Suy Niệm Tin Mừng thứ Ba Tuần thứ Năm Phục sinh

 Suy Niệm Tin Mừng thứ Ba Tuần thứ Năm Phục sinh

“Thầy ban bình an của Thầy cho anh em, Thầy ban cho anh em không theo kiểu thế gian.”

Tin Mừng hôm nay, Chúa Giêsu nói gián tiếp với chúng ta về thập giá: Ngài sẽ ban cho chúng ta sự bình an, nhưng với giá Ngài phải trả là sự Khổ nạn, đau đớn của Ngài trong thế giới này. Hôm nay, chúng ta được nghe những lời Ngài nói trước khi phải hy sinh trên Thập Giá, nhưng đã được viết sau khi Ngài sống lại. Với cái chết của Ngài trên Thập giá, Ngài đã đánh bại cả cái chết và sự sợ hãi. Ngài đem lại cho chúng ta hòa bình “nhưng không phải sự hoà bình của thế gian” (Ga 14:27), bởi vì như Ngài đã làm điều đó bằng cách chấp nhận những nỗi đau đớn và nhục nhã nhất: đây là cách Ngài đã chứng tỏ được tình yêu và lòng thương xót của Ngài đã dành cho con người chúng ta.

Tại sao Ngài đã làm những điều như vậy? Bởi vì, sự đau đón của con người gắn bó với sự đau khổ của Chúa Kitô đã trở thành một sự hy sinh để cứu chuộc chúng ta khỏi tội lỗi. Thánh Gioan Phaolồ 2 đã nói “Trong Thánh Giá của Chúa Kitô (...), đau khổ của con người đã được cứu chuộc” (John Paul II). Chúa Giêsu Kitô đâ âm thầm, lặng lẽ chịu đựng để làm vừa lòng Chúa Cha với sự vâng phục bằng mọi giá, mà chính sự vâng phục Ngài đã sẵn lòng hy sinh tự hiến chính bản thân của mình cho sự cứu rỗi của chúng ta.

Reflection

«I give you my peace. Not as the world gives peace do I give it to you»

Today, Jesus speaks to us indirectly of the cross: He will give us the peace, but at the cost of his painful “departure” of this world. Today, we read those words He said before the sacrifice on the Cross but that were written after his Resurrection. With his death on the Cross, He defeats both death and fear. He gives the peace «but not as the world gives peace» (Jn 14:27), inasmuch as He does it by going through the most excruciating pain and humiliation: this is how He proved his merciful love for man.

Why did He do it in such a way? Because thus, human pain —together with Christ's suffering— becomes a sacrifice that saves us from sin. «In the Cross of Christ (...), human suffering has been redeemed» (John Paul II). Jesus Christ quietly suffered to please the Heavenly Father with an act of costly obedience, through which He willingly offered Himself for our salvation.

Opening Prayer:

Jesus, may your peace reign in my heart; I believe that you have called me to this (cf. Colossians 3:15). Still my mind and still my heart to hear your words in this Gospel and live them out in my life.

Encountering Christ:

1. Peace of Christ: All of our readings this week take place during the Last Supper. These are Christ’s parting words to his disciples. He gives them not only his words but his peace. His peace will remain with them and carry them through the storm of his Passion and death to his Resurrection. We all yearn for this true peace, and Christ gives it to us as a free gift. So why are our hearts still troubled when we believe that his peace is with us? It could be because we have a worldly understanding of peace. The world says that peace will happen when everything around us is perfect, when we are not suffering, when there is no war in our world, in our homes, or in our hearts. This will not happen until we reach heaven, but Jesus promises us peace now. The peace that the world cannot give is internal, not external. It lives within each of us when we recognize God’s presence there.

2. Rejoice!: Jesus told his disciples that he was going away from them. How might the disciples have felt about this? Fearful, grieving, confused, disbelieving, anxious, distrusting? Jesus directed them to the emotion they should be feeling: joy. He said that if they loved him they would be rejoicing because he was about to accomplish his saving mission. This was truly cause for rejoicing! Later in the Last Supper Discourses, Jesus came back to this point: “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy...I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you” (John 16:20-22). On the very day of his Resurrection, Jesus kept his promise when he returned to the disciples in the upper room: “ Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord” (John 20:19-20). The risen Christ came back to them and reminded them of the peace he had left for them. They indeed rejoiced when they looked upon his wounds. Many times in our lives we experience things that seem like cause for anxiety, fear, or grief. Sometimes events in our lives simply do not seem to make sense. But “we know that all things work for good for those who love God” (Romans 8:28). This, too, is a cause for rejoicing.

3. In the Father’s Hands: Jesus told his disciples of his leaving and returning so they could believe. He tried to prepare them, gently reminding them that what would transpire was what God the Father had commanded him to do. This is the peace he gave them—the peace that comes from understanding that Jesus’s suffering and death was part of God’s plan for salvation. Everything is in the Father’s hands, even and especially the things that are painful or confusing. St. Elizabeth of France said, “ I do not know what will happen to me today, O my God. All I know is that nothing will happen to me but what you have foreseen from Eternity. That is sufficient, O my God, to keep me in peace.” We can ask ourselves if anything causes us anxiety and then place whatever it is in our Father’s powerful, gentle hands.

Conversing with Christ: Jesus, you are my peace, the true peace the world cannot give. Place your peace deep into my heart and let it reign there, covering all that I do in binding it together in perfect harmony (cf. Colossians 3:14-15). When I am grieving, please remind me of the peace you have given me. Help me be a bearer of your peace into the world. Let me be an instrument of your peace at all times. When I am afraid, help me to trust in you. When I am confused, give me your clarity. When I am anxious, help me to have a childlike trust in the Father’s providence for me.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will pray the Peace Prayer of St. Francis and seek to be an instrument of your peace in a concrete way today.