Reflection from Friar Nicholas

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...

WEDNESDAY, FOURTENTH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME Hosea 10:1-3,7-8,12; Ps 105:2-7; Mt 10:1-7 The Temptation to Idols God offers us more insight into why we seek to set up idols for ourselves through the prophet Hosea. The temptation to set up idols for ourselves is strong when we feel we have what it takes to control our destiny in life. When we have sufficient resources to meet our needs. When that is the case, we flaunt our wealth and riches and use the power they give us to put ourselves before others and oppress them. With enough wealth and riches to throw about, we look less to God for our needs. We gradually feel that we have no more need for God, or to spend time seeking his face or favour. We desire to worship only the God we can control or manipulate to accomplish our will. Since God cannot be manipulated by us, we end up with a god, an idol. We forget that everything we possess is from God, and we are nothing without him. Many of us seek material wealth because of the securi...

TUESDAY, FOURTENTH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME Hosea 8:4-7,11-13; Ps 115:3-10; Mt 9:32-37 The Constitution of Idols God made us to know him, to love him, and to serve him, so that we may be happy in his communion forever and ever. This is the Catechism response to the question: Why did God make you? The response may seem simple, but it has depth that we can never fully comprehend. From the simple response, we understand that God did not create us for ourselves; that means we do not exist or live solely to carry out our own plan in life. We are not supposed to plan our lives without God, our Creator. It is a grievous sin to live our lives without reference to God. What makes such an attitude very sinful is the fact that life itself is a participation in God, who is the supreme Being or Life. Understood correctly, every level of life draws from the existence of the supreme Life we call God. So, if sensible animals do not live without reference to God, how then can a rational soul live ...

MONDAY, FOURTENTH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME Hosea 2:16,17-18,21-22; Ps 145:2-9; Mt 9:18-26 Our Rediscovery of God As human beings, we are born with an innate desire for God, which ought to mature with time. In creating the material universe, God fashioned everything he made to be the means of our rising to our ultimate Good, who is God. He created everything good. The goodness of each creature is a share in the ultimate goodness of God. The same way our wills rise to the Supreme Good from desiring and using the limited or proportionate goods of creatures, our intellects also rise from the knowledge of creatures to the knowledge of the Eternal Truth that is God. As we noted yesterday, these two faculties are spiritual in their intent and operations. The evil one used the created good to lure man’s mind and heart away from seeking God. The inordinate desire for creatures causes sin within us. To win the hearts of men back to the end for which they were created, God decided to present...

SUNDAY, FOURTENTH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME Zech 9:9-10; Ps 145:1-2,8-11,13-14; Rom 8:9,11-13; Mt 11:25-30 Revelation of Hidden Mysteries The salvation of God, which is fully delivered in the Christian Gospel, is couched in deep mysteries. Why is that the case? This is due to the spiritual nature of human salvation. The human problem of sin is in the spiritual realm; the solution of the problem is therefore spiritual and packaged in such a way to reach the spiritual part of the human person and apply the remedy therein. Sin is a spiritual problem that wrecked the spiritual foundation of the human person. The human intellect (mind) and will are spiritual faculties; as such, they are the seat of our spiritual activities. Our spiritual foundation and structure are established through their operations. Our will, most importantly, must desire and unite with the truth conceived in our intellect to construct a solid and eternal structure where God lives within us. But our intellect has su...