Suy Niệm bài đọc thứ Ba tuần thứ 9 Thường Niên

Suy Niệm bài đọc thứ Ba tuần thứ 9 Thường Niên

Qua  Tin Mừng hôm nay Chúa Giêsu khuyến khích chúng ta dâng cho Thiên Chúa những gì thuộc về Thiên Chúa và trả lại cho thế giới này những gì thuộc về vật chất. Lời cầu nguyện, việc làm và lời nói của chúng ta giúp thúc đẩy chúng ta nhanh tiến đến giữa Nước Thiên Chúa trong sự viên mãn.

Trong khi chúng ta chờ đợi  Trời mới và đất mới, chúng ta phải tự hỏi chính mình vào mỗi cuối ngày là: Chúng ta có sự tiến bộ trong việc rao truyền Tin Mừng hay đã làm cản trở việc này qua những lời nó và việc làm của chúng ta?. Chúng ta có sự góp phần vào trong các chức vụ dân sự trong chính quyền, hay trong giáo hội và lương tâm của chúng ta có ý thức trong việc tranh đấu cho công lý và hoà bình cho mọi người? 

Hôm nay chúng ta mừng kính thánh Boniface giám mục tử đạo, người đã mạnh dạn trong việc đương đầu với ngoại giáo và rao giảng Tin Mừng  cho dù phải bị bắt bớ, đau khổ ngục tù và chịu chết như một con cừu non vô tội, nhưng vẫn một lòng từ chối chống lại những kẻ giết mình. Bằng lời nói và hành động và lời cầu nguyện và ví dụ, thánh Boniface đã thuyết phục những người đã biết ngài bằng những lời giảng dạy và hành động một cách hiệu quả. Lạy Chúa, với những ân sủng của Chúa ban, xin cho chúng con cũng có thể là những công cụ sống động, hấp dẫn và hiệu quả cho Nước Chúa, nơi công lý và hòa bình luôn luôn là ưu thế.

Reflection on Tuesday 9th Ordinary Time

The scriptures today encourage us both to give to God what is due to God and to our civil authority what is owed to it while by our actions, prayers and words we help to hasten the coming into our midst of the Kingdom of God in all its fullness. While we await the new heavens and the new earth, a renewed and re-created blossoming of our home planet rather than something newly created from scratch, the question we must ask ourselves at the close of each day is: “How have we advanced or impeded (even by inaction) the proclamation of the Gospel?” Have we engaged civil authorities, ecclesial authorities and our community's conscience in battling for the creation of the conditions wherein justice and compassion may blossom and flourish? Today we honor the Apostle of Germany, Boniface, who acted boldly in confronting paganism and preaching the Good News yet was slaughtered as meekly as a lamb,  refusing to resist his murderers. By word and deed and prayer and example, he made his preaching compelling and effective.

Lord, with Your grace may we, too, be compelling and effective instruments of Your Kingdom where justice and peace prevail.

REFLECTION
Think of our national, local, community, family and personal problems today. They often result from not giving to God what is God's. The bitterness, prejudice, hatreds and injustices all around us are the overgrowth of our pride and greed, the rejection of God's law in our daily living. It is the Lord, and he only, who can solve these
dilemmas, who can teach us the way to go, who speaks most powerfully to us through his own example. The power to cure our ills is offered to us. The power over evil is given to us, but we do not accept it. We do not give to God what is God's. We do not really let the Lord fill us with his power. We put all kinds of obstacles in his way, just as the Pharisees did. We try to find easy substitutes for Christ, but they do not work. The saints, who gave to God what is God's, spent hours daily listening to him, in prayer, in studying the Gospel of Jesus with the inner heart, in following his example carefully.

God asks for a service which is freely given, and which never lessens, no matter what. Yes, no matter what, we must keep our trust in God and remain faithful to him in bad times as well as in good. Jesus is the only answer to all our problems. So let us turn to him for guidance and strength every single day of our lives.

REFLECTION
Taxation of the Jewish people by the Roman colonizer-state was a burning issue among the Jews of Jesus' day. The Pharisees were bitterly opposed to taxation by Rome and they bring the subject up to Jesus.

Jesus points out to the Pharisees that the coin bears the head of the Roman emperor, Tiberius Caesar. "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar," he tells the Pharisees, "and to God what belongs to God." He's telling them in effect: The Romans are here because originally you invited them. You've benefited from their protection and rule and peace. You use their coinage. You have an obligation to pay taxes to Rome.

Jesus' answer, however, is not absolute, in the sense that it's not applicable to all such situations. For example, a few years later it definitely would not be applicable. For the Roman emperors would begin to think of themselves as gods and would demand worship. Therefore, Christians could no longer give to the emperor what the emperor claimed. Giving to the emperor what belongs to him does not therefore mean that Christians should isolate their political and civic lives from their faith.  Every political act has a moral dimension. The Christian has to judge the morality of these acts.