Reflection from Friar Nicholas

  Saturday, Fouth week of lent/2024 Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP Theme: A life committed to the Lord   

Friday, Fourth week of Lent/2024 Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke,OP Theme: Sin speaks in the hearts of Sinners According to Psalm 36, “ Sin is the oracle of the wicked in the depth of his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes.” The reason sin speaks to the wicked and through them is because they have not kept the word of God. In place of keeping the word of God in their hearts, they have rather kept a database of sins in their hearts. Now when the scripture says sin speaks, the reference is of course to the father of sin, the evil one. Just as God begets his word, and his word is life, evil begets sin, and sin brings about death. God operates through his word, for all things are given existence by the word of God. There is a similar operation of evil through sin; for wherever sin abides there also is evil, and death is brought about by the operation of evil through sin. Thus, the lack of fear of God, which makes us keep the word of God in our hearts, makes the wicked drop...

Thursday, Fourth week of Lent/2024 Reflection from Nicholas Okeke,OP Theme: Never put aside the Word of God   We consider briefly the event that led to the apostasy of the children of Israel when Moses was on Mount Sinai. The people had recently witnessed the wonders of the Lord that led to their deliverance from Egypt. God used many other remarkable events to make a lasting impression of fear of his Name in their minds. It happened that Moses needed to be with the Lord on the mountain to receive a lasting memory of what God wanted the children of Israel to know and put into practice. He stayed on the mountain for 40 days and nights. In human reckoning, this was a long time for the people to wait for him in the wilderness. Many things would have entered their minds: wild animals, cold, sickness, etc. would have killed him. This way of thinking is purely human, and they were not wrong in supposing these various possibilities. But their sin consisted in throwing away what they had se...

Wednesday, Fourth week of Lent/2024 Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke,OP Theme: The Dead will hear the Voice of the Son of Man Jesus Christ is our Day of Salvation and our favourable time. As John the Evangelist wrote, God so loved the world that he gave his only Begotten Son for the salvation of the world. The enormity of God's love in sending his Son to us is difficult for humans to believe. The love and humility of the Eternal Word in assuming human nature is also very embarrassing for human nature to comprehend. The incarnation of the Son of God is the declaration of the day of salvation for all people as Isaiah prophesied. It is the day God extended his divine help to those in prison and abandoned. “I will say to the prisoners, ‘Come out’, to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ On every roadway they will graze, and each bare height shall be their pasture.” The coming of the Son of God in human flesh is so powerful a revelation of God that pushed darkness away. The...

  Tuesday, Fourth week of Lent/2024 Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke,OP Theme: Water from the new Jerusalem Temple The prophet Ezekiel presents to us his vision of the new Jerusalem Temple. The passage has many symbolic meanings. “The angel brought me to the entrance of the Temple, where a stream came out from under the Temple threshold and flowed eastwards since the Temple faced east. The water flowed from under the right side of the Temple, south of the altar.” We have understood the new Temple of God to be composed of all who worship God in spirit and in truth; thus, the new Temple is spiritual, just as the new Jerusalem is spiritual and no more localized. This Temple faced the East because they believe and model their lives on that of the Lamb, the rising Sun of humanity. He arises with healing rays. Our Lord in his humanity is the rising Sun because he embodies the will of the Father for us. The will of God is our light, healing, sanctification, and all. Hence, all who bel...

Monday, Fourth week of Lent/2024 Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke,OP Theme: God makes Jerusalem Joy The prophecy of Isaiah concerning the new and spiritual Jerusalem is the first reading. When Cyrus the King asked the exiled Israelites in Babylon to go up to Jerusalem for its restoration and rebuilding of the Temple, many did not see the point because they were already mingled with the nations and had lost faith in the promise of Yahweh to his people. Only those who kept their faith and hope in Yahweh rejoiced at the proclamation and returned to Judea to rebuild the Temple of God in Jerusalem. If faith was necessary to inherit the temporal promise made to Israelites, it is indispensable to inherit the heavenly Jerusalem that is an eternal promise. The heavenly Jerusalem is an eternal reality that the Jerusalem in Judea foreshadowed. The first reading contains this comparison. “Be glad and rejoice forever and ever for what I am creating, because I now create Jerusalem ‘Joy’ and her ...

  Sunday , Fourth week of lent/2024 Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke,OP Theme: Going up to Jerusalem The first reading from the book of 2 Chronicles explained the Babylonian captivity as the result of the sins of children of Israel. When they refused to listen to the word of God spoken through the prophets and amend their lives, the Lord allowed the consequences of their sins to overtake them. The divine will decreed seventy years in captivity in Babylon. After the seventy years God remembered his love and faithfulness to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and his promise to David.  He had mercy on them and rescued them from their captivity and restored them to the land. This was an act of God’s mercy and love. God extended this loving mercy he showed to Israel to the whole nations by sending his only Begotten Son to the world. Just as he rescued Israel from their captivity in Babylon, he has willed to rescue all nations from their slavery to sin and evil by the life of his Son ou...