Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Bẩy Tuần 15 TN.

 Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Bẩy Tuần 15 TN. Matthew 12:14-21

Trong đoạn Tin Mừng hôm nay, chúng ta thấy cách những người Biệt Phái vì tấm lòng đầy “nhiệt thành”của họ, mà họ đã trói buộc những người Do Thái trong sự "áp bức" gánh nặng bởi những luật lệ của họ đã làm ra, Nhưng giờ đây, với sự hiện của Chúa Giêsu, họ cảm thấy Chúa Giêsu như là cơn đe dọa cho những sự nghiệp và quyền thế của họ, cho những giáo điều mà họ đã làm ra để chèn ép những người nghèo cùng khổ.. Vì thế, họ quyết định tìm cách để tiêu diệt Chúa Giêsu, một cái gai trong mắt của họ.

Khi phải đối mặt với những mối đe dọa cho sự sống, Chúa Giêsu vẫn lặng lẽ tiếp tục sứ vụ rao giảng Tin Mừng và chữa lành cho những người tin và tìm đến Ngài. Thay vì phải dùng đến bạo lực hay phe nhóm để đối đầu với những người Biệt Phái, hay là phải gào thét lên với cơn thịnh nộ để tìm cách trả thù họ, thì Chúa Giêsu đã lặng lẽ ra đi để tránh những đám biệt phái gây chuyện này, nhưng Ngài vẫn âm thầm làm những "công việc" Mà Chúa Cha đã sai Ngài đến.

Chúa Giêsu đã cho chúng ta thấy rằng nhiệm vụ của Ngài không dựa trên sức mạnh hay bạo lực, nhưng trên sự yêu thương, hiền dịu và khiêm tốn. Sự khiêm tốn và hiền lành của Chúa ở đây không phải là do sự sợ hãi,và hèn nhát, nhưng đó là những đức tính đã được thực hành trong sứ vụ thiêng liêng của Ngài để những gì đã viết truớc trong Kinh Thánh được thể hiện.

Thông thường, trong cuộc sống hiện tại của chúng ta, chúng ta cũng đang phải phấn đấu với những thử thách, tình huống mà chúng ta cảm thấy như đang bị đe dọa, và bị áp bức bởi các quan chức công quyền hay những người khác có chức, có quyền hơn. Vậy, chúng ta phải làm thế nào để có thể đáp ứng được với những sự áp bức bất công này?.

Xin Chúa giúp cho chúng ta có đức khiêm tốn, lòng can đảm, và sự kiên nhẫn, để trở lên giống như Chúa và biết cách đối xử với những bất công trong sự ôn hoà..

Reflection

In the Gospel passage, we learn how the Pharisees, through their over zealous ness, had kept the ordinary people in 'oppression' by burdening them with hundreds of commandments. Now they feel threatened by Jesus whom they feel is acting as a law unto himself. So, they decide to kill him.

In the face of the threat upon his life, Jesus quietly continues his work of healing people and avoids publicity. Instead of resorting to violence against the Pharisees or by “crying out” with vengeful wrath or harsh judgments, Jesus goes about doing his ‘work’. Jesus shows us that his mission is not based on might or violence but on meekness and humility. HIs modesty and gentleness comes not from fear or weakness but from his divine mandate to fulfill the Scriptures. Often, in our lives we too face situations where we feel threatened or oppressed by others. How do we respond to them

Opening Prayer:

Jesus, grant me a heart that, like yours, does not seek to bruise others, but instead helps me to extend a hand of mercy.

Encountering Christ:

· True Justice: As the Pharisees sought to condemn Jesus to death, Jesus sought to offer life. He came to heal the deepest wounds. He came proclaiming justice even to the Gentiles. The outcast, in the eyes of the so-called righteous, were those whom Jesus sought to set right. By God’s amazing providence, by his humility to “be conditioned” by human freedom, he would offer justice through the hands of those very Pharisees who condemned him. Nothing thwarts God’s merciful heart. Nothing can divert his ultimate plan to open the way through true justice. Jesus will offer himself as the expiatory victim for the salvation of all in need of being made righteous—Pharisees, Gentiles, and modern-day men and women alike.

· Behold My Chosen: The prophet Isaiah spoke of a time when God’s servant would bring hope to the Gentiles. He foresaw the chosen one coming in great humility, not contending nor crying out. Jesus is God’s chosen servant, the suffering Messiah. Jesus picks the way he battles to establish his kingdom. He knows his time is coming. He allows circumstances to play out, trusting in the Father’s plan. He is chosen and delights the Father because of his loving obedience. He models for us the truly righteous and just man who puts God’s will above all else.

· Bruised and Smoldering: Jesus’s victory was not won by conquering as human emperors did, destroying those in their path or anyone who opposed their objective of gaining territory and power. His humble approach looks into the heart of every soul. He sees the wounds of each one and applies a tender balm rather than damage the bruised reed even more. He sees the smoldering wick within the human heart that desires more than what they have presently found—they desire salvation. They desire God. He came as a God-man, ready and willing to offer himself in an act of mercy, love, and justice for our salvation. He heals the bruise and sets ablaze the wick with his sacrificial offering and outpouring of grace. 

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, thank you for your gift of mercy, justice, and love. Teach me to trust in your goodness and providence when I don’t understand what is happening in my life. Help me to believe that you have already won the victory of salvation and can apply your redemptive grace, no matter in what situation I find myself.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will make an act of trust in your mercy when I feel challenged to believe that you can work through the messiness in my life or in the world.

Meditation: Until Jesus brings justice to victory

How do we achieve success and victory in our lives? In everyone's life there are key moments or turning points on which the whole of one's life hinges. The mounting confrontation between the Pharisees and Jesus was such a decisive event and crisis. The religious leaders became intolerant of Jesus because of their prejudice. Nothing that Jesus would do or say from this point on would be right in their eyes. They conspired, not simply to oppose Jesus but to eliminate him.

Courage and determination to do God's will

Jesus met this defiance with courage and determination to do his Father's will. He used the crisis to teach his disciples an important lesson for God's way to success and victory. The only way to glory in God's kingdom is through the cross - the cross of suffering and humiliation - which Jesus endured for our sake and for our salvation. We, too, are called to take up our cross every day - to die to sin, selfishness, envy, pride, strife, and hatred - and to lay down our lives in humble service and love for one another, just as Jesus did for our sake.

Matthew quotes from the "Suffering Servant" prophecies of Isaiah to explain how Jesus the Messiah would accomplish his mission - not through crushing power - but through love and sacrificial service (Isaiah 42:1-4). In place of a throne Jesus chose to mount the cross and wear a crown of thorns. He was crucified as our Lord and King (John 19:19; Philippians 2:11) There is no greater proof of God's love for us than the sacrificial death of his only begotten Son for our sake and our salvation (John 3:16).

Jesus died not only for the Jews but for all the Gentile nations as well. Isaiah had prophesied centuries before, that the Messiah would bring justice to the Gentiles. To the Greek mind, justice involved giving to God and to one's fellow citizen that which is their due (whatever is owed to them). Jesus taught his disciples to give God not only his due, but to love him without measure just as he loves us unconditionally - without limits or reservation.

Justice tempered with love and mercy

Jesus brings the justice of God's kingdom tempered with divine love and mercy. He does not bruise the weak or treat them with contempt, but rather shows understanding and compassion. He does not discourage the fainthearted but gives hope, courage, and the strength to persevere through trying circumstances. No trials, failings, and weaknesses can keep us from the mercy and help which Jesus offers to everyone who asks. His grace is sufficient for every moment, every situation, and every challenge we face. When you meet trials and difficulties, do you rely on God's help and grace?

"Lord Jesus, your love and mercy knows no bounds. Give me strength when I am weak, hope when I am discouraged, peace when I am troubled, consolation when I am sad, and understanding when I am perplexed. Make me an instrument of your love and peace to those who are troubled and without hope."

REFLECTION

Jesus came to save the world and spread the Good News. Why then is he trying to hide? Once again, he is just following his Father's plan. It was not yet time for the full manifestation of his divinity, nor for a full confrontation with his enemies. While he was burning with love for humanity and wanted all to be saved and to know and love the Father, he also exercised discretion in carrying out that mission. Tempering zeal with prudence is not easy. We can spoil God's plan both by being too timid, not doing enough and also by being naive or daring and precipitating a confrontation. We need to ask the Holy Spirit for the gift of counsel and the virtue of prudence in order to be effective messengers for Jesus.

The most effective evangelizers are those who follow Jesus' example. Meekness and humility, modesty and prudence, truth and justice, generous self-giving and sacrifice, obedience to the Father — these are virtues that go against the grain of our fallen human nature. And yet, there are plenty of examples of people who dedicate their lives to doing good in the face of opposition, criticism, and even false accusations. They let nothing stop them, because they are not worried about themselves. They are dedicated to fulfilling God's plan, in His time, on His terms.

Let us make every effort to follow Jesus' example of dedication and generosity, of patience and persistence in the face of difficulty, of turning the other cheek and forgetting about ourselves in order to do the Father's will. The standard that Jesus sets for us is high, but with the Holy Spirit's power, we can do marvels and become effective instruments in spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Sat 18th July 2015 15th Week in Ordinary Time

We commonly speak of the Jews wandering for forty years in the desert before reaching the Promised Land. There is some truth in this description since the people did not generally know from one day to another where they were headed for. Yet there is a deeper reality and meaning to their journey. Towards the end of our first reading today we hear the great central truth of the Book of Exodus: the Lord led them out of the land of Egypt.

Psalm 136 expresses the same truth: God brought the Israelites out of the midst of the Egyptians. The Israelites followed God’s guidance given to them through Moses. They followed with a blind faith though they were not always compliant: they frequently complained against God and against Moses.

We are very like the Israelites in the desert, while we often do have long term plans, we live out our lives from day to day. We do not always understand the details of our life's journey and frequently have to walk in blind faith. We are not always compliant and we may complain against God, against the Church, and against many other circumstances of life.

Father in Heaven, guide our footsteps on the pathways of life that we may reach our heavenly home in safety and holiness.  «He cured all who were sick»

Fr. Josep Mª MASSANA i Mola OFM (Barcelona, Spain)

Today, the Gospel brings up a double message. On the one hand, Jesus calls us with a beautiful invitation to follow him: «Many people followed him and He cured all who were sick» (Mt 12:15). If we follow him we shall find the remedy for all the troubles of our journey, as we were reminded not long ago: «Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest» (Mt 11:28). On the other hand, we are showed the value of gentle love: as the Gospel of Matthew ch. 12 verse 19 said: “He will not argue or shout, nor will his voice be heard in the streets. The bruised reed He will not crush, nor snuff out the smoldering wick. He will persist until justice is made victorious and in him all the nations will put their hope. ” (Mt 12:19).

He knows we are burdened and weary because of the heaviness of our temperamental and physical weaknesses... and for this unexpected cross that has visited us with all its coarseness, with all our disagreements, disappointments, grief and sorrow. In fact, “the Pharisees went out and made plans to get rid of Jesus” (Mt 12:14) and... if we know the disciple is not above his teacher (cf. Mt 10:24), we should be conscious that we shall also have to suffer from incomprehension and persecution.

After all, it is a heavy burden upon us, a bundle that strains us. And we feel as if Jesus would be saying: “Cast off your bundle at me feet, and I will take care of it; give me that heavy burden that crashes you, and I will carry it; unload your worries and turn them over to me...”.

It is kind of funny: Jesus invites us to cast off our burden, while He is offering us another one: his yoke, But, when we yoke our lives with Jesus, he also carries our burdens with us and gives us his strength to follow in his way of love. With the promise, He wants to show us that we cannot go around the world without any burden upon us. We are to carry some kind of load, anyway. But, The yoke which Jesus invites us to embrace is his way of love, grace, and freedom from the power of sin.

Let it not be our bundle full of materialism; let it be, instead, his burden that does not encumber us. Love, the yoke of Jesus is not only light, but it also sets us free from all that overwhelms us.