Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Ba Tuần 21th Thường Niên

Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Ba Tuần 21th Thường Niên (Lễ Thánh Nữ Monica)
Bài Tin Mừng Hôm nay, Chúa Giêsu tiếp tục các cuộc tấn công về “sự khốn nạn” của những người Biệt Phái và kinh sư.  Trong bài đọc hôm nay Chúa Giêsu đã giúp hiểu được hai điểm. Trước tiên, Ngài cáo buộc những biệt phái hay Pharisêu vì cái sự tỉ mỉ về các quy luật nhỏ nhen trong khi đó lại lơ là đi những vấn đề khác quan trọng hơn nhiều, chẳng hạn như đừng nên phán xét người khác, mà nên có lòng từ bi, bác ái và nhân hậu và biết trung thành với Thiên Chúa. Họ hay lấy chuyện nhỏ, xé lớn ra (tỏ vẻ hoảng sợ với những con “lăng quăn” trong nước uống của họ, nhưng họ lại "nuốt cả nguyên con lạc đà", có nghĩa là, họ bỏ qua những điều thực sự rát là quan trọng: như thương yêu loại, anh chị em của chung quanh, thực hiện sự tha thứ và chăm lo giúp đỡ những người nghèo khổ và thiếu thốn.
Trong phần thứ hai, Ngài chỉ trích họ vì họ chỉ tập trung vào những thứ bên ngoài, vật chất, về hình ảnh dung mạo của mình, họ muốn ngừoi khác ca tụng, vinh danh và được ngưỡng mộ đối vì sự hiểu biệt rộng rãi của họ và việc giữ luật của họ. Nhưng họ lại là chính những ngôi mộ được quét vôi trắng, có cái vẻ đẹp ở bên ngoài, nhưng bên trong đầy những giòi bọ, hôi hám, vì sự lạm quyền, gian lận và tham ô. Thật là một sự không có sự tương đồng giữa những gìthể hiện ở bên ngoài và những gì họ có thực sự đang ở trong tâm hồn của họ.
Bao nhiêu người trong chúng ta đã liêm chính hoàn thiện, do đó, những gì mà người khác nhìn thấy nơi chúng ta họ cũng cứ tưởng đó là những gì mà thực sự đang có ở ngay bên trong tâm hồn của chúng ta?.
Lạy chúa Giêsu, xin giúp cho chúng con biết sống hoàn thiện, liêm chính, biết tha thứ, không cố chấp, biết thương yêu và nhường lẫn nhau, để cho lời nới và việc làm của chúng con nên được đi đôi với nhau, nhờ đó mà chúng con có thể được sống hoà bình và hoà mình với anh chị em chúng con của chúng con.  
 
Tue 26th Aug 2014  21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jesus continues his attacks on the Pharisees and Scribes. We should really see this as a criticism of the legalistic mind. Not all the Pharisees and Scribes were hypocrites and we can find their like in our own Christian communities and it is likely that Matthew is thinking of Christian Pharisees rather than those who criticized Jesus. In today’s reading Jesus makes two points. First, he accuses Pharisees of being scrupulous about the tiniest regulations while being neglectful of much more important issues such as judgement, compassion and faithfulness to God’s will.
They strain out tiny insects (which were regarded as ‘unclean’) from their drinking water but then “swallow the camel”, that is, ignore the really important things like loving all our brothers and sisters, practicing forgiveness and taking care of the poor and needy.
In the second part, he criticizes them for focusing only on the externals, on their image, what people could see so that they could be admired for their observance of the Law. But they are like whitewashed tombs, lovely on the outside but inside are full of strench and corruption. There is no real similarity between what appears on the outside and what they really are inside.  How many of us have perfect integrity, so that what people see is also what really is going on inside us?
 
Tuesday of the Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time
“Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel! Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.” Matthew 23:24–26
Imagine if someone were to offer to wash the dishes after dinner and all they did was to wash the outside of the cups and bowls but left the inside untouched and then placed them back in the cupboard. The next time you would go to use them, you would find them looking good until you took them down and saw the dried liquid and food inside. This is the image that Jesus uses to describe the Pharisees. They only cared about the external appearance and ignored the more important interior of the soul.
Jesus also used the contrasting images of straining out the gnat and swallowing the camel. This was a reference to the laws in Leviticus that forbade the Israelites from eating “swarming creatures,” such as gnats and other bugs, (Leviticus 11:41–45) as well as the meat of camels (Leviticus 11:4). Saying that the Pharisees “strain out the gnat and swallow the camel” was a figure of speech by which Jesus accused the Pharisees of distorting the smallest details of the law while ignoring the most important ones. For example, the Pharisees required everyone to strain all liquid before drinking it, just in case a gnat accidentally was present in that liquid, but they cared little about true justice when it came to killing the Son of God. For these reasons, the Pharisees had become “blind guides” and “hypocrites,” incapable of leading people to holiness.
The bottom line is that Jesus is telling us that we must truly become holy, not just appear so. God sees the heart and judges the heart. The only other person who can see your heart is you. Therefore, we must also hear this condemnation of the Pharisees so that we will understand the importance of looking into our own souls first and foremost. From there, from the holiness within, our exterior will also radiate the holiness of God.
One of the documents of Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes, beautifully speaks to us about the conscience: “Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a man. There he is alone with God, Whose voice echoes in his depths” (#16). This “secret core and sanctuary” within us is what Jesus is most concerned about. Very often we are tempted to be far more concerned about how we look to others than how we truly are inside. For example, the person who lives a sinful double life may go to great lengths to look holy to others, doing all they can to hide their sin from others. On the contrary, someone might be living a very holy life but be falsely accused by another publicly, causing much pain. In the former case, as long as the person is not found out, they appear at peace. In the latter case, even though the person is living a good and holy life, if they are falsely accused, they may be tempted to despair as their public image is shattered.
What others think and say about us is ultimately out of our control to a lesser or greater degree. What is within our control is that which is within us. Our interior life, that secret core, that sanctuary within where we meet God, must become the focus of our energies. Exteriorly, it ought not matter that others praise us or criticize us. What matters is that which is true, and only you and God can look into your heart to see that truth. The Pharisees failed to understand this essential truth. They put all their energy into their public image, neglecting that which was most important, making them incapable of leading others to God.
Reflect, today, upon your soul. How often do you look inside yourself? Are you able to be honest with yourself, acknowledging your sin and being grateful for your virtue? Or are you among those who are more concerned with how you look to others? Turn your eyes to the secret sanctuary within because it is there, in that secret core, that you will meet God, grow in holiness and then radiate that true holiness within our world. When that happens, God will also be able to use you to be a true guide to holiness for others.
Lord of true holiness, You desire to cleanse my soul, and You invite me to meet You there within. Please give me the grace I need to care more about my holiness within than the external perceptions and judgments of others. May I become holy, dear Lord, and learn to become an instrument of that holiness for others. Jesus, I trust in You.
 
Tuesday of the 21st Week in Ordinary Time 2024
Opening Prayer: Lord God, I hope to hear words of blessing and not woe when I encounter you at the moment of my death. I do not want to neglect the heart of your divine law. May I be just in all my works. May I be merciful to those around me. May I be faithful to your word.
Encountering the Word of God
1. The Heart of the Law: In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus continues his series of seven woes. Today, he accuses the scribes and Pharisees of neglecting what is most important in God’s Law. Jesus has just declared that the two greatest commandments are love for God and love for neighbor (Matthew 22:34-40). The problem, however, was that the scribes and Pharisees mistakenly concentrated on lesser, more external things in the Law of Moses and were blinded about the importance of the interior acts of the heart. They were attentive to lesser matters like clean dishware, ritual washing before meals, human traditions, and paying taxes on spices. But by forgetting the weightier things of the law, their hearts were far from God. Ultimately all human beings will be judged by God and before God all will be revealed. We will not be able to hide behind lame excuses, sophistical interpretations, or false justifications. We will be judged on how we have loved, how we have been merciful with our brothers and sisters, and whether or not we have been faithful to God and his Law.
2. Jesus’ Return in Glory: In the First Reading, Paul tells the Thessalonians that they should not be alarmed by a forged letter about the second coming (Parousia) of Jesus Christ. He tells the community that it is true that Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead and that those who believe will be taken up into the glory of heaven, but also that we do not know the day nor the hour of Jesus’ return. Paul teaches that before Jesus’ return a great apostasy will occur and that the antichrist – the man of lawlessness and the son of perdition who exalts himself – will appear. This is in agreement with the signs of the end-times that Jesus spoke about in the Gospels. When we contemplate the end times, it is important to remember that Jesus has triumphed and will triumph over the evil one. This is a cause for our hope. We place our hope in God who is fully worthy of our trust and capable of fulfilling our desire for eternal life. We hope in the divine promise of salvation made present to us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the true Witness to the Father, and the sending of the Holy Spirit (O’Callaghan, Christ Our Hope, 11-14). The Holy Spirit gives life to the promise of salvation and makes it present in our hearts.
3. The True Way of Christian Perfection: Our words and actions cannot be like those of the scribes and Pharisees. Too often we are tempted like them to neglect the weightier matters of the law of charity and mistakenly think that we are justified by secondary, external works done without charity. In the New Law of grace and charity, it is important to hold fast to the person of Jesus and share in his free, loving, and filial obedience to the will of the Father. The way of Christian perfection leads us to the love of God and neighbor, to a further detachment from possessions, and to the following of Christ. As Christians, we believe that God chose us in Christ to be holy and to share in divine glory. Those who follow Christ must stand firm and hold fast to the teachings of the Apostles. God’s grace brings consolation and eternal comfort to our hearts; his grace enables us to do good works and to proclaim the Gospel of salvation to our brothers and sisters.
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you reserved your harshest judgment for the Scribes and Pharisees. They were supposed to be the good shepherds of your people and yet they often were obstacles between the people and the Father. Help me to be a good shepherd and eradicate any hypocrisy in my life.
 
Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Ba Tuẩn 21 TN-Matthew 23:23-26
“đừng xét đoán theo bề ngoài nữa, nhưng hãy xét đoán cho công minh"."(John 7:24) Người Kitô hữu chúng ta thường hay bị buộc tội là "xét đoán" mỗi khi chúng ta lên tiếng phản đối và chống lại những hoạt động đầy tội lỗi.. Tuy nhiên, đó không phải là ý nghĩa của câu Kinh Thánh trên đã nói , "Đừng xét đoán." có một loại phán xét công chính trong sư công minh, chính trực mà chúng ta phải có nghĩa vụ, phải thực hiện, với sự nhận định cẩn thận trong sự sáng suốt.  Chúa Giêsu truyền dạy cho chúng ta phải thực hiện và đem Lời của Ngài đến với thế gian;. nói lên sự thật, để ngăn chặn con đường tội lỗi. Xin Chúa cho chúng ta có thể có can đảm làm theo lệnh truyền của Ngài, nhờ vào ân sũng và sự khôn ngoan mà Chúa Thánh Thần truyền đạt đến cho chúng ta. .
 
Meditation:
“Stop judging by mere appearance, and make a right judgment." (John 7:24) Christians are often accused of "judging" whenever they speak out against a sinful activity. However, that is not the meaning of the Scripture verses that state, "Do not judge." There is a righteous kind of judgment we are supposed to exercise—with careful discernment. Jesus commanded us to carry His Word into the world; to speak the truth; to stop sinful ways. May we courageously follow His command, through the grace and wisdom imparted within us by the Holy Spirit.