Suy Niệm Tin Mừng thứ Bẩy Tuần 23 Thường Niên

Suy Niệm Tin Mừng thứ Bẩy Tuần 23 Thường Niên

Một trong những tội nặng nhất mà con người đã phạm là chống lại Thiên Chúa,đấng đã tác tạo ra con người chúng ta đó là tội nghi ngờ vào sự tốt lành và tình yêu thương của Thiên Chúa là Đấng Tạo Hóa. Đây chính là tội nguyên tổ, và, bởi vì tội này mà con người chúng ta đã bị mất đi một cuộc sống với Thiên Chúa, Đấng vĩnh cửu. Nhưng đó cũng là ý muốn của Thiên Chúa đối với tạo vật của Ngài để cho con người được sống trong cuộc sống đời đời với Thiên Chúa. Và do đó, mà lịch sử cứu độ đã được bắt đầu.
Trong bài đọc thứ nhất, chúng ta thấy thánh Phalô cương quyết với lòng tin tưởng vào Thiên Chúa. Đối với thánh Phaolô, không ai được nghi ngờ rằng Chúa Giêsu Kitô đến thế gian để cứu nhân loại, con người tội lỗi. Thánh Phaolô biết rõ và hiểu rõ những gì ngài đã nói về Thiên Chúa, bởi vì ngài đã có một kinh nghiệm đặc biệc và rất cá nhân vì chính ngài được Chúa Gisêsu cứu vớt. Thánh Phaolô đã trải qua và chứng kiến sự kiên nhẫn vô tận của Chúa Giêsu Kitô trong việc biến chuyển ông từ người bắt đạo thành người kitô hữu hăng sang với việc rao giảng Tin Mừng của Chúa. Hơn nữa, ông biết rằng sự biến đổi đã ban cho ông không phải là chỉ cho sự cứu rỗi của riêng mình, nhưng "cho tất cả những người khác nữa, những người kế tiếp đến sau này sẽ có niềm tin vào Chúa Giêsu Kitô, Người đã đến và ban cho loài người chúng ta sự sống đời đời". Chúng ta hãy cùng thánh Phaolô dâng lời khen ngợi Thiên Chúa Ba Ngôi.
 
Reflection SG
            One of the worst sins that a creature could ever commit against its creator is to doubt the goodness of the Creator.  This is the original sin, and, because of sin, human beings are lost to living a life with God who is eternity.  But it is the will of God for his creatures to live in eternity with God.  And so salvation history begins.
            In the first reading, we see that Paul is adamant about trusting in God. To Paul, nobody should doubt that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.  Paul knows what he is talking about, because he has had a personal experience of being saved.  He has experienced the inexhaustible patience of Jesus Christ in turning him around.   Furthermore, he knows that conversion is granted him not only for his own salvation, but "for all the other people who would later have faith in Jesus Christ to come to eternal life". Let us join Paul in giving praise to the Triune God. To the eternal King, the immortal, invisible and only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.  Amen.
 
Saturday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time
Jesus said to his disciples: “A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For people do not pick figs from thornbushes, nor do they gather grapes from brambles.” Luke 6:43–44
What a great way to examine the direction of your life! This Gospel passage gets to the heart of how we can best discern whether or not we are truly fulfilling the will of God. Oftentimes we may struggle with knowing clearly if we are doing that which God wants of us. There are many directions in life that we can be pulled toward and many goals we can come up with on our own. For that reason, it is useful from time to time to stop and do an honest inventory of our lives.
When you look at the past year of your life, what do you see? Specifically, do you see good fruit being born? Such an examination is helpful to do from time to time. It is useful to make such an examination not only for the past year but for different time periods. Perhaps start by looking at the big picture by looking at all the times in your life that were most fruitful for the glory of God. From there, try to look at your life decade by decade, year by year and then even month by month over this past year. Look for the most blessed moments in your life as well as the most challenging moments.
When we examine our lives in this way, it’s important to understand what to look for. For example, there may be moments when all went well in one way or another and then other times that were painful and very difficult. What’s important to know, from a divine perspective, is that just because something “went well” at one point, or just because something was “painful and very difficult” at another point in our lives, this doesn’t mean that the former was the most fruitful for the Kingdom of God or the latter the least fruitful. In fact, heavy crosses and difficulties in life can often be the most fruitful times for us, spiritually speaking. Just look at Jesus’ life. Of course, everything He did was fruitful for the glory of the Father in Heaven, but we can easily point to the most painful moment of His life as the most fruitful. His Crucifixion brought forth the greatest good ever known.
So it is with our lives. The fruitfulness of our lives is not best discerned by looking at those moments when all was easy, fun, memorable and the like. Though those may also be graced moments, we need to look at spiritual fruitfulness from the divine perspective. We need to look for the moments in our lives, be they easy or difficult, when God was clearly present and when we made choices that gave Him the greatest glory.
Reflect, today, upon your life being like a tree that bears spiritual fruit. What times of your life, decisions you made, or activities that you were engaged in produced the most virtue in your life? When was your prayer life the deepest? When was your charity the strongest? When was your faith and hope the most evident? Return to those moments, savor them, learn from them and use them as the best building blocks for the glorious future our Lord desires for you.
My glorious Lord, Your life bore fruit of infinite value. You continually chose to fulfill the will of the Father in Heaven, and, as a result, You lived every virtue to perfection. Help me to regularly pause in life so as to examine the direction in which I am going. May I learn from my errors and rejoice in those moments that were most fruitful for Your Kingdom. I love You, Lord. Help me to bear the greatest fruit for Your glory. Jesus, I trust in You.
 
Saturday 23rd Ordinary Time 2023
Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, you have invited me to this moment of prayer. You are the source of my life and of all that is good. I wish to listen to your heart in these moments of prayer and to receive whatever fruit of your love and light you wish to give me. 
Encountering Christ: 
Good Fruit: A tree is known by its fruit; a student becomes like his teacher; a Christian is known by his likeness to Christ. Christ also said, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit because without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). The key to bearing good fruit is to remain united to Christ, the source. All goodness is a reflection of and participation in his own goodness. 
Inner Storehouses: Keeping our interior storehouse clean and ordered is lifelong. It requires our constant effort, but not effort out of a desire for perfection, but rather for love. Love keeps Christ at the center of our hearts and redirects us when our humanity turns from his so easily and often. Christ assures us of his help in this process. “[The Father] takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit” (John 15:2). While he asks us to be attentive, receptive, and active, he also reminds us who is the real protagonist in this work. Perhaps Mary Magdalene was on to something when she mistook the risen Christ for the gardener (John 20). Jesus is the gardener of our souls. 
Housing Foundations: Christ showed his disciples repeatedly that he’s not a God of lip service. What he says, he does. His word is effective and performative—it does what it says. When he said, “Let there be light,” there was light. When he said, “Be healed,” healing happened. When he said, “This is my body,” the first Eucharist was consecrated. What he says to us, he will do. And he hopes for the same from us. It’s only possible to fulfill his hopes for us when we remain in him. “Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me” (John 15:4). 
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you are the gardener of my soul, the source of my life, and my daily strength. You are the foundation of all I am and have. I recognize this, and I thank you for it. I ask you to help me believe in you with even greater faith and to continue building my life upon the truth of your gratuitous, generous, and tireless love. 
Resolution: Lord, today, by your grace, I will strive to be aware from which inner storehouse my words and attitudes are flowing. If I see I need correction, I will ask for your grace to allow it.