Suy Niệm Tin Mừng thứ Năm tuần 33 Thường Niên

 Suy Niệm Tin Mừng thứ Năm tuần 33 Thường Niên

Trọng tâm của bài Tin Mừng hôm nay Chúa Giêsu đã cho chúng ta thấy rõ là Thiên Chúa đã ban cho mỗi người chúng ta những hồng ân của Thiên Chúa, đó là những món quá “tự do”.  Sự tự do có nghĩa là chúng ta được phép tự do chọn lựa cuộc sống của chúng ta như thế nào theo như ý muốn riêng của chúng ta. 

Chúng ta thấy Chúa Giêsu đã khóc, Ngài khóc vì Ngài biết được ngày mà Thành Jerusalem sẽ bị tàn phá vì dân Israel đã chọn lựa cuộc sống theo ý họ, một cuộc sống không có Thiên Chúa, và hướng theo tội lỗi họ sống với những sự ham muốn của cái vật chất, danh vọng, kêu ngạo và tự hào mà họ đã quên đi cái sứ điệp cứu độ mà Thiên Chúa đã đến để ban cho họ. Họ đã thiếu lòng tin tưởng nơi Thiên Chúa, Vì sự kêu ngạo mà nghĩ là không có gì sẽ có thể tàn phá được Thành Jerusalem kiên cố của họ, nhưng Chúa Giêsu không thể ngăn cản được những ước mơ riêng hay niềm tự hào của họ. Ngài đã để cho họ được tự do sống với cuộc sống mà họ đã lựa chọn cho chính họ, và vì thế mà họ cũng sẽ phải gánh chịu tất cả những hậu quả của cuộc sống sau này.

            Đây là bài học tuy có sự khắc nghiệt. Tuy nhiên, bài học này liên quan đến những sự lựa chọn mà chúng ta đã quyết định trong cuộc sống thường ngày của chúng ta. Có thể chúng ta không hề bị đòi hỏi là phải tranh chấp với chính quyền, nhưng chúng ta có thể có những sự đòi hỏi và phải thử thách về văn hóa, về tiện nghi hiện đại, với bạn bè, của chúng ta để làm theo những gì mà Thiên Chúa đã ban truyền cho chúng ta.  Chắc chắn sẽ có một số người quay lưng ra đi và bỏ Thiên Chúa khi Chúa không can thiệp hay giải quyết vấn đề riêng của họ, hay khi Chúa không ban cho họ những gì mà họ muốn, hay khi họ gặp phải những hậu quả nghiêm trọng mà họ không thích vì sự tự do lựa chọn theo ý thích riêng của họ.

Thiên Chúa là một Thiên Chúa yêu thương, nhưng Ngài không phải là một Thiên Chúa dễ dãi, vô tư.  Ngài luôn đòi hỏi nơi chúng ta có sự vâng lời và lòng trung tín, nhưng Ngài cũng cho chúng ta có ý chí và sự tự do (để tuân theo hoặc không tuân theo ý Ngài). Nhưng những việc chúng ta làm theo như ý muốn riêng của chúng ta thì chúng ta sẽ phải gánh chịu những hậu quả mà tự chúng ta đã gây ra sau này.

Hãy cám ơn Chúa vì Thiên Chúa của chúng ta không phải là một vị thần hay thích báo thù. Vì trong Chúa Giêsu Kitô, Đấng Cứu Chuộc loài người chúng ta, Đấng đã khóc cho những người bất hạnh và máu của Ngài đã đổ ra trên thập giá để cứu chuộc chúng ta khỏi tội lỗi trước mặt Thiên Chúa Cha. Với Ngài, Ngài chỉ muốn chúng con biết nhận lỗi và sửa mình và trở về với vòng tay yêu thương của Chúa.

            

REFLECTION
The focus of today's Gospel reading is on the gift of free will, which God has given us. It allows us to choose how we spend our life on earth and in eternity. We see Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. He knows the destruction that will come to the city because its people will choose their own greed and pride over the message of salvation which he has come to deliver. Their lack of faith will mean devastation, but Jesus cannot stop it. He must allow them to make the choice and then, live with the consequences.

These are harsh lessons. Yet they relate to many of the choices we must make every day in our own lives. We may not be asked to defy the government, but we may be challenged to defy popular culture or our friends or our boss in order to follow what God has commanded. How closely do we count the loss when we need to make such a choice? How well do we identify the consequences, in terms of our eternal life, when deciding what is important to us? Some people turn against God when God does not intervene to solve their problems or grant their desires or when the correct choice carries with it a serious consequence which is not to their liking. We may read the story of the persecution and death of Jesus and say that we would have been loyal to him to the end. Look back at the choices you have made in the past and see if any of them compromised God's mission for the sake of social acceptance or to keep peace in your family or to satisfy a personal hunger of yours. God is a loving God, but he is not an easy God. He requires obedience and loyalty and gives us free will to obey or not to obey. The consequence then becomes our own doing.

Thanks be to God that our God is not a vengeful God. In Jesus Christ we have a Savior who weeps over our misfortunes and whose blood, given on the cross, purchases each and every one of us for God on the condition
that we acknowledge our sinfulness and return to his loving embrace.

 

Opening Prayer: 

Lord, help me to love the salvation of souls as much as you do and give me the grace to do all I can to make your face known!

Encountering Christ:

1. “He Saw the City and Wept: In this Gospel, Jesus shows us a very intimate side of his human emotions and his divine heart. In one moment, we see him weep over the blindness of the people to his coming in the flesh. This has a visible effect on him in that he sheds tears for the people of God, but these are not tears of self-pity. His divine heart longs for the salvation of all men and women past, present, and future, and he is revealing through his tears his Father’s love for every one of his children. He longs for all to be saved and to come into his glory! What is my attitude toward the salvation of souls, especially my own?

2. They Will Hem You In: Isn’t this exactly what sin does in our lives? It encircles us and hems us in on all sides. Evil is relentless and a respecter of no one. It is aggressive and sneaky. When we are blind to the presence of Our Lord even in a few small areas of our life, we weaken and sometimes become dependent on or enslaved to that vice, which can completely blind us. Jesus is straightforward in the Gospel. He says that if we don’t open our eyes to him and embrace him in our life, we will eventually get overwhelmed and encircled by sin. In what area of my life do I need to vanquish sin so as to better see Jesus’s deep love for me?

3. The Time of My Visitation: Jesus came some 2,000 years ago and walked the roads of Galilee and Palestine. And Jesus continues to visit us in many ways today. Perhaps his favorite way to visit us is through a baptized son or daughter who reflects the face of God. He is also present to others through our eyes, our hands, our words, and our deeds. Our witness should never be underestimated, since this is how Jesus has chosen to spread Christianity throughout the world. Do I look for and see Christ in others? Do I seek to be Christ to others?

Conversing with Christ: Jesus, I believe that you dwell in me by virtue of my baptism and that you reach out to others through my person. Help me to be a faithful instrument of your love and to show your face in its fullness through my life of communion with you.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will seek to intentionally be your hands, eyes, voice, and ambassador today to someone I meet.

 

 

Meditation: What is the enemy of peace in our homes, cities, and nations and what keeps us from a good relationship with God and with our neighbor? When Jesus approached the city of Jerusalem he wept over it because it inhabitants did not "know the things that make for peace" (Luke 19:42). Jesus fulfills the beatitude for those who weep and for those who make peace – "blessed are those who mourn ...blessed are the peacemakers" (Matthew 5:4,9). That is why Jesus went to Jerusalem to be crucified not only for the sins of its inhabitants but to reconcile the whole world – all who have sinned – with God. Mourning and weeping over sin and unfaithfulness leads to true peace and reconciliation not only with God but with our neighbor as well. Do you know the peace which makes for lasting friendship, joy, and unity?

Jesus' earthly ministry centers and culminates in Jerusalem, which scripture describes as the holy city, the throne of the Lord (Jeremiah 3:17);and the place which God chose for his name to dwell there (1Kings 11:13; 2 Kings 21:4; 2 Kings 23:27); and the holy mountain upon which God has set his king (Psalm 2:6). Jerusalem derives its name from the word "salem" which mean "peace". The temple in Jerusalem was a constant reminder to the people of God's presence with them.

Why does Jesus weep and lament for this city? It's inhabitants had rejected the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord because of their pride and unbelief. Now they refuse to listen to Jesus who comes as their Messiah – whom God has anointed to be their Savior and Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem was a gracious visitation of God's anointed King to his holy city. Jerusalem's lack of faith and rejection of the Messiah, however, leads to its devastation and destruction. Jesus' lamentation and prophecy echoes the lamentation of Jeremiah who prophesied the first destruction of Jerusalem and its temple. Jeremiah's lamentation offered hope of deliverance and restoration: "But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies are new every morning ...For the Lord will not cast off for ever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men" (Lamentations 3:21-22, 31-32). Jesus is the hope of the world because he is the only one who can truly reconcile us with God and with one another. Through his death and resurrection Jesus breaks down the walls of hostility and division by reconciling us with God. He gives us his Holy Spirit both to purify us and restore us as a holy people of God. Through Christ we become living temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). God has visited his people in the past and he continues to visit us through the gift and working of his Holy Spirit. Do you recognize God's gracious visitation today?

When God visits his people he comes to establish peace and justice by rooting out our enemies – sin and Satan who enslave us to fear and pride, rebellion and hatred, envy and covetousness, strife and violence, and every form of evil. That is why God both judges and purifies his people – to lead us from our sinful ways to his way of justice, peace, love, and holiness. God actively works among his people to teach us his ways and to save us from the destruction of sin and Satan. Are God's judgments unjust or unloving? Scripture tells us that "when God's judgments are revealed in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness" (Isaiah 26:9). To pronounce judgment on sin is much less harsh than what will happen if those who sin are not warned to repent. The Lord in his mercy gives us grace and time to turn away from sin, but that time is right now. If we delay, even for a moment, we may discover that grace has passed us by and our time is up. Do you accept the grace to turn away from sin and to walk in God's way of peace and holiness?

"Lord Jesus, you have visited and redeemed your people. May I not miss the grace of your visitation today as you move to bring your people into greater righteousness and holiness of life. Purify my heart and mind that I may I understand your ways and conform my life more fully to your will."