Suy niệm Tin Mừng Lễ Thánh Martha – 29/7

Suy niệm Tin Mừng Lễ Thánh Martha – 29/7

Thánh Martha, là chị của Mary và Lazarus ở Bethany. Họ là nhừng người bạn mà Chúa Giêsu thỉnh thoảng đến thăm và ở lại nhà vì thế họ được coi là những người bạn thân của Chúa. Vì vậy, khi Lazarus bị bệnh nặng, Chúa

Jesus được thông báo về điều đó, nhưng Ngài muốn chứng tỏ Vinh quang của Chúa nên không lên kế hoạch vể thăm người bạn Lazarus ngay lập tức. Thực tế, Chúa đã đợi nhiều ngày trước khi lên đường đến Bethany. Vào thời điểm đó, Lazarus đã qua đời và được chôn cất.

 Tin Mừng thuật lại rằng Chúa Giêsu đến Bethany và Martha đi ra để gặp anh khóc và khóc. Chắc chắn cô phải hối hận Thực tế là Chúa Giêsu đã không đến sớm hơn để chữa lành cho người em của cô. Nhưng Chúa Giêsu

nói với cô ấy một cách trống rỗng để xem cô có niềm tin nơi Ngài bởi vì Ngài chính là 'sự phục sinh và sự sống.  Và khi cô Mary hay Chúa đến đã oà lên khóc lóc tham thê. Điều này làm cho Chúa Giêsu cũng phải rơi nước mắt. Vì tình yêu thân thiết mà Ngài đã dành cho họ và đã tỏ lộ vinh quang của Thiên Chúa, Chúa Giêsu quyết định mang Lazarus sống lại từ cõi chết. Chúa Jesus biết rằng mọi người đang nhìn và quan sát những gì Ngài sẽ việc làm. Vì vậy, khi Chúa làm cho Lazarus sống lại, một số người Do Thái đã tin vào Ngài thậm chí cò nhiều hơn trước. Nhưng những người biệt phái Do Thái ghét Chúa vì lòng tốt của Ngài và bởi quan điểm cấp tiến của họ về tôn giáo nên họ để vạch ra cách thức và tìm cách giết Chúa.

Còn chúng ta thì sao? Khi Chúa giúp chúng ta một điều gì đó lớn lao, niềm tin của chúng ta vào Ngài sẽ tăng nhanh hoặc chúng ta cho cho đó chỉ là một sự kiện hiển nhiên. Chúng ta may mắn? Chúng ta có biết ơn Chúa vì những phép lạ mà Ngài thực hiện trong cuộc sống của chúng ta không?  hay là chỉ sau một thời gian trôi qua, chúng ta đã quên đi Chúa, người đã từng ăn cần song buớc trong cuộc đời với chúng ta?

 

REFLECTION
St. Martha, whose memorial we celebrate today, was the sister of Mary and Lazarus who lived in Bethany. Jesus visited them from time to time and therefore were considered his close friends. So when Lazarus became seriously ill, Jesus was informed about it, but he did not make any plans to go and visit Lazarus right away. In fact, he waited two more days before setting out for Bethany. By that time, Lazarus had passed away and was buried.

The Gospel narrates that Jesus arrives in Bethany and Martha comes out to meet him crying and weeping. For sure she must have regret ted the fact that Jesus did not come sooner to heal her brother. But Jesus tells her point-blank to have faith because he is `the resurrection and the life.' And then her sister Mary also comes out weeping and this moves Jesus to tears himself. Out of love for his friends and to reveal the glory of God, Jesus decides to raise Lazarus from the dead.
Jesus knows that everyone is looking at him and observing what he will do next. So when he raises Lazarus, some of the Jews believe in him even more than before. But the Jews who hated Jesus because of his goodness and radical views on religion started instead to plot on how to kill him.

How about you? When God helps you in a big way, does your faith in Him increase or do you take Him for granted and attribute the event to good luck? Are we grateful to God for the miracles He performs in our lives or do we, after some time has passed, forget Him who has been gracious to us?

 

Memorial of Saint Martha-John 11: 19-27

And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise." Martha said to him, "I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day." Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" She said to him, "Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world."

Introductory Prayer: Heavenly Father, once again I renew my faith in your plan for my life. I trust in your loving providence, and I know that no one can snatch me from your hands. You know well that I love you. I wish to be more open and docile to your plan and action in my life. Take this time that I now set aside for prayer. Take my mind, will, and heart; take my gifts and talents. I lay them at your feet through this prayer. Do with me today according to your holy and loving plan. Amen.

Petition: Lord Jesus, deepen my faith in your resurrection.

1. Do You Believe This? This is the fundamental question in our life of faith: do we, in fact, believe it all? Do we really believe that the human race was mysteriously subjected to the catastrophic consequences of our first parents’ disobedience to the divine will? Do we really believe what we say in the Creed every Sunday? Do we believe that Jesus of Nazareth died and rose from the dead to conquer sin, and now lives to draw all people to himself as their savior? The great challenge for the Christian in our thoroughly post-modern, post-Christian, technical age is to unabashedly say “Yes!”

2. Keeping Faith Simple: One of the greatest challenges in the Christian life is to keep our faith simple. Our tendency is toward sophistication and complication. While certainly the ability to think and reason well is a gift and has its place in the Christian life, we must be equally aware that the in-born tendency to rationalism can be a non-starter for a genuine life of faith. We cannot afford to fall into today’s error of trying to size God down according to our meager perceptions and self-centered attitudes. Christ is much more; God ways are far more sublime than what our limited vision can create. Simple faith is so pleasing to God because then he has leeway for his supernatural action. Then he can do something within us and through us.

3. Keeping Faith Robust: This simple faith can and must launch us upward and outward in the task of bringing Christ’s love to every soul. Our simple faith can rapidly ignite and convert us into relentless apostles of the Kingdom, like St. Paul. We need to make his words our own: “What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? (…) No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35-39).

Conversation with Christ: Lord Jesus, give me the strength to bear the burden of drawing others closer to you. Let me feel, with St. Paul, the sting of “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!” And when I do set out to give others reasons for my faith, accompany me with your Holy Spirit to give success to my poor efforts.

Resolution: For the love of Jesus, I will renew, refresh, and invigorate the act of faith with which I begin every day in my morning offering.