Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Ba Tuần Thánh

Suy Niệm Tin Mừng  Thứ Ba Tuần Thánh
Đoạn Tin Mừng hôm nay đã cho chúng ta thấy hai nhân cách nổi bật và mỗi nhân cách có những đặc tính trái ngược nhau. 
4-  Giuđa cố tình phản bội Thầy của mình,  trong khi đó Phêrô, trong một những khoảnh khắc yếu đuối, sợ sệt đã chối Thầy mình là Chúa Giêsu bằng những lời thề nguyền.
 - Hành động của Giuđa có vẻ lạnh lùng và có tính toán. Còn Phêrô, tuy không cố tình chối Chúa những vì bản tính yếu đuối nhút nhát, có thể là trong sự yếu hèn và  sợ sệt. Chúa Giêsu hiểu rất rõ ông Phêrô và biết lòng trung thành một mực của ông cũng như những thiếu xót và yếu đuối của ông. Ông Phêrô có một thói quen trực tính là hay nói tất cả những gì ông ta suy nghĩ từ sự mộc mặc và chất phát trong tâm hồn của ông, ông không hề suy nghĩ hay tính toàn sự hơn thua..
- Sự Phản bội của Giuđa, tuy nhiên, được nhìn thấy một cách tồi bại nhất khi Chúa Giêsu biểu lộ tình cảm đặc biệt với ông ta ngay trong bữa tiệc ly.
Trong bài Tin Mừng Thánh Gioan cho chúng ta thấy rằng Satan đã nhập vào con người Giuđa khi anh ta từ bỏ Chúa Giêsu để theo đuổi con đường tham lam và bạo ác của mình. Satan xoay chiều và có thể biến sự yêu thương thành thù hận. Nó có thể biến sự thánh thiện thành niềm tự cao,ngạo mạn, biền sự  hiền diệu,  có kỷ luật thành con người tàn ác, gian manh, biến tình cảm vào sự tự mãn. Chúng ta cần phải đề cao, cảnh giác tâm hồn của chúng ta vì sợ rằng Satan sẽ đem chúng ta ra khỏi tình yêu của Thiên Chúa và con đường mà Thiên Chúa đã chọn cho chúng ta. Chúa Thánh Thần sẽ ban cho chúng ta những ân sủng, sức mạnh và hướng dẫn chúng ta trong thời gian thử thách. Nếu chúng ta  môn đệ của Chúa, chúng ta phải bước đi trong ánh sáng của chân lý, sự thật và trong  tình yêu của Ngài. Nếu chúng ta quay lưng lại Ngài,  chúng ta sẽ vấp ngã và rơi vào con đường  tội lỗi và bóng tối.  Chúng ta đã sẵn sàng để đi theo Chúa Giêsu trên đường đến thập giá?
 
REFLECTION Gospel Reading: John 13:21-38
The Gospel passage highlights two personalities, each with contrasting traits.  - Judas deliberately betrayed his Master while Peter, in a moment of weakness, denied him with an oath and a curse. - Judas' act was cold and calculated. Peter, however, never meant to do what he did. He acted impulsively, out of weakness and cowardice.
Jesus knew both the strength of Peter's loyalty and the weakness of his resolution. He had a habit of speaking with his heart without thinking through the implications of what he was saying.
- The treachery of Judas, however, is seen at its worst when Jesus makes his appeal by showing special affection to him at his last supper.         John says that Satan entered into Judas when he rejected Jesus and left to pursue his evil course. Satan can twist love and turn it into hate. He can turn holiness into pride, discipline into cruelty, and affection into complacency.
We must be on our guard lest Satan turn us from the love of God and the path which God has chosen for us. The Holy Spirit will give us grace and strength in our time of testing.  If we submit to Jesus we will walk in the light of his truth and love. If we turn our backs on him we will stumble and fall in the ways of sin and darkness.
Are we ready to follow Jesus in his way of the cross?
 
Tuesday of Holy week:
“Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify him at once.”  John 13:31–32
Jesus speaks this line about Himself being glorified immediately after Judas leaves the supper to go forth to betray Him. Jesus had just finished washing the feet of His disciples, and soon He would finish the Last Supper, go to the Garden of Gethsemane, be arrested, beaten and crucified. And this was to all take place through the betrayal of one of the Twelve. Yet rather than speak of these pending events in a fearful or anxious way, Jesus points to the glory He will receive through them.
Everything in life has the potential to become an instrument of the glory of God. Even our sin can end in God’s glory when we repent and receive God’s forgiveness. It will not be our sin that glorifies God but His mercy poured forth from the Cross upon us that gives Him glory.
The same is true with the events of Holy Week. When looked at from a purely human perspective, what Jesus endured was tragic and horrific. One of His closest companions betrayed Him. The religious leaders of the time betrayed Him. The civil authorities betrayed Him. And all of the disciples except John fled in fear as Jesus was betrayed. But Jesus did not look at any of this through human eyes alone. He saw it all from the eternal perspective and clearly taught that all of these seemingly tragic events would end in His glory.
When we commit ourselves to the following of Christ, we can be assured that we will also share in His Cross. We will experience the sins of others, encounter mistreatment, and have to endure various sufferings. The question for us all as we have these encounters in life is whether we will endure them in anger and despair or with the hopeful confidence of our Lord. Again, everything in life has the potential to become an instrument of the glory of God. Nothing in life has the power to steal away that glory when we keep our eyes upon the will of God and His power to use all for His glory.
Reflect, today, upon your call in life to see everything from the divine perspective. If you are upset, angry, despairing or confused at times, know that God wants to bring clarity and grace to every situation. He wants to show you how you can share in His divine mission of transforming every evil into God’s glory. Seek out the ways that your life must give glory to God in everything, especially those things that seem incapable of being used for good. The more an experience in life seems incapable of being used for God’s glory, the more that experience is capable of giving true glory to God.
My glorious Lord, You brought forth good from all things. Even the grave evil of Your betrayal was transformed into a manifestation of Your glory. I offer to You, dear Lord, all that I endure in life and pray that You will be glorified in all things, and that my life will continually become a manifestation of the glory due Your holy name. Jesus, I trust in You.
 
Tuesday of Holy week 2025
Opening Prayer: Lord God, I earnestly desire to follow your Son. Like Peter, I am willing to lay down my life for Jesus. I want to love you with all my heart and soul and give myself in service to my brothers and sisters.
Encountering the Word of God
1. The Betrayal: The account of the Last Supper in John’s Gospel gives us an intimate look at the conversations that took place that night. We can see Peter nodding to John to prod him to ask Jesus a question about the betrayer, and John learning who would betray Jesus but keeping the knowledge to himself for a time. The betrayal was prophesied in Psalm 41:10: “Even my trusted friend, who ate my bread, has raised his heel against me.” “Jesus quotes this verse in John 13:18 with reference to Judas Iscariot, who betrayed and turned against him after receiving the Eucharist at the Last Supper (John 13:21-30)” (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, 865). Psalm 41 contemplates the death of King David. It indicates that David’s enemies eagerly anticipate his eventual death: “When will he die, and his name be forgotten?” (Psalm 41:6); ‘He has had ruin poured over him; that one lying down will never rise again” (Psalm 41:9). David ends the psalm asking the Lord to raise him up: “But you, Lord, take note of me to raise me up that I may repay them. By this, I will know you are pleased with me, that my enemy no longer shouts in triumph over me. In my integrity may you support me and let me stand in your presence forever” (Psalm 41:11-13) (see Barber, Singing in the Reign, 92). By quoting the psalm, Jesus shows that he is fully aware of the betrayal by his friend Judas, of his imminent suffering and death on the cross, and of how his Father will raise him up on the third day.
2. The Darkness of Satan and the Glorious Light of Jesus: In the opening lines of his Gospel, John contrasted the glorious light of God with the pervasive darkness of sin (John 1:4-5). At the Last Supper, John brings out this contrast between light and darkness by indicating when Satan entered into Judas, “it was night.” After sending Judas on his way, Jesus speaks to his other disciples about his glory and the glory of God. In the Bible, glory often refers to the sensible manifestation and revelation of the presence of the Lord. Jesus uses the title “Son of Man,” which “designates Jesus as the one who came down from heaven to reveal the Father (3:12-13) and is lifted up on the cross for the world’s salvation (3:14-15; 8:28; 12:32-34). The cross is the moment of glorification because in the cross God is definitively revealed as self-giving love (1 John 4:8-10). The Father loves the Son and gives him for the world’s salvation (John 3:16-17), and the Son in turn makes of his life a perfect gift of love and obedience to the Father (10:17-18). Since the love between the Father and the Son is revealed on the cross, God is glorified in Jesus’ loving obedience, and the Father will further glorify Jesus, reveal Jesus’ deity, in his resurrected, glorified humanity (8:28; 20:28)” (Martin and Wright, The Gospel of John, 241).
3. The Denial: Jesus announced not only Judas’ betrayal but also Peter’s denial at the Last Supper. While Judas left boldly to go betray Jesus and reveal where Jesus would be that night to the chief priests, Peter was bold in promising to stay by Jesus’ side and to lay down his life for Jesus. When Judas realized what he had done, he gave back the money, but ultimately despaired and did not seek out forgiveness. When Peter realized what he did when he denied Jesus three times, he went out and wept bitterly. Although he denied Jesus three times, he also reaffirmed his love for Jesus three times. And, in the end, his resolve to die for Jesus came to fruition. He himself would be crucified some thirty years after Jesus in Rome for his faith.
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, just as you were commissioned by your Father to bring salvation and justice to the earth, so also I am commissioned and sent. My mission is a share in your mission. Help me today to be guided by your Spirit in fulfilling your Father’s will.
 
Tuesday of Holy week:
Opening Prayer: Lord, I want to know you and follow you wherever you lead me. I thank you for your word that provides direction, and for your invitation to pray with the rest of your Church. Let your Holy Spirit help me better understand your word and more intimately meet you in this time of prayer.
Encountering Christ:
The Great Chasm: With penetrating clarity, Christ taught the stubborn Pharisees that remaining “of this world,” refusing to believe in the Christ or the Father who sent him, carries a death sentence. This delineation of two worlds, infinitely separated upon one’s death, was further clarified by Jesus in the parable of the doomed rich man, who should have been kinder to the beggar, Lazarus: “Between us and you a great chasm is established” (Luke 16:26). The only way to have life is to believe in Jesus. Lord, may we have the grace to believe always in your name, trusting your word: “...as many as received him–to those who believe in his name–he gave to them authority to become children of God” (John 1:12). 
The Act of Faith: What would it take for these Pharisees whom Jesus encountered, whose fate was not yet sealed on the wrong side of the chasm, to find eternal life? Jesus plainly articulated the first step: an act of faith. Those who looked upon him when he was raised up on a cross would need to accept that this, indeed, was the Christ, the only one who could claim to be the great “I AM” from the Torah story of the burning bush (Exodus 3:14). Those of us with the benefit of sacred Scripture, sacred tradition, and the teaching authority of the church, must not be misled; we, too, must look to the cross and proclaim Christ, as “salvation is found in no one else.” (Acts 4:12)
Giving, Not Taking: How ironic that the Pharisees jumped to the strange conclusion that Jesus might be taking his own life. Only one thing might have surprised them more—if Jesus was contemplating giving his own life. Indeed, the King of Kings would ultimately give over his life. Following in his footsteps are others who history tells us literally laid down their lives, such as well-known martyrs St. Stephen, St. Maximillian Kolbe, and St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein). Today, our priests and consecrated souls are counter-cultural people who themselves generously give over their own lives for the sake of the Church. Let us pray for more laborers in the vineyard. 
Conversing with Christ: I thank you, Lord, for your invitation to enter into prayer. You have the words of everlasting life, and you continually remind me of your willingness to meet me, whether it is in my sorrow, my doubts, my insecurity, or even in my joy. I look at you on the cross today and I recall the horrific day when my sins placed you on that hill at Golgotha. I also recall your words to the good thief, who looked to you with faith in your Kingship: “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).
Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will pray the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary for friends or relatives who do not know Christ, and for more vocations to the priesthood and religious life.
 
Tuesday, 16th April 2019
Is. 49:1-6; Ps. 71(70):1-2,3-4,5-6,15,17; Jn. 13:21-33,36-38 (Ps Wk II)
Today we are with Jesus, in his last moments with his disciples, the men he had carefully chosen as his friends, to journey with him, learn from him.
He is troubled! This is His last meal before his death, but his friends aren’t aware of the impending moments when this peaceful scene of the last supper would disappear and the worst tragedy of the betrayal, crucifixion and death, would scatter all of them from each other! But even at this moment Jesus hints at what is going to happen to two of his friends: one who would betray him and the other who would deny him, entirely! This is a poignant moment for Jesus; as He is the only one aware of the circumstances. The disciples are not aware of their own weakness. For they are high enjoying the Passover festivities at the supper. We who are in Holy Week are but going through the rituals of prayer and fasting… how aware are we of another’s loneliness and agony? We forget the Incarnation is taking place right now, when Christ is betrayed and crucified daily. Let us be in touch with them during this time.
Lord, touch my heart and make me human as You were!
 
Suy Niêm
Chúa Giêsu đang bối rồi đau buồn trong cảnh chia ly sắp tới. Tôi đã làm gì để Chúa phải chịu những khổ đau bối rố? Tôi nhận được miếng bánh nhỏ từ nơi Chúa và tôi chạy trốn vào giữa bóng đêm tối. Và đây, là bóng đêm. Bóng đêm này không phải là bóng đêm của sự hiệp nhất. Đó là bóng đêm tối của tội lỗi, của sự tách biệt có cố tình từ sự sống của Chúa Kitô. Hình ảnh của buổi chiều truyền tải bí mật và sự hiện hữu của sự yêu dấu an bài vượt quá sự hiểu biết. Đêm khác mô tả các điều kiện của tội lỗi, trốn khỏi sự hiện diện, đang chạy trốn khỏi sự hiện diện, với những chế độ nô lệ của sự không vâng lời, nó là đêm rằng đó hoàn toàn là tiêu cực mà đến từ tách lìa khỏi Chúa. Lạy Chúa, lòng thương xót của bạn cho tôi luôn tuân thủ trong đêm may mắn của công đoàn của Thiên Chúa mà các vấn đề ra thành ánh sáng vĩnh viễn.
 
Reflection:
Jesus is troubled in spirit. How have I caused the Lord trouble? I receive my morsel and then flee into the shadows. And behold, it is night. It is not the night of union. It is the night of sin, of deliberate separation from the life of Christ. The figure of night conveys the secret and presence of resting in the Beloved beyond knowing. The other night describes the condition of sin, of hiding from the presence, of fleeing from the presence, of embracing the slavery of disobedience; it is the night that that is pure negativity that comes from separation from God. Lord, in your mercy let me always abide in the blessed night of divine union those issues forth into perpetual light.