Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Lễ kính thánh Laurensô Tử đạo

Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Lễ kính thánh Laurensô Tử đạo
Trong bài đọc thứ nhất, Thánh Phaolô cho chúng ta biết rằng chúng ta càng gieo nhiều hạt giống thì chúng ta sẽ gặt hái được nhiều hơn. Phần này, thánh Phaolô đề cập đến các Kitô hữu những người đã giúp đỡ xây dựng  Giáo Hội địa phương của họ. Nếu chúng ta quảng đại, chúng ta có thể giúp được nhiều người trong cộng đồng của chúng ta. Nhưng Chúa Giêsu còn đi xa hơn nữa, Như trong Tin Mừng, Ngài nói rằng khi chúng ta biết dâng hiến cuộc sống của mình cho người khác, thì kết quả là sẽ có nhiều người sẽ nhận được sự cứu rỗi.
 Hôm nay chúng ta mừng lễ Thánh Laurensô, phó tế, tử đạo.  Việc tử đạo vinh quang của ông đã tác động mạnh mẽ đến các Kitô hữu trong thời đại của ông. Việc dâng hiến cuộc sống của mình cho Chúa Kitô một cách vui vẻ, ông đã củng cố đức tin của họ. Theo truyền thuyết, khi thánh Laurensô bị nướng trên lò củi cháy cho đến chết, ông ta nói đùa, "Làm ơn quay người tôi lại để nướng bên kia, vì  thịt cuêa tôi bên này đã chín rồi."
Thiên Chúa ưa chiộng những người vui tính. Ngài muốn chúng ta dành thời gian và nỗ lực của chúng ta để giúp đỡ những người khác. Chúng ta không thể làm được những điều này một cách xuông sẻ nếu chúng ta không có sự trợ giúp của Chúa Thánh Thần.
Tin Mừng luôn nhắc nhở chúng ta là những người yêu mến cuộc sống của họ, họ sẽ tự hủy diệt cuộc sống của chính họ, và những ai khinh thường cuộc sống của họ trong thế giới này, họ sẽ có được cuộc sống vĩnh cửu với Thiên Chúa. Đó là bản chất của con người là nếu chúng ta yêu mến cuộc sống của chúng ta, chúng ta phải bảo tồn nó. Tuy nhiên, Thánh Laurensô đã làm ngược lại; ngài nhìn cuộc sống của ngài xa hơn cuộc sống ở trần gian, ước muốn của ngài là mong được ở bên Chúa nhiều hơn. Đấy là những gì Chúa Giêu đã làm cho chúng ta.
 
REFLECTION
In the first reading, St. Paul says that the more we sow, the more we will reap. He was referring to the help Christians give to their churches. It is true that if we are generous, it helps many people in our communities.
But Jesus goes further, In the Gospel he says that when we offer our lives for others, the result is the salvation of many.      Today is the feast of St. Lawrence, deacon and martyr. His glorious martyrdom made a strong impact on the Christians of his time. By offering his life cheerfully for Christ, he strengthened their faith. According to legend, as Lawrence was being burned to death, he jokingly remarked, "Please turn me over because I am already well-done on this side." God appreciates a cheerful giver. He wants us to offer our time and effort to helping others. We cannot do this just by ourselves but with the help of the Holy Spirit.
The Gospel says that those who love their life destroy it, and those who despise their life in this world keep it for everlasting life. It is human nature to love life and to preserve it. Yet St. Lawrence did the opposite; he looked beyond his earthly life, desiring more to be with God in the next. This is exactly what Jesus did for us.
 
Feast of Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr, August 10
Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. John 12:25
    This is one of the many powerful and even shocking statements of Jesus. A similar statement by Jesus is found in all four of the Gospels. In this, John’s version, the words “love” and “hate” are used. By loving our lives we lose them, but by hating our lives we preserve them. At first read, one may think that those words “love” and “hate” were accidentally reversed. One might conclude that what Jesus meant to say was, “Whoever hates his life loses it” and “whoever loves his life preserves it.” But that’s not what He said. He did in fact say the opposite.
    It must be understood that the words “love” and “hate” here are not used in the way we normally use them. In this passage, Jesus is using the word “love” to refer to selfishness or self-centeredness. And He uses the word “hate” to refer to selflessness or sacrificial self-giving. In other words, whoever is selfish in life will lose everything in the end but the one who is truly selfless and self-giving in life will ultimately gain everything.
    This profound teaching of our Lord is difficult to comprehend without the gift of grace. Our human reason alone may struggle with the idea that selfless living is good. It is easy to rationally conclude that it is far better to elevate ourselves before everyone. The rational mind might conclude that happiness and the “good life” is found in obtaining riches, status, power and the respect of all. But this form of selfish self-centered living, though tempting on a purely human level, is actually the path to losing everything that is truly good. On the contrary, it is only when we allow God’s grace to inform our human reason that we will arrive at the conclusion that being selfless rather than selfish is what’s best.         To be selfless means our eyes are always turned to the good of the other. It means we do not sit and dwell on ourselves. It means we are fully committed to the service of God and our neighbor no matter the cost to us. We must give everything away in the service and love of God and that is the only way by which God gives back to us more than we could ever hope for.
Saint Lawrence, whom we honor today, was a deacon and martyr in the third century. This great saint literally gave up everything, including his very life, so as to say “Yes” to God.  As a deacon in the Cathedral Church in Rome, he was entrusted with the task of distributing alms to the indigent people in need. In August of the year 258, the Emperor issued an edict stating that all clergy were to be put to death. After the pope was killed, they came for Lawrence and, before killing him, asked him to turn over all the riches of the Church. He asked for three days to gather those treasures, and, during those three days, he distributed all he could to the poor. Then, on the third day, he presented himself before the prefect and brought with him not the material wealth of the Church but the true wealth. He brought the poor, crippled, blind and suffering and declared that the Church was truly rich and that the people with him were the Church’s true treasures. The prefect, in anger, sentenced Lawrence to death by fire, to which Lawrence freely submitted.
    Reflect, today, upon the high Christian calling you have been given to live a life that is completely selfless and self-giving in every way. If you find that you dwell on yourself most often, then try to change that habit. Turn your eyes to God and the service of others. Try to care more about the needs of those around you than your own concerns. Do so because this is what Jesus calls us to do, and, if He calls us to such a selfless life, then we must know and believe that it is worth it in the end.
    My sacrificial Lord, You gave Your precious life away to all out of love. The total self-giving of Your life resulted in the salvation of those who will accept this glorious gift. Help me to not only open myself to this freely given gift of Yours but to also imitate Your selfless life by giving myself in service of You and others. Saint Lawrence, deacon and martyr, pray for us. Jesus, I trust in You.
 
August 10, 2018 Feast of Saint Lawrence, deacon and martyr
The Force of Love
1. Christ’s Love: Christ would never demand something of us that he has not already lived himself. There is no deity worshiped by men, other than Jesus Christ, who has sacrificed his life out of love for his believers. It is Christ’s sacrificial love which has the power to multiply love in our lives. Christ’s act of selfless love gives birth to other acts of the same kind.
2. St Lawrence: St Lawrence was a deacon of the early Church in the middle of the third century. He died a martyr by being roasted slowly on a grill. When he had been grilled for some time, he asked his murderers to turn him over to “grill the other side”! Lawrence’s faith and courageous love are fruits of Christ’s sacrifice. Although we may not be called to such heroism, Christ won the same grace for us to bear our crosses and live a life of selfless love and generosity.
3. Fruit of Fidelity: When we reflect on the lives of the saints we are inspired by their faithful service to Christ and his Church. Their fidelity is a fruit of Christ’s fidelity. Our own acts of fidelity will give life and courage to others to do the same. Constant fidelity is above all the fruit of the grace of God, and our cooperation with it. Constant fidelity until death is the fruit of the fruits of this grace combined with our response. God is the one who creates in a soul the indispensable greatness needed for fidelity. Above all, he grants us the daily gift of his fortitude to persevere in it.
Dialogue with Christ: Lord, help me to be more generous in my daily commitments to you. Although you may not be calling me to be a martyr like St Lawrence, please allow me to offer small sacrifices each day for the Church and the salvation of souls.
Resolution: I will offer a sacrifice of fidelity to my prayer or apostolic commitments today for the souls in purgatory.
 
Saturday (August 10 Saint Lawrance)
Opening Prayer: Lord God, inspire me as I look to see what I can do for the poor in my community. Do not let me be selfish with my time or treasure. Do not let me seek after recognition or earthly honors for the good works I accomplish.
Encountering the Word of God
1. Servants of Jesus: The Gospel chosen for the Feast of Saint Lawrence provides us with the pattern of Christian life. It is nothing more than a sharing in Jesus’ death and resurrection. Jesus died for all of us. He gave his life so that we might live. Jesus’ “disciples participate in this saving dynamic by replicating this pattern of loving self-sacrifice” (Wright and Martin, The Gospel of John, 223). “As a planted seed must decay before it sprouts new life, so Jesus must endure death to bring us eternal life. This principle holds true for disciples, who must die to themselves to receive the fullness of life from God and be channels of life to others” (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament, 186). Hating our life in this world means being detached from sin and all the things in this world that can lead us away from God and cause us to rebel against God (see Wright and Martin, The Gospel of John, 223).
2. Saint Lawrence: Lawrence was one of the seven deacons in Rome during the reign and persecution of the Roman Emperor Valerian (reigned from 253 to 260 A.D.). When Pope Sixtus II became Pope in 257, he ordained Lawrence as a deacon. Later the Pope appointed Lawrence as the archdeacon of Rome. When the pope was martyred on August 6, 258, he prophesied that Lawrence would soon follow. After the death of Sixtus, the Roman prefect demanded that Lawrence surrender the treasure of the Church. St. Ambrose tells us that Lawrence asked for three days to gather it. Instead of collecting the valuables of the Church, Lawrence began to sell them in order to give the money to the poor. Lawrence returned to the prefect three days later with the poor and sick of the city of Rome. He said: “Here are the treasures of the Church. You see, the Church is truly rich, far richer than your emperor.” Because of this, Lawrence was condemned to death. It is possible that he was decapitated like Pope Sixtus, but tradition holds that he was condemned to be roasted on a gridiron. We are told that he kept his joy through his martyrdom and joked to his executioners that they should turn him over since he was done on one side. Lawrence exemplified great concern for the poor, was generous in his service of charity to the Church of Rome, and was faithful to the Bishop of Rome. As Pope Leo the Great said: “The flames could not overcome Christ’s love and the fire that burned outside was less keen that that which blazed within” (Leo the Great, Homily 85). He is the patron saint of cooks, chefs, and comedians!
3. God Loves a Cheerful Giver: The First Reading was chosen because it is Paul’s appeal to the Corinthians to be generous in giving to the collection he was organizing for the suffering Church in Jerusalem. Paul reminds the Corinthians that God is the source of all blessing and can be trusted to provide for them when they generously share with others. They have received Christ’s wondrous gift of salvation and must become givers themselves. “For charitable giving is itself an act of ‘righteousness’ (9:9) mirroring the transformative grace they have received” (Prothro, The Apostle Paul and His Letters: An Introduction, 139). By giving to the Church in Jerusalem, the Corinthians will show that they are members of the same Body of Christ. There is no division between Jew and Gentile in the New Covenant Kingdom of God inaugurated by Jesus Christ. “The gentiles have received a share in the spiritual resources of Israel and now share other resources in return” (Prothro, The Apostle Paul and His Letters: An Introduction, 140). Paul reminds the Corinthians that: “charitable gifts must flow from a joyful heart, not one that hesitates or begrudges the gift (Deuteronomy 15:10). Reluctant givers show themselves to be attached to their wealth; their donations, sizeable or not, are thus empty before God” (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament, 323). Generous charity is a pleasing offering to God and will be repaid handsomely: “Sacrificial generosity is richly rewarded by God, who outmatches our earthly gifts with blessings that are lasting and heavenly” (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament, 323-324).
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you are the supreme model of generosity and self-giving. You gave everything so that I might have divine life. You gave without reserve and I need to prudently do the same.