Reflection from Friar Nicholas

SATURDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY Isa 58:9-14; Ps 86:1-6; Lk 5:27-32 The Healing Presence of God We start the reflection today by recalling that the creation stories we read from the book of Genesis and our meditations on the stories showed that the purpose of God’s creation of the universe was to guide man and woman to himself. God created the material universe to guide them through the ladder of created things to the acknowledgment and deep appreciation of the creator and God. In other words, creation guides us to a religious awareness of God and due worship of him. We must never forget this fundamental truth, a principle of our relationship with God. Guided by this basic truth, we can judge the value of every of our religious practices. Any religious act or moral behaviour that does not proceed from our awareness of God’s presence and goodwill towards us will surely miss the mark. Without this principle, we cannot keep or fulfil the precept of charity, as Yahweh demands through Isa...

FRIDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY Isa 58:1-9; Ps 51:3-6,18-19; Mt 9:14-15 THE USEFULNESS OF FASTING We focussed yesterday on the importance of prayer and its priority among the three activities the Church invites us to carry out this Lenten season. Given various forms of prayers, we identified reading and meditation on the word of God as the key to being in God’s presence, where there is fullness of redemption for us. The Church invites us to reflect on our practice of fasting, which is an ancient religious practice, as a means of advancing our course to God. Because fasting, by its very nature, is never an end but a means to something we intend to have, it can be well-ordered or easily disordered. It is disordered when the religious and spiritual end of pleasing or reaching God, is replaced with any other self-glorifying motive. The Lord denounced the fasting of the people of Israel on this basis. “Look, you do business on your fast days, you oppress all your workmen; look, you quarrel...

THURSDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY Deut 30:15-20; Ps 1:1-4,6; Lk 9:22-25 Imbibing the Culture of Life The Church sets things in their priority for us as we commence our Lenten observance. As we noted earlier in the week, the central attitude that drives our Lenten observance is repentance from our sins. Hence, we have posited the importance of breaking our old, hardened, and sinful hearts for the Lord to create a new heart for us. Since we obtain all these desirables only through the grace of our God, we cannot overemphasise the centrality of prayer as the primary Lenten observance. What manner of prayer should we practice more at this time? Since the word of God is the light with which we search out our deepest self, and we do not know our sins unless the word of God illuminates our hearts and reveals how far we have deviated from God’s will, our prayer should consist more of reading and meditating on the word of God. The word of God reveals how much we have imbibed the culture of dea...

ASH WEDNESDAY, EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Joel 2:12-18; Ps 51:3-6,12-14,17; 2 Cor 5:20-6:2; Mt 6:1-6,16-18 The Importance of a Broken Heart The Ash Wednesday celebration launches us into the season of Lent. It is a season the Church emphasises the practice of penance as an important aspect of our Christian life. The three central activities the Church puts before us are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. These activities aim to promote or solidify the foundation of our Christian faith and life, which we have conceived as repentance. In other words, they help break our hard and sinful hearts. In this season of Lent, the Church brings what ought to be a common feature of our Christian life, repentance, and penance, to the focus of all. The aim is to deepen our conversion experience and promote our growth in the Christian life. It is a time to intensify our desire to do the will of God, as the prophet Joel calls out in the name of God. “‘Now, now—it is the Lord who speaks—come back ...

TUESDAY, EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Sirach 35:2-15; Ps 50:5-8,14,23; Mk 10:28-31 Repentance as the Desire to do God’s will The passage of Sirach for today’s reflection sheds more light on why our Lord’s heart went out to the man who enquired about eternal life. As we noted yesterday, the man's observance of the commandments of God since his youth expresses a degree of commitment to God. Sirach confirms this by writing: “A man multiplies offerings by keeping the Law; he offers communion sacrifices by following the commandments. By showing gratitude he makes an offering of fine flour, by giving alms he offers a sacrifice of praise.” He had accomplished the first two religious exercises; he needed to do the remaining two to become like Jesus Christ. Going back to our understood purpose of God’s commandments and Law, that is, to reveal to us the nature of sin and the weakness of fallen human nature, what is of importance is not our success in keeping the Law and commandments bu...

MONDAY, EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Sirach 17:20-28; Ps 32:1-2,5-7; Mk 10:17-27 Becoming Clay in the Hand of the Potter We turn to the first reading of the eighth Sunday in the Ordinary Time for the introduction of today’s reflection. There, Sirach refers to the work of a potter in preparing the clay for his work. The idea of clay, the material for his work, comes to mind in today’s passage. Our repentance restores our clay-ness and readies us for the work of God in us. What makes clay desirable to the potter is its plasticity. The nature of clay is lost when this quality is lost. The same holds for us. God cannot work with us when we lose the attitude of repentance. It is similar to when Jesus called his disciples salt and said salt is useless if it loses its saltiness. Sirach emphasised repentance as what would make us like clay in the hand of God, the Potter. “To those who repent, God permits return, and he encourages those who were losing hope. Return to the Lord and leave s...

  S UNDAY, EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Sirach 27:5-8; Ps 92:2-3,13-16; 1 Cor 15:54-58; Lk 6:39-45 Bearing good fruits in the Vineyard of the Lord Every natural thing the Lord God made is faithful to the will of God expressed in its nature. Thus, at every turn of our gaze, we behold natural things in their faithful witnessing to God’s goodness and benevolence. We posited the lesson in faithfulness, which man is supposed to learn from the school of nature, as the reason for placing Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden full of good things to behold. Instead of conversing with these good and natural things, Eve conversed with the evil one and received a seed of corruption. Though we dwell no longer in the physical Garden of Eden, the Garden remains spiritually with us because the cause of the Garden is the word of God given to us. Thus, we have reflected that faith in the word of God admits us here and now into the Garden of Eden. So, we can still converse with the good and natura...