原文|Bishop Barron
翻译|Carrie

朋友们，今天的福音讲述了一个家主出去为自己的葡萄园雇工人，清晨雇了一批，随后在一天中不同的时间各雇了几批工人。然后他给每个工人同样的工资。为什么那批只工作了一个小时的工人跟整天在热辣辣的太阳下苦干的工人领取一样的工资？这个家主真的是不公平吗？

 

也许直觉告诉他最后雇来的那批人在受雇之前整天闲着是多么的难受。也许他知道那批人更贫苦、更无助、更缺乏才华。或许他知道那批人需要的是更多的鼓励。

 

对于这个神秘的故事，还有另一个看法：我们作为罪人，在理解天主与我们的关系时，是很容易以回报为中心的。投桃报李。我这样做了，你就应该那样做。但这是很幼稚的。

 

我们受到邀请到主的葡萄园工作，参与主的救世工程，这已经是一种超乎想象的最高荣幸。我们为什么还要计较报酬呢？而且不计报酬的人是多么自在啊！我不再浪费生命去斤斤计较、暗中监视、忧心忡忡和与人比较。我可以真正活着。

 

Friends, our Gospel today is the story of a landowner goes out to hire workers for his field, hiring some the first thing in the morning and then others at different times during the day. Then he pays each the same wage. Why should those who have worked only an hour be paid the same as those who have slaved in the hot sun all day? Is the landowner really being unfair?

 

Perhaps he intuited just how miserable a day those hired last had spent. Perhaps he knew that they were poorer, more desperate, less gifted. Maybe he knew what they needed was a bit more encouragement.

 

Here's a second perspective on this mysterious story. We sinners are very susceptible to a reward-centered understanding of our relationship to God. Tit for tat. I do this; then you better do that. But this is very juvenile.

 

We've been invited to work in the vineyard of the Lord. That is the greatest privilege imaginable, to participate in the Lord's work of saving the world. Why are we fussing about rewards? And how liberating this is! I don't have to spend my life fussing and spying and worrying and comparing. I can live.

 

2017-8-22

朋友们，我们今天庆祝玛利亚的母后身份。玛利亚，玛利亚母后，确实是神圣存在的载体、最出类拔萃的约柜。当她去看望表姐依撒伯尔，还是胎儿的洗者若翰在母亲腹中欢喜踊跃，就像达味王在约柜前跳跃舞蹈一样。

 

就像所有以色列的最高统治者一样，母后是战士。以色列经常带着约柜上战场。最有名的是，司祭们抬着约柜围绕耶里哥城游行，城墙随之倒塌。

 

玛利亚母后身份纪念日没有多愁善感的情调。在《圣经》中每当人们提到君王或母后，他们说的是战士。我们要回答的问题是：我们要帮的是谁？受过耶稣会精神传统训练的人都了解“两旗默想”，该默想促使我们作出简单的抉择：我们要为哪一支旗帜而战？

 

当然，我们战斗时用的并非凡间那些不堪一击的武器，而是用圣神的武器，与天主并肩作战。因此，我们不仅要承认和纪念玛利亚的母后身份，而且还要加入她的队伍。

 

Friends, today we celebrate the Queenship of Mary. Mary, Queen Mary, was the definitive bearer of the divine presence, the Ark of the Covenant par excellence. When she visited her cousin Elizabeth, the infant John the Baptist leapt in his mother's womb, doing his own version of David's dance before the Ark.

 

The Queen Mother—like all of the monarchs of Israel—is a fighter. Israel frequently brought the Ark into battle with them. Most famously, the priests parade around the city of Jericho bearing the Ark, just before the walls came tumbling down.

 

The Queenship of Mary is not a sentimental feast. Whenever biblical people spoke of kings or queens, they were speaking of warriors. The question for us is, which side are we on? Those trained in the Jesuit spiritual tradition know of the "two standards" meditation, which compels us to make the simple choice: in which army do you serve?

 

We fight, of course, not with the puny weapons of the world, but with the weapons of the Spirit, by God we fight. So don't just honor and acknowledge the Queenship of Mary; get in her army.

 

2017-8-21

朋友们，今天的福音说的是阔少年人的故事。阔少年深深渴望得以永生，热切追求精神上的至善。他深知自己的渴求，并知道如何得偿所愿。耶稣就是他想要的至善，祂是道成肉身的天主。

 

若要活在与天主的友谊之中，你就必须放弃某些东西。与天主为朋意味着活在爱里，所以我们必须摆脱一切过分侵扰爱的东西。

 

耶稣充满爱意地看着他说，“你还必须做一件事。去，变卖你所有的，施舍给穷人，你必有宝藏在天上；然后来跟随我。”天主完完全全就是爱，因而在最丰富的意义上，与天主为友的人生即是彻底、忘我地去爱的人生。

 

然而说到这个份上，少年人悲剧性地退缩了。最高意义的精神生活在于把自己的人生奉献出去，因此，丰厚的家产对他来说是个难题。

 

Friends, today's Gospel is the story of the rich young man. The rich young man has a deep desire to share in everlasting life. He is hungry for the infinite good of the spirit. He knows what he wants, and he knows where to find it. Jesus is the infinite Good that the soul wants. He is God's own self made flesh.

 

If you want to live in friendship with God, there are certain things that you must cut out of your life. Friendship with God means a life of love; therefore, those things that egregiously violate love have to be eliminated.

 

Jesus looks at him with love and says, "There is one thing more you must do. Go and sell what you have and give it to the poor; you will have treasure in heaven. After that come follow me." God is nothing but love, straight through, and therefore the life of friendship with him, in the richest sense, is a life of total love, self-forgetting love.

 

But at this point, the young man tragically balks. The spiritual life, at the highest pitch, is about giving your life away, and this is why his many possessions are a problem.