Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Tư Tuần thứ 5 Mùa Chay

Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Tư Tuần thứ 5 Mùa Chay - John 8, 31-42
Hôm nay, Chúa Kitô mời gọi chúng ta đón nhận Lời Chúa để Lời Chúa làm chủ tâm hồn của chúng ta. Ngài cũng nói rằng tất cả mọi thứ trên đời này sẽ qua đi nhưng Lời Ngài sẽ chẳng bao giờ qua đi, nhưng sẽ tồn tại vĩnh cửu. Vì Lời Chúa chính là Thiên Chúa.
Qua lịch sử của loài người chúng ta thấy. Con người đã phát minh và đưa ra rất nhiều chân lý, và triết lý khác nhau qua những triều đại và những đế quốc có lúc rất là thịnh vượng, nhưng rồi cũng đã bị diệt vong, như đế quốc La Mã hay Mông Cổ với Thành Cát Tư Hãn... Thế giới của chúng ta luôn luôn thay đổi và phát triển liên tục. Để nhận biết chân lý sự thật, chúng ta cần phải nhận thức, Chúng ta cần có một cái mỏ neo tinh thần để có thể chịu đựng được những sự thử thách của thời gian.
Lời của Chúa "hướng dẫn chúng ta, bác bỏ mọi sự dối trá, khuyên nhủ và sửa chữa những lỗi lầm, biết nhẫn nại và chú tâm dạy dỗ người khác". (2 Tm 4:2). Tuy nhiên, không nên chỉ biết nghe không mà thôi, chúng ta cần đưa Lời Chúa vào thực tại bằng việc thực hiện Lời Chúa ngay trong cuộc sống hằng ngày của chúng ta để chúng ta có thể phát triển và thu thập được các loại hoa trái của sự hy vọng, trong đức tin và đức ái.
 
REFLECTION Gospel Reading: John 8:31-42
Today, Jesus Christ invites us to make his Word our home. He also says that everything passes away but the Word of God remains because it is eternal.  And Word is God Himself. Human history raised up many truths and philosophies. Dynasties and empires rose and fell. The world is constantly changing and evolving. To know the truth, we need discernment. We need a spiritual anchor that can withstand the test of time. The word of God "instructs, refutes falsehood, corrects errors, gives encouragement." (2 Tm 4:2) It also goes beyond the limits of time. But it should not only be listened to but put into practice as well so that we can gather fruits of faith, hope and charity.
 
Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him, “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31–32
These words have the potential to make a transforming difference in our lives. Note that Jesus spoke these words “to those Jews who believed in him.” That is, those who had accepted His word and were, therefore, His true disciples. We who also believe in Jesus should consider these words carefully. The heart of this teaching is twofold: you must come to “know the truth” so that the truth you come to know “will set you free.” 
This teaching of Jesus is exceptionally helpful on both a psychological and spiritual level. First of all, on a purely psychological level, one of the greatest helps to good mental health is the truth. Most often when one struggles with various forms of depression, it’s because they are seeing aspects of their life with confusion. “Why did this person do this to me?” Or “How will I ever get through this?” Or “My life is a mess and there is no way out.” These and other similar thoughts will inevitably lead to depression for one simple reason: they are based on erroneous thinking.
One of the best forms of psychological counseling is what could be called “truth therapy.” Every despairing question that we have and every depressing conclusion that we have come to in life must be reexamined in the light of the mind of God. What does God think? What is in the mind of God in this regard? Those truths that are waiting to be discovered are the truth that “will set you free.” Depression is more easily overcome when we look at our life in the way that God looks at our life. This produces hope, and hope brings freedom to the chains of depression and confusion.
On a spiritual level, these principles apply all the more. The truth about sin, forgiveness, salvation and Heaven must be known deeply and embraced fully. When we deny the truth of sin or forgiveness, then we live within a lie and we remain bound by that lie. True spiritual freedom that leads to salvation and eternity in Heaven is obtained only when we wholeheartedly embrace the holy and perfect spiritual truth given to us by God. We must clearly know our sin, repent of it, seek the forgiveness of God, amend our lives and live the new life of grace to which we are called.
Reflect, today, upon this powerfully transforming teaching of Jesus: “know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” What psychological and spiritual truths do you need to more deeply know? What confusion or blindness remains? Seek the remedy of the Truth as it is in the mind of God and know that freedom awaits.
God of all Truth, Your Word is liberating, transforming and fills us with hope. May I turn my mind to You and to Your holy Word so that I may know the Truth as You speak it and allow that transforming Truth to set me free. Jesus, I trust in You.
 
Wenesday 5th Week of Lent 2024
Opening Prayer: Lord God, you created me out of love to enjoy your divine life. Help me to see how true freedom is found in your loving will and sharing in your Son’s life. Help me to reject the false freedom offered by the world and the devil.
Encountering the Word of God
1. True Freedom: The discussion between Jesus and the Jews deals with the difference between the slavery of sin and the freedom of children of God. Jesus links knowing the truth and living in the truth with freedom: those who follow him as his disciples will share in his divine sonship and truly be free. John tells us that Jesus is speaking with the Jews who believed in him. The Jews, however, are hesitant to accept Jesus’ teaching and answer back that they consider themselves free, not because they follow him, but because they are descendants of Abraham. Jesus wants to correct this superficial vision of things and bring them to a deeper understanding of divine sonship and its freedom. Freedom, Jesus teaches, does not depend on physical descent from Abraham according to the flesh, but on spiritual descent from Abraham according to faith. Jesus brings this point out by alluding to the story of Abraham's two sons: Ishmael, born of the slave Hagar, and Isaac, born of Sarah his wife. Paul takes up this same theme in the Letter to the Romans and writes that not all are children of Abraham because they are his descendants. The children of God are not the children of the flesh, but rather the children of the promise (Romans 9:6-9).
2. Freedom according to Paul: In the Letter to the Galatians, Paul writes: “Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, the son of the free woman through promise” (Galatians 4:22-23). Both Ishmael and Isaac were circumcised, but circumcision (one of the signs of the covenant with Abraham) is no guarantee that one will inherit the blessings promised to Abraham and his descendants. Jesus teaches, then, that to truly be a child of Abraham means doing the works of Abraham – believing God and obeying his divine word (Romans 4:1-3). The promise made to Abraham is given to those who share the faith of Abraham (Romans 4:16). Paul will also use the story of Hagar and Sarah to symbolize two covenants (Galatians 3:24-31): Hagar represents the Mosaic covenant of Mount Sinai (and its final form in the Book of Deuteronomy); Sarah represents the Abrahamic covenant and its fulfillment in the New covenant of Jerusalem. Rejecting Jesus means following the way of Ishmael and being cut off from the blessings promised to the descendants of Abraham. Accepting Jesus means following the way of Isaac and sharing in those blessings.
3. The Liberating Action of God: Through his sacrifice on the Cross (prefigured by the binding of Isaac on Mount Moriah), Jesus frees us from the curses of the covenant of Deuteronomy. We are justified and made righteous, not by the works of the old law of Deuteronomy, but by faith in Jesus Christ and cooperation with the grace of the Holy Spirit (Compendium CCC, 422). In the Book of Daniel, we see an example of the liberating action of God. Three men – Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego – refuse to worship the king's statue and instead entrust themselves to the protection of the one, true God. They are condemned to death for their disobedience and cast into the white-hot furnace. The flames, however, do not touch them and they are protected by one who looks like a son of God. In this way, God frees them and delivers them from death. We learn from this that there is no opposition between serving God and being free. The more we act in accord with God’s law and will, the freer we become. “There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. The choice to disobey and do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to the slavery of sin” (CCC, 1733). As children of God, we are moved to act righteously not by slavish fear, but by the Holy Spirit in freedom and out of filial love. Freedom is not an indifferent ability to choose between doing evil or doing good. True freedom is a share in God’s freedom and is always ordered to the good and true and beautiful. The nearer we approach God through moral progress, the less we are inclined to sin and abuse our freedom. Knowledge of God (knowing the truth) and love for God (living according to the truth) make us truly free. On our own, we are powerless to break free from the devil and the bondage of sin. Christ alone can liberate us and make us children of the Father. This is a great mystery we contemplate as we approach Holy Week.
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you reveal the truth that sets me free. I want to embrace that truth and freedom with all my heart. You are able to liberate me and make me flourish as a child of God. Set my eyes on how wonderful life is when I live according to God’s will.
Living the Word of God: Do I see freedom as the ability to choose between good and evil or as the power to do good? Do I see sin as an abuse of freedom and good deeds as the perfection of.
 
Wenesday 5th Week of Lent
Opening Prayer: Lord, teach me how to love you more as I reflect on your words today. I want to live in your freedom and truth.
Encountering Christ:
Formation Moment: Christ was speaking with those Jews who believed he was the Messiah. He was teaching them that his word is truth and has the power to set them free from sin. “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Christ reaches through time and space to us, his modern disciples, with the same message. He invites us to read the word, meditate on it, memorize it, internalize it. “Then, you will be free.” What an outstanding promise he makes to us! Christ has taken the initiative to share with us the true meaning of life and to reconcile us with God the Father.
Blocked by Pride: As Christ was inviting them into a closer encounter with himself, the Jews were getting annoyed.“We are descendants of Abraham and have never been enslaved,” they said. They had obviously forgotten certain parts of their history—Egypt and Babylon, for example. They were stuck in their pride and wedded to their own perspective. When Christ enters into our life he completely changes the way we view the world and the way we view ourselves. He invites us to see the world from his perspective, and understand what behaviors will truly bring about freedom.
Freedom?: The Jews looked at freedom as freedom from outside forces, like occupation by the Romans. Christ was offering them internal freedom, the freedom from sin. It is freedom from sin that leads us to our full potential. “Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one's own responsibility. By free will one shapes one's own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude” (CCC 1731).
Conversing with Christ: While I so often focus on life’s externals, I know that you desire to touch my interior life. You want to transform my soul and the attitudes of my life. I want to love my Father the way you do. Help me also to love you more, Jesus.
Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will offer a spiritual communion