Reflection from Friar Nicholas

SUNDAY, TWENTY THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Ezek 33:7-9; Ps 95:1-2,6-9; Rom 13:8-10; Mt 18:15-20 Our Love for Neighbour Our Lord teaches us in the scriptures that the greatest of all the Commandments is to love God with all our heart, mind, and strength. Since the first object of our love conditions our whole love, life, and behaviour, it follows that our love for God is supposed to direct the whole of our Christian life and doings. Furthermore, since love makes the beloved live in the lover, we can actually say that God lives and acts through a Christian who has matured in the precept of love. Again, since the love of God is the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Blessed Trinity, this implies that the Holy Spirit dwells more and becomes more active in our lives as we grow in our Christian or spiritual life. Based on this, we have understood our spiritual life as a progressive interior walk into the mysteries of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. It is true to say that God lives in ...

SATURDAY, TWENTY SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 1 Cor 4:6-15; Ps 145:17-21; Lk 6:1-5 Safeguarding the Divine Mysteries As stewards entrusted with the divine mysteries, we are required to safeguard them against thieves and brigands, understand them, and pass them on intact to others. The most important task in safeguarding the heavenly mysteries we have received is carried out through the virtue of humility. This heavenly virtue is so important for the reception and safekeeping of heavenly blessings that the Church puts it forward as the principal virtue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. God adorned her with this virtue in a special way to enable her to play the unique role of the mother of Jesus Christ, who is God and blessed forever. Endowed with profound humility, she stood empty of anything that could hinder her reception of the Eternal Word of God, contained Him, and delivered Him safely for the whole humanity. Another reason for the greatness of this virtue in the Blessed Virgin Mar...

FRIDAY, TWENTY SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 1 Cor 4:1-5; Ps 37:3-6,27-28,39-40; Lk 5:33-39 Stewards of Divine Mysteries The devil succeeds in perpetrating his scam on us because of our lack of attention to the word of God. We also continue to live in sin and self-delusion for the same reason. We break free from the spell of evil and sin, built on self-delusion, when we come to self-awareness. So, we have stated that the spiritual journey commences with introspection in the light of God’s word. Peter’s encounter with Jesus Christ in yesterday’s Gospel demonstrates this for us. At the instance of the miraculous catch of fish, he realised God’s presence with them. We recall that the miracle was preceded by Christ’s proclamation of the word of God to the people. The miracle of the catch of fish confirmed the word that he heard from Jesus Christ. He fell at the feet of Jesus, confessing his sinfulness. We cannot presume that this experience was exclusively Peter’s; others must have fe...

SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT, POPE, DOCTOR 1 Cor 3:18-23; Ps 24:1-6; Lk 5:1-11 Worldly Wisdom as Foolishness In our reflection yesterday, we stated that we left the mountain of God in the company of the devil, and that to come back, we must do so in the company of the Holy Spirit. As the psalm says: “Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place? The man with clean hands and pure heart, who desires not worthless things.” No one can keep the two companies at the same time. James 4:4 says the same thing. ‘Friendship with the world is enmity with God.” The Lord taught the same lesson in Mt 6:24, saying that no one can serve two masters; the love for one is hatred for the other. God attracts us to his company or communion by his self-revelation, because he made us for himself and in his own image. But the evil one, who is the father of lies, attracts us with lies, using our attachment to creatures to lure us away from the company of God to his own evil compan...

WEDNESDAY, TWENTY SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 1 Cor 3:1-9; Ps 33:12-15,20-21; Lk 4:38-44 Our Cooperation with God for Salvation We understand our salvation to be such a great gift from God when we think of it and penetrate its depth and mystery. But the complete comprehension of the mystery of man and his salvation in Jesus Christ is something beyond the comprehension of our mortal composition and manner of thinking and knowing. We have conceived our salvation variously. We have understood it as a communion with the Triune God. A communion with God means the exclusion of every form of evil within and among us. This is according to the word of God at the time of the fall, which cut short the communion that began in the Garden of Eden. The promise to create enmity between the woman and the serpent, between her Offspring and the serpent's offspring, is progressively realised in our lives and through us in the Church. What the devil has forcefully taken from us, by the just perm...

TUESDAY, TWENTY SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 1 Cor 2:10-16; Ps 145:8-14; Lk 4:31-37 Coming of the Holy One of God Our responsorial psalm says that the Lord is just in all his ways. The justice of God is enshrined in his holiness, which we have understood as God’s consecration to himself. God cannot be other than himself, and everything he does is rooted in right reason and truth. He is the source of holiness, for he maintains everything in its respective nature and orderliness. The creatures sing the praises of God through their operations, which showcase their different natures and the orderliness of the universe. The order and proportionality in the universe witness to the wisdom with which God made all things. “All your creatures shall thank you, O Lord, and your friends shall repeat their blessing. They shall speak of the glory of your reign and declare your might, O God, to make known to men your mighty deeds and the glorious splendour of your reign.” The friends of God repe...

MONDAY, TWENTY SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 1 Cor 2:1-5; Ps 119:97-102; Lk 4:16-30 The Anointing from God We are already familiar with the fact that God has invited each of us to eternal communion with him in heaven. We will keep repeating it to spur ourselves on the journey. We have also noted that communion has already begun here when we made a profession of faith in his Son, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind. The sacrament of our communion with God is the Church, into which we have entered by our baptismal profession of faith in Christ. The guarantee and reality of the same communion within each of us and in the Church is the Holy Spirit, who prepares us, individually and collectively as the Church of God, for the fulfilment of the promised communion in heaven. The major work of the Holy Spirit is what he does within each of us; using every means possible, he transforms our minds and hearts into those of Jesus Christ. By doing this, he brings our spirits to the maturity of ...