Reflection from Friar Nicholas

SATURDAY, FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Heb 4:12-16; Ps 19:8-10,15; Mk 2:13-17 The Healing Power of the Word We concluded yesterday in our reflection that the Son of Man is the new Moses guiding us to the rest God promised his people, and he is the way leading to the rest and the promised rest. Because the rest is a spiritual state God achieves in us through his word, a relationship between God and us existing in our souls, Hebrews explains the power of God to accomplish this in us. The basis of this power is the identity between God and his word. The word carries the creative and life-giving power of God into us. Thus, a constant inlet of the word of God with faith gradually drives away shadows of evil within us and exposes us to the healing power of God. “The word of God is something alive and active: it cuts like any double-edged sword but more finely: it can slip through the place where the soul is divided from the spirit or joints from the marrow; it can judge the secret emoti...

ST. ANTHONY, ABBOT Heb 4:1-5,11; Ps 78:3-4,6-8; Mk 2:1-12 Seeking and Entering God’s Rest The author of the letter to the Hebrews talks about the place of rest for God’s people. He refers to the Israelites and their journey to the Promised Land God gave them. Employing the text Psalm 95, where God swore that the disobedient children of Israel would not enter his land of rest, he argues that the promise of entering God’s presence still stands for all believers. “Be careful: the promise of reaching the place of rest that God had for the Israelites still holds good, and none of you must think that he has come too late for it.” Understanding that Hebrews was a letter to Hebrew Christians excluded from their traditional worship in the Temple of Jerusalem because of their faith in Jesus Christ, the explanation becomes even more meaningful. These early Jewish Christians felt so distraught and alienated from their root that they were tempted to abandon their Christian faith and return to...

THURSDAY, FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Heb 3:7-14; Ps 95:6-11; Mk 1:40-45 Safety in the use of God’s Gifts We have reflected on the authority and power of God that flow into our nature through the Incarnation of the Eternal Word and how the same authority and power become ours when we profess faith in the Son of Man and follow him attentively in his life and teaching. The authority and power from Jesus Christ grow in us as we grow in our faith and conformity to his life and teaching, for by so doing, he comes to live in us through his Spirit from whom we draw spiritual life and inspiration. There is also a complementary means through which we receive and exercise the power of God; this is through the gifts of the Holy Spirit given to us gratuitously. Every gift of God is free, for we can never merit the heavenly gifts he gives us; above all, the salvation he gives us in his Son Jesus Christ. The charismatic gifts that God gives us through the Holy Spirit are comparable to the pote...

WEDNESDAY, FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Heb 2:14-18; Ps 105:1-4,6-9; Mk 1:29-39 The Authority from God The author of the letter to the Hebrews explains the dynamics of dominion or authority we receive from God. Since every power or authority comes from God, who is the source of existence and life, to know and work in harmony with the immutable will of God is to have the authority of God. So, the possession of authority is not self-originated or self-directed by a rational creature, for it is only a mediated authority. We own the authority to the extent we own or appropriate the will of God for his creation. The authority the Son of Man exercises comes from his total conformity with the will of the Father. Psalm 40 puts this consecration in the mouth of the Son when coming into the world. The power of the blood of the Lamb flows from this consecration of the Lamb to the will of the Father; it is, therefore, the same power of God the Father as directed toward our salvation from sin ...

TUESDAY, FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Heb 2:5-12; Ps 8:2,5-9; Mk 1:21-28 God placed all Things under Man’s Care Scriptures make us understand that it was the will of the Father to place all his creatures under the dominion of man he made in his image. The divine will was expressed in Genesis when he created Adam and Eve and put them in charge of his creation as stewards. Man's role as steward of God’s creation would attain perfect ion when he is made like God. The disruption caused by the original sin of Adam and Eve affected their relationship with God, and the divine project on man was halted. Man could not exercise his role as the steward of God’s creation well because he deviated from God’s will and could not be made in the likeness of God as God intended. Though the rational nature of man still kept him at the top of God’s material creation, the dominion God intended for man to have over all his creation was not attained yet. The devil and the fallen angels usurped man’s ...

MONDAY, FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Heb 1:1-6; Ps 97:1-2,6-7,9; Mk 1:14-20 Learning what We must Do from Christ Jesus Christ is now born in mystery, which we celebrated in his baptism yesterday, and the Father’s declaration that the Son of Man is his beloved Son is a direct presentation of him for our imitation. The Father’s testimony is given to us to instruct us on what we must do to have eternal life or be well pleasing to him. To say that the Father gave Jesus Christ to us in mystery as his beloved Son is to say that all that Jesus Christ will say or do are divine truths that are deeper than the human mind; we cannot understand them ordinarily, but we must believe them because they are revelations of the Father’s will. Mysteries are divine truths that are beyond the comprehension of unaided human minds. Thus, the Father’s voice strengthened our faith in the divinity of the Son of Man, given to our human experience by his Incarnation, whose origin is in God the Father. In this...

BAPTISM OF THE LORD Isa 40:1-5,9-11; Ps 29:1-4,9-10; Tit 2:11-14,3:4-7; Lk 3:15-16,21-22 Our Immersion into the Mystery of God The Church's celebration of the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ brings the Christmas season to an end. The story of the nativity and infancy changes to that of the Man, Jesus Christ, who comes to the River Jordan to be baptised by John the Baptist. During the celebration of his nativity, many people were presented to us as witnesses to his prophetic birth as the Messiah, beginning with the host of angels who summoned the shepherds to the Manger where Mary laid him. The Church celebrates the event of his baptism as a special moment of his birth in mystery, for his appearance at the River Jordan marks the commencement of his institution of the mysteries of the Church’s faith. Three great witnesses are present at this great event: John the Baptist, the greatest and the last of all the prophets, the Eternal Father whose voice we hear from above, and the ...

SATURDAY AFTER EPIPHANY SUNDAY 1 Jn 5:14-21; Ps 149:1-6,9; Jn 3:22-30 The Son of Man must Increase in Us The new self we conceive through faith in the mystery of the Incarnation is in the likeness of the Son of Man. Since the new self lives in communion with the Holy Spirit, our spiritual life develops by the will of the Father. Because prayer is a spiritual activity in union with the Holy Spirit, it extends the prayer of the Son of Man, our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, Saint Paul says in his letter to the Romans that prayer is our acknowledgment of God as our Father in union with the Holy Spirit. Saint John talks about our confidence in prayer given this understanding. “We are quite confident that if we ask the Son of God for anything, and it is in accordance with his will, he will hear us; and, knowing that whatever we may ask, he hears us, we know that we have already been granted what we asked of him.” This confidence in prayer is always commensurate with the purity of our conver...

FRIDAY AFTER EPIPHANY SUNDAY 1 Jn 5:5-13; Ps 147:12-15,19-20; Lk 5:12-16 The Witnesses of our Healing Saint John uses the world in his first letter to represent all who live in falsehood because they lack the truth of God. The same falsehood makes the people in the world fall under the grip of the devil called the father of lies. They live in bondage by believing and living a life of falsehood; they propagate the kingdom of evil and darkness. We were once in that kingdom because of our thoughts and manner of life before we professed faith in Jesus Christ. Saint Paul says we were then under the rulership of forces of evil and powers of darkness. But our profession of faith in the Incarnation of the Word of God has set us free from that kingdom. The liberating power of the mystery is what John writes about in today’s reading. “Who can overcome the world? Only the man who believes that Jesus is the Son of God: Jesus Christ who came by water and blood, not with water only, but with w...

THURSDAY AFTER EPIPHANY SUNDAY 1 Jn 4:19-5:4; Ps 72:1-2,14-15,17; Lk 4:14-22 Fulfilling the Word of God in our Lives The Church prays that each of her children may be bathed in the radiance of the light of the Redeemer, who is the Eternal Word of God. The radiance for which she prays is gradually attained by all who believe in the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word and allow their faith to enlighten their everyday reality and dealings. As we have noted, this is the only way to give birth to a new self we conceived in our union with the Word. Because what we conceive in faith is conceived in union with the Word, it is light from light and we will deliver the new self to be like the Son of Man, for we conceived it in the power of the Holy Spirit. The better and known self is the incarnate of the Son of Man. Since the new self is conceived in the better knowledge of the Father’s love for us demonstrated in the Son’s incarnation and dwelling among, it will live in love and not in...

WEDNESDAY AFTER EPIPHANY SUNDAY 1 Jn 4:11-18; Ps 72:1-2,10-13; Mk 6:45-52 Truth purifies and illuminates our Minds Our knowledge of the truth of the mystery of the Incarnation is like a source of light introduced into our minds. To believe that the Eternal Word became man and dwelt among us as one of us is to start a journey into the mystery of light. His Incarnation grants direct access to every human soul who makes an act of faith in his divinity. This belief connects us directly to the divine reality and helps us feed spiritually on his humanity, the Sacrament of salvation, given to our senses. Saint John testifies: “We ourselves saw and we testify that the Father sent his Son as saviour of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him, and he in God. We ourselves have known and put our faith in God’s love towards ourselves.” When we accept this testimony of the apostles and believe what they said about the Father sending his Son to be our sa...

TUESDAY AFTER EPIPHANY SUNDAY 1 Jn 4:7-10; Ps 72:1-4,7-8; Mk 6:34-44 Maturity of Knowledge in Love We have claimed the experience of those who had personal and physical encounters with the Word who became flesh for the love of us and for our salvation. We have authenticated and continue to validate their accounts and their faith expressed in the divine reality beyond what they saw, felt, and touched with the Word of God given in the prophets and the Law. We continue to work the process of reading, authentication, and validation of the accounts of the apostles, disciples of the Lamb, and others who experienced the Incarnate Word and believed in his divinity as a way of building our faith in the mystery of the Incarnation, which is the firm foundation for the Church’s faith as mentioned yesterday. When we receive the gift of faith and grow it through this spiritual process and exercise, by which we come in contact with the Sacrament of our faith through the senses of our brothers a...

MONDAY AFTER EPIPHANY SUNDAY 1 Jn 3:22-4:6; Ps 2:7-8,10-11; Mt 4:12-17,23-25 Moving from Darkness into Light We have celebrated our solemn feast of Epiphany, God revealing his Only Begotten Son, who made his home in our mortal flesh, to all peoples and nations. It is one thing for God to show us the truth so visibly given in our flesh and within our reach and another to take possession of what God has revealed. It is now within our human strength to acquire what God has given us all and make it the hinge of our lives. The Magi did see Mary and her child, but what they did after seeing was an act of worship, which comes from their acceptance of the gift of faith God has given them and owning it by acting correspondingly to the gift. Their action proved that they did not come from their respective nations and domains driven by inquisitiveness but by a genuine desire to know and live by the truth. They saw Mary and the child Jesus Christ for us and also prostrated in adoration on ou...

SOLEMNTIY OF THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD Isa 60:1-6; Ps 72:1-2,7-8,10-13; Eph 3:2-3,5-6; Mt 2:1-12 Revelation of Salvation to the Nations The solemnity of the Epiphany is about God’s revelation of the salvation he prepared for all peoples and nations. The prophecy of Isaiah concerning the great revelation is the first reading. God will reveal himself in Jerusalem and attract all peoples and nations to see the glory of that revelation for their salvation. “Arise, shine out, Jerusalem, for your light has come, the glory of the Lord is rising on you, though night still covers the earth and darkness the peoples.” The darkness that covers the earth and the people is due to a lack of God’s knowledge on earth. The ignorance of God’s ways and will causes the people to wander in moral and spiritual darkness. When the people do not know the will of God on earth, forces of evil reign supreme and people lose hope of salvation or eternal life. The Lord, who is merciful and loving, does not deny ...

SATURDAY, 4 TH JANUARY 1 Jn 3:7-10; Ps 98:1,7-9; Jn 1:35-42 Learning to live like Him God has raised the horn of salvation for us in the House of David, as Zechariah revealed under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in his praise of God. By the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, God has opened the door of holiness within our human nature for all to enter. The Incarnation of the Word is the revelation of the Father’s loving will for our salvation and an invitation to us to participate in the divine life. The cause of the Christmas joy is the commemoration of these events of God, which caused even the angels to join us in our jubilation. The celebration of Christmas joy should not end in eating and drinking alone; it should evolve into truly spiritual joy and holiness of life. The meaning is that our celebration of God’s munificence has borne fruit in our lives. We have celebrated in vain if these results are not visible in our lives. Thus, Saint John warns us not to be deceived. “My...