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THE MYSTERY OF GOD OUR FATHER

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SUNDAY, NINTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 1 Kings 19:9,11-13; Ps 85:9-14; Rom 9:1-5; Mt 14:22-33 Our Consciousness of the Father We hold the revelation of God as our Father as the very core and centre of the whole Gospel revelation from Jesus Christ as our Saviour. This is in total harmony with the divine identity of Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world. We believe and confess the fact that the Son of God took flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary and became man for our salvation. His purpose in becoming man and dwelling among us is to reveal the will of the Father to us; for the knowledge of the Father’s will is our salvation. At the same time, the salvation of man lies in believing in the identity and life of the Son of Man, who is the Son of God, but now dwelling in human nature. Hence, we say that the mysteries of Christ are the mysteries of our salvation. The two are not different, but have the same contents. The knowledge of the Father is the Son of God; as we conf...
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THE MAKING OF A PREACHER

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SOLEMNITY OF OUR BLESSED FATHER DOMINIC, PRIEST Isa 52:7-10; Ps 96:1-3,7-8,10; 2 Tim 4:1-8; Mt 5:13-19 The Gospel Man of Prayer We celebrate the solemn feast of our Blessed Father Dominic. It is a memorial for the universal Church, but a solemnity for us, Dominicans. Central to Saint Dominic and the Dominican identity is the preaching mission or apostolate. While the mission of preaching characterises Saint Dominic and the Dominican Order he founded, the activities that enter into the preparation of the preacher are not of less importance. The preacher is a messenger or an angel of the Lord, for that is what the word ‘angel’ means. As an emissary of God, the preacher must be well acquainted with the message and the mind of God, who is the author of the message of salvation for all mankind. The process of getting acquainted with the message of salvation or the Gospel is the same for an angelic being and for a mere mortal or man. He will need to wait on God, who prepares both the v...
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THE WAY OF PLEASURE AND THAT OF THE CROSS

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FRIDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Nahum 2:1,3,3:1-3,6-7; Deut 32:35-36,39,41; Mt 16:24-28 The Contrary Ways of the World and the Spirit The way of the spirit is totally against the ways of the world; what the world and the flesh glory in, the spirit shuns as despicable and worthless. Our bodies crave delectable pleasures, sweet sensations, material goods, but the spirit delights in truth, moral goodness, doing the divine will, and life in God. We celebrated the Transfiguration of our Lord yesterday. On the mountain, Peter beheld the glory of Jesus Christ and received so much sensible consolations that he expressed his wish to remain there and never to come down to the hard reality of life again. The same Peter denied the Lord Jesus Christ at the moment of his passion, placing a curse upon himself for knowing the Son of Man. All these demonstrate the weakness of our fallen human nature and how much we need God's grace. What the apostles found so enthralling and exciting...
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GOD UNVEILED FOR MORTALS

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THE FEAST OF TRANSFIGURATION OF OUR LORD 2 Pet 1:16-19; Ps 97:1-2,5-6,9; Mt 17:1-9 The Revelation of God God, in his infinite mercy and compassion, deigns sometimes to give us a sign that would help our poor and sinful nature to continue on the path of faith in Jesus Christ. We are so immersed in the physical world that walking by faith is such a burden to our poor, corrupted nature. God demonstrates a profound understanding of our plight and is always eager to assist us. He gives us daily signs and gestures to comfort us in our pilgrimage. He showers visible favours on us as sensible messengers of his love and providential care for us. We must see with the eyes of faith to interpret and understand these divine gestures and messengers on our path. The enemies of our salvation would always attempt to make us see these divine gestures as common by giving alternative interpretations of the sources of the favours we receive from God. They make us believe that they are coincidences th...
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A LOST SHEEP OF THE FATHER

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WEDNESDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Jer 31:1-7; Jer 31:10-12,13; Mt 15:21-28 Attention that makes the Sheep of Lord It is general knowledge that the attention span of children is very short. Hence, one must be very fascinating to hold a child's attention for a while. Their ability to remain attentive improves as they grow and develop an interest in a thing. We can be classified among the house animals based on our different spans of attention. We see a number of them feature in the Gospel of today. The dog is a hunting animal. It has a roving attention which suits its role in the security of the house. The cat is quiet and sneaky; it moves about for its own interest and gain. But the sheep is a serene and meditative house animal. They are very observant and easily follow instructions or patterns of behaviour. Their characteristic obedient behaviour endears them to their owners; they ruminate over what they have eaten when they are brought back from the pasture. The Lo...
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THE MAN WHO KNOWS GOD'S PRESENCE

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SAINT JOHN MARY VIANNEY, PRIEST Jer 30:1-2,12-15,18-22; Ps 102:16-21,29,22-23; Mt 15:1-2,10-14 Pulling up of False Plants Who can ever imagine the beauty and wonder of dwelling in God’s presence? But this is the gift the Lord our God has granted to us without our asking, for he created us to enjoy this banquet eternally with him. Once deceived by the ancient serpent, the human race became accustomed to walking without the light of God; we have grown accustomed to stumbling in the dark, without concern for light. In fact, we now harbour a fear of the divine light and the light of reason. The latter is derived from the former as the presence of God within our nature. How can any of us find our way back without the grace of God? The way of righteousness and integrity is so unknown to us that we consider it a path leading to nowhere, while in fact it is the path leading us to fullness of life and splendour of truth. The path leading to divine presence is within each of us, if only we...
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HARMONY OF REVELATION

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MONDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Jer 28:1-17; Ps 119:29,43,79-80,95,102; Mt 14:22-36 True and False Prophets Our understanding of God is often flawed. But that is usual, for we progressively move from darkness to light. Until the full light of the Gospel of God dawns in us, we easily misconceive God and his divine work within and about us. So, it is not out of place that we have incomplete knowledge of God. What is unacceptable is to think that we have comprehended God and insist that we are right and nothing else. This is the reason we depend on the Church for our moral integrity and to ascertain the truth of what we have conceived. The Church, as our mother, guides us in a deeper understanding of divine revelation and a better understanding of whatever we have received from God as revelation. Whatever we understand from the scriptures must be subjected to the greater light of the Church to remove error and emphasize the truth. Hence, God’s revelation of his word drives ...
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