Reflection from Friar Nicholas

WEDNESDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP  Isa 10:5-7,13-16; Ps 94:5-10,14-15; Mt 11:25-27 Mystery revealed to mere Children The mystery of all the heavenly blessings with which the Father has blessed all of us is the focus of our reflection this week. This mystery has many aspects which we have been touching on throughout the week. These heavenly blessings are all found in the Eternal Word, the Only Begotten Son of God from all eternity. Hence, the Father granted us all these heavenly blessings when he willed that his Son would assume the nature of man for the love of us and our salvation. The first part of the mystery is Trinitarian. In the Trinity, the Son proceeds from the Father, and all that the Father has also belongs to the Son. So, the Eternal Word is God with his Father and equal in the divine nature. This is part of the content of the mystery that caused our Lord to exclaim in the gospel. “Everything has been entrusted to me by m...

OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP  Isa 7:1-9; Ps 48:2-8; Mt 11:20-24 If you do not stand by Me, you will not stand at all The Lord Jesus Christ takes up the issue of rejecting or ignoring the Gospel message when it comes to us in the gospel reading today. The word of God contains all the blessings of heaven which God had given us in Christ before the beginning of the world. Hence, a rejection or refusal to accept or listen to the Gospel message is a rejection of all the heavenly blessings we have received in Jesus Christ. These divine blessings have import for our lives here on earth. While still dwelling here on earth, those who believe in the word of God already possess the heavenly inheritance God will fully manifest to us when we exit this mortal tent. By faith, we enter into the eternal kingdom and the promised inheritance. The importance of faith for our reception of the heavenly blessings here on earth is illustrated in the first reading...

ST. BONAVENTURE, BISHOP, DOCTOR Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP  Isa 1:10-17; Ps 50:8-9,16-17,21,23; Mt 10:34-11:1 Anyone who prefers son or daughter to me is not worthy of Me In a very cynical expression, the prophet Isaiah referred to the rulers of Israel as rulers of Sodom and the people as people of Gomorrah. “Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the command of our God, you people of Gomorrah.” Our Lord referred to Sodom and Gomorrah while sending out his disciples to preach the Gospel in the passage of Matthew we are considering these few days. According to our Lord, it would be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the judgment day than for any town that refuses to listen or receive the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, prophet Isaiah’s plain reference to the people of Israel as people of Gomorrah and their leaders as rulers of Sodom is mild in comparison to the statement of our Lord. As we mentioned in the reflection on Sunday, it is a ho...

SUNDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP  Amos 7:12-15; Ps 85:9-14; Eph 1:3-14; Mk 6:7-13 Blessed with All the spiritual Blessings in Christ Jesus When we consider the dignity of the divine Majesty of God and the blessings to which he calls us his miserable creatures, we feel overwhelmed and momentarily go blank. This is because our minds cannot comprehend such a height of contemplation. But great light of consolation comes from the little we know of God. The Catechism teaches that God is a supreme Spirit who alone exists of himself and is infinite in all perfection. If the material creatures are not easy to comprehend, how can we comprehend the Creator of all there is in heaven and on earth? On the ground of the infinite greatness of God, no one dares disobey his will expressed by his word given to us. When the word of God comes to us, we cannot refuse to receive it because of the greatness of God and the infinite good contained therei...

SATURDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP  Isa 6:1-8; Ps 93:1-2,5; Mt 10:24-33 Here I am, send me The vocation of Isaiah the prophet comes as a fitting closure for our reflection on the prophet this week. The foundational vision of Isaiah defined his whole mission. He saw the divine majesty of God and the holy angels attending to him, which filled him with awe and knowledge of his sinfulness. “In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord of Hosts seated on a high throne; his train filled the sanctuary; above him stood seraphs, each one with six wings: two to cover its face, two to cover its feet, and two for flying. And they cried to one another in this way, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts. His glory fills the whole earth.’” Everyone called to be a prophet has a vision of God who calls him. This vision comes in various ways God determines. The vision is to fix a firm knowledge of God’s majesty in the one he called. The vi...

FRIDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP  Hos 14:2-10; Ps 51:3-4,8-9,12-14,17; Mt 10:16-23 The Spirit of your Father will be speaking in you We are called to share in the role of Jesus Christ as a prophet. The vocation of a prophet is a life-long vocation, which is an occupation. As we have stated, the prophet is not just a channel of the word of God; he is also to be the word of God. For God trains him to be an embodiment of his will. We see this in the case of Hosea, whose life was a continuous proclamation to Israel of Yahweh’s steadfast love and compassion. His marriage, the birth of his three children, and even his wife’s unfaithfulness were proclamations of the will of God to Israel. The first reading expresses Yahweh’s eagerness to forgive Israel’s sins and heal his people’s sinfulness, symbolically represented in Hosea’s forgiveness and acceptance of his unfaithful wife. “Israel, come back to the Lord your God; your iniquity wa...

ST BENEDICT, ABBOT Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP Hos 11:1-4,8-9; Ps 80:2-3,15-16; Mt 10:7-15 Discovering the Holy One in our midst In the passage from Hosea the prophet, Yahweh uses another imagery to illustrate his love for his people, Israel, and his fatherly interaction with them since they were rescued from bondage in Egypt and constituted as the people of God. We must recall they enjoyed the privileged attention of Yahweh because of his covenantal promise to Abraham. We have explained how the choice of Abraham is not in exclusion of others but for the salvation of all nations. God initiated his plan for human salvation in a definitive way with Abraham. It made significant progress through Abraham and his descendants because of their faithful cooperation. The needed cooperation became very difficult when they became a nation, Israel. God gave them all they needed to know him, love him, and serve him; he gave them his commandments, the prophets, priests, and kings t...