Burn the Chaff with Unquenchable Fire 用不滅的火焚燒糠秕

用不滅的火焚燒糠秕

在這福音片段，我們找到兩處與「火」有關的文字，並且，是與「祂要」連在一起的。它們分別是：「祂要以聖神和火洗你們。」（路3:16）與及「祂要揚淨自己的禾場，把麥粒收在倉内；至於糠秕，卻要用不滅的火焚燒」（3:17）。

從上文下理得知，兩處的「祂」是指猶太人等待了很久的默西亞，即我們的主耶穌基督（3:15-16），祂要為世人做兩件事。第一個章節比較容易明白，是指耶穌基督升天後，聖神在五旬節，以火舌的形象降臨在120個門徒頭上（宗2:3），教會於是誕生了。祂要派遣聖神，建立教會，藉教會履行祂與世人同在的承諾（瑪28:20）。這是第一個「祂要」。第二個讀來有點奇怪，糠秕並非甚麼堅硬頑固之物，普通一把火，足以把它燒毀，何需「不滅的火」呢？看來必定另有所指。

當我們聽到「不滅的火」，很容易會聯想到地獄，因為福音另一處說：「你一隻眼進入天主的國，比有兩隻眼被投入地獄裡更好，那裡的蟲子不死，火也不滅。」（谷9:47-48）在末日，善人與惡人的肉身一同復活，而復活後的肉身是永不磨損的。善人擁有永不磨損的肉身，在天堂享受永恆的福樂；而惡人永不磨損的肉身，將會與天主隔絕，在地獄受「不滅的火」懲罰，不對嗎？對的，以【瑪竇福音】的背景（瑪3:9-12），是可以這樣理解的；可是，上述這種猶太教「賞善罰惡」的思維，與強調聖神和慈悲的【路加福音】有點格格不入。或許，是指天主以不滅的火，淨煉罪人在世時沒有能力清除，與天主隔絕的障礙。以今天的認知，不竟「糠秕」並非絕對無用或有害之物，它與麥粒之間的對比，並不足以象徵「惡人」與「義人」之間的命運，能勉勵讀者悔改就夠了。
主啊！請以祢現在就以不滅的火，焚燒我們心中的糠秕，讓我們更能愛祢和愛有需要幫助的兄弟姊妹。亞孟。
圖片鳴謝：thefriendlyheretic.wordpress.com
論盡神學

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Burn the Chaff with Unquenchable Fire

We find 2 pieces of text in today’s gospel related with “fire”. They appear together with “He will”. They are: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Luke 3:16) and “… to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”(3:17)

From the context, the “He” is the Messiah whom the Jews had been anticipating. He is our Lord Jesus Christ (3:15-16). He’s going to do two things. The first piece of text is easier to understand. It refers to the Pentecost after the Ascension of Jesus Christ. The Church was born when the Holy Spirit would come down upon the 120 disciples in the form of tongues of fire (Acts 2:3). Jesus Christ sent the Holy Spirit to establish the Church to honour His pledge of being with us always until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). This is the first “He will”. The second one sounds a bit strange. Chaff is not hard nor strong. An ordinary fire would destroy it. Why does the Lord need “an unquenchable fire”? It must be symbolizing something else.

When we read “an unquenchable fire”, we will easily think of hell because it is written in another gospel, “Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:47-48). On Judgment Day, the bodies of both the righteous and the wicked shall come back to life. The resurrected bodies will be imperishable. With an imperishable body, the righteous shall enjoy eternal blisss while the wicked shall be cut off from God and suffer the punishment of “unquenchable fire” in hell, shall they not? It is correct and understandable in the context of the gospel according to Matthew (Matthew 3:9-12). However, this Jewish concept of “awarding the good and punishing the bad” is somehow in contradiction with the Lucan emphasis of the Holy Spirit and mercy. Perhaps there is a possibility that God uses an unquenchable fire to purge the obstacles which cut sinners off from God and which sinners were unable to remove during their life times. As of our knowledge today, “chaff” is not absolutely useless and harmful. Their contrast with wheat is inadequate in symbolizing the different fates of the wicked and the righteous. It has done its job if it is adequate to motivate the readers.
Lord! Please burn away the chaff in our hearts with Your unquenchable fire now. Let us love You and our needy brethren more fervently. Amen.