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The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday in the Twenty-Second Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 05 September 2023 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6, 9-11 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Luke 4:31-37
Praise and glory to you, God our loving Father for this wonderful day! Please, we pray, for lesser rains today, for a better weather today for everyone to make up for the many losses we have incurred since the rains and floods came two weeks ago.
In this time of calamities, we pray for those in authority; enough with excessive display of authority by anyone vested with any kind of authority by the law who throw their weight around even in public; help us realize, dear God that authority is not about having powers that set them apart from us, of those in the higher up; authority is about being one with us below like Jesus Christ your Son.
Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee. He taught them on the sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority. They were all amazed and said to one another, “What is there about his word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.”
Luke 4:31-32, 36
Help us realize, dear Jesus, that to have authority like you is being nearer your subjects, that true authority is not power but solidarity with those subject to one's authority. Authority is not power but mercy and compassion with subjects deep in miseries and sufferings. Authority is walking and feeling the joys and pains, sharing the hopes and desires of the subjects to be liberated and freed. Authority is empowering others to discover their giftedness "encouraging one another and building one another up" (1 Thess. 5:11). Amen.
