Reflection from Friar Nicholas

WEDNESDAY, TWENTY NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eph 3:2-12; Isa 12; Lk 12:39-48 The Unexpected Coming of Jesus Christ In the Gospel, Jesus used the terms householder and servant to refer to us, his disciples. Both words emphasise different roles we are called to play as Christians. Both point to the role we have been called to play in the economy of human salvation. As we noted in yesterday’s reflection, the Son of Man is the builder of the House of God, as Nathan the prophet prophesied to David. He builds both the Church and each member of the Church, for we are God’s House, as individuals and as a community of believers in Jesus Christ. As long as the Son of Man is physically absent, each of us is the householder of the house of God within us. We are also householders in the communal sense to the extent we share in the ministries of Jesus Christ. All the baptised share in the ministries of the Son of Man as priest, prophet, and king. The Holy Spirit, who dwells in each of us, is ...

TUESDAY, TWENTY NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIMEE Eph 2:12-22; Ps 85:9-14; Lk 12:35-38 Faithful Servants of Jesus Christ We try to understand Saint Paul’s words in the first reading. He paints the lot of all of us, Gentiles, who were outside the Jewish race and therefore without faith, hope, and charity. If we remove our faith in Jesus Christ, which gives us access to divine promise and a new birth, what is left of this life? We are left with only the temporality of this present life. Without the divine word to guide our minds, we would sink into the sea of dissipation, as the whole world is; we would suffer the blindness we see afflicting people around us without faith. These are people who put all their hope in the passing things of the world and give all they have got to make themselves happy in this world of illusions. Paul revealed that such people are under the domination of demonic spirits. Those without faith walk in the darkness of error and disbelief. We see people who put i...

MONDAY, TWENTY NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIMEE Eph 2:1-10; Ps 100; Lk 12:13-21 We are Accountable to God We are unaware of God’s many investments in us and for our salvation. From the beginning of creation, God already made his plan for our good and made all things for the good of man and woman. God’s wonderful provisions for the well-being of the human person prompt the psalmist to ask why God has a vested interest in man. Divine provision for us spans both the physical and spiritual realms. God made us for himself and has spared nothing for the good and well-being of man and woman, whom he made in his own image. We must pay careful attention to the arrangement of things in the universe to comprehend universal divine providence. Psalm 24 notes how great the name of God is exalted in all the earth. Evidence of God’s greatness and his wonderful providence for us abounds in all the earth. But they are visible only to the eyes of the faithful. The Psalmist invites us to joyfully cry ou...

SUNDAY, TWENTY NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIMEE Isa 45:1,4-6; Ps 96:1,3-5,7-10; 1 Thess 1:4-5; Mt 22:15-21 Give to God what belongs to God Our lives and everything we possess belong to God, for he made us for his own good purposes. We do not judge the goodness of that purpose by our own ends, but by God’s. But because the goodness is from a divine end, it will ultimately be for our greatest good. The conclusion is that God’s love for us is immeasurable and beyond our human comprehension. Only in Jesus Christ, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, do we begin to understand God's divine love for us. Divine love is the basis of every plan and work of God in our lives. God plans for our good even when we do not know him. He created and cared for us without our knowledge. The plan he made for Cyrus, the king of Persia, without his knowledge is the subject of the prophecy in the book of Isaiah. “Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whom he has taken by his right hand to subdue ...

SAINT IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH, BISHOP, MARTYR Eph 1:15-23; Ps 8:2-7; Lk 12:8-12 The Divine Power for Our Salvation We gradually come to understand God’s view of us and the certainty of salvation through our steady journey into Christ Jesus, our Lord. After singing the hymn of praise to God for the wonder of all the heavenly gifts he has entrusted to the saints, whom he has adopted as his own in his Son, Jesus Christ, Saint Paul prayed for this enlightenment for us. “May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring you to full knowledge of him. May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit and how infinitely great is the power that he has exercised for us believers.” This enlightenment comes as we grow in our knowledge of Jesus Christ, who is the complete knowledge of God the Father. Everything the Chu...

FRIDAY, TWENTY EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eph 1:11-14; Ps 33:1-2,4-5,12-13; Lk 12:1-7 Worth more than Many Sparrows God’s appreciation of us is not in the present, but in what we will become when we reach perfection in Jesus Christ. We look at the present with all our shortfalls, shortcomings, and imperfections; we do not see beyond them to the future, to what we will become as we cooperate with God’s grace. As Saint Paul revealed in the opening hymn of his letter to the Ephesians. He praises God for his wonderful heavenly blessings he predestined for us in his Son, Jesus Christ. In this great opening hymn, he praises God for giving us every one of his wonderful and heavenly gifts in Jesus Christ, even before the world came into existence. So, God, who never fails in his plan, already sees what he will make of us if we cooperate with his grace, which is abundant in Jesus Christ. His infinite goodness and perfection treat us as if we are already perfect in Jesus Christ. Our fall...