Suy Niệm Tin Mừng thứ Sáu Tuần 28 Thường Niên

 Suy Niệm Tin Mừng thứ Sáu Tuần 28 Thường Niên

Qua bài Tin Mừng, Chúa Giêsu cho chúng ta biết là cuộc sống chúng ta đang sống hôm nay thật sự chỉ là cuộc sống tạm thời. Chúng ta không nên sợ cái chết ở trần thế, mà nên sợ cái chết đời đời. Đó là lý do tại sao chúng ta không nên chỉ chú ý đến cuộc sống trần gian, nhưng chúng ta phải chú ý đến sự sống vĩnh cửu đời đời ngày sau. Vĩnh cửu, đời đời là những chữ mà chúng ta thấy khó để liên kết với con người bởi vì tất cả mọi thứ ở đây không thể kéo dài mãi được. Tất cả mọi sự ỡ đời này đều có sự giới hạn. Vì tất cả mọi thứ, dù có bao bền lâu bao nhiêu, rồi cũng sẽ bị huỷ diệt. Ngay cả thế giới này cũng thế, rồi thì cũng qua đi. Và bất cứ điều gì chúng ta làm, đặc biệt là những điểu ẩn kín vẫn được Thiên Chúa nhìn thấy rất tỏ tường. Tất cả những hành động của chúng ta sẽ được phát hiện khi chúng trình diện mặt Chúa trong ngày sau hết của cuộc đời.

Chúng ta hãy bắt đầu ngay bây giờ, hãy bắt đầu làm việc cho những thứ cần thiết cho thiên đường, chứ không phải là chỉ để mắt của chúng ta hướng về những mối quan tâm trần thế, hữu hình. Hãy nhớ, Thiên Đàng thì tồn tại mãi mãi và có thật!

Reflection:

It is clear that the life we live today is temporary. We are not to fear the earthly death, but rather the eternal death. That is why we should not just pay attention to the earthly life, but rather also to the eternal life. Because eternal life lasts forever. Forever is a word we find hard to relate with because all things here do not last. Warranties are limited and guarantees have a lifespan of its own, no matter the assurances we get, All things, no matter how durable get broken. Even this world is passing away slowly. And whatever we do, especially those hidden, are seen by God. All our actions will be uncovered and exposed at the end of time. Nothing will escape God's sight. Let us then start working then for the things of Heaven, rather than just fix our eyes always and only on tangible earthly concerns. Heaven exists. Forever is real!

Friday 28th Ordinary Time, 2022

Opening Prayer: May your kindness, Lord, be upon us who have put our hope in you.

Encountering Christ:

1. Acknowledgment: It is said that every person has a desire to be acknowledged, affirmed, and appreciated. Although Jesus was aware of the Pharisees’ hypocrisy, he acknowledged the authority of those who opposed him, reminding them that their authority was given by God. They did not acknowledge Jesus in return, although they had witnessed his healings and his power over demons. Instead, they preferred to live in willful ignorance and “began to act with hostility toward him and to interrogate him about many things, for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say” (Luke 11:53-54).

2. Affirm: To affirm means to maintain as true everything Jesus said and did. Pharisees and scholars of the law possessed deep knowledge of God and therefore had a great responsibility to acknowledge Jesus as God, yet they failed to do so. Instead of rebuking the Pharisees this time, Jesus warned, “Beware of the leaven–that is, the hypocrisy–of the Pharisees […].” Though Jesus, the Son of God, was neither acknowledged nor affirmed by those over whom he had true authority, he did not exercise his justice. He left the Pharisees to themselves. “By rejecting grace in this life, one already judges oneself, receives according to one’s work, and can even condemn oneself for all eternity by rejecting the Spirit of love” (CCC 679).

3. Appreciation: Jesus left God the Father and came to Earth to save us from our sins. The only true response we should have is deep, profound appreciation for him. Jesus, who has total authority to judge us when we fail to acknowledge and affirm him, chooses instead to acknowledge and affirm us! “Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God. Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.” In his mercy, he soberly cautioned that justice will have its day: “There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed on the housetops.” And he warned us that our accuser will argue his case against us: “I shall show you whom to fear. Be afraid of the one who after killing has the power to cast into Gehenna; yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one.” Our faith tells us that each of us will face a personal judgment at the moment of death. Thankfully, our Savior tells us to not be afraid. If, in this life, we acknowledge, affirm, and appreciate Jesus Christ, we can trust that, at the moment of our death, he will do the same for us.

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, I acknowledge your authority, affirm your truth, and appreciate you as my all-loving Savior and King. I believe that “I am worth more than many sparrows” to you and that you notice all I try to do for you. I would be afraid of death and judgment, except that you tell me not to be. So, instead, I choose to trust you.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will make frequent acts of charity and reparation for my sins so that I will be better prepared for my personal judgment.

Friday 28th Ordinary Time

Opening Prayer: Lord as I come before you in these quiet moments of prayer, please bring your light into my darkness.

Encountering Christ:

· The Friends of Jesus: The crowd surrounding Jesus kept getting bigger and bigger. St. Luke makes a point of showing this. And yet, Jesus didn’t become intoxicated by this growing popularity. He was not trying to feed his own ego by multiplying followers; he was trying to win true friends. In fact, as he instructed his listeners to care less about what happens to them during their life than what will happen to them once they pass beyond death’s door–entering heaven or hell–he called them my friends. Jesus wants our friendship. Would I characterize my relationship with Jesus as a friendship? Do I interact with him as easily and sincerely as I do with a true friend? Do I recognize his voice as easily as I recognize the voices of my other friends? St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest theologians in the two-thousand-year history of the Church, describes the kind of love given to us by the gift of grace–called “charity” in theological terms–as the love of friendship. Indeed, grace itself is a gift that elevates our limited human nature so that we can relate to God no longer simply as his creatures, but as his friends. It was the discovery of Christ as a true friend, a true companion, that inspired today’s saint, Teresa of Avila, to reform the Carmelite Order and spark a spiritual renewal in the Church that is still reverberating today, five hundred years later. What does friendship with Christ mean for me? What would I like it to mean for me? What would God like it to mean for me?

· The Poison of Hypocrisy: The “leaven” of the Pharisees about which Jesus warned his closest followers is hypocrisy: the radical clash between what we appear to be and what we truly are. The Pharisees cultivated energetically and cunningly the appearance of religious fervor and advanced piety. And yet, underneath that appearance, they were not truly living a vibrant and humble relationship with God. Rather, they were using their status and reputation to feed their own vanity and pride, to increase their social and political influence, with all the worldly benefits such influence included. The same can happen to us. We can begin to fall in love with our own religious or moral appearances, considering ourselves more righteous and enlightened than others to the point where we begin to look down upon them and judge them. This is a spiritual trap anyone can fall into. It is a sure way to weaken one’s friendship with God through the suffocating grip of self-referentiality. Jesus exhorts us to avoid this. The hypocrite hides his own dark side even from himself, forgetting that in the end, when we come face to face with God, nothing will be hidden. It is better to be honest than hypocritical. A person committed to sincerity will live with greater peace in this life and the next. An honest person will grow in friendship with God and others, while a hypocrite will only shrink more and more into deadening isolation so deep that he may even lose sight of his very self.

· Confidence in God: Jesus has revealed that after we die we face judgment. In this passage, he reminds us of this and encourages us to live with this perspective always in mind. We are not living for this earthly life alone. In fact, our journey here is directed towards a glorious destination beyond this earth. How foolish we are when we lose sight of this! How easily manipulated by false fears and false promises alike! Jesus wants to save us from that life of unnecessary anxiety and uncertainty. And he does so by reminding us that God is our Father, that we matter to him as much as a little child matters to its loving, doting parents. The small little sparrows Jesus uses in his comparison owe every moment of their existence to God’s providential sustenance and care. And yet, we are worth more than many sparrows… Even the hairs of your head have all been counted… The challenges and sufferings of life in this fallen world, riddled with injustice and violence, are real. But Jesus doesn’t want us to live in fear of them. He invites us to trust that God can handle them, and that God’s plan for our eternal happiness far surpasses anything we could possibly imagine.

Conversing with Christ: Lord, you gave St. Teresa of Avila a truly life-changing experience of your goodness, presence, and love. I know you have given me many experiences of those things as well. And yet, I need more! I am so easily tangled up in the anxieties of this world! I hear you telling me not to be afraid. I hear you inviting me to trust in you without restraint… Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom; lead Thou me on… I do not ask to see the distant scene, one step enough for me.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will pause in the midst of my busy schedule to admire the beauty of your creation and let it remind me of your providential care for me.

Friday 28th

Introductory Prayer: Lord, I believe that you are present here as I turn to you in prayer. I trust and have confidence in your desire to give me every grace I need to receive today. Thank you for your love, thank you for your immense generosity toward me. I give you my life and my love in return.

Petition: Lord, give me courage to keep not to shy away from following you even in the face of when I am faced with any temptation.

11. Lion Food: St. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, was arrested and then transported to Rome, where death by lions awaited him. During the journey he wrote letters to some of the Christian communities he passed through, most notably the Christian community in Rome. In thea letter, he urges the Romansthem to do him no “untimely charity” of interceding with the emperor to spare him from execution. He writes to them, “I beseech of you not to show an unseasonable goodwill towards me. Suffer me to become food for the wild beasts, through whose instrumentality it will be granted me to attain to God” (Letter to the Romans). When Christ speaks of having no fear of those who kill the body but after that can do no more, he means it quite literally. If we encounter a situation in which we must either be faithful to Christ or cave in to pressure and abandon the path of the Lord, we should never hesitate. Follow Christ. Do not fear those who might “kill” by their criticism or disapproval of our rectitude of conscience. Do not be afraid.

2. Becoming Eucharist: St. Ignatius continues, “I am the wheat of God, and am ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of God” (Letter to the Romans). He is drawing a connection between his own coming martyrdom—wheat ground by the teeth of wild beasts—and the Eucharist—the pure bread of God. These words are not just grisly yet pious analogy; rather, they touch on the most profound meaning of the mystery of the Eucharist and our participation in it. The Eucharist is the most complete worship given to God the Father: It is the Incarnation of God among us, it is Christ’s sacrifice of his body on the Cross, and it is his Resurrection from death to eternal life. Through the EucharistChrist’s incarnation, sacrificial death, and resurrection are not merely examples we are called to imitate in the way an amateur athlete might imitate a professional. The Eucharist is much more profound than that. In receiving the Eucharist, we are united to Christ’s humanity (the Incarnation), his suffering to fulfill the Father’s loving will, his death to sin and his resurrection (our life in grace here and eternal life in the next). In this union we become the “pure bread of God”, as St. Ignatius writes. Wwe become an acceptable sacrifice to the Lord. We need to offer the struggles and challenges of each day in order to remain united with Christ in the Eucharist.

3. More than Birds: In our daily life we take many small things for granted because they seem to have little import in the grand scheme of things. “What were the high and low temperatures a year ago today?” “What does it matter now?” we might as well respond. “Where will the four sparrows I saw in the park two weeks ago get food to eat?” It’s not even a question that occurs to us. We have many other things of immediate importance that require our attention and action. Yet such a question is important enough to occur to God. Christ tells us in Luke 12:24, “They do not sow or reap; they have no storehouses and no barns; yet God feeds them.” He continues, “And how much more are you worth than the birds!” If God would make time to think about something so insignificant among all the goings-on in the world, how much more will he be taking care of our needs!

Conversation with Christ: Lord, when I look at the difficulties and rough spots I know I will be facing today, I worry about the sacrifices I’ll have to make. Maybe I won’t be as patient or generous as I ought. Maybe events won’t turn out as I hope. Help me to have confidence and trust in you like St. Ignatius. Help me realize that you have taken care of every minute detail of all that will occur today.

Resolution: When faced with any worry today I will pray, “Jesus, I trust in you.”

REFLECTION

In the Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples to be "on guard against the yeast of the Pharisees." Jesus was referring to their hypocrisy. The Pharisees pretend to be God-fearing but all their words and actions are just for show – to make people think they are pious so they will be shown respect. But deep down, they are selfish, manipulating, pretentious, and even violent. Jesus tells his disciples not to fear them even though they could "kill the body." They cannot kill the soul or destroy the Holy Spirit that God has put in the hearts of His disciples.

In the first reading, St. Paul says that Christians are those who hope in the Lord, who wait for his glorious coming. As they have been stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit, they feel a freedom that others do not have: that of being sons of God, of having experienced God as a Father, which gives them great joy and peace. It also emboldens them to preach the Good News of salvation to others. We are called to experience the joy and freedom of God's children. We are also called to preach the Gospel of Jesus to all men. To preach how Jesus died for our sins and was raised by the Father for our justification is our joy and privilege.