2018-2-28

朋友们，在今天的福音中，雅各伯和若望的母亲替他们兄弟俩向耶稣请求在天国中获得上等的地位。啊，这是野心勃勃的声音。有些人根本不在乎钱财、权势或享乐——但热衷于名誉。很多人跟雅各伯和若望一样，都想在社会中飞黄腾达、有所作为。或许此文的读者中有不少人都有着共鸣。

 

但耶稣反客为主地说：“你们不知道你们所求的是什么”。他确实贵为君王，将统领以色列，但他将以荆棘加冕，而他的宝座将是一副古罗马帝国的刑具。

 

因而，他试着说得明白一点：“你们能饮我将要饮的爵吗？或者像我那样受洗吗？” 在天国中获得荣誉的关键在于饮尽一杯苦酒、甘愿为爱而受难、奉献出自己的生命。看看圣人们的做法。我们要做的不是扩张自我，而是掏空自我。

 

Friends, today in our Gospel the mother of James and John asks Jesus on their behalf for high places of authority in his kingdom. Ah, there is the voice of ambition. Some people don’t care at all about money or power or pleasure—but they care passionately about honor. A lot of people can identify with James and John. They want to go places, they want to be movers and shakers in society. Perhaps a number of people reading this reflection are filled with these emotions.

 

But Jesus turns the tables on them: "You do not know what you are asking." He is indeed a King, and he will indeed rule Israel, but his crown will be made of thorns, and his throne will be a Roman instrument of torture.

 

And so he tries to clarify: "Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" The key to honor in the kingdom of God is to drink the cup of suffering, to be willing to suffer out of love, to give one’s life away as a gift. Look at the lives of the saints. It is not about aggrandizing the ego, but emptying it out.

 

2018-3-1

朋友们，今天的福音重点在于富人和拉匝禄的比喻。富人“身穿紫红袍及细麻纱衣，天天奢华地宴乐”，而躺卧在他的大门前的是一个叫拉匝禄的穷人，“指望藉富家人桌上掉下的碎屑充饥。”

 

天主不喜这种贫富悬殊，并心急如焚要拨乱反正。这个主题无论是在《圣经》中还是在基督教传统里都是响彻云霄，古往今来一直回响。虽然这个主题令我们心感不安——天主也知道这一点，特别是那些最富裕的阶层人士更是如此——但我们无从规避，因为这个主题在《圣经》中比比皆是。

 

圣多马斯·阿奎纳说：“我们必须分清所有权和私人财产的使用。”通过辛勤劳动和继承遗产，我们有权拥有财产。这点没错。但多马斯说，对于怎样使用以及为何使用这些财产的问题上，我们必须始终首先考虑公共利益而非个人利益。我们特别要考虑到自家门前的拉匝禄：即那些贫苦大众和最需要帮助的人。

 

Friends, today’s Gospel focuses on the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man "dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day," while lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, "who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table."

 

God is not pleased with this kind of economic inequality, and he burns with a passion to set things right. This theme came roaring up out of the Bible and into the Christian tradition, and it echoes up and down the centuries. Even though it makes us uncomfortable—and God knows it does, especially those of us who live in the most affluent society in the world—we can’t avoid it because it’s everywhere in the Bible.

 

St. Thomas Aquinas says, "We must distinguish between ownership and use of private property." We have a right to ownership, through our hard work, through our inheritance. Fair enough. But with regard to the use of those things—how we use them, why we use them—then, says Thomas, we must always be concerned first for the common good and not our own. This especially includes Lazarus at our gate: those who are suffering and most in need.