Reflection from Friar Nicholas

NATIVITY OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST Isa 49:1-6; Ps 139:1-3,13-15; Acts 13:22-26; Lk 1:57-66,80 The Word and the Voice We celebrate the solemnity of the birth of John the Baptist. The celebration of his birth as a solemn feast is a privilege that the Church accords only to a few people, namely, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and John the Baptist. The celebration, therefore, shows the great honour accorded to the precursor of Jesus Christ. The celebration of the birth of John the Baptist highlights the goodness of human nature, created by God. As we have very often considered, our nature is made to house God Himself, who is goodness and the ultimate good and end of our nature. So, man is at his best when he is in total submission to God, our Creator. Subsequently, our nature comes to nothing when we turn away from God to creatures, which is what sin is. Sin, which is disobedience to God, renders our nature unfit for God and for his divine purpose. As Paul reminded...

TUESDAY, TWELVETH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME 2 Kings 19:9-11,14-21,31-36; Ps 48:2-4,10-11; Mt 7:6,12-14 Reverence for the Sacred Coming to the awareness of the sacredness of God and how that relates to your happiness and wellness in this life is not a mean achievement. Not many people seek to understand life and its meaning. Many people live like animals with eyes for sensible attractions alone. The Christian faith is a great gift we must cherish and thank God for. With the Christian faith comes the gift of self-awareness as we receive a new birth in God through Jesus Christ. The Son of Man lays the foundation of Christian spirituality in genuine self-discovery, which can only be given by the light of faith in Jesus Christ. We become aware of the holiness of God within the new and true self that Christ reveals within us. This knowledge is uncommon and must be guarded and cherished. We must make it our dwelling place and principle of our thoughts, words, and actions. The Son reveals ...

MONDAY, TWELVETH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME 2 Kings 17:5-8,13-15; Ps 60:3-5,12-13; Mt 7:1-5 Our Judgement of Others We continue on the Sermon on the Mount of our Lord Jesus, which we have considered the foundation of Christian spirituality. A foundation that is evidently more solid and deeper than that of the Old Testament and any other spirituality or religion. The foundation of Christian spirituality is laid deep within each person's interior. Such depth within each of us can only be accessed by the Son of Man through the Holy Spirit, for it is located in the centre of the individual person as the place of God within each of us. Thus, the spirituality arising from the Sermon on the Mount is unique to a Christian and cannot be imitated by any other religion or founded on any other name. Jesus Christ has the authority to lay this foundation as the Son of Man and the Son of God. As he affirmed himself in Jn 8:34-35, that the Son has freedom and authority in the House which no sla...

SUNDAY, TWELVETH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME Jer 20:10-13; Ps 69:8-10,14,17,33-35; Rom 5:12-15; Mt 10:26-33 Our Declaration for Jesus Christ Our quest for God, for the kingdom of God where righteousness will be at home, is an uphill task for the obvious reasons. First is the weakness of our wills, which have been weakened by the original and actual sins. Second is the fact of our habituation to physical or sensible things; believing and sticking with unseen realities becomes very hard and difficult. Third is the gravitational pull of the throng of those who follow the way of the world, pursuing and sacrificing themselves for the riches and wealth of this temporal world or kingdom. Fourth is the presence and activities of principalities and powers, thrones and dominions of demonic spirits who rule over these throngs of people desiring temporal goods and wealth. Fifth is the difficulty of discerning the true spiritual path amidst so much confusion and confused preachers of the Gospel. ...

SATURDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME 2 Chron 24:17-25; Ps 89:4-5,29-34; Mt 6:24-34 The Assurance of Tomorrow A fundamental reason the Lord calls us to interior prayer is because of the constitution of the physical world or reality. Living through the senses instils inside us worry and anxiety because of the constant change with which physical things are characterised. The constant changes we witness in the external world are supposed to invite us to interior life, where we encounter the true and unchanging reality. The account of the creation of the world, which is the beginning of the Holy Scripture, tells us that the sources of what we see is the unchanging word of God. So, we are to seek clarity about them, not in their ever-changing form of existence, but in the word of God, which is their principle. Subsequently, living and interacting with a changing world daily leaves us drawn out at the end of the day. To remain genuine to ourselves and focused on the goal and purpo...

FRIDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME 2 Kings 11:1-4,9-18,20; Ps 132:11-14,17-18; Mt 6:19-23 The Treasure found Within God is the end of man in the sense that we are made to live in the communion of the Trinity of Persons in God. The communion is possible because of the will of the Triune God to make us in his image and likeness. We are able to live in communion with God, sharing the life of God, because we share in the image of God. The communion in faith will bring us to be like God. The difficulty we face on our journey through life is to achieve likeness with God through maintaining a spiritual communion. It is the project of God that needs our cooperation to achieve. We begin with the image of God, for that does not require our cooperation, but is given to us as a gift by God. This is not the case with likeness to God; each of us must personally cooperate with the Triune God to become God-like. The project would be impossible without our conscious interaction with God, wh...