Reflection from Friar Nicholas

SUNDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT    Gen 12:1-4; Ps 33:4-5,18-20,22; 2 Tim 1:8-10; Mt 17:1-9 The Transfiguration of the Son of Man We commence the second week of Lent with our attention drawn to the word of God. The word of God is everything for us in our worship of God, for the word of God is God communicated to us. Attention paid to the word of God is the core of our religious worship and relationship with God. As we have noted, the season of Lent is a fitting time to deepen our awareness of God's revelation to us, as contained in His words as recorded in the Scriptures. Our position that God created man to be His temple rests on the fact that our whole being is well illuminated only by the Eternal Word of God. In this sense, the scripture understands Jacob or the people of Israel to be the inheritance of the Word of God. “For the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.” Deuteronomy 32:9. Jacob became the Lord’s inheritance when he received the revela...

SATURDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT    Deutero 26:16-19; Ps 119:1-2,4-5,7-8; Mt 5:43-48 Our Consecration to the Word In his sermon on the mount, Our Lord edited the Law of Moses, making it stricter by removing all the human considerations Moses allowed in his administration of the Law to the people of Israel. He carried out these editions on his own authority. His action came across to the Pharisees and scribes as a clear proclamation of his Godhead. The Law of Moses was held sacrosanct as expressing the mind of God; no one has the authority to change or alter any aspect of it with impunity. Our Lord’s proclamation of a new Law that supersedes the Law of Moses calls attention to his divinity. If he is divine, then we have a duty to listen and obey his words. As we have noted earlier this week, his edition of the Law is stricter and evidently impossible for our fallen nature to keep. But we must not make any mistake on the nature of the word of God; both in the Old Testament and...

FRIDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT    Ezek 18:21-28; Ps 130; Mt 5:20-26 The Choice of Life over Death The word of God is the gift of God to us. The gift remains a gift inasmuch as we receive it as the gift of God. If we fail or refuse to receive the word of God as a divine gift, then it is no longer a gift to us, but rather a curse. Just as God informed the Israelites through Moses, in Deuteronomy 30:19, that the words spoken to them constitute life or death before them. The words would give them life if they obey, and death if they disobey. Thus, both life and death come from Yahweh as his divine will, though not as life and death, but as divine goodwill for his creatures. The divine will evoke death only in the one who rejects the blessing of communion with God. God made us for Himself, that we may dwell with him always. The attainment of this end is the fullness of life for us. Our spiritual death is to miss this desired communion with God, both in this temporal life and...

THURSDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT    Esther 4:17; Ps 138:1-3,7-8; Mt 7:7-12 Asking, Searching, and Knocking We are back on the subject of prayer, for concerning the practice of prayer, we can never say enough. The reason is that prayer in itself is the essential or defining operation of a Christian. Every entity that has life has vital operations that support its life and the end or purpose for which that life is lived. For a Christian, the spiritual life is essentially the sanctifying grace which the presence of the Holy Spirit introduces in the soul. The central vital operation of the Christian is prayer, which he does or carries out in union with the Holy Spirit. So, the departure of the Holy Spirit marks the spiritual death of the soul, because the spiritual life cannot be solely sustained by self-operations. Our spiritual life is a participation in the life of God and not something solely belonging to us. The purpose of our spiritual life is the attainment of commun...

WEDNESDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT    Jonah 3:1-10; Ps 51:3-4,12-13,18-19; Lk 11:29-32 The Sign of Jonah to Ninevites Today’s readings are all about the Prophet Jonah. The story of Jonah is very interesting. It is about the people of Nineveh, whose manner of life evoked the justice of God. Because God is just in all his ways and in his dealings with us, He resolved to warn them of the destruction that their evil lifestyles were drawing upon them. God, therefore, called Jonah to carry his word or message to them, to ask them to change their life before the city is destroyed. The prophet, Jonah, like many of us, considered it a waste of time to go and preach to the Ninevites. He was mistaken in thinking like that because the will of God must be done. None of us can put aside the will of God for us and feel safe and comfortable. The will of God is the cause of everything in existence. The story of Jonah teaches us to employ ourselves daily, and in all things to fulfil the w...

TUESDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT    Isa 55:10-11; Ps 34:4-7,16-19; Mt 6:7-15 The Prayer of Our Lord The beginning of our Lenten journey is the recognition of our sins and the fact that we are sinners through and through. For the purpose of attaining this knowledge and thereby establishing a good beginning for the Lenten observance, we have fasted and continued other abnegations or self-mortifications. From this firm basis on which God commences his work of establishing his presence within us, we commence the exercise of prayer. Prayer is given to us as the means to the end we have envisaged for the Lenten journey. As the choice of means must always correspond to the end to which we journey, it is essential that we understand the concept of prayer so that we know how to pray. It is by God’s grace that we were able to know ourselves truly as sinners, and by his light we have recalled our sins, come to know how evil they are. The light of the word of God has also helped us ...

MONDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT    Levi 19:1-2,11-18; Ps 19:8-10,15; Mt 25:31-46 Seeing Jesus Christ in the Needy Meditating on the words of God, spoken through Moses to the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt, it is evident that God intended the community of the people of Israel to reflect his own holiness as the people of God. The question remains whether human persons can attain the holiness of God in this mortal life. The Commandments were given as the guiding principles of the relationship between the people and God, as well as the relationship among themselves. The instruction given by God through Moses was for the people to constantly ruminate on the word of God they had received. God affected the people through the revelation of His divine will for them through Moses. The constant meditation on the word would instil the Spirit of God in those who obey the instruction given to them. Thus, the reason they were to live justly and wisely is that God is with them ...

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...