Reflection from Friar Nicholas

TUESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE    Acts 7:51-8:1; Ps 31:3-4,6,8,17,21; Jn 6:30-35 The Father Gives the Heavenly Bread All who are born of water and the Holy Spirit have the life of heaven or spiritual life. This life was not possible before the passion and death of Jesus Christ, because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Hence, no one could discern the things of heaven or possess heavenly life, for no one came from heaven to reveal God or make his will known here on earth. The Only Begotten Son of God assumed human flesh and lived among us that he might teach us about the Father and reveal the holy will of God to us. The revelation would have no effect if all the children were in bondage to sin and enslaved to the evil one. A slave does not own himself and therefore cannot give himself to another master when he is the slave of another. The only way open to a slave to escape the bondage of his evil master is rebellion, which leads to the death of...

MONDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE    Acts 6:8-15; Ps 119:23-24,26-27,29-30; Jn 6:22-29 Working for Spiritual Food The Easter celebration renews Christians’ spiritual youthfulness, as it is the celebration of our spiritual birth. At the celebration of the Lord's resurrection, the Church gives birth to many children, whom she gradually nurtures into the likeness of the man of heaven, and leads them on the path of eternal life. The Church gives birth to a multitude of children through water and the Holy Spirit, making men subjects of the kingdom of heaven. She is able to do this because of the presence of the Risen Lord within her. As the mystical body of Jesus Christ, the Church makes the Risen Lord present to her children, who are marked by their faith in the Son of Man, through the celebration of the paschal mysteries. These paschal mysteries of the Lord are the sources of the spiritual life she gives to her children and sustains in them. By her proclamation of the G...

SUNDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE    Acts 2:14,22-33; Ps 16:1-2,5,7-11; 1 Pet 1:17-21; Lk 24:13-35 Renewing Our Spiritual Youthfulness in Christ Our Easter celebration ought to renew our spiritual youthfulness, for it is when the Church puts these paschal mysteries before us anew. The mysteries themselves are ever new, for they contain eternal truths and goods which they make available to us through the Church’s liturgical celebrations. They are the mysteries of Jesus Christ, who has entered his eternal glory through his resurrection from the dead. By these mysteries that he entrusted to the Church to hold and celebrate for all ages to come, he makes her fruitful and renews her in the Holy Spirit. The mysteries are old in the passage of time and in their symbols, but remain new in their contents, which are ageless. We see the fruitfulness which Christ endows his Church in the number of her children baptised and joined the ranks of the faithful during Easter. The cele...

SATURDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE    Acts 6:1-7; Ps 33:1-2,4-5,18-18; Jn 6:16-21 The Son of Man Walking on the Waters The union of the human nature with the divine nature in the Son of Man is the ideal that prompted God to create man in the first place. According to the Greek philosopher Aristotle, the first in a genus is the principle in that genus. Adam was the first man made with the image of God, but the Son of Man is the first man perfected in the likeness of God. Since the making of man in the likeness of God is the end or purpose of our creation, the first man in the likeness of God is the principle of all others who would be made into the likeness of God. Saint Paul explained this mystery in 1 Cor 15: 46-48 “The spiritual, however, was not first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so also are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also ...

FRIDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE    Acts 5:34-42; Ps 27:1,4,13-14; Jn 6:1-15 Our Participation in His Cup The Son of Man is heavenly and earthly constituted and speaks our earthly language as a means of communicating his heavenly truths. What he communicates through the human language are heavenly truths he learnt from the Father for our salvation. Though he shares our weakness by his communion with us in our nature, he faithfully communicates the mind of the Father to us without any error. His faithful obedience to the Father is the basis of his passion and death. He faithfully endured suffering and death to fulfil the word of God that pronounced judgment on Adam and Eve after their disobedience. The faithfulness of the Son of Man proved his unity with the Eternal Word. Thus, united with the Word, his human nature is seen to belong to the Word that is immortal and invincible. The Eternal Word, which is shown to be the heavenly component of the Son of Man, raised h...

THURSDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTER    Acts 5:27-33; Ps 34:2,9,17-120; Jn 3:31-36 Everything Entrusted to The Son Although Nicodemus found it very hard to believe what the Lord taught him about earthly things, as the Lord mentioned, he still led him to heavenly mysteries. The reason is that we cannot do without these mysteries, which are the foundations of earthly things and events. The lack of knowledge of these heavenly mysteries would make us strangers in the house or kingdom of God. Even in this world, ignorance of the mysteries of Jesus Christ would make us slaves of principles of evil and dark forces. The Scriptures recognise them as principalities, thrones, and dominations of this world; they are ruling forces in the air, water, and under the earth. These claim the rulership of the earth and tend to lord it over human persons on earth. But the coming of the Son of Man is to take back the earth and bring it under divine dominion. The earth is now part of the kingdom of...