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黃謙善神父 – 主日講道
Bob was only 13 when his father left the family. Being the second oldest of seven children, Bob felt he had to become the man of the home. Weeks later, he was also devastated when his basketball coach tried to molest him. The pain continued a year later when his father eventually started a second family and when his family moved to Florida.
鮑勃Bob在父親離開家人時只有十三歲。他是七個孩子中的老二，他覺得他必須成為家中之主。幾週後，當他的籃球教練試圖非禮他時，他感到非常震驚。他的傷痛持續至一年後，當父親最終建立第二個家庭並移居佛羅里達州時，創傷重新綻開。
你希望今年過得比去年好些嗎？我再問一遍：你希望今年過得比去年好些嗎？可惜，根據我的經驗，大多數人都會犯同樣的錯誤，因為他們無法突破每天每天的循環慣例。大多數的生活都有一股我們無法阻擋的趨勢。
How do you want this year to be better than last year? I’ll ask again: How do you want this year to be better than last year? From my experience, it’s unfortunate that most of us will make the same mistakes, because we can’t break out of the cycle of our daily lives. Most of our lives have a momentum that we can’t stop.
有一次，我和十一名神父進行了一次視頻電話會議，討論的主題是：「在試圖更新你的堂區，希望它在靈性上充滿活力時，你最害怕的是什麼？」所以我把答案寫下。 (你猜我寫下了什麼答案；只是一個詞)。
Once I was doing a video conference call with eleven priests, and the topic for discussion was: What’s your greatest fear in trying to renew your parish, make it spiritually alive? So I wrote down my answer.
Three weeks ago, we gathered donations for the seven people who lost their belongings in a fire that burned their three-storey apartment building in our neighbourhood. Two of them, Fernanda and Curtis, are part of our parish family, so, an e-mail blast about the fire went out to the whole Alpha team, of which Fernanda’s a part. If you got that e-mail, how would you respond? Who here would offer them sympathy in the e-mail? What about prayer? What about a place to stay for the next week?
三週前，我們為在我們社區的一場大火中失去所有財物的七個人募捐，那場大火燒毀了他們的三層公寓樓。其中兩人, Fernanda 和 Curtis是我們堂區家庭的成員，所以，一封關於火災的電子郵件急速地發到了整個“啟發團隊”，費爾南達(Fernanda )是其中的一員。如果你收到那封郵件，你會怎麼回复？誰有在電子郵件中向他們表示同情？那祈禱呢？怎樣幫他們解決下週居住的問題？
天主以讓我們變老來喚醒我們，並讓我們為死亡做好準備。我們被召 走向永生，但卻被我們現世舒適的生活分心了。所以，祂仁慈地允許我們行動變僵硬、發胖、有皺紋和脫髮。這裡有人掉頭髮了嗎？沒有人嗎。願天主保佑你們。
God allows us to grow old to wake us up and get us ready for death. We’re called to eternal life, but get distracted by the good life we have here. So, in His goodness, He allows us to get stiff, put on weight, have wrinkly skin, and lose hair. Anyone here losing their hair? No one. God bless you.
天主今天呼召我們明白信仰的大故事。換句話說，基督信仰的本質是什麼？我們將用一個非常實際的場景來回答這個問題，這個場景建立在多年關於我們與天主關係的討論, 以及自由意志和後果的現實的基礎之上。
God is calling us to understand the big story of our faith, today. In other words, what’s the essence of Christianity? We’re going to answer this using a very practical scenario which builds upon years of talking about our relationship with God, the reality of free will, and consequences.
知道為什麼我們總說自己很忙嗎？如果誠實點，我們不得不承認，儘管我們的日程安排很緊張，但我們仍然在浪費時間呢？一項調查發現，百分之七十的人承認在工作中浪費時間，主要是在花在社交媒體上，然後是網上購物，瀏覽旅遊，體育和娛樂網站，或者只是毫無目的地向上下滾動網頁。
You know how we all say we’re busy? Can we be honest and admit that, despite our busy schedules, we still waste time? One survey found that seven in ten people admit to wasting time at work, mostly on social media, then online shopping, browsing travel, sports, and entertainment, and just scrolling down pages with no purpose (Michael Hyatt, Free to Focus, 212).
我一生中說過不少愚蠢的話。有一次我遇到一位女士，她說，「我的名字是Sunday(星期天)。」我說，「我叫…。我叫Justin 」。我猶豫了一下，因為其實我正想說，「我的名字是Monday(星期一)。」她可能覺得有些不對勁，不高興了。我感覺很糟糕，因為她可能以前經歷過這種情況。
I’ve said some foolish things in my life. One time I met a woman who said, “My name’s Sunday.” And I said, “And my name’s… My name’s Justin.” I hesitated because I was about to say, “My name is Monday.” She could see that something was wrong and wasn’t happy. I felt badly because she’d probably gone through that before.
A good young priest, Fr. Lucio Choi, once shared with me how he was discouraged, and it wasn’t because of his bad haircut. He said he now understood why some priests get cynical: You try so hard, do so much for people, and they don’t care or respond.
一位優秀的年輕神父，Fr Lucio Choi,曾經和我分享過一次灰心的經驗，這並不是因為他糟糕的髮型。他說，他現在明白為什麼有些神父會變得憤世嫉俗：不管你多麼努力，為人們做了多少，他們就是漠不關心，也不回應。我對此有同感，因為我知道作為一個靈性上的父親，氣餒是什麼感覺。
I know a man who’s got a lot of problems: He struggles with his closest relationships, with his work, and with his direction in life. He blames everything: God hasn’t helped him, people are jerks, the government’s full of morons, and everything he’s tried hasn’t worked. But when someone asks him to look at what he could change about himself, he refuses. He’s looking everywhere around him for a solution when it’s right at his feet.
我認識一個人，他有很多問題：他與他最親密的關係、他的工作以及他的生活方向鬥争着。他什麼都抱怨：說天主沒有幫他，人們都是混蛋，政府都是白痴，他嘗試的一切都沒有起過作用。但當有人問他是否可以改變自己的哪些方面時，他拒絕回答。他向周遭寻找解決方案，卻不知道就在自己腳下。
許多人跟我說還記得我去年講的關於Mother Angelica修女驚人的信德。故事是這樣的:這位修女，在1981年創辦了一個天主教電視網。之後，她覺得受到感召，有必要擴大規模。於是，這位修女明知道在沒有錢支付的情況下，卻訂購了一個巨大的圓盤式衛星天線。貨車送貨上門，需要支付60萬美元。
我要宣布一個令人高興的消息，它提醒我們要做一些關於聖經的反思。去年，我們談到對窮人的關懷，談到耶穌對路邊瞎眼的乞討者的憐憫，他讓門徒成為中間人，也正是他們把乞討者帶到了耶穌面前。我們說，為了符合我們的堂區願景，就像耶穌一樣地去愛，現在是時候付諸行動了，我們決定把每年收集的奉獻的十分之一捐贈給那些有需要的人。在那之前的一年，我們請每個人提供反饋，看大家是否覺得天主在呼喚我們這樣做：有100多人回應說「很好」，而7人持保留意見。去年，我們請你給我們一些建議，關於天主要我們支持機構。
