Suy Niệm Lễ Kính Trái Tim Vô Nhiễm Đức Mẹ Maria

Suy Niệm Lễ Kính Trái Tim Vô Nhiễm Đức Mẹ Maria

Trong cuộc đời của Đức Mẹ Maria, có lẽ Mẹ đã không thể hiểu được là mình sẽ phải gánh chịu những kinh nghiệm đau khổ, đặc biệt là việc khi Đức Maria vẫn không thể hiểu được câu hỏi trả lời của Chúa Giêsu khi ngài mới lên 12 tuổi : "Thì tại sao tìm con? Lại còn không biết là con phải ở lại nơi nhà Cha con sao?" "(Lc. 2:49). Đức maria dù không hiểu được lời Chúa Giêesu muốn nói gì trong lúc ấy, nhưng Mẹ đã trân trọng giữ mãi những lời ấy trong lòng, Mẹ đã suy niệm và tìm hiểu thêm về ý nghĩa sâu xa trong câu nói của Chúa Giêsu và sứ mệnh của mẹ mỗi ngày. Qua các Tin Mừng, chúng ta Đức Maria là người đã được giới thiệu là người đã biết nghe Lời Chúa và đã thực thì lời Chúa (Lc. 8: 19-21). Mối quan hệ của Mẹ Maria với Chúa Giêsu dựa trên mối quan hệ của mẹ phải lệ thuộc vào kế hoạch của Thiên Chúa và mối quan hệ của người con thảo của Chúa Giêsu với Chúa Cha trên trời và sự vâng phục Ngài. Đây là một ưu tiên mà Đức Maria đã hiểu biết được qua thời gian. Vâng, Chúa Giêsu dường như đã sửa sai câu hỏi của mẹ khi Mẹ đã lo lắng, trách Ngài khi làm cho cha mẹ phải lo lắng 3 ngày đêm để tìm kiến Ngài.i, (2: 48-49).

Điều đáng chú ý ở đây là những lời đầu tiên của Chúa Giêsu được ghi lại trong Tin Mừng Thánh Luca. Đức Maria sẽ suy ngẫm và cố nghiền mgẫm để hiểu những đau đớn với thời gian, vì đó là đường lối và là cách Thiên Chúa thực sự chứ không phải cách mà chúng ta muốn. Chấp nhận Chúa Giêsu là con, thì đức Maria cũng phải sẵn sàng chấp nhận là việc ưu tiên hàng đầu của mẹ là đầu hàng sở thích á nhân để vâng phục theo thánh ý của Thiên Chúa Cha.

Hôm nay chúng ta mừng kính trọng thể Trái Tim Vô Nhiễm Nguyên Tội của Đức Maria, chúng ta thực sự dùng cơ hội này để mừng kính sự khiếm tốn, từ bỏ tất cả mọi ssụ trong cuộc sống để chấp nhận và vâng phục Thiên Chúa của Đức Maria, Mẹ Maria đã học để sống với những câu hỏi, Mẹ đã kiên nhẫn để chịu đựng tất cả những gì chưa được giải quyết trong cuộc sống của Mẹ cho đến một ngày nào đó thật xa vời khi tất cả mọi thứ được bày tỏ và tỏ lộ.

Lạy Mẹ Maria, xin mẹ cầu bầu cùng Chúa cho chúng con. để chúng con có được một quải tim giống như trái tim của Mẹ.

Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary;

Mary’s incomprehension must have been an agonizing experience, especially at not being able to understand Jesus’ answer: “How it it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house,” (Lk. 2:49). Mary is presented in this text (as in previous texts 1:29; 2:19) as one who keeps treasuring, interpreting and seeking the deeper meaning of Jesus and his mission. Later she is presented as one who hears the Word and does it.( 8:19-21)

Mary’s relationship with Jesus based on maternal ties is sub-ordinated to the Divine plan and to Jesus’ filial relationship to his heavenly Father and obedience to Him. This is a priority she learns to understand with time. Yes, Jesus seems to correct his mother’s questioning as to his whereabouts, in this dialogue between mother and son, (2:48-49).

Significantly these are the first recorded words of Jesus in Luke’s Gospel. Mary will learn to understand painfully with time that God’s ways are really not our ways. To receive Jesus as son is to accept and welcome his priority of obedient surrender to the Father’s will.

Today’s feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary truly captures and celebrates Mary’s obedient surrender to God's will in her life as she learned to live the questions, patiently bearing all that was unsolved in her life, till the distant day when everything is revealed. Mother Mary make my heart like unto Yours

Opening Prayer: 

Dear Mary, thank you for keeping the stories about Jesus in your Immaculate Heart. Pray for me, dear Mother, that I may have a heart like yours, a heart that is open to receiving Christ and bearing him to the world.

Encountering Christ:

1. Losing and Finding: Many parents have experienced the preteen years, around age twelve, as a time when they experience “losing” their little child while also “finding” a glimpse of the adult that he or she will become. We can imagine Mary and Joseph having this experience with Jesus in this Gospel passage. When they found the boy Jesus in the temple, he was listening and questioning the teachers there, showing the depth of his knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, even at his young age. Notice that Mary and Jesus both talked about his father. Mary told Jesus that she and his father, Joseph, had been looking for him. Jesus replied that he “must be in my Father’s house,” referring to God the Father. This may have been one of the first revelations of Jesus’s true identity as the Son of God after his miraculous birth. This thought may have been an additional pain to Mary and Joseph as they realized in a more profound way how they would soon have to give him up (or “lose” him) to his divine purpose.

2. She Kept These Things: Mary did not dwell on her anxiety or sadness about losing Jesus or what his mission would hold for him. Instead, she “kept” or “pondered” these things in her Immaculate Heart. We can learn to ponder in our hearts like Mary, too. Pondering implies contemplation, which is the act of considering something thoughtfully for a length of time. When we find ourselves ruminating on a problem, emotion, or situation, we can try to move it out of our head and into our heart to ponder and pray about it. Praying the rosary daily is an excellent way to move things that trouble or concern us from our head, through our hands, to the beads of the rosary, and into our heart to ponder. Once there, we can invite Jesus and Mary to console us and ask the Holy Spirit to bring us the gifts we need to deal with the situation or emotion at hand. The rosary is also meant for contemplating the mysteries of Christ’s life. This is exactly what Mary was doing when she kept the mysterious events of Jesus’s life in her heart. These stories must have come through Mary to Luke, whose Gospel holds most of the infancy narratives. How else would Luke have learned what happened at the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, the Presentation of Jesus, and the Finding of the Child Jesus? We have these precious memories of Jesus’s childhood because of our Mother Mary’s heart, which kept them safe to reveal to us.

3. A Heart Like Mary’s: Mary told St. Bernadette at Lourdes, “I am the Immaculate Conception.” The image of Mary’s Immaculate Heart is surrounded by white flowers, pierced with a sword, and crowned with flames. Our beautiful Mother’s heart is burning with love for God, her Father; the Holy Spirit, her spouse; and Jesus, her beloved Son. It blooms with white flowers because it is fruitful, beautiful, and completely pure. It is pierced with a sword because of the pain she endured watching her Son suffer and die for us, recalling the words of Simeon: “a sword will pierce through your own soul also” (Luke 2:35). May our hearts be like hers, full of love for God and others; pure, fruitful, and beautiful; and not afraid to suffer for Our Lord.

Conversing with Christ: Dear Jesus, thank you for the gift of our Blessed Mother. Thank you for preserving her as the Immaculate Conception. Thank you for giving Mary as a mother to St. John and to us, her children, for all generations. What a generous gift you gave us from the cross. Help me to love and honor Mary as my mother. Give me the gifts of the Holy Spirit to help me imitate her virtues.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will pray a rosary, asking Mary to give me a heart like hers.

Saturday Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary; Gospel: Lk 2: 41 - 51

Every year the parents of Jesus went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover, as was customary. And when Jesus was twelve years old, he went up with them according to the custom for this feast. After the festival was over, they returned, but the boy Jesus remained in Jerusalem and his parents did not know it.

They thought he was in the company and after walking the whole day they looked for him among their relatives and friends. As they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem searching for him, and on the third day they found him in the Temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions. And all the people were amazed at his understanding and his answers.

His parents were very surprised when they saw him and his mother said to him, "Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I were very worried while searching for you." Then he said to them, "Why were you looking for me? Do you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" But they did not understand this answer.

Jesus went down with them, returning to Nazareth, and he continued to be subject to them. As for his mother, she kept all these things in her heart.

Reflection:

Today is the memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The gospel reading is an account of the finding of Jesus in the temple. Such a familiar theme in every parent's life! A child in his /her teen years goes off into the night and does not come home till morning without responding to the parents' frantic calls or texts. Every parent suffers a little, dies a little, until the child is safely home.

Mary's rebuke seemed natural, "Your father and I were very worried while searching for you."

Jesus reply was perplexing, though a foretaste of his future destiny, which echoes Simeon's words to Mary at Jesus' presentation in the temple: "while a sword will pierce your own soul." (Lk 2:35a)

Jesus' mission takes precedence over family ties. Jesus understood that the time was not yet ripe for their full understanding of his role as Messiah, and so he went home with them and was a dutiful son. These things, Mary kept in her heart. She might not have understood, but she trusted in Jesus' words and God's plan for her family.

Let us turn to Mary in those moments when nothing seems to be going right, especially in rearing our children in the complex world that we live in. Let us implore her intercession and compassion for our loved ones, and trust in our heart that they are in good hands. Pray unceasingly; it is our best armor. With the Blessed Virgin beside us, we can feel her gentle presence enveloping us in her loving maternal embrace.

Meditation: Let what you say be simply Yes or No

How forceful are honest words! (Job 6:25) Jesus addressed the issue of honesty and truthfulness in one's conduct and speech. What does it mean to be true to one's word? To be true to oneself and to others requires character. Unfortunately many people today miserably fail here. No wonder we don’t trust many in positions of leadership and influence. God is the source of all truth and there is nothing false or deceitful in him. His word is truth and his law is truth. His truth liberates us from illusion, deceit, and hypocrisy. Jesus told his disciples that the truth will make you free (John 8:32).

Why is it so hard to be true and to speak the truth? Truth demands commitment - that we live our lives according to it and be faithful witnesses of the truth. Jesus teaches his disciples the unconditional love of truth. He speaks against bearing false witness and all forms of untruthfulness and swearing unnecessary oaths to God. A disciple's word should be capable of being trusted without verbal rituals to give it validity. Christ's disciple must speak truthfully without "stretching" the truth by adding to it or by compromising the truth by speaking untruth or by leaving out what is necessary to convey what is truthful.

Thomas Aquinas said: People could not live with one another if there were not mutual confidence that they were being truthful to one another... (In justice) as a matter of honor, one person owes it to another to manifest the truth. Are you true to God, to yourself, and to others? And do you allow God's word of truth to penetrate your mind and heart and to form your conscience?

"Set a watch, Lord, upon my tongue, that I may never speak the cruel word which is not true; or being true, is not the whole truth; or being wholly true, is merciless; for the love of Jesus Christ our Lord."

Saturday (Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary;

The meditation is of the weekday Gospel.)\ Matthew 5, 33-37

Let what I say come from my heart. Let my heart be formed in simplicity. My word, “Yes,” or my word, “No,” will stand for itself in my relations with others. The simplicity of my life and of my words reflects the simplicity of my heart in love with God who is all simplicity. My prayer becomes more simple and direct. Then my speech will be simple and direct, sincere, from the heart. No need to elaborate and to complicate with many words. No compulsion to have to speak at all. No need to have a whole spiel of self-justification and defense. The Holy Spirit moves me in this direction through contemplative prayer. The Word calls me to such behavior in speech and style of life. Christ himself is my Yes to the Father and my No to the Evil One.