黃謙善神父 – 主日講道

以下是七宗罪的清單：貪婪、嫉妒、貪吃、淫慾、傲慢、憤怒和懶惰。我們基本上理解了其中的大多數，也許除了懶惰之外，懶惰不僅僅是躲懶。理解懶惰的最好方法是描述一下。想像一個在生活中取得成功的男人：他他供養並熱愛著自己的家庭、在工作中取得成功、睡眠充足、鍛煉身體，並騰出時間與朋友在一起。當談到他與天主的關係時，他很少花時間去做這件事，對他的靈修需要做的事情也是微乎其微的。他不是個壞人。但我們明確地知道他有懶惰之罪，正是因為在他生活的其他方面，他是激進的。

Here’s a list of the seven deadly sins: pride, avarice, lust, envy, gluttony, anger, and sloth. We basically understand most of them, except perhaps for sloth, which is more than laziness. The best way to understand sloth is with a description. Imagine a man who’s successful in life: He supports and loves his family, succeeds at work, sleeps enough, exercises, and makes time for friends. When it comes to his relationship with God, he gives little time to this, and does the minimum for his spiritual needs. He’s not a bad person. But we know he has the sin of sloth precisely because, in other areas of his life, he’s driven.

2013年，維尼西奧•里瓦(Vinicio Riva)前往羅馬，在教宗的一大群聽眾中，他上前親吻教宗方濟各(PopeFrancis)的戒指，教宗擁抱了他。全世界都注意到了，因為維尼西奧因神經纖維瘤病而嚴重毀容。

如果你有改變世界的魔力，你會怎麼做(Matthew Kelly, The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic, 143-145)「超級英雄用他們的力量智取壞人」；歌曲作者用他們的力量贏得他們所愛的人的心。但是，如果我們有能力改變世界，難道我們不應該為了最大的利益，為最多的人，為能讓它持久嗎？

信不信由你，我們選擇我們的一部分焦慮。這是因為有一些焦慮是基於我們的世界觀。例如，當我們上高中和大學時，我們所感受到的巨大焦慮來自於能否獲得好成績，其實是由於我們的身份是基於個人表現這樣一種世界觀。我們應該追求卓越，全力以赴，但天主並不只是要求我們全得A。如果我們相信並實踐這個真相，我們就不會那麼焦慮了。

Believe it or not, we choose some of our anxieties. That’s because some are based on our world view. When we’re in high school and university, for example, we experience great anxiety to get good grades, but this is based on the world view that our identity is based on our performance. We should aim for excellence and do our best, but God doesn’t demand only A’s. If we believed and lived this truth, we’d have less anxiety.

Many of us struggle with highs and lows in our lives: When we’re high, we’re very high, but unfortunately unprepared for problems and sufferings that eventually come. If you’re the kind of person who gets surprised at suffering, such as when COVID-19 struck the world, this may apply to you. On the other hand, once we’re low, we’re distraught, forgetful that God’s still with us.

我們中的大部分人都在生活的高低起伏中掙扎著：當情緒高漲的時候，我們非常興奮，但遺憾的是，問題和痛苦總會到來，我們卻措手不及。如果你是那種對苦難感到驚訝的人，比如這次的新冠肺炎肆虐全球，這也許適於用在你身上。另一方面，一旦我們情緒低落，我們就會心煩意亂，忘記天主仍然與我們同在。

YouTube上有一個很受歡迎的有關鍛煉的頻道，​​其中一個視頻的標題是「你能摸到你背後的手指嗎？(超艱難！)。運動員應該能夠將一隻手放在腦後，另一隻手放在背後，讓雙手手指碰到—–這種靈活性將幫助他們進行適當的鍛煉。

今天，我們要回答一個問題，為什麼天主允許靈性上的神枯，這是我們所有人都經歷過的，特別是在今年。所謂屬靈的神枯，我們指的是遠離天主，感受不到祂的愛，不想祈禱，屬靈的一切都是困難的。

If we’re suffer from any discouragement, God doesn’t want this. Discouragement is a normal part of life, but it’s not from God. In the past three weeks, I’ve observed these types of discouragement: 1) People getting frustrated with themselves, their mistakes and failures; 2) Someone admitted, looking back on this year, “I wondered if God would accept me, after what I’ve done”—that’s the voice of doubt; 3) “I’m sick of being at home. I can’t go anywhere”—that’s an exaggeration, but the feeling of helplessness points to a deprivation of meaningful human contact.

Today, we’re going to answer the question of why God allows spiritual desolation, something we all experience, especially this year. By spiritual desolation we mean feeling far from God, not feeling His love, not wanting to pray, and everything spiritual is hard.

There are two things you can do to see God’s blessings in your life: 1) Perspective. Our life is probably better than we think. One time, the wife of author Michael Hyatt asked, “How was your day?” “Man, it was terrible.” “Really, what was so bad about it?” When he finished telling her, she said, “It sounds to me like you had a really bad 20 minutes, not a bad day.” He said, “That’s pretty much right, because the rest of the day was pretty great”

1965年，辛大主教Archbishop Sheen引用著名精神病學者 Carl Jung 榮格的話說，看過他的人中，約有三分之一沒有「臨床上可定義的神經症clinically definable neurosis」，而是在他們的生活中遭受著「毫無意義和漫無目的的折磨！這是一場生存危機，是一種缺乏意義和人生目標的危機，是一種焦慮，是一種生存問題。這讓我想起了我們的文化，它在精神上是空虛的：我們不認真思考我們為什麼存在，生命的意義，以及死後會怎樣。現在我們的空虛加深了，因為我們更擔心自己的身體健康，也更孤立無援。

由於今天第一篇讀經提及，又因為我們現在正處於將臨期，也就是新的禮儀之年的開始，我識別出一個主題，我們將在將臨期和聖誕節期間談論這個主題。這個主題是：「 Begin Again 重新開始」。

Because of the First Reading and because we’re now in Advent, the beginning of a new liturgical year, I’ve discerned a theme that we’re going to be talking about during Advent and Christmas, and that theme is: Begin Again.