Friday, June 26, 2015

天主的爱可战胜死亡



乙年常年期第13主日

你们或许知道某人曾经失去最亲近的人,甚至你们自己也有过这样的经历。我们因此会这样想:为什么天主允许死亡的发生?今天的读经一是取自智慧篇,就提到了这个问题:为何死亡会存在?死亡是天主创造的吗?若不是天主所创造,那又是来自谁呢?智慧篇的作者坚持认为死亡不是天主的作为,因为天主根本不乐意生灵灭亡。还有,智慧篇宣称,我们是照着天主的肖像而受造,那就是说,我们原是不死不灭的。这些话实在难令人相信,因为我们几乎每天都可读到或听到人被杀害的消息。

如果我们原是不死不灭的,那为什么会有死亡呢?今天的读经已给我们答案了。其实,死亡并不是注定的,它也不是天主的意愿,它是罪的结果。今天的读经一结束前我们读到:由于魔鬼的嫉妒,死亡才进入世界。如果人类不犯罪,人将不会死,这是原祖亚当犯的罪所造成的。亚当违反了天主的诫命,选择了死亡,放弃生命;邪恶因此取代了正义;所以,亚当的罪给世界带来了毁灭与死亡。

我们如何改正这样的错误?谁又能将问题纠正?人没有有答案。尽管今天科技医药如此昌明,人类顶多能够延长寿命而已,却没有办法遏止死亡的发生,也不能战胜死亡,因此每个人都得面对死亡。虽然如此,死亡并不能得到最后的胜利。这就是我们今日和这一生所要宣讲的福音了。耶稣基督就是福音,祂就是对我们说:不要怕,只管信;祂就是今天说:女孩,我命你起来!的那一位。祂是唯一能起死回生,唯一能纠正问题,唯一能扭转死亡,唯一能恩赐长寿、恩赐健康及永生的天主。

今天的福音清楚说明:天主是生命而不是死亡的泉源。今天福音中的奇迹只是指标,它给我们指向天国的最终计划——复活。这些奇迹告诉耶稣时代的人们,也告诉我们,当我们在困苦中,天主的慈爱一直与我们同在,祂也承诺,死亡不是故事的结局,因为天主是赐予生命的天主。

无可否认,死亡是真实存在的,而且它会造成我们极大的伤痛,特别是在我们失去最亲爱的人的时刻。不过身为基督徒,我们要记住:死亡并不是天主的部分计划。尽管死亡的威胁有多大,它来得多么突然、显得多么悲惨,但是它不能主宰一切。死亡不是我们的故事结局,因为我们是照天主的肖像受造的,是不死不灭的。我们的受造原是不死不灭的,是为了要与天主永远在天堂里。如果没有复活和天堂,死亡就没有意义。

是的,死亡的势力很大,不过,它完全不能和天主的爱比较。天主爱的力量可战胜死亡、超越死亡,这就是我们所期待的希望和救恩。

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Death, where is your sting?



Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

Just a week into my last parish posting, I was confronted by a distraught, grieving and very angry mother. Her son, a brilliant scholar, had been killed in a road accident. She didn’t know what to make of it. She was not only confused, she was angry with God. She said to me: “Why has God done this to me? Why did He take my son away?” Convinced that God had let her down, she was now on the verge of giving up on Him. In the face of the most implacable, inexorable enemy of human race, I was lost for words. Who could blame her for her anger? Many have found themselves in a similar situation, encountered death in the family or among friends, and will be equally unable to cope or even begin to understand how there is any justice or wisdom in the sudden and violent demise of their loved one.

It gets one thinking: Why does God allow death, or why did God create a world in which death even exists? We can begin to search for an answer in today’s readings. The first reading, taken from the Book of Wisdom, addresses this concern: Why does Death exist? Did God make death? And if He didn’t, who did? The Book unwaveringly insists that “death was not God’s doing,” in fact, “He takes no pleasure in the extinction of the living.” Those words can be difficult to believe when we see people killed every day. But let us suspend our judgment for a while. A little further in the passage we are reminded that we are made in the image of God’s own nature, that is we were made “imperishable” or in some versions, “incorruptible.”

If that was the case, why then does death exist? A possible answer is, “they had it coming.” They are being punished. But what happens if the person seems innocent and good. Why would death not discriminate between the good and the bad, the old and the young? It is when death chooses the good and the young that we cry foul. One common and simplistic answer is that we are victims of forces beyond our control. Since we have no control over our lives, we have no responsibility for our destiny. It’s all written in the stars. There is an inherent fatalism in this view, a view that is firmly rejected by Scriptures. But perhaps more destructive and sinister is to attribute death not to blind fate but to the deliberate will of God. When there is no longer anyone else to blame, it is easy to lay the blame at God’s feet. The silence of God would be his indictment. But scripture rejects both fatalism and placing the blame with God.  

No, death didn’t just happened. Nor is it God's will. Death is the result of sin. At the end of today’s first reading, we read that “it was the devil’s envy that brought death into the world.” It is the final victory of the devil, the result of his destructive activity. If man had not sinned, he would not have died. His body may have changed and evolved over great periods of time, but it would not have been separated from his spirit to return to the dust, and man’s soul itself would not have been corrupted, losing power over its body and becoming its slave. This is the meaning of the sin of Adam, made in God’s image and inspired with His Spirit, and has chosen death instead of life, evil instead of righteousness, and so through defilement of his nature in rebellion against God, brought corruption and death to the world.

Even if God is exonerated of the crime of bringing death into the world, it still does not provide us with the answer to our painful experience of its existence in our lives. How can we fix the wrong? Who can set things right? We find ourselves stumped again. We have created incredible techniques and discovered miraculous cures and unbelievable interventions that have added decades to so many lives. And yet there remains the final certainty that our mortal life will end in death. No, we do not hold the answer.  There is only one who can set things right. Only one who can reverse death and blunt its sting. The only one who can give something much more than longevity and good health, the one who can give us eternal life. The one who says to us, “Do not be afraid; only have faith.” And then he turns to the child, “Talitha kum,” that is, “Little girl, I tell you to get up!”

The gospel reading therefore provides insight into this Truth that God stands for life and not death. It is made up of two tales, one of the healing of a woman who suffered from haemorrhage, and the other, the raising of a dead girl. Without having to state the obvious, the woman with the haemorrhage and the young girl eventually both died, as we all will. This did not mean that Jesus had failed or merely postponed the inevitable. His healing of the woman and his raising of the child are signs of the Kingdom of God. As signs, they point to the kingdom’s ultimate plan, which is for union with God. These miracles told the people of Jesus’ time, and us, that God walks with us in our suffering with great love and tenderness, and promises that our mortality is not the end of the story. For God is the God of life. The righteous are not destined for death but for an eternal and immortal existence.

There is no denying that death is real, and that it presents a source of pain in the here-and-now. But as Christians, we must remember that death is not “part of God’s plan,” so to speak. It is contrary to everything God is about. As strong as death may appear to be, as sudden and as tragic as it may seem to be, death does not have dominion, it does not have the final word. We are reminded that death is not the end of our story as the people of God. It’s often said “death is only natural.” This is entirely inaccurate. Death is un-natural, which is why we find it so shocking and painful. We were created for imperishability, for incorruption, intended for a life without end. We were created to be with God in Paradise forever.

Through, his Passion, Death and Resurrection, Christ has revealed to us a very different ending, an ending that does not conclude with death as its final chapter.  He shows us the resurrection, the peace of immortality that awaits the righteous faithful in Christ. He shows us what God does for his friends. As we grow older, frailer, and weaker, the nearness and reality of death will seem every more apparent to us. This is why we must never take our eyes off Christ and neither should we doubt the victory he has over death, if not we will fall victim to despair. The Book of Wisdom reassures us that our brothers and sisters are not forgotten or forsaken by God. Their departure is not a true affliction, nor is it destruction. Wisdom announces that the death of God’s faithful is only a prelude to being held by God until the time of resurrection, when we will live with God in the manner God originally intended.

One of my favourite quotes come from St Baldwin of Canterbury who went bravely to his death in the Crusades. His words ring true today and for all ages.
“Death is strong: it has the power to deprive us of the gift of life. Love is strong: it has the power to restore us to the exercise of a better life. Death is strong, strong enough to despoil us of this body of ours. Love is strong, strong enough to rob death of its spoils and restore them to us. Death is strong; for no man can resist it. Love is strong; for it can triumph over death, can blunt its sting, counter its onslaught and overturn its victory. A time will come when death will be trampled underfoot; when it will be said: ‘Death, where is your sting? Death, where is your attack?’”
Yes, Death is Strong! But it is no match to the Love of God. And that is our hope and our salvation!

Thursday, June 18, 2015

祂没有睡着



乙年常年期第12主日

曾面对和经历危难的人,必然深深体会被恐慌、怀疑和惧怕围困的感觉。我们会有这种焦虑与不安的其中一个可能是因为我们开始怀疑天主,为何在我们面对困难的时候,祂如此缄默,祂似乎不理我们了;还是祂已睡着了。

今天福音的叙述出现了这种危急的状况。正当门徒们因遭遇大风浪而担心会沉溺时,耶稣竟然在船里睡着了。天主的缄默常常让我们感到困惑。我们不禁要问,为何当我们处在风暴中的时候,天主竟然什么也没做。更令人困扰的是,天主经常允许风暴打击我们。我认为大家会这么想是因为我们相信天主有责任带领我们走出困境。然而我们时常忘记了,作为基督徒,并不代表我们的生活是一帆风顺的,生活中有烦恼是预料中的事。还有,作为基督徒也意味着我们要跟随基督,就算是走向十字苦路,我们也得继续前进。

即使我们接受了生活中偶尔出现危机是难免的事实,但仍让我们感到不解的是天主的缄默。经验告诉我们,天主时常不回应我们,也不会立刻俯允我们的祈求。这是否表示天主是冷漠的,难道祂是漠不关心我们的天主?然而,圣经中的天主却不是这种形象的。圣经中,天主是一个满怀慈爱、持续干预、经常赐予悔改机会、改变我们的道路,并在最后牺牲祂的爱子以救赎我们的天主。

在读经一中,我们听到约伯的遭遇,天主对他的痛苦保持缄默。约伯失去了家人、财富、健康和心灵的平安,甚至连对天主的信赖也差点儿被击溃了。来安慰的人指责他患病是因为犯了罪 , 这些话只增添了约伯的痛苦。在痛苦和磨难中,约伯向天主哀求,要天主给他一个答案。然而,在约伯传第38章之前的记载中,他的哀求只换来天主死寂的缄默。最后在第38章时,天主才打破缄默,终于开口发言了。

为何天主要等候这么长才垂允我们的呼求?当我们饱受痛苦煎熬时。天主的缄默使我们得到一个领悟——这个领悟带领我们回到信德的原点,这正是今天读经的核心——信德。信德是要我们对隐蔽的未见之事,或希望的事怀有信心;若事实揭开了,看见了真相才相信,就不称为信德了。正如在希伯来人书中所说的 : “信德是所希望之事的担保,是未见之事的确证” (11:1) 。当我们在患难中,应该如何做抉择呢?我们选择继续相信天主吗?这或许会使我们的灵修跨前一步;还是选择拒绝天主 ,并允许痛苦和埋怨导致我们放弃信德和希望?

天主的缄默不应被诠释为祂对我们的冷漠和拒绝。其实,缄默本身就是答案。天主在祂的无限智慧中,以言语及缄默向我们彰显祂自己。两者都能符合祂的旨意。缄默和天主的自我启示都能引导我们有所体悟,借着这样的方式,我们与天主的关系拉近了;也加深了对祂的认识。在祂的缄默中,我们才发现原来真正的喜乐不是因为没有痛苦,而是因为有天主的临在。当我们接受了祂的缄默,我们确认,在我们的生命中,天主并不会完全揭开所有的答案。我们永远无法完全理解天主,也未能完全明白祂的旨意。

我们下一阶段旅程的所需,祂已为我们安排了,甚至还允许我们渴望更多。因着这样的奥秘、因着这样的渴望,我们学习了一个道理,就如约伯和风暴中的门徒们一样,天主是可信靠的,祂对我们不离不弃。他掌控一切,这已让我们在未来的生命旅程中充满希望。