Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Hai Tuần 29 Thường Niên

 Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Hai Tuần 29 Thường Niên- Monday (2017): Scripture: Luke 12:13-21

Khi chúng ta chú trọng đến của cải vật chất và coi của cải, niềm vui, hoặc quyền lực, là ưu tiên hàng đầu thay vì của cải thiêng liêng, thì chúng ta chết cho niềm vui, cho sự hài lòng, cho sự kỷ luật tự giác và chia sẻ hạnh phúc. Khi chúng ta đã dành tất cả thời gian và năng lực của chúng ta để theo đuổi sự ích kỷ, danh vọng, tiền tài, thì khi chết chúng ta mới thấy rõ trước mắt những cơ hội mà chúng ta đã lãng phí trong cuộc đời của chúng ta để làm lụng, nghĩ đến việc để dành cần thiết cho việc giáo dục trẻ em hoặc để đóng góp cấp cho sự an toàn cho quỹ hưu trí ủa chúng ta mà thôi. Chúng ta chú ý đến những khoản tiết kiệm quá mức mà phản ánh đến sự thiếu ltin tưởng vào Thiên Chúa, một sự tham lam trong thái độ cơ bản, và một trái tim vô cảm đối với những người nghèo khó..

Trong Thánh Thể chúng ta đã nhìn thấy rõ một cái ví dụ của việc cho và chia sẻ. Đức Kitô đã không lập ra Thánh Thể để rồi được lưu giữ và giữ kín trong nhà tạm mà thôi. Nhưng Ngài đã ban cho chúng ta Thánh Thể để làm thức ăn và được phân phối và được chia sẻ cho tất cả mọi người một cộng đồng. Chúa Giêsu khuyến khích chúng ta phải nên xem xét lại các việc mà chúng ta cần phải ưu tiên và cách mà chúng ta sử dụng của cải của chúng ta. Thay vì tìm cách, làm ăan phát triển sự giàu có cho chính mình, Chúa Giêsu mời gọi chúng ta hãy nên làm giàu trước mặt Thiên Chúa.

REFLECTION

When we make possessions, pleasure, or power, a top priority instead of spiritual riches, we die to the joy of giving, the satisfaction of self-discipline and the happiness of sharing. When we devote all our time and energy to selfish pursuits, death merely discloses the opportunities we have wasted and our poverty of good works. We do not refer to the necessary savings needed to educate children or to provide for the security of retirement. We refer to the excessive savings that reflect a lack of trust in God, a basic greed in attitude,and an uncaring heart for the poor. In the Eucharist we have an example of giving and sharing. Christ did not institute the Eucharist to be stored up and left in our tabernacles. He gave us the Eucharist as food to be distributed and shared as a community. Jesus challenges us to reexamine our priorities and the way we use our possessions. Instead of growing rich for ourselves, Jesus invites us to grow rich in the sight of God.

Monday 29th Ordinary Time 2022

Opening Prayer: Lord, nothing the world offers can compare with the gift of your love and the promise of eternal life with you. Nevertheless, it is so easy to get caught up with thoughts of material security. Turning to you in this time of prayer, Lord, I set my heart on you. I remember the saying, “You are what you love.” Lord, I want to love you above all else. I believe that you are the source of real and lasting happiness. I trust in your goodness and mercy.

Encountering Christ:

1. Guard against All Greed: Imagine having the opportunity to stand before Jesus and choosing to say, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” This man’s question showed what he valued most in life. Like the man who went away sad because he could not let go of his possessions to follow Jesus, this man was focused on material well-being. In the parable, Jesus clearly demonstrates how limited this focus is. Jesus encourages us to look beyond what we see and do here and now and set our sights on the world to come. St. Matthew quotes Jesus, “Where your treasure is, there also will your heart be” (Matthew 6:21). Does the way we manage our financial resources reflect our Christian values?

2. Disordered Attachment: In his First Letter to Timothy, St. Paul warned, “For the love of money is the root of all evils” (1 Timothy 6:10) and in the book of Hebrews, he wrote, “Let your life be free from love of money but be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never forsake you or abandon you’” (Hebrews 13:5). It takes money to live, and money can be used for great good; however, those who consider money to be the source of their identity and happiness need to hear Christ’s statement: “Life does not consist in possessions” (Luke 12:13). St. Paul VI wrote, “The exclusive pursuit of possessions thus becomes an obstacle to individual fulfillment and to man’s true greatness. Both for nations and for individual men, avarice is the most evident form of moral underdevelopment” (St. Paul VI, Populorum Progressio, n. 19). Our choices make evident how we prioritize God and the material world.

3. Practical Atheism?: When we profess to love the Lord and try to follow him, we encounter challenges. Sometimes we are challenged to overcome a bad, even sinful, habit. Sometimes we are challenged to embrace a moral or theological teaching of the Church. However, sometimes it happens that an individual decides to live according to his own lights, effectively putting God in second place. In this passage, the man anticipated storing up everything he needed for many years, implying that he did not need God in his future. Jesus directs our attention to the importance of being rich in the things of God rather than storing up treasure for ourselves. “What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” (Mark 8:36).

Conversing with Christ: Jesus, in my mind, I want to believe that there is nothing more important than you. However, as I slow down and look at my life, I see that there are things that I justify clinging to, despite your clear teaching or your whisper asking me to let it go. Lord, expand my heart with love of you, so that I desire you so much that I have the determination to change. Give me the strength to persevere on my path to you.

Resolution: Lord, today, by your grace, I will make an appointment for a Holy Hour to focus on discovering what is most difficult for me to surrender to you, and I will invite someone to accompany me.

REFLECTION

In the first reading Paul reminds us that we are saved through faith by God's grace.. Salvation, faith and grace are all gifts from God, not from us or our works. We show our gratitude by the good works we do.

The Gospel reading today highlights the greed of so many. For many money and wealth are happiness and power. For what? "You fool! This very night your life will be taken from you; tell me who shall get all you have put aside?" This is the lot of the one who stores up riches instead of amassing for God.

The Gospel reading tells us we cannot carry our wealth with us when we die. What for have we labored for and amassed so much? Instead why have we not amassed wealth "for God"?