Suy Niệm Thứ bảy 27th Thường Niên

Suy Niệm Thứ bảy 27th Thường Niên.
Ai là người may mắn ơn phúc trong mắt chúng ta? Trong văn hóa Do Thái, chính chữ này chỉ người mà chúng ta được ra (vì một người đàn ông) và người mà chúng đã đã sinh ra (cho một người phụ nữ) điều đó đã quyết định sự may mắn của chúng ta. Đó là lý do tại sao trong bài ca Ngợi Khen ‘Magnificat’ Đức Maria đã nói, “Này từ đây mọi người sẽ khen tôi có phúc.” (Lc 1:48).
Tuy nhiên, Chúa Giêsu, không những chỉ thừa nhận những gì mà những người phụ nữ trong đám đông ã nói về Đức Maria, người được Thiên Cha ban cho có được phước để trở thành mẹ của Ngài, những còn đưa Mẹ uq khỏi lằn ranh giới của sự hiểu biết của người Do Thái về ơn phước hạnh phúc khi đến một chân trời mới. Như Ngài đã nói là phúc hơn cho những ai biết lắng ghe lời Chúa và biết giữ lời dạy của Ngài. Có ai biết được ai là người có phúc hơn khi nghe và biết thực hành lời Chúa? tất nhiên không ai hơn ngoài Đức Maria! Người không những chỉ biết nghe lời Chúa mà còn vâng lời Người, khi Đức Maria nói với thiên thần Gabriel (lúc truyền tin) – “Xin hãy thành sự cho tôi theo lời Ngài..” (Lc 1, 38).
Chữ vâng lời the tiếng Hy Lạp có nghĩa là (phylassein) mang ý nghĩa của người bảo vệ thành phố hay cái gì có một giá trị rất lớn. Vì vậy, khi chúng ta vâng lời Chúa, chúng ta đang nói với Chúa rằng chúng ta bảo vệ giá trị và bất cứ điều gì Chúa đã nói thì có một giá trị rất lớn đối với chúng ta.
Chúa Giê-su đưa ra sự vâng phục này đến với Lời Chúa bằng cách nói thêm, mẹ ta và các anh em của ta là những người biết nghe Lời Chúa và đưa lời Chúa vào sự thực hành (Lc 8:21). Để được họp mặt với Chúa và trong gia đình của Chúa thì chúng ta phải biết nghe tiếng Chúa, Lời Chúa. Và phài biết sống và thực thi những điều răn mà Chúa đã ban cho chúng ta. Xin Chúa giúp chúng ta luôn luôn tìm cách nghe lời Chúa qua Kinh Thánh  và thực thi những gì Chúa đã dạy chúng ta qua các bài đọc trong các Thánh Lễ. Lạy Chúa, xin dạy chúng con biiết lắng nghe lời Chúa, để giữ lời Chúa bằng trái tim, tâm hồn chúng con.
 
Saturday 27th Week in Ordinary Time:
Who are the blessed in our eyes? In the Jewish culture, it is from whom you descended (for a man) and to whom you gave birth (for a woman) — that determined your blessedness. That is why in the Magnificat, Mary says, “from now onwards all generations will call me blessed” (Lk 1:48).
However, Jesus, not only acknowledged what the woman in the crowd said about His mother Mary, being blessed to have been His mother, but pushed the boundary of the Jewish understanding of blessedness to a new horizon. He said, more blessed are those who “hear the word of God and keep it”. Whom do we know who is more blessed as to “hear and obey”? Mary of course!  She not only heard the word of God but obeyed it, when she said to the angel Gabriel (at the annunciation) — “let what you have said be done to me” (Lk 1:38).
The Greek word for “obey” (phylassein) carries the meaning of “guard” or “value greatly”. So, when we obey God, we are saying to God that we “guard” and “value greatly” whatever God has spoken to us.
Jesus takes this obedience to God’s word further by saying, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the Word of God and put it into practice” (Lk 8:21). To be in Jesus’ family is to “hear” God’s Word and “practise it.”
May we seek always to hear God’s word and keep it!
Lord, train me to observe Your word, to keep it with my heart.
 
Saturday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
While Jesus was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.” He replied, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”  Luke 11:27–28
This short Gospel reading reveals much about what makes one “blessed” in life. Specifically, Jesus considers those truly blessed who do two things: “hear the word of God” and then “observe it.” Though this seems quite obvious at first read, it is often harder than it seems.
The first step to a blessed life is hearing the Word of God. To “hear” implies that we do much more than become familiar with the Gospels. Hearing means we are not only aware of all that our Lord has revealed, it also means that we have truly internalized it, understanding all that our Lord requires of us.
Have you heard our Lord? It’s important to understand that the Gospel is alive. In other words, becoming familiar with the Word of God is not the same as reading some ancient book of lessons. Rather, hearing the Word of God means we hear a Person: the Son of God, speaking to us and guiding us each step of our lives. God’s Word is something that must speak to us every moment of every day, inspiring us to do this and avoid that. It is accomplished through a lifelong habit of prayerful communion with our Lord through which we are attentive to His voice always.
Hearing the very Person of the Son of God, the Word made flesh, necessarily implies that we also observe all that He speaks to us. In fact, failure to follow His continuous and gentle command to love will result in us being unable to clearly hear Him at all. We will become confused and will easily become directed by the many other voices in our world, unable to discern the glorious path chosen for us by our Lord.
Reflect, today, upon whether or not you struggle in any way with both hearing and observing the voice of God. If this is your struggle, then recommit yourself to a time of humble and wholehearted discovery. Tell our Lord that you are sorry for not being attentive to Him and set yourself on a mission to seek and find Him. Reject the confusion and anxiety of life, reject the many other voices of “wisdom” within our world, and listen for His gentle but clear voice. He is always speaking. He is always calling you. He is always present. Open the eyes of your soul and give Him your full attention. And when you sense Him speaking to you, respond with the utmost generosity and obedience. Doing so will result in you discovering what it means to be truly blessed by our Lord.
My blessed Lord, You are glorious beyond all things, and You invite me and all Your creatures to share in Your very life. Give me the grace I need to turn from the confusion and deceptions of life so that I will hear only You and respond only to Your voice. I commit myself to Your holy will, dear Lord. As I do, please bestow upon me every blessing You desire to give. Jesus, I trust in You.
 
 
Saturday 27^th Ordinary Time 2025
Opening Prayer: Lord God, bless me today as I hear your Word and strive to observe it. I am your child, and I desire your fatherly blessing with all my heart. Teach me to be an obedient child who seeks to please you in all that I do today.
Encountering the Word of God
1. Hearing and Observing the Word of God: Throughout the Gospels, Jesus teaches that he is inaugurating a new family of God and a New Covenant. Much attention was given in the Old Covenant to physical bloodlines. To be an Israelite, you needed to descend from one of the twelve tribes of Israel. The king and future Messiah could only come from the tribe of Judah and the line of David. Priests needed to descend from Aaron. The High Priest needed to descend from Zadok. The woman in the crowd represents the idea that divine blessing was attached to your bloodline. But Jesus teaches that, in the New Covenant, what counts is not your lineage, but your observance of the Word of God. Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is blessed because she believed that what was spoken to her from the Lord would be fulfilled. Jesus is not rebutting Mary’s blessedness, but offering her faith, her welcoming of God’s word, and her observance as an example of those who are truly blessed by God.
2. The Valley of Jehoshaphat: In the First Reading, we read the conclusion of the Book of Joel. The book identifies the Valley of Jehoshaphat as the place of the Lord’s judgment. Historically, this place has been identified with the Kidron Valley, the ravine east of Jerusalem. But, since the name Jehoshaphat simply means, “the Lord has judged,” it is likely a reference to God’s judgment in general rather than a specific geographical location. What several Doctors of the Church have taught is that when the history of the world comes to an end, all human beings will rise and be judged. The righteous will rise with glorified and luminous bodies, while the wicked will rise with frightful and hideous bodies (see Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life 1, 14). Joel uses the image of a harvest as an image of judgment. Just as a farmer separates grain from the husks after the stalks have been sickled and gathered, so the righteous will be separated from the wicked.
3. The Darkening of the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars: Another important image of the judgment in Joel and other prophets is the darkening of the sun, the moon, and the stars. In the ancient world, time was regulated by these heavenly bodies. The hours of the day were marked by the position of the sun. The moon regulates the monthly cycle of four weeks. The position of the stars marks the seasons of the year. The darkening of these heavenly bodies means, “Your time is up!” Prophets like Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel, and Amos all invoked depictions of heavenly chaos to predict the judgment and downfall of pagan kingdoms. Jesus will redirect this same language, not toward a Gentile kingdom, but toward Jerusalem. “The kingdom of Old Covenant Israel will be devastated for corrupting itself like the pagans and rejecting Jesus” (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, 1771). And so, when Jesus predicts the darkening of the heavenly bodies (Matthew 24:29; Mark 13:24-25), he is pronouncing the end of the Old Jerusalem that occurred within a generation (within 40 years) in A.D. 70 (Mark 13:30). The end of Jerusalem, however, also points forward symbolically to the end of time, when new heavens and a new earth will be definitively established, when everyone will be judged, and when evil will be swallowed up. 
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you have brought me into your family. I recognize that I need to learn from you how to be a better child of God and how to be a better sibling to my brothers and sisters. Guide me always along the path of true holiness.
 
Saturday 27^th Ordinary Time 2024
Opening Prayer: Lord God, bless me today as I hear your Word and strive to observe it. I am your child, and I desire your fatherly blessing with all my heart. Teach me to be an obedient child who seeks to please you in all that I do today.
Encountering the Word of God
1. The Blessed Mother: In the Gospel of Luke, Mary declares that all generations will call her “blessed” (Luke 1:48). Just as Elizabeth called her “Blessed” because of her faith (Luke 1:45), Jesus calls his mother “blessed” because of her attentive hearing of the Word of God and her faithful observance of it. The woman in the crowd interrupted Jesus as he was speaking. Jesus was answering two objections to his work. The first objection was that he was working in league with the devil. The second demanded a heavenly sign to test him. The interruption allowed Jesus to point to the example of his mother as one who worked with God and did not demand heavenly signs. Unlike Zechariah, who demanded a sign from the Lord to confirm Gabriel’s message, Mary demanded no sign. Mary, as Jesus points out, is blessed in many ways. Not only is she graced as the mother of the Messiah, but she is graced because she heard and observed God’s holy Word. The seed of God’s Word did not fall on bad soil but found fertile soil in Mary. Mary welcomed God’s Word in faith and put it into practice in love.
2. The Old Law as a Disciplinarian: Paul, in his Letter to the Galatians, has just argued that justification comes through faith in Jesus and not through the law of Moses. This raises an important question: if the law cannot justify us, then why was it given to Israel? Paul responds that the Law was given to heighten Israel’s awareness of sin. In many ways, the Law acted as a temporary disciplinarian. This alludes to the practice of the Greeks who charged a household slave with the moral formation of the children of the family. “This tutelage normally lasted from the time the child was a minor until he reached maturity. The tutor would accompany the youth to and from school, supervise his daily activities, protect him from dangers, and administer discipline whenever necessary. Paul used this familiar custom to explain how the Mosaic Law served a similar function in Israel. It was an instructor and guide for the nation, yet one that was temporary and destined to pass away” (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament, 337).
3. Children of God: Before the coming (advent) of Jesus Christ, the people of Israel were under a disciplinarian or tutor. Through Jesus, they were able to become children of God. Israel was freed from the supervision and restraints of the Mosaic Law to embrace the full inheritance awaiting it in the New Covenant (see Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament, 337). We become children of God not through the old rite of circumcision (according to the old Law of Moses) but through the new rite of baptism (according to the new Law of Christ). Paul refers to the ancient liturgical practice of the newly baptized putting on a white garment to symbolize their purity in Christ. He also teaches that baptism unites peoples from all nations into the one family of God.
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you have brought me into your family. I recognize that I need to learn from you how to be a better child of God and how to be a better sibling to my brothers and sisters. Guide me always along the path of true holiness.