Reflection from Friar Nicholas

SUNDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT    Gen 2:7-9,3:1-7; Ps 51:3-6,12-14,17; Rom 5:12-19; Mt 4:1-11 Man shall not live by Bread Alone The readings for this first week of Lent present the two temptations that determined our lot as human beings. The temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and the temptation of the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, in the wilderness. The first man, Adam, was fully provided for externally, while the last man, Jesus Christ, was well endowed within, for he is the Eternal Word Incarnate. The temptation of Adam and Eve was the commencement of God’s work of making man to be like him, while the temptation of the Son of Man was the completion of making man to be like God. We can also think of it as the test running of the Man made to be like God. In confirmation of this, the author of the letter to the Hebrews affirms that it is to Jesus Christ that God has subjected everything, because he is one whom God truly made Godlike. “Now in putting everything in su...

SATURDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY   Isa 58:9-14; Ps 86:1-6; Lk 5:27-32 The Nature of Christian Fast As we have already observed in the previous reflections within the week, our observance of Lent is a spiritual journey. This means that it is not a journey we make through physical activities alone, although physical activities are part of the journey; rather, it is a journey made through spiritual activities. In the Gospel of yesterday, the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus to know why his disciples were not fasting along with them. They were shocked to hear his reply: “Surely the bridegroom’s attendants would never think of mourning as long as the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come for the bridegroom to be taken away from them, and then they will fast.” Reflecting deeply on our Lord’s reply, we understand that the confusion of the disciples of John is based on their understanding of fasting and its purpose in our religious practice. The major reas...

FRIDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY   Isa 58:1-9; Ps 51:3-6k18-19; Mt 9:14-15 A Fast that is Pleasing to God With the understanding that our spiritual journey during this Lenten season is initiated, directed, and sustained by God, our attention must be on him in order not to miss the way. This consideration is even more serious when we know that the journey is not physical, but spiritual. As Christian people, we know that God, in Jesus Christ, is reconciling us to himself through the grace of repentance we have received in abundance in Christ. We need the light of Christ to understand the beginning of the journey, the means or way we are to proceed, and the end for which we make the journey. The beginning of our Lenten journey is the knowledge of ourselves as we are in the eyes of God. None can have this knowledge unless the light of the word of God shines upon us; so, we need the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to know how sinful we are before God and our need of God’s mercy and ...

THURSDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY   Deut 30:15-20; Ps 1:1-4,6; Lk 9:22-25 Losing our Life for Christ In chemical reactions, an element that is higher on the periodic table displaces a lower one in a chemical compound. The higher element achieves this by breaking the bond holding the lower element in the compound with a greater force and forming a stronger bond in a new chemical compound. The resulting compound has a new composition, identity, and operations different from the old. Our interest is not in chemical compounds and their reactivities, but in spiritual entities that we are without Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word of God. In the spiritual realm, the Word of God is the greatest and the supreme Spirit, existing by Himself and infinite in all perfection. He made us to be in communion with him; that is, to form a spiritual entity with him, similar to a chemical compound. Thus, on the scale of spiritual strength or reactivity, He ranks the highest. But there is an immunity ...

ASH WEDNESDAY   Joel 2:12-18; Ps 51:3-6,12-14,17; 2 Cor 5:20-6:2; Mt 6:1-6,16-18 The Father sees All Done in Secret The celebration of Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the holy season of Lent. It is a holy season for the Church, when we intensify our penitential practices which characterise the Christian life. Our life as Christians is characterised by a continuous repentance from our sins and recommitment to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance from sin marks the very beginning of Christianity or the following of Jesus Christ. The Gospels confirm this by starting the public ministry of Jesus Christ with his baptism at the river Jordan by John the Baptist. Though he had committed no sin, he nevertheless submitted himself to the ritual of baptism to emphasize its importance for us. By our baptism, we accepted to let our sinful life and lifestyle fall to the ground and die, which the baptismal ritual shows, for us to start a new spiritual life of commitment ...

TUESDAY, SIXTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME   James 1:12-18; Ps 94:12-15,18-19; Mk 8:14-21 Blindness caused by the Yeast of Pharisees The procedure for the acquisition of wisdom, which Saint Bernard of Clairvaux outlined for us, involves three components: The first is acknowledgement and confession of sins; the second is to give thanks and praise God for everything he is doing in our lives; the third is to profess the goodness of God in our words and actions. In summary, the path to acquiring wisdom involves confession of sins, gratitude for everything, and proclamation of divine goodness. The proper working of this algorithm produces holiness in us, which is the indwelling of Jesus Christ within us. These three constitute a single motion or process leading to our renewal in the image of Jesus Christ. Thus, the three-partite motion has the Son of Man as its cause. This is clear because the purpose for which the Son of God assumed our human nature is to redeem us from our sins. ...

MONDAY, SIXTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME   James 1:1-11; Ps 119:67-68,71-72,75-76; Mk 8:11-13 The Sign of the Son of Man The Pharisees, discussing with Jesus, demanded a sign from him to demonstrate that he was truly from God, the Messiah. Our Lord was troubled by such a request because it revealed that they were not genuinely interested in discovering the truth or receiving the answer to the demand they had made of Him. The demand betrayed their lack of interest and attention to the words and works of our Lord. He had done many wonderful and remarkable works and proclaimed the word of God to all who were with him, before they made the request. So, it was obvious that their request or demand was not born of genuine interest to know the Son of Man, but to test him and find something to hang on him, in order to condemn or attack him. The Evangelist remarked this. “The Pharisees came up and started a discussion with Jesus; they demanded of him a sign from heaven, to test him. An...

SUNDAY, SIXTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME   Eccles 15:16-21; Ps 119:1-2,4-5,17-18,33-34; 1 Cor 2:6-10; Mt 5:17-37 The Commandments of Wisdom Building on the subject of wisdom that featured prominently in last week's reflections and meditations, we proceed to the subject of Commandments. We note that the Commandments still encapsulate the theme of wisdom. Our approach, rooted in the framework of Commandments, tends toward the personalization of wisdom. The focus on the Commandments moves from what is naturally given to us to what we ought to do in response to the gift of God’s creation. Our consideration of wisdom was a reflection on what is connatural to us. As we noted, the image of God we bear is a natural predisposition to our reception of the Eternal Word of God, who is the Eternal Wisdom. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden was an objective presentation of the instruction to man on how to use the brand-new nature we received from God, which is...

SAINTS CYRIL, MONK, AND METHODIUS, BISHOP    1 Kings 12:26-32,13:33-34; Ps 106:6-7,19-22; Mk 8:31-10 Self Interest and Propagation of Division Our reflections through the week have focused on Solomon and how he prefigured the Son of Man and the Messiah of God’s people. His life confirms for us the fact that each of us stands only as long as we fix our gaze on the word of God in order to accomplish the good purposes of God in our lives and in the lives of his people. Before the Eternal Word manifested himself in our human nature, he remained with us as the word of God spoken through various means to us. The most basic of these speeches of God is the creation that came into existence through His spoken word. Anyone who pays close attention to God’s creation discovers the path of wisdom within creation. The wisdom of God in creation beckons us to pay attention to the divine works and learn the divine truth contained in creation. A basic lesson creation teaches us is the sel...

FRIDAY, FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME    1 Kings 11:29-32,12:19; Ps 81:10-15; Mk 7:31-37 Solomon and the Mystery of Christ King Solomon started off very well and ended not so well. We say not so well because he realised his mistakes and sins and confessed them before his death. As we noted earlier in the week, in the early part of his reign, Solomon was a type of Jesus Christ, the man of peace and the Son of David. He had the good examples of his father, David, and his mother, Beersheba; though nothing much is written about her, her son witnessed to her unsung virtues. King Solomon foreshadowed the life of Jesus Christ. He was the son of David and the one who inherited the Davidic dynasty directly from David himself. He ruled the people of God in wisdom and peace for the greater part of his reign. His rule brought so much wealth, fame, and visibility to Israel as a nation. A central role of his functioning as a type of the Son of Man is the construction of the Temple in Je...

THURSDAY, FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME    1 Kings 11:4-13; Ps 106:3-4,35-37,40; Mk 7:24-30 Our Spiritual Connection to God Our connection with God can be compared to the connection between a power source and an appliance. The appliance functions as long as it is connected to the power source. Once the connection is severed, it ceases to function. The same applies to our spiritual connection with God; we must keep our focus on God to remain spiritually alive in God. We cease to live spiritually once our attention, especially our minds and hearts, is taken away from God, who is the source of our spiritual life. We can consider a more apt analogy by examining the fish's dependency on water. The water is the life of the fish; the fish must be inside the water always to survive. The fish dies when it leaves or is separated from the water. To live a spiritual life, we must take in God and remain connected to Him in our minds and hearts. When it comes to spiritual life, we ...

OUR LADY OF LOURDES    1 Kings 10:1-10; Ps 37:5-6,30-31,39-40; Mk 7:14-23 The House of Eternal Wisdom From the sacrifices King Solomon offered to the Lord, the God of Israel, we were able to discern his love for God. For gifts or sacrifices one makes for a cause or for a person demonstrate the depth of love one has for that cause or person. Being that God is the first to love and prompt us in all things, especially in our relationship with Him, we understand that Solomon’s love and generosity to God, as expressed in the sacrifices to God, both at his thanksgiving at Gibeon and in the dedication of the Temple he constructed in Jerusalem for God, is only a response to God’s love and generosity to him. The measure of wealth and means he put into the construction of the Temple was also an indication of his love and devotion to Yahweh, the God of his father, David. We have also noted the contribution of his upbringing in making him become aware of God’s love and generosi...

SAINT SCHOLASTICA, VIRGIN   1 Kings 8:22-23,27-30; Ps 84:3-5,10-11; Mk 7:1-13 Making the Word of God our Tradition God has no need of a Temple built by human hands. But He approved the building of the Temple in Jerusalem for the glory of his holy name. Of what use is the temple if God does not dwell therein and has no need of temples and churches? Even Solomon who successfully completed the Temple in Jerusalem was aware that God cannot be contained in a physical temple, for he asked while praying: “O Lord, God of Israel, not in heaven above nor on earth beneath is there such a God as you, true to your covenant and your kindness towards your servants when they walk wholeheartedly in your way. Yet will God really live with men on the earth? Why, the heavens and their own heaven cannot contain you. How much less this house that I have built!” God dwells in the spiritual temple, which he constructed for himself. He only commanded the construction of the physical temples and ...

MONDAY, FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME   1 Kings 8:1-7,9-13; Ps 132:6-10; Mk 6:53-56 The Consecration of the Temple of the Lord After his coronation as the king of Israel, Solomon offered a thousand holocausts to God in thanksgiving and consecration of himself to God at the high place in Gibeon. After constructing the Temple in Jerusalem, Solomon planned with the elders of the people to bring the ark of the covenant into the Temple he had built for God in Jerusalem in grand style. “All the men of Israel assembled round King Solomon in the month of Ethanim, at the time of the feast (that is, the seventh month), and the priests took up the ark and the Tent of Meeting with all the sacred vessels that were in it. In the presence of the ark, King Solomon and all Israel sacrificed sheep and oxen, countless, innumerable. The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, in the Debir of the Temple, that is, in the Holy of Holies, under the cherub’s wings.” The s...