Ngay sau khi Chúa Giêsu tiên báo cho các môn đệ về cuộc khổ nạn của Ngài sắp tới, thì anh em ông Giacôbê và Gioan đã muốn xin Chúa bảo đảm cho anh em ông có được vị trí quan trọng trong vinh quang của Chúa khi Chúa được Vinh Danh. Có lẽ ông Giacôbê và Gioan đã thấu hiểu một cách rất nông cạn về sứ mệnh của Chúa Giêsu "Các ngươi biết, thủ lĩnh các dân tộc thì làm chúa trên họ, và những người làm lớn thì bắt họ phục quyền trên đầu họ. Nơi các ngươi thì không như thế! Ai muốn làm lớn trong các ngươi thì hãy hầu hạ các ngươi,” (Mt 20:25-26)
Trong mùa Chay này, chúng ta hãy suy ngẫm về cuộc sống của chúng ta. Hãy tự vấn lương tâm, tự hỏi hỏi mình: chúng ta đã thể hiện tình yêu thương và biết quan tâm tới những người khác? Chúng ta có biết làm việc bác ái để chứng tỏ rằng chúng ta thật sự là môn đệ của Chúa Kitô? Chúng ta hãy cầu nguyện , xin Chúa ban những hồng ân của ngài xuống trong cuộc sống của chúng ta.
A lot of people are scrambling for positions, power and authority. The noble desire to serve may end up as self-serving. Adulation, recognition, pride and desire for money can destroy the best intentions. Christ chose the path of being the least, to become a servant. He was insulted, spat on, laughed at, and died on the cross, an instrument to punish criminals. He underwent all these out of love for us. Love should then be the reason behind all forms of leadership and service.
Just after Christ prophesied his passion, the Zebedees, James and John, wanted an assurance of their place in glory. They understood very little about the mission of Christ. "Gentiles are the ones who want to make their authority felt." \
A lot of people are scrambling for positions, power and authority. The noble desire to serve may end up as self-serving. Adulation, recognition, pride and desire for money can destroy the best intentions. Christ chose the path of being the least, to become a servant. He was insulted, spat on, laughed at, and died on the cross, an instrument to punish criminals. He underwent all these out of love for us. Love should then be the reason behind all forms of leadership and service.
As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the Twelve disciples aside by themselves, and said to them on the way, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.” Matthew 20:17–19
What a conversation that must have been! As Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem with the Twelve just prior to the first Holy Week, Jesus spoke openly and clearly about what would be waiting for Him in Jerusalem. Imagine what the disciples would have thought. In many ways, it would have been too much for them to comprehend at the time. In many ways, the disciples probably preferred not to hear what Jesus had to say. But Jesus knew they needed to hear this difficult truth, especially as the moment of the Crucifixion drew near.
Oftentimes the full message of the Gospel is difficult for us to accept. This is because the full message of the Gospel will always centrally point us to the sacrifice of the Cross. Sacrificial love and the full embrace of the Cross needs to be seen, understood, loved, fully embraced and confidently proclaimed. But how is this done? Let’s start with our Lord Himself.
Jesus was not afraid of the truth. He knew that His suffering and death was imminent, and He was ready and willing to accept this truth without hesitation. He didn’t see His Cross in a negative light. He did not look at it as a tragedy to be avoided. He didn’t allow fear to deter Him. Instead, Jesus looked at His imminent sufferings in the light of truth. He saw His suffering and death as a glorious act of love that He was soon to offer, and, therefore, He was not afraid to not only embrace these sufferings but also to speak of them with confidence and courage.
In our own lives, we are given the invitation to imitate Jesus’ courage and love every time we must face something difficult in life. When this happens, some of the most common temptations are to be angry about the difficulty, or to look for ways to avoid it, or to blame others, or to give into despair and the like. There are numerous coping mechanisms that kick in by which we tend to try and avoid the crosses that await us.
But what if we followed the example of our Lord instead? What if we faced any and every pending cross with love, courage and a willing embrace? What if instead of looking for a way out, we looked for a way in, so to speak? That is, we looked for a way to embrace our suffering in a sacrificial way, without hesitancy, in imitation of Jesus’ embrace of His cross. Every cross in life has the potential of becoming an instrument of much grace in our own lives and in the lives of others. Therefore, from the perspective of grace and eternity, crosses must be embraced, not avoided or cursed.
Reflect, today, upon any difficulty you are facing. Do you see it in the same way that Jesus sees it? Can you see every cross you are given as an opportunity for sacrificial love? Are you able to embrace it with hope and confidence, knowing that God can bring good out of it? Seek to imitate our Lord by joyfully embracing the difficulties you face and those crosses will ultimately share in the Resurrection with our Lord.
My suffering Lord, you freely embraced the injustice of the Cross with love and courage. You saw beyond the apparent scandal and suffering and transformed the evil done to You into the greatest act of love ever known. Give me the grace to imitate Your perfect love and to do so with the strength and confidence that You had. Jesus, I trust in You.
1. The Life of Jeremiah: As he was being persecuted, Jeremiah compared himself to a gentle lamb led to the slaughter (Jeremiah 11:19). In this, we see that Jeremiah’s life, especially the persecutions and rejections he suffered from his contemporaries, looks forward to the rejection and abuse heaped on Jesus during his passion. The similarity with Jeremiah is such that when Jesus asks his disciples who people think the Son of Man is, one of the answers is that Jesus is Jeremiah (Matthew 16:14). Jeremiah was chosen from the womb by God, consecrated, and appointed as a prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1:5). He was destined for rejection by the people and the leaders of Judah (Jeremiah 1:18-19). He was betrayed by his own kindred (Jeremiah 12:6). He prophesied and foretold the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem by the Babylonians (Jeremiah 26:2-6). Because he preached against the Temple, Jeremiah was opposed and persecuted by the chief priests and the elders (Jeremiah 20:1-3; 26:7-9). At his trial, the princes of the people had Jeremiah beaten and imprisoned, yet the puppet king Zedekiah was eager to listen to Jeremiah and was sympathetic toward him. Ultimately, Zedekiah was weak-willed and handed Jeremiah over to the princes who had him imprisoned in a dungeon (Jeremiah 37-38). Jeremiah was cast into a cistern and left to die but was raised up out of it later by a rope (38:6-13).
2. The Life of Jesus: Like Jeremiah, Jesus was chosen from the womb by God and called holy (Luke 1:31-35). Like Jeremiah, Jesus was destined for rejection by the people and would be a sign of contradiction (Luke 2:34). Like Jeremiah, Jesus was betrayed by someone close to him (John 13:18). Like Jeremiah, Jesus predicted the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem (Mark 11:15-19). Like Jeremiah, Jesus was opposed and persecuted by the chief priests and the elders, who plotted his death (Mark 3:6; 11:18). Like Jeremiah, Jesus was condemned to death for preaching against the Temple (Mark 14:57-58). Like Jeremiah’s trial, Jesus’ trial was held before a ruler who was sympathetic to Jesus but who ultimately gave in to the will of the priests and elders of the people and handed him over to be killed (John 18-19). Finally, Jeremiah’s time in the cistern pit and rising out of the pit looks forward to the three days Jesus spends in the tomb before his glorious resurrection.
3. Conforming our Lives to the Life of Christ: As Christians, we are capable of something far greater than Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s life prophetically looked forward to the life of Jesus. And he suffered as a prophet of the Lord. We, however, can be conformed to the life of Christ (Romans 12:2) in a way Jeremiah never could. The Good News is that we were eternally predestined to become conformed to the image of God’s Son (Romans 8:29). St. Paul continually makes the exhortation to put on Christ (Romans 13:14), to know that we have been baptized into Christ Jesus (Romans 6:3-10), to have the same mind as Jesus (Philippians 2:5), to share in and rejoice in the sufferings of Christ (Philippians 3:10-11).
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you invite me to share in your sufferings and to take up my cross each day. I need your help to do this. I cannot do it alone. I need you every step of the way. Be at my side this day and always.
Resolution: How can I conform my life to that of Christ today?
Opening Prayer:
Lord, help me to pray with my heart rather than with my head, so I can meet you heart to heart in this meditation, be won over by you, and desire to become a part of the kingdom of your merciful love rather than the worldly kingdoms of power, fame, and wealth.
Encountering Christ:
1. Jesus Attempted to Prepare the Disciples: Jesus and the disciples were headed to Jerusalem for the Passover. Soon, Jesus would undergo his Passion. At this point, the disciples were overjoyed because everything was going well. Jesus was attracting huge crowds. He was very popular. They believed he was the Messiah, the descendant of King David who soon would be crowned king! The Passover was the traditional date for crowning Jewish kings and the traditional place was Jerusalem. They thought everything was lining up. And, of course, it was lining up, but not at all as they were expecting. Jesus told them what to expect. Would they listen?
Hai người con của ông Dêbêđê đã theo và sống với Chúa Giêsu khá lâu nhưng họ vẫn không hiểu giáo lý của Ngài. Họ chỉ có thể nghĩ về tới trong quyền năng và vinh quang riêng cho mình, vì vậy họ đã tỏ lòng xin với Chúa quyền lực. "Họ xin cho hai chỗ quan trọng trong Nước Trời, một ở bên phải và một ở bên trái của Ngài”. Chúng ta có thể tưởng tượng nỗi thất vọng và sự bực bội Chúa Giêsu thấy như thế nào khi nghe lời yêu cầu của họ!. Ngài giải thích rằng họ ràng họ sẽ được chia sẽ những đau khổ, việc tử đạo với ngài, nhưng "không có việc làm lớn trong nước Trời."
Chúa Giêsu một lần nữa nhấn mạnh với họ rằng sự vĩ đại thật sự và là người môn đệ thật sự là những người biết sống trong sự khiêm tốn với lòng biết phục vụ và yêu thương. Chúa Giêsu cảnh báo họ là không bao giờ bắt chước những ví dụ về quản trị và các mối quan hệ của con người trong những nền văn hóa hiện tại và xung quanh họ, Bởi vì họ là những người chỉ biết dựa trên sự thống trị và làm chúa người khác hơn là muốn phục vũ những người khác. Và Chúa đã chỉ vào chính mình, và Ngài tuyên bố là: Ngài đã đến không phải để được phục vụ nhưng Ngài đến để phục vụ. Vá chúng ta cũng phải học và làm như Chúa.
Lạy Chúa, Xin cho cuộc sống của chúng con là một cuộc sống biết phục vụ những người khác theo khả năm riêng mà Chúa đã ban cho chúng con với tấm lòng Khiêm Tốn..
Speaking the truth to power is never easy, and Jeremiah knew that well. He was ordered by God to deliver the bad news to those in authority: the nation was corrupt and spiritually sick. They had to return to the ways of God. But people preferred the false prophets who told authorities what they wanted to hear: everything is just fine! A plot was hatched against Jeremiah to silence him, but he was protected by God. We should never be intimidated for speaking the truth or standing up for what is right.
The sons of Zebedee had walked with Jesus so long but they still didn't understand his teachings. They could only think of basking in his power and glory, so they made a ‘power move.’ They asked for the two choice seats in his kingdom, one at his right and the other at his left. Just imagine how disappointed and frustrated Jesus must have felt when he heard their request. He explained that they would have to share his suffering and martyrdom, and they agreed, implying that it was ‘no big deal.’ Rash words! Jesus again insisted that true greatness and true discipleship was all about humility and loving service. He warned them not to copy the examples of governance and human relationships in the culture around them. They were all based on domination and lording it over others. He pointed to himself, declaring that he had come not to be served but to serve. It can be no less for all of us. Lord, may my life be one of humble service.
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