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The Lord Is My Chef Christmas Recipe 2016
Isaiah 9:1-6//Timothy 2:11-14//Luke 2:1-14 (John 1:1-18)
A blessed Christmas to everyone! PAGASA said it is going to be rainy a Christmas this year as typhoon Nina entered the country yesterday with probable storm surges in coastal areas. Maybe it is providential that this typhoon got a female name because it would be a strange irony, even an oddity that on Christmas day we have a typhoon named Nino, nickname of the Child Jesus born on this day. When I was in Grade 3 I remembered being disturbed why it was raining on a Christmas day, wondering why Jesus with all His powers could not give us a good weather on His birthday? A year later while learning history and current events in our social studies class, I continued to wonder why Jesus could not stop wars during His birthday in the past and in our time? As I matured into adulthood, I still could not understand why tragedies happen like deaths and accidents on Christmas Day when it is the birthday of the Son of God? Perhaps it is the very nature of Christmas. Jesus Christ was born on the darkest night of the year and the paradox of His birthday is best expressed by our evangelists in our Masses for this day:
“While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.”(Lk.2:6-7)
“He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him.”(Jn.1:10-11)
Let me share with you Pope Benedict XIV’s beautiful reflection on the birth of Jesus Christ: “This should cause us to reflect — it points toward the reversal of values found in the figure of Jesus Christ and his message. From the moment of his birth, he belongs outside the realm of what is important and powerful in worldly terms. Yet it is this unimportant and powerless child that proves to be the truly powerful one, the one on whom ultimately everything depends. So one aspect of becoming a Christian is having to leave behind what everyone else thinks and wants, the prevailing standards, in order to enter the light of the truth of our being, and aided by that light to find the right path.” (The Infancy Narratives: Jesus of Nazareth, pp. 66-67)
Now my reflections this time not really organized as I simply sat in silence with the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament during my prayer periods these past two days without thinking of any homily:
“Lord Jesus Christ, it is again your birthday and I could already imagine the great joys we would all be having this Christmas, beginning inside the church and onto the streets and everyone’s home. Everybody is so happy with all the laughters and joys being heard all around magnified when all those selfies start clicking only to be momentarily silenced on the table when we feast on the sumptuous meals and drinks tonight until tomorrow. Everybody is so excited except me.
Yes, Lord. I, your priest, am not that so excited. As I look around this parish church you have entrusted me, with all the Christmas decors and colors, I am not that happy because deep in my heart I am hurting. Why of all time this has to happen during this joyous season? I have been asking you for a week already why can’t I welcome you into my heart so that You could have a better birthplace than a manger? Why of all people, me, an ordained priest preaching daily about Your love and your mercy, is the one who could not accept You among difficult people especially those supposed to love me or at least be with me? I thought You would never respond except with these words by Your evangelists: “…there was no room for them in the inn”(Lk.2:7) and “He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him.” (Jn.1:11)
Then You made me recall those past Christmas celebrations when we were all so happy except You. How ironic when we rejoice on Your birthday, we unconsciously leave You behind, like a child lost by himself in a corner of the church, of our home, of the streets. Inasmuch as we try so hard to be “in”, the more we actually push You “out”! The more we celebrate, the more we think of our very selves, the more we forget You among the little ones. We are so concerned with everything new and beautiful when You did come for what is old and worned out like the sinful, the outcasts, the marginalized.
Now I am starting to feel the joy of You coming. Thank you Jesus for the penitents who came for the Sacrament of Reconciliation these past days, trying to open their hearts to welcome You, to give You a place unlike that night when You were born. Thank you Jesus for making me realized that Your Christmas is not a magic that could simply vanish all the darkness and troubles, difficulties and sadness. Christmas is not about being “in” but being “out” with You when we think less of ourselves and think more of Your love and mercy that we search for You outside our comfort zones. Christmas is making that decision to get out from our inside to meet You outside. That is how it has always been since You were born until Your death when they crucified You outside Jerusalem. Palagi naman. Nasa labas po Kayo. At kung bakit nagpipilit kami palagi pumasok sa loob ng aming sarili.
O Lord Jesus Christ, help us to get out when we cling more to our relationships and desires to be “in” and leave You behind. Help us to leave these trappings of Your birthday we mask with so many gimmicks that mock real charity and love. Help us to be a child like You again, unmindful of our weaknesses and limitations, always sincere, and joyful with the less wrappings we have in ourselves. Most of all, bless us to be joyful amid the darkness looming above us that we could join Your angels in proclaiming “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” AMEN.
Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista
Gov. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan
