BishopBarron|喜悦的缺失&重要的时机(2019.01.20/01.13)

2019-01-21 22:01     阅读量:5175
Bishop Barron
翻译|Carrie
2019-1-20
朋友们,在今天的福音中,我们读到加纳婚宴。若望说耶稣的母亲第一个说话:“他们没有酒了。” 表面上,她确实在说宴会无酒这个社交上的不幸,并请耶稣帮个忙。
 
但深入地看,在《圣经》里,酒象征着神圣生活的活力和陶醉。当我们心中有着天主,我们就受到激励,因而喜悦、容光焕发。因此,当玛利亚说:“他们没有酒了”,她说的是以色列全民族,甚至全人类都失去了来自与天主联合的活力和喜悦。
 
正因为如此,耶稣称玛利亚为“女人”。我们很容易把祂的说话误解为粗暴无礼和不敬,但祂是以厄娃(众生之母)的头衔来称呼玛利亚。在此,玛利亚是受苦众生的代表,向天主抱怨生之喜悦的缺失。
 
Friends, in today’s Gospel we read about the wedding at Cana. Jesus’ mother is the first to speak, as John tells the story: “They have no wine.” On the surface level, she is indeed commenting on a social disaster, running out of wine at a party, and she is asking Jesus to do something to make things better.
 
But let’s go deeper. Wine, in the Scriptures, is a symbol of the exuberance and intoxication of the divine life. When God is in us, we are lifted up, rendered joyful, transfigured. Therefore, when Mary says, “They have no more wine,” she is speaking of all of Israel and indeed all of the human race. They have run out of the exuberance and joyfulness that comes from union with God.
 
And this is precisely why Jesus calls her “woman.” We can be easily misled into thinking that he was being curt or disrespectful. But he was addressing her with the title of Eve, the mother of all the living. Mary is the representative here of suffering humanity, complaining to God that the joy of life has run out.
 
2019-1-13
朋友们,主受洗节是我们思考圣洗圣事之重要性的好时机。天主教传统中对圣洗圣事的最早描述之一是:“vitae spiritualis ianua”,意思是:灵修生活之门。
 
完全理解了这个意思也就明白了基督教精神的关键所在,因为基督教精神基本上并不是“做个好人”或“做些好事”。说实在,任何人——异教徒、伊斯兰教徒、犹太人、无宗教信仰者——都可以做好人、做好事。
 
成为基督徒的意思是我们把自己嫁接到基督身上,从而被引入天主内在生活的状态之中。我们不仅仅要跟随和模仿耶稣,还要成为祂的奥体的一部份。
 
你知道为什么我们“因父、及子、及圣神之名”受洗是这么重要吗?因为圣洗圣事把我们引入圣父和圣子的关系之中——也就是圣神之中。因此,圣洗圣事完全是恩典——我们通过天主爱的力量融入到天主的生活之中。
 
Friends, this great feast of the Baptism of the Lord is a good time to reflect on the significance of the sacrament of baptism. One of the earliest descriptions of baptism in our tradition is vitae spiritualis ianua, which means “the door to the spiritual life.”
 
To grasp the full meaning of this is to understand something decisive about Christianity. For Christianity is not primarily about “becoming a good person” or “doing the right thing.” Let’s face it, anyone—pagan, Muslim, Jew, nonbeliever—can be any of those things.
 
To be a Christian is to be grafted on to Christ and hence drawn into the very dynamics of the inner life of God. We don’t speak simply of following or imitating Jesus. We speak of becoming a member of his Mystical Body.
 
Do you see why it is so important that we are baptized “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”? For baptism draws us into the relationship between the Father and the Son—which is to say, in the Holy Spirit. Baptism, therefore, is all about grace—our incorporation, through the power of God’s love, into God’s own life.

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