Suy Niệm Tin Mừng thứ Tư Tuần thứ Hai Mùa Thường Niên
Trong đoạn Tin Mừng hôm nay, Điều Chúa Giêsu đã dủ lòng thương xót đến người đàn ông bị liệt cánh tay là cao điểm đáng chú ý nhất trong việc Chúa Giêsu đã chữa lành cho người đàn ông bị liệt trong Tin Mừng
thứ Sáu vừa qua (Marco 2, 1-12.) Cao điểm tột đỉnh tự nhiên của nó được thấy rõ ràng trong ba cách.
Thứ nhất, Thánh
Marcô đã đặt nơi chữa người bị
liệt cánh tay này là ngay trong đền thờ và trong ngày Sa-bát, và ngay sau khi Chúa Giêsu tuyên bố rằng Chúa
là Chúa của ngày Sa-bát. Việc chữa bệnh cho người bị tật này là bằng chứng cụ thể và
khẳng định rõ ràng là Đức
Giêsu là Chúa các Chúa, Vua của của các Vua trên thế gian này.
Thứ hai, không giống như những đoạn Tin
Mừng trước đó, là những người Pharisêu đã đặt câu hỏi với Chúa Giêsu và họ đã tỏ vẻ khó chịu và bực tức với Ngài,
thế nhưng đoạn Tin Mừng hôm nay đã nói
sự trái ngược vì Chúa Giêsu lại là người đã đặt câu
hỏi nghi vấn cho những người Pharisêu và chính Ngài
đã trở nên giận dữ với họ. Trong khi đối diện với những câu hỏi của Chúa Giêsu, người Pharisêu
đã không thể trả lời được gì cả. Ở đây, Chúa Giêsu chứng tỏ cái uy quyền của Ngài, uy quyền của vị Chúa của ngày Sa-bát.
Thứ ba, sau khi Chúa Giêsu đã tỏ
ra cho mọi người thấy được cái sức mạnh của lòng thương xót của Thiên Chúa bằng cách khôi phục lại cánh tay tật nguyền của người đàn ông này một cách hoàn hảo , những người Pharisêu
đã rút lui để tìm
cách tiêu diệt Chúa Giêsu. Đây là
cách mà Chúa Giêsu đã dậy cho chúng
ta thấy rõ rằng cách sống của Chúa Giêsu là được dẫn đưa đến với cái chết.
Mâu thuẫn và thử thách sẽ luôn đưa đến với những ai muốn theo Ngài. Tuy
nhiên, bất kể đến những vấn đề khó khăn nào chúng ta sẽ phải đối diện khi chúng ta đang cố gắng sống với
cuộc sống của người Kitô hữu, Chúa Giêsu
sẽ hiện diện nơi chúng
ta và làm việc trong chúng
ta. Ngài dám đảm bảo với
chúng ta rằng Ngài sẽ sẵn sàng đáp trả rộng lượng với niềm tin của chúng ta, Vì nơi Ngài,
Ngài đã đến cho những người nghèo khó như một vị Chúa với lòng thương xót của ngày Sa-bát.
Lạy Chúa, chúng
con cảm tạ ơn Chúa đã cho chúng con thấy được con đường Chúa
muốn chúng con đi.
Reflection SG (2016)
In the Gospel passage, Jesus’ mercy for the man with the
withered hand is the climax of the section that began with Jesus' cure of the
paralyzed man in Mark 2, 1-12. Its climactic nature becomes evident in three
ways. Firstly, the Gospel writer, Mark, places this synagogue cure on the
Sabbath, immediately after the statement that Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath.
The cure of the man with the withered hand is concrete proof of Jesus’ claim to
Lordship.
Secondly, unlike the previous passages where it is the
Pharisees who question Jesus and become upset with him, now it is Jesus who
questions the Pharisees and becomes angry with them. In the face of Jesus’
questioning, the Pharisees had nothing to say. Here, Jesus demonstrates his
authority as Lord of the Sabbath.
Thirdly, after Jesus shows his merciful power by
perfectly restoring the man's hand, the Pharisees withdraw to plot how they
might destroy Jesus. It shows that Jesus’ way of life is leading to death.
Today’s Gospel narrative of the healing of the man and the conflicts that Jesus
has with the Pharisees demonstrates that it is never easy to be a disciple of
the “Son of Man.” Conflicts and challenges will come to those who wish to
follow him. Nevertheless, no matter the difficulties we will face while trying
to live the Christian life, Jesus will be with us on our behalf. He assures us
that he will respond generously to our faith in him because he has come for the
needy as a merciful Lord of the Sabbath. Lord, thank You for showing me the way.
Wednesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time 2023
Then
he said to the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to
do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” But they remained silent.
Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, Jesus
said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it
out and his hand was restored. Mark 3:4–5
Sin damages our relationship with God. But hardness of heart is
even more damaging because it perpetuates the damage done by sin. And the
harder one's heart, the more permanent the damage.
In the passage above, Jesus was angry with the Pharisees.
Oftentimes the passion of anger is sinful, resulting from impatience and a lack
of charity. But at other times, the passion of anger can be good when it is
motivated by love of others and hatred for their sin. In this case, Jesus was
grieved by the hardness of heart of the Pharisees, and that grief motivated His
holy anger. His “holy” anger did not cause irrational criticism; rather, it
drove Jesus to cure this man in the presence of the Pharisees so that they
would soften their hearts and believe in Jesus. Sadly, it didn’t work. The very
next line of the Gospel says, “The Pharisees went out and immediately took
counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death” (Mark 3:6).
Hardness of heart should be
greatly avoided. The problem is that those who are hard of heart are usually
not open to the fact that they are hard of heart. They are obstinate and
stubborn, and oftentimes self-righteous. Therefore, when people suffer from
this spiritual ailment, it is difficult for them to change, especially when
confronted.
This Gospel passage offers you an
important opportunity to look into your own heart with honesty. Only you and
God need to be part of that interior introspection and conversation. Begin by
reflecting upon the Pharisees and the poor example they set. From there, try to
look at yourself with great honesty. Are you obstinate? Are you hardened in
your convictions to the point that you are unwilling to even consider that you
may be wrong at times? Are there people in your life with whom you have entered
into a conflict that still remains? If any of this rings true, then you may
indeed suffer from the spiritual ill of a hardened heart.
` Reflect, today, upon your own soul
and your relationships with others with as much honesty as possible. Do not
hesitate to let your guard down and be open to what God may want to say to you.
And if you detect even the slightest tendency toward a hardened and stubborn
heart, beg our Lord to enter in to soften it. Change like this is difficult,
but the rewards of such a change are incalculable. Do not hesitate and do not
wait. Change is worth it in the end.
My loving
Lord, this day I open myself to an examination of my own heart and pray that
You will help me to always be open to change when necessary. Help me,
especially, to see any hardness I may have within my heart. Help me to overcome
any obstinacy, stubbornness and self-righteousness. Give me the gift of
humility, dear Lord, so that my heart can become more like Yours. Jesus, I
trust in You.
Wednesday of the
Second Week in Ordinary Time 2023
Introductory Prayer: Lord, I believe in you. Thank you for the gift of faith,
more precious than life itself. I hope in you. May the dark waters of doubt
never break through my dike of hope. I love you. I want to let you purify me,
so that my love for you may be more ardent and more courageous.
Petition: Lord, help me to bear witness to you even in adverse
circumstances.
1. “They Watched Him
Closely”: At the beginning of
his public ministry, Christ already incurs the bitter opposition of the
Pharisees. Having reduced them to silence in a wheat field, Christ bravely
enters the synagogue to confront them once again. There the Pharisees are in
the first places of honor, and they watch his every move, hoping he will cure
against the laws of the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. The Pharisees
were right about one thing. They did well to observe Christ closely. If only
they had done so with the right spirit: to learn from him and to glorify God
for the wonders he did through him. How closely do we watch Christ in our own
lives? How readily do we perceive his actions through the circumstances of the
day? How often do we glorify God for the great things Christ does and longs to
do in us?
2. To Do Good or
Evil? Christ obliges the
Pharisees. With fearless courage, he calls the man with the withered hand
forward, so that no one can mistake what he is about to do. Then he puts his
antagonists in a dilemma with two clear questions. First: “Is it lawful to do
good on the sabbath rather than to do evil?” “They are bound to admit that it
is lawful to do good, and it is a good thing he proposed to do. They are bound
to deny that it is lawful to do evil; and, yet, surely it is an evil thing to
leave a man in wretchedness when it is possible to help him.” (William Barclay,
The Gospel of Mark, pp. 68-69) Then Christ asks the second question: “Is it
lawful to save life rather than to destroy it?” “Here he is driving the thing
home. He is taking steps to save this wretched man’s life; they are thinking
out methods of killing Christ. On any reckoning, it is surely a better thing to
be thinking about helping a man than it is to be thinking of killing a man. No
wonder they had nothing to say!” (Ibid.)
3. Angered by Their
Hardness of Heart: Seldom
does the Gospel show Christ angry. Here his anger is provoked by the hypocrisy
of the Pharisees and their hardness of heart. They close themselves off from
his message of salvation. What happens when someone definitively closes his
heart to Christ? The Pharisees, the defenders of the law and Jewish customs,
were bitter enemies of the Herodians, who collaborated with King Herod and the
Romans. Yet this Gospel relates the chilling fact that these two joined forces
to plot to kill Jesus. They are united not by the intrinsic force of goodness,
but by the malignant power of evil. Do I at times make small concessions to
hypocrisy, envy or even hatred? These could slowly harden my heart toward Christ.
Am I willing to be courageous like Christ and endure even bitter opposition for
the sake of the Gospel?
Conversation with
Christ: Thank you, Lord, for
your goodness and courage. How small I feel when I compare myself with you in
the Gospel. What an infinite distance separates us! Thank you for calling me —
with all of my weakness, sins, and limitations — to be your apostle. Help me
never to surrender to evil in my heart, but to grow in the goodness of heart to
be more like you.
Resolution: I will do a good deed for someone today, even if it is
difficult, to bear witness to Christ.
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