Reflection from Friar Nicholas

SAINT JUSTIN, MARTYR    1 Cor 1:18-25; Ps 34:2-9; Mt 5:13-19 Letting the Light Shine for Others The revelation of God as a Trinity of Persons is a very heartwarming and excellent part of the Good News we have received. It emphasizes the fact that we have a communal nature; human nature flourishes in a community, as it is created in the image of God, who is a Trinity of Persons. This means that a community brings out the best in us. Hence, we have come to understand that community is salvation, and salvation is community. The revelation of God is for our perfection and salvation, for it offers us the community of God that illuminates our minds, enlarges our hearts in the warmth of love, and grounds or roots us deeply in the Father of all spirits. We can compare the perfection and goodness of a human community to a pot of well-prepared soup, wherein every ingredient contributes its best as unique to its nature. We can imagine what the taste of the soup would become if the ...

THE MOST HOLY TRINITY   Exod 34:4-6,8-9; Dan 3:52-56; 2 Cor 13:11-13; Jn 3:16-18 The Communion of Salvation in God We celebrate the solemn Feast of the Most Holy Trinity. The revelation of God is, of course, the salvation of man essentially, for being made in the image of God, we cannot know ourselves without God. Hence, the main aspect of the revelation is the understanding of God as given in three persons. The true nature of God as constituted in three persons has always been present in the history of the revelation of God or the history of human salvation, but our understanding of the persons in the Godhead is part of the fullness of divine revelation. If the knowledge of God is essential for our salvation, then our knowledge of God as the Trinity is necessary for our salvation. We must seek to understand the Trinity of God, not just in a notional way, but in a concrete way, in order to enter into communion with the Triune God that constitutes our salvation. Though Go...

SATURDAY, EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME      Jude 1:17,20-25; Ps 63:2-6; Mk 11:27-33 Building on the Holy Foundation of Faith On the day of our baptism, a lit candle was given to us to signify the spiritual light our faith in Jesus Christ has brought into us. The same ritual is repeated every year at the Easter Vigil Mass. The repetition ensures that those baptised as infants have the opportunity to own the faith their parents and Godparents professed in their place during their baptism. The solemn profession of faith in the Triune God and rejection of Satan and his lies is repeated. Another reason we repeat this ritual every year is to remind ourselves of the solemn profession of faith in the Risen Lord and to renew our spiritual life by celebrating the mysteries through which we were given new life. The Easter celebration of the Paschal mysteries offers us the opportunity to re-comprehend our faith in the Risen Lord and thereby solidify the foundation of our spirit...

FRIDAY, EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME      1 Pet 4:7-13; Ps 96:10-13; Mk 11:11-26 The Special Graces of Service Understanding our new life and spiritual relationships with God reforms our understanding and knowledge of the material and temporal life and realities therein. We have access to temporal and spiritual realities through our natural and spiritual lives. We are accustomed to the former, for we knew no other until we came to know Jesus and received the Holy Spirit. The latter is received, as it were, in the former; It grows only to the extent we give it attention and the required spiritual food. We can afford an unconscious living in the former, carried only by the senses and their attractions to sensible things. But the spiritual life needs our conscious and constant attention. Saint Peter, in order to help us develop this consciousness, reminds us of the temporality of the physical world. “Everything will soon come to an end, so, to pray better, keep a calm ...

THURSDAY, EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME      1 Pet 2:2-5,9-12; Ps 100:2-5; Mk 10:46-52 The Sacrifices of Royal Priests We continue to follow the Apostle Peter as he leads us deeper into the mysteries we have inherited through our faith in Jesus Christ and in God, who raised him from the dead for our salvation and glorification. As we noted yesterday, the apostles, before they received the Holy Spirit and a new birth in Jesus Christ, were oblivious of the importance of the Son of Man and what they stood to gain in him. In their spiritual blindness and ignorance, they considered him a means to exalted earthly positions and material wealth and well-being. Though Jesus promised them these, as we read earlier in the current chapter, when he said that those who left family and properties for his sake would be repaid a hundred times over. But these are not the core of his promise to us who follow him; they are only attractions for our worldly-oriented interests. A worldly-m...

WEDNESDAY, EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME      1 Pet 1:18-25; Ps 147:12-15,19-20; Mk 10:32-45 Jesus Christ as the Servant of All In today’s passage from the First Letter of Saint Peter, he continues to expound on the importance of our Christian mysteries. The great value and importance of the mysteries we have received ought to make us persevere in our faith with utmost care and attention. According to Peter, the pre-existing Son of God has now been revealed in our days for our salvation. “Who, though known since before the world was made, has been revealed only in our time, the end of the ages, for your sake.” In what sense was Jesus known before the world was made? Certainly not by human beings. The humanity of our Lord was not known by the angel as such, as the apostle intimated to us earlier in the part we read yesterday, when he said that the angels long to catch a glimpse of these mysteries of our salvation. That leaves the Trinity alone. In other words, the hum...

SAINT PHILIP NERI, PRIEST     1 Pet 1:10-16; Ps 98; Mk 10:28-31 Leaving Everything to Follow Christ After the Paschal festivities, we resume the Ordinary Time of the liturgical year. This time has its own importance. Back to our daily activities, with no celebration taking up our interest and time, we have the opportunity to work the mysteries of our salvation we have celebrated through Eastertide into the fabric of our lives, through bringing the light of faith lit in our minds and hearts during the celebrations to bear on our daily works and rests. A deeper understanding of the meaning of the life, passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord gives us a new perspective on the works we do, our rest, and our lives. Indeed, we no longer belong to ourselves, but are now God's through Jesus Christ our Lord. The work we do is no longer for self-satisfaction, but to please the Lord, who has redeemed us with his precious blood. The Holy Spirit he sends into our hearts is ...

MARY, MOTHER OF THE CHURCH    Acts 1:12-14; Ps 87; Jn 19:25-34 Behold Your Mother The Church fittingly celebrates the memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of the Church, following the Solemnity of Pentecost. For we marked Pentecost as the formal birthday of the Church. The commencement of the public activities of the Holy Spirit through and within the disciples marked the public manifestation of the body of Christ to the world. The celebration of this memorial is the Church’s way of recognising that we owe the spiritual or mystical life to the unique privilege and efforts of the Blessed Virgin Mary. No one understands the privilege of the mother of Jesus Christ and her place in our spiritual life without understanding the mystery of sin and human salvation. We always go back to the beginning, where God promised us salvation after the fall of Adam and Eve. The enmity God promised to create between the woman of our salvation and the ancient serpent, which i...

THE PENTECOST SUNDAY    Acts 2:1-11; Ps 104:1,24,29-31,34; 1 Cor 12:3-7,12-13; Jn 20:19-23 The Holy Spirit and his variety of Gifts We celebrate Pentecost Sunday. On this day, we mark the descent of the Holy Spirit actively on the disciples of our Lord. The coming of the Holy Spirit is the formal birth of the Church as a gathering of the people of God possessing the same Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Blessed Trinity; our possession of him means that God is with us. Just as God was with us in the days of the Son of Man in the flesh, God is now with us in the Person of the Holy Spirit. The specific mission of the Holy Spirit is the application of the saving works of Jesus Christ to the salvation of the human person. What the Son of Man has objectively achieved in his life, death, and resurrection, the Holy Spirit is now to apply to individual persons. This is the specific work of the Holy Spirit among the persons of the Blessed Trinity. He brings to ac...

SATURDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE    Acts 28:16-20,30-31; Ps 11:4-5,7; Jn 21:20-25 The Spirit of Knowledge and Counsel On the last day of our Novena to the Holy Spirit, we consider the gifts of knowledge and Counsel, the last two of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. The gift of knowledge is the Spirit’s aid to our knowledge of earthly things. It is surely about knowledge of earthly things, but it goes deeper than our mere scientific knowledge of creatures to ground them in our faith in God. It helps us to know things in their interconnectedness and the way they serve the will of the Creator, God. It offers us knowledge of the divine plan in things and in earthly affairs, all working together for the realisation of man’s salvation and the glory of God. We may have a profound scientific knowledge of creatures, human history, and their activities. Without the spiritual gift of knowledge, we will not see how our scientific knowledge serves the will of God and his divine...

FRIDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE    Acts 25:13-21; Ps 103:1-2,11-12,19-20; Jn 17:20-26 The Spirit of Fear of the Lord The Holy Spirit also gives us the fear of the Lord as a gift. As Saint Paul wrote, we have not received a spirit of fear or timidity, but the Spirit that helps us cry ‘Abba, Father.’ Cf. Rom 8:15. The new birth we received from the Holy Spirit through our Lord Jesus Christ is the life of the Son of God, within us. So, our new spirit is able to call God Father, because it is begotten of God the Father and the means of our adoption as children of God. Through this new spirit, tutored and guided by the Holy Spirit, we develop a filial and reverential fear of God. Hence, the gift of the fear of the Lord is another spiritual support received from the Holy Spirit, aiding our transformation into Jesus Christ. We must never understand the fear here in the common usage of the word to mean being afraid or terrorised by another. The fear of the Lord flows out...

THURSDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE    Acts 22:30,23:6-11; Ps 16:1-2,5,7-11; Jn 17:20-26 The Spirit of Understanding We arrive at truth through understanding, and truths offer us knowledge. The gift of understanding by the Holy Spirit is a spiritual support to our intellect, enabling us to grasp the mysteries of God and receive divine illumination on the things and events of life. The spiritual gift of understanding is key to our easy and successful journey into the mysteries of Jesus Christ. Our journey to the mountain of God is not a physical journey, like Elijah’s journey to Mount Sinai, but a spiritual journey into the mysteries of Jesus Christ. The gift of spiritual understanding enables us to penetrate the mysteries of God, human affairs, and situations. This gift, in a special way, renews the image of God in us, for it quickens the working of our rational faculty to see beyond the physical, to the foundations of things in God’s will. We must maintain purity ...

WEDNESDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE    Acts 20:28-38; Ps 68:29-30,33-36; Jn 17:11-19 The Spirit of Wisdom The Christian vocation is to inherit a kingdom. As contained in the scriptures, we are called to inherit God through Jesus Christ. Thus, sharing the same Spirit with Jesus Christ, we are to reign with him in the kingdom of his Father forever. In his prayer to the Father, he requested the same glory that he is to receive from the Father for all of us who believe in his name. So, his gift of the Holy Spirit to us is in preparation for the inheritance the Father has already granted us through the prayer and salvific work of the Son of Man. Thus, among the gifts of the Holy Spirit to us, wisdom is a special virtue for overseers. Wisdom is a kingly virtue that helps us direct all things to their proper end. To each of us is entrusted the kingdom of God that is within us; we are to trade everything to make it properly ours. The parable of our Lord confirms the vocat...

TUESDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE    Acts 20:17-27; Ps 68:10-11,20-21; Jn 17:1-11 The Spirit of Fortitude The love of God the Father makes him give us his Son to save us from sin and evil, and his Holy Spirit to abide with us and bring us into communion with him. These gifts of the divine Persons are gifts beyond our imagination, through which we begin to estimate the love of the Father for us. Jesus especially referred to the Holy Spirit as the Gift from the Father. Cf. Lk 11:13. We have spiritual life when we receive the Holy Spirit, thanks to our Lord’s salvific works. The Holy Spirit, in order to properly strengthen and coordinate our spiritual life, which ought to overflow and oversee our natural life, gives us the seven gifts aiding our sanctification. We reflected on the gift of piety yesterday. Fortitude is the next gift of the Holy Spirit by which he solidifies our spiritual life. Through the gift of fortitude, the Holy Spirit gives us firmness in difficu...