Reflection from Friar Nicholas

EASTER THURSDAY    Acts 3:11-26; Ps 8:2,5-9; Lk 24:35-48 You killed the Prince of Life In metaphysical considerations, these three: life, truth, and good are seen as cognates; that is, they refer to the same thing essentially but are perceived differently. Ultimately, God is life, truth, and good. Other things share in these qualities to the degree they participate in the being of God. Therefore, we encounter God in our encounters with life, truth, and goodness. Our individual openness to these three presentations of God determines the quality of our existence and our transformation into the likeness of Jesus Christ. The mission of the Word in human nature is basically to present the truth of God (his life and goodness also) in a way that is congenial to us for our salvation. As we have previously presented, the mission was first directed to the Jews, for it is from them that salvation comes. Our Lord made this clear to the Samaritan woman in the Gospel of John 4:22. “Yo...

EASTER WEDNESDAY    Acts 3:1-10; Ps 105:1-4,6-9; Lk 24:13-35 The Real Presence of The Risen Lord The crucifixion of the Son of Man formally ended the fulfilment of the promise God made to Abraham that pertains to his children according to the flesh. We have highlighted this fact in our previous reflection. The exclusive mission of the Word to the physical descendants of Abraham that inherited his promise is intended to act as a physical or visible foundation for the universal mission of the Word to all peoples that formally commenced with the resurrection of the Son of Man. Hence, we have seen that all who had encounter or will have encounter with the Risen Lord must possess the gift of faith. Without faith, the Son of Man would appear to us as any other Jew. But once a person exercises faith, he or she sees the Risen Lord. The Risen Lord is not limited by space or time, which makes him present to every soul that longs in faith to encounter him. This is the answer to the...

EASTER TUESDAY    Acts 2:36-41; Ps 33:4-5,18-20,22; Jn 20:11-18 Faith and The Risen Lord The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the emergence or appearance of a spiritual world that is accessible only through faith in the word of God. God, by raising Jesus Christ from the dead, has caused the spiritual light to shine for us mortal men. But only with the eyes of faith can we see the light and, through it, the heavenly realities. The ability to see spiritual light is not new to us, for God created us spiritual. We lost the ability through the original sin of Adam and Eve, which was a choice they made for us to walk in the darkness of sin and evil. The resurrection has caused the spiritual Sun that we lost when we chose to walk by ourselves and not by God’s light to rise in our land of exile. Thus, the gift of faith in the word of God is connatural to us, who are made in the image of God. As we have noted several times, our habitual living and walking by the senses would ...

EASTER MONDAY    Acts 2:14,22-33; Ps 16:1-2,5,7-11; Mt 28:8-15 The Galilee Reunion with the Lord The Lord suffered and died in Jerusalem, the city of God, according to the understanding of the blessings of Abraham received or inherited by the physical children of his and highlighted in the promise made to David. The crucifixion of the Son of Man by the physical descendants of Abraham symbolically represents the end of the era of God’s manifestations and blessings of the children of Abraham by bloodline, who inherited his blessings. It is the beginning of the manifestations of God and the blessings of the spiritual children of Abraham. The former and all the blessings they received served as a means to the end, which is the manifestation of the spiritual children of Abraham. We put away the means once we have attained the end. This is exactly what the Risen Lord is doing by guiding his disciples to go back to Galilee for their reunion. Galilee, as we know, is the symbol o...

EASTER SUNDAY    Acts 10:34,37-43; Ps 118:1-2,16-17,22-23; 1 Cor 5:6-8; Jn 20:1-9 The Dawn of Light in Us Saint John’s presentation of the resurrection narrative is slightly different from Saint Matthew’s. Instead of the group of women that came to the tomb in the early hours of Sunday, John gives us only Mary of Magdala, who came alone to anoint the body of Jesus Christ. What immediately comes to us in this presentation is the importance of a desire to see Jesus Christ and to be with him. This is what Mary of Magdala represents for us. This aligns with what we have seen and presented as lacking in Adam and Eve, and in all of us, their children, that prevents the completion of God’s work of making us in his likeness. The desire to see Jesus Christ and to be with him is what characterises a Christian as a renewed human person. This desire consumed Mary and determined her preoccupations. It kept her awake through the night, and at the first sign of dawn on Sunday, she...

HOLY SATURDAY, EASTER VIGIL       Gen 1:26-33; Ps 104; Gen 22:1-18; Ps 16:5,8-11; Exo 14:15-15:1; Exo 15; Isa 54:5-14; Ps 30; Isa 55:1-11; Isa 12; Rom 6:3-11; Ps 118:1-2,16-17,22-23; Mt 28:1-10 The Creation of People Like God The Easter Vigil is the celebration of light. The celebration starts around the Easter bonfire. We celebrate a new creation, which completes God's work of creation. In the creation of the physical world, light was the first to come forth at the command of God. It was a physical sort of light that preceded the creation of all physical things. The Easter Vigil is a celebration of the creation of our spiritual light, as the source of our spiritual reality through the resurrection of the Son of Man from death. Our spiritual life, which has its foundation in the Son of Man, became real with his resurrection from death. Because it is a spiritual creation, the emergent reality is spiritual. Subsequently, the contents of our celebration are couche...