2018-3-18

朋友们，今天的福音包含了对于基督宗旨的最优美又最可怕的总结之一：“我实实在在告诉你们：一粒麦子如果不落在地里死了，仍只是一粒；如果死了，才结出许多子粒来。”

 

人们把希望寄托在其身上的这一位却在谈论落在地上而死。而他接下来的话更加奇怪。“爱惜自己性命的，必要丧失性命；在现世憎恨自己性命的，必要保存性命入于永生。” 说什么？！

 

正当我们把你放在崇高的地位时，你却在谈论跌落地上；正当我们向你表示你已经功成名就时，你却在谈论憎恨现世的性命。

 

要理解这些话，我们就得回到落在地上的那粒麦子。没错，种子内含生命，但它只有献出自己的生命并且融入泥土里才能生长。种子必须裂开、崩溃。

 

耶稣的征兆在十字架上。祂通过死亡达到圣容显现。

 

Friends, our Gospel for today contains one of the most beautiful and terrible summations of the Christian message: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.”

 

And now this one upon whom the crowds had pinned their hopes is speaking of falling to the earth and dying. And then it gets stranger. “The man who loves his life loses it, while the man who hates his life in this world preserves it to life eternal.” Come again?!

 

Just when we are raising you up, you’re talking about falling down; just when we are showing you that your life has come to its fulfillment, you’re talking about hating this life.

 

To understand what all this means, we should go back to the grain of wheat that falls to the earth. A seed’s life is inside, yes, but it’s a life that grows by being given away and mixing with the soil around it. It has to crack open, to be destroyed.

 

Jesus’ sign is the sign of the cross. The Death that leads to Transfiguration.