Reflection from Friar Nicholas

THE FEAST OF SAINT THOMAS, APOSTLE Eph 2:19-22; Ps 117:1-2; Jn 20:24-29 The Alignment of Our Structures on the Apostles Our faith in Jesus Christ is a shared possession. Profession of faith in Jesus Christ brings us into the spiritual commonwealth, in which the apostles were first. They were first to behold the Son of Man and believed his divinity. What they beheld, they did for all of us who are meant to come to faith in the later ages. They are able to do this because they share the same human nature as we do. Because of our common human nature, we were there with them and saw with their eyes, heard with their ears, touched with their hands, the word that is life. That they touched the word of life is a statement of faith from the Apostle John, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it.” What they proclaim to us in faith, ...

THURSDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Amos 7:10-17; Ps 19:8-11; Mt 9:1-8 The Decree of the Lord is Perfect The word of God is the source of all natural structures, both physical and nonphysical. By listening, meditating, and doing the word of God, we build our lives and structures with the blueprint of God. Before our encounter with the word of God, the visible reality that came to be through the Eternal Word of God is supposed to inform our minds through the senses. Nature is said to be our first teacher in the divine school of life. Failing to pay attention to nature is a refusal to listen to the divine will revealed in creation. The Church’s emphasis on natural law in matters of family, sexuality, social order, and other social structures is based on this understanding. Because a true understanding of nature and natural ordering presents man as the end of creation, any social, political, scientific, or technological advancement that removes from the dignity of the human p...

WEDNESDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Amos 5:14-15,21-24; Ps 50:7-13,16-17; Mt 8:28-34 The Structures of Sin Structures arise in a person or a city from operations or activities of the person or city. A city or part of a city may be unhabitable for some people due to the type of lifestyle and activities prevalent in such a city or a particular part of the city. The lifestyle and characterising activities depend on the existence of suitable or enabling structures, including social, political, economic, and sometimes cultural structures. It is the same within an individual person. The structures within each of us support a particular lifestyle. Since a human person cannot be without a controlling spirit or master, the inner structure corresponds to the spirit each person serves. These structures make it impossible for us to serve two masters, according to Jesus Christ. We are either the slaves of God, having divine structures within us, or slaves of demons, with demonic or si...

TUESDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Amos 3:1-8,4:11-12; Ps 5:5-8; Mt 8:23-27 The Difficulties of becoming Light The fact that we are all natives of this sinful world implies that we all have the structures of sin within and operative in us. We inherited the structures from our parents; they are reinforced through nurture and our daily choices and actions. The presence and operations of the sinful structures within us make it easy for us to fall into sin of all sorts through the instigations of demons. It is through these sinful structures that particular demons remain associated with a particular person, family, or bloodline. As we have previously noted, these structures provide the enabling ambience for demonic spirits to communicate with us and move us to act, especially when we are in mortal sin. It is difficult and impossible to destroy these structures of sin within us without divine aid. When we discuss original sin, we should understand it more in terms of these inhe...

SOLEMNITY OF SAINTS PETER AND PAUL Acts 12:1-11; Ps 34:2-9; 2 Tim 4:6-8,17-18; Mt 16:13-19 On this Rock I will build My Church We celebrate the solemn feast of the two apostles of the Lamb, Saints Peter and Paul. We know Peter to be the head of the apostles and the chief shepherd of the Church, the flock of God. He took the place of the Son of Man after his resurrection and ascension into heaven as the Shepherd of the whole Church. His choice was not of human making, but by God Himself. As we know that nothing about the Church is of human making, for God the Father through His Only Begotten Son calls and redeems everyone and uses each to construct the heavenly Jerusalem by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and his sanctification work among us. The office of Peter, which the Church refers to as the Petrine office, plays many roles. The most important of these roles is the primacy in confession of faith in the revelation of God. Thus, it belongs to the Pope, with all the bishops wh...

SUNDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME 2 Kings 4:8-11,13-16; Ps 89:2-3,16-19; Rom 6:3-4,8-11; Mt 10:37-42 Losing Our Lives for the Life of Christ Many of us are so enthused with the idea of Artificial Intelligence, but we know practically little to nothing about natural intelligence. We would be amazed beyond measure to understand how attuned our bodies and natural life are to changes in our environment. Many interactions between us and our environment are handled unconsciously or subconsciously. It is only when critical decisions are to be made that control is given to our conscious minds. The same intricate connection is also acknowledged in human moral living. Sin has its own structure and intricate connections that form the basis of our moral life and intelligence. Just as the natural structure and intelligence serve to perpetuate human life on earth, the sinful structure and intelligence serve to perpetuate sins, a sinful lifestyle, and evil on earth. Because the structu...