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The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday, Memorial of St. John XXIII, Pope, 11 October 2023 Jonah 4:1-11 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Luke 11:1-4
God our Father, the world is once again in chaos; when there is war in your Holy Land of Israel, it is always something else that hits each one of us to our deepest core because it speaks something deeper and older than religion and faith, convictions and ideologies; since the time of the Old Testament, every war and turmoil in your Promised Land always has its roots in our hearts.
Jonah was greatly displeased and he became angry that God did not carry out the evil he threatened against Nineveh. Then the Lord said, “You are concerned over the plant which cost you no labor and which you did not raise; it came up in one night and in one night it perished. And should I not be concerned over Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot distinguish their right hand from their left, not to mention the many cattle?”
Jonah 4:1, 10-11
Dear God, so many times in life we have our priorities so misplaced, so askew, so inhuman and lacking with reason at all. Like Jonah, we continue seething in anger against each other with no one willing to sit and listen, to give peace a chance; all we have are mistrust and animosities against each other, giving more priorities with things than with persons; we allow our old wounds and hurts to fester until it blows up beyond controls; worst, like Jonah, we find death as easiest way out in every misery.
Your Son Jesus Christ taught us how to pray, in effect, taught us how to prioritize in life by calling out to you as "Father" - our source of life and being, creator of everything! Help us realize, dear Jesus that to pray calling God "Father" is to prioritize first on persons, on humans as my brothers and sisters regardless of their religion, gender, color, nationality, occupation, and age.
Through the intercession of St. John XXIII, the "good Pope", may we prioritize God above all so that we too may seek openings to lead us to move closer as brothers and sisters in Christ. Amen.
