Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Chúa Nhật 27 Thường Niên

 Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Chúa Nhật 27 Thường Niên

Trong cuộc sống của đa số chúng ta hôm nay, dường một số người đã không đã đánh giá cao và có sự hiểu biết của Bí Tích Hôn nhân, đặc biệt là trong xã hội với sự phổ biến của việc ly hôn, Qua bài Tin Mừng hôm nay, Chúa Giêsu mời gọi chúng ta hãy suy ngẫm về những kế hoạch ban đầu của Thiên Chúa, đó là, khi một người đàn ông sẽ bỏ cha mẹ mình và sống với vợ mình, và cả hai nên một xương, một thịt. Sự kết hợp như vậy của người đàn ông và người phụ nữ được kết hợp như một mãi mãi, để rồi sự kết hợp này sẽ trở thành một đáp ứng cho cuộc sống trong sự trung thành với lời mời gọi của Thiên Chúa.

Tin Mừng hôm nay Chúa Giêsu muốn mời gọi chúng ta nên biết cảm nhận, tri ân và hiểu biết hơn về Bí Tích Hôn Phối để chúng ta có thể hình dung ra những buổi ban đầu mà Thiên Chúa đã tạo dựng ra con người chúng ta. Đối với những cặp vợ chồng vẫn đang còn sống với nhau, chúng ta cầu nguyện xin Chúa sẽ tiếp tục chúc lành cho sự kết hợp và hiệp nhất của họ. Đối với những người đã chia tay vì lý do nào đó, những người đã phải tìm kiếm cho hôn nhân của họ có một cơ hội khác. Và đối với những người đang nghĩ đến việc kết hôn, xin hãy suy nghĩ cẩn thận, không chỉ suy nghĩ có hai lần nhưng thật nhiều lần với những lời hứa cam kết hôn nhân mà chúng ta đang tìm hiểu và chúng ta cần suy xét một cách nghiêm túc. Nếu chúng ta thực sự sẵn sàng vì tình yêu và sự tôn trọng mà chúng ta đang dành cho nhau, Thì chúng ta có thể yên tâm rằng Thiên Chúa sẽ ban phát cho chúng ta bất cứ những gì là cần thiết để chúng ta có thể giữ cho cuộc sống hôn nhân đó được bền bỉ. Khi làm như vậy, chúng ta thực sự mới trở thành bí tích của Thiên Chúa, và lúc đó mới chính là lúc mà chúng ta có thể chứng kiến ​​sự hiện diện của Thiên Chúa đang hiện diện ngay giữa chúng ta.

REFLECTION

In our times today, there are people who do not believe in marriage. They claim "Why get tied down when live-in is a possibility?" Commitment seemingly becomes a hindrance to true freedom. Yet, we know that it is only when we commit ourselves, we truly become free. We are freer to love the other person and think of their welfare. Some would say that it is just a document that would attest to the state of these persons. Why go for an extra step of marriage when love is already present? Exactly, it is borne out of love that people would want to share and announce it to all. Hence, we say about premarital practices: just because many people do it does not make it right. In the light of the seeming lack of appreciation and understanding of the Sacrament of Marriage particularly with the popularity of divorce, Jesus invites us then to ponder on the original plan of God, that is, when a man leaves his father and mother and stays with his wife, and the two of them become one flesh. Such union of man and woman is destined forever. It then becomes a response to live in fidelity to the call of God.

The Good News is an invitation to a better appreciation and understanding of the Sacrament of Matrimony as originally envisioned by God. For those who have stayed together, we pray that the Lord will continue to bless your union. For those who have parted ways, one has to seek the necessary steps to give the marriage another chance. And for those who are thinking of marriage, please think not only twice but many times of the commitment you are seriously considering. If you are truly ready because of the love and respect you have for one another, then you can be assured that God will provide whatever is necessary in order to keep that marriage. In doing so, you truly become sacraments of God, an actual witnessing of God's presence in our midst.

Sunday 27th Ordinary Time. B

Opening Prayer: As I turn to you on this Lord’s Day, I ask you to send me the light and grace I need to fulfill the mission you have given me. I want to worship you as you deserve to be worshipped and to live my life in perfect harmony with your goodness and truth. Teach me, Lord, to “walk in your ways” (Psalms 128:1).

Encountering Christ:

1. Gender Fluidity Is Not Part of the Christian Worldview: Jesus revealed clearly and forcefully in this conversation with the Pharisees that an essential part of God’s purpose for the human family is the fundamental complementarity between man and woman, between male and female. We were created by God in God’s own image and likeness, the Book of Genesis reminds us, and that image and likeness includes the complementarity between the two sexes: “God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:17). Popular culture today denies this basic truth. Popular culture today violently denies this truth and constantly attacks it. We live in the midst of and surrounded by this popular culture. Perhaps it would be wise for us to respond to Jesus’s reminder in today’s Gospel simply by taking some time to renew our adherence to God’s wise and loving plan for the human fam ily, to explicitly say to the Lord, “Lord, I believe you created the world and everything in it out of love. I believe you created the human family in your image, out of love. I accept your wise plan and I renew my commitment to live in accordance with it. Thank you.”

2. The Beauty of Marriage: Jesus’s teaching on the indissolubility of marriage has been one of his most difficult ones for twenty centuries. Throughout the history of the Church, high-profile and low-profile Christians alike have tried to wriggle around it or water it down. This is because a life of marital fidelity is not easy. Of course, Jesus never promised that it would be easy. He just elevated the natural institution of marriage to a sacrament, reinforcing the natural marital bonds with sacramental force. This means that marriage, which was God’s invention at the very beginning, continues to be one of the most beautiful ways we have of imaging God’s own trinitarian love. When a man and a woman marry, they “become one flesh”; they give themselves to each other wholly and wholeheartedly, creating a space in the universe for something far beyond the passing pleasure and comfortable convenience that comes from merely hooking up. The beauty of the marriage vocation is not a static beauty or a fairy-tale beauty, but it truly is beautiful. If it is true that every stage of a married couple’s journey brings new challenges and sufferings, it is also true that working through those challenges likewise brings new manifestations of beauty, greater growth in wisdom, and deeper experiences of God’s fulfilling love. If we believe in God, we will also believe in the wisdom and the beauty of his plan for marriage.

3. Two Pitfalls. Jesus’s teaching on the complementarity of the sexes and the indissolubility of marriage are difficult teachings, especially in a culture that blatantly rejects and ridicules those teachings. And so, we who adhere to them must avoid two pitfalls. The first pitfall is to be ashamed of these teachings. We all shy away from being unpopular, and so we can shy away from upholding and defending these unpopular teachings. But we mustn’t! The truth about gender and marriage opens up a pathway to a meaningful and fulfilling life. If we are ashamed of these teachings, we will lose opportunities to help our neighbors discover this truth and so leave behind the darkness and frustration that comes from embracing false doctrines. The second pitfall is to become hard-hearted. We are surrounded by people who have embraced lifestyles directly contrary to the Gospel in these areas. We cannot condone those lifestyles, but neither can we condemn those peo ple. We are called to treat all people, every single person, with the dignity inherent in their being created by God and redeemed by Christ. To learn to continue loving the sinner even while never condoning the sin is to learn Christlike wisdom. May God grant that we are good learners.

Conversing with Christ: My Lord, I want to be simple and humble in accepting the truth that you have so clearly revealed—simple and humble like a child, welcoming your Kingdom in my heart and so experiencing the peace and vitality that comes from that Kingdom. I don’t always have an answer for the many objections people raise to your teaching, but I want always to be faithful to you, to trust in the beauty of your plan and the wisdom of your doctrine. Jesus, never let me be separated from you.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will speak of the beauty of God’s plan for marriage and of the complementarity of the sexes in at least one conversation, giving witness to Jesus and strengthening my own convictions by sharing them with someone else.