CẢM NGHIỆM SỐN LC- REFLECTION 24TH SUNDAY -C

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Category: 2. Cảm Nghiệm Sống Lời Chúa

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  Mo Nguyen

  Sep 13 at 6:54 AM

   

   

  

   

  JESUS CAME TO SAVE SINNERS

   

  Sunday 15 September 2019 

  Reflection on the Gospel-24th Sunday in Ordinary Time C

  (Luke 15:1-32)

  -Veronica Lawson RSM

   

  Diverse creatures of the earth as well as earth elements feature in the gospel for this third Sunday of the Season of Creation. These evoke, once more, the eighth work of mercy with its call to contemplate God’s creation with gratitude and to engage in simple daily gestures that have the power to transform our world. There is joy in living this way. While all three parables in today’s gospel reading invite us into the experience of loss, loss of a valued creature, of a woman’s means of survival, of an adult child’s respect and presence, they likewise invite us into an encounter with God who seeks and “saves” the lost, be they human or other-than-human, and who rejoices big time when the lost are found.

   

  The parables are prefaced by an account of the criticism Jesus endured for hosting “the lost” of the human community, namely the toll collectors and those who were categorised as “sinners”. The critics in the story are those who consider themselves “righteous”. They have no room in their hearts for compassion or forgiveness and no capacity to accept the goodness of a prophet who acts in ways that cut across their expectations.

   

  “What man among you with a hundred sheep, losing one, would not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the missing one till he found it?’ asks Jesus of his critics, who would eschew any identification with “unclean” shepherds. The lost sheep is found and ultimately embraced by the community. The ensuing celebration is likened to the heavenly banquet where there is more joy over one who repents than over those who have no need of repentance. Repent/repentance may seem a strange choice of words since all the action is taken by the shepherd. The lost sheep simply responds to the initiative of the shepherd who goes after it and returns it to the fold.

   

  “Or what woman with ten drachmas would not, if she lost one, light a lamp and sweep out the house and search thoroughly till she found it?’ is Jesus’ second question to his critics. The pattern is repeated. The drachma, representing a day’s wages, is lost, sought, found and the community rejoices. Occasionally in the biblical tradition, as here, God is imaged as a woman. God is not only the good male shepherd as in the first parable or the good male parent as in the third parable. God is also the diligent female householder who seeks and saves what is lost. No single image can contain the compassionate, loving God presented in these parables. The invitation to the believing community is to find ways of opening our hearts and the hearts of the unforgiving in our world to God’s action of seeking and saving the lost-here and now, not simply in the afterlife.

   

  Jesus Came to Save Sinners:

   

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLbFY2W402c

   

                               Jesus Came to Save Sinners 
  

   

  

   

   

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CẢM NGHIỆM SÔNG - REFLECTION 23RD SUNDAY - C

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Category: 2. Cảm Nghiệm Sống Lời Chúa

•  

  Mo Nguyen

   

  Sep 7 at 4:33 AM

   

   

  

         

          THE COST OF FOLLOWING JESUS        

   

                    TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME /C

                                         08 SEPTEMBER 2019

                       REFLECTIONS ON THE GOSPEL (Luke 14: 25-33)

                                    THE COST OF FOLLOWING JESUS

  Today’s Gospel contains some of the most demanding utterances attributed to Jesus. Yet, Jesus is simply being honest with his disciples. He foresees that they will inevitably get caught up in the suffering and death he now sees to lie ahead of himself. It would do them no service to keep them ignorant of this. He must prick any illusions they have about where following him might lead.

  Jesus does this, initially, in the strong language about ‘hating’ one’s father, mother, etc.’. Here we should see a Semitic idiom at work. It is nota matter of literally coming to ‘hate’ one’s family members in the way that English expression might suggest. Semitic languages, by and large, do not have a word for ‘prefer’. What Jesus is saying, then, is that family allegiances – so strong in the Palestinian culture of Jesus – have to take second place as far as following him in concerned. Those who adopt his mission, his commitments, and his way of life will inevitably cause pain and sacrifice to those who hold them dear and who perhaps have other plans for them. Hence would-be disciples need to count the cost – a process Jesus illustrates with the parables concerning the builder and the king.

   

  Finally, the most radical challenge for a would-be disciple – to give up ‘all possessions’ – has to be heard in the context of the heart of Jesus’ message, that is, his invitation to the kingdom. His comparison with this supreme good the losses entailed in the present conditions of discipleship find some proportion.

  Brendan Byrne, SJ

  Elvis Presley - He Is My Everything with lyrics:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gh0f6XSeJM

  The Cost // Inspirational Christian Video:

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

  Following Jesus - Counting The Cost:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOGGEX5l9HU

   

            Following Jesus - Counting The Cost  
  

   

   

  

   

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CẢM NGHIỆM SỐNG LC - THƯ TƯ CN23TN-C

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Category: 2. Cảm Nghiệm Sống Lời Chúa

CẢM NGHIỆM SỐNG LC - 23 RD SUNDAY - C

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Category: 2. Cảm Nghiệm Sống Lời Chúa

•  

  Mo Nguyen

   

  Sep 5 at 4:29 PM

   

   

  

   

   PUT GOD FIRST!

   

  Sunday 08 September 2019

   

  Reflection on the Gospel- 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time C

  (Luke 14:25-33)

  -Veronica Lawson RSM

   

  On June 17 this year, the Vatican’s Dicastery for Integral Human Development issued a letter about the Season of Creation. It noted that during this season Christians across six continents work to put into practice Pope Francis’ encyclical on integral ecology, Laudato Si’,  and “participate in community events to deepen their love for Creator, creation, and each other”. As we move into the second week of the Season of Creation, we might renew our commitment to the gospel call to reverence for all that constitutes our planetary home.

  As we turn to the gospel reading for today, we are confronted by the pain involved in living a way of life that respects the rights of all created beings. On the long journey from Galilee through Samaritan territory to the city of Jerusalem, Jesus attracts a huge following and teaches relentlessly about the ways of God. By the time he reaches Jerusalem, the crowds have thinned considerably. Is this because it is too hard to persist with their initial impulse to follow the way of the gospel and the one who embodies its values? Implicit in Jesus’ teaching about carrying one’s cross is a reminder of the intense pain and sacrifice involved in being a disciple. It sometimes means going against what other family members want. It may even involve risking one’s life for the sake of others. In the context of the Roman Empire, criminals who were sentenced to die by crucifixion carried to the place of their execution the cross beam on which they would hang. The cross image is thus shocking for anyone. It is quite alienating for the faint hearted.

  The term “hate” (misein) in this context seems harsh. The English translation fails to do justice, however, to the original Greek or to the Hebrew that underlies this biblical notion. To “hate” in biblical terms is to “leave aside”. Disciples are expected to love one another. There are times, however, when they have to “leave aside” the wishes of those they love most for the sake of a gospel call to justice, compassion, and right relationship. If we are attentive to the gender bias of this ancient text, we might note that married men are addressed while married women are not. Here as elsewhere, women have to read against the grain of the text in order to hear its message. Finally, there is a call in this gospel passage to “leave aside” unnecessary possessions. In a time of planetary vulnerability and of growing division between the privileged and the marginalised of the Earth community, the teaching of the Lukan Jesus has a particular resonance. There is no place in a gospel way of life for self-indulgence, for exploitation of others, or for self-centred appropriation of the goods of the earth. 

   

  I'll Put Jesus First in My Life (The World All About Me):

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIwwey6jTSY

   

              I'll Put Jesus First in My Life  
  

   

  

   

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