Pope Francis: Pray for our enemies, ask God to change their hearts

教宗方濟各於週二早上的彌撒中說愛我們的仇人很難，但這就是天主要我們做的。他說我們必須為憎恨我們的人祈禱，求他們如頑石般硬的心變得有血有肉。

教宗用了一連串問題開始他的講道。我們怎樣能愛我們的敵人？他問，我們怎能愛那些把心一橫放炸彈殺害平民的人？我們怎能愛那些因為愛金錢，而阻礙長者去得到必需的醫療保健，由得他們死去的人？或是那些只為自己的利益、權力而做盡邪惡的事的人？教宗說：「要愛我們的敵人看來很難，但耶穌就是要我們這樣做。」教宗指出耶穌是在更新律法，由在西乃山的律法更新成為真福八端山的律法。他也指出我們每人都有敵人，但在心底也可能成為他人的敵人。

「很多時我們會成為他人的敵人：我們對他們不懷好意。而耶穌叫我們愛我們的敵人！這是不容易的！我們甚至認為耶穌的要求太高！我們把這訓誡留給在隱修院裡聖善的修女，認為這不是在日常生活中實踐出來的。但這訓誡一定是對的！耶穌說：『不，我們一定要這樣做！否則你就像稅吏、外教人一樣，不是基督徒。』」

那麼我們怎樣愛我們的敵人呢？教宗指出耶穌提出了兩點，首先要想起天主「使太陽上升，光照惡人，也光照善人」，「降雨給義人，也給不義的人」。耶穌叫我們「應當是成全的，如同你們的天父是成全的一樣」，以圓滿的愛仿傚天父。教宗補充，耶穌原諒祂的敵人，做盡一切去原諒他們。他提醒我們，要報復就不是基督徒。教宗問我們如何能真正愛我們的敵人？藉著祈禱。「當我們為那些令我們受苦的人祈禱，就如同耶穌為我們傅油，準備我們的心以得享平安。」

「祈禱！這是耶穌叫我們做的：『為你們的仇人祈禱！為迫害你們的人祈禱！』向天主說：『改變他們的心。他們的心如頑石般硬，但轉化它，給他們一顆血肉的心，讓他們感受到慰藉和愛。』我想問一條問題，讓我們每人都在心中回答：『我有為我的仇人祈禱嗎？我有為不愛我的人祈禱嗎？』如果你有，我回說：『繼續多點祈禱吧，你做得對！』如果沒有，耶穌說：『可憐的人，你也是別人的敵人！』祈求天主改變那些人的心。我們會說：『但這人真的冒犯了我』，或是做了一些惡事，而令人陷入貧困。根據這樣的思路，我們會去報復，以眼還眼，以牙還牙。」

教宗再次說，愛我們的敵人的確使我們「陷入貧困」，因為這使我們如耶穌般貧困，祂來到我們中間，謙抑自下，為我們變得貧窮。教宗說可能會有人說如果敵人使我更貧窮，這很不值。「當然，以世俗的標準來看，這很不值。但這是耶穌走的道路，祂為我們由富裕變成貧窮。在這貧窮中，在祂把自己下降之中，有一份恩寵使我們成義，令我們變得富裕。這就是救恩的奧秘。」

「當我們寬恕，當我們愛我們的仇人，我們變得貧窮：愛使我們陷入貧困，但這貧困是我們愛的種籽。就正如耶穌的貧困成為了拯救世人的恩寵…讓我們想想那些對我們不懷好意的人：如果我們為他們奉獻彌撒——耶穌，耶穌的犧牲——會有多好。而為我們也是好的，耶穌教我們這智慧，很難，但很美麗，因為這使我們肖似天父，就像祂光照所有人，好與壞的；讓我們肖似聖子耶穌，在羞辱中變我貧窮，使我們富裕。」

It is hard to love our enemies, but that is exactly what God is asking us to do, said Pope Francis at Mass Tuesday morning. He said we must pray for those who hate us and have done us wrong, ‘that their heart of stone be turned to flesh, that they may feel relief and love'. God lets sun shine and rain fall on the good and the bad, on the just and the unjust and, the Pope added, we must do the same or else we are not being Christian.

Pope Francis began his homily, with a series of questions that encompassed some of the most pressing dramas of humanity. How can we love our enemies? The Pope asked, how can we love those who decide to “bomb and kill so many people?" And again, how can we "love those who out of their love for money prevent the elderly from accessing the necessary medicine and leave them to die"? Or those who only seek "their own best interests, power for themselves and do so much evil?" "It seems hard to love your enemy," he noted, but Jesus asks it of us. This current liturgy, he said, proposes "Jesus' updating of the law", of the law of Mount Sinai with the Law of the Mount of Beatitudes. The Pope also pointed out that we all have enemies, but deep down we too can become enemies of others:

"Too often we become enemies of others: we do not wish them well. And Jesus tells us to love our enemies! And this is not easy! It is not easy ... we even think that Jesus is asking too much of us! We leave this to the cloistered nuns, who are holy, we leave this for some holy soul, but this is not right for everyday life. But it must be right! Jesus says: 'No, we must do this! Because otherwise you will be like the tax collectors, like pagans. Not Christians. '"

So how can we love our enemies? Pope Francis noted that Jesus, "tells us two things": first look to the Father who "makes the sun rise on evil and good" and "rain fall on the just and unjust”. God "loves everyone." And then he continued, Jesus tells us to be "perfect as the Heavenly Father is perfect", "imitate the Father with that perfection of love." He added Jesus "forgive his enemies", "does everything to forgive them”. He warned that taking revenge is not Christian. The Pope asks But how can we succeed in loving our enemies? By praying. "When we pray for what makes us suffer - the Pope said - it is as if the Lord comes with oil and prepares our hearts for peace":

"Pray! This is what Jesus advises us:' Pray for your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! Pray! '. And say to God: 'Change their hearts. They have a heart of stone, but change it, give them a heart of flesh, so that they may feel relief and love '. Let me just ask this question and let each of us answer it in our own heart: 'Do I pray for my enemies? Do I pray for those who do not love me? 'If we say' yes', I will say, 'Go on, pray more, you are on the right path! If the answer is' no ', the Lord says:' Poor thing. You too are an enemy of others! '. Pray that the Lord may change the hearts of those. We could say: 'But this person really wronged me', or they have done bad things and this impoverishes people, impoverishes humanity. And following this line of thought we want to take revenge of that eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth".

Pope Francis reaffirmed, it's true that love for our enemies "impoverishes us”, because it makes us poor "like Jesus", who, when he came to us, lowered himself and became poor" for us. The Pope noted that some could argue this was not a good deal "if the enemy makes me poorer" and of course, "according to the criteria of this world, it is not a good deal." But this, he said, is "the path Jesus travelled" who from rich became poor for us. In this poverty, "in this Jesus' lowering of himself – he said - there is the grace that has justified us all, made us all rich." It is the "mystery of salvation":

"With forgiveness, with love for our enemy, we become poorer: love impoverishes us, but that poverty is the seed of fertility and love for others. Just as the poverty of Jesus became the grace of salvation for all of us, great wealth ... Let us think today at Mass, let us think of our enemies those who do not wish us well: it would be nice if we offered the Mass for them: Jesus, Jesus' sacrifice, for them, for those who do not love us. And for us too, so that the Lord teaches us this wisdom which is so hard, but so beautiful, because it makes us look like the Father, like our Father: it brings out the sun for everyone, good and bad. It makes us more like the Son, Jesus, who in his humiliation became poor to enrich us, with his poverty."

資料來源 Source:
Pope at Mass: The hard lesson of loving our enemies