Suy Niệm Thứ Tư tuần thứ Ba Phục Sinh

Suy Niệm Thứ Tư tuần thứ Ba Phục Sinh
Qua bài đọc trong sách Công Vụ Tông đồ hôm nay cho chúng ta thấy sự lan truyền Tin Mừng, bắt đầu từ Jerusalem đến Roma và cả trái đất. Và chúng ta cũng thấy rằng với sự đàn áp và bạo hành đã được người Do thái áp dụng để ngăn cấm việc truyền bá Phúc Âm công khai chứ không phải là sự ngăn cấm thầm kín nữa. Và kết quả cuộc bức hại của Saulô (Thánh Phaolô), các Kitô hữu đầu tiên ở Jerusalem đã bị phân tán khắp nơi trong các khu vực của người Palestine, họ mang theo Đức Tin và sức mạnh Tin Mừng để cùng chia sẻ Tin Mừng cứu rỗi của Chúa Kitô với mọi người trong những thị trấn mà họ lẩn trốn tạm dung.
            Thánh thần của Thiên Chúa đã làm việc qua các Tông Đồ, và những người tin theo các ngài. Thánh thần đã xuất hiện ngay cả những khi những kẻ thù của Tin Mừng có thể cho rằng họ đã thành công trong việc tàn phá Giáo Hội. Hôm nay chúng ta cũng phải tin tưởng rằng Thánh Thần là sức mạnh, mạnh hơn cả bất cứ một lực lượng nào của trần thế. Như chúng ta thấy, ngày nay Tin Mừng đã được lan rộng khắp nơi trên thế giới, ngay cả ở những quốc gia mà Giáo Hội vẫn tiếp tục bị bách hại.
            Trong Tin Mừng, Chúa Giêsu đã tỏ mình cho mọi nguời biết Ngài là "Bánh hằng Sống". Việc hoá bánh ra nhiểu để nuôi 5.000 người là trọng tâm của tất cả bốn sách Tin Mừng, và đặc biệt nhất là Tin Mừng thánh Gioan đã nhấn mạnh ý nghĩa của nó, cả hai dấu chỉ như là một dấu hiệu cho thấy Đấng Cứu Thế đã đến ở giữa chúng ta, và cũng là một dấu hiệu để tiết lộ bản chất con người thật sự của Chúa Giêsu. Đây là lần đầu tiên thánh Gioan đã dùng các từ ngữ của ngôi thứ nhất (“Tôi”)  để diễn đạt những lời  của Chúa Giêsu phán trong Tin Mừng. Như bài đọc hôm nay Chúa Giêsu đã xác định: “Chính tôi là bánh trường sinh. Ai đến với tôi không hề phải đói, ai tin vào tôi, chẳng khát bao giờ?” (Jn 6:35). Chúa Giêsu đã đến để đem lại sự sống đời đời cho những ai tin vào Ngài. Lạy Chúa, xin củng cố đức tin của chúng con, để chúng con luôn biết đặt niềm Tin của chúng con vào Chúa Giêsu để chúng con có thể được chia sẻ trong sự phục sinh với Chúa..
 
Reflection Wednesday in 3rd week of Easter
The Acts of the Apostles relates for us the spread of the Good News, from Jerusalem to Rome and the whole earth. Today we see that even persecution has the effect of spreading the Gospel rather than suppressing it. As a result of Paul’s persecution, the early Christians of Jerusalem were dispersed throughout the Palestinian region and carried with them the Gospel and its liberating power, which they share
God’s spirit is at work, even when appearances might suggest that the enemies of the Gospel were “laying waste to the Church.” Today we must also trust that the Spirit is stronger than any force that would try to crush it. We see today the spread of the Gospel, even in countries where the Church continues to be persecuted.
In the gospel reading, Jesus reveals himself as the “Bread of Life”. The feeding of the 5,000 is central to all four of the Gospels, and John’s gospel lays particular emphasis on its significance, both as a sign that the Messianic Age has arrived in our midst, and also as a sign revealing who Jesus really is. For the first time John places in the mouth of Jesus the grammatical formula “I am + (predicate)” — a formula which he will use continuously through the rest of his Gospel to reveal the various dimensions of Jesus identity. Today Jesus identifies Himself as that bread “which has come down from heaven,” to give eternal life to those who believe in him. Lord, deepen our faith in Jesus that we might share in His resurrection.
 
Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter
“For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.” John 6:40
Do you believe in Jesus? Unquestionably the answer is “Yes.” However, to believe in our Lord is something that must deepen with every passing day. Therefore, if you do have faith in Jesus, you can also admit that you do not have faith enough. In this Gospel passage in which the “Bread of Life Discourse” is continued, Jesus calls us to do two things. First, we must see Him. Second, we must believe. Let’s start with the first.
When Jesus first spoke these words to the crowd, they did see His physical presence. But many of them did not see beyond the surface. They saw His miracles, heard His teaching, but very few saw the deeper reality of Jesus as the Son of the Eternal Father and the Savior of the World.        
If you are to believe in our Lord and all that He is, then you must first see Him. One of the best ways to foster this “holy sight” of our Lord is to gaze at Him in the Most Holy Eucharist. When you attend Mass or spend time in adoration and  look upon the Most Holy Eucharist, what do you see? Do you see the Eternal Son? Do you see His holy divinity? Do you see your God and the Lord of all?
As we stand or kneel before our Lord, present in the Most Holy Eucharist, it’s easy to become distracted. It’s easy to allow our minds to wander to the many other aspects of our daily lives and to fail to see the eternal Son of God as He is present to us.
Reflect, today, upon the way you look at our Lord. If you want to deepen your faith, your belief, then start with your sight. Start by considering how you look at Jesus, present in the Most Holy Eucharist. If you are blessed to be with Him this day at the Holy Mass or in adoration, examine the way to see Him. Gaze at Him. Make an intentional act of faith in His divine presence. Acknowledge His Godhead, His glory, His holiness and His sacred presence. If you can look beyond the surface and lift the veil that covers His glory, then this holy gift of sight will give way, also, to the gift of profound faith.
My ever-present Lord, I thank You profoundly for the way You come to me in the Most Holy Eucharist. I thank You for Your divine presence and glory. Help me to see beyond the veil of the appearance of bread and wine so that I can see more clearly Your divinity. As I see Your divine presence, dear Lord, help me to profess my belief in You with greater certitude and faith. Jesus, I trust in You.
 
Wednesday after 3^rd Sunday of Easter 2025
Opening Prayer: Lord God, I have seen your wondrous deeds and praise you for all of your works. Your work of creation is awesome in its beauty and majesty. Your work of redemption fills me with humble gratitude for the sacrifice of your Son. You work now to sanctify me and bring me to eternal communion with you.
Encountering the Word of God
1. Jesus Satisfies: In the Gospel, Jesus emphasizes how earthly food and drink can only satisfy us for a short time. The bread, the manna, given to Israel only lasted a day or two. But when we share in Jesus – believing in him and entrusting ourselves to him – we will be satisfied eternally. When Jesus initially speaks about coming to him and satisfying our hunger and believing in him and slaking our thirst, he is drawing from the Old Testament image of feasting on God’s wisdom and law (see Proverbs 9:5; Sirach 15:1, 3; Isaiah 49:10; 55:2-3). “In this symbolism, to feed on God’s wisdom or Torah means to take it in, to learn from it and allow it to transform one’s life. … As the Bread of Life, Jesus is God’s wisdom, who has come down from heaven and become flesh” (Martin and Wright, The Gospel of John, 124).
2. Work to Obtain this Life-Giving Bread: After revealing himself as the fulfillment of prophecies of Isaiah about not experiencing thirst or hunger in the end-time of salvation, Jesus laments that his hearers do not believe. The need to accomplish the work of God (John 6:29) and heed the will of Jesus’ Father (John 6:40): they need to believe in Jesus to have eternal life. A supernatural act of faith has three key elements. First, it is an assent of our intellect to something we do not see. Second, it is our will that commands our intellect to assent. Third, our will is moved by divine grace. In this way, the act of faith is understood as both a divine gift and a human act of cooperating with God’s grace. As the Catechism teaches: “In faith, the human intellect and will cooperate with divine grace. ‘Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God through grace’ (Thomas Aquinas, II-II, q. 2, a. 9)” (CCC, 155).
3. The Resurrection and the Life: Through faith in Jesus, the seed of eternal life is sown within us. And just as a seed needs to be nourished and protected as it grows and blossoms, so also the seed of our faith needs supernatural nourishment and protection. We do not live by earthly bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God (see Deuteronomy 8:3). Our faith needs to be nourished by consuming the Word of God in prayer, by eating the Bread of Life and drinking the Blood of Jesus in the Eucharist, and by doing merciful works of charity empowered by grace. Only after we die will the seed of eternal life be definitively crowned with glory. We will be raised to life with Jesus and the Father and will await the resurrection of our bodies on the last day. 
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, I believe in you and, like you, will seek to fulfill the will of your Father. Enlighten my mind and heart to know the Father’s will and fill me with your grace and the Holy Spirit to carry out his holy will.
 
Wednesday after 3^rd Sunday of Easter 2024
Opening Prayer: Lord God, I have seen your wondrous deeds and praise you for all of your works. Your work of creation is awesome in its beauty and majesty. Your work of redemption fills me with humble gratitude for the sacrifice of your Son. You work now to sanctify me and bring me to eternal communion with you.
Encountering the Word of God
1. The Father’s Will: In the Gospel of John, two themes parallel some of the themes of the First Reading: fulfilling the will of the Father and coming to faith in Jesus Christ. First, God willed that the Gospel message be proclaimed in the whole world and to all nations. This comes to pass and God is able to bring good out of evil: the persecution of the first Christians begins to scatter them outside of Jerusalem and they become missionaries of the Gospel. Second, the will of the Father is that everyone comes to believe in the Son. The signs that Philip accomplishes and his preaching about Jesus as the Christ are invitations to faith in the one the Father sent. By believing in the Son and partaking of his Body and Blood, we receive eternal life. Death is not the final word because we will be raised with Christ to life on the last day and be welcomed into the promised land of heaven.
2. The Aftermath of Stephen’s Martyrdom: Stephen’s martyrdom was followed by the persecution of the Hellenistic Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. Some of Jesus’ disciples, not the Apostles, had to flee Jerusalem and were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Saul of Tarsus is mentioned as one of the early persecutors who tried to destroy the Church. Saul “was highly effective in this endeavor and sought not only to imprison the disciples but also to put them to death. By his own testimony, his goal was no less than to destroy the Church (cf. Gal. 1:13)” (Pimentel, Witnesses of the Messiah, p. 85). God, however, is able to bring about good from evil and used this persecution to spread the Word of God and expand the Church. This is the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to the Apostles that they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8) (Kurz, Acts of the Apostles, pp. 136-137).
3. The Preaching of Philip the Deacon: While the Apostles remained in Jerusalem during the persecution, one of the seven Hellenist deacons, Philip, was forced to flee and took the word of God to the region of Samaria and proclaimed the Gospel that Jesus is the royal Messiah. Philip worked great signs: he cast out demons and healed the paralyzed and crippled. Signs like these were done by Jesus to bring the people to faith in him as the Messiah. In like manner, his disciples accomplished similar works and sought to bring the people to encounter Jesus. The preaching of the Good News by Philip and the miracles he worked filled the people with great joy. Today’s psalm sings God’s praises on account of his deeds and works. The Psalmist invites all nations to see the great works of God and to worship God and sing praise to his name. The great historical deed mentioned by the Psalmist is the crossing of the Red Sea and the crossing of the Jordan River by the people of Israel. God freed his people from slavery and brought them into the promised land. The great deed proclaimed by the Gospel is Jesus’ victory over death and the slavery of sin. Through our baptism, our spiritual crossing of the Red Sea, we share in Jesus’ victory and are set on the path that leads to heaven.
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, I believe in you and, like you, will seek to fulfill the will of your Father. Enlighten my mind and heart to know the Father’s will and fill me with your grace and the Holy Spirit to carry out his holy will.