Suy Niệm Thứ Hai Tuần thứ 10 Thường Niên

 Suy Niệm Thứ Hai Tuần thứ 10 Thường Niên

Hôm thứ ba và cả tuần trước, chúng ta được nghe về cuộc đời của ông Tôbit trong sách Tôbia, chúng ta đã suy ngẫm về những sự khổ đau vì những chuyện không may, tai nạn lớn, nhỏ, vì những thất bại trong cuộc sống. Chúng ta chắn chắn đã tự hỏi những câu hỏi, "tại sao những điều xấu lại xảy ra với những người tốt?"  đây là một trong những cẩm nhận rắc rối cho nhiều người trong chúng ta. Trong sự cảm hứng của mình, ngay trong phần đầu lá thứ thứ hai gởi cho các tín hữu Côrintô, Thánh Phaolô đã phản ánh về sự tương tác của đau khổ và niềm an ủi trong cuộc sống của chúng ta, đặc biệt là khi chúng ta cố gắng để sống cuộc sống trong Chúa Kitô. Mỗi ân sủng mà chúng ta nhận được liên quan đến một nhiệm vụ; nhiệm vụ là chia sẻ với những người khác những gì chúng ta được hưởng nơi bàn tay của Thiên Chúa. Thánh Phaolô  gợi ý là chúng ta là hãy nên áp dụng những điều tương tự cho sự đau khổ: ". Nếu chúng tôi lâm phải gian truân, ấy là để anh em được an ủi, được cứu thoát" (2 Cor 1:6)

            Nhiều người Kitô hữu cũng bị đau khổ, buồn phiền trong một cách tương tự:  Sự đau khổ đã làm họ gắn bó với sự đau khổ của Chúa Kitô để cứu rỗi thế gian và vì vậy ngay cả trong cuộc sống này,  họ đã được hưởng niềm vui và an ủi của Chúa Kitô, sự an ủi mà Chúa ban cho những ai đã chịu đau khỗ trong kiên nhẫn và yêu thương cũng như sự an ủi của sự Phục Sinh mà Ngài đã đón nhận sau cuộc khổ nạn của Ngài, sự an ủi đó là làm gia tăng đức tin, niềm hy vọng và tình yêu và niềm vui trong những gì thuộc về Chúa (Thánh Y Nhã)).

            Lạy Chúa Giêsu, xin ban cho chúng con ân sũng của Chúa và sự khôn ngoan để chúng con có thể an ủi người khác với niềm an ủi mà chúng con đã nhận được từ bàn tay của Chúa.

 

REFLECTION
On Tuesday last week, when we read an extract from the Book of Tobit, we reflected on the suffering caused by accidents great and small. The question, “why do bad things happen to good people?” is one that troubles many of us. In his very inspiring opening to his second Letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul reflects on the interplay of suffering and consolation in our lives, especially when we strive to live our lives in Christ. Every grace we receive involves a mission;  the mission to share with others what we enjoy from God’s hands. Paul suggests that the same thing applies to suffering: “if we are afflicted it is for your encouragement and salvation.”

Many Christians who suffer have the same approach: suffering engages them in the suffering of Christ for the salvation of the world and so even if in this life they enjoy the consolation of Christ, the consolation which he gives to those who suffer patiently and lovingly as well as the consolation of the Resurrection which he enjoyed after his passion, that consolation is an increase in faith, hope and love and joy in the things of the Lord (St. Ignatius).

Lord Jesus, grant us the grace and wisdom to be able to console others with the consolation which we received from Your hands.

 

Opening Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you for teaching us how to be happy and holy by giving us the beatitudes. Help me to learn how to love others as you have loved me (cf. John 13:34). 

Encountering Christ:

A Blessed Paradox: Life in Christ is often full of paradoxes. The world says that money, power, comfort, pleasure, and self-glory are the things that will bring us happiness. But here, Jesus teaches us something completely different. In order to live as his disciples and love others, we must not strive for the things of this world. Instead, we must actually seek out and cultivate their direct opposites: poverty, meekness, mercy, humility, suffering, and persecution. “Beatitude” means “blessedness,” and even “supreme happiness.” What a paradox: to find supreme happiness, we must not be attached to the things that many people would say are integral to happiness. Some people unknowingly make idols out of temporal things, such as money, pleasure, comfort, and power. God said, “You must not make idols for yourselves (Leviticus 26:1). We can ask ourselves if any earthly things have become “idols” to us. A good place to start is by prayerfully examining what things we are most attached to and discerning if those things are coming between ourselves and God. If something comes up as an obstacle, we should choose to focus on the opposite beatitude. For example, someone who seeks power or control in an inordinate way would want to focus on the beatitude of meekness.

The Tree of Blessing: The things that will make us happy are the things that will bring us closer to God. What Jesus is teaching us is that holiness will lead to our happiness. Jesus is teaching us how to live the new commandment he gave us at the Last Supper: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). Bishop Robert Barron wrote, “What Jesus gives us in the Sermon on the Mount, therefore, is the new law that would discipline our desires, our minds, and our bodies so as to make real happiness possible.” St. Augustine wrote about how earthly things can never really make us happy in the long term: “The river of temporal things hurries one along: but like a tree sprung up beside the river is our Lord Jesus Christ…It was his will to plant himself, in a manner beside the river of the things of time.” Psalm 1 speaks about how a blessed man is like such a tree: Blessed is the man…[whose] delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers” (v. 1-3). Let us be content to relax under the tree of Christ in imitation of his virtues. May we not strive and claw for earthly things but become peaceful and happy by imitating Christ.

Imitating Christ: Each of these beatitudes describes an aspect of Jesus. Jesus is poor in spirit. He was born in a stable to poor, humble parents (cf. Luke 2). Jesus mourns when his friend Lazarus dies (cf. John 11:35). Jesus is “meek and humble of heart” (Matthew 11:29). Jesus hungers and thirsts for righteousness when he cleanses the temple (Matthew 21:12). Jesus is mercy itself: “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice” (Matthew 9:13). Jesus is clean of heart, conceived immaculately, and born of an immaculate mother (cf. Luke 1:26-36). He undoes Adam’s sin with his own sinlessness (cf. Romans 5:12-21). Jesus is peace itself, and he offers us his peace, which the world cannot give us (cf. John 14:27). Jesus was and is still persecuted, and many evil and false accusations were made against him at his trial (cf. Mark 14:56). He was persecuted until death, “even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). We who are his disciples are called to imitate the beatitudes in imitation of him, the example par excellence of all virtues. Jesus is the source of all virtues. When we practice imitating Christ and pray to the Holy Spirit to bless us with his gifts, we will joyfully bear fruit and glorify God (cf. John 15:8).

Conversing with Christ: Jesus, thank you for teaching me how to live here and now in a way that glorifies you and brings light and life to my brothers and sisters. Help me keep your new commandment to love others by living my life in accordance with these guidelines for happiness and holiness. I want to love and serve you with all my heart.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will choose one beatitude to focus on, as a way to grow in love for you and others.

 

REFLECTION
In today's Gospel, we enter into the very heart of Jesus' teaching. What the Ten Commandments are to the entire Old Testament Law, so the Beatitudes are to Jesus' teaching in the New Testament. We can study these alone and come to know all the rest. They show the very heart of Jesus Christ.

The Beatitudes fall in with the tradition of the Jewish literature of the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Sirach and Wisdom. But they go far beyond these with their new ideal of unconditional love. They call us to a morality higher than any other in the world. They  motivate with love, not with fear. The Old Testament says, "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord." But the New Testament says "Love casts out all fear."

Jesus says to the sinner, "Come to me. I will refresh you." The Beatitudes show Jesus' unfailing love for the crowd.  Jesus looked upon the crowds, the masses of simple people and his heart was moved with pity. Here one sees the heart of words, "I have come to call not the self-righteous but sinners." He does not support sin, but he unconditionally loves the sinner. He knew their life; he knew their longings.

In the Beatitudes, Jesus gives us the rules, the prescription for  happiness, for sanctity. There is no other way to be converted, to be really committed to following closely in the footsteps of Christ.

 

Comment: Fr. Àngel CALDAS i Bosch (Salt, Girona, Spain)

Fortunate are those who are poor in spirit

Today, with the proclamation of the Beatitudes, Jesus helps us realize how forgetful we can be and how we tend to be like children, who usually forget their memories because of their plays. Jesus feared that the amount of his “good news” —his words, his gestures, his silences— would be diluted amidst our sins and worries. In the parable of the sower, do you remember the image of the thorns that sprang up with his seeds, and choked them? Well, this is why St. Mathew run the Beatitudes as fundamental principles, so that we do not never ever forget them. They are a compendium of the New Law presented by Jesus, basic points which help us living a Christian life.

The Beatitudes are intended for everybody. The Master is not only teaching his disciples around him, nor does He exclude any kind of persons, but He delivers a Universal message. However, He emphasizes the disposition we must have and the moral behavior He expects from us. While the definite salvation is not given in this world, but in the next, we must change, right now, while we are here, our mentality and our evaluation of things. It is necessary we get used to see the crying face of Christ, in those who mourn, in those poor of spirit, in the meek at heart, in those who yearn to become saints, in those who have taken a “determined determination”, as St. Therese of the Child Jesus liked to say, so that we can become Sowers of Peace and Joy.

The Beatitudes are the Lord's perfume participated in human history. But, also in yours and mine. The last two verses incorporate the presence of the Cross, as they invite us to rejoice when, because of him and of the Gospel, things go humanly wrong. For when the coherence of our Christian life is strong, we will then, most probably suffer persecution in a thousand different ways, amid unexpected difficulties and setbacks. St. Matthew's text is emphatic: so «Be glad and joyful, for a great reward is kept for you in God» (Mt 5,12).

 

Meditation: Matthew 5:1-12  Monday 10th Week in Ordinary Time

Blessed are you. (Matthew 5:11)

The Beatitudes are Jesus’ explanation of what it is to be well-off spiritually: to know God’s grace and protection and to feel his blessing, even despite what you are experiencing in life. “Blessed” means happy, or fortunate, and Jesus meant it. He is saying, 

“Happy are you who are poor in spirit, you who recognize that life, even all the world’s riches, is not enough. God has so much more for you, and so you can raise your heart and soul heavenward, and cry, ‘Abba, Father, I need you!’ Blessed are you who know that my Father delights in answering that prayer. It pleases him to give you the kingdom.

“Happy are you who mourn. Your heart is like my Father’s. He saw the men and women he created, the apple of his eye, turn from him. He saw the darkness that crept in because of their sin, and he mourned over the way that darkness obscured the light he made. He mourned, too, as he watched me, his only Son, die in agony. My Father knows what it is to mourn, and he will comfort you. He will never abandon or forsake you.”

“Happy are you who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for that hunger reveals a desire for me! I am your righteousness, and when you seek me, you will find me. I gave my life for you so that you could find me. I died so that you could live in holiness before my Father. Day after day, I send you my Holy Spirit to lead you in all righteousness.”

We can experience this happiness because God has made our hearts like his; he has set eternity in them. Because our hearts are made in the image of his heart, we also can become as he is: merciful, peaceful, pure, meek, humble, and gentle. He can satisfy us as no one else can—and he delights in doing it! Think about that. It makes God happy to make you happy! He is happy to bestow on you the riches of his kingdom. He is happy to comfort you. He is happy to bring you to maturity as you take on his very nature!

“All praise to you, Father! When I seek you, I know I will find you. Should I mourn, you will comfort me. You will satisfy my longing for righteousness. Happy am I indeed!”

 

Reflection:

     Even though most of us Catholics learn the beatitudes in our early years, it takes a lot to fully understand what they mean. While listening to lectures, homilies and readings may help us see their meaning more clearly, identifying people who are living them out is the best way to learn how to put them into action.

     The life of the Jesuit martyr St. James Bertheiu (1838 – 1896) is one such example.

     Already a diocesan priest Frenchman Fr. James Berthieu joined the Society of Jesus to be a missionary. A few years into his life as a Jesuit, he was sent to Madagascar where he oversaw the construction of churches and schools. He promoted education and was a very dedicated catechist. Berthieu's life as a missionary in Madagascar was not an easy one. Berthieu and other missionaries were caught in armed conflicts between the French and the Malagasy people during that time. These hostilities did not stop him from carrying out his mission, even if he had to relocate several times for his safety. 

     Even after he was captured, he continued his mission of spreading the faith. He was tortured and killed because he did not renounce his faith as demanded by enemies of the Church. 

     Looking at the life of St. James Berthieu, we can see that the beatitudes ask of us to share ourselves, to give. Berthieu was one who shared himself and gave. He gave amidst the hardships that hurt him, amidst the armed conflicts that hurt him more and until he was martyred and it hurt no more. In the process, he became poor in every sense of the beatitudes. 

     Lord, give us the grace to truly understand the beatitudes, and to live them fully.

 

 Meditation:

What is the good life which God intends for us? And how is it related with the ultimate end or purpose of life? Is it not our desire and longing for true happiness, which is none other than the complete good, the sum of all goods, leaving nothing more to be desired? Jesus addresses this question in his sermon on the mount. The heart of Jesus' message is that we can live a very happy life. The call to holiness, to be saints who joyfully pursue God's will for their lives, can be found in these eight beatitudes. Jesus' beatitudes sum up our calling or vocation - to live a life of the beatitudes. The word beatitude literally means "happiness" or "blessedness".

What is the significance of Jesus' beatitudes, and why are they so central to his teaching? The beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness that God has placed in every heart. They teach us the final end to which God calls us, namely the coming of God's kingdom (Matthew 4:17), the vision of God (Matthew 5:8; 1 John 2;1), entering into the joy of the Lord (Matthew 25:21-23) and into his rest (Hebrews 4:7-11).

Jesus' beatitudes also confront us with decisive choices concerning the life we pursue here on earth and the use we make of the goods he puts at our disposal. God alone satisfies. Teresa of Avila's (1515-1582) prayer book contained a bookmark which she wrote:  "Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you; All things pass: God never changes. Patience achieves all it strives for. Whoever has God lacks nothing, God alone suffices." Is God enough for you? God offers us the greatest good possible - abundant life in Jesus Christ (John 10:10) and the promise of unending joy and happiness with God. Do you seek the highest good, the total good, which is above all else?

The beatitudes which Jesus offers us are a sign of contradiction to the world's understanding of happiness and joy. How can one possibly find happiness in poverty, hunger, mourning, and persecution? Poverty of spirit finds ample room and joy in possessing God as the greatest treasure possible. Hunger of the spirit seeks nourishment and strength in God's word and Spirit. Sorrow and mourning over wasted life and sin leads to joyful freedom from the burden of guilt and spiritual oppression. God reveals to the humble of heart the true source of abundant life and happiness.

Jesus promises his disciples that the joys of heaven will more than compensate for the troubles and hardships they can expect in this world. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) said: "No one can live without joy. That is why a person deprived of spiritual joy goes after carnal pleasures." Do you know the happiness of hungering and thirsting for God alone?

"Lord Jesus, increase my hunger for you and show me the way that leads to everlasting peace and happiness. May I desire you above all else and find perfect joy in doing your will."