Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Hai Tuần 11 Thường
Niên
Thông thường, chúng ta có một cái gì đó trở nên đáng mơ ước chỉ bởi vì chúng ta không thể có nó hoặc nó thuộc về người khác. Nếu nó là của chúng ta, có lẽ nó sẽ không còn hấp dẫn đối với chúng ta nữa. Vua A-háp muốn có vườn nho của ông Na-bốt, và khi ông Na-bốt từ chối bán nó cho nhà Vua, Nhà Vua quá thèm khát và muốn có cho được vườn nho đó và chính vì thế nhà vua đã phát ốm và chán nản, cuối cùng vì sự ham muốn và thèm khát quá độ đã khiến nhà vua nghĩ cách giết chết Na-bốt để chiếm đoạt vườn nho mà nhà vua hàng khao khát. Đôi khi trong cuộc sống, Chúng ta có thể thấy mình đang ganh đua với người khác để chiếm hữu cho được những thứ mình muốn, như vật chất quyền lực, các mối quan hệ, tất cả chỉ vì chúng ta muốn những thứ ấy là tài sản của riêng mình. Đây là phần lớn cas gốc rễ đã gây ra những xung đột trên thế giới. Khi chúng ta nhận ra chúng ta có xu hướng này trong lòng của chính mình, thì chúng ta có thể bắt đầu nên phá vỡ cái vòng luẩn quẩn này đe chúng ta có thể có được sự tự do trong tâm hồn.
Trong căn bản, Chúa muốn chúng ta quên đi những sự báo thù hay việc ăn thua đủ. Bằng mọi cách, Chúng ta cần phải đứng lên để bảo vệ cho công lý và cho những gì là sự thật, là chân lý, nhưng chúng ta không dùng đến sự hận thù và bạo lực. Vi đấy là những cách của thế giới mà chúng ta đang sống. Khi nhìn vào thế giới kinh hoàng mà con người chúng ta đã tạo ra! Khi chúng ta thấy mình bị xúc phạm, hay bị ngược đãi, chúng ta phải biết cưỡng lại sự cám dỗ khi đáp ứng với lời nói hay những hành động hận thù bằng tấm lòng biết thương yêu, biết tha thứ để để đem hòa bình đến cho mọi người; Chúng ta hãy cầu nguyện cho những người quấy rầy, làm hại chúng ta nếu được như thế, chúng ta sẽ tìm thấy một sự khác biệt trong chính mình, và cuối cùng ở nơi những người khác nữa. Lạy Chúa, giúp chúng con vượt qua khỏi mọi sự gian ác với lòng tốt và tử tế của chúng con.
Monday 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Often something becomes desirable only because we cannot have it or it belongs to another. If it were ours for the taking, perhaps it would not be as attractive to us. King Ahab wanted the vineyard of Naboth, and when Naboth refused to sell it to him, his burning desire to have it made him sick and depressed and eventually led to poor Naboth’s murder. We can find ourselves competing with others for possession, recognition, power, relationships all because we want them as our own possession. This is at the root of much of the world's conflict. When we recognize this tendency within ourselves, we can begin to break the vicious cycle and become free.
Turn the other cheek — do not resist the evildoer - go the extra mile — give freely to others — these are some of the hardest words in the New Testament. They seem unrealistic, and we can think of so many situations that seem to call for resistance or retaliation. But Jesus was giving us the tools to break the cycle of violence and live in the peace of God.
Basically, he asked us to give up revenge and getting even. By all means, stand up for justice and what is right, but do not resort to hatred and violence. These are the world’s methods, and look at the terrible world they have created! When we find ourselves insulted, put down, or persecuted, resist the temptation to respond with hateful words and actions. Send out blessings of peace; pray for the other. You will find a difference in yourself and eventually in others. Lord, help me to overcome evil with kindness.
Monday 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.” Matthew 5:41–42
As the faith of Israel developed over the centuries, prior to the coming of Christ, there were various stages of advancement in morality. Prior to the establishment of moral laws in the Old Testament, it was common for families to inflict severe vengeance upon other families when harm was done to them. This caused ongoing violence and feuds. But advancements were made when the law of retaliation was established which said, “When a man causes a disfigurement in his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; as he has disfigured a man, he shall be disfigured” (Leviticus 24:19–20). This was a new form of justice that forbade the vengeance from being more severe than the crime that was retaliated against. At the time, this helped end ongoing family feuds that continually escalated.
It is this law of retaliation that Jesus addresses in our Gospel today. The new and much higher form of morality that Jesus taught called His disciples to “offer no resistance to one who is evil” and to turn the other cheek when evil was done to them. Though strict justice requires satisfaction for sin, Jesus’ new teaching was that mercy pays every debt. First, His mercy bestowed upon us, for the forgiveness of our sins, pays the debt of our sins when we truly repent and change. But if we desire our debts to God for our sins to be forgiven and repaid, then we must do the same to others, holding nothing against them.
But Jesus goes even further. In the passage quoted above, Jesus exhorts His disciples to a new and radical form of charity and generosity. This new moral code was how the children of the Kingdom of God were now called to act. It was not enough to only forgive and to forget the debt one owes you because of their sin. Mercy now requires us to “Give to the one who asks” and to walk “two miles” with one who only asks you to walk one mile with them. In other words, Christian charity far exceeds every concept of strict justice and even goes beyond basic forgiveness. This was certainly a new and radical teaching from our Lord.
Think about this new moral law in your own life. What level of “justice” do you most commonly live by? When someone wrongs you, do you live like those prior to the Old Testament laws by seeking to get back at them to an even greater degree than the harm done to you? Do you live by the law that seeks the equal justice of an eye for an eye? Do you seek to forgive and offer mercy as a payment for the debt another has incurred by the sin they have committed against you? Or, ideally, do you strive to go even beyond the act of forgiveness and bestow mercy in a new and generous, superabundant way? This last level of love is difficult to obtain and live, but it is the way our Lord treats us and it is the way that He calls us to treat others.
Reflect, today, upon any hurt you may currently be struggling with. And consider the way in which you have been dealing with that hurt. As you seek to understand this new law of love and mercy given by our Lord, pray to Him that He will give you the grace you need to give to others the same level of mercy that God gives to you.
My generous Lord, You offer Your mercy in superabundance. You not only forgive when we repent, You also restore us to far greater heights of holiness than we could ever deserve. Give me the grace I need, dear Lord, to offer this same level of mercy and love to those who have sinned against me. I forgive all who have hurt me. Please help me to also love them with all my heart. Jesus, I trust in You.
Monday 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer: You have given me the gift of another day, Lord. I want to live it to the full! I want to give you glory by living my life abundantly! Teach me to pour my faith and my love into everything I do. Teach me to find you and your love in all this day's duties, encounters, and experiences. I know you are always with me, thinking of me, leading, and guiding me. As I come before you in prayer today, I humbly ask you to teach me how to see your presence and walk with you always and everywhere…
1. Seeing Others as Christ Does: These words of our Lord are so familiar to us. Maybe too familiar. Turn the other cheek; go the extra mile; give to the one who asks… These are behaviors that flow from a way of seeing other people. Our fallen human nature sees other people as competitors, threats, obstacles, tools. And so we are always ready to defend, take advantage, and outsmart. Jesus is inviting us to adopt a different perspective. He wants us to drop our shields and take off our masks. He wants us to discover the dignity and worth of other people, regardless of their flaws and sins. He wants us to learn to see others as he sees them—as children of God and saints in the making. When we see others that way, we unleash new strength in our hearts. We can choose how we respond to insults (being struck on the right cheek implied a back-handed slap, the sign of an insult in Israel at the time of Jesus) and injustices (Roman soldiers could legally conscript local citizens to carry their loads for a mile at a time in Roman-occupied Israel). We can look past the brokenness of this world and the ugliness of our fallen nature to see the face of a brother, even in strangers and opponents. This is Christ’s invitation. He believes in us so much that he invites and equips us to follow his own example: “While we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). As we learn to do this, to live our relations with other people on the level of the deeper truth of our common human nature and Christian vocation, we will also learn what it really means to be blessed: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy” (Matthew 5:7).
REFLECTION
In the first reading Paul praises the Corinthians for their generosity to help those in need and exhorts them to continue being generous, following the example of Christ: "You know well the generosity of Christ Jesus, our Lord. Although he was rich, he made himself poor to make you rich through his poverty."
The generous person enriches others with his help but is himself also enriched by being open-handed; and of course, he is repaid by God.
In the Gospel reading we are enjoined to love our enemies. We have enemies because we may have offended them or others may be envious of our good fortune or the evil one may have provoked others to go against us. If, with God's grace, we are able to do good to our enemies, they may
even be our staunchest supporters.
There may be others who are, for whatever reasons, simply evil and unjust, conceited and self-serving, who enjoy persecuting and destroying others: God calls us to love them and to pray for them. With God's grace, they may soften their hearts and reform. For indeed, with God's grace, nothing is impossible.
Thông thường, chúng ta có một cái gì đó trở nên đáng mơ ước chỉ bởi vì chúng ta không thể có nó hoặc nó thuộc về người khác. Nếu nó là của chúng ta, có lẽ nó sẽ không còn hấp dẫn đối với chúng ta nữa. Vua A-háp muốn có vườn nho của ông Na-bốt, và khi ông Na-bốt từ chối bán nó cho nhà Vua, Nhà Vua quá thèm khát và muốn có cho được vườn nho đó và chính vì thế nhà vua đã phát ốm và chán nản, cuối cùng vì sự ham muốn và thèm khát quá độ đã khiến nhà vua nghĩ cách giết chết Na-bốt để chiếm đoạt vườn nho mà nhà vua hàng khao khát. Đôi khi trong cuộc sống, Chúng ta có thể thấy mình đang ganh đua với người khác để chiếm hữu cho được những thứ mình muốn, như vật chất quyền lực, các mối quan hệ, tất cả chỉ vì chúng ta muốn những thứ ấy là tài sản của riêng mình. Đây là phần lớn cas gốc rễ đã gây ra những xung đột trên thế giới. Khi chúng ta nhận ra chúng ta có xu hướng này trong lòng của chính mình, thì chúng ta có thể bắt đầu nên phá vỡ cái vòng luẩn quẩn này đe chúng ta có thể có được sự tự do trong tâm hồn.
Trong căn bản, Chúa muốn chúng ta quên đi những sự báo thù hay việc ăn thua đủ. Bằng mọi cách, Chúng ta cần phải đứng lên để bảo vệ cho công lý và cho những gì là sự thật, là chân lý, nhưng chúng ta không dùng đến sự hận thù và bạo lực. Vi đấy là những cách của thế giới mà chúng ta đang sống. Khi nhìn vào thế giới kinh hoàng mà con người chúng ta đã tạo ra! Khi chúng ta thấy mình bị xúc phạm, hay bị ngược đãi, chúng ta phải biết cưỡng lại sự cám dỗ khi đáp ứng với lời nói hay những hành động hận thù bằng tấm lòng biết thương yêu, biết tha thứ để để đem hòa bình đến cho mọi người; Chúng ta hãy cầu nguyện cho những người quấy rầy, làm hại chúng ta nếu được như thế, chúng ta sẽ tìm thấy một sự khác biệt trong chính mình, và cuối cùng ở nơi những người khác nữa. Lạy Chúa, giúp chúng con vượt qua khỏi mọi sự gian ác với lòng tốt và tử tế của chúng con.
Often something becomes desirable only because we cannot have it or it belongs to another. If it were ours for the taking, perhaps it would not be as attractive to us. King Ahab wanted the vineyard of Naboth, and when Naboth refused to sell it to him, his burning desire to have it made him sick and depressed and eventually led to poor Naboth’s murder. We can find ourselves competing with others for possession, recognition, power, relationships all because we want them as our own possession. This is at the root of much of the world's conflict. When we recognize this tendency within ourselves, we can begin to break the vicious cycle and become free.
Turn the other cheek — do not resist the evildoer - go the extra mile — give freely to others — these are some of the hardest words in the New Testament. They seem unrealistic, and we can think of so many situations that seem to call for resistance or retaliation. But Jesus was giving us the tools to break the cycle of violence and live in the peace of God.
Basically, he asked us to give up revenge and getting even. By all means, stand up for justice and what is right, but do not resort to hatred and violence. These are the world’s methods, and look at the terrible world they have created! When we find ourselves insulted, put down, or persecuted, resist the temptation to respond with hateful words and actions. Send out blessings of peace; pray for the other. You will find a difference in yourself and eventually in others. Lord, help me to overcome evil with kindness.
Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.” Matthew 5:41–42
As the faith of Israel developed over the centuries, prior to the coming of Christ, there were various stages of advancement in morality. Prior to the establishment of moral laws in the Old Testament, it was common for families to inflict severe vengeance upon other families when harm was done to them. This caused ongoing violence and feuds. But advancements were made when the law of retaliation was established which said, “When a man causes a disfigurement in his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; as he has disfigured a man, he shall be disfigured” (Leviticus 24:19–20). This was a new form of justice that forbade the vengeance from being more severe than the crime that was retaliated against. At the time, this helped end ongoing family feuds that continually escalated.
It is this law of retaliation that Jesus addresses in our Gospel today. The new and much higher form of morality that Jesus taught called His disciples to “offer no resistance to one who is evil” and to turn the other cheek when evil was done to them. Though strict justice requires satisfaction for sin, Jesus’ new teaching was that mercy pays every debt. First, His mercy bestowed upon us, for the forgiveness of our sins, pays the debt of our sins when we truly repent and change. But if we desire our debts to God for our sins to be forgiven and repaid, then we must do the same to others, holding nothing against them.
But Jesus goes even further. In the passage quoted above, Jesus exhorts His disciples to a new and radical form of charity and generosity. This new moral code was how the children of the Kingdom of God were now called to act. It was not enough to only forgive and to forget the debt one owes you because of their sin. Mercy now requires us to “Give to the one who asks” and to walk “two miles” with one who only asks you to walk one mile with them. In other words, Christian charity far exceeds every concept of strict justice and even goes beyond basic forgiveness. This was certainly a new and radical teaching from our Lord.
Think about this new moral law in your own life. What level of “justice” do you most commonly live by? When someone wrongs you, do you live like those prior to the Old Testament laws by seeking to get back at them to an even greater degree than the harm done to you? Do you live by the law that seeks the equal justice of an eye for an eye? Do you seek to forgive and offer mercy as a payment for the debt another has incurred by the sin they have committed against you? Or, ideally, do you strive to go even beyond the act of forgiveness and bestow mercy in a new and generous, superabundant way? This last level of love is difficult to obtain and live, but it is the way our Lord treats us and it is the way that He calls us to treat others.
Reflect, today, upon any hurt you may currently be struggling with. And consider the way in which you have been dealing with that hurt. As you seek to understand this new law of love and mercy given by our Lord, pray to Him that He will give you the grace you need to give to others the same level of mercy that God gives to you.
My generous Lord, You offer Your mercy in superabundance. You not only forgive when we repent, You also restore us to far greater heights of holiness than we could ever deserve. Give me the grace I need, dear Lord, to offer this same level of mercy and love to those who have sinned against me. I forgive all who have hurt me. Please help me to also love them with all my heart. Jesus, I trust in You.
Opening Prayer: You have given me the gift of another day, Lord. I want to live it to the full! I want to give you glory by living my life abundantly! Teach me to pour my faith and my love into everything I do. Teach me to find you and your love in all this day's duties, encounters, and experiences. I know you are always with me, thinking of me, leading, and guiding me. As I come before you in prayer today, I humbly ask you to teach me how to see your presence and walk with you always and everywhere…
1. Seeing Others as Christ Does: These words of our Lord are so familiar to us. Maybe too familiar. Turn the other cheek; go the extra mile; give to the one who asks… These are behaviors that flow from a way of seeing other people. Our fallen human nature sees other people as competitors, threats, obstacles, tools. And so we are always ready to defend, take advantage, and outsmart. Jesus is inviting us to adopt a different perspective. He wants us to drop our shields and take off our masks. He wants us to discover the dignity and worth of other people, regardless of their flaws and sins. He wants us to learn to see others as he sees them—as children of God and saints in the making. When we see others that way, we unleash new strength in our hearts. We can choose how we respond to insults (being struck on the right cheek implied a back-handed slap, the sign of an insult in Israel at the time of Jesus) and injustices (Roman soldiers could legally conscript local citizens to carry their loads for a mile at a time in Roman-occupied Israel). We can look past the brokenness of this world and the ugliness of our fallen nature to see the face of a brother, even in strangers and opponents. This is Christ’s invitation. He believes in us so much that he invites and equips us to follow his own example: “While we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). As we learn to do this, to live our relations with other people on the level of the deeper truth of our common human nature and Christian vocation, we will also learn what it really means to be blessed: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy” (Matthew 5:7).
In the first reading Paul praises the Corinthians for their generosity to help those in need and exhorts them to continue being generous, following the example of Christ: "You know well the generosity of Christ Jesus, our Lord. Although he was rich, he made himself poor to make you rich through his poverty."
The generous person enriches others with his help but is himself also enriched by being open-handed; and of course, he is repaid by God.
In the Gospel reading we are enjoined to love our enemies. We have enemies because we may have offended them or others may be envious of our good fortune or the evil one may have provoked others to go against us. If, with God's grace, we are able to do good to our enemies, they may
even be our staunchest supporters.
There may be others who are, for whatever reasons, simply evil and unjust, conceited and self-serving, who enjoy persecuting and destroying others: God calls us to love them and to pray for them. With God's grace, they may soften their hearts and reform. For indeed, with God's grace, nothing is impossible.
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