Trọng
tâm của bài Tin Mừng hôm nay Chúa Giêsu đã cho chúng ta thấy rõ
là Thiên Chúa đã ban cho mỗi người chúng ta những hồng ân của Thiên Chúa, đó là
những món quá “tự do”. Sự tự do có nghĩa là chúng ta được phép
tự do chọn lựa cuộc sống của chúng ta như thế nào theo như ý muốn
riêng của chúng ta.
Chúng ta thấy Chúa
Giêsu đã khóc, Ngài khóc vì Ngài biết được ngày mà Thành
Jerusalem sẽ bị tàn phá vì dân Israel đã chọn lựa cuộc sống theo
ý họ, một cuộc sống không có Thiên Chúa, và hướng theo tội lỗi họ
sống với những sự ham muốn của cái vật chất, danh vọng, kêu ngạo và tự hào mà
họ đã quên đi cái sứ điệp cứu độ mà Thiên Chúa đã đến để ban
cho họ. Họ đã thiếu lòng tin tưởng nơi Thiên Chúa, Vì sự kêu ngạo
mà nghĩ là không có gì sẽ có thể tàn phá được Thành Jerusalem, nhưng Chúa
Giêsu không thể ngăn cản được những ước mơ riêng hay niềm tự hào của họ. Ngài
đã để cho họ được tự do sống với cuộc sống mà họ đã lựa chọn cho
chính họ, và vì thế mà họ
cũng sẽ phải gánh chịu tất cả những hậu quả của cuộc sống sau này.
Đây
là bài học tuy có sự khắc nghiệt. Tuy nhiên, bài học
này liên quan đến những sự lựa chọn mà chúng ta đã quyết định
trong cuộc sống thường ngày của chúng ta. Có thể chúng ta
không hề bị đòi hỏi là phải tranh chấp với chính quyền,
nhưng chúng ta có thể có những sự đòi hỏi và phải thử thách
về văn hóa, về tiện nghi hiện đại, với bạn bè, của chúng
ta để làm theo những gì mà Thiên
Chúa đã ban truyền cho chúng ta.
Chắc
chắn sẽ có một số người quay lưng ra đi và bỏ Thiên
Chúa khi Chúa không can thiệp hay giải quyết vấn đề riêng của
họ, hay khi Chúa không ban cho họ những gì mà họ mong muốn,
hay khi họ gặp phải hậu quả nghiêm trọng mà họ không thích vì
sự tự do lựa chọn theo ý thích riêng của họ. Thiên Chúa là
một Thiên Chúa yêu thương, nhưng Ngài không phải là một Thiên
Chúa dễ dãi, vô tư. Ngài luôn đòi hỏi nơi chúng
ta có sự vâng lời và lòng trung tín, nhưng Ngài cũng cho
chúng ta có ý chí và sự tự do (để tuân theo hoặc không tuân
theo ý Ngài). Nhưng những việc chúng ta làm theo như ý muốn riêng của
chúng ta thì chúng ta sẽ phải gánh chịu những hậu quả mà tự chúng ta đã
gây ra sau này.
REFLECTION
The focus of today's
Gospel reading is on the gift of free will, which God has given us. It allows
us to choose how we spend our life on earth and in eternity. We see Jesus
weeping over Jerusalem. He knows the destruction that will come to the city
because its people will choose their own greed and pride over the message of
salvation which he has come to deliver. Their lack of faith will mean
devastation, but Jesus cannot stop it. He must allow them to make the choice
and then, live with the consequences.
These are harsh lessons. Yet they relate to many of the choices
we must make every day in our own lives. We may not be asked to defy the
government, but we may be challenged to defy popular culture or our friends or
our boss in order to follow what God has commanded. How closely do we count the
loss when we need to make such a choice? How well do we identify the
consequences, in terms of our eternal life, when deciding what is important to
us? Some people turn against God when God does not intervene to solve their
problems or grant their desires or when the correct choice carries with it a
serious consequence which is not to their liking. We may read the story of the
persecution and death of Jesus and say that we would have been loyal to him to
the end. Look back at the choices you have made in the past and see if any of
them compromised God's mission for the sake of social acceptance or to keep
peace in your family or to satisfy a personal hunger of yours. God is a loving
God, but he is not an easy God. He requires obedience and loyalty and gives us
free will to obey or not to obey. The consequence then becomes our own doing.
Thanks be to God that our God is not a vengeful God. In Jesus
Christ we have a Savior who weeps over our misfortunes and whose blood, given
on the cross, purchases each and every one of us for God on the condition
that we acknowledge our sinfulness and return to his loving embrace.
Thursday 33rd Ordinary Time 2023
“For
the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against
you; they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides. They will smash you to
the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon
another within you because you did not recognize the time of your
visitation.” Luke 19:43–44
Jesus spoke these words as He looked at Jerusalem from a distance,
preparing to enter that holy city for the last time in preparation for His
passion and death. As He spoke these words, the Gospel says that Jesus wept
over the city. Of course, it wasn’t primarily tears over the future physical
destruction of the Temple and invasion by Roman forces. It was first and
foremost tears over the lack of faith of so many which was the true destruction
He mourned.
As mentioned above, the city of Jerusalem was indeed sieged by the
military commander Titus in the year 70 A.D. Titus was acting under the
authority of his father, the emperor, and destroyed not only the Temple but
also much of the city itself, as well as the Jewish inhabitants. As
Jesus approached the city of Jerusalem, so as to enter the Temple one last time
to offer His life as the definitive Sacrificial Lamb for the salvation of the
world, Jesus knew that many within this holy city would not accept His saving
sacrifice. He knew that many within that city would become the instruments of
His pending death and would have no remorse for killing the Savior of the
World. And though this one point can easily be missed, it should be emphasized
that Jesus’ reaction was not fear, it was not anger, it was not disgust.
Rather, His reaction was holy sorrow. He wept over the city and its inhabitants
despite what many of them would soon do to Him.
When you suffer injustice, how do you react? Do you lash out?
Condemn? Get defensive? Or do you imitate our Lord and allow your soul to be
filled with holy sorrow? Holy sorrow is an act of love and is the appropriate
Christian response to persecution and injustice. Too often, however, our
response is not holy sorrow but anger. The problem with this is that reacting
in unholy anger does not accomplish anything good. It does not help us to
imitate Jesus, and it doesn’t help those with whom we are angry. Though the
passion of anger can be used for good at times, it becomes a sin when it is
selfish and a reaction to some injustice done to us. Instead of this unholy
anger, seek to foster holy sorrow in imitation of Jesus. This virtue will not
only help your soul grow in love of those who have hurt you, it will also help
them to see more clearly what they have done so that they can repent.
Reflect, today, upon your own approach to the evil you face in
your life. Consider carefully your interior and exterior reaction. Do you mourn
with love over sins you witness and experience? Do you mourn, with a holy
sorrow, over your own sins and the sins of others? Work to foster this form of
love within you and you will find that it can become a motivation for you to
help transform the sins you commit and the sins of others you endure.
My sorrowful Lord, You endured the sins of many. You were treated
with cruelty and injustice. To all of these sins, including those that you
foresaw, You reacted with the love of holy sorrow. And that sorrow led you to
true compassion and concern for all. Please give me the grace to imitate this
same love of Yours so that I, too, may share in the holiness of Your sorrowful
heart. Jesus, I trust in You.
Thursday 33 ordinary Time 2024- The Presentation of
Virgian Mary
Opening Prayer: Lord God, instill your peace in my
heart. Visit me in my lowliness. Do not let me succumb during times of trial
and tribulation. You are my rock and my salvation. Whom shall I fear with you
at my side?
Encountering the Word of God
1. Jesus Wept over
Jerusalem: Jesus is drawing near to the city of Jerusalem and is riding on a colt to
fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9. He comes as a peaceful king on a donkey
and not as a despotic tyrant on a warhorse. Before entering the city, Jesus is
brought to tears as he contemplates its future destruction. Jesus predicts that
the religious leaders of Jerusalem will be unwilling to welcome him as the true
king of peace and that God’s plan is hidden from them. He foretells how, within
a generation (in 40 years), the Roman general Titus will build ramparts,
encircle Jerusalem, and lay siege to the city. All this will take place because
the people did not recognize the time of their visitation: “God is visiting
Jerusalem through Jesus’ arrival to the city. The visitation is intended to
bring redemption (Luke 1:68, 78; 7:16) but will instead bring judgment to those
who do not welcome it” (Gadenz, The Gospel of Luke, 328).
2. Worthy is the Lamb: In Revelation 4, John narrated his
vision of the heavenly liturgy of creation. In Revelation 5, he narrates his
vision of the liturgy of redemption. In this vision, John contemplates Jesus as
the Lion of the tribe of Judah and as the Lamb worthy to break open the seals
of the scroll. The scroll Jesus breaks open represents the establishment of the
New Covenant. One of the effects of the New Covenant is the royal priesthood
given to believers. Another effect is that we are brought into the
family of God as God’s adopted children. “Jesus’ ability to ‘open the scroll,’
that is, to fulfill God’s covenant promises, depends on His Davidic lineage
[…]. The covenants in the Old Testament reach their climax in God’s covenant
promise to David to establish an everlasting kingdom through his son (2 Samuel
7:8-16)” (Barber, Coming Soon, 90). When John turns to see the Lion
of Judah, he instead sees a slain Lamb. This means that Jesus, the Son of
David, is victorious not through weapons and armies but through the sacrificial
offering of his own life. In every mass and liturgy, we unite our prayer and
worship to the new song of the New Exodus, sung by saints in heaven. We praise
Jesus, for he has redeemed us with his blood and has brought us out of exile
and into the restored Kingdom of David.
3. The Presentation and
Consecrated Virginity of Mary: On this day, we celebrate the memorial of the
presentation of Mary in the Temple. We do not have an account of her
presentation in the Bible, but we do have one in the Protoevangelium of James.
According to this tradition, Mary was consecrated to God and brought to the
Temple at the age of three, and she remained in the Temple until the age of
twelve when Joseph became her guardian. According to tradition, Mary’s father,
Joachim, died when she was six, and her mother, Anne, died when she was eight.
From Mary’s words to the angel (Luke 1:34) and Joseph’s abstinence after taking
Mary as his wife (Matthew 1:24-25), we can deduce that Mary likely took a vow
of virginity and abstinence (Numbers 30:13) and that Joseph accepted this vow
at the time of their betrothal (see Pitre, Jesus and the Jewish Roots
of Mary, 103-115). Although the Bible does not speak about Mary’s
presentation, it does speak about her virginity and consecration. She and her
husband, Joseph, consecrated their bodies to God and began to live out the
future life of the resurrection in the present world. Mary’s consecration and
perpetual virginity point “us to the eternal life of the world to come, the
resurrection, and the new creation, in which ordinary marital relations will
pass away because death will be no more” (Pitre, Jesus and the Jewish
Roots of Mary, 130).
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you are the Son of
David and the Son of God. Have mercy on me. Bring me to enjoy life in your
divine family as your sibling. Fill me with your Spirit so that I may offer the
Father an acceptable sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.
Thursday 33rd Ordinary Time 2023
Opening Prayer: Lord, help me to love the salvation of souls as much as you do
and give me the grace to do all I can to make your face known!
Encountering Christ:
1. “He Saw the City and Wept: In this Gospel, Jesus shows us a very intimate side of his
human emotions and his divine heart. In one moment, we see him weep over the
blindness of the people to his coming in the flesh. This has a visible effect
on him in that he sheds tears for the people of God, but these are not tears of
self-pity. His divine heart longs for the salvation of all men and women past,
present, and future, and he is revealing through his tears his Father’s love
for every one of his children. He longs for all to be saved and to come into
his glory! What is my attitude toward the salvation of souls, especially my
own?
2. They Will Hem You In: Isn’t this exactly what sin does in our lives? It
encircles us and hems us in on all sides. Evil is relentless and a respecter of
no one. It is aggressive and sneaky. When we are blind to the presence of Our
Lord even in a few small areas of our life, we weaken and sometimes become
dependent on or enslaved to that vice, which can completely blind us. Jesus is
straightforward in the Gospel. He says that if we don’t open our eyes to him
and embrace him in our life, we will eventually get overwhelmed and encircled
by sin. In what area of my life do I need to vanquish sin so as to better see
Jesus’s deep love for me?
3. The Time of My Visitation: Jesus came some 2,000 years ago and walked the roads of
Galilee and Palestine. And Jesus continues to visit us in many ways today.
Perhaps his favorite way to visit us is through a baptized son or daughter who
reflects the face of God. He is also present to others through our eyes, our
hands, our words, and our deeds. Our witness should never be underestimated,
since this is how Jesus has chosen to spread Christianity throughout the world.
Do I look for and see Christ in others? Do I seek to be Christ to others?
Conversing with Christ: Jesus, I believe that you dwell in me by virtue of my baptism
and that you reach out to others through my person. Help me to be a faithful
instrument of your love and to show your face in its fullness through my life
of communion with you.
Resolution: Lord,
today by your grace I will seek to intentionally be your hands, eyes, voice,
and ambassador today to someone I meet.
Thursday 33rd Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, recollect my heart to spend these moments of
prayer with you. Come, Holy Spirit, teach me to pray and open my heart to the
word which you wish to speak to me today. I believe that you are here. I trust
that you are faithful. I love you, teach me to love you more. Let me enter into
your heart and know you more deeply.
Encountering Christ:
The Master Who Weeps: With today’s Gospel, Mother Church invites us to enter
into Christ’s heart as he draws near to his Passion. Approaching Jerusalem,
Jesus draws nearer to the “hour” when he will be handed over to his enemies.
What he prophesizes for the city of Jerusalem, he will soon fulfill in his own
person: encircled and hemmed in on all sides, smashed to the ground and raised
up on a tree. Does he weep for fear of the suffering that awaits him? Or do his
tears well up in desire for the salvation of every human being, even for my own
salvation? Are they an expression, at once both human and divine, of God’s own
“helplessness” before humanity’s freedom? This God, who loves more radically
than anyone can fathom, he who is love itself, will not force upon his children
the salvation they so need and he so longs to give. May these tears of Christ
soften the soil of our soul.
Witnessing the Master Weep: Perhaps in these moments of prayer, the Holy
Spirit invites us to pause and contemplate the Master weeping. His eyes which
have seen the forming and founding of creation are glazed over with tears.
Heavy, glistening drops fall gently on his beard. Perhaps we know of this event
because the Apostles witnessed and later recounted it. What must it have been
for them to see their Master weep? What insight into his heart did it give
them? “If this day you only knew what makes for peace.” He desires peace for
us. Did his Apostles learn that God comes to heal, not to break; that he wishes
for our wholeness, even if it means passing first through suffering, as Christ
himself would do?
His Visitation: Just as Christ prepared to visit the city of Jerusalem, he
came to visit the world with his gift of redemption. So, too, he comes to visit
my soul each day. Standing upon the hilltop of my life, what is in his heart as
he looks upon me? Where are the places in my own life where Christ desires
peace? Are there relationships he wishes to heal, wounds of mind and heart he
wishes to cleanse and purify? What does this desire of Christ for peace and for
recognition of his visitation mean in my own life today?
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, as you stand on the hilltop and look upon your
beloved city of Jerusalem, I know you are gazing upon my soul, too, and upon
the world in which I live. No suffering or trial is hidden from your eyes.
Indeed, each one has already been borne in your cross and imprinted upon your
Sacred Heart. You know them all. And you desire peace. You desire
reconciliation. Speak this word over the sufferings in my own life, in my world
today. Give us faith, hope, and love, and perseverance.
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