Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Năm Tuần thứ 5 Thường Niên

Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Năm Tuần thứ 5 Thường Niên (Mark 7:24-30)
Thiên Chúa đang hành động trong tâm hồn của tất cả mỗi người chúng ta, không phải chỉ ở nơi những người theo đạo Thiên chúa.  Qua đoạn Tin Mừng hôm nay, chúng ta thấy Thánh Marcô đã diễn tả và chứng minh cho chúng ta thấy: ý nghĩa của Đức Tin là gì?.
            Một người phụ nữ ngoại đạo rất kiên trì, kỳ nài xin Chúa Giêsu giúp cứu sống con gái của bà và Chúa đã đáp ứng sự mong muốn và cầu xin của bà. Một điều rất kinh ngạc là bà là một người ngoại giáo (những người mà người Do Thái thường khinh chê). Trong thực tại Chúa Giêsu đã phải ngưỡng mộ lòng tin của bà, Với một lòng tin và chân thành bà đã hạ mình (khi bị coi như là một con chó) cầu khẩn để sự chữa lành cho người con gái của bà. Lòng tin tưởng của bà đã làm Chúa Giêsu phải siêu lòng. Đối với một người dân ngoại như bà, một người có niềm tin vượt xa hơn cả những người Do Thái, dân riêng của Chúa.
            Đức tin không có liên quan đến cái đầu của hơn là liên quan đến với trái tim! đức tin của người phụ nữ đang ở trong Trái tim của bà. Với đức tin mãnh liệt nơi bà! bà ta sẽ không dễ dàng nản lòng và bỏ cuộc. Trong lúc đó, Chúa Giêsu đã nhận ra được đức tin của bà khi Ngài giả vờ từ chối bà! Lòng Tin cứng rắn thì bao gồm cả sự đầu hàng cần thiết, kể ngay cả nhân phẩm cá nhân của chúng ta. Chúa làm việc và hành động với những người biết khiêm tốn, vâng phục và biết sống theo cách của Ngài. Nếu chúng ta không sống theo với Lời Chúa, thì phước lành và ơn sũng của Ngài cũng có thể rời bỏ chúng ta để vào trong những thắc mắc, ghi vấn bí ẩn của chúng ta, Ngài không ban cho chúng ta những câu trả lời mà chúng ta muốn! Thiên Chúa hiện diện trong tất cả  mọi trường hợp và môi trường mà chúng ta đang sống! Chúng ta chỉ cần buông thả,  vì có Chúa sẽ luôn quan phòng cho chúng ta..!
            "Lạy Chúa Giêsu, tình yêu và lòng thương xót của Chúa được biết là không có giới hạn. Chúng con có thể luôn luôn tin tưởng vào Chúa và không bao giờ nghi ngờ về sự yêu thương chăm sóc và lòng thương xót của Chúa, Xin ban thêm cho đức tin của chúng con được vũng mạnh trong sự cứu rỗi của Chúa và xin giải thoát chúng con khỏi mọi sự dữ và nguy hiểm trong cuộc sống hôm nay và trong thê giới này."
 
REFLECTION
God is at work in the hearts of all us, not just those who are Christian. Look at today’s Gospel passage. True to his intention, Saint Mark was demonstrating what it means to have faith.
            A very persistent woman who wants her daughter to be healed confronts Jesus. She is so persistent that Jesus gives in to her and fulfills her desire. The most amazing thing is that she is a pagan.  Jesus is in fact in admiration of her faith. She literally wrests the healing and deliverance of her daughter! Her faith in Jesus, changes his orientation, towards pagan people like her, whose faith far surpasses that of the ‘God chosen’ people.
            Faith has less to do with our head than with the heart! The woman’s heart was in her faith in Jesus! She was not going to give up easily as Jesus realized from her response to his re-buff! Faith includes a necessary surrendering of our dignity. The Lord works with people who are humble and obedient to him and his ways. If we fail to live according to God's word, his blessings may well pass from us to others, just as Paul explains his proclaiming the Gospel to the Gentiles because the Jews would not listen to him. 
            God enters into our questions, he does not provide the answers! For us as for the woman “reality” is the best teacher. God is in the circumstances we are in! We need only to let go!
            "Lord Jesus, your love and mercy knows no bounds. May I trust you always and never doubt your loving care and mercy. Increase my faith in your saving help and deliver me from all evil and harm."
 
Thursday 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time 2024
Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. Mark 7:25–26
A parent’s love is powerful. And the woman in this story clearly loves her daughter. It is that love that drives this mother to seek out Jesus in the hope that He will free her daughter from the demon who possessed her. Interestingly, this woman was not of the Jewish faith. She was a Gentile, a foreigner, but her faith was very real and very deep.
When Jesus first encountered this woman, she begged Him to free her daughter from the demon. Jesus’ response was at first surprising. He said to her, “Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” In other words, Jesus was saying that His mission was first to the people of Israel, the chosen people of the Jewish faith. They were the “children” of whom Jesus was speaking, and the Gentiles, such as this woman, were the ones referred to as “the dogs.” Jesus spoke this way to this woman not out of rudeness but because He could see her deep faith, and He wanted to give her an opportunity to manifest that faith for all to see. And so she did.
The woman responded to Jesus, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.” Her words were not only exceptionally humble but were also based on deep faith and a deep love for her daughter. As a result, Jesus responds with generosity and immediately frees her daughter from the demon.
In our own lives, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking we deserve the mercy of God. We can think that we have a right to God’s grace. And even though Jesus deeply desires to pour forth His grace and mercy in superabundance on our lives, it is essential that we fully understand our unworthiness before Him. The disposition of this woman’s heart sets for us a perfect example of how we must come to our Lord.
Reflect, today, upon the beautiful example of this woman of deep faith. Prayerfully read her words over and over. Try to understand her humility, her hope, and her love for her daughter. As you do, pray that you will be able to imitate her goodness so as to share in the blessings she and her daughter received.
My merciful Lord, I trust in Your perfect love for me and for all peoples. I pray especially for those who carry heavy burdens and for those whose lives are deeply intertwined with evil. Please set them free, dear Lord, and welcome them into Your family so that they become true children of Your Father. May I have the humility and faith I need to help bring forth this abundance of grace for others. Jesus, I trust in You.
 
Thursday 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time 2024
Opening Prayer: Lord God, you are always faithful and merciful. You never give up on your people even though we sin and reject you and your ways. You seek to bring us back into your loving embrace. I am moved deeply by your merciful love for me.
 Encountering the Word of God
 1. The Downfall of King Solomon: When the Book of Sirach reflects on the life of Solomon, it praises the great wisdom of Solomon’s youth (Sirach 47:13-18), but also recalls how Solomon fell due to the influence of his many foreign wives. Solomon disregarded the law against marriage to Gentiles (Deuteronomy 7:3-4) and this led him little by little to worship their pagan gods. Solomon fell greatly into sin by succumbing to the three temptations of lust, pride, and greed. When the Lord confronted Solomon’s father, David, with his sin, David immediately repented and asked for mercy. By contrast, when the Lord confronted Solomon with his sin, there was silence. It seems that Solomon gave no outward sign of repentance. The Lord says to Solomon that, due to his sin, the kingdom will be torn away from his son, Rehoboam. Yet for the sake of David and the city of Jerusalem, the tribe of Judah will remain. In all this, God shows how he is faithful to his covenant with David, despite human infidelity.
 2. Jesus and the Gentiles: In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus has just declared all foods clean (Mark 7:14-23). By doing this, Jesus has taken down a barrier that separated Jews from Gentiles. Today’s encounter between Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman, a Gentile, should be read in that light. Salvation is not exclusively for the people of Israel but is extended by Jesus to all peoples. 
 3. Jesus tests the Syrophoenician woman: When the woman asks Jesus to cure her possessed daughter, Jesus tests her faith in the form of a parable saying that the children should be fed first and that the bread of the children should not be given to dogs. What Jesus means is that the blessings of the kingdom will be given first to the chosen people of Israel (i.e., the children) and not yet to the Gentiles (i.e., the dogs or puppies). The Gentile woman is not offended by Jesus’ words and wisely extends Jesus’ parable. She points out that the puppies and dogs in the house do not go hungry but get to eat the children’s scraps that fall from the table! Jesus is very impressed by her faith and mercifully casts the demon from her daughter. The bestowal of divine blessing on the Gentiles is also emphasized in the next two stories in Mark’s Gospel. Jesus will cure a Gentile in the region of the Decapolis and also multiply seven loaves of bread for four thousand people in Gentile territory. This second miracle looks forward to the day when both Jews and Gentiles, as children of God, will eat at the same table of the Eucharist in the New Covenant. 
 Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you tested the faith and hope of the Syrophoenician woman and she passed the test with flying colors. Instead of being offended by your parable, she persisted in her prayer and petition to you. I hope that when you test my faith and love, I pass the test like her, renew my trust in you, and only deepen my love for you.
 Resolution: We see such a contrast between King Solomon and the Syrophoenician woman. The king of Israel is surrounded by material wealth and pleasure and, having experienced divine blessing, refuses to repent from his grave sins. The Gentile woman, by contrast, is suffering greatly and humbly approaches Jesus and, in faith, requests a favor from him. Who and what are we going to imitate today? The prideful unrepentance of Solomon or the humble perseverance of the Syrophoenician woman?
 
Thursday 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer: Good Jesus, you have invited me to this time of prayer, this encounter, with you. You have something you wish to say to me today, some grace you want to give me. And you know how much I need you. Open my heart to receive your word. Come, Holy Spirit, help me to hear you and to respond. 
Encountering Christ: 
1.      Deliberately: In the passage before this one, St. Mark presented Jesus in Gennesaret. Now, he travels to the district of Tyre, an important trade city of the Roman Empire at that time. Let’s just say it was not a typical route to travel since he had to cross a ridge of mountains alongside the Mediterranean coast to get there from where he was. For some reason, Jesus wanted to be there. Mark tells us he wanted to escape notice. Perhaps he needed some time alone to rest. Or perhaps he went there deliberately to find a soul in need of him–a foreigner–who otherwise would have had no access to him. What does this tell us, in our current reality, about the gratuity of God’s providence and the universality of his message for all? 
2.      A Mother’s Prayer: How did Jesus receive the prayers of a mother? We know the example of St. Monica, who wept and prayed for the conversion of her son Augustine. St. Ambrose told her: “The son of these tears cannot be lost.” Perhaps St. Ambrose himself was inspired by the way Jesus received the prayers of this Syrophoenician mother. In any case, it reminds us of the filial, loving attention Jesus gives to the intercession of his Mother Mary. Our God, who became like us in all things but sin, also wanted to have a mother as we do, and even to give her to us as our own mother (cf. John 19). His heart, human and divine, cannot help but be moved by a mother’s prayer. 
3.      Dialogue in Humor and Faith: The dialogue between Jesus and this Gentile woman is striking, if not upsetting, at first glance. Michael Pakaluk, who offers a fresh translation of St. Mark’s original Greek in his book The Memoirs of St. Peter says this is not a parable about who is better–Jew or Greek–but about priorities. Jesus had come to proclaim salvation first to the Jews, the Chosen People his Father had prepared, and then to the Gentiles (the task he would give to his Apostles, cf. Matthew 28:19). He said as much to the woman in his “parable” (riddle, almost) about children and dogs. She in turn took that parable and turned it back to Jesus: even while the children eat at the table, the dogs are fed, too, by the crumbs. She was not turned away by an answer from Jesus that she did not entirely understand; she embraced it, in faith, and responded as best she could. Jesus saw her faith and blessed her. Let us learn from this woman how to dialogue with the Lord with humor and openness, just as we are, and from there, let faith grow. 
Conversing with Christ: Jesus, you come out to seek me, too, just as you did this woman. You have a tender place in your heart for a mother’s intercession. I, therefore, entrust all my needs to your Mother’s faithful and good hands, that she may present them to you. Help me, Jesus, teach me, to dialogue with you—not to be afraid to wrestle, even, in faith, with the way you are acting in my life. You yourself are the crumbs which fall from the table: the Eucharist, which you come to give me, from your altar. I will make the effort to come to you, Lord. Come to my heart in response. 
Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will make a spiritual communion, and speak to you in my heart about what I most need. 
 
Thursday 5th Week in Ordinary Time
God is at work in the hearts of all men and women, not just those who are Christian. Look at the Gospel. True to his intention, Mark was a non-Jew demonstrating what it means to have faith. A very persistent woman who wants her daughter to be healed confronts Jesus. She is so persistent that Jesus gives in to her and fulfills her desire. The most amazing thing is that she is a pagan. How could she possibly know who Jesus is, let alone have faith in him?
            The Church in it is theology of conversion and evangelization tells us that even before people hear the Gospel, the Holy Spirit is at work in their hearts preparing them for this very event. The Second Vatican Council also affirms that there are elements of the truth at work in all cultures and religions and that the Church affirms and encourages these aspects of them. St. Paul writes about our ability to know and come to believe in God through the wonder and glory of creation, even without specifically hearing the Gospel proclaimed.
            The scriptures tell us that the Lord works with people who are humble and obedient to him and his ways. If we fail to live according to God's word, his blessings may well pass from us to others, just as Paul explains his proclaiming the Gospel to the Gentiles because the Jews would not listen to him.
            If anything, we should be awed by the responsibility we bear as Catholics. The fullness of the truth necessary for salvation subsists within the Catholic Church. This means that we have a duty and a responsibility to live out this truth to the full and, as such, to be a beacon light lighting up for all peoples the path of eternal salvation.