Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ bẩy tuần 29 Thường Niên

 Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ bẩy tuần 29 Thường Niên

Trong một lúc nào đó trong cuộc sống của chúng ta, có lẽ chúng ta cũng đã giống như cây vả mà Chúa Giêsu đã nhắc tới trong bài Tin Mừng hôm nay. Chúng ta cũng thế, chúng ta đều có nguy cơ bị từ bỏ, và bị coi như là thứ vô dụng. Nhưng với tình yêu thương của Thiên Chúa, Ngài đã thương xót chúng ta, và Ngài đã cho chúng ta có một cơ hội khác để sử đổi. Do đó, bài Tin Mừng hôm nay, kêu gọi tất cả chúng ta hãy tỏ lòng biết ơn Thiên Chúa một cách sâu sắc hơn vì Ngài đã cho chúng ta có được cơ hội thứ hai. Đây cũng là một phần đòi hỏi sự quyết tâm thật tình của chúng ta trong nhưng việc làm hầu chúng ta có được cái cơ hội thứ hai.

Chúng ta sẽ hành động như thế nào ? Có phải là chúng ta sẽ vẫn giữ cái trạng thái trong sự lười biếng thiêng liêng? Thiên Chúa luôn yêu thương và sẽ giúp chúng ta, nhưng Ngài sẽ không ép buộc chúng ta vào thiên đàng. Chúng ta cần phải thay đổi cách sống của chúng ta. Chúng ta cần phải chấp nhận, tin tưởng và trông cậy vào sự giúp đỡ, và sự yêu thương của Thiên Chúa. Chúng ta cần phải sản xuất những hoa quả của những việc làm tốt trong sự ăn năn, trong sự khiêm tốn và trong tình yêu thương. Với thời gian, không bao giờ là quá muộn hay quá trễ để chúng ta bắt đầu thay đổi cuộc sống của chúng ta để chúng ta được trở nên tốt hơn hay thánh thiện hơn. Chúng ta đừng để Chúa Giêsu Kitô phải thất vọng vì chúng ta, Ngài đã phải hạ mình, từ Thiên Chúa đã xuống làm người, một con người thật hèn hạ để ban cho chúng ta thêm một cơ hội thứ hai là để cứu chuộc chúng ta.

REFLECTION LUKE 13:1-9

At some point in our lives, many of us were like the fig tree. We, too, were in danger of being rejected as useless. But in his mercy, God took pity on us. We were given another chance. Today's Gospel, therefore, calls forth from us deep gratitude to God for the second chance he has given us. It also calls for a deep determination on our part to make the most of our second chance.

How shall we act? Shall it be with the same spiritual laziness? God will help us but he will not force us into heaven. We need to change our ways. We need to accept the loving help of God. We need to produce the fruit of good deeds in repentance, humility and love. It is never too late to begin to change our lives for the better. Let us not disappoint Jesus who allowed himself to be cut down to give us a second chance to redeem ourselves.

Saturday Thursday 29th Week in Ordinary Time

Opening Prayer: In today’s psalm you promise that those who seek your face will receive a blessing, a reward from your own hands. I seek your face, Lord. I seek to know you better, to see all things as you see them, to find your loving presence in every corner of time and space. That is why I come to you today in prayer. Please open my heart to receive whatever grace you wish to give me today.

Encountering Christ:

· Inevitable Tragedies: Today’s Gospel passage refers to some current events in Israel at the time of Christ: the disciplinary massacre of Jewish worshippers in the Temple by the Roman procurator, and the deaths occasioned by the collapse of a building. Events like these still happen all over our world, every single day. Tragedies and injustices resulting in apparently meaningless suffering are this fallen world’s daily bread, as the innumerable headlines of our information-saturated digital culture never cease to remind us. How do we tend to react to them? Many people throughout the ages have reacted by rejecting God. They argue that a good, all-powerful God would never permit such things to happen. And so they walk away from faith in God. Others react as many in Jesus’s times reacted, blaming the tragedies on the sins of those who suffered, counting them as a one-to-one expression of divine justice, of divine punishment. How does Jesus invite us to react to such happenings? First, he invites us to see in them the inevitable unfolding of human history–a world broken by original sin will be full of terrible suffering and injustice, no matter how hard we work to promote justice and further Christ’s redemption–sin, indeed, concocts its own punishment. We should not be surprised by these events. Second, he invites us to find a spiritual reminder in them. He invites us to use them as an occasion to remember that life on earth is only a journey and that our destination depends on whether we choose to journey with Christ and as Christ. Death, suffering, tragedy comes for us all. If we are living in Christ, they will be for us doors to deeper friendship with him, just as his own crucifixion was the door to his glorious Resurrection.

· God’s Patience: The parable of the fig tree illustrates God’s patience. Although we members of the human family continue to rebel against God, continue to try and create their own heaven on earth apart from God and in rejection of his will, God doesn’t give up on us. His Church continues to tend the soil of fallen humanity, fertilizing it with Christ’s grace and truth, and God delays the final judgment in the meantime. But he will not delay forever. The lesson Jesus wants us to learn is clear: God’s delay is our opportunity. We should see each day as a gift, as a chance to turn around (repent), to welcome God’s grace and obey God’s will, so as to bear the fruits of wisdom and virtue that he created us to bear. Because of this merciful patience, God’s judgment, whenever it comes, will be perfectly just and perfectly loving. But how ready will we be?

· Relief from the Tension: Our Lord’s discourses in these chapters of Luke’s Gospel may seem harsh to us. He tirelessly and creatively reiterates the coming judgment and the urgency of repentance. But we must not forget that these are not the only verses in the Gospels. We know from other passages that Jesus doesn’t leave us to figure out repentance and perseverance on our own. He accompanies his Church, and each one of us, with the gift of his Holy Spirit: I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you… The Advocate, the Holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name—he will teach you everything and remind you of all that [I] told you (John 14:18, 26). When we live a vibrant partnership with the Holy Spirit, the tension of fear and anxiety is released. Jesus promises this in the very next passage: Peace I leave you; my peace I give to you (John 14:27). In today’s first reading, St. Paul reflects on this gift, on what it means to embrace life in the Spirit: For those who live according to the flesh are concerned with the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit with the things of the spirit (Romans 8:5). Living according to the Holy Spirit requires our cooperation. We must make room in our hearts to hear the inspirations of the Spirit, to learn to recognize his invitations and his nudges. For this, all the great Catholic spiritual writers agree, we need to infuse a healthy dose of silence into our daily rhythms. If our lives are too noisy, the unruly demands of our fallen nature will drown out the call of the Holy Spirit. What place does silence have in my daily life?

Conversing with Christ: Dear Lord, I don’t want to live distracted by the tumult and noise of the world around me. I want to see your will at work in all things. I want to live in partnership with the Holy Spirit, fulfilling your will and giving up all my useless worries and vain idols. Teach me to leave aside everything that distracts me from you and your Kingdom, and to seek your face with all my heart.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will spend at least ten minutes in silence and see how I react–maybe while driving, or simply sitting and gazing at the beauty of nature, or however I am inspired to do so–just in order to gauge how much of the world’s noisiness has infested my own mind and heart.

REFLECTION

The parable of the fig tree tells us that there is still hope; there is still a time of grace; there is still time for us to repent. The first step towards this conversion may very well be the conviction that conversion makes sense. It is not true that we are sometimes powerless to change a wrong situation. When we begin to change the way we live, if we do what we can, others will join us. The whole world can begin to become better if we begin with ourselves.

A second step towards conversion could be that we be honest to ourselves. We often denounce abuses but what do we do about them? Perhaps we waste electricity, water and other natural resources. We use our car when we don't really need it. We don't bother about people in need. We shout that society has to change but we do nothing to remedy the situation. In this respect, we have to change our way of thinking by looking first at what we have to do to carry out the changes that are difficult for us.

The third step towards conversion is to allow God to occupy first place in our life. Do we take the time to pray, to ask God what His Will is for us? Do we realize that God needs us to make this world a good place to live in? Are we willing to contribute towards peace and justice and care for God's creation? If we do these things, our little conversion will ripple and make this world a better healthier place.