Reflection from Friar Nicholas

THURSDAY, THIRTY FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Phil 3:3-8; Ps 105:2-7; Lk 15:1-10 The Rejoicing over One Repentant Sinner We may not fully know or understand the cause of heavenly rejoicing over a repentant sinner because the mystery of God also enters into this area. God’s mysterious will is very difficult for fallen human nature to discern. What we consider good and pleasing to the Lord is often far removed from what God wants of us. Saint Paul is a good example. He was raised in Judaism by virtuous parents. He knew the Law of God and applied himself to it without reservation. But he was revealed to be a sinner through and through when the light of Jesus Christ came to him. His self-judgment as righteous and religious, according to external observance of the Law, could not win him a place in the presence of Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. “If it came to relying on physical evidence, I should be fully qualified myself. Take any man who thinks he can rely on what is physical: I am...

SAINT CHARLES BORROMEO, BISHOP Phil 2:12-18; Ps 27:1,4,13-14; Lk 14:25-33 Operations and Cooperations of God We should always remember that our Christian vocation is more spiritual than physical. What defines it is the fact that God, who calls us, is spiritual. We must shift our awareness to the spiritual, to be more spiritual than physical.  As a spiritual vocation, we must develop our spiritual faculties to hear and respond to God’s revelation of his divine will. As we mentioned yesterday, God uses the physical as sacraments of his presence and communication to us. Our training in spiritual life involves deepening our spiritual awareness of God’s presence and discerning his will that he communicates to us through various means each moment. God gave his people the Decalogue when he brought them out from Egypt, where they were enslaved, to keep their attention riveted on his presence among them. The Son of Man revised the Commandments into two precepts of love for the same pu...

FEAST OF SAINT MARTIN DE PORRES, RELIGIOUS Phil 4:4-9; Ps 131; Mt 22:34-40 The Power of Simplicity and Trust in God Each of us has two ways to walk or travel in this temporal life—the way of the senses and the spiritual way of faith. The first is native to us because we are born of the flesh before being reborn in spirit through faith. Before we came to faith in Jesus Christ, we were already familiar with the natural or sensible way of living. Many of us are so used to the sensible way that the spiritual way is unattractive. As we have explained, faith in Jesus Christ gradually leads us to leave the way of the senses for the spiritual way. All our desires, prayers, and works must facilitate this changeover. Change is by a conscious decision and determination to walk the spiritual path to the Saviour’s mountain. It is a death process that ends in life. We must so exercise our faith in prayer and in daily doings that spiritual things become the ordinary and the sensible the subordi...

ALL DEPARTED SOULS Isa 25:6,7-9; Ps 27:1,4,7,8-9,13-14; Rom 5:5-11; Mt 11:25-30 The Purification Leading to Union with God We have understood and explained our Christian journey into Jesus Christ as involving purgation, illumination, and union with God. The Psalmist called it the ascent to the Saviour's mountain. Whoever wishes to climb the mountain of the Lord must have clean hands and a pure heart. We have neither of these, for we were conceived and born in sin. We got corrupted from our origin by the forces of evil and darkness. So, the decision to go up the Saviour’s mountain must be personal and communal. No one finds himself on the mountain of the Saviour by accident, for the ancient gate must be lifted for the King of glory to come into us. God of Hosts has promised to prepare the salvific meal on this same mountain of the Saviour. “On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will prepare for all peoples a banquet of rich food. On this mountain he will remove the mourning veil...

SOLEMNITY OF ALL SAINTS Apoc 7:2-4,0-14; Ps 24:1-6; 1 Jn 3:1-3; Mt 5:1-12 The Joy and Happiness of the Blessed The Church celebrates the solemn feast of all the saints on the first day of November every year. It is an opportunity for the Church to celebrate all her children who have made their way to the heavenly hall to dwell with God forever. The idea of a multitude does not easily lend itself to our understanding of enjoyment and happiness, for in our mortal, physical life, multitude usually means a lack of space or room and other inconveniences we suffer in such gatherings. Our material life and understanding of things hinder our true grasp of the inconceivable multitude of the blessed standing before God. But familiarity with spiritual things reveals that the idea of number here poses no problem or hindrance because each saint has been perfected in the love of God. So each is a holy spirit relating directly to God and possessing him as if he is the only one made to enjoy God...

SATURDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Phil 1:18-26; Ps 41:2-3,5; Lk 14:1,7-11 Our Mortal Life and Death in Christ Our fallen nature and nurture make it difficult to think of death or the end of our mortal life without trepidation or fear. Our long sojourn in the prison camp of the powers of darkness has distorted our understanding of life and death. We now fear what we should not fear and tremble before what we should never fear. All of this results from our long association with the father of lies and illusions. We have received new spiritual and eternal life by acceptance of Jesus Christ. But we are still unfamiliar with what we have received from the Father of love as an eternal inheritance in Jesus Christ. We rarely enter our spiritual selves to get familiar with the gift of life and the giver. We still enjoy the company of the dead in the land of the dead, and the silence of the spirit holds a foreboding fear for us. The Scripture and the Spirit keep inviting us to taste...