Reflection from Friar Nicholas

THURSDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Jer 18:1-6; Ps 146:2-6; Mt 13:47-53 The Separation of the Good from the Bad It was Saint Augustine who said that the same divine blows that purify the saints reduce the unjust to dust and ashes. By this, he let us understand that there are no separate measures for the saints and the sinners as pertains to our mortal life here on earth. God does not distinguish between the faithful and sinners when he sends his sun, rain, cold, and heat. Our Lord taught the same lesson. “For He makes His sun rise on those who are evil and on those who are good, and makes the rain fall on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Mt 5:45. This means that God sends his material blessings to everyone irrespective of our standing with him. Even his graces are given to everyone in Jesus Christ our Lord. The difference lies in our manner of reception of these gifts he gives without favouritism. Some people turn their backs on the gifts and continue to complain about...

SAINTS MARTHA, MARY AND LAZARUS Jer 15:10,16-21; Ps 59:2-5,10-11,17-18; Jn 11:19-27 Our Mortal Afflictions We are sometimes in great distress and ignorant of the possible cause or causes of our afflictions. Among other possible causes of our afflictions as Christians is the fact that we bear the word of God. By the original sin of our first parents, a sinful orientation has gained a place within us. So, our nature, which was made to reflect the goodness of God as the image of the divine, is corrupted by sin, original and actual sins. Our innate disorientation from God and his word makes it possible for the devil to sow his evil seed in us and use us as his seeds in the world. Subsequently, the word of God comes to us with a destructive force, which actually is meant to restore the purity of our nature. We receive the word of God and feel his presence in us as a destructive force because of the evil structures and orientation established by sin, the seed of the devil, within us. T...

TUESDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Jer 14:17-22; Ps 79:8-9,11,13; Mt 13:36-43 The Good Seed and the Darnel We take another look at the parable of the good seed, the wheat, and the darnel in the parable of our Lord. Let us strive to gain more clarity on the setting and workings of evil and its agents. About the meaning of the parable, while explaining the parable to the apostles, our Lord says: “The sower of the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world; the good seed is the subjects of the kingdom; the darnel, the subjects of the evil one; the enemy who sowed them, the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; the reapers are the angels.” He refers to the faithful and the unfaithful as the good seeds and the darnels, respectively. He makes us understand that when we receive the word of God and apply it to our lives, we become good seeds; that is, we become the living word of God or the incarnation of God’s word. This is truly the case, for through our baptisma...

MONDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Jer 13:1-11; Deut 32:18-21; Mt 13:31-35 The Mustard Seed of the Kingdom of Heaven Wisdom is God essentially. It is enshrined in the word of God, which expresses the knowledge and will of the Father. This is why we refer to Jesus Christ as the Eternal Wisdom. So, God did not imprint or enclose wisdom within rational creatures, for that would remove their freedom or make them equal to God. The exercise of free will is what allows rational creatures to be like God.  With a rational nature that makes them the image of God, they can know the created things and order. They can distinguish between creatures and the Creator and choose to remain in communion with their Creator. Our choice to remain with God is a choice to walk with wisdom. Since God created us to be in communion with him, the choice to follow the will of God when it is revealed to us is the proper exercise of the gift of free will that will bring us to be like God. When we fai...

SUNDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 1 Kings 3:5,7-12; Ps 119:57,72,76-77,127-130; Rom 8:28-30; Mt 13:44-52 The Transitory and the Permanent God made us in his image and gave us a vocation to be like him. This vocation is not unique to the human person, but general to all rational creatures. Both angels and humans received the vocation to be like God, though each is called to be like God in a manner specific to their nature. Every other thing made by God reflects the glory of God according to its nature, which is God acting within and through them. But the nature of the rational creatures is such that they have to cooperate with God to reflect the divine glory willingly. The presence of wisdom in creatures is what enables them to reflect the glory of God. Whereas irrational creatures bear the imprint of wisdom and naturally obey the will of God in their natural operations, rational creatures have no such imprint of wisdom; they are made to willingly love wisdom and learn to ...

FEAST OF SAINT JAMES, APOSTLE 2 Cor 4:7-15; Ps 126:1-6; Mt 20:20-28 Mysteries of Heaven in Earthenware Jars The mysteries we receive and celebrate in our liturgical gatherings are revelations of God to us, who are his creatures. Through the scriptures, we have come to understand that God made us for the purpose of containing these mysteries. As we noted yesterday, the revelations of these mysteries are like open doors through which we enter into the presence of God. The Church, as the body of Jesus Christ, is the custodian of these mysteries. That is to say that the Church, by receiving these mysteries from Jesus Christ, received the keys to open the doors leading to the saving presence of God. Our Lord meant this when he entrusted the key to the kingdom of heaven to the apostles. Therefore, the existence of the Church in the world prolongs the salvific presence of God to all peoples and nations. Since her members constitute the Church as the body of Jesus Christ, the presence of...

FRIDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Jer 3:14-1; Jer 31:10-13; Mt 13:18-23 Grasping the Mysteries of Heaven One characteristic feature of God is presence. God is a presence, and his name, I AM, means presence or existence. Presence is an alternative presentation of God who is existence. By creating us, he brings us to share in his being, for God is existence. Life, especially human life, is characterised by awareness. The object of our awareness determines the quality of our life. It follows, therefore, that to be aware of God is the highest form of existence or life. However, God is not immediately present to our awareness in mortal life. Our awareness of God’s presence is mediated until we develop our spiritual faculties to a level where we can apprehend spiritual realities directly. The role of the mysteries is to relate the divine presence and operations to us. Hence, the mysteries of faith are the events in time that God has immortalised by his presence and operations, su...

THURSDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Jer 2:1-3,7-8,12-13; Ps 36:6-11; Mt 13:10-17 What the Prophets Longed to Hear Mysteries are divine truths that transcend the human mind. They are difficult to comprehend in our mortal existence. Such mysteries are presented to us in simple analogies that we can easily understand and relate to. However, our ability to relate to these mysteries is radically diminished by sin, for sin is a different orientation from our natural orientation, which is towards God. Sin gives us an orientation to creatures, which is an orientation that first exists in the devil and his fallen angels. He was the first to turn away from God to creature, himself, for he is a creature of God. He tempts us to turn away from God to self, and subsequently to creatures. Orientation to creatures blinds us to the presence of God and his providential care for us. With such an orientation, what we merit is outright destruction, for we have lost the purpose of our being, whi...

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...