Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Ba ngày 14 tháng 5 Lễ Thánh Mathhia Tông Đồ
Mặc dù Chúa muốn chọn chúng ta làm môn đệ của Ngài, nhưng Ngài cũng tôn trọng sự tự do của chúng ta trong việc chúng ta ra quyết định. Trong bài Tin Mừng hôm nay, chúng ta nghe Chúa Giêsu nói: "Không phải là các con đã chọn thầy nhưng là thầy đã chọn các con, và thầy cử các con ra đi, để các con sẽ được sinh hoa kết trái và hoa trái ấy sẽ tồn tại mãi mãi." Cũng như trong việc chúng ta tự do lựa chọn những người mà chúng ta thích và muốn làm bạn. Chúa Giêsu cũng chọn những người mà Ngài rất thích được làm bạn, hầu Ngài chia sẻ tình yêu vĩnh cửu và niềm vui mà Ngài mang đến với những người đó từ nơi Chúa Cha. Chúa Giêsu truyền dạy cho chúng ta là hãy yêu thương nhau như Ngài đã yêu thương chúng ta. Chúa Giêsu đã lựa và chọn chúng ta và ban cho chúng ta một nơi trong thế giới có ý nghĩa và mục đích trong cuộc sống; và ngược lại, chúng ta cũng phải biết cảm nhận và cam kết với sự hợp tác này.
Những người ở lại trong tình yêu thương của Chúa Kitô sẽ được sinh sôi, đơm hoa kết trái mãi mãi. Năng suất cao không có nghĩa là tài quản lý hoặc thành tựu. Cũng như việc tuân thủ trong tình bạn của Chúa Kitô không đòi hỏi sự trì trệ.Thiên Chúa là tác giả mọi cuộc sống, do đó mối quan hệ với Thiên Chúa hằng sống phải là sống sống động trong mọi tâm hồn. Cầu nguyện để cho kết quảhoa trái được phát triển trong tình yêu thương, nhưng tình yêu này phải được phát xuất ngay từ trong đáy lòng của chúngta cũng như là Chúa Kitô đã đem những việc làm tốt đẹp cho thế giới để: "nhờ Lời mà họ sẽ tin vào Con,.. và thế gian tin là Cha đã sai Con." (Gioan 17: 21).
Much as God reverences our freedom in decision-making, it is the Lord who chooses us when it comes to discipleship. In today’s gospel, we hear Jesus say: “You did not choose me but I chose you, and I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.”
As we freely choose who we want to be friends with, Jesus chooses those whom he loves to be his friends, to share the abiding love and joy that comes to him from the Father. Jesus commands us to love one another as he has loved us. Jesus’ choosing of us gives us a place in the world and a sense of purpose in life; and in return, we feel a sense of commitment to this partnership.
Those who abide in Christ’s friendship will be productive — to bear fruit that will last. Productivity does not mean management or achievement. Nor abiding in Christ’s friendship entails stagnation. God is the author of life, so a relationship with the living God must be lively. Fruit that lasts grows out of the brotherly love that comes from the heart, as well as from the good works that come from professing Christ to the world: “so that the world may believe it was you who sent me.” (John 17:21). St. Matthias, Apostle, pray for us.
[St. Matthias was chosen to take the place of Judas Iscariot as an Apostle. He worked in Palestine and was stoned to death.]
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves.” ~Luke 10:1–3
Reflection: Very little is known about Saint Matthias, whom we honor today. He was most likely living in Galilee at the time that Jesus began His public ministry because he fits the description as “…one of the men who accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus came and went among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us…” (Acts 1:21–22). He certainly was among Jesus’ first followers.
After Judas betrayed our Lord, the Gospel of Matthew says that Judas “went off and hanged himself” (Matthew 27:5). In the Acts of the Apostles, the Apostle Peter describes Judas’ death this way: “…falling headlong, he burst open in the middle, and all his insides spilled out” (Acts 1:18). Regardless of how Judas died, he was one of the Twelve. Twelve is an important number in the Bible because there were twelve sons of Jacob (later given the name Israel) and those twelve sons established the twelve tribes that made up the people of Israel. Therefore, when Judas died, Peter recommended that someone be appointed to replace him so that the Apostles would once again number twelve. Peter quoted Psalm 109 that prophesied, “May another take his office” (Acts 1:20).
In order to pick a suitable successor, the approximately 120 disciples who were gathered together at that time in Jerusalem, perhaps in the upper room where the Last Supper had been celebrated, elected two who had been with Jesus from the beginning. Most likely these men were among the seventy-two disciples that Jesus had sent out on a mission of evangelization during His public ministry. The Acts of the Apostles describes it this way: “So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed, ‘You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this apostolic ministry from which Judas turned away to go to his own place.’ Then they gave lots to them, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the eleven apostles” (Acts 1:23–26).
Even though there were about 120 disciples gathered together, the Twelve were singled out as Apostles. This election of Matthias took place prior to Pentecost, so when the Holy Spirit came, it came upon Matthias as an Apostle, and the Twelve as a united body, along with the rest of the disciples.
One significant theological point to consider is that because it was Peter who organized the elevation of a disciple to the responsibility of Apostle, it is clear that the Apostles did not not believe that Jesus intended the role of Apostle to end with the deaths of the Twelve. Jesus intended their ministry to continue and even to expand beyond twelve as the Church expanded beyond Jerusalem. The appointment of Matthias as an Apostle clearly teaches us that the pope, the successor of Saint Peter, has the authority and responsibility to appoint new Apostles—bishops—as needed.
After this mention of Matthias in the Acts of the Apostles, nothing more is said about him. We know nothing for certain about his life and ministry after his becoming one of the first bishops of the Church. According to various traditions, Matthias traveled north to Cappadocia, modern-day central Turkey, and then east to the Caspian Sea, modern-day Georgia. He is believed to have died a martyr by crucifixion or may have even been stoned and then beheaded. Other traditions state that he traveled south to modern-day Sudan and Ethiopia.
The Church Father from a century later, Saint Clement of Alexandria, quotes Saint Matthias as follows: “It behooves us to combat the flesh, and make use of it, without pampering it by unlawful gratifications. As to the soul, we must develop her power by faith and knowledge.” This quote reveals the deep spiritual knowledge Saint Matthias had regarding the importance of the mortification of the flesh and the spiritual necessity of faith. There is little doubt that the three years he spent as a disciple of Jesus prepared him for his ministry as a bishop. And there is little doubt that his ministry as a bishop brought about the conversion and sanctification of many.
Prayer: Saint Matthias, you heard Jesus calling you to follow Him from the very beginning of His public ministry. You responded with generosity, fulfilling the humble role of a disciple and missionary. When you were chosen as one of the Twelve and ordained a bishop, you fulfilled your shepherding duty of spreading the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Please pray for me, that I will listen to the voice of God and respond to His call generously all the days of my life. Saint Matthias, pray for me. Jesus, I trust in You.
1. Covenantal Friendship with God: On the night of the Last Supper, Jesus exhorts his disciples to be faithful and abide in divine love, the love of the Father, the love of the Son, and the love of the Holy Spirit. Jesus offers friendship with God to his disciples. He makes sure that they know that their relationship with God is not that between a slave and a master. Jesus’ disciples are Jesus’ friends. They share in Jesus’ life. “Their friendship consists in sharing a common life, namely, in Jesus’ filial life that he lays down in love for his own (see John 15:13). Furthermore, Jesus shares everything that he has heard from the Father with them (John 15:15; see also John 15:16); the Father’s life is also commonly possessed. Thus, their friendship finds its ultimate referent in the Father. As friends, therefore, they share a quasi-familial life together, a communion comparable to kinship. The meaning of their status as ‘friends’ and their status as ‘brothers’ (see John 20:17) is similar. This is an illustration of how, in the ancient world, friendship was analogous to kinship relations” (DeMeo, “Covenant Fulfillment in the Gospel of John,” 134-135). A friend is another “self” and so a friend of Jesus the Son is another son who shares in his filial life with the Father. (DeMeo, “Covenant Fulfillment in the Gospel of John,” 135).
2. Judas’ Betrayal and Matthias’ Fidelity: During the ten days between Jesus’ Ascension and the Descent of the Holy Spirit, Peter addressed the one hundred and twenty members of the early Christian community. The number is important: “Later Jewish tradition considered ten men a minyan, or quorum, for communal prayer. The 120 members of the Christian community at prayer symbolize a quorum of all twelve tribes of a restored Israel” (Kurz, Acts of the Apostles, 41). Following Peter’s exhortation, Matthias was chosen by the community and by lot to replace Judas, since he was a witness to all Jesus’ earthly events, from his baptism in the Jordan to his resurrection from the dead. After encountering the risen Jesus during the days leading up to his Ascension, Matthias was chosen to take up the office (episkope) left vacant by Judas. Matthias was faithful to Jesus to the end, almost compensating for Judas’ betrayal. Pope Benedict reflected on the election of Matthias and offered a lesson for us in the Church today: “While there is no lack of unworthy and traitorous Christians in the Church, it is up to each of us to counterbalance the evil done by them with our clear witness to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior” (Benedict XVI, October 18, 2006).
3. Who was Matthias? Matthias was probably one of the followers of John the Baptist and also one of the seventy disciples (Luke 10:1-20). The seventy were given the power to heal and cast out demons in Jesus’ name. He was sent out to the towns and villages of Israel during Jesus’ public ministry and sent out again to all nations to preach the Gospel at Jesus' Ascension. He will receive the Holy Spirit with Mary and the other Apostles and spend his life in the service of the Gospel. Today’s Gospel invites us to see Matthias the Apostle as a friend of Jesus because he fulfilled what Jesus commanded. The first step in following Jesus was not taken by Matthias. Jesus says that he first chose them and appointed them to bear fruit. Matthias’ decision to follow Jesus, like our decision, is a response to God’s grace and call. God takes the first step, having chosen us in his Son before the foundation of the world to be holy (Ephesians 1:4). Matthias was chosen by God for apostolic ministry. He responded generously to that call and was faithful to Jesus to the end. He was a friend of Jesus and remained in the Father’s love. Throughout his life, he bore fruit for the Kingdom. He loved others, ultimately giving his life for them. And now, he intercedes for us in heaven before the throne of God and the Lamb.
In the -first reading Matthias is chosen by lot to be added as an apostle to replace Judas lscariot: an apostle is one who knows Jesus and who is to be "a witness to his [Jesus'] resurrection." Each one of us, by our baptism in Christ, is called to know him and to be a witness to the Good News and his resurrection.
The gospel passage describes the conversation Jesus has with his Father about the disciples. Jesus asks that the Father protect the disciples with His immense power, help them be closely united as the Father and the Son are intimately united, that their sufferings will be turned into joy, that they be guarded from the prince of the world and that they be consecrated, like Jesus, in total dedication to God’s service which will be a mission to the world. At the core of Jesus' prayer for his disciples is his confidence in his Father's love in all His activity
The Father’s response to the prayer of Jesus is evidenced in the gathering of the one hundred and twenty disciples after Jesus' ascension. Through prayer, and by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Peter and the other apostles chose Judas’ replacement. Even though they had faced a crisis in that one of Jesus’ closest disciples had betrayed him, confident of God’s love for them, and as witnesses to the resurrection, they proceeded with the task that Jesus had commissioned them with. In his letter, John writes that because God loves us, we too are called to love one another. God’s love generates ours. God’s love for us and our love for Him and for one another should give us confidence, for just like Christ, we have overcome the world. It is in Jesus as Saviour of the world and as Son of God that we can and should fearlessly profess our faith through the Spirit to the world. Lord, teach me to love as you do.
Friends Forever: Friendship with Jesus cannot be broken by him. He never leaves us, even though at times it appears that he keeps silent. He remains at our side wherever we go. He simply asks that we not abandon him: “Abide in me” (John 15:4). And even if we stray from him, “he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself” (2 Timothy 2:13) (Christus Vivit). We want to be there for Jesus. We want to turn away from our weaknesses and abide in the Lord. We, therefore, stay close to the sacrament of reconciliation, which cleanses and strengthens us to abide in Christ.
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