The Lord Is My Chef Christmas Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday in the Weekday of Christmas, 05 January 2023 1 John 3:11-21 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> John 1:43-51
Lord Jesus Christ, now I can feel your insistence for me to come so I may see you; I think it should be the first thing to preoccupy us every new year: how we must come in order to see you each day, each year.
Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said to him, “Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him.”
John 1:45-47
Let us be sincere, O Lord Jesus, like Nathanael or St. Bartholomew who never hesitated to tell Philip the prevailing belief of your time that nothing good comes from Nazareth; problem with us is we always deny such truths deeply ingrained within us like our personal biases against others due to region and religion, language and politics, color and inclinations.
Let us come so we may see you more in others that despite our many biases and prejudices, you do come in our many differences; let us be bold and brave to subject our beliefs and perceptions to tests by personally coming to see the reality, the truth so that we may realize that you are not only the Messiah but most of all, like Nathanael, you are "the Son of God, the King of Israel" (John 1:49).
Most of all, Lord Jesus Christ, let us come and see with all our reservations and doubts, biases and mistrust so that we may see far more greater things than what we have already seen in passively following you - let us come so we may see "the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man" (John 1:51). Amen.
