Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thừ Hai Tuần thứ 5 Phục Sinh

Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thừ Hai Tuần thứ 5 Phục Sinh
"Ai yêu mến Thầy, thì sẽ giữ lời Thầy. Cha của Thầy sẽ yêu mến người ấy. Cha của Thầy và Thầy sẽ đến và ở lại với người ấy. " (Jn 14:23) Đây là lời hứa của Chúa Kitô đã hứa với chúng ta. Điều này cũng cho chúng ta thấy mối quan hệ mật thiết giữa Chúa Giêsu và Chúa Cha và qua đó  Chúa Giêsu cũng đã muốn lôi kéo chúng ta đến một mối quan hệ gần gũi hơn với Thiên Chúa Cha. Bằng cách này, chúng ta được mời gọi để phụ thuộc hoàn toàn vào Thiên Chúa như Chúa Giêsu và qua Ngài mà Thiên Chúa đã thấy được những dấu lạ mà Chúa Giêsu đã làm. Tất cả cuộc sống của Ngài là một sự phản ánh của những sự tốt lành, quyền lực và tình yêu của Thiên Chúa. Chúng ta được mời gọi đến với cuộc đời này trong đức tin với Chúa Giêsu, như là khí cụ bình an , tình yêu và công lý của Thiên Chúa, do đó chúng ta có thể đem lại sự sống và hạnh phúc cho những người khác  qua Chúa Giêsu. Điều này cũng được thực hiện bởi quyền năng của Chúa Thánh Thần luôn liên tục hành động trong và qua chúng ta. Tuy nhiên, chúng ta thường hay bị thất bại trong mối quan hệ này với Thiên Chúa bởi vì chúng ta để cho những thứ ham muốn và quyền lực của thế gian này làm ảnh hưởng và kiểm soát cuộc sống của chúng ta.
            Lạy Chúa, xin ban cho chúng con những ân sủng của Chúa để chúng con luôn luôn được nhắc nhở là chúng con phải biết tập trung và tuân theo tất cả những gì mà Chúa đã dạy chúng con và chúng phải biết dựa vào Chúa Thánh Thần của Chúa để chúng con có thể được hướng dẫn trong ánh sáng cứu rỗi của Chúa..
 
Monday on 5th Of Easter Acts 14:5-18;  Jn 14:21-26
‘If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my father will love him, and we shall come to Him and make our home with Him.’ This is the promise of Christ to us. This also reveals the intimate relationship between  Jesus and the Father that draws us to a closer relationship with them. By this, we are called to have total dependence on God like Jesus through whom God is made visible by the signs Jesus did. His whole life is a reflection of God's goodness, power and love. We are called to this life of faith in Jesus as God’s instruments of peace, love and justice, thus giving life to others through Jesus.
            The purpose of this promise is to express the unrestricted scope of the personal relationship between God, Jesus and the believers. This is also made possible by the power of the Holy Spirit who continues to act in and through us. However, we often fail in this relationship by allowing worldly values to influence and control our lives. We lose track of the ‘focus’ and like the ‘crowd’ in the first reading, we become attached to worldly things — wealth, power, fame and status and other inordinate attachments. We need to remain faithful and persevering in our response to the love God has so graciously given us.
Lord, grant us the grace to always be reminded of all that You have taught us and to rely on Your Holy Spirit for guidance and light.
 
Monday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Jesus said to his disciples: “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” John 14:21
Most people would not think of “love” as obedience to commandments. Yet, that is precisely how Jesus defines it. To understand the truthfulness of His teaching, we must first consider the nature of love.
Saint Thomas Aquinas defines love as both an emotion and an action. As an emotion, it is part of our human nature and is the first response of the concupiscible appetite to a good perceived as desirable. This natural love is directed toward goods apprehended through the senses, such as food, people, or enjoyable activities. Since love as an emotion pertains to the sensory appetite and is tied to physical or sensible goods, it plays an essential role in the human experience. However, it’s important to note that just because a good is perceived as desirable does not mean it is truly good for us or in accord with God’s perfect will.
The love that Jesus speaks of in today’s Gospel, however, far transcends natural love. While it does involve desire and emotion when perfected, it is ultimately charity—a supernatural, spiritual love flowing from our union with Him. Charity, infused by grace, elevates love to a higher, rational act of the will, seeking the good of another for the other’s sake and fulfilling God’s commandments as an expression of that love.
This distinction invites us to examine the type of love we have toward God and others. If our love for God is purely emotional, it will be dictated by superficial and sometimes misguided desires. When we feel consolation on an emotional level, we might respond with an emotionally loving sentiment toward God. When something inspires us and we feel His presence, we might desire Him intensely. Yet, while this form of love has its place and will play a role in our relationship with God when our soul is fully perfected, it is initially a poor guide to charity. The same principle applies to our relationships with others.
Sometimes the pure love of charity hurts on a natural level. The demands of charity often call us to act contrary to our immediate desires and to love even when we do not feel like loving. Earlier in Chapter 14 of John’s Gospel, Jesus expresses the ideal of charity even more clearly: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). At the very heart of charity toward God is obedience. This obedience involves a three-fold process.
First, with our minds, we must understand God’s will, believe it, and assent to it as the highest good, even if our disordered appetites initially resist His will. Once our minds clearly perceive and understand the highest good to which we are called—God’s perfect commandments—our wills must choose to follow them. When our disordered appetites interfere, we must rely on grace to strengthen our resolve and enable us to choose the higher good.
When this process becomes habitual, and our minds and wills are regularly directed toward God’s will, even our emotions and appetites begin to conform. We come to delight in His commandments, finding refreshment and fulfillment in them. This spiritual delight far surpasses emotional satiation. This is because only God’s will—expressed through His commandments—can make us whole and enable us to become who we are created to be. Though the journey is often challenging, what joy we experience when we delight in God’s will through grace!
Reflect today on Jesus’ clear invitation to love Him through obedience to His will. Because His love for us is perfect, His commands are always for our good. Sometimes we are like children with erratic emotions and desires who need the gentle direction of a loving parent. Don’t see God’s commands as a burden; the opposite is true. God’s commands set us free to love through charity and to experience both spiritual and emotional joy in the process. When we love Jesus with this highest form of love, we will be gifted with a relationship with Him and His Father, Who will reveal themselves to us, satisfying our every desire.
My demanding Lord, Your commands are perfect and guide me into the highest good achievable. May I never perceive Your commands as a burden but have the wisdom I need to understand they are for my good, for Your glory, and for the good of all. I choose You and Your will today and always. Jesus, I trust in You. Help me to embrace Your will with joy and confidence. Jesus, I trust in You.
 
Monday 5th Easter 2026
Opening Prayer: Lord God, I am inspired by the example of Paul and Barnabas to preach the Gospel courageously. I trust that your Holy Spirit will guide me as I proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom in word and deed.
Encountering the Word of God
1. The Persecutor Has Become the Persecuted: In the First Reading, Paul and Barnabas have just been expelled from Antioch in Pisidia by the Jews who rejected the Gospel message that Jesus was raised from the dead, that the forgiveness of sins is now available through him, and that in him every believer is justified (see Acts 13:33-50). Paul and Barnabas left Pisidian Antioch and fled to the next major city in Asia Minor, Iconium. Iconium was a city that had a population of 30,000 to 80,000 in the First Century A.D. and was located along a major trade route. Just as the persecution of Jesus’ disciples in Jerusalem (in Acts 8) led the disciples – such as the deacon Philip – to bring the Gospel message to Samaria and other areas, so too the persecution of Paul and Barnabas led them to preach the Gospel in city after city in Asia Minor and throughout the Roman Empire. The irony is that Paul was once the persecutor of the Church and tried to prevent its expansion by rounding up Christians and bringing them to trial; now Paul is the persecuted one, and, due to that same persecution, is forced to move from city to city, and, in this way, brings the Gospel message to many. 
2. First the Jews, and then the Gentiles: Paul and Barnabas began their mission in Iconium by preaching in the Jewish synagogue (Acts 14:1-2). And this was their habitual practice. They would begin their mission in a city with the Jewish population in that city. This would often lead to some Jews and “God-fearing Gentiles” accepting their message about Jesus and some rejecting it. When the rejection and persecution started, the two would turn their primary attention and focus to the Gentiles. When Jews and Gentiles began to accept the proclamation of the Gospel, this often provoked some Jews and some Gentiles, who did not believe in the Gospel, to persecute the two apostles. The First Reading opens with a planned attack on Paul and Barnabas. When they learned of the plot, Paul and Barnabas left Iconium and went on to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe. In Lystra, Paul “heals a man crippled from birth, which causes such a sensation that, at first, many in the city want to worship Paul and Barnabas. This healing puts Paul on a par with Peter, who healed a lame man, and shows that he, like Peter, is following in the footsteps of the messiah, Jesus” (Gray and Cavins, Walking with God, 295).
3. The Empowering Spirit: In Lystra, the Spirit empowers Paul and Barnabas to speak out boldly on behalf of Jesus the Lord. God confirms their word by granting signs and wonders to occur through their hands. The two apostles were persecuted by the people, but defended by the Holy Spirit, who moved them to flee to the cities of Lystra and Derbe, where they again proclaimed the Gospel. The Spirit was close to the Apostles when they professed the truth, justified it, and defended it. The Spirit inspired them and spoke through their words (John Paul II, May 24, 1989). Like Jesus and Peter, Paul healed a crippled man, who professed belief in Jesus Christ. Paul and Barnabas had to respond quickly to the reaction of the people, who mistakenly equated them with Greek gods and wanted to offer sacrifices to them. The healing of the crippled man was not a proclamation of the apostles’ divinity, but a confirmation of the truth of their Gospel message, namely, that the people should turn from pagan idols to the living God, who is the creator of all things. Proper contemplation of the creation around us speaks to all men and women of the one and true God’s goodness, beauty, power, and providential care.
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, empower me with the Spirit today so that I might be fearless in the proclamation of your Gospel. Do not let me be discouraged by rejection or waver under trial.