Reflection from Friar Nicholas

TUESDAY, FIFTENTH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME Isa 7:1-9; Ps 48:2-8; Mt 11:20-21 Defence of Our Spiritual Life   We cannot underestimate the corruptive influence of the devil, the ancient serpent, and its worldly minions. An example of its power to seduce, corrupt, and destroy the structure planted in us by the word of God is seen in the story of Israel during the time of Elijah the prophet. To imagine that the nation saved from slavery in Egypt and settled in the Promised Land of Canaan was corrupted by the forces of idolatry is unimaginable. They had the Commandments and the prophets ministering the will of God to them. Yet, the country and its people became so far removed from God that there were four hundred and fifty (450) prophets of Baal and only one prophet of God, Elijah the prophet. How did it happen that the people redeemed and called by God’s name ended up having more prophets of Baal than prophets of God? It was a gradual corruption and departure from God that started...

MONDAY, FIFTENTH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME Isa 1:10-17; Ps 50:8-9,16-17,21,23; Mt 10:34-11:1 The Struggle for Spiritual Life Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it will remain single and fruitless. But if it falls and dies, it bears plenty fruits. This is the saying of our Lord in Jn 12:24, and it describes the Christian life perfectly. This is the reason the Sower sows the seeds, as in the parable of the Sower we heard in yesterday’s Gospel. The acceptance and profession of faith in the Risen Lord, which commences the Christian life at baptism, is a falling into the grave or the earth as a seed that is sown. It is not an annihilation, but a sowing into the earth for the purpose of germinating a new and spiritual life from the old natural and corruptible life. This falling into the grave graced by the blood of the Lord is what the baptismal rite signifies. The immersion into the water is our sharing in the death and burial of Jesus Christ, so that our natural and ...

SUNDAY, FIFTENTH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME Isa 55:10-11; Ps 65:10-14; Rom 8:18-23; Mt 13:1-23 The Word of God as Seed of Spiritual Life The Church arranges the readings for this Sunday to aid us in a deeper and better understanding of the mystery of our salvation in Jesus Christ. The prominent analogy is that of the seed sown in the soil. Just as a viable seed sown in the soil struggles with the life it contains against the forces of death, darkness, and decay, our souls, receiving the new and spiritual life from the word of God, struggle against the forces of evil, sin, and death. The forces of death and corruption, working on the seed, cause it to bring forth a new shoot through which it breaks through the earth covering and holding it down, to receive light and fresh air, with which it commences the production of new structures supporting the new life. The seed sown in the dark earth will be unable to accomplish this feat if it is not viable enough. The analogy is apt for our sp...

SAINT BENEDICT, ABBOT Isa 6:1-8; Ps 93:1-2,5; Mt 10:24-33 From worship of Idols to God Once we have the light of the Word of God to illuminate our inmost being, to see how truly sinful we are without the grace of God, we begin to cast away our idols in order to approach God. Without the light of the word of God, none can really know himself and his sins. We cannot understand how deceived and deluded we are in putting ourselves first before God, our creator. As we noted yesterday, this deception with oneself is the masterpiece of the devil's tricks. The saints believed and taught that knowledge of self is the foundation of the life of holiness. The knowledge of self does not come without our turning to the interior, where the light of God’s word illuminates our sinful self and teaches us about God. The strategy of the devil is always to distract and remove us from the light of the presence of God, received in contemplation of his word. Thus, it is said that ignorance of the sc...

FRIDAY, FOURTENTH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME Hosea 14:2-10; Ps 51:3-4,8-9,12-14,17; Mt 10:16-23 You shall be Like God The setting up of idols for worship within and without is a contamination of the pure initial desire within a human person for the absolute Truth and Goodness we call God. This original desire is divine because it is constituted by the will of the Triune God to make man in the image and likeness of God. Since God works on us without us, making us into His image, He works in us through us to make us like Himself. The evil one, noting that the work of making the human person like God requires our attention on God through his word, came to distract the man and the woman from focusing on the word and the activities of God in creation. Thus, our distraction from the word is the origin of idols. Once the self was put before the will of God, the enemy continually set up an idol for the human person, distracted from God. The evil one deceives us through presenting the self t...

  THURSDAY, FOURTENTH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME Hosea 11:1-4,8-9; Ps 80:2-3,15-16; Mt 10:7-15 The Foolishness of Idol Worship The only thing that drives or makes us to idolise a creature or make an idol for worship is ignorance of God and his goodness to us. When we lack the knowledge of God, his existence, and benevolence to us who are his beloved creatures, we foolishly and ignorantly set up a shrine for ourselves. We are also ignorant when we seek to serve God in our own way, and not the way he wants us to serve him. As noted yesterday, what drives the setting up of an idol is our desire to do our will. The scripture calls the one who thinks there is no God a fool. We are indeed foolish when we set up our own god for worship because we lack the knowledge of a basic truth, namely, that we live and move in God. Our life is a participation in God who created us for himself. If God created us, He also cares for our welfare and provides us with all we need to sustain our lives he...