Seeing Jesus Christ

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 22 July 2025
Tuesday, Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Song of Songs 3:1-4     ><}}}*> + ><}}}*> + ><}}}*>     John 20:1-2, 11-18

Thank you dear Jesus
in giving us a chance to revisit
your Resurrection with this Feast
of St. Mary Magdalene, 
the Apostle to the Apostles;
she whom you love so much
by forgiving her sins and later
called her by name on that 
Easter morning reminds us of
your lavish mercy and love
for each of us; how lovely that
in that crucial moment of darkness
as she grieved your death
with your body missing,
she suddenly burst into deep joy
filled with life 
upon seeing you!

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and what he told her (John 20:18).

"I have seen the Lord."

I have seen you,
Jesus when I stop
 clinging to my sinful past,
when I stop doubting
your mercy and forgiveness,
wondering how I could move
 the huge and heavy stone of my
weaknesses and failures,
addictions and vices
that make me mistake
you into somebody else
 like the gardener
 because I am so preoccupied
 with many things in life.

Teach me, Jesus
to stop clinging to you,
"touching" you and having you
according to my own view
and perception not as
 who you really are
 so that I may meet you
 to personally experience you
right here inside my heart
like St. Mary Magdalene
that Easter.

The Bride says: The watchmen came upon me as they made their rounds of the city. Have you seen him whom my heart loves? I have hardly left them when I found him whom my heart loves (Song of Songs 3:1, 3-4).

"I have seen the Lord."

I have seen you,
 Jesus when I love truly
like the Bride in the first reading
when I seek you in persons
not in wealth and power,
 in silence not in the noise
and cacophony of vanity and fame;
let me see you Jesus
by being still,
patiently
waiting
and listening
for your coming
and calling of my name
to proclaim You are risen
to others who believe in You,
also searching You,
waiting for You.
Amen.

Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Our Lady of Fatima University
Valenzuela City