Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Năm Tuần 27 Thường Niên

Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Năm Tuần  27 Thường Niên

            Qua bài Tin Mừng hôm nay, Chúa đã nhấn mạnh cho chúng ta thấy sức mạnh của lời cầu nguyện và sự cần thiết trong việc phải kiên trì trong sự cầu nguyện. Khi chúng ta cảm thấy rằng Thiên Chúa không nghe hoặc không đáp lại những lời cầu xin của chúng tai, có lẽ chúng ta phải nhớ rằng cách của Thiên Chúa làm việc không phải là cách làm việc của con người chúng ta và có lẽ Thiên Chúa đã có kế hoạch khác cho chúng ta, và có khi  kế hoạch đó còn tốt hơn là những gì chúng ta đã xin.
            Khi Chúa dạy các môn đệ cầu nguyện, Ngài cũng nhắc nhở chúng ta qua Tin Mừng là hãy nhớ cầu nguyện luôn. Chính vì trong khi cầu nguyện, chúng ta đã mở lòng với Thiên Chúa. Chính vì trong lời cầu nguyện mà chúng ta đã xác tín được sự tin tưởng của chúng ta ở nơi Thiên Chúa. Và chính vì trong lời cầu nguyện mà chúng ta xác tín được sự chân thành và thẳng thắn của chúng ta với Thiên Chúa.
 
Reflection:
Today's Gospel strongly emphasizes the power of prayer and the need to be persistent in prayer. When we feel that God is not listening or answering our prayers, perhaps we must remember that God's way is not man's way and perhaps the Lord has other plans for us.  As the Lord taught his disciples to pray, he also reminds us through the Gospel to remember to pray. It is in prayer that we open ourselves to him. It is in prayer that we confirm our trust in him. It is in prayer that we confirm our sincerity and frankness with him.
 
Thursday of the Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time
“What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it? And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy and, upon his arrival home, he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’”  Luke 15:4–6
Some of the great saints point out that the number one hundred represents perfection. One hundred refers to the perfection of the Kingdom of God, which represents not only all of the saints in Heaven but also the angels. The one lost sheep represents all of humanity as we make our way through this life. Jesus, of course, is the Shepherd Whose attention turns to fallen humanity on a diligent search for us so as to carry us home.
First, notice that the Shepherd does not search for the one stray sheep out of anger but out of concern and love. Understanding this is essential if we are to have a correct understanding of how our Lord sees us when we stray. We must see His deep concern, His diligence in searching, and His unwavering commitment to find us in our straying condition. This is not a God Who sits back in judgment and anger but a God Who came to us, took on our fallen human nature, and endured all suffering so as to find us and bring us home.
Notice also that in this parable, the Shepherd places the lost sheep on His shoulders and carries the sheep home. Oftentimes we can fall into the trap of thinking that we must make our way back to God by our own effort. But the truth is that God is always there, waiting to pick us up and carry us home. Our duty is to surrender to His merciful hands and to stop running. This is done by turning to Him and allowing Him to come to us and minister to us. The primary effort is on the part of our Lord once we surrender ourselves into His gentle Hands.
Finally, notice that the rejoicing mentioned in this parable is on the part of the Shepherd. Of course we also will rejoice at being picked up and carried home to the perfection of God’s Kingdom, but our rejoicing is done in response to the joy of our Lord. It is His joy we are invited to share in. It is His heart that is filled with gratitude as we allow Him to tenderly carry us home. “Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep,” He says.
Reflect, today, upon this holy image of the Good Shepherd. As you ponder this parable and imagery, be attentive to the various thoughts, memories, emotions and fears that are evoked within you. Each one of us is different, and our Lord deeply desires to come to each one of us right where we are, in the midst of our sins. Pondering the compassion of this Good Shepherd will open the door for our Lord to speak to you and to invite you personally to come to Him, turning away from the ways that you personally have strayed. Do not run away. Remain in confidence as He comes to you. Listen to His voice and say “Yes” to Him as He lifts you up to carry you home.
My gentle Jesus, You are the Good Shepherd. You love me and search for me with diligence and fidelity. May I trust You enough to stop running from You and hiding from Your gentle voice. Please come to me, pick me up, place me on Your shoulders and carry me home. Jesus, I trust in You.
 
Thursday 27th Ordinary Time 2023
Opening Prayer: I come to you today, Lord, believing firmly that you care about me and are interested in my life. I take comfort in the words from today’s first reading: “the Lord listened attentively.” I know you are listening to me, right now. You are loving me and smiling upon me, because, as you remind me in today’s first reading, I am “yours, your own special possession.” Teach me, Lord, to hear your voice and follow wherever you lead.
Encountering Christ:
Expectations: What do I expect from God? Jesus makes it abundantly clear that we should expect from God much more than we can possibly imagine: “How much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” A merely human father knows how to give good gifts to his children. Our heavenly Father is infinitely more loving, attentive, wise, and powerful. He is infinitely more committed to us, to our welfare. Even the best of human fathers is only finite in his capacity to love and provide. God is all-loving, all-powerful, all-present. What a difference it would make if we believed with all our heart and soul in this truth that Jesus has revealed so energetically! When we look at the lives of the saints, we see an unbridled faith in God’s infinite goodness and commitment to us. That faith frees them from the shackles of earthly fears and insecurities. It unleashes the gifts of the Holy Spirit so that they experience more and more fully the divine goodness they believe in and spread that goodness around them. We all believe in this infinite goodness and loving interest of God. But we can believe in it more fully, more radically. Faith, like all Christian virtues, is a gift and a task. We have received the gift; now we need to exercise it more consciously, intentionally, and regularly so that it can grow and bear the fruit God wants it to. 
Ask, Seek, Knock: Whenever the Jewish rabbis repeated one concept three times with three different words, it was a sign of extreme emphasis. That is what Jesus did in this case. He used two parables–the sleeping friend and the fish/egg vs. snake/scorpion–to illustrate how we must entrust ourselves and our needs to God, and so enter a true childlike relationship with him. And then he exhorted us to be very demanding with God by asking, seeking, knocking. Jesus knows that our hearts burn with deep and passionate desires–for meaning, for happiness, for peace, for wisdom, for counsel, for love, for blessings–our hearts are furnaces of desires! And they are thus because God has made them thus. Ours is not a religion that promises peace only by extinguishing desires. On the contrary, Jesus invites us to feed our good desires by expressing them insistently to the One who can fulfill them. Life itself, with all the yearnings it gives us, is God at work within us. Every good desire we experience is like a promise from the Lord—he wouldn’t give us hearts that yearn so much if he wasn’t able to satisfy beyond all expectations the yearnings we experience. As the Catechism puts it (1718): “This desire [for happiness] is of divine origin: God has placed it in the human heart in order to draw man to the One who alone can fulfill it.”
The Cynical Seduction: We have all prayed to God for so many things. We have asked him for so many graces and favors; we have sought and knocked so often, just like the importunate friend in the parable. But it seems that more often than not our petitions are ignored. Doesn’t it? Be honest. So many problems, so much suffering, so many difficulties and failures, sins and sorrows—if God really is the Good Father who wants to give us more than we even know how to ask for, why is life such an unending flow of tears and tribulations? If only we remember one thing, we will never get stuck in cynicism and discouragement. If only we remember what Jesus told Pilate just hours before he sacrificed his own life to redeem us from sin, we will learn to obey St. Paul’s bold injunction to the Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always! I shall say it again: Rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4). Jesus told Pilate, “My Kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). The fulfillment he yearns to give us is much deeper than we realize, although he sometimes allows us to glimpse it even in earthly terms, as he did when answering the prayers of all Christendom in 1571 at the Battle of Lepanto (commemorated by today’s memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary). And so, when he doesn’t answer our askings, seekings, and knockings the way we expected, we can be sure that it’s only because what he has in mind is better than what we had in mind. And with that assurance, our hearts will never be seduced by the siren calls of soul-squelching cynicism.
Conversing with Christ: I will never give up on you, Lord. Just as I know you will never give up on me. I know that for you “one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day” (2 Peter 3:8). I renew my commitment to follow and obey you every single day of my life, no matter what. I will never stop asking, seeking, and knocking for the fulfillment of the longings you have placed with me. And I will never stop renewing my faith in your infinite goodness and in your personal commitment to my holiness and everlasting happiness. Thank you, my Lord! May your name be ever blessed!
Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will compose my own “act of faith,” my very own prayer, written in my own words, that I will pray every day for the next week in order to exercise and thereby increase my faith in your omnipotent goodness.
 
Thursday 27th Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer: I come to you today, Lord, believing firmly that you care about me and are interested in my life. I take comfort in the words from today’s first reading: “the Lord listened attentively.” I know you are listening to me, right now. You are loving me and smiling upon me, because, as you remind me in today’s first reading, I am “yours, your own special possession.” Teach me, Lord, to hear your voice and follow wherever you lead.
Encountering Christ:
            Expectations: What do I expect from God? Jesus makes it abundantly clear that we should expect from God much more than we can possibly imagine: “How much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” A merely human father knows how to give good gifts to his children. Our heavenly Father is infinitely more loving, attentive, wise, and powerful. He is infinitely more committed to us, to our welfare. Even the best of human fathers is only finite in his capacity to love and provide. God is all-loving, all-powerful, all-present. What a difference it would make if we believed with all our heart and soul in this truth that Jesus has revealed so energetically! When we look at the lives of the saints, we see an unbridled faith in God’s infinite goodness and commitment to us. That faith frees them from the shackles of earthly fears and insecurities. It unleashes the gifts of the Holy Spirit so that they experience more and more fully the divine goodness they believe in and spread that goodness around them. We all believe in this infinite goodness and loving interest of God. But we can believe in it more fully, more radically. Faith, like all Christian virtues, is a gift and a task. We have received the gift; now we need to exercise it more consciously, intentionally, and regularly so that it can grow and bear the fruit God wants it to. 
            Ask, Seek, Knock: Whenever the Jewish rabbis repeated one concept three times with three different words, it was a sign of extreme emphasis. That is what Jesus did in this case. He used two parables–the sleeping friend and the fish/egg vs. snake/scorpion–to illustrate how we must entrust ourselves and our needs to God, and so enter a true childlike relationship with him. And then he exhorted us to be very demanding with God by asking, seeking, knocking. Jesus knows that our hearts burn with deep and passionate desires–for meaning, for happiness, for peace, for wisdom, for counsel, for love, for blessings–our hearts are furnaces of desires! And they are thus because God has made them thus. Ours is not a religion that promises peace only by extinguishing desires. On the contrary, Jesus invites us to feed our good desires by expressing them insistently to the One who can fulfill them. Life itself, with all the yearnings it gives us, is God at work within us. Every good desire we experience is like a promise from the Lord—he wouldn’t give us hearts that yearn so much if he wasn’t able to satisfy beyond all expectations the yearnings we experience. As the Catechism puts it (1718): “This desire [for happiness] is of divine origin: God has placed it in the human heart in order to draw man to the One who alone can fulfill it.”
            The Cynical Seduction: We have all prayed to God for so many things. We have asked him for so many graces and favors; we have sought and knocked so often, just like the importunate friend in the parable. But it seems that more often than not our petitions are ignored. Doesn’t it? Be honest. So many problems, so much suffering, so many difficulties and failures, sins and sorrows—if God really is the Good Father who wants to give us more than we even know how to ask for, why is life such an unending flow of tears and tribulations? If only we remember one thing, we will never get stuck in cynicism and discouragement. If only we remember what Jesus told Pilate just hours before he sacrificed his own life to redeem us from sin, we will learn to obey St. Paul’s bold injunction to the Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always! I shall say it again: Rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4). Jesus told Pilate, “My Kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). The fulfillment he yearns to give us is much deeper than we realize, although he sometimes allows us to glimpse it even in earthly terms, as he did when answering the prayers of all Christendom in 1571 at the Battle of Lepanto (commemorated by today’s memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary). And so, when he doesn’t answer our askings, seekings, and knockings the way we expected, we can be sure that it’s only because what he has in mind is better than what we had in mind. And with that assurance, our hearts will never be seduced by the siren calls of soul-squelching cynicism.
Conversing with Christ: I will never give up on you, Lord. Just as I know you will never give up on me. I know that for you “one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day” (2 Peter 3:8). I renew my commitment to follow and obey you every single day of my life, no matter what. I will never stop asking, seeking, and knocking for the fulfillment of the longings you have placed with me. And I will never stop renewing my faith in your infinite goodness and in your personal commitment to my holiness and everlasting happiness. Thank you, my Lord! May your name be ever blessed!
Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will compose my own “act of faith,” my very own prayer, written in my own words, that I will pray every day for the next week in order to exercise and thereby increase my faith in your omnipotent goodness.
 
Thur - 27th Week in Ordinary Time
In today's Gospel,  Jesus strongly emphasizes the power of prayer and the need to be persistent in prayer. When we feel that God is not listening to us or not answering to our prayers, perhaps we must remember that God's way is not our way and perhaps God always has other and better plans for us. We need to pray persistently;  asking God to answer our prayers. The three words “Ask, Seek, Knock”' are in the present continuous tense.  When Jesus say to us, to Ask, to Seek, to Knock; He is saying: “Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. Don’t give up!” Just as the man went to his friend, in the middle of the night, to ask for bread for his guest;
Jesus says, “'persistence will be enough to make him (friend) get up and give his friend (the man) all he wants.” Why have such faith in God, when we Ask, when we Seek, and when we Knock?   Jesus says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; Seek, and you will find; Knock, and the door will be opened to you.”
As human parents, in their love for their children, give what is good for them, And “How much more” will the heavenly Father give to us. God will not just give us what we ask, that is good for us, God will give us the best gift ever the Holy Spirit.  As the Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he also reminds us to remember to pray patiently and pray persistently. It is in prayer that we open ourselves to God. It is in prayer that we confirm our trust in God. It is in prayer that we confirm our sincerity and frankness with God.