Việc
dùng nước miếng trong thời ỳ nào cũng bị cho là việc
làm mất vệ sinh và quái lạ. Trong Tin Mừng hôm nay, Chúa Giêsu đã dùng
các phương tiện và phong tục trong thời của mình. Việv này không
phải là Chúa
Giêsu nhất thiết tin vào hiệu quả của
những thứ bẩn
thỉu này Ngài muốn giành được sự tin tưởng của người mù này và Ngài đã làm điều
này cũng
giộng như các bác sĩ thời bấy giờ cũng làm như thế.
Ngày nay việc chữa bệnh phụ thuộc vào niềm tin của
bệnh nhân cũng như vào sự chẩn đoán của bác sĩ và các loại
thuốc được biến
chế đễ chữa trị. Chúng ta tin rằng việc Chúa Giêsu đặt tay để
chữa lành vẫn có sức mạnh cổ xưa của
nó. Chúng ta hãy nhớ mỗi lầ Chúa hỏi chúng ta”: Con có tin thật lòng không?
Trong Cựu Ước Ông Nô-ê tin vào
Thiên Chúa. Sau khi trái đất được giải thoát khỏi trận lụt đại hồng thuỷ, việc đầu tiên mà ông Nô-ê đã làm là dựng lên một bàn thờ để thờ phượng Thiên Chúa.
Lạy Chúa xin Giải
thoát chúng
con thoát khỏi những thảm họa thiên
nhiên, chiến tranh, bệnh tật, hoả hoàn,chết chóc.
Là người Kitô hữu xin cho chúng con biết tạ ơn Thiên Chúa.
Lạy Chúa, Chúng con tin. Chúa là Thiên Chúa của chúng con và Chúa của chúng con. Chúng con xin cảm tạ Chúa vì Chúa đã giải
cứu chúng con thoát ược khỏi
nanh vuốt của kẻ ác.
Wednesday
after 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time
In
the Gospel, the use of spittle seems to us unhygienic and very strange. Jesus
was using the methods and customs of his time. It was not that he necessarily
believed in the efficacy of these but he had to win the confidence of the man
and he did this by doing what they expected a doctor to do.
Today
healing depends on the faith of the patient as much as on the diagnosis of the
doctor and the drugs prescribed. We believe that Christ’s touch has still its
ancient power. We do well to remember how often Christ asked a sick person: ‘Do
you believe’?
Noah
of the Old Testament believed in God. After the earth was delivered from the
flood, the first thing that Noah did was to erect an altar for God.
Deliverance from natural disasters, from
war, from death, from illness, from fire, the Christian should immediately give
thanks to God.
The
writer of Psalm 43, following on his escape from death, says, ‘I shall go to
the altar of God, to the God of my joy’. Lord,
I believe. You are my Lord and my God. Thank You, Lord, for delivering me from
the clutches of the evil one
God’s Almighty Power
Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
When Jesus and his disciples arrived at Bethsaida, people brought
to him a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the
hand and led him outside the village. Mark
8:22–23
Bethsaida was one of the towns just north of the Sea of Galilee in
which Jesus preached. Later in His public ministry, Jesus condemns the town of
Bethsaida for its failure to convert. “Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty
deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago
have repented in sackcloth and ashes” (Matthew
11:21).
It may be because of their lack of faith and immoral living that
Jesus led the blind man outside of the city before He cured Him. And it appears
that the people who brought the blind man to Jesus brought him not because of
their deep faith, but because of curiosity. This might also be the reason that,
once Jesus cured the man, He sent him to his home saying, “Do not even go into
the village.” Thus, Jesus knew that this miracle would not lead to faith in the
hearts of those living in Bethsaida. So, Jesus instructed the man not to return
there.
God has almighty power and can clearly do whatever He chooses,
whenever He chooses. And what He often chooses to do is to exercise His
almighty power only in the presence of those who already believe, or at least
in the presence of those who have not yet rejected Him. When Jesus encounters
people who have heard Him preach but have failed to come to faith, He refuses
to perform any miracles in their presence.
What this tells us is that faith must come first; then, God’s
Almighty power flows freely. Of course, the grace of the Word of God is always
given to everyone. The seed of God’s holy Word is always available to all. But
it’s important to distinguish between the sending forth of His holy Word of the
Gospel and the sending forth of His transforming almighty power. The only way
to receive the latter is to first accept the former. Unless we hear, accept and
believe in His Word, we will not receive the grace of His transforming power.
With that said, it must also be understood that God’s “almighty
power” cannot be reduced to miracles alone. We all know that physical miracles
are not nearly as prevalent today as they were at the time Jesus walked the
earth. But His almighty power is still at work today; and in a way that is even
greater than when Jesus walked the earth. Today, His power is one that
transforms us interiorly by the fullness of grace and the bestowal of the Holy
Spirit. That is the true miracle that we must always seek and anticipate when
we have heard the Word of God and responded with authentic faith.
Reflect, today, upon your faith and your need for God’s
transforming power in your life. Do you see faith alive within you? If so, then
you will most certainly encounter the power of God in your life and the
transformation given by the Holy Spirit. If you do not see this power of grace
and interior transformation at work, then ponder the image of Jesus leading the
blind man outside of the city to exercise his power. Seek first to have faith,
because if you do, our Lord will be able to remain close to you and will do
miracles within your soul.
All-powerful Lord, You choose to send forth Your almighty power
upon those who have come to faith in You by receiving the Gospel You have sent
forth. Please open my ears to hear so that I will choose to convert and believe
and, thus, be disposed to be transformed by Your abundant grace. Jesus, I trust
in You.
Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time 2023
Introductory Prayer: Lord, I believe you are leading me, but sometimes I sense
insecurity creeping within me. So I renew my confidence in you once more. I
know that you can desire only what is good for me. Thank you for loving me
unconditionally. In return, take my love and my desire to please you in
everything.
Petition: Deepen
my humility and increase my trust in you, dear Jesus!
1. Jesus Leads: From the very get-go, we push ahead for self-sufficiency.
Think of a little child who strives to walk by himself, without his parents
helping him keep his balance. In the spiritual life, it’s the opposite: We need
to reach out to Christ for guidance, support and strength. Admitting our faults
can be a humbling, but fruitful experience. Pride prevents us from doing this
gracefully, but––have faith––if we do, Jesus will unleash his power within our
lives. “Holiness is not in one exercise or another, it consists in a
disposition of the heart, which renders us humble and little in the hands of
God, conscious of our weakness but confident, even daringly confident, in his
fatherly goodness” (St. Therese of Lisieux).
2. Patience, God has a Plan: “I want it now” is a modern cliché. Our wanting it now,
though, doesn’t always work with God. His plan is a plan for our greater
good—even if it isn’t our plan. The blind man’s sight wasn’t healed instantly,
but gradually. How we want to be holy now and never return to the valley of
filth and pride! Yet we seem to fall again and again. Holiness is always a work
in progress, but that doesn’t faze Jesus. He knows the power his grace can work
in our lives. Simply turn your difficulties over to him and keep trying. Our
failures teach us to be humble, and this can only bring us closer to God. “This
I know very well: although I should have on my soul all the crimes that could
be committed, I would lose none of my confidence; rather, I would hasten, with
my heart broken into pieces by sorrow, to cast myself into the arms of my
Savior. I know how greatly he loved the prodigal son; I have marked his words
to Mary Magdalene, to the adulterous woman, to the Samaritan. No, no one could
make me afraid, because I know to whom to cling by reason of his love and
mercy. I know that all this multitude of offenses would disappear in the
twinkling of an eye, as a drop in a roaring furnace” (St. Therese of Lisieux).
3. Humble Jesus: He tells the man not to go into the village. Is Jesus
afraid or in a hurry? No, his humility simply beckons him to move on quietly
without anyone knowing. Jesus is fascinated with humility and thus practices
it. We, on the other hand, love to get the credit; we crave recognition. Merely
enter a professional office and behold the recognition plaques lining the walls
like wallpaper. Jesus had no plaques; he had only a reputation for doing good
deeds. He teaches us the power of purity of intention, which shuns any type of
self-aggrandizement.
Conversation with Christ: Jesus, help me to abandon myself to your care; I trust in
you completely. Knowing that I am weak and you are my strength gives me confidence.
Help me to keep in mind that I am little and you are great. You are the one who
deserves the glory, and you ought to be the protagonist in my life. Help me to
go about quietly doing good like you.
Resolution: I
will make an act of charity, praying, “Jesus, I do this only because I want to
prove my love for you.”
Reflection:
Jesus always shows compassion on the sick
and has done countless miracles, healing them of their diseases. In today's
Gospel, he again is moved with pity on a blind man. He performs this miracle
outside the village, away from the crowd, so as not to attract attention to
himself, not to be admired, not to be glorified by the people. But Christ
performs a miracle to increase the faith of the people especially of the person
who receives the healing.
Do not think that Christ came mainly to
heal our illnesses. Often, he does heal us when we are sick but this is only a
sign of the power he has over any kind of evil. For there is a more serious
illness than that of the body and that is the illness of the spirit, meaning
sin. We are all quick to ask Christ to heal us when we are physically ill, but
we rarely ask him to heal us of our sinfulness. Maybe we are comfortable with
our sins and do not seriously want to change. But if we do want healing, we
need only to approach Christ and beg for his healing.
It is interesting to note that Christ
uses his spittle in this healing. The spittle comes from the mouth where speech
comes from, where the word comes from. Today, Jesus heals our wounds of sin
with his Word. That is why it is so vital for us to listen to his Word when it
is proclaimed. Listening to Christ's Word has the power to heal us.
In several of his healings, Christ
touches the sick. We may think that it would have been amazing if we had lived
in Christ's time so we could touch him physically, but this does not have to
be. We are in fact more fortunate than those who actually saw Christ because
now we do not need to touch him physically to be healed. As long as we have
faith in Christ, we are already touching him. Let us allow him to hold our hand
as he did with this blind man and lead us to salvation from our sins.
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