Reflection from Friar Nicholas

SUNDAY, TWENTY FOURTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eccles 27:33-28:9; Ps 103:1-4,9-12; Rom 14:7-9; Mt 18:21-35 Our Mutual Forgiveness of Sin Forgiveness is so central to our Christian life and spirituality that it can be seen as another name for Christianity. Every Christian is born of forgiveness, for that is what our baptismal ritual implies. No one becomes a Christian without experiencing forgiveness of sins. This is because our journey to Jesus Christ originates from our recognition of our sinfulness. This humble beginning makes our Christian journey introspective. Our Lord stated this truth when he said that only the sick need a physician in Mt 9:12. Anyone who considers himself righteous will not need repentance; only the self-aware sinner seeks the Son of Man for forgiveness and spiritual healing. Since our nature was wounded from origin, we inherited a sinful nature and sin regularly. No one, therefore, is found without sin, except the Blessed Virgin Mary and her Son, Jesus Chri...

THE MOST HOLY NAME OF MARY 1 Cor 10:14-22; Ps 116:12-13,17-18; Lk 6:43-49 Our Common Inheritance God offers himself to us in the Incarnation of his Eternal Word, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, as our common inheritance and our salvation from sin and evil. The same God, who is goodness and rich in mercy, prepared a common foundation or receptacle in our human nature for his Word. We have always referred to the fall in Gen 3:15 as the moment when God promised to rebuild the corrupted human nature through the woman and her offspring. Since what God promised to accomplish through the woman and her Son is the common salvation of all peoples, the woman and her Son constitute our common inheritance or wealth. The name which the woman of promise received, therefore, points to this common inheritance. The name of Mary has been understood variously; but the most suitable and nearest to what the Blessed Virgin Mary stands for is ‘from the ocean or sea of grace’, or ‘ocean of grac...

FRIDAY, TWENTY THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 1 Cor 9:16-19,22-27; Ps 84:3-6,12; Lk 6:39-42 Knowledge of our Eternal Communion The Psalmist introduces today's theme. He speaks of the loveliness and attraction of God’s court. Of course, David’s immediate reference is the beautiful place he prepared for the Ark of the Covenant, even before Solomon built the Temple in Jerusalem; he also makes a mediated reference to the heavenly Temple of God. David was a mystic and always related to God. His mind and heart were rarely removed from contemplation of God and his Law. Thus, going to the house of God was a moment of exultation and joy, because he felt God’s presence more deeply with the physical things that relate him to God. More fundamentally, his joy in going to the court of God was from the spiritual encounter he would have with God there; for God dwells spiritually in his Temple. We must form the habit of going to the house of God to worship, for it is a great act of worship and a...

THURSDAY, TWENTY THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 1 Cor 8:1-7,11-13; Ps 139:1-3,13-14,23-24; Lk 6:27-38 Give, and there will be Gifts for You The humanly impossible religious demands our Lord Jesus Christ makes of us set Christianity apart from other human- or earth-originated religions. The divine precept to give without reservation is another way of demanding that we be perfect like our heavenly Father. The Son of Man did not just make the demand on us by mere words; he lived out the demand of love. The precept of charity is impossible with human strength or natural resources; thus, the Lord states that salvation is impossible from a human point of view and strength. But it is possible from God’s point of view. Hence, the demand to love all, friends and enemies, is another way to demand that we focus on God and not on creatures. To love as the Lord demands, we must never focus on the persons, but on God and his love for us. Our interior focus on God, as revealed to us by Jesus Chris...

WEDNESDAY, TWENTY THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 1 Cor 7:25-31; Ps 45:11-12,14-17; Lk 6:20-26 Happy are You who are Poor We have identified ‘self’ as the usual mask of the evil one, which he uses to enter our souls to steal, kill, and destroy. To do this, he makes us focus on what we possess, whether physical or spiritual gifts. Once we focus on ourselves and these divine gifts, it becomes easy for him to stir pride in us. Hence, Saint Paul asked the Corinthians a fundamental question: “What do you have that is not given to you? If it is given, why boast about it?” When we boast of anything we possess, we have already lost God, the giver of the gift. If our attention is on God in Jesus Christ, then we will boast in God, in what he does in us and through us. We boast in the Lord only when our attention is solely on him, and we understand that we are nothing without God. Awareness of ourselves as nothing before God is the groundwork for solid spiritual life. The spiritual Fathers call...

FEAST OF THE BIRTHDAY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY Rom 8:28-30; Ps 13:6-7; Mt 1:1-16,18-23 She was found to be with Child We celebrate the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary's birth. As in all our celebration and veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we rejoice exceedingly in the fulfilment of God’s loving promise to mankind. As the Scripture reveals, the promise of the woman is the original promise God made to the fallen man and woman. Though the promise came with that of her Offspring, which preceded the promise of the woman in principle, the promise of the woman ranks first in time and as pertains to our living condition. Though she is nothing without her Son, she is the beginning of the new dispensation of grace, for which all the ages of men hope. She is the beginning of a new world without sin and any allegiance to the devil. Because she is the principle or beginning of the world of grace, she is the mother of all the redeemed. Her birth is the birth or actualisation of th...