Posts

THE CHARITY OF GIVING AND RECEIVING

Image
MONDAY, TWENTY SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Gal 1:6-12; Ps 110:1-2,7-10; Lk 10:25-37 Charity Entails Giving and Receiving When we say that the Law of God is impossible for our human nature to keep, we do not say so simply. We rather mean it in a deep and spiritual sense. The Law of God is not just mere precepts about doing or not doing but entails a heart devotion to God. In this heart devotion we understand consecration and righteousness in the true sense of these words. It is a spiritual or mystical walk with God in the interior of our hearts, illuminated by his word that brings God’s presence within us. This self-giving corresponds to the true meaning of the Law; God’s self-revelation to his people as an invitation to participate in divine communion. The true understanding of the Law of God demands we receive God within us. There is a common misunderstanding which poses a pitfall to us always. It is the misunderstanding of the Law as a precept forbidding doing or not doing si...
Post a Comment
Read more

TENANTS MADE INHERITORS IN THE SON

Image
SUNDAY, TWENTY SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIMEE Isa 5:1-7; Ps 80:9,12-16,19-20; Phil 4:6-9; Mt 21:33-43 Gifts Beyond Our Prayer God made us for a lofty end: to be God’s temple forever. This original intention of God forms the foundation of our awareness, our knowing, loving, and doing. We had one opportunity to fix our gaze on the Eternal Word of God forever, for God to guide us to the realisation of the divine goal. But we missed the opportunity in our first parents, Adam and Eve, when they followed the temptation of the devil instead of keeping the word that God spoke to them. Since our nature was corrupted in Adam and Eve, we have begun to yearn for what we do not know. Our ignorance of what is truly good for us makes us forage in the world of creatures because we lack the light of God's word. Saint Paul explained that God prepared what has never entered the human mind or heart for those who love him. Saint Augustine further clarified that what God prepared cannot enter the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

GREAT LOVE IN LITTLE THINGS

Image
SAINT THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS, VIRGIN, DOCTOR Job 42:1-3,5-6,12-17; Ps 119:66,71,75,91,125,130; Lk 10:17-24 The Joy of the Beloved Knowing God's love for us is at the centre of our Christian spirituality and journey. This love is expressed in God the Father’s gift of his Son to be our Saviour, the sacrifice that takes away our sins. The Son’s love for us is evident in his obedience to the Father, accepting to become man in humility, even to the point of accepting death on the cross to save us and join us to himself. The Holy Spirit’s love for us makes him dwell in the Son's humanity and in all of us who believe in his saving death. The whole creation, by the Triune God, shows the same love of God. God made all things for our good and to lead us to comprehend his love and ascend to the divine presence. We have also contemplated God’s love in our celebrations of the angels: the archangels and the guardian angels. All these revelations and celebrations ought to inflame ou...
Post a Comment
Read more

ANGELS ON OUR GUARD

Image
THE HOLY GUARDIAN ANGELS Job 38:1,12-21,40:3-5; Ps 139:1-3,7-10,13-14; Mt 18:1-5,10 Angels Continually in God’s Presence We celebrate our guardian angels. This celebration complements our celebration of the Archangels: Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. Today, we celebrate all the angels in their role as our guardian angels. All the holy angels play this role at one time or the other. A guardian angel is an angel assigned to watch over a person or group of people. For example, Saint Michael the Archangel is the guardian angel of the people of God, Israel of old, and the Church as the new people of God. We recall that before the apparition of Our Lady of Fatima, the guardian angel of Portugal appeared to the three children to prepare them for the coming of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Especially, we celebrate our personal guardian angels. Each of us has an angel assigned to watch over us, guide us, and protect us every moment of our lives. Today’s celebration of our guardian angels reveal...
Post a Comment
Read more

THE POSSIBILITY OF PEACE AND JUSTICE

Image
OUR LADY, QUEEN AND PATRONESS OF NIGERIA Isa 11:1-10; Ps 72:1-2,7-8,12-13,17; Eph 2:13-18, Mt 2:13-15,19-23 In His Day, Justice Shall Flourish The Church in Nigeria celebrates Our Lady, Queen and Patroness of Nigeria, to mark our purported Independence from the colonial masters. In celebrating this solemnity today, the Church understands that human beings can be genuinely free only when we overcome the forces of sin, darkness, and evil within and around us. The Church wants us to understand that only God can truly set us free from oppressive forces that are within and about us. God is not tardy in sending his word for our liberation. What delays our freedom is our poor reception of his word; we must do so wholeheartedly and with faith. Historically, we got our independence from colonial forces on 1st of October, 1960. But time has shown it was a change from foreign exploitative forces to local exploitative forces. We have come to understand that our real enemies are within us, th...
Post a Comment
Read more

ACCOMODATING THE SON OF MAN

Image
SAINT JEROME, PRIEST, DOCTOR Job 9:1-13,14-16; Ps 88:10-15; Lk 9:57-62 No Accommodation for the Son of Man The Word of God is with God from the beginning and is God. He bears and expresses the Father's will in all things and sustains all things by divine power. He remains in all that he made through their different natures, but distinct from all his creatures because of his infinite power and perfections. We always understand the material creation as expressions of the divine will and attributes proportionate to us, mortal men. Hence, the whole of creation is a divine school for our education in divine knowledge. The limited nature of the divine attributes in creatures continuously draws and guides our minds and hearts to the invisible, infinite divine qualities that are spiritually discerned. We can climb these visible staircases of creatures to invisible divine attributes by our spiritual nature. But the advent of sin incapacitated our nature in this most essential task; it...
Post a Comment
Read more

MINISTRIES OF THE ARCHANGELS FOR US

Image
SAINTS MICHAEL, GABRIEL AND RAPHAEL, ARCHANGELS Apoc 12:7-12; Ps 138:1-5; Jn 1:47-51 Descending and Ascending of Angels on the Son of Man We celebrate the archangels today. By this celebration, the Church brings us to consider, thank, and glorify God for the wonders of his love for us, poor sinners. The Scriptures make abundant references to the ministry of the angels in our salvation history. These make us aware of the existence of these spiritual creatures of God. He created them as spiritual or heavenly beings to praise and glorify his name and wonderful works of nature and grace. We have no clear idea of when they were created, but the Fathers of the Church hold that the reference to God’s creation of heaven in the beginning refers to the angelic beings. Saint Augustine considers the alternation of evening and day in the creation story as referring to the participation of angelic beings in the creation of the earth. Evening refers to initial confusion and gradual illumination...
Post a Comment
Read more