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Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Memorial of St. John Mary Vianney, Patron of Priests, 04 August 2026
Jeremiah 30:1-2, 12-15, 18-22 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> Matthew 15:1-2, 10-14
Salamuch everyone for all your greetings since Sunday to us your priests. And this is my only response to your prayerful wishes: Salamuch also for enriching my priestly life and ministry!
It is so nice and heart-warming for me as a priest how our Patron, St. John Mary Vianney is now so widely-known among so many people these days that somehow changed their minds and hearts to understand us priests better, to love and support, most especially to pray always for us. Thanks largely to the efforts of Pope Benedict XVI who set the Year of Priests from June 19, 2009 to June 19, 2010 in celebration that year of Vianney’s 150th death anniversary with the theme “Faithfulness of Christ, faithfulness of priests.”
St. John said it perfectly during his long years of lovingly serving not only the more than 200 people of his parish in Ars but also the more than 20,000 people who annually came to him for confession and spiritual direction, “The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus.”
And what is the heart of Jesus?
A heart burning with love, a heart totally surrendered to God through others.
Easier said than done by us your priests these days.
While you deluge us with your greetings and prayers, may I also take this opportunity on our feast day as priests that you forgive us your priests for those moments we have been cold and even ruthless especially in our words to you.
Both of us, priests and laypeople are wounded by each other.
Both of us identify so well with the words of God through his Prophet Jeremiah in today’s first reading:
Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Incurable is your wound, grievous your bruise; There is none to plead your cause, no remedy for your running sore, no healing for you. All your lovers have forgotten you, they do not seek you. I struck you as an enemy would strike, punished your cruelly; Why cry out over your wound? Your pain is without relief. Because of your guilt, your numerous sins, I have done this to you (Jeremiah 30:12-15).
I am so touched by God’s words today, so appropriate for our celebration: incurable wound, grievous bruise. That is because I have experienced it too many times.
But, I must confess that it is most painful for me as a priest when I have hurt people especially with my words. Many times I have lost my cool; it is one of my many struggles in life. One thing I have realized as a priest that indeed it is most difficult in life to be silent; we always have something to say. Mema tayo palagi.
Believe me, as a priest, even if I have hurt just one person, it lingers with me my whole life. The sharp looks and everything, of how they were scared, I beg God for forgiveness daily as I wonder where are they now. Maniwala kayo, iniinda naming pari yung malaman naming maski isa sa inyo may sama ng loob o tampo sa amin.
Many times we priests speak so harsh, or “brutally frank”.
It is easy to claim what we say is true like Jesus in the gospel today when he told the Pharisees that “It is not what enters one’s mouth that defiles the man; but what comes out of the mouth is what defiles one” (Mt. 15:11); the disciples then told Jesus how the Pharisees took offense with his declaration but he simply dismissed them.
It is easy to claim that “truth hurts” especially when we priests speak of the truth like Jesus Christ. Ganun lang ba yun?
Last Sunday I shared in Facebook a post about by a certain Suzie Bell who rightfully asked, “Why has the pulpit become a place to persecute people?”
Sadly and tragically very true. It is a big no no, a mortal sin especially with our venerable mentor and professor in homiletics, the late Msgr. Sabino Vengco Jr. who insisted on us to never use the ambo in attacking or shaming people because precisely they have no way of defending themselves. Most of all, the pulpit is primarily for the word of God – words that heal, words that encourage, words that express love and kindness, words that forgive, words that liberate.
With the widespread popularity of priest vloggers, many times I feel so afraid that there are so many occasions that some of our preaching are libelous. Not just scandalous.
Worst of all, the abuse at the pulpit becomes most tragic and shameful of all when priests become entertainers, when priests become rage baiters forda views, forda following!
Writer and artist Lourd De Veyra told me sometime ago how he had noticed that churches have come to look more like a videoke bar with priests just singing or acting no longer preaching. E ano pa nga ba?
Same is very true when priests become political commentators at the pulpit. We can always be political without being partisan.
Unknown to us priests, when these happen, the deeper the cut and the wounds we inflict on the people because we deny them Jesus Christ.
Me culpa, me culpa, mea maxima culpa!
Forgive us your priests for causing you pains and wounds. Priesthood is victimhood in Christ. It is part of our “job-description” to be hurt with incurable wound, grievous bruise as God told Jeremiah. Hindi na bale kami masaktan kasi iyon ang buhay namin, ang magpasan at ipako sa krus. Huwag mga tao ang aming masaktan at mailayo kay Kristo.
Priesthood as lived out by St. John Mary Vianney is more of the Caller than the call, of becoming, of imitating Christ because priesthood is Jesus. Help us to be like Jesus, always Jesus, only Jesus. Again, to you dear people of God, salamuch for enriching my priestly life and ministry. Amen.
