The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday, Memorial of St. John Chrysostom, Bishop & Doctor of Church, 13 September 2024 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-27 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Luke 6:39-42
Lord Jesus Christ, help me be like St. Paul, a man truly free: free from slavery of sin, free from selfishness, free from what others may say so that I may be truly free to love, free to serve, free to be my true self.
Although I am free in regard to all, I have made myself a slave to all so as to win over as many as possible. I have become all things to all (omnia omnibus), to save at least some. All this I do for the sake of the Gospel, so that I too may have a share in it (1 Corinthians 9:19, 22-23).
In a world when most people insist on their rights, you teach us Lord through St. Paul that inasmuch as the Church is the your Body, then being a slave to others is actually the path to true freedom, making no room for anyone to insist on his or her rights superseding the common good; most of all, in becoming all things to all men like St. Paul, then we acknowledge that the strong and powerful must take into consideration the needs of the weak and powerless; forgive us, Jesus, for blindly leading others to doom and more darkness; forgive us, Jesus, for always seeing defects of others without recognizing our own; cleanse us with your words like St. John Chrysostom who wrote us in one of his letters on the way to his exile, "Distance separates us, but love unites us, and death itself cannot divide us. For though my body die, my soul will live and be mindful of my people." Amen.
