Reflection from Friar Nicholas

FEAST OF SAINT MARY MAGDALEN 2 Cor 5:14-17; Ps 63:2-6,8-9; Jn 20:1-2,11-18 Love Nurtured by Forgiveness God is infinitely just and infinitely loving. In our human thinking and understanding, it would appear strange that justice, mercy, and love come together in God’s dealings with us. As mentioned, God creatively works out our salvation in such a way that his infinite justice, mercy, love, and other divine perfections are not shortchanged in any way. This becomes clearer when we recall that God’s judgment and punishment are never geared toward our perdition or destruction, but rather toward our reconciliation with Him. It is not the will of God that we or any of his creatures perish, but that we come to share in his life and communion. Thus, God exercises his divine justice vis-à-vis his other perfections in such a way as to maximise the possibility of our repentance and return to his everlasting communion. So, the first goal of the divine justice is to reveal to us the evil of o...

TUESDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME Micah 7:14-15,18-20; Ps 85:2-8; Mt 12:46-50 Becoming the brother of Jesus Christ If, as we said in yesterday’s reflection, God intends us to live in communion with him always, he will surely not hide his divine will from us. Since to live in communion with God is to follow his will in all things, God will not hide his will from us but reveal it for our lives and fullness of communion. The will of God is indeed revealed for our salvation, for the whole creation exists by the will of the Father. Each creature proclaims the divine will in its nature as each is called forth into existence by the living word of God. On this basis, God called on the whole creation to act as witness in the case and indictment of his people, as we read yesterday from the prophet Micah. They are witnesses of God’s will, for they exist by the divine will and proclaim it through their existence and operations to us. Hence, our disobedience and sins are inexcusable, for w...

MONDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME Micah 6:1-4,6-8; Ps 50:5-6,8-9,16-17,21,23; Mt 12:38-42de Something Greater than Jonah Before seeking a solution to a problem or an answer to a question, it is usually beneficial to verify that the question is well-posed or the problem is well-articulated. Attempting to answer a wrongly posed question or an ill-articulated problem is to look for what does not exist. The same applies to us when we search for the sign of God with us. We should think of the right indicators or signs to look out for when seeking to witness the presence of God in our lives or in the world. The major concern in our prayers and petitions to God is that of asking for what God is not willing to give. Put differently, it is the problem of asking for what is not good for us or seeking God in a manner that is not in conformity with his word or revelation to us. Again, we recall the command in the Garden of Eden and its implications for us. Adam and Eve were forbidden...

SUNDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME Wis 12:16-19; Ps 86:5-6,9-10,15-16; Rom 8:26-27; Mt 13:24-43 The Justice of God and Our Corrupted Nature We often discuss the justice of God. But we usually consider or understand it through the lens of human justice, which is inadequate for understanding divine justice. God’s justice bears the identity of God, for it is also God. By this, we mean that the revelation of divine justice is also the revelation of God, who is infinite in all perfections. God’s justice is infinite and perfect because it reveals God. Therefore, we are unable to fully comprehend it because we do not fully understand the nature of God. Our knowing is imperfect in this mortal existence, which implies that we know the justice of God only imperfectly. Though divine justice is infinite and perfect, it is essentially good because God is essentially good. God judges us with full knowledge of who we are and what we have done. This knowledge is not given to us, which cau...

SATURDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Micah 2:1-5; Ps 10:1-4,7-8,14; Mt 12:14-21 God and the Plots of the Wicked Why does it seem to us that the wicked are having their way? Instigated and led by the demonic spirits who are principles of evil, they perpetrate suffering, pain, and sometimes even death on the good and upright souls. Is God truly concerned with protecting the good? These are the questions that have made many fledgling souls fall back into sinful states and decidedly offer themselves willingly to evil. God is the infinite Spirit and the source of all existence. The fact remains that we do not see him with our material eyes or perceive him with any of our senses. Unperceived by our senses, God seems very remote and abstract to us in our daily engagements, trials, and life in general. His absence is most felt by souls submerged in the deluge of sins and unbelief. Because they have abandoned reason and faith, they live like animals, following only the instinct and d...

FRIDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Isa 38:1-6,21-22,7-8; Isa 38:10-12,16; Mt 12:1-8 You Put All Things Under Him The renewal of our bodies follows the birth and development of the spiritual man. This renewal of what seems to be dying is a foretaste of the life of resurrection that is to follow when the Lord calls forth our bodies from the grave. The death of Christ that we experience in our bodies as we make the interior journey is the destruction of the structures of sin that our former lives, that is oriented away from God, has raised within us. When these old and sinful habits, which constitute the sinful structures in us, are destroyed and rooted out, a new self which truly bears the image of God and has likeness to Jesus Christ, for it is truly Christ living in us, arises and gains control of affairs. Concerning the breaking of the old structures and the rebuilding of new ones, David prays to God in Psalm 51:8-10, 17-19. “Fill me with joy and gladness; let the bones whi...

OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL (Optional Memorial) Isa 26:7-9,12,16-19; Ps 102:13-21; Mt 11:28-30 The Naure of Our Spiritual Journey In our quest for a spiritual or heavenly life, we struggle to gain knowledge of divine mysteries. They are mysteries because they are beyond what human minds or intellects can grasp in this our mortal existence; they are mysteries because the realities we seek are not completely conformable to our categories of knowledge in this present mortal life; they are mysteries because they constitute part of what we know of the absolute mystery we call God. These are the reasons why our interior journey is a journey into both light and darkness at the same time. The inner man journeys into brighter and brighter spiritual light, becoming livelier as he proceeds. At the same time, our outer man journeys deeper and deeper into darkness, for the senses are more and more bereft of their objects of sensation. While the spiritual journey drains the body, it energises the...

SAINT BONAVENTURE, BISHOP, DOCTOR Isa 10:5-7, 13-16; Ps 94:5-10,14-15; Mt 11:25-27 Treasure of Our Spiritual Life Our spiritual life is a gift from God. It is a life that the word of God caused to sprout in us, making us present to God. The word of God is the primary source of God's revelation. All the effects of the word in the world and in us individually are geared toward making the Father known. So, the new spiritual life it engenders in us is a revelation of God within each of us. Because it is a precious effect of our reception of God’s word within us, God the Father orders all things within and without to foster its growth, for it is the life of the Son within us. The growth of our interior life does not depend entirely on God, but also on our cooperation with the graces God sends to us daily. Without this cooperation, which faith fosters in us, our spiritual lives cannot grow. The needed cooperation is prompted and supported by a good prayer life. The reason is that p...

TUESDAY, FIFTENTH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME Isa 7:1-9; Ps 48:2-8; Mt 11:20-21 Defence of Our Spiritual Life   We cannot underestimate the corruptive influence of the devil, the ancient serpent, and its worldly minions. An example of its power to seduce, corrupt, and destroy the structure planted in us by the word of God is seen in the story of Israel during the time of Elijah the prophet. To imagine that the nation saved from slavery in Egypt and settled in the Promised Land of Canaan was corrupted by the forces of idolatry is unimaginable. They had the Commandments and the prophets ministering the will of God to them. Yet, the country and its people became so far removed from God that there were four hundred and fifty (450) prophets of Baal and only one prophet of God, Elijah the prophet. How did it happen that the people redeemed and called by God’s name ended up having more prophets of Baal than prophets of God? It was a gradual corruption and departure from God that started...

MONDAY, FIFTENTH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME Isa 1:10-17; Ps 50:8-9,16-17,21,23; Mt 10:34-11:1 The Struggle for Spiritual Life Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it will remain single and fruitless. But if it falls and dies, it bears plenty fruits. This is the saying of our Lord in Jn 12:24, and it describes the Christian life perfectly. This is the reason the Sower sows the seeds, as in the parable of the Sower we heard in yesterday’s Gospel. The acceptance and profession of faith in the Risen Lord, which commences the Christian life at baptism, is a falling into the grave or the earth as a seed that is sown. It is not an annihilation, but a sowing into the earth for the purpose of germinating a new and spiritual life from the old natural and corruptible life. This falling into the grave graced by the blood of the Lord is what the baptismal rite signifies. The immersion into the water is our sharing in the death and burial of Jesus Christ, so that our natural and ...

SUNDAY, FIFTENTH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME Isa 55:10-11; Ps 65:10-14; Rom 8:18-23; Mt 13:1-23 The Word of God as Seed of Spiritual Life The Church arranges the readings for this Sunday to aid us in a deeper and better understanding of the mystery of our salvation in Jesus Christ. The prominent analogy is that of the seed sown in the soil. Just as a viable seed sown in the soil struggles with the life it contains against the forces of death, darkness, and decay, our souls, receiving the new and spiritual life from the word of God, struggle against the forces of evil, sin, and death. The forces of death and corruption, working on the seed, cause it to bring forth a new shoot through which it breaks through the earth covering and holding it down, to receive light and fresh air, with which it commences the production of new structures supporting the new life. The seed sown in the dark earth will be unable to accomplish this feat if it is not viable enough. The analogy is apt for our sp...

SAINT BENEDICT, ABBOT Isa 6:1-8; Ps 93:1-2,5; Mt 10:24-33 From worship of Idols to God Once we have the light of the Word of God to illuminate our inmost being, to see how truly sinful we are without the grace of God, we begin to cast away our idols in order to approach God. Without the light of the word of God, none can really know himself and his sins. We cannot understand how deceived and deluded we are in putting ourselves first before God, our creator. As we noted yesterday, this deception with oneself is the masterpiece of the devil's tricks. The saints believed and taught that knowledge of self is the foundation of the life of holiness. The knowledge of self does not come without our turning to the interior, where the light of God’s word illuminates our sinful self and teaches us about God. The strategy of the devil is always to distract and remove us from the light of the presence of God, received in contemplation of his word. Thus, it is said that ignorance of the sc...

FRIDAY, FOURTENTH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME Hosea 14:2-10; Ps 51:3-4,8-9,12-14,17; Mt 10:16-23 You shall be Like God The setting up of idols for worship within and without is a contamination of the pure initial desire within a human person for the absolute Truth and Goodness we call God. This original desire is divine because it is constituted by the will of the Triune God to make man in the image and likeness of God. Since God works on us without us, making us into His image, He works in us through us to make us like Himself. The evil one, noting that the work of making the human person like God requires our attention on God through his word, came to distract the man and the woman from focusing on the word and the activities of God in creation. Thus, our distraction from the word is the origin of idols. Once the self was put before the will of God, the enemy continually set up an idol for the human person, distracted from God. The evil one deceives us through presenting the self t...

  THURSDAY, FOURTENTH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME Hosea 11:1-4,8-9; Ps 80:2-3,15-16; Mt 10:7-15 The Foolishness of Idol Worship The only thing that drives or makes us to idolise a creature or make an idol for worship is ignorance of God and his goodness to us. When we lack the knowledge of God, his existence, and benevolence to us who are his beloved creatures, we foolishly and ignorantly set up a shrine for ourselves. We are also ignorant when we seek to serve God in our own way, and not the way he wants us to serve him. As noted yesterday, what drives the setting up of an idol is our desire to do our will. The scripture calls the one who thinks there is no God a fool. We are indeed foolish when we set up our own god for worship because we lack the knowledge of a basic truth, namely, that we live and move in God. Our life is a participation in God who created us for himself. If God created us, He also cares for our welfare and provides us with all we need to sustain our lives he...