Suy Niệm Tin Mừng thứ Bẩy tuần thứ 7 Thường Niên

Suy Niệm Tin Mừng thứ Bẩy tuần thứ 7 Thường Niên

Bài đọc thứ nhất trích sách Huấn Ca dạy chúng ta là giống như sự yêu thương của cha mẹ, Thiên Chúa đã tạo con người ra và ban cho nhân loại tất cả những thú cần thiết; Ngài hy vọng chúng ta nhìn thấy và nhận ra tấm lòng rộng lượng và sự sáng tạo vĩ đại của Ngài.

    Tất cà những em nhỏ rất đặc biệt trong ánh mắt của Thiên Chúa, vì chúng tin tưởng trong niềm tin là cha mẹ sẽ chăm lo hết mình cho chúng. Nếu không có tình yêu và sự chăm sóc của cha mẹ, các em nhỏ có thể sẽ không sống nổi trong thế giới hôm nay. Để có sự sống còn, các em phải được tiếp nhận và được chăm sóc. Khi chúng ta lớn lên và trưởng thành, chúng ta học hỏi và phải lo toan cho chính bản thân mình. Không giống như các em nhỏ, chúng lệ thuộc hoàn toàn vào cha mẹ, chúng ta sẽ bớt đi niềm tin cậy và còn nghi ngờ nhiều hơn nơi những người khác. Nghi ngờ người khác vì chúng ta lo sợ và tìm kiếm cách để có thể ẩn dấu những chương trình và động cơ của những người mà chúng ta phải đối phó với. Bản chất của Thiên Chúa thì cũng giống như một cha mẹ hoàn hảo, đáng yêu và luôn biết chăm sóc con mình như Thánh Phaolô đã viết, làm cha như chúng ta biết nó thực sự là khuôn mẫu theo như cương vị làm cha của Chúa Cha, Đấng yêu thương chúngta ở trên trời.

    Như vậy, Chúa Giêsu mời gọi chúng ta trở nên như những em nhỏ để được vào Nước Trời, Trở nên được như những em nhỏ trong sự tin tưởng của chúng ta vào lòng sự chăm sóc và yêu thương của Chúa Cha chúng ta ở trên trời.

Saturday 7th Week in Ordinary Time

Opening Prayer: Jesus, as I come before you today, I imagine myself as a little child. I see you smiling at me as I walk up to receive your hug. As I enter into my prayer, I thank you for my very life. I thank you that I can come to you as a child. Loving you isn’t about what I know but about how willing I am to trust you and open myself to you, how willing I am to listen to you and act on what you ask of me. Lord, I believe that you love me just as I am, and I hope in all that you call me to be. Teach me, Lord, to come to you more and more simply, like a little child.

Encountering Christ:

    Let the Children Come to Me: Throughout the Gospels, we hear of people bringing their children to Jesus for healing, but in this instance, it seemed that the people were bringing their children to Jesus simply to be with him. They weren’t asking for anything but that their children be close to Jesus and be touched by him. They wanted them to have a personal encounter with Christ. We can imagine that, after Jesus indignantly told the disciples to let the children come to him, he smiled at the children. We can see him placing a gentle hand on their heads. Maybe we can even imagine him swinging them around and laughing. Jesus enjoyed being with the children. He wants to enjoy our children in the same way—and for them to enjoy and trust him. How faithful are we in bringing our children to Christ? Are they baptized? What about our grandchildren, nieces and nephews, godchildren, our children’s friends? Do we ask Jesus to bless them? How is our home and family life shaped by our faith?

    The Kingdom… Belongs to Such as These: When Jesus said that the Kingdom belongs to “such as these,” we consider the characteristics of a young child: vulnerability, trust, dependence, curiosity, and a willingness to believe. Children are also often very persistent, forgiving, generous, affectionate, and simple. These characteristics contrast with what we see in someone who is immature: selfish, self-centered, demanding, easily bored, easily angered. Jesus asks us to be childlike, not childish.

    Like a Child: When we become like a child, we trust our Father to know what is best for us. We turn to him for help with all our needs. We look to him for comfort and encouragement. When we are childlike, we are humble. We know we are little, and we know we are called to grow. In addition to our daily prayer, we grow when we make time for spiritual reading and extended moments of refreshment on retreat, when we share our spiritual journey with friends, when we are able to open up to a good spiritual guide. We know that we need the help of both God and others to grow into the saint we are meant to be.

    Conversing with Christ: My Lord, it seems like it should be easy to be childlike, but there are so many obstacles. Instead of spending time with you in conversation and wonder, I am often satisfied reading about you and others’ experiences of you. Even though you know every thought, word, and deed in my life, I sometimes try to avoid bringing the things I am not proud of to you. I resist being dependent and asking for help. Lord, how can it be so hard to let go and be little? I am consoled when I think of you opening your arms to me as I would to a little child I loved. You smile at me and give me the strength to begin anew each day. Thank you, Lord, for your endless patience, and for your unconditional love.

    Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will reflect on the ways I have separated myself from you by failing to be childlike and I will make a plan as to how to overcome it. I will also reach out to one of the children in my extended family or a godchild to affirm and encourage him/her.

 

REFLECTION

The first reading from Sirach tells us how, like a loving parent, God had created and provided for mankind; he hopes we see and acknowledge his generosity and the magnificence of his creation.

    Little children are so special in the eyes of God because of their wholehearted trust and faith that their parents would take care of them. Without the love and care of their parents (or of other people), little children could not really survive. In order to survive and live, little children have to receive and be cared for. As we grow older, we learn and must take care of ourselves. Unlike little children with complete trust in their parents, we become less trustful of and more suspicious of others. Suspicious of others, we fear for and look for possible hidden agenda and motives of people we deal with.

    God's nature is that of a perfect parent, loving and always caring and giving: as Paul wrote, fatherhood as we know it is really patterned after the fatherhood of the loving Father in heaven. Thus, Jesus calls us to be like little children in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven, to be like little children in our trust in the care and love of our heavenly Father for us.