Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Bảy Tuần thứ 5 Thường Niên.

 Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Bảy Tuần thứ 5 Thường Niên.

Những phép lạ mà đáng kể nhất mà Chúa Giêsu đã làm là những phép là mà Chúa đã làm cho kẻ chết được sống lại. Và có lẽ một phép lạ ngoạn mục nhất là Chúa đã làm cho ông Lazarus sống lại sau khi đã chết và dã được chôn trong mồ bốn ngày. Chúa Giêsu gọi :"Lazarus hãy chỗi dậy và ra khỏi mồ." Lazarus đã bừng dậy từ trong bóng tối và đi vào ánh sáng, lao đảo nhảy từng bước với tất cả quần áo niệm đang quấn quanh người. Và Chúa Giêsu đã ra lệnh cho những người đi theo tháo gỡ vải tang quấn quanh người anh ta để cho anh ta được mở trói và tự do.

Những phép lạ về sự hoá bánh ra nhiều mặt khác đã làm vì chạnh lòng Thiên Chúa tối cao trong cương vị bản chất con người của Chúa Kitô. Chúa Giêsu, người mà có thể an chay, nhịn đói trong bốn mười (40) ngày và không nghĩ đén cái đói, thế mà có lòng từ bi, thương hại đến những người theo Chúa trong ba ngày liền mà không có gì không có gì để ăn. Không thể tìm được thứ gì cò thể ăn được trong vùng sa mặc chỉ có cát, đá, gai và cái nắng cháy người ban ngày và cái lạnh ban đêm.

Đi ngược lại những hành động vô lo của các môn đệ, Chúa Giêsu đã ngước mắt lên Chúa Cha trên trời và Ngài đã làm một phép lạ. Lúc này, phép lạ Chúa Giêsu làm là để duy trì sự sống, Ngài đã nuôi sống bốn ngàn (4.000) người với bảy ổ bánh mì và một vài con cá nhỏ.

Nếu Chúa Giêsu có thể làm cho người chết được sống lại, có thể làm cho bánh và cá hoá ra nhiều để nuôi sống hơn bốn ngàn (4.000) nggười, có thể chữa lành vô số người đau bệnh cả tinh thần lẫn thể xác, Thì những gì khác mà Ngài có thể làm để cho chúng ta tin vào Ngài? Thế thì những gì có thể thuyết phục chúng ta rằng là cầu xin với Ngài thì Ngài sẽ mang lại những phép lạ lớn nhỏ đến với cuộc sống của chúng ta? Hãy lắng nghe những gì Chúa hứa: ".: tất cả những gì anh em cầu nguyện và xin, anh em cứ tin là mình đã được rồi, thì sẽ được như ý" (Mk 11:24)

REFLECTION

The most dramatic miracles performed by Jesus are those where he raises the dead to life. And perhaps the most awesome of all is the miracle of Lazarus. Arriving at the site when Lazarus was four days in his tomb, Jesus calls "Lazarus come out." Lazarus emerges from the darkness into the light, tottering with all his grave clothes wound about him. And Jesus orders the mourners, "Unwrap him and let him go!" The miracle of the multiplication of the loaves on the other hand touches on the supreme humanity of Christ. Jesus, who could fast for as long as 40 days and not mind hunger, has compassion for those without food for three days. There was nowhere in the desert to find food and the shades of night where the beginning to fall.

Against the scoffing of his disciples, He raises His eyes to His Father and makes a miracle happen. This time, the miracle is to sustain life, feeding 4,000 people with seven loaves of bread and a few small fish.

If Jesus can raise the dead to life, can multiply bread and fish to feed 4,000, can heal countless afflictions, what else can touch us to believe in him? What can convince us that praying to him will bring small and big miracles into our lives? Listen to what the Lord promises: "Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it. And it will be yours."

Saturday 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Opening Prayer: Heavenly Father, I believe that you have invited me to this moment of prayer and that you have something you wish to say to me today. Open my heart to let your word take root and grow there. I trust in you. And I wish to respond to your goodness in love. Jesus, let me enter into this time of prayer with you.

Encountering Christ:

1. Jesus Sees our Humanity: This must have happened often in the three years of Jesus’ public ministry—that he spent such a long time preaching and teaching a crowd that they had eaten all the snacks they brought for the road trip. Hunger turned to hanger—for the apostles, too, perhaps. And Jesus was not insensitive to this. Perhaps in this time of prayer, we want to linger with this truth: there is no aspect of our humanity to which Jesus is insensitive. Everything about our lives matters to him because it matters to us. Pondering with the Holy Spirit, is there any particular aspect of our life, even so human and mundane as hunger, which the Lord invites us to present to him? Let us be confident that he will receive it in love, and act as he sees best.

2. Faith and Action: In his book The Memoirs of St. Peter, Michael Pakaluk makes an interesting point on this passage, which may enlighten our prayer today. If this was not the first time they had been with a crowd in need of food, neither was this the first time Jesus had asked them how many loaves they had. Yet they answered, as in the first multiplication of the loaves, that they didn’t know where to get bread sufficient to feed all. Had they forgotten the first miracle? Or rather, did they not wish to presume that the Lord would, in fact, perform another miracle? Let us pray for a heart like that of the Apostles, which trusts in the Lord and asks, waiting in faith and ready to act with love, for what God wants.

3. He Gives Us What We Need: Contemplating our world today, we can ask with the Apostles, “Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them?” For this question rings loud and clear in our own hearts, too—not just to satisfy human needs, but also the deepest hunger at the core of every human heart. This miracle foretells of the Eucharist, which Christ came to give us—to give our souls life, by his own Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Perhaps in this time of prayer, we can speak with the Lord about our relationship with him in the Eucharist and ask him how he wants it to grow.

Conversing with Christ: Jesus, you come to me in all my needs, as you did to this crowd and your Apostles. You give me your very self in answer to my prayers. You come to me in the Eucharist. Move my heart to seek you there and prepare my heart to receive you there. How I want you to enter more deeply into my life, Jesus, and me more deeply into yours.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will strive to make a visit to the Blessed Sacrament. If I cannot, I will strive to spend a quiet moment with you, in the solitude of my heart.

REFLECTION

The Gospels often use that strong anatomical verb on Jesus. His bowels "stirred with compassion." Time and again Jesus was touched (stirred with compassion) - touched with pity, with compassion, for all kinds of human suffering - for a crowd of thousands that had stayed with him three days and had nothing to eat: "I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way."(Mark 8:2-3) His bowels "stirred with compassion" for all kinds of sick people who had followed him to a lonely place; for a widow whose only son died before her eyes.

The father of an epileptic appealed to the "bowels of [his] compassion" to help his foaming, convulsing son. And in today's Gospel, Jesus' bowels "stirred with compassion" for a leper in the dust crying, "If you will, you can make me clean." But that is only half of the picture. When touched, what did Jesus do? When touched, he touches. When the bowels of his compassion are stirred, he reaches out, he touches the hand of a dead 12-year old girl (Mark 5:41), the hand of Peter's mother-in-law suffering from fever (Mark 1:31), the epileptic boy (Mark 9:27), the eyes of two blind men outside Jericho (Matt. 20:34), the ears and tongue of a deaf man with speech impediment (Mark 7:33), the right ear of the high priest's slave cut off by Peter, the poor swordsman (Luke 22:51). All these he touched. When Peter was sinking in the sea,

Jesus "reached out his hand and caught him." (Matt. 14:28-31) He not only bless the children, he "took them in his arms." At the Last Supper he lovingly washed the feet of his disciples (John 13:4-5). One of the things that stand out in the Gospels is that Jesus was a man of compassion. He certainly could feel with, identify himself

with the suffering people. In today's Gospel a leper is somebody everybody will avoid - even today.

It is here that we see the compassion of Jesus. His bowel stirred with compassion. He not only healed the leper, but he reached out and touched him - a gesture of love and caring, even if this touching would render Jesus him legally "unclean" for temple worship. Have you ever felt the touch of Jesus upon you? Try to take a moment to feel the healing touch of Jesus on your head or on your shoulder. Feel him embracing you in his love. Hear his words, "Your sins are forgiven. Be made clean." "Open your eyes, your ears, and your tongue. Stand and walk." Touch has many faces. There is the touch of the terrorist: cold, cruel, and destructive. There is the touch of the rapist and serial killer: secret, lustful, and pathological. There is the touch of the swindler: smooth, cunning, and deceptive. And there is the touch of someone who cares: at once strong and gentle, the kind of touch that brings healing and peace - the touch of Christ. To be effective, touch does not have to be physical. Skin touches skin is powerful beyond compare if... if it is a symbol, if it says something like, "I care" or "I'm sorry" or "I love you." But whether you make skin contact or not is not always important; what is important always is that you are reaching out. It is hearts that have to touch, even when hands do not.

Give yourself! Follow Christ in his compassion. Walk the same old Jericho Road, but now with eyes open, heart outstretched. Time and again you'll come upon someone - friend, enemy, stranger - someone who calls to you weakly - for a little of your life, a touch of your heart. If you hear that silent cry, try not to pass by on the other side. That silent cry ... it just might be Jesus.