2018-6-4

朋友们，今天的福音说到园主种植了葡萄园并把它租给园户。葡萄园代表以色列，但可以扩展到全人类。天主像园主一样为祂的子民准备了一个可以休息、享用、好好工作的美丽富饶之地。

 

收获时节将近，园主派仆人去收果实。但园户抓住这些仆人，有的被打、有的被杀、有的被石头砸死。这不就是以色列及其先知以及俗世与天主使者的整个悲凄的历史吗？

 

然后这个比喻的笔锋一转：“最后就打发他的儿子到他们那里去，说：‘他们必会敬重我的儿子。’但园户看见他儿子就杀了他。”在众多仆人受到残暴对待之后，园主居然派出他儿子？他疯了吗？是有点。但这正是天主离谱的耐心和慷慨，祂疯狂的爱。即使深知圣子将要面临的命运，“天主竟这样爱了世界，甚至赐下了自己的独生子”。

 

Friends, today’s Gospel tells of the landowner who planted a vineyard and leased it to tenants. This vineyard stands for Israel, but it could be broadened to include the whole world. Like the landowner, God has made for his people a beautiful and productive place, a place where they can find rest, enjoyment, and good work.

 

When vintage time drew near, the landowner sent his servants to the tenants to obtain the produce. But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned. Is this not the whole, sorry history of Israel and its prophets, of the world and the people whom God has sent?

 

Then we hear the event upon which the parable turns: “Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they killed him.” After the terrible treatment that his representatives have received, the owner sends his son? Is he crazy? Yes, a little. But this is the over-the-top patience and generosity of God, his crazy love. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,” knowing full well what his fate would be.

 

2018-6-5

朋友们，在今天的福音中，耶稣巧妙地以祂最著名的金句之一摆脱了圈套：“那么，凯撒的，就应归还凯撒；天主的，就应归还天主。” 我们不应该把这金句理解为世俗的凯撒拥有明确划定的政治领域，而天主则拥有明确划定的精神领域。我们当然也不能以现代方式来理解这句话——公众舞台属于政治，而宗教归入私人范畴。

 

不，这是错的，正因为天主是天主。祂不是身处世间的或凌驾于世上的存在，不是众多实物之一；而是纯粹的存在本身，因此祂必然渗透一切、影响一切、作为一切的基础、与一切有关，纵然祂高于一切受造物。

 

天主是生活中一切的最深根源，从运动到法律到艺术到科学和医学。律师（最好的那种）最深的渴望是正义——天主本身就是正义。医生（最好的那种）最深的渴望是救死扶伤——天主本身就是爱。一切来自天主并归于天主。

 

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus escapes from a trap with one of his most famous one-liners: “Render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” We should not read this as though there is a clearly demarcated political realm that belongs to the Caesars of the world and a clearly demarcated spiritual realm that belongs to God. And we certainly shouldn’t read it in the modern mode—that the public arena belongs to politics, while religion is relegated to the private dimension.

 

No, this won’t do, precisely because God is God. He’s not a being in or above the world, nor one reality among many. God is the sheer act of being itself, which necessarily pervades, influences, grounds, and has to do with everything, even as he transcends everything in creation.

 

God is the deepest source for everything in life, from sports to law to the arts to science to medicine. What has seized the lawyer (at his best) is a deep passion for justice—and God is justice itself. What has seized the doctor (at his best) is a deep passion for alleviating suffering—and God is love itself. Everything comes from God and returns to God.