Reflection from Friar Nicholas

SATURDAY, THIRTY THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Rev 11:4-12; Ps 144:1-2,9-10; Lk 20:27-40 He is the God of the Living The reading from the Book of Revelation is quite intriguing. It is the prophecy about two witnesses to the Gospel expected to appear before the end of time. It is difficult to ascertain whether they are actual men or a symbol of two distinct sets of people that would testify to the Gospel. “These, my two witnesses, are the two olive trees and the two lamps that stand before the Lord of the world. Fire can come from their mouths and consume their enemies if anyone tries to harm them; and if anybody does try to harm them, he will certainly be killed in this way.” The appearance and activities of these two witnesses are unique interventions from God for the salvation of many people who are walking the path of perdition. The signs and miracles they are permitted to work are the last graces to cause the conversion of sinners. The wonders they would work: preventing rain f

  SAINT CECILIA, VIRGIN, MARTYR Apo 10:8-11; Ps 119:14,24,72,103,111,131; Lk 19:45-48 The importance of Eating the Word of God Away from the liturgical setting of the previous visions, John’s vision turns to our daily activities as Christians. These activities outside temples or churches of God also draw from the liturgical activities, during which we hear the word of God and consecrate ourselves to do his holy and immutable will. One of the roles we play as members of Jesus Christ is to help further or carry out his mission of proclamation of the will of the Father to everyone. The facility with which we accomplish this duty depends on how well we have received and chewed the word of God. As Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, that faith comes from hearing the word of God. Paying attention to the word of God read during our liturgical activities is of utmost importance, for the word of God feeds us spiritually and enables us to proclaim the will of God in words and deeds. Fo

PRESENTATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY Apo 5:1-10; Ps 149:1-6,9; Lk 19:41-44 The Sacrifice of the Lamb The vision of the heavenly and mystical liturgy continues in today’s reading as John receives new aspects of the holy and immutable will of the Father. From yesterday’s reading, we received enlightenment on the sacredness and holiness of the One who sits on the everlasting throne and how the lightning, peals of thunder, and the accompanying voice give the holy will of God. The whole creation adores and worships the immutable will of the Father, enforced by the seven Spirits of God. The Eternal Word reveals the will of the Father, symbolically given in the strange four animals John described. He still enters the vision with the unique symbol of a sacrificed Lamb. The appearance of the Lamb enriches the liturgical interpretation of the whole vision, for the heavenly liturgy is incomplete without the Lamb, who is the High Priest and the Victim at our liturgical sacrifice. The symb

WEDNESDAY, THIRTY THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Apo 4:1-11; Ps 150; Lk 19:11-28 The Man of Noble Birth and his Kingdom John gives us his vision of heaven in today’s reading. From his description of the eternal throne of God, it is tough to decipher the correct meaning of all that he presents to us, for the language is all in symbols. The images used must not be understood in a literal sense, for what he describes for us is the source and hub of eternal and spiritual realities. We attempt to decode some of the symbols in the following. A door opening in heaven implies spiritual access to John to understand things beyond human capacity. Recall that St. Paul once had similar access to heavenly realities, as he revealed in 2 Corinthians, where he saw and heard things impossible to capture in any human language, which remains secret even after God has revealed them. In the same understanding, John goes up according to the command of the voice he heard, not by transversing space and time

TUESDAY, THIRTY THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Apo 3:1-6,14-22; Ps 15:2-5; Lk 19:1-10 Living and dinning with the Lord In the message given to the church in Sardis that we read today, the Lord starts again with his perfection in holiness and the knowledge of the truth. His abiding presence among us through the Holy Spirit he sends into the Church and within us gives him a first-hand witness about our spiritual and material constitutions. His words should make us afraid of our shortcomings: “Here is the message of the one who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: I know all about you: how you are reputed to be alive and yet are dead.” Through the Holy Spirit, who searches our deepest part and constitution, the Lord knows when we have abandoned the interior disposition in pursuit of external accolade; he knows all we have done for peoples’ praise and not for the love of God, our Saviour. The turning to creatures was the cause of the spiritual death of many of the Christi

  MONDAY, THIRTY THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Apo 1:1-4,2:1-5; Ps 1:1-4,6; Lk 18:35-43 Winning the Victory in the Battle of Life St. John the Evangelist’s vision recorded in the Book of Revelation or Apocalypse is of things that are yet to happen. He said this in the introduction. “This is the revelation given by God to Jesus Christ so that he could tell his servants about the things which are now to take place very soon.” As an apocalyptic vision, the things seen and heard are about future events but not of a specific time, for they are of the general time frame. The particular time frame is understood and explained in the general time frame. Thus, the visions are true for every specific time in the future. The revelations are from God the Father, for he is the origin of all things. His divine will governs all events: past, present, and future. The Father gave them to Jesus Christ, the God-Man, who redeemed the world by his assumption of human nature, life, death, and resurrectio

SUNDAY, THIRTY THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Dan 12:1-3; Ps 16:5,8-11; Heb 10:11-14,18; Mk 13:24-32 The Sanctification of the Perfect The year of the Church is gradually drawing to a close, and the readings are increasingly about eschatological events. The first thing we note about the apocalyptic books of the Scriptures is that the events they describe are not historical but meta-historical or ahistorical events. By this, we mean that though we can understand the historical events within the interpretative framework they offer, the prophecies are for all times. The first reading from the Book of Daniel discusses a time of great distress that will come upon the world. There have been many times of distress and various forms of distress that have befallen the world. Each event can be understood within the framework of the apocalyptic prophecies. “At that time Michael will stand up, the great prince who mounts guard over your people. There would be a time of great distress, unparalle

SATURDAY, THIRTY SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 3 Jn 5-8; Ps 112:1-6; Lk 18:1-8 The Family as a Cradle of Prayer Life We come to the end of our reflection on the Christian family as a basic unit of the Church. The readings bring two essential roles of the Christian family to our minds. The first is the openness of the Christian family to visitors. The second is the material and spiritual contributions of Christian families to evangelisation. The two are well understood as an aspect of the mission of the Church to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If the Church has a divine mission to the world, all Christian families share in this mission of the Church. This universal mission also belongs to every Christian. The meaning of the universal mission to preach the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ opens every part of the Church to the world. One cannot close his arms or door to the same person he is to evangelise with the Gospel. Hence, Christian families, by constitution and mission, mus

ST. ALBERT THE GREAT, BISHOP, DOCTOR 2 Jn 4-9; Ps 119:1-2,10-11,17-18; Lk 17:26-37 The Perfect Sacrifice of Love Love is the perfection of faith. But our love of God cannot come without knowledge of God. Hence, we must progress in our knowledge of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Through the week, we have reviewed the family life and cast it in the light of our Christian faith as a vocation to sacrifice. The family is a school of love. If this statement is true, we must also say that we learn about the mystery of Jesus Christ in the family. The Eternal Word took our human nature so that he may recapitulate human life through his sacred humanity. He was conceived by a woman and born into a human family. By placing himself in the human family, Jesus teaches us that the family is a sacred place of God’s revelation. We made this point in our reflection yesterday. Our Lord taught us sacred lessons by everything he did, said, or affirmed by his silence. His life of sacrifice started in the ho

THURSDAY, THIRTY SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Philemon 7-20; Ps 146:7-10; Lk 17:20-25 The coming of the Kingdom of Heaven Once the spouses have established their faith in Jesus Christ, we consider their marriage similar to our Lord’s sending out the disciples in twos to preach the gospel. In their going out, the disciples recognised that the Lord entrusted his mission to them. Thus, they did everything in the authority of his name. The same applies to building a new family by Christian spouses; they must understand that the Lord gave them the mission. They are, therefore, to do everything in the name of Jesus Christ. They are to love each other, bear with one another’s faults or shortcomings, serve each other, bear children, provide and care for them, and die for each other and their children in the name of Jesus Christ. With this understanding, we have conceived the family as a place of sacrifice, namely, the basic unit of the Church. Just as the mission of the disciples carried

WEDNESDAY, THIRTY SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Titus 3:1-7; Ps 23; Lk 17:11-19 Joining the Perpetual Sacrifice The Church is a sacrifice, just as God is the Supreme Sacrifice. By this, we mean that God, who is consecrated to himself because he is everything perfect, has called us to consecrate ourselves to him in love. Our consecration starts with our profession of faith in Jesus Christ, which initiates spiritual life in us and deepens as we grow in our knowledge of Jesus Christ. As St. Paul’s letter to Titus has revealed to us the holiness of the family life, where each of us learns consecration by practicing devotedness to God through our devotion to each other in the family; the husband focussing on Jesus Christ, who teaches us consecration, practices that consecration by being devoted to his wife and children in love. Likewise, a wife sees Jesus Christ in her husband, consecrates herself to him, and devotedly commits herself to raising the children in the fear of God. The chi

SAINT JOSAPHAT, BISHOP, MARTYR Titus 2:1-8,11-14; Ps 37:3-4,18,23,27,29; Lk 17:7-10 The need to grow in our Consecration The two readings present us with the Christian attitude we need to grow in our consecration. As we stressed in yesterday’s reflection, our sacrifice starts imperfect because it is only faith-driven. But it is meant to grow and develop as we enter deeper and deeper into the mystery of Jesus Christ. The mystery we are considering is important for every Christian; for those called to religious life and those called to marriage or family life. Both vocations are constitutive parts of the Church. Hence, Paul details the sacrifices in the family life as part of the Church. His emphasis yesterday was on the character of those called to play the role of elders or presbyterium in the community of the faithful. Today’s passage dwells on the members of a Christian family. By treating all these aspects together, Paul wants us to understand that we have received the same vo

SAINT MARTIN OF TOURS, BISHOP Titus 1:1-9; Ps 24:1-6; Lk 17:1-6 The Character of an Elder The gift of faith we receive from God is an invitation to become a sacrifice, for God himself is the Supreme Sacrifice. Thus, anyone who believes and approaches God has undertaken to travel the path leading to sacrifice. Earlier in the year, we have reflected on the meaning of sacrifice as it applies to God. We understand the concept of sacrifice as consecration to a higher or rational course. Since God is the highest rational being, he is consecrated to himself. Thus, it is easy to see why the gift of faith comes with consecration to God, which is a sacrifice. We have explained that this consecration or sacrifice, which springs from the gift of faith we receive from God, is imperfect. The perfection of our sacrifice follows the acquisition of knowledge and love, causing the Blessed Trinity to dwell in our hearts. The only perfection of the sacrifice initiated by faith is what it has as the

SUNDAY, THIRTY SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 1 Kings 17:10-16; Ps 146:7-10; Heb 9:24-28; Mk 12:38-44 The Sacrifice of Faith Last week, we contemplated the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ based on his love for the Father. Because the Eternal Word is the knowledge of the Father from all eternity, the knowledge of the Father was the beatific vision of the Man Jesus Christ. Proceeding from his beatific vision, he sacrificed his life to the Father out of love for him and our salvation. Thus, we believe that the starting point of the Man Jesus Christ is our endpoint. We will attain the beatific vision of God at the end of our stay here on earth. But before then, we walk by faith on our pilgrimage of life. Our encounter with the Gospel reveals the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to us. In the revelation of the Gospel, we encounter the love of the Man Jesus Christ for us sinners and make an act of faith in his divinity and the Father's love revealed in his life. Thus,

DEDICATION OF THE LATERAN BASILICA, FEAST Ezek 47:1-2,8-9,12; Ps 46:2-3,5-6,8-9; Jn 2:13-22 The Dwelling Place of God The feast of the dedication of the Lateran Basilica is about the consecration of a physical building constructed by Emperor Constantine on the Lateran Hill in Rome in about 324. It is the mother and head of all the churches of the City of Rome and the western world. It is the Catedral of the See of Peter, as the Bishop of Rome. But it is more than just a celebration of a physical building. It is the celebration of God’s dwelling among his people. It is an opportunity to meditate on the vocation each of us has received to be a dwelling place of God. The physical building is holy to the extent it serves the purpose of aiding the holiness of those who worship God in it. Our holiness consists in God dwelling within us. So, the end of the physical building is the holiness of the worshippers. The church building is holy because it houses the celebration of the sacred my