Suy Niệm Tin Mừng thứ Năm tuần 33 Thường Niên

 Suy Niệm Tin Mừng thứ Năm tuần 33 Thường Niên

Trọng tâm của bài Tin Mừng hôm nay Chúa Giêsu đã cho chúng ta thấy rõ là Thiên Chúa đã ban cho mỗi người chúng ta những hồng ân của Thiên Chúa, đó là những món quá “tự do”. Sự tự do có nghĩa là chúng ta được phép tự do chọn lựa cuộc sống của chúng ta như thế nào theo như ý muốn riêng của chúng ta.

Chúng ta thấy Chúa Giêsu đã khóc, Ngài khóc vì Ngài biết được ngày mà Thành Jerusalem sẽ bị tàn phá vì dân Israel đã chọn lựa cuộc sống theo ý họ, một cuộc sống không có Thiên Chúa, và hướng theo tội lỗi họ sống với những sự ham muốn của cái vật chất, danh vọng, kêu ngạo và tự hào mà họ đã quên đi cái sứ điệp cứu độ mà Thiên Chúa đã đến để ban cho họ. Họ đã thiếu lòng tin tưởng nơi Thiên Chúa, Vì sự kêu ngạo mà nghĩ là không có gì sẽ có thể tàn phá được Thành Jerusalem, nhưng Chúa Giêsu không thể ngăn cản được những ước mơ riêng hay niềm tự hào của họ. Ngài đã để cho họ được tự do sống với cuộc sống mà họ đã lựa chọn cho chính họ, và vì thế mà họ cũng sẽ phải gánh chịu tất cả những hậu quả của cuộc sống sau này.

Đây là bài học tuy có sự khắc nghiệt. Tuy nhiên, bài học này liên quan đến những sự lựa chọn mà chúng ta đã quyết định trong cuộc sống thường ngày của chúng ta. Có thể chúng ta không hề bị đòi hỏi là phải tranh chấp với chính quyền, nhưng chúng ta có thể có những sự đòi hỏi và phải thử thách về văn hóa, về tiện nghi hiện đại, với bạn bè, của chúng ta để làm theo những gì mà Thiên Chúa đã ban truyền cho chúng ta.

Chắc chắn sẽ có một số người quay lưng ra đi và bỏ Thiên Chúa khi Chúa không can thiệp hay giải quyết vấn đề riêng của họ, hay khi Chúa không ban cho họ những gì mà họ mong muốn, hay khi họ gặp phải hậu quả nghiêm trọng mà họ không thích vì sự tự do lựa chọn theo ý thích riêng của họ. Thiên Chúa là một Thiên Chúa yêu thương, nhưng Ngài không phải là một Thiên Chúa dễ dãi, vô tư. Ngài luôn đòi hỏi nơi chúng ta có sự vâng lời và lòng trung tín, nhưng Ngài cũng cho chúng ta có ý chí và sự tự do (để tuân theo hoặc không tuân theo ý Ngài). Nhưng những việc chúng ta làm theo như ý muốn riêng của chúng ta thì chúng ta sẽ phải gánh chịu những hậu quả mà tự chúng ta đã gây ra sau này.

REFLECTION

The focus of today's Gospel reading is on the gift of free will, which God has given us. It allows us to choose how we spend our life on earth and in eternity. We see Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. He knows the destruction that will come to the city because its people will choose their own greed and pride over the message of salvation which he has come to deliver. Their lack of faith will mean devastation, but Jesus cannot stop it. He must allow them to make the choice and then, live with the consequences.

These are harsh lessons. Yet they relate to many of the choices we must make every day in our own lives. We may not be asked to defy the government, but we may be challenged to defy popular culture or our friends or our boss in order to follow what God has commanded. How closely do we count the loss when we need to make such a choice? How well do we identify the consequences, in terms of our eternal life, when deciding what is important to us? Some people turn against God when God does not intervene to solve their problems or grant their desires or when the correct choice carries with it a serious consequence which is not to their liking. We may read the story of the persecution and death of Jesus and say that we would have been loyal to him to the end. Look back at the choices you have made in the past and see if any of them compromised God's mission for the sake of social acceptance or to keep peace in your family or to satisfy a personal hunger of yours. God is a loving God, but he is not an easy God. He requires obedience and loyalty and gives us free will to obey or not to obey. The consequence then becomes our own doing.

Thanks be to God that our God is not a vengeful God. In Jesus Christ we have a Savior who weeps over our misfortunes and whose blood, given on the cross, purchases each and every one of us for God on the condition that we acknowledge our sinfulness and return to his loving embrace.

Thursday 33rd Ordinary Time

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, recollect my heart to spend these moments of prayer with you. Come, Holy Spirit, teach me to pray and open my heart to the word which you wish to speak to me today. I believe that you are here. I trust that you are faithful. I love you, teach me to love you more. Let me enter into your heart and know you more deeply.

Encountering Christ:

 The Master Who Weeps: With today’s Gospel, Mother Church invites us to enter into Christ’s heart as he draws near to his Passion. Approaching Jerusalem, Jesus draws nearer to the “hour” when he will be handed over to his enemies. What he prophesizes for the city of Jerusalem, he will soon fulfill in his own person: encircled and hemmed in on all sides, smashed to the ground and raised up on a tree. Does he weep for fear of the suffering that awaits him? Or do his tears well up in desire for the salvation of every human being, even for my own salvation? Are they an expression, at once both human and divine, of God’s own “helplessness” before humanity’s freedom? This God, who loves more radically than anyone can fathom, he who is love itself, will not force upon his children the salvation they so need and he so longs to give. May these tears of Christ soften the soil of our soul.

 Witnessing the Master Weep: Perhaps in these moments of prayer, the Holy Spirit invites us to pause and contemplate the Master weeping. His eyes which have seen the forming and founding of creation are glazed over with tears. Heavy, glistening drops fall gently on his beard. Perhaps we know of this event because the Apostles witnessed and later recounted it. What must it have been for them to see their Master weep? What insight into his heart did it give them? “If this day you only knew what makes for peace.” He desires peace for us. Did his Apostles learn that God comes to heal, not to break; that he wishes for our wholeness, even if it means passing first through suffering, as Christ himself would do?

 His Visitation: Just as Christ prepared to visit the city of Jerusalem, he came to visit the world with his gift of redemption. So, too, he comes to visit my soul each day. Standing upon the hilltop of my life, what is in his heart as he looks upon me? Where are the places in my own life where Christ desires peace? Are there relationships he wishes to heal, wounds of mind and heart he wishes to cleanse and purify? What does this desire of Christ for peace and for recognition of his visitation mean in my own life today?

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, as you stand on the hilltop and look upon your beloved city of Jerusalem, I know you are gazing upon my soul, too, and upon the world in which I live. No suffering or trial is hidden from your eyes. Indeed, each one has already been borne in your cross and imprinted upon your Sacred Heart. You know them all. And you desire peace. You desire reconciliation. Speak this word over the sufferings in my own life, in my world today. Give us faith, hope, and love, and perseverance.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will strive to be a peacemaker in my thoughts, words, and actions.

Reflection:

In the first reading, Mattathias, a devout Jew, reacts to the invitation of a Gentile official to offer sacrifice to pagan idols. He kills the Gentile and his followers in a fit of righteous anger. We are not called to kill unbelievers in our times. But we are called to resist temptations from men and enticements from the devil to be immoral, selfish, corrupt, lazy, violent, etc. To do this we must do violence against our sinful human desires.

The gospel today hopes to finds us able to recognize God when He visits us. Jesus wept for Jerusalem because he knew the city will not recognize him as the Messiah, will crucify him and eventually be brought to justice for her unbelief. All too often we hear the words "God will understand" and "it's between me and my God" to justify acts that would otherwise be objectionable. But today's readings are clear – there will be justice. We should not be afraid, however, because God's justice is His mercy. He recognizes what is in our hearts, and takes into account the desire we have to change. Indeed, despite our inability to love and do what is good, He will always give us another chance if we are humble and contrite of heart. Let us ask God to give us a repentant heart and the strength to reform our evil ways. It is not too late.