Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thừ Hai Tuần 15 TN

Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thừ Hai Tuần 15 TN
Trong bài Tin Mừng hôm nay, Chúa Giêsu cảnh báo chúng ta rằng Những quyết định theo Chúa Giêsu của chúng ta có thể sẽ mang lại cho chúng ta những xung đột, và có khi phải đối mặt với những cuộc xung đột ngay chính trong gia đình và phần nhiều là nhưng xung đột bên ngoài xã hội. Đôi khi, ngay cả bạn bè thân nhất và những người thân yêu nhất của chúng ta đã không hiểu, và thậm chí có thể từ bỏ và xa lánh cho chúng ta. Dù có sao đi chăng nữa, Chúng ta phải vững tâm theo Chúa Giêsu cho đến tận cùng. Không có con đường nào đi tắt để đến với Chúa Giêsu được. Chúa Giêsu muốn chúng ta cùng chia sẽ sự đau khổ với Ngài ngay bây giờ bằng việc chúng ta phải biết chọn lựa và thực hành một cuộc sống căn bản cho chính chúng ta đó là thực thì những lời Chúa dạy. Không ai có thể thờ ơ và lãng đạm với Chúa. Chúng ta một là theo Chúa, hoặc chống lại Ngài, chúng ta không thể nói theo Chúa mà sống theo sự ham muốn vật chất.
Chúa Giêsu đã chống lại thế giới vì thế mà mọi thế hệ vẫn có những người xung đột chống lại Chúa Giêsu và tiếp tục chống lại những tín điều của Hội Thánh. Những ai không yêu mến Chúa Giêsu, thì rồi cũng ghét Chúa. Chúa Giêsu là một thách đố đối với những người tự cao, hay tự hào và những người yêu thích sự ham muốn xác thịt hay phóng khoáng, theo chủ nghĩa cá nhân. Nếu chúng ta là người có lòng thật sự yêu mến Chúa, Thì chúng ta phải biết ghét bỏ và xa tránh sự ích kỷ của chúng ta, Ví nếu như chúng ta bám víu vào sự ích kỷ của chúng ta, trước sau gì chúng ta cũng trở nên vô tư và đối nghịch với Thiên Chúa lúc nào mà không biết. Thập giá to lớn và nặng nhất của chúng ta là chính cái bản chất tự phụ nơi con người chúng ta và chính chúng ta đã tự phủ nhận chính mình. Yêu mến Chúa Giêsu trên hết mọi sự thì bao gồm cả sự yếm mến chính mình ( chúng ta.) nữa.
 
REFLECTION
our own personal decision to follow Jesus will bring us face-to-face with struggles from within and without, and both will challenge that decision. Sometimes, even our nearest and dearest friends will not understand, and may even reject us. Even then, our determination to follow Jesus must remain intact. There is no middle road to Jesus. Jesus forces us to make some fundamental and basic options in life. No one can be indifferent to Jesus. We are either for him, or against him. Jesus is the rock against which generations of men and women have clashed, and continue to clash. Whoever does not love Jesus, winds up hating him? Jesus is such a challenge to our pride and love of comfort, that we either love him and hate our selfishness, or we cling to our selfishness and wind up becoming indifferent and opposed to him. This is the biggest cross: our own self-denial, loving Jesus above all things, including our very self
 
Monday 15th in Ordinary Time 2023
“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.” Matthew 10:37–38
At first read, this appears to be a difficult teaching of our Lord. But when properly understood, it is clear that it helps us keep our relationships with God and with our family properly ordered in charity and truth. Following this command will never result in a lack of love for family; rather, it will help us to love solely with the heart of Christ.
What does this teaching of Jesus require of us? Simply put, if a family member, or anyone else, imposes expectations on us that are contrary to the will of God, then we must choose the will of God over those other expectations. To understand this more clearly, think about how one might choose to love “father or mother” or “son or daughter” more than God. Say, for example, that a child chooses to go astray in their moral or faith life, and they want their parents to support them in their sin. But the parents remain firm in their moral convictions and, out of love, offer no support for the immoral lifestyle their child has chosen. This would become especially difficult for the parents if the child becomes angry and criticizes the parents, with the claim that the parents are being judgmental and are lacking in love. What the child is actually requesting is “Mom and dad, you must love me more than God and His laws.” And if the parents do not support their child’s misguided lifestyle, the relationship may be deeply wounded. Perhaps that is one of the reasons that Jesus followed this command by saying, “and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.” Love always involves the Cross. At times, it is a cross of personal self-sacrifice and self-giving. And at other times, it’s a cross by which our love is misunderstood, and we are deemed as “unloving” by those we actually love the most. When parents truly love their child, they will care first and foremost for their child’s eternal salvation and moral living, and they will not choose “friendship” with their child over truth.
Of course, this same truth applies to every relationship we will have and even to our “relationship” to society as a whole. More and more, there are those who demand of us all that we support them in behaviors that are objectively disordered and contrary to the will of God. We are told that if we oppose these choices that some make, then we are judgmental and hateful. But this is exactly what Jesus is speaking about. If we choose to “love” others more than God and His holy will, meaning, if our first priority is to make people “feel” supported in the immoral and confused decisions they make, then we are not actually loving them at all. At least not with the love of God. Instead, we are prioritizing their sin over the truth they so deeply need to know so as to be set free and to enter into an authentic relationship of love with the God of Truth.
Reflect, today, upon true love. Love is only true love when it is grounded and centered in God and every moral law He has set forth. Reflect upon your own relationships, especially with family and those closest to you. Do you love them with the pure love of God? Does your love remain firmly rooted in the will of God? Or do you, at times, choose to compromise the truths of faith and morality so as to appease the misguided expectations of others. Kindness, gentleness and compassion must always be present. But moral truth must also be just as present and must be the foundation of every virtue we exercise in our relationships with everyone. Do not be afraid to love others exclusively with the mind and heart of God. Doing so is the only way to have true love for everyone in your life so as to help save their souls.
Lord of All, You call all people to love You with all of their mind, heart, soul and strength. You call us all to adhere to every truth that You have spoken. Give me the courage and love I need to not only love You above all but to also love others with Your love alone. Help me to embrace Your Cross when this is difficult so that I will be a better instrument of the love You have for all. Jesus, I trust in You.
 
Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time 2024
Opening Prayer: Lord God, it is hard to hear Jesus’ words today. He speaks about bringing a sword instead of peace, instigating familial strife, and the need to love him more than my own family. Soften the hardness of my heart to receive your Word and understand it so that it may bear abundant fruit.
Encountering the Word of God
1. Tribulation and the End of the Exile: In the Gospel, we read the end of Jesus’ second great discourse in Matthew – the Missionary Discourse. After having appointed the twelve as Apostles, Jesus gave them instructions and prepared them to face persecution from their fellow countrymen, the Gentiles, and even their own families. As they proclaimed the kingdom of God, the disciples would experience trial and tribulation. These are events that signal the end of the exile of God’s people and the age of the Messiah. “The proclamation of the kingdom will cause division not because of the message itself but because of the way people receive it. Responses will vary from full reception to hostile rejection, and this will cause discord – even hostility – within families” (Mitch and Sri, The Gospel of Matthew, 148). Jesus’ disciples will share in the humiliation of the Cross. They will lose their old, earthly life of sin for the sake of Jesus, and, in turn, gain eternal life united to him. Empowered and guided by the Holy Spirit, they will produce good fruit for the kingdom. As laborers in God’s vineyard, they will produce sweet grapes; as workers in God’s field, they will produce a plentiful harvest; as fishers of men, they will haul in a great catch. Is there any strife in my extended family that I can address in charity and love?
2. Isaiah’s Message to Judah: Our First Reading is taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah. We have been reading during the last several weeks about Elijah and Elisha and have read from Amos and Hosea, who all prophesied to the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Isaiah was called to prophesy to the Southern Kingdom of Judah and to Jerusalem in the eighth century B.C. during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. On Saturday, we read the story of Isaiah’s call during a vision in the Temple. Today, we read from the first chapter of his book, which compares Judah to the sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Like the people of the northern Kingdom of Israel, who offered ritual sacrifices but oppressed the poor, the people of Judah have fallen into the same hypocrisy. God is not glorified and praised by vain offerings, but rather by pure hearts, just deeds, and service to the poor. God tells the people that even though their sins be like scarlet, they shall be made white as snow and wool (Isaiah 1:18). God will reward those who are obedient to his law and to his word. God promises to vent his wrath on his enemies and to redeem Zion.
3. The Message of Isaiah 2-5: Tomorrow, our First Reading will be taken from Isaiah 7. Since we skip chapters 2-5, it is beneficial to reflect briefly on the message of those chapters. Isaiah 2 speaks about God’s universal reign. The prophet foresees the day when all the nations shall come to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. The people of all nations will learn the ways of God: “For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:1-3). This passage finds fulfillment on the day of Pentecost when the people from many nations gather in Jerusalem and receive the New Law from the Spirit-filled Apostles. Chapter Three communicates God's judgment upon sinful Judah and Jerusalem: “Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen” (Isaiah 3:8). Isaiah says that the speech and deeds of the people oppose God and defy his glorious presence. The people are indifferent to God, proclaim their sins like Sodom, and bring evil upon themselves. God judges the rulers of Judah for devouring the vineyard of the Lord and oppressing the poor; he judges the women of Jerusalem for their vanity. Chapter Four tells us what God will do for his people: he will wash away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleanse the bloodstains of Jerusalem. He will fill Zion with his holy presence, in a way similar to the journey of the people of Israel in the desert: he will overshadow Mount Zion as a cloud by day and as smoke and fire by night. Finally, Chapter Five uses the image of a vineyard to tell the people how much God has done for them: what more, God asks, could he have done for the house of Judah. Instead of yielding good grapes, Judah has produced sour, wild grapes. Because of this the walls of Jerusalem will be torn down and the people will be sent into exile (Isaiah 5:13). Isaiah, then, moves back and forth between the condemnation of sin and the promise of redemption. All nations, not just Judah, will worship God on his holy mountain. They will be purified from their sin and receive the law from God. God will protect his people and be present among them.
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, the path to salvation passes through tribulation. I do not ask that you remove trial, temptation, and tribulation from my life. Rather, I humbly ask that you strengthen me, guide me, and protect me as I journey toward you.
Living the Word of God: What trials, temptations, and tribulations am I experiencing right now? How am I doing with them? Do I trust in myself to be victorious or do I see myself as fighting the good fight with Jesus by my side?
 
Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time 2023
Father Shawn Aaron, LC, Matthew 10: 34-11:1
Introductory Prayer: Almighty and ever-living God, I seek new strength from the courage of Christ, our shepherd. I believe in you, I hope in you, and I seek to love you with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. I want to be led one day to join the saints in heaven, where your Son Jesus Christ lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.
Petition: Jesus, I want to love as you have loved me.
1. Not Peace but the Sword: Complacency can be defined as "self-satisfaction accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies." This is a false peace, even a harmful peace. It is a self-satisfied peace that lulls us to sleep and can result in the loss of those things that are indeed most valuable in life: God, faith, family, etc. Jesus comes to interrupt that false peace by upending the tables of our lives (cf. John 2:15) to awaken us to the dangers that our false peace has blinded us. As he drove out the sheep and oxen from the temple, so, too, he will use circumstances, trials and difficulties as his "sword" to drive out from our lives whatever is opposed to God's goodness and our dignity.
2. Nothing Before God: With this phrase, we start getting an inkling of the type of sword our Lord is wielding. He is giving us a criterion that starts from heaven downward because he is trying to lift us from the earth upward. What natural relationship is closer than the one between a parent and child, especially a mother and child? Yet even this bond must be subordinate to the love we have for God. Why? No creature, not even our parents, can bring us to the fullness of life and happiness that comes only from God. God wants us to love him, not because he needs our love, but because we need him. He is objective reality, and we must always move from the subjective to the objective if we are to possess the truth. Jesus invites us to adapt our standards from the merely natural and passing to the supernatural and everlasting.
3. Love of God Is Inclusive, Not Exclusive: Giving a cup of water to one of the least of our brothers and sisters will not go unrewarded and, therefore, unnoticed. In this way, Jesus shows that he is not calling us to a love of God that excludes others. The standard of placing God first does not exclude love for mother or father, sister, or brother. Once we love God as he deserves, we will learn to love others as they truly deserve. In fact, we merit the vision of the God we cannot see by loving the neighbor we do see.
Conversation with Christ: Lord Jesus, following you demands my all, and sometimes I do not have the strength to give what you ask. Help me stay close to you in prayer and the sacraments to have the grace to live the standard of love and generosity you ask for. Mother Most Pure, make my heart only for Jesus.
Resolution: Today, I will make three acts of self-denial and offer them for someone in need of prayers.