Trong các Tin Mừng Chúa Giêsu thường hay khuyến khích chúng ta siêng năng và chịu khó làm việc, và Ngài ca ngợi những kế hoạch khôn ngoan và sắc sảo liên quan đến tương lai của con người. Tuy nhiên, điểm chính của Chúa Giêsu muốn dạy chúng ta trong bài dụ ngôn hôm nay, là "đừng lo lắng." Ngài nhắc tới câu này bốn lần để nhắc nhở chúng ta và muốn chúng ta chắc chắc là không bỏ lỡ cơ hội. Thay vì lo lắng, Ngài muốn chúng ta đặt niềm tin vào Thiên Chúa, Hãy tìm kiếm Nước Trời của Ngài trước hết và đạt niềm tin tưởng vào Ngài nhiều hơn.
Lạy Chúa Giêsu, xin giải phóng chúng con khỏi những sự lo lắng không cần thiết và giúp chúng con biết đặt niềm tin vào Chúa để chúng con có thể biết quan tâm việc đầu tiên và duy nhất của chúng con là vinh danh sự an bình và sự công lý trong Nước Trời của Chúa. Xin giúp chúng con biết sống mỗi à ngày và mỗi thời điểm trong sự tin tưởng và lòng biết ơn đối với sự thương yêu chăm sóc của Chúa đã dành cho chúng con.
In the Gospel reading Jesus teaches us about the necessary "balancing act" in our lives, a very hard, if not among the most difficult, act in our lives. You may want to call it by other names, e.g. my "choices," "my priorities," or "whom shall I serve?" or "what shall I do?"
Jesus does not deny the reality of human needs. Big Mac, anyone? A weekend in Macau or HongKong perhaps? He forbids that they become objects of severe anxiety, making us their slaves.
"Set your heart first on the kingdom and justice of God and all these things will also be given to you. Does not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself?" Plainly stated, focus not on the gift s, but solely on the Giver, and why?, Because the Lord will provide all our needs, especially if we trust in him.
Jesus said to his disciples: “No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Matthew 6:24
Mammon is another word for money. Jesus is clear that you must choose to serve either God or money, but not both. A divided heart does not suffice. Saint John of the Cross, in His spiritual classic “Ascent to Mount Carmel,” explains something similar. He says that our desires must become completely purified to the point that all we desire is God and His holy will. Every other desire in life must be purged away so that we are singularly devoted to God. Does this mean that God and God alone should be the object of all of our love? Yes, indeed. But that truth must be properly understood.
When we consider the calling we have been given from God to love, it is true that we must love not only God but also many other things in life. We must love family, friends, neighbors, and even our enemies. Hopefully we also love other aspects of our lives, such as our vocation, our job, our home, a certain pastime, etc. So how do we love God with singular devotion when we also have many other things we must love?
The answer is quite simple. The love of God is such that when we make God the singular object of our love and devotion, the love we have for God will supernaturally overflow. This is the nature of the love of God. As we love God, we will find that God calls us to love Him by loving other people and even various aspects of our lives. As we love what God wills us to love and as we express our love for all that is contained in the will of God, we are still loving God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength.
But back to our Scripture above. Why is it that we cannot love God and money? “Mammon” in this passage must be understood as a love that becomes an unhealthy attachment and desire. Money is such that we can “love” it by allowing our desires for it to become disordered and, thus, exclude the will of God from that “love.” Money is not evil when it is used solely in accord with the will of God. In that case, the money we use will give God great glory. But when money, or any other object of our desire, begins to take on a life of its own, so to speak, then that desire will be at odds with our love of God. To love God and God alone means we love God and all that He wills us to love in life.
Reflect, today, upon the necessity of being singularly devoted to God. As you commit yourself to this exclusive love, consider also whom and what God calls you to love in and through Him. Where does His perfect will lead you, and how are you called to show your love of God through the love of others? Consider, also, any ways in which you have allowed an unhealthy attachment to money or anything else in life to distract you from the one and ultimate purpose of your life. Allow God to purge those unhealthy desires and false “loves” from your heart so that you will be free to love as you were made to love.
My Lord and God, You are worthy of all of my love. You and You alone must become the single focus of all of my love. As I love You, dear Lord, help me to discover all that Your will directs me to love more and all that Your will calls me to detach from. May I choose only You and that which is contained in Your holy and perfect will. Jesus, I trust in You.
Encountering the Word of God
1. Pleasure and Possessions? In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus hints at the question of the meaning of life. He asks his listeners, “Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” In this way, he eliminates two responses to the question about the meaning of life. In Ecclesiastes, the author pondered whether pleasure could satisfy us (Ecclesiastes 2:1-11) or whether working for possessions was what life was about (Ecclesiastes 2:18-26). Both are judged as vanity. Solomon, in Ecclesiastes, finds these approaches to life to be hebel, meaningless, because all men die and whatever temporal goods they gained – pleasures or possessions - is ultimately for naught, for it all passes away (see Bergsma and Pitre, A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament, 625). Like Solomon of old, Jesus, the New Solomon, reiterates that life is much more than the pleasure of food or the vanity of possessions.
2. Fame? In the Gospel passage, Jesus does not directly address whether or not human glory or fame, or our legacy, is the meaning of life. This is an interesting possibility. Maybe the meaning of life is to prolong our lives through fame, celebrity, human glory, or some other achievement? While our physical life is short, almost always under 120 years, we can prolong it by doing something noteworthy. But even this is short-lived. You could win an Olympic gold medal and be forgotten in a few years. Mark Spitz won 7 gold medals and set 7 world records at the Munich Summer Olympics in 1972, and most young people today have no clue who he is or was. This means that you can win 7 gold medals in a single Olympiad and yet be largely forgotten within two generations. Earthly fame, here today and gone tomorrow, does not last and cannot be the ultimate meaning of life.
3. Love? In his Sermon, Jesus does hint at the answer to the question about the meaning of life: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.” What does it mean to seek the Kingdom of God and God’s righteousness? Seeking the Kingdom of God means seeking to have God reign in our hearts, our families, our community, and our world. It means that the decades of earthly life we have been given are marked by a task: building up the Kingdom of God’s love. We do this by loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves. We love God through humbly praying, worshipping him, heeding his word and commands, and serving our brothers and sisters. When we die, we will see our beloved face to face. Death, then, is not the end of life, but rather the mysterious doorway to the glory of eternal life. Earthly life has meaning in the light of heavenly life. It is a journey through the wilderness to the waters of eternal life. It is a struggle up the mountain into God’s glorious presence. It is a wandering through the cloud, guided by the Spirit, into the eternal embrace that awaits us.
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, your Word contains examples of sinners who foolishly chose the path to death and of saints who wisely chose the path to life. I choose life today and ask that you guide my steps always.
Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, I praise you and I adore you. Forgive me for being so concerned about worldly things. Thank you for the greatest gift of your Holy Spirit. Help me to place all my needs and worries into the loving hands of our heavenly Father. Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and will be forever. Amen.
God and Mammon: “No one can serve two masters.” To those whom Jesus preached, being a slave, the property of another, was easily understood. For centuries the Jewish people had been enslaved by many powerful nations. For most of us today, being a slave is not a possibility—or is it? Jesus states that it is not a matter of if we serve but who we serve, either God or mammon (Aramaic word meaning wealth or property). Where we put our hearts, minds, and efforts—that’s who we serve. Slaves to mammon serve wealth, social status, and power. This service may bring worldly privileges and prestige; our cages may be velvet and our shackles made of silk, but we are trapped nonetheless, by the burdens of “keeping it up” or fears that we will lose everything.
Opening Prayer: Lord, your teaching is clear in this passage, yet it can be very hard not to worry. Please help me to receive the peace you intend to give me as I contemplate your promises in Scripture today.
No Worries: “If I did not simply live from one moment to another, it would be impossible for me to be patient," St. Therese of Lisieux said, "but I only look at the present, I forget the past, and I take good care not to second-guess the future.” Even in a quiet convent, this saint struggled not to worry about what was going to happen, so it's understandable that you and I would battle the temptation to be anxious even more than she did. But maybe humans haven't changed that much. People in Jesus's time also worried about having enough food, clothing, or money to provide for the future. To those around him two thousand years ago and to us now, Jesus says, "Do not worry and say, 'What are we to eat?' or 'What are we to drink?' or 'What are we to wear?' … Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself." God wants us to be prudent, to plan, and to pay our bills. But Jesus never guaranteed that we would be well-fed, well-dressed, or well-provided for. In fact, he promised blessings to "those who hunger and thirst for righteousness." His disciples preached wearing just one ragged tunic and were told by Jesus not to "bring a second tunic.” He said, "Blessed are the poor." Many saints grew in holiness when they suffered hunger, disgrace, or poverty. Although he didn’t promise us all the material goods we could ask for, Jesus did promise that we would be fed with the Bread of Heaven. He promised that our robes would one day be washed white in his blood. He promised that we would never be tested beyond our strength, that we would be provided with enough grace to overcome whatever temptation came. What more do we need?
Introductory Prayer:
Lord, as I begin this day, I trust in your unfailing providence. You are the deepest desire of my heart. In this moment of prayer I want to please you alone. Even though I might be tired or uninspired, even though I might only experience dryness, may this be my prayer: I offer you all I am and all I have.
Why Worry?
What can be added to Christ’s beautiful images in the Gospel, urging us to trust in the loving providence of our heavenly Father? All that is necessary is to ponder how God feeds the birds of the air and clothes the lilies of the field and to let the reality of his fatherly care for these ephemeral creatures sink deeply into our soul. How much more will he not care for us, the crowning work of his hand, his sons and daughters, for whom he is willing to send his only begotten Son to die on the Cross? Christ penetrates to the real cause of our worries and anxieties, our anxious concern that often overwhelms us in life: we have little faith. Little faith and even less trust in the goodness of our heavenly Father. Let us thank him for his patience and allow his fatherly goodness to penetrate to the depths of our spirit.
Stay Focused:
Our worries and concerns about the material needs of our daily life make us lose sight of the one thing that is truly necessary: striving for holiness, for the establishment of Christ’s kingdom in our own lives and the lives of those around us. If only we would allow Christ to set our hearts on fire with the consuming passion of zeal for souls, how our lives would change! We would become driven by the mission, constantly urged on by it — and all of our former worries and anxieties would fade into insignificance. Then we, too, could exclaim with Christ, “I have come to light a fire on the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already!” (Luke 12:49)
Simplicity of Heart:
One virtue that helps us trust God more and grow in apostolic zeal is simplicity of heart. When you grow in simplicity of heart, you will never demand of God that he explain your vocation or your sufferings. Thanks to simplicity of heart, you will always see God’s holy will in everything, and everything, even pain, becomes wells and rivers of peace and joy. Thanks to simplicity of heart, you will be able to understand people and their misery and give them a helping hand. Thanks to simplicity of heart, you will never harbor hate, an evil wish, a grudge, or an evil thought in your heart. Everything brings you to God.
Conversation with Christ:
Lord, help me through this prayer to grow in simplicity of heart, to recognize everything in my life as coming from your loving hand.
No comments:
Post a Comment