Suy Niệm Tìn Mừng Thứ Ba Tuần 27 Thường Niên .

 Suy Niệm Tìn Mừng Thứ Ba Tuần 27 Thường Niên . 

Trong đoạn Tin Mừng hôm nay đã giúp cho chúng ta có một sự phân biệt về sự chú tâm vào việc vào tiếp xúc Chúa Giêsu của hai chị bà Maria và bà Mattha. Để tiếp đón Chúa Giêsu vị khách quý của gia đình một cách chu đáo, bà Martha đã rất lo lắng và chú tâm tới các chi tiết tỉ mỉ trong việc tiếp đón Chúa, còn trong khi đó, Mary đã chỉ có biết chú ý tới Chúa Giêsu, Bà tiếp đón Chúa bằng cách ngồi nghe Chúa dạy, hầu hạ bên Ngài như là vị khách quý của họ. Thế nhưng Mary được ca ngợi, còm Martha thì bị trách mắng.Bà Martha bị Chúa Giêsu trách không phải là vì sự vậy bận rộn của bà trong việc nấu ăn đãi tiệc mừng Chúa, nhưng vì bà đã quá lo lắng, bận tâm và cũng vì thái độ oán giận của bà. Thánh Phanxicô de Sales nói rằng bà thiếu sự đơn sơ. Còn bà Martha. bà muốn có sự tiếp đón Chúa một long trọng. Mục đích của bà thật vô cùng đáng quý nhưng mục đích tốt của bà đã để lẫn lộn với rất nhiều động cơ khác. Thật ra chỉ có một mục đích và chỉ một động lực quan trọng nhất đó là đến với tình yêu Thiên Chúa, nhưng bà đã đánh mất vì sụ bận rộn của bà. 
Trong Tin Mừng hôm nay, chúng ta nhận thấy rằng có lẽ bà Martha đã quên rằng không phải chỉ có một mình bà đã mời Chúa Giêsu, nhưng Chúa Giêsu cũng đã mời bà. Những sự tiếp dón, hay lòng hiếu khách nào mà chúng ta mang ra để tiếp đón cho những người khách của chúng ta? nếu chúng ta để họ ngồi một mình trong phòng khách váng lạnh, trong khi chúng ta quá bận rộn với việc nấu nướng, đài đàng mà không có thời gian với họ? Nếu chúng ta muốn được gần gũi với Chúa, chúng ta cần phải dành thời gian để gần với Chúa Giêsu, ngồi bên cạnh Ngài và lắng nghe những gì mà Chúa muốn nói với chúng ta. Đây là những gì Chúa Giêsu mong muốn của mỗi người chúng ta. 

Tuesday 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time 
In the gospel passage we have a distinction between being attentive to the details of hosting and of being attentive to the guests. Martha was very anxious and attentive to the details of hosting whereas Mary was very attentive to Jesus as their guest. Mary is praised and Martha is challenged. 
Martha is challenged not for being so busy but for being so anxious, for her attitude and for her resentment in her busyness. Francis de Sales says she lacked simplicity. Martha wanted to treat our Lord well. Her intention was extremely praise-worthy but it was so mixed up with so many other motives that the one and only important motive of loving God was lost. Simplicity means that we do not consider or do not have any other aim in all that we do but the single desire to please God. 
Simplicity is inseparable from charity, from the way we treat one another. We normally please God when we love our neighbor as ourselves: when we sincerely listen, kindly respond and graciously attend to the needs of another. 
In today's Gospel we see that perhaps Martha forgot that not only had she invited Jesus but that Jesus had invited her. What kind of hospitality do we give our guest if we leave them alone while we are too busy to spend time with them? If we want to get close to the Lord, we need to take the time to go with Jesus, sit at his feet and listen to him. This is what Jesus expects of each and every one of us. 
Lord, with Your grace may we attend to one another’s needs kindly and graciously, doing what needs to be done and being present and attentive to one another. 

Opening Prayer: Lord, I want to sit at your feet like Mary. I have many things crying for my attention, but I know that being here with you and listening to you speak is the only thing I need. Give me the strength in this short time of prayer to remain with you throughout the day. 

Encountering Christ: 
1. Sitting at the Feet of Christ: Sometimes, prayer seems confusing, faraway, impossible. We can feel like we need a new method, more peace, and less to do. When we feel like prayer is impossible, this is the passage to return. Prayer is not a method; instead, it is being like Mary and merely sitting at the feet of Christ. Or as St. Therese put it, “For me, prayer is a burst from my heart, it is a simple glance thrown toward heaven.” Sometimes it will seem like Christ says nothing, sometimes we will feel like doing anything besides getting on our knees, but those are the moments to strive even more to put our heart into prayer, make it real. Mary, in this Gospel, wanted to soak up every word that Christ uttered, so she planted herself next to him and listened. Let us do the same and foster a real desire to listen to Christ. 
2. Lord, Tell Her to Help Me: Before we start criticizing Martha for being self- focused, we might want to put ourselves in her place. After all, it is not as if Christ came to the house alone—his seventy-two disciples just returned from their mission, and they may have all accompanied him to Lazarus’s home. It’s possible that Martha had almost one-hundred mouths to feed on short notice. Martha loved Christ as Mary did. She was one of the very few who explicitly called Jesus “Christ, the Son of God,” and that was right after Jesus had let her brother die (John 11)! But she was a practical woman. As she served, she let her pragmatism get the best of her and believed that Mary’s time would have been better spent feeding the dozens of hungry men. 
3. Martha, Marth: Jesus saw the hearts of both women—Mary was not lazy, maybe just a little distracted, and Martha, while being very responsible, had forgotten that the guest is more important than the meal. So he gently soothed her— “Martha, Martha, it’s going to be okay! Mary has chosen the better part, and I can’t tell her not to love me.” It is easy to imagine Jesus with a gentle smile on his face, lovingly chiding Martha. When we feel overwhelmed by life and its difficulties, let us go to Christ, look him in the eyes, and hear him tell us, “Don’t worry! There is one thing necessary—put your trust in me, and I will never fail you. 

Conversing with Christ: Lord, thank you for this time of prayer. I know that no matter how much it seems like I am weak, you will be there to pick me up and send me on my way. Teach me to focus on the one thing necessary, even amid the activity and rush of daily life. 
Resolution: Lord, today, by your grace, I will take a moment during the day to put myself back in your presence, and offer what I’m doing to you. 

REFLECTION
People frequently interpret today's Gospel story as giving an insight into Jesus' attitude toward two states of life, the contemplative and the active. Martha they see as embodying the active type of person, and Mary the contemplative. And, of course, Jesus tells Martha that her sister, Mary, has chosen the better part. And so they conclude Jesus therefore thinks the contemplative way of life is superior to the active. But you can't establish it from today's Gospel story. Jesus was not suggesting that Martha's activity-filled life was a less worthy type of service or was morally or spiritually less acceptable than Mary's contemplative way. Martha's service to Jesus was very much in line with the activity of the Good Samaritan in yesterday's Gospel, showing kindness to, being concerned about people ... and we saw how Jesus praised the Samaritan. 
It's not a matter of measuring Martha against Mary or activity against contemplation. Both were needed in the early days of the Church, and both are necessary today. And both should be part of the life of every individual Christian. On one occasion Jesus' lifestyle was so active that his family thought he might be going out of his mind. On another occasion we see him so weary that he was sleeping in a boat, undisturbed by a fierce storm that had his companions, experienced fishermen, crying out in terror. So weary, the storm did not wake him up. Luke also notes, however, that 
Jesus was always going off to a quiet place to spent time listening to his Father. 
Why did Jesus chide Martha? Not, surely, because Martha was activity-prone. You could say this about Jesus himself. Rather because Martha criticized Mary, who took time to sit and listen to Jesus, to be contemplative. Active people tend today to lose themselves in activity as did Martha then. We need also to incorporate into our active lives a bit of the contemplative. 

REFLECTION 2019 
In the first reading the people of Nineveh did penance and reformed at the preaching of Nineveh and the compassionate God did not destroy the city as he had threatened. 
In the Gospel reading we see the sisters Martha and Mary welcoming Jesus and his disciples as their guests. Martha busied herself with the food preparations while Mary "sat at the Lord's feet to listen to his words." 
Our daily lives are filled with a whole variety of tasks to do: work, rest and recreation, time with family and friends, a thousand-and-one things to do and finish. We are called to somehow find love and serve God in the midst of our lives, with daily routines and extraordinary happenings. 
We all have to be busy like Martha: we need work for our livelihood, food must be prepared, the house must be maintained, guests must be taken care of. Doing all this indeed is doing God's work in our daily lives: do we find God somehow in these ordinary and extraordinary chores? Mary teaches us another lesson: to be quiet and be with the Lord. This too is as important, if not more, than what we need to do to live. Do we have time for the Lord in prayer? Do we somehow remember the Lord in our busy workdays? And in our relaxing weekends? The important thing is to live our lives in God's presence, for the "greater glory of God" and "finding God in all things." 

REFLECTION
Mary lives by the spirit, and Jesus declares this to be of first importance. He is not, however, condemning Martha's hospitality. Jesus knows Martha's faith. But there is a greater kind of hospitality, and Mary has found it. It is in listening to the Lord, opening not only our house but also our mind and heart to Jesus. Most of us are, or have been, the Martha type. We rush around and work long hours, perhaps for motives that are far less noble than Martha's. Martha was working overtime to please Jesus, to take care of his needs, to honor him. But what of our own motives? When we work long hours, is it because we aim to increase our income so that we can maintain a fine house and every comfort? We often forget that we can't take our wealth with us beyond the grave. 
In today's Gospel we see that perhaps Martha forgot that not only had she invited Jesus but that Jesus had invited her. What kind of hospitality do we give our guest if we leave them alone while we are too busy to spend time with them? If we want to get close to the Lord, we need to take the time to go with Jesus, sit at his feet and listen to him. This is what Jesus expects of each and every one of us.