Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Năm Tuần thứ 12 Thường Niên

Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Năm Tuần thứ 12 Thường Niên

Qua bài Tin Mừng hôm nay, Chúa Giêsu nhắc nhở mọi người chúng ta rằng khi chúng ta xây nhà trên cát, nó cũng giống như việc xây dựng niềm tin của chúng ta vào sự lãnh đạo sai lầm và những lời tuyên bố giả dối. Đây là loại đức tin sẽ không kéo dài. Thay vào đó, để xây một ngôi nhà được vững chắc, bền lâu, chúng ta phải xây trên một nền tảng bằng đá chắc, có nghĩa là "nên xây dựng cuộc sống của mình vào Thiên Chúa," vì Thiên Chúa ví chính Mình như là "Đá Tảng". Ở đây, Chúa Giêsu nhắc lại những mối quan hệ trong giao ước giữa Thiên Chúa với dân Israel tại Sinai. Bất chấp tất cả những gì đã xảy ra trong lịch sử của Israel. Thiên Chúa vẫn luôn luôn trung thành với giao ước.

            Chúng ta nên tránh xa những nhà lãnh đạo sai quấy, những người tìm cách dẫn đưa chúng ta đến gần với họ hơn là đến gần với Thiên Chúa. Ơn gọi của chúng ta cũng như các môn đệ, là sống để làm theo ý muốn của Thiên Chúa và không ngừng xây dựng mối liên hệ giữa chúng ta và Thiên Chúa theo tinh thần của giao ước mới giữa Thiên Chúa và chúng ta. Đó là một cuộc sống biết dựa vào sự quan hệ với Thiên Chúa bằng niềm tin không thể sụp đổ, Với niềm tin vững mạnh vào Thiên Chúa chúng ta sẽ chẳng còn sợ gì, cho dù là sức mạnh của bảo tố cỡ nào đi nữa, thì nó cũng không thể lay chuyển được chúng ta.

 

Reflection:

            In his sermon, Jesus tells the people that when we build our house on sand, it is like building our faith on false leadership and false claims. This type of faith will not last. Instead, to build our house on a rock, means to “to build one’s life on God,” since God is Himself is “the Rock”. Here, Jesus recalls the covenant relationship established by God with the people of Israel at Sinai. Regardless of all that had happened in the history of Israel, God has always remained faithful to the covenant.

We should avoid false leadership or claims that seek to lead us closer, not to God, but to the leader himself or herself. Our call as disciples is to do God’s will and to constantly build on the covenant relationship between God and us. A life build on this covenant relationship with God cannot fall, no matter how strong the forces against it.

Lord, help me build my trust in You alone.

 

Thursday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

When Jesus finished these words, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes. Matthew 7:28–29

These lines conclude the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew’s Gospel chapters 5–7. In that lengthy sermon, Jesus touches on many topics and presents us with a summary of all we need to know in our lives of faith. In these concluding lines of His sermon, the words “astonished” and “authority” should stand out. Why were the crowds astonished at Jesus’ teaching? Because His teaching was new and relied upon a new authority that the people hadn’t experienced before.

The authority with which the scribes taught was based upon their knowledge of the traditions handed down to them from earlier teachers. The scribes studied long and hard and then presented what they had learned. This was the form of religious teaching that the people were used to receiving.

Jesus, however, arrived on the scene and astonished the crowds, because He spoke with a new authority that they had not seen before. Jesus’ authority came forth from His very Person. It was not based upon what He had studied and learned from those who preceded Him. Instead, when He spoke, it was He Himself Who was not only the mouthpiece of the New Law of grace, He was also the Author of the Law and its source.

Try to ponder the idea of authority. For example, a child knows that a parent has authority over them. They may not like it at times, but they understand that they do not set the rules of the house but must abide by the rules set by their parents. Or consider the authority of civil leaders. Law enforcement officers, for example, have an authority entrusted to them by their office. They are not only well versed in the rule of law, they can also enforce it and everyone knows it.

Similarly, Jesus did not just know about the new and glorious truths He taught. He did not simply learn them from the Father in Heaven and then pass them on verbally. Instead, when He taught, He did so as the One Who knew the New Law of grace, the One from Whom it originated, and the one and only Person sent to enact and enforce this New Law.

Reflect, today, upon the New Law of grace and mercy taught by our Lord, especially as it is contained in the lengthy Sermon on the Mount. Reading those words is much more than something we study and learn. The words themselves are alive; they are the Word of God. Reading them makes present to us the same authority that the crowds experienced in Jesus’ time. Everything Jesus taught was and is new, deep, profound, transforming and alive. And when He teaches it, He also establishes His divine authority to enforce it upon the world. This is good news, because His New Law is not an imposition; it is the one and only source of freedom and new life. Reflect upon this New Law of our Lord and pray that you will more fully come under its authority.

My glorious Lawgiver, You taught as One with authority. Today, as Your holy Word is read and proclaimed, You continue to exercise Your new and glorious authority of love and mercy. Please help me to listen to You and to always submit myself to Your authority so that I am governed by Your New Law of grace. Jesus, I trust in You.

 

Thursday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time  2024

Opening Prayer: Lord God, I want my house and my life to be built wisely on solid rock and not foolishly on shifting sand. I promise to listen to the life-giving words of your Son and act on them. May I accomplish your heavenly will in all that I do.

Encountering the Word of God

1. The Last Kings of Judah: To understand the First Reading, it is good to recall that the reforms of King Hezekiah (715-686 B.C.) and King Josiah (640-609 B.C.) failed to stem the tide of divine judgment against the Kingdom of Judah. The sins of King Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, were abominable: Manasseh “not only rebelled against God’s covenant but perfected evil in Judah and Jerusalem as never before. He even sacrificed his own children on the fiery altar of the pagan god Molech and ordered the death of thousands of Jewish children on altars outside of Jerusalem” (Hahn, A Father Who Keeps His Promises, 223). These sins sealed the fate of Jerusalem and not even the reform of King Josiah was enough to correct the evil. “Despite Josiah’s desperate efforts to renew the covenant, Pharaoh Necho defeated and killed him in battle at Megiddo. Three months later [Necho] deposed Josiah’s son, Jehoahaz, and installed Jehoiakim as a puppet king. Jehoiakim’s ‘reign’ was therefore already bondage” (Levering, Ezra & Nehemiah, 40). Josiah’s son, Jehoiakim, reigned in Judah for eleven years, but “did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done” (2 Kings 23:37). In 605 B.C. the Babylonians marched into Palestine and made Judah a vassal state after defeating the Egyptians at the Battle of Carchemish (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: The First and Second Book of the Kings, 108).

2. The Fall of Jerusalem: Two decades after the reforms of King Josiah, Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in the spring of 597 B.C. and a major deportation of Judean exiles to Babylon occurred. The King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, carried away the royal family along with skilled workers and soldiers from Jerusalem. In place of Jehoiakim, Nebuchadnezzar appointed Mattaniah, Jehoiakim’s uncle, as king and changed his name to Zedekiah. In response to Zedekiah’s rebellion against Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar returned a decade later, in 586 B.C., to lay siege to Jerusalem and carry the Judeans away into captivity. The Book of Chronicles says this about Zedekiah’s reign: “He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the Lord. He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God; he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord, the God of Israel. All the leading priests and the people likewise were unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem” (2 Chronicles 36:12-14). Psalm 78 is taken from Book Three of the Psalter. The Psalm “contrasts the promises of the Davidic kingdom and Zion with the reality of Israel in exile. If Israel is God's ‘inheritance’ why have the nations been allowed to overcome them? If God has loved Zion so much and has made it His sanctuary, why has God allowed his Temple to be defiled and destroyed? Like many of the Davidic psalms, it ends with a promise to offer todah [thanksgiving] once the restoration has occurred (v. 13)” (Barber, Singing in the Reign, 110).

3. The Conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount: In the Gospel, Jesus, the son of David, concludes his Sermon on the Mount with two teachings: the first is the need to do the will of the Father in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven; the second is to listen to Jesus’ words and act on them. The two teachings go hand in hand: Jesus is the one who reveals to us the will of the Father. Every time we read the Gospel in prayer we are listening to Jesus’ words. By keeping his commands, we remain in his love (John 15:10). God’s word enables us to find the path that leads to harmony with God’s loving will. In Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict taught that we can discern God’s will and recognize it in our conscience, but that we also need Jesus to draw us up to himself and into himself, so that in communion with him we can learn God’s will (see Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, Vol. 1, 148-150).

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you have built your house on rock. It will never fail or be destroyed. Teach me how to build my house properly. May I truly be in this world a Temple of your Spirit, a spiritual house of prayer, sacrifice, and merciful love.

Living the Word of God: How is my “house”? Are the foundations of my life – my faith – solid? What relationships are in urgent need of repair? What needs to be touched up? What needs to be remodeled? What needs to be expanded? Are the poor welcome in my house? Do people encounter God’s love in my house?

 

Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Năm Tuần thứ 12 Thường Niên

Trong thời đại của sự hài lòng tức thời và sự tiến bộ của kỹ thuật và công nghệ, chúng ta rất dễ bị nản lòng khi mọi thứ không theo ý muốn của chúng ta. Thánh giáo hoàng John Paul II gọi đó là " quán cà phê Công giáo ", nơi mà chúng ta chỉ chọn các nguyên tắc và giá trị thuận tiện cho chúng ta và chúng ta sẵn sàng bỏ qua các vấn đề khác. Có bao nhiêu người trong chúng ta hôm nay bị chế giễu tại chỗ làm việc vì chúng ta chịu đựng quá nhiều nỗi khó khăn và bị chê là chúng ta không thực tế? Hay chúng ta tự diễn giải về những lời giáo huấn của Giáo hội theo sở thích của chúng ta và hợp lý hóa cho những gì chúng ta thực sự biết là sai nhưng cố biện minh để làm cho nó có vẻ đúng?

            Thiên Chúa là tấm gương của chúng ta về sự trung tín. Ngài rất yêu chúng ta không phải "vì... " mà là "bất chấp". Như chúng ta được thấy hình ảnh trong các dụ ngôn về đứa con hoang đàng (Lc 15: 11-32) và những người làm công trong vườn nho (Mt 20: 1-16), tình yêu thương và sự độ lượng, nhân từ của Ngài dành cho mỗi người chúng ta đều như nhau. Ngài không dành sự thiên vị nhiều hơn cho những người "ngoan ngoãn hơn", "trung thành hơn" hay "chăm chỉ hơn", Niềm tin và tình yêu của Ngài dành cho mỗi người chúng ta không đổi, không ai hơn không ai kém hơn.

            Đức tin không phải là kết quả của những lời cầu xin hoàn toàn hay thành khẩn, không bị ảnh hưởng bởi những hoàn cảnh riêng biệt. Nhưng đức tin phải được tại nên như bất kỳ một mối quan hệ nào bằng với thời gian và nỗ lực. Cầu nguyện liên tục, thường xuyên lãnh nhận các bí tích và tìm cách nghe Lời Chúa thường xuyên hơn; những điều này sẽ giúp chúng ta giữ được đức tin của chúng ta mạnh mẽ, để khi chúng ta gặp phải khó khăn, chúng ta không nhanh chóng phàn nàn hay chạy trốn mà chúng ta phải hiên ngang đối mặt với những rắc rối, khó khăn của chúng ta và như thế, chúng ta sẽ nhìn thấy được có bàn tay của Chúa đang giúp và nâng đỡ chúng ta thoát khỏi những sự khốn khó và đem chúng đến với sự hoàn hảo. Khi chúng ta nhìn thế giới bằng đức tin, chúng ta không chỉ đơn giản nhìn thấy những cái tốt và xấu; thay vào đó, chúng ta thấy Thiên Chúa tiết lộ chính Ngài cho chúng ta.

 

REFLECTION

In this era of instant gratification and technological advancement, it is very easy to get discouraged when things do not go our way. Pope John Paul II called it "cafeteria Catholicism," where we choose only the principles and values that are convenient to us and ignore other issues. How many of us today would scoff at Job for enduring so much hardship and say he's not being practical? Or interpret the Church's teachings according to our preferences and rationalize or justify what we intrinsically know as wrong in order to make it seem right?

            God is our example of faithfulness. He loves us not "because of" but "in spite of." As illustrated in the parables of the prodigal son (Lk 15:11-32) and the workers in the vineyard (Mt 20:1-16), his love and generosity extend equally to all. He does not favor those who are "more obedient," "more loyal," or "more hardworking." His faith and love are constant.

            Faith is not the result of fulfilled petitions. It is not affected by circumstances. It is established like any relationship with time and effort. Constant communication (prayer), receiving sacraments, seeking to hear the Word of God – these helps keep our faith strong, so that when difficulties arise, we are not quick to complain and run away but rather face our troubles and see God's hand molding us into perfection. When we view the world with faith, we do not simply see good and bad; instead, we see God