Reflection from Friar Nicholas

SAINT SCHOLASTICA, VIRGIN   1 Kings 8:22-23,27-30; Ps 84:3-5,10-11; Mk 7:1-13 Making the Word of God our Tradition God has no need of a Temple built by human hands. But He approved the building of the Temple in Jerusalem for the glory of his holy name. Of what use is the temple if God does not dwell therein and has no need of temples and churches? Even Solomon who successfully completed the Temple in Jerusalem was aware that God cannot be contained in a physical temple, for he asked while praying: “O Lord, God of Israel, not in heaven above nor on earth beneath is there such a God as you, true to your covenant and your kindness towards your servants when they walk wholeheartedly in your way. Yet will God really live with men on the earth? Why, the heavens and their own heaven cannot contain you. How much less this house that I have built!” God dwells in the spiritual temple, which he constructed for himself. He only commanded the construction of the physical temples and ...

MONDAY, FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME   1 Kings 8:1-7,9-13; Ps 132:6-10; Mk 6:53-56 The Consecration of the Temple of the Lord After his coronation as the king of Israel, Solomon offered a thousand holocausts to God in thanksgiving and consecration of himself to God at the high place in Gibeon. After constructing the Temple in Jerusalem, Solomon planned with the elders of the people to bring the ark of the covenant into the Temple he had built for God in Jerusalem in grand style. “All the men of Israel assembled round King Solomon in the month of Ethanim, at the time of the feast (that is, the seventh month), and the priests took up the ark and the Tent of Meeting with all the sacred vessels that were in it. In the presence of the ark, King Solomon and all Israel sacrificed sheep and oxen, countless, innumerable. The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, in the Debir of the Temple, that is, in the Holy of Holies, under the cherub’s wings.” The s...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...