Reflection from Friar Nicholas

MONDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eph 4:32-5:8; Ps 1:1-4,6; Lk 13:10-17 Our Vocation to imitate God Saint Paul admonishes us, as he did to the Christians at Ephesus, to imitate God’s love. Can we imitate God’s love? Our answer is the same answer our Lord gave Peter when he wondered about the difficulty of our salvation. If we consider the question with human eyes, as Peter did with human salvation, it would be impossible. Hence, the Lord answered him: “For man it is impossible, but not for God, for everything is possible for God. The same response applies to imitating God’s love. Paul gave them the admonition because of his familiarity with the grace of Jesus Christ. The Son of God became man to reveal the incomprehensible love of God the Father for us. He revealed God’s love practically to us by cleansing us of every defilement. By the same act with which he revealed the Father’s love for us, he washed away our sins. The death of the Son of God on the Cross of Calvary reve...

SUNDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Exod 22:20-26; Ps 18:2-4,47, 51; 1 Thess 1:5-10; Mt 22:34-40 The Commandments of Love The Law of God came to its foundation when grace appeared on earth. Without grace, the Law was as fruitless as a barren fig tree. But we must understand that God’s Law is perfect, as Psalm 19:7 says: “The Law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.” The Law of God revives our souls by revealing our souls' weakness and keeping us alert for the coming of grace, through which we receive spiritual life. The Law of God is perfect because it reveals God’s mind for us; for God’s will is perfect and the source of every perfection. By fostering the proper orientation to God, away from self in our souls, the Law prepares us to receive God’s life and perfection. The Law renews the image of God, who is a sacrifice, within our souls by dissuading us from trusting in ourselves in the worship of God, guiding us to entrust ourselves to him. A true worshipper of God...

SATURDAY, TWENTY NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eph 4:7-16; Ps 122:1-5; Lk 13:1-9 Bearing Fruit in the face of Evil Sad events make us ask questions concerning fate and what it really entails. We have stated that God created the whole universe and orders everything within it for his own good purpose. Does our belief in the divine ordering of things and events on earth exclude negative outcomes or events from the operation of different natures created by God? Certainly not. God created every nature; he also acts through each nature’s operation to realise his good purpose. Unfavourable outcomes from operations of natural things, which we call material evils in distinction from moral evils, are part of divine foreknowledge and ordering of natural events. Hence, the faithful who pray to God for deliverance from evil, moral and material, ask for divine grace to uphold our weak wills, to always choose what is truly good and not seemingly evil. With grace, we act according to the Father’s ...

FRIDAY, TWENTY NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eph 4:1-6; Ps 24:1-6; Lk 12:54-59 Spiritual Signs of Our God Communication usually happens between two people or parties who understand the meaning of the signs used. God is the Supreme Spirit and the origin or father of spirits. He always communicates spiritually to us in various languages. Cf. Heb 1:1. But because most of us are spiritually dead or unresponsive, we hardly receive or understand the communication from God, our Father. God is no stranger to our spiritual paucity; he also employs physical signs and means within our understanding and operations. But because these physical means and signs are far removed from the spiritual realm, we cannot easily make spiritual meaning from them. We need a spiritual medium to interpret God’s will as coded in the physical signs. The Son of man is the chief medium of the Father’s mind for us. He came among us to reveal the will of God the Father, to enable us to acquire a spiritual life and co...

THURSDAY, TWENTY NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eph 3:14-21; Ps 33:1-2,4-5,11-12,18-19; Lk 12:49-53 God’s Unfathomable Love for Us God is love, and those who believe in God and have received the Spirit of regeneration as his sons and daughters, witness to God's love through their lives. God is far from a soul when it lacks love. A soul lacks God’s love, which we are supposed to reflect like a mirror reflects light, not because God is not shining on it, but due to the soul’s spiritual corruption. When a mirror’s surface is rusted, it cannot reflect the rays of light that fall on it. Sin does the same thing to us; sinful carnal and worldly pleasures tarnish our souls’ ability to receive and reflect divine light and love. Often, what the world and proud worldlings peddle as love is corrupted and filthy, a very poor and sinful imitation of God’s love.  Hence, John 2:15-16 tells us not to love the world or desire the world’s pleasures. “Do not love the world or the things in the worl...

WEDNESDAY, TWENTY NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eph 3:2-12; Isa 12; Lk 12:39-48 The Unexpected Coming of Jesus Christ In the Gospel, Jesus used the terms householder and servant to refer to us, his disciples. Both words emphasise different roles we are called to play as Christians. Both point to the role we have been called to play in the economy of human salvation. As we noted in yesterday’s reflection, the Son of Man is the builder of the House of God, as Nathan the prophet prophesied to David. He builds both the Church and each member of the Church, for we are God’s House, as individuals and as a community of believers in Jesus Christ. As long as the Son of Man is physically absent, each of us is the householder of the house of God within us. We are also householders in the communal sense to the extent we share in the ministries of Jesus Christ. All the baptised share in the ministries of the Son of Man as priest, prophet, and king. The Holy Spirit, who dwells in each of us, is ...