2018-3-10

朋友们，今天耶稣说到典型正义的法利塞人与典型不义的税吏一同进入圣殿祈祷。但他们的祈祷方式却有着天渊之别。

 

宗教的全部意义在于使我们谦卑地面对天主并引导我们走上爱的道路，其他一切或多或少都是次要的。礼拜仪式、祈祷、教会规条、诫命、圣事、圣礼仪式——所有的一切——说到底都是为了让我们遵从爱之道。若效果适得其反，那么上述的一切就失去了意义。

 

圣保禄和四位福音书作者——当然还有耶稣——都非常注重这种危机。正因如此，圣保禄提到法律的危险。他知道人们经常以法律作为攻击性武器：因为我在某方面能分辨是非曲直，那我就可以眼光独到地挑出你的毛病，而且我通过贬损你来提高自己的地位。简而言之，法律，这份来自天主的礼物，被用于服务自我意识。

 

Friends, today Jesus tells us of the Pharisee and the tax collector—so, stereotypically righteous and unrighteous people—who both enter the Temple to pray. But what a world of difference in their manner of praying!

 

The entire point of religion is to make us humble before God and to open us to the path of love. Everything else is more or less a footnote. Liturgy, prayer, the precepts of the Church, the Commandments, sacraments, sacramentals—all of it—are finally meant to conform us to the way of love. When they instead turn us away from that path, they have been undermined.

 

Both St. Paul and the Gospel writers—as well as Jesus himself, of course—are intensely aware of this danger. This is precisely why Paul speaks of the dangers of the Law. He knew that people often use the Law as a weapon of aggression: since I know what is right and wrong in some detail, then I am uniquely positioned to point out your flaws. And when I point out your flaws, I elevate myself. In short, the Law, which is a gift from God, has been co-opted for the purposes of the ego.