【天主經系列（四）】
望洋興嘆（路9:22-25）
耶穌這段說話（路9:22），是在伯多祿明認祂是「受傅者」（9:20）之後，顯聖容之前（9:28-36）所說的，即是耶穌的「第一次預言自己受難和復活」。門徒們完全沒有心理準備，因為這段話的內容，與他們內心對「默西亞」的期望，實在有很大的落差。他們既聽不懂，又不明白；難怪後來路加感慨地說，「這些話他們一點也不懂，這話為他們是隱祕的；祂所說的事，他們也不明白」（18:34）！作為一位師傅，門徒不明白自己的教導，是意料中事。為了讓他們明白，惟有想辦法採用其他更淺易的表述方式。可惜，天主的思維與人類的思維，的確有天淵之別（依55:8-9），倘若沒有聖神的助祐，恐怕門徒祇得望洋興嘆罷了！關鍵在於為甚麼「願意救自己的性命，必要喪失性命…喪失自己的性命，必能救得性命」（路9:24）呢？世間哪有這樣矛盾的道理呢？且讓我講述一個大家熟悉的故事，希望能夠對大家明白耶穌的教訓，有點幫助。
不要小覷這「天主的智慧」（3:28b）是人之常情，是小聰明。當中的智慧在於一個「愛」字！保祿宗徒說得好：「我若把我所有的財產全施捨了，我若捨身投火被焚；但我若沒有愛，為我毫無益處」（格前13:3）。的確，沒有「愛天主、愛近人」的動機，施捨、殉道，不但對自己，對任何人都沒有益處！同樣道理，獻身跟隨耶穌基督卻始終培養不出愛主愛人的情懷，祇落得身敗名裂，帶給教會陋聞，真是可悲！
天父啊！求祢寬恕我們的罪過，如同我們寬恕別人一樣。亞孟！
生命恩泉
圖片鳴謝：Christianity.com
Admiration From Afar (Luke 9:22-25)
[The Lord’s Prayer Series IV]
Jesus said this (Luke 9:22) after Peter’s Confession (9:20) and before His Transfiguration (9:28-36). That was the First Prediction of the Passion. The disciples were totally unprepared for the shock because the message deviated too far from their anticipations of the Messiah. They were unable to catch the meaning and failed to understand. No wonder Luke later put this remark in the gospel, “But they understood nothing of this; the word remained hidden from them and they failed to comprehend what He said” (18:34). As a mentor, Jesus did not expect His disciples to understand His teachings completely. To help them comprehend, He has to come up with more easily understood articulations. Unfortunately, there is a huge gulf between God’s thoughts and men’s thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). Without the help of the Holy Spirit, I am afraid the disciples could only admire from a great distance! The key difficulty lies in why “whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life … will save it” (Luke 9:24)? How is it possible for such a paradox to exist at all? Let me tell you a familiar story which hopefully will shed light on our understanding of this paradox.
I trust all of you have heard of Solomon’s wise judgments! Two prostitutes lived in the same house and both gave birth to a son. One of the sons died while the mothers slept. Now, they fought for the living son, argued before Solomon that the dead child belonged to the other woman. It was difficult to know who the real mother was. So the king ordered, “Cut the living child in two, and give half to one woman and half to the other” (1 Kings 3:25)! The real mother loved the baby and gave up fighting in order to save its life while the other woman probably thought, “If I have not, you too will have not”. She agreed to cut the baby into halves (3:26)! Consequently, everybody was happy except for the stonehearted prostitute! “… all Israel …were in awe of him [Solomon], because they saw that the king had in him the wisdom of God for giving right judgment” (3:28)!
Do not dismiss this “wisdom of God” (3:28b) as common sense. God’s wisdom is “Love”. Paul says well, “If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3). Indeed, without the motivation to “love God and love neighbour”, almsgiving and martyrdom do nobody any good! In the same vein, for those who have responded God’s call generously to follow Jesus Christ and yet fail to develop a desire to love God and to love neighbour, it is a great pity to see them end up bringing scandals to the Church!
Heavenly Father! Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Amen!
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