Qua bài Tin Mừng hôm nay, Đức Chúa Giêsu nhắc lại cho chúng
ta những hình ảnh trong thời Cựu Ước như hình ảnh của ông Noah và trận đại Hồng Thuỷ và hình ảnh ông
Lot với trận mưa Lưu Huỳnh và lửa từ trời đã thiêu hủy cả thành Sodom để nhắc
nhở chúng ta rằng, trong ngày phán xét, những người đã sống và giữ Lời Chúa sẽ
được cứu thoát, còn những người chỉ biết hiến thân, nô lệ cho tiền tài vật chất
thế gian và quên đi Thiên Chúa thì sẽ phải đối mặt với những bản án nặng nề như
trên.
Chúa Giêsu muốn cảnh báo chúng ta rằng, nếu chúng ta không
chịu chuẩn bị trước trong cuộc sống ở đời nay, thì khi Chúa gọi chúng ta đến để
phán xét một cách đột ngột, chúng ta sẽ không có đủ thời gian để chuẩn
bị. Vì vậy, chúng ta nên sống một cuộc sống theo như Lời giáo huấn của Chúa và
Hội Thánh đó là những cách mà chúng ta cần phải làm để chuẩn bị cho ngày trở
lại của Con Người lần thứ hai.
Chúng ta hãy thường xuyên suy ngẫm và phản ảnh về cuộc sống
của chúng ta, hãy kiểm tra, rà xét những gì mà chúng ta cho là quan trọng nhất,
những gì mà có thể sẽ giúp chúng ta chuẩn bị để đối mặt với ngày Chúa phán xét.
Chúa Giêsu đã luôn nhắc chúng ta về sự phán xét, không phải để đe dọa chúng ta,
nhưng để giúp chúng ta nhận thức được sự thưởng phạt phân minh. Chúng ta hãy thử
tưởng tượng rằng, trong khi chúng ta đang đọc bài suy niệm này, Con Người chợt
đến bất ngờ, và đến lượt sắp tới của chúng ta, chắc chắn chúng ta không kịp trở
tay để sám hối ăn năn và cầu xin Chúa cho sự tha thứ, để tha thứ cho những người
khác đang mắc nợ chúng ta, để chúng ta được hòa giải với con cái, với cha, để
nói lên yêu thương với cha mẹ và gia đình, để giúp đỡ người nghèo và những
người đang có nhu cầu đê được giúp đỡ.
Phản ảnh theo cách này sẽ nâng cao sự nhận thức về cách sử
dụng thời gian một cách khôn ngoan để chuẩn bị tốt cho sự phán xét của chúng ta.
Chúa đã ban cho chúng ta ân sủng để đối diện với Ngày Phán Xét mà không lo sợ và
hối tiếc..
Reflection: Friday
32rd Ordinary Time
Jesus recalls the Old Testament images of Noah and Lot to
remind us that, in the time of judgment, those who live according to God’s word
will be saved, while those who give themselves to worldly things and forget
about God will face the judgment. Jesus warns us that, if we are not prepared
for it before it comes; judgment will come so suddenly that we will not have
enough time to prepare. So we should live our lives in ways that prepare us for
the coming of the Son of Man.
Reflect on your life and consider what you give most
importance to, what will most help you to prepare to face the judgment day.
Jesus speaks about the judgment in this way, not to frighten us but to help us
to be aware. Imagine that, while
you are reading this reflection, the Son of Man comes. The suddenness of his
coming leaves no time to ask for forgiveness, to forgive others, to be
reconciled with your children, to tell your father that you love him, to help
the poor and those in need. Reflecting
in this way will raise one’s awareness of how to use time wisely to prepare
well for judgment.
Lord, grant us the grace to face
the Day of Judgment without fear or regret.
Friday of the
Thirty-Second Week in Ordinary Time
Jesus said to his
disciples: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son
of Man; they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to
the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.” Luke 17:26–27
As we enter into the
final weeks of the liturgical year, we begin to turn our attention to the final
coming of Christ. In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us the example of Noah and
Lot. In both of their stories, people were eating, drinking, marrying, buying,
selling, planting and building up, until the very day that the floods came to
destroy the earth at the time of Noah and fire rained down from the sky at the
time of Lot. Both Noah and Lot were saved, but many others alive at that time
met with sudden and unexpected destruction.
Jesus says that the
“days of the Son of Man” will be similar to these previous two events. At an
unexpected time, Jesus will return to earth, and the Final Judgment will ensue.
So His message is clear: Be ready at all times.
Though we are
familiar with this teaching of our Lord, spoken many times and in various ways
in the Gospels, many people do not heed the message. It is easy to believe that
you always have tomorrow to change, and so you give into temptation today. And
then tomorrow comes, and the temptation is once again embraced with the thought
that you will work on it tomorrow, and henceforth. We can easily go about
perpetuating our sins and embracing our temptations while we have the ongoing
good intention of changing tomorrow. This is a mistake for two reasons.
First of all, it
always remains a possibility that our Lord will indeed come today and that
today truly will be the end of the world. Or, it always remains a distinct
possibility that your life will come to an end today, suddenly and
unexpectedly. If that were to happen, would you be fully ready to stand before
the judgment seat of Christ? Most people would not, at least not fully ready.
Thus, this should be motivation enough to work tirelessly today to be ready now
and every moment hereafter.
But we should also
see this prophecy of our Lord as applying to every present moment of every day.
Jesus is always coming to us, suddenly and without warning, inviting us to
serve Him by grace. This Gospel passage states that “Whoever seeks to preserve
his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it.” This applies to
the end of our lives and to the end of the world, but it also applies to every
present moment of every day. If we continually seek to lose our lives, meaning,
to choose the Heavenly realities over the temporal earthly indulgences we are
daily tempted with, then we will also daily experience the grace of salvation,
here and now, in every present moment of our lives.
Reflect, today, upon
whether or not you regularly seek to lose your life for the sake of the Kingdom
of God. Do you continually choose grace, mercy, Heaven, obedience, love,
self-sacrifice, compassion, forgiveness and the like, every moment of every day
of your life? If so, then our Lord will continually bestow the gift of His
saving grace upon you here and now, preparing you for the ultimate moment of
judgment. If not, then you will be more like the people of Noah’s and Lot’s
time who met with sudden destruction when they least expected it. Live for God
now, today, in this moment, and you will be eternally grateful you did.
My ever-present
Lord, You come to me always, suddenly and unexpectedly, and so often I do not
hear You or perceive Your presence. Please help me to live continually for You
and by Your grace, choosing Heavenly realities over temporary indulgences. May
I live this way always, meeting You every moment of my life and anticipating
that glorious final meeting with You at the time of judgment. Jesus, I trust in
You.
Friday 32nd in Ordinary Time 2024
Opening Prayer: Lord
God, you have sent your Son, the Good Shepherd, to find me and save me from
slavery to sin and eternal death. Help me embrace the path of salvation. No
matter how difficult it may seem, I need to lose my life and die to myself to
save my life and attain eternal life with you.
Encountering the Word of God
1. The Days of Noah and Lot: In the Gospel, Jesus is answering a question from the Pharisees about the
coming (advent) of the Kingdom of God. The Pharisees wanted to know when the
Kingdom of God would come. Jesus answers that the coming of the Kingdom is a
mystery and is not something that can be observed. He teaches that the Kingdom
is something already mysteriously present but also something that has not yet
come in its fullness. Jesus invites his disciples to learn about the coming of
the Kingdom from two examples from Genesis. The first example is taken from the
story of Noah. The generation of people “in the days of Noah” were absorbed in
their everyday lives and were oblivious to their need for repentance. Noah, by
contrast, listened to the word of God and saved his family by building and
entering the ark. The second example is taken from the story of Lot. Lot and
his family left the sinful city of Sodom, but Lot’s wife looked back. She
symbolically longed for and returned, so to speak, to the life of sin she left
behind.
2. The Day of the Son
of Man: Meditating on the story of Noah encourages Jesus’ disciples to
heed the Word of God. Just as Noah lived among an evil generation, so also
Jesus’ disciples. Will they be absorbed and “choked by the anxieties
and riches and pleasures of life” (Luke 8:14) or will they be attentive to
God’s word and seek salvation? Meditating on the story of Lot and his
wife encourages Jesus’ disciples to persevere in their decision to heed and
follow God’s Word. To lose and leave behind their old life to gain eternal
life. Christians, through their washing in the waters of Baptism, have embraced
new life and left behind the life of sin – symbolized by life in the cities of
Sodom and Gomorrah. Will we look back with longing to our old life of
sinful pleasure or continue to look ahead to new life in Christ?
3. Walking in Truth and Love: The Second Letter of John envisions our life as a journey. John
speaks about walking in the truth and walking in love. Truth is something that
is within us but also something in which we walk. “For John, ‘the truth’ is
Jesus Christ himself, the truth about him, and the true way of life he has
called us to follow. The author also draws attention to the commandment to love
one another and urges his readers to walk in love and keep the commandments.
Further, he warns his audience against deceivers who teach in the spirit of the
antichrist: they do not acknowledge that Jesus Christ has ‘come in the flesh.’
John calls his readers to reject these deceivers and to remain in the
‘teaching’ of Christ the Son. This enables them to abide in the Father and the
Son” (Anderson and Keating, James, First, Second, and Third John,
244).
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, walk with me always. Be at my side, pick me up when I
fall, encourage me when I want to give up, nourish me with your Body and Blood,
give me to drink of your Spirit, and show me where I need to help others on
their journey.
Friday 32nd in Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer:
Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for the gift of sacred Scripture. Please open my
mind and heart to receive your word with humility and gratitude. Increase my
faith, hope, and love so that your word may bear fruit in my daily life.
Encountering Christ:
The End of Time: Towards
the end of each liturgical year, the Church reflects upon the end of time. “The
‘resurrection of all the dead’… will precede [Christ’s coming] ‘in his glory,
and all the angels with him.... Before him will be gathered all the nations,
and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep
from the goats’” (CCC 1038). This anticipation of Our Lord’s second coming is
an essential part of our faith. During the Mass after the consecration the
people acclaim, “When we eat this Bread and drink this Cup, we proclaim your
death, O Lord, until you come again.” St. Bernard spoke of the three arrivals
of our Lord: his earthly life, his hidden presence within us, and, finally, his
arrival at the end of time. Advent presages the first coming and the end of the
liturgical year presages the final coming, and both prepare us for when he
comes to us daily–silently, interiorly–but truly.
When Will It Happen?: When will the Lord finally come? Are we close?
These and other questions are common and understandable. However, the Church
has persistently taught us that while Our Lord’s coming is imminent, “‘it is
not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own
authority.’ This eschatological coming could be accomplished at any moment,
even if both it and the final trial that will precede it are ‘delayed’” (CCC
673). The Lord will return, but we do not know when. Therefore, we should not
be perturbed upon hearing various prognostics that the end is near. We should
not worry so much about the end of the world, but rather prepare ourselves
daily for a holy life and a peaceful death.
Losing Life to Preserve It: ‘Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but
whoever loses it will save it.” Our Lord is inviting us to realize that the
things of this world are passing and that only he remains. If we seek to save
our lives by merely chasing the pleasures of this life, we risk losing out on
Christ himself, the pearl of great price for which we should gladly sell all
the rest (Matthew 13:45-46). Rooted in a profound and trusting friendship with
Christ, we will fear neither death nor the end of the world. Then, with St.
Paul, we too will proclaim: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
If it is to be life in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet… My
desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (Philippians
1:21-23).
Conversing with Christ: Jesus, you come to your Church and to me in countless
ways. I encounter you in Scripture, the Eucharist, Confession, prayer, and
ultimately in all my daily experiences—both pleasant and challenging. Help me
to see things as you see them, to value them as you value them. Give me the
light and the strength to fulfill your will in all things—both now and at the
end of my life.
Resolution: Lord,
today by your grace I will say a prayer for the dying.
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