Suy Niệm Tin Mừng thứ Ba Tuần thứ 2 Thường Niên

Suy Niệm Tin Mừng thứ Ba Tuần thứ 2 Thường Niên
Cả hai bài đọc hôm nay, nói về cái nhìn theo quan điểm của Thiên Chúa. Quan điểm của chúng ta thường chỉ nhìn theo lối thiển cận và thường bị ô nhiễm bởi các thứ tội lỗi. Kết quả là, chúng ta không nhìn thấy được những gì ngoài tầm nhìn của chúng ta. Vì vậy, chúng ta đã bỏ lỡ cơ hội để thấy được cái cảnh mà Thiên Chúa đã tạo dựng và ban sự sống cho con người. Hầu hết chúng ta không chịu để ý, không nhìn vào trái tim của những người khác, chúng ta đánh giá họ qua vẻ bề ngoài của họ, mà quên đi là những vẻ bề ngoài này có thể là những thớ giả tạo và lừa dối.
Sau khi sáng tạo vũ trụ, thế giới trong sáu ngày, Thiên Chúa nghỉ ngơi vào ngày thứ bảy và thánh hiến đó là ngày Sa-bát. Ý Nghĩa thực sự đằng sau ngày Sa-bát là tiếp tục làm những điều tốt đệp mà Thiên Chúa đã làm cho người khác.
Qua bài Tin Mừng, Chúa Giêsu mời gọi chúng ta trở về với tinh thần và tất cả ý nghĩa thực sự của ngày Sa-bát đó là thực hành nhũng điều Chúa dạy chứ không phải là bận rộn hay mắc kẹt với những việc làm cá nhân hay vật chất bên ngoài. Điều răn lớn nhất mà Chúa Giêsu đã ban cho chúng ta là thương yêu nhau. Thầy ban cho cạc con một điều răn mới là các con hãy yêu thương nhau. Như Thầy đã yêu thương các con như thế nào, các con cũng nên yêu thương nhau như vậy. (Gioan 13:34). Chúa dạy chúng ta một điều răn mới rất là đơn giản, cụ thể là luật của tình yêu thương. Chúng ta nên nhớ là luôn luôn tuân theo húa dáy trong tâm hồn hơn là luật pháp của con người thế gian.
Lạy Chúa Giêsu, xin giúp chúng con biết được rằng cuộc sống của chúng con có thể luôn được chi phối bởi tình yêu thương thật sự.
 
2nd Week in Ordinary Time: Tuesday 21st January 2020; Mk. 2:23-28
“For the Lord does not see as mortals see.”
Today’s readings both speak of looking at each other from the Lord’s perspective. Our perspective is minimal and often tainted by all kinds of sin. As a consequence, we do not see beyond what we see. Therefore we miss the life-giving and life-creating perspective of God. Most of the time, without looking into the hearts of the others, we judge them by their outward appearances, forgetting that these outward appearances can be deceptive.
After having created the world in six days, the Lord rested on the seventh day and consecrated it as the Sabbath. The true spirit behind the Sabbath was to continue doing that which is good for others. In the Gospel, Jesus invites us to return to the true inner spirit behind all of our spiritual practices and not get stuck with outward practices.
The greatest of commandments that Jesus has given us is of love. “I give you a new commandment that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” (John 13:34). He teaches us a very simple law, namely “the law of love.” We should always follow the spirit rather than the letter of the law.
Lord Jesus, we pray that our lives may be governed by love always.
 
Tuesday 2nd Week in Ordinary Time: 2023
As Jesus was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath, his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain. At this the Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?” Mark 2:23–24
The Pharisees were greatly concerned about many things that were distortions of the law of God. The Third Commandment calls us to “Keep holy the Sabbath Day.” Furthermore, we read in Exodus 20:8–10 that we are not to do any work on the Sabbath but are to use that day for rest. From this Commandment, the Pharisees developed extensive commentary on what was permitted and what was forbidden to do on the Sabbath. They determined that picking the heads of grain was one of the forbidden actions.
In many countries today, the Sabbath rest has all but disappeared. Sadly, Sunday is rarely set aside any longer for a day of worship and rest with family and friends. For that reason, this hypercritical condemnation of the disciples by the Pharisees is hard to relate to. The deeper spiritual issue seems to be the hyper “nitpicky” approach taken by the Pharisees. They were not so much concerned about honoring God on the Sabbath as they were interested in being judgmental and condemning. And though it may be rare today to find people overly scrupulous and nitpicky about the Sabbath rest, it’s often easy to find ourselves becoming nitpicky about many other things in life.     
            Consider your family and those who are closest to you. Are there things they do and habits they have formed that leave you constantly criticizing them? Sometimes we criticize others for actions that are clearly contrary to the laws of God. At different times, we criticize others on account of some exaggeration of fact on our part. Though it is important to speak charitably against violations of the external law of God, we must be very careful not to set ourselves up as the judge and jury of others, especially when our criticism is based on a distortion of the truth or an exaggeration of something minor. In other words, we must be careful not to become nitpicky ourselves.
            Reflect, today, upon any tendency you have in your relationships with those closest to you toward being excessive and distorted in your criticism. Do you find yourself obsessing over the apparent minor faults of others on a regular basis? Try to step back from criticism today and renew, instead, your practice of mercy toward all. If you do, you may actually discover that your judgments of others do not fully reflect the truth of God’s law.
My merciful Judge, give me a heart of compassion and mercy toward all. Remove from my heart all judgmentalness and criticalness. I leave all judgment to You, dear Lord, and seek only to be an instrument of Your love and mercy. Jesus, I trust in You.
 
Tuesday 2nd Week in Ordinary Time: 2023
Introductory Prayer: Lord, the most important moment of my day has arrived. I am alone with you for a heart-to-heart talk. Who am I that you should want to spend this time with me; that you should want to pour yourself out to me? What a joy, what an honor, what a glory to be the follower of a king like you!
Petition: Lord, help me to pray for and serve those who persecute me and  to win them over to the Gospel through love, just like you did.
1. “Unlawful on the Sabbath”: How dire was mankind’s need for a Savior! The Jews were God’s chosen people; they had received God’s own revelation in the Old Testament. The Pharisees were the religious leaders of the Jewish people. Yet they buried God’s law so deeply beneath layers of man-made precepts that hungry men were not allowed to pick grain to eat on the Sabbath. The law had become an end in itself and had taken precedence over persons in need. How could mankind ever be led safely along the true path to salvation without becoming hopelessly entangled in the thickets of false rituals and arbitrary precepts? The Son of God, the Eternal Word of the Father, humbled himself to become the Son of Man to bring us the fullness of truth. But Christ did much more than bring us the fullness of God’s revelation. He gave us the strength, through his own life of grace within us, to live out that truth in our lives. Am I sufficiently tapped into that source of grace in my life?
2. Seeking to Win over Enemies: If we were in Christ’s place, what would have been our reaction to the Pharisees? Perhaps we would have yielded to their imposing presence. Maybe we would have summoned up our courage and dismissed their intransigence without even deigning to reply. Christ reveals both his fearlessness and his goodness of heart by seeking to win them over. He quotes the Scriptures that they believe in and cites 1 Samuel 21:1-6. David and his men, fleeing from Saul, eat the holy bread of the Presence: twelve loaves placed each morning on the table in the sanctuary, as homage to the Lord from the twelve tribes of Israel. When they were withdrawn to make room for fresh ones, these loaves were reserved for the Levitical priests. Christ seeks to reveal to the Pharisees, in a way they can accept, that they have gone astray from true religion, in which love of God and neighbor takes precedence over following rules. Christ sums up the nature of true religion and points out the Pharisees’ error in one sublime sentence: “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.”  Do I perceive the burden Christ has given me as light? That is what he intends and promises. If I do not, why not?
3. Lord of the Sabbath: Christ does not stop with revealing the nature and purpose of true religion. He makes a bold proclamation, one which must have stunned the Pharisees, and perhaps even widened the eyes of his own disciples: “The Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” Christ declares in no uncertain terms that his authority is equal to that of God himself, who instituted the Sabbath at the dawn of man’s creation. Christ wants from the Pharisees nothing less than an act of faith in his own divine person. His heart longs to save them. Christ yearns to bring to salvation everyone he encounters, including his enemies. Does my own zeal for souls bring me to reflect something of Christ’s courage and love when I am faced with opposition? Do I desire and seek what is good for everyone regardless of their attitude towards me?
Conversation with Christ: Thank you, Lord, for becoming a man to save us in our dire need for you. Thank you for loving even your enemies and seeking to win them over to your new life. Help me to love more like you did. Help me to realize the value of a single soul.
Resolution: I will pray and make sacrifices for someone who is persecuting me or the Church. Forgetting about myself, I will look for ways to bring them to experience the love of Christ.