Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Bẩy Tuần 10 Thường Niên,

today. We don’t worship Mary as if she were some kind of divinity, as some critics of Catholicism claim we do. Rather, we look to her spiritually as a beacon of hope, a model of virtue, and a caring mother—we look to her now, in our lives, as God’s children, just the way Jesus looked at her when he was a child in Nazareth. At least, we are invited and called to do so. 

 

Saturday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time 2026

Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow. But I say to you, do not swear at all… Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the Evil One.” Matthew 5:33–34, 37

When someone’s honesty is questioned, it is not uncommon to respond emphatically by saying, “I swear to God!” This instinct to invoke God’s name is an attempt to lend credibility to one’s words. Such a practice finds its roots in several Old Testament teachings, where the people of Israel were instructed not to profane God’s name by swearing falsely (cf. Exodus 20:7; Leviticus 19:12).

The Old Testament teaching on oaths was not only a prohibition against profaning God’s name but also a way of promoting trust and honesty among the Israelites: “When a man makes a vow to the LORD or binds himself under oath to a pledge, he shall not violate his word, but must fulfill exactly the promise he has uttered” (Numbers 30:3).

Over time, however, the practice of swearing oaths began to shift. Instead of invoking God’s name directly, people began to swear by created things, such as Heaven, Earth, Jerusalem, or even their own bodies or families. Jesus directly addresses these practices in today’s Gospel. This shift often served as a way to avoid fully binding oneself to the truth and to avoid directly profaning God’s name. By swearing upon lesser created things, oaths became tools of deception and manipulation, distorting their original purpose of truth-telling and reverence for God.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus responds to this misuse of oaths by elevating the moral principle behind them—Truthfulness—to a higher standard. He applies this teaching universally to all people and circumstances, calling His disciples to live with such profound integrity that their simple word is sufficient. Truthfulness must flow from a heart that is honest and upright, where a “Yes” means “Yes” and a “No” means “No,” without the need for sworn assurances. In doing so, Jesus invites His followers to a radical interior transformation. Their speech should be a natural expression of their union with God, who is, Himself, the fullness of Truth.

This teaching aligns seamlessly with the other moral commandments Jesus offers in His Sermon on the Mount. One by one, He addresses elements of the Old Testament Law and reveals His mission to fulfill them. Rather than focusing solely on external observance, Jesus deepens the moral requirements of the Law, shifting the emphasis to the interior disposition of the heart. This teaching transcends the Pharisaical approach to the Law, which often reduced righteousness to external conformity. By grace, God now writes these laws on the hearts of His disciples, transforming their moral lives from one of outward compliance to one of sincere interior and exterior holiness.

In the case of oaths, Jesus shows that true discipleship requires not just avoiding falsehood, but cultivating a radical honesty that mirrors the purity of God Who is Truth. This level of integrity is not achieved by human effort alone but through the transformative work of grace, which reshapes our hearts and enables us to live as credible witnesses to the Gospel in both word and deed.

Reflect today on whether or not your ‘Yes’ means ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ means ‘No.’ Are you a person of radical honesty and integrity? Do you know the Truth, believe it, and profess it wholeheartedly? While external oaths still hold an important place in sacred moments—such as marriage vows and other Sacraments—they are not meant for casual use in daily life. Instead, strive to be a person of integrity in all your words and actions, ensuring that honesty flows naturally from your heart. By doing so, you allow God’s New Covenant to be written on your heart, transforming your life and enabling you to live as a true disciple of Christ in every circumstance.

Lord of Truth, dwell within my heart and make it pure and holy. Fill me with Your presence so that my words and deeds may always reflect Your light and truth. Help me to be a beacon of honesty and integrity, bringing glory to Your name in all that I say and do. Conform my will to Yours, and guide me to live in accord with Your divine plan. Jesus, I trust in You

 

Opening Prayer: Lord God, help me hear your voice amid the noise of the world. I want to respond generously to your call. I need to discern wisely what I need to leave behind to follow your Son. Grant me a wise and discerning heart so that I can live in your love and bring others to enjoy life with you.

Encountering the Word of God

1. New Covenant Truthfulness: In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is giving the new Torah (teaching) of the Messiah, and comes to his fourth teaching. In the old Torah of Moses, the people were commanded not to make false oaths or to invoke God’s name in vain when making an oath or vow. “Oaths invoked God’s name as the guarantor of a person’s word. This is why it was so important not to break an oath. To break an oath amounted to taking the Lord’s name in vain (Exodus 20:7)” (Mitch and Sri, The Gospel of Matthew, 99). Jesus doesn’t want his followers to distinguish between when they are obliged to speak truthfully and when they aren’t. Thus, “If God’s people were truthful in every statement, legal provision for oath swearing would be superfluous” (Mitch and Sri, The Gospel of Matthew, 99). Jesus wants his disciples to be truthful always.

2. Correcting the Pharisees and Their Tradition: In Jesus’ day, the Pharisaic tradition had corrupted the commandments prohibiting false oaths with their subtle distinctions. It seems that Jews avoided using God’s name in oaths and swore instead by something associated with God. And so the Pharisees started to distinguish which oath formulas were binding and which were not. Jesus will pronounce a woe of warning on the Pharisees for this practice (Matthew 23:16-22). Some Jews were swearing not by God’s name, but by heaven, or by earth, or by Jerusalem, or by one’s head. “Jesus, however, shows how this practice still puts one in the position of facing divine judgment, for even these substitutes are intimately linked with God: heaven is God’s throne; the earth is his footstool; Jerusalem is the city of the great King; and even the hair on one’s own head was made by God. Jesus instructs his disciples not to engage in such devious oath swearing but to be straightforward in their speech” (Mitch and Sri, The Gospel of Matthew, 99).

3. Oaths and Vows are Permitted: It is important to realize that Jesus is using the technique of hyperbole when he says, “Do not swear to all.” Jesus is not overturning or abolishing the original commandments about oaths. Jesus “is not opposed to oath or vow taking, and he would certainly affirm the importance of following through with integrity on what one vows to do, in accordance with several Old Testament texts. Instead, using hyperbolic, poetic speech, Jesus is speaking to the heart issue of trying to get out of fulfilling one’s vows by semantic and technical arguments about the supposed differences between the objects upon which one based their vow.” (Pennington, The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing, 193). What Jesus is saying is that if you are going to do this – having ways like the scribes and Pharisees to get out of truthful speech and the fulfillment of vows – then you shouldn’t make oaths or vows at all. As a wise teacher, Jesus simplifies things: Don’t make your vow complicated, just say “Yes” or “No” and then do what you’ve said. “Anything else is evil, coming from the evil one, not God” (Pennington, The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing, 194).

 

Saturday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time, Luke 2:41-51

Each year Jesus’s parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom. After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances, but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them. He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart.

 

Saturday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time, Luke 2:41-51

Opening Prayer: I believe in you, Lord because you are truth itself. I hope in you because you are infinite mercy and are faithful to your promises. I love you because you are infinitely lovable. I need your grace, and as I come into your presence I thank you ahead of time for whatever grace you wish to give me today. Help me to recognize it, receive it, and respond generously to it.

Encountering Christ:

1. Responding with Faith: Yesterday we celebrated Jesus’s Sacred Heart, the eloquent and powerful revelation of just how thoroughly and passionately God loves us. Today we celebrate Mary’s Immaculate Heart, the inspiring model of how we as human beings can respond to God’s love. Mary’s experiences with Christ were not always easy to endure or understand. Losing him in the Temple, as today’s Gospel passage shows, filled her with “great anxiety.” Her experience on Calvary, watching her son be rejected and crucified, filled her with great sorrow—usually symbolized in images of the Immaculate Heart by a sword piercing Mary’s heart. God’s ways are not our ways, and even for the Blessed Virgin Mary, who had been preserved by God’s grace from the effects of original sin, being faithful to God’s will in her life was hard. It was risky. It was at times confusing. But through it all, she continued to anchor her life firmly and definitively on the rock foundation of her faith. This is why St. Elizabeth was able to say to Mary, “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled” (Luke 1:45). How do I respond to the challenging, confusing, painful circumstances of my life? How healthy is my faith?

2. Learning to Be Contemplative: Artistic renditions of Mary’s Immaculate Heart usually show her heart encircled by blooming roses. A flower in bloom is open to receiving the light and warmth of the sun and the moisture of life-giving rain. This is why such flowers traditionally symbolize openness to God’s grace. And that was one of Mary’s special characteristics. She was “full of grace” and continued to be open to God’s action in her life. This comes across beautifully in the last line of today’s Gospel passage: “…and his mother kept all things in her heart.” The Greek word for “kept” is “diaterei.” It has connotations of taking care of something attentively, preserving and storing it up as valuable, even treasuring it. Mary’s heart was a place where she did all those things. It was a place of encountering God and contemplating God’s words and actions with that kind of attention and affection. Her heart was like the rich soil Jesus described in his parable of the sower—soil ready to welcome and nourish the seeds God wants to plant there. Here too Mary teaches us about following God; she shares her motherly wisdom. We all must learn to be contemplative, to keep our hearts and minds open to God’s action, and give ourselves time to absorb and be enriched by all that he gives us. In a fast-paced, frenetic, noisy world like today’s, this is harder than ever. But if we want our Christian lives to grow and flourish, we have to face that challenge. How do I carve out time and space for quiet contemplation of God’s goodness and action in my life? How can I become more contemplative even in the midst of my activity?

3. A Presence We Need: Mary not only instructs us by modeling how to live the Christian life. She also accompanies and intercedes for us. She is meant to be a presence in our life. She is, as the Catechism puts it, “a mother to us in the order of grace” (CCC 968). Throughout the history of the Church Mary has made her presence felt in myriad ways: her many apparitions through the centuries; her feast days in the liturgy; inspiring Marian images; devotional practices like the rosary. In images of the Immaculate Heart this loving, grace-filled presence is symbolized by the living flames burning from her heart. In our increasingly post-Christian culture, motherhood and the life-giving genius of authentic femininity is becoming as sidelined as fatherhood and authentic masculinity. God gave us Mary’s presence because he knew we would need it, and we need it more than ever today. We don’t worship Mary as if she were some kind of divinity, as some critics of Catholicism claim we do. Rather, we look to her spiritually as a beacon of hope, a model of virtue, and a caring mother—we look to her now, in our lives as God’s children, just the way Jesus looked at her when he was a child in Nazareth. At least, we are invited and called to do so.