BishopBarron|掏空自我

2017-07-27 15:07     阅读量:4823

原文|Bishop Barron
翻译|Carrie
2017-7-25
朋友们,在今天的福音中,雅各伯和若望的母亲替他们兄弟俩向耶稣请求在天国中获得上等的地位。啊,这是野心勃勃的声音。有些人根本不在乎钱财、权势或享乐——但热衷于名誉。很多人跟雅各伯和若望一样,都想在社会中飞黄腾达、有所作为。或许此文的读者中有不少人都有着共鸣。
 
但耶稣反客为主地说:“你们不知道你们所求的是什么”。他确实贵为君王,将统领以色列,但他将以荆棘加冕,而他的宝座将是一副古罗马帝国的刑具。
 
因而,他试着说得明白一点:“你们能饮我将要饮的爵吗?或者像我那样受洗吗?” 在天国中获得荣誉的关键在于饮尽一杯苦酒、甘愿为爱而受难、奉献出自己的生命。看看圣人们的做法。我们要做的不是扩张自我,而是掏空自我。
 
Friends, today in our Gospel the mother of James and John asks Jesus on their behalf for high places of authority in his kingdom. Ah, there is the voice of ambition. Some people don’t care at all about money or power or pleasure—but they care passionately about honor. A lot of people can identify with James and John. They want to go places, they want to be movers and shakers in society. Perhaps a number of people reading this reflection are filled with these emotions.
 
But Jesus turns the tables on them: “You do not know what you are asking.” He is indeed a King and he will indeed rule Israel, but his crown will be made of thorns and his throne will be a Roman instrument of torture.
 
And so he tries to clarify: “Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” The key to honor in the Kingdom of God is to drink the cup of suffering, the willingness to suffer out of love, to give one’s life away as a gift. Look at the lives of the saints. It is not about aggrandizing the ego, but emptying it out.
 
2017-7-24
朋友们,在今天的福音中,一些法利塞人要求耶稣给他们显示一个征兆。耶稣回答道:“邪恶淫乱的世代要求征兆,但除了约纳先知的征兆外,必不给它其他的征兆”。约纳曾在大鱼腹中度过了三天三夜。
 
天主叫约纳劝喻尼尼微人悔改。尼尼微是个庞大的城市,据说步行穿越该市需耗时三天。我不禁把尼尼微想象为当今繁荣兴旺、五光十色的现代化大都市之一。
 
尼尼微悔改的表现是什么?皈依天主、把天主尊为唯一恒久不变的善。听到约纳的劝喻后,尼尼微人“立即宣布禁食,从大到小,都身披苦衣。” 为什么他们要这样清心寡欲?因为要戒掉对物质享乐的依恋。
 
超脱于你现有的心智、忏悔改过、把生活过得就像世间一切终究都是无关重要的那样,你就会活在天国之中!
 
Friends, today in our Gospel some Pharisees ask Jesus for a sign. And Jesus replies, “An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet,” who was in the belly of the whale for three days and nights.
 
Jonah was called by God to preach conversion to Nineveh, which is described as an enormously large city. It took, they said, three days to walk through it. I can’t help but think of Nineveh as one of our large, modern cities, a center of all sorts of worldly activity and preoccupation.
 
What would its conversion look like? A turning back to God as the only enduring good. After hearing the word of Jonah, the Ninevites “proclaimed a fast, and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.” What is the purpose of these ascetic practices? To wean people away from an attachment to worldly pleasures.
 
Go beyond the mind that you have. Repent. Live as though nothing in this world finally matters. And you will be living in the Kingdom of God!

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