Reflection from Friar Nicholas

OUR LADY, QUEEN AND PATRONESS OF NIGERIA Isa 11:1-10; Ps 72:1-2,7-8,12-13,17; Eph 2:13-18; Mt 2: 13-15,19-23 Ending the division within and without The Church in Nigeria celebrates the solemnity of Our Lady Queen and Patroness of Nigeria. We invoke the mother of Jesus Christ with this title to implore her intercession in our dire situation in Nigeria. We ask her to pray for us that God may rescue our country, which is sinking deeper and deeper into sin and corruption. The reading from Isaiah is about the promise of the Messiah for all nations. The prophecy of Isaiah about the Messiah who shall come from the tribe of Judah and the Son of David holds for all countries. “A shoot springs from the stock of Jesse, a scion thrusts from his roots: on him the spirit of the Lord rests, a spirit of wisdom and insight, a spirit of counsel and power, a spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.” This prophecy came to fulfilment at the coming of Jesus Christ, conceived by the Holy Spirit

ST. JEROME, PRIEST, DOCTOR Job 1:6-22; Ps 17:1-3,6-7; Lk 9:46-50 Salvation of the Just from the affliction of evil We have the beginning of Job in the first reading today. The reading has many hidden lessons we can learn to foster our relationship with God. The first that seems very obvious is the fact of Satan attending to God with the sons of God. By this, we must understand that every rational creature of God is among his sons. They all attend to God, from whom they receive life and sustenance. God sustains all his creatures in being, both material and immaterial creatures. They also ask God for permission to carry out a course of action. Nothing moves in the heavens and on earth without God knowing and permitting it. The attending of rational creatures is what we call prayer. The good and bad angels pray to God for permission to carry out actions or bring about ends that agree with his divine will. God usually hears or permits these prayers based on his divine justice in acco

SUNDAY, TWENTY SIXTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Num 11:25-29; Ps 19:8,10,12-14; James 5:1-6; Mk 9:38-43,47-48 Anyone not against us is for us The Lord made all things for good and never for evil. When man's sin derailed creation, he did not waste any time giving his word to prop it up and bring it back to the good end for which he made it. We see this readiness on the part of God in the gift of his word that sustains creation and the gift of his Holy Spirit, who manifests the work accomplished by his word as expressing the divine will. We see these liberal gifts of God in the passage from Numbers, where God extended the gift of the Holy Spirit to the seventy elders chosen to help Moses in the work of administration of the people of Israel. This action shows that in the cause of the salvation of the people, the gifts that God gives to a chosen one or a chosen few are for the people. The reason he gives these gifts to a chosen person, or few people is not to exclude the rest of the

SATURDAY, TWENTY FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eccl 11:9-12:8; Ps 90:3-6,12-14,17; Lk 9:43-45 In the morning, let us know your Love In today’s passage, the Preacher advises the youth to be mindful of God as they enjoy their youthful years. Knowing how difficult it is to think of God in our youthful years, the Preacher gives us this advice to save us from regrets and sorrows later in our advanced age. This advice is important and necessary because of the attractions of the youthful age. The strong desire to explore what life has in store for the human spirit, to experience everything that appeals to the senses, and to give free rein to budding emotions and sexuality. These are the words of Qoheleth. “Rejoice in your youth, you who are young; let your heart give you joy in your young days. Follow the promptings of your heart and the desires of your eyes. But this you must know: for all these things God will bring you to judgment.” Hence, it is a gain to acquire wisdom from the very b

SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL, PRIEST Eccl 3:1-11; Ps 144:1-4; Lk 9:18-22 Understanding our Times in Christ Time is one of the most important resources given to each of us. Thus, a man living by heavenly wisdom learns how to use time to attain his proper end. The time for our natural birth is not of our making but determined by God for us. But there are two types of birth for each of us: the natural birth and the spiritual or supernatural birth in Jesus Christ. While the former is outside our determination, the latter is within our decision, aided by God’s grace. Parents sometimes initiate their children into the Christian faith, thereby determining their spiritual birth for them. It still belongs to each person to choose to live a spiritual life or not. In this sense, the spiritual birth is within our decision. God determines each person's time at conception, and none knows the duration of his time unless it is revealed to him by God, whose providence guides all things. The natural

THURSDAY, TWENTY FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eccl 1:2-11; Ps 90:3-6,12-14,17; Lk 9:7-9 Wisdom reveals the Vanity of created Things We have praised the man who lives with the right reason as one living with heavenly wisdom. Wisdom is the virtue that helps us to order things to their proper end. Hence, the man who understands the end of created things and their limited and proportionate goods has the light of heavenly wisdom. Everything God created has a proper end, which we have called their adequate good and defines their use. The finitude of the good and usage of every created nature took a poignant manifestation after the original fall of man, which introduced death and corruption into our experience and creation. God permitted death as the consequence of the rejection of his word to allow man to understand the result of his disobedience to the divine will, which is our eternal life. Thus, disobedience to divine will, enshrined in his word, is the cause of human toil and vanity

WEDNESDAY, TWENTY FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Prov 30:5-9; Ps 119:28,72,89,101,104,163; Lk 9:1-6 He gave them Power over unclean spirits The readings lead us deeper into the relationship between God’s word and man. We have rightly noted, following the scriptures, that the man who acts with the right reason already lives with heavenly wisdom because reason is the divine light shining within his rational creatures. By this God-given light domesticated in man, we can understand the proportional goods in the created material universe. In other words, the light of reason is the domesticated word of God within man or his ambassador in us. Hence, we act in synchrony with the will of God whenever we act with the right reason. Every created thing has a truth of its being; that is, the reason for which God brought it into existence. This reason makes it a good thing. We act with the right reason when we desire and attain anything created for the reason God made it. By the light of reason,

TUESDAY, TWENTY FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Prov 21:1-6,10-13; Ps 119:1,27,30,34-35,44; Lk 8:19-21 God’s Word makes us children Today's readings extend our consideration of God working through everything in nature to reveal his holy will to us. We have noted how God works in the natural ordering of things. Hence, a man who observes and learns from natural proportionality in desire and operation is already learning from the heavenly wisdom. The passage from Proverbs extends this divine presence to the will and activities of a king. Since leadership or rulership is a natural thing, it follows also that God uses the leader or ruler of a people to publish his will to those under him. “Like flowing water is the heart of the king in the hand of the Lord, who turns it where he pleases.” Notice that the author made no distinction between good and bad kings. This distinction is irrelevant to God’s employment of men’s hearts. Like the way God makes the sour and the sweet grape, he has

SAINT PIUS OF PIETRELCINA (Padre Pio) Prov 3:27-34; Ps 15:2-5; Lk 8:16-18 Making our light shine before Men The readings continue the contrast between the just and the godless, which we commenced with the Sunday readings. We commented yesterday that the life of a right-thinking man is already in accord with heavenly wisdom. We based our position on the understanding that nature is the ordinance of the divine reason operative in the universe of things. Thus, the counsels of the book of Proverbs are valid for any man of any nationality. Hence, we see that before the advance of Christianity in any part of the world, there were men who were already disciples of the Eternal Wisdom. These are the first recipients of the Gospel whenever they hear it. These counsels are lived by these naturally just men, who bear and live by the light of God’s pervasive wisdom. “My son, do not refuse a kindness to anyone who begs it, if it is in your power to perform it. Do not say to your neighbour, ‘Go

SUNDAY, TWENTY FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Wis 2:12,17-20; Ps 54:3-6,8; James 3:16-4:3; Mk 9:30-37 The Root of War in our Members James the Apostle leads us to the root of every war within each man and between men. The root cause of all wars is inordinate desires in men. Desire, by itself, is not evil, for desire precedes every action. Desires classified as evil are not rationally coordinated to their goals or desired goods. We judge the desire of a Christian good when it is spiritually directed and rooted in the love of God by which a Christian must live. James the Apostle writes to us concerning desires. He starts with a general description of the cause of war and then dwells on what is specifically Christian. “Wherever you find jealousy and ambition, you find disharmony, and wicked things of every kind being done.” We see this general principle of wars among men in the passage from the Book of Wisdom. The root of jealousy is in the godless. It is natural because reason guides

FEAST OF ST. MATTHEW, APOSTLE, EVANGELIST Eph 4:1-7,11-13; Ps 19:2-5; Mt 9:9-13 Maturity in the knowledge of Jesus Christ We celebrate the feast of St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist. We bring our reflection this week on faith and work to a close. The passage from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians offers a closing insight into the theme. He repeats what we have already seen within the week about the different gifts of the Holy Spirit given to each Christian and how these gifts work together to build up the Body of Christ. The point or aspect worth stressing is the unity required as a hallmark of the Church of God. According to Paul, the source of the unity is the Trinity of God and is the defining and identifying mark of the Church. So, we must sacrifice every other thing to preserve it. “Do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together. There is one Body, one Spirit, just as you were all called into one and the same hope when you were

Saints Andrew Kim Taegon, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs 1 Cor 15:12-20; Ps 17:1,6-8,15; Lk 8:1-3 Submission to Death based on hope in Resurrection There are many Christians who overtly answer Christians but who do not believe the whole Christian doctrine. As we reflected yesterday, our faith must be founded on the truth of the Gospel to be effective and bear the required fruits. St. Paul continues his emphasis on the core contents of the Christian Gospel. From Paul's testimony of Christ’s resurrection from the dead, which was witnessed by all the apostles and himself as the last and least expected apostle, he moved on to those who rejected the resurrection of the saints. In his response to those peddling this incomplete Gospel, he connects the root, the stem, and the branches as making up the same mystical vine that is Jesus Christ. If God raised the vine from the dead, he would raise the branches. In Paul’s argument, it is the same to deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ

THURSDAY, TWENTY FOURTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 1 Cor 15:1-11; Ps 118:1-2,15-17,28; Lk 7:36-50 Faith must match Doctrine to be Effective After giving detailed consideration to the spiritual gifts, St. Paul again decided to establish the foundation of the Gospel he preached to the Corinthians. The re-outlining of the Gospel or the Christian doctrine was important in the face of the wrong ambition of some members who got carried away by their charismatic gifts. As we noted, the gifts require our faith in Jesus Christ. But they are not the measure of our merits as Christians. They help realize the presence of the Lord and the extension of his salvific work for souls. Because they are operations of the power of God through us, we do not automatically acquire merits by exercising them. The Christian merits are based on faithfulness to our Christian profession of faith in the Gospel we have heard and received. The summary of the Gospel preached to us by Paul is as follows. “Well then, in

WEDNESDAY, TWENTY FOURTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 1 Cor 12:31-13:13; Ps 33:2-5,12,22; Lk 7:31-35 The Higher and Perfect Gift of Charity Faith is a supernatural gift of God that offers us a capacity to contain God and become a channel of his work among his people. Notice that this definition of faith is about what God will do through us, besides the biblical definition of faith as the substance of the realities we do not see and assurance of blessings we hope for. Defined regarding us, we related faith to the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit Paul mentioned yesterday. Possessing the gift of faith as a foundation, the Holy Spirit works through us with the various gifts given to each member to carry out our Lord’s mission of saving souls. Without faith, we cannot manifest these gifts, and we will not witness the saving presence of the Lord in the community. Today, Paul highlights the dangerous pitfall and warns us against it. The pitfall abides even with the presence of faith and ab

TUESDAY, TWENTY FOURTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 1 Cor 12:12-14,27-31; Ps 100; Lk 7:11-17 God has visited his People Returning to the theme for the week, faith and work, we quickly note that Christian faith defines a condition for God’s work in us, individually and collectively. That is to say that just as faith opens a way for our relationship with God, it is also a provision God made in each faithful to be able to work through him. So, the nature of our faith defines the limit of our interaction with God, that is, the extent we can connect to him. Better still, it limits how much God works through and with us. Back to the questions our Lord asked his disciples on Sunday, we see that the two questions were to probe the disciples' faith and push for their greater participation in his life and ministry. Their answer on who the people hold him to be was not wrong; he is a prophet of God. He could have been John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. That was there t