Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Sáu tuần thứ 12 Thường Niên

Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Sáu tuần thứ 12 Thường Niên

Qua bài Tin Mừng hôm nay, chúng ta thấy những cách mà Chúa Giêsu đã đối xử với mọi người khác nhau, Trong câu chuyện hôm nay về người bệnh phong cùi, Theo luật Do Thái thì người mắc bệnh này không được phép đến gần bất cứ người Do Thái nào vì sẽ gây ô uế cho người đó và người đó phải được thanh tầy trước bước vào đèn thờ. Như những bài Tin Mừng thì Chúa Giêsu đã không ngại ngùng đến gần họ, và sẵn sàng chữa lành bệnh phong cùi của họ. Điều trái ngược với cách thức mà Ngài đã phản ứng với người cha của cậu bé bị quỷ ám (Mc 9:23) khi người ấy nói với Ngài "Lạy Chúa, Chúa có thể làm được bất cứ điều gì, xin thương xót chúng tôi và giúp chúng tôi." Chúa Giêsu có lẽ đã trả lời phần nào đột ngột hay ít nhất một cách nghiêm nghị: “Nếu có thể!... mọi sự đều là có thể cho người tin!"  Tức thì cha đứa bé kêu lên mà nói: "Tôi tin! Nhưng xin hãy đáp cứu lòng tin yếu kém của tôi!" (Mc 9:25).
            Những phản ứng khác nhau của Chúa Giêsu cũng cho chúng ta thấy những cách khác nhau trong những lời, lòng tin và cách cầu xin của những người đã xin Chúa thực hiện những yêu cầu của họ, Những người bệnh phong cùi đã không dám nói bất cứ điều gì vì dám đặt câu hỏi về khả năng của Chúa, nhưng người bệnh phong cùi này đã biết phó thác và đặt tất cả niềm tin tưởng vào sự quan phòng của Chúa Giêsu. Còn người đàn ông kia đã không đến với Chúa để cầu xin cho chính mình mà đến để cầu xin cho người con yêu dấu của mình, trong những lúc mà ông ta đang tuyệt vọng và đang tìm kiếm sự cưu giúp.
            Trong sự tuyệt vọng của ông ta, ông ta đã dùng những lời gần như đay nghiến chính mình. nhưng trong thực tế, trong thăm tâm của ông ta có lẽ đã không có ý như thế.  Do đó chúng ta đã được dạy để cầu nguyện với lòng khiêm tốn, kiên nhẫn, bền bĩ, và dịu dàng như là dấu hiệu của niềm tin đó cho phép chúng ta đón nhận và tận hưởng những ân sủng của Thiên Chúa. Lạy Chúa Giêsu, theo như Thiên ý và ân sũng của Chúa, Xin Chúa tẩy sạch chúng ta sạch mọi tội lỗi.
 
Reflection:
It is instructive to consider the different ways in which Jesus deals with people. In this story of the leper, recounted by Matthew, Mark and Luke. Jesus responds gently and promptly to the leper's indirect request for healing.  This contrasts with the way in which he reacted to the father of the boy possessed by a demon (Mark 9:23) who said: “If you can do anything, have pity on us and help us.” Jesus answered somewhat abruptly perhaps or at least sternly: “‘If you can?’ Everything is possible to anyone who has faith. ‘Immediately the boy’s father cried out,’ I do have faith.  Help the little faith I have!’”
Jesus’ different reactions also reveal to us the different ways in which the two men made their request. The leper did not say anything to appear to question Jesus’ ability to cure him but left everything to Jesus’ good will. The other man was not making a request for himself but for his son and was obviously desperately looking for help. His desperation added a sharpness to his words which he perhaps did not intend. We are thus taught to pray with humility and patience and gentleness as signs of the faith which allows us to receive and enjoy God’s graces. Lord Jesus, according to Your gracious will, cleanse us of all sin.
 
Friday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
When Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. And then a leper approached, did him homage, and said, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” Matthew 8:1–4
To do homage to another is to publicly express reverence and respect. This is what this leper did to Jesus. He “did him homage.” But the leper went even further. He also expressed his certain faith that Jesus could cure him if He wished to do so. And Jesus did desire this. Jesus stretched out His hand to touch the leper and pronounced the words, “I will do it. Be made clean.” And with that, the leper was cleansed.
The first thing to note in this passage is that Jesus “touched” the leper. This was a forbidden practice, since lepers were unclean, and touching them could spread their disease. But Jesus broke the norm and touched the man, revealing to him his innate dignity.
It’s interesting to consider the question: Who paid whom a greater act of homage? Was the act of homage shown by the leper greater? Or the act of touching and cleansing the leper greater? Though we need not compare these two acts, it is helpful to reflect upon the profound fact that Jesus did show a form of homage to this unclean leper.
As was said above, to do homage to another is to publicly express reverence and respect to them. Without a doubt, Jesus did just this. He not only honored the leper by His touch and healing, but He publicly expressed His love and respect for this man through this act.
Of course, the homage we owe to God is unique. It is the homage of worship. We must bow down before Him, surrendering our lives in total abandonment and trust. We must honor Him as God and express our love accordingly. But, in addition to Jesus showing His almighty power by this miracle, He also sets for us an example of how we must treat others. Every person, because they are made in the image and likeness of God, deserves our utmost respect, and they deserve to receive that respect in a public way. We must continually seek to honor and respect others and express that honor and respect for others to see. This is especially difficult when the person we are called to show respect for is considered by others as “unclean.” The leper is only a symbol of the many types of people whom the world considers unclean and unworthy. Criminals, the poor, the confused, the sinner, the homeless, the political opponent and every other person in our world deserves our utmost respect and reverence. Doing so does not justify their sin; rather, it cuts through the surface and looks at their innate dignity.
Reflect, today, upon the act of homage done by this leper to Jesus. And then reflect upon the act of homage Jesus offers this leper by publicly confirming his innate dignity. Who in your life is represented by this leper? Who is “unclean” because of the condition of their life, the sin they commit, or the public stigma they have? Whom is God calling you to reach out and touch with love and respect, for others to see? Seek out the leper in your life and do not be afraid to imitate this holy act of homage exemplified by our Lord.
My holy Lord, You are worthy of all adoration, glory and homage. You and You alone deserve our worship. Help me to continually discover Your hidden presence in the lives of those around me. Help me, especially, to see You in the leper of our day. May my love and respect for them flow from my love for You and become an imitation of Your act of love for all. Jesus, I trust in You.
 
Friday 12^th Ordinary Time 2024
Opening Prayer: Lord God, I wish to be made clean with all my heart. You sent your Son to cleanse me and wash away my sins with his blood. He is the true Lamb sacrificed for our sins. He is my brother and Redeemer, who paid my debt of sin and brought me home to you.
Encountering the Word of God
1. The First of Ten Great Works of the New Moses: Matthew 8 begins the narrative section of Book Two of Matthew’s Gospel. While Book One, Matthew 3-7, announced the Kingdom, Book Two, Matthew 8-11, concerns the establishment of the Kingdom. It covers Jesus’ miracles and his commissioning and instruction of the twelve apostles. Jesus, the New Moses, comes down from the mountain after his sermon to perform the first of ten great works and signs that reveal the nature of the kingdom he has announced. The 10 great works of the New Moses recall the 10 plagues the old Moses mediated to Egypt. Jesus first cures a leper, who exhibits great faith in Jesus and his divine power. Jesus is not made ritually unclean by touching the leper; rather Jesus’ holiness transforms the uncleanliness of the leper and makes the Leper clean. In his Incarnation, the Son is not made unclean by assuming our human nature. He became like us in all things but sin. He was not contaminated by his solidarity with us. Through his passion, Jesus transforms our human nature, he merits for us the Spiritual Bath that will cleanse us of our sins. We are made clean in the waters of Baptism because it is our share in the action by which our human nature was transformed, namely the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
2. Liturgical Worship in the New Kingdom: Jesus announces his kingdom with a call to repentance. Through the gift of God’s grace, we turn from a life of sin and enter into communion with God. Christ, the high priest taken from among men, has made us a new people, a kingdom of priests. Jesus tells the leper to show himself to the priest so that he can be reintroduced into the community of worship. Through our Baptism and our Confirmation we are introduced into the Liturgy of God’s Kingdom: we now share in the thanksgiving sacrifice of the Son of God; we truly worship the Father through the Son and in the Holy Spirit.
3. From the Babylonian Exile to Jesus: In the First Reading, King Zedekiah’s rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, led to the destruction of the city of Jerusalem, the palace of the king, the Temple of the Lord, and the walls of the city in 587 B.C. Jeremiah prophesied that the exile of Judah in Babylon would last for seventy years: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place” (Jeremiah 29:10-11). God promised to restore Israel and give them a Davidic king to establish peace and justice in the land. What is more, “the restored reign of the Davidic king is joined, in Jeremiah's prophecy, to an inner transformation that accomplishes a new passover: ‘Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord’ (31:31-32). Israel’s death will be followed by resurrection” (Levering, Ezra & Nehemiah, 41). King Nebuchadnezzar will have a dream of a statue and the prophet Daniel will have a dream of four beasts that symbolize the succession of four kingdoms, leading to the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth. The golden head and the lion represent the Neo-Babylonian empire (612-539 B.C.), the silver chest and the bear represent the Medo-Persian empire (539-331 B.C.), the bronze torso and the leopard represent the Greek empire (331-63 B.C.), and the iron legs and ten-horned beast represent the Roman empire. During the time of the Roman Empire, God sent his Son to establish his Kingdom, a Kingdom which will never be destroyed.
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you have made me clean through Baptism to worship you in Spirit and in truth. I now share in your death and resurrection and am a member of your Kingdom. Extend your reign in my heart, in my family, and in my community.
Living the Word of God: What do I need Jesus to make clean in my life? Where is there leprosy that only Jesus can heal in and through the Sacrament of Reconciliation?
 
Friday 12^th Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer: Lord, I ask you to touch my heart that I may pray for what I ought, be made clean, and be filled with your love.
Encountering Christ:
Homage: “A leper approached, did him homage...” This poor man was totally alone and, as a leper, he was forbidden to come within 6 feet (4 cubits) of another person. He was also required to announce he was unclean so that no one would approach him. How humiliating for the poor suffering man. Yet, in this case, the leper broke all the rules to approach Jesus and do him homage. We rarely, if ever, have to make this kind of sacrifice to offer God praise and worship. We have multiple options for daily Mass nearby, adoration chapels, and access to the sacraments. May we never take for granted the myriad of opportunities we have been given to do homage to the Lord. 
Do You Wish It? “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” This leper desperately wanted to be cured, yet he approached the Lord in homage and asked, “If you wish.” What humility! Here is a lesson for us. When we pray, we don’t tell God what we want or think is best. Instead, we totally surrender to his will for us. Do we want what God wants for us or what we want? Pope Benedict XVI once was asked, “How does the Pope pray?” “The pope,” he said, “is a beggar before God!” A true beggar trusts totally in God’s benevolent will. 
Be Made Clean: It seems in this passage that the leper’s will was perfectly aligned with God’s will. He was made clean. We all want a resounding answer of “yes” to our prayer, but we need to be completely opened to how God wishes to answer us. We let God be God, knowing that he sees things much more clearly than we ever will. “To accept whatever, he gives. And to give whatever it takes, with a big smile. This is the surrender to God” (St. Teresa of Calcutta). Will we let him do it his way?
Conversing with Christ: Lord, I do want to be cleansed of all sin and attachment to this world but I also recognize my struggle to give you complete control. I want what you want, Lord! I surrender myself completely to your merciful hands.
Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will be mindful of surrendering all my petitions and desires completely into God’s hands without condition.