Saturday, July 22, 2023

7-22 Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Lễ kính Thánh nữ Maria Mađalêna

Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Lễ kính Thánh nữ Maria Mađalêna

Hôm nay chúng ta mừng lễ Thánh nữ Maria Mađalêna, một người phụ nữ không những chỉ là một đệ tử trung thành và thân tín Chúa Kitô mà còn là một người thật sự yêu kính Chúa Giêsu. Đáng tiếc thay là trong thời chúng ta đang sống hôm nay, nhiều người trong chúng ta có lẽ lo ngại hay có sự nghi ngờ về ba Maria Mađalêna. Nhiều người trong chúng ta cảm thấy khó chịu trong sự thân mật mà cô đã dành cho Chúa Giêsu. Trong bài đọc Tin Mừng hôm nay, Thánh Gioan mô tả những cuộc gặp gỡ của bà với Chúa Giêsu có vẻ như thân thiện hơn nhiều so với sự thân mật bình thường. Vì thế nó không giúp ích cho Maria Mađalên khi bà đã bị người khác nhầm lẫn và miêu tả bà ở trong phim trường Hollywood như là một người tình bất hợp pháp của Chúa Giêsu hay là một cô gái đã từng làm nghề mại dâm (mà cô thực sự là không phải thế..vì có rất nhiều Maria trong những bài Tin Mừng.)
Trong suốt các bài Tin Mừng, Bà Maria Mađalêna đã phải tranh đấu với những khó khăn và sự sỉ nhục, đau thương. Bà cũng bị quỷ ám và cũng bị mọi người thân cận bỏ rơi trước khi Chúa Giêsu trừ quỷ và chữa khỏi bà. Và bà cũng chính mắt chứng kiến cái cái Chết cực hình của người bạn thân thương nhất của bà là Chúa Giêsu đã chết trên thập tự giá. Tóm lại, trong thời gian của bà và cho đến ngày nay, chúng ta đã không chịu để cho Maria Mađalêna có được nhiều thời gian nghỉ ngơi. Ngoại trừ Đức Giêsu, Đấng đã làm.
Chúa Giêsu là người bạn thật chân tình của bà trong tất cả các bạn. Ngài không những chỉ chữa cho bà được khỏi bệnh, nhưng cũng giảng dạy riêng cho bà về Nước Trời nữa mặc dù những người khác phàn nàn và khiếu nại, Để đáp lại, bà Maria Mađalên đã hiến dâng cho Chúa tất cả, Bà đã đầu hàng tầt cả những gì mà bà có và hàng ao ước để lắng nghe và sống trưởng thành với đức tin của mình trong Chúa Giê-su. Vì thế tứ đó đến nay, không ai có thể ngạc nhiên là bà đã trở thành một trong những môn đệ trung thành nhất c, tốt nhất của Chúa.
Bà Maria Mađalên là một mô hình của đức tin và tình bạn hữu của Chúa cho chúng ta. Đối mặt với những sự phản kháng và tâm lý tiêu cực mà chúng ta thường gặp mỗi ngày trong cuộc sống hôm nay, chúng ta thực sự có thể sử dụng những ví dụ và cuộc sống của bà Maria Mađalêna và áp dụng trong mối quan hệ cá nhân của chúng ta với Chúa.
 
REFLECTION
Today we remember St. Mary Magdalene, a woman who not only was a loyal and faithful disciple of Christ but also a person who truly loved Jesus.It is unfortunate that in our present day, many of us are apprehensive or suspicious of Mary Magdalene. Many of us find discomfort in the intimacy she had with Jesus. In today's gospel reading, St. John's description of the meeting of Mary and Jesus may seem more than friendly than it is joyful. It doesn't help that Mary Magdalene has been mistakenly portrayed in Hollywood as an illegitimate lover of Jesus or as an ex-prostitute (which she really wasn't).Mary Magdalene throughout the Gospels contended with difficulties and traumas. She was possessed of demons and likely an outcast before Jesus cured her. And she watched her friend Jesus die on the cross. In short, during her time and up to the present, we haven't been giving Mary Magdalene much of a break. Except Jesus who did.Jesus was her one true friend throughout it all. He not only cured her, but also taught to her, and stuck with her despite the complaints of others. In response, Mary gave her all to listen to and grow her faith with Jesus hence it comes as no surprise she became one of His most faithful disciples and best of friend.Mary Magdalene is a model of faith and friendship. In the face of antagonism and negative sentiment, which we often experience today, we could really use her example in our own personal relationship with the Lord "Lord, may I never fail to recognize your voice nor lose sight of your presence in your saving word."

July 22: Saint Mary Magdalene—Feast
    Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and said to him, “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” which means Teacher. Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary of Magdala went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and what he told her. ~John 20:11–18
    Saint Mary Magdalene, also known as Magdalene or Mary of Magdala, is most likely named after the bustling fishing village of Magdala on the western edge of the Sea of Galilee. All information about Mary comes from the Gospels. Luke 8:1–3 introduces her as one of the many women who accompanied Jesus and the Twelve, providing for them out of their own resources. These women are said to have been “cured of evil spirits and infirmities,” and Mary is specifically noted to have been delivered from “seven demons.”
.    Being delivered from seven demons carries significant implications. It could mean that Mary was genuinely possessed, obsessed, or oppressed by seven distinct demons. The number seven also symbolizes perfection, implying she may have been completely possessed or that her deliverance from these demons, and from a life of sin and evil, was a perfect deliverance. In other words, she never returned to the sins from which Jesus delivered her. Some suggest that the seven demons represent the seven capital sins, implying that Mary had committed grave violations of all seven capital sins and was delivered from each of these sinful habits.
    In the previous chapter of Luke’s Gospel, Luke 7:35–50, we are given the story of an anonymous “sinful woman” who interrupts a dinner that Jesus was attending at the house of Simon the Pharisee. This woman’s sin is not named, but her repentance is clear. She brings with her an “alabaster flask of ointment,” and stands “behind him at his feet,” weeping, washing Jesus’ feet with her tears, wiping them with her hair, and anointing them with the ointment. After a discourse with the Pharisee who was judging her and Jesus in his heart, Jesus tells Simon, “her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love.” He then turns to her, forgives her, and sends her forth in peace.
   Throughout the centuries, many have presumed that this sinful woman was Mary Magdalene. Though this is possible, and some say probable, there is no definitive way to know. This sinful woman might have been Mary of Bethany, the sister of Lazarus and Martha. It could have been a different woman not mentioned elsewhere in the Bible, or one of the other women who accompanied Jesus and provided for Him and the Twelve.
      The second time that Mary Magdalene is explicitly mentioned in the Bible is at Jesus’ crucifixion. Matthew, Mark, and Luke state that she and other women were present and were looking on from a distance. John’s Gospel, however, states that she was standing close to the Cross next to Jesus’ mother and aunt: “Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala” (John 19:25).
     The third time Mary Magdalene is mentioned is after the Resurrection. Matthew, Mark, and Luke state that Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early on Sunday morning to anoint Jesus’ body and that she was accompanied by one or more other women. However, John’s Gospel states that she went alone, found the stone rolled away, and Jesus’ body missing. She then ran to tell Peter and John, who went to investigate and found the tomb empty, just as she had said. Peter and John left, but Mary sat by the tomb crying. Two angels appeared in the tomb and conversed with her. She then turned around and saw someone whom she mistook for the gardener and asked if he had taken Jesus’ body, but it was Jesus Himself. When Jesus said her name, “Mary!”, she recognized Him. Jesus told her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’” (John 20:17). Mary quickly went and informed the disciples that she had seen the Lord.
     Because it was Mary who was first sent to announce the Resurrection of Christ to the other disciples, Saint Thomas Aquinas referred to her as the “Apostle to the Apostles.” Though it could be inferred from the Bible that Mary Magdalene was the first to see the risen Lord, others hold that Jesus appeared first to His own Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, even though this is not explicitly stated in the Gospels. Pope Saint John Paul II addressed this, saying, “Indeed, it is legitimate to think that the Mother was probably the first person to whom the risen Jesus appeared. Could not Mary’s absence from the group of women who went to the tomb at dawn (cf. Mark 16:1Matthew 28:1) indicate that she had already met Jesus?” (General Audience, 3 April 1996). Nothing else is known about Mary Magdalene after this biblical account of Jesus’ Resurrection. One ancient tradition holds that she accompanied John and the Blessed Mother to Ephesus, where she spent the remainder of her days.
As we honor Saint Mary Magdalene, we especially celebrate God’s unlimited mercy. The encounter with Jesus changed Mary’s life forever. Jesus did not hesitate to associate Himself with this woman who was delivered from seven demons. Similarly, Jesus never hesitates to unite Himself with anyone who sincerely repents of their sins, regardless of their past actions. Mary’s life also tells us that there is hope for everyone. Before her transformation, many who knew her might have easily dismissed her as hopeless. Jesus didn’t do that with her, and He doesn’t do so with anyone. In 2016, Pope Francis elevated the memorial of Saint Mary Magdalene to the status of a Feast on the liturgical calendar. He did so during the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy as a way of highlighting the important role that Saint Mary Magdalene played in the Gospels, the depth of her love for Christ, and to highlight the Divine Mercy of God.
Reflect upon your own sins and the manifest sinfulness of others. For yourself, if you struggle with some habitual sin, know that freedom is possible. For others, if you have written anyone off, try to regain hope. Pray for that person and know that with Christ Jesus, all things are possible. Your prayers for and witness to those who are sinful can open the doors of Jesus’ mercy for them, giving them the chance they need to repent and to be bathed in the mercy of God.
Saint Mary Magdalene, you lived a sinful life, but when you encountered Jesus, you repented and followed Him. You were faithful to Him throughout His ministry and were a witness to His death and Resurrection. Please pray for me, that I may always have the courage to repent of my sins and stand with you at the foot of the Cross so that I may also be a witness to the transforming effects of the Resurrection. Saint Mary Magdalene, pray for me. Jesus, I trust in You.
Jul 22 St. Mary Magdalene 2023
Introductory Prayer: Lord, you are the source of all life because you are life itself. Your resurrection gives me the hope of being raised from the dead to rejoice with you in heaven forever. I need to reflect more often on the good you have done for us and on your promises to those who put their trust in you. Thank you, Jesus, for taking up your life again and leading the way home to heaven. I love you, and I want to follow after you with all my heart. I want to cooperate more fully with you in bringing many others there with me.
Petition: Lord, grant me a faith that is alive, operative and fruitful.
1. Blinded by Love, Mary Stayed Weeping: St. John observes that “they did not know the scripture, that he must rise from the dead” (John 20:9). Because the reality of the Resurrection had not yet entered into the mind, and much less the heart, of Mary, she stayed weeping outside Christ’s tomb. Take this moment to contemplate this moving scene which shows Mary’s deep love for Our Lord. Even angels could not persuade her with their questioning: “Why are you weeping?” Admire her love; imitate her love; want what she wanted – to be with her Lord, always! May our love for Our Lord give us the same fortitude in love that Mary showed at the tomb.
2. They Had Taken Her Love Away: Poor Mary! The sorrows of her life were so mean and pitiful. One sad day, desperation led her into a life of prostitution. With her dignity gone, her empty soul seemed suited only to be a haven for roaming devils (cf. Luke 8:3; Mark 16:9). The world, the flesh and the devil saw her only with contempt and selfish opportunity. But Our Lord had seen her differently and loved her differently. However, The love he had restored to her life was now trampled upon as she contemplated his empty tomb. See her heart, already heavy with grief and horror at seeing her Lord mistreated, beaten, and crucified. All these thoughts welled up in her mind and caused her to conclude, “They have taken my Lord.” Feel the depths of her helplessness as she finished her thought: “And I don´t know where they laid him.”
3. “Why Are You Weeping?” Mary’s love was at the right time, in the right place, and for the right person. Her tears were for her Lord. Jesus, moved by Mary’s love, would not let her remain in such a state. Now Christ asks her, “Why are you weeping?” In effect, Jesus is saying, “The sins of your past will no longer have power over you. Nor will those cruel men, or the devil. I am here, the Resurrection, the Way, the Truth, and the Life! Sin, evil men, the devil, and death might stake their claim on you, but they cannot have you, for you are mine! I have bought you with the price of my own blood; I have laid down my life for you, my friend!” Our Lord sums up this great truth with but a simple, tender utterance of her name: “Mary”. Yes, Jesus knows us personally and loves us in a personal way. We must come to our senses and believe in the truth of the Resurrection. We must believe in Jesus.
Conversation with Christ: Lord, you lead me to life everlasting. Let me draw ever closer to you, trusting always in your ways and never fearing the cross. May I love you from the little cross of my life, whatever its form or character.
Resolution: I will seek out a friend I may have alienated by my bad example or lack of self-control, and I will strive to be reconciled through a generous act of charity and understanding. 

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