Jesus The Carpenter and The Wisdom.

Gospel of Matthew 13: 54-58

 Lord, open my lips and my heart 

    During my time in college, I've had hundreds of friends on Facebook, and day-to-day, I liked to check my friend's updates by turning on my Facebook account. Almost every day, I saw my friends changed either their profile or cover picture; the latter was always more attractive, beautiful than the earlier. And I think it still applies to all of us in today's time; we do select the best picture to change the profile of ourselves to get the like as much as possible. 

 
  During Jesus' time, there weren't social media such as Facebook, Zalo, or Twitter as we are using today to share "The Beauty of himself" and the highest beauty of Jesus is "Wisdom & Love". So, the question for my reflection is "How does the wisdom of Jesus portrait in Today's Gospel?"

There is a contradiction question between "Wisdom - Carpenter"; "where did this man get such wisdom? Is he not a son of a carpenter?". I personally used to identify the wise, the intelligent through their status in Society. For instance, the director of the company is intelligent, the professor is wise, the bishop is knowledgeable, so on and so far. But, upon reflecting on Today's Gospel and incorporate it with my own experience through undergoing formation as well as my understanding of Jesus' words, I would say

• The first source of Jesus' wisdom is "believing in the change of people his disciples, myself as well as you, my brothers and sisters". I still have a memory of my old self before the conversion happened to me. The unknowing self, disordered attachment self, the self with the impure motivations, false self, hard-hearted, etc,. But there was a belief worked through. The belief from the formator that one day I would be changed, the belief from my companions, they prayed for my and the belief came from within myself "I can", "I have the capability to change for the better version of myself" and most especially the belief came from God. He always shows patience to me, and that has been becoming my inspiration and motivation for my changes.

Jesus has shown his belief to a sinful woman in Simeon's house, a woman caught with adultery and after the encounter with Jesus, their lives had changed completely. the tax collector became kind-hearted, liberal-minded, roomy; or compassionately, the parable of the prodigal son and his father is the best describe how the father believed in his son "one day he will rethink and come back...and it happened". I think all of us have our own story to relate to this point that "the belief of someone in us has changed our life". 

• Second, Jesus' wisdom is showing by true love, with no predilection or non-favoritism. whoever comes to him, he accepts. He healed the sickness of people either women, man or children; he treated all the same. the love is so true because he did not only wait for the people to come to him but he proactively approached, took the first step "Zacheus, come down, I will enter your house"; or he came to Lazarus' place to give him another life. How about me? admittedly, I have committed mistakes, but the more I make mistakes the more blessings are given to me. There is always a connection between blessing and mistakes/sins. In addition, undergoing formation, especially my novitiate stage, I was healed by my unpleasant experiences in the past, and the experience of God coming to me consoled me when I confided my pains and struggles. 

Jesus has been accepting me fully, but I somehow and sometimes do not accept all of my friends, brothers, and sisters. there are still differences, biases, hateful feelings, or if he/she doesn't like me so I do it in return. But, I believe that one day I can overcome them for I believe in the grace, I believe in myself. 

• Lastly, Jesus' wisdom is well portrayed in an understanding mind to discern between good and evil. I refer this good discerning of mind to the peacefulness of mind. It is related directly to Today's Gospel, Jesus reacted to the controversy of himself by keeping silent. He is the son of the carpenter but is not being affected by a carpenter. He did carpenter, made noise externally but deep inside peacefulness. My formation will go on, one of my focuses is study; through study, I will develop not only in knowing God but also a good discerning of mind, to act in order, live rightly my vocation, and keep a balance of myself. 

As I go along my journey, I will keep in mind that being God's heart in the world or being an MSC is...

1. Believing in the change of people. We love someone, we believe in them; we always need to give chance to them.
2. True love. Not waiting for people to come but approaching and giving care to others as Jesus has said whatever you do for the least of my brothers, and sisters, you do unto me "Mt 25, 40".
3. Discerning mind. I need to pause, stop talking but spending time for the mind, for the spirit. It refers to solitude & prayer. 

My dear brothers and sisters, day-to-day Jesus always checks our profile pictures, not only our profile pictures but also our emotions either happiness or sadness, our chaos, our joy, our journey. And remember this He is always finding attractive when we update our pictures of life.  Moreover, he also leaves a comment through the Gospel

Hey, Brother Franz

Hey, Sister Lan 

Hey, Sister Grace 

Hey Joseph 

Do you believe in the son of the carpenter?

Joseph Nguyễn Lê Thế Vương.