Suy Niệm Tin Mừng thứ Hai Tuần thứ 3 Sau Phục Sinh

 Suy Niệm Tin Mừng thứ Hai Tuần thứ 3 Sau Phục Sinh

Khi chúng ta tuyên xưng tin vào Chúa Giêsu, chúng ta cũng phải tự hỏi mình những câu hỏi này:

- Lạy Chúa Giêsu, Chúa muốn con làm những điều gì?

- Con đang làm gì cho Chúa Giêsu đây? Và Con sẽ phải làm gì cho Chúa Giêsu?

Đức tin không có việc làm tốt thì Đức tin ấy trống rỗng, bởi vì chúng ta chỉ tuyên xương đức tin của chúng ta trên môi trên miệng mà thôi. Danh sách những gì chúng ta mong muốn được thực hiện vẫn còn đó nếu chúng ta không nhận ra và thực hiệc các việc ấy. Bản chất của niềm tin là lời cam kết. Khi Chúa Giêsu rao giảng về "Bánh hằng Sống", Ngài đã nói về Thiên Chúa Emmanuel, Thiên Chúa ở cùng chúng ta trong con người của Chúa Giêsu, chính Ngài. Ngay cả khi Chúa Giêsu đã lên trời, Sự hiện diện thần bí của Ngài ở trong Giáo Hội và sự hiệp thông mà chúng ta tin và cử hành trong Thánh Thể.

Đức Tin là sự dấn thân vào trong sứ mạng của Chúa Giêsu Kitô và hội nhập với Chúa qua sự hiệp thông với Giáo Hội, là thân thể của các tín hữu. Sự sống đời đời chỉ có thể được thực hiện như cơ thể của Chúa Kitô. Đó là lý do tại sao Thiên Chúa nói trong sự kiện Biến: "Đây là Con yêu dấu của ta, hãy nghe lời Người." Nghe để tin và tin là theo Chúa Giêsu trong sứ vụ của mình.

Reflection Monday 3rd Week of Easter

When we profess to believe in Jesus, we must also ask ourselves these questions: What does Jesus want me to do? What am I doing for Jesus? What will I do for Jesus?

Faith without good works is empty because profession of belief becomes lip service only. Wish lists remain wishes until they are acted upon and realized. The essence of belief is commitment. When Jesus preached about the "Bread of Life", he was talking about God Emmanuel, God with us in the person of Jesus, himself. Even if Jesus had already ascended to heaven, his mystical presence is in the Church and the communion we believe and celebrate in the Eucharist. To believe is to commit ourselves to the mission of Jesus Christ and integration through communion with the Church, the body of believers. Eternal life can only be realized as the body of Christ. That is why God said in the Transfiguration event: "This is my beloved Son, listen to him." To listen is to believe and to believe is to follow Jesus in his mission.

Monday 3rd Week of Easter:

Opening Prayer: Lord, today I want to find you. I know that you are inviting me into a deeper relationship, out of love and for love. You tell me that to accomplish the works of God, I must believe. I believe, Lord, help my unbelief.

Encountering Christ:

What More Do I Need? Today’s Gospel passage begins, unusually, with some bracketed text. This literary device is customarily used when an author wishes to add some clarity to the main point being developed. Of course, this particular “extra information” notes a miraculous multiplication of loaves and fishes, followed by an equally miraculous walk on the surface of the water! What are we, the reader, to make of this? What is being clarified is not the narrative that follows, but the essence of the protagonist of the scene. This Jesus whom the crowds sought was not just a man, but God incarnate. “The Father and I are one” (John 10:30). The time for disbelief, or even passive indifference, had passed.

    He Knows Our Hearts: The crowds desperately desired an encounter with Jesus and went to great lengths to find him. But when they found him, they were too embarrassed to state why they had come; instead, they asked a meaningless question about the time of his arrival. Thankfully, Christ knew what was on their hearts, and he conveyed this to the crowds instead of entertaining their question. For us, the message should be comforting. Jesus desires an encounter with us. He wants us to respond to his invitation to “come to the other side.” He will work with whatever we bring him, no matter how insufficient it may seem to us. We need only recall his words before multiplying the loaves: “Bring them here to me” (Matthew 14:18).

    Sent: When someone in the crowd asked, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus told him to believe in the “one he sent.” We often refer to one or the other of “the Twelve” as Apostles, or St. Paul as the “Apostle to the Gentiles,” meaning that they have been “sent” on a mission from God. Rarely do we acknowledge, though, that Jesus, the second person of the Holy Trinity, was the original Apostle, as he clearly identified himself in this Gospel as the one whom the Father “sent.” Today’s saint, the third-century Bishop Athanasius, was exiled multiple times by civic leaders and even Church officials for his staunch opposition to the Arian heresy. Ultimately, this great Doctor of the Church, who never stopped perceiving that he was being “sent,” and sent so that many would come to believe the truth about the Holy Trinity, prevailed. Praise be to God for this saint ’s perseverance in following the lead of the original Apostle in spreading truth. We, too, are sent at the end of every Mass to spread truth in generosity to those whom God places in our path.

    Conversing with Christ: Jesus, I thank you today for reminding me that you are waiting for me to come to you, despite my unworthiness. You desire that I grow in wisdom from your teaching, and urge me to freely accept your gift of faith. Grant me the grace to accept this gift, along with hope and love, and to let these theological virtues fill me and spill over to others.

    Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will slowly pray with Psalm 119, from which the responsorial psalm is taken.

Monday, 6th May 2019 - Acts. 6:8-15; John. 6:22-29

In today’s Gospel Jesus is not deceived by the crowd’s seeming interest in his sea crossings. He knows that his unexpected arrival has stirred up the pleasing prospect of another free meal in beautiful surroundings. The repetition “Amen, Amen”: or “Truly, truly” tells us that Jesus is going to say something very important; certainly something more important than the promise of a meal, free or otherwise.

    Jesus tells the people quite bluntly that they have failed to break through to the real meaning of his action of feeding them. They have stopped at the obvious, tangible level of food just as, on other occasions, they have merely seen in him one who might possibly bring them power of a political or military kind.

    With Moses the people of Israel reached the very border of their new home and nation. In the journey across the desert, they were fed by Manna, the wonderful bread from heaven. By the sign of providing the crowd with food on the mountain above Lake Galilee Jesus is promising an even more wonderful food. This food is the sum of his teaching, wonderful actions, suffering, death and resurrection. It will sustain them on their journey to a new and greater Holy Land. Envisaged too is the gift of the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ, an equally powerful food for the journey. This great sign is for us too. Heavenly Father, open our eyes to the meaning of the signs that really matter.

Mon 3rd Week of Easter (11th April 2016)

The people have just witnessed an extraordinary event: they had been fed; five thousand of them. They were clearly overcome with amazement. Never had such a thing been heard of! So they immediately rushed to find Jesus again; because they wanted more of this food they had been fed with, and only Jesus can give it to them! But Jesus, knowing why they sought him so anxiously, diverted their attention to the SIGN that was present in that miracle of the multiplication of the bread!

    We too can be taken up with signs and wonders we hear about: statues weeping, or other strange/unusual occurrences! Are we just as impressed with the greatest miracle the Lord has left for us on our altars. Daily we receive the most extraordinary FOOD we could ever have! This SIGN of all signs that the Lord has given us so gratuitously, without our ever even dreaming of it as ours, as often as we want it for the rest of our lives! Let us be thankful for this great miracle happening daily, everywhere the Eucharist is celebrated on this earth! We do not need to rush around looking for signs and wonders! Our God is great! He waits for us to come to an understanding of the Sign he has left us

    Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief!

Reflection: «The work God wants is this: that you believe in the One whom God has sent»

Today, we contemplate the result of the multiplication of the breads, result that astounded that entire crowd. Next day they descend from the mountain to reach the lakeshore, and remain there looking at Capernaum. They stay there because there is no boat. In fact, there had been only one: the boat the previous afternoon had gone without Jesus.

    The question is: Where is Jesus? The disciples have sailed without Jesus, and Jesus is certainly not there. Where is He, then? Luckily enough, the crowd can get into some other boats that have come, and leave for Capernaum, to look for Jesus. And, sure enough, when they arrive to the other side of the lake, they find him. They are surprised to find him there, and they ask him: «Master, when did you come here?» (Jn 6:25). That people do not know that Jesus, miraculously, have walked on the waters, and    Jesus does not answer directly to the questions they make him, either. What awareness and what endeavor bring them to truly find Jesus? The Lord tells us: «Work then, not for perishable food, but for the lasting food which gives eternal life.

    The Son of Man will give it to you, for he is the one the Father has marked» (Jn 6:27). Behind all this, sign of divine generosity, the multiplication of the breads continues being present. People insist and keep asking: «What shall we do? What are the works that God wants us to do? » (Jn 6:28). Jesus clearly replies: «The work God wants is this: that you believe in the One whom God has sent» (Jn 6:29).

    Jesus does not ask us to multiply our good deeds, but to have faith in the One whom God Father has sent. Because with faith, man carries out the work of God. This is why He has established the same faith as a work. The Virgin Mary provides us with best model of unconditional love manifested in faith works.