CẢM NGHIỆM SÔNG- REFLECTION 16TH SUNDAY -C 21-7-2019

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Category: 2. Cảm Nghiệm Sống Lời Chúa

•  

  Mo Nguyen

  Jul 20 at 5:53 AM

   

   

  

   

          CHOOSING THE BETTER PORTION

   

       SIXTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME / C                             

                                      REFLECTIONS ON THE GOSPEL

                                                  (Luke 10: 38 – 42)

                                       CHOOSING THE BETTER PORTION

  Two sisters, Martha and Mary, give hospitality to Jesus. Martha appears to be the dominant personality, perhaps the elder. Certainly, her hospitality is more active and practical. Her sister Mary simply sits at Jesus’ feet and listens. This sets up the kind of ‘triangular’ pattern often found in scenes in Luke’s Gospel: Jesus interacts with a character, usually someone in a marginal situation; a third character takes offence at this and grumbles. Jesus defends the more marginal party, showing how their action is the more appropriate in view of what he has to bring.

  In this case, it is Mary whom Jesus defends. Martha fusses about preparing many dishes. (Think of non-Western cuisine when several different dishes – fish, chicken, lamp, vegetable, etc.- are placed before guests all at once.) Jesus points out that just one dish would have been enough. Drawing a metaphor from the meal, he states that, by simply listening to him, Mary has ‘chosen the better portion’ – that is, of the ‘meal’ that he is providing.

  Many readers of this episode, especially women, side with Martha. Her complaint is very reasonable.

  But this is precisely the point. Frenetic service, even service of the Lord, can be a deceptive distraction from what is most appropriate. Good people often measure their goodness by all they do for the Lord, forgetting that nothing that they can ever do could match all they need to receive. The Lord’s primary intent towards us is to bestow life, love and salvation. That is the ‘better portion’ that Mary understands and receives.

  Brendan Byrne, SJ

                  

                   Mary and Martha

   

  

  Mary and Martha (video to song by Colin Buchanan):

   

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15grj56EutU

   

  Mary and Martha:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssR9P30AWOY

   

  Mary Is Chosen I Stories of Mary I children's bible stories | Holy Tales Bible Stories:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQlVt6dn11w

   

    

   

   

  Attachments area

   

  Preview YouTube video Mary and Martha (video to song by Colin Buchanan)

   

   

  

  

  Mary and Martha (video to song by Colin Buchanan)

   

  Preview YouTube video Mary and Martha

   

   

  

  

  Mary and Martha

   

  Preview YouTube video Mary Is Chosen I Stories of Mary I children's bible stories | Holy Tales Bible Stories

   

   

  

  

  Mary Is Chosen I Stories of Mary I children's bible stories | Holy Tales Bible Stories

   

   

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CẢM NGHIỆM SONG LC -THÁNH CA TIN MỪNG

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Category: 2. Cảm Nghiệm Sống Lời Chúa

CẢM NHIỆM SỐNG LC-16TH SUNDAY -C

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Category: 2. Cảm Nghiệm Sống Lời Chúa

•  

  Mo Nguyen

  Jul 20 at 12:05 AM

   

   

  

   

  JESUS VISITS MARTHA AND MARY

   

  Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

  21 July 2019

   

  “Martha, Martha, you worry and fret about so many things, and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part. It is not to be taken from her.”                                                                         (Luke 10, 38-42)

   

  Whenever I hear today’s gospel reading, I can’t help thinking that Martha came out second best from the disagreement with her sister. After all, there was a household to run and a meal to be prepared, and all the work seemed to fall to her as her sister sat starry-eyed at the feet of their important visitor. So, I can understand why there was some “electricity” in the air. Martha knew the practicalities that were part of entertaining a guest. So, she was taken aback when Jesus told her to stop getting het up. And when he told her that Mary had made a better choice by sitting idly on the floor listening to what he had to say, she was cut to the quick. If she gave both Mary and Jesus a piece of her mind, Luke did not record it. However I’m sure she probably felt like doing that. So, what, I wonder, was Luke’s point in putting this story right after that of the Good Samaritan?

   

  I suggest that Luke is pointing out that, while it is important at times to put the needs of others first, especially the needs of the sick, the injured and the neglected (the Good Samaritan), there is also a time for being fully present to those who come to us with a message that deserves our full attention. There are times when true discipleship calls for generous and selfless, practical action. There are other times when it is more important to take time to hear and reflect on Jesus’ message.

   

  But let’s briefly return to Martha, for she is a mirror for all of us. She was angry with Mary who had left her to do all the work, and she was angry with Jesus for not telling Mary to give her a hand: “Don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the household tasks all by myself?” There are times when we all get upset with others who we believe are not pulling their weight. Moreover, we show our disapproval by resorting to sarcasm or sharp speech, and end up feeling aggrieved and full of self-pity. Our meanness of spirit can end up closing off all possibilities for God’s Spirit to get a look in. If we’re honest, we will recognise that there is something of the Martha in all of us. We get some satisfaction out of proving to ourselves and others that we are being victimised when all the work is left to us. All we are really doing is massaging our own ego.

   

  However, the challenge for us in the story lies in Jesus’ assertion that Mary has made a better choice. That assertion leaves me scratching my head, wondering what Jesus was getting at. The answer, of course, is that Jesus is not devaluing Martha’s hard work in the kitchen but rather the way in which she has gone about it, full of resentment and self-pity, and slipping into comparing herself with her sister.

   

  One of the characteristics of Luke’s Gospel is the many mentions made of Jesus’ acceptance of invitations to dine with others. What especially scandalised people like the Pharisees was that most of his dining was with public sinners. But hospitality is a recurring theme in Luke. And the Pharisees could not help comparing themselves with the “disreputables” whose invitations Jesus accepted. Are there times when we decide to accept or decline invitations on the basis of who else is on the invitation list?

  More important, however, is the real value on which hospitality is based  -  everyone who comes into our lives is a guest, worthy of respect and bringing promise.  In his letter to the Romans, Paul wrote: “Make hospitality your special care…Have the same attitude towards everyone…Put away ambitious thoughts and associate with those who are lowly” (Romans12, 13-16).

   

  That’s the kind of hospitality that Jesus modelled as he went about his ministry, engaging with everyone he encountered. In acting like that, he showed people something of the hospitality of God, demonstrating that nobody was outside the scope of God’s boundless embrace. Jesus extended God’s hospitality to everyone without distinction, and accepted the hospitality of others. We know he dined with those who were regarded as the riff-raff, and accepted the hospitality of friends like Martha, Mary and Lazarus. He also welcomed the invitation to dinner extended by the two disciples who poured out their troubles to him as they journeyed together to Emmaus. The distinguishing characteristic of all these encounters was the quality of his presence. And it is Mary’s quality of presence that he singles out in his gentle response to Martha’s exasperation: “Martha, Martha (notice how the repetition of her name softens his reprimand), you’re fussing too much and getting worked up over nothing; one thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it, and it won’t be taken from her” (Luke 10, 41-42).

   

  This story echoes one of Luke’s earlier accounts of how members in the crowd listening to Jesus relayed to him the message that his “mother and brothers” had come to join him. His response was: “My mother and brothers are the ones who hear and do God’s word” (Luke 8, 19-21).

   

  So, while there is something of both Martha and Mary in each of us, and while we know how we struggle to hold the two in tension, today’s gospel reading reminds us that reflection & contemplation and selfless service are both essential dimensions of true discipleship. In lived reality, we are more inclined to let the busy-ness of life dull our sensitivity to the need to make room for quiet reflection.

   

  If it is true that hospitality is an essential dimension of Christian discipleship, and that presence is integral to hospitality, it follows that we have to learn to be alert to the obstacles that get in the way of presence and hospitality. Two of those potential, contemporary obstacles are the internet and the cell-phone. I read recently an article entitled “I used to be a Human Being” by Andrew Sullivan, a researcher who described what it’s like to have one’s soul hollowed out by the world wide web. Sullivan wrote about how the internet broke him and led him down a path of chronic distraction. Other research has demonstrated that, in countries where the sales of cell-phones and smart phones are booming, owners check on them over 200 times a day or in excess of 30,000 times a year. One teacher-researcher commented about his secondary school students: “Their bodies are in the classroom, but their minds are inside their cell-phones” (Dr Delaney Ruston, Screenagers, May 2016, PBS Documentary).

   

  Excessive time with gadgets effectively reduces necessary growth time with people. The knock-on effect is that our potential for presence, hospitality and authentic discipleship risks being depleted. “What”, I need to ask myself, “are my obstacles to authentic discipleship?” What prevents me from being truly present to others?  

   

  Fr Brian Gleeson  

   

  Martha and Mary:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNfXW5jU-Os

   

  Bible Theater: Luke - Martha and Mary:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C91ygWW2u0U

   

               Are you a Mary or a Martha?  
  

   

  

   

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CẢM NGHIỆM SỐNG LC - THỨ NĂM CN15TN-C

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Category: 2. Cảm Nghiệm Sống Lời Chúa

THỨ NĂM TUẦN XV THƯỜNG NIÊN C

NGÀY 18/07/2019

 

Tin Mừng Chúa Giêsu Kitô theo thánh Mátthêu ( Mt 11: 28-30)

²⁸ "Tất cả những ai đang vất vả mang gánh nặng nề, hãy đến cùng tôi, tôi sẽ cho nghỉ ngơi bồi dưỡng.²⁹ Anh em hãy mang lấy ách của tôi, và hãy học với tôi, vì tôi có lòng hiền hậu và khiêm nhường. Tâm hồn anh em sẽ được nghỉ ngơi bồi dưỡng.³⁰ Vì ách tôi êm ái, và gánh tôi nhẹ nhàng".

SUY NIỆM
 

    Người Do Thái dùng thành ngữ “cái ách” để chỉ sự tuân phục, phó thác. Khi nói đến “cái ách” thì cũng đồng nghĩa nói đến sự tuân phục lề luật, tuân phục các điều răn.

Trong Cựu ước chúng ta thấy có rất ít luật lệ, chỉ có các nguyên tắc chung mỗi người phải nhận biết và giải thích dưới sự soi dẫn của Chúa để áp dụng cho từng trường hợp cá nhân. Chúng ta không thấy luật lệ trong Mười điều răn. Vì mỗi điều răn hàm chứa những nguyên tắc lớn, từ đó mỗi người phải tìm ra những luật lệ riêng cho đời sống. Đối với người Do Thái, nếu một sự việc không được rõ ràng trong luật thì cũng ẩn ý bên trong luật. Vì thế, từ luật người ta có thể suy diễn ra luật lệ cho mỗi người trong mỗi hoàn cảnh. Từ đó nẩy sinh ra hạng người gọi là “kinh sư”, suốt đời luôn suy luận những nguyên tắc lớn của luật để lập ra hàng ngàn, hàng vạn luật lệ khác.

Đối với một người Do Thái chính thống thời Chúa Giêsu thì phục vụ Chúa chính là giữ tất cả hàng ngàn luật lệ này. Họ coi đó là vấn đề sống chết với số phận đời đời. Chính vì thế, việc tuân phục luật lệ trở thành gánh nặng cho đời sống. Khi Chúa Giêsu kêu gọi “anh em hãy mang lấy ách của tôi, và hãy học với tôi, vì tôi có lòng hiền hậu và khiêm nhường. Tâm hồn anh em sẽ được nghỉ ngơi bồi dưỡng. Vì ách tôi êm ái, và gánh tôi nhẹ nhàng”, điều này không có nghĩa là Người giảm bớt những đòi hỏi của luật. Nhưng là mời gọi chúng ta tuân phục luật với một tinh thần mới, một động lực mới.

Nếu như trước kia chúng ta tuân phục là để thỏa mãn đòi hỏi của luật nhằm thoát khỏi hình phạt nào đó, thì nay việc tuân phục là để xây dựng một tương quan với Thiên Chúa - Đấng có lòng hiền hậu và khiêm nhường.

*SUY TƯ VÀ HÀNH ĐỘNG: Như vậy, sự tuân phục luật bây giờ được thúc đẩy bởi một động lực mới, động lực của tình yêu. Tình yêu làm mọi gánh nặng trở nên nhẹ nhàng. Thánh Augustin đã nói: “Nơi nào có tình yêu, nơi ấy chẳng có gian khổ”.

Lạy Chúa, xin cho chúng con biết xây dựng và định hướng cuộc sống của mình trong tương quan với Chúa là Đấng hiền lành, khiêm nhường. Amen.

GKGĐ Giáo Phận Phú Cường

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