黃謙善神父 – 主日講道

When I was 25, volunteering at St. Joseph’s Medical Centre in New York, I always finished my days exhausted. When driving back to the seminary with Guillermo, he was always energized by his visits, while I reclined my car seat and passed out. His patients could speak, whereas I was assigned to patients who could not! I was depleted by trying to communicate the whole day with people who could barely respond.

當我25歲那年，在紐約聖約瑟醫療中心做義工時，我總是筋疲力盡地結束我的每一天。當我和吉列爾莫（Guilermo）開車回神學院時，他總是因為他的探訪而精力充沛，而我則靠在座位上累倒了。他的病人能與人交談，而我被分配去探訪不能說話的病人！我整天都在試圖與幾乎不能回應的人交流，這讓我精疲力竭。

羅伯特·莫里斯(Robert Morris)曾認為自己的人生使命是為其他人加油：他的妻子、孩子、他的教會，以及每一個來到他身邊的人， 天主用這個比喻告訴他，「你的工作就是去…。從你的卡車上給他們的油箱灌滿。」。但他服侍的次數太多了，以至於他的安息日也悄悄溜走了。它開始查看電子郵件，與人們共進餐以支持他們，然後安排工作會議。

我們又開始聖安東尼教堂一年一度的夏季安息日(Sabbath Summer)，這裡有六個建議，讓我們度過一個寧靜、恢復活力和重新創造的夏天：1)讀好的文學作品，因為好書是更新整個人、身體、心靈和靈魂的最簡單方式；2)去度假，因為你太累了；3)花時間和朋友在一起，享受他們的陪伴，而不是企圖完成任何事情；4)去做避靜，

As mentioned two weeks ago, today we’re going to re-examine our financial generosity, because that’s the focus of today’s Second Reading.
However, I had a significant change of heart two weeks ago when my third action item was to ask you to think about increasing your sacrificial generosity.

正如兩週前所說，今天我們要重新審視我們在財政上的慷慨開銷，因為這是今天第二篇讀經的重點。
兩週前，我的第三個行動項目是要求你考慮增加你的犧牲奉獻的慷慨度，然而過後我的想法發生了重大變化。

我想談談坎盧普斯(Kamloos)印第安人寄宿學校的現狀，著重於真相與和解。請記住，我只是在跟聖安東尼堂區的教友們宣講。但是，既然有人問起我的想法，我就在此作簡短地回答。

Given that we’re celebrating the solemnity of our patron, St. Anthony, today’s homily is about celebration and mission. The Readings are about Jesus’ mission, and they’ve touched me deeply. The First Reading says, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me… he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted” (Is 61:1). This verse refers to Jesus, but we share in His mission (Cf. CCC 1287).

我永遠不會忘記神修作家金伯利·哈恩(Kimberly Hahn)講的關於她剖腹產後在腹部留下疤痕的事情。她為這些傷痕感到難過，她的丈夫郤說，這些傷痕可能會出現在她復活後的身體上，這意味著它們是愛的標記，因為她為基督背負著這些傷痕。她說：「妊娠紋、靜脈曲張，以及生產後–我們有太多的機會讓我們的肉體為生命犧牲。

Why is God called ‘Father’? Can He be called ‘Mother’? In the Second Reading, we see an example of the unanimous tradition of calling God, ‘Father’: “All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons and daughters of God… When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom 8:14,16).

St. Teresa of Avila, a 16th century Spanish nun, writes about seven mansions of the spiritual life. Describing the soul as if it were a castle of diamond or crystal, in which there are many rooms or mansions, with God’s dwelling place in the centre (Kieran Kavanaugh, St. Teresa of Avila, Collected Works, 270), the mansions describe the spiritual progress we can make.

七寶樓台描述了我們可以取得的神修進展。以下是對這些瓊宇的描述，雖然不全面，但與我們相關：住在第一座瓊宇的人有美好的願望，處於恩典的狀態，有時會祈禱，但會被財產、榮譽和覊於俗物而分心；他們會被罪惡所誘惑。

一位著名的神父馬克·圖普斯(Mark Toups) 用蘋果和盆栽蘋果樹教授精神療愈。他對學生們說：「假設這個蘋果就是你的罪孽。每次你來辦修和聖事時，都會帶來更多的蘋果…。這是一件好事，因為你得到了赦免。但這些罪孽是更深層次的靈魂疾病(樹)的症狀。

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?

Most of my early life, I ran away from responsibility: I procrastinated on homework; and if I didn’t get it done, I would make excuses. I never got a job, and the only chore I ever did was clean the house. I learned this from my father. Don’t get me wrong, I love my father, and he loved me—that was his greatest gift.

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。