Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Sáu Tuần 23 TN

Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Sáu Tuần 23 TN- Luke 6:39-42.

Trong Tin Mừng ngày hôm nay, Chúa Giêsu dạy chúng ta phải biết cách sống trong mối quan hệ với những người khác. Nhiều người trong chúng ta có xu hướng là thích phán xét người khác, thích tỉm kiếm những lỗi lầm hoặc thiếu sót của người khác để sửa sai họ, những lại không chịu nhận ra những cái sai lầm của chính mình. Có những lần hoặc nhiều lần chúng ta có thể đã muốn sửa sai người khác trong âm thầm, nhưng cũng có lúc bốc đồng, có những người trong chúng ta có thể đã thể hiện sự phán xét hay phán đoán người khác một cách công khai để gây sự chú ý cho mọi người biết tới những giới hạn của những người khác và để tỏ cho họ thấy sự thông minh của mình.

Hôm nay Chúa Giêsu kêu gọi chúng ta nên phải biết sống khiêm nhượng, từ tâm và bác ái hơn. Chúng ta phải luôn luôn nhớ rằng chúng ta không thể biết được những gì đang xảy ra trong lòng hay trong trí tuởng của người khác, nên chúng ta không thể biết và hiểu được họ đang nghĩ gì, và biết đâu họ có thể có những sự giải thích, hợp lý và thích đáng đằng sau cho những cái hành động của họ. Chúng ta không nên vội xét đoán và làm nô lệ cho những cái phản ứng bốc đồng của chúng ta. Thay vào đó, chúng ta cần thông cảm, hiệp thông với những người khác trong tình yêu thương và lòng nhân hậu của Chúa Giêsu, người mà hằng mong muốn được thu hút tất cả chúng ta vào nơi chính Ngài.

REFLECTION

In today's gospel Jesus is teaching us a way of living in relation to others. Perhaps we all have the experience of teaching others well because we have learned something ourselves. We cannot teach others what we have not learned ourselves. When we do have something to teach others, we still have to exercise caution. Many of us have a very human tendency to judge others, noticing their faults, mistakes, or shortcomings. We may have time and again did this in our hearts, but those of us who are impulsive may express this judgment by openly calling attention to the limitations of others.

Today Jesus asks us to be more charitable. We must always remember that we do not know what is going on in another person's heart, that we often do not have complete information, and that there may be a good explanation behind another person's actions. Let us not be slaves to our impulsive reactions. Instead, let us relate to others with the loving kindness and mercy of Jesus, who desires to draw all of us into himself.

Friday 23rd Ordinary Times

Opening Prayer: Holy Spirit, send me your wisdom, knowledge, and understanding so I might become like you. Help me imitate you in my thoughts, words, and actions. Open the meaning of these words to me and press them deeply into my heart.

Encountering Christ:

1. Imitate the Teacher: Christ calls us, his disciples, to become “fully trained” to be conformed to him. We become like the teacher par excellence, Jesus, by imitating him (Ephesians 5:1). To apply this to our everyday lives, we can practice pausing in prayer in the various circumstances we experience, asking Jesus how he would approach the situations at hand and then imitating him. This can especially be helpful in difficult situations or trials, as Jesus “was despised and rejected by others, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain” (Isaiah 53:3). During trials, we can pray for faith and wisdom to guide us so we see the meaning in our suffering and persevere (James 1:2-7). By imitating Jesus in and enduring our sufferings, we will grow “to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).

2. Pruned for Maturity: Scripture reading is essential to understanding how to imitate Christ. St. Jerome said, “ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” How can we understand what Jesus taught and how he lived, let alone imitate him, without being intimately familiar with the firsthand accounts of his earthly life in the Gospels and apostolic Christian teaching of the early Church? Not only does reading Scripture give us knowledge of Christ, it changes us as we read it: “Indeed, the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). It prunes away what is sinful and unfruitful in us (John 15:3). Pruning with the word is one way that we can “remove the splinter” from our own eyes before helping others to do so. Being pruned from sinful patterns is necessary for becoming “mature and complete” in Christ (James 1:4).

3. St. Peter Claver: St. Peter Claver is an excellent example of a person who heroically imitated Christ. Like Jesus, his heart was moved to care for the weak and the poor. This Spanish priest ministered to slaves in the new world. He was an eyewitness to the colonial slavery culture and worked to bring what justice he could to the men, women, and children he ministered to. St. Peter Claver was unafraid to encounter the squalid conditions these people endured. He was called “the slave of the slaves” for his devotion to their physical and spiritual wellness. He wrote, “I must dedicate myself to the service of God until death, on the understanding that I am like a slave, wholly occupied in the service of his master and in the endeavor to please and content him in all and in every way with his whole soul, body, and mind.” In this way, he fulfilled God’s greatest commandment: “to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:33). Do we see God in the poor and suffering as St. Peter Claver did? What have we done to alleviate the suffering of others recently?

Conversing with Christ: My Jesus, thank you for the examples of the saints! They inspire me to imitate their example of active faith, and so imitate you. I am sorry for when I have failed to care for the poor and needy. I am reminded that whatever I do for the least of my brothers I do for you as well (Matthew 25:40). Prune me with your holy word in Scripture, and then give me the virtues I need to imitate you and so be conformed to you (Romans 8:29).

Resolution: Lord, today, by your grace, I will imitate St. Peter Claver and seek a way to serve the poor or suffering in my community.

REFLECTION

In the first reading, Paul writes that he certainly did not deserve to be in the presence of the Lord nor be in His service because he was "a blasphemer, a persecutor and a rabid enemy"; but, Jesus had mercy on him and changed his heart on the road to Damascus. Jesus gifted him with faith and love, making him trustworthy to be in his service. The same theme can be seen in today's gospel. A disciple of Jesus is one "who is not above the master, but when fully trained, he will be like his master." As true disciples, we are to behave like our Master. We are to conform our hearts to the heart of Jesus who is not critical of us and accepts us as sinners. Jesus encourages us to look into ourselves instead of judging those around us. So that we may follow his teachings more closely, we need his grace and his strength, as Paul says. We cannot do this on our own but only through God's gracious permission. We pray that one day, our character may mirror that of Jesus.