Suy Niêm Tin Mừng Thứ Tư sau tuần 7 Phục Sinh -

 Suy Niêm Tin Mừng Thứ Tư sau tuần 7 Phục Sinh - John 17:11-19

Những bài Tin Mừng trong ngày thứ thứ ba, thứ tư và thứ năm trong tuần này (tuần thứ 7 mùa Phục Sinh) là những bài đọc hay nhất và đã được gộp lại với nhau. Những bài này được rút ra từ chương XVII trong sách Tin Mừng của Thánh Gioan, những bài Tin Mừng này đã cho chúng ta thấy được sự chân thành trong lời cầu nguyện, những mối quan tâm mà Chúa Giêsu hằng âm ỉ giữ mải trong tâm khảm của Ngài khi Ngài biết rằng Ngài sẽ phải ra đi vào vườn Cây Dầu và lên đường chuẩn bị lên núi Calvary.  Trong khi Ngài cầu nguyện cho "tất cả mọi người", đặc biệt, Chúa Giêsu đã cầu nguyện cho những người có đang mặt trong phòng Tiệc Ly và tất cả những người đã từng theo Chúa và cùng làm việc với Chúa trong việc làm cho Nước Chúa được hiện diện ở giữa những người trong thế kỷ thứ nhất tại Jerusalem, Giuđêa và Galilê .

            Điều đáng chú ý, tuy nhiên, Chúa Giêsu đã cầu nguyện một cách rõ ràng cho những thế hệ mai sau, cho những ai sẽ tin tưởng ở nơi Ngài qua những lời rao giảng của các môn đệ của Ngài và của người kế vị các Tông Đồ thay mặt Chúa giáo huấn cho mọi ngươì, Tóm lại, Chúa Giêsu đã cầu nguyện cho tất cả chúng ta, cho các tín hữu như chúng ta đang ở trong Người. Ngài cầu nguyện xin Thiên Chúa cho chúng ta mãi mãi được đoàn kết và đó điều rất là quan trọng trong thế giới đang bị đầy rẫy những chia rẽ này. Ngài cũng cầu nguyện cho tất chúng ta là sẽ gặp và thấy riêng Ngài trong vinh quang Thiên Chúa trên thiên đàng. Đây phải là một ý nghĩ cần phải có trong tâm trí của chúng ta mỗi ngày.

            Khi chúng ta nói với bạn bè của chúng ta rằng chúng ta đang cầu nguyện cho họ để cho họ có được niềm vui và hạnh phúc. Chúng ta cũng sẽ vui mừng và an ủi khi chúng ta biết rằng họ cũng đang cầu nguyện cho chúng ta. Thật là một thúc đẩy và hạnh phúc cho chúng ta khi chúng ta nhận biết được rằng Chúa Giêsu đã và đang cầu nguyện cho chúng ta. Không còn lời ca nào có ý nghĩa và đúng như lời ca của bài bài thánh ca, "Thật là một người bạn tốt mà chúng ta đã có trong Chúa Giêsu"!

 

Reflection SG:

The Gospel readings for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for this 7th week of Easter are best taken together. They make up the seventeenth chapter of St John’s Gospel. They present us in prayer form the concerns that were in the heart of Jesus as he was about to leave the Supper Room for Gethsemane and Calvary. While he prayed for “all people” he prayed in particular for those present in the Supper Room and all those others who worked with him in his mission to make present the Kingdom of God among the men and women of first century Jerusalem, Judea and Galilee.

            Strikingly, however, he prayed explicitly for those generations to come who would believe in him because of the words of the disciples present in the room and of their successors. In short he prayed for you and for me, believers as we are in him. He prayed that we would be united and that is very important in this divided world. He prayed too that we would see him clearly, personally in his glory in heaven. What a thought to have in our minds for the day.

            When we tell our friends that we are praying for them they are happy. We are happy and consoled when we know that they are praying for us. What a boost it is for us when we realize that Jesus prayed for us and is praying for us. How true are those words of the hymn, “What a friend we have in Jesus”! Dear Jesus, friend and inspirer, help us to believe in your continuing, loving interest in us.

 

Wenesday 7th of Easter 2022

Opening Prayer: Lord, grant me the grace to seek your truth and follow you. You have told me through your eternal word that you wish for me to cling to you and thus share in your joy—not just to some small degree set aside for each one of us, but completely. Let me take this to heart and refrain from the alternative of endlessly chasing the fleeting pleasures of this world.

Encountering Christ:

    Guarded Well: By this point in John’s Gospel, we know that many disciples had left Jesus (John 6:66). It is comforting to know that Jesus didn’t consider any of these lost; in fact, only Judas, who couldn’t bear the shame of his betrayal and therefore wasn’t capable of seeking forgiveness, was lost. Indeed, the only unforgivable sin is “blaspheming the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 12:31), which is beautifully explained by our Church: “There are no limits to the mercy of God, but anyone who deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting, rejects the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit. Such hardness of heart can lead to final impenitence and eternal loss” (CCC 1864).

    Complete Joy: What puts a smile on our face? Perhaps today you will be offered some interesting assignment at work. Maybe a child will voice gratitude for some act you performed, or your spouse will offer you words of affirmation. Each of these is a “good” that God wants us to experience (and which should prompt us to offer thanks back to him). Of course, tomorrow the actions of your boss, child, or spouse may not similarly please you. Jesus, in this prayer to the Father, asks that we are enabled to transcend these worldly pleasures, which are fleeting, and to experience a joy which is complete. “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). Lord, let me use my free will to discern and follow your perfect will, assured in the hope that this will lead to complete joy, if not in this world, then in the next.

    Consecrated in Truth: Today’s liturgy is a memorial to an early witness (in Greek, “martyr”) to the truth of Jesus Christ. St. Justin is so well known by his witness that he is often referred to as “St. Justin Martyr.” In the days of Justin, the consequence of witnessing to the truth was severe persecution, often culminating in making a choice to either renounce Our Lord and Savior, who is “The Way, the Truth, and the Life,” or to offer one’s earthly life with the hope of an eternal reward in Heaven. How could such courage ever be mustered? Jesus prayed to the Father that every one of his followers, and us, would be “consecrated in the truth.” He then proclaimed that he would consecrate himself for each of us so that we could remain in the truth. His Passion, death, and Resurrection make it possible for us to have this audacious hope! He left us his Holy Spirit to guide us in all truth (John 16:13) and to provide us with the gift of wisdom. Lord, let me graciously accept this unmerited gift from you, and, like the philosopher (in Greek, “lover of wisdom”) St. Justin Martyr, let me proclaim the truth of the Gospel to those whom I encounter today.

    Conversing with Christ: Today I ask that you take away all of the lies and deception that encircle me and let me bask in your truth. Help me to seek you first, rather than reaching instead for the world’s fleeting pleasures, secure in your promise that this will allow me to share in your joy completely.

    Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will identify at least one fleeting pleasure which I have allowed to take hold in my life, and I will pledge to forego that activity and replace it with something more pleasing to you.

Wenesday 7th of Easter:

Opening Prayer: Lord, I come to this time of prayer with a desire to know you better. I want to know your truth by knowing your word. Fill me with the truth so I will be filled with joy.

Encountering Christ:

    In the Name of God: Jesus lifted up his heart, prayed to his Father, and begged him on our behalf to “keep them in your name that you have given me.” Jesus’s name is the one by which “God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend (Philippians 2:9-10). The name of Jesus is different from other names, for it is what it signifies: Jesus (Y’shua in Hebrew) is “savior, deliverer”; he redeemed us and rescued us. When we whisper the Jesus Prayer: “Jesus, son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” we invoke a name that is powerful in protecting us from evil and darkness. We can whisper this prayer, or simply his name, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,” when we are afraid or tempted.

    Son of Destruction: Jesus referred to Judas as the “son of destruction.” Jesus had called him, allowed him into his inner circle of disciples, and treated him lovingly. What sorrow Jesus must have felt by Judas’s betrayal. “Those who do wrong deserve our tears…For the covetous man and the slanderer, and the man guilty of any other wrongdoing injure themselves most of all […] Christ repaid the man who was going to betray him with just the opposite. For example, he washed his feet, reproved him without bitterness, censured him in private, ministered to him, allowed him to share in his table and his kiss. Yet, though Judas did not become better because of these things, Jesus himself persevered in his course of action” (St. John Crysostom). Jesus knew Judas would betray him, but he did not give up on Judas or neglect him. Jesus pursued him to the end, though eventually he was “lost.” What a beautiful challenge Christ sets before us by the loving way he treated Judas.

    Consecrated in Truth: Jesus desired that his disciples share the fullness of his joy by sharing in his Trinitarian life, “because they do not belong to the world.” Jesus called his disciples to follow him on a path that renounced earthly goods. He knew that the world would hate them, for their mission was to follow Christ and find their joy in him, and not in the attractions of the world. Their joy was fulfilled in discovering their mission to share Christ with others, and the early Christians did this as they “devoted themselves to the teaching of the Apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers” (Acts 2:42). Simple Christian living in small community home churches spread through the whole world. We can imitate their devotion by sharing our joy in Christ with others, especially those in our parish and our neighborhood.

    Conversing with Christ: Lord, I want to follow you with the authentic faith of the disciples. Help me find joy in living my faith. Keep me close to you, with your name on my lips and your joy in my heart.

    Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will rediscover the joy of the first Christians by inviting a friend to Mass.

Reflection

Do we know what our mission in life is? Jesus' mission was to glorify his heavenly Father through obedience to His will. In the Gospel, we see Jesus who has finished his mission on earth and about to return to his Father in heaven.

Jesus' strength comes from the Father. We who aspire to become disciples of Jesus must pray for strength from the Holy Spirit. As his disciples, we are consecrated in God's truth and holiness. To "consecrate" means "to be made holy or to set apart for God". It also means to be equipped with the qualities of mind, heart and character for a task or service. Just as Jesus was called by the Father to serve in holiness and truth, so we too, are called and equipped for the task of serving God in the world as his representatives. God's truth frees us from ignorance and the deception of sin. It also reveals to us God's goodness, love, and wisdom. Is our life consecrated to God?

May the Lord, take our lives and make it wholly pleasing to him. May He sanctify us in His truth and may the Holy Spirit guide us that we may follow Him faithfully wherever He may lead us.