Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Tư Tuần thứ 4 Phục Sinh
Trong đoạn Tin Mừng hôm nay Thánh Gioan cho chúng ta thấy những điểm chính của nhũng bài giảng mà Chúa Giêsu muốn dạy chúng ta trước Ngài bắt đầu bước vào cuộc hành trình với sự thương khó, cái chết và sự phục sinh của Chúa Giêsu. Trong đó bao gồm phần tóm lược các nhiệm vụ của Ngài và những lời mời gọi đến đức tin. Thứ nhất, ơn gọi đến vói đức tin không phải chỉ là những gì trong thể chất con người của Thiên Chúa được đóng ấn đi kèm trong con người của Chúa Giêsu. Nhưng nó được toả lan ra bên ngoài, vì mục tiêu của họ là Chúa Cha, Đấng đã mạc khải chính mình Ngài trong Chúa Giêsu. Thứ hai, chính Chúa Giêsu đã thực hiện sứ mệnh của Ngài và Ngài luôn luôn nhận thức rằng ông đại diện cho Cha của Ngài, và do đó, để chiêm ngưỡng Chúa Giêsu trong đức tin là để nhận ra Ngài là người đã tiết lộ cho chúng ta về Chúa Cha. Thứ ba, để tin vào Chúa Giêsu là để được giải thoát ra khỏi bóng tối, thật vậy, vì nếu như chúng ta không Tin vào Thiên Chúa và chúng ta tự từ bỏ chính mình và vì tội lỗi sẽ làm chúng ta xa lánh Thiên Chúa. Thứ Tư là khi chúng ta từ chối Chúa Giêsu và Giáo huấn của Ngài, chúng ta sẽ bị lên án chính chúng ta và trở nên xa lạ với Thiên Chúa. Chúa Giêsu chỉ cứu rỗi những người biết ăn năn và hối cải.
Qua những sách giáo lý dạy cho thấy rằng Chúa Giêsu đã vâng lời Chúa Cha và hoàn thành nhiệm vụ mà Chúa Cha đã sai khiến. Nếu trong quá khứ, những lời của Thiên Chúa, đã được truyền đạt tới dân Israel bởi ông Môisen, và ông Môisen là phương tiện mà Chúa bày tỏ chính Ngài cho dân riêng của Ngài, Thì hôm nay Thiên Chúa đã sai con một của Ngài xuống thế với chúng ta trong ngôi Hai nhập thể để nói giáo huấn con người chúng ta. Tất cả những ai đã chấp nhận Thiên Chúa và đến để được chia sẻ trong sự sống với Chúa Giêsu trong Thiên Chúa Cha. Nếu như đấy chính là Chúa Giêsu, và tất cả những gì Ngài đã làm, thì những điều đấy sẽ được tỏ ra cho chúng ta thấy ai là Thiên Chúa, và những gì Thiên Chúa đã làm vì Chúa Giêsu đã nói bằng Lời Nói và bằng những hành động để cho chúng ta thấy được Chúa Cha. Để biết Chúa Giêsu là để biết được Chúa Cha ở ngay trong tâm hồn của mỗi con người chúng ta.. lạy Chúa Cha, Xin cho chúng con nhận biết Chúa Giêsu để chúng con có thể cũng nhận biết được Chúa là Thiên Chúa của chúng con.
Reflection Wednesday 4th week of Easter (SG 2016)
In today’s Gospel passage, the writer John provides the key points of Jesus’ teachings before he starts on the account of Jesus’ passion and resurrection. It contains a summary of his mission and a call to faith.
Firstly, the call to faith is not merely an attachment to the person of Jesus. It reaches beyond him, for the goal is the Father who reveals Himself in Jesus. Secondly, Jesus himself carries out his mission always in awareness that he represents his Father, and therefore, to contemplate Jesus in faith is to recognize him as the one who reveals the Father. Thirdly, to believe in Jesus is to be liberated from darkness, that is, from the sphere of unbelief, sin and separation from God. Fourthly, to reject Jesus and his message is to condemn oneself and to become alienated from God. Jesus only saves and it is man alone who condemns or judges himself.
The teachings show that Jesus owes his whole mission and message to the Father. If in the past, the words of God, as communicated by Moses to the people, was the means by which God revealed Himself, through Jesus, God’s very words are spoken to the people. Those who accept him come to share in the life of Jesus and his Father. If this is who Jesus is and what Jesus does, it also reveals who God is, and what God does since Jesus by word and action reveals the Father. To know Jesus is to know Father at the very heart of their being. Father, to know Jesus is to know You.
Wednesday 4th week of Easter 2024
Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in the one who sent me, and whoever sees me sees the one who sent me.” John 12:44–45
Note that Jesus’ words in the above quoted passage start by stating that “Jesus cried out…” This intentional addition by the Gospel writer adds emphasis to this statement. Jesus didn’t just “say” these words, He “cried out.” For that reason, we should be extra attentive to these words and allow them to speak to us all the more.
This Gospel passage takes place during the week prior to Jesus’ Passion. He entered Jerusalem triumphantly and, then, throughout the week, spoke to various groups of people while the Pharisees plotted against Him. The emotions were tense, and Jesus spoke with greater and greater vigor and clarity. He spoke about His pending death, the unbelief of many, and His oneness with the Father in Heaven. At one point during the week, as Jesus was speaking of His oneness with the Father, the voice of the Father spoke audibly for all to hear. Jesus had just said, “Father, glorify your name.” And then the Father spoke, saying, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.” Some thought it was thunder and others thought it was an angel. But it was the Father in Heaven.
This context is useful when reflecting upon today’s Gospel. Jesus passionately wants us to know that if we have faith in Him, then we also have faith in the Father, because the Father and He are one. Of course, this teaching on the oneness of God is nothing new to us today—we should all be very familiar with the teaching on the Most Holy Trinity. But in many ways, this teaching on the unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit must be seen as new and pondered anew every day.
Imagine Jesus speaking to you, personally, and with great vigor, about His unity with the Father. Consider carefully how deeply He desires that you understand this divine mystery of Their oneness. Allow yourself to sense how much Jesus wants you to understand Who He is in relation to His Father.
Prayerfully understanding the Trinity teaches us much, not only about Who God is but about who we are. We are called to share in the oneness of God by becoming united with Them through love. The early Church Fathers often spoke of our calling to be “divinized,” that is, to share in the divine life of God. And though this is a mystery beyond complete comprehension, it’s a mystery that Jesus deeply desires us to prayerfully ponder.
Reflect, today, upon the passion in the heart of Jesus to reveal to you Who He is in relation to the Father. Be open to a deeper understanding of this divine truth. And as you open yourself to this revelation, allow God to also reveal to you His desire to draw you into Their holy life of unity. This is your calling. This is the reason Jesus came to earth. He came to draw us into the very life of God. Believe it with much passion and conviction.
My passionate Lord, You spoke long ago about Your oneness with the Father in Heaven. You speak again, today, to me, about this glorious truth. Draw me in, dear Lord, not only to the great mystery of Your oneness with the Father but also to the mystery of Your calling to me to share in Your life. I accept this invitation and pray that I become more fully one with You, the Father and the Holy Spirit. Most Holy Trinity, I trust in You.
Wednesday 4th week of Easter 2024
Opening Prayer: Lord God, you offer me the gift of eternal life through your Son. I welcome that gift today and promise to care for it and pray that it flourishes into works of love. Save me from the darkness of sin and death and bestow on me the light of faith and life.
Encountering the Word of God
1. The Light of Faith Frees Us from Darkness: The passage from the Gospel of John is the conclusion of the first half of the Gospel, often called the Book of Signs. Jesus has worked powerful signs, such as changing water into water, healing, multiplying the loaves, giving sight to the blind, and restoring Lazarus to life. These signs are invitations to faith in Jesus. Faith is a powerful light that rescues us from the darkness of sin. It enables us to see the world we live in with spiritual eyes. “Jesus invites all people to believe in him and receive the gift of eternal life, which the Father offers through him (John 3:16-17). Those who believe and receive this gift, ‘will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’ (John 8:12)” (Martin and Wright, The Gospel of John, p. 230).
2. Eternal Life in the Gospel of John: When we hear the Gospel of John, it is important to remember that “eternal life” does not refer exclusively to life after death. Eternal life is life itself, real life, and can be lived in the present (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, p. 82). And so, when Jesus says: “He who believes in me has eternal life” (John 6:47), this does not mean that if we make an act of faith in Jesus, we are guaranteed to go to heaven. Rather, it means that faith introduces us into divine life. It is the beginning of eternal life, not its heavenly consummation. This means that having “eternal life” and enjoying communion with God here on earth is comparable to having grace, which makes us participants in the divine nature. The gift of eternal life and the gift of grace can be lost through sin but also regained through repentance and the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Anointing. At the end of our lives, we will not be judged exclusively on whether or not we made an act of faith, but how we lived our faith through love. Jesus faithfully carried out the mission the Father gave him. “The Father’s saving work, which Jesus does in loving obedience, saves people from sin and hell and draws them into the infinite exchange of love that is the divine communion” (Martin and Wright, The Gospel of John, p. 231).
3. The Word of God Spreads: In the First Reading, there is a transition in the Acts of the Apostles from the ministry of Peter to that of Saul, who will go on several missionary journeys to bring the Word of God throughout the Mediterranean. We are told that Barnabas and Saul completed their mission to deliver aid to Jerusalem during the famine and brought back John Mark with them to Antioch. This “John Mark” is traditionally identified as the author of the second Gospel. When the community was gathered in prayer, the Holy Spirit inspired the community to choose and commission Barnabas and Saul and send them out to preach the Word of God throughout Asia Minor (Acts 13-14). “Such a mission could not take place until Peter had initiated table fellowship with the Gentiles in Acts 11. The first destination selected by Barnabas and Saul is Cyprus (cf. Acts 13:4), possibly because Barnabas is a native of the island (cf. Acts 4:36)” (Pimentel, Witnesses of the Messiah, p. 114).
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, through your passion, death, and resurrection, you have gained eternal life for all peoples and enabled them to become children of God. Help me to see how I can bring more people to know you and believe in you so that they may enjoy eternal life in your name.
Living the Word of God: Has my faith become lukewarm or is it living and active? What does a living and active faith look like in my daily life? How can I be like Saul and Barnabas today: attentive to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit and fearless in the proclamation of the Gospel?
Wednesday 4th week of Easter
Opening Prayer: Good Father, you so loved the world that you gave your only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. Father, thank you for your Son. Thank you for Jesus.
Encountering Christ:
The Holy Spirit: To cry has many meanings. It means to lament and weep in tears, to call out loudly, to strongly plead, to beg. Jesus was doing all of these. The hour was soon coming when he would be turned over to the authorities to be tortured and crucified, and he knew it. Forces had been aligning against him and increasing in hostility. One of the dangers came from his own friend. From the beginning of John’s Gospel, this moment was prophesied: “He came to what was his own but his own people did not accept him” (John 1:11). Jesus knew many would not accept him and yet begging, pleading, weeping for souls, he cried out, “I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness.” How often do we contemplate the awesome reality of how far God goes to draw us to him? This reality can console us when our efforts to catechize our children and evangelize others appear futile. We do not give up. We cannot usually cry out as Jesus did, but we can cry out to Our Father in Jesus’ name and ask for courage and perseverance. “As proof that you are children, God sent the spirit of his Son in our hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’ So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God” (Galatians 4:6).
The Word: Jesus had healed the sick. He had fed the hungry. He had brought the dead back to life. He had preached the Good News: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24). We meditate on these truths in Scripture frequently. We have the Bible, the traditions of the Church, and the writings of saints over more than 2,000 years to strengthen our belief. Through living by the Word, we do not condemn ourselves but hope for the promise of eternal life. This hope is a source of joy for faithful Christians. Padre Pio advises us to “Pray, hope, and don’t worry.”
Our Father: Jesus tells us, “…I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. So what I say, I say as the Father told me.” In the USCCB document The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church, the bishops stated, “The mission of the Lord’s entire life on earth was to glorify the Father by bringing us salvation.” The bishops explained that the Son of God was the Father’s gift, and how we receive this gift determines our path to salvation. “To begin to comprehend the tremendous gift offered by Christ through his Incarnation, death, and Resurrection, that gift which is made present to us in the Eucharist, we must first realize how truly profound is our alienation from the source of all life as a result of sin.” The more we recognize sin for what it is, the more grateful we are for our redemption, accomplished by Ch rist. The Father’s gift of his Son is both the path to salvation fueled by the Eucharist and the remedy for every obstacle that prevents our progress through the sacrament of Reconciliation.
Conversing with Christ: Lord, I so often become discouraged, believing Satan’s lies that it is up to me to ascend in holiness. I know that the only way is always and only you. I want to receive you as our Father’s gift. I cannot earn your love. I already have it. My response should always be gratitude to the Father and eagerness to take advantage of the sacraments.
Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will make a plan to receive the sacrament of Reconciliation this week, to remove the obstacles that keep me from seeing your light on my path to salvation.
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