Suy Niệm Thứ Sáu Tuần thứ 7 Phục Sinh

Suy Niệm Thứ Sáu Tuần thứ 7 Phục Sinh
Phêrô đã chối Chúa ba lần, nên Chúa Giêsu đã bắt ông phải tuyên xưng tình yêu của ông với Ngài ba lần. Nhưng thực tế còn nhiều hơn con số ba mà chúng ta sẽ thấy có liên quan đến hai câu chuyện này. Ngoài ra trên thực tế có thể cả hai sự việc đã xảy ra trong cùng một dữ kiện đó là bên một ngọn lửa.  Khi Phêrô chối Chúa, là lúc Phêrô đang sưởi ấm ngay bên một đóng lửa. Khi Chúa Giêsu hỏi ông ta : "Con có yêu mến thầy không?", Ông cũng đang ngồi quanh với Chúa và các môn đệ khác bên một đóng lửa đang nướng cá trên đó.
            Ngoài ra  là cả hai câu chuyện cũng đều được xảy ra trong lúc trời sắng sang (bình minh): Câu chuyện chối Chúa, là câu truyện thật là một bi kịch sâu sắc trong tâm trạng, được đặt trong một bóng tối của màn đêm, ngay vào lúc  trước khi bình minh được những con gà trống gáy báo hiệu một ngày mới. Còn cảnh tuyên xưng tình yêu, thì là một cảnh vyu mừng và tràn đầy hy vọng trong những tâm trạng tích cực, được thiết lập ngay lúc bình minh vừa ló dạng, trong ánh sáng đang tăng dần của một buổi sáng sớm.
            Chúa Giêsu đã chọn quang cảnh này với ý tưởng là mang lại một sự tha thứ và chữa lành những vết thương “tội phạm đang nén đè trong trong tâm trí và ký ức của thánh Phêrô.  Như là muốn phủi sạch những vết bụi than trong lòng của ông Phêrô.  Cũng như Khi những miếng cá thơm vửa chin tới trên đống lửa hồng trên bờ biển, Phêrô có thể đã bừng tỉnh trong sự vui mừng, (Có, có) Lạy Chúa, Chúa biết con yêu mến Chúa."
            Ngay tại đống lửa lần đầu, Phêrô đã "khóc lóc thảm thiết." Tin Mừng không nói ra, nhưng chúng ta cũng có thể mong rằng ngay trong lúc ngồi bên đống lửa thứ hai , Phêrô cũng khóc, nhưng ông khóc với nước mắt của niềm vui trong tình yêu Chúa.
            Để mang lại sự chữa lành sâu đậm hơn và để tẩy sạch những vết nhơ và nỗi buồn trong tâm hồn của chúng ta, chúng ta có thể nhớ đến những đống lửa vừa ló dạng riêng trong lòng của chúng ta, để chúng ta có thể nói như thánh Phêrô trong nước mắt của chúng ta: "Lạy Chúa, Chúa biết chúng con yêu mến Chúa,  Chúa biết Con yêu Chúa. Lạy Chúa, Chúa đã biết Con yêu Chúa "
 
Friday 7th Week of Easter
Peter had denied Jesus three times, so Jesus got him to profess his love three times. But there’s more than the number three linking these two stories. There’s also the fact that both happened near a fire. When Peter denied Jesus, Peter was warming himself near a fire. When Jesus asked “Do you love me?”, he was near a fire with fish cooking on it.
            There’s also the fact that both stories happened near dawn: The denial story, which is profoundly tragic in mood, is set in the dark of night, just before the dawn is signaled by a cock. The profession of love scene, hope-filled and positive in mood, is set just after the dawn, in the increasing light of early morning.
            Jesus chose this scene-of-the-crime setting to bring about a complete healing of memories in Peter’s mind. To scrub every bit of charcoal from his heart. As the penny fell about being in a fire place for a second time, Peter might well have said “touché`, (Yes) Lord, you know I love you.”
            At the first fire, Peter “wept bitterly.” The Gospel doesn’t say it, but we might well expect that at the second fire Peter also cried — tears of joy and love as well as sorrow
            To bring about deeper healing and cleansing in our own minds and hearts, we can recall our own fireplaces and dawns, as we say with Peter and maybe with tears:
“Lord, You know I love you. Lord, You know I love You. Lord, you know I love you."
 
Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter
“Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me.” John 21:18–19
On this, the third time that Jesus appeared to His disciples, Jesus enters into a threefold discourse with Peter. Each time that Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him, Peter responds that he does. And Jesus responds back each time, “Feed my lambs,” “Tend my sheep,” and “Feed my sheep.” The passage quoted above concludes Jesus’ discourse with Peter using very powerful language. Jesus tells Peter that when he grows old, “someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” This was Jesus’ way of saying to Peter that he would ultimately express his love of Jesus by dying for Him. As we know, tradition states that Peter was ultimately crucified. And at Peter’s request, he was crucified upside down because he felt unworthy of dying in the exact same way Jesus died.
As we consider this conversation between Jesus and Peter, it is clear that Jesus’ understanding of love is very different from the way many others understand it today. Jesus was not only telling Peter that he would die for Jesus, but Jesus was clearly offering His approval of this act of love Peter would one day offer. Most often when we love someone, we would do all we can to keep them from any such fate. In fact, when a loved one suffers, we often will do all we can to look for a way to relieve them of that suffering. So which approach is most loving?
Clearly, Jesus sees suffering differently than most of us. For Jesus, suffering is not opposed to love when the suffering is freely embraced for a higher purpose. Suffering in and of itself is of no value. But when suffering is embraced sacrificially out of love for another, it is able to take on tremendous power. And when Jesus offered His clear support to Peter who would one day die out of love for Jesus, Jesus was focusing upon the eternal merit that would be won by Peter’s cross. The fact that Jesus did not shy away from Peter’s future sacrificial suffering is one of the clearest signs of Jesus’ more perfect love for Peter.
Reflect, today, upon your attitude toward the sufferings that your loved ones endure. Do you find that your primary goal is to rid them of their sufferings? Or do you understand that even their sufferings have the potential to become a source of their own holiness and the source of grace for others? Strive to see suffering as Jesus sees it. Look at the sacrificial love that is made possible when your loved ones unite their sufferings to the Cross of Christ and try to commit yourself to the mission of helping them embrace that sacred gift of love.
My most compassionate Jesus, in Your great love for us all, You desire that we unite our sufferings to Your Cross so that all suffering shares in Your redemptive love. Give me the grace I need to not only embrace my own sufferings in life out of love for You but to also help those whom I love to live sacrificially by embracing the crosses they carry out of love. Jesus, I trust in You.
 
Friday 7^th of Easter 2024
Opening Prayer: Lord God, I renew my love for you and my desire to follow your Son. I promise to feed and tend the lambs and sheep in my care. May I glorify you in all that I say and do today.
Encountering the Word of God
1. True Prayer Begins with God: The First Reading and the Gospel are connected by references to the sufferings and martyrdom that both Paul and Peter will endure for the Gospel and for their Savior, Jesus Christ. In the Gospel, the risen Jesus walks with Peter on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. It is a vivid image of what happens to us in prayer. We walk alongside Jesus and listen to his word. In prayer we hear the same question that Peter heard: “Do you love me?” and we are asked to respond with humility, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” In true prayer, God always speaks first. Even when we think we first cry out to him and then he hears our voice, we need to realize that he was already there calling out our name, seeking us out as a good shepherd seeks his lost sheep. The Gospel teaches us that Jesus, the Lamb of God, has introduced us, through our Baptism into his death and resurrection, into the sheepfold. We, who have come to believe in him, are now called “lambs.” As lambs, we will share in the sufferings of the Lamb.
2. Jesus Predicts Peter’s Passion: Jesus, the Good Shepherd, now gives to others the power to be shepherds of his flock. Jesus turns to Peter, who had denied him three times, and asks Peter for a triple affirmation of love. “The confession of love must precede the bestowing of authority; authority without love is tyranny” (Sheen, Life of Christ, Image Books, 427). Love is the condition of service. And Peter, “the man who had fallen most deeply and learned most thoroughly his own weakness was certainly the best qualified for strengthening the weak and feeding the lambs” (Sheen, Life of Christ, 427). Jesus gave the keys to Peter the Rock and made him, before his ascension into heaven, the visible shepherd over the visible flock of the Church. “Impulsive and self-willed though he was in the days of his youth, yet in his old age Peter would glorify the Master by a death on the Cross. From Pentecost on, Peter was led where he would not go. He was obliged to leave the Holy City, where imprisonment and the sword awaited him. Next he was led by His Divine Master to Samaria and into the house of the Gentile, Cornelius” (Sheen, Life of Christ, 429). Peter was then led to Rome, where he would be bound and nailed on a cross. Sheen comments: “Thus the man who was always tempting the Lord away from the Cross was the first of the Apostles to go to it. The Cross that he embraced redounded to the glory of his Savior more than all the zeal and impetuosity of his youth. When Peter did not understand that the Cross implied Redemption from sin, he put his own death before that of the Master, saying that though all others would fail to defend Him, he would not. Now Peter saw that it was only in the light of the Cross of Calvary that the Cross he would embrace had meaning and significance” (Sheen, Life of Christ, 429).
3. Paul’s Imprisonment in Caesarea: The Acts of the Apostles concludes with the story of Paul’s imprisonment in Caesarea and his journey to Rome, where he, like Peter, will be martyred. To protect him from assassins, Paul was led from Jerusalem by a force of four hundred and seventy soldiers and horsemen to Felix, the governor at Caesarea. Claudius Lysias explained in a letter that the controversy between Paul and the Jews concerned questions of their law and did not involve any charge deserving of death or imprisonment. Felix heard the case of Paul presented by Ananias, the high priest, and Tertullus. Their accusation was that Paul tried to desecrate the Temple – possibly because they thought Paul introduced Gentiles into the court of Israel. Instead of deciding Paul’s case, Felix hoped for a bribe from Paul’s friends and left Paul in jail for two years (A.D. 58-59). When Felix was replaced in A.D. 59, the new governor Festus brought Paul in and asked whether or not he would stand trial in Jerusalem. Paul knew that he would not receive a fair trial in Jerusalem and appealed his case to Caesar. Paul understood this as the will of God, knowing that he was called to preach the Gospel in Rome. All of these things happened before the arrival of King Herod Agrippa and Bernice to Caesarea. Today’s First Reading, then, is a summary discussion of Paul’s case and a record of what happened to Paul.
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, when I hear your question, “Do you love me?” I am cut to the heart. I want to respond with Peter, “Yes, Lord, I love you,” but I also know all the times I have failed to love you. Transform my sorrow into joy and bring me to love you more deeply with each passing day.
Living the Word of God: We can learn from Peter and Paul the need to allow ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit. Jesus promises us, as his lambs, that we will suffer with him and for him. Our suffering, united to the passion of Christ, has a redemptive value. Each time we pray and open our hearts to God, we are telling him that we love him and that we will follow his Son on the humble path to the Cross and to the glory of the Resurrection.
 
Friday 7^th of Easter = Opening Prayer:
Lord, I am here out of love for you. I want to follow you, and I want to feed your sheep. But I am weak, and I need to depend on your merciful love. Feed me with your love so I can in turn care for your sheep.
Encountering Christ: 
Sincerity of Heart: Jesus waited until after he grilled the fish, served the disciples, and sat down and ate with them on the seashore to ask Simon Peter three times the burning question that was on his heart, “Do you love me?” He knew Peter as he knows each one of us. Peter was human, he was weak, he betrayed his Lord at the moment Jesus needed him most. Surely he had already told Jesus he was sorry, poured out his heart, and received forgiveness for the worst sin of all sins—denial of his best friend, brother, and, as he once testified in his own words, the “Messiah, the Son of the Living God” (Matthew 16:16). Why did Jesus ask him three times to affirm his love and his conviction to follow him? Jesus wanted to hear that Peter was willing to remain the faithful leader chosen to “tend [his] sheep.” Peter had to come face-to-face with his own inability to love perfectly, in order to reaffirm his commitment to Christ and his desire to “feed [Jesus’s] sheep.” 
It’s All in a Name: Jesus called Peter “Simon, son of John,” rather than addressing him as “Peter.” He hadn’t called Peter “son of John” since Peter first received his new name when he testified that Jesus was the “Messiah, Son of the Living God” (Matthew 16:16). Peter must have been shaken and perhaps a bit trepidatious since the memory of his denial was still fresh in his mind. Jesus was about to offer Peter an opportunity for reparation and restoration, from his former self to the preeminent leader of the new church Jesus was founding. “Jesus's look of infinite mercy drew tears of repentance from Peter and, after the Lord's resurrection, a threefold affirmation of love for him” (CCC 1429).
Follow Me: Peter’s interior transformation was a conversion of heart that resulted in his recommitment to follow Christ, even after Jesus foretold his martyrdom. Peter’s experience was “one of those sorrowful outpourings that impoverish us but are ultimately profitable because they show us our powerlessness and oblige us from then on to trust exclusively in God’s mercy and faithfulness” (Interior Freedom, Jacques Philippe, 100). 
Conversing with Christ: Lord, you know everything. You have seen me at my best and at my worst. Give me the conviction to renew my desire to follow you even after I fall. You are always there, ready to pour the Holy Spirit on my wounds and heal me.
Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will make an act of contrition for my sins, and schedule a time to go to reconciliation in the coming week.
 
Thứ Sáu Tuần Thứ 7 Mùa Phục Sinh (John 21,15-19)
            Phêrô, Con có yêu thầy nhiều hơn những thứ này không?
Qua bài Tin Mừng hôm nay, chúng ta tự hỏi: Tại sao Chúa Giêsu lại hỏi Phêrô một câu hỏi như thế tói ba lần trước mặt những tông đồ khác?  Điều mà ông Phêrô phải đay nghiến và đau khổ mãi là từ lúc ông đã công khai chối Chúa ba lần trong đêm Chúa Giêsu bị phản bội, bị bắt và bị án tử hình. Và giờ đây,  với lòng đầy sầu não và khiêm tốn, ông Phêrô đã thưa với CHúa rõ ràng rằng à mạnh dạn là Ông yêu Chúa, người thầy của mình và sẽ sẵn sàng để phục vụ Ngài bất cứ điều gì mà người Thầy của mình muốn, và bằng bằng mọi giá mà ông sẽ phải chịu.
            Khi Chúa Giêsu hỏi ông Phêrô: "con có yêu thầy nhiều hơn những ‘thứ này’ không?"  Chúa Giêsu có thể chỉ vào chiếc thuyền, lưới đánh cá và mẻ cá vừa bắt được, Chúa Giêsu có thể đã thách thức với Phêrô và muổn thử coi ông ta muốn theo Chúa hoàn toàn hay vẫn còn ý muốn trở về con đường nghề cũ với con thuyền, mảnh lưới và cuộc gắn liền với beiển cả?.Theo Chúa, thì ong phải từ bỏ cái nghề đánh cá của ông, nghề mà oó lẽ ông đã sống qua bao nhiều đời cha truyền con nối.  Từ bỏ những thứ ông biết, ông thích làm để làm nhiệm vụ chăn dắt và hướng dẫn dân của Chúa. Chúa Giêsu cũng có thể nêu ra cho các môn đệ khác thấy về niềm tự hào trước kia của Phêrô: " Cho dù mọi người đều vấp ngã vì Thầy, con sẽ không vấp ngã bao giờ " (Mt 26:33). Phêrô bây giờ dã điềm ĩnh,  không còn khoe khoang hay so sánh, nhưng đã khiêm tốn trả lời: "Thầy biết con yêu thầy"
               Chúa Giêsu mời gọi mỗi người chúng ta, ngay cả trong sự yếu đuối, tội lỗi, và thất bại của chúng ta, để yêu mến Người trên hết mọi sự. Thánh Augustine đã viết: "Cuối cũng con cũng yêu Chúa, Ôi một vẻ đẹp rất cổ xưa và cũng như mới vậy, dù có trễ hay là kẻ cuối cùng Con vẫn yêu Chúa ...Chúa tỏa ánh sáng của Chúa trên con và đưa con ra khỏi chốn đui mù của con! . Chúa thở hương thơm của Chúa trên con. ... Chúa là hương thơm, và con đã thu hút hơi thở của con và bây giờ con thèm muốn trong Chúa....Con nếm trải tình Chúa, và giờ đây, con khát khao Chúa. Chúa rờ vào con!. Và con ghi dấu ân tình này để sống trong sự  an bình của Chúa " (Tự Thú (Confessions) x:27).
               Những niềm tự hào, tội lỗi của chúng ta và sự cố chấp có thể làm cho chúng ta tuột ra khỏi tình yêu của Thiên Chúa. Thiên Chúa yêu thương chúng ta trước hết và tình yêu của chúng ta dành cho Ngài chì là một sự đáp trả lại sự khoan dung và lòng nhân hậu của Ngài dành cho chúng ta.
                Chúng ta có cho phép tình yêu Thiên Chúa thay lòng và biến đổi cuộc sống của chúng ta không?".
Lạy Chúa Giêsu, xin Chúa kích động lòng trí chúng con với tình yêu của Chúa và loại bỏ bất cứ những gì nơi chúng con mà không có tình yêu thương, như sự ác độc, vô ơn, bội nghĩa xấu xa, và tất cả những gì không phù hợp với lòng mong ước của Chúa"
 
Meditation: "Do you love Jesus more than these?"
The Lord Jesus asked Simon Peter and he asks each one of us a very personal and profound question - do you love me more than anything else that might be very dear to you? How can the love of Jesus Christ be so attractive and so costly at the same time? Jesus on many occasions spoke to his disciples about the nature of God's unquenchable love. God is love (1 John 4:16) because he is the creator and source of all that is true love. His love is unconditional, unmerited, and unlimited. We can't buy it, earn it, demand it. It is a pure gift, freely given, and freely received. God's love doesn't change or waver. It endures because it is eternal and timeless. It’s the beginning and the end - the purpose for which God created us and why he wants us to be united with him in a bond of unbreakable love. And it’s the essence of what is means to be a son or daughter of God the eternal Father.
The Lord Jesus shows us that love is a personal choice and a gift freely given - it is the giving of oneself to another person for their sake. Unselfish love is oriented wholly to the good of the other person for their own welfare and benefit. John the Evangelist tells us that "God so loved the world that he gave us his only-begotten Son" (John 3:16) who took on human flesh for our sake and who died upon the cross for our salvation - to set us free from the power of sin so that we might receive abundant everlasting life and peace with God.
God's love heals and transforms our lives and frees us from fear, selfishness, and greed. It draws us to the very heart of God and it compels us to give him the best we have and all we possess - our gifts, our time, our resources, our full allegiance, and our very lives. Paul the Apostle tells us that God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given us (Romans 5:5). What can quench such love? Certainly fear, sin, pride, indifference, disbelief, and the loss of hope and trust in God's promises and his mercy towards us.
Do you love me more than these?
Why did Jesus question Peter's loyalty and love three times in front of the other apostles? It must have caused Peter great pain and sorrow since he had publicly denied Jesus three times during the night of Jesus' betrayal and condemnation by the religious authorities who had sought to kill him. Now Peter, full of grief and deep remorse, unequivocally stated that he loved his master and was willing to serve and obey him whatever it might cost. When Jesus asks him "do you love me more than these?" Jesus may have pointed to the boats, fishing nets, and catch of fish from the night's work. He may have challenged Peter to abandon his work as a fisherman for the task of shepherding the community of God's people. Jesus may have also pointed to the other disciples and to Peter's previous boast: "Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away" (Matthew 26:33). Peter now makes no boast or comparison but humbly responds: "You know that I love you."
The Lord Jesus calls each one of us, even in our own weakness, sins, and failings, to love him above all else. Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) in his Confession wrote: "Late have I loved you, O Beauty so ancient and so new. Late have I loved you! ...You shone your Self upon me to drive away my blindness. You breathed your fragrance upon me... and in astonishment I drew my breath...now I pant for you! I tasted you, and now I hunger and thirst for you. You touched me! - and I burn to live within your peace" (Confession 10:27).
Nothing but our own sinful pride and stubborn wilfulness can keep us from the love of God. He loved us first and our love for him is a response to his exceeding graciousness and mercy towards us. Do you allow God's love to fill your heart and transform your life?
 "Lord Jesus, inflame my heart with your love and burn away everything within it that may be unloving, unkind, ungrateful, unholy, and not in accord with your will. May I always love what you love and reject what is contrary to your love and will for my life."