Reflection from Friar Nicholas

FRIDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE    Acts 9:1-20; Ps 117; Jn 6:52-59 Eating the Flesh and Drinking the Blood of Jesus Christ What causes us not to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man? Understanding the sacramental nature of creatures and creation as a whole, we see that the problem is not that we are not eating the body and drinking the blood of the Son of Man; we are eating and drinking without recognising the reality we are feeding on. Because we eat these creatures, structured into a rational path leading to divine truth and revelation, without walking the path of reason they present to us, and the spiritual path hidden behind their sacramentality, we fall short of eating his flesh and drinking his blood. When we interact with creatures without hearing the voice of God through them or seeing God through them, we misuse them and fail to follow the path they point out to us for God. It was to bring the consciousness of his disciples to his abiding pr...

THURSDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE    Acts 8:26-40; Ps 66:8-9,16-17,20; Jn 6:44-51 Freedom from Darkness of Error The nature of each creature of God is a certain law which represents the will of God that brings and sustains it in existence. So, the operation of the nature of a thing expresses the will of God for its existence and divine purpose for it. In all creation, we see that each nature has intrinsic and extrinsic bearings. In the former, it maintains the inherent structure of the thing, and in the latter, it relates and corroborates with other natures in the maintenance of a certain stable equilibrium in the universe. This web of relations and correlations of natures reaches its highest complexity in humans. The entire material universe works together to support the human person, made in the image of God. The Scriptures teach us that God created the entire world for the benefit of humanity. But both the human persons and the material universe that God created...

WEDNESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE    Acts 8:1-8; Ps 66:1-7; Jn 6:35-40 I Have Come to Do the Father’s Will As we reflected on, the will of the heavenly Father is the daily bread we are invited to eat. Jesus is our real food and drink, for He represents the will of God for us. This is what the kingdom of heaven is essentially: doing the will of God. There are myriads of angels in heaven, but there is only one will in the whole of heaven; that is, the will of the Father. The holy and immutable will of God the Father is what makes heaven a complete joy and happiness. God is infinitely good and pours all his goodness into his divine will. Since the will of God expresses the infinite goodness of God, there is no other thing more exquisite and attractive than the holy and immutable will of God. Hence, the Son is totally dedicated to doing the will of the Father and completely represents the will of God the Father. Everything in creation shows forth a little aspect of th...

TUESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE    Acts 7:51-8:1; Ps 31:3-4,6,8,17,21; Jn 6:30-35 The Father Gives the Heavenly Bread All who are born of water and the Holy Spirit have the life of heaven or spiritual life. This life was not possible before the passion and death of Jesus Christ, because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Hence, no one could discern the things of heaven or possess heavenly life, for no one came from heaven to reveal God or make his will known here on earth. The Only Begotten Son of God assumed human flesh and lived among us that he might teach us about the Father and reveal the holy will of God to us. The revelation would have no effect if all the children were in bondage to sin and enslaved to the evil one. A slave does not own himself and therefore cannot give himself to another master when he is the slave of another. The only way open to a slave to escape the bondage of his evil master is rebellion, which leads to the death of...

MONDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE    Acts 6:8-15; Ps 119:23-24,26-27,29-30; Jn 6:22-29 Working for Spiritual Food The Easter celebration renews Christians’ spiritual youthfulness, as it is the celebration of our spiritual birth. At the celebration of the Lord's resurrection, the Church gives birth to many children, whom she gradually nurtures into the likeness of the man of heaven, and leads them on the path of eternal life. The Church gives birth to a multitude of children through water and the Holy Spirit, making men subjects of the kingdom of heaven. She is able to do this because of the presence of the Risen Lord within her. As the mystical body of Jesus Christ, the Church makes the Risen Lord present to her children, who are marked by their faith in the Son of Man, through the celebration of the paschal mysteries. These paschal mysteries of the Lord are the sources of the spiritual life she gives to her children and sustains in them. By her proclamation of the G...

SUNDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE    Acts 2:14,22-33; Ps 16:1-2,5,7-11; 1 Pet 1:17-21; Lk 24:13-35 Renewing Our Spiritual Youthfulness in Christ Our Easter celebration ought to renew our spiritual youthfulness, for it is when the Church puts these paschal mysteries before us anew. The mysteries themselves are ever new, for they contain eternal truths and goods which they make available to us through the Church’s liturgical celebrations. They are the mysteries of Jesus Christ, who has entered his eternal glory through his resurrection from the dead. By these mysteries that he entrusted to the Church to hold and celebrate for all ages to come, he makes her fruitful and renews her in the Holy Spirit. The mysteries are old in the passage of time and in their symbols, but remain new in their contents, which are ageless. We see the fruitfulness which Christ endows his Church in the number of her children baptised and joined the ranks of the faithful during Easter. The cele...

SATURDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE    Acts 6:1-7; Ps 33:1-2,4-5,18-18; Jn 6:16-21 The Son of Man Walking on the Waters The union of the human nature with the divine nature in the Son of Man is the ideal that prompted God to create man in the first place. According to the Greek philosopher Aristotle, the first in a genus is the principle in that genus. Adam was the first man made with the image of God, but the Son of Man is the first man perfected in the likeness of God. Since the making of man in the likeness of God is the end or purpose of our creation, the first man in the likeness of God is the principle of all others who would be made into the likeness of God. Saint Paul explained this mystery in 1 Cor 15: 46-48 “The spiritual, however, was not first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so also are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also ...

FRIDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE    Acts 5:34-42; Ps 27:1,4,13-14; Jn 6:1-15 Our Participation in His Cup The Son of Man is heavenly and earthly constituted and speaks our earthly language as a means of communicating his heavenly truths. What he communicates through the human language are heavenly truths he learnt from the Father for our salvation. Though he shares our weakness by his communion with us in our nature, he faithfully communicates the mind of the Father to us without any error. His faithful obedience to the Father is the basis of his passion and death. He faithfully endured suffering and death to fulfil the word of God that pronounced judgment on Adam and Eve after their disobedience. The faithfulness of the Son of Man proved his unity with the Eternal Word. Thus, united with the Word, his human nature is seen to belong to the Word that is immortal and invincible. The Eternal Word, which is shown to be the heavenly component of the Son of Man, raised h...

THURSDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTER    Acts 5:27-33; Ps 34:2,9,17-120; Jn 3:31-36 Everything Entrusted to The Son Although Nicodemus found it very hard to believe what the Lord taught him about earthly things, as the Lord mentioned, he still led him to heavenly mysteries. The reason is that we cannot do without these mysteries, which are the foundations of earthly things and events. The lack of knowledge of these heavenly mysteries would make us strangers in the house or kingdom of God. Even in this world, ignorance of the mysteries of Jesus Christ would make us slaves of principles of evil and dark forces. The Scriptures recognise them as principalities, thrones, and dominations of this world; they are ruling forces in the air, water, and under the earth. These claim the rulership of the earth and tend to lord it over human persons on earth. But the coming of the Son of Man is to take back the earth and bring it under divine dominion. The earth is now part of the kingdom of...

  WEDNESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTER    Acts 5:17-26; Ps 34:2-9; Jn 3:16-21 The Revelation of God’s Love The Son of Man revealed to Nicodemus the love the Father bestowed on the world, on all peoples, by sending his Only Begotten Son to come in human form. The coming of the Son of God in our nature has reconnected heaven and earth, or brought the kingdom of God to us, as Jesus explained in the passage of yesterday. We enter the kingdom of God through the knowledge of God’s will for us. The revelation of God’s will by the Son of Man opens the door of communion with God. This door was closed before the Incarnation of the Son of God. Jesus stated this yesterday when he said that no one has knowledge of God the Father, for no one has been to heaven, except the Son of Man who is in heaven. The Son of Man is in heaven even while he remained with us on earth because of the union of his human nature and the Eternal Word in the same Person of the Trinity. So, while on earth, h...

TUESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTER    Acts 4:32-37; Ps 93:1-2,5; Jn 3:7-15 Only the Son of Man Came from Heaven Nicodemus could not understand the words of Jesus Christ, for they were of mysteries beyond the mind of a natural man. Hence, we have stated in our reflection yesterday that the need for a heavenly or spiritual birth was that we may perceive, comprehend, and love spiritual things and reality founded on the Risen Lord. The Son of Man had previously mentioned these things to Nicodemus to awaken his desire for heavenly life and things. His ministry in the flesh was for the purpose of waking up this desire for heavenly life and reality in his disciples. His passion and death made life available to them and to all who believe in him. Thus, he clarified to Nicodemus that this heavenly life is had through water and the Spirit. We would not receive the Holy Spirit, the principle of spiritual life, if the water had not been made efficacious to wash away our sins; the w...

MONDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTER    Acts 4:23-31; Ps 2:1-9; Jn 3:1-8 Our Spiritual Birth in Christ To understand the immeasurable gift God has granted to humanity through the resurrection of the Son of Man, we must be spiritually aware and spiritually minded. The work of making us spiritual belongs to God alone, for as we have said in relation to the Risen Lord, no one can give what he has not. The fact that the Risen Lord gave the Holy Spirit to the fearful disciples gathered in the locked room shows that he is God. Knowing that it would be impossible for a mere human mind to conceive the spiritual gifts of heaven, most importantly, the spiritual life, the Risen Lord bestowed on them the gift of the Holy Spirit to initiate a spiritual life within them. As we read from the Gospel of John yesterday: “After saying this, he breathed on them and said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retaine...

DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY    Acts 2:42-47; Ps 118:2-4,13-15,22-24; 1 Pet 1:3-9; Jn 20:19-31 The Gift of Peace and Joy in Jesus Christ The second Sunday of Easter is traditionally regarded as Low Sunday or Divine Mercy Sunday. On this second Sunday, the wonder of the Lord’s resurrection and its divine effects are gradually sinking deep into the disciples. We are gradually meditating on the fact of Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead. The different appearances to some disciples were reported and discussed with amazement and untold joy. What is the meaning of the Lord’s resurrection from the dead? What are the implications for the disciples? What nature would his ministry on earth take from then? These questions must have been in the minds of the disciples as he appears and disappears at will. It was gradually dawning on them that his presence with them would no longer take a physical form, for he only appears to them for a purpose and disappears again, leaving them instruc...

EASTER SATURDAY    Acts 4:13-21; Ps 118:1,14-21; Mk 16:9-15   The Mission to Proclaim the Good News The disciples found it difficult to believe the story of the resurrection from those who first encountered the Risen Lord because the news was unbelievable. They were not paying attention to the scriptures, just as we do not in our daily lives. They were just following the daily happenings or events. They all experienced his passion and death as a shock to the hope of deliverance. Thus, the news of the resurrection of the Lord was totally a new thing from the ordinary or known events ever. If one accepts the news as true, it changes everything: our understanding and perception of life, our daily lives, our religion and religious activities, our understanding of events, and our purposes in life. The effects would be too heavy to bear, and their consequences would be too revolutionary. This is why it was unbelievable. The news of the resurrection of the Son of Man ...