有條件的信德 Conditional Faith

信德系列之一：有條件的信德（若4:43-54）

大部份基督徒宣認耶穌基督為主，並常把「主啊！主啊！」掛在嘴邊（瑪7:21）。但有多少人更具體地，並真心地相信耶穌基督是生命的主宰呢？「祂是我的主人，我服從祂。」非常好。「我會為祂赴湯蹈火。」那更好！但相信並宣認祂是生命的主宰，卻是另一個層次了。我已把自己完全交托到祂手中，不再堅持執著自己的性命，因為我相信祂操生殺之權。祂有權令人死，也有權令死人復活。這一點天主已藉先知撒慕爾的母親啟示了（撒上2:6）。

今天所讀的神蹟並不希奇，與對觀福音中，應外邦人請求為親屬治病的故事大同小異（瑪8:5-13；谷7:24-30；路7:1-10），都是與信德有關。但若望的故事暴露了一個信德的破綻：原來我們的信德是有條件的（若4:48）！試想想，倘若這王臣的兒子死了，他還會不會像瑪爾大一樣前去懇求耶穌呢？（11:22）從多默宗徒的故事，我得到一個悲觀的結論，原來很多人並不希罕成為有福之人，因為他們不見不信（20:29）！難怪耶穌慨歎說：「人子來臨時，能在世上找到信德嗎？」（路18:8）

除了這個有破綻的信德之外，更要命的是我們喜歡自己做天主，更試探天主和擺佈祂，要求祂做這做哪（瑪4:1-10；谷8:11；15:30）！今天的王臣懇求耶穌基督醫治自己的兒子，是親情，是父愛的表現；請耶穌在他兒子未死以前出手（若4:49），雖然是自然不過的事，但卻在不自覺中，指揮天主滿足自己的要求！難道天主不是心裡有數，早有安排嗎？默想到這裡，我感覺到瑪爾大的信德真大，因為她對天主的拯救，保持了一份開放的態度！
主啊！一切祢都知道，祢曉得我愛祢！亞孟。

圖片鳴謝：Wikipedia
生命恩泉

---

On Faith (I) : Conditional Faith

Most Christians confess Jesus Christ to be their Lord, saying "Lord, Lord" all the time (Matthew 7:21). But how many of them concretely and sincerely believe that Jesus Christ is the Lord of life? "He is my Lord, I obey Him." Good of you. "I will do whatever He tells me, even to hand my body over." Even better! But believing and confessing that He is the Author of life goes to another level. I entrust my life in His hand. I do not regard my life something to be grasped because "The Lord puts to death and gives life, casts down to Sheol and brings up again", said the mother of Samuel the Seer (1 Samuel 2:6).

The miracle today is not extraordinary. In the Synoptic gospels, there are similar stories of faith, healing miracles at the requests of Gentiles (Matthew 8:5-13, Mark 7:24-30, Luke 7:1-10). But John’s story exposes a flaw in our faith: Our faith is conditional (John 4:48)! Just think about it, had the son of the royal official died, would he have come to beg Jesus as Martha did (11:22)? From the story of Thomas the Apostle, I come to a pessimistic conclusion: people don't bother to be blessed because they won't believe without seeing (20:29)! No wonder Jesus lamented, "When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?" (Luke 18:8)

On top of this flawed faith, we love playing God, putting Him to test and commanding Him to do this and to do that (Matthew 4:1-10, Mark 8:11; 15:30)! Today, the royal official begged Jesus to heal his son. This is fatherly love. Asking Jesus to "come down before my child dies" is natural but imperceptibly, commanding God to meet our requests! Does God need you to tell Him what to do? Coming to this point of meditation, I admire the greatness of Martha's faith because she kept an open attitude towards God's salvation!
Lord, You know everything. You know that I love you. Amen.