2018-3-23

朋友们，在今天的福音中，耶稣自称天主之子，所以犹太领袖要用石头砸死祂。祂辩护自己的身份，说：“假使我不作我父的工作，你们就不必信我，但若是我作了，你们纵然不肯信我，至少要信这些工作，如此你们必定认出父在我内，我在父内。”

 

在最后的晚餐上，耶稣更详细地解释祂与圣父之间的亲密关系。祂为我们清晰地讲述了存在的最基本层面上（即天主自身的存在之内）的共有性。“主，”斐理伯对祂说，“把父显示给我们，我们就心满意足了。”耶稣回答说：“斐理伯！这么长久的时候，我和你们在一起，而你还不认识我吗？谁看见了我，就是看见了父。”

 

这些话要是真的，那么圣父和圣子就必须互相内含对方。虽然圣父和圣子确实有区别，但是两者因为相爱而完全紧密相连。正如耶稣所说的，“是住在我内的父，作他自己的事业。”

 

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jewish leaders attempt to stone Jesus because he claimed to be the Son of God. He defended his identity, saying "If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father."

 

At the Last Supper, Jesus would further explain his intimate relationship with the Father. There he lays out for us the co-inherence that obtains at the most fundamental dimension of being, that is to say, within the very existence of God. "Lord," Philip said to him, "Show us the Father, and that will be enough for us." Jesus replied, "Philip, after I have been with you all this time, you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father."

 

How can this be true, unless the Father and the Son coinhere in each other? Though Father and Son are truly distinct, they are utterly implicated in each other by a mutual act of love. As Jesus says, "It is the Father who lives in me, accomplishing his works."

 

2018-3-24

朋友们，在今天的福音中，法利塞人因为耶稣使拉匝禄复活而图谋杀害祂。这种反抗方式叫找寻替罪羊。勒内·吉拉尔认为找寻替罪羊这种心理机制是大多数人类群体中维持秩序的基本方法。当人们因竞争而产生冲突，替罪羊——多数是局外人——自然会被选出，然后众人把所有的焦虑情绪统统推卸到替罪羊身上。

 

以色列领袖因为急于安抚群众的紧张情绪而要孤立并铲除耶稣。若望在福音书中以盖法的话来强调了这一点：“你们什么都不懂，也不想想：叫一个人替百姓死，以免全民族灭亡：这为你们多么有利。”

 

但是，真天主将通过耶稣亲自成为替罪羊，以此摧毁这种官方认可的找寻替罪羊心理。

 

Friends, in today’s Gospel, the Pharisees plot to kill Jesus because he raised Lazarus. We see here a particular form of opposition, namely, scapegoating. René Girard identified the scapegoating mechanism as basic to the maintenance of order in most human communities. When tensions arise among people due to competitive desire, scapegoats—usually outsiders—are automatically singled out, and upon them is cast the collective anxiety of the group.

 

The leaders of the nation are seeking to isolate and eliminate Jesus because they are anxious to soothe tensions among the people. The author of John’s Gospel stresses this dimension when he puts in the mouth of Caiaphas the words: "You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed."

 

But, in Jesus, the true God will undermine this officially sanctioned scapegoating by becoming the scapegoat himself.