Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Lễ kính Thiên Thần bản Mệnh. Oct 2

Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Lễ kính Thiên Thần bản Mệnh. Oct 2
Qua Kinh thánh chúng ta có đầy đủ các ví dụ về cách các thiên thần đóng vai trò là sứ giả và người bảo vệ con người chúng ta. Khi ông Phêrô bị xích trong tù và bị canh giữ cẩn mật, thiên thần đã hiện ra đánh thức ông ta vào nửa đêm, tháo xiềng xích và đưa ông ra khỏi nhà tù một cách an toàn, vượt qua nhiều trạm lính canh và qua những cánh cổng khóa chặt. Khi ông Phêrô nhận ra mình không nằm mơ, ông đã thốt lên: "Bây giờ tôi đã tin chắc rằng Chúa đã sai thiên sứ của Ngài đến và giải cứu tôi" (Công vụ 12:11). Khi Đaniel bị ném vào hang của bầy sư tử đói, thiên thần đã bảo vệ ông khỏi bị các con sư tử đói hãm hại (Đaniel 6:22).
Thánh Basil (329-379 sau Công nguyên) nói, "Bên cạnh mỗi tín hữu là một thiên thần như người bảo vệ và chăn dắt người đó trong cuộc sống." Các thiên thần phục vụ Chúa Giêsu sau khi Ngài bị cám dỗ trong đồng vắng và trong cơn hấp hối trong Vườn Ghếtsêmani (Lu-ca 22:43). Các thiên sứ sẽ hiện diện khi Chúa Kitô trở lại trong ngày sau hết, trong ngày đó các thiên thần bản mệnh sẽ báo cáo phúc trình lên Chúa trong giờ phán xét của Ngài (Mat 25:31). Các thiên thần cho chúng ta thấy rằng vũ trụ mà Chúa tạo ra này không chỉ là vật chất.
Các thiên thần sa ngã (Jude 6; 2 Phêrô 2: 4; Khải huyền 12: 9), được mô tả trong Kinh thánh là ác thần hoặc là ma quỷ (Mk 5:13; Mat 25:41), chúng tìm kiếm cám dỗ và hủy diệt linh hồn của chúng ta (1 Phêrô 5: 8) . Nếu chúng không thể thuyết phục được chúng ta từ bỏ đức tin và lòng trung thành của chúng ta đối với Đức Kitô, thì chúng sẽ cố gắng cám dỗ chúng ta không sống theo ý muốn của Thiên Chúa bằng cách đánh lạc hướng chúng ta bằng những thứ vật chất làm hoa mắt thịt con người chúng ta và khiến chúng ta thờ ơ với những điều răn của Thiên Chúa.
Thiên Chúa ban cho chúng ta thiên thần của Ngài để giúp đỡ có được vũ khí linh thiêng làm lá chắn đức tin và tấm giáp công bình (Êphêsô 6: 1-11) để chống lại ma quỷ và sự dối trá của chúng. Nhờ ân sủng của Chúa Thánh Thần, chúng ta cũng tham gia với các ca đoàn thiên thần trên trời để hát ngợi khen Thiên Chúa.
Lạy Chúa Giêsu, Chúa là nơi nương tựa và sức mạnh của chúng con. Chúng con cầu xin Chúa giúp chúng con biết chạy đến bàn tay hướng dẫn của Mẹ Maria và sự giúp đỡ của các thiên thần trong việc bảo vệ chúng con khỏi tất cả những sự cám dỗ của ma quỷ. Xin Chúa ban cho chúng con sức mạnh của ý chí và lòng dũng cảm để từ chối những gì là xấu xa và biết chọn những gì là tốt cho linh hồn và cuộc sống mai sau.

Meditation: 10-2 The Holy Guardian Angels
Scripture is full of examples of how the angels serve as messengers and protectors. When Peter was chained in prison and kept under guard, an angel woke him in middle of the night, released his chains, and brought him safely out of prison, past several guards and through locked gates. When Peter realized he wasn't dreaming, he exclaimed: "Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me" (Acts 12:11). When Daniel was thrown into a den of hungry lions, an angel protected him from harm (Daniel 6:22).
St. Basil the Great (329-379 AD) said, "Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life." Angels ministered to Jesus after his temptation in the wilderness and during his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:43). The angels will be present at Christ's return, which they will announce, to serve at his judgment (Matthew 25:31). The angels show us that this universe which God created is not just materialistic.
The fallen angels (Jude 6; 2 Peter 2:4; Revelations 12:9), described in Scripture as evil spirits or devils (Mark 5:13; Matthew 25:41), seek our destruction (see 1 Peter 5:8). If they cannot persuade us to disown our faith and loyalty to Christ, they will attempt to divert us from doing the will of God by distracting us with good things that weigh us down or make us indifferent towards the things of God.
God gives us the help of his angelic hosts and he gives us spiritual weapons, the shield of faith and the breastplate of righteousness (see Ephesians 6:1-11), to resist the devil and his lies. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, we, too, join with the angelic choirs of heaven in singing the praises of God. Do you thank the Lord for his guidance and protection?
Lord Jesus, you are our refuge and strength. May I always know your guiding hand and the help of your angels in protecting me from all that is evil. Give me strength of will and courage to refuse what is evil and to choose what is good.

Saturday 26th Ordinary Time - Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels
Opening Prayer: Lord, I know that, as today’s psalm says, seeking you is the path to reviving my heart: “… you who seek God, may your hearts revive!” I believe that you are here present with me now, eagerly and lovingly wanting to revive my heart, to fill me with courage, to nourish the good desires that you planted within me long ago. I truly seek you, Lord. I seek to know you better, so that I can love you better, so that I can follow you better. Revive my heart, O Lord!
Encountering Christ:
Some Spiritual Allies: Angels are purely spiritual beings. They can influence the material world and interact with it, but they are not material beings. This purely spiritual nature is symbolically represented in art by depicting them with wings. But since they are immaterial, popular culture in our secularized world doesn’t pay angels much mind. They can’t be studied in a laboratory. For a materialistic culture like ours, that makes them irrelevant, if not nonexistent. And yet, today Jesus speaks explicitly about angels as playing a constant and central role in our lives. Each of us has at least one guardian angel who watches over us even while staying always in God the Father’s presence. All around us these unseen spiritual allies work mysteriously but tirelessly to protect and guide us as we make our way through life’s difficulties and temptations. They are true persons united to us through their fidelity to God, committed to serving Christ’s Kingdom and glorifying God by helping us along our Christian journey. Today of all days we should thank God for the gift of our guardian angels, and we should thank our guardian angels for being faithful to God’s love instead of joining the devil and his fallen angels in their fruitless rebellion against the Lord.
Childlike Simplicity: Any time Jesus begins a statement with, “Amen, I say to you,” he is inviting us to pay special attention; he is making a solemn proclamation. In today’s Gospel, this proclamation came in the wake of his disciples’ squabbles about ambition and rank in Christ’s Kingdom. Jesus intervened in the discussion by turning the tables. For Jesus, true greatness is found not in energetic striving to climb the ladder of success, but in humility, in childlike simplicity: ..unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. How hard it is for us to release our striving! How hard it is for us to accept and enjoy what the Lord provides for us each day without needlessly fretting about things outside our control! How hard it is for us to be content with simply knowing and embracing God’s will moment by moment! Instead of living in the peace of childlike trust in God’s perfect providence, we doubt and worry and demand and complain and dwell in the turbulence of unnecessary anxiety. Jesus wants us to release those attitudes and lean with childlike confidence on his infinite goodness. Let us do so, following Baruch’s admonition from the first reading: As your hearts have been disposed to stray from God, turn now ten times the more to seek him…
Learning from St. Germaine: A little-known saint brings together the two themes of today’s liturgy: grateful faith in our guardian angels and childlike confidence in God’s providence. St. Germaine of Pibrac died at the young age of twenty-two, in France in 1601. She came from a poor family and lost her mother as an infant. Her stepmother made her sleep in the barn to make room in the house for her own children, and then sent her out to work as a shepherdess when she was just nine years old. For a girl with poor health and a crippled hand, shepherding wasn’t an easy job, but Germaine took advantage of it as best she could. She made a little rosary for herself out of a knotted string to help her pray while she worked, and she dedicated what little free time she had to teach the younger children of the town their catechism. Her faith drove all she did, and her confidence in God was the anchor of her life. In fact, she was so committed to leaning on God that she never missed Mass, even if the bell for Mass rang after she was already in the fields with the sheep. On those occasions, she would leave her shepherd’s crook there in the ground, charge her guardian angel with caring for the flock and go off to worship the Lord. She never lost a sheep. When her young body was exhumed during a restoration of the local church, forty years after her death, it was found incorrupt, confirming the sanctity that had already shown itself through miracles during her teens. Perhaps we have something to learn from this peasant girl of the sixteenth century whose faith spawned wisdom and courage well beyond her years.
Conversing with Christ: Dear Lord, you know my heart. You know how deeply I desire to trust you fully, wildly, joyfully. I know that the fulfillment I yearn for will not come from anxious ambition and fretful striving. It will come from living an ever-deeper communion with you, from throwing myself into your arms and rejoicing in being loved and chosen by you. I want to live in the peace and the meaning of your Kingdom; teach me to live with the childlike simplicity you made as a condition of entering that Kingdom. Angel sent by God to guide me; be my light and walk beside me; be my guardian and protect me; on the path of life direct me.
Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will say a special prayer of thanksgiving to my guardian angel, and then say another guardian angel prayer whenever I find myself anxious or worried.

REFLECTION 10-2 The Holy Guardian Angels
“Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the king­dom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3)
These are some pretty forbid­ding words from Jesus, especially for those of us whose childhood years are far behind us! But the good news is that we don’t have to become childlike all by ourselves. Jesus is here to help us. Let’s begin by thinking for a moment about what Jesus meant when he urged us to become childlike.
Children tend to be secure lit­tle people. Especially in the tightly knit communities of first-cen­tury Palestine, the family unit was both broad and deep. A child knew almost reflexively that his parents would love him and take care of him. He tended to be very secure because he was growing up in a sta­ble environment. Of course, life wasn’t always easy. Poverty and disaster were still possibilities. But whatever might happen, he knew he wouldn’t have to face it alone. Even if his parents were to die or desert him, he had an entire network of aunts, uncles, cousins, and neigh­bors to help him.
We can have that same kind of security. We have a Father in heaven who is always looking out for us. We are part of a tightly knit commu­nity that includes our brothers and sisters in the Church as well as the saints and angels in heaven. It also includes our guardian angel. Just as our earthly family can’t always shield us from hardship, neither can this heavenly being. But loyal family members that they are, our angels never leave our side. Today in your prayer, try surren­dering to your father and his angels one or two of the worries that we carry around with US: anxieties about things outside of our control or too far into the future for us to do anything about. And remember: we are not alone! Ask the Holy Spirit to write this truth our heart every morn­ing. Then throughout the day, remind ourselves that we belong to a large, warm, and welcoming community of faith.
As we do, we will find ourselves acting even more like the child of God we really are. “Let’s ask our Lord Jesus to give us the grace to rely on Him today. Ask his father to help us become like a child again.”