Suy Niêm Thứ Sáu sau Thứ Tư Lễ Tro

Suy Niêm Thứ Sáu sau Thứ Tư Lễ Tro (Is. 58:6, Matthew 9:14-15 ).

Trên thực tế sự chay tịnh là một việc làm rất có giá trị và hiệu quả của đời sống tinh thần, Việc chay tịnh giúp chúng ta làm chủ được những sự ham muốn của chúng ta và khắc phục những tật xấu nơi chúng ta. Việc ăn chay còn giúp chúng ta đổ bỏ đi (empty) tất cả những rắc rưới trần thế như niềm tự hào, lòng ích kỷ trong tâm hồn của chúng ta để chúng ta có thể mở rộng tâm của chúng ta để đón nhận lời của Thiên Chúa. Việc ăn chay cũng giúp cho chúng ta thấy rõ hơn về những yếu điểm của chúng ta. Đó thực sự là một cuộc chiến tranh tinh thần chống lại những sự ác đang tiềm ẩn ngay trong tâm hồn của chúng ta.

            Trong bài đọc Thứ Nhất hôm nay,  Tiên Tri Isaia cho chúng ta biết là:Thiên Chúa cảnh báo chúng ta là cần phải để ý và chống lại mối nguy hiểm trong việc ăn chay. Sự nguy hiểm đó là gì?  Ăn chay có thể là một mối nguy hiểm và thiệt hại cho đời sống tinh thần của chúng ta, nếu như chúng ta ăn chay với những mục đích riêng,  có nghĩa là chúng ta xem việc ăn chay này như là một cách để tự khoe khoang hay tự biện hộ chính mình. Cách tốt nhất để tránh sự nguy hiểm ấy là chúng ta cần phải biết hãm mình, làm việc tông đồ giúp nguời với tấm lòng từ tâm, bằng tất cà những khả năng mình sẵn có. Việc ăn chay sẽ mang lại cho chúng ta những hoa quả tinh thần tuyệt vời khi chúng ta biết quay lưng lại với chính bản thân mình để làm những việc bác ái, xã hội với lòng biết thương xót đến người khác.Nếu không thì việc ăn chay này sẽ trở thành vô nghĩa, như Tiên tri Isaia khiển trách những người ăn chay mà chỉ biết tranh giành ảnh ưởng, cãi nhau và chưởi bới nhau vì mối lợi riêng tư.. Hơn nữa, việc ăn chay phải được thực hiện trong một ý thức với giá trị cao hơn trong tâm hồn chúng ta.

            Mỗi Mùa Chay, chúng ta được mời gọi để tẩy sạch tâm hồn và bản thân để sống lại như là một người Kitô hữu tốt hơn trong Chúa Nhật Phục Sinh. Vì vậy, chúng ta nên phải chọn lựa sự ăn chay của chúng ta như thế nao trong Mùa Chay Thánh này?

            Lạy Chúa, xin vì việc ăn chay, hãm mình và những việc làm bác ái từ tâm sẽ mở rộng tâm hồn của chúng con để chúng con biết đón nhận được quyền năng và ơn chữa lành trong tình yêu của Chúa . Lạy Chúa, chúng con biết rằng những tội lỗi và sự những thiếu xót của  chúng con luôn luôn đi trước chúng con, Vì vậy,  Lạy Chúa xin Chúa chấp nhận trái tim tan vỡ và lòng khiêm tốn của chúng con và ban cho chúng con đươc ơn tha thứ.

 

Friday after Ash Wednesday

“This, rather, is the fasting that I wish,” (Is. 58:6).

            Fasting is a very valuable and fruitful practice of spiritual life. It is through fasting that we master our desires and overcome our vices. It is fasting that also helps us to empty our hearts from earthly “rubbish” and pride in order to be totally open to God’s voice. However, anyone who has ever fasted even for a short time, knows how difficult this practice is. Many times temptations attack us more often when we fast. Fasting also shows us more clearly the whole truth about our weaknesses. It is a real spiritual battle against evil that is in us and around us.

            In today’s reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah God warns us against another danger of fasting. What is this danger? Fasting always brings harm to our spiritual life when we carry out our own pursuits that means when we see it as a way of self-perfection or self-justification.  The best way to avoid this danger is the way of charity. Fasting will bring wonderful spiritual fruit when I turn away from myself in order to do the work of mercy — releasing those bound unjustly, setting free the oppressed and not turning my back on my own. Lord, may fasting and acts of charity open my heart to the healing power of Your love. O Lord, I know my offense; my sin is always before me. Accept, O Lord my broken and humble heart and grant me Your forgiveness.

 

Friday after Ash Wednesday

“The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”  Matthew 9:15

Our appetites and fleshly desires can easily cloud our thinking and keep us from desiring only God and His holy will. Therefore, in order to curb one’s disordered appetites, it is useful to mortify them by acts of self-denial, such as fasting. But during Jesus’ public ministry, when He was daily with His disciples, it appears that self-denial was unnecessary for His disciples. One can only speculate that this was because Jesus was so intimately present to them every day that His divine presence sufficed to curb any and every disordered affection.

But the day did come when Jesus was taken away from them—first by His death, and then shortly after by His Ascension into Heaven. After the Ascension and Pentecost, Jesus’ relationship with His disciples changed. It was no longer a tangible and physical presence. It was no longer a daily dose of authoritative teaching and inspiring miracles that they saw. Instead, their relationship with our Lord began to take on a new dimension of conformity to Jesus’ Passion. The disciples were now being called to imitate our Lord by turning their eyes of faith to Him interiorly, and exteriorly acting as His instrument of sacrificial love. And for that reason, the disciples needed their passions and fleshly appetites under control. Hence, after Jesus’ Ascension and with the beginning of the disciples’ public ministry, they greatly benefitted from fasting and all other forms of mortification.

Each one of us is called to be not only a follower of Christ (a disciple) but also an instrument of Christ (an apostle). And if we are to fulfill these roles well, our disordered fleshly appetites cannot get in the way. We need to allow the Spirit of God to consume us and lead us in all that we do. Fasting and all other forms of mortification help us to stay focused upon the Spirit rather than upon our weaknesses and fleshly temptations.

Reflect, today, upon the importance of fasting and mortification of the flesh. These penitential acts are not usually desirable at first. But that’s the key. By doing that which our flesh does not “desire,” we strengthen our spirit to take greater control, which enables our Lord to use us and direct our actions more effectively. Commit yourself to this holy practice and you will be amazed at how transforming it will be.

My dear Lord, I thank You for choosing to use me as Your instrument. I thank You that I may be sent by You to share Your love with the world. Give me the grace to conform myself more fully to You by mortifying my disordered appetites and desires so that You and You alone can take complete control of my life. May I be open to the gift of fasting and may this penitential act help to transform my life. Jesus, I trust in You.

 

Friday after Ash Wednesday 2025

Opening Prayer: Lord God, I recognize that I have sinful tendencies. I recognize my weakness and inability to overcome them. With you, all things are possible. I trust in you and am confident in the help of your grace.

Encountering the Word of God

1. Fasting in the Old Testament: The story of the fall of Adam and Eve can be read as a failure to fast and refrain from eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve committed the first and original sin by failing to control their desire to eat (see Pitre, Introduction to the Spiritual Life, 72). Due to the sin of our first parents, all human beings are born into this fallen world with a disordered craving for the pleasure of food. “Seen in this light, the biblical practice of fasting is firstly about reversing the effects of the Fall by training the desires of the body to obey the will of the soul. If a person can learn to control cravings for good things, like food, he or she will more likely be able to control cravings for evil things, like sin” (Pitre, Introduction to the Spiritual Life, 72). Fasting was seen as a way to prepare to encounter the Lord God. Both Moses and Elijah fasted for forty days and forty nights before entering into God’s presence (see Exodus 34:28-29; 1 Kings 19:8-12). Fasting was also an outward sign of inward repentance (Joel 2:12-16). On the Day of Atonement, the people of Israel would abstain from food and drink (Leviticus 16:29). “In sum, the biblical practice of fasting is all about

2. Fasting in Jesus’ Day: Although the Law of Moses only mandated fasting once a year on the Day of Atonement, the Pharisees practiced fasting twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays (see Luke 18:12; Didache, 8,1). All three synoptic Gospels record Jesus’ response to the question about why his disciples do not fast (Matthew 9:14-15; Mark 2:18-22; Luke 5:33-39). Jesus uses the question to reveal that he is the divine Bridegroom sent to save his bride and give her the wine of salvation. Jesus also reveals that the day will come when his disciples will fast. There is a deep mystery here. Jesus, our bridegroom, is both with us and “taken away” from us. He is with us in the Eucharist and in the depths of our souls through grace. He is taken away because he died on the Cross for us and ascended to heaven to reign at the right hand of the Father. And so, our Christian life is marked by feasting and fasting. This means that there is a time for rejoicing and feasting and also a time for penance and fasting.

3. Fasting in the Age of the Church: An early first-century Christian writing, called The Didache, exhorts Christians not to fast on Mondays and Thursdays like the hypocrites (the Pharisees) but on Wednesdays and Fridays. In the second century, Christians were known to fast for forty hours, from the afternoon of Good Friday to the morning of Easter Sunday, to commemorate the Lord’s Passion and time in the tomb. The liturgical season of Lent, as a time of fasting for forty days, later developed and was standardized by the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325. This practice recalls Jesus’ forty-day fast in the desert and battle against the devil’s temptations. In the twenty-first century, we are obligated to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, but can also voluntarily fast throughout the year and during Lent. We can fast not just from food but also from many other good things to strengthen our will and our resolve to resist temptation.

 

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you fasted forty days and forty nights to give us the supreme example of self-denial. When tempted to turn stones into bread to satisfy your hunger, you resisted. When tempted with the wealth of the earthly kingdoms, you resisted. When tempted to make a display to earn the admiration of the crowds, you resisted. Help me in my battles against the unquenchable desire for pleasure, the insatiable hunger for luxury, and the insistent craving for renown. 

 

Friday after Ash Wednesday

Opening Prayer: Lord, we are at the beginning of Lent, and I already doubt my ability to keep a Lenten fast. Help me, Lord, to grow in all the virtues, but most especially during Lent to grow in the virtues of temperance, fortitude, and perseverance. 

Encountering Christ:

Fasting Much: The question that John the Baptist’s disciples asked Jesus was like the one asked of God in the first reading from the prophet Isaiah, “Why do we fast, and you do not see it? Afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?” Why is fasting such an affliction? Why do we think it merits special attention from God? By fasting from our selfish attachments, we wage a tough battle against formidable forces: the three enemies of the soul: the world, the flesh, and the devil. It is reasonable to want assurance from God we are gaining spiritual graces! The Catechism tells us that fasting “ensures the times of ascesis and penance which prepare us for the liturgical feasts and help us acquire mastery over our instincts and freedom of heart” (CCC 2043). According to St. Josemaría Escrivá, “Fasting allows the soul to fly.”

1.      The bridegroom: “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?” seems like a strange response to the question asked, but Jesus was speaking particularly to the disciples of John the Baptist. Jesus’ disciples, whom he referred to here as the wedding guests, enjoyed an intimate personal relationship with him. Jesus was taking this opportunity to proclaim to John the Baptist’s disciples that he is the bridegroom, the Messiah they have been anticipating. Jesus’ response was their answer: his disciples did not fast because they found the goal of fasting—God.

2.      Then They Will Fast: When Jesus Christ, the Word of God, spoke, every word was rich in meaning. By saying, “The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast,” Jesus was both preparing his followers for his death and declaring that fasting was to remain as a practice for the faithful. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). Our fasting is not only a personal and singular fight against temptation; Jesus fights in us for us, and we join Jesus in his saving mission for the world. In fasting, the Church as the bride of Christ joins her bridegroom in conquering evil and rescuing souls, including our own!

Conversing with Christ: Lord, you know all the things I choose in preference to you. I want to be your disciple. I want to join in your plan of salvation for the world. What do you want me to fast from so I can become more like you? In, with, and through you, I want to help feed the hungry, give sight to the blind, set captives free, and spread the Gospel.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will choose at least one thing (food, social media, television, alcohol, etc.) that I am very attached to and give it up for the rest of Lent. If I fail, I will try again.

 

REFLECTION 2017 Friday after Ash Wednesday

     Both readings today for the Friday after Ash Wednesday at the beginning of Lent speak of fasting. On Ash Wednesday the Gospel reading reminded us of three traditional practices for Lent: fasting, prayer and almsgiving.

     In the first reading from the prophet Isaiah the Lord castigates the people of Israel for their wickedness and unfaithfulness to their covenant with God. They were a sinful people. Though they fasted, they remained unjust to others and quarreled with others.

     The Lord reminds them of the fast acceptable before God: "breaking the fetters of injustice and unfastening the thongs of the yoke, setting the oppressed free and breaking every yoke. Fast by sharing your food with the hungry, bring to your house the homeless, clothe the man you see naked and do not turn away from your own kin." In the Lord's eyes, "fasting" was not only eating less but also doing good and even suffering for the sake of others.

     In the Gospel reading Jesus explains to the disciples of John why his disciples do not fast as often as John's: "How can you expect wedding guests to mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? Time will come when the bridgefroom will be taken away from them, then they will fast."

     Indeed, true disciples of Jesus, following the Twelve, all of whom except for the beloved disciple John gave their lives in witness to Christ and his Gospel, should be ready to fast and to give of themselves, even their lives, in their own witness to and service of the Lord.

     Let us pray for the grace of strong faith in the Lord and perseverance in living out his faith.

 

Friday after Ash Wednesday

Friends, in today’s Gospel, disciples of John the Baptist wonder why Jesus and his disciples do not fast as John and his disciples do. It is true that, by comparison, Jesus had a freer, more worldly, less obviously “religious” style. He didn’t sequester himself like the Essenes; he didn’t insist on ritual and legal purity like the Pharisees; and, it seems, he didn’t fast and live a life of austerity like John and his followers.

 And so they ask why he doesn’t encourage fasting among his followers. Jesus’ answer is wonderful: “How can the guests at a wedding fast while the groom is still with them?” Could you imagine people fasting at a wedding banquet? Could you imagine going into an elegant room with your fellow guests and being served bread and water? It would be ridiculous! This great image of the wedding feast comes up frequently in the New Testament, most obviously in the wedding feast at Cana narrative.

 That’s because Jesus is, in himself, the wedding of heaven and earth, the marriage of divinity and humanity; he is the bridegroom and the Church is the bride. In him, the most intimate union is achieved between God and the world

 

Suy Niêm Thứ Sáu sau Thứ Tư Lễ Tro (Is. 58:6, Matthew 9:14-15 ).

"Đây , cách ăn chay mà ta ưa thích, " ( Is. 58:6 ) .

Trên thực tế sự chay tịnh là một việc làm rất có giá trị và hiệu quả của đời sống tinh thần. Việc chay tịnh giúp chúng ta làm chủ được những sự ham muốn của chúng ta và khắc phục những tật xấu nơi chúng ta. Việc ăn chay còn giúp chúng ta đổ bỏ đi (empty) tất cả những rắc rưới trần thế như niềm tự hào, lòng ích kỷ trong tâm hồn của chúng ta để chúng ta có thể mở rộng tâm của chúng ta để đón nhận lời của Thiên Chúa. Tuy nhiên, những ai đã từng ăn chay thậm chí  chỉ trong một thời gian ngắn, đều biết rằng việc ăn chay không phải là việc dễ làm bởi vì đó là cơ hội cho ma quỷ cám dỗ, và tấn công vào những sự yếu kém của chúng ta thường xuyên hơn. Việc ăn chay cũng giúp cho chúng ta thấy rõ hơn về những yếu điểm của chúng ta. Đó thực sự là một cuộc chiến tranh tinh thần chống lại những cái ác ở trong tâm hồn của chúng ta và xung quanh chúng ta .

            Trong bài đọc Thứ Nhất hôm nay,  Tiên Tri Isaia cho chúng ta biết là:Thiên Chúa cảnh báo chúng ta để chống lại mối nguy hiểm trong việc ăn chay. Sự nguy hiểm đó là gì?  Ăn chay có thể là một mối nguy hiểm và thiệt hại cho đời sống tinh thần của chúng ta, nếu như chúng ta ăn chay với các mục đích riêng ta,  có nghĩa là chúng ta xem việc ăn chay này như là một cách để tự hoàn thiện, tự khoe khoang hay tự biện hộ chính mình. Cách tốt nhất để tránh sự nguy hiểm này là cách làm việc giúp nguời với tấm lòng từ tâm bằng tất cà những khả năng mình sẵn có. Việc Ăn chay sẽ mang lại cho chúng ta những hoa quả tinh thần tuyệt vời khi chúng ta biết quay lưng lại với chính bản thân mình để làm những việc bác ái, xã hội với lòng biết thương xót đến người khác. .

            Khi nào chúng ta ăn chay, chúng ta phải làm điều đó với tinh thần tự nguyện và trong niềm vui, nếu không thì việc ăn chay sẽ trở thành vô nghĩa, như Tiên tri Isaia khiển trách những người ăn chay mà chỉ biết tranh giành ảnh ưởng, cãi nhau và chưởi bới nhau vì mối lợi riêng tư.. Hơn nữa, việc ăn chay phải được thực hiện trong một ý thức với giá trị cao hơn trong tâm hồn chúng ta.

            Mỗi Mùa Chay, chúng ta được mời gọi để tẩy sạch bản thân và được trổi lên (sống lại) như là một người Kitô hữu tốt hơn trong Chúa Nhật Phục Sinh. Vì vậy, chúng ta chọn lựa sự ăn chay của chúng ta như thế nao trong Mùa Chay Thánh này?

            Lạy Chúa, xin vì việc ăn chay, hãm mình và những việc làm bác ái từ tâm sẽ mở rộng tâm hồn của chúng con để chúng con biết đón nhận được quyền năng và ơn chữa lành trong tình yêu của Chúa . Lạy Chúa, chúng con biết rằng những tội lỗi và sự những thiếu xót của  chúng con luôn luôn đi trước chúng con, Vì vậy,  Lạy Chúa xin Chúa chấp nhận trái tim tan vỡ và lòng khiêm tốn của chúng con và ban cho chúng con đươc ơn tha thứ.

 

Friday after Ash Wednesday

“This, rather, is the fasting that I wish,” (Is. 58:6).

            Fasting is a very valuable and fruitful practice of spiritual life. It is through fasting that we master our desires and overcome our vices. It is fasting that also helps us to empty our hearts from earthly “rubbish” and pride in order to be totally open to God’s voice. However, anyone who has ever fasted even for a short time, knows how difficult this practice is. Many times temptations attack us more often when we fast. Fasting also shows us more clearly the whole truth about our weaknesses. It is a real spiritual battle against evil that is in us and around us.

            In today’s reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah God warns us against another danger of fasting. What is this danger? Fasting always brings harm to our spiritual life when we carry out our own pursuits that means when we see it as a way of self-perfection or self-justification.  The best way to avoid this danger is the way of charity. Fasting will bring wonderful spiritual fruit when I turn away from myself in order to do the work of mercy — releasing those bound unjustly, setting free the oppressed and not turning my back on my own. Lord, may fasting and acts of charity open my heart to the healing power of Your love. O Lord, I know my offense; my sin is always before me. Accept, O Lord my broken and humble heart and grant me Your forgiveness.