up behind Jesus and touched the tassel on his cloak:
She said to herself, “If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured.” Jesus turned around and saw her, and said, “Courage, daughter! Your faith has saved you.” And from that hour the woman was cured (Matthew 9:21-22).
Teach me, Lord Jesus like that woman to have that deep faith and trust in you, to claim always what is mine, what I truly deserve because you know what is best for us; many times, Jesus, we prefer to stay on the side of the road, afraid to dare get close and touch you because of the more negative connotations of that conjunction "if" like what if I fail, what if I don't get it, and many other "ifs" of hesitancy; like that woman, let my "if" be my final push to get close to you.
Or, like Jacob in the first reading, let my "if" lead me into action, into doing something like an altar for the Lord after meeting him in a dream to remind him of your promise, of your presence, of your power. Like Jacob, we flee for many reasons yet always end up being found by you, Lord, in the most ordinary instances. If we could just learn from your ways, Lord, then our ifs would be more of certainty than suppositions. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Our Lady of Fatima University Valenzuela City
