Reflection from Friar Nicholas

THE MEMORIAL OF ST. JUSTIN THE MARTYR Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP   Jude 1:17,20-25; Ps 63:2-6; Mk 11:27-33 Building on the Foundation of Faith The holy apostle St. Jude gave us salutary advice in the first reading. It is beneficial to consider the advice in detail. He urged us to remember the words of the apostles of the Lamb on what to expect in our time. In other words, we are to go through the Epistles they wrote to the different churches that are now part of the Scripture. These scriptures serve as reminders of the prophecies they made concerning these later days. Their prophecies are being fulfilled before us, and many of us are not awake; many of us are moving along with the world, thinking that the strange events are the results of development. Not to be swept away by the flood of ungodliness raging through our time, he advised us to build on our faith. “You must use your most holy faith as your foundation and build on that, pray in the Holy Spirit; keep your

THE VISITATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP  Zeph 3:14-18; Isa 12; Lk 1:39-56 The Most Blessed of all women We celebrate the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to her cousin Elizabeth. The Church celebrates the glories of the Blessed Virgin Mary at every turn to recommend her to us as our mother and to urge our veneration and imitation of her numerous virtues. The gospel reading presents her swift and joyful response to heavenly tidings. The Blessed Virgin Mary does not just meditate on the word of God, but she acts on the word at the prompting of the Holy Spirit. The preceding event of the Annunciation by the archangel Gabriel left her brimming over with joy and heavenly grace. Thus, full of grace and joy, she thought of someone to share the plenitude of grace with; she moved swiftly to the hill country of Judah to share her grace and joy with her old cousin who, according to the archangel Gabriel, was also a recipient of th

THURSDAY, EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP   1 Pet 2:2-5,9-12; Ps 100:2-5; Mk 10:46-52 What do you want me to do for You? The encounter between our Lord Jesus Christ and Bartimaeus as he was leaving Jericho brings our attention to the subject of intentions for our prayers. Bartimaeus was sitting by the side of the road, begging for arms. When he heard that Jesus of Nazareth was passing, he cried to the Lord for help. He needed various things at that moment, but the one thing with priority was getting back his sight. This particular need took the position of priority because of the presence of faith in him, which made him cry out to Jesus for healing. For his faith in Jesus of Nazareth to be useful to him, he needed to get the attention of the Lord to put his request for sight through to him. Hence, he shouted at the top of his voice to win a hearing with the Lord. Though the shouting indicated his faith, it was not a sign of a strong faith. Hi

WEDNESDAY, EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP 1 Pet 1:18-25; Ps 145:12-15,19-20; Mk 10:32-45 The new birth from the eternal word of God The first reading has another aspect of the greatness of our Christian life. The fact that we were ransomed from slavery to sin and evil by the precious Blood of the Lamb of God. The Lamb was the great promise that God made to the patriarchs long ago, but now revealed for our redemption and salvation. “Who, though known since before the world was made, has been revealed only in our time, the end of the ages, for your sake.” The Lamb was known before the world was made. By this, we are to understand that the Lamb, as known by God, has his existence in the Godhead, and was revealed to the angels even before the world was made. We also understand from this statement that God’s wonderful plan for man was never an afterthought but from eternity. In the Godhead, the Eternal Word is known to have assumed human nature, for wh

TUESDAY, EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP  1 Pet 1:10-16; Ps 98:1-4; Mk 10:28-31 The Priceless Gift of God’s life given to us We continue St. Peter’s discourse on the new life we have received from the heavenly Father. The ancient prophets foretold the new life Christians received from God long ago. The Holy Spirit revealed it to them in connection with the promise of a Saviour to come. God informed them of the glory of the heavenly life that would be the lot of those who believe in Jesus Christ. “It was this salvation that the prophets were looking and searching so hard for; their prophecies were about the grace which was to come to you.” All their prayerful search and labour for the coming of the life of God was for our benefit. Our Lord confirmed this when he told his disciples that he was letting them reap what they did not work for; others have worked for the coming of the heavenly life, and they have entered to reap the reward of the wor

MONDAY, EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP   1 Pet 1:3-9; Ps 111:1-2,5-6,9-10; Mk 10:17-27 The Father gave us a New Birth by raising Christ The first reading this week is drawn from the first letter of St. Peter. He commenced with a profound thanksgiving to the Father for giving us a spiritual birth by raising Jesus Christ from death. Hence, Peter presented the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ as the principle of our new spiritual birth. We affirm the truth of this position based on the fact that the death of Jesus Christ brought the process of atonement of the sins of humanity to a successful end. With the sacrifice for the atonement of our sins completed, the resurrection marked the conferment of divine life on our human nature. Though the assumption of our human nature by the Eternal Word of God initiated this, the merit was yet to reach us, who share in human nature but are still under the bondage of sin and death. In other words, God c

THE SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP  Deut 4:32-34,39-40; Ps 33:4-6,9,18-20,22; Rom 8:14-17; Mt 28:16-20 Baptise them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit The celebration of the mystery of the Holy Trinity follows when we have completed the celebration of the Easter season. The time is well selected because the celebration of the Paschal mysteries of our Lord Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit prepares the background for understanding the mystery of the Trinity of the Godhead. From this position, we consider the gospel passage proper to introduction of this mystery. The first thing we are to garner from the gospel is that the Trinity is the heart of the Christian doctrine and life. Our Lord himself leads us in the understanding by his words and gestures. The mission he gave his disciples was to baptise peoples and nations in the name of the Trinity. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to m

  SATURDAY, SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP  James 5:13-20; Ps 141:1-3,8; Mk 10:13-16 Let my Prayer come before you like Incense We ascertain the spiritual health of a Christian through the quality of his prayer life. As we have stated many times in our reflections, prayer is the first operation of the spiritual life. Hence, prayer  commences as  a vital activity of our new life in the Holy Spirit. Just as St. Paul wrote that nobody can say Jesus is Lord without the Holy Spirit, nobody can pray without the Holy Spirit giving him the faculty or power to do so. Prayer is a spiritual exercise that requires our being alive spiritually before we can pray. When we receive spiritual life from God the Father through the merit of our Lord Jesus Christ, we reach out to God in prayer as a newborn baby does for its mother’s breast. The Holy Spirit nourishes us on spiritual milk that belongs to Jesus Christ; he is our spiritual food or bread from heaven. I

FRIDAY, SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP  James 5:9-12; Ps 103:1-4,8-9,11-12; Mk 10:1-12 Dealing with our unteachable human Nature From our reflections on the instructions of our Lord this week, what comes to the fore is the difficulty of handling our fallen human nature. The most outstanding reference to this comes from the Lord’s teaching in the gospel passage of yesterday, when he said that everyone will  be salted  by fire. How did our human nature lose its savour? The answer to the question is not farfetched, for we started the week reading the story of the fall of our human nature in the book of Genesis. The fall of human nature through Adam and Eve essentially means that the evil one planted his seed of disobedience and sin in our nature. Subsequently, each of us experiences the working of the law of sin within our members. The tendency to seek self in everything is the effect of the principle of sin in each of us. Our obsession with s

THURSDAY, SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP James 5:1-6; Ps 49:14-20; Mk 9:41-50 Everyone will be salted by Fire The gospel of today is a continuation of the Lord’s instruction to his disciples we started yesterday. We should recall that what initiated this instruction was the disciples’ argument about which of them was the greatest. The Lord frowned at them for allowing such a worldly concern to preoccupy them while  he was  talking to them about the sacrifice he was to make of his life. After reprimanding them for their worldly mindset, he started to enlighten them on what a position of authority entails in the new community. The superior in the community of God’s people is the one who serves his brothers and sisters and not the one who  is served . The one who serves others in love is more conformed to the will of the Father than the one who  is served . It is on this basis also that the one who supports the work of a disciple will merit a great

WEDNESDAY, SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP  James 4:13-17; Ps 49:2-3,6-11; Mk 9:38-40 Anyone who is not against us is for us The incident reported by John to Jesus Christ in the gospel opens our eyes to  God's  dealings with us. Selfish desires and interests usually cloud our judgment of issues and make us discriminate against others. As St. James made us understand in  yesterday's  reading, our selfish interests prevent us from receiving what we ask in prayer because we usually ask to indulge ourselves. God seeks and desires the salvation of everyone he has made, not just for the good of a selected few.  This  is because God is the Father of all, who gave us his only Begotten Son to be our salvation. If God shows favour to anyone or a selected group, it is that they may become instruments of his salvation to others. This understanding is the background of our  Lord’s  response to  John’s  report to him.  “ John said to Jesus,  ‘ Mas

T UESDAY, SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP  James 4:1-10; Ps 55:7-11,23; Mk 9:30-37 Striving for Communion with the Holy Spirit The Easter season  ended  with the celebration of the Pentecost on Sunday. We have relived the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the apostles and prayed for his renewed activity within us. The celebration of Mary, mother of the Church, is well situated by the Church, for the Blessed Virgin Mary precedes all in the reception of the divine Spirit and communion with him. One of the numerous reasons we recite the Rosary very often is to meditate on her many virtues and better imitate her life of holiness and purity. Shining the most among her virtues is her profound humility, which is the virtue with which she crushes the head of the proud serpent. Her profound humility made her the dwelling place of the Trinity. She is the Garden enclosed where the Most High delights to repose. St. James recommended the virtue of humilit

M ARY, MOTHER OF THE CHURCH Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP   Gen 3:9-15,20; Ps 87; Jn 19:25-34 Woman, behold your Son We celebrate the memorial of Mary as the mother of the Church . The  readings chosen by the Church for this celebration point to the mystery of the motherhood of Mary . She  is the mother of all the redeemed . As  the first reading from the book of Genesis shows, she entered the picture at  the fall of Adam and Eve, our first parents .  The  tragedy of the fall gave the evil one opportunity to enslave our nature to sin, which gave birth to death . God , to whom nothing can happen as a surprise, immediately unveiled his plan of salvation for the human race . As  we have noted many times in our reflections, whatever God utters by his word is already in existence, for the word of God creates reality . The  delay in the materialisation of the entities brought to existence by the word of God is due to the  faith of the people . Thus , the Woman and her Seed w

PENTECOST SUNDAY Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP Acts 2:1-11; Ps 104:1,24,29-31,34; Gal 5:16-25; Jn 15:26-27,16:12-15 Theme: I'mVariety of Gifts and different Services We celebrate the solemn feast of the Pentecost, which we consider the formal inauguration of the Church as the Body of Christ. It is true that Christ has died and risen from the dead and introduced his disciples into the new life of resurrection. But the official and public launching of the Church as the new people of God took place on this day of Pentecost when the Father showcased the Church to the world by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the disciples of Jesus Christ. The fullness of the gift of the Holy Spirit inaugurates the Church as the Body of Christ for the continuation of the work Jesus Christ did in his human nature. From the beginning, the gifts the Holy Spirit showcases through the disciples point to the nature of the Church. The Church of Christ is universal and open to all peoples a