Suy Niệm các bài đọc Thứ Sáu Tuần 33 Thường Niên

Suy Niệm các bài đọc Thứ Sáu Tuần 33 Thường Niên

Các bài đọc hôm nay nhắc nhở chúng ta về việc chuẩn bị và sẵn sàng tâm hồn chúng ta. Chúa Giêsu đã thanh tẩy Đền Thờ vì Đền thờ là ngôi nhà của Chúa Cha, cha Ngài, là một nơi dành cho việc cầu nguyện, tế lễ để vinh danh Thiên Chúa, chứ không phải là chỗ đễ cho các việc kinh doanh buôn bán, bóc lột. Chúa Giêsu thanh tẩy đền thờ và giờ đây Ngài cũng muốn chúng ta phải thanh tẩy đền thờ trong tâm hồn chúng ta, vì mỗi người chúng ta là đền thờ riêng cho Chúa ngự trị.

Trong một bồi cảnh gợi nhớ đến sự dâng hiến đền thờ Solomon ban đầu của  800 năm trước (1 Các Vua 8), Dân Chúng thời Tiên tri Maccabees  tái cung hiến Đền Thờ và họ đã hân hoan, ăn mừng ngày lễ trong tám ngày. Cho đến này, Mặc dù đền Jerasalem không còn nữa, nhưng mỗi năm, người Do Thái vẫn còn nhớ đến kỉ niệm ngày cung hiến đền thờ này khi họ ăn mừng lễ Hanukkah trong tám ngày. Chúng ta cũng là đền thờ của Chúa Thánh Thần, Trong cuộc sống hàng ngày, chúng ta phải tự nhắc nhở và nhớ rằng Thiên Chúa đang ở trong chúng ta. Cách mà giúp chúng ta được thanh tẩy là hãy đến với Chúa trong bí tích Hoà giảì, để chúng ta làm hoà với Thiên Chúa để chúng ta được thánh tẩy và thánh hoá tâm hồn của chúng ta, nơi mà Thiên Chúa hằng ngự trị mỗi ngày trong cuộc sống của chúng ta.  

Lạy Chúa, xin hướng dẫn lời nói và việc làm của chúng con ngày hôm nay và mỗi ngày trong đời của chúng con để chúng con có thể dâng lên Chúa những lời ngợi khen, tôn kính và phục vụ.

 

Reflection:   Lk. 19:45-48)

 For what do you prepare in life — an important exam, the start of a new year, the birth of a child? Today’s readings are about preparation. Jesus cleanses the Temple. The Temple is his Father’s house  a place meant for prayer and not for business. Jesus cleanses the Temple at this time because he is about to teach there. His teachings are received most deeply when they become part of our prayer.

    In the first reading, the Jewish Maccabees retake control of Judea from the Seleucid Empire. They arrive at the Temple and see that this sacred place has been neglected and desecrated. The people are disturbed by this sight but they purify the site, build a new altar and eventually make the Temple a place where God is worshipped again. In a scene that is reminiscent of the original dedication of the Temple by Solomon 800 years before (1 Kings 8), the Maccabees now rededicate the Temple. The people rejoice for eight days.

       Each year, Jewish people still remember this rededication as they celebrate Hanukkah for eight days. We are also a Temple of the Holy Spirit. In daily life, what or who helps us to remember that God dwells within us? Is there anything from which we desire to be cleansed?

Lord, guide my words and deeds today so that I may give You praise, reverence and service.

 

Friday 33^rd Ordinary Time 2023

And every day he was teaching in the temple area. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile, were seeking to put him to death, but they could find no way to accomplish their purpose because all the people were hanging on his words. Luke 19:47–48

Jesus had just entered Jerusalem for the upcoming Feast of Passover. He arrived in that holy city and then returned again the next day and entered the Temple area. As He witnessed the corruption of those selling animals for the Temple sacrifices, Jesus responded with fervent preaching in an attempt to cleanse the Temple from this corruption. He quoted the Prophet Isaiah and cried out, “It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” Luke’s Gospel points out the reaction of the chief priests, the scribes and the leaders of the people. They were “seeking to put him to death.” However, as the Gospel further relates, “they could find no way to accomplish their purpose because all the people were hanging on his words.”

It’s important to consider this passage within its context. The words that Jesus spoke were words that sought to cleanse the Temple of corruption. With the approval of the temple priests, who benefitted from the temple tax, there were many people who were using the practice of divine worship to make a profit for selfish gain, turning the Temple into a marketplace. Jesus could see this clearly, and many of the people would have also sensed the corruption of these practices. Though they needed to purchase animals for the ritual sacrifices and Passover meal, many of them were most likely disturbed by this abuse. Therefore, as Jesus spoke with fervor and condemnation, it angered those who were responsible for the corruption but left the people with consolation. Hence, they were “hanging on his words.”

The Gospel is always consoling, and, for those who are open, it leads them to hang on every word that is spoken. It refreshes and invigorates, clarifies and motivates. Usually when we think of the Gospel, we think of words that are gentle and inviting—words of mercy to the sinner and compassion for those who are struggling. But sometimes the pure Gospel message from our Lord fiercely attacks sin and evil. And though this may be shocking to the evil doers, to those with pure faith, these words also refresh and strengthen.

Today, we need the full Gospel message. Many need to hear Jesus’ gentle invitation to conversion by which their heavy burdens are lifted. But many others need to hear His firm words of condemnation. And the Church as a whole needs both of these messages to be proclaimed if we are to fully participate in the apostolic ministry of our Lord. Only our Lord has the right to condemn, chastise, and call others to repentance. But we are all called to share in this mission of our Lord. And though we do not have the right to judge the hearts of others, when we see objective evil and disorder within our world and even within our Church, we must cry out with our Lord, “My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” And when we do hear the holy and inspired words of God’s messengers who boldly and courageously proclaim the truth and call others to repentance, it should inspire, invigorate and console us as we find ourselves hanging on their every word.

Reflect, today, upon the Gospel messages that need to be preached in our day and age that are both inspired by God and are also fervently directed at corruption within the world and even within our Church. Allow yourself to support such holy preaching and to be inspired by it. Hang on these holy words of God’s prophets today. As you do, God will protect them and inspire them to continue His holy mission of purification.

My purifying Lord, the corruption within our world, and at times even within our Church, requires Your holy preaching and purifying action. Please send Your messengers to those in need so that all may be cleansed as You cleansed the Temple. May I share in this mission in the ways in which You call me, and may I always hang on every word spoken from Your merciful and fervent heart of love. Jesus, I trust in You.

 

Friday 33^rd Ordinary Time 2025

Opening Prayer: Lord God, I have been washed clean through Baptism and crafted into your temple. May I always be a holy dwelling for you in this world. My heart is yours. Reign in my heart always, guide my steps, and empower my good works.

Encountering the Word of God

1. The Cleansing of the Temple: Jesus’ dramatic expulsion of Temple merchants is both a prophecy and a pre-enactment of the Temple’s imminent downfall (Luke 21:5-36). When Jesus entered the Temple, he saw the corruption permitted by Caiaphas, the High Priest. Instead of continuing the practice of pilgrims purchasing animals at a market on the Mount of Olives, Caiaphas permitted vendors to sell animals in the outer court of the Temple itself, known as the Court of the Gentiles. By driving out the sellers, Jesus brings to fulfillment a prophecy of Zechariah: “No longer will there be merchants in the house of the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 14:21; see Gadenz, The Gospel of Luke, 330). The old Temple is passing away and, as we read in the First Reading, will one day be destroyed. Jesus, by contrast, is the New Temple, a place where we can enter into communion with God and receive divine instruction.

2. Judas the Hammer: After his death, the third son of Mattathias, Judas, took up the leadership of the revolt against the wicked king, Antiochus IV. Judas was given the nickname of “Maccabeus,” which means “the Hammer.” “As a military strategist and commander, Judas overwhelmed his enemies. He defeated more powerful opponents such as Apollonius, the governor of Samaria; Seron, the commander of Syria; and Seleucid forces directed by Lysias, a high official, at Emmaus and Beth-Zur. Judas’ greatest contribution was the recapture of Jerusalem and the Temple in 164 B.C., exactly three years after the incursion of Antiochus IV. He cleansed the sanctuary, rebuilt the altar, and replaced the sacred vessels that had been plundered (1 Mc 4:36-51). The reconsecration was celebrated with sacrifices and great fanfare for eight days in the manner of the Feast of Tabernacles, which was the feast during which Solomon dedicated the first Temple (1 Mc 4:52-59; 2 Mc 10:5-8)” (Gray and Cavins, Walking with God, 237-238).

3. Hanukkah: Judas Maccabeus, along with the people of Judea, instituted the annual commemoration of the Temple’s rededication on the 25^th day of the month of Chislev. The Feast of Hanukkah (or the Feast of Lights) is kept by the Jewish people to this day. The word “Hanukkah” means “to dedicate.” “While not recounted in the text of 1 or 2 Maccabees, the Feast of Lights takes its name from the Jewish tradition that when the eight-day feast of rededication of the Temple began, only enough oil was found to fuel the lampstand in the Temple for one day, but this oil burned for eight days, the length of time it took to prepare and consecrate fresh oil” (Gray and Cavins, Walking with God, 238). Looking ahead to the time of Jesus, we see that Jesus himself celebrated the Feast of Hanukkah (see John 10:22-39). While the old Hanukkah celebrated the rededication of the Temple, Jesus is Light of the World and the New Temple, consecrated by God and set apart by the Father to consecrate the world in truth (see John 10:36; 17:19). “Jesus’ words resonate against the background of the Feast of the Dedication, which celebrates the consecration of the Second Temple by the Maccabees (1 Mac 4:48), just as its predecessors, the wilderness Tabernacle (Num 7:1) and the Solomonic Temple, had been consecrated (1 Kings 9:3). These sanctuaries of old are replaced by the new and consecrated temple of Jesus’ body (2:20-21)” (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, 1909). 

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you called your Father’s will your food. I, too, desire to be nourished by this food. Help me to know your Father’s will for me in every moment. Please give me the strength to accomplish it.

 

Friday 33^rd Ordinary Time 2024

Opening Prayer: Lord God, I have been washed clean through Baptism and crafted into your temple. May I always be a holy dwelling for you in this world. My heart is yours. Reign in my heart always, guide my steps, and empower my good works.

Encountering the Word of God

1. The Cleansing of the Temple: Jesus’ dramatic expulsion of Temple merchants is both a prophecy and a pre-enactment of the Temple’s imminent downfall (Luke 21:5-36). When Jesus entered the Temple, he saw the corruption permitted by Caiaphas, the High Priest. Instead of continuing the practice of pilgrims purchasing animals at a market on the Mount of Olives, Caiaphas permitted vendors to sell animals in the outer court of the Temple itself, known as the Court of the Gentiles. By driving out the sellers, Jesus brings to fulfillment a prophecy of Zechariah: “No longer will there be merchants in the house of the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 14:21; see Gadenz, The Gospel of Luke, 330). The old Temple is passing away and, as we read in the First Reading, will one day be destroyed. Jesus, by contrast, is the New Temple, a place where we can enter into communion with God and receive divine instruction.

2. The Prophecy of John: In our reading of the Book of Revelation, the liturgy skips from John’s vision of the heavenly liturgies of creation and redemption in chapters 4 and 5 to John’s vision of a mighty angel in chapter 10. In Revelation 8-11, John contemplates the destruction of an earthly city, Jerusalem, that causes God’s temple to be opened in Revelation 11:19. In the First Reading, from Revelation 10:8-11, John is commanded to eat a scroll, much like the prophet Ezekiel did centuries before (Ezekiel 3:1-3). The scroll is sweet as honey at first, but then sour: “That the scroll then becomes sour, may be an allusion to Ezekiel as well, since after eating the scroll Ezekiel is told to foretell the coming destruction of Jerusalem and goes out in ‘bitterness’ (Ezekiel 3:14). In the same way, John proceeds in the next chapter to announce the destruction of the city ‘where the Lord was crucified,’ i.e., Jerusalem” (Barber, Coming Soon, 136).

3. How Sweet to My Taste is Your Promise: The Responsorial Psalm today invites us to see God’s law, promises, word, and decrees as more delightful and valuable than earthly riches, more precious than gold and silver, and sweeter than honey. This is because the Law of the Lord makes a person wise (Psalm 119:98-100, 104). “Psalm 119 reminds us that the Law of God – whether summarized in the Ten Commandments, the Double Commandment of Love, or the Sermon on the Mount – is not burdensome drudgery but a path to liberty and to life” (Bergsma, Psalm Basics for Catholics, 133). Another lesson of Psalm 119 is that suffering is the means by which one truly comes to learn God’s statutes. During our suffering and affliction, we are asked to persevere and endure righteously and trust in the Lord to deliver us (see Barber, Singing in the Reign, 129).

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you called your Father’s will your food. I, too, desire to be nourished by this food. Help me to know your Father’s will for me in every moment. Give me the strength to accomplish it.