Suy Niệm Tin Mừng
thứ Năm tuần 33 Thường Niên
Trọng
tâm của bài Tin Mừng hôm nay Chúa Giêsu đã cho chúng ta thấy rõ
là Thiên Chúa đã ban cho mỗi người chúng ta những hồng ân của Thiên Chúa, đó là
những món quá “tự do”. Sự tự do có nghĩa là chúng ta được phép
tự do chọn lựa cuộc sống của chúng ta như thế nào theo như ý muốn
riêng của chúng ta.
Chúng ta thấy Chúa
Giêsu đã khóc, Ngài khóc vì Ngài biết được ngày mà Thành
Jerusalem sẽ bị tàn phá vì dân Israel đã chọn lựa cuộc sống theo
ý họ, một cuộc sống không có Thiên Chúa, và hướng theo tội lỗi họ
sống với những sự ham muốn của cái vật chất, danh vọng, kêu ngạo và tự hào mà
họ đã quên đi cái sứ điệp cứu độ mà Thiên Chúa đã đến để ban
cho họ. Họ đã thiếu lòng tin tưởng nơi Thiên Chúa, Vì sự kêu ngạo
mà nghĩ là không có gì sẽ có thể tàn phá được Thành Jerusalem, nhưng Chúa
Giêsu không thể ngăn cản được những ước mơ riêng hay niềm tự hào của họ. Ngài
đã để cho họ được tự do sống với cuộc sống mà họ đã lựa chọn cho
chính họ, và vì thế mà họ
cũng sẽ phải gánh chịu tất cả những hậu quả của cuộc sống sau này.
Đây
là bài học tuy có sự khắc nghiệt. Tuy nhiên, bài học
này liên quan đến những sự lựa chọn mà chúng ta đã quyết định
trong cuộc sống thường ngày của chúng ta. Có thể chúng ta
không hề bị đòi hỏi là phải tranh chấp với chính quyền,
nhưng chúng ta có thể có những sự đòi hỏi và phải thử thách
về văn hóa, về tiện nghi hiện đại, với bạn bè, của chúng
ta để làm theo những gì mà Thiên
Chúa đã ban truyền cho chúng ta.
Chắc
chắn sẽ có một số người quay lưng ra đi và bỏ Thiên
Chúa khi Chúa không can thiệp hay giải quyết vấn đề riêng của
họ, hay khi Chúa không ban cho họ những gì mà họ mong muốn,
hay khi họ gặp phải hậu quả nghiêm trọng mà họ không thích vì
sự tự do lựa chọn theo ý thích riêng của họ. Thiên Chúa là
một Thiên Chúa yêu thương, nhưng Ngài không phải là một Thiên
Chúa dễ dãi, vô tư. Ngài luôn đòi hỏi nơi chúng
ta có sự vâng lời và lòng trung tín, nhưng Ngài cũng cho
chúng ta có ý chí và sự tự do (để tuân theo hoặc không tuân
theo ý Ngài). Nhưng những việc chúng ta làm theo như ý muốn riêng của
chúng ta thì chúng ta sẽ phải gánh chịu những hậu quả mà tự chúng ta đã
gây ra sau này.
REFLECTION
The focus of today's
Gospel reading is on the gift of free will, which God has given us. It allows
us to choose how we spend our life on earth and in eternity. We see Jesus
weeping over Jerusalem. He knows the destruction that will come to the city
because its people will choose their own greed and pride over the message of
salvation which he has come to deliver. Their lack of faith will mean
devastation, but Jesus cannot stop it. He must allow them to make the choice
and then, live with the consequences.
These are harsh lessons. Yet they relate to many of the choices
we must make every day in our own lives. We may not be asked to defy the
government, but we may be challenged to defy popular culture or our friends or
our boss in order to follow what God has commanded. How closely do we count the
loss when we need to make such a choice? How well do we identify the consequences,
in terms of our eternal life, when deciding what is important to us? Some
people turn against God when God does not intervene to solve their problems or
grant their desires or when the correct choice carries with it a serious
consequence which is not to their liking. We may read the story of the
persecution and death of Jesus and say that we would have been loyal to him to
the end. Look back at the choices you have made in the past and see if any of
them compromised God's mission for the sake of social acceptance or to keep
peace in your family or to satisfy a personal hunger of yours. God is a loving
God, but he is not an easy God. He requires obedience and loyalty and gives us
free will to obey or not to obey. The consequence then becomes our own doing.
Thanks be to God that our God is not a vengeful God. In Jesus
Christ we have a Savior who weeps over our misfortunes and whose blood, given
on the cross, purchases each and every one of us for God on the condition
that we acknowledge our sinfulness and return to his loving embrace.
Thursday
33rd Ordinary Time 2022
Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, increase my faith that I may witness to your love in
the world so many others will know, love, and follow you and discover the peace
that only you offer.
Encountering Christ:
1. Jesus Wept: Luke’s Gospel places the lament over Jerusalem after
Jesus’ triumphant and regal entry into the city as a sign of his messianic
kingship. He revealed himself in humility, aware that his Kingship would bear
fruit not in human glory, but in human ignominy. But even among those in the
crowd who praised and exalted him, who honored and flattered him with the
waving of branches and laying down of their cloaks, were those who would soon
cry out for his crucifixion, betraying him. Of those, some would repent and
others would not. Jesus wept for them. In his humanity he felt the weight of
rejection. But it was not rejection that he experienced due to the desire to
preserve his human respect. His divine heart was pierced with sorrow as he felt
the weight of damnation for those who would be lost. Does Jesus weep today? Do
we weep with Jesus as a means to intercede that not one be lost?
2. “What Would Bring You Peace”: Today, on a hill of the Mount of Olives
outside the old city of Jerusalem, you can visit a modern church,
architecturally designed in the form of a tear. It is called Dominus Flevit,
meaning “The Lord wept.” It commemorates the moment when Jesus wept as he stood
looking upon the great city of Jerusalem, conquered by King David around the
year 1000 B.C. David’s son Solomon built a Temple to honor the Lord.
While Jesus wept, he looked upon the city of Jerusalem and the Temple that
stood as a sign of people’s faith and devotion through worship to the one true
God. The name Jerusalem literally means “city of peace.” Jesus foresaw that the
key to their peace was hidden from their eyes. Two thousand years later, it
continues to be a place of conflict, as Jesus weeps for those who still have
not found true peace that only salvation in the Lord can give. In our own
lives, when we can not find peace, let us examine our hearts to discover if
Jesus, the Prince of Peace, is hidden from our eyes and, if so, what obstructs
the view.
3. They Will Not Leave One Stone Upon Another: Jesus prophesied the destruction of the
Temple. Even today, archaeologists have discovered stones that could be the
platform upon which the Temple stood, but there are no remains of the great
Temple itself, destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 A.D. But like so many
things that he said, there is a literal and a spiritual significance to Jesus’
prophecy. The ultimate destruction of peace is lack of faith in the One who
offers us eternal peace. Let us pray for our own faith and the faith of those
with whom we have contact every day, that we will build a solid foundation that
cannot be torn down, no matter what enemies attempt to besiege it.
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner. I believe in you, but
increase my faith. Grant that I may fix my gaze on you, the eternal Prince of
Peace. May I trust in your grace, present to me in multiple ways throughout the
day. Help me to discern how to facilitate peace among my brothers and sisters,
a peace that only you can offer.
Resolution: Lord,
today by your grace I will examine my faith and see where I can make greater
acts of faith in your ultimate victory over my life and over the lives of those
whom I love.
Thursday
33rd Ordinary Time 2021
Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, recollect my heart to spend these moments of
prayer with you. Come, Holy Spirit, teach me to pray and open my heart to the
word which you wish to speak to me today. I believe that you are here. I trust
that you are faithful. I love you, teach me to love you more. Let me enter into
your heart and know you more deeply.
Encountering Christ:
·
The
Master Who Weeps: With today’s
Gospel, Mother Church invites us to enter into Christ’s heart as he draws near
to his Passion. Approaching Jerusalem, Jesus draws nearer to the “hour” when he
will be handed over to his enemies. What he prophesizes for the city of
Jerusalem, he will soon fulfill in his own person: encircled and hemmed in on
all sides, smashed to the ground and raised up on a tree. Does he weep for fear
of the suffering that awaits him? Or do his tears well up in desire for the
salvation of every human being, even for my own salvation? Are they an
expression, at once both human and divine, of God’s own “helplessness” before
humanity’s freedom? This God, who loves more radically than anyone can fathom,
he who is love itself, will not force upon his children the salvation they so
need and he so longs to give. May these tears of Christ soften the soil of our
soul.
·
Witnessing
the Master Weep: Perhaps
in these moments of prayer, the Holy Spirit invites us to pause and contemplate
the Master weeping. His eyes which have seen the forming and founding of
creation are glazed over with tears. Heavy, glistening drops fall gently on his
beard. Perhaps we know of this event because the Apostles witnessed and later
recounted it. What must it have been for them to see their Master weep? What
insight into his heart did it give them? “If this day you only knew what makes
for peace.” He desires peace for us. Did his Apostles learn that God comes to
heal, not to break; that he wishes for our wholeness, even if it means passing
first through suffering, as Christ himself would do?
·
His
Visitation: Just as Christ
prepared to visit the city of Jerusalem, he came to visit the world with his
gift of redemption. So, too, he comes to visit my soul each day. Standing upon
the hilltop of my life, what is in his heart as he looks upon me? Where are the
places in my own life where Christ desires peace? Are there relationships he
wishes to heal, wounds of mind and heart he wishes to cleanse and purify? What
does this desire of Christ for peace and for recognition of his visitation mean
in my own life today?
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, as you stand on the hilltop and look upon your
beloved city of Jerusalem, I know you are gazing upon my soul, too, and upon
the world in which I live. No suffering or trial is hidden from your eyes.
Indeed, each one has already been borne in your cross and imprinted upon your
Sacred Heart. You know them all. And you desire peace. You desire
reconciliation. Speak this word over the sufferings in my own life, in my world
today. Give us faith, hope, and love, and perseverance.
Resolution: Lord,
today by your grace I will strive to be a peacemaker in my thoughts, words, and
actions.
No comments:
Post a Comment