Niệm
Tin Mừng Lễ Mừng Mẹ là mẹ Giáo Hội Thứ Hai sau lễ Hiện Xuống
Đức Mẹ đã được ban nhiều danh hiệu, để nhấn mạnh vai trò của Mẹ trong sự kết hiệp với Chúa Giêsu Con của Mẹ trong công cuộc cứu rỗi của Chúa. Mẹ đã có rất nhiều danh hiệu bao gồm cả những cái tên nơi mà Mẹ đã hiện trên trái đất. Những danh xưng khác của Mẹ được lấy từ Kinh thánh, thêm vào sự hiểu biết trong những mầu nhiệm của Thiên Chúa Cha trên Trời. Một danh hiệu đáng lẽ phải được dùng phổ thông
và rộng rãi ngay từ thời Chúa Giêsu đã phải chết trên Thập giá, đó là danh hiệu Mẹ của Giáo hội, và tên này chính là động căn bản được xuất phát từ những lời của Chúa Giêsu đã với Mẹ Maria ngay lúc Ngài
còn trên thập giá: “Hỡi bà, này là con bà” [ Ga 19: 26-27]. Đứng dưới chân thánh giá Mẹ Maria và Thánh Gioan là biểu tượng của Giáo hội, do đó, khi trao cho Mẹ Maria cho môn đệ yêu dấu của Ngài chăm sóc, Chúa Giêsu đã ngầm trao Mẹ Mria coi sóc
và phù trợ cho Giáo hội với tư cách
là Mẹ của Giáo hội. Thánh Ambrose của Thành Milan đã dùng danh hiệu này cho Mẹ Maria từ
thế kỷ thứ 4, nhưng đó chỉ được sdùngvtrng địa phương. Cho tới khi
thời Giáo hoàng Paul
VI đã chính thức dùng danh hiếu này trong Công đồng Vatican II. Và ĐGH Phanxicô
muốn giáo hội mừng nhớ mMẹ vào Mi thứ Hai sau lễ Chúa Thánh Thần
Hiện Xuống -viồ đấy cũng là Ngày sinh hhật của Giáo Hội.
Maria, Mẹ của Giáo hội, xin Mẹ chăm sóc chúng con và hướng dẫn chúng con đến sự thánh thiện hơn trong cuộc sống mà chúng con đang sống hầu giúp chúng con có thể thực sự trở thành môn đệ yêu dấu của Chúa Giêsu, Con của Mẹ.’
Monday after Pentecost- Our Lady, Mother of
the Church:
Gen. 3:9-15,20 or Acts 1:12-14; Ps. 87(86):1-2,3,5,6-7; Jn. 19:25-34)
Our Lady has been given many titles, stressing her role in union with her Son Jesus in God’s work of salvation. Many of the titles include the names where it is believed Our Lady appeared on earth. Other titles are taken from Scripture, adding levels of understanding to the mystery of the Mother of God. One title which should have been widely in use from the time of Jesus’ death on the Cross, is “Mother of the Church”, which essentially derives from Jesus’ words to his Mother from the cross: “Woman, behold your Son” [Jn 19:26-27].
Standing at the foot of the cross Mary and John are symbolic of the Church, thus in giving Mary into the care of the Beloved Disciple, Jesus is implicitly giving the Church into Mary’s care as Mother of the Church. St Ambrose of Milan used the title for Mary already in the 4th century, but it only came into universal use in the Church when Pope Paul VI officially used it during Vatican Council II.
Mary, Mother of the Church, take care of us and guide us to a greater holiness of life that we may truly become beloved disciples of Jesus, Your Son.
Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church
Monday after Pentecost—Memorial
Liturgical Color: White
One Mother, two motherhoods
Mary mothered Jesus, Jesus then gave life to the Church with water and blood from His side, and the Church then mothers us into existence through baptism. Devotion to Mary goes hand in hand with devotion to the Church because both are mothers. Mother Mary gives the world Christ. Mother Church gives the world Christians.
The metaphorical parallels between Mother Mary and Mother Church are spiritually rich and deeply biblical. Mary was understood by many early theologians as both the mother of the Head of the Church, Jesus, and also the symbol of the Church par excellence. Mother Mary is a virgin who conceived the physical body of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit at the Annunciation. In a parallel way, Mother Church is the Mystical Body of Christ who gives every Christian rebirth through the power of the Holy Spirit received at Pentecost. Both Mary and the Church conceived through the same Spirit, without the aid of human seed. Mother Mary makes Christ’s body physically present in Palestine in the first century. Mother Church, in turn, makes Christ’s body mystically present through baptism and sacramentally present in the Eucharist, in every time and place. It was common for a baptismal font in early Christianity to be described as a sacred womb in which Mother Church gave her children life.
The theological cross-pollination between Mother Mary and Mother Church has produced a field ripe for spiritual and theological cultivation. Christ is from Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Galilee. But He is most deeply from the Father. He is one Son but lives two sonships. Similarly, all Christians are born from one Mother expressed in two motherhoods: Mary’s and the Church’s. Mary and the Church, understood most profoundly, form one mother. Both are the mother of Christ, but each mutually assists the other to bring Christ physically, sacramentally, and mystically into the world in all His fullness. Neither Mary nor the Church can exercise their motherhoods alone.
Today’s feast, formally integrated into the Church’s calendar by the authority of Pope Francis in 2018, specifically commemorates Mary’s motherhood of the Church rather than her motherhood of God, a feast celebrated on January 1. Mary likely showed as much tender concern for Christ’s mystical body as it slowly matured in its native Palestine as she did for His physical body in Nazareth. Pope Pius XII perceptively noted Mary’s dual maternity in his encyclical on the Church: “It was she who was there to tend the mystical body of Christ, born of the Savior’s pierced heart, with the same motherly care that she spent on the child Jesus in the crib.” It is possible the Apostles held their first Council in about 49 A.D. in Jerusalem precisely because Mary still dwelled in the holy city. She was likely the young religion’s greatest living witness and pillar of unity. We can imagine her presiding over early Christian gatherings with reserved solemnity, nursing primitive Christianity just as she had Christ.
Ancient pagans spoke of imperial Rome as a Domina, a divine female master. Rome was praised as a conquering mother who brought vanquished peoples close to her own heart, incorporating them as citizens into her vast, multicultural, polyglot realm. Other empires executed prisoners of war, exiled peoples, imposed a foreign culture, or displaced populations. Not Rome. Rome absorbed them all. The early fathers understood Mother Church as the successor to this Domina. In baptism this Mother does not release her children from her body but absorbs them, making them fully her own unto death. Since the early Middle Ages, feast days and devotions to the Virgin Mary have proliferated in Catholicism. Now Pope Francis has given the Church a feast to compliment that of January 1. The two motherhoods of Mary reflect one profound truth, that Christ approaches us in time and in space, in history and in sacrament, in mysterious and beautiful ways. In the words of Saint Augustine: “What (God) has bestowed on Mary in the flesh, He has bestowed on the Church in the spirit; Mary gave birth to the One, and the Church gives birth to the many, who through the One become one.” This is all cause for deep reflection.
Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, you are the fairest daughter of Israel, chosen and prepared by God as the sacred vessel to replace Mother Synagogue with Mother Church. Eve approaches you like mother to daughter, old Eve to New Eve—two mothers of souls both on earth and in heaven.
May 29- Mary, Mother
of the Church 2023
Introductory Prayer: You are true goodness and life, Lord. Closeness to you brings peace and joy. You deserve all of my trust and my love. Thank you for the gift of life, my family, and above all of my faith. Thank you as well for giving us your Mother at the foot of the cross.
Petition: Lord, help me to grow in my filial love for Mary, your Mother, and mine.
1. Standing: Today is a Marian celebration, the memorial of “Mary, Mother of the Church.” Mary, like me, had no particular love of pain and sorrow. The first announcement of her vocation by the Archangel Gabriel mentioned nothing about it, being filled only with messianic promises. However, soon after Jesus’ birth, Simeon completed the dimensions that were to enlighten her vocation: “…and a sword will pierce your heart that the thoughts of many might be revealed.” Recognizing the fulfillment of her calling to accompany her Son during his crucifixion, she does so with a desire to fulfill God’s mysterious plan, not reluctantly, but by standing close to Jesus with all the sorrow that this implied for her. Mary never abandons her children when they are suffering.
2. Last Will and Testament: The words Jesus speaks to his mother and beloved disciple are equivalent to his last will and testament. He bequeaths what is most precious to him to a beloved person. To Mary, he gives the friend he loves so much, who will also need her help in his difficulties. To John, he gives his greatest human comfort, his best disciple, his mother. He knows that she needs him, an adopted son, to comfort and accompany her.
3. Mary Makes My Home Sweet: John took his responsibility for Mary seriously, taking her into his own home. Home for John was nothing less than the Church that Jesus founded. Mary was to have pride of place there, as Jesus’ mother and as she who knew, loved, and served him best. She also took her role seriously, so seriously that she immediately perceived that all those she encountered were her adoptive sons and daughters. In this house, that is the Church; Mary is the sweetness of the traditional saying, “Home, sweet home.”
Conversation with Christ: Jesus, I can’t thank you enough for entrusting your mother to me and me to her. I want to care for her by being an attentive, faithful son or daughter who imitates you. That’s what will console her and make her heart rejoice. Mary, be always at my side and intercede for me before God so that I persevere in following your Son.
Resolution: I will make my devotion to Mary very personal, whether in spontaneous conversation with her or contemplating the mysteries of Christ’s life while praying the Rosary.
Mary, Mother of the Church 2022
Opening Prayer: Mother Mary, in this special month of May, please bless me as I contemplate your suffering at the foot of the cross.
Encountering Christ:
His Last Gift: With his dying breath, Jesus presented his mother to the apostle John. With this gesture, he offers her to us as well. Afterward, John invited Mary into his home. Do we also invite Mary into our spiritual home? If we look to Mary when life gets tough, our relationship with her deepens. If we pray for her as an intercessor, situation after situation, our connection to her grows. If we are grateful for her, in life’s storms or on calm seas, our bond with her is solidified. If we pray the rosary, read about Mary, and talk about her, she becomes our constant companion. When we have faith in our Mother, we truly receive her presence as a gift—the gift Jesus intended for each one of us when he said, “Behold your mother.”
His Thirst: In her well-known letter, “I thirst for you,” St. Teresa of Calcutta described the infinite love and thirsts of God. Jesus told her, “Even when you are not listening, even when you doubt it could be me, I am there: waiting for even the smallest suggestion of an invitation that will permit me to enter.” Jesus longs to strengthen, console, carry, transform, calm, and heal us. He knows everything about us—our troubles, rejections, humiliations, even the number of hairs on our head. “All I ask of you that you entrust yourself to me completely. I will do the rest.” Do the words “I thirst” echo in our souls?
It Is Finished: In his brief life, Jesus perfectly fulfilled the will of God. When he made the ultimate sacrifice for mankind, he proclaimed, “It is finished.” God’s plan had been perfectly executed. Those same words are true for us when we’ve run a race, completed a project, or endured a hardship. Jesus, however, accomplished his Father’s will in perfect union with him. We are called to do likewise. Our Lord wants nothing more than to be an integral part of our life—all of it. Next time we say, “Ahhh… it is finished,” may we also acknowledge that Jesus strengthened and accompanied us.
Conversing with Christ: I know I will never truly understand the sacrifice you made for me on the cross because I did not endure your life and suffering. Help me, Lord, to join every suffering in my life to yours, because I know that pleases you. By these offerings may I grow more appreciative of your sacrifice for me. Thank you for the gift of your Blessed Mother.
Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will invite you into every suffering I experience, knowing that I am accompanied by my Blessed Mother and you.
Suy Niệm Tin Mừng - Mark 10:17-27 Thứ Hai Tuần thứ 8 TN.
Bài Tin Mừng hôm nay, Chúa Giêsu đã chỉ cho chàng trai trẻ biết rõ là lý do căn bản mà chúng ta phải có những luật đạo là vì bản chất con người yếu đuối của chúng ta là tội lỗi. Về thực chất, Chúa Giêsu nói với chàng trai trẻ là: không phải là Ngài, Đấng mà sẽ cứu chính mình nhưng Thiên Chúa, Người đã thực sự yêu thương Ngài. Nhưng chàng trai trẻ này không bao giờ có thể hiểu được điều này, Chúa Giêsu tiếp tục nói với chàng trai trẻ ấy là hãy về bán đi tất cả các tài sản của mình để bố thí cho người nghèo. Những anh ta buồn bã bỏ đi, vì anh ta rất giàu có. Điều này đã khiến Chúa Giêsu nói rằng con lạc đà đi qua lỗ kim còn dễ dàng hơn là một giàu có mà vào được Nước Thiên Đàng. Không phải là trạng thái giàu có đó là vấn đề kó vài Thiên àng, nhưng là việc Người giàu có, nếu có đầu óc ích kỷ và tham lam, lúc nào cũng muốn giàu có hơn và không muốn chia sẽ những gì mình có với người thiếu thốn, đói khổ.
Thông thường khi một người có phương tiện, ý tưởng và niềm tin của họ được tập trung vào sự giàu có của họ là làm thế nào để giữ và làm cho giàu thêm, và thật đáng buồn vì mối bận tâm này mà họ đã quên Chúa, quên anh chị em khó nghèo. Như chàng trai trẻ nọ không nhìn thấy giá trị thực sự của mọi sự vật.
Sự cứu rỗi của chúng ta không thể và sẽ không thể tìm thấy được trong các việc làm theo các quy tắc hoặc tin rằng chúng ta có thể tự cứu rỗi lấy chính mình. Ơn cứu độ là một hồng ân của Thiên Chúa, hồng ân này chỉ đến được với chúng ta qua việc kiến tạo một mối quan hệ giữa chúng ta với Thiên Chúa.
Và làm thế nào để chúng ta có thể kiến tạo được một mối quan hệ với Thiên Chúa? Bằng cách cầu nguyện và lắng nghe Lời Ngài, và sống theo lời Chúa biết tha thứ, biết chia sẻ những gì Chúa đãn ban cho chúng ta với những nguười kém may mắn. Đó là một trong những mối quan hệ thật sự của chúng ta với Thiên Chúa và dễ làm đẹp lòng Chúa. Chúng ta có sẵn sàng bỏ lại bất cứ những thứ gì đang làm trở ngại cho việc đạt được ơn cứu rỗi của chúng ta?
REFLECTION
Jesus pointed out to the young man that the basic reason why we have these laws is that by nature we are sinners. In essence, he was telling the man that it is not he who would save himself but God who truly loves him. As the man could not understand this, Jesus went on to tell the man to let go of all his wealth. The man chose not to, for he had great wealth. This prompted Jesus to say that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich to enter the Kingdom of God. It is not the state of being wealthy that is the problem but the disposition and preoccupation one tends to have when one is wealthy. Often when one has means, his ideas and beliefs focus on his wealth, how to keep and make it grow, and sadly with this preoccupation, he fails to see the real value of things.
Our salvation cannot and will not be found in following all the rules or believing that we alone can save ourselves. Salvation is a grace from God which comes only through our building a relationship with Him. And how do we build a relationship with God? By praying and listening to His Word, and living it. Have I taken time to ask how my relationship with God is lately? Am I willing to leave anything in my possession that may be an obstacle to the attainment of my salvation?
Maria, Mẹ của Giáo hội, xin Mẹ chăm sóc chúng con và hướng dẫn chúng con đến sự thánh thiện hơn trong cuộc sống mà chúng con đang sống hầu giúp chúng con có thể thực sự trở thành môn đệ yêu dấu của Chúa Giêsu, Con của Mẹ.’
Gen. 3:9-15,20 or Acts 1:12-14; Ps. 87(86):1-2,3,5,6-7; Jn. 19:25-34)
Our Lady has been given many titles, stressing her role in union with her Son Jesus in God’s work of salvation. Many of the titles include the names where it is believed Our Lady appeared on earth. Other titles are taken from Scripture, adding levels of understanding to the mystery of the Mother of God. One title which should have been widely in use from the time of Jesus’ death on the Cross, is “Mother of the Church”, which essentially derives from Jesus’ words to his Mother from the cross: “Woman, behold your Son” [Jn 19:26-27].
Standing at the foot of the cross Mary and John are symbolic of the Church, thus in giving Mary into the care of the Beloved Disciple, Jesus is implicitly giving the Church into Mary’s care as Mother of the Church. St Ambrose of Milan used the title for Mary already in the 4th century, but it only came into universal use in the Church when Pope Paul VI officially used it during Vatican Council II.
Mary, Mother of the Church, take care of us and guide us to a greater holiness of life that we may truly become beloved disciples of Jesus, Your Son.
Monday after Pentecost—Memorial
Liturgical Color: White
One Mother, two motherhoods
Mary mothered Jesus, Jesus then gave life to the Church with water and blood from His side, and the Church then mothers us into existence through baptism. Devotion to Mary goes hand in hand with devotion to the Church because both are mothers. Mother Mary gives the world Christ. Mother Church gives the world Christians.
The metaphorical parallels between Mother Mary and Mother Church are spiritually rich and deeply biblical. Mary was understood by many early theologians as both the mother of the Head of the Church, Jesus, and also the symbol of the Church par excellence. Mother Mary is a virgin who conceived the physical body of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit at the Annunciation. In a parallel way, Mother Church is the Mystical Body of Christ who gives every Christian rebirth through the power of the Holy Spirit received at Pentecost. Both Mary and the Church conceived through the same Spirit, without the aid of human seed. Mother Mary makes Christ’s body physically present in Palestine in the first century. Mother Church, in turn, makes Christ’s body mystically present through baptism and sacramentally present in the Eucharist, in every time and place. It was common for a baptismal font in early Christianity to be described as a sacred womb in which Mother Church gave her children life.
The theological cross-pollination between Mother Mary and Mother Church has produced a field ripe for spiritual and theological cultivation. Christ is from Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Galilee. But He is most deeply from the Father. He is one Son but lives two sonships. Similarly, all Christians are born from one Mother expressed in two motherhoods: Mary’s and the Church’s. Mary and the Church, understood most profoundly, form one mother. Both are the mother of Christ, but each mutually assists the other to bring Christ physically, sacramentally, and mystically into the world in all His fullness. Neither Mary nor the Church can exercise their motherhoods alone.
Today’s feast, formally integrated into the Church’s calendar by the authority of Pope Francis in 2018, specifically commemorates Mary’s motherhood of the Church rather than her motherhood of God, a feast celebrated on January 1. Mary likely showed as much tender concern for Christ’s mystical body as it slowly matured in its native Palestine as she did for His physical body in Nazareth. Pope Pius XII perceptively noted Mary’s dual maternity in his encyclical on the Church: “It was she who was there to tend the mystical body of Christ, born of the Savior’s pierced heart, with the same motherly care that she spent on the child Jesus in the crib.” It is possible the Apostles held their first Council in about 49 A.D. in Jerusalem precisely because Mary still dwelled in the holy city. She was likely the young religion’s greatest living witness and pillar of unity. We can imagine her presiding over early Christian gatherings with reserved solemnity, nursing primitive Christianity just as she had Christ.
Ancient pagans spoke of imperial Rome as a Domina, a divine female master. Rome was praised as a conquering mother who brought vanquished peoples close to her own heart, incorporating them as citizens into her vast, multicultural, polyglot realm. Other empires executed prisoners of war, exiled peoples, imposed a foreign culture, or displaced populations. Not Rome. Rome absorbed them all. The early fathers understood Mother Church as the successor to this Domina. In baptism this Mother does not release her children from her body but absorbs them, making them fully her own unto death. Since the early Middle Ages, feast days and devotions to the Virgin Mary have proliferated in Catholicism. Now Pope Francis has given the Church a feast to compliment that of January 1. The two motherhoods of Mary reflect one profound truth, that Christ approaches us in time and in space, in history and in sacrament, in mysterious and beautiful ways. In the words of Saint Augustine: “What (God) has bestowed on Mary in the flesh, He has bestowed on the Church in the spirit; Mary gave birth to the One, and the Church gives birth to the many, who through the One become one.” This is all cause for deep reflection.
Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, you are the fairest daughter of Israel, chosen and prepared by God as the sacred vessel to replace Mother Synagogue with Mother Church. Eve approaches you like mother to daughter, old Eve to New Eve—two mothers of souls both on earth and in heaven.
Introductory Prayer: You are true goodness and life, Lord. Closeness to you brings peace and joy. You deserve all of my trust and my love. Thank you for the gift of life, my family, and above all of my faith. Thank you as well for giving us your Mother at the foot of the cross.
Petition: Lord, help me to grow in my filial love for Mary, your Mother, and mine.
1. Standing: Today is a Marian celebration, the memorial of “Mary, Mother of the Church.” Mary, like me, had no particular love of pain and sorrow. The first announcement of her vocation by the Archangel Gabriel mentioned nothing about it, being filled only with messianic promises. However, soon after Jesus’ birth, Simeon completed the dimensions that were to enlighten her vocation: “…and a sword will pierce your heart that the thoughts of many might be revealed.” Recognizing the fulfillment of her calling to accompany her Son during his crucifixion, she does so with a desire to fulfill God’s mysterious plan, not reluctantly, but by standing close to Jesus with all the sorrow that this implied for her. Mary never abandons her children when they are suffering.
2. Last Will and Testament: The words Jesus speaks to his mother and beloved disciple are equivalent to his last will and testament. He bequeaths what is most precious to him to a beloved person. To Mary, he gives the friend he loves so much, who will also need her help in his difficulties. To John, he gives his greatest human comfort, his best disciple, his mother. He knows that she needs him, an adopted son, to comfort and accompany her.
3. Mary Makes My Home Sweet: John took his responsibility for Mary seriously, taking her into his own home. Home for John was nothing less than the Church that Jesus founded. Mary was to have pride of place there, as Jesus’ mother and as she who knew, loved, and served him best. She also took her role seriously, so seriously that she immediately perceived that all those she encountered were her adoptive sons and daughters. In this house, that is the Church; Mary is the sweetness of the traditional saying, “Home, sweet home.”
Conversation with Christ: Jesus, I can’t thank you enough for entrusting your mother to me and me to her. I want to care for her by being an attentive, faithful son or daughter who imitates you. That’s what will console her and make her heart rejoice. Mary, be always at my side and intercede for me before God so that I persevere in following your Son.
Resolution: I will make my devotion to Mary very personal, whether in spontaneous conversation with her or contemplating the mysteries of Christ’s life while praying the Rosary.
Mary, Mother of the Church 2022
Opening Prayer: Mother Mary, in this special month of May, please bless me as I contemplate your suffering at the foot of the cross.
Encountering Christ:
His Last Gift: With his dying breath, Jesus presented his mother to the apostle John. With this gesture, he offers her to us as well. Afterward, John invited Mary into his home. Do we also invite Mary into our spiritual home? If we look to Mary when life gets tough, our relationship with her deepens. If we pray for her as an intercessor, situation after situation, our connection to her grows. If we are grateful for her, in life’s storms or on calm seas, our bond with her is solidified. If we pray the rosary, read about Mary, and talk about her, she becomes our constant companion. When we have faith in our Mother, we truly receive her presence as a gift—the gift Jesus intended for each one of us when he said, “Behold your mother.”
His Thirst: In her well-known letter, “I thirst for you,” St. Teresa of Calcutta described the infinite love and thirsts of God. Jesus told her, “Even when you are not listening, even when you doubt it could be me, I am there: waiting for even the smallest suggestion of an invitation that will permit me to enter.” Jesus longs to strengthen, console, carry, transform, calm, and heal us. He knows everything about us—our troubles, rejections, humiliations, even the number of hairs on our head. “All I ask of you that you entrust yourself to me completely. I will do the rest.” Do the words “I thirst” echo in our souls?
It Is Finished: In his brief life, Jesus perfectly fulfilled the will of God. When he made the ultimate sacrifice for mankind, he proclaimed, “It is finished.” God’s plan had been perfectly executed. Those same words are true for us when we’ve run a race, completed a project, or endured a hardship. Jesus, however, accomplished his Father’s will in perfect union with him. We are called to do likewise. Our Lord wants nothing more than to be an integral part of our life—all of it. Next time we say, “Ahhh… it is finished,” may we also acknowledge that Jesus strengthened and accompanied us.
Conversing with Christ: I know I will never truly understand the sacrifice you made for me on the cross because I did not endure your life and suffering. Help me, Lord, to join every suffering in my life to yours, because I know that pleases you. By these offerings may I grow more appreciative of your sacrifice for me. Thank you for the gift of your Blessed Mother.
Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will invite you into every suffering I experience, knowing that I am accompanied by my Blessed Mother and you.
Suy Niệm Tin Mừng - Mark 10:17-27 Thứ Hai Tuần thứ 8 TN.
Bài Tin Mừng hôm nay, Chúa Giêsu đã chỉ cho chàng trai trẻ biết rõ là lý do căn bản mà chúng ta phải có những luật đạo là vì bản chất con người yếu đuối của chúng ta là tội lỗi. Về thực chất, Chúa Giêsu nói với chàng trai trẻ là: không phải là Ngài, Đấng mà sẽ cứu chính mình nhưng Thiên Chúa, Người đã thực sự yêu thương Ngài. Nhưng chàng trai trẻ này không bao giờ có thể hiểu được điều này, Chúa Giêsu tiếp tục nói với chàng trai trẻ ấy là hãy về bán đi tất cả các tài sản của mình để bố thí cho người nghèo. Những anh ta buồn bã bỏ đi, vì anh ta rất giàu có. Điều này đã khiến Chúa Giêsu nói rằng con lạc đà đi qua lỗ kim còn dễ dàng hơn là một giàu có mà vào được Nước Thiên Đàng. Không phải là trạng thái giàu có đó là vấn đề kó vài Thiên àng, nhưng là việc Người giàu có, nếu có đầu óc ích kỷ và tham lam, lúc nào cũng muốn giàu có hơn và không muốn chia sẽ những gì mình có với người thiếu thốn, đói khổ.
Thông thường khi một người có phương tiện, ý tưởng và niềm tin của họ được tập trung vào sự giàu có của họ là làm thế nào để giữ và làm cho giàu thêm, và thật đáng buồn vì mối bận tâm này mà họ đã quên Chúa, quên anh chị em khó nghèo. Như chàng trai trẻ nọ không nhìn thấy giá trị thực sự của mọi sự vật.
Sự cứu rỗi của chúng ta không thể và sẽ không thể tìm thấy được trong các việc làm theo các quy tắc hoặc tin rằng chúng ta có thể tự cứu rỗi lấy chính mình. Ơn cứu độ là một hồng ân của Thiên Chúa, hồng ân này chỉ đến được với chúng ta qua việc kiến tạo một mối quan hệ giữa chúng ta với Thiên Chúa.
Và làm thế nào để chúng ta có thể kiến tạo được một mối quan hệ với Thiên Chúa? Bằng cách cầu nguyện và lắng nghe Lời Ngài, và sống theo lời Chúa biết tha thứ, biết chia sẻ những gì Chúa đãn ban cho chúng ta với những nguười kém may mắn. Đó là một trong những mối quan hệ thật sự của chúng ta với Thiên Chúa và dễ làm đẹp lòng Chúa. Chúng ta có sẵn sàng bỏ lại bất cứ những thứ gì đang làm trở ngại cho việc đạt được ơn cứu rỗi của chúng ta?
REFLECTION
Jesus pointed out to the young man that the basic reason why we have these laws is that by nature we are sinners. In essence, he was telling the man that it is not he who would save himself but God who truly loves him. As the man could not understand this, Jesus went on to tell the man to let go of all his wealth. The man chose not to, for he had great wealth. This prompted Jesus to say that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich to enter the Kingdom of God. It is not the state of being wealthy that is the problem but the disposition and preoccupation one tends to have when one is wealthy. Often when one has means, his ideas and beliefs focus on his wealth, how to keep and make it grow, and sadly with this preoccupation, he fails to see the real value of things.
Our salvation cannot and will not be found in following all the rules or believing that we alone can save ourselves. Salvation is a grace from God which comes only through our building a relationship with Him. And how do we build a relationship with God? By praying and listening to His Word, and living it. Have I taken time to ask how my relationship with God is lately? Am I willing to leave anything in my possession that may be an obstacle to the attainment of my salvation?
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