Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Hai Tuần 20 Thường Niên. MT 19:16-22

 Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Hai Tuần 20 Thường Niên. MT 19:16-22

Trong bài Tin Mừng hôm nay, khi được hỏi làm thế nào để đạt được sự sống đời đời, Chúa Giêsu đã liệt kê những điều răn liên quan tới các mối quan hệ của chúng ta với những người khác; Ngài không hề đề cập đến những điều răn mà chúng ta phải có bổn phận hướng với Thiên Chúa. Khi những lời đáp ứng của Chúa không làm người đàn ông trẻ thỏa mãn, Chúa Giêsu đã đi xa hơn nữa là khuyên anh ta nên phục vụ tha nhân, và vẫn không hề đề cập đến Thiên Chúa: "hãy đi bán những gì ngươi có mà cho kẻ khó, và ngươi sẽ có một kho tàng trên trời, đoạn hãy đến theo Ta". .Ý Chúa muốn nói, Chúng nên bằng cách nào đó, chúng ta phải làm tất cả những gì chúng ta có thể để giúp cho những người xung quanh chúng ta đó là việc chúng ta phục vụ Thiên Chúa, là chúng ta bắt đầu đi theo Đức Kitô.

Mỗi người chúng ta có thể được tính trong số những người nghèo, những người cần được phục vụ: không ai trong chúng ta cảm thấy rằng chúng ta được biết đến, nhưng đúng hơn là chúng ta đang bị bỏ quên, bị hiểu lầm, và bị coi thường bởi những người khác. Mỗi người trong chúng ta cảm thấy không được thương yêu và chăm sóc đầy đủ. Nhưng trong đoạn Tin Mừng hôm nay, Chúa Giêsu chủ động sai mỗi người chúng ta đến với những người mà chúng ta biết hay gặp, và Chúa Giêsu đã đến gặp gỡ chúng ta, cũng như chúng ta mở lòng với sự phục vụ và yêu thương những người khác. Chúng ta hãy cố gắng để vượt qua luật tình yêu của Chúa trong sự quên mình để quan tâm đến người khác và đó là cách chúng bắt chước Chúa Cha trên trời.

Reflection (SG)

Jesus challenged the young man because his heart was possessive. He was afraid to give to others for fear that he would lose what he had gained. Those who are generous towards God and others find that they cannot outmatch God in generosity. God blesses us with innumerable spiritual goods - such as long-lasting peace, unspeakable joy, enduring love, abiding relationships and friendship that do not fade or fail - that far outweigh the fleeting joys of material possessions which fail to satisfy us beyond the present moment. God alone can satisfy the deepest longing and desires of our heart. Are you willing to part with anything that might keep you from seeking true and everlasting joy with Jesus?

Every one of us can be counted among the poor who need to be served: not one of us feels that we are sufficiently known but rather that we are neglected, misunderstood, and undervalued by others. And every one of us feels insufficiently loved and cared for. So in this passage Jesus actively sends each of us to every person we know or meet, and Jesus himself comes to meet us as we open ourselves to the service and love those others offer to us. Let us try to go beyond the law in a self-forgetting love and concern for others that is a true imitation of our heavenly Father. Heavenly Father, may we greatly increase our sacrificial giving to the poor.

Opening Prayer: 

Lord, allow me today to slow down and to place myself in your presence. I believe you are here, and you are speaking to me. You speak to me through your word in the Gospel, and the words of this dialogue have a special meaning for me, today, in my life. Let this message impact me, and guide me, so I can conform my life more to yours, and to your word. Let me be shaped by this meditation and let me shape my life according to it.

Encountering Christ:

· What Is Good?: The young man in today’s Gospel had a sincere desire to seek what is good. He wanted to know how he should live his life, what he needed to do, and he had his focus in the right place: He wanted to obtain eternal life. When Jesus challenged his question, he pointed out that goodness doesn’t come only from works, from what one can do, but it comes from “the only One who is good.” Jesus wanted the man to stop depending on his good works, and to learn to center his life on the source of all goodness, which is the Father. While he certainly needed to do what was good and right–as was confirmed later–Jesus wanted him to spend less time looking at himself and more time looking at the Father. His life was to be driven by love for a person more than by a self-righteous desire to do the right things.

· What Do I Still Lack?: The young man confirmed that he had done what was good throughout his life. Was this question an attempt to be affirmed by Jesus? Was he assuming that he lacked nothing for his journey to heaven? Or did he ask, maybe, because he had an intuition that he was missing something important? There was a desire in his heart for something more. Simple adherence to the commandments didn’t satisfy this man and won’t satisfy us either.

· Come, Follow Me: This man, who had fulfilled the law, was invited to take the biggest step of his life—to open his heart and follow Jesus. Jesus could have simply told the man, “You need to live your life for God the Father” or, “You must give up all your possessions and serve in the temple.” Instead, acknowledging the sincerity of the man’s question, Jesus offered the only fulfillment that could truly satisfy him: “Follow me.” Jesus is the only one who can fulfill us, well beyond any joy we receive by merely “following rules.”

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, I know you want me to follow you. At times in my life, I find myself asking more questions about what I need to do, what I am still lacking than simply loving you in prayer. Help me to take the next step to put you at the center of my life.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will pause once or twice to recall your presence in my life, and to renew my desire to follow you.