(瑪11:11-15)
受過原罪的污染,縱使是領了洗的人,也難免受到殘留在人性中的一些劣根性所影響。人性中的貪婪、懶惰、嫉妒等雖然被洗禮的聖寵所壓倒,但機會出現時,總要冒出水面,來捣亂一番。
資訊科技大行其道,對信仰有幫助,亦有破壞。福傳的幅度和速度大了,可以在很短的時間之內把訊息傳達到很大數目的人;可惜,並不是一種面對面的接觸。每天收到很多朋友傳來,似是而非的電郵及短訊,看也未看過一遍便按掣送到通訊錄內的另一批朋友。似是而非,是因為幾段好像很有哲理,但細想下便會發現是違反基督宗教信仰的文字,合拼在教宗或者德蘭修女的相片下。經過了名人的包裝,應該掉入垃圾桶的連鎖信,便縱橫四海了。信仰就是這樣廉價的嗎?
耶穌說:「天國是以猛力去奪取的。」教會之有今天,是殉道者們拋頭顱,灑熱血為我們保存信仰;主教神學家們為我們駁斥異端,保持教會共融;聖人們守齋祈禱,打苦鞭,為我們開拓靈修蹊徑。至於我們,我們被懶惰所俘虜!平日懶讀聖經,收到短訊懶得查明底蘊便送出去;唸玫瑰經但懶祈禱;主日懶起床,頂多做CEO教友;即便做到主日教友,但懶為教會及社會服務……這一切都是因為沒有時間!這樣,我們可以「攫取了天國」嗎?
主耶穌,求祢賜我足夠的聖寵,能不斷地克服自己的懶惰。亞孟。
THE SIN OF SLOTH
Matthew 11:11-15
Contaminated by the Original Sin, even baptized people are not immune from the influences of evil inclinations. Greed, sloth and jealousy etc. were overcome by the grace of baptism but when opportunities arise, they would emerge and wreak havoc with our life.
Information technology is very popular today. It benefits and at the same time harms our faith. The extent and speed of evangelization are increased. Our messages can reach many people within a very short time. But unfortunately, this is not a face-to-face encounter. Everyday, we receive many misleading short messages and emails from our friends. They are forwarded to another group of friends without being read even once. They are misleading because people piece together superficially high sounding passages from questionable sources, sometimes found to be anti-Christian on a second reading. They put them together with photos of beloved popes or Mother Teresa. After such packaging, chain letters which should have ended up in the trash bin travelled around the world. Does faith come so cheaply?
Jesus said, "Men have to take the Kingdom of Heaven by force." The Church we have today came from martyrs who generously shed their blood to keep our beliefs, bishops and theologians who refuted heresies to preserve our communion and saints who broke new paths in spirituality with fasting and mortification of the flesh etc. What about us? We are prisoners of sloth. We are lazy to read the Bible everyday, lazy to check the validity of short messages. We say the Rosary but do not pray. We are too tired to get up on Sunday mornings and glad to be at most a CEO Catholic. Even when we are practising Catholics, we are lazy to offer our service to the Church or the society ... It is all because of a lack of time! Then, can we seize the Kingdom of Heaven by force?
Lord Jesus, give me sufficient grace so that I may over sloth continually. Amen.
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