|Bishop Barron
翻译|Carrie

朋友们，在今天的福音中，耶稣讲到了天主的旨意得以奉行。一些哲学观辩护时间的循环性和周期性。它们认为时间持续绕回原点，就像季节更替。现代哲学家尼采说过“永恒的回归”。那是一种声名显赫的观念，而且到处可见。

 

但犹太人对时间的观念大相径庭，我们可以称之为“直线状”。他们认为时间是有使命感的，在天主的指导下是有目的性的。过去不只是无限的重复，而是为明确的将来作好准备，是对天主将要成就之事的一种预期。

 

Friends, in today’s Gospel passage Jesus speaks of the time when the plan of God will be fulfilled. Some philosophies defend a circular or cyclical understanding of time. They hold that time just continually circles back on itself, repeating like the cycles of the seasons. The modern philosopher Nietzsche spoke of the "eternal return of the same." That’s a mythic consciousness, and it can be found all over the world.

 

But the Jews had a very different sense of time, what we might call "linear." They felt that time was moving somewhere, that it had, under God’s direction, a purpose. The past was not simply there to be repeated endlessly; rather, the past was a preparation for a definitive future. It was an anticipation of what God would do, what God was going to accomplish.

 

2017-12-2

朋友们，在今天的福音中，耶稣敦促我们在等待祂光荣来临之时要警醒和祈祷。在某种意义上说，基督教是已然成就的宗教（主已经降临），但在另一种意义上说，它又是一种等待的宗教，因为我们期待着耶稣全权在握的光荣来临。

 

我们等待、盼望、保持警觉。那不是一件容易的事。但我们都知道好事多磨。比如孕妇要等漫长的九个月时间，孩子才能哇哇落地。

 

“这个分析需要多长时间？”一名妇女曾这样问卡尔·荣格。“要随其自然。” 荣格回答。妊娠、生长、康复——这些过程中，最不应该做的是揠苗助长、强迫推进、根据我们的私人时间表来制定进度。

 

因此耶稣要求我们“应当时时醒寤祈祷…能立于人子之前。”

 

Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus urges us to watch and pray as we await his coming again. In one sense, Christianity is a religion of fulfillment (the Lord has come), but in another sense, it is a religion of waiting, for we expect the second coming of Jesus in the fullness of his power.

 

We wait and watch and keep vigil. And this is difficult. But what we all know is that great things take time. For example, when a woman becomes pregnant, she has to wait nine long months before the baby is ready.

 

"How long does this analysis take?" a woman once asked Carl Jung. "Just as long as it takes," came the answer. Gestation, growth, healing—during any of these processes, the very worst thing one can do is to pick at it, to force it, to make it operate according to our private timetables.

 

That’s why Jesus calls us to "be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength…to stand before the Son of Man."