2018-5-13

朋友们，在今天的福音中，耶稣祷告：“圣父啊！求你因你的名，保全那些你所赐给我的人，使他们合而为一，正如我们一样。 ”

 

教会是一体因为其创始人是一体的。耶稣使得我们别无选择正是因为祂以天主的身份说话和行事。耶稣根本就不是众多的教师之一，所以祂的追随者必须心无旁骛。

 

而且，耶稣道成肉身的天主是一体的。以色列人对天主的概念是极其一神论的，所以他们从根本上就排斥任何多元化或融合：“上主名为忌邪者，他是忌邪的天主。”本笃十六世曾说过信经的第一句“Credo in unum Deum”（我信唯一全能的天主父）是颠覆性的，因为这句话自然而然就在终极意义上排除了任何竞争者。

 

如果我们接受以色列人唯一的天主和耶稣基督，也就是说我们从根本上拒绝崇拜任何人、任何文化、任何政党、任何艺术形式或任何思想体系。每个基督徒都是在最基本存在层面上以唯一的耶稣基督天主为中心的。

 

Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus prays: “Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one.”

 

The Church is one because its founder is one. Jesus compels a choice precisely because he claims to speak and act in the very person of God. Jesus simply cannot be one teacher among many, and therefore those who walk in his way must be exclusively with him.

 

Moreover, the God whom Jesus incarnates is one. The Israelite conception of God is fiercely monotheistic and hence it excludes any diversity or syncretism at the level of basic belief: “The Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” Joseph Ratzinger commented that the opening line of the Nicene Creed, Credo in unum Deum (I believe in one God), is a subversive statement because it automatically rules out any rival claimant to ultimate concern.

 

To say that one accepts only the God of Israel and Jesus Christ is to say that one rejects as ultimate any human being, any culture, any political party, any artistic form, or any set of ideas. A Christian is someone who, at the most fundamental level of his or her being, is centered on the one God of Jesus Christ.

 

2018-5-14

朋友们，在今天的福音中，耶稣向门徒宣布：“我不再称你们为仆人：因为仆人不知道他主人所做的事。我称你们为朋友，因为凡由我父听来的一切，我都显示给你们了。”

 

古代的许多神秘主义和哲学思想——比如柏拉图主义和诺斯替主义——谈论天主或者神圣者，但他们认为天主是一种原力、一种价值观或一种本体论的来源。天主是不具人格的，与日常世界有着无限的距离。这些古代学派思想在许多现当代的神学中都能找到回响。比如自然神论，无论对美国的开国元勋甚至对当代的新世纪哲学都影响深远。他们谈论“神圣”的原则或力量，但绝不会想到以“你”来称呼这种力量，或者与这种力量亲密交谈。

 

《圣经》就不一样。经文明显把天主描绘为无法抗拒的、超越物质世界的、无法操控的、不可思议的天地创造者；但同时坚称这种至高无上、令人恐惧的力量是一个人，并且祂甘于屈尊降贵地与我们对话、指引我们、邀请我们进入祂的生活。

 

通过“我不再称你们为仆人，而是朋友”这句话，耶稣把所有宗教哲学和神秘主义统统否决。

 

Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus announces to his disciples: “I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.”

 

Many mysticisms and philosophies of the ancient world—Platonism and Gnosticism come readily to mind—spoke of God or the sacred, but they spoke of it as a force or a value or an ontological source. It was impersonal and at an infinite remove from the world of ordinary experience. These ancient schools find an echo in many modern and contemporary theologies. Think of deism, which was so influential on the founders of the United States, or even the New Age philosophy of our time. These speak of a “divine” principle or power, but one would never dream of addressing such a force as “thou” or of engaging with it in intimate conversation.

 

Then there is the Bible. The Scriptures obviously present God as the overwhelming, transcendent, uncontrollable, inscrutable Creator of the heavens and the earth, but they insist that this sublime and frightening power is a person who deigns to speak to us, to guide us, and to invite us into his life.

 

In making that utterance—“I no longer call you slaves, but friends”—Jesus turned all of religious philosophy and mysticism on its head.