Suy Niệm Chúa Nhật thứ Ba Mùa Phục Sinh

Suy Niệm Chúa Nhật thứ Ba Mùa Phục Sinh

Sau sự kiện Phục Sinh, các Tông Đồ dường như quay trở lại công việc bình thường của họ, như thể họ đã quên người Thầy Giêsu của họ đã hứa sẽ biến Họ thành những "kẻ lưới người". Một sai lầm mà Thánh Gioan đã sẵn sàng thừa nhận trong Bài Tin Mừng hôm nay là khi ông nói rằng “Cho dù họ đã cố gắng chài lưới cả đêm mà họ không bắt được gì ” (Ga 21: 3). Đó là đêm của các môn đệ. Tất cả như nhau, sự xuất hiện, lúc mặt trời vừa lú dạng vào buổi sánh sớm, còn cái đêm của Chúa hoàn toàn đã được đảo ngược mọi thứ. Ông Simon Phêrô, trước đó đã lãnh nhận trách nhiệm đối với việc làm thua lỗ vì không bắt được một con cá nào, bây giờ chỉ có một Lời Một lần thả lưới Cá trong lưới kéo len không nổi: 153 con cá lớn, đó là kết quả với một con số Khá đáng kể!

   Hôm xưa ba lần chối Chúa trong ngày khổ nạn của Chúa Giêsu, Hôm nay, cũng ba lần, Phêrô đã bày tỏ nỗi lòng của mình là yêu mến Chúa, xin vâng theo Chúa và làm theo những sứ mệnh mà Chúa trao truyền lại cho ông đó là việc loan báo Tin Mừng của Chúa, Những phép lạ đã xảy ra: "họ những người lưới cá". Nếu như cá ra khỏi cái môi trường sống của họ, cá chết, con người cũng thế, cũng sẽ chết nếu không ai mang họ ra khỏi cái môi trường của sự chết,  ra khỏi những bóng tối và sự ngột ngạt thiếu không khí của môi trường xa lìa Thiên Chúa và bao quanh bởi những sự vô lý, và đưa họ vào ánh sáng, có không khí và sự ấm áp của sự sống.

Cuộc đời Chúa Kitô mà bản thân Ngài  đã được nuôi dưỡng bằng những sự vinh quang vô tận của Ngài, con số tuyệt vời của sự sống qua các bí tích của Giáo Hội, và chủ yếu là trong Bí Tích Thánh Thể. Trong Thánh Thể Chúa ban cho chúng ta mỗi người mình và máu Ngài qua hình bánh và không phải chỉ có thế, Ngài còn ban cho chúng ta chính Ngài trong sự hiện diện hay hình ảnh của con cá. Cá, là hình ảnh mà các cộng đoàn Kitô hữu đầu tiên được coi là một biểu tượng của Chúa Kitô và do đó cũng là một biểu tượng của  Kitô giáo nữa..

 

3rd Sunday of Easter

Heaven is where the will of God is perfectly fulfilled. Through human rulers, who are the good stewards of God’s creation, God exercises His lordship on earth. Earthly rulers, nevertheless, may not always exercise their stewardship in good spirit. This makes it difficult for many of us to experience God’s lordship in a human world marked by injustice, pain and moral disorder. Jesus’ resurrection is the beginning of God’s new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to impregnate earth with the life of heaven. God wants us to be more human not less human. He wants us to pursue a vocation, to be responsible in the tasks assigned, to delight in beauty, music, love and laughter. 

Today’s first reading shows us how the Apostles dealt with the high priest who was irresponsible in the exercise of his religious authority. Instead of being honoured by the Sanhedrin for obeying God, they suffered humiliation gladly. The second reading reminds us of Jesus who receives glory, honour and power because of his humble service to humanity. The sudden fruitfulness of their earlier failed efforts leads the Apostles to a realization of the Risen Jesus’ lordship over all creation.      

Risen Lord of heaven and earth, open our eyes to be aware that You are Lord of our life, despite our failures.

 

3rd Sunday of Easter

Opening Prayer: Lord, I ask you during this time of prayer to help me to better recognize you in the blessings of my life, in those whom you place in my path, and in the Holy Eucharist. Give me the grace also to be grateful for your presence, and help me proclaim to others: “It is the Lord.”

Encountering Christ:

Changing Fortunes: Seven disciples of Jesus spent a night fishing and came up empty; not one fish found its way into their nets. All of their emotions surrounding failure and futility would have been swirling in those early morning hours. We have no reason to believe that their failure was anything more than bad luck, but they were likely beating themselves up for wasting an entire night with nothing to show for their efforts. Each of us knows the feeling of failure, and each of us deals with it in our own way, perhaps placing blame, perhaps putting on an air of false humility, perhaps just gritting our teeth and persevering. These fishermen’s fortunes would soon change. Their glorified Lord, veiled as a stranger and addressing these men as “children,” suggested that they try one more time, hinting that perseverance, out of trusting obedience, would be the optimal path. Who alone warrants this trusting obedience? We receive our answer in today’s first reading from Acts 5, when the Apostles proclaimed, “We must obey God rather than man.”

The Weight: Peter, who had denied Jesus three times during his Passion, still had a heavy heart from his actions on that fateful eve of Good Friday. His sins weighed him down. The huge catch in their net that morning would have reminded him of that weight on his conscience. He may have thought something like, “Just as I can’t haul in this catchall alone, I cannot bear the weight of this guilt all alone.” Thankfully, he had his friends to help him pull the massive catch ashore. His very best friend, though, the one who had laid down his life for him (and for each of us), would help him bear the weight that was on his conscience. In fact, he had already taken on the weight of mankind’s sins by dying on the cross. The Catechism of the Catholic Church 605) reminds us, “The Church, following the Apostles, teaches that Christ died for all men without exception: ‘There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer.’”

Recognition: For some time, the weary fishermen didn’t realize that it was their Lord on the shore. He was present under the appearance of “any man,” coaxing some flames up out of a charcoal fire. Eventually, the “disciple whom Jesus loved” recognized this man as the risen Lord, perhaps due to his loving gaze or hopeful words. In an act of faith, Peter followed suit. The poignant scene from two millennia ago should evoke a response from us today, the Lord’s Day. We will shuffle up an aisle towards the end of Mass and bow towards a priest, deacon, or extraordinary minister holding something–nay, someone–under the appearance of bread. Do we feel the love emanating from the consecrated host, acknowledging the mystery that this is not bread but our glorified Lord? Do we make a conscious, sincere, and grateful act of faith, saying “Amen” when we hear “The Body of Christ”? When we are sent out after Mass, how do we convey this divine love out in the world?

Conversing with Christ: Jesus, I thank you today for reminding me that you are waiting for me to come to you in sorrow for my sins, not to berate me but to offer your divine mercy. You do not wish for me to be weighed down; instead, you desire me to be filled with joy and spread your Good News to others. Grant me the grace to help you “feed your sheep.”

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will perform a good examination of conscience, particularly reflecting on which area of Church teaching is proving difficult for me to obey, and ask your help to do better in this area.

 

Sunday 3rd (C) of Easter

Today, 3rd Sunday of Easter, we contemplate another apparition of Christ Resurrected, this time after evangelist Joan's most impressive chapter twenty first, all of it full of sacramental references, totally alive for the Christian community of that first generation, the same one that collected the evangelical testimony of the very Apostles.

   After the Easter events, the Apostles seemed to go back to their usual chores, as if they had forgotten the Master had transformed them into “fishers of men”. A mistake the Evangelist willingly admits when he says that —despite having tried their best— «they caught nothing that night» (Jn 21:3). It was the disciples' night. All the same, the appearance, at dawn, of the Lord completely overturned everything. Simon Peter, that had previously taken the responsibility for the unprofitable fishing, now pulls the net completely full: one hundred and fifty-three fishes is the outcome, a figure which is the addition of the numeric values of Simon (76) and of ikhthys (=fish, 77). Quite significant!

   And, when, under the glorified Lord's protective gaze and with his authority, the Apostles exert, with Peter's primacy —explicit in the triple avowal of his love for the Lord— their own evangelizing mission, the miracle happens: “they fish men”. If out of their living environment, fish die, human beings also die if nobody brings them out of the darkness and of the asphyxia of an existence away from God and surrounded by absurdity, and take them to the light, the air and the warmth of life. Of Christ's life that He, himself, nourishes from the beach of his Glory, splendid figure of the Church sacramental life and, primarily, of the Eucharist. It is in the Eucharist the Lord gives us personally the bread and, with it, He also gives himself to us, as the presence of the fish suggests; fish, which for the first Christian community, was a symbol of Christ and, therefore a Christian symbol, too.