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The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday in the Fifth Week of Easter, 12 May 2023
Acts 15:22-31   ><)))*> + ><)))*> + ><)))*>   John 15:12-17

As we come to close the week,
I tried reimagining your last supper,
that Holy Thursday before you were
betrayed, arrested and tried 
then sentenced to death 
the following Good Friday;
also known as Maundy Thursday
from the Latin word "mandatum, mandatus"
which is "commandment" because
it was on that evening you gave us 
your only commandment.

Jesus said to his disciples: “This is my commandment: love one an other as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.”

John 15:12-15

Oh sweet Jesus!
Earlier after washing 
your disciples' feet that evening,
you told them you were their
Lord and Master 
even if you acted like their 
slave in washing their feet;
but still in that scene came 
these words, you calling them
and us --- as friends with whom
you have revealed everything
from the Father, and most of all, 
friends for whom you offered
your very life for our salvation!

That evening, you have shown us,
dear Jesus, that love is our destiny;
to love like you is more than obeying
your commandment to love but 
becoming like you who is love himself!
Is it not that is the goal of every love,
to become like the beloved?
You first showed us how is that possible
when you as the Son of God became human
like us, your beloved so that
we may become like you,
holy, our beloved.

Let us grow in that wonderful friendship
only you can offer us;
may we not be like those some early
Christians who insisted on imposing
their beliefs on others;
let us learn that to truly love like you
is to think less of ourselves,
of our beliefs
in order to see your face on
others not like us
so that we start becoming
like you, Jesus our beloved
found in others;
teach us, Jesus, 
to be a friend 
to others especially
those in the margins
who for the longest
time have been looking 
at us from afar,
hoping they could be
like us too -
"upwardly mobile",
with access to education,
to clean water
and decent home.

Wash and cleanse
our eyes, Lord, 
so we could also see
others wishing to be
your friends too
in us.
Amen.