Reflection from Friar Nicholas

SUNDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eccl 1:2,2:21-23; Ps 95:1-2,6-9; Col 3:1-5,9-11; Lk 12:13-21 Paying Attention to Spiritual Goods The readings for this Sunday call us to a sober reflection on life and our purported achievements. What exactly is the value of our accomplishments in life? How do we understand the values of things, to know what to place our interest and energy in? These are some of the questions we must consider, given our readings. The word of God is our light, guiding us through life, that we may not walk in darkness. Hence, if the word informs us that God created us for himself, that we may share his life in communion, then we must live in such a way as to achieve the goal or purpose of our creation. The scripture says God created man in his image and likeness. That God wants us to be like him implies that we are supposed to live by divine values and the spiritual goods that God stands for. There is a hierarchy of goods and values in the created universe. ...

SATURDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME  Levi 25:1,8-17; Ps 67:2-3,5,7-8; Mt 14:1-12 The Jubilee of Love and Mercy The law on the celebration of the Jubilee year is another means that God intended to make the lives of the people reflect their relationship with Yahweh.  The Jubilee celebration is to encourage the people to participate in the act of liberation of those in any form of bondage. It would also be a year of abundance of grace. Celebrating the Jubilee makes the people realise that they are also major participants in the liberation of souls from various bondages. God is the source of all liberations, but for the liberation he gives to reach everyone, we all must participate by setting those we are holding in bondage free. The physical shackles were emphasized then, but our Lord has brought the spiritual shackles of sin to the fore, as the source of all other shackles or bondages. The Jubilee year is, therefore, a year to celebrate the people's common humanity...

SAINT ALPHONSUS MARY DE’ LIGOURI, BISHOP, DOCTOR  Levi 23:1,4-11,15-16,27,34-37; Ps 81:3-6,10-11; Mt 13:54-58 The Solemnization of the Presence The first reading is from the book of Leviticus. It reveals the measure Yahweh took to prevent the people from taking the divine presence for granted, which God established among the people for the flourishing of communion between him and the people. If the construction of the tabernacle and the Tent of Meeting among the people, though a bit separate from them, was to promote their communion with Yahweh, there was a need to prevent the people from sinning gravely against the Holy God by treating his presence as something banal. God, therefore, gave Moses and Aaron the list of solemn festivals the people must celebrate throughout the year, to help them recall the great events that marked their covenant relationship with Yahweh. “These are the Lord’s solemn festivals, the sacred assemblies to which you are to summon the sons of Israel o...

  SAINT IGNATIUS LOYOLA, PRIEST Exod 40:16-21,34-38; Ps 84:3-6,8,11; Mt 13:47-53 The Selection and Building Process The encounter between the children of Israel and God on mountain Sinai constituted the people as God’s people. The terrifying sights and events witnessed by the people were to make them loyal to the will of God as their God. It was a covenant ceremony which was to bring the people to become close to God, and own the God that delivered them from slavery in Egypt. While Moses went up to get the written terms of the covenant, the Ten Commandments, the people apostatised; they decided to make a god that would be easily accessible to them. They considered the God of Moses far away from them, especially when Moses spent forty days and nights on the mountain. The apostasy of the people reveals to us that fear is never a good driver for the worship of God. We must come to God with understanding and love. Yahweh henceforth started building his relationship with the peopl...

WEDNESDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Exod 34:29-35; Ps 99:5-7,9; Mt 13:44-46 The Purchase of Eternal Life We read that Moses, the servant of Yahweh, stayed forty days and nights on the Mount of Sinai interacting with Yahweh. Such a feat only demonstrates the presence of the divine reality interacting with Moses, for such is not possible with our mere human strength. At the first occurrence of this, the people waiting for Moses at the foot of the mountain got tired and decided to make a god they could easily access. They regretted the decision afterward. Moses had to go back again to receive the Ten Commandments inscribed on two stone tablets anew after the people’s repentance and appeasement of God. He broke the first out of anger at the sight of Israel’s idolatry. Not to stray from our point of interest, we need much patience to receive God’s self-communication, for he is our priceless gift. To demonstrate the reality and the glory of what Moses received from Yahweh for ...

SAINTS MARTHA, MARY, AND LAZARUS Exod 33:7-11, 34:5-9,28; Ps 103:6-13; Lk 10:38-42 Our Best Spiritual Work The passage from Exodus, giving us a glimpse into the interaction between God and Moses, is quite revealing about our relationship with God. As we noted yesterday, all our sins originate from a lack of attention to God’s self-communication to us. God forgives our sins as we ask for forgiveness. But none is overlooked or glossed over by his infinite justice. God made this revelation to Moses as he passed by him. “He called on the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness; for thousands he maintains his kindness, forgives faults, transgression, sin; yet he lets nothing go unchecked, punishing the father’s fault in the sons and in the grandsons to the third and fourth generation.’” We ought to take this self-revelation of God to Moses very seriously. It p...