2018-1-24

朋友们，今天的福音是撒种者和种子的比喻。该比喻与天国的成长和发展有关。我们读到耶稣坐在海边开始施教，而且有许多群众，集合到他身边。耶稣说话的对象是全人类。

 

耶稣讲述撒种者的比喻：撒种者出去撒种。他撒种的时候，有的落在路旁，被鸟儿啄食了；有的落在石头地里，被太阳晒焦了；有的落在荆棘中，生命被窒息了；有的落在好地里，就结了果实：有三十倍的，有六十倍的，有一百倍的。

 

我们要记住，耶稣自己本身就是被撒播的种子。耶稣就是要扎根于我们内心的圣言。这颗种子被四面八方地撒播，播入的方式五花八门，然而在你心中，让这颗种子深深植入吧，不要任其被窃取、晒焦或窒息。

 

Friends, our Gospel for today is the parable of the sower and the seed. It has to do with the growth and development of the kingdom of God. We hear that Jesus began to teach by the sea and that a very large crowd gathered around him. This is Jesus speaking to the whole world.

 

He then presents the parable of the sower: A sower goes out to sow, and as he sows, some of the seed falls on the path, where the birds eat it up; some falls on rocky ground, where it is scorched in the sun; some falls among thorns, where its life is choked off; and some falls on rich soil, where it bears fruit—thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.

 

Keep in mind that Jesus himself, in person, is the seed sown. Jesus is the Logos that wants to take root in us. This seed is sown far and wide, through all sorts of means, but in you, let the seed be sown deep, where it can’t be stolen, scorched, or choked.

 

2018-1-25

朋友们，今天我们反思圣保禄归化的重要性。保禄在前往大马士革路上的遭遇回答了这个问题：天主何时统一万国并通过以色列来君临天下？当保禄遇到耶稣时，他意识到天主的承诺已经实现、所有先知的预言全部应验——但这一切是如此出人意料和异乎寻常。

 

他从传统中知道天主将通过以色列把世人从罪恶中拯救出来、一统天下、让世界充满和平和公正。那是以色列人的希望。这个希望通常被幻想成有如撒罗满或达味那样复仇式的军事政治统治者，或者有如梅瑟那样伟大的立法者和领袖。

 

保禄在耶稣身上看到的一切比梅瑟、撒罗满和达味都要伟大——而且完全出人意表。天主通过一个在十字架上被钉死之后复活的罪犯来建立公正、秩序和正道？只有宽恕、慈悲和非暴力，与死亡毫无关系？这就是天主的公正，而这种公正审判着世间所有堕落的势力和王国。

 

Friends, today we reflect on the significance of the conversion of St. Paul. Paul’s encounter on the road to Damascus was an answer to this question: when would God gather the nations and through Israel bring his rule to the whole world? When Paul met Jesus he realized that the promises of God had been fulfilled, that the expectations of the prophets had been met—but in a most unexpected and extraordinary way.

 

He knew from his tradition that God, through Israel, would deliver the world from sin, gather the nations, and establish peace and justice everywhere. That was the hope. The usual version of that hope was something like an avenging military and political ruler like Solomon or David, or a great lawgiver and leader like Moses.

 

What Paul saw in Jesus was someone greater than Moses, Solomon, or David—and someone wholly unexpected. God is establishing his justice, his right order, his way, through a crucified and risen criminal, and now returned from the dead? Forgiveness, compassion, nonviolence, having no truck with the ways of death? This is God’s justice, and it judges all of the fallen powers and kingdoms of the world.