2017-1-7

朋友们，主显节福音包含了一些基本的神学主题。其中之一是基督教与普天下各民族的关系。

 

这是一个非比寻常的故事。东方贤士离乡别井去寻找眼中升起的新星所代表新生君王。他们到底为什么为了朝拜一位异乡之王而远离自己的国土？

 

因此这个奇特的故事应引起我们的注意。贤士——王者、占星家——追寻一个从某种意义上始终属于他们的外国君王。我们实际上越来越接近圣经启示的核心。在世上所有民族当中，天主选择了以色列作为世间的灯塔，好让全人类通过以色列的指引而聚合。

 

没错，这是新生的犹太君王，但祂并不只属于犹太人。这位默西亚将是王中之王，世界之光。因此，默西亚将代表着万国的统率、对人类历史上不断悲剧性重复的种族和文化纷争的超越以及新希望的开启。

 

Friends, the Gospel for the feast of the Epiphany contains some elemental theological themes. One of them has to do with the relation between Christianity and the nations.

 

We hear something extraordinary. Magi from the East left their home country in search of a newborn king whose star they had observed at its rising. Why, precisely, would people leave their own country in order to worship a foreign king at his birth?

 

So this odd story should get our attention. Magi—kings, astrologers—seek out a foreign king who somehow, nevertheless, belongs to them. We’re actually coming close to the heart of the Biblical revelation. Of all the nations of the world, God chose to make of Israel a beacon to the world, so that through Israel all might be gathered.

 

Yes, a king would be born for the Jews, but he wouldn’t be for the Jews alone. This Messiah would be the King of kings, a light to all the nations. The Messiah, therefore, would represent the overcoming of the nations, the transcendence of the disputes between peoples and cultures that had so tragically marked human history, and the opening up of a new possibility.