Suy Niệm đoạn kết
Tin Mừng thánh Gioan (John 21:20-25) , Thứ Bẩy sau tuần thứ 7 Phục Sinh
Trong bài đọc thứ nhất, chúng ta được thấy Phaolô đến Rome trong xích
sắt . Trong khi ở đó, Phaolô tìm cách để gặp gỡ những người La Mã gốc Do Thái để giải thích trường hợp của mình với họ. Ngay cả trong hoàn cảnh khó khăn, Phaolô đã nắm lấy cơ hội để rao giảng Tin Mừng của Chúa Giêsu Kitô cho người Do Thái ở đó.
Trong
đoạn kết của Tin mừng theo Thánh Gioan hôm nay cho chúng ta thấy ông Phêrô nóng
lòng muốn biết số phận của người mộn đệ Chúa yêu, Nhưng Chúa Giêsu nói với Phêrô là đừng quan
tâm việc đó, vì việc đó chẳng có liên quan gì tới ông ta cả, Việc của ông ta
(Phêrô) là “hãy theo Chúa”. Ông Phêrô và
Phaolô cà hai đều là những Tông đồ cao cả của Chúa Kitô, Nhưng hãy coi sự khác biệt giữa hai người:
Phaolô
gặp Chúa Kitô trên đường đến Damascus để bắt đạo, Ông đã hứa theo Chúa Kitô, Tất cả cuộc sống của
ông đã mong muốn và dành cho việc rao
giảng về Chúa Giêsu kitô và sự cứu rỗi của Ngài.
Mặt khác, còn Phêrô lúc nào cũng lúng
túng và loạng choạng trong những ngày
theo làm môn đệ của Chúa. Có những lúc chúng ta nghĩ rằng Phêrô
làm được việc, nói đúng ý Chúa thì
ngay lúc ấy ông lại nói sai
hoặc làm điều làm mất lòng Chúa. Tuy
nhiên, theo thời gian, nhờ ân
sủng Chúa ban, Phêrô đã lớn lên và trưởng thành trong đức
tin và trở thành vị lãnh đạo thực sự của Giáo Hội ban đầu theo như ý của
Chúa.
Là môn đệ của Chúa Kitô, chúng ta sẽ không bao giờ và không thế nào có thể giống nhau hoàn
toàn,.Mỗi người chúng ta đều có cái độc
đáo riệng,
có mỗi cá tính và sự suỹ nghĩ riêng, khác nhau. Vì thế Đức
Kitô mời gọi chúng ta theo Chúa vì cái bản chất riêng, hay
năng khiếu riêng của mỗi người. Như vậy, chúng ta không nên có sự so sánh giữa mình với những người khác hoặc các sứ vụ và thiên chức của họ. Chúa Giêsu mời gọi chúng ta theo
Ngài, theo kế hoạch riêng mà Ngài dành cho mỗi người chúng ta. Chúng ta phải dành nhiều thời giờ cầu nguyện để xin ơn Chúa thánh thần soi sáng để biết thánh
ý Chúa cho cuộc sống của chúng ta hơn là chúng ta phải quá bận tâm để so sánh hay phân bì về những gì người khác đang làm hoặc
không làm cho
Chúa.
Reflection John
21:20-25)-
Saturday 7th Easter
In the first reading, we read how Paul arrives in chains
to Rome. While there, he makes an attempt to meet with the Roman Jews in order
to explain his case to them. Even in difficult circumstances, Paul sizes the
opportunity to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ to the Jews.
In the
Gospel passage, Peter is curious about the future of the disciple whom Jesus
loves. Jesus tells Peter not to be worried about this. As far as Peter is
concerned, he is to follow Jesus. Peter and Paul, the two great Disciples of
Christ, Yet, how dissimilar they were; Once Paul encountered Jesus on the road
to Damascus, he committed himself totally to Christ. His whole life was
consumed with the desire to proclaim Jesus and His message. Peter, on the other
hand, fumbled and stumbled his way as a disciple. Just when we think Peter gets
it right, he goes on to say or do something that upsets the Lord. However, over
time, through grace, Peter grows in maturity in the faith and becomes the true
leader he is meant to be.
As
disciples of Jesus, we are never the same. Each of us is unique because God
calls us as we are.
As such,
we are not to compare ourselves with others or their ministries. Jesus calls us
to follow Him according to the plan He has for us. We have to spend time
discerning God’s will for our lives instead of being overly concerned about
what others are doing or not doing for the Lord.
Reflection SG
2017
Today we read
the ending of John’s Gospel. The writer tells us that “there are still many
other things that Jesus did; if all were written down, the world itself, I
suppose, would not hold all the books that would have to be written.”
Jesus did not teach his
disciples in detail how to deal with every question of faith and morality which
would arise in the Church in the ages after his Ascension. Thus, the early
Church itself had to decide whether Gentiles had to keep the Mosaic Law in
order to become Christians. Paul held the view that they did not while others
inclined to the view that the Old Testament was binding on all. The social
conditions of the early Jerusalem community, with Jews and Greek-speaking
Gentiles, inspired the Apostles, to appoint deacons.
The reality is that Jesus, in
union with the Father, sent the Holy Spirit to guide us into the truth. We must
keep listening to the Spirit and discern how best to apply the teaching of
Jesus which we actually possess to the realities of life. This is often a
painful process and can cause deep divisions in the Church, as history has
shown and still continues to show. Holy Spirit, guide us into the fullness of
salvific truth and teach us to be open to Your guidance.
Meditation:
Why do we often compare ourselves with others? Do we envy those who seem more
fortunate than ourselves? Why did Peter question Jesus about John's future?
Jesus had predicted that Peter was to suffer and die as a martyr for his faith.
What would John's fate be? Jesus seems to indicate that John would live a long
life - in fact he outlived all the other apostles. While Peter and John were
both called as disciples of Jesus, each was given a different task or function.
When Peter questions John's role, Jesus retorts: "What is that to you?
Follow me!" Peter's given task was to "shepherd the sheep of
Christ", and in the end to die for Christ. John's role was preeminently to
witness to Christ and to give his testimony to the gospel. John lived to long
age and wrote the gospel as his testimony to the reality of the resurrection of
Jesus Christ. John ends his gospel with an astonishing remark: "Human
books cannot exhaust the person and work of Jesus Christ." His power is
inexhaustible, his grace is limitless, his wisdom unfathomable, his triumphs
are innumerable and his love is unquenchable. We can never say enough of the
power, majesty and glory which belongs to him alone. Do you witness to others
the joy of the gospel?
"May the power of your love, Lord Christ, fiery and sweet as
honey, so absorb our hearts as to withdraw them from all that is under heaven.
Grant that we may be ready to die for love of your love, as you died for love
of our love." (Prayer of Francis of Assisi, 1182-1226)
Saturday
John 21.20-25
Prayer gathers up the opposites in my
life. Contradictions are woven together in the act of love in grace. Youth and
old age, self-direction and submission, going where one wills and being
constrained, my will and another's will. My death is the ultimate possibility
of my glorifying God. The last weekday Gospel of the Paschal Season brings me
back to the beginning of the season. Remember that you are dust and into dust
you shall return. But now because of the complete and full mystery of Jesus my
death is glory because my death is resurrection, in Christ Jesus, in the Spirit
of Love, in the bosom of the Father, in the communion of the Church
Saturday 7Th Easter
This is the
closing scene of John’s gospel, and in it Peter is invited once again by Jesus,
“Follow me!” Jesus had predicted that he would follow him: "Where I am
going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later" (13:36). That
time has come. Peter is now in a better position to understand what following
Jesus will involve. Jesus spells out the cost of that love that Peter has just
professed three times (yesterday’s reading). In his youth Peter was able to
follow his own sweet will, but now “you will stretch out your hands, and
someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go” (verse
18). Peter has been given a leadership
role in the community: “Feed (or tend) my sheep.” He can have no illusions
about what that will entail. He will not lord it over others; instead, like the
Good Shepherd, he will give his life for them. He was crucified during the
persecution by Nero in the mid-sixties of the first century.
REFLECTION
Peter is the everyman of the Gospels; the sympathetic character whose shoes we
often find would fit our own feet with ease. He makes bold proclamations often
and is just as often rebuked by Jesus; in the Gospel reading today Peter almost
seems to be engaging in gossip and we can almost imagine an exasperated Jesus
giving a glib reply just so the apostle will settle down. Yet in spite of his human failings, Jesus loved
and trusted Peter so much that he made him the Rock on which the Church was
founded. What defines Peter is not the fact that he fell so many times, but the
fact that he got up each time and tried again. Peter is proof that the essence
of being a Christian is not perfection, but a desire to follow in Jesus'
footsteps, no matter how often we stumble or sink into the water.
Saturday 7Th Easter
Today’s gospel
passage is the end of John Gospel, in this closing scene of John’s gospel, Peter question Jesus about John's future, after Jesus had
predicted that Peter would be suffered and died as a martyr for his faith. What
would John's fate be?
Jesus says to Peter: “Follow me”
and, referring to John: “What if I want him to remain until I come? What
concern is it of yours? You follow me”... Let your action follow me, perfect
and modeled on the example of my Passion; let the contemplation that has begun
remain until my return: I will perfect it when I come again. For this
persevering fervor that stands firm to the death is a following of Christ; and
this knowledge that will then be manifested in fullness remains until the
return of Christ. Here, in the country of mortal men, we must undergo the
afflictions of this world; there, we shall contemplate the Lord's blessings in
the land of the living (Ps 27[26],13) and Peter is invited once again by Jesus,
“Follow me!” Jesus had predicted that he would follow him: "Where I am
going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later" (13:36). That time
has come. Peter is now in a better position to understand what following Jesus
will involve. Jesus spells out the cost of that love that Peter has just
professed three times (yesterday’s reading). In his youth Peter was able to
follow his own sweet will, but now “you will stretch out your hands, and
someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go” (verse
18). Peter has been given a leadership
role in the community: “Feed (or tend) my sheep.” He can have no illusions
about what that will entail. He will not lord it over others; instead, like the
Good Shepherd, he will give his life for them. He was crucified during the
persecution by Nero in the mid-sixties of the first century.
This is why . For this persevering fervor that
stands firm to the death is a following of Christ; and this knowledge that will
then be manifested in fullness remains until the return of Christ. Here, in the
country of mortal men, we must undergo the afflictions of this world; there, we
shall contemplate the Lord's blessings in the land of the living (Ps
27[26],13)...
