Suy Niệm Thứ Sáu Tuần thứ Hai Mùa Vọng

Suy Niệm Thứ Sáu Tuần thứ Hai Mùa Vọng

Trong cuộc sống con người của chúng ta, chắc chắc cũng sẽ có những điều không may hay bất hạnh xảy đến , Và mỗi khi như thế, chúng ta buồn, khồ và có thể đánh mất đi niềm hy vọng và thậm chí còn nghĩ rằng cuộc sống chẳng có tương lai. Tuy nhiên, chắc chắn là đối với người có hy vọng, họ sẽ có được một tương lai sáng láng đang đón chờ trong tương lai. Khi niềm hy vọng đó là một niềm hy vọng của con người có nền tảng căn bản trên khả năng của chính mình để vượt qua những trở ngại.

    Nói chung niềm hy vọng này sẽ đòi hỏi rất nhiều nỗ lực để nhận ra nó và chúng ta phải làm một cái gì đó giúp cho chính bản thân và tương lai của mình. Khi niềm hy vọng của chúng ta trong cuộc sống được đặt nền tảng trong đức tin Kitô giáo, thì đó là niềm hy vọng thiêng liêng, đem lại sinh động và mang đến sự hoàn hoản trên nền tảng của lời Thiên Chúa đã hứa . Trong bài đọc thứ Nhất

    Hôm nay, Tiên tri Isaiah đã đưa ra cho chúng ta dưọc thấy vấn đề này rất là rõ ràng. Thiên Chúa trước tiên đã xác định các nguyên tắc quan trọng về sự mặc khải của Ngài cho chúng ta: "Ta là Chúa, Thiên Chúa của ngươi, ta sẽ dạy cho ngươi biết những gì là tốt lành và dẫn đưa ngươi đi trong con đường lẽ phải”.

    Lời của Thiên Chúa dạy chúng ta, không bao giờ có những lời cay nghiến, nặng nề, hay chua chát, ngay cả khi những lời đó được lấy ra từ những lời dạy bảo trong các điều răn. Thay vào đó, khi chúng ta kết hợp với Chúa qua việc giữ các điều Răn và lời Chúa dạy, thì sự mặc khải của Thiên Chúa sẽ giúp chúng ta trong việc hoàn thành trong sự thịnh vượng Thiêng Liêng mà Ngài đã hứa với chúng ta trong việc chúc phúc cho cuộc sống của chúng ta trên thế gian này và lầy đó làm ngưỡng cửa để tiến đến của thiên đàng.

    Lạy Chúa, xin cho chúng con biết sinh động bởi niềm hy vọng vào những lời hứa của Chúa, để nhờ vào ơn Chúa giúp, chúng con có thể được tham dự cùng Chúa trong việc xây dựng một tương lai hòa bình, công lý, trong hạnh phúc và Lẽ Phải.

Reflection SG

When things go badly wrong for us, we may lose hope and even come to feel that there is no future. Yet it is certain that for the person with hope a future lies in store. When that hope is a human hope and grounded in our own abilities to overcome obstacles, it will generally require much effort to realize it and make something worthwhile of ourselves and our future. When our hope in life is grounded in Christian faith then it is a divine hope, animated and brought to fulfillment on the basis of God's promises. The passage we read from Isaiah today puts this very clearly before us. God first of all affirms the great principle of his revelation to us: “I, the Lord, your God, teach you what is for your good and lead you in the way you should go”.

    God's words to us, even when they take the form of commandments, are never burdensome. Rather, as we stay united with God through keeping them, God’s revelation engages us in accomplishing that divine prosperity which he promises us in blessing our life on earth and making of it a threshold of heaven.

    Animated by hope in Your promises, Lord, may we be engaged with You in building a future of peace and justice, joy and truth.

Friday 2nd of Advent

Opening Prayer: Heavenly Father, I believe that you have something to say to me today. You know how much I need you! Open my heart to your Spirit and fill my life with your grace. I believe that you are good and wish to draw me closer to you. I trust in you, even though I don’t always understand your plan. Help me to draw closer to that mangerside on this Advent journey so that when you do come, I may receive you with a heart full of love. 

Encountering Christ: 

From the Heart: In Jesus’ question, it’s easy to hear the tone of a parent or teacher concerned and exasperated, at a loss, and trying to find yet another way to be understood. But Jesus’ words come not from a place of mere frustration, but from an intense and tireless love for each of us. “How else can I reveal myself to you? How else can I show you my love? How else can I convince you that I am the very answer for all that you seek?” In this time of prayer, may we let these questions speak to our hearts and dialogue freely with the Lord about them. 

Like Children: On other occasions, Jesus used the image of a child to illustrate how we must be to enter the Kingdom of God. He continually pleads with us to learn to see with his eyes and hear with his ears, even on this earth—to let him make himself present here, through our fiat. “It is like children,” he says, who know how to recognize a dirge or dance melody. A child’s simplicity is all sincerity and transparency. How much Christ desires that we approach him in this way! Perhaps the Holy Spirit invites us to pause in this moment of prayer so that he may reveal to us where we need to grow in childlike simplicity. 

Wisdom’s Vindication: “Wisdom is vindicated by her works,” says Jesus. The truth speaks for itself, and it is according to truth that Christ reveals—and it is the light of truth, in this Advent season, that calls us to greater conversion. May we not take on the posture of the Pharisees and choose blindness for ourselves, but may our words express faith as we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus!” 

Conversing with Christ: Jesus, you know my heart, and you know that I wish so sincerely to follow you, to be open to what you wish, and not to insist on my own way. Open my heart to reflect the simplicity of children. May I grow to be like your Mother, who as a young girl said “yes” to your invitation, or like the shepherd children who came to adore you, or even like you, the infant King soon to be born. Draw me closer to you, Jesus, and let me continue walking with you on this Advent journey. 

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will strive to let my faith, my words, and my actions be authentic and coherent. 

Meditation: The Lord will lead you in the way you should go

Do you seek God's way of peace and wisdom for your life? The prophets remind us that God’s kingdom is available to those who are teachable and receptive to the word of God. Through their obedience to God's word and commandments, they receive not only wisdom and peace for themselves, but they, in turn become a blessing to their children and their offspring as well. Jesus warns the generation of his day to heed God's word before it is too late. He compares proud teachers and vain scholars with stubborn playmates who refuse to follow wise counsel and instruction.

    Jesus parable about a group of disappointed musicians and their stubborn friends who refuse to sing or dance at the appropriate occasion challenge us to examine whether we are selective to only hear and do what we want to hear. The young music players in Jesus' parable react with great dismay because they cannot get anyone to follow their instruction. They complain that if they play their music at weddings, no one will join in their festive song and dance; and if they play mournful tunes and songs at funerals, no one will join in at all. This parable echoes the wisdom of Ecclesiastes 3:4 - "there is a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance." Are you in tune with the message of God's kingdom? And do you heed God's word of wisdom and truth as if your life depended on it?

    Spiritual indifference and deaf ears can block God's word for us

Jesus' message of the kingdom of God is a proclamation of good news that produces great joy and hope for those who listen and obey - but it is also a warning of bad consequences and disaster for those who refuse to accept God's gracious invitation. Why did the message of John the Baptist and the message of Jesus meet with resistance and deaf ears? It was out of jealously and spiritual blindness that the scribes and Pharisees attributed John the Baptist's austerities to the devil and they attributed Jesus' table fellowship as evidence for pretending to be the Messiah. They succeeded in frustrating God's plan for their lives because they had closed their hearts to the message of John the Baptist and now they close their ears to Jesus, God's anointed Son sent to redeem us from bondage to sin and death.

    What can make us spiritually dull and slow to hear God's voice? Like the generation of Jesus' time, our age is marked by indifference and contempt, especially in regards to the things of heaven. Indifference dulls our ears to God's voice and to the good news of the Gospel. Only the humble of heart can find joy and favor in God's sight. Is you life in tune with Jesus' message of hope and salvation? And do you know the joy and blessing of believing and obeying God's word?

    "Lord Jesus, open my ears to hear the good news of your kingdom and set my heart free to love and serve you joyfully. May nothing keep me from following you wholeheartedly."

Comment: Fr. Antoni CAROL i Hostench (Sant Cugat del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain)

To what can I compare the people of this day?

Today, we should be distraught before the Lord’s sigh: «To what can I compare the people of this day?» (Mt 11:16). Jesus is overwhelmed by our heart, more often than not, nonconforming and ungrateful. We are never fulfilled; we are complaining all the time. We even dare to blame Him for all the things that disturb us.

«Yet the outcome will prove Wisdom to be right» (Mt 11:19): it suffices to just look at the Christmas mystery. But what about us? how is our faith? Could it be that our complaints are actually harboring the nonexistence of our reply? A very appropriate query for the time of Advent!

God comes to our encounter, but man —especially the present-day man— hides out from Him. Some, as Herod, are really afraid of Him. Others are even harassed by his simple presence: «Take him away, take him away! Crucify him!» (Jn 19:15). Jesus «is the God-who-comes» (Benedict XVI) and we look like "the-man-who-goes away": «He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him» (Jn 1:11). Why do we run away? Because of our lack of meekness. Saint John the Baptist recommended us to "dwindle". And the Church reminds us so, every time the Advent comes. We must, therefore, become as little children to be able to understand and receive the "Little God". He appears in front of us with the humility of his swaddling-clothes: never before a “God-wrapped-in-swaddling clothes” had been preached! We project a ridiculous image before God when we try to conceal ourselves with pretexts and dishonest explanations. Already at the dawn of humanity, Adam blamed Eve; Eve blamed the snake..., after all the centuries gone by, we remain just the same.

Jesus-God, however, is coming: in the cold and the poverty of Bethlehem he neither admonished nor rebuked us. On the contrary! He begins to load his small shoulders with the weight of all our faults. Should we, then, be afraid of Him? Will our apologies be truly worth before this "Little-God"? «God’s sign is the Baby: we learn to live with him and to practice with him that humility of renunciation that belongs to the very essence of love» (Benedict XVI).

Comment: Fr. Pere GRAU i Andreu (Les Planes, Barcelona, Spain)

Yet the outcome will prove Wisdom to be right

Today, let's stop to think about how often it is that we have to go to funerals. However... it's not very often that think about our own funeral. It is just like a subconscious strategy which postpones our death sine die. Just observing the rhythm of what surrounds us in nature reminds us of this fact. We deduce that —in a certain way— we are not that different from a plant, or any other living thing... We are bound by, whether we like it or not, the same natural law as all the other creatures surrounding us. With a very important difference!: The origin of our life, a life in the image and likeness of God, made for eternity. Advent is infused with this idea. The Lord comes, in great splendor, and visits His people, with peace, talking of eternal life. It is a warning: «Yet the outcome will prove Wisdom to be right» (Mt 11:19). Let's have a receptive attitude to Lord!

«Prepare the way of the Lord, level his paths» (Mk 1:3), the Dominican II of Advent (cycle B) reads. Be careful how you behave socially! it seems to suggest today. It is as though it were saying: —Do not be an obstacle to God's loving communication.

It is necessary to smoothen out our character. It is necessary to reform our way of acting. We have to change all things that make our responsibility false: pride, ambition, revenge, unforgivingness, etc. Those attitudes that make us gods in our world, which prevent us from seeing that we are not at all the owners of it. We are miniscule in the extensive history of Humanity. John's disciples experienced the purification of their errors. We, Jesus' disciples, can live the insuperable experience of purification from all our sins, with the hope eternal life: another Christmas! Let's renew our dialog with him. Let's say our prayer of hope and love, without paying attention to the noisy world that surrounds us.

Meditation: Zechariah 2:14-17 Our Lady of Guadalupe

I am coming to dwell among you, says the Lord. (Zechariah 2:14)

If you want to give your faith a boost, reflect on the events surrounding today’s feast. One December morning in 1531, the Virgin Mary appeared to a Mexican peasant named Juan Diego on his way to Mass. The local bishop didn’t believe Juan Diego’s story until he showed him fresh roses—which didn’t even grow in that locale, much less in winter—and a miraculous image of the Virgin imprinted on his cloak. On seeing the image, the bishop fell to his knees. He didn’t need any more proof!

That image did much more than convince one bishop. It changed the entire history of the Americas! The missionaries who had come to the New World were finding it hard to convert the Aztecs, who practiced human sacrifice and had never heard about a loving God. But this miraculous image was able to do what the missionaries could not. Millions of Aztecs who heard Juan Diego’s story and saw the image were converted to Christ.

What does this story of mass conversion tell us about our lives today? That God isn’t bound by time and space. He still wants to work miracles. It’s not a question of whether he is able to bless us. It’s a question of whether we are hungry enough to receive his blessings! As he said to Israel so long ago, he says to us now: “Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! See, I am coming to dwell among you” (Zechariah 2:14).

What miracles might happen today? You may know someone who is far from the Lord. It is possible that he or she might be overwhelmed by God’s love—out of the blue—and begin to experience conversion. It can happen. You may be concerned for the victims of violence in your hometown. Your prayers of intercession may bring God’s healing touch to them and help them run into his loving embrace. Who knows? Mary may appear in a new place and bring about mass conversions, just as she did in Mexico five hundred years ago.

May we never forget that our God is a God of the miraculous!

“Lord, today I will dare to hope in you. I know you can do whatever I ask in your name. Jesus, I trust in you. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for all your children!”

Reflection:

To be chosen by God to carry our His plans is a tremendous privilege and responsibility. There is no prerequisite to being picked, only complete faith in Him. He did not choose an earthly queen or an aristocratic woman to be the vessel of salvation. He chose a humble young virgin who burned with hope and trust in His promises.

When God chooses someone to do His will, He showers awesome grace and joy on those who say "yes" and put their trust in Him. Mary was full of this grace and joy, which is why Elizabeth and the child in her womb knew at once that the Savior was with her. She believed and the Lord filled her with the Holy Spirit – a gift to know and experience the presence of God. The Holy Spirit is the way in which God reigns within each of us.

Do you live in the joy and knowledge of God's presence in you through the Holy Spirit? As we prepare to celebrate the birth of our Savior, ask the Holy Spirit to come into your heart that you may feel and experience the presence of God in your life today.

'Come Holy Spirit, I need you. Come, Holy Spirit, I pray. Come with your strength and your power. Come in your own special way.'