2018-2-26

朋友们，在今天的福音中，耶稣要求我们“应当慈悲，如像你们的父那样慈悲。”

 

慈悲或温柔的怜悯（《圣经旧约》中对应的希伯来词语是chesed）是天主最鲜明的特征。圣奥古斯丁提醒我们说，人类的本质是为天主而活的。但因为天主是温情的慈悲，所以“信奉”天主等同于怜悯他人、慈悲为怀。

 

注意听耶稣接着说的话：“你们不要判断，你们也就不受判断；不要定罪，也就不被定罪；你们要赦免，也就蒙赦免。你们给，也就给你们。”根据精神秩序的“物理性质”，神圣的生命力越取越多，正是因为这种生命力是一份礼物而且本来就是取之不尽的。天主的生命力可以说是即取即用的：当你收到这份礼物，你就必须把祂送出去，因为祂的生命力仅仅以礼物的形式存在，所以你会发现自己送得越多，涌入你内心的收获也越多。

 

耶稣是说，你若要过得快乐，那么这种神圣的爱、这种天主的chesed（慈悲）必须是你生活中最重要的事情；这种慈悲必须是你的开始、中间和结尾。

 

Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus calls us to "be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."

 

Mercy or tender compassion (chesed in the Hebrew of the Old Testament) is God’s most distinctive characteristic. St. Augustine reminded us that we are, by our very nature, ordered to God. But since God is tender mercy, "having" God is tantamount to exercising compassion, being merciful ourselves.

 

And attend to what Jesus says next: "Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you." According to the "physics" of the spiritual order, the more one draws on the divine life, the more one receives that life, precisely because it is a gift and is properly infinite. God’s life is had, as it were, on the fly: when you receive it as a gift, you must give it away, since it only exists in gift form, and then you will find more of it flooding into your heart.  

 

If you want to be happy, Jesus is saying, this divine love, this chesed of God, must be central to your life; it must be your beginning, your middle, and your end.