Reflection from Friar Nicholas

SOLEMNITY OF ALL SAINTS Rev 7:2-4,9-14; Ps 24:1-6; 1 Jn 3:1-3; Mt 5:1-12 The Blessed Children of the Eternal Father We celebrate the solemn feast of All Saints. It is a celebration of all the triumphant members of the Church. We praise and thank God for the great work of salvation he has accomplished in our brothers and sisters who have made it to the banquet of heaven, now waiting for us to complete their number. The revelation given to John captures the essence of our celebration. “After that I saw a huge number, impossible to count, of people from every nation, race, tribe and language; they were standing in front of the throne and front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands.” This vision confirms what we have reflected on from St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians throughout the week. We contemplate the mystery of God’s heavenly blessings given to all peoples, Jews and Gentiles alike, in Jesus Christ. He explained how faith in Jesus Christ admi

THURSDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eph 6:1-9; Ps 145:10-14; Lk 13:22-30 Spiritual Battle for Christian Families In yesterday’s Gospel, the Lord strongly admonished the one who asked him whether those God would save are few. The Lord’s difficult teaching must have prompted the question. The Lord did not answer his question directly but urged him to do his utmost to enter through the narrow path. The reason is that many who want to would be unable to enter. The Lord’s answer to the question is quite intriguing and disturbing at the same time. But it reminds us of the emphasis on the Christian journey as a journey into the mystery of Jesus Christ. It is the journey that will demand everything we have. God called us to embark on the journey of total transformation into Jesus Christ. The journey is a personal journey, though done within the faith community. Thus, the answer to the general question of how many would God save follows the answer to a more personal question of salv

WEDNESDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eph 6:1-9; Ps 145:10-14; Lk 13:22-30 The Family spiritual Sowing and Reaping St. Paul continues his exposition of the mystery of Christian life as obtained within the family setting. The growth of the Christian faith in the family is about sowing and reaping. Our Lord’s analogy of the mustard seed already points to this understanding. What we sow determines what we reap; if we sow in the field of flesh, we will reap corruption, and if we sow in the field of the spirit, we will reap peace, harmony, and eternal life. As mentioned yesterday, the man and woman are called in marriage to sow in the field of the spirit by obeying the will of God in their commitment to each other in marriage. The first fruit of their wholehearted commitment to the Gospel of the Lord is their sincere love and respect for each other. Their sincere love and respect for each other bear fruits in their children. Their children around the table like shoots of the oliv

TUESDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eph 5:21-33; Ps 128:1-5; Lk 13:18-21 The Mystery of the Kingdom of God In today’s reading, St. Paul deepens our understanding of the mystery by using the analogy of the love between a husband and his wife. While admonishing the Christian spouses on how to treat each other in marriage, he used the opportunity to further his teaching on the mystery of Jesus Christ and his Church. He used the union of husband and wife as an analogy for the mystery of Christ and his bride, the Church. The love between the husband and wife is a part of the mystery of the love between Jesus Christ and his bride, the Church. Hence, Christ’s love is active in the love of spouses. Their love for each other is part and parcel of their love for Christ. So, an increase in the love of a spouse for Christ would invariably increase the love of the spouse. Also, the diminution in the spouses’ love for each other indicates the diminution of their love for Jesus Christ. We

FEAST OF SS. SIMON AND JUDE, APOSTLES Eph 2:19-22; Ps 19:2-5; Lk 6:12-16 Called by the Will of the Father We celebrate the feast of the two apostles, Simon and Jude. The feast offers us an opportunity to reflect on the dignity of the vocation these two received from our Lord Jesus Christ, who chose them according to the will of the Father. The privilege of their call rests on the Person of the Eternal Word made flesh and dwelt among us. God called them to direct and physical interaction with God, who assumed our human nature to save us. What they witnessed was something beyond the human mind to imagine. The prophets of old foretold the coming of the Son of God, but the reality was something they could not have imagined, not to talk of believed if told to them. Our Lord himself made mention of the great privilege his call offered them. He revealed to them that it was the great desire of the men of old and the prophets to see what they were beholding and to hear what they were hear

SUNDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Jer 31:7-9; Ps 126; Heb 5:1-6; Mk 10:46-52 Called to Minister God’s Mercy and Love We read about the prophecy of Jeremiah for the restoration of the Judah. In the passage, Judah is hailed as the chief of nations because the Lord chose her of all the nations of the world to mediate the promise of Yahweh for the salvation of all peoples. The choice of Yahweh is a privilege for Judah and her people and a responsibility. Because they are to mediate the grace of God for all nations, they must live in faith in Yahweh and reverence his presence, which his promise bestows on them by the word of the promise. This choice they did not merit requires that they put their hope in God for what he promised. Without hope in God’s almighty power to realize what is beyond human ability, what God promised will not be given because of human inability to receive it. The reception of the promise also requires a certain level of charity; the people must love God t

SATURDAY, TWENTY NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eph 4:7-16; Ps 122:1-5; Lk 13:1-9 Coming to Full Maturity of Jesus Christ St. Paul continues his treatment of the unity of Christians. The ground of the unity God called us to build is Jesus Christ, his life, death, and resurrection. By assuming our human nature, he gave our nature a new lease of life. By his death, he rescued us from the dominion of powers of darkness and sin and restored us to our original vocation to be children of God. By his resurrection, he gave us the Spirit of adoption so that we may become what God intended us to be at creation. St. Paul explains that Christ’s going down to the lowest region was to defeat the powers of evil and darkness, and his ascending to the highest heaven was to reinstate us to our original position in accord with the Father’s will. “When it says, ‘he ascended’, what can it mean if not that he descended right down to the lower regions of the earth? The one who rose higher than all the hea

FRIDAY, TWENTY NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eph 4:1-6; Ps 24:1-6; Lk 12:54-59 Unity of the Mystical Body of Christ When St. Paul finished explaining the mysteries of the heavenly blessings we have received in Jesus Christ, he turned to what we are in the communion of the Holy Spirit. We are connected directly to the Father through faith in Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Our participation in the same Holy Spirit establishes a relationship between all the faithful. Our drinking of the same Spirit makes us members of the same Body of Jesus Christ. Hence, we do not live and act only as individuals but as a communion of spirits in the same Holy Spirit. Similarly, we do not believe and live as individuals alone. But our united faith in the same Lord Jesus has collective life and operates as a mystical organism, namely, the mystical Jesus Christ. This mystical reality is what Paul is referring to in the passage today. “There is one Body, one Spirit, just as you were

THURSDAY, TWENTY NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eph 3:14-21; Ps 33:1-2,4-5,11-12,18-19; Lk 12:49-53 Strengthening the Inner Man We come to the second prayer of St. Paul for the Christian community at Ephesus. The first prayer was for God to give them the spirit of wisdom and perception of what he has revealed. The second prayer is for them to grow strong in their inner self and grasp the love of Jesus Christ which is beyond knowledge. This second prayer, similar to the first prayer, is meant for every Christian. The grace he supplicates for them is a follow-up to the first grace for understanding what God revealed in Christ Jesus. Knowledge and experience separate our infancy from adulthood. To grow as Christians, we must acquire more knowledge and understanding of Jesus Christ and what he stands for us. Faith introduces and initiates our spiritual birth, but consistent prayer and eating of our spiritual food bring about growth in spiritual life. Hence, we have established that the

WEDNESDAY, TWENTY NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eph 3:2-12; Isa 12; Lk 12:39-48 Incomprehensibility of God’s Wisdom in Christ The spiritual riches God revealed to us in Jesus Christ are so vast and comprehensive that Paul considered himself fortunate above anybody with any other wealth. These riches belong to Jews and Gentiles alike, and their revelation empties any advantage the Jews had above the Gentiles. “If you read my word you will have some idea of the depths that I see in the mystery of Christ. This that has now been revealed through the Holy Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets was unknown to any men in past generations.” The greatness of this mystery is such that Paul’s main basis of boasting is this general revelation and not the specific ones given to the Jews. What is contained in Christ was not known to any man before Christ. Though he boasts once in a while about being a Jew, it is always to discredit those who pretend to put themselves and their physical descent

ST. JOHN PAUL II, POPE Eph 2:12-22; Ps 85: 9-14; Lk 12:35-38 Encountering God’s Mercy and Love St. Paul’s discussion of the peace that Jesus Christ has brought to the Jews and Gentiles alike is a suitable introduction to our celebration of the memorial of Saint John Paul II. He was a great Gospel man of God. He assimilated the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and became a preacher of truth and peace. According to Paul's explanation in the reading, the Gentiles had no Christ and were living with no hope and no part in the covenant of God’s blessings given to Israel. But this was as it pertains to Gentiles possessing no knowledge of the revelation of God’s mercy and love. “Do not forget that you had no Christ and were excluded from membership of Israel, aliens with no part in the covenants with their Promise; you were immersed in this world, without hope, and without God.” God had the Gentiles in his plan right from the beginning, even before the creation, as we read at the star

MONDAY, TWENTY NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eph 2:1-10; Ps 100; Lk 12:13-21 Encountering the Mercy and Love of God in Christ The perfection we attain thr8ough total obedience to the will of God is what brings our union with Christ and the Father to completion. It is the end of our journey into the mystery of Jesus Christ, which the Sacrament of the Eucharist models and enables us to strive for daily. Within the background of this vocation to conformity with the will of God, we understand sin as rebellion against the divine will and plan. Because Jesus Christ reveals the divine will to us, it is accessible only to those who have embarked with faith on the spiritual and interior journey. The degree to which we have switched from the senses to the spiritual life, to that degree, we have conformed to the will of God for our lives. To that extent, we have attained a sin-free life in Jesus Christ. According to the scripture, whatever is not of faith is sinful. We must each day die to th

SUNDAY, TWENTY NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Isa 53:10-11; Ps 33:4-5,18-20,22; Heb 4:14-16; Mk 10:35-45 Drinking the Cup of the Lord Conformity with the will of God is the high point of spiritual life. It is the perfection of our spiritual journey into God. It is through conformity with the will of the Father that rational creatures enter into communion with God. The mission of the Son of God is to make this possible for us men. By his life of total obedience to the will of God the Father, he gives us an example of conformity to God’s will and also redeemed us from sin and evil by the same act. The prophecy of Isaiah concerning the suffering of the Servant of God is about this plan of our salvation. “The Lord has been pleased to crush his servant with suffering. If he offers his life in atonement, he shall see his heirs, he shall have a long life and through him what the Lord wishes will be done.” The pleasure of the Lord is not in the suffering with which his servant is crushed, b

SATURDAY, TWENTY EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eph 1:15-23; Ps 8:2-7; Lk 12:8-12 The Knowledge and love of God Beginning with the heavenly blessings that God has blessed us in Christ, which St. Paul expounded in the passage we read yesterday, he prays for the Christian community at Ephesus and us that we may come to the knowledge of God. This knowledge of God is beyond the human mind because God is infinitely knowable. But the knowledge St. Paul prays for us here is a working knowledge that a Christian needs to live out his vocation here on earth. It is the knowledge of God that we acquire through the revelation of Jesus Christ in our renewed spirit and not through any creature on earth. The Holy Spirit helps us to understand the aforesaid heavenly blessings by revealing the divinity of Jesus Christ to us. The entrance into the mystery of Jesus Christ is also the knowledge of the Father because the Son is the knowledge of the Father. Hence, to know the Son is to know the Father al

FEAST OF ST. LUKE, EVANGELIST 2 Tim 4:10-17; Ps 145:10-13a,17-18; Lk 10:1-9 We are Labourers in the Harvest of the Lord We celebrate the feast of St. Luke the Evangelist. As we read in the first reading taken from the second letter of St. Paul to Timothy, Luke was one of the followers of the apostles. He was with Paul in some of his missionary work and had encounter with other apostles of the Lamb. He is the author of the Acts of the Apostles and the third Gospel, which, according to him, was an ordered account he put together for Theophilus from the testimonies of those who were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The vocation of a Christian is to bear witness to the Gospel in our daily life. The Gospel values are to define our lives. We must bear witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ daily by the kind of life we live. The most important and fundamental aspect of our call to be labourers in the vineyard of the Lord is this da