Reflection from Friar Nicholas

ST. JOSEPH THE WORKER, MEMORIAL Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP Act 15:1-6; Ps 122:1-5; Mt 13:54-58 Theme: A Prophet despised in his own Country On this first day of May, celebrated universally as the Day of Workers, the  Church  puts St. Joseph forward for our imitation and reverence. The question for our reflection is: from where does labour derive its dignity? This question helps us to cast our minds back to the very origin or the beginning of all things in Genesis. There, we discover that work or labour is a human thing. By this, we mean that labour is natural to the human person.  This   is seen  in the fact that the account of creation in Genesis presents work as coming from God to man. The first thing to note is that God worked to bring everything into existence. Thus, creation came about as a result of divine work, which immediately tells us that work is a  divine  activity. God worked and rested. “Thus heaven and earth were completed with all their array. On the

OUR LADY MOTHER OF AFRICA, FEAST Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP Act 1:12-14; Lk 1:46-55; Lk 1:26-38 Mary the Mother of Jesus was with them We celebrate the feast of Mary, Mother of Africa, today as we reflect on Mary’s participation in our lives as Christians. The mother of Jesus Christ played a unique and irreplaceable role in the life and  salvific  mission of Jesus Christ. From our understanding of the relationship between us and Jesus Christ, which Jesus used the analogy of the vine and the branches to put across to us, we see a unique role that Mary plays in the life of each Christian.  This  is evident in the continuity between the vine and its branches. A vine and its branches together make a whole tree. There is also a continuity between Jesus Christ and each Christian. This continuity is what the scriptures refer to when Jesus is called the Head of the Church. The humanity of Jesus Christ as the mystical head of the Church is continuous with each Christian as a membe

FEAST OF ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA,  VIRGIN, DOCTOR Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke,OP 1 Jn 1:5-2:2; Ps 103:1-4,8-9,13-14,17-18; Mt 11:25-30 Theme: Our Participation in the Mystery of Christ The analogy of the Vine and the branches employed by our Lord to enlighten us on the mystery of our relationship with him helps us to understand how we participate in his mystery. Since His humanity is the principle of our new life of faith, our union with him brings us to share his divinity. We underscored the Holy Spirit as the most sublime flow coming from his divinity through his exalted humanity to us, his members. Given that the Spirit is consciousness, it implies he dwells within us and in our consciousness through his Spirit. The Spirit is the basis of our communion with the Lord and one another. Consciousness of this fact brings the awareness of living in the Light. “God is light; there is no darkness in him at all. If we say that we are in union with God while we are living in darkness,

  SUNDAY, Fifth Week of Eastertide Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP Acts 9:26-31; Ps 22:26-28,30-32; 1 Jn 3:18-24; Jn 15:1-8 Theme: The Vine and the Branches The analogy of the vine is so apt for understanding our relationship to the humanity of Jesus Christ, and his heavenly Father. The vine and its branches form a whole, just as we form a mystical whole with Jesus Christ. This wholeness is realised at our profession of faith in his divinity, for that is what connects us to the root of the Vine; in this case, the Eternal Word who is the second Person of the Blessed Trinity. The humanity of Jesus Christ is rooted in his divine Person and draws life from him. The humanity of Jesus Christ is the visible form of the Eternal Word who is the true knowledge of the Father. Hence, as the Son proceeds from the Father and is one with him in all aspects, in the same way, the humanity of Jesus Christ draws life from the Person of the Word and represents him to us in every

SATURDAY, Fourth Week of Eastertide Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke,OP Acts 13:44-52; Ps 98:1-4; Jn 14:7-14 Theme: Appreciation of the Heavenly Pasture God the Father is not known but through the Son who reveals him to us. It is through the meaning communicated by the word we come to know the Person. In the same way, the Father is seen only through the Son, for he is the image of the unseen God and the true reflection of his divinity. But these considerations are in the abstract. The Father reveals himself concretely as we meditate on his word and contemplate his goodness in our lives. Every perfect gift comes from the Father. Since the gift of the Good Shepherd is the most sublime, it reveals the goodness of the Father most. The gift of the Holy Spirit is another sublime gift we have received from the Father, though mediated by the Son.  This  makes the daily interaction with the divine presence of the Risen Lord, through prayerful meditation on the word and adoration of h

FRIDAY, Fourth Week of Eastertide Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP Acts 13:26-33; Ps 2:6-11; Jn 14:1-6 Following the Good Shepherd Jesus admonished the apostles not to let their hearts be troubled in the gospel. They are to trust in him and God. Consider that this is from the Good Shepherd to his sheep. As a sheep of Jesus Christ, what does it mean to trust the shepherd? The words of our Lord belong to the flock; we are to  ruminate  on them. It is difficult to develop confidence and trust in God. Trust is not a virtue that comes easily to us, for our biological and emotional systems  are wired  in such a way that any physical, biological, emotional, and psychological problem triggers the hormonal system that puts the body under stress and burdens the mind with anxiety. Successful control of anxiety is possible on the level of perception of reality and principle of living. We will be able to control or remove  anxiety  and worry from our hearts when we see and understand

ST. MARK, FEAST Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP 1 Pet 5:5-14; Ps 89:2-3,6-7,16-17; Mk 16:15-20 Theme: The Signs Associated with Believers Different signs characterise the life of a Christian. St. Mark the Evangelist, whose feast we celebrate, gave us some of these signs in the gospel passage. The first reading from the first letter of St. Peter also indicates another set of signs which ought to characterise the life of a Christian. We regard the signs given in the  gospel  as charismatic signs or gifts. These are gifts given to Christians by the Holy Spirit. These gifts are not directly involved in living a good Christian life or their sanctification but are  given  for the demonstration of the power of God to people outside the Church and those within the Church sometimes. The gifts are mainly for the building of the Church of Jesus Christ. The use of these gifts is towards the conversion of unbelievers to the Risen Lord. They show forth the presence and power of God wo

WEDNESDAY, Fourth Week of Eastertide Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP Acts 12:24-13:5; Ps 67:2-3,5-6,8; Jn 12:44-50 Theme: Set Apart by the Spirit of Truth The Father who draws the sheep to the Good Shepherd prepares them to hear and recognise the voice of the Shepherd. The Father created the whole world and sustains it by his word. Thus, even before we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we were already prepared to recognise his voice by the reality that came into existence through him. Deep within us is a light of conscience that draws from the light of the word God. It judges our doings, whether they correspond to the truth we know or  are characterised  by the rejection of truth and inclination to falsehood. These daily rejections or acceptance of what we know to be true accumulate into our rejection or acceptance of Jesus Christ. Thus, we have seen that the sheep of Jesus Christ  are drawn  from all parts of the world. All who have been listening to the voice of truth dee

TUESDAY, Fourth Week of Eastertide Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP Acts 11:1-18; Ps 42:2-3,43:3-4; Jn 10:1-10 The Sheep that belong to the Good Shepherd The Jews who were prepared and drawn by the Father to Jesus Christ refused to come to him in faith because they did not belong to him. That is to say that they did not recognise the voice of the Truth because they hesitated and failed to commit themselves to him. They would rather have lies and readily accept lies than the truth that Jesus proclaimed to them. They fell into this state of falsehood by preferring themselves to the word of God. Hence, Jesus accused them many times of changing the word of God or its meaning to do their own will. The habitual putting of self before God and his word has rebranded them into children of evil. By continually preferring their will to God’s will, they tuned their ears and lives to lies and falsehood, such that they could not recognise Truth when they heard it. They demanded that ou

MONDAY, Fourth Week of Eastertide Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP Acts 11:1-18; Ps 42:2-3,43:3-4; Jn 10:1-10 Theme: Fullness of Life in the Good Shepherd Humanity belongs to the Almighty God, who made it for his good pleasure. God is the one who keeps the gate of humanity because human existence belongs to him. The evil one entered through the window, the weakness in the beautiful nature that God made, and corrupted it with sin. He intended to hijack what belongs to God and destroy it. The statements of our Lord in the gospel contain this much. “I tell you most solemnly, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold through the gate but gets in some other way is a thief and a brigand. The one who enters through the gate is the Shepherd of the flock; the gatekeeper lets him in, the sheep hear his voice, one by one he calls his own sheep and leads them out.” Because the Father commanded the Son to become man, Jesus entered through the gate. In another meaning, because Jesus Chri

SUNDAY, Fourth Week of Eastertide Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP Acts 4:8-12; Ps 118:1,8-9,21-23,26,28-29; 1 Jn 3:1-2; Jn 10:11-18 The Good Shepherd laid down his life for his Sheep St. John called our attention to the great love the Father has lavished on us. This love of the Father is only now very obvious to us because of the resurrection of the Lord. The resurrection has proved beyond doubt that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. By rising from the dead, he proved to us the divine power at work in him that was the object of faith before his death on the cross. The awareness of the Father’s love for us follows our realisation that God gave us his Son to be our redemption. Just as the Church sang in the Easter Exultet, ‘To ramson a slave, you gave away your Son.’ The Father gave the life of his Son in human nature to have us back as his own. “Think of the love that the Father has lavished on us, by letting us be called God’s children; and that is what we are.” We are tru

SATURDAY, Third Week of Eastertide Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP Acts 9:31-42; Ps 116:12-17; Jn 6:60-69 Theme: The Sacrament of the Eternal Word The doctrine of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ is part of the core mysteries of the Incarnation of the Eternal Word of God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. Our Lord presented the teaching authoritatively and demanded faith in the divinity of his word and person. As we reflected yesterday, one who refuses to accept the divinity of the Son of Man would surely refuse to accept the teaching of our Lord on his Body and Blood. Hence, he corrected the Jews when they compared him to Moses and the manna he fed their ancestors in the wilderness. Moses fed their ancestors with manna through the wilderness. They referred to the story and compared it to the miracle of feeding the five thousand with five loaves and two fish. They wanted Jesus to make the feeding recurrent. The Lord clarified to them that it was not Moses but G

FRIDAY, Third Week of Eastertide Reflection from friar Nicholas Okeke, OP Acts 9:1-20; Ps 117; Jn 6:52-59 The Necessity of Eating the Sacrament The gospel passage we have today is one of the demanding teachings of our Lord in the Gospel. The difficulty is in its content and the method the Lord used in presenting it to his audience. The content is the subject of his body and blood. He presented his body and blood to his audience as food necessary for their salvation. The Lord moved from presenting himself as the bread of life they must receive to the specification of his body and blood as food and drink. It was not too difficult for them to admit his word as he presented himself as the bread of life; they understood him as implying his words or teaching that they must adhere to or live on. The Lord moved from the mention they made of the manna their forefathers ate in the wilderness as a sacrament of God’s word to the presentation of his body and blood as real food and drink. His

THURSDAY, Third Week of Eastertide Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke,OP Acts 8:26-40; Ps 66:8-9,16-17,20; Jn  6:44-51 Embracing the World as a Sacrament Everything God created or brought into existence has obediential potency to fulfil the divine will. What this means is that as creatures of God, everything does the bidding of God at all times, knowingly or unknowingly, living and non-living things alike. This statement and its meaning are crucial in understanding how everything or every event serves as a sacrament of God’s will. It gives the background to a deeper understanding of the words of our Lord in the gospel. “No one can come to me unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God,’ and to hear the teaching of the Father, and learn from it, is to come to me.” Our Lord implies here that those who interpret the events and things in their lives correctly and act accordingl

WEDNESDAY, Third Week of Eastertide Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke,OP Acts 8:1-8; Ps 66:1-7; Jn 6:35-40 Seeing the Sacrament and Believing the Reality The Lord used the miracle of bread and fish to attract the people to himself so that he may teach them. On the other hand, the desire for material food moved the people to seek Jesus. Those who are moved by their desire for physical food are moved carnally. They came in search of more bread and fish from the Son of Man. But Jesus presented something better for them to eat. He gave them spiritual food and drink to eat and live a spiritual life. But they could not eat the spiritual food and drink because they were not spiritually alive. To eat the spiritual food, we must be spiritually alive. To be spiritually alive, we must encounter the Son of God. But they cannot connect to the Son of God through the Son of Man given to their physical eyes without faith. They cannot have faith if they are not open to receiving it from God, w