Suy Niêm Tin Mừng Thứ Tư sau tuần 7 Phục Sinh

Suy Niêm Tin Mừng Thứ Tư sau tuần 7 Phục Sinh - John 17:11-19

Những bài Tin Mừng trong ngày thứ thứ ba, thứ tư và thứ năm trong tuần này (tuần thứ 7 mùa Phục Sinh) là những bài đọc hay nhất và đã được gộp lại với nhau. Những bài này được rút ra từ chương XVII trong sách Tin Mừng của Thánh Gioan, những bài Tin Mừng này đã cho chúng ta thấy được sự chân thành trong lời cầu nguyện, những mối quan tâm mà Chúa Giêsu hằng âm ỉ giữ mải trong tâm khảm của Ngài khi Ngài biết rằng Ngài sẽ phải ra đi vào vườn Cây Dầu và lên đường chuẩn bị lên núi Calvary.
            Trong khi Ngài cầu nguyện cho "tất cả mọi người", đặc biệt, Chúa Giêsu đã cầu nguyện cho những người có đang mặt trong phòng Tiệc Ly và tất cả những người đã từng theo Chúa và cùng làm việc với Chúa trong việc làm cho Nước Chúa được hiện diện ở giữa những người trong thế kỷ thứ nhất tại Jerusalem, Giuđêa và Galilê .
            Điều đáng chú ý, tuy nhiên, Chúa Giêsu đã cầu nguyện một cách rõ ràng cho những thế hệ mai sau, cho những ai sẽ tin tưởng ở nơi Ngài qua những lời rao giảng của các môn đệ của Ngài và của người kế vị các Tông Đồ thay mặt Chúa giáo huấn cho mọi ngươì, Tóm lại, Chúa Giêsu đã cầu nguyện cho tất cả chúng ta, cho các tín hữu như chúng ta đang ở trong Người. Ngài cầu nguyện xin Thiên Chúa cho chúng ta mãi mãi được đoàn kết và đó điều rất là quan trọng trong thế giới đang bị đầy rẫy những chia rẽ này. Ngài cũng cầu nguyện cho tất chúng ta là sẽ gặp và thấy riêng Ngài trong vinh quang Thiên Chúa trên thiên đàng. Đây phải là một ý nghĩ cần phải có trong tâm trí của chúng ta mỗi ngày.
            Khi chúng ta nói với bạn bè của chúng ta rằng chúng ta đang cầu nguyện cho họ để cho họ có được niềm vui và hạnh phúc. Chúng ta cũng sẽ vui mừng và an ủi khi chúng ta biết rằng họ cũng đang cầu nguyện cho chúng ta. Thật là một thúc đẩy và hạnh phúc cho chúng ta khi chúng ta nhận biết được rằng Chúa Giêsu đã và đang cầu nguyện cho chúng ta. Không còn lời ca nào có ý nghĩa và đúng như lời ca của bài bài thánh ca, "Thật là một người bạn tốt mà chúng ta đã có trong Chúa Giêsu"!
 
Reflection SG:
The Gospel readings for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for this 7th week of Easter are best taken together. They make up the seventeenth chapter of St John’s Gospel. They present us in prayer form the concerns that were in the heart of Jesus as he was about to leave the Supper Room for Gethsemane and Calvary.
            While he prayed for “all people” he prayed in particular for those present in the Supper Room and all those others who worked with him in his mission to make present the Kingdom of God among the men and women of first century Jerusalem, Judea and Galilee.
            Strikingly, however, he prayed explicitly for those generations to come who would believe in him because of the words of the disciples present in the room and of their successors. In short he prayed for you and for me, believers as we are in him. He prayed that we would be united and that is very important in this divided world. He prayed too that we would see him clearly, personally in his glory in heaven. What a thought to have in our minds for the day.
            When we tell our friends that we are praying for them they are happy. We are happy and consoled when we know that they are praying for us. What a boost it is for us when we realize that Jesus prayed for us and is praying for us. How true are those words of the hymn, “What a friend we have in Jesus”!
Dear Jesus, friend and inspirer, help us to believe in your continuing, loving interest in us.
 
Wednesday of the Seventh Week of Easter
“I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the Evil One.”  John 17:14–15
Unfortunately, the evil one is real. He is the highest of the fallen angels who retain their natural spiritual power given them at their creation. God created all angelic creatures with the purpose of serving His holy will. The Scripture reveals that there are nine levels or “choirs” to which these angelic creatures belong. Among the fallen angels, the highest of them directs the others, and he is traditionally given the name Lucifer or “the devil.”
One of the natural spiritual powers that these fallen angelic creatures retain is the power of influence and suggestive thought. They were created to be messengers of God’s truth to us; but, in their fallen state, they seek to communicate confusion and lies instead. Therefore, it is very helpful to understand the way the evil one and the other fallen angels communicate to us so that we can reject their lies and listen only to the voice of God.
In his rules for the discernment of spirits, Saint Ignatius of Loyola explains that when a person is going “from mortal sin to mortal sin,” the evil one and the other demons continually propose to their imagination the “apparent pleasures” and “sensual delights” that they obtain from their sin as a way of keeping them firmly controlled by that sin. However, when a person is “intensely cleansing their sins and rising from good to better,” the evil one and the other demons act in a contrary way. They will “bite, sadden and put obstacles, disquieting with false reasons, that one may not go on” in their pursuit of holiness. God and the good angels will act in the opposite way. For those immersed in sin, God and the good angels will use “the opposite method, pricking them and biting their consciences through the process of reason” so as to draw them away from sin. And when a person is, in fact, growing in holiness, God and the good angels will “give courage and strength, consolations, tears, inspirations and quiet, easing, and putting away all obstacles, that one may go on in well doing” (See mycatholic.life/ignatius).
These spiritual lessons on the discernment of spirits are of great value and will assist you on your daily struggle with sin and your daily pursuit of holiness. Understanding the deceptions of the evil one and discerning the promptings of grace given by God bring clarity to our daily lives and direction to all of our actions. The good news that is revealed by the Scripture passage above is that our Lord is fully aware of the working of the evil one, has prayed for you and will assist you as you seek to combat these lies and deceptions in your life.
Reflect, today, upon the importance of learning how to discern both the voice of God and the lies of the evil one. Work to discern the voice of God so that you may follow Him more faithfully. And seek to discern the lies of the evil one so that you will not be influenced by him and can directly reject him. Commit yourself to a more rigorous discernment of these spiritual experiences in your life and allow this prayer of Jesus to direct you into His holy will.
My all-powerful Lord, You have conquered the evil one and provide all the grace I need to overcome his lies and deceptions. Open my mind to discern Your voice and give clarity to the voice of the evil one so that I may choose You with my whole heart and reject all that the evil one tries to say to me. Jesus, I trust in You.
 
Wednesday 7^th of Easter 2024.
Opening Prayer: Lord God, your Son has asked you to keep me from the Evil One and to consecrate me in truth. Hear the priestly prayer of your Son today and grant his request. Keep me united to you and your Son and your Spirit. 
Encountering the Word of God
1. Jesus’ Three Petitions in Jesus’ Prayer: In the Gospel, Jesus makes three petitions to the Father in his high priestly prayer. He first asks the Father to keep his disciples in the Father’s name so that they may be one. Jesus protected the disciples during his public ministry and kept them united in mind and heart. Now, Jesus is returning the Father, to reign at his right hand, and so he prays that the Father will keep them and protect them. In heaven, Jesus will continue his priestly intercession for the disciples before the Father’s throne of grace and will send the Holy Spirit to guide them to truth and protect them as Advocate. Jesus’ second petition asks the Father to keep his disciples from the Evil One. Jesus taught his disciples to pray to the Father with the petitions: “Lead us not into temptation” and “Deliver us from evil.” These two petitions recognize the efforts of Satan to frustrate the plan of God. Our prayer is not a plea for an easy life, for God allows us in his providence to be tried. These trials that he allows bring us to maturity and lead us from superficial piety to oneness with God’s will. When we ask, “Lead us not into temptation,” we express our awareness that the devil can do nothing against us unless God has permitted it beforehand. We ask God to remember that our strength goes only so far and ask him to be close to us with his protecting hand (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: Vol. I, 163). The last petition of the Lord’s Prayer asks the Father to deliver us and free us from evil or the Evil One. “In asking to be liberated from the power of evil, we are ultimately asking for God’s Kingdom, for union with his will, and for the sanctification of his name” (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, Vol. I, 167). Jesus’ third petition in his priestly prayer asks the Father to consecrate the Apostles in the truth. Sanctity or holiness belongs properly to God alone. To sanctify or to consecrate means to hand something over to God. Because something or someone is consecrated, they are given to God, and now they exist for others and are given to others. 
2. Three Consecrations: In the Gospel of John, Jesus speaks about three consecrations or sanctifications. The first consecration is the sending of the Son into the world by the Father (John 10:36). This means that “God is exercising a total claim over this man, ‘setting him apart’ for himself, yet at the same time sending him out for the nations” (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: Vol. II, 87). Jesus belongs totally to God and is sent out to all men and women to bring them into communion with the Father. Second, the Son sanctifies himself (John 17:19). He presents himself as an acceptable and unblemished sacrifice. The first consecration focuses on the Incarnation; the second on the Passion. “Jesus himself is the priest sent into the world by the Father; he himself is the sacrifice that is made present in the Eucharist of all times” (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: Vol. II, 88). Third, Jesus asks, “on the basis of his own sanctification, that the disciples be sanctified in the truth” (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: Vol. II, 85-86). He prays: “I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.” The disciples are given a share in Jesus’ priestly holiness and in his priestly mission. “Whoever, like Jesus, is segregated from the world and set apart for God with a view to a task is, for this very reason, fully available to all. For the disciples, the task will be to continue Jesus’ mission, to be given to God and thereby to be on mission for all” (Benedict XVI, A School of Prayer, 150).
3. The Power of the Gospel: In the First Reading, Paul reflects on his mission. He is giving a farewell address to the presbyters (elders) of the church of Ephesus. Paul has been faithful to his priestly mission and is able to invite the local presbyters to imitate him. As he concludes his address, he tells the presbyters to be on the watch for false teachers, both those outside the Church and those within. “True teachers lead people to fidelity to Jesus’ person and teaching, whereas false teachers reshape the message to enhance their own influence, undermining faith and unity” (Kurz, Acts of the Apostles, 314). Just as Jesus entrusted the disciples to God’s care in his Last Supper discourse; so does Paul commend the leaders of the church of Ephesus to God and to the word of his grace. Paul recognizes that there is a dynamic power in the Gospel to build up the Christian community as the house of God. He recalls that the word of God’s grace can also give them the inheritance that God has planned for them. In the Old Testament, the inheritance of God’s people was the promised land of Canaan; now, in Christ, our inheritance is eternal life. “This inheritance will be for all who are consecrated, that is, all who are made holy by baptism into Christ” (Kurz, Acts of the Apostles, 315).
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, I thank you for teaching us how to pray and giving us the “Our Father” and your high priestly prayer as models of true prayer. I hope that I continue to learn from you and enter more deeply and intimately in communion with the Father.
Living the Word of God: Pray today that the Father watch over you and guide you; pray that you may resist the temptations and lies of the devil and mature spiritually under trial; pray that you may be consecrated in the truth, and, in this way, share in God’s holiness and live for your brothers and sisters.