Suy Niệm Lễ Kính Đức Mẹ Sẩu Bi, Sept 15

Suy Niệm Lễ Kính Đức Mẹ Sẩu Bi, Sept 15

Trước khi Chúa Giêsu chết trên thập giá, Chúa đã trao phó Đức Maria, mẹ của mình cho Thánh Gioan, môn đệ Ngài yêu dấu để chăm sóc, "Đây là mẹ của con," và Ngài cũng nhắn nhủ với mẹ mình là hãy chấp nhận Thánh Gioan như con trai của mình, "Này bà, đây là con bà." 

Những lời mà Đức Kitô giao phó Mẹ Ngài cho thánh Gioan và Thánh Gioan cho Mẹ Ngài, chính là những lời mà Giáo Hội đã coi như là những lời di chúc và bằng chứng mà Chúa Kitô đã trao phó Mẹ Ngài cho chúng ta,  và Ngài cũng đã phó thác tất cã mỗi người chúng ta trong sự gìn giữ, lo lắng và chăm sóc của Đức Maria.  Vì thế Đức Maria là Mẹ của mỗi người chúng ta, những người theo Chúa Kitô.

Tin Mừng Thánh Gioan cho chúng ta biết là:"Và từ giờ đó, môn đồ đã lĩnh lấy bà về nhà mình." (Gn 19:27). Từ giờ phút đó thánh Gioan đã rước Đức Maria về nhà mình và đã yêu thương, kính trọng và chăm sóc của Đức Maria như là mẹ của mình.

            Giờ đây Đức Trinh Nữ Maria cả xác lẫn hổn đã được vinh quang với Con của Mẹ và tất cả những người được chọn và các thiên thần ở trên Thiên Quốc. Đức Maria không cần sự chăm sóc, thương yêu chúng ta như Mẹ đã cần sự chăm sóc của Thánh Gioan lúc xưa khi còn ở trần thế.  Đức Maria ở trên trời là một người Mẹ có quyền thế và sức mạnh nhất, Mẹ luôn yêu thương giúp đỡ và hướng dẫn mỗi người chúng ta. Chúng ta nên học theo cách yêu mến của Con Mẹ là Chúa Giêsu và tập sống giống như Mẹ.

      Cảm ơn Chúa đã ban cho chúng con Mẹ của Chúa để làm  Mẹ của chúng con. Xin cho chúng con có thể học cách yêu Mẹ như Chúa. Xin cho chúng con có thể luôn luôn biết quay về với Mẹ để học cách yêu Chúa như chính mẹ và Kính Yêu Chúa.  Cảm ơn Chúa đã ban cho những người mẹ của chúng con, những người sinh dưỡng chúng con cũng là người giúp chúng con biết phản ánh tình yêu của Đức Maria, Mẹ của Chúa.

 

Reflection Sep 15:

     When we are asked to care of our friend's belongings, we do so with great care. What if we are asked to look after our friend's mother? Would we be able to undertake such a task?

     Dying on the cross our Lord leaves his Mother Mary to the care of the beloved disciple John, "There is your mother," and also tasks his Mother to accept John as her son, "Woman, this is your son."

     The Church has read Christ entrusting his Mother to John and the beloved Apostle John to his Mother as Christ's lasting will and testament to entrust his Mother to each of his followers and to entrust each of his followers to Mary's care.  Thus Mary is the Mother of each one of us, of each one of the followers of Christ and each one of us is her son or daughter.

     John's Gospel said that "from that moment the disciple took her to his own home." From that moment John loved and took care of Mary as his mother. Tradition has it that John and Mary eventually moved to Ephesus where to this date there is a shrine of their home. The Blessed Virgin Mary is now body and soul in glory with her Son and all the elect and angels in heaven. She does not need us to take care of her as she needed John's love and care during her lifetime.  

     Mary in heaven is a most powerful and loving Mother of each one of us. With her help and guidance, may we learn to love her Son as she does.  

     Thank you, Lord, for giving your Mother to be our mother. May we learn to love her as you do. May we always turn to her to learn to love you as she does.  

     Thank you for our own mothers who reflect the love of your Mother Mary.  

 "Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help or sought your intercession, was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto you, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother.  To you I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but, in your mercy, hear and answer me.

 

Suy Niệm Lễ Kính Đức Mẹ Sẩu Bi, Sept 15

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. John 19:25

Our Blessed Mother, the Mother of the Son of God, loved her Son with a perfect love. She enfleshed every virtue to perfection. Her love for her Son was a love that was beyond what we could ever imagine. She conceived Him miraculously, bore Him in her womb, gave birth to Him, nursed Him, raised Him and loved Him throughout His life. It’s difficult to even imagine the depth and beauty of the love she had for Jesus. Generally speaking, a mother’s love is powerful, unwavering, deep and filled with tenderness. Try to imagine the Immaculate Heart of Mother Mary and the amazing depth of love alive in her heart.

Imagine also the scene depicted in the Gospel passage quoted above. This loving mother stood at the foot of the Cross, gazing upon her crucified Son, continuing to exude every motherly virtue. And because it’s hard to fathom the depth of her love for her Son, it’s also very hard to imagine the depth of sorrow and interior suffering she endured as she watched the cruelty toward Jesus unfold. All she could do in that moment was stand by Him and with Him in this moment of extreme agony. Her love was expressed, in that moment, by her fidelity to Him.

What’s beautiful to know is that love, sorrow, compassion and suffering were united as one within her Immaculate Heart. Within the beauty of her heart was every human emotion, fueled by God’s grace, enabling her to give to her Son the greatest gift she had: her motherhood. She was a true mother throughout her life, and, in this moment, as her Son hung on the Cross, her motherhood culminated in a perfect human expression.

We all long to be loved by another. To give and receive love is the greatest gift that we can give and receive. Love is what we were made for and is the source of our fulfillment in life. We can be certain that as Mother Mary stood at the foot of the Cross, her human heart experienced the greatest fulfillment ever known. Her heart was fulfilled because she exercised her motherly love to perfection.

Gaze upon the image of the Mother of God this day. Ponder, especially, all that she would have experienced within her human heart. Though theologians could write volumes on this meditation, the best way to understand her heart of love is through prayerful meditation. Ask our Blessed Mother to reveal her heart to you today. Find some time to sit in silent adoration of this holy image of perfect motherly love. As you do, know two things. First, know that Mother Mary has this same depth of love for you. Do not doubt it. Her heart burns with compassion as she gazes upon you, even in your sin. Second, know that our Blessed Mother’s love must also fill your heart and overflow into the lives of others. We all must allow her compassion, concern, fidelity and mercy to flow through our hearts. Who do you need to love with the heart of our Blessed Mother? Seek to receive the love in the heart of the Mother of God and seek to give that love. Receive it in and then allow it to flow forth. There is truly nothing in this world more beautiful and awe inspiring than the holy image of this love.

My Immaculate and Sorrowful Mother, you stood at the foot of the Cross of your Son with the perfection of a mother’s love. Your heart was filled with a sorrow that was mixed with every holy virtue. Pray for me that I may understand this love more fully, so that I may also open up my own heart to your love. As I do, I pray that I will become an instrument of the love in your heart toward those in my life who suffer and are in most need of tender compassion and mercy. Sorrowful Heart of Mary, pray for us. Jesus, I trust in You.

 

Opening Prayer: Lord God, I humbly ask you to bring me more deeply into the mystery of suffering and how to unite my sufferings to those of your Son so that they have a powerful redemptive value.

Encountering the Word of God

1. The Foundation of the Order of the Servants of Mary: Today, we celebrate the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows. The devotion was promoted especially by the Servite Order, or the Order of the Servants of Mary. The order was founded by seven holy men in Florence, Italy, around the year 1233. All seven experienced a similar vision of Mary on August 15, 1233, and heard the call to “leave the world, the better to serve almighty God.” The mendicant order they began was recognized in 1259 and approved by Pope Benedict XI in 1304. The seven founders were canonized by Pope Leo XIII in 1888. Some of their Marian devotions include the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows and the Via Matris (“Way of the Mother”), which also involves meditating at stations on Mary’s seven sorrows or sufferings.

2. The First Three Sorrows and Jesus’ Early Life: The first three sorrows and sufferings of Mary complement the five joyful mysteries of the Rosary. This teaches us an important lesson that moments of joy in our lives are often accompanied by moments of sorrow and suffering. The joy of presenting the child Jesus at the Temple was accompanied by Simeon’s prophecy about the child being a sign of contradiction and about a sword piercing Mary’s heart. The joy of Jesus’ birth eventually gave way to the sorrow and suffering of fleeing to Egypt to escape the murderous intentions of King Herod. The joy of finding Jesus in the Temple was preceded by the sorrow and suffering of losing Jesus for three days. Our suffering, when united to the sufferings of Christ, has a redemptive value. As John Paul II taught: “Christ has also raised human suffering to the level of the Redemption. Thus each man, in his suffering, can also become a sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ” (John Paul II, Salvifici doloris, 19).

3. The Last Four Sorrows and Jesus’ Passion and Death: The last four sorrows of Mary are all connected to Jesus’ Passion and Death. First, tradition holds that Mary, like the women of Jerusalem, met her Son on the way to Calvary. Second, Mary stood faithfully by the foot of the Cross, accompanied by Mary of Magdala, the beloved disciple, John, and her sister-in-law, Mary, the wife of Clopas. Third, Mary received the dead body of her son into her arms. Finally,  Mary helped bury her Son. A couple of decades ago, in 2005, the then-Cardinal Ratzinger wrote the meditations for the Way of the Cross. This was his reflection on the Fourth Station and the Fourth Sorrow of Mary: “On Jesus’ Way of the Cross, we also find Mary, his Mother. During his public life, she had to step aside, to make place for the birth of Jesus' new family, the family of his disciples. She also had to hear the words: ‘Who is my mother and who are my brothers?... Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is brother, and sister and mother’ (Mt 12:48-50). Now we see her as the Mother of Jesus, not only physically, but also in her heart. Even before she conceived him bodily, through her obedience she conceived him in her heart. It was said to Mary: ‘And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son. He will be great and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David’ (Lk 1:31ff.). And she would hear from the mouth of the elderly Simeon: ‘A sword will pierce through your own soul’ (Lk 2:35). She would then recall the words of the prophets, words like these: ‘He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he was like a lamb that is led to slaughter’ (Is 54:7). Now it all takes place. In her heart she had kept the words of the angel, spoken to her in the beginning: ‘Do not be afraid, Mary’ (Lk 1:30). The disciples fled, yet she did not flee. She stayed there, with a Mother’s courage, a Mother’s fidelity, a Mother’s goodness, and a faith which did not waver in the hour of darkness: ‘Blessed is she who believed’ (Lk 1:45). ‘Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?’ (Lk 18:8). Yes, in this moment Jesus knows: he will find faith. In this hour, this is his great consolation.”

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you bring those you love into the depths of sacrifice and suffering. You test and purify your followers. I want to be united to you more fully and humbly offer my life to you so that you may present it to the Father as a pleasing sacrifice.

 

REFLECTION

In the first reading, Paul writes that he certainly did not deserve to be in the presence of the Lord nor be in His service because he was "a blasphemer, a persecutor and a rabid enemy"; but, Jesus had mercy on him and changed his heart on the road to Damascus. Jesus gifted him with faith and love, making him trustworthy to be in his service. The same theme can be seen in today's gospel. A disciple of Jesus is one "who is not above the master, but when fully trained, he will be like his master." As true disciples, we are to behave like our Master. We are to conform our hearts to the heart of Jesus who is not critical of us and accepts us as sinners. Jesus encourages us to look into ourselves instead of judging those around us. So that we may follow his teachings more closely, we need his grace and his strength, as Paul says. We cannot do this on our own but only through God's gracious permission. We pray that one day, our character may mirror that of Jesus.