Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Năm Tuần thứ 5 Thường Niên

 Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Năm Tuần thứ 5 Thường Niên (Mark 7:24-30)

Thiên Chúa đang hành động trong tâm hồn của tất cả mỗi người chúng ta, không phải chỉ ở nơi những người theo đạo Thiên chúa. Qua đoạn Tin Mừng hôm nay, chúng ta thấy Thánh Marcô đã diễn tả và chứng minh cho chúng ta thấy: ý nghĩa của Đức Tin là gì?.

Một người phụ nữ ngoại đạo rất kiên trì, kỳ nài xin Chúa Giêsu giúp cứu sống con gái của bà và Chúa đã đáp ứng sự mong muốn và cầu xin của bà. Một điều rất kinh ngạc là bà là một người ngoại giáo (những người mà người Do Thái thường khinh chê). Trong thực tại Chúa Giêsu đã phải ngưỡng mộ lòng tin của bà, Với một lòng tin và chân thành bà đã hạ mình (khi bị coi như là một con chó) cầu khẩn để sự chữa lành cho người con gái của bà. Lòng tin tưởng của bà đã làm Chúa Giêsu phải siêu lòng. Đối với một người dân ngoại như bà, một người có niềm tin vượt xa hơn cả những người Do Thái, dân riêng của Chúa.

Đức tin không có liên quan đến cái đầu của hơn là liên quan đến với trái tim! đức tin của người phụ nữ đang ở trong Trái tim của bà. Với đức tin mãnh liệt nơi bà! bà ta sẽ không dễ dàng nản lòng và bỏ cuộc. Trong lúc đó, Chúa Giêsu đã nhận ra được đức tin của bà khi Ngài giả vờ từ chối bà! Lòng Tin cứng rắn thì bao gồm cả sự đầu hàng cần thiết, kể ngay cả nhân phẩm cá nhân của chúng ta. Chúa làm việc và hành động với những người biết khiêm tốn, vâng phục và biết sống theo cách của Ngài. Nếu chúng ta không sống theo với Lời Chúa, thì phước lành và ơn sũng của Ngài cũng có thể rời bỏ chúng ta để vào trong những thắc mắc, ghi vấn bí ẩn của chúng ta, Ngài không ban cho chúng ta những câu trả lời mà chúng ta muốn! Thiên Chúa hiện diện trong tất cả mọi trường hợp và môi trường mà chúng ta đang sống! Chúng ta chỉ cần buông thả, vì có Chúa sẽ luôn quan phòng cho chúng ta..!

"Lạy Chúa Giêsu, tình yêu và lòng thương xót của Chúa được biết là không có giới hạn. Chúng con có thể luôn luôn tin tưởng vào Chúa và không bao giờ nghi ngờ về sự yêu thương chăm sóc và lòng thương xót của Chúa, Xin ban thêm cho đức tin của chúng con được vũng mạnh trong sự cứu rỗi của Chúa và xin giải thoát chúng con khỏi mọi sự dữ và nguy hiểm trong cuộc sống hôm nay và trong thê giới này."

REFLECTION

God is at work in the hearts of all us, not just those who are Christian. Look at today’s Gospel passage. True to his intention, Saint Mark was demonstrating what it means to have faith.

A very persistent woman who wants her daughter to be healed confronts Jesus. She is so persistent that Jesus gives in to her and fulfills her desire. The most amazing thing is that she is a pagan. Jesus is in fact in admiration of her faith. She literally wrests the healing and deliverance of her daughter! Her faith in Jesus, changes his orientation, towards pagan people like her, whose faith far surpasses that of the ‘God chosen’ people.

Faith has less to do with our head than with the heart! The woman’s heart was in her faith in Jesus! She was not going to give up easily as Jesus realized from her response to his re-buff! Faith includes a necessary surrendering of our dignity. The Lord works with people who are humble and obedient to him and his ways. If we fail to live according to God's word, his blessings may well pass from us to others, just as Paul explains his proclaiming the Gospel to the Gentiles because the Jews would not listen to him.

God enters into our questions, he does not provide the answers! For us as for the woman “reality” is the best teacher. God is in the circumstances we are in! We need only to let go!

"Lord Jesus, your love and mercy knows no bounds. May I trust you always and never doubt your loving care and mercy. Increase my faith in your saving help and deliver me from all evil and harm."

Thursday 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Opening Prayer: Good Jesus, you have invited me to this time of prayer, this encounter, with you. You have something you wish to say to me today, some grace you want to give me. And you know how much I need you. Open my heart to receive your word. Come, Holy Spirit, help me to hear you and to respond.

Encountering Christ:

1. Deliberately: In the passage before this one, St. Mark presented Jesus in Gennesaret. Now, he travels to the district of Tyre, an important trade city of the Roman Empire at that time. Let’s just say it was not a typical route to travel since he had to cross a ridge of mountains alongside the Mediterranean coast to get there from where he was. For some reason, Jesus wanted to be there. Mark tells us he wanted to escape notice. Perhaps he needed some time alone to rest. Or perhaps he went there deliberately to find a soul in need of him–a foreigner–who otherwise would have had no access to him. What does this tell us, in our current reality, about the gratuity of God’s providence and the universality of his message for all?

2. A Mother’s Prayer: How did Jesus receive the prayers of a mother? We know the example of St. Monica, who wept and prayed for the conversion of her son Augustine. St. Ambrose told her: “The son of these tears cannot be lost.” Perhaps St. Ambrose himself was inspired by the way Jesus received the prayers of this Syrophoenician mother. In any case, it reminds us of the filial, loving attention Jesus gives to the intercession of his Mother Mary. Our God, who became like us in all things but sin, also wanted to have a mother as we do, and even to give her to us as our own mother (cf. John 19). His heart, human and divine, cannot help but be moved by a mother’s prayer.

3. Dialogue in Humor and Faith: The dialogue between Jesus and this Gentile woman is striking, if not upsetting, at first glance. Michael Pakaluk, who offers a fresh translation of St. Mark’s original Greek in his book The Memoirs of St. Peter says this is not a parable about who is better–Jew or Greek–but about priorities. Jesus had come to proclaim salvation first to the Jews, the Chosen People his Father had prepared, and then to the Gentiles (the task he would give to his Apostles, cf. Matthew 28:19). He said as much to the woman in his “parable” (riddle, almost) about children and dogs. She in turn took that parable and turned it back to Jesus: even while the children eat at the table, the dogs are fed, too, by the crumbs. She was not turned away by an answer from Jesus that she did not entirely understand; she embraced it, in faith, and responded as best she could. Jesus saw her faith and blessed her. Let us learn from this woman how to dialogue with the Lord with humor and openness, just as we are, and from there, let faith grow.

Conversing with Christ: Jesus, you come out to seek me, too, just as you did this woman. You have a tender place in your heart for a mother’s intercession. I, therefore, entrust all my needs to your Mother’s faithful and good hands, that she may present them to you. Help me, Jesus, teach me, to dialogue with you—not to be afraid to wrestle, even, in faith, with the way you are acting in my life. You yourself are the crumbs which fall from the table: the Eucharist, which you come to give me, from your altar. I will make the effort to come to you, Lord. Come to my heart in response.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will make a spiritual communion, and speak to you in my heart about what I most need.

Thursday 5th Week in Ordinary Time

Jesus withdraws to a territory, outside Israel; he wished to go unrecognized! But a desperate woman recognizes his hiding place, and came straight into the house, throwing herself at his feet. What is he to do? His “ministry” was specifically towards the “lost sheep of the house of Israel!” His initial response was to seemingly deny her request, for the deliverance of her daughter! But the woman’s amazing display of faith and utter dependence on him, won him over! He is in fact in admiration of her faith: your faith is great! (Mt. 15:28) She literally wrests the healing and deliverance of her daughter! Her faith in Jesus, changes his orientation, towards pagan people like her, whose faith far surpasses that of the ‘chosen’ people.

Faith has less to do with our head than with the heart! The woman’s heart was in her faith in Jesus! She was not going to give up easily as Jesus realized from her response to his re-buff! Faith includes a necessary surrendering of our dignity. We learn by going where we have to go, where we dare not go!

God enters into our questions; he does not provide the answers! For us as for the woman “reality” is the best teacher. God is in the circumstances we are in! We need only to let go! Lord, I trust You, inspire of everything and anything!

REFLECTION

God is at work in the hearts of all men and women, not just those who are Christian. Look at the Gospel. True to his intention, Mark was a non-Jew demonstrating what it means to have faith. A very persistent woman who wants her daughter to be healed confronts Jesus. She is so persistent that Jesus gives in to her and fulfills her desire. The most amazing thing is that she is a pagan. How could she possibly know who Jesus is, let alone have faith in him?

The Church in it is theology of conversion and evangelization tells us that even before people hear the Gospel, the Holy Spirit is at work in their hearts preparing them for this very event. The Second Vatican Council also affirms that there are elements of the truth at work in all cultures and religions and that the Church affirms and encourages these aspects of them. St. Paul writes about our ability to know and come to believe in God through the wonder and glory of creation, even without specifically hearing the Gospel proclaimed.

The scriptures tell us that the Lord works with people who are humble and obedient to him and his ways. If we fail to live according to God's word, his blessings may well pass from us to others, just as Paul explains his proclaiming the Gospel to the Gentiles because the Jews would not listen to him.

If anything, we should be awed by the responsibility we bear as Catholics. The fullness of the truth necessary for salvation subsists within the Catholic Church. This means that we have a duty and a responsibility to live out this truth to the full and, as such, to be a beacon light lighting up for all peoples the path of eternal salvation.