Cửa hẹp

“Hãy chiến đấu để qua được cửa hẹp mà vào...” (Lc 13,24)

The Weakest in the Center
The most honored parts of the body are not the head or the hands, which lead and control. The most important parts are the least presentable parts. That's the mystery of the Church. As a people called out of oppression to freedom, we must recognize that it is the weakest among us - the elderly, the small children, the handicapped, the mentally ill, the hungry and sick - who form the real center. Paul says, "It is the parts of the body which we consider least dignified, that we surround with the greatest dignity" (1 Corinthians 12:23).
The Church as the people of God can truly embody the living Christ among us only when the poor remain its most treasured part. Care for the poor, therefore, is much more than Christian charity. It is the essence of being the body of Christ. (Nouwen G)

Vùi

Nước Thiên Chúa giống như chuyện nắm men bà kia lấy vùi vào ba thúng bột, cho đến khi tất cả bột dậy men (Lc 13,21)

The Hidden Life of Jesus 
The largest part of Jesus' life was hidden. Jesus lived with his parents in Nazareth, "under their authority" (Luke 2:51), and there "increased in wisdom, in stature, and in favour with God and with people" (Luke 2:52). 
When we think about Jesus we mostly think about his words and miracles, his passion, death, and resurrection, but we should never forget that before all of that Jesus lived a simple, hidden life in a small town, far away from all the great people, great cities, and great events. Jesus' hidden life is very important for our own spiritual journeys. If we want to follow Jesus by words and deeds in the service of his Kingdom, we must first of all strive to follow Jesus in his simple, unspectacular, and very ordinary hidden life.


Hiddenness, a Place of Intimacy
Hiddenness is an essential quality of the spiritual life. Solitude, silence, ordinary tasks, being with people without great agendas, sleeping, eating, working, playing ... all of that without being different from others, that is the life that Jesus lived and the life he asks us to live. It is in hiddenness that we, like Jesus, can increase "in wisdom, in stature, and in favour with God and with people" (Luke 2:51). It is in hiddenness that we can find a true intimacy with God and a true love for people.
Even during his active ministry, Jesus continued to return to hidden places to be alone with God. If we don't have a hidden life with God, our public life for God cannot bear fruit.



Protecting Our Hiddenness
If indeed the spiritual life is essentially a hidden life, how do we protect this hiddenness in the midst of a very public life? The two most important ways to protect our hiddenness are solitude and poverty. Solitude allows us to be alone with God. There we experience that we belong not to people, not even to those who love us and care for us, but to God and God alone. Poverty is where we experience our own and other people's weakness, limitations, and need for support. To be poor is to be without success, without fame, and without power. But there God chooses to show us God's love.
Both solitude and poverty protect the hiddenness of our lives.
(Nouwen G)

Thấy & Gặp

Ở đó, có một phụ nữ bị quỷ làm cho tàn tật đã mười tám năm. Lưng bà còng hẳn xuống và bà không thể nào đứng thẳng lên được. Trông thấy bà, Đức Giêsu gọi lại và bảo: "Này bà, bà đã được giải thoát khỏi tật nguyền!" (Lc 13,11-12)

Meeting Christ in the Church 
 Loving the Church does not require romantic emotions. It requires the will to see the living Christ among his people and to love them as we want to love Christ himself. This is true not only for the "little" people - the poor, the oppressed, the forgotten - but also for the "big" people who exercise authority in the Church. 
 To love the Church means to be willing to meet Jesus wherever we go in the Church. This love doesn't mean agreeing with or approving of everyone's ideas or behavior. On the contrary, it can call us to confront those who hide Christ from us. But whether we confront or affirm, criticize or praise, we can only become fruitful when our words and actions come from hearts that love the Church.

Chà là 
Hồi nhỏ, bọn tôi cứ sau mỗi chiều mưa dông, sáng mai thế nào cũng rủ nhau đi hái chà là. Do sống ở vùng đồi núi trọc thiếu nước lâu ngày, gặp mưa dông nên quả chín hàng loạt có vị ngọt, thơm. Nếu không gặp mưa quả vẫn chín nhưng chỉ lác đác, xốp, ít ngọt. Dụng cụ hái chà là là một cái rổ nhựa nhỏ và một cái cây. Cây dùng để đập trái và rổ dùng để hứng trái. Hiện nay, do tình trạng xâm phạm đất rừng làm nương rẫy, thêm vào đó là nạn cháy rừng nên số diện tích tự nhiên sinh sống của chà là có phần bị thu hẹp, nhưng không vì thế mà cây chà là bị tuyệt chủng. Hằng năm cứ từ độ đầu tháng 3 kéo dài đến đầu tháng 5 âm lịch, bọn trẻ con thường rủ nhau đi hái chà là về ăn. Mẹ tôi kể, ngày trước, cuộc sống còn khó khăn, thiếu thốn, chà là là một thứ quả giúp cho nhiều người ăn chữa đói. Có thể ăn chà là khi quả còn non và chín. Lúc non hái về luộc lấy hạt hoặc phơi khô giã, lọc lấy hạt ghế vào cơm. Quả chín ngoài việc ăn tươi thì có thể phơi khô rồi giã lọc lấy tinh bột để thay thế đường... Cũng vì thế mà đến nay dân gian vẫn còn lưu truyền câu ca dao: “Đói lòng ăn hột chà là Để cơm nuôi mẹ, mẹ già yếu răng”.
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Quát

Nhiều người quát nạt bảo anh ta im đi, nhưng anh ta càng kêu lớn tiếng: "Lạy Con vua Đavít, xin dủ lòng thương tôi!" (Mc 10,48)

The Authority of Compassion
 The Church often wounds us deeply. People with religious authority often wound us by their words, attitudes, and demands. Precisely because our religion brings us in touch with the questions of life and death, our religious sensibilities can get hurt most easily. Ministers and priests seldom fully realize how a critical remark, a gesture of rejection, or an act of impatience can be remembered for life by those to whom it is directed.
There is such an enormous hunger for meaning in life, for comfort and consolation, for forgiveness and reconciliation, for restoration and healing, that anyone who has any authority in the Church should constantly be reminded that the best word to characterize religious authority is compassion. Let's keep looking at Jesus whose authority was expressed in compassion.
(Nouwen G)

Sám hối

“Nếu các ông không chịu sám hối, thì các ông cũng sẽ chết hết y như vậy" (Lc 13, 5)

Hiddenness, a Place of Purification
One of the reasons that hiddenness is such an important aspect of the spiritual life is that it keeps us focused on God. In hiddenness we do not receive human acclamation, admiration, support, or encouragement. In hiddenness we have to go to God with our sorrows and joys and trust that God will give us what we most need.
In our society we are inclined to avoid hiddenness. We want to be seen and acknowledged. We want to be useful to others and influence the course of events. But as we become visible and popular, we quickly grow dependent on people and their responses and easily lose touch with God, the true source of our being. Hiddenness is the place of purification. In hiddenness we find our true selves.

Jesus Is Merciful
Jesus, the Blessed Child of God, is merciful. Showing mercy is different from having pity. Pity connotes distance, even looking down upon. When a beggar asks for money and you give him something out of pity, you are not showing mercy. Mercy comes from a compassionate heart; it comes from a desire to be an equal. Jesus didn't want to look down on us. He wanted to become one of us and feel deeply with us.
When Jesus called the only son of the widow of Nain to life, he did so because he felt the deep sorrow of the grieving mother in his own heart (see Luke 7:11-17). Let us look at Jesus when we want to know how to show mercy to our brothers and sisters.
(Nouwen G)

Dấu chỉ thời đại

Cảnh sắc đất trời, thì các người biết nhận xét, còn thời đại này, sao các người lại không biết nhận xét? (Lc 13,57)

The Coming of the Son of Man
The spiritual knowledge that we belong to God and are safe with God even as we live in a very destructive world allows us to see in the midst of all the turmoil, fear, and agony of history "the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory" (Luke 21:27). Even though Jesus speaks about this as about a final event, it is not just one more thing that is going to happen after all the terrible things are over. Just as the end-time is already here, so too is the coming of the Son of Man. It is an event in the realm of the Spirit and thus not subject to the boundaries of time.
Those who live in communion with Jesus have the eyes to see and the ears to hear the second coming of Jesus among them in the here and now. Jesus says: "Before this generation has passed away all will have taken place" (Luke 21:32). And this is true for each faithful generation. (Nouwen G)