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THE ONE THING NECESSARY

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TUESDAY, TWENTY SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Gal 1:13-24; Ps 139:1-3,13-15; Lk 10:38-42 Charity receives from God Saint Paul uses his own life to highlight the subtle departure of the way of sin or wickedness from righteousness. Growing up with his parents who were practising Jews, he learnt the tradition of his people, the Jewish people, and became a Pharisee. He was zealous for the Law of God and persecuted Christians who were seemingly unrighteous in the view of the Pharisees and their ancient tradition. Nothing in his human ability would have helped him to realise he was in error and utterly sinful before God. “You must have heard of my career as a practising Jew, how merciless I was in persecuting the Church of God, how much damage I did to it, how I stood out among other Jews of my generation, and how enthusiastic I was for the traditions of my ancestors.” He correctly referred to his life then as following the tradition of his ancestors and not the tradition of God. It ...
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THE CHARITY OF GIVING AND RECEIVING

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MONDAY, TWENTY SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Gal 1:6-12; Ps 110:1-2,7-10; Lk 10:25-37 Charity Entails Giving and Receiving When we say that the Law of God is impossible for our human nature to keep, we do not say so simply. We rather mean it in a deep and spiritual sense. The Law of God is not just mere precepts about doing or not doing but entails a heart devotion to God. In this heart devotion we understand consecration and righteousness in the true sense of these words. It is a spiritual or mystical walk with God in the interior of our hearts, illuminated by his word that brings God’s presence within us. This self-giving corresponds to the true meaning of the Law; God’s self-revelation to his people as an invitation to participate in divine communion. The true understanding of the Law of God demands we receive God within us. There is a common misunderstanding which poses a pitfall to us always. It is the misunderstanding of the Law as a precept forbidding doing or not doing si...
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TENANTS MADE INHERITORS IN THE SON

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SUNDAY, TWENTY SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIMEE Isa 5:1-7; Ps 80:9,12-16,19-20; Phil 4:6-9; Mt 21:33-43 Gifts Beyond Our Prayer God made us for a lofty end: to be God’s temple forever. This original intention of God forms the foundation of our awareness, our knowing, loving, and doing. We had one opportunity to fix our gaze on the Eternal Word of God forever, for God to guide us to the realisation of the divine goal. But we missed the opportunity in our first parents, Adam and Eve, when they followed the temptation of the devil instead of keeping the word that God spoke to them. Since our nature was corrupted in Adam and Eve, we have begun to yearn for what we do not know. Our ignorance of what is truly good for us makes us forage in the world of creatures because we lack the light of God's word. Saint Paul explained that God prepared what has never entered the human mind or heart for those who love him. Saint Augustine further clarified that what God prepared cannot enter the ...
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GREAT LOVE IN LITTLE THINGS

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SAINT THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS, VIRGIN, DOCTOR Job 42:1-3,5-6,12-17; Ps 119:66,71,75,91,125,130; Lk 10:17-24 The Joy of the Beloved Knowing God's love for us is at the centre of our Christian spirituality and journey. This love is expressed in God the Father’s gift of his Son to be our Saviour, the sacrifice that takes away our sins. The Son’s love for us is evident in his obedience to the Father, accepting to become man in humility, even to the point of accepting death on the cross to save us and join us to himself. The Holy Spirit’s love for us makes him dwell in the Son's humanity and in all of us who believe in his saving death. The whole creation, by the Triune God, shows the same love of God. God made all things for our good and to lead us to comprehend his love and ascend to the divine presence. We have also contemplated God’s love in our celebrations of the angels: the archangels and the guardian angels. All these revelations and celebrations ought to inflame ou...
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ANGELS ON OUR GUARD

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THE HOLY GUARDIAN ANGELS Job 38:1,12-21,40:3-5; Ps 139:1-3,7-10,13-14; Mt 18:1-5,10 Angels Continually in God’s Presence We celebrate our guardian angels. This celebration complements our celebration of the Archangels: Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. Today, we celebrate all the angels in their role as our guardian angels. All the holy angels play this role at one time or the other. A guardian angel is an angel assigned to watch over a person or group of people. For example, Saint Michael the Archangel is the guardian angel of the people of God, Israel of old, and the Church as the new people of God. We recall that before the apparition of Our Lady of Fatima, the guardian angel of Portugal appeared to the three children to prepare them for the coming of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Especially, we celebrate our personal guardian angels. Each of us has an angel assigned to watch over us, guide us, and protect us every moment of our lives. Today’s celebration of our guardian angels reveal...
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THE POSSIBILITY OF PEACE AND JUSTICE

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OUR LADY, QUEEN AND PATRONESS OF NIGERIA Isa 11:1-10; Ps 72:1-2,7-8,12-13,17; Eph 2:13-18, Mt 2:13-15,19-23 In His Day, Justice Shall Flourish The Church in Nigeria celebrates Our Lady, Queen and Patroness of Nigeria, to mark our purported Independence from the colonial masters. In celebrating this solemnity today, the Church understands that human beings can be genuinely free only when we overcome the forces of sin, darkness, and evil within and around us. The Church wants us to understand that only God can truly set us free from oppressive forces that are within and about us. God is not tardy in sending his word for our liberation. What delays our freedom is our poor reception of his word; we must do so wholeheartedly and with faith. Historically, we got our independence from colonial forces on 1st of October, 1960. But time has shown it was a change from foreign exploitative forces to local exploitative forces. We have come to understand that our real enemies are within us, th...
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ACCOMODATING THE SON OF MAN

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SAINT JEROME, PRIEST, DOCTOR Job 9:1-13,14-16; Ps 88:10-15; Lk 9:57-62 No Accommodation for the Son of Man The Word of God is with God from the beginning and is God. He bears and expresses the Father's will in all things and sustains all things by divine power. He remains in all that he made through their different natures, but distinct from all his creatures because of his infinite power and perfections. We always understand the material creation as expressions of the divine will and attributes proportionate to us, mortal men. Hence, the whole of creation is a divine school for our education in divine knowledge. The limited nature of the divine attributes in creatures continuously draws and guides our minds and hearts to the invisible, infinite divine qualities that are spiritually discerned. We can climb these visible staircases of creatures to invisible divine attributes by our spiritual nature. But the advent of sin incapacitated our nature in this most essential task; it...
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