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LIGHTING UP OUR LAMPS

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SUNDAY, FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME   Isa 54:7-10; Ps 112:4-9; 1 Cor 2:1-5; Mt 5:13-16 Let your Light Shine before Men God made us in his own image, and we have understood this to mean that God made us rational. It is one thing to possess a rational nature, and another to live a rational life. So, we have considered our rationality to imply that we are made to contain or house God. Rationality, which is the ability to reason to knowledge of truth, would have to know the truth to live rationally. The scriptures present God as the Truth, from whom every living thing came to be. Since creatures that God made are truths by their being, the implication is that God made us to know creatures enroute to the knowledge of God, their maker and ours. The duty to know the truth is attached or inherent to our nature. This duty requires that we pay attention to both creation and God. From creation, we learn the same truth of God in a mediated way, but from God, we receive direct enligh...
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JESUS, OUR SOLOMON

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SATURDAY, FOURTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME     1 Kings 3:4-13; Ps 119:9-14; Mk 6:30-34 Eternal Wisdom, Our Shepherd Solomon succeeded his father, David, after his death. Chronologically, he is the first ‘Son of David’ to rule after David; in this regard, he is a type of the Son of Man. Thus, he is called Solomon, which means ‘the man of peace’ or ‘the peaceful one.’ As a son who grew up before David, he heard and learnt of God from his Father David. King David, as we have reflected through the week, had God in his mind, heart, and mouth; he talked, composed songs, and sang of God; he showed forth the word and statutes of God by his behaviour, despite his occasional failures, as recorded in the scriptures. As David’s progeny, it is not surprising that Solomon came with some ready-made virtues. He did not learn about the importance of God’s word for man’s daily engagements and fulfilment in life. His name and demeanour show that God had a central place in his life. If he ...
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SACRIFICES OF PRAISE TO GOD

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SAINTS PAUL MIKI AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS    Ecclesiasticus 47:2-13; Ps 18:31,47,50-51; Mk 6:14-29 The Offering of Our Lives to God The knowledge or awareness that we are nothing before God makes us humble and fosters the sacrifice of our lives to God, our creator. This prerequisite knowledge we need to come to God is gained only when God sends his word to enlighten us. As we have already noted, we cannot know ourselves without the light of God’s word. Hence, the coming of the Eternal Word to us was never an afterthought but a necessity that is associated with our being rational creatures; that is, our bearing the image of God. But that he assumed our human nature and came as man was as a result of our sinful state, whereby we live enslaved to the senses. As slaves of the senses, we could not see nor understand our deplorable spiritual state. Hence, the Word assumed our nature and came as man to reveal our sinful condition to us in relation to God’s love and merc...
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EMBRACING POVERTY FOR THE WORD

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SAINT AGATHA, VIRGIN, MARTYR    1 Kings 2:1-4,10-12; 1 Chron 29:10-12; Mk 6:7-13 Material and Spiritual Poverty for the Word We come to the fullness of our humanity when we keep the word of God. Since God made us for himself, the words he addresses to us would be considered to be similar to the manual of operation of our nature. We suffer the maloperation of our nature in ignorance of the revealed word of God. For this reason, we consider the holy Scripture an indispensable companion for our daily Christian life. Although it may seem that many live successful lives without reference to God or his words as written in the scriptures. We must understand that we are tripartite in our composition; we can organise our material or bodily appearance so well that none can know the inner restlessness we suffer without God. But as composed of body, mind, and spirit, we can never truly enjoy the fullness of life and peace without the intervention of God within us. As we noted e...
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A FOCUS ON SELF FORGETS GOD

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WEDDNESDAY, FOURTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME   2 Sam 24:2,8-17; Ps 32:1-2,5-7; Mk 6:1-6 Despised in His Homeland Humility is such a powerful virtue that it can contain and hide God within human nature. This capacity of humility to house and conceal God prompts our consideration of God to be its sole cause in us. This follows because no one can build a house for God by their own effort without God working in them and cooperating with them. This is shown in the fact that man’s seeking of self after the original sin blinded him to God’s abiding presence in the created universe. So, humility cannot be a product of self or our effort without God. A clearer analogy for the idea is the case of a potential difference between an active and a passive material. It is usually the active material that induces the passivity in the passive material. Hence, the infinite perfection of God induces our awareness of our nothingness. God, by enabling us to see and know his infinite perfections t...
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HUMILITY AND MEEKNESS

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TUESDAY, FOURTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME   2 Sam 18:9-10,14,24-25,30-19:3; Ps 86:1-6; Mk 5:21-43 The Nature of Humility and Meekness The world usually considers the virtues of humility and meekness as weakness. But nothing is farther from the truth; the world is deceived in this consideration of humility and meekness as weakness. The ignorance of the worldly-minded on the strength of these virtues lies in the fact that the world follows its evil prince to set its store on self and self-acquisition. Thus, looking through the dark and sinful lens of self, the proud worldlings are not able to see the divine company that humility attracts and keeps. As we have noted, humility or poverty of spirit is a virtue that results from the self-emptying act of a soul, which makes it able to attract and contain God, the Almighty. When God sheds his light and grace on our souls, it helps us see how sick and miserable we are without his help. The enlightenment of grace from the word of God ...
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THE APPEARANCE OF THE LORD IN HIS TEMPLE

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FEAST OF THE PRESENTATION OF THE LORD   Mal 3:1-4 or Heb 2:14-18; Ps 24:7-10; Lk 2:22-40 The Lord Enters His Holy Temple The celebration of the feast of our Lord’s Presentation has a twofold meaning for us. The first meaning, which is obvious, is the fact that the baby Jesus Christ was presented in the Temple of Jerusalem. The presentation is in accordance with the stipulations of the Law of Moses, as we read in the Gospel. “When the day came for them to be purified as laid down by the Law of Moses, the parents of Jesus took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, -observing what stands written in the Law of the Lord: Every first-born male must be consecrated to the Lord—and also to offer in sacrifice, in accordance with what is said in the Law of the Lord, a pair of turtledove or two young pigeons.” The Law stipulated the presentation in remembrance of the deliverance the Lord wrought for the people of Israel in the land of Egypt, by which they were delivered fr...
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