Lễ Suy Tôn Thánh Giá Ngày 14/9 Suy Niệm Tin Mừng John 3:13-17

Lễ Suy Tôn Thánh Giá Ngày 14/9 Suy Niệm Tin Mừng John 3:13-17

Tại sao những người tốt lành phải chịu đau khổ? Thiên Chúa đã không cho chúng ta được một câu trả lời nào thỏa đáng cả. Nhưng một điều mà ai trong chúng ta biết là Thiên Chúa là Đấng đã yêu chúng ta vô bờ, vô bến vì chính Ngài đã chấp nhận mặc lấy thân phận con người như chúng ta, và để chia sẻ cuộc sống đau khổ trần thế với chúng ta, Ngài sẵn sàng chịu chết, chết một cách nhục nhã cho chúng ta trên cây thập giá. Thiên Chúa chắc chắc là không bao giờ vui thích chiến tranh, không bao giờ muốn có sự cướp bóc và bóc lột giã man, không thích khi thấy lũ lụt và bão táp, ung thư và bệnh tật.

Chúng ta sẽ không bao giờ có thể hiểu được những bí ẩn, là tại sao những người ăn ngay, ờ lành như chúng ta, như những người thân yêu cũa chúng ta lại phải gánh chịu những đau khổ hay phải chết, tại sao lại có bao nhiêu người đang đau khổ trong bệnh viện, người nghèo đói trong các công viên. Nhưng những gì chúng ta có thể làm được bây giờ là dâng lên cho Thiên Chúa những sự đau khổ của chúng ta như là những của lễ hy sinh cao cả và đừng bao giờ để những đau khổ đó trở nên lãng phí trong tuyệt vọng..

Bằng cách nào đó chúng ta hãy cố gắng biến đổi những đau khổ của chúng ta có thành những hy sinh. Đó một sự khác biệt. Hy sinh là đau khổ có mục đích. Thế giới con người của chúng ta đã học được một bài học đau khổ đã từ lâu: Sự hiệp nhất hoàn hảo với một ai đó hoặc một cái gì đó thân yêu; con người với con người, nam hay nữ, già, hay trẻ, kiến ​​thức, hay nghệ thuật, có thể đạt được trong điều kiện tự hiến cũng chỉ vì tình yêu.

Trong mầu nhiệm của Đạo thánh Chúa Kitô, tình yêu tự hiến đã được nêu gương trong sáng bởi chính Chúa Giêsu qua đoạn Tin Mừng thánh Luca: "Ai muốn theo ta, phải từ bỏ chính mình, vác thập giá mình hằng ngày mà theo."(Lk 9:23). Một cái NẾU rất to: Nếu chúng ta muốn theo Chúa Giêsu Kitô, nếu chúng ta muốn trở thành môn đệ của Ngài, nếu chúng ta yêu Ngài thật sự và dám chịu nhận những đau khổ vì Ngài như Ngài đã bị đau khổ, bị khạc nhổ vào mặt, bị khinh bỉ, bị đánh đòn và bị đóng đinh cho chúng ta.

REFLECTION

Why do good people suffer? God does not give any satisfactory answer. But this much we know. A God who loved me enough to take up a human body to share my life, to die shamefully and willingly for me on a cross - this God does not take pleasure in earthquakes, and war, in floods and volcanic eruption, in cancer and massacres. We cannot unravel the mystery; why our near and dear ones, why good people die. Why all the suffering people in our hospitals. What we can do is to keep our suffering from becoming sheer waste.

How? By transforming suffering into sacrifice. There is a difference. Sacrifice is suffering with a purpose. Our world has long since learned a painful lesson: Perfect oneness with someone or something beloved - man, woman, or child, music or medicine, knowledge or art - can be achieved only in terms of self-giving, only in terms of love. In the Christian mystery the self-giving love was summed up by Jesus in today's Gospel: "If you want to come after me, deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow in my steps."(lk 9:23) A big if: If you want to come after him, if you want to be his disciple, if you love him enough to suffer for him as willingly as he was crucified for you.

EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS

"Let what was seen in Christ Jesus be seen in you," (Phil 2: 5) provides the proper context to the second reading: Have the same attitude, have the same mind of Christ Jesus. And that is to empty oneself of the ego, of self-referential thoughts and feelings: hence to be humble and obedient to the Father, even to the point of shedding blood and dying on the Cross.

Have you ever noticed how our mind is so often cluttered with many thoughts and how many feelings, often negative ones, piggy-back on those thoughts? This cluttered mind and bruised feelings have often and frequently left our soul in disarray and confusion.

A spiritual writer has suggested to focus on one word, e.g. "love," or "surrender," and gently sit quietly with the word. When other thoughts come, let them go. Picture life as a river, as a stream of water sailing by and as one thought occurs, imagine putting that thought on a boat and letting the boat sail away with it.

This method has been considered prayer because at the heart of it is all is the emptying of ourselves of all thoughts and feelings and surrendering them to the Father. It is emptying, kenosis in Greek, very much like the emptying that Jesus did when he was on this earth. It was dying every day in the physical, spiritual and emotional dimensions of his life. It was dying because he turned his thoughts, his feelings, his body and ultimately his will in utter and complete surrender to the Father.

Practice this method for twenty minutes twice a day. The more you practice it, the more it will bear fruit. And what is the fruit? Have the same attitude, the same mind as Jesus Christ!

It is a difficult practice. And it is difficult indeed because in the final analysis it is dying, like Jesus on the Cross.

REFLECTION

In the liturgy of Good Friday there is a public adoration of the Holy Cross where the Cross is uncovered, "Behold the wood of the Cross, on which hung the salvation of the world," and venerated by the faithful.

This Feast echoes the same celebration, "We should glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is our salvation, life and resurrection, through whom we are saved and delivered."

Adoration of the Holy Cross is adoration of Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our salvation. The Cross symbolizes for us the passion, death and resurrection of Christ.

Because of what it represents, the Cross is the most powerful and universal symbol of Christian faith and love. The sign of the Cross invokes the Triune God and is used at all blessings:

The first reading tells us about the bronze serpent Moses made at the instruction of Yahweh: "Whenever a man was bitten [by a fiery serpent], he looked toward the bronze serpent and he lived." Jesus on the cross is our salvation.

Jesus refers to the bronze serpent in his conversation with Nicodemus, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life."

In the reading from Paul's letter to the Philippians, Paul tells us how God has glorified Jesus for his obedience, "He humbled himself by being obedient to death, death on the cross."

St. Ignatius of Loyola recommends that, as we contemplate Jesus on the Cross, we ask: "What have I done for Christ? What am I doing for him? What ought I do for him?"

Tuesday 24th in Ordinary Time Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Opening Prayer: Lord, open my eyes to your saving grace. I believe you are the Son of the living God, who died for my sins so that I might be saved.

Encountering Christ:

· Lifted Up: On Good Friday, Jesus’s followers experienced the pain and devastation of his suffering and death, but Jesus presented his upcoming Passion differently in today’s Gospel. He spoke of being lifted up as Moses lifted the serpent on a pole in the desert. Everyone who looked upon the serpent was healed. Jesus was asking us to recognize that his very public death on the cross is a sign to the world that our salvation is at hand.

· God So Loved the World: John 3:16 is arguably one of the best known and most often quoted verses in all of the Bible. This verse is so beloved because it is the core of our faith: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him might not perish, but have eternal life.” When we meditate on this and repeat it to ourselves, we come to a deeper understanding of God’s very personal and intimate love for each one of us.

· Not to Condemn: God did not send his Son to condemn us, but to save us. How reassuring this is! So often we lament like St, Paul: “I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Romans 7:14-15). We should indeed repent, confess our sins, and strive always to do better. However, we can hold tightly to Jesus’s promise: He does not want to condemn us; he wants to save us.

Conversing with Christ: Oh Jesus, it is such a relief to hear that you love me despite my many failings. When you humble me so that I can see my sins clearly, allow me also to be reassured by the fact that you died and rose for my salvation.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will do an examination of conscience and schedule a time to receive the sacrament of reconciliation.