Reflection from Friar Nicholas

MONDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT Isa 4:2-6; Ps 122:1-2,4-5,6-9; Mt 8:5-11 Our Unworthiness to have the Son of Man It is customary to begin the Advent season with repentance for our sins and misbehaviour. As we begin to listen to the wonderful prophecies of the Messiah that God promised to his people and how he fulfilled the promise, we are moved by God's faithfulness to repent of our unfaithfulness. Understanding that our sins have been due to our lack of faith in God’s word, we repent and confess these sins that have kept God away from entering our lives and homes. What is required for us to gain the grace of repentance and forgiveness that God grants through his Son Jesus our Lord, is that we first acknowledge our sinfulness and past unfaithfulness and own the sins we have committed against God and not shift the blames to anyone; second is to express real sorrow for the sins with a firm purpose of amendment of our lives; third is to confess the sins to God through the priest at...

SUNDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT Isa 2:1-5; Ps 122:1-2,4-5,6-9; Rom 13:11-14; Mt 24:37-44 The Unexpected Time of the Son of Man The Church begins another cycle (A) of Sunday readings. The idea of the cycle fits perfectly well here, for we start the liturgical year of the Church on the same note of the coming of the Son of Man we ended with. This describes the concept of a cycle, wherein we end where we started and start where we ended. The end note of the Church’s year was that we should be eager, prayerful, vigilant for the coming of the Son of Man, so that his coming will not spring on us like a snare. We elevate our eagerness to see and be with the Lord by preparing in a special way, the celebration of his first coming in human flesh. This is what the season of Advent is all about. It is a time we prayerfully read, meditate, and contemplate the prophecies of the first coming of the Son of Man; we especially note the fact that God promised us redemption from sin and evil. He fulfil...

SATURDAY, THIRTY FOURTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Dan 7:15-27; Dan 3:82-87; Lk 21:34-36 How Sudden will the Day of the Lord be? How sudden will the Day of the Lord be? When will it come? These and other questions pertaining to the particularity of the Day of the Lord are considered to be irrelevant by the Church, as compared to the ultimate question of salvation for each of her children. The same attitude was displayed by our Lord when someone asked him whether many would be saved. Our Lord advised the one who asked him to concern himself with entering the narrow gate before the Master stands and closes the gate. The concern of the Church, therefore, is not about when the Day of the Lord will come or when the time will end. She is rather concerned about the salvation of souls, which is the mandate the Lord gave to her and to all of us, her children. Are we doing enough to save our souls and other souls? This is the question that should occupy our minds daily. What we know with certai...

FRIDAY, THIRTY FOURTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Dan 7:2-14; Dan 3:75-81; Lk 21:29-33 My Words will Never Pass Away The word of God will never pass away, for the word of God is God, as the Prologue of John’s Gospel states. Since the will of God is the foundation of the existence of all things, his word is the programme or the spirit that animates every existing or actual thing. While every creature has its span of existence allotted to it by God and sustained by his word that brings things into existence, each disappears as soon as it has run its course and the time allotted to it has expired. We are rarely aware that we are running on the programme defined by the word of God. How different our lives would be if we were fully aware of this important fact. But the scripture has the record of this fact, for we read in Psalm 139:14-16 “Thou knowest me right well; my frame was not hidden from thee, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth. Thy eyes beheld my unformed substance; in t...

THURSDAY, THIRTY FOURTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Dan 6:12-28; Dan 3:68-74; Lk 21:20-28 Alas for those with Child We have considered the entire creation as a school of divine knowledge, and our lives here on earth as a period of learning, given to us to understand the meaning of life and the natural realities as they relate to the divine. God has arranged the experience of each of us to suit the time we have to spend here on earth. If life is a divinely arranged programme of learning to know God, to love and serve him, there must surely be a time for examination. The tests come in various modes and at various times to help us make the most use of what life has taught us. Just as in every course of study, attention is crucial for us to learn the necessary lessons at each stage, to pass the test as it comes. The Teacher continues teaching at every stage of our lives. Many lessons are lost due to our inattentiveness. Our Lord is called the Good Teacher for he teaches us in a manner best...

WEDNESDAY, THIRTY FOURTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Dan 5:1-6,13-14,16-17,23-28; Dan 3:62-67; Lk 21:12-19 The Day of Judgment We are often deceived into thinking that we are insignificant in God’s plan of things. The evil one deceives us into thinking in such a manner. God knows each of us through and through, for he has made every intricate part of us and recorded every one of our days in his book, as Psalm 139 testifies. When we rate ourselves so low, we fail to grasp the important role we play in God's unfolding plan in creation. As we have emphasized through our reflections, we cannot grasp the dignity of the human person God created without reference to God. The purpose for which he made us is only revealed in God. Our low self-rating is a consequence of our ignorance of God and his word. God created the universe so intricately that everything is, in a way, connected to everything. Every one of our thoughts and actions has its resultant consequence on the course of the univer...

TUESDAY, THIRTY FOURTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Dan 2:31-45; Dan 3:57-61; Lk 21:5-11 Temporal and Eternal Gifts As human beings, we are habituated to sensible things. The cause is that the original fall dismissed the original glory of man and his ability to live spiritually. Thus, the tendency to spiritual knowledge and life is diminished or non-existent in us. Our birth and nurture have emphasised the materially given almost to the exclusion of the nonmaterial components of our experience. Yet we all must travel the spiritual way in order to come to God, our ultimate end and good. This is the lesson our Lord taught Nikodemus, the Pharisee, who came to him in the night to enquire about the truth. He represents all of us who walk by what our senses can perceive. Our Lord emphasised the need to be born spiritually in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. It is not enough to be born naturally or bodily; we must also receive a spiritual birth to travel the spiritual path that leads to t...

SAINTS ANDREW DUNG-LAC AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS Dan 1:1-6,8-20; Dan 3:52-56; Lk 21:1-4 Our Gift to the King of Kings The faith we profess in God has implications for our lives here on earth. The first thing our expression of faith in God offers us is the awareness of divine intention for us and his creation at large. The scriptures are replete with the intention of God for us in this life. The fact that everything in the visible creation has a span is evident to our senses and in our daily experience. To this daily fact, revelation adds to our faith the understanding that we will appear before the creator after our temporary life on earth, to give an account of our lives. Each of us is supposed to live with the intention of making ourselves as good as we can to appear before our creator and God. If we understand this temporal life as a time to live and prepare to present ourselves to our God, who is infinitely powerful and all-knowing, then we would live more cautiously. A profess...

SOLEMNITY OF CHRIST THE KING 2 Sam 5:1-3; Ps 122:1-5; Col 1:12-20; Lk 23:35-43 The Reign of King of Kings The whole of creation falls under the domain of the Eternal Word of God, for God made all things by his word, and they exist to please His divine Majesty. All things are perfect that obey his will in all things. We know that nothing can resist his will ultimately, for God is almighty. He permits his rational creatures to make a choice, in line with their nature, to be confirmed in the dignity and glory he gave them by making them share his nature. Any who has wisdom knows that our only and true freedom lies in doing the will of God who made us for himself. Deceived by the serpent, our first parents set us on the path of darkness and ignorance of God and His goodness towards us. But God did not abandon man on the chosen path of ignorance, darkness, and weakness of the will; he continually offers us the light of His word to illumine our valley of death, which the choice of our ...

SAINT CECILIA, MARTYR   1 Maccabees 6:1-13; Ps 9:2-4,6,16,19; Lk 20:27-40 The Indestructible House of God The work of God is indestructible in its origin, for they are from God who knows all things and can do all things. Every one of God’s works was conceived in wisdom and truth and willed into existence by Him. In considering the works of God, we must make a distinction between the existence of things as willed by God and their existence in matter and time. As the scriptures testify, God has prepared a kingdom for us before the foundation of the world, implying that He called and chose us even before we gained our material existence. Therefore, God’s infinite power endows spiritual existence to everything He wills. But their material existence, for those things which are to be material, must also follow the time and season set by His divine Majesty. Among these are those things that need the cooperation of man to come into existence. Most promises or blessings contained in t...

PRESENTATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY   1 Maccabees 4:36-37,52-59; 1 Chron 29:10-12; Lk 19:45-48 The True House of God As we celebrate the memorial of the presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Temple, we reflect on our own presentation to the Lord. In the process of baptism, we were all presented to the Lord in the Church, whether as infants or as adults. For the infants, the parents have the duty of bringing their children to present them to the Lord, in thanksgiving for the gift they are from God, and as an act of consecration of them to the Lord. As adults, those who have influenced the candidates’ lives positively, whose lives preached or presented the Gospel to them, act as parents. They are truly the spiritual parents of these candidates, for the testimonies of their lives have made them conceive the new life of Christ. Usually, one or two of these come with the candidate to present him to God for baptism in the Church. What the Church asks of those presentin...

THURSDAY, THIRTY THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME   1 Maccabees 2:15-29; Ps 50:1-2,5-6,14-15; Lk 19:41-44 The Lord’s Tears over Jerusalem When it comes to the salvation of the human person, it is impossible by any human devices. Only God can save us. But God cannot save us without us. This is because of the free will God gave to us, by which we are to choose whether to be saved or not. Though we cannot save ourselves without God, God cannot save us without us. We have emphasised the abundance of grace for our salvation; however, we must still cooperate with this abundant grace in order to be saved. It is the Father’s ultimate will to save us from sin and damnation, for he did not create us to be lost, but to be his holy temple while on earth and to enjoy an eternal communion with him forever in the next world. God does not spare anything to fulfil his holy design for our salvation. He sent His Son in human nature to die for our redemption; He sent the Holy Spirit to be our lifelon...

WEDNESDAY, THIRTY THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME   2 Maccabees 7:1,20-31; Ps 17:1,5-6,8,15; Lk 19:11-28 The Returning of the Appointed King An admirable thing about virtue is that it enables us, as human persons, to produce the best result in whatever good endeavour we channel our energy. Virtue is an inner structure that we develop within our faculties to help them reach their respective goals or objects each time. The virtues are distinguished according to the faculty or power they modify. Those that modify the moral faculties are called moral virtues. Intellectual virtues modify the intellectual power in its different operations. The essence of virtue is a form of rationality living in each of the faculties of our souls. Thus, training in virtue is the practice of bringing the various powers of the soul to listen and obey reason at every instant of their operations. When we receive a new spiritual birth at our profession of faith in Jesus Christ, the virtues are renewed in th...

TUESDAY, THIRTY THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME   2 Maccabees 6:18-31; Ps 3:2-7; Lk 19:1-10 Embracing Salvation from God As Saint Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, justification comes to us when we believe with and in our hearts. By heart, he means the whole spiritual faculties: the mind, heart, and will. We receive a new spiritual life that is supported by these faculties when we make the assent of faith in the word of God or in Jesus Christ. The assent of faith is the foundation of a new life that gradually manifests in our members and revealed in our expressions. Thus, Paul concludes by saying that salvation comes with confession of our faith with our mouth. Here, the mouth stands for every way of expressing or revealing the conviction of our hearts. These two are connected as two aspects of the same reality, just as a building is essentially composed of its foundation and the external or visible structure. The visible structure cannot stand without the foundation, whil...