Reflection from Friar Nicholas

THURSDAY, SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME    1 Sam 18:6-9,19:1-7; Ps 56:2-3,9-14; Mk 3:7-12 The Growth of Disobedience According to our Lord in the Gospel of Saint Luke 16:10, “He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and he who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.” The same applies to obedience. If we obey the word of God in minor issues, we will obey him in weightier matters. But if we neglect the word of God in minor issues, then we have already begun the path that would lead us to neglect his word in grave issues. We fall little by little daily. By neglecting to pray as we ought, we are already preparing ourselves to commit mortal sins. Due to the slippery nature of our moral path in life, we must renew our resolution to attend to the word of God daily. We must cultivate and attend to the presence of Jesus Christ with us daily, through his Holy Spirit dwelling within us. The injunction to watch and pray is so that our attent...

SAINT AGNES, VIRGIN, MARTYR    1 Sam 17:32-33,37,40-51; Ps 144:1-2,9-10; Mk 3:1-6 Strength in Faithful Obedience We usually say that respect is reciprocal. There is also a sense in which obedience is reciprocal, especially when we obey God in all things and abide by his word. God, in a sense, obeys us. As we read in the first book of Samuel, the Lord God never allowed the words of Samuel to fall to the ground. It is because Samuel obeyed God in all things and consecrated himself to doing the will of God. Hence, God did not let his word fall to the ground because Samuel’s words represented the word of God. That is what we become when we live by the word of God and constantly meditate on God and his holy will. As the saying goes, we become what we eat; we gradually become the word of God when we constantly feed on his word. God, who lives in his word, will, through his word we keep in our hearts and minds, make his dwelling in us. Subsequently, the word of God will tr...

BLESSED CYPRIAN MICHAEL IWENE TANSI, PRIEST    Phil 2:1-11; Isa 12; Mt 13:44-46 Sacrificing All for Obedience Obedience is usually born out of genuine knowledge and trust in someone. We obey because we know or believe that the one we are obeying has good intentions towards us and cares for our well-being. The virtue of obedience is usually nurtured in the family through the natural affinity we have with our parents. They gave birth to us and nurtured us to maturity. We naturally become aware of their love and solicitude for our well-being. This natural trust built into us by their care and provisions makes us obey them easily and with love and trust. The goodness of God provided the natural family ambience to help us easily and naturally transition from obedience to our parents to obedience to God, whom our parents represent. Hence, the parental care and duties are sacred unto the Lord. Hence, the commandment to honour father and mother has an immediate blessing att...

MONDAY, SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME   1 Sam 15:3,16-23; Ps 50:8-9,17-17,21,23; Mk 2:18-22 Obedience is better than Sacrifice We can never completely comprehend the importance of obedience for the work of salvation that God intends to accomplish in each of us. We can illustrate the importance using the connection between a general and his soldiers. The strength of the army rests on the connection and cohesion between the General and the army. This connection and cohesion are concretely given in the willingness of each soldier to obey the instructions of the General. By this willingness, the general inspires each of his soldiers to carry out his plan and strategy. Each soldier may not know the complete plan of the general, but as long as he trusts the general and willingly carries out his commands, the army will act as an unbreakable unit to achieve victory in any warfare. Obedience, therefore, enables God to dwell in each of his creatures to achieve the purpose for which...

SUNDAY, SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME    Isa 49:3,5-6; Ps 40:2,4,7-10; 1 Cor 1:1-3; Jn 1:29-34 Behold, the Lamb of God The answer of our Lord to John the Baptist’s protestation when he presented himself to him for baptism gives us an idea of what the humanity of our Lord is meant to be for us. He presented himself for baptism by John so that he might lay down the requirement of righteousness for all people. The humanity of our Lord is a model for all people who wish to be reborn of the Spirit of God and become part of the new humanity recreated by the Eternal Word at his Incarnation. In this regard, he presents himself as our sole teacher or master. He bids us call no one else our master or teacher, for that role is uniquely taken up by the Son of Man. Hence, we are not to look at any other human person to know what is required of us for salvation. He is our sole teacher and master because he is the Eternal Word of God who assumed our nature in order to reveal the Father ...

SATURDAY, FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME  1 Sam 9:1-4,17-19,10:1; Ps 21:2-7; Mk 2:13-17 Recognising the Doctor of Our Souls Happy the day when we recognised that something is wrong with us. It is difficult for a sinner to come to that realisation. It is only the grace of God that helps us perceive our sorry and sinful state and start asking questions about the existence of possible remedies. Sin so disorients the inner structure that we lose sight of God as the origin of our life and doings, making us consider ourselves as the king and centre of our life and activities. The rulership of our sinful self is characterised by darkness and externalities. The sinful self considers itself a king, wielding authority over whatever has to do with us and others. When we were in sin, we considered evil to be whatever displeases us, and good whatever pleases us. We judged the world as starting and ending with us, existing for our good pleasure. God, in his infinite mercy and love, gradually ...

FRIDAY, FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME  1 Sam 8:4-7,10-22; Ps 89:16-19; Mk 2:1-12 God’s Permissions within the Divine Plan As we have repeatedly stated, all things in creation obey the will of God naturally, except the rational creatures. God made the rational creatures to possess free will and a rational faculty by which they choose to obey or disobey God. Man, exceptionally, enjoys this free will among the material creatures; God made us to govern ourselves and freely choose to obey and serve the Creator. God relaxed the rigidity of his divine will as applicable to non-rational creatures to accommodate the free will he gave to man. The idea of the permitted will of God derives from this condition. It is what follows from the free will God gave to the rational beings. What it means is that God does not strictly order man in his thoughts, words, and actions, but permits him to freely choose his own course of action for his own particular end or ends. Since no other end is more b...

THURSDAY, FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME  1 Sam 4:1-11; Ps 44:110-11,14-15,24-25; Mk 1:40-45 The Coincidence of Human and Divine Will As we stated in our reflection earlier in the week, creatures obey us not because of anything we are by ourselves, but they obey only the will of God. They obey us insofar as we are expressing the will of God at a particular time. The will of God is done in heaven and on earth; we must make the proper distinction between the ordained and permissive will of God. Man disobeys the divine will only within the ambit of the free will granted him by God. Thus, the will of God accommodates the free will of man to disobey, but the disobedience is always duly punished. We err in two ways as regards our use of divine authority to accomplish things. The first is in the use of spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit to accomplish ordinary and extraordinary things in the Church or outside of the Church. These gifts come with divine authority, which the receiver exer...

WEDNESDAY, FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME  1 Sam 3:1-10,19-20; Ps 40:2,5,7-10; Mk 1:29-39 Speak Lord for Your Servant is Listening To work with divine authority or power, we need to harmonise our will with the divine will in all things. To achieve this requires the development of a sixth sense or spiritual ear for listening to the voice of God or the inspiration of the Holy Spirit within us. The necessary conditions for the development of the spiritual ear include the following. First, the moderation of the use of the physical senses, which are doors leading to our minds and hearts from outside. If these portals are not guarded by strong gates and locks, allowing us to admit only what we judge beneficial to our souls and the tender spiritual works of grace taking place within us, we can never develop the spiritual ear to hear, discern, and follow the voice of the Lord within. Second, we must nurture a love for silence. This comes as a result of the first, for we must be at home ...

TUESDAY, FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME  1 Sam 1 :9-20; 1 Sam 1:1,4-8; Mk 1:21-28 Sharing in the Divine Authority In the Gospel of John 5:17, where Jesus healed the paralysed man at the pool, the Jews wanted to know why he worked a miracle on a Sabbath day. Jesus answered them that he is working because his Father never ceased working. The Lord’s answer gives us a glimpse into the mindset of the Son of Man regarding our daily work, occupations, and professions. Our vocation is to be coworkers of God in the renewal of all things in accordance with his divine will. God made man the steward of his creation at the beginning. As stewards, we are never to oversee God’s creation without reference to the Creator. Though God handed his material creation to man, he never ceased working on creation to uphold and make it achieve the purpose for which he made it. Our vocation as stewards requires us to discern the will of God through communion with him and work alongside him to bring about h...

MONDAY, FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME  1 Sam 1:1-8; Ps 116:12-19; Mk 1:14-20 Knowing and Doing the Will of God We commence the Ordinary Time of the Church with the celebration of the baptism of the Lord. Leaving the air and joy of festivities to the ordinary things and activities of everyday living is like leaving the mountain of Jerusalem and the Temple to Galilee of nations. It is easy to think of God and the religious demands of our faith while in Jerusalem, with its religious landmarks and style of living. It is not the same when we come down to Galilee of all nations with its characteristic commercial and mundane activities. We feel the same way when the festive periods end, and we return to ordinary time, with no decorations, songs, and things to keep our minds preoccupied with things of God. What engages us in the ordinary time or non-festive period of the Church’s year is our various needs we must fulfil and duties we must carry out, which we suspend in order to celebra...

THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD   Isa 42:1-4,6-7; Ps 29:1-4,9-10; Acts 10:34-38; Mt 3:13-17 The Testimony of the Father We celebrate the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ. The celebration marks the end of the Christmas season. The celebration is situated within the Christmas season and is considered its endpoint, as it is part of the Epiphany of the Lord. It is a continuation of the revelation of the Son of God now present to us in our human nature. We have read different scriptural accounts of various testimonies concerning the infant born for us by the Blessed Virgin Mary. We have heard the angels, the Magi from the east, the old Simeon as the representative of the priestly caste, the old prophetess, Anna, as a representative of the prophets, John the Baptist sent to reveal him to Israel, and finally, God the Father, who spoke at his baptism to testify that truly the Son of Man is the beloved Son of God. The Church collects all these testimonies before us as we celebrate Christ...

SATURDAY AFTER EPIPHANY SUNDAY 1 Jn 5:14-21; Ps 149:1-6,9; Jn 3:22-30 Faith in the One who comes with Water, Blood, and Spirit The Incarnation of the Son of God demonstrates God’s complete encompassment of our human nature. It shows us that we belong to God and he knows and cares for us holistically. He took on our human nature so that all the witnesses: blood, water, and Spirit, may witness for him. He adopted and owned our weakness and mortal frailty and made it a seat of divine power and authority to make us understand that there is nothing coming from our bodies, frail and weak as they are, that is not known and sanctioned by him. As the author of everything visible and invisible, the Eternal Word is always present in the material universe, governing everything he made through and according to their respective natures. He appeared visibly to our senses in our nature and lived among us. By this, he owned the testimonies of the physical universe which enters like an ever-runnin...

FRIDAY AFTER EPIPHANY SUNDAY 1 Jn 5:5-13; Ps 147:12-15,19-20; Lk 5:12-16 The Witnesses in our Minds The statement that God made us for himself is incontestable. But to the one who does not believe, whom the scriptures describe as a fool, it may not be evident. We are not surprised by this, because colours are not evident to the blind, and sound is not evident to the deaf. But even to the blind, the sun makes its presence felt by its heating effect on his skin. No one is so deprived of his senses and reason to the extent that he does not see the loving providence of God in his life and events thereof. The human mind is like a dam into which three rivers pour their contents: the biological river of the unconscious working of our biological machine, the sensible river of our sensible perceptions, and the spiritual river of our mental and spiritual interactions. These three rivers come together in the mind; they are commingled and used to process knowledge of our realities. God instr...