Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Hai tuần thứ Hai mùa Vọng.
Nhiều người trong chúng ta đã thấy hình ảnh của những cảnh tàn phá do chiến tranh, động đất, hoặc lũ lụt. Điều ngạc nhiên là thường sau một vài năm mọi thứ đều được xây dựng mới và coi như không có gì đã từng xảy ra. Trong bài đọc thứ nhất, Tiên tri Isaiah đã dùng những hình ảnh của sự bừng nở và những thành quả trong sa mạc để chỉ cho chúng ta thấy Thiên Chúa đã ban sự sống mới cho những cuộc sống đã bị tan vỡ như thế nào.
Ngay cả sau khi thất bại, hay gặp phải những chuyện không may, hay những thứ khó khăn, chúng ta nên nhớ rằng Thiên Chúa luôn phục hồi niềm hy vọng và cho chúng ta một tương lai tươi mới. Thiên Chúa muốn mọi người chúng ta được hạnh phúc và thịnh vượng; nhưng khi những sự việc đó không xảy ra như yhế là vì con người chúng ta thường hay có những sự chọn lựa sai lầm hoặc đã trở thành nạn nhân của những người khác.
Trong sự tuyệt vọng của những người bạn bè thân thiện nhất của người bất toại hôm nay đã làm cho họ không còn cách nào hơn là đưa người bất loại lên mái nhà và thòng anh ta xuống trước mặt Chúa Giêsu. Chúa đã thương xót và tha thứ tất cả mọi tội lỗi cho anh ta và đã cho anh ta được được bình phục và được trở nên nguyên vẹn như mọi người. Điều này không có nghĩa là Thiên Chúa ông đã trừng phạt ông ta vì những tội ông ta đã phạm mà Chúa để ông ta đã phải bị bại liệt, những thật ra ông ta chính là tù nhân của một cuộc sống rối loạn và hư hỏng. Những người biệt phái và luật sĩ đã cho rằng Chúa Giêsu đã phạm tội phạm thượng vì Chúa đã tha tội cho người bại liệt, vì chỉ có Thiên Chúa mới có thể làm được điều đó, nhưng Chúa Giêsu đã nhấn mạnh cho họ biết rằng việc tha thứ tội lỗi và chữa lành tất cả đều là một phần của lòng từ bi và lòng thương xót của Thiên Chúa. Việc dung chữ không quan trọng mà việc tỏ lòng từ bi, nhân hậu mới là đìều thiết yếu. Trong Chúa, chỉ có ánh sáng, sự sống và tình yêu. Tất cả những điều khác được bắt nguồn từ trí tưởng tượng của con người. Lạy Chúa, Xin Chúa chữa lành cho chúng con và ban xuống cho chúng con được tràn đầy hy vọng.
Monday: "Your God will come and save you'"
Many of us have seen pictures of scenes of devastation from war, earthquake, or flood. It is surprising that often after a few years everything looks new and as if nothing had ever happened. The reading from Isaiah uses images of a blossming and fruitful desert to show us how God gives new life to shattered lives. Even after failures, tragedies, and difficulties of all kinds we should remember that God restores hope and gives us a future. God desires that people be happy and flourish; when that does not happen, it is usually because people have made bad choices or become the victims of others.
So desperate were the friends of the paralytic that they lowered him through the roof to Jesus. The Lord forgave his sins and restored him to health and wholeness. This does not mean that he was being punished for his sins, only that he was a prisoner of a disordered and broken life.
The authorities were outraged that he forgave sins — only God can do that — but Jesus insisted that forgiving sins and healing were all part of the compassion and mercy of God. It doesn’t matter which words are used — compassion is the essential part. In God there is only light, life, and love. — anything else springs from human imagination. Lord, heal me and fill me with hope.
Opening Prayer:
Lord God, thank you for the gift of your word. Like the crowds in the Gospel today, I also glorify you for your marvelous action in the life of this paralytic. I ask you to work in my life too. Enlighten my heart and mind to perceive your message for me today.
Encountering Christ:
1. Overcoming Obstacles: The paralytic wanted to see Jesus, but it was impossible for him. He had lost the use of his own body and was therefore powerless to effect his own will. We can experience a similar paralysis when we’re trapped by sin, addiction, or selfishness. We identify with St. Paul when he writes in Romans 7:14-15: “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold into slavery to sin. What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate.” The paralytic is thus an image of our own struggle against the physical and spiritual bondage of sin. But something else kept the paralytic from Jesus’s presence: the crowds. How often we feel “crowded out” during prayer. God seems distant. Plagued by distractions, we can’t focus. How are we to get his attention?
2. Solutions: The paralytic’s friends solved the first obstacle by carrying him to Jesus—and here we have a symbol of Mother Church. When we are faced with problems beyond our strength, we can receive support and encouragement from our family, our community, and other believers. From the sacraments of the Church, we receive the grace and strength of Christ who heals and fortifies us. The second difficulty–God’s seeming indifference–is resolved when we see that the Lord healed the paralytic even more deeply than the paralytic himself had desired; he forgave his sins. This spiritual healing is by far the more important. The physical healing is, in fact, subordinated to the deeper spiritual healing that occurs. “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” Jesus, because he loved the paralytic and heard his prayer, gave him both healings.
3. Glory to God: The people were astonished. The crowd glorified God. Jesus, too, had glorified his Father because it was the Father’s will to heal the man—the enigmatic phrase “the power of the Lord was with him for healing” would seem to support that. Lastly, we note that the man himself also glorified God. His persistence and faith in trying to reach Jesus flowered into a greater outpouring of grace than expected. God is never outdone in generosity.
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, maybe I am not paralyzed, but I need help to get to you just the same. Why is it so hard to put myself in your presence? During my prayer, help me to rely not on my own strength but in the faith of the Church and in your desire to meet me.
Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will take a couple of moments in silence to put myself in your presence.
Encountering Christ:
1. Overcoming Obstacles: The paralytic wanted to see Jesus, but it was impossible for him. He had lost the use of his own body and was therefore powerless to effect his own will. We can experience a similar paralysis when we’re trapped by sin, addiction, or selfishness. We identify with St. Paul when he writes in Romans 7:14-15: “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold into slavery to sin. What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate.” The paralytic is thus an image of our own struggle against the physical and spiritual bondage of sin. But something else kept the paralytic from Jesus’s presence: the crowds. How often we feel “crowded out” during prayer. God seems distant. Plagued by distractions, we can’t focus. How are we to get his attention?
2. Solutions: The paralytic’s friends solved the first obstacle by carrying him to Jesus—and here we have a symbol of Mother Church. When we are faced with problems beyond our strength, we can receive support and encouragement from our family, our community, and other believers. From the sacraments of the Church, we receive the grace and strength of Christ who heals and fortifies us. The second difficulty–God’s seeming indifference–is resolved when we see that the Lord healed the paralytic even more deeply than the paralytic himself had desired; he forgave his sins. This spiritual healing is by far the more important. The physical healing is, in fact, subordinated to the deeper spiritual healing that occurs. “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” Jesus, because he loved the paralytic and heard his prayer, gave him both healings.
3. Glory to God: The people were astonished. The crowd glorified God. Jesus, too, had glorified his Father because it was the Father’s will to heal the man—the enigmatic phrase “the power of the Lord was with him for healing” would seem to support that. Lastly, we note that the man himself also glorified God. His persistence and faith in trying to reach Jesus flowered into a greater outpouring of grace than expected. God is never outdone in generosity.
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, maybe I am not paralyzed, but I need help to get to you just the same. Why is it so hard to put myself in your presence? During my prayer, help me to rely not on my own strength but in the faith of the Church and in your desire to meet me.
Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will take a couple of moments in silence to put myself in your presence.
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