Suy Niệm bài đọc thứ Sáu Tuần thứ 7 Thường Niên

Suy Niệm bài đọc thứ Sáu Tuần thứ 7 Thường Niên
Trong cả hai bài đọc hôm nay, đều có một chủ đề phổ thông đó chính là mối quan hệ giữa con người với con người.
            Trong bài đọc thứ nhất, chúng ta được nghe về mối quan hệ giữa những người bạn. Một sự tương phản được thực hiện giữa những người bạn giả dối và người bạn chân thật. Kinh nghiệm cho thấy rằng một người bạn tốt, chân thật là một người biết giữ đúng lời, vị tha, và luôn có mặt trong những lúc đặc biệt và cần thiết. Làm thế nào để chúng ta tìm thấy những người bạn như vậy? Bởi vì kính sợ Thiên Chúa trong nội tâm và cách hành xử tốt, phải đạo (đàng hoàng) thì thể hiện ngay từ bên ngoài. Việc này có nghĩa là tình bạn chân thật thực sự không thể xảy ra nếu chúng ta không có mối quan hệ nào với Thiên Chúa.
            Trong Tin Mừng hôm nay, Chúa Giêsu nhấn mạnh những vấn đề quan trọng về lòng trung thành của vợ chồng trong sự quan hệ hôn nhân. Trọng tâm của bài giáo huấn của Chúa Giêsu là thách thức những cặp vợ chồng nên sống trong sự hiệp nhất vĩnh viễn và trung thành cho đến chết vì hôn nhân không cho phép ai có thể "tách những gì Thiên Chúa đã liên kết với nhau." Đồng thời, Ngài cũng thừa nhận rằng trong thực tế vợ chồng cũng có thể không còn yêu thương nhau như vợ chồng thì phần đầu trước Tin Mừng hôm nay cũng cho phép sự ly hôn mà không tái hôn.
            Hai bài đọc hôm hay nhắc nhở chúng ta rằng cốt lõi của tất cả những mối quan hệ dù là giữa bạn bè hay là giữa vợ chồng, ngay cả khi họ chọn ly hôn hay ly dị thì là mối quan hệ của người đó với Thiên Chúa. Ngài luôn luôn hiện diện trong suốt cuộc sống của chúng ta, và trong tất cả những mối quan hệ của chúng ta, thậm chí có sự đổ vỡ. Chúng ta được mời gọi để tin tưởng vào đường lối của Ngài khi chúng ta cầu nguyện với những lời thánh vịnh, “Trên đường mệnh lệnh Chúa, xin dẫn con đi,vì con ưa thích đường lối đó.” Lạy Chúa, Xin Chúa luôn luôn  thường xuyên hướng dẫn chúng con.
 
REFLECTION
If there is a common theme in both readings today, it is that of relationship. In the first reading, we read about the relationship between friends. A contrast is made between false and true friends. Experience shows that a friend is one who is true to his or her word, selfless, and is present particularly in times of need. How do we find such friends? By fearing the Lord internally and behaving in the right manner externally. It means that true friendship cannot take place without us having a relationship with God.
            In the Gospel passage, Mark highlights the important issue of the fidelity of spouses in the marriage relationship. He passes on the tradition of Jesus’ teaching and attitude towards marriage and divorce. At the centre of Jesus’ message is the challenge to spouses to live in perpetual and faithful union until death as it was not permissible “to separate what God has joined together.” At the same time, recognizing the reality that spouses can also no longer love one another as husband and wife, this early Gospel also allows for separation, without remarriage. 
            The readings remind us that at the core of all relationship whether between friends or between spouses, even when they choose to separate or divorce is one’s relationship with God. He is the ever present constant in all our lives, and in all our relationships, even broken ones. We are called to trust in His ways as we pray with the psalmist, “Guide me in the path of your commands, for there is my delight.” 
            Lord, be my constant guide.
 
Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Jesus came into the district of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds gathered around him and, as was his custom, he again taught them. The Pharisees approached him and asked, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?” They were testing him. Mark 10:1–2
Notice the contrast above. The crowds gathered around Jesus to listen to Him. Clearly, they were coming to faith. But the Pharisees came to Jesus to test Him. They did not come in faith; they came with jealousy and envy and were already seeking to trap Him. The question they proposed was a trick question, not an honest attempt at communication with our Lord. They presumed that however Jesus answered the question, some people would be offended. The Pharisees were ready to stir things up, since so many were flocking to Jesus. Also, the Pharisees wanted to find fault with Jesus’ answer so as to show that He opposed the Law of Moses. But Jesus’ answer was perfect.
Much could be said about the content of Jesus’ answer. He clearly supports the indissolubility of marriage. He states that “what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” He adds: “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” For those who have suffered through a divorce, it is important to prayerfully ponder this teaching from our Lord. It is also important to work with the Church Tribunal to examine the marriage in the light of truth so that a determination can be made about the validity or invalidity of the marriage bond. With that said, the approach that both the crowds and the Pharisees took toward Jesus also teaches us an important lesson about communication, not only with God but also with one another. This is a lesson that is especially important for married couples to learn.
Think about your own approach to communication. When you struggle with conflict with another, how do you resolve it? How do you bring your questions and concerns to your spouse? The crowds came to Jesus to listen and understand. The reward was the gift of faith in that they received a deeper knowledge of Who Jesus was. The Pharisees, however, came to Jesus with the intent of finding fault with Him. And though it is obviously foolish to take this approach with our Lord, it is also foolish to do so with another, especially a spouse.
Use the above approaches of the crowds and the Pharisees to think about how you come to others with your questions and concerns. When there is some conflict or misunderstanding, do you come with an open mind and heart, seeking to understand and resolve the question? Or do you come with a loaded question so as to trap and find fault with the other? So many conflicts in life with others, especially among spouses, could be resolved if the goal of any conversation was simply to understand the other person, not trap them or find fault with them. This is hard for many people to do and requires much humility and openness.
Reflect, today, upon any relationship with which you are currently struggling. Reflect, especially, upon whether your approach to communication with that person is more like the crowds or more like the Pharisees. Commit yourself to the approach of seeking open and honest communication and you will find that this commitment brings true resolution, peace and unity.
Lord of all truth, You desire that I always come to You with sincerity, honesty and humility, seeking resolution to every internal question and conflict I face. You call me to approach others with this same depth of communication. Give me the grace to always seek the unity and truth that result in peace of mind and heart. Jesus, I trust in You.
           
Friday 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2024
Opening Prayer: Lord God, help me to see when I am hard of heart or stubborn. Do not let me persist in rejecting your mercy and love. I want to always welcome your Word and your grace so that I can truly live according to your will.
Encountering the Word of God
1. Bringing the Old Law to Fulfillment: In the Gospel, Jesus corrects the old Law of Moses and brings it to fulfillment. Jesus recalls the beginning, the time of Adam and Eve before their fall, and God’s original plan for marriage. The Law of Moses, given in Deuteronomy, was a concession to the hardness of Israel’s hearts and not the faithful expression of God’s original law. A case in point is that Jesus does not ask the Pharisees: “What did God command you?,” but rather “What did Moses command you?.” There were several concessionary laws in Deuteronomy that Jesus needed to correct, the law permitting divorce was one of them.
2. Marriage as a Sacrament: Through his work of redemption, Jesus has raised marriage, a natural institution, to a Sacrament, a supernatural institution. Man and woman, through marriage, enter into a covenant and share in the love that Christ, the bridegroom, has for the Church, his bride. In the Catechism, we find this about marriage: “Jesus has not placed on spouses a burden impossible to bear, or too heavy - heavier than the Law of Moses. By coming to restore the original order of creation disturbed by sin, he himself gives the strength and grace to live marriage in the new dimension of the Reign of God. It is by following Christ, renouncing themselves, and taking up their crosses that spouses will be able to ‘receive’ the original meaning of marriage and live it with the help of Christ. This grace of Christian marriage is a fruit of Christ’s cross, the source of all Christian life” (CCC, 1615). The grace of matrimony perfects the couple’s love and strengthens their indissoluble unity.
3. The Call to Authenticity of Life: Men and women, joined in marriage, are called to mutual authenticity of life, truthfulness with one another, perseverance in love, and charity in all things. In James’ words we hear the clear echo of Jesus’ teachings: judge not and you will not be judged; blessed are those who have persevered; do not swear by heaven or by earth; let your “yes” mean “yes” and your “no” mean “no.” The last saying calls us to authenticity of life. This authenticity consists in conforming our lives to Christ. Eradicating, with God’s grace, what keeps us from his love, and seeking to strengthen, again with God’s grace, what brings us to a deeper love, allows Jesus to reign more fully in our lives and in society. Second, there is no need to swear oaths if we are truthful. Truth is characteristic of an authentic life. Jesus is the Truth, so once again conforming our lives to Christ is conforming our lives to the Truth. Being authentic and living according to the truth is not easy. We are tempted to stray from the Way. That is why James says that those who persevere are truly blessed. They are happy since their lives lead to God. When we encounter God, at the end of our lives, he will judge us. We will see clearly how we have collaborated with or rejected his grace. We will see how we have judged our brothers and sisters. We will see our every thought, word, and action; and whether or not they were for the Glory of God.
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you brought the Old Law to fulfillment and poured out the Holy Spirit to empower me to live the New Law concerning marriage. May I be chaste in my relationships and pure of heart so that I may love more fully and behold the face of the Father.
Living the Word of God: How is my married life? What is going well and what needs to be corrected? Do I wake up each morning with the desire to serve my spouse in love? How can the relationship with my spouse be healed or improved?
 
Friday 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer:  Lord Jesus, I love you. Knowing that you created me in your image and likeness and that you call me to share in your life gives my life meaning and purpose. In you, I find my joy and my peace. I believe in you. I believe that you know me and want me to know you in and through the realities of my life. Knowing that you are always with me gives me hope. You are always working for my good. Lord, I ask that in this prayer time, you help me learn from your example of availability and attentiveness so that I can better love those you have placed in my life.
Encountering Christ:
Crowds Gathered and Jesus Taught: As Scripture so often describes, Jesus reached a town and a crowd gathered to hear him teach. At the same time, the Pharisees approached to test him. Despite any fatigue from traveling, Jesus made himself available to address both groups. He did not protect himself from the demands of the crowd nor the hard questions of the Pharisees. In other passages, Jesus generously responded when individuals cried out to him (blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10:46 and the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:22, for example). When we recall that Jesus “did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life…” (Mark 10:45), we may focus on the big ways he served: the miracles he worked, the content of his teaching, his Passion. However, his model of attentiveness and availability are significant examples of humble, ordinary service. Are we attentive to others who seek our assistance, or do we shrug off their need, expecting that someone else will help them? Perhaps we are more available to those outside our family than we are to our family members. Over the years, Pope Francis has often encouraged parents to “waste time” with their children—to be available to them in unstructured ways. Marriage Encounter addresses the challenge of “married singles”—spouses each so busy with their own lives that they don’t share the intimacy they are meant to experience. Do we give those in our family focused attention? Attention and availability are concrete ways of loving and serving as Jesus did.
Hardness of Heart: When Matthew described this same scene of Jesus restoring the indissolubility of marriage, the disciples responded, “it is better not to marry” (Matthew 19:10). Original sin disrupted God’s beautiful plan for man and woman, and as a consequence, the original communion between man and woman was ruptured and distorted (CCC 1607). Nevertheless, it is this relationship between spouses that St. Paul holds up as the image of the relationship between Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:21-32). We can trust that God will give us the grace we need to live our marriages well. He promised: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you so that you walk in my statutes, observe my ordinances, and keep them” (Ezekiel 36:26-27). 
The Two Shall Become One: In his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, “On Love in the Family,” Pope Francis describes the beauty of a long-lasting marriage: “Just as a good wine begins to ‘breathe’ with time, so too the daily experience of fidelity gives married life richness and ‘body’. ...The love present from the beginning becomes more conscious, settled, and mature as the couple discover each other anew day after day, year after year. …(they) now taste the sweetness of the wine of love, well-aged and stored deep within their hearts” (Amoris Laetitia 231). The world needs to see the beauty of marital love that grows over the years. In a homily for the Synod on the New Evangelization, Pope Benedict said, “Matrimony is a Gospel in itself, a Good News for the world of today, especially the dechristianized world. The union of a man and a woman, their becoming ‘one flesh’ in charity, in fruitful and indissoluble love, is a sign that speaks of God with a force and an eloquence which in our days has become greater because unfortunately, for various reasons, marriage, in precisely the oldest regions evangelized, is going through a profound crisis” (October 7, 2012). Marriage matters, not only as an interpersonal reality, not only for the nurturing of children, but for the good of society and the life of the Church.
Conversing with Christ: Heavenly Father, your plan for marriage is beautiful. How humbling it is to think that you work through human instruments to image the relationship between your Son and his bride, the Church. You trust us to make your faithful, fruitful, free, unconditional love visible in the midst of all the confusion that exists about marriage today. At times, it seems so far beyond our capabilities, but through the grace of the sacrament of Matrimony you make it possible for spouses to grow in love and unity day by day, year by year. You accompany them and provide for their needs just as you did in Cana. I ask you to help me see how I can better support marriage—my own marriage, the marriages of family and friends, the marriages of fellow parishioners, the future marriages of engaged couples, the marriages of hurting couples. 
Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will pray one decade of the rosary, meditating on the wedding feast at Cana, for the strengthening of marriages within my family and friends.