Suy Niêm Thứ hai Tuần 29 Thường Niên

Suy Niêm Thứ hai Tuần 29 Thường Niên

Như cuộc sống hằng ngày chúng ta thấy hiện nay có rất nhiều tờ rơi quảng cáo về cách làm giàu trong các thương vụ mua cổ phiểu, đầu tư trong trong công ty cũng rất giống với người đàn ông mà chúng ta đọc bài trong Tin Mừng hôm nay. Tuy nhiên, có một sự khác biệt. Người đàn ông mà Chúa Giêsu đã nói, đã đủ thông minh để nhận ra rằng ông ta đã có đủ tiền để ông ta quyết định rút lui và không còn tập trung vào việc làm tiền nữa. Nhưng ông ta vẫn còn là một nhà duy vật, một người đã bị vật chất dính nhiễm sâu vào trong máu , trong óc.
            Ngược lại ở xứ tự do, một số các nhà sản xuất đưa ra tiêu đề về tài chính mà chúng ta đọc thường ngày trên báo chí dường như đã bị cưỡng bách điên rồ để cố làm cho công ty của mình mỗi ngày một giàu thêm. Lòng mong muốn của họ là có tổng số tài chính càng nhiều sinh lợi cổ cổ phiếu thi càng tốt cho việc bảo đảm tương lai và muốn số tiền đang có  mỗi ngày càng tăng . Họ tìm cách cạnh tranh và tìm cách tiêu diệt lẫn nhau, để ai đủ mạnh thì sống, nhưng theo thời gian thì họ cũng dẫn họ để sự tiêu diệt chính mình.
            Trong bài đọc thứ nhất hôm nay được giới thiệu về cái “Kế hoạch của long nhân từ và quảng đại của Thiên Chúa." Đây là một thuốc giải độc cho con người chúng ta và có thể còn quý giá hơn nữa là vì nó sẽ làm mất đi cái sự “truyền nhiễm”  hay là  sự lây lan của chủ nghĩa vật chất.       Trong sự thanh thản cầu nguyện chúng ta có thể chiêm ngưỡng kế hoạch yêu thương của Thiên Chúa đã dành cho chúng ta. Khi chúng ta càng dồn công sức của chúng ta cho Thiên Chúa, Thi Ngài càng cho chúng ta nhiều hơn những ân sũng của Ngài. Có lẽ chúng ta cần phải dọn dẹp. quét sạch những kệ trong nhà kho của chúng ta  một chút để chúng ta có chỗ cho nhiều hơn để chất chứa những gì mà Thiêm Chúa muốn cho chúng ta. Lạy Chúa, xin giúp chúng con biết theo bước chân của Thánh Phaolô để làm cho sự phong phú vô 29th Sunday song như Chua đã hứa với chúng con
 
Monday 29th in Ordinary Time
Many of our present-day financial high-flyers are very similar to the man we read about in today’s Gospel. There is, however, one difference. The man, about whom Jesus spoke, was intelligent enough to realize that he had enough money so he decided not to concentrate on making more. He remained a deep-dyed materialist nonetheless.    In contrast some of the financial headline makers we read about today seem to have a crazy compulsion to make more and more and yet more. Their desire for total financial security and ever increasing bank balances drives them to transactions that destroy people who have trusted in them, and ultimately leads them to destroy themselves. In the Bible, today’s first reading is introduced by the words. “Generosity of God’s Plan.” It is an even more precious antidote to the contagion of materialism. In prayerful serenity we can contemplate God’s loving plan for us. The greater capacity we can make available to God, the more he can fill us. Maybe we need to empty the shelves in our barns a little to leave room for even more of his riches. Dear Lord, help me to long with St Paul for the unsurpassable riches You promise us.
 
Monday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” Then he said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” Luke 12:13–15
What’s interesting in Jesus’ statement is that of all the people who ever walked the earth, no one is more worthy to be a “judge and arbitrator” of an injustice than Jesus Himself. Yet He refuses to intervene. Why is that?
It appears to be a just request from the person, but instead of intervening Jesus tells a parable about greed.
Material possessions can be very seductive. That’s a fact. Yet many people have a very hard time admitting their attachment to possessions and money. They rationalize that they have worked hard, have earned what they have and should be able to indulge a bit. Some good-minded people who have many possessions appease their consciences by giving a small portion of what they have to charitable causes and then conclude that they can keep the rest for themselves. But what does Jesus think about that?
In and of themselves, material possessions are neither good nor bad. The problem is the sin of greed. Greed is an interior disposition by which a person becomes more attached to the passing things of this world than they are to God and His holy will. Though it might be possible to have many possessions and still remain interiorly detached from them, this is quite difficult. But having possessions is not the ultimate problem. Desiring possessions is the real problem. Therefore, even those with very little can fall into the same trap by becoming attached to what they do not have and by believing that the attainment of more will satisfy.
Jesus refused to act as “judge and arbitrator” in this case because it was clear to Him that the person making the request was struggling with greed. Jesus was far more concerned about this person’s interior attachments than He was about the inheritance being properly shared. Earthly justice means very little from the perspective of eternity. This may be hard for many to understand and accept. Doesn’t justice demand fairness? Not if the desire to be treated fairly is based on some sin such as greed. In that case, it is far better for the soul to be cheated out of their inheritance than it is to receive their fair share. In fact, if a person does struggle with greed, one of the best things for their soul might be to be cheated out of their own possessions. This will only be understood when we see that spiritual riches are infinitely greater than material riches.
Reflect, today, upon your interior desires. Look at them honestly. What do you desire the most in life? Do you dream of becoming rich? If so, does that desire consume much of your thinking? Reflect upon the scenario in which you were supposed to receive a very large inheritance but were cheated out of it. How would you react? The right reaction would be to care more for the soul of the person who cheated you than to care about actually being cheated. A person who is fully detached from material possessions will care little about losing such an inheritance or gaining one. It will truly matter not. If that is hard to accept, know that this is a sign that your soul is too attached to the things of this world. Pray for freedom from all greed. That is the only way to obtain the true riches of God.
Most generous Lord, You bestow mercy in superabundance. Your grace and love are all I need in life. By obtaining You and Your mercy, I obtain the one and only source of fulfillment in life. Please free me from earthly greed, and help me to see the things of this world as You see them. Jesus, I trust in You.
 
Monday 29th in Ordinary Time 2024
Opening Prayer: Lord God, my life does not consist of possessions. You are my life! The food and drink I most desire is that of the heavenly banquet. The things of this world are good, but they do not ultimately satisfy me. The vision of your face is what I most deeply desire.
 
Encountering the Word of God
1. Administrators of Earthly Wealth: Jesus tells the sad story of a rich man who found security in material things and forgot about the most important thing: the love of God and neighbor. After a bountiful harvest, the man rightly asked himself: “What shall I do?” The story teaches us that we all need to see ourselves as stewards and administrators of the goods of the earth and need to ask ourselves: “What shall I do?” Our response should not be that of the rich man who planned to store earthly treasure for himself, sit back, and relax. Saint Cyril of Alexandria writes that the rich man does not look to the future. He does not raise his eyes to God. He does not cherish love for the poor, nor does he sympathize with those who suffer. Saint Augustine says that the rich man did not realize that the bellies of the poor were safer storehouses than his barns. Imagine for a moment if the rich man had said something like: “This is what I shall do: I will sell the extra grain and give to the poor. I will build a hospital for the sick and will give to the Temple of the Lord. And I shall to myself, ‘Now as for you, you have received many good things from the Lord. I thank the Lord and ask him to show me his ways so that I may serve him and his people.” The Lord would have looked down on him, and when the rich man died, Jesus would have said to him: “Welcome into my Kingdom, good and faithful steward, for what you did for others, you did to me.”
2. True Inheritance: Commenting on the first part of our Gospel passage, Saint Ambrose teaches that what we need to seek most is not the temporal inheritance of money but rather the eternal inheritance of immortality. And Saint Augustine sees that greed divides us while love unites us. We can successfully guard against greed by filling ourselves with love. Greedy covetousness is a pitfall of the devil and hateful to God. Paul calls it idolatry (Colossians 3:5). And Jesus teaches that we must be on guard against all greed. Our lives are not measured by what we possess but by who we are. What matters to God is not our net worth but rather our response to his grace, love, and mercy.
3. Recreated in Christ through Grace: Paul was a person who had his eyes fixed on God. He invited the Ephesians to do the same and contemplate God’s saving action through Christ. Like the rich man, we also once lived according to the age of this world and followed the desires of the flesh. But God, in his mercy, brought us to life with Christ and saved us through grace. By grace, we have been saved through faith. “God has rescued us by raising us in some sense above the spiritual death that was the consequence of our sinful way of life (Rom 5:17-18; 6:2-4), ‘the age of this world’ (see Rom 12:2; Gal 6:14), the power of the devil (Col 1:13), and 'the desires of our flesh' (Rom 8:1-10; Gal 5:13-25)” (Williamson, Ephesians, 61). In this life, we begin to experience the benefits of salvation, yet a more glorious future awaits us. The grace that saves us is a gift of God that we welcome and not something we produce on our own. God’s grace is not a result of our works. The grace of salvation comes to us through faith, through a personal commitment that includes belief, trust, and obedience. Through grace, we have been recreated in Christ Jesus. “‘Created’ emphasizes the radical newness of life in Christ. Jesus’ resurrection began the new creation and our re-creation was accomplished when we were joined to our risen Lord through faith and baptism” (Williamson, Ephesians, 65). Saved by grace, freed from sin, recreated in Christ, we are called to accomplish good works of love and charity. We are called to a new life, different from a life of sin and transgression. “Good works are important as a goal and outcome of our faith, and Paul wants us to know that God is also at work in the good works that God has prepared in advance” (Williamson, Ephesians, 65). In this way, we live according to the Spirit and carry out God’s loving will.
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you have recreated me in your image as a child of God. I have been reborn to new life through Baptism and am called to do good works that serve others in need and extend your Kingdom throughout the world. Help me to appreciate all that you have done for me and live my Christian life to the full!
 
Monday 29th in Ordinary Time
Introductory Prayer: Lord, I love you, and thank you for all you have done for me. And yet, Lord, I have plea-bargained with you so many times and made my prayer conditional on receiving what I ask. This time, Lord, I want to be completely open –– no strings attached. I am entirely at your disposal in this prayer, confident of your goodwill and grace.
Petition: Lord, I welcome you into my soul. Help me to allow you to enter and rule over the house of my soul. 
1. Speak Lord, Your Servant Is Listening: As curious as it seems, our openness to a message often depends quite heavily on our openness to its messenger. Have you ever rejected somebody’s advice outright, only to embrace it later when it comes from a different person? Have you disregarded a light from God because he revealed it to you through a person you would not have chosen or even imagined God would have chosen? This is the common, simple error of the Nazarenes that Christ felt he had to point out to them. What has Christ been trying to tell me recently? Through whom? Am I ready to listen to him and allow him to use whatever messenger he may choose?
2. Open My Heart to Your Message: Initially, the people of Nazareth in today’s Gospel seemed quite receptive to Christ’s message, delivery, and authority. What they couldn’t stomach was that they believed him just “one of them.” He would later prove himself “too much for them.” Surely, they must have thought that he had forgotten his roots and that his Capernaum fame had gone to his head. But of course, the Nazarenes were neither the first nor the last to fall into the trap of focusing more on the messenger than on the message. This is precisely why Christ brought up the example of Naaman the Syrian, who was rewarded with a cure only after overcoming his rationalism and eating a bit of “humble pie.” (See his story in 2 Kings 5.) Has my hurt pride ever blinded me from listening to what Christ desperately tries to tell me?
3. Lord, I Trust in You: At one point in his public ministry, Christ would tell his listeners, “If you don’t believe the words that I speak, at least believe the works that I do” (cf. John 14:10-11). Why wouldn’t he at least give his own people from Nazareth the same advice and opportunity? Are a few miracles too much to waste on Nazarene soil? We must remember that faith is a gift. It is given and not bargained for or merited. On Calvary, some would taunt him with a similar deal, “If you come down from the cross, then we will believe in you” (Cf. Mark 15:32). We must wonder from whom came the harder blow: from his accusers or from “his own.” A proud demand is especially ugly and hurtful when it comes from a friend or loved one.
Conversation with Christ: Jesus, I accept your invitation to come to the house of my soul. Help me to see the areas of my life in need of cleaning. Help me see the areas of my life that prevent you from coming – those rooms I close to you. Help me be humble enough to let your grace set to work in me.
Resolution: I will console Christ with total and immediate trust in him and in his plan for my life today, whatever may come.
 
Monday Scripture:  Luke 12:13-21
Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Hai Tuần 29 Thường Niên
Khi chúng ta chú trọng đến của cải vật chất và coi của cải, niềm vui, hoặc quyền lực, là ưu tiên hàng đầu thay vì của cải thiêng liêng, thì chúng ta chết cho niềm vui, cho sự hài lòng, cho sự kỷ luật tự giác và  chia sẻ hạnh phúc. Khi chúng ta đã dành tất cả thời gian và năng lực của chúng ta để theo đuổi sự ích kỷ, danh vọng, tiền tài, thì khi chết chúng ta mới thấy rõ trước mắt những cơ hội mà chúng ta đã lãng phí trong cuộc đời của chúng ta để làm lụng, nghĩ đến việc để dành cần thiết cho việc giáo dục trẻ em hoặc để đóng góp cấp cho sự an toàn cho quỹ hưu trí ủa chúng ta mà thôi. Chúng ta chú ý đến những khoản tiết kiệm quá mức mà phản ánh đến sự thiếu ltin tưởng vào Thiên Chúa, một sự tham lam trong thái độ cơ bản, và một trái tim vô cảm đối với những người nghèo khó..
Trong Thánh Thể chúng ta đã nhìn thấy rõ một cái ví dụ của việc cho và chia sẻ. Đức Kitô đã không lập ra Thánh Thể để rồi được lưu giữ và giữ kín trong nhà tạm mà thôi. Nhưng Ngài đã ban cho chúng ta Thánh Thể để làm thức ăn và được phân phối và được chia sẻ cho tất cả mọi người  một cộng đồng. Chúa Giêsu khuyến khích chúng ta phải nên xem xét lại các việc mà chúng ta cần phải ưu tiên và cách mà chúng ta sử dụng của cải của chúng ta. Thay vì tìm cách, làm ăan phát triển sự giàu có cho chính mình, Chúa Giêsu mời gọi chúng ta hãy nên làm giàu  trước mặt Thiên Chúa.
 
REFLECTION
When we make possessions, pleasure, or power, a top priority instead of spiritual riches, we die to the joy of giving, the satisfaction of self-discipline and the happiness of sharing. When we devote all our time and energy to selfish pursuits, death merely discloses the opportunities we have wasted and our poverty of good works. We do not refer to the necessary savings needed to educate children or to provide for the security of retirement. We refer to the excessive savings that reflect a lack of trust in God, a basic greed in attitude,and an uncaring heart for the poor. In the Eucharist we have an example of giving and sharing. Christ did not institute the Eucharist to be stored up and left in our tabernacles. He gave us the Eucharist as food to be distributed and shared as a community. Jesus challenges us to reexamine our priorities and the way we use our possessions. Instead of growing rich for ourselves, Jesus invites us to grow rich in the sight of God.