2018-6-13

朋友们，今天的福音书中，耶稣表明祂不会废除法律和先知，而是来成全的。耶稣本身就是一个守规矩的犹太人，而圣经中的主旨和先知形象对祂来说是至关重要的。

 

但是祂要成全什么呢？新教神学家N.T. 赖特曾指出圣经《旧约全书》本质上是一部未完成的交响乐，一出没有高潮的戏剧。《旧约全书》表达了一个希望、一个梦想、一种渴望—然而这个希望没有得到实现，渴望没有得到满足。

 

以色列人深知自己是一个带有明确使命的民族，他们的使命是成为虔诚的信徒，从而使得全世界也成为虔诚的上帝子民。但恰恰相反，以色列人犯下的罪恶越来越深重，他们不但没有成为其他民族皈依上帝的榜样，反而不断被外族压迫和奴役。

 

然后耶稣到来，以最意想不到的方式，居然成全了以色列人的梦想。从公开传道之初，耶稣就通过改正宗教信仰以及宽恕罪过来影响以色列支派的聚合。

 

Friends, in our Gospel today, Jesus declares that he would not undermine the Law and the Prophets, but fulfill them. Jesus himself was an observant Jew, and the themes and images of the Holy Scriptures were elemental for him.

 

But what is he going to fulfill? Protestant theologian N.T. Wright has pointed out that the Old Testament is essentially an unfinished symphony, a drama without a climax. It is the articulation of a hope, a dream, a longing—but without a realization of that hope, without a satisfaction of that longing.

 

Israel knew itself to be the people with the definite mission to become holy and thereby to render the world holy. But instead, Israel fell into greater and greater sins, and instead of being the catalyst for the conversion of the world, the world was continually overwhelming and enslaving Israel.

 

And then came Jesus, who turned out to be, in the most unexpected way, the fulfillment of the dream. From the beginning of his ministry, Jesus affected the gathering of the tribes of Israel through conversion and the forgiveness of sins.

2018-6-14

朋友们，今天的福音节选自“山中圣训”。通过在山上颁布法令，耶稣已象征性地确定自己就是新的梅瑟。他说“你们一向听说过…,我却对你们说…”的话语即表明他的权威高于犹太教律法。

 

明确地说，律法并没有被废除，而是被强化。 律法的目的从来都是为了让人性与神性接轨。当初，这种人性向神性的看齐还处于相当基本的水平。但现在因为最具权威的“梅瑟”出现了，这种看齐要做到十足、彻底、圆满。

 

因此，耶稣教导：“你们一向听过给古人说：‘不可杀人！’谁若杀了人，应受裁判。我却对你们说：凡向自己弟兄发怒的，就要受裁判；” 。杀人是一种行动，但行动植根于更根本性的失调：恶意的态度、病态的灵魂、对现实有着基本性的误解。显然，我们若要完全像天主那样，就必须根除残暴和恶意的行为，但我们还需要更进一步，根除内心残暴和恶意的想法，因为天主完完全全是爱。

 

Friends, our Gospel for today is taken from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus has symbolically established himself as the new Moses, giving a law upon a mountain. His “you have heard it said...but I say...” has revealed that he has authority even over the Torah.

 

To be clear, the Law is not being abrogated here; it is being intensified. The Law was always meant to bring humanity into line with divinity. In the beginning, this alignment was at a fairly basic level. But now that the definitive Moses has appeared, the alignment is becoming absolute, radical, complete.

 

And so Jesus teaches, “You have heard it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.” Killing is an action, but that action is rooted in a more fundamental dysfunction: a hateful attitude, a disordered soul, a basic misperception of reality. To utterly be like God, we obviously have to eliminate cruel and hateful actions; but we have to go deeper, eliminating cruel and hateful thoughts and attitudes. For God is love, right through.

 

2018-6-15

朋友们，在今天的福音中，耶稣揭露性罪恶的根源问题。耶稣说：“你们一向听说过：‘不可奸淫！’我却对你们说：凡注视妇女，有意贪恋她的，他已在心里奸淫了她。”这种行为当然是邪恶的，根源在于失常的态度、基本的误解和灵魂的受损。为了与完全就是爱的天主看齐，我们需要对付这些潜藏的问题。

 

一次又一次，我们听人们说天主教会的道德要求——特别是性方面——过于严厉，他们说天主教会应该遵从大众期望，或者，人丁兴旺的天主教徒自身应该减负。这一切证明了什么？什么都没有证明，只能说明天主教道德教育是难以对付的。但那又怎样？要是我们降低道德理想，也就是破坏了天主教会的整个存在目的。耶稣从来没有降低对爱的要求，天主教会也不会降低要求。

 

Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus exposes the root problems behind sexual sin. Jesus says, "You have heard it said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart." The act is certainly bad, of course. It’s grounded in a dysfunctional attitude, a basic misperception, a compromise of the soul. In order to be aligned to the God who is nothing but love, these underlying problems need to be addressed.

 

Time and again, we hear that the Church’s moral demands—especially in the sexual arena—are too stringent, that the Church ought to conform itself with societal expectations, or that huge pluralities of Catholics themselves want to lighten the load. What do these data prove? Well, nothing really, except that Catholic moral teaching is difficult. But so what? To dial down our moral ideals is to compromise the Church’s whole purpose. Jesus didn’t dial down the demands of love, and neither does his Church.

2018-6-16

朋友们，今天的福音谈到发誓。这让我想起安·罗素·米勒的故事。安之前是旧金山的一位上流名媛，非常富贵，有着十个儿女和十九个孙子孙女；坐拥一座金碧辉煌、可以俯瞰旧金山湾的别墅；出没于最高级的会所；喜欢乘坐自己的游艇在地中海度假。

 

但安也是一位虔诚的天主教徒，她和丈夫曾一起发誓若两者之一先逝世，还在世的一方将把自己献身于天主。所以，当安的丈夫因癌症英年早逝，她决心以最戏剧性的方式把自己献身于天主。

 

她为亲朋好友举办最后一个盛大的派对，然后把所有家产全部送出，到伊利诺伊州的德斯普兰斯市，成为与世隔绝的加尔默罗会修女中的一员。她如今身穿加尔默罗会修女专用的褐色简朴长袍，过着贫穷、贞洁、服从天主、彻底献身的生活。她睡的是木板床，床上只有一层薄薄的床垫；吃的是修道院食堂提供的最简单、无肉的饭菜。她不再是安.罗素.米勒，而是圣三的玛丽·约瑟夫修女。

 

玛丽修女以发誓修道来偿还了她曾对丈夫发下的誓言。这个新的誓言对她来说，并非负担，而是获得自由的一种方式。因为在最激进的意义上，她现在有着把自己完全献身于天主的自由。

 

我知道她的人生道路是激进的，不是所有人都要选择这种完全的臣服。但我们所有人确实都要具有福音劝谕的精神（注：贞洁、贫穷、服从），因为我们必须超脱于财富、享乐、权势和名誉之外。这些到头来都是浮云，只有天主是最重要的。

 

Friends, today’s Gospel speaks of vows. It calls to mind the story of Ann Russell Miller, a fabulously wealthy San Francisco socialite. Ann had ten children and nineteen grandchildren, was a denizen of the finest clubs, and liked to vacation on her yacht in the Mediterranean.

 

But Ann was also a very devout Catholic, and she and her husband made a vow that whoever died first, the surviving partner would dedicate his or her life to God. So when Ann’s husband died relatively young of cancer, Ann resolved to give her life to God in the most dramatic way.

 

She threw one more huge party for her friends—and then gave everything away and joined the cloistered Carmelite sisters in Des Plaines, Illinois. She now wears the simple brown habit of a Carmelite religious and lives a life of utter devotion, in poverty, chastity, and obedience. She sleeps on wooden planks covered by a thin mattress; she eats the simplest meatless dishes served in the convent refectory. She is no longer Ann Russell Miller; she is Sr. Mary Joseph of the Trinity.

 

Sr. Mary fulfilled the vow she made to her husband by taking new vows as a religious. The new vows she now appreciates not as burdens but as a means to freedom. For now, in the most radical sense, she is free to give her life utterly to God.

 

Now, I realize that her path is a radical one, and that not everyone is called to this sort of total surrender. But everyone is indeed called to the spirit of the evangelical counsels, for we must all become detached from wealth, pleasure, power, and honor. They don’t matter at the end of the day. Only God matters.

2018-6-17

朋友们，今天的福音把天国比作一粒芥子:“当下种之后，生长起来，比一切蔬菜都大”。天主想让好事从小处开始并慢慢发展，这似乎是精神生活的原则。

 

我们很想说，“您是天主。您来着手做吧。”但为什么天主有祂的一套做法呢？我们可以尝试作出一些解释。我们在《圣经》中经常看到人类的合作令天主心花怒放。祂想让我们凭借自由、才智、创造力来参与祂的事业。所以，祂播下种子，并希望我们来栽培。

 

想一想天主对圣方济各说的话：“方济各，重建我的教堂。”天主本来就有能力重建祂的教堂，但祂想方济各参与其中。

 

当事情从小处开始，就能掩人耳目，从而获取力量、份量和严肃性。而参与者则能得到考验和磨炼。试想你打算为教会干一番大事业，通过祈祷，天主赐你重任，但你可能因为准备不足而不了了之。因此，我们要耐心，接受微不足道的邀请。

 

Friends, today’s Gospel compares the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed that "when it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants." It seems to be a law of the spiritual life that God wants good things to start small and grow over time.

 

We’re tempted to say, "You’re God. Just get on with it. Do it!" But why would God work the way he does? We might attempt a few explanations. It is a commonplace of the Bible that God rejoices in our cooperation. He wants to involve us, through freedom, intelligence, and creativity, in what he is doing. And so he plants seeds, and he wants us to cultivate them.

 

Consider what God said to St. Francis: "Francis, rebuild my Church." God could have rebuilt his Church without Francis, but he wanted him to get involved.

 

When things start small, they can fly under the radar while they gain strength and heft and seriousness. Also, those involved can be tested and tried. Suppose you want to do something great in the life of the Church and you pray and God gives you massively what you want. You might not be ready, and your project will peter out. So be patient and embrace the small invitations.