Thursday Feast of Saint Simon and Jude Apostles

  

Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Lễ các Thánh Simon and Jude, Tông Đồ Luke 6:12-19 28-10-

Qua một đêm cầu nguyện, Chúa Giêsu đã chọn ra mười hai người tông đồ trong số các môn đệ của Ngài. Tông đồ là những người được sai đi. Qua bài tin mừng hôm nay, Chúa Giêsu đã trao phó cho mười hai Tông Đồ nhiệm vụ là giảng Tin Mừng cứu độ cho mọi người. Ngài cũng đã trao cho họ quyền lực của Ngài để tiếp tục rao truyền, chữa bệnh và đem lời của Chúa Giêsu Kitô đến cho mọi dân tộc, và mọi quốc gia được thấy rằng Nước Thiên Chúa đã đến.

Trong thư gửi tín hữu Êphêsô, Thánh Phaolô xác định rõ ràng tất cả chúng ta như là môn đệ của Chúa Giêsu và là các thành viên của Giáo Hội của Chúa Kitô. "Anh em không còn phải là người xa lạ hay người tạm trú, nhưng là người đồng hương với các thánh, và là người nhà của Thiên Chúa, bởi đã được xây dựng trên nền móng là các Tông Ðồ và ngôn sứ, còn đá tảng góc tường là chính Ðức Kitô Giêsu." (Ep 2: 19-20).

Là những môn đệ của Chúa Giêsu, tất cả chúng ta có chung cùng một nhiệm vụ và công trình được giao phó cho các Tông đồ và Giáo Hội. "Tất cả anh em cũng được xây dựng cùng với những người khác thành ngôi nhà Thiên Chúa ngự, nhờ Thần Khí Chúa Thánh Thần" (Ep 2: 22). Hôm nay chúng ta đang chuẩn bị kết thúc năm thánh, năm đức tin, chúng ta hãy nguyện xin Chúa Giêsu cho chúng ta có đức tin, biết cởi mở và rộng lượng để cho công việc Chúa Thánh Thần làm việc trong chúng ta. Để mỗi người chúng ta có thể là thành viên của Giáo Hội, luôn biết yêu thương, nắm vững và tiếp tục nhiệm vụ và các công trình của Chúa Giêsu là đemTin Mừng và Tình yêu của Chúa Kitô đến với mọi người chưa biết Chúa. Biết khuyến khích và làm gương cho những người anhchị em nguội lạnh biết tìm về với tình yêu vô biên của Thiên Chúa nhân từ.

REFLECTION Oct 28 Sts. Simon and Jude,

After spending a night in prayer, Jesus picked out twelve men from among his disciples or followers and made them his apostles. An apostle is someone who is sent. Jesus entrusted to the Twelve his mission of preaching the Good News of salvation to all men. He also conferred on them the authority to carry out his works which show that the Kingdom of God is already here. In his letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul clearly identifies all of us as being disciples of Jesus and members of one Church. "You are citizens like all the saints, and part of God's household. You are part of a building that has the apostles and prophets for its foundations, and Christ Jesus himself for the main cornerstone" (Eph 2: 19-20).

As Jesus' followers, we all share in the mission and works which were entrusted to the Apostles and the Church. "All grow into one holy temple in the Lord, and you too, in him, are being built into a house where God lives, in the Spirit" (Eph 2: 22). Let's ask Jesus for the faith, openness and generosity to let the Holy Spirit work in us. May each one of us, as members of the Church, lovingly embrace and continue Jesus' mission and works.

Feast of Sts. Simon and Jude, Apostles

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, you have called me to collaborate with you in spreading your kingdom of love. Strengthen my faith, hope, and love so as to respond generously to your call. Lord, I humbly ask the grace to listen to your voice.

Encountering Christ:

1. Jesus Spent the Night in Prayer: Jesus’s profound union with the Father is exemplary. We are called to imitate his desire for union with the Father as did all of the great saints. “Love to pray. Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God’s gift of himself,” says St. Teresa of Calcutta. When we pray, we turn to the Father, like Jesus did to better know the Father’s will. We ask to grow in the desire to act according to his will. We look to Jesus who shows us how important it is to pray, especially when we have important decisions to make.

2. Jesus Called Disciples: Jesus knew that his choice of Apostles would affect everything about the new church. He prayed about who to invite and, when he extended the invitation, he hoped they would follow. Jesus knew that each one was created for a mission and would find fulfillment in carrying out his mission. Yet Jesus did not force this invitation upon them. He allowed them to respond freely. In the same way, God calls each one of us for a specific mission and gives us the freedom to choose the path of God’s will or the path of our own will. Those who fulfill their mission will find fulfillment, and win eternal life as well.

3. Judas the Traitor: Choosing to respond positively to God’s call does not mean that once we follow Christ, salvation is assured. There are twists and bends along the journey, temptations and falls, growth and success, and the opportunity to lose everything. Judas, who stood so faithfully by Christ’s side up to the end turned away to become a traitor. We must be on guard, renewing our love for God in our hearts every day, participating regularly in the sacraments, and seeking to conform our behavior to the Gospel standard.

Conversing with Christ: Dear Lord, you teach me important truths about my eternal destiny in these lines of Scripture. Prayer is essential to finding and living out the specific mission you have for me. Through prayer I will stay connected to you so that I may be your friend always. Sustain me in the life of grace. I ask when I pray the “Our Father,” “Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil.” Grant that I may be a faithful follower up until the very last moment of my life.

Encountering Christ:

· Called by Name: St. Luke points out that after a long night of prayerful discernment, Jesus called his disciples to himself, and from them, he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles. The Christian life is a response to a call. Jesus draws us to himself, and he does so personally, as St. Luke makes abundantly clear by listing each of the Twelve Apostles by name. There is nothing generic about being a Christian. There is nothing self-help-ish about being a Christian. There is nothing Lone Ranger-ish about being a Christian. Jesus reiterates this during the Last Supper: It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain (John 15:16). In a secular world, this is hard to remember. We must keep going back to it. Our lives are not our own. We are Christians, friends and followers of Christ. We have been called and chosen, set apart for a mission, given an eternal destiny. This vision of our deepest identity is vibrant and adventurous. Is that how I live? Or have I fallen into the trap of viewing my faith as a checklist of dos and don’ts, as a burden, as an optional extra dimension to a life being led for this world only? It’s worth thinking and praying about.

· Do You Remember? The Twelve Apostles would have remembered this day, the day Jesus called them to be members of his inner circle, for the rest of their lives. It was a special day. They would never reduce their relationship with Jesus to that moment of encounter and calling, but that moment would have had a special resonance in their hearts throughout their lives. It probably came back to them and provided encouragement in moments of difficulty and trial. We know St. Paul often began his letters with a reference to the moment of his call, and we can imagine that the Twelve would have often alluded to their moment of call as they too bore witness to the Gospel. Today’s saints, Simon and Jude, suffered martyrdom together in Persia (modern-day Iran) at the end of their earthly mission. We know very little of their missionary adventures, but we can rest assured that their unforgettable experience of being called by Christ was a sure anchor amid the storms they encountered throughout their lives. And what about us? How vivid is our awareness of Christ having called us? Do we often think back on those powerful experiences of his grace, those times when we knew–when we truly, experientially knew–that God was acting in our lives, nudging us, calling us, strengthening us? God often rebuked his chosen people in the Old Testament for forgetting about his many powerful interventions in their lives. May the Lord never rebuke us for such spiritual negligence!

· Our True Identity: In today’s first reading, St. Paul painted a compelling, beautiful picture of the Church. First, he told the Ephesians that they were no longer strangers or sojourners. That is the state of anyone who has not discovered and embraced their identity as children of the one true God, a state the Ephesians had experienced poignantly during their pre-Christian pagan phase of existence. Then St. Paul contrasted that state of uncertainty and insecurity with their new state: you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. In Christ, through our membership in the Church, our true identity has been given and revealed. We have a place in the universe. We belong. We have brothers and sisters who will be with us for all eternity. We are not wandering aimlessly through a random cosmos hoping blindly that some kind of meaning will stumble upon us. We know where we came from: the loving, all-powerful heart of God. We know where we are: on a pilgrimage through this fallen world, spreading the good news of the Gospel and growing in grace, virtue, and friendship with Christ. We know where we are going: to the Father’s House, to everlasting life in the company of Christ himself and all the saints and angels. Is this such a small thing, knowing all of this? Amid life’s hustle and bustle, we often act as if it were just a small thing. In truth, however, it is the biggest thing. And our daily life will only benefit if we treat it that way.

Conversing with Christ: When I stop to think about the miracle of your Church, of this massive community of believers spanning twenty centuries and the entire globe, a community united today by the same Gospel and the same sacraments and the same apostolic authority that has united it since the time of your own Incarnation, I am overwhelmed. I am filled with awe. You are faithful. You are redeeming the world by unfolding your new creation. And you have called me to enter into this amazing story, chosen me to participate actively in the spread of your Kingdom, the only kingdom where salvation can be found. Thank you, Lord, thank you.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will take time to write out two or three of my most powerful experiences of your presence in my past, so that I don’t forget about them, and so that I continue to be strengthened by the loving, grateful memory of your faithfulness to me.