Reflection from Friar Nicholas

SAINT PETER OF VERONA, PRIEST     2 Tim 2:8-15; Ps 24:4-5,8-10,14; Mk 12:28-34 The Precept of Charity Our Christian profession of faith in Jesus Christ makes us participate in the life of the Trinity. Love is at the centre of the Trinity, for the Father loves the Son, whom He begets with love. The Son loves the Father, from whom he gets all things. The Holy Spirit is the love of the Father and the Son. Adopted in the Son through the Holy Spirit, we receive the same love with which the Son loves the Father. As we gradually grow in spiritual life, transitioning from our natural life to the spiritual, the love of God also grows in our hearts. The love grows as our spirit grows in Jesus Christ. Since the Son of Man is characterised by doing the will of the Father, we grow spiritually as we long to accomplish the will of the Father more and more in our lives. It is on this basis that the Lord summarised the commandments for the scribe who put the question of the gre...

SAINT CHARLES LWANGA AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS    2 Tim 1:1-3,6-12; Ps 123:1-2; Mk 12:18-27 Highlights of the Trinitarian Communion The encounter between our Lord Jesus Christ and the Sadducees in the Gospel is quite interesting and enlightening. The Sadducees devised a story about a situation or problem that seemed difficult and almost impossible for humans; they presented it to the Son of Man with the intention of trapping him. Their funny contraption was resolved, and their seemingly difficult problem was busted like an air bubble in an instant. The entire event reveals a glimpse of the difference between our ways and God’s ways of thinking and doing things. God reveals in the scripture that His ways is not our way; that as the heavens are far removed from earth, so his ways are removed from our ways of thinking and doing things. Cf. Isa 55:8-9. This draws our attention to what is required of one who intends to enter the communion of the Trinity of divine Persons. T...

TUESDAY, NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME    2 Pet 3:11-15,17-18; Ps 90:2-4,10,14,16; Mk 12:13-17 Giving to God what belongs to Him The image of God, who is a Trinity of Persons, is a gift to us. As we noted yesterday, we share in the Trinitarian nature of God, for He created us in His image. As we have previously reflected, our redemption involves making us like God in our daily lives. To be like God is to be like the Trinity. Hence, we have concluded that our salvation and glorification consist in sharing the Trinitarian community. In yesterday’s reading from the weekday, Saint Peter informed us that we have been given the divine nature as a gift to help us overcome the corruptive influence of the world. We receive and appropriate the gift of divine nature to the extent we let go of our corrupted human nature and its sinful desires. Without dying with the Son of Man, we cannot live with him through the Holy Spirit he sends to give us new spiritual life. This is the les...

SAINT JUSTIN, MARTYR    1 Cor 1:18-25; Ps 34:2-9; Mt 5:13-19 Letting the Light Shine for Others The revelation of God as a Trinity of Persons is a very heartwarming and excellent part of the Good News we have received. It emphasizes the fact that we have a communal nature; human nature flourishes in a community, as it is created in the image of God, who is a Trinity of Persons. This means that a community brings out the best in us. Hence, we have come to understand that community is salvation, and salvation is community. The revelation of God is for our perfection and salvation, for it offers us the community of God that illuminates our minds, enlarges our hearts in the warmth of love, and grounds or roots us deeply in the Father of all spirits. We can compare the perfection and goodness of a human community to a pot of well-prepared soup, wherein every ingredient contributes its best as unique to its nature. We can imagine what the taste of the soup would become if the ...

THE MOST HOLY TRINITY   Exod 34:4-6,8-9; Dan 3:52-56; 2 Cor 13:11-13; Jn 3:16-18 The Communion of Salvation in God We celebrate the solemn Feast of the Most Holy Trinity. The revelation of God is, of course, the salvation of man essentially, for being made in the image of God, we cannot know ourselves without God. Hence, the main aspect of the revelation is the understanding of God as given in three persons. The true nature of God as constituted in three persons has always been present in the history of the revelation of God or the history of human salvation, but our understanding of the persons in the Godhead is part of the fullness of divine revelation. If the knowledge of God is essential for our salvation, then our knowledge of God as the Trinity is necessary for our salvation. We must seek to understand the Trinity of God, not just in a notional way, but in a concrete way, in order to enter into communion with the Triune God that constitutes our salvation. Though Go...

SATURDAY, EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME      Jude 1:17,20-25; Ps 63:2-6; Mk 11:27-33 Building on the Holy Foundation of Faith On the day of our baptism, a lit candle was given to us to signify the spiritual light our faith in Jesus Christ has brought into us. The same ritual is repeated every year at the Easter Vigil Mass. The repetition ensures that those baptised as infants have the opportunity to own the faith their parents and Godparents professed in their place during their baptism. The solemn profession of faith in the Triune God and rejection of Satan and his lies is repeated. Another reason we repeat this ritual every year is to remind ourselves of the solemn profession of faith in the Risen Lord and to renew our spiritual life by celebrating the mysteries through which we were given new life. The Easter celebration of the Paschal mysteries offers us the opportunity to re-comprehend our faith in the Risen Lord and thereby solidify the foundation of our spirit...