Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Hai Sau lễ Thánh Gioan Tông Đồ Ngày 27/12

 Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Hai Sau lễ Thánh Gioan Tông Đồ Ngày 27/12

Trong bài Tin Mừng hôm nay cho chúng ta biết rằng Thánh Phêrô và Thánh Gioan tin rằng sau khi họ đã nhìn thấy ngôi mộ trống và đống quần áo niệm chôn của Chúa Giêsu đã được xếp lại để trên mồ. Sau những giờ phút trôi qua khá dài, dường như đó một một thời gian yên tĩnh, để suy ngẫm, "chờ đợi" cho niềm tin bám rẽ sâu trong tâm hồn của họ. Những trong khi đó, Chương 20 và 21, của Tin Mừng Thánh Gioan đã cho chúng ta thấy rất rõ ràng và cụ thể về những chi tiết và hiện tượng mà các môn đệ đã chấp nhận rằng Chúa Giêsu đã sống lại một cách rất nhanh chóng, thích ứng và tích cực. Thật là một niềm vui cho họ, nếu phải như họ có được một cơ hội để họ được gặp Ngài một lần nữa ở những nơi quen thuộc, những nơi mà họ đã được hưởng phúc là đã cùng vời Ngài trong những cuộc hành trình rao giảng của Ngài và nhờ đó mà họ được củng cố thêm niềm tin của họ

Trong ánh sáng văn bản Tin Mừng của Thánh Gioan có thể phản ánh niềm hân hoan trên thực tế là chúng ta được gặp Chúa Giêsu trong Bí tích Thánh Thể và nghe lời nói của Ngài đã truyền đạt cho chúng ta bằng những đoạn Tin Mừng và Kinh Thánh qua nhiều thế kỷ. Để rồi, với sự tự tin chúng ta có thể đi ra ngoài xã hội để gặp gỡ, sống và làm việc với những người có thể chưa được nghe nói về Chúa Giêsu Kitô.

Lạy Chúa Cha Trên Trời, chúng con cảm đội ơn Chúa đã đem đến cho chúng con Con Một của Ngài là Chúa Giêsu Chúa chúng con. Xin Chúa giúp chúng con biết chia sẻ niềm tin và món quà quý giá này với những người khác.

Reflection

To-day’s Gospel tells us that Peter and John believed after they had seen the empty tomb and the rolled up burial clothes of Jesus. For some hours, however, it seems to have been a quiet, reflective, “waiting” kind of believing. The remaining verses of Chapters 20 and 21, in contrast, provide us with very definite, concrete and heart warming details of how very quickly the disciples came to accept that Jesus was alive, well and active. What a joy it must have been for them to meet him again in the familiar places where they had enjoyed his company and been strengthened by it.

The first verses of John’s first letter, like the first eighteen verses of John’s Gospel, are called the Prologue. But, while the focus of both passages is Jesus, the emphasis is very different. The first reading shows the delight of the writer in the historical person of Jesus with whom he had been privileged to spend those glorious last days in Jerusalem and by the lake.

In the light of John’s writing we can reflect joyfully on the fact that we meet Jesus in the Eucharist and hear his words conveyed to us over the centuries. Then with confidence we can go out to meet and live with and work with those who may not yet have heard of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Heavenly Father we thank you for sending us Your Son, Our Lord Jesus. Help us to share this precious gift with others.

Monday Dec. 27th

Opening Prayer: Dear Lord, I want to take this time to open my mind and my heart to whatever it is you want to say to me today. I know and believe you are present to me. You are the living God. Like St. John, may my life be one of constantly seeking to know you, finding you, and following you.

Encountering Christ:

1. They All Ran: Knowing, truly knowing Jesus brought an eagerness to the disciples’ hearts that pushed them to physical exertion trying to discover what had become of his body. Mary ran in her excitement and bewilderment to share that Jesus’ body was missing from the tomb. At the news, John and Peter ran with great anticipation, despite the danger of being arrested. Jesus wants us to run to him with eager hearts as did the disciples. When we truly seek him and his truth we always discover more than we initially imagined. How many times in life has Christ beckoned us, “come to me”? How God’s love has changed us! In this holy season of Christmas, how might we run to the Lord with greater enthusiasm? Let us ask the Lord to increase our longing to discover him in all the ways he shows up in our lives.

2. John’s Reverence: John bent and saw the burial cloths but did not enter. He would not enter the tomb first because he deferred to Peter, knowing that the Lord had given Peter a leadership position at the service of the Church. John knew Peter well, both his strengths and his weaknesses. John knew of Peter’s denial during Christ’s Passion. Many times, the Lord places someone in leadership over us who is not perfect. Trusting in God’s ways, we are sometimes called to defer (provided that doing so would not be sinful). Because we are all incorporated into the Mystical Body, the Church, and called to live our own unique vocation within it, we build up the body of Christ when we put aside our own judgment and humbly acquiesce to someone else’s leadership for the glory of God.

3. He Saw and Believed: Although the Resurrection was foretold by Christ, John did not know exactly what would happen. This “disciple whom Jesus loved,” the one who laid his head on Jesus’ chest at the Last Supper, and who accompanied Jesus closely throughout his Passion, was able in an instant to view the evidence present in the empty tomb and believe that his Lord had risen. What thoughts might have crossed John’s mind and heart as he stood there holding burial cloths? Was he recalling the raising of Lazarus from the dead? Jesus’ proclamation, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6)? Moments from the Last Supper when Jesus instituted the Eucharist and Holy Orders? Jesus’ last words from the cross, “It is finished”? In an instant, the fragments from the life of Christ that John witnessed fell into place painting an undeniable portrait of a God who loves us beyond telling. John would spend his last years striving to share with all of us just how much God cares for each of us with an infinite, personal, and unrepeatable love.

Conversing with Christ: Dear Lord, just as John was a beloved disciple, so I am also called to run to you with eager expectation and discover just how much you love me. In this season of Christmas, as I contemplate you in the manger where your body is wrapped not in burial cloths but swaddling clothes, I ask for the gift of seeing and believing.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will pause before you wrapped in swaddling clothes, thanking you for living, dying, and rising for love of me.