Suy Niệm Tin Mừng lễ kính Thánh Giacôbê tông đồ - (7/25)

 July 25 Saint James, the Greater, apostle, patron of Spain):

Suy Niệm Tin Mừng lễ kính Thánh Giacôbê tông đồ - (7/25)

Lời Chúa là con đường hướng dẫn những Kitô hữu chúng ta đến sự sống đời đời. Như lời Chúa hôm này đã dạy cho chúng ta là: Trước tiên là phải Phục vụ những nhu cầu của người khác. Đó là một Lời trái ngược lại với tất cả những gì mà thế giới hôm nay đang dạy mà muốn chúng ta làm. Chúng ta thường nghe người ta nói: những gì thế lực hay sức mạnh mà chúng ta đang có trong tay?

Ngày nay đa số chúng ta ai cũng ta muốn có chức vụ cao, có quyền hành trong cơ quan của chính phủ, trong các trường học, hay cả trong giáo hội, và trên thực tế là trong tất cả các lĩnh vực hoạt động của con người để hưởng lợi, để được sống vinh hoa, phú quý. Cái tâm lý chung của thế giới là để thống trị người khác. Đó là sức mạnh của thế lực mà chúng ta có thể được hưởng lợi, được người khác cầu cạnh đút lót. Và cuối cùng chúng ta sẽ được người khác phục vụ chúng ta theo như những gì chúng ta muốn và cần.

Nhưng đối với những người Kitô giáo chân chính thực sự thì đấy là điều ngược lại! Để trở thành người Kitô giáo đích thực, người Kitô hữu phải có sự suy nghĩ như Chúa Kitô, phải có những hành động như Chúa Kitô. Có nghĩa là sống trong một cách triệt để theo như Chúa Kitô, đó là sống trái ngược lại với các giá trị của thế giới bên ngoài.

Tin Mừng hôm nay Chúa mời gọi chúng ta đến với hạnh phúc thật sự, đó là đến để phục vụ như Chúa đã phục vụ người khác chứ không phải là để được phục vụ. Và nếu chúng ta làm đuợc như lời Chúa thì phần thưởng của chúng ta sẽ nhận được là chúng ta sẽ được gọi là con cái của Thiên Chúa và sẽ được ngồi cùng một bàn bữa tiệc trên Thiên quốc với Chúa, có lẽ chúng ta sẽ không được ngồi ngay bên phải hoặc bên trái của Chúa, nhưng chắc chắn là chúng ta được một chỗ nào đó trên thiên đàng.

Hôm nay chúng ta mừng kính thánh Giacôbê Tông Đồ, chúng ta hãy nên bắt chước và học hỏi nơi thánh Giacôbê người đã biết lắng nghe và thực hành lời Chúa và phục vụ Chúa trong việc mang Chúa đến với người khác và phục vụ cho đến chết và Ông đã chết vì đem Tin Mừng cho tất cả.

REFLECTION

St James was the son of Zebedee and brother of John, Evangelist and Apostle. He was born at Bethsaida in Galilee. He was the first apostle to die, martyred by Herod Agrippa I.

Today's Gospel is truly a word of life for all of us. Indeed, it shows the path of life for Christians. It gives us as a guideline: "Serve first the needs of other people. It is a word that is contrary to what the world tells us today. We often hear people say: What are we in power for? Today this is said in government, in school, in the family, in the church and in practically all areas of human activity. The mentality of the world is to dominate people. It is to have power so that we may benefit from that power. And in the end we will be served according to g lời Chúa

But Christianity is the opposite! To be Christian means to think like Christ, to act like Christ. It means to live in a radical way, that is, to live contrary to the values of the pagan world.

This Gospel invites us to the true happiness, which is to serve. And the reward will be that we shall be called sons and daughters of God and will sit at the Heavenly banquet, maybe not right or left, butbsurely somewhere there in Heaven. Let us all learn from James who served up to the end when he was martyred bring the Good News to all.

REFLECTION

St. James was one of the apostles who accompanied Jesus on Mount Tabor where the Transfiguration took place. After receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, he went out and began to preach the gospel so persuasively that he infuriated the Jewish leadership to such an extent that they killed him.

Jesus knows us and will only call a few to the honor of imitating him so closely…"laying down your life for your friends" as St. James did. And while the vast majority of us will never come close to being a martyr in the physical sense, the Church gives us St. James' example of wholeheartedly following Jesus wherever he may take us. What Jesus asks of us is to try to discern what he wills for us and then try our very best to do that and to accept where it will lead us. This can sometimes be very difficult and the decision to accept it is sometimes as difficult a decision as the one that a martyr may have to make.

The idea that Jesus insists on: the desire to be great or `the first of all' must include being willing to be considered as a servant. In other words, in performing any act of service to others, it is best to remain anonymous; otherwise, as Jesus said, `they have already received their reward."

Reflection:

If we are serving the Lord, people may assume that we have already grown spiritually. But actually when we are faced with difficult problems, our faith is challenged and we fail to understand God's plan for us. During these times, we depend on our human strength and ability in coming up with solutions that more often lead us to failure after failure. We fail to put our trust wholly in God and forget that only He has the best solution to our problems. Thus we complain and worry. But despite our unfaithfulness, God has always been a faithful God and this can only be seen through the eyes of faith and with His grace. At times He does this by sending people to us at the right time and when we need them most. In our case, God sent us relief through the payment of a debt that was long overdue. It also came in the form of spiritual guidance from people who helped form us and bring us back to God. How blessed are we because God enabled us to experience His goodness.

Reflection:

In today's Gospel reading Jesus teaches us about his mission "to serve and to give his life to redeem many."James and his brother John supported by their mother asked for places of honor with Jesus. It was an opportune occasion for Jesus to teach them and his other disciples about the real meaning of service."To serve and give his life to redeem many:" Jesus served and gave his life to save humankind; he gave his life to show his love for us. He did everything out of love.

By experiencing Jesus' love and his goodness, hopefully we learn to love like Jesus. When we love like Jesus, the expression of love will come freely. When you truly love someone, it may cause you to suffer; authentic love remains even if we suffer, just as how Jesus loved as he suffered.

There is a saying that goes: "You have not loved enough if you have not suffered." Perhaps, this was the message of Jesus to his disciples when he taught them about service and giving up life for others.

He was already telling his disciples of the experience of the paschal mystery. Serve, suffer for the one you love. Die to yourself and you will experience the glory of the resurrection to meet our Father in heaven.

Reflection

«Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink?»

Today’s fragment of the Gospel narrates an episode that places us in front of a situation which is not unusual in the various Christian communities. Indeed, John and James have been very generous leaving behind their households and their nets to follow Jesus the Christ. They have heard the Lord announce a Kingdom and offer eternal life but they still fail to understand the new dimension the Lord puts forward to them. It is because of this that their mother is going to ask for something which is good enough, but which doesn’t go beyond a simple human ambition: «Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom» (Mt 20,21).

Similarly, we listen to the Lord and follow Him, like the first disciples, but not always do we fully understand his message; we then sometimes follow our personal interests and ambitions within the Church. We forget that when we accept the Lord we have to give ourselves wholly and with full trust in Him; that we cannot think in obtaining the glory without having accepted the cross.

The answer Jesus gives them puts the stress precisely on this aspect: in order to have a share in his Kingdom what matters is to drink from his same «cup» (see Mt 20, 22), i.e. to be ready and willing to give our own life for the love of God and dedicate ourselves to the service of our brethren with the same merciful attitude that Jesus showed. In his first homily Pope Francis emphasized that in order to follow Jesus we have to carry our cross, because «when we make our way without the cross, when we confess a Christ without his cross, we are not disciples of the Lord»As a consequence, following Christ demands from us great humility. From the minute of our Baptism we have been called to be his witnesses in order to transform the world. But this transformation will only be achieved if we are able to be servants of our brethren, with a spirit of great generosity and self-giving, but always joyful because we are following and making the Lord present.

«You do not know what you are asking (…) .That will be for those for whom the Father has prepared it»

Fr. Antoni ORIOL i Tataret

Today, in the fragment of St. Matthew's Gospel we can find many teachings. I will however limit myself to underline just one, which refers to God's total control of events throughout time: whether of all men together (mankind), or of each and every human group (in our case, for instance, the family group of the Zebedees), or of any individual person. This is why Jesus clearly tells them: «You do not know what you are asking» (Mt 20:22).

To sit at Jesus Christ's right is for those his Father has prepared it: «To sit at my right or at my left is not for me to grant. That will be for those for whom the Father has prepared it» (Mt 20:23). Just like that, in a clear-cut way. There is an English saying that goes «Man proposes and God disposes». And it is so, precisely because God is God. Or we could also say it the other way round: if it was not so, God would not be God.

Before this fact, unquestionably overpowering any human determining factor, at the beginning, men are left with nothing else but acceptance and worship (because God has revealed himself to us as the Absolute); while marching on, with confidence and love (because God has revealed himself to us as a Father, too); and at the end..., that grand and definite end: to sit at Jesus' side (whether at his right or at his left, it does not matter at all). On our side, the enigma of divine election and predestination can only be solved with confidence. A milligram of confidence placed in God's heart is worth more than all the weight of the world put on our poor little scale pan. In fact, «St. James did not live long: this is because from the very beginning he was already burning with a great vehemence: he scorned all human things and climbed to such ineffable ceilings that he died immediately» (St. John Chrysostom).

Meditation: "Not to be served but to serve"

Who doesn't want to be first, and to be esteemed and honored by others? We seem to have an unquenchable thirst for recognition and fame, power and authority to rule our own lives as we please as well as the lives of others. Should we be surprised to see the disciples of Jesus thirsting for power, position, and authority? James and John, the sons of Zebedee, urged their mother to strike a deal with Jesus, their Master and Messiah. They wanted the distinction of being first and most important in position, next to Jesus, of course!

Jesus turns authority and power upside down

When Jesus called the twelve apostles to be his inner circle of disciples who would teach and exercise spiritual authority on his behalf, he did the unthinkable! Jesus taught contrary to the world's understanding of power, authority, and position, by reversing the order of master and servant, lord and subject, first and last! Jesus wedded authority with love, position with sacrifice, and service with humility. Authority without love is over-bearing and slavish. Position without respect and concern for the subordinate is demeaning and rude. And service without generosity and sacrifice is cheap and unkind.

Those who wish to serve with the Lord Jesus and to exercise authority in God's kingdom must be prepared to sacrifice - not just some of their time, money, and resources - but their whole lives and all that they possess! Jesus used stark language to explain what kind of sacrifice he had in mind. His disciples must drink his cup if they expect to reign with him in his kingdom. The cup he had in mind was a bitter one involving crucifixion. What kind of cup does the Lord have in mind for us? For some disciples such a cup entails physical suffering and the painful struggle of martyrdom. But for many, it entails the long routine of the Christian life, with all its daily sacrifices, disappointments, set-backs, struggles, and temptations.

Christ's way of love and service

A disciple of Jesus must be ready to lay down his or her life - each and every day in the little and big sacrifices required - and even to the point of shedding one's blood if necessary for the sake of Christ and his Gospel. What makes such sacrifice a joy rather than a burden? It is love - the kind of "love which God has poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us" (Romans 5:5). An early church father summed up Jesus' teaching with the expression: "to serve is to reign with Christ." We share in God's reign by laying down our lives in humble service and love for one another, just as Jesus did for our sake. Are you ready to lay down your life and to serve others as Jesus has taught and modeled for us?

"Lord Jesus, make me a servant of love for your kingdom, that I may seek to serve rather than be served. Inflame my heart with love that I may give generously and serve joyfully for your sake."

Meditation: 2 Corinthians 4:7-15 Saint James, Apostle (Feast)

We hold this treasure in earthen vessels. (2 Corinthians 4:7)

Have you ever come to the end of a long day and felt as if you were nothing but an earthen vessel—and a cracked pot at that? If someone were to ask you to take care of just one more thing, you would probably be tempted to say, “I couldn’t possibly … I just can’t … There’s no way.”

James the apostle was also an earthen vessel. His only trade was fishing, backbreaking manual labor for someone from the lower class. His personality was explosive too, earning him the nickname “sons of thunder” along with his brother, John (Mark 3:17). Remember, these were the two who wanted to call down “fire from heaven” to decimate a whole town that didn’t give Jesus the welcome they thought he deserved (Luke 9:54)!

It seems that James had a hard time understanding Jesus’ mission. After spending so much time following the Lord and watching him devote himself to tending to the wounded and troubled, all James wanted was to make sure he would get to play a prestigious role in the new regime (Matthew 20:20-28).

But despite all these weaknesses, Jesus invited James into his inner circle. He was right there when Jesus was transfigured, when he raised a little girl from the dead, and when he struggled in Gethsemane to unite his will with the Father’s. Through it all, James observed Jesus closely and tried to deepen his understanding and obedience. And his efforts were not in vain.

The next time you feel like an earthen vessel, “afflicted … perplexed … persecuted … struck down,” turn your attention to the treasure that you hold in this vessel (2 Corinthians 4:8, 9). It’s true that on your own, you lack the power to follow through, but it’s also true that the same power that filled and transformed James is just as alive and active in you. May James and all the apostles pray for us and help us learn how to rely on the grace that God has given us!

“Jesus, you are my greatest treasure. Thank you for choosing me just as you called James. Lord, I lay down my life at your feet.”