Friday, November 27, 2015

抬起你们的头,因为你们的救援近了



丙年将临期第一主日

今天教会开始新的礼仪年。在许多的文化及传统中,我们常发现所举行的新年庆典多为纪念并感谢上天整年来的眷顾,但最重要的还是要为来年祈福。我们基督徒庆祝礼仪年的方式却有稍微的不同。我们不回顾过去,也不展望未来,而是把焦点放在末日——世界末日。这看来非常不可思议,尤其是我们都认为末日是可怕的。

今天福音的第一个部分就呈现了一幅世界末日的恐怖画面――“在日月星辰上将有异兆出现;在地上,万国要因海洋波涛的怒号而惊惶失措。众人要因恐惧,等待即将临于天下的事而昏绝,因为诸天的万象将要动摇。”自然灾害如地震、海啸、台风和水灾等等,往往给我们带来恐惧和焦虑。在另一方面,科学却告诉我们这些自然灾害是地球的演变而造成的,它是生命的迹象,而不是死亡的象征。那些没有这些自然灾害的星球,那里就没有地震、没有风暴、没有火山,也没有生命。没有东西能在这样的星球上生存,因为这些星球都是死的。

因此,耶稣常引用这些天灾来描述世界末日的情况,以便向我们显示新的事物即将诞生。这一切就好像是妇女分娩前的阵痛。它是生命的迹象,而不是死亡的象征。如果我们以这样的观点来看待世界末日,那今天的庆典以及这整个将临期将成为希望的庆典,而不是充满恐惧的了。

我们不应该问的问题是:“这一切事情什么时候会发生呢?其实,什么时候和怎样发生都不重要。我们该问的问题是:在等待这末日到来的时期,我们该做什么呢?今天的读经有很多关于这方面的教导。

 首先,就算有许多的困惑,事情多么不顺意,我们也不该气馁。因为耶稣告诉我们说:“这些事开始发生时,你们应当挺起身来,抬起你们的头,因为你们的救援近了。”我们不该忧虑,因为耶稣要来了,这是肯定的,祂是我们的救主。今天,我们面对许多问题,不管是家庭或经济上都有问题,许多人想要放弃。但耶稣提醒我们:“不要丧志,应当挺起身来,抬起你们的头,因为你们的救援近了。”

第二,当面对障碍及世界上的邪恶时,我们常受到诱惑要逃避、找借口或假造解决办法。有些人因此转而酗酒、有的纵欲,都是为了得到一些满足。耶稣提醒我们说:“你们应当谨慎,免得你们的心为宴饮沉醉,及人生的挂虑所累时,那意想不到的日子有如罗网临到你们身上。”请记住,没有人能逃过审判。每一个人都必须为自己的行为负责。耶稣保证“那日子降临到全地面的一切君民身上。”
  
第三,我们应当时时醒悟祈祷。这并不是指我们必须二十四小时都躲在圣堂里。反之,真正的祈祷使我们更接近天主及他人。借着祈祷,天主使我们和祂及其他人亲近。借着祈祷,上主将加深我们的爱德并使我们彼此相爱及爱天下的人,正如圣保禄宗徒在读经二中所写的那样。“醒悟”指的是我们应该严肃看待自己的灵修成长。如果我们的信德依然停留在小学阶段,那么当我们要面见天主的时刻,还是没有准备好的。圣保禄宗徒劝勉我们每一个人都要继续在灵修生活中成长。

我们刚见证了慕道者的收录礼,教会团体欢迎这些有意继续在慕道班里探讨、认识耶稣及教会的朋友们。亲爱的慕道者,我也以圣保禄宗徒的话勉励你们:亲爱的弟兄姐妹们,“我们在主耶稣内请求和劝勉你们:你们既由我们学会了应怎样行事,为中悦天主,你们就怎样行事,还要更向前迈进。”为在场的教友们,我也要促请你们借着祈祷鼓励慕道者,并陪伴他们一同走这信仰的旅程。今天不仅是神父欢迎他们,我们全体都在欢迎他们,让我们不要使他们失望,也不让天主失望。

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Mercy and Justice



First Sunday of Advent Year C

As we begin the new Church year, many would be expecting that we would be greeted by positive signs of better prospects for this coming year in today’s liturgy. But instead we are treated to this unnerving discussion of the End. Don’t we have enough things to worry about than to think about the End Times? It seems ironic that the topic of endings should dominate our liturgical beginnings. But this is what the Church wishes to remind us at the very beginning of this new Church year. There will be an End! This much is true: There is an End; just as there was a Beginning. For many, the end seems to be a frightening prospect, the end of joy, the end of a relationship, the end of a lucky streak, the end of life. But for Christians, Advent provides us with a different outlook - the hopeful promise that there will be an end to our sufferings, our woes, our troubles, our anxieties, and an end to Evil.

As much as we want to skip today’s reading with its seemingly foreboding and troubling message and go straight to Christmas, the Church compels us to stay our need for instant gratification and instead invites us to meditate on the End Times. You see, what we believe about the end point for the world affects how we live now. The end provides us with necessary understanding of our present sufferings. Because Jesus promises that after the seemingly catastrophic and never-ending experience of turmoil and troubles comes the glorious description of what truly lies at the end, “when these things begin to take place, hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand.” This is what Advent helps us to see. Advent affirms the truth about God’s justice and presence in spite of the apparent absence of justice and divine presence in the world, a presence often called into question by the presence of suffering and evil. 

For those who have been struggling to find an answer to the problem of evil, Advent’s two-fold emphasis on the Lord’s First and Second Coming entails Christ as the answer. Whether in the first century or during our own, the existence of evil alongside all that is good undermines faithful people. This is the perennial paradox of a good God and a hurting world that provides ammunition to unbelievers and acts as a weak spot to those of us still struggling to hold on to our beliefs. The future coming of the Messiah was long thought to be the answer to the problem of evil. Yet, even after Christ’s ascension, the first Christian believers continued to adhere to the Jewish position that the Messiah was the answer to the world’s suffering. They looked to His second coming as the ultimate arrival of justice on the earth.

Therefore, Advent provides us with not only a proper understanding of the mission of Jesus Christ but also his role with regards to evil. Jesus is indeed God’s ultimate justice, a justice that has already been made manifest in his First Coming but will be fully realised in his Second. The two arrivals of Christ to earth are meant to deliver all creation from sin, death and decay. Justice has come to earth and, when Christ returns in glory, perfect justice will be inaugurated. Advent reminds us that we are living in the in-between time. Therefore the season looks back to Bethlehem and forward to the future of a new heaven and a renewed earth.

Here in Advent, we will find the answers to the English philosopher, Hume's, supposedly airtight logic: “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? If it is so, then he is impotent. He is powerless!” But Christians will answer, “No! He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.” Hume continues with the next lining of argument, “Is he able, but not willing? Then he must be evil.” Our response would be, “On the contrary, God is merciful towards the wicked, and willing that all come to repentance.” Lastly, “if God is both able and willing? Where does Evil come from?” Here, the answer lies in the event of the death and resurrection of Christ, the inauguration of the End Times. Yes, we cannot dismiss the fact that evil is everywhere, but then nowhere more than on the cross, where God himself became its victim. He, more than anyone, bore the evil of his own justice and mercy. Yet it was on Calvary that evil was vanquished. The victory has been won, it is assured but we would have to wait for the End Times when Christ will make a spectacle of all his defeated enemies.

So, when will this happen? In Protestant circles, there is frequent talk about millennialism. Will Christ’s presence on earth be prior to the dawn of that era (premillennialism) or will the millennium begin before Christ’s second coming (postmillennialism)? Jesus’ apparent delayed coming was often explained as a human error, a miscalculation of the calendar. Catholic theology, on the other hand, adhere to amillennialism or a symbolic millennium which is the period of the Church, lasting from the time of Christ until His return at the end of time. In other words, the End Times is upon us. It began with Christ first coming at Christmas and will come to its climax when He comes a Second time. The End Times is both Now and NOT YET.

This tension between the NOW of God’s justice and the NOT YET of our deliverance helps us to understand God’s mercy in this coming Jubilee Year. Mercy can only make sense in the light of justice. Most of us would like to be recipients of God’s mercy. Mercy for us often means justice meted out to others, to the wicked. The trouble with God's mercy is that it often goes out to the wrong people. Judgment is suspended for precisely the oppressors who deserve it immediately. Even the bloodthirsty God of Revelation is not Dirty Harry, daring sinners to make his day, but the Lamb who was slain for the ransom of many. So God mercifully withholds punishment until every chance at repentance and forgiveness has passed. And this causes frustration, suffering, and even death for innocent victims who must wait. To the martyrs who cry, “Lord, Lord, how long?” God answers: “A little longer! Just a little longer but NOT YET!”

Advent is our own month long probation on the lesson of mercy, delivered by people who should not have to endure it, to people who do not deserve to receive it. It is a time for the Church to wake up, sober up, and do its job of going to the ends of the earth, even to its enemies, and letting the Holy Spirit save them through it. And God's mercy is such that apparently even two thousand years' worth of it are not enough to exhaust it. The result of God's extraordinary mercy in withholding judgment is, of course, the very thing that calls into question his existence and his mercy, and that’s the irony of it. Such mercy seems harsh, because it means justice delayed, which often feels like justice denied. But the truth is that Justice is assured; Christ will come again with Justice. In the meantime, our proper attitude as the readings today suggest would be to repent; watch and pray; submit to God and to one another; go and make disciples; bear wrongs patiently; suffer in Christ; conquer by persevering. So be patient, persevere, endure whatever comes your way. “A little longer! Just a little longer but NOT YET!”

Saturday, November 21, 2015

不同类形的君王



基督普世君王节

在一项课程结束后,我们通常会得到一份证书证明我们已完成这项课程。这份证书有时也包括我们的表现记录。举个例子,在学校的学业结束后,我们获得一份证书显示我们考试的成绩。今天是教会礼仪年的最后一天。也许我们将期待某一种的证书来证明我们曾按照教会所教导而生活。如果我们表现得不好,如果我们感觉我们并不是好教徒,我们也许对这份证书有点难为情。

很抱歉我得使你们失望因为天主的价值观不同于世俗的价值观。耶稣在今天的福音中提醒我们这一点。在回答比拉多有关他是否是犹太人的君王的问题时,耶稣回答说:“我的国不属于这个世界。”而耶稣的确是君王,虽不同类形。他答说:“你说的是,我是君王。我为此而生,我也为此而来到世界上,为给真理作证:凡属于真理的,必听从我的声音。”

假设说,如果我们要从耶稣那里取得证书,对耶稣和天主来说什么是重要的呢?证书并不将是我们成功的记录――我们所做的这,或那,有多好。主要的并不是成就而是忠信――我们对主忠信吗?我们有忠于耶稣要我们成为他的门徒的召唤吗?我们有忠于耶稣所教导的一切吗?

第二,证书并不关注我们的身份与地位。权势与地位在天主的国里是不能立足的。主要的只是事奉。耶稣是君王但不是专横跋扈的君王。他是仆役君王。我们有为我们的弟兄姐妹尤其是那些弱小贫穷的弟兄姐妹效劳吗?我们有为他们付出我们的时间和帮助并不指望任何的酬报吗?

第三,证书也不记录我们祈祷,参与弥撒或培训课程的次数。这些固然重要;但更重要的是我们生命应有所转变。在我们回顾这整年来,我们是否有所改变呢?我们是否变得更积极呢?我们是否能够克服某方面在这之前曾挣扎的罪过呢?

今天,在我们庆祝基督普世君王节的当儿,让我们以读经二默示录中的句子回应:“忠实的见证,死者中的前生者,和地上万王的元首耶稣基督,愿光荣与全能归于那爱我们,并以自己的血解救我们脱离我们的罪过,使我们成为国度,成为侍奉他的天主和司祭的那位,直到万世万代。”让我们允许基督做我们生命的君王和主好成为他的见证人。