Qua bài Tin Mừng, các môn đệ đã chứng kiến hai hai phép lạ mà Chúa Giêsu đã làm là hoá bánh ra nhiều để phân phát cho những người đang trong cơn đó khát. Tuy nhiên, các môn đệ cũng còn gặp phải những khó khăn để hiểu được rằng Chúa Giêsu cũng sẽ ban cho họ những nhu cầu riêng của họ. Những điều gì là sự cám dỗ lớn nhất trong cuộc đời của chúng ta? Chúng ta có tin rằng Chúa sẽ ban cho chúng ta những thứ cần thiết để giúp chúng ta loại bỏ những gì là tội lỗi và biết chọn những gì là tốt đẹp cho cuộc sống đời sau?
Chúa Kitô mời gọi chúng ta kiên trì trong việc nắm giữ những gì là tốt đẹp và tìm kiếm những gì là thực sự đầy ý nghĩa. Những sự cám dỗ đến và đi. Nhưng sự hiện diện và chân lý của Thiên Chúa thì luôn ở lại và hiện diện với chúng ta mãi mãi. Vì vậy, khi chúng ta bị cám dỗ, chúng ta có thể đến trước Chúa Giêsu, với tấm lòng chân thành dâng lên Chúa tất cả những những sự yếu đuối của chúng ta. Chúng ta hãy khiêm tốn để cầu xin Chúa ban thêm cho chúng ta có sức mạnh để chống đỡ những cơn cám dỗ.
Christ invites us to persevere in holding on to what is good and to seek what is truly fulfilling. Temptations come and go. God’s presence and truth are with us forever. So when we are tempted, we can come before Jesus just as we are, in our weakness. We can humbly ask for strength. Jesus truly provides us with the grace we need to say ‘no’ to sin and ‘yes’ to God.
In the Gospel, the disciples have already witnessed two instances where Jesus provided food for people who were hungry. Still, it is difficult for the disciples to understand that Jesus will also provide for their own needs. What is the greatest temptation in my life? Do I believe that Jesus provides me with what I need to reject what is sinful and choose what is good?
Give us this day our daily bread and lead us not into temptation.
Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
“Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear?” Mark 8:17–18
How would you answer these questions that Jesus posed to His disciples if He had posed them to you? It takes humility to admit that you do not yet understand or comprehend, that your heart is in fact hardened, and that you fail to see and hear all that God has revealed. Of course there are various levels to these struggles, so hopefully you do not struggle with them to a grave degree. But if you can humbly confess that you do struggle with these to a certain extent, then that humility and honesty will gain you much grace.
Jesus posed these questions to His disciples within the larger context of a discussion about the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod. He knew that the “leaven” of these leaders was like a yeast that corrupted others. Their dishonesty, pride, desire for honors and the like had a seriously negative affect upon the faith of others. So by posing these questions above, Jesus challenged His disciples to see this evil leaven and to reject it.
Seeds of doubt and confusion are all around us. It seems these days that almost everything the secular world promotes is in some way contrary to the Kingdom of God. And yet, just like the disciples’ inability to see the evil leaven of the Pharisees and Herod, we also frequently fail to see the evil leaven within our society. Instead, we allow the many errors to confuse us and lead us down the path of secularism.
One thing this should teach us is that just because someone has some form of authority or power within society does not mean that they are a truthful and holy leader. And though it’s never our place to judge the heart of another, we absolutely must have “ears to hear” and “eyes to see” the many errors that are held up within our world as good. We must constantly seek to “understand and comprehend” the laws of God and use them as a guide against the lies within the world. One important way to make sure we do this well is to make sure that our hearts never become hardened to the truth.
Reflect, today, upon these questions of our Lord and examine them especially within the broader context of society as a whole. Consider the false “leaven” taught by our world and by so many in positions of authority. Reject these errors and recommit yourself to the full embrace of the holy mysteries of Heaven so that those truths and those truths alone become your daily guide.
My glorious Lord, I thank You for being the Lord of all Truth. Help me to daily turn my eyes and ears to that Truth so that I will be able to see the evil leaven all around me. Give me wisdom and the gift of discernment, dear Lord, so that I will be able to immerse myself into the mysteries of Your holy life. Jesus, I trust in You.
Introductory Prayer: Lord, I know you have worked in my life, and yet I take so little account of it. Just knowing the truth of your presence in my past would be enough to convert my heart totally to a future of commitment to you. Knowing your history will make me long for you. I hunger for goodness that will make this day fruitful in ways that will last, that will not deceive me. I intend to not let my mundane passions leave me blind and crippled before the opportunity to be your apostle today.
In the first reading from Genesis we are told that mankind had become so corrupt and evil that God decided to rid the earth of mankind. This is the frightening scenario of the great flood when only Noah, his family and animals in his ark were saved. How many men today would be pleasing in God's eyes, as Noah was pleasing to God in his time?
In the Gospel reading Jesus teaches us to see and hear the real message he was giving. Unlike the poor disciples who still did not see nor understand his miracle of multiplication of loaves and fishes, Jesus wants us to see his mission of conversion of heart. His miracles were to have people see that he had come to save mankind from evil, sinfulness and the effects of sin. His teaching and miracles were for them to see God's hand in their lives. We pray for the grace of true conversion from our sinful ways and of genuine faith in Christ and his message of salvation.
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