Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Tư, Tuần thứ 7 Phục Sinh

Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Tư, Tuần thứ 7 Phục Sinh

Chúng ta có biết tại sao Thiên Chúa tạo dựng chúng ta với mục đích gì?  Ngài đã giao phó sứ mệnh gì cho chúng ta ?

Chúng ta không thể giống như mọi người khác bởi vì chúng ta được thánh hiến cho sự thật. Chúa Giêsu là sự thật và chúng ta được thánh hiến cho Ngài. Một ngày nào đó, tất cả chúng ta sẽ phải trình diện, đứng trước mặt Ngài và chúng ta sẽ phải trả lời cho những gì chúng ta đã làm. Đó là lý do tại sao chúng ta không thể sống giống như những người khác.

            Chúa Giêsu đã ban cho chúng ta Lời của Ngài và thế gian thì ghét Lời Chúa.  Vì vậy, chúng ta có sự lựa chọn của chúng ta. Một là chúng ta sẽ được thánh hiến và chịu đóng đinh với Chúa Kitô.  Hoặc là chúng ta sẽ trở thành một trong những người gạt bỏ chân lý để sống theo sự thải mái của thế gian? Đó là hai sự lựa chọn duy nhất mà chúng ta có.

            Khi chúng ta nhìn vào mười hai tông đồ, mười một trong nhóm 12 này đã sống và biết tôn trọng sự thật và chỉ có một ngưòi đã sa lầy theo lối sống của trần gian. Khi chúng ta nhìn vào những người mà Thánh Phaolô và Thánh Gioan nói về trong bài đọc hôm nay, họ nói với chúng ta rằng đây là tinh thần của những người chống Chúa Kitô. Vì vậy, sự lựa chọn của chúng tôi là: Chúa Kitô hay hay phản nghịch cùng Chúa; sự thật hay dối trá; để được thánh hiến hay bị xúc phạm. Sự lựa chọn hoàn toàn tùy thuộc vào nơi chúng ta.

            Chúa Giêsu đã có sự lựa chọn của Ngài và Ngài đã lựa chọn chúng ta. Ngài đã thánh hiến chúng ta cho Ngài với Thiên Chúa Cha và Ngài đã muốn chúng ta phải ráng giữ vững sự thật và chân lý mà Ngài đã đặt vào lòng chúng ta. Đó là những gì mà Ngài đã làm và đó là những gì Ngài mong muốn ở nơi chúng ta, Nếu chúng ta yêu thương Ngài, chúng ta sẽ thánh hiến chúng ta cho Ngài, và chúng ta sẽ sống với sự thật và chân lý của Ngài.

REFLECTION
Do we know why God created us; what purpose and mission he has entrusted to us?

We cannot be just like everyone else because we are consecrated to truth. Jesus is the truth and we are consecrated to him. One day we will all stand before him and we will have to answer to what we did with the truth to which we were consecrated. That is why we cannot be just like everyone else.

            Jesus has given us his word and the world hates it. So we have our choice. Are we going to be consecrated and crucified with Christ? Or are we going to become one of those who water down the truth to make it more palatable to the worldly? Those are the only two options we have.

            When we look at the twelve apostles, eleven of them upheld the truth and one watered it down. When we look at the people that St. Paul and St. John speak of in today's readings, they tell us that this is the spirit of the antichrist. So our choices are: Christ or antichrist; truth or falsehood; to be consecrated or to be desecrated. The choice is entirely ours. Jesus has made his choice and he has chosen us. He has consecrated us  to himself and he has asked us that we uphold the truth of his word that he has put into our hearts. That is what he did and that is what  he asks of us, that we would love him, that we would be consecrated to him, and that we would live the truth no matter what the cost.

Epriest 2019 Wednesday 7^th of Easter (May 20): Scripture: John 17:11-19

Introductory Prayer: Lord, I believe in you and all that you have revealed for our salvation. I hope in you because of your overflowing mercy. Every single act of yours on this earth demonstrated your love for us. Your ascent into heaven before the eyes of the Apostles inspires my hope of one day joining you there. I love you and wish you to be the center of my life. 

Petition: Lord, increase my faith in your love. 

1. Who is God? In his first epistle, John tells us that God is love. Before the foundation of the world, the Father loved the Son. Within the Trinity, there is a perfect sharing of life and love. Even after the Incarnation, Jesus remained in his Father’s love. At Christ’s baptism, the Father spoke of his love for his Son. “This is my beloved son” (Matthew 3:17). At the Transfiguration, he repeated this sign of love: “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (Matthew 17:5). These moments manifest God’s inner life. 

2.A Share in His Life: God created us to share in the loving relationship of the Trinity. The Father’s plan is to love us, to bring us into Trinitarian love. He wants to love us in his Son with a Father’s eternal love. If we could catch a mere glimpse of the reality of this love, it would transform our lives. God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son into the world (see John 3:16). Love is at the heart of the universe.

3. Sharing in God’s Love: God is love, and if he is in us, it is as love. God pours his love, himself, into our hearts. As he shares his life, he shares his love. This is the love that he wants us to give to others. Jesus gave his disciples the love he had received from his Father and sent them forth to continue his work of sharing that love with all of humanity. Think of the people today who are lonely and lost, starving for love and attention. They have no clue that God loves them with an eternal love or that he has loved them intimately, profoundly and perfectly from all eternity. They do not know that this love has given them life and maintains them in existence. People need to hear the good news of God’s love. This is our mission. 

Conversation with Christ: Jesus, help me to share your love with those around me. Don’t allow me to remain focused just on myself and the circumstances in my life. I need you. I need your love, as do so many others. I need to love to give myself to your work, but I also need your constant help and support. 

Resolution: I will let someone know that God loves them.

REFLECTION 2019

The context of "Keep them in your Name" is crucial to understanding today's Gospel reading. Soon after this prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper, Jesus is arrested and dies on the cross. Just as Jesus was hated, so will his followers be. Will his followers remain united? Or will they be dispersed? So Jesus prays for them, "Holy Father, keep them in your Name."

This prayer of Jesus sounds like the "Our Father": "hallowed be thy Name." God's "hallowing his own Name" finds its meaning from Ezekiel 36. The Israelites were dispersed into exile. But when they went into exile, instead of hallowing God's name, they profaned it.

God then declares that he himself will sanctify his great Name: "I will make known the holiness of my great Name, profaned among the nations because of you, and they will know that I am Yahweh when I show them my holiness among you. For I will gather you from all the nations and bring you to your own land. . . I shall give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I shall remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. . . You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you shall be my people and I will be our God." (Ez 36: 23 – 28)
Here God hallows his Name by gathering his people from dispersion,    by giving them a new heart and a new spirit so that they can live united following God's social order. \ When Jesus prays to keep his disciples in his Father's Name, aware of the coming darkness and possible dispersion, he calls on God, as in Ezekiel's time, to gather the disciples together, to give them a new heart and a new spirit so that they may remain united. By their own efforts they will be lost.