Suy Niệm Tin Mừng thứ Năm Tuần thứ 15 Thường Niên

Suy Niệm Tin Mừng thứ Năm Tuần thứ 15 Thường Niên

Tin Mừng hôm nay, Chúa Giêsu nói với chúng ta "gánh nặng của ta thì nhẹ nhàng". Có một câu chuyện đã kể về một người đàn ông đã gặp một cô bé khoảng 10 tuổi đang cõng một đứa em trai tật nguyền trên lưng. Ông ta nói "Đó là một gánh nặng cho con, mà sao con cứ phãi cõng nó hoài thế kia?. Con có mệt không?" Nhưng cô bế đã lên tiếng đáp lại: Thưa đàn ông, nó đâu có nặng đâu, nó là em con mà!”. Thật vậy, khi chúng ta có phải vác một gánh nặng tới đâu đi nữa, nhưng chúng ta vác nó với tình yêu thương và đem nó vào trong tình byêu của chúng ta, thì gánh nặng đó Không còn là một gánh nặng nữa. Khi chúng ta mang ách cuộc sống của chúng ta với Chúa Giêsu, Ngài cũng mang lấy gánh nặng của chúng  ta với chúng ta và Ngài còn cho chúng ta sức mạnh của Ngài để giúp chúng ta làm theo cách yêu thương của Ngài. Vì thế chúng ta nên tìm kiếm niềm vui trong lúc nghỉ ngơi với sự hiện diện của Chúa Giêsu và cùng đồng hành với Chúa hàng ngày trên con đường mà Chúa đã dành cho chúng ta.
            Chúa Giêsu đã ban cho chúng ta một vương quốc mới trong sự công chính, bình an và hạnh phúc. Trong vương quốc của Ngài tội lỗi không những chỉ tha thứ mà thôi nhưng còn được loại bỏ, và sự sống đời đời được ban cho tất cả những ai là công dân của Nước Trời. Đây không phải là một vương quốc chính trị, nhưng là một vương quốc thần linh. Ách thống trị trong vương quốc của Chúa Kitô, quy tắc vương giả của Ngài và lối sống, sẽ giải thoát chúng ta khỏi những gánh nặng của tội lỗi và những sự áp bức của thói quen tội lỗi và những sự thù ghét. Chỉ có Chúa Giêsu mới có thể nhấc nổi cái gánh nặng tội lỗi và sức nặng của sự tuyệt vọng nơi chúng tôi.
            Chúa Giêsu đã dùng một ách để so sánh và giải thích chúng ta hiểu rõ là làm thế nào để có thể trao đổi những gánh nặng của tội lỗi và sự tuyệt vọng, để nhận lấy sự vinh quang và chiến thắng với Ngài. Cái Ách mà Chúa Giêsu mời gọi chúng ta hãy ôm ấp lấy là cách của sống yêu thương như Chúa, Với ân sủng và sư tự do khỏi quyền lực của tội lỗi.
            Lạy Chúa xin ban cho chúng con có niềm tin vững mạnh vào tình yêu của Thiên Chúa và biết phó thác cuộc sống riêng của chúng con theo như ý Chúa và trong kế hoạch mà Chúa đã định sẵn cho cuộc sống của chúng con.
 
Meditation: "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me"
What does the yoke of Jesus refer to in the Gospel? The Jews used the image of a yoke to express submission to God. They spoke of the yoke of the law, the yoke of the commandments, the yoke of the kingdom, and the yoke of God. Jesus says his yoke is "easy". The Greek word for "easy" can also mean "well-fitting". Yokes were tailor-made to fit the oxen well. Oxen were yoked two by two. Jesus invites us to be yoked with him, to unite our life with his life, our will with his will, and our heart with his heart. To be yoked with Jesus is to be united with him in a relationship of love, trust, and obedience.
Jesus carries our burdens with us 
Jesus also says his "burden is light". There's a story of a man who once met a boy carrying a smaller crippled lad on his back. "That's a heavy load you are carrying there," exclaimed the man. "He ain't heavy; he's my brother!" responded the boy. No burden is too heavy when it's given in love and carried in love. When we yoke our lives with Jesus, he also carries our burdens with us and gives us his strength to follow in his way of love. Do you know the joy of resting in Jesus' presence and walking daily with him along the path he has for you?
Freed from the burden of sin and guilt 
Jesus offers us a new kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy. In his kingdom sins are not only forgiven but removed, and eternal life is poured out for all its citizens. This is not a political kingdom, but a spiritual one. The yoke of Christ's kingdom, his kingly rule and way of life, liberates us from the burden of guilt and from the oppression of sinful habits and hurtful desires. Only Jesus can lift the burden of sin and the weight of hopelessness from us. Jesus used the analogy of a yoke to explain how we can exchange the burden of sin and despair for a weight of glory and victory with him. The yoke which Jesus invites us to embrace is his way of love, grace, and freedom from the power of sin. Do you trust in God's love and submit to his will and plan for your life?
            "Lord Jesus, inflame my heart with love for you and for your ways and help me to exchange the yoke of rebellion for the yoke of submission to your holy and loving word. Set me free from the folly of my own sinful ignorance and rebellious pride that I may wholly desire what is good and in accord with your will."
 

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The Yoke of Christ
Thursday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time 2023
“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” Matthew 11:29–30
For those first followers of Jesus, a “yoke” was a familiar term. Many would have worked with oxen and other animals on a regular basis to plow their fields. To do so, they would place a wooden yoke over the oxen, which was a form of harness that was also attached to the plow, making it easier for the oxen to till the soil. To be strapped with a yoke was an indication of servitude, since that was the role of the oxen.
In commenting upon this passage, Saint Augustine (in Sermon 126) analogized the yoke of Christ with the wings of a bird. A bird’s wings are large in comparison to its body. As a result, if someone were to conclude that removing the wings from a bird would make its life easier by ridding it of that excess weight, such an action would have the effect of keeping it bound to the earth. But give its wings back and that “yoke” will enable it to soar through the skies.
So it is with the yoke of our Lord. If we accept the invitation to be a servant of God and we take upon ourselves the yoke of Christ for the fulfillment of our mission of service, we will discover that the act of serving lightens us, refreshes us, invigorates us and energizes us. Service of God is what we are made for, just as a bird is made to have wings. And like the bird, if we remove the yoke of service of God from our lives, then we are weighed down and cannot accomplish the good we are meant to do.
We are also told in this passage that we are not to carry our yoke; rather, we are meant to carry Christ’s yoke. “Take my yoke upon you…,” Jesus said. Carrying Jesus’ yoke means we are called to live our lives with Him and in Him. He came to serve and to give His life for others. It is our duty to do the same by allowing Him to do so within us. It is Christ and His servitude that must be the motivation and foundation of our lives.
Reflect, today, upon your call to be a servant in Christ. How is God calling you to serve? Whom is God calling you to serve? And as you answer that question, how do you see your act of service? Does service seem burdensome to you? Or do you understand that it is what you are made for? If you do see humble service as a burden, then perhaps that is because you have not actually tried to serve with and in Christ Himself. Try to ponder Jesus placing His yoke upon your shoulders. Say “Yes” to that act and to the mission of humble service you are called to fulfill. Doing so wholeheartedly will not only refresh you, it will also give meaning and purpose to your life.
My gentle Lord, You came to us to serve and to give Your life out of love. Give me the grace I need to accept Your act of service to me and to also imitate and participate in the service to which I am called. May I take Your yoke upon me, dear Lord, so that I can fulfill the mission that You have entrusted to me. Jesus, I trust in You.
 
Thursday 15^th Ordinary Time 2023
Introductory Prayer: Almighty and ever-living God, I seek new strength from the courage of Christ, our shepherd. I believe in you, I hope in you, and I seek to love you with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. I want to be led one day to join the saints in heaven, where your Son Jesus Christ lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.
Petition: Lord Jesus, meek and humble of heart, help me to take on your yoke.
1. Come to Me: If you struggle daily to do what is morally right even when those around you take shortcuts, then come to Jesus. If the life of selfish pleasure and illicit gain seems exceedingly attractive, then come to Jesus. If you are burdened with your patterns of sin and weaknesses of character that affect your vocation as a spouse, a parent, a friend, a consecrated soul, a Christian…, then come to Jesus. If life seems unfair and God seems distant at best, then come to Jesus. He calls us not to a set of principles and noble ideals, but his very person. We do not follow the rules for the sake of rules; we follow Jesus. Only when we first come to him will we understand the need for the rules that help protect this relationship's dignity.
2. Learn from Me: St. Paul admonishes the Galatians to live in the freedom of Christ: "For freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1). Yet in his letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul invites us to be "slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart" (6:5). To be a slave means that I submit to the will of another or am subordinated (unwillingly) to one stronger than I in some way. One who is a slave of passion, vanity, selfishness or any other vice is subject to that vice as something more powerful than oneself. But Jesus calls us friends and not slaves (cf. John 15:14-15). So to be a "slave" of Christ means to entrust my life to him freely with the intention of following where he leads. Experience shows that he always guides us down the path that leads to our happiness and fulfillment, even when it entails the cross.
3. Rest for Yourselves: These words mean “rest,” not in the sense of cessation from work and struggle, but the sense of peace of soul, joy, and profound happiness. This is the rest that we all long for, the rest that will one day be uninterrupted in the bliss of heaven. We have each met individuals who experience this peace and joy despite their circumstances. Notice that Jesus does not promise to take away the burdens, the trials, the sufferings. But if we take his yoke upon ourselves, if we submit to his plan, his will, his love, he guarantees the joy. If you have never experienced it, then begin today; give him what you know in your heart he is asking of you. Although it may hurt at first, as does every yoke, this one brings the lightness of peace and the ease of joy.
Conversation with Christ: Blessed Lord, you lead me towards everlasting peace if I will follow, but the following does not always seem simple. Give me the very things you ask of me: faith, generosity, courage, trust, love. With these gifts and your grace, I will have the strength necessary for the journey.
Resolution: Today, I will pray an extra decade of the rosary for the persons farthest from Jesus.