Suy Niệm Tin Mừng thứ Năm Tuần thứ 9 Thường niên

 Suy Niệm Tin Mừng thứ Năm Tuần thứ 9 Thường niên

Qua bài Tin Mừng hôm nay, Chúa Giêsu dậy chúng ta là: Chúng ta được ơn cứu rỗi hay được lên thiên đàng không phải là chỉ biết tuân theo những lề luật hay là cố né tránh những chuyện khỏi rắc rối, gây ra tội lỗi, Nhưng chúng ta đươc Chúa đảm bảo là Chúa Kitô sẽ luôn luôn đồng hành với chúng ta khi chúng ta đến với Ngài. Nếu chúng ta cùng chết với Ngài, chúng ta sẽ cùng được hưởng phúc với Ngài và nếu chúng ta chịu đựng đau khổ với Ngài ta; chúng ta sẽ cùng đồng hưởng tôn nhan Chúa trên Trời với Ngài.

Thậm chí nếu chúng ta không trung tín với Chúa, Chúa Giêsu vẫn luôn trung tín với chúng ta, Ngài không thể từ bỏ chính mình, và chúng ta là một phần của Ngài, Cuộc sống của chúng ta phải sống một trong những yêu tố như yêu thương và phục vụ, cũng giống như cuộc đời của Chúa Kitô. Trong nhiều cách dù nhỏ, hay to lớn, chúng ta cũng phải vác thập giá của chúng ta và đi theo Chúa. Vì cuộc hành trình đức tin của chúng ta là một trong những quan hệ với Chúa Giêsu.

Giới răn trọng nhất mà Chúa Giêsu đã dạy cho người luật sĩ trong bài Tin Mừng hôm nay là kim chỉ nam để hướng dẫn cuộc sống của chúng ta. Yêu Mến Thiên Chúa hết lòng, hết sức và trên tất cả mọi thứ mà ở nơi chúng ta, và yêu những người chung quanh như chúng ta yêu chính mình, Nếu chúng ta làm được điều đó, ngay cả những khi chúng ta lầm nỡ, chúng ta sẽ sống, Điều này trên thực tế là luật pháp duy nhất mà thật sự là Chúa Giêsu đã đã ban cho chúng ta; tất cả những lề luật khác, đơn thuần chỉ là biểu hiện của một nguyên tắc cơ bản mà vũ trụ này được cai trị. Tình yêu là động lực đê cho các hành tinh, các ngôi sao tinh tú được di chuyển trong vũ trụ của chúng ta, và vì vậy “tình yêu” phải hiện diện trong trái tim của chúng ta, trong tâm hồn, và linh hồn. Khi chúng ta khép kín tâm hồn và không có tình yêu, chúng ta đã đóng cửa tâm hồn và để Thiên Chúa ở bên ngoài. Giới răn trọng nhất này nên phải là một phần suy niệm và kiểm thảo hàng ngày của chúng ta.

Reflection SG

Being saved or going to heaven is far more than just obeying the rules or staying out of trouble. We are assured that Christ walks with us as we walk with him. If we die with him, we will rise with him; and if we endure with him; we will reign with him.

Even if we are not faithful, Jesus is ; he cannot deny himself, and we are part of him. Our life must be one of love and service, just as his life was. In many small ways, and sometimes big ones, we too must take up our cross and follow him. Our faith journey is a partnership with Jesus.

The great commandment that Jesus gave the earnest scribe is the compass by which we guide our life. Love God with everything that is in you, and love your neighbour as if he or she were part of yourself. If we do that, even if we have made many mistakes, we will live. This in fact is the only real law that Jesus gave us - all of the other laws are merely expressions of this one fundamental principle by which the universe is ruled. Love powers the planets and stars and all that is in our universe, and so it must power our hearts, minds, and souls. When we shut out love, we have shut out God. This great commandment should be part of our daily meditation and reflection. Lord, help me to pattern my life on Your love commandment.

Opening Prayer:

Dear Lord Jesus, I thank you for the grace to be able to come before you in prayer. I realize that prayer is your gift to me. Please open my heart, soul, and mind to hear your message and to respond generously. Cultivate in me an ever-growing desire to know, love, and serve you, and in so doing be your instrument for the salvation of others.

Encountering Christ:

1. The First of All Commandments? A scribe came to Jesus asking, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” His question was similar to the rich young man’s: “Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?” (Matthew 19:16). St. John Paul II in the Encyclical “The Splendor of Truth” wrote, “For the young man, the question is not so much about rules to be followed, but about the full meaning of life.” Both the rich young man and this scribe wanted to know what is most important in life. “What gives my life purpose?” “How should I lead my life?” No one can truly avoid these fundamental questions. Even the most superficial approach to life, seeking only immediate gratification, is itself an implicit answer to this question. To ask this question seriously and sincerely is an important step toward maturity and toward finding God.

2. Love God with All Your Heart: Jesus responded to the scribe by quoting the Shema Israel from Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength.” The scribe would have known the passage well. Therefore, Jesus seemed to be affirming what the scribe would have already guessed, as indicated in the account of this encounter in the Gospel according to Luke, in which Jesus had the scribe answer his own question (Luke 10:27). It is as if a coach were reminding an experienced player to “stick to basics.” The heart of both the Old and the New Testaments is God’s love for man and man’s need to love God. The principle point of the New Testament is that God became man so that man could love God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). Jesus did not come to replace the Old Testament but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17).

3. Love Your Neighbor as Yourself: Jesus did add another law to that of love of God: love of neighbor. However, the second law is a consequence of the first. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that the “first commandment enjoins us to love God above everything and all creatures for him and because of him” (2093). Charity is not mere philanthropy. We love our neighbor because we want to love God. St. John the Evangelist puts it even more succinctly, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another… if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us” (1 John 4:11-12).

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus Christ, may your grace ever increase in me the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love. Help my contemplation of your love for me deepen my love for you. Help me to see that my love for you and my neighbor are intimately connected, and may my love have the concrete and practical expression of loving my neighbor in my daily encounters. Let my smile, my words, and my actions be a sign of your love to my neighbors. May I also accept the love that you show me through them.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will seek out at least one person to show some act of kindness.

REFLECTION

The segments of Mark's Gospel we read in the liturgies of the first half of this week tell of the tensions that existed between Jesus and Israel's religious and secular leaders. Some of Jesus' enemies wanted him arrested, others ridiculed him and his teaching, and still others sought to entrap him in a verbal contradiction. In today's reading, a scribe questions Jesus. Anyone familiar with the various groups that populate the Gospels, given the context, would expect the scribe to launch into another attack on Jesus. All scribes, after all, are Pharisees' men. Along with the priests and the Herodians and the Pharisee all scribes are hostile to Jesus. And so we might tend to classify a person and judge him as we would judge the group in which he belongs. But this is unjust and unfair. The scribe in today's Gospel is there not to entrap Jesus but to ask a sincere religious question of him.

Jesus recognizes this and treats the scribe with respect. He even praises him, indicating that his comment on Jesus' response to his question shows him to be a sincere person who is not far from the kingdom of God.

Jesus could have assumed, as we might well have done, that the scribe should be classified as his enemy. But Jesus doesn't believe in stereotypes and prejudices. Jim Auer suggests that we ask ourselves a series of questions: "Whose goodness am I unable to see simply because of who or what they are, what they belong to or believe in, where they live or what they look like." The response we give to these questions, he suggests, will tell us how close we are to the reign of God.