Trong Tin Mừng hôm nay Chúa Giêsu kêu gọi chúng ta nên thánh.
Ngài đã mặc nhiên
đề cập đến các lề luật trong sách
Lêvi câu 19:02 "Các
ngươi phải thánh thiện, vì Ta, Ðức Chúa, Thiên Chúa của các ngươi, Ta là Ðấng
Thánh."
Khi đưa
ra về chủ đề về sự thánh thiện này, Chúa Giêsu đã nói theo
một cách gợi
nhớ những lời của tiên tri thời trước. Tôn giáo đòi hỏi một mức độ công bình cá nhân nhất
định, nhưng phải luôn luôn biết
nghĩ đến những người khác. Và cũng phải có những thái độ thích hợp nữa, nghĩa là chúng ta không trở nên giận dữ với người khác hay dùng những ngôn từ thô lỗ để làm nhục hay lăng mạ người khác. Vì cuối cùng chúng ta cũng sẽ phải
làm hòa với
những người này trong một tinh thần chung, trong những trường hợp công lý được đòi
hỏi phải hòa giải trước khi dâng của lễ hiến tế cho Thiên Chúa trên bàn thờ. Do đó, lời cầu nguyện trên những lễ vật hôm nay cũng phản ảnh bài
Tin Mừng, vì chúng ta cầu nguyện là xin cho những lễ
vật mà chúng ta dâng lên Thiên Chúa có thể mang lại cho chúng ta
được sức mạnh trong ơn cứu rỗi của Thiên Chúa.
Lạy Chúa Giêsu,
như Chúa đã dạy chúng con cách thức để vào
được Nước Thiên
Chúa, Xin Chúa giải thoát chúng con thoát khỏi con đường tội lỗi và dẫn đưa chúng con đến sự thánh thiện mà Thiên Chúa, Cha
chúng ta đã đòi hỏi nơi chúng con.
Reflection:
A man once asked Jesus what he
must do to inherit eternal life (Mt 19:16-22). On that occasion Jesus responded
with the consolingly simple
answer: “keep the commandments”. In today’s Gospel he goes much further and
calls us to holiness. He may be implicitly referring to the command in Lev 19:2
“Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy”. As he develops this theme of
holiness, Jesus speaks in a way reminiscent of the great prophets. Religion
demands a certain level of personal righteousness, but must always take other
people into account.
Then, too, proper attitudes such as
not becoming angry with someone and not using abusive language to another
person will eventually mean a general spirit of reconciliation with others,
even in cases where justice is demanded, reconciliation closely tied in with
the gifts we present at the altar of God. The prayer over the gifts today thus
responds to the Gospel, for we pray that the gifts we offer may bring us God’s
saving power.
Lord Jesus, as you teach us the ways
to the Kingdom of God, free us from sinful ways and lead us to that holiness
which God, Our Father, asks of us.
Friday of the First Week of Lent
“Settle
with your opponent quickly while on the way to court. Otherwise your opponent
will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard,
and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be
released until you have paid the last penny.” Matthew 5:26
Was our Lord here giving legal advice regarding a
criminal or civil case and how to avoid prosecution? Certainly not. He was
presenting us with an image of Himself as the just Judge. And He was exhorting
us to show mercy to anyone and everyone who could be seen as our “opponent.”
Forgiveness of another is essential. It can never be
withheld. But forgiveness is actually not even enough. The ultimate goal must
be reconciliation, which goes much further. In this Gospel above, Jesus exhorts
us to “settle” with our opponents, therein implying reconciliation. The RSV
version of the Bible says it this way, “Make friends quickly with your
accuser…” Working to foster a “friendship” with one who has accused you,
especially if it is a false accusation, goes far beyond simply forgiving them.
To reconcile with another and to reestablish a true
friendship means that you not only forgive but also do all you can to ensure
that you reestablish a relationship of love with that person. It means that you
both put your grievance behind you and start anew. Of course, that takes both
people to cooperate in love; but, for your part, it means that you work hard to
establish this reconciliation.
Think about someone who has hurt you, and, as a
result, your relationship with them has been damaged. Have you prayerfully
forgiven that person before God? Have you prayed for that person and asked God
to forgive them? If so, then you are now ready for the next step of reaching
out to them in love to mend your relationship. This takes great humility,
especially if the other person was the cause of the hurt and especially if they
have not spoken words of sorrow to you, asking for your forgiveness. Don’t wait
for them to do so. Look for ways to show that person that you love them and
want to heal the hurt. Don’t hold their sin before them or hold on to a grudge.
Seek only love and mercy.
Jesus concludes this exhortation with strong words.
Essentially, if you fail to do all you can to reconcile and reestablish your
relationship, you will be held accountable for it. Though this may seem unfair
at first, it is clearly not, because this is the depth of mercy that our Lord
offers us every day. We will never be adequately sorry for our sin, but God
forgives and reconciles with us anyway. What a grace! But if we fail to offer
this same mercy to others, we essentially limit God’s ability to offer this
mercy to us, and we will be required to pay back “the last penny” of our own
debt to God.
Reflect, today, upon the person who comes to mind
with whom you need to fully reconcile and rekindle a relationship of love. Pray
for this grace, commit yourself to it and look for opportunities to do so. Do
it without reserve and you will never regret your decision.
My most merciful Lord, I thank You for forgiving me
and for loving me with such perfection and totality. Thank You for reconciling
with me despite my imperfect contrition. Give me a heart, dear Lord, that
always seeks to love the sinner in my life. Help me to offer mercy to the
fullest extent in imitation of Your divine mercy. Jesus, I trust in You.
Friday 1st Week in Lent 2025
Opening Prayer: Lord God, grant
me your grace today so that I can share in your righteousness. Do not let me
break communion with you. I want to live in your love and be your faithful
child.
Encountering the Word of God
1. From the Exterior to the
Interior: In
the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches his disciples that they need to surpass
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees to be able to enter into the
Kingdom of Heaven. How is it that our righteousness can surpass that
of the scribes and Pharisees? First, the righteousness of the Pharisees was
very external, while ours needs to be both external and internal. Their
righteousness was based on external obedience and conformity to the law’s
regulations. Often, however, the Pharisees fell into hypocrisy. They put on a
good show for others, but their hearts were far from God. Jesus gives us
several examples of how to interiorize our living of God’s Law. The Law of
Moses prohibits the external act of murder, Jesus’ New Law prohibits the
internal act of anger and calling our brother, “imbecile,” “idiot,” or “fool.”
There is also a positive side to Jesus’ New Law: we need to actively seek
reconciliation with others.
2. Righteous Works Empowered by
Grace: The
second way our righteousness needs to and can surpass that of the scribes and
Pharisees is through the grace of Christ. The righteousness that the Pharisees
sought was based largely on their own efforts to fulfill the Law of Moses. This
was a point brought out especially in Paul’s Letter to the Romans and in his
Letter to the Galatians (3:11). The Old Covenant, the Law of Moses, did not
give people the power to do what was right. The big difference between the Old Covenant
and the New is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus pours out the Spirit, who
gives us the power to keep God’s law. Paul calls the Torah of Moses “the
letter” and associates the New Covenant with the Spirit: “The letter stands for
the Torah, an external law given through Moses that condemns disobedience but
offers no inward assistance toward obedience. The gospel has made this an
obsolete or antiquated way of serving God. Now, with the advent of messianic
grace, believers are released from its condemnation (Romans 8:1). Christians
possess a new law: ‘the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus’ (Romans
8:2). The Spirit dwells within and empowers from within, supplying the love
(Romans 5:5) we need to fulfill the law (13:8-10). It is not a matter, then, of
discarding the Torah in messianic times, but of fulfilling it with a new
ability that comes from God (Romans 8:4)” (Hahn and Mitch, Romans,
114).
3. Ezekiel’s Call to Repentance: In the First
Reading, Ezekiel is considering the question of whether or not God is just when
he punishes his people for their sins. In the opening lines, he teaches that we
are responsible for our actions and presents two cases: one of repentance, where
a person turns from evil to the Lord, and one of sin, where a person turns from
the Lord and the good to the way of sin and evil. In the first case, God does
not remember the evil the person has done. In the second, God does not remember
the person’s righteous deeds. Ezekiel then entertains an objection to this:
Instead of punishing those who sin and saving those who repent, shouldn’t God
weigh the good and the bad committed over a lifetime? The Lord “turns this
objection back upon the people: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that
are not just? It is just and fair that the one who follows a
sinful way should be punished and that the one who repents from sin shall save
his life” (Keating, Ezekiel, 140).
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, help
me to live righteously. This is only possible because you have merited divine
grace for us. Your grace is powerful and brings me to share in your divine
life. Grant me your grace today!
Friday 1st Week in Lent 2024
Opening Prayer:
Lord, as I reflect upon this Gospel please help me to see what I
am clinging to, so that I may detach and cling only to you.
Encountering Christ:
Settle Quickly: Self-righteous anger is toxic. Like any sin, it can blind us to
goodness, truth, and love. Our Lord was urging his listeners to resolve their
issues so that they could put anger aside. When we feel angry and unforgiving,
it truly is foolish to think we can come to Mass expecting union with God. The
fruit of the Spirit is peace, and we have no peace if we choose to withhold
love from others. Because we’re human, we should not be surprised when we are
tempted in this way, but we must lean on our Father all the more, asking for
grace to replace our pride with humility, our anger with peace. St. Paul
reminds us, “Do not look for revenge but leave room for the wrath; for it is
written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord’” (Romans 12:19). We
are called to live humbly and to trust in the Lord.
Judgment: Jesus tells us that the righteousness of the scribes and
Pharisees subjected them to judgment. They determined they were righteous
because they adhered to the law. Jesus calls us to surpass them by living not
the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law, which is love. Jesus warns
that when we fall short of loving well, there are spiritual consequences, and
we may face earthly consequences as well. Living the Ten Commandments is truly
a road map to happiness, both temporally and spiritually.
Gift: By
divine design, we have the power to build up and the power to tear down. Jesus
is showing us in this Gospel that we inhibit our capacity to love others when
we hold on to self-righteousness, anger, or unforgiveness. Since we have been
loved unconditionally from above, we are called to extend this love to those
Jesus places on our path. The sacrament of reconciliation can empower us to do
so by washing away our sin and restoring our peaceful equilibrium.
Conversing with Christ: Lord, you lived in complete freedom, never allowing the
injustices directed toward you to separate you from the Father. Your dignity
was so firmly rooted in your Father’s love that nothing anyone said could shake
you. Lord, sometimes I allow the thoughts, opinions, and actions of others to
get the best of me, which produces anger and hardening of my heart. I can feel
victimized and become determined to justify myself by seeking revenge or
refusing to love. Lord, please soften my heart. Help me to be so firmly rooted
in your love that I am not swayed by the people around me. Please Lord, help me
to accept your unconditional love and then give me the willingness to extend it
to those around me, especially those who are hardest to love.
REFLECTION
In
the Gospel reading, Jesus instructs us on our dealings with one another, with
those against us. Even friends have disagreements: it has been said it may take
time, even years, to build a bond among people; in seconds, the bond can be
destroyed.
We have to be very careful in our words and actions with other people.
Impatience and anger can make us do things we would regret later: cursing and
bad impolite language can cause collateral damage for relationships.
We need to speak truthfully, perhaps softly but firmly. We cannot allow
our bad temper or hot emotions to get the better of us and ruin close
relationships and friendships. Let us always pray for the grace of a more
peaceful and patient demeanor.
Dear Lord, when our tempers flare, please help us to calm down. Let us be
more conscious that we all live in glass houses. Harmful statements become
rocks that break our windows and the windows of others. May our words be always
filled with healing and hope. Help us to let go of hate and bring in more of
love.
Fri
10th March 2017 1st Week in Lent - SG
Some people think that God’s ways
are unfair. For instance, in the gospels there were those who objected that
sinners were welcomed into God’s company in the person of Jesus. After all,
these people felt that since they were 'righteous', they deserved more. Ezekiel
sees things differently. Even the greatest sinner that has a change of heart
and turns to God is forgiven and restored. What is more, the ‘righteous’ that
think that they can also do evil are in for a surprise. Being ‘good’ is
something that has to be maintained — it’s not a free pass for the rest of
one’s life. There are no short cuts or easy paths.
We
cannot harbour anger, hatred, and unforgiveness in our hearts and hope to
approach God. Matthew warns us that we have to take care of our business —
forgive and be forgiven — before worship. Forgiveness is not optional — it is
essential. But there is more — if we wound others through our harsh and unkind
words, it is as if we have killed them. We have done violence to their soul.
Matthew’s Jesus insists that we keep watch over our words — they can hurt,
kill, and destroy, or they can heal, encourage, and build up. The choice is
ours.
Lord, give me the grace to forgive
others.
No comments:
Post a Comment