Tuesday 7th of Easter: Scripture: John 17:1-11
Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Ba Tuần thứ 7 Phục Sinh
Những lời cầu nguyện của Chúa Giêsu với Thiên Chúa Cha trong bài Tin Mừng hôm nay cho chúng thấy được là: Chúa Giêsu đã cầu nguyện cho tất cả những ai đã, đang và sẽ theo Ngài. Trong đêm trước khi Ngài bị bắt, chịu khổ hình và phải chết, Chúa Giêsu đã cầu nguyện, Ngài không hề hối tiếc những việc Ngài đã làm vì vâng phục theo như Thánh Ý Chúa Cha. Ngài biết là Ngài đã thực hiện những công việc mà Thiên Chúa Cha đã giao phó cho Ngài để làm, và để làm cho mọi người trong thế giới này được nhận biết ra được Thiên Chúa Cha .
Trong khi Thánh Phaolô đang chuẩn bị rời khỏi thành Êphêsô để được sai đến thành Jerusalem, nơi mà ông biết là ông sẽ phải kết thúc việc rao giảng công khai của ông. Ông ấp ủ không hối tiếc về cuộc sống này. Ông đã sử dụng của tất cả những cơ hội mà Thiên Chúa đã trao cho ông để ông làm sáng danh Chúa Giêsu ở giữa những người dân ngoại. Ông đã hoàn thành tất cả những nhiệm vụ mà Chúa đã trao phó cho ông.
Qua hai bài đọc, chúng ta thấy có sự khác biệt giữa Chúa Giêsu và thánh Phaolô. Có lẽ như là sự khác biệt giữa các thánh và con người của chúng ta. Chúng ta đã bỏ lỡ những cơ hội Chúa ban cho chúng bằng cách luôn luôn tìm sống với và trong tương lai. "Ngày mai, tôi sẽ nhất định sẽ làm một cái gì đó cho cuộcc sống tâm linh của tôi." "Ngày mai tôi sẽ hòa giải với những người đã làm tổn thương tôi." "Ngày mai tôi sẽ bắt đầu dành nhiều thời giờ hơn cho gia đình tôi…"
Khi chúng ta già đi, hầu hết chúng ta mới khám phá, nhớ lại và tiếc hối những cơ hội mà chúng ta đã đánh mất.
Một niềm an ủi cho chúng ta là có Chúa Giêsu đã sẵn sàng thông cảm và tha thứ cho sự mệt mỏi của các tông đồ của Ngài, "Tâm thần tuy sẵn sàng, nhưng xác thịt thì yếu nhược". (Mt 26:41) ." Nhưng việc này sẽ là dịp may lớn cho chúng ta, nếu chúng ta biết từ bỏ tất cả mọi thứ vật chất để hướng vào sự hiện diện của một Thiên Chúa luôn rất yêu thương và hiểu biết.
REFLECTIONToday's Gospel begins with the prayer Jesus says to his Father for all those who would be his followers. Jesus prays this prayer on the night before he is to die. He has no regrets. He knows he has done the work his Father gave him to do: to make his Father known among the people of his day.
Paul in the first reading also looks back over his life. He is about to set off from Ephesus for Jerusalem, where he knows will be the beginning of the end for him. He harbors no regrets about this life. He has made use of all the opportunities God had given to him to make the name of Jesus known among the Gentiles. He has fulfilled the mission given him by the Lord.
The difference between Jesus and Paul is perhaps the difference between the saints and the rest of us. We miss the opportunities the Lord gives us by always living in the future. "Tomorrow I will get down to doing something about my spiritual life." "Tomorrow I will reconcile with those who have hurt me." "Tomorrow I will start giving more time to my family."
As we get older, most of us discover and recall lost opportunities. The one consolation we have is that it was the Lord Jesus who said, excusing the weariness of his apostles, "The spirit is willing, the flesh is weak." But will it not be unfortunate if we will have to go empty-handed into the presence of so loving and understanding a Lord?
REFLECTION Epriest daily
1. A Legacy of Prayer: The supreme hour of Jesus has come. As he anticipates his agony of self-giving love to the extreme, Christ has no thought for himself. His heart turns to its one and only love, the one for whose glory he has carried out every act of his earthly existence: his Father. But at the same time, that invincible love for his Father embraces all those whom the Father has entrusted to him. Christ leaves his followers a legacy that will remain their greatest source of confidence throughout the ages: his priestly prayer. In this, Christ teaches us how to pray. Christ prays first that his Father may be glorified by glorifying the Son. What is the supreme glory with which the life of the only Son of God will culminate? The answer is in his bloody immolation upon the cross.
2. The Cross is True Glory: “The word ‘glory’ refers to the splendor, honor and power which belong to God” (The Navarre Bible: St. John, pg. 202). How can Christ’s humiliating death on the cross and his abandonment by his closest followers give honor to God and reveal his splendor and power? How can the cross be Christ’s supreme glory? First, it reveals a love without limits, a love that does not say, “I will go this far and no farther.” Christ’s words, “Father, forgive them,” bear witness to a love that is stronger than sin. The Resurrection, which follows the cross, testifies to a love that is stronger than death itself. Second, the cross is the fulfillment of Christ’s mission. His obedience to the Father, even to death, redeems all of mankind. Have I embraced the cross in my own life as the one way to follow Christ? Embracing the cross is the only sure path to love Christ and glorify the Father.
3. Jesus Continues to Trust in Me: Throughout this Gospel passage, Christ’s words ring with unshakeable confidence. Even though he will die, abandoned by his disciples, in agony and humiliating failure, Christ continues to trust. He trusts both in his Father and in those very disciples who will soon desert him. Our Lord’s trust in us as his followers must inspire within us similar unwavering confidence in our mission to save souls, to bring others to Christ, and to transform society itself. By ourselves, we can achieve nothing. But we have the assurance of Christ’s prayers and the promise of his Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will speak in the hearts of all those who Christ calls to bring closer to him. Let us pray often to our great advocate: “Holy Spirit, inspire in me what I should think, what I should say, and what I should leave unsaid, so that I may achieve the good of all my brothers and sisters, fulfill my mission, and make Christ’s kingdom triumph.”
Reflection SG.
Jesus has finished speaking to his disciples with words full of encouragement great promises. Now he enters into his passion by praying for his disciples and for all of us who have come to believe in him. There is a nice suggestion that this solemn prayer to his Father is like the Preface of the Mass. With the Preface, we turn to prayer as we enter into the consecration. So, too, after his final teaching, Jesus enters into prayer, which he will continue in a different way in the Garden of Olives as he offers himself to the Father.
`In his prayer, Jesus makes an extraordinary statement referring to his disciples: “It is in them that I have been glorified.” Judas has already gone out to betray him and in a short while Peter will deny him and all of them except John will desert him at the end. We may well then wonder how Jesus finds that he is glorified in them. Possibly, Jesus is taking all of history, past present and future into his prayer and so into his sacrifice.
After the Resurrection and Pentecost and through the ages many will glorify God by a holy life or a martyr’s death.
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