常年期第二十六主日彌撒講道辭

基督徒的關愛                 

伍棟樑神父

徐麗華譯

當全美上下，依舊在為二零零一年九月十一日，因恐怖攻擊而喪生的三千多條性命而哀悼著。我懷疑在我們當中，有多少人曾注意到同年的一月二十六日，在印度的固舉瑞特地方曾發生強烈地震，造成近一萬九千人喪亡，六十萬人無家可歸。

我絕不是對九一一的亡者不敬，或是要抹煞對那些不顧惜自己生命在當時奮勇救災的英雄們的記憶。我只是要指出，當我們扛著一個定義糢糊不清的基督徒招牌，說我們愛所有的人時，我們已經為自己對關懷他人的多少做了選擇。我們可能對與自己有關係的人十分關心：家人，朋友，同事，員工，老師，舊室友。我們甚至於還關心一些不認識的人，教宗，總統，和名流們。但是，如果我們可以誠實地省察自己，必須承認有很多很多的人是我們根本不在乎的，從那遠在世界另一端上億的陌生人，到那我們從未打算去認識的街坊鄰居。不要說整個團體，就連現在教堂在座的這些人來說，我們對他們又關心多少？

福音中那個富翁每天在他的大門前看到又病又餓的拉匝祿，但他選擇對拉匝祿不聞不問。難道要求我們對這地球上每一個生命都賦與深切的關愛是切實際的嗎？也許不是。但是有天主的幫助，我們可以做得更好，而不是只是嘴裡說說的基督徒愛所有的人。我們可以選擇給予更多人更多的關懷，開廣自己的視野，那麼在我們生命中會佔有一席之位的人都能進入我們擴大的生活圈子中。

常年期第二十六主日﹝丙年﹞二零零七年九月三十日

請參閱路加福音第十六章十九至三十一節

The Homily of the 26^th  Sunday of Ordinary Time

Fr. Kimm

As a nation, we continue to grieve for the more than 3,000 victims of the four terrorist attacks on our country on September 11, 2001.  But I wonder how many of us are even aware that on January 26 of that same year, almost 19,000 people were killed and 600,000 people were left homeless by a massive earthquake in Gujurat, India.

Now I mean no disrespect to the dead of 9/11, nor do I wish to dishonor the memory of those heroes who gave their lives to save others on that day.  I simply want to point out that while we might say we love everybody in some vague Christian way, we all make choices about how much we care about other people.  We might care very much about people to whom we have a personal connection: family members, friends, coworkers, employees, teachers, old roommates.  We might even care quite a bit about some people we don't know: popes and presidents and maybe some celebrities.  But if we're honest, we have to admit that there are also lots and lots of people about whom we care much less, from the billions of strangers living on the other side of the world to those people down the street whose names we've never bothered to learn.  How much do we care about the people in this parish--or sitting in this church right now?

The rich man in our gospel story saw Lazarus sick and hungry at his door every day.  But he chose to care very little--if at all--about him.  Is it realistic to expect us to care deeply about every single person on this earth?  Probably not.  But with the help of God, we can do better than just love everybody in some vague Christian way.  We can choose to care more about more people, to broaden our vision, to widen the circle of those we deem important in our lives.

26th Sun. O.T. (C)  Sept. 30, 2007  8 only

see Luke 16:19-31