Suy Niệm Tin Mừng thứ Năm Tuần thứ 15 Thường Niên _ lễ Mẹ Camelô

Suy Niệm Tin Mừng thứ Năm Tuần thứ 15 Thường Niên _ lễ Mẹ Camelô

Tin Mừng hôm nay, Chúa Giêsu nói với chúng ta "gánh nặng của ta thì nhẹ nhàng". Có một câu chuyện đã kể về một người đàn ông đã gặp một cô bé khoảng 10 tuổi đang cõng một đứa em trai tật nguyền trên lưng. Ông ta nói "Đó là một gánh nặng cho con, mà sao con cứ phãi cõng nó hoài thế kia?. Con có mệt không?" Nhưng cô bế đã lên tiếng đáp lại: Thưa đàn ông, nó đâu có nặng đâu, nó là em con mà!”. Thật vậy, khi chúng ta có phải vác một gánh nặng tới đâu đi nữa, nhưng chúng ta vác nó với tình yêu thương và đem nó vào trong tình byêu của chúng ta, thì gánh nặng đó Không còn là một gánh nặng nữa. Khi chúng ta mang ách cuộc sống của chúng ta với Chúa Giêsu, Ngài cũng mang lấy gánh nặng của chúng  ta với chúng ta và Ngài còn cho chúng ta sức mạnh của Ngài để giúp chúng ta làm theo cách yêu thương của Ngài. Vì thế chúng ta nên tìm kiếm niềm vui trong lúc nghỉ ngơi với sự hiện diện của Chúa Giêsu và cùng đồng hành với Chúa hàng ngày trên con đường mà Chúa đã dành cho chúng ta.

            Chúa Giêsu đã ban cho chúng ta một vương quốc mới trong sự công chính, bình an và hạnh phúc. Trong vương quốc của Ngài tội lỗi không những chỉ tha thứ mà thôi nhưng còn được loại bỏ, và sự sống đời đời được ban cho tất cả những ai là công dân của Nước Trời. Đây không phải là một vương quốc chính trị, nhưng là một vương quốc thần linh. Ách thống trị trong vương quốc của Chúa Kitô, quy tắc vương giả của Ngài và lối sống, sẽ giải thoát chúng ta khỏi những gánh nặng của tội lỗi và những sự áp bức của thói quen tội lỗi và những sự thù ghét. Chỉ có Chúa Giêsu mới có thể nhấc nổi cái gánh nặng tội lỗi và sức nặng của sự tuyệt vọng nơi chúng tôi.

            Chúa Giêsu đã dùng một ách để so sánh và giải thích chúng ta hiểu rõ là làm thế nào để có thể trao đổi những gánh nặng của tội lỗi và sự tuyệt vọng, để nhận lấy sự vinh quang và chiến thắng với Ngài. Cái Ách mà Chúa Giêsu mời gọi chúng ta hãy ôm ấp lấy là cách của sống yêu thương như Chúa, Với ân sủng và sư tự do khỏi quyền lực của tội lỗi.

            Lạy Chúa xin ban cho chúng con có niềm tin vững mạnh vào tình yêu của Thiên Chúa và biết phó thác cuộc sống riêng của chúng con theo như ý Chúa và trong kế hoạch mà Chúa đã định sẵn cho cuộc sống của chúng con.

 

Meditation: "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me"

What does the yoke of Jesus refer to in the Gospel? The Jews used the image of a yoke to express submission to God. They spoke of the yoke of the law, the yoke of the commandments, the yoke of the kingdom, and the yoke of God. Jesus says his yoke is "easy". The Greek word for "easy" can also mean "well-fitting". Yokes were tailor-made to fit the oxen well. Oxen were yoked two by two. Jesus invites us to be yoked with him, to unite our life with his life, our will with his will, and our heart with his heart. To be yoked with Jesus is to be united with him in a relationship of love, trust, and obedience.

Jesus carries our burdens with us 

Jesus also says his "burden is light". There's a story of a man who once met a boy carrying a smaller crippled lad on his back. "That's a heavy load you are carrying there," exclaimed the man. "He ain't heavy; he's my brother!" responded the boy. No burden is too heavy when it's given in love and carried in love. When we yoke our lives with Jesus, he also carries our burdens with us and gives us his strength to follow in his way of love. Do you know the joy of resting in Jesus' presence and walking daily with him along the path he has for you?

Freed from the burden of sin and guilt 

Jesus offers us a new kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy. In his kingdom sins are not only forgiven but removed, and eternal life is poured out for all its citizens. This is not a political kingdom, but a spiritual one. The yoke of Christ's kingdom, his kingly rule and way of life, liberates us from the burden of guilt and from the oppression of sinful habits and hurtful desires. Only Jesus can lift the burden of sin and the weight of hopelessness from us. Jesus used the analogy of a yoke to explain how we can exchange the burden of sin and despair for a weight of glory and victory with him. The yoke which Jesus invites us to embrace is his way of love, grace, and freedom from the power of sin. Do you trust in God's love and submit to his will and plan for your life?

            "Lord Jesus, inflame my heart with love for you and for your ways and help me to exchange the yoke of rebellion for the yoke of submission to your holy and loving word. Set me free from the folly of my own sinful ignorance and rebellious pride that I may wholly desire what is good and in accord with your will."

 REFLECTION 2018

In the first reading, we hear the prophet Isaiah singing his praise of and hope in God. Isaiah thanks God for watching over and protecting his people. In the Gospel reading Jesus assures us that he himself will be our refuge in the midst of life's challenges and burdens, "Come to me, all you who work hard and who carry burdens and I will refresh you." Jesus invites us to "take his yoke" and to learn from his gentleness and humility. For all of us life has its share of challenges, difficulties and uncertainties. Life also has its joys and achievements. We get tired, we get discouraged, we get stressed. Life involves an inevitable process of change, very often unpredictable and uncontrollable. Every day, as evening comes, let us always remember to thank the Lord for the day of life given us. May the evening be an opportunity to rest our bodies and recharge our minds. Let us surrender our anxieties and stresses, inhibitions and problems to his kind heart and pray that we may be able to face the new day with its new chances and opportunities, problems and difficulties and moments to enjoy and return his love for us. Jesus, meek and humble of heart, touch our hearts and make them like your own.

 

Reflection

Today, Jesus' words resound intimate and close. We are conscious that contemporary men and women suffer a considerable psychological pressure. This world keeps on turning round and round, we cannot stand up the pace anymore and have neither time nor inner peace to assimilate these changes. Quite often we move away from the evangelic simplicity by loading ourselves up with rules, commitments, planning and objectives. We feel overwhelmed and tired of continuously struggling without our effort being worth its while. Recent investigations affirm that nervous breakdowns are on their way up all the time. What are we lacking to feel actually well?\

            Today, at the light of the Gospel, we may review our conception of God. How do I live and feel God in my heart? What feelings uncover his presence in my life? Jesus offers us his understanding when we feel weary and want to rest: «Come to me, all you who work hard and who carry heavy burdens and I will refresh you» (Mt 11:28). Maybe we have fought for perfection while, deep inside, the only thing we wanted was to feel loved. In Jesus' words we find a response to our crisis of meaning. Our ego plays some dirty tricks on us by preventing us from being as good as we would like to. At times we may not see the light. St. Juliana of Norwich, English mystic of the fourteenth century, had a revelation, heard Jesus’ message, and wrote: «All will go well, everything will go well».

            Jesus' proposal —«Take my yoke upon you and learn from me...» (Mt 11:29)— implies following his benevolent style of life (to wish good to everybody) and his heart’s humility (virtue referring to keep our feet on the ground for only the divine grace can make us ascend). To be a disciple demands our accepting Jesus' yoke, while remembering his yoke is «good» and his burden is «light». I do not know, however, whether we are convinced this is really so. To live as a Christian in our present context is not such an easy thing, for we have to opt for values that go upstream. Not to get carried away by money, prestige or power demands a great effort. If we want to achieve it by ourselves, it may become an impossible task. But with Jesus everything is possible and good.

 

Thursday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time – the Yoke of Mercy

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, I come to you with my weariness and disillusions caused by placing trust in things that are not essential and distancing myself from you who matter most in my life. Grant relief and consolation for my soul to place my trust in you and my energy at the service of doing good.

Encountering Christ: 

1. Come to Me with Your Burdens: Jesus speaks with unique tenderness in this Gospel. He has come to heal, set captives free, and lift up those who are ailing. He calls people with many needs who are weary of life and burdened with hardships and difficulties. We hopelessly rely on our own means and are slow to put our trust in God. He invites us to follow him from where we are. To follow him along the journey of continual conversation as his disciple, we must first allow ourselves to experience his mercy. The Lord’s mercy is immense and inexhaustible! At Jesus’s invitation, we find a response for our aching hearts: a life’s purpose as his disciple and a promise of finding rest in this life and the next.

2. Learn from Me: Jesus is not suggesting that we live free from any yoke. Rather, Jesus places upon us his yoke. Jesus’s yoke is to fulfill the New Law, to love each other as he loves us. He wants to teach us that we will discover God’s will through him. Thus, receiving “Jesus’s yoke,” each of us enters into communion with him and makes sense of our sufferings by uniting them in the mystery of his Cross and in his work of salvation. It becomes lighter and easier to accept and take up what God has entrusted to us to carry if we do it with Jesus. We learn from Jesus, who made himself little and humble: “...he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). 

3. I Will Give You Rest: Throughout the Gospels, we see that Jesus is patient with human limitations and complaints. Jesus understands each of us better than we understand ourselves. He wants us to share with him our burdens, one by one, aware of our need to find rest, peace, and consolation. As he did with his first band of followers, he invites us to come apart to a quiet place and to rest a while. This “rest” of being known, understood, accepted, and accompanied banishes weariness and renews our energy. He shoulders it all with us. Jesus wants us to invite him to help with whatever we are carrying. 

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, help me not be afraid of carrying the cross and enduring any weariness or burden united with you. Let me not be scandalized or frustrated in accepting my sinfulness and limitations. Teach me to be more understanding, patient, and merciful with others who suffer and are overwhelmed. Show me how you want me to be an instrument of mercy by offering rest and help for others. Keep my eyes fixed on you, learning how to be merciful and forgiving.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace, I will be a courageous instrument of mercy to reach out to someone I know who needs a shoulder, offering to help them carry their cross before I have to be asked. 

For Further Reflection: Delve deeper with an essay by Josef Pieper's Leisure: The Basis of Culture on the importance of rest and leisure for the development of religion.