Suy Niệm Thứ Bảy sau khi Thứ Tư Lễ Tro

Suy Niệm Thứ Bảy sau khi Thứ Tư Lễ Tro

Hôm nay chúng ta tiếp tục một cuộc hành trình với tâm hồn thống hối và ăn năn của chúng ta để chúng ta có thể tìm thấy đường về với Thiên Chúa với bản thân đích thực như Chúa đã tác tạo ra chúng ta. Cuộc hành trình mùa chay này sẽ đưa chúng ta đến ngã tư đường, nơi mà chúng ta sẽ gặp gỡ Chúa Giêsu trên con đường dẫn tới đồi Calvary (Núi sọ). Nhất định chúng ta sẽ được mời để cùng sống và cùng đồng hành với Đức Kitô trên con đường Ngài đến sự khổ hình, chịu đóng đinh và bị chết treo trên thập giá.

Để đạt tới điểm đó trên đường với Đức Kitô, trước hết, chúng ta cần phải biết chuẩn bị bằng cách mở rộng vành tai để nghe lại những lời của các tiên tri, những người đã hướng dẫn chúng ta tới con đường mà chúng ta phải sống trong cuộc sống này, và chúng ta cũng phải biết mở rộng tâm hồn và cho phép Chúa Thánh Thần đến và sống trong chúng ta để giúp chúng ta biết thay đổi tâm hồn, và biến cho tâm hồn của chúng ta nên giống như của Chúa.

Trong đọc thứ Nhất, chúng ta tiếp tục được nhắc nhở rằng con đường trở lại với sự sống trong sự viên mãn, có ý nghĩa, có sức khỏe, trong an bình và ơn cứu độ chỉ có thể được nếu như chúng ta biết tỏ lòng thương xót, biết cứu giúp những kẻ nghèo đói cơ hàn, biết đáp ứng được những sự mong muốn của người đau yếu, bệnh tật và thiếu thốn,

Tin Mừng hôm nay, Chúa Giêsu đã cho chúng ta những lời khích lệ, Ngài cho chúng ta biết là Ngài đến không phải để kêu mời những người công chính, đạo đức, nhưng Ngài đến để kêu gọi những người tội lỗi biết ăn năn hối cải. Chúng ta hãy thẳng thắn thừa nhận lỗi lầm và khuyết điểm của chúng ta với chính Mình và với Chúa, để xin ơn tha thứ, thêm sức mạnh và lòng tin để chúng ta có thể theo Chúa trọn con đường đến tới Calvary ngay trong cuộc sống đầy những cám dỗ và cặm bẫy hôm nay.

Saturday after Ash Wednesday

We continue during these first few days after Ash Wednesday to deepen our understanding of what the Lenten season should mean for us. We begin a journey of repentance and conversion that will lead us back to the Lord and to the authentic selves we were created to be. Our journey will finally take us to the crossroads where we will meet Jesus travelling along his own path to Calvary. There we will be invited to accompany Him and be with Jesus on his way to crucifixion and death.

To reach that point on the road, however, we must first prepare ourselves by opening our ears to the words of the prophets who will point out for us the way we must travel, and open our hearts to the Lord who will encourage us to let him enter and change them for us, making them more like his own. Today we hear a continuation of yesterday’s reading from chapter 58 of the Prophet Isaiah. In these verses we are reminded that the road back to life, to fullness, to meaning, to health, peace and redemption can only be travelled by those who ‘pour themselves out for the hungry’ and ‘satisfy the desire of the afflicted.’

Our Gospel offers us the encouraging words of Jesus that he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. We should then feel free to admit our sinfulness and weaknesses, both to ourselves and to the Lord, for it was indeed for the likes of us that the Lord came into this world. Lord, lead me back to You so that I may know my authentic self.

Saturday after Ash Wednesday

Opening Prayer: Lord, here I am. I come to do your will. I want to follow you more closely today than I did yesterday. Bless me and lead me on this day’s journey.

Encountering Christ:

1. Follow Me: Do you wonder why Levi, who became Matthew and one of the Twelve Apostles, left everything, got up, and followed Jesus? What would compel a rich businessman to leave the security and privilege of his profession to follow someone who many thought was just an itinerant preacher? The answer, our faith professes, is both God’s grace and our free will. Grace is first and foremost the gift of the Spirit who justifies and sanctifies us (CCC 2003). God’s free initiative demands man’s free response, for God has created man in his image by conferring on him, along with freedom, the power to know him and love him (CCC 2002). The preparation of man for the reception of grace is already a work of grace (CCC 2001). We can confer from this that Levi/Matthew was prepared by God to accept his invitation, but that it required his assent to leave where he was and follow Jesus. This assent was not for Levi/Matthew, nor is it for us, a one-time event. We are not “once saved, always saved.” Life’s ups and downs require continuous assent to God’s grace to remain and grow in faith: “I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me” (Philippians 4:13).

2. Sinners and Pharisees: The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” A Pharisee, as presented in the Gospels, was a member of an ancient Jewish sect, distinguished by strict observance of the traditional and written Jewish law, and commonly held to have pretensions to superior sanctity. Because they were under the protection of the law, Jesus often rebuked the Pharisees: “…on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing” (Matthew 23:28). Because tax collectors and sinners were found outside the protection of Jewish law by their own actions, state, or circumstances of life, Jesus called, instead of rebuking: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17). Jesus, however, never dismissed the law: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). This fulfillment of the law to whom everyone, including the Pharisee, the tax collector, and the sinner is called, is Jesus, the Son of God, who is Love. A Christian, who is a follower of Jesus Christ, is called to love as Jesus loves. He or she does so by obeying God’s commandments and the teachings of the Church he gave us, and by inviting and welcoming others to do so as well.

3. Spiritual Sickness: It is probably a good bet that the complaining Pharisees saw themselves as righteous. Many became Jesus’ persecutors, persuading others to condemn and crucify him, believing they were acting in God’s will. We do not want to see ourselves as either a Pharisee or a sinner, but through our fallen nature due to original sin, the Church teaches it is impossible on our own to be spiritually healthy. This condition is called concupiscence and is defined as an inclination to sin. We cannot on our own be sinless, so Jesus came to rescue us as Savior, to ransom us as the Lamb of God, to restore us as the Divine Physician, and to redeem us through adoption: “But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God” (John 1:12-13). Through the sacraments of the Church, Jesus is calling, healing, and walking with us towards eternal salvation with him. Hope becomes fulfillment through our daily assent to his call, “Follow me.”

Conversing with Christ: Lord, I sometimes judge the actions of others, condemning them. I fall into temptation through my weaknesses. I cannot follow you on my own and that is why you came. Thank you, Jesus! Even when I sin and judge, you are with me, ready to forgive and heal me. I want to do your will. Thank you, Jesus, for granting all the grace I need to follow you into your Kingdom.

REFLECTION Saturday after Ash Wednesday 2017

In the Gospel reading the Pharisees and their fellow teachers criticize Jesus "for eating and drinking with tax collectors and other sinners." Jesus explains to them why he eats with tax collectors and sinners, "Healthy people don't need a doctor, but sick people do. I have come to call to repentance; I call sinners, not the righteous."

Jesus came to call sinners; his mission was to reconcile sinful mankind with God. We see this concern even in his choice of his close followers and helpers. In today's Gospel reading he calls Levi, a tax collector, to follow him. At Jesus' call, without any hesitation or delay, Levi, "leaving everything, got up and followed Jesus." At Jesus' call, "Follow me," Levi leaves his tax-office and follows Jesus.

After a miraculous catch of fish at Jesus' instructions, "Simon Peter fell at Jesus' knees, saying, 'Leave me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!"' Jesus then calls Peter and his fishermen-partners James and John, "Do not be afraid. You will catch people from now on." (Lk 5: 8- 10)

Before God we are all sinners and in need of his forgiving love. We are most grateful for a Savior who ate with sinners and sought sinners not only to assure them of his love but also to save them in his mission to call sinners