Suy niệm Thứ Ba Tuần 2 Mùa Vọng

 Suy niệm Thứ Ba Tuần 2 Mùa Vọng

Bài dụ ngôn trong Tin Mừng hôm nay đã cho chúng ta thấy được hai cái bài học. Trước tiên, Thiên Chúa yêu thương mọi con người lầm lạc, tội lội, hay những người đã bị gạt bỏ ra ngoài lề của xã hội chúng ta. Họ là những người rất cần được sự chú ý như những người khác. Chính Chúa Giêsu đã hy sinh chẳng màng sự nguy cơ, sự an toàn của 99 con chiên còn lại để mang 1 con chiên lạc bị mất được trở về lại an toàn với đàn chiên. Không một ai có thể hư mất trước mặt Thiên Chúa.

    Thứ hai, Thiên Chúa yêu cũng thương yêu mỗi con chiên trong số 99 còn lại như chính con chiên đi lạc. Bài học này có lẽ là làm chúng ta khó có thể hiểu và chấp nhận được bởi vì 99 con chiên còn lại sẽ phải bơ vơ không người coi giữ. những con chiên này bắt buộc phải tự lo lấy cho chính bản thân trong một môi trường nguy hiểm không mấy an toàn trong khi Ngài tìm kiếm con chiên lạc.

    Một số người trong chúng ta có thể tự hỏi: Đâu là tình yêu bình đẳng trong trường hơp này, Hy sinh 99 con chiên để tìm một con? Nhưng, trọng tâm của bài học thứ hai, Chúa muốn dạy chúng ta là: Sự yêu thương không chỉ chú ý tới sự có mặt, nhưng cũng còn chú ý đến sự tin tưởng. Chúa Giêsu tin tưởng những con chiên còn lại sống gắn bó với nhau và giữ vững niềm tin. Theo kinh nghiệm sống, chúng ta biết có lẽ cách tốt nhất để cảm nhận được tình yêu thuơng không phải chỉ khi chúng ta được công nhận nơi công cộng , mà còn cả khi chúng ta đã được phó thác trong niềm cậy tin.

    Dụ ngôn hôm nay có thể được áp dụng với những người đã vô tình hay cố ý đi lầm đường, lạc lối, hoặc những người đã bị cám dỗ, sa ngã đã làm những điều qua khủng khiếp cho linh hồn họ phải xa lầy và lạc lối. Tất cả sẽ được đón tiếp trở lại với niềm vui như nhau, Chúng ta có thể tự hỏi chính mình: Chúng ta có đã sẵn sàng để tha thứ và tiếp nhận những người đã làm những điều sai trái chúng ta, không phải chỉ là sự miễn cưỡng nhưng luôn là sự sẵn sàng tha thứ với tình yêu chân thật và niềm vui mừng hân hoan.

    Lạy Chúa, Chúa chính là vị Mục Tử Nhân Lành!, Xin dạy và thánh hóa chúng con biết trở nên giống Chúa… Biết Tha Thứ, biết Yêu thương

REFLECTION Matthew 18:12-14

In today’s Gospel, some of us may be wondering. What is the love of equality in this case; Sacrifice 99 sheep to find one that stray? The focus of

    Today’s Gospel passage is: God wants us to know: that love is not just about attention it is also about trust. Jesus trusted the remaining sheep to stay together and keep the faith. We know from experience, that perhaps the best way to feel love is not only to feel that we were recognized but also that we were trusted.

    Advent is not about waiting for Jesus' coming to receive his love and attention. It is also realizing that Jesus has trusted us to keep the faith, spread the Word, and help our neighbor. When we have fully accepted his trust then perhaps we can say that we are truly prepared for Jesus' coming into our hearts.

Reflection (SG)

Jesus is that shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine sheep in the hills and sets out to look for the one lost sheep. Jesus knows that the Father wills not even one be lost. God loves each and every one of us and will do anything to save us from harm. God sends his only Son Jesus to come to us to bring every one of us back to God.

    Very often we are one of the ninety-nine. We are in a safe place. We put all our attention in what is achievable and do what is cost-effective. We have no time for those who fall behind. We regard them as a hindrance to progress. We want to get rid of them as if they were baggage, rather than to carry them along in a neighborly manner; we have no room for what is not in our projects. This is not Christ-like!.

    Christian teachers, social workers, parents, church leaders … we can model ourselves on the Good Shepherd, looking out for those who fall behind, or we can remain up in the hills counting our blessings. But if we are complacent, we will lose track of Jesus, who is out there somewhere looking for lost sheep. Lord Jesus, thank You for looking out for me. Don’t give up on me, Lord!

    

Meditation: God carries us in his bosom

Do you know what it's like to lose your bearings and to be hopelessly adrift in a sea of uncertainty? To be alone, lost, and disoriented without a sense of direction is one of the worst fears we can encounter. What we would give to have a guide who would show us the way to safety and security, the way to home and family. Scripture comforts us with the assurance that God will not rest until we find our way home to him. The Scriptures use the image of a shepherd who cares for his sheep to describe what God is like. God promised that he would personally shepherd his people and lead them to safety (Isaiah 40:11). That is why God sent his only begotten son as the Messiah King who would not only restore peace and righteousness to the land, but who would also shepherd and care for his people with love and compassion. Jesus describes himself as the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep (John 10:11).

    What can we learn from the lesson of Jesus' parable about a lost sheep? This parable gives us a glimpse of the heart of a true shepherd, and the joy of a community reunited with its lost members. Shepherds not only had to watch over their sheep by day and by night; they also had to protect them from wolves and lions who preyed upon them, and from dangerous terrain and storms. Shepherds often had large flocks, sometimes numbering in the hundreds or thousands. It was common to inspect and count the sheep at the end of the day. You can imagine the surprise and grief of the shepherd who discovers that one of his sheep is missing! Does he wait until the next day to go looking for it? Or does he ask a neighboring shepherd if he might have seen the stray sheep? No, he goes immediately in search of this lost sheep. Delay for even one night could mean disaster leading to death. Sheep by nature are very social creatures. An isolated sheep can quickly become bewildered, disoriented, and even neurotic. Easy prey for wolves and lions!

    The shepherd's grief and anxiety is turned to joy when he finds the lost sheep and restores it to the fold. The shepherd searches until what he has lost is found. His persistence pays off. What was new in Jesus' teaching was the insistence that sinners must be sought out time and time again. How easy to forget and be distracted with other matters while the lost become prey for devouring wolves of the soul. The Apostle Peter reminds us that the "devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8).

    God does not rejoice in the loss of anyone, but desires that we be saved and restored to friendship with him. That is why the whole community of heaven rejoices when one sinner is found and restored to fellowship with God. God is on a rescue mission today to save us from the destructive forces of sin and evil. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, watches over every step we take. Do you listen to his voice and heed his wise counsel? Do you follow the path he has set for you - a path that leads to life rather than death?

    "Lord Jesus, nothing escapes your watchful gaze and care. May I always walk in the light of your truth and never stray from your loving presence."

Comment: Fr. Damien LIN Yuanheng (Singapore, Singapore)

    «Your Father in heaven (…) doesn't want even one of these little ones to be lost»

    Today, Jesus challenges us: “What do you think of this?” (Mt 18:12): what kind of mercy do you practice? Perhaps, we, “practicing Catholics”, having drunk copiously of God's mercy in his sacraments, could come to a point to think that we are already justified in the eyes of God. We run the danger of unconsciously becoming the pharisee who slights the tax-collector (cf. Lk 18:9-14). Though we might not speak it aloud, we might think that we are already blameless before God. Some symptoms of this pharisaical pride taking root could be impatience before the defects of others; or thinking we are already beyond reproach.

    The disobedient prophet Jonah, a Jew, was adamant when God showed pity the Assyrian city of Nineveh. Yahweh reproached Jonah’s intolerance (cf. Jon 4:10-11). His human outlook set a limit to divine mercy. Do we also set limit to God's mercy? We too have to heed Jesus' lesson: «Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful» (Lk 6:36). In all likelihood, we still have a long way to go to imitate God's mercy.

    How should we understand the mercy of our heavenly Father? Pope Francis said that «God does not pardon with a decree but with an embrace». God's embrace of each one of us is called “Jesus Christ”. Christ manifests God's fatherly mercy. In John chapter four, Christ did not make light of the sins of the Samaritan woman. Instead, God's mercy heals by helping the Samaritan woman come face to face with the full reality of her sin. God's mercy is fully consistent with truth. Mercy is not an excuse to cut corners. Yet, Jesus must have elicited her repentance with so much tenderness that the adulterous woman felt herself “wounded by love” (cf. Jn 8,3-11). We too have to learn how to help others come face to face with their mistakes without shaming them, with great respect for them as fellow brothers in Christ, and with tenderness. In our case, also with humility, knowing that we ourselves are “vessels of clay”.

Comment: Fr. Joaquim MONRÓS i Guitart (Tarragona, Spain)

It is the same with your Father in heaven: there they don't want even one of these little ones to be lost.

    Today, Jesus makes it known that God wants all men to be saved and «doesn't want even one of these little ones to be lost» (Mt 18:14). With the parable of the shepherd who looks for the sheep that has gotten lost, he presents us with a figure that deeply moved the first Christians. In the title page of the Catechism of the Catholic Church we find, engraved, the figure of Jesus the Good Shepherd who as early as in the catacombs of Rome is present among the first images of the Lord.

    God's desire for our salvation is so strong that, from the uttering of these words, up to His unconditional sacrifice of the Cross, it is Christ who is looking for us so that we can —with complete freedom— come back to his friendship. We Christians need to share this same desire: that all be saved and get to know the Truth! As Josemaria Escrivá liked to say, «we are all sheep and shepherd». There are people —our husband or wife, our children, relatives and friends, etc.— for whom we may be the only chance they have of recovering the happiness of faith and a life of grace.

    We can always leave aside ninety-nine percent of the things we are doing, to pray for and help that person whom we have near, that we love and that we know is missing something in their soul. With our prayer and mortification, and with our loving faith, they can achieve the grace of conversion, just as Saint Monica got her son Augustine to become the “first modern man”, one who knows how to explain in "The Confessions" the way in which grace acted in the conversion that would lead to his sanctity.

    We ask the Mother of the Good Shepherd for the joy of many conversions.