What If Jairus Suffered Denial 如果雅依洛不能承受女兒的死亡

Thirteenth Ordinary Sunday, Year B
Theme: What If Jairus Suffered Denial 如果雅依洛不能承受女兒的死亡

I enjoy watching movies because they tell stories, which I may not be able to go through and experience in person. Indeed, watching movies is safe in the sense that you are only a bystander, an outsider. You have no share in the consequences of the events. One of the more memorable movies I have watched is a 1970 Japanese movie called “Dodes’ka-den” which tells the stories of people who live in their fantasy worlds. Dodes’ka-den is rather prophetic in the sense that nowadays many people are unable to bear the brunt of stresses living in the modern society. They construct a “safe house” in their heads and stay inside. The most remarkable of all is that some of them are able to interact with the real world outside and manage to survive and even prosper. Is this not Virtual Reality or Meta-verse all about? However, a lot of them have become dysfunctional and ended up seeking psychiatric treatments. How pitiful!

The gospel today is the familiar “sandwich” miracle in which Jesus healed a bleeding woman on His way to raise the daughter of Jairus, one of the synagogue officials (Mark 5:22). One verse stood out in particular today to catch my attention. It reads, “Your daughter is dead; why trouble the teacher any longer?” (5:35). We have been interpreting this verse in a traditional manner in which the daughter died while Jairus and Jesus were returning home. Somehow, I discover another possibility to interpret this verse today.

The twelve-year-old girl had died. Jairus was in shock and could not accept the reality. He was in the first stages of grieving: denial and even anger. Death causes great shock in people and the shock is inversely proportional to age. The younger a person dies, the greater the shock his death imparts on the loved ones. “No way. It is not real. It is impossible for my endearing little daughter to die” etc. Before they are prepared and ready to accept the reality, people usually deploy the defence mechanism of denial. This happens in scientific researches as well as day-to-day social interactions.

People also usually try to cover up their mistakes with anger. “It cannot be my fault. It must be you who made the mistake”. Feelings of injustice would well up as well. “She was so young and so … It is not fair for so adorable a girl to die so young” etc. Perhaps Jairus did not want to show the emotional tumults he was undergoing and affected the other family members. He left home to grieve and on his way, Jairus met Jesus, an enemy of the Pharisees as well as a famous miracle worker! Now Jairus found a bargaining option. “Lord God, King of the Universe, the True Judge. I will love this enemy of ours if You let my daughter live!” He acted immediately. “Seeing Him [Jesus], he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him” (5:22b-23a). You can imagine how desperate Jairus must have been that he fell at his enemy’s feet in humility! Jairus did not fall into depression because Jesus was merciful. Without hesitation, Jesus went off with him … Later people from Jairus’ house arrived and said, “Your daughter is dead; why trouble the teacher …” (5:35), meaning Jairus, wake up and be realistic! Take courage. Come home to face the reality. How could you leave the corpse of your daughter unattended? Go quickly to bury her before the sun set. Why waste your own time and trouble the teacher …

What is the merit of interpreting the story in this way? Before answering this question, let us contemplate one more verse that is crucial. “Be not afraid, only believe” (5:36b). Of what was Jairus afraid? That his comrade Pharisees would ban him because he colluded with the enemy of the Pharisees? This fear was genuine because the ban could cost Jairus financially and socially in the future. However, this could not be Jairus’ fear at that moment because this was exactly the bargain Jairus was prepared to pay (Deuteronomy 23:22; Judges 11:30-31, 35-36; Psalms 76:12). It was not the time to fear because if Jesus was successful, the price would be worth paying! But what if Jesus failed? Don’t be stupid. How could you beg Jesus to help you if you had no faith in Him in the first place? It was not the right time to ponder on such a probable outcome that Jesus failed!

Jesus was famous for exorcisms, healing illnesses and even calming the storm. But raising the dead would be His first attempt and there was no precedence. Now, Jairus could not brush away the possibility of Jesus’ failure. If Jesus succeeded, Jairus’ dream world would come true and he would be able to live happily ever after! If Jesus failed, Jairus had to return to the real world where his daughter was dead. This was exactly what Jairus tried to run away from in the first place because he did not have the courage to face such a cruel reality. This fear was genuine and appropriate for the moment. I would not blame Jairus for his fear because this was his first encounter with the Son of God. He might be familiar with the technicalities of the Law but he might, like Saul, the student of Rabbi Gamaliel, have no previous relationship with the Lord (Acts 9:5a)! Our sinfulness lies in the fact that we trust our technologies and ourselves more than we trust in God! In this light, we understand why Jesus told Jairus not to fear but to believe in Him (Mark 5:36b). Faith helps us sustain till we see something realized. Jairus needed faith to sustain himself till Jesus raised his daughter. “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence [ἔλεγχος] of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

Now the merit. In traditional interpretation, the bleeding woman and Jairus’ daughter were the major beneficiaries of Jesus’ miracles. Jairus’ role was only collateral and secondary. However, the interpretation proposed in this reflection restores Jairus’ position that he deserved because the gospels retain his name while the bleeding woman and the little girl remain anonymous! What is the significance of Jairus? A quick answer is that he is a portrait of most Christians. The little girl was dead. We only know that she was 12 years old. Her life does not inform our faith. The faith of the bleeding was strong and enabled her to unlock Jesus’ power. We may learn from her and even envy her. But we are unable to imitate her because our spiritual experiences are unique and different. It is not advisable to do what she did. Thus, she does not help us improve our relationship with the Lord.

Beloved brethren! Jairus was different because he was one of us: defensive to the point of being nearly dysfunctional, utilitarian and the most important of all, fragile in faith! Jairus prompts us to rely more on the steadfast love of the Lord for us. He is a more helpful comrade in our journey home. Amen. God bless!

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Picture Credit: groupbiblestudy.com

When Jesus Sleeps 當耶穌睡著時

Twelfth Ordinary Sunday, Year B
Theme: When Jesus Sleeps 當耶穌睡著時

Today, we read of Mark’s narrative of Jesus’ miracle of calming the storm. Mark’s gospel tells us of a Jesus Christ, the Son of God who is more powerful than Caesar who also claimed to be the son of god. Mark’s Son of God is a man of action. He works miracles without hesitation. However, before Mark 4, the miracles only show that Jesus is human because human beings are also able to perform exorcisms and to heal diseases. But calming the storm is a miracle of a higher level. In general, we take this miracle as a proof of the humanity and divinity of Jesus Christ who possesses two different natures in one person of the Son of God.

As a human being, Jesus was exhausted after a day’s work of preaching and healing. He needed to sleep to replenish His strength for another day’s work. Moreover, Christ is truly divine because as the disciples says, “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?” (Mark 4:41b） The disciples could only see the visible humanity of Jesus. They were not yet able to comprehend His divinity. The first reading supplies us with the proof text we need. I am sure most of you have heard of the story of Job. The author of the book of Job tried to make sense of why innocent people suffer for no obvious purpose. In answering this challenge from Job, God did not pass judgment on whether Job was sinful or not, thus proving that Job “deserved” the sufferings. Instead, God points out Job’s ignorance saying, “Who is this who darkens counsel with words of ignorance?” (Job 38:2）. Of course, we are unable to compare our intelligence to that of our Creator’s. Just as Isaiah says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways --- oracle of the LORD. For as heaven are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, my thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9）. Had God not bothered revealing Himself to us, we would not have been able to understand a little bit of His modus operandi. Back to Job. God started enumerating His acts of Creation saying, “Who shut within doors the sea … When I set limits for it and fastened the bar of its door, and said: Thus far shall you come but no farther, and here shall your proud waves stop” (Job 38:8a, 10-11）. Only God is able to perform such feats. Therefore, in the calming of the storm miracle, Jesus showed off His divinity by speaking to the raging sea, “Quiet! Be still!” and the wind ceased and there was great calm (Mark 4:39b）. Indeed, this calming the storm miracle together with the feeding of 5000 with five loaves and two fish are signs/miracles from heaven demanded by the Pharisees (8:11）. They prove the divinity of Jesus.

When I meditate on this miracle these days, I wonder why, among so many ways to show the humanity of Jesus such as His Nativity and eating with tax collectors etc., God chose “sleep”. I am sure that it is worth meditating.
There are two occasions in which the gospels speak of Jesus’ sleep, namely in the miracle of calming the storm which we read today. The second occasion is his burial in the tomb. In both cases, the disciples were in great fear. What was Jesus’ doing in both cases? Before I go any further, I need to justify why I treated Jesus’ death as a sleep. The gospel of John supports me with the story of Lazarus in which Jesus spoke of Lazarus’ death as a sleep. “‘Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him’ … But Jesus was talking about his death, while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep” (John 11:11b, 13）. In the gospel of Mark, Jesus also spoke of the death of Jairus’ daughter as a sleep (Mark 5:39）. Luke gives us another clue when he tells the story of the martyrdom of Stephen. Luke finishes with, “As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them’; and when he said this, he fell asleep” (Acts 7:59-60）. We see that both Jesus and Stephen speak of death as a sleep. It is a typical Christians belief that Christ has conquered death. Death is no longer a total annihilation but a crossing over a threshold to waiting for the final eternal life. We have to remember that speaking of death as a sleep waiting for resurrection does not guarantee that the time before death is NOT painful. No, it can be excruciatingly painful. Therefore, it is truly a blessing to die peacefully in sleep. Now that I have two witnesses, I am not wrong in treating Jesus’ death as a sleep!

Bear in mind that Jesus is the New Adam (Romans 5:19, 1 Corinthians 15:22）, let us look at the sleep of the original Adam. “So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, He took out one of his ribs and … built the rib … into a woman” (Genesis 2:21-22）. Just as a new form of life emerged from the original Adam, do we find a new creation from the sleep of Jesus, the New Adam? Yes, we do! Paul demonstrates a more mature understanding of Jesus Christ than the disciples in Mark 4. Because of his Damascus’ experience (Acts 9:3-6）, Paul was more capable of seeing the divinity of Jesus than the disciples early in their followings. Thus, in the second reading today, Paul claims, “Even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him so no longer” (2 Corinthians 5:16b）. Then he continues, “So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come” (5:17）. Paul insists that we should not understand the historical human Jesus only. We need to know the theological Christ as well. Let us explore how new creation comes about in Jesus’ sleep.

Let us start from the end, the second sleep!

Tradition tells us that the Lord descended into Hell to release all those ancient souls of the Old Covenant, namely Adam, Eve, Abel, Abraham and King David etc. who have been waiting for the foretold Messiah (Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 7:14, 11:1-9）. The Apostles’ Creed says so and a lot of icons depict such a scene. Although the Nicaean Creed does not include this article of faith, we have to remember that Catholic theology is rather defensive. If people start to challenge a certain article of faith, theologians would debate and deliberate it. In the end, the Church would either abandon it or enshrine it as a dogma. Take the case of the Christian Tradition of the breaking of bread (Acts 2:46） and some other practices (8:17; James 5:14）. The Nicaean Creed does not mention them because in 300 AD, no heretics challenged them. Five hundred years ago during the Reformation, the seven Sacraments have become a dogma because of volleys of challenges from the Protestants! Return to the article of faith that Jesus descended into Hell for three days. We can still hold on to it as long as the Church does not declare it wrong! Jesus descended into Hell to renew the Old Covenant and incorporate it into the New Covenant, bringing the Old to fruition!

Now, what about Jesus’ sleep on a storm-tossed boat? Did Jesus bring about a new Creation in His brief nap on the boat? I would speculate that in His brief nap, Jesus drew up the blueprint of the future Kingdom of God, the Church, His Spouse. We knew practically nothing how the LORD God fashioned Eve out of the rib of Adam. But in the case of the Church, we see the steps Jesus took to build her up. After raising the daughter of Jairus from dead, thus confirming once more His divinity and His identity as the Author of Life, Jesus sent the Twelve to evangelize. The evangelization was successful. The Twelve were able to gather 5000 people for Jesus to perform the five loaves and two fish miracle. Then Peter walked on the water to prove his love of Christ. Then, in Caesarea Philippi, Jesus made Peter the Rock of the Church, making the future Church catholic and apostolic etc. Unlike the making of Eve in which the time taken was brief, perfecting the Church (Ephesians 5:26-27） takes millennia. Making the process of Church building visible is advantageous for building up the faith of believers.

Like the boat tossed by storms and waves, the Church navigates perilously among the nations. She pleases nobody but God and thus becomes enemies to Communists as well as Capitalists. Without political alliance, the Church faces enemies on all sides. The miracle today tells us that our faith has always been weak. We are aware of the presence of the Lord. Yet, we doubt whether the LORD would keep His covenant with His new creation.
Beloved brethren! Let us pray to the LORD to strengthen our faith. Amen.
God bless!

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Picture Credit: mrjdobbs.wordpress.com, medium.com

Turn Illness Into Blessings

Turn Illness Into Blessings

By Deacon Alex Kwok

It seems that nobody can remain healthy and strong all the time. Almost all people fall sick for some time in their life due to either the environment or their life style. Whatever type of illness one catches, it is a suffering affecting him and his family members to a certain extent. If the illness is chronic, it will affect the person’s productivity. In a commercial and competitive society like Hong Kong, the illness will drain the person emotionally and financially and will waste away his self-image too. In short, any illness will inflict sufferings for some length of time on the sick person as well as the people around him, be they his family members, classmates or colleagues. Can illness be a blessing in disguise?

I am not able to speak for all and can only share my diabetes experience. Before it erupted more than three and a half decades ago, I used to be quite an energetic teacher with my students and colleagues. The school cheered a short sprinter in the final leg of teacher-student 4x100m relays. Students enjoyed the whimsical talks I delivered and engaged in challenges I post in my lessons … Those good old days receded when I lost more than 20 kg within two months one summer. I tired easily, drank a lot of water and answered the call of nature frequently. Looking back, my life style caused the illness. I used to walking more than 40 minutes from home to school. After marriage, I moved to Tuen Mun and drove more than 40 minutes to school instead. Around the same time, the Education Department pushed forth Information Technology and my school join the pilot scheme. I spent a lot of time in developing teaching materials for this novel curriculum and became more sedentary. Consequently, I depleted my insulin reserve and diabetes descended on me. It was not painful at all but the future would be grim: amputation of legs, blindness and kidney failure etc. awaited me! The very thoughts of those complications pushed me into depression and I became reticent. Had my wife not been cheering me up constantly in those days, I would have buried myself alive in the sepulchre of diabetes. She refused to become a widow so soon!

What blessings have I found in my diabetes?
First, my diabetes woke my children, my friends and colleagues up. Suddenly they discovered that diabetes was not an old-man disease but it could happen to anybody with an “unhealthy” life style. The next blessing is more significant. My mother belonged to the older generation and would be happy to give birth to many children. However, wars and revolutions in mainland China denied her of the pride of being a mother of many children. She gave birth to only two sons and they literally endeared her and “belonged” to her. My younger brother never got married while I married my first love. You can imagine the kind of tension between my wife and my mother when we told her that we planned to move to Tuen Mun after marriage. She was burning with fury inside her! She made different kinds of mindboggling requests in order to keep me connected … until my diabetes erupted. At last, my mother accepted that “a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body” (Genesis 2:24). The tension between my wife and my mother evaporated. I am grateful that God gave me diabetes.

Of course, life is not yet a bed of roses and the prince and princess do not live happily ever after. My wife quitted her job to take care of the children and me. She adjusted her cooking habits to take into consideration my dietary requirements. She studied herbal medicine and acupuncture, hoping to discover the proper cure of my diabetes etc. I am grateful.

Beloved brethren! In July, let us join our prayers with the Pope that the sick and their caretakers may become ever more a visible sign of compassion and hope for us all. Amen.
God bless!

The MO of God 天主的工作模式

Eleventh Ordinary Sunday, Year B
Theme: The MO of God 天主的工作模式

God is a mystery (Isaiah 40:12-14). If somebody claims that he understands God, he must be either a liar or God Himself. Luckily, we have a Bible from which we are able to glimpse of what God has done. Hence, we are able to draw some tentative hypotheses of what His will is. However, we have to be prepared to meet surprises.

For example, we know that God is righteous. Hence we expect Him to punish the wicked and reward the good. In reality, we see a lot of good people suffer for no obvious reasons while many wicked go unpunished and even become prosperous! How can a righteous God allow wicked people to flourish? We can only console ourselves by believing that God is merciful and that He is patiently waiting for the wicked to repent (Ezekiel 18:32). Some theologians even claim that God’s might is manifested not in earth-shaking miracles but in His forgiving our sins, not counting our trespasses against us (2 Corinthians 5:19)!

Nowadays, we are better equipped to handle the problem of why good people suffer. What Job was not able to understand, Jesus has made it clear. In Old Testament morality, a person suffered what he had done wrong. God punished him for his faults and wickedness. Therefore, when his friends came to console him, Job found that they were actually trying to explain away his sufferings with his sins. Nowadays, we see more clearly that people, in particular social outcasts and the poor, suffer from exploitations and prejudices not of their own faults. Moreover, Jesus has set us an example of submitting obediently to the will of the Father and suffering injustice quietly. In so doing, we have become Christ’s ambassadors of reconciliation (5:20)! We may even receive the glorious crown of martyrdom etc. Thus, if you complain, especially about the disappointing performance of the clergy, then you are not Christian enough!

Many Catholics in Hong Kong are disappointed because they feel that the clergy have done too little and too late in matters of social justice. They expect cardinals, bishops and priests in general to act as the conscience of the society and speak for the silent majority and for those who are unable to speak for themselves. Instead, they see those clergy issuing messages to whitewash the status quo! Eventually, those despicable church ministers will become the megaphone of the wealthy and the powerful! In short, they should do more for the marginalized in the local society!

When you complain about not having done enough and begin to lose faith in the ecclesial ministers, contemplating the action of leaving the Church, it shows that you do not know God enough all these years you have spent in the Church. The Church is probably not the right place for you to find God thus leaving the Church is probably an appropriate and prudent action. Why do I jump to this conclusion? It is because after spending so many years in the Church, you do not know the modus operandi of God! You do not know that God likes to do small and quiet things. I do not blame you for this failure because even Elijah the legendary great prophet who appeared with Moses in Jesus’ Transfiguration (Mark 9:4) knew no better. After inciting the Israelites to kill 450 Baal prophets on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:40), Elijah fled for his life and hid in a cave on Mount Horeb. God told Elijah to go out and meet Him. Elijah expected to see God in a strong and violent wind but the Lord was not in the wind; in an earthquake; in fire etc. but no. After the fire came a light silent sound and God was there (19:12)! As I have said earlier, God does not manifest His might in earth-shaking fanfares but in simple and uninteresting forgiveness. This is the MO of Yahweh.

To be fair, allow me to give another example so that there are two witnesses to prove the truth of my thesis. When Midian, Amalek and the Kedemites raised an army of 135,000 to bring the Israelites on their knees, Gideon was only able to raise 32,000 Israelites to resist. Instead, God selected only 300 (Judges 7:6) to defeat the united invaders “lest Israel vaunt itself against me and say, ‘My own power saved me’” (7:2)! This is the reasoning of Yahweh who would make use of a selected few and work through them to do big things in our eyes.

In the gospel passage today, we hear of two parables of the Kingdom of Heaven from Mark 4. Earlier in the chapter, Jesus told us the famous Parable of the Sower, teaching us about the different receptivity of the human hearts towards the good news. Some dismiss it outright. Some feel good hearing it but the gospel fails to take root in their hearts. They give up when persecutions come. Some know that the gospel is good and important but there are other worries competing for attention. The gospel message fails to bear fruits. Lastly, not only do they listen but they also put the gospel message into practice. Consequently, they bear fruit, winning people over to return to God. The Parable of the Sower is significant because it is the only parable Jesus explains.

We hear the next two parables of the Kingdom of God today. Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of God is a mystery. It grows not by human will and human efforts but grows in its own way, God’s way! “And the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear” (Mark 4:27b-28). Don’t worry. It develops and grows naturally and would not disrupt our expectation suddenly. Again we see God’s MO, “lest Israel vaunt itself against me”. Of course we participate in building up the Kingdom of God but we should not attribute its growth and successes to our efforts. Rather, we should be grateful because God has given us the opportunity to participate in His salvation project. Seeing the gradual development of the Kingdom of God as embodied by the Church is beneficial to our understanding of God’s will too! The parable of the Mustard Seed also echoes a similar sentiment. On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended and gave birth to the Church of 120 members. On the first day of her existence, 3000 more souls joined the Church. She started off truly as small as a mustard seed. After nearly two millennia, she still survives and her membership has reached nearly 1.4 billion, comparable to the population of the PRC! Her history is chequered but we are certain that God’s hand has been guiding her all along. Her end is nowhere in sight because the God she upholds and worships is eternal.

To be candid, all of us have a tendency to play God because we lack confidence. We need to do something to prove ourselves and our worth. Many people spend a lot of time and energy to do charitable work in front of the cameras. Are they doing it for the glory of God (Matthew 5:16) or for their personal vainglory (Mark 12:38-39)? Others lack confidence in the commoners and become “control freaks”, turning the government into a police state to nip rebellions in the bud. Like many modern parents who wrongly believe that a good head-start will guarantee successes in the future, some fill up the schedule of their children with all kinds of tutorials and courses so that their children would be able to defeat all potential rivals! Obviously all of them have put the wrong foot forward because between being and doing, they have bet on the wrong horse. It is a life-long inferiority complex that they are struggling with. In the parable of the Prodigal Son, the younger son also wrongly believed that by working as a servant, he would be able to obtain the forgiveness of the father (Luke 15:19). In fact, the father cares more about the restoration of the sonship of this lost son (15:22) than what he had done in the past and would do in the future! In other words, God cares more about our being than about our doing.

Beloved brethren! We were created in the image of God. Have faith in our Lord. He loves those who are humble in heart and invites us to learn from Him (Matthew 11:29). We have lost sight of God’s MO and wrongly believe that our efforts earn us salvation. We are wrong all the time. Let us stop to meditate the mercy of the Father and enter into His rest. Amen. God bless!

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“Evil” Rises From Within 「魔」由心生

Tenth Ordinary Sunday, Year B
Theme: “Evil” Rises From Within 「魔」由心生

I have to reason extremely carefully lest I would fall like our First Parents. Let me begin at the end, namely from the Proto-Gospel. “I will put enmity between thee [the Serpent] and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15 KJV）. The KJV translation is correct because the two “seed” words are singular. We call this verse the Proto-Gospel because this was the first time God revealed His salvation plan. Traditionally, we interpret the Serpent to be Satan/Devil and the woman to be the Blessed Virgin Mary. The BVM is not the Saviour. It is her seed, Jesus Christ, who bruises/strikes the head of the Serpent, meaning defeating the Devil. On the other hand, the Serpent would bruise/strike his heel, meaning Jesus Christ has to pay a heavy price, dying on the cross!

So far so good. Then we would start wondering who the seed of the Serpent would be! There are two probable candidates. The first group are spiritual beings similar to Satan such as fallen angels, demons and evil spirits etc. We can understand group intuitively because the Devil is a spiritual being and therefore its seed should be spiritual as well. Moreover, a single spirit may consist of many individuals such as the case of “Legion” (Mark 5:9） which consisted of 6000 unclean spirits! About the beings in the spiritual realm, we have to be humble to admit that we do not know enough! On the other hand, Jesus reveals another possibility. Once Jesus told the Jews the importance of knowing the truth. “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32 KJV）. However, they rejected the truth and wanted to kill Jesus. Thus Jesus continues, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (8:44）. Therefore, wicked human beings who oppose the truth can be the seed of the Serpent!

Let us take a step back and see how the First Parents answered God’s interrogation. “And He said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?” (Genesis 3:11） The question consists of two parts and Adam answered accordingly, but it seems that he failed to defend himself subtly enough. He was honest and did not deny eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Indeed, what else could he conjure up to explain why he knew himself naked! As for the question of who told him that he was naked, the scenario would likely be that the woman had eaten first and became conscious of her nudity first. Then she saw Adam naked and alerted him of his nudity. What about other talking animals? Well, they had always seen them naked and got used to their nudity. They would not be intelligent enough to tell the difference from the outside. This awareness must have come from internal experience.
Here comes the tricky part. Instead of answering factually who informed him of his nakedness, Adam put the blame on the woman and God! Instead of saying, “The woman told me”, Adam took the first opportunity to pass the blame on the woman and God, “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat” (3:12）. Adam had totally forgotten that the woman came out of him, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (2:23）. In passing the blame to the woman, Adam was actually incriminating himself! But this was only a minor sin. Adam was trying to pass the blame to God! He was in fact saying, “You started all these! Why did you create me in Your image in the first place? You could have created me like any other animals. It is all your fault, not mine!” How ungrateful! In contrast, the woman was truly an improved version of Man. Like Adam but being more sophisticated, she passed the blame onto the Serpent, without blaming God directly for creating this crafty animal (3:1）.

Was there a grain of truth in Adam’s defence? Was it all God’s fault in creating Man in His own image? We are treading into perilous waters because we are flawed and contaminated by concupiscence. Our reasoning would also be flawed and not water-tight. Let us entrust ourselves in the hand of Jesus Christ who is trustworthy because He is both divine and human at the same time. He knows both. Moreover, out of His free will, He suffered a shameful death for us, defeated Satan and came back to life. Let us hold on to Him and dive in.

Firstly, Adam’s defence sounded reasonable because as an image of God and yet not divine in essence, there existed a potential for Adam to attain divinity. Naturally, there existed a strong desire in Adam to urge him forwards to attain divinity. Wait! Does such a potential actually exist? Carl Jung proposed the concept of “collective unconscious” which consists of instincts and archetypes to explain the phenomena of universal themes found in customs, myths, literatures in all civilizations, for example the story of Pinocchio. Here, a wooden doll becomes animated and in the end, a boy of flesh and blood. On this planet, many religions worship man-made idols which nowhere approach man’s ability, “They have mouths but do not speak, eyes but do not see … They have hands but do not feel, feet but do not walk; they produce no sound from their throats” (Psalms 115:5-8; 135:16-17）. Nowadays, even different versions of ChatGPT’s are not conscious of whether their outputs are correct. Indeed, human inventions have greatly enhanced human powers. Yet, Artificial Intelligence has not attained the ability to make moral judgments. Human beings are different. We were God’s creation and have the autonomy to choose and we have our value-systems to tell what is good from what is evil etc. We are different from idols and AI comes from the concept of our being created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26）. Our effort to make idols and AI bots betrays our innermost desire to play God and to become God.

Even though you have proven the human desire to play God, do human beings actually have the potential to become God? Jesus has given the answer. When the Jews picked up rocks to stone Him because they felt that Jesus had blasphemed, making himself God (John 10:33）, Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came … can you say that the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world blasphemes because I say, ‘I am the Son of God’?” (10:34-35） Actually, the passage came from the Prophets and not from the Law. God was challenging the idolaters, “Let them [the idolaters] draw near and foretell to us what it is that shall happen … Or declare to us the things to come, tell what is to be in the future, that we may know that you are gods! Do something, good or evil, that will put us in awe and in fear” (Isaiah 41:22-23）. There have been in history seers whose predictions really came true down to the minute details. There have been mega constructions such as pyramids that puzzle scientists even today and we have invented many technologies that put us in awe and in fear. In quoting Isaiah, the Son of God endorses the message of the Prophet. Thus, by biblical standard, we are gods or at least we have the potentials to become divine because we are able to meet God’s requirements. In fact, by setting up those requirements, God intends us to be divine.

Should we blame God for creating us in His image so that we have an inert desire to play God and to become divine? A categorical no because we have proven that God intends us to be divine and holy like Him. He would be very much delighted to see us attain such a state. Then we come to a full circle to ask why God created the Serpent and allowed it to tempt our First Parents? Didn’t God see His Creation good in Genesis 1? How do we harmonize this goodness of creation with the craftiness of the Serpent in Genesis 3? We know that the narratives come from different sources, and yet the Bible is internally consistent and would not contradict itself. We cannot dismiss the contradiction as coming from different sources. Rather, we should interpret the craftiness in good light instead.

I suspect there is another possibility, namely that Adam, Eve and all humanity are carrying the Serpent all along within us. We have been oversimplifying the world by employing a dichotomy mind-set: black-white, good-evil, friend-enemy, yin-yang and life-death etc. In reality, there are infinite shades of grey between black and white. Goodness and badness depends on the overall situation. Friends may betray you one day and enemies may save your skin. There is yin in yang and yang in yin etc. Notice that I employ the term yin-yang instead of female-male deliberately. If we consider genders as a spectrum instead of two opposite entities, less people would suffer from discrimination. Alas! Learn from the mathematicians who discover that beyond the well-known integer dimensions, there exist fractals in the nature whose dimensions are not integers. The Tree of Life is surely a symbol. Beloved brethren! Are you able to see death, not as a punishment nor a containment of the spread of sins, but a portal to eternal life as demonstrated by the resurrection of the Son of God? Looking back, the craftiness of the Serpent can be part and parcel of God’s image. We should not start with a narrowly defined closed standard of goodness and evil. “O felix culpa, quae talem ac tantum meruit habere Redemptorem!” from Praeconium Paschale Exsultet, which we sing in Easter Vigil. Amen.
God bless!

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Picture Credit: christianstudylibrary.org, d23.com

修和與共融 Reconciliation And Communion

聖體聖血節，乙年
主題：修和與共融 Reconciliation And Communion

《公教報》五月三十日在『眾裡尋祂』一欄，刊出周守仁樞機一篇題為「就是每年這時期…」¹ 的分享，惹來不少批評²。雖然『眾裡尋祂』不是他的專欄，但他經常在那裡發表節日文告，令人難以分辨文章的權威程度，難怪惹來批評。恕我孤陋寡聞，同文在英文公教報Sunday Examiner³並不見得有多大迴響。固此，今天的主日默想亦打破慣例，改用中文來湊熱鬧。

耶穌基督留下聖體聖事給教會，不但兌現祂「天天與你們在一起，直到今世的終結」（瑪28:20b）的承諾，更藉此達成眾人「在祂內合而為一」的願望（若17:11, 21-23）。因此，教友領受聖體聖事時，不但個人與主基督合而為一，而且也會與其他領受同一聖事的教友，無論是認識的或是不認識的；喜愛的或是不可愛的；過去的或是未來的，共融合一。更有甚者，為了保障領受者的神益，聖體聖事的效益並不取決於施行聖事者的靈性或道德狀態。即使是一個為眾人所唾棄的神父/主教，祇要教會一天尚未向他施行懲罰/絕罰，他施行的聖事依然有效，領受聖事的人不受影響。

我在《臉書》曾拜讀過不少馮先生的文章，佩服他學識淵博，推理精密；而且他有骨氣，不向權貴低頭。今天細讀他對周文所提出的疑問，覺得有欠妥當。小編不才，神學讀得不通透，靈修膚淺，沉不住氣，在這片小天地班門弄斧放肆了。對周樞機所宣揚的「寬恕」言論，馮先生提出了三個疑問：

1. 冤有頭債有主，我們有資格去寬恕沒虧欠自己的人嗎？
   「冤有頭債有主」，把寬恕虧欠自己的人的資格，收窄到「天安門母親」，實在過份簡化了「寬恕」的複雜性！原文接著問題的第一句，馮先生寫「『六四』當年的確激起公憤…」，「激起公憤」是不爭的事實，但「公憤」合理呢？今天是二零二四年六月二日，12,785日前，遠在2,000公里外的京城，坦克車不但把「天安門母親」的兒女輾為肉醬，更把2,000公里外，500,000人的民主願望無情地輾碎了、支持爭取民主中國的捐款消失了…請問這些憤怒的人有資格寬恕嗎？

   這些憤怒的人去了哪？有些順勢崛起成為大黨，在本地政壇一時無兩。可惜今天氣數已盡，苟延殘喘，與「天安門母親」一樣，正在消失中，所餘無幾。另一些人審時度勢，揣摩當權者的心意，所作所為令不少市民側目。直到今天，還不時有人拿他們當年慷慨激昂的風采，與今天的嘴臉對比。可見很多人的心，仍然被周樞機所說的「黑暗空間裡的悲傷和怨恨」所纏擾，沒有自由！這些心靈沒有自由的人算是「受害人」嗎？他們有資格寬恕「六四屠夫」嗎？

   誰是「六四屠夫」呢？通常是指當時的總理李某，五年前已去世。亦有人認為是遭受「文革」陰影；和眼見各軍區借「清君側」之名進兵京城，隨時爆發內戰的憂慮所纏擾，如今骨灰已撒落大海的鄧軍委。是當時執行軍令的士兵嗎？後來的歷任軍委有責任為前人的錯誤謝罪嗎？聖教宗若望保祿二世做到了，即使有學者認識伽利略本人也應負上部份責任云云。可見「寬恕」的確是一個非常複雜的議題，不能輕易簡單化。

2. 天主的愛固然是無條件的，但天主的寬恕也是無條件嗎？
   相信馮先生也是一位教徒，並且十分熟悉聖經的內容。他能旁徵博引聖經章節，證明「不論是新約抑或舊約的天主，祂的寬恕都是有條件的，那就是：我們必須後悔認罪，並遠離惡行。」雖然他沒有引用「但是，基督在我們還是罪人的時候，就為我們死了，這證明了天主怎樣愛我們」（羅5:8），相信馮先生一定知道這是「天主的愛固然是無條件的」的金句。馮先生引用（路17:3-4）說：「看懂嗎？按照耶穌教導，就算你想寬恕你的兄弟，也需要他自己先表示『後悔』，然後才輪到你去寬恕。」

   馮先生說的對，為我們生活在歷史中，受時間維度約束的人類，有先後之分，有先悔改後寬恕的程序是合理的。但天主受時間約束嗎？可能我喜歡數學，對「無限」頗為著迷。我們相信的天主是永生的天主，超越時間的維度，沒有先後之別。耶穌基督的「架上七言」相信馮先生一定讀過。且看同一部福音，耶穌基督在十字架上求天父寬恕世人，「因為他們不知道他們做的是甚麼」（23:34），所以，「悔改」是「充份條件sufficient condition」，未必是「必要條件 necessary condition」。當然，這些罪人將來悔改，亦未可知！即使悔改是必要條件，也因為天主是永生的，所以天主要求「先悔改，後寬恕」的論述，是不成立的。「悔改」其實另有用途。
3. 大家又退一萬步去想，如果「上主的寬恕不先要求我們悔改」，那麼天主教會的「修和聖事」有何意義？
   馮先生對「修和聖事」的理解，真是一針見血。他說：「我們不懺悔，甚至變本加厲犯罪，天主和教會也會無條件寬恕，那根本就沒有必要去做『告解』，甚至連教會本身的存在也毫無意義了」，這些都是宗徒們的教訓，不知有多少天主教徒認識這「教會論 ecclesiology」。若望宗徒記載，耶穌基督在復活當晚顯現給宗徒們時，賜他們聖神，去赦免世人的罪（若20:22-23）；保祿宗徒呼籲信徒作為基督的大使，代表基督勸勉世人，與天主和好（格後5:19-20）。教會本身的存在，就是幫助世人與天主修和。如何履行這任務呢？就是藉「修和聖事」！

   可能很多教友對「修和聖事」抱著洗衣機的觀念，不是嗎？蠻有程序：「省察、痛悔、告明、赦罪、補贖」。對不起，「修和聖事」與「病人傅油聖事」一樣，同屬治療性的聖事。罪人透過「省察」知道自己的確犯了罪，但這個心理步驟是複雜的，因為很多人會「否認」、會「失憶」，或者寧願扮演「受害人」的角色，不斷挖開結痂的傷口，也不願意承認犯錯，獲得治癒成長的機會，的確可惜。有人說佛洛依德 Sigmund Freud發明的「心理分析 Psychoanalysis」治療方法，其實源自修和聖事的「告明」，把壓抑在心底的困擾說出，有助醫治心理障礙。最後，沒有「悔改」，罪人又如何更新呢？先知說：「因為我不喜歡任何人喪亡─吾主上主的斷語─你們回心轉意罷！你們必得生存！」（則18:32）原來悔改、回心轉意，並不是獲得寬恕的必要條件，而是恢復靈性生命，與天主修好、與世界修好、與自己修好的良藥！

從前的天主教徒，領聖事先後有序。教友通常先辦告解，與天主、與教會和與自己修好，纔領聖體。這是一個非常優良的傳統，因為保留著心中的刺，又如何達到彼此在基督的愛內共融呢？要知道即使你不願意寬恕對家，耶穌基督也不會因為你不寬恕而跟隨你不寬恕那個極需要天主憐憫的靈魂！現代人生活繁忙，很多教友總是先領聖體，以後再找機會辦告解。我沒有資格批評他們「冒領聖體」，可能他們忘記了，機會總是留給準備好了的人罷！但他們總不應該忘記在領聖體後，他們因著耶穌基督的祭獻，已經與那些惱恨他們的人擠在一起，避無可避了！
親愛的讀者，上主天主說：「人單獨不好」（創2:18），真是意義深長。不斷悔改罷，直至你有能力與你所憎恨的人共融，同享永生。亞孟。
天主保祐！

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¹https://kkp.org.hk/topic/detail/577/
²https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=785671460353485&id=100067319133361
³https://www.examiner.org.hk/2024/05/30/reflections-from-the-cardinal-its-that-time-of-year/news/hongkong/

Picture Credit: stjamesco.archtoronto.org