Suy Niệm Tin Mừng thứ Sáu Tuần 29 Thường Niên

Suy Niệm Tin Mừng thứ Sáu Tuần 29 Thường Niên
Bài Tin Mừng hôm nay nhắc nhở chúng ta là những người Kitô hữu phải nên biết sáng suốt với những lời mời gọi của Chúa trong mọi lúc. Bất kể tuổi tác, tình trạng trong cuộc sống, hoặc tập quán, của chúng ta, chúng ta luôn luôn được mời gọi để mang niềm hòa bình và sư hiệp nhất trong chúng ta ngay trong gia đình, trong trường học, trong nơi làm việc, hay trong cộng đồng và xã hội chúng ta đang sống. Một cách chính xác, là chúng ta phải làm như thế nào?, Chúng ta không cần phải nhìn xa để tìm cho câu trả lời. Phản ứng của chúng để đáp lại lời mời gọi này có thể khác với những người khác và tùy thuộc vào hoàn cảnh của chúng ta và người đó. Nhưng tiêu chuẩn của Chúa thì luôn đơn giản giống nhau đó là sự khiêm tốn, nhân từ và kiên nhẫn. Hầu như chúng ta có thể tìm thấy những đặc điểm này là nên tự giúp đỡ nhau, hướng dẫn cho nhau để hoàn tất được công việc mà Chúa Trao phó thành công một cách mỹ mãn. Sự khiêm tốn, kiên nhẫn và lòng nhân từ chính là những công cụ không mất tiền mua, khá mạnh mẽ và sắc bén có thể giúp bồi dưỡng chúng ta cho mùa gặt lớn trong vườn nho của Thiên Chúa. Chúng ta là những hạt giống. Và Thiên Chúa sẽ giúp làm cho chúng ta nẩy mầm và phát triển đức tin của chúng ta.
 
REFLECTION
What is asked of us by the Lord to do now? It is a simple question but we may not have the answer to it all the time. We pray hard but we may not have understood the Lord's message. Maybe we did not listen enough. Or perhaps we understood what the Lord asked of us to do but we complicate it or make different excuses not to act on it. The gospel reminds us Christians to be discerning of the Lord's call at all times. Regardless of our age, status in life, or heritage, we are always called to bring peace and unity in our family, school, workplace, community, and society. How exactly can we make it happen? We need not look far for answer. Our response to this call may differ from one person to another and depending on the person's circumstances. But the Lord's standards are simple and always the same - be humble, gentle and patient. Hardly that we can find these traits recommended in self-help guide to get a fulfilling job or to establish a successful business. But it is a powerful inexpensive tool that we can nurture for a great harvest in the Lord's vineyard. We already have the seeds. And our dear Lord will help us make them grow and put to good use. We just need to act on our faith.
 
Friday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
“Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? If you are to go with your opponent before a magistrate, make an effort to settle the matter on the way; otherwise your opponent will turn you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the constable, and the constable throw you into prison. I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.” Luke 12:57–59
The Church Fathers offer many different interpretations of this passage. Among them, Saint Bede says that our “opponent” can be seen as the Word of God, in the sense that the Word of God makes war upon our weaknesses and sins. When we listen to the Word of God, our Lord will convict us of our faults so that we can reconcile our lives with the Truth of the Word of God Himself.
When you think about God’s holy Word, in its entirety, what most convicts you? Sometimes we try to downplay such personal convictions. We rationalize our actions and dismiss what God is saying to us. Are there any teachings of Jesus that you recall that have truly stung you to the heart? If so, this is a grace, and it’s an opportunity to fulfill the lesson from our Lord taught in the passage above. God does not convict our hearts so as to condemn us. Rather, He convicts us, as an opponent to our sin, so that we can “make an effort to settle the matter on the way.” The conscience is a wonderful gift from our Lord and can be likened to this passage above. It is a form of courtroom where our Lord desires not to have to issue punishment upon us. Instead, He desires that we engage His holy Word, listen to what He says, and settle our sin by repenting immediately.
Among the many lessons taught by our Lord, it is often the lesson that jumps out at us, even in a startling way, that we need to pay attention to the most. God often brings His most urgent teachings to us by causing us to feel a sense of guilt that cannot be denied. If we listen to these convictions, then we will not have any need to stand before the Judge. But if we do not, if we bury these convictions, downplay them and ignore them, then our Lord will find it necessary to keep at us. We will begin to experience His judgment, and we will see the effects of being out of His good graces. And in the end, if we fail to repent of the more serious sins in our lives, then we will even be held accountable for the smallest of sins. We will be required to “pay the last penny.”
Reflect, today, upon the idea that the Word of God, all that our Lord has taught us, is the opponent to the sin in your soul. This good and holy opponent wants only what is best for you. Commit yourself to an ongoing reading of God’s holy Word so that you will be continually disposed to hear all that God wants to say to you and so that you will be able to reconcile with our Lord before He is compelled to issue forth His judgments. 
My most merciful Judge, You desire that I listen to Your holy Word, revealed through Scripture, so as to receive Your most merciful conviction of my sin. I pray that I will be open to always hear all that You desire to say to me so that I can respond with generosity and trust, reconciling with You and others continually through my journey in life. Enliven my conscience with Your holy Word, dear Lord. Jesus, I trust in You.
 
Friday 29th in Ordinary Time2024
Opening Prayer: Lord God, enlighten my mind to discern the signs of the times. I do not want to remain in ignorance or dedicate my life to unimportant things. Human life is so short, barely the blink of an eye. And yet, how I live this short life on earth will determine how I will live for all eternity.
Encountering the Word of God
1. How to Interpret the Present Time: Jesus called out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and the Scholars of the Law. Today, he also calls out the hypocrisy of the crowds. He notes how they are able to discern that it is going to rain when they see clouds rising on the western horizon from the Mediterranean Sea. They can also foresee hot weather when the wind blows from the south. Jesus marvels that they are so good at interpreting weather patterns but that they do not spend time or energy interpreting what is most important in life. The person who stands before them is their Lord and Messiah, the Son of God and the Son of Man, who has inaugurated and unleashed the time of tribulation before the time of salvation. This is a time for repentance. And yet, they are ignorant of this and more concerned with superficial things like weather forecasts.
2. Settle on the Way: If this is the time of visitation, then it is the time for repentance. Jesus encourages his disciples to be reconciled with their brothers and sisters during their earthly lives before they encounter the Lord God, who will judge them at the moment of their death. The Bible often compares sin to debt. When we sin, we accrue debt (Luke 7:4—43, 47; 11:4); when we do what is right, good, and just, we build up heavenly credit and treasure. Jesus’ mission is to proclaim the jubilee year of the remission of such debts (Luke 4:18-19). “However, these debts will not be forgiven without repentance – the sooner, the better. Jesus will now take up this message by issuing an urgent summons to repentance (Luke 13:3,5)” (Gadenz, The Gospel of Luke, 248).
3. The Establishment and Preservation of Unity: Paul exhorts the Ephesians to walk the path of goodness and reject evil. This path includes the virtues of humility, gentleness, and patience. Humility concerns how we view ourselves. Gentleness or meekness is not weakness. It is a virtue of the courageous and peacemakers who know how to temper their strength and act accordingly. Those who are patient are like God, who is slow to anger (Exodus 34:6). These virtues enable the Christian to bear with others through love. They are essential to the preservation of unity among the members of the Church. We form one body. We share one Spirit. We are called to and hope for the blessing of eternal life. We have one Lord, Jesus Christ. We profess the one faith. We have received one Baptism. We are children of one God and Father of all. Our bond of unity in the Church is not superficial, like a club membership, but profound and deep!
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you brought all peoples into the unity of your divine family.  May I always be a promoter of unity in your Church. I want to be like St. Paul, who overcame many obstacles and was able to bring many different and diverse people into your family.
 
 
Friday 29th in Ordinary Time2023
Friday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time- Luke 12:54-59
Opening Prayer: My Lord, I come before you as your child, and I ask you to send your Spirit into my soul, so that his gifts might strengthen me, comfort me, sanctify me, and enlighten me to hear what you want to say today. 
Encountering Christ:
1. Complacency: Jesus’s admonishing words tell us a lot, between the lines, about the attitude of those to whom they were addressed. His listeners were utterly complacent. Jesus’s thundering reproach was probably meant to shake off that complacency; he challenged them to read the signs of the times, and he did all that he could to free them from their blindness. How frustrating must it have been for Jesus to come to those who had been praying for the Messiah only to find that they neither accepted nor believed him, nor seemed willing even to have an open mind about him. We console Jesus when we fight against our own tendency to become complacent.
2. Proactivity: It is not uncommon for a person to be quite focused on a specific goal (for example, to improve one’s prayer life or to grow in virtue), but to bluntly ignore the simple opportunities to actually advance toward that goal. A good program of life will help us to make concrete resolutions (little baby steps toward living a virtue) so that we can be more confident, by God’s grace, of growing in that virtue. It is true that the ideals of Christian life are lofty, but God always gives us some concrete step we can proactively take each day. 
3. Surrender: Ultimately, such a proactive attitude requires a lot of humility, for it underscores the fact that we cannot reach our high ideals with one powerful leap. Instead, our little steps to grow in virtue or to draw closer to God only have a chance of success to the degree in which they are aided, quickened, and elevated by God’s grace. Maybe that is why it is so difficult to proactively invest into our spiritual life; instead of relying on our control, it requires an increasing degree of surrender to the work of grace in us. May we be docile enough to allow Christ to work in our souls. 
Conversing with Christ: Jesus, help me to shake off all types of complacency. Free me of my blindness. Grant me the grace “to interpret the present time” and the humility to make a small step in the right direction today. 
Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will set a spiritual goal for myself and take the first step toward growing in that virtue.
 
Reflection:
     We have the opportunity every week to hear the word of God proclaimed to us in the Eucharist through the readings and the priest's homily.  And sometimes we have the privilege of listening to inspirational speakers or to friends who give Christian advice. All of these are prophets giving us the Word. But most of the time, we do not heed their preaching and exhortation and do not find time to put into action the promptings of the Spirit. In the history of the people of God, many times, the Israelites also chose not to listen to God, or they postponed and set aside the words of the prophets. Like them, we can read many signs, but the real signs we need to see and recognize – the presence of the Lord in these prophets – we do not recognize. Thus, we don't understand the present times at all. It's a pity that we may risk losing everything, all the signs that the Lord sends to us through events and people – these will all go to naught.  When we see that the Lord comes to suggest to us the path of reconciliation, let us not tarry, for events may overtake us, and we may not find the opportune chance again to convert or reconcile. It may be too late. Let us walk in the light while the light is with us. Let us not delay when the Holy Spirit blows our way.