黃謙善神父 – 主日講道

The classic Russian novel Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy, begins with this famous sentence: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” The second part is clearly true, because everyone can be unhappy for any number of reasons. But is the first part true: all happy families are alike? Are there certain characteristics that make all of them happy?

列夫·托爾斯泰（列夫·托爾斯泰）的俄羅斯經典小說安娜·卡列尼娜”（安娜·卡列尼娜）以這樣一句名言開頭：“所有幸福的家庭都是相似的；每個不幸的家庭卻有自己第二部分似乎是正確的，因為每個人都可能因為各種原因而不快樂。但第一部分是真的嗎？所有幸福的家庭都是一樣的？所有人都開心？

我在早年的大部分時間裡，都在逃避責任：我拖延家庭作業；如果沒做完，就會找藉口。我從來沒有找工作做，我唯一做過的家務活就是打掃房子。

I wish all of you had a group of Christian friends who could encourage, challenge and pray with you, meeting weekly online or in a park. I wish that everyone who walked up our steps would be greeted by someone who would love them, talk to them and direct them to where to go next if they had more questions.

耶穌是生命之主，因此，讓我們看看祂是如何從我們的失敗中恢復我們的生命的。每個人都知道，當我們失敗時，天主會原諒我們，讓我們重新開始，但我們通常只在理智上知道這一點。

Jesus is the Lord of life, therefore, let’s look at how He resurrects life from our failures. Everyone knows that, when we fail, God forgives us and begins again, but we usually know this only intellectually.

Our final challenge in our Lenten wilderness experience is a call to courage. Most Catholics aren’t courageous about professing their faith in Jesus. We’ve talked many times about our fear of making the sign of the Cross in public, about sharing our Christian opinion with our friends because our stance isn’t popular, about discussing anything religious. We want to fit in above all else, and so we act like we’re not Christian.

今天我們談的是心靈更新，有兩個故事在我腦海裡是截然相反的起點。有一次，我和一位朋友在深夜進行了一次深入的交談，我不記得我們是如何談到這個話題的，但他說：「我希望我沒有和我的女朋友發生關係。」大多數人確實想有性行為，但他表達的是更深層次的渴望。我從未忘記他的話，因為這些話都是發自內心的。

我們今天的主題是：憐愛自己，因為天主是這樣做的。在過去的三周里，祂挑戰我們克服懶惰，在祈禱中承擔更多的責任，根除粗劣的語言。如果我們與耶穌同在曠野，面對魔鬼，我們不應該感到筋疲力盡，而是感到疲憊。所以，天主想讓你們休息。

Our theme today is: Have mercy on yourself, because God does. For the past three weeks, He’s challenged us to overcome our sloth, to take more responsibility in our prayer, and to root out poor language. If we’ve been with Jesus in the wilderness and facing our demons, we shouldn’t be exhausted, but should be tired. So, God wants you to rest.

Let’s talk about the sins of cursing, profanity, and vulgarity.

Most of us (not all, but most) would agree that such language is generally wrong. None of you swears around me. How would you feel if I swore? There’s a video by Jimmy Kimmel asking if children know any naughty words, and it’s insightful regarding our society: On one hand, the crowd cheers when a boy swears; on the other, they’re shocked when another boy uses a very disparaging word. So, there’s a tension: We feel vulgar language isn’t right, but it’s not that bad.

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？