Trong bài Tin Mừng hôm nay, chúng ta được mời gọi mạnh dạn đứng lên để làm chứng cho Thiên Chúa. Trong thời đại của chúng ta ngày nay, chúng ta hầu như không còn nghe thấy có những người bị ném vào hầm cho sư tử ăn thịt, hay bị giết vì đức tin vào Chúa Giêsu Kitô. Lịch sử của Giáo hội Việt Nam cho chúng ta biết là rất nhiều người Việt Nam ở trong những thế kỷ từ 17 đến 20 đã phải từ bỏ mạng sống của họ vì thập giá hay vì danh Chúa Giêsu Kitô. Đấy là những vị tử đạo thực sự. Ngày này, những người tử đạo thật sự là những người có lòng tin mạnh mẽ vào sự thật, chân lý và dám đứng lên để bảo vệ cho nền hoà bình và chân lý với lòng dũng cảm và niềm tin, hạnh phúc và hòa bình, họ dám chấp nhận một thực tế phũ phàng cho cuộc sống của họ. Nhiều gia đình có thể bị phân chia vì sự khác biệt về niềm tin, nhưng những người làm chứng cho tình yêu của Thiên Chúa, sẽ đem tình yêu đó chiếu toả đến những người khác với một tình yêu vô vị lợi và không có điều kiện .
Trong thời điểm hiện tại, Làm thế nào chúng ta có thể làm chứng cho tình yêu của Thiên Chúa trong cuộc sống của chúng ta? Làm bổn phận công dân, đóng thuế một cách đầy đủ. Tham dự thánh lễ ngày Chủ nhật hàng tuần. Hãy tìm hiếu và học hỏi lời Chúa. Hãy tôn trọng sự sống của con người từ lúc mới được thụ thai cho đến khi chết một cách tự nhiên, Không chung sống, “gần gũi” với người khác phá (không quan hệ tình dục) trước khi hôn phối, hoặc dùng thuốc ngừa thai, mặc dù mọi người khác chung quang đang làm điều đó. Mọi người có thể cười và nhạo bắng chúng ta khi chúng ta mặc những bộ quần áo kín đáo, không hở hang như những các cô gái trong thời buổi hôm nay. Hãy vâng lời cha mẹ, thầy cô giáo, các linh mục và những người quyền thế. Tóm tăt là chúng ta hãy cố gắng tuân theo các điều răn của Chúa dạy và yêu thương nhau như Chúa Kitô đã yêu thương chúng ta.
"Lạy Chúa Giêsu Kitô, bởi cái chết của Chúa trên thập tự giá, Chúa đã chuộc tội chúng con và đã cứu chuộc toàn thế giới. Xin Chúa khỏa lấp tâm hồn chúng con với niềm hy vọng để mang lại niềm vui, lòng can đảm, và sự táo bạo để chứng kiến chân lý, sự thật về tình yêu của Chúa đã dành cho những người tội lỗi như chúng con được chiến thắng những quyền lực của tội lỗi, Satan, và sự chết. "
Today's Gospel is inviting us strongly to bear witness to God. In this day and age, we hardly hear of people being fed to the lions or slaughtered because of their faith in Jesus Christ. The history of the primitive church tells us of so many accounts of people who gave up their lives in the name of Jesus Christ. These are the real martyrs. The true kind of martyr who believes strongly in the truth and stands up to it, with courage and faith, happily and peacefully accepting the reality of his/her life. Families may be divided because of differences of beliefs but the one who bears witness to the love of God, radiates this love so much so that he/she can love unconditionally the other person.
How can we be witnesses in this present time to the love of God in our lives? Pay taxes correctly. Go to mass on Sunday. Be studious. Be Pro-life. Say no to pre-marital sex or to drugs even if everyone is doing it. People may laugh at you saying you are too modest in dressing because you are wearing a skirt that is knee-length when all other girls are wearing skirts one foot above the knees. Be obedient to your parents, to the teachers, to the priests and those in authority. In short obey the commandments and love one another as Christ has loved us.
“Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand, for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.” Luke 21:14–15
This line is embedded in today’s Gospel in which Jesus makes it clear that His followers will be persecuted. Many of them will be seized, sent to prison, hated and even be put to death. For some, this will even happen at the hands of their own family. But Jesus tells them this to prepare them and to let them know that these persecutions will enable them to give testimony to Jesus. The Gospel passage above explains how they are to do this. First of all, giving “testimony” especially means they are to be a witness to Christ. And one of the best ways such a witness is fulfilled is through the various forms of martyrdom. To be a martyr is to be a witness. And those who suffer persecution for the sake of Christ, and then respond to that persecution in accord with the wisdom and inspiration of Jesus, are true martyrs. It’s helpful to note that if one is persecuted and responds with anger or returns the violence in accord with their own irrational will, then they are no martyr. They simply become what they have received. They become angry and bitter people. Being a martyr requires both unjust treatment and a response to that mistreatment in accord with God’s will. For that reason, though persecution is never initiated by God, it does offer the Christian an opportunity to deeply conform themself to Christ by responding as He dictates.
Jesus says that responding to persecution requires that we not prepare a defense beforehand. In part, this is because there is great temptation one experiences when persecuted by another. It is very understandable that when a person experiences persecution in any way, they will encounter anger and be tempted to fight back in a way that is uncharitable and only furthers the disorder. Responding to persecution in accord with the will of God requires great attentiveness to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, great humility, and unwavering charity directed at the one doing the persecution. Therefore, Jesus makes the promise that He will be with you in such situations and will give you “a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.” What a grace! But this grace is only available to those who rely completely upon Christ, and not upon their own disordered passions and emotions.
Reflect, today, upon this promise from Jesus. Some will encounter little persecution in their lives at various times. But others will encounter severe persecution in various ways, even from their family. Reflect upon any ways that you have experienced the unjust treatment of another and then reflect upon your response. Were you able to immediately forgive? Were you able to set aside your anger, wounded pride and desire for revenge? Were you able to keep your eyes on Christ and rejoice that you have been found worthy to share in the ridicule, persecutions and sufferings that Jesus endured? Pray that you will always be open to the grace of this promise of Jesus so that you will always respond to everyone in accord with the wisdom of God.
My persecuted Lord, though You were perfect in every way, You endured much cruelty in Your earthly life. The injustice You endured is beyond our comprehension. But Your response to such persecution was perfect. You were able to transform all ill-treatment into grace and mercy, offered especially for those who mistreated You. Give me the grace I need to imitate Your perfect response and to always rely upon Your wisdom and guidance alone. Jesus, I trust in You.
1. Persecution of Jesus’ Disciples: In the Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples that, during the time leading up to Jerusalem’s fall in A.D. 70, they will be persecuted by civil and religious authorities. This persecution, narrated to some degree in the Acts of the Apostles, will give the disciples the opportunity to give testimony to Jesus. The persecution will even divide families such that family members will even hand them over to the authorities. “Jesus demands heroic allegiance that may drive a wedge between family members (Luke 14:26). Whether martyred or persecuted, the faithful will ‘gain’ their lives (Luke 1:19) by laying them down for Christ (Luke 9:24)” (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament, 147). By being hated in this life on account of Jesus’ name, Jesus’ disciples will receive the blessing of a great reward in heaven: “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way” (Luke 6:22-23).
Opening Prayer: Lord God, I believe in you and in your words, even when they are difficult. Open my heart to understand the supernatural meaning of the Gospel. Strengthen me when I am afraid, and give me a love that is stronger than death. Amen.
Praise in a Fiery Furnace: The sufferings we undergo are not irrelevant to the witness we give concerning Jesus Christ. We all tend to look beyond a speaker’s words to his actions, his way of life. We ask ourselves if the way he lives lends credibility to his message. In today’s Gospel, Jesus says explicitly that persecutions and imprisonments will lead to our giving testimony. The one follows from the other. In Daniel 3, the three young men thrown into the fiery furnace were miraculously preserved, and sang praise to God. “And they walked about in the midst of the flames, singing hymns to God and blessing the Lord.” It is precisely their position of weakness in the midst of persecution that lends their praise of God its authority, causing the Babylonian king to convert.
Today, we pay attention to this short but sharp sentence of our Lord, which sticks into our soul and makes us wonder: why perseverance is so important? why does Jesus tell us our salvation depends upon the exercise of this virtue. Because the disciple is no more than his Master —«you will be hated by all for my name's sake» (Lk 21:17)—, and if the Lord was a sign of contradiction, we, his disciples, must necessarily be one too. The belligerents will get hold of the Kingdom of God, those who fight against the enemies of the soul, those who energetically combat, as St. Josemaria Escriva liked to say, “this most beautiful war of peace and love”, which Christian life consists of. All roses have thorns, and the way to Heaven is not without difficulties and obstacles. This is why, without the cardinal virtue of fortitude, our good intentions would turn out unfruitful. And perseverance is part of fortitude. Perseverance, concretely, drives us to the strength we need to carry our contradictions with joy. Perseverance, in its maximum degree, is accomplished at the Cross. This is why, perseverance confers freedom by granting the possession of oneself through love. Christ's promise is indefectible: «Through perseverance you will possess your own selves!» (Lk 21:19), and this is so because what is saving us is the Cross. It is the strength of love that gives each one of us the patient and joyous acceptance of God's will, when, in a first moment, it upsets —as it happens at the Cross— our poor human will.Only in a first moment, because afterwards, the overflowing energy of perseverance is liberated to help us understand the difficult science of the Cross. This is why, perseverance engenders patience, which goes much beyond simple resignation. Even more so. It has nothing to do with stoical attitudes. Patience decisively contributes to understand that the Cross is, well before pain, essentially love. Our Mother in Heaven, who understood better than anyone else this saving truth, will help us understanding it too.
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