Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Hai Tuần thứ Tư Phục Sinh

 Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Hai Tuần thứ Tư Phục Sinh

Qua bài Tin Mừng hôm nay, chúng ta thấy hình ảnh của Chúa Giêsu qua người chăn chiên lành và đã miêu tả mối quan hệ mật thiết giữa chiên cừu và người chăn vì cả hai đều có kiến thức và sự hiểu biết lẫn nhau.

Tuy nhiên, bài Tin Mừng hôm nay Thánh Gioan muốn truyền đạt nhiều hơn nữa. Vì Chúa Giêsu không phải chỉ là một mục tử tốt lành mà Ngài cũng là cánh cổng. Ngài không phải chỉ hướng dẫn những con chiên của Ngài đến với ơn cứu rỗi, Nhưng Chúa Giêsu cũng còn là đường đưa chúng ta đến với ơn cứu rỗi và sự cứu rỗi chính là Ngài. Những kẻ trộm cắp đến để ăn trộm, ăn cắp, giết người để hủy diệt. Nhưng Chúa Giêsu đến để ban cho con người chúng ta cuộc sống. Chúng ta thường xuyên nhận được cuộc sống khi chúng ta phát triển trong tự do.

Qua bài đọc trong sách Công vụ Tông Đồ mô tả cách mà Thiên Chúa đã truyền cảm hứng cho thánh Phêrô để loan báo cho những người trong Giáo Hội tại Jerusalem một sự tự do nhất định cho các tín hữu mới.

Những người không Do Thái có thể trở thành tín hữu và môn đệ của Chúa Kitô mà không bị những hạn chế của lề luật như chế độ ăn uống của người Do Thái. Đây không phải là một thông điệp dễ dàng để loan báo cho những nhà lãnh đạo, kể cả thánh Phêrô để chấp nhận. Tuy nhiên, thánh Phêrô đã cho chúng ta thấy rõ ra rằng là nếu Thiên Chúa muốn chúc lành và ban tặng cho những ai đã theo sự đổi mới của Chúa Kitô có cùng một Chúa Thánh Linh mà Thiên Chúa đã ban cho các các Tông Đồ của Ngài, và lđã giúp cho thánh Phêrô (và những người kế vị các thánh Tông đồ) biết cách để có thể sống theo như cách của Thiên Chúa.

Lạy Chúa, Chúa là mục tử và là sự cứu rỗi tôi. Trường hợp trong cuộc sống mà chúng con đã được Chúa mời gọi chúng con lớn lên trong sự tự do?

 

Monay 4th Week of Easter

The image of the Good Shepherd portrays an intimate relationship between the sheep and their shepherd. There is a mutual knowledge and familiarity.  Yet the gospel writer wants to convey even more. Jesus is not only the shepherd; He is also the gate. He not only leads the sheep to salvation, Jesus the way to salvation and salvation itself. The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. Jesus comes to give life and to give life to us in abundance.

            We often receive life when we grow in freedom. The reading from Acts describes how God has inspired Peter to proclaim to the Church leaders in Jerusalem a certain freedom for new believers. People who are not Jewish can become believers and followers of Christ without taking on the restrictions of Jewish dietary laws. This was not an easy message for the leaders, including Peter, to accept. Ultimately, however, Peter points out that if God wants to bless and gift these new followers of Christ with the same Spirit God has given to the leaders themselves, how can Peter (or anyone else) stand in God’s way?

            Lord, You are my shepherd and salvation. Where in my life are You inviting me to grow in freedom?

 

Monday 4th Week of Easter 2024

“But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice.” John 10:2–4

Do you recognize the voice of the Shepherd? Does He lead you each and every day, guiding you into His holy will? How attentive are you to what He speaks each day? These are some of the most important questions to ponder.

Recognizing God’s voice is something that many people struggle with. There are often many competing “voices” that speak to us each and every day. From the latest news in the headlines, to the opinions of friends and family, to the temptations all around us within the secular world, to our own self-drawn opinions, these “voices” or “ideas” that fill our minds can be hard to sort through. What is from God? And what is from other sources?

Recognizing the voice of God is indeed possible. First of all, there are many general truths that God has already spoken to us. For example, everything contained in the Holy Scriptures is the voice of God. His Word is alive. And when we read the Scriptures, we become more and more familiar with God’s voice.

God also speaks to us through gentle inspirations that result in His peace. For example, when considering a certain decision you may need to make, if you present that decision to our Lord prayerfully and then remain open to whatever He wants of you, oftentimes His answer comes in the form of a deep and certain peace of heart.

Learning to recognize the voice of God in your daily life is accomplished by building an interior habit of listening, recognizing, responding, listening some more, recognizing and responding, etc. The more you hear the voice of God, the more you will recognize His voice in the most subtle of ways, and the more you come to hear the subtleties of His voice, the more you will be able to follow. In the end, this is only accomplished by an ongoing habit of deep and sustaining prayer. Without that, it will be very difficult to recognize the voice of the Shepherd when you need Him the most.

Reflect, today, upon how attentive you are to God in prayer. What does your daily prayer look like? Do you spend time each day listening to the gentle and beautiful voice of our Lord? Do you seek to form a habit by which His voice becomes clearer and clearer? If not, if you do struggle in recognizing His voice, then make the decision to establish a deeper habit of daily prayer so that it is the voice of our loving Lord Who leads you every day.

Jesus, my Good Shepherd, You speak to me each and every day. You are constantly revealing to me Your most holy will for my life. Help me to always recognize Your gentle voice so that I can be led by You through the challenges of life. May my life of prayer become so deep and sustaining that Your voice always echoes within my heart and soul. Jesus, I trust in You.

 

Monday 4th Week of Easter 2024

Opening Prayer: Lord God, you are the Gatekeeper and have entrusted the role of Good Shepherd to your Son, Jesus Christ. Throw open the gates of eternal life to me and help me listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd who calls me by name and leads me to the pastures of eternal life.

Encountering the Word of God

1. The Good Shepherd Knows Us by Name: Jesus uses the image of a sheepgate in two ways. He first contrasts the shepherd who enters through the gate and the thief who climbs over the wall or fence. In this image, the Father is the gatekeeper and opens the door for Jesus, his Son and the Good Shepherd. The Shepherd enters the sheepfold and calls out to the sheep. He knows those who belong to the flock and calls them by name. He leads them out of the sheepfold to refreshing water and good pasture. He is the Good Shepherd who leads his sheep to the pasture of eternal life. The second way Jesus uses the image of the sheep gate is to proclaim himself as the gate for the sheep. When he does this, he is emphasizing how he is the way of salvation: “Whoever enters through me will be saved.” 

2. Shepherding the Gentiles: In the First Reading, Peter defends his actions to the Jewish Christians who confront him and explains why he baptized the Gentile Cornelius and his household and ate a meal with them. Although the early Church rejoiced that the Gentiles had accepted the Word of God, they were concerned that Peter’s table fellowship with the Gentiles went against the ritual purity protected by the Levitical regulations. Whether or not the ritual and purity laws of Moses were binding on Gentile Christians was a major problem for the early Church and would be dealt with at length at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15). We know that the fruit of the death of the Good Shepherd was the salvation of both the Jews and the Gentiles. In this way, Jesus gathers all the children of God into one flock. During his public ministry, Jesus was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 15:24). But after his Ascension, Jesus sends out his Apostles to the Gentiles to lead them into the one flock, redeemed through his sacrifice. United to Christ the Good Shepherd by love and exercising the authority granted them by Christ, the Apostles are also good shepherds. And Jesus continues to shepherd his Church at the right hand of the Father and through the successors to the Apostles.

3. Peter as a Good Shepherd: Good shepherds are led by the Holy Spirit. Peter was praying when he saw the vision of the large sheet with animals of all kinds. A heavenly voice declares that the animals are clean. Peter eventually realizes that “the distinction between clean and unclean foods symbolizes the far more important distinction between Jews as clean and Gentiles as unclean - a distinction that has now been removed in Christ” (Kurz, Acts of the Apostles, p. 171). Peter obeys God’s command and enters the house of the Gentile Cornelius, who is eager to hear the words of salvation, the words by which he and his household will be saved. Seeing the action of the Holy Spirit and seeing the desire of Cornelius for salvation in Christ, Peter sees no reason not to baptize Cornelius and his family. Peter today exercises his authority as a good shepherd: first, he seeks to feed the flock of Christ, bring them into unity, and lead them to life-giving waters; second, he cares for the flock without reserve and follows God's commands faithfully and prudently; lastly, he does not fear to expose himself to danger for the good of the flock even when people might not understand his actions. As a priest of God and overseer (bishop) of God’s flock, Peter shares in Christ’s priesthood. He knows the Father through the Son and he knows his sheep by name. Collaborating with God’s grace, he seeks to be a shepherd and priest who is worthy of faith and trust; knowing his limitations and failings as a sheep in God's flock, he understandings the misery of his brothers and is a priest who is merciful.

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, Good Shepherd, call me by name today. Protect me from evil and lead me to the refreshing water of eternal life. Help me to imitate you as the Good Shepherd and care for those entrusted to me.

Living the Word of God: How do I treat others? Do I use them for my own gain like a thief and a robber? Or am I focused on them as persons loved by God? Is there anyone I need to help hear the voice of the Good Shepherd? How can I help them today?