朋友们，愿你们平安。 Peace be with you, friends.
我们来到了四旬期的神圣时节。 We come to the holy season of Lent.
我不知道你是否和我一样，不过哎呀，我已经经历过多少个四旬期了？ I don't know if you're like me, but gosh, how many Lents have I lived through?
每当大部分四旬期结束时，我都会想：哎呀，我大概还能做得更好。 And when I come to the end of most Lents, I say, Gosh, I probably could have done that better.
那本来可以是一次更丰富的属灵体验。 That probably could have been a richer spiritual experience.
不过好在，教会又一次，年复一年地给了我们另一个机会，好好度过这个神圣的时节。 But okay, the Church once again, the year rolls around and gives us another opportunity to live this holy season well.
你知道，每当我开始四旬期时，我总是会想到布莱兹·帕斯卡。 You know, I always think of Blaise Pascal when I begin Lent.
帕斯卡曾说，我们大多数人在生活中一直在让自己分心。 Pascal is one that said most of us go through life diverting ourselves.
他在法语里用的词是「divertissement」。 He uses in his French divertissement.
我们有各种消遣，就是各种各样的玩乐与分心方式，好让我们不用认真面对那些重大问题。 We have diversions, and it's all the different forms of, you know, of play and distraction that we use so that we don't come to terms with the big questions.
帕斯卡说，你看，我们都必须面对神、面对意义、面对目标。 Pascal said, Look, we all have to deal with God, meaning, purpose.
我的人生到底是为了什么？ What's my life all about?
我自己的罪、永生、天堂、地狱、炼狱、救赎，这些重大问题。 My own sin, eternal life, heaven, hell, purgatory, salvation, the big questions.
可是我们大多数人的做法是，这些问题一出现，我们就说，好吧，现在对我来说太 沉重了，或者我无法真正面对，于是我就用游戏、娱乐、工作或其他事情来分心。 But what most of us do is those questions come to mind, and we say, Okay, that's too much for me right now, or I can't really deal with that, so I'm going to divert myself with games and play and my work or whatever it is.
帕斯卡说，我们需要做的，就是安静地独自坐在自己的 房间里，用时间去处理、直面、面对这些重大问题。 What we have to do, Pascal said, was take the time sitting quietly in your own room by yourself to deal with, confront, face these great questions.
我认为，对于我们公教徒来说，四旬期正是这样的时刻。 I think Lent is precisely that time for us Catholics.
正是在这个时候，我们要放下那些让人分心的事，认真而长久地审视这些重大问题。 It's precisely the time to let the diversions go and look hard and long at the great questions.
你知道，这个四旬期我下定的一个决心，就是每周有 一天把手机锁进抽屉里，好让我远离对它的依赖。 You know, one thing I'm going to do, I've resolved this Lent, is I'm going to take my cell phone and put it in a drawer one day a week, A, to get away from the addiction to it.
我想我们所有人都会对这些东西上瘾，而且它也是分心的极大来源。 I think we all get addicted to these things, but also it's such a source of distraction.
这正是帕斯卡所说的「divertissement」的绝佳例子。 It's a perfect example of the divertissement that Pascal talks about.
我不会去想神或永生；我会盯着手机上那些无聊的资讯。 I won't think about God or eternal life; I'll look at my stupid feed on the phone.
所以我要尝试：每周有一天，把那手机放进抽屉一整天。 So I'm going to try it: one day a week, just put that phone in a drawer for an entire day.
我能不能也鼓励你试着这样做？ Can I urge you to do the same thing?
也许你可以找出真正令你分心、无法思考严肃问题的事物，在这个四旬期刻意戒绝它。 Maybe find something that is really distracting you from the serious questions and fast from it this Lent.
好了，那么这主日我们最先读到的福音，就是路加所记述的耶稣受试探的奇妙故事。 Okay, now the first reading, the first Gospel we get for this Sunday is Luke's marvelous account of the temptation of Jesus.
再一次，这段经文我们听过无数次，但在四旬期进入这段经文的属灵氛围却非常重要。 And again, and we've heard this a thousand times, but to move into the spiritual space of this reading is very important for Lent.
我的意思是，耶稣在旷野四十天到底经历了什么？ I mean, what happens when Jesus goes into the desert for 40 days?
确实，他把那至高者的事暂且放下。 Well, indeed, He leaves the Divi Altissimo aside.
没错，他要深入地凝视这些深层的属灵实况。 Indeed, He's going to look long and hard, you know, at these deep spiritual realities.
但还有别的事发生，你会发现几乎所有文化都有类似的形式，尤其是对年轻人的启蒙仪式 ，他们被迫面对某些极限，例如没有食物、没有防身的方法，还要在恶劣环境中存活。 But something else is going to go on, and you can find this, gosh, across all the cultures in different ways, especially in the initiation rituals of young men, as they're forced to come to terms with certain limits, you know, without food and without means of self-defense, and to survive in a hostile situation.
这样做其实让你走到某种极限，将你带入一种极端 经验，你在其中正视自己的软弱、试探和恐惧。 What that does is it brings you to a kind of edge, brings you to a limit experience, and you come to terms with your weakness, with your temptation, with your fears.
如果你要迈向成熟，这一点是至关重要的。 And that's essential if you're going to make the move into maturity.
在这里也有类似的情况：主必须去面对三个重大试探。 Well, there's something like that going on here as the Lord is going to come to terms with three great temptations.
这些试探要做什么呢？ Temptations to do what?
让你变成并非神要你成为的那种人。 To become not the person that God wants you to be.
那一直都是关键所在。 That's always the question.
这也始终是最大的问题：我是否正成为神要我成为的那个人？ That's always the great issue: Am I becoming the person that God wants me to be?
还是我正受到其他方向的诱惑？ Or am I being tempted in some other direction?
当然，耶稣没有屈服于这些试探，他并不犯罪，但他感 受到了我们所感受到的、使人偏离正路的那些诱惑。 Jesus, of course, without giving in to the temptations, He's not a sinner, but He feels the temptations that we feel away from the path we ought to be on.
因此，当四旬期开始时，我们去看这些试探就很有益处。 So it's really good for us, as Lent commences, for us to look at these.
那么第一个试探：那些日子里他什么都没吃，结束后他就饿了。 So here's the first one: He ate nothing in those days, and when they were over, He was hungry.
魔鬼对他说：「如果你是神的儿子，就吩咐这块石头变成食物吧。」 The devil said to Him, If you're the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.
那离开神为我们预备的道路的第一个试探是什么？ What's the first temptation away from the path that God wants for us?
我会称第一个试探是对舒适的追求。 The first temptation I would call it is comfort.
把这些石头变成面包，而他那时极其饥饿。 Turn these stones into bread, and He's starving.
当然，他会想吃到香喷喷的美味面包。 Of course, He wants to eat a beautiful, delicious loaf of bread.
还有什么能比这更诱人？ What could be more enticing?
饮食、舒适、感官的愉悦，这些本身都很好。 Food and drink, comfort, sensual pleasure, all of it good in itself.
是的，就像我多次说过的，我们公教徒并不是清教徒。 Yes, as I've said to you many, many times, Catholics are not Puritans.
我们热爱这个世界的好东西。 We love the goods of this world.
我们喜欢饮食和性，这些本身完全没有问题。 We love food and drink and sex, and there's nothing at all wrong with those things.
但当它们变成至高的善，你生命的最高目标，成为你人生的北极星时， But when they become the summum bonum, the highest good, they become the North Star of your life.
那你就可能被引诱偏离神要你走的道路了。 Now you're tempted away, perhaps, from the path that God wants you to take.
约瑟夫·拉辛格不是说过吗：「我们不是为安逸而造，而是为伟大而造」？ Wasn't it Yosef Ratzinger who said, Yeah, we're not made for comfort; we're made for greatness?
对不对？ Right?
我们受造就是要成为把神的恩典带进世界的管道，你要听清楚这一点。 We're made to be, listen now, conduits of the divine grace into the world.
那才是我们的使命。 That's our task.
当然，这会有千百种不同的形式。 Now, it'll take a million different forms.
每个人都有自己独特的方式，但其根本点永远相同：要成为将神的恩典带进世界的管道。 It'll be as unique as each individual, but the basic form is always the same: to be a conduit of the divine grace into the world.
但你看，如果我说我的人生就是为了安逸，那我就找不到那条道路了。 But see, if I say my life is about comfort, then I'm not going to find that path.
我就无法成为神的生命的传输者。 I am not going to be a conduit of a divine life.
你知道，我在这里想到托尔金与比尔博和佛罗多这两位角色。 You know, I think here of the great Tolkien and Bilbo and Frodo.
比尔博在《霍比特人》中展开壮丽冒险之前，必 须先被拉出那个既舒适又惬意的霍比特洞居。 And before Bilbo leaves on his great adventure in The Hobbit, he has to be drawn out of that really comfy, cozy hobbit hole that he lives in.
如果你想更生动地看到这点，可以重温电影，或者把《霍比特人》拿出来读。 Revisit the movies if you want to see this vividly displayed, or dig out The Hobbit.
那是个可爱的小地方，又暖和又舒适，他整个人也挺 好的，道德上没什么问题，但他的生活就是很安逸。 It's this lovely little cozy, warm, comfortable place where he lives, and he's a good little soul, and nothing morally wrong with him, but he's living a comfortable life.
如果人生只在于此，你就永远不会成为神要你成为的那个人。 If that's what it's all about, you're never going to become the person God wants you to be.
因此，第一个试探——对舒适、轻松、感官享乐的追求——必须被抵制。 And so that first temptation, comfort, ease, sensual pleasure has to be resisted.
于是主说：「看，人活着不是单靠食物，还要靠出自神口里的一切话语。」 So the Lord says, Look, we don't live on bread alone, but every word that comes from the mouth of God.
就这样。 That's it.
我们要靠食物生活，这是其中一部分，但并不只靠食物而活。 We do live on bread; that's part of it, but not bread alone.
更高的生命来自更高的源头。 The higher life is coming from a higher source.
好吧？ Okay?
第二个试探：于是魔鬼带他上去，一瞬间让他看遍天下万国。 Temptation number two: Then he, the devil, took Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant.
魔鬼对他说：「如果你敬拜我，我就把这一切的权势和荣耀都给你。」 The devil said to Him, I shall give to you all this power and glory if you worship me.
好，那么权力本身糟糕吗？ Okay, is power bad in itself?
不。非常好的人也能运用权力行善。 No. Very good people can exercise power for good.
道理很简单：神被称为全能，所以权力本身并非是坏的。 Reason: God has described it as all-powerful, so it can't be bad in itself.
但是，权力会不会成为一种非常危险的诱惑，使我们偏离神要我们走的道路？ But can power be a very dangerous temptation away from the path God wants us to walk?
毫无疑问会。 You bet.
再说回托尔金：那枚戒指的本质是什么？ Again, Tolkien: What's the ring between?
那块让所有人都陷入困扰的戒指，究竟是所有祸患的根源吗？ What's the ring that bedevils everybody in that story, the source of all mischief?
它恰恰是一枚象征权力的戒指。 It's a ring precisely of power.
这就是他们所想要的。 That's what they want.
有不少人，你知道，他们可以放弃感官享受和舒适生活 ，并不为此纠结，但他们却对权力有着极大的渴望。 There are a lot of people, you know, they can eschew sensual pleasure and comfort; that's not their hang-up, but they are massively attracted to power.
在宏大的地缘政治层面上可以这样，但我们每个人其实也都受到行使权力的诱惑。 Now this can be on the grandest geopolitical scale, you know, but every one of us is tempted to exercise power.
圣奥古斯丁将罪描述为「libido dom inandi」，也就是拉丁语中的统治欲。 St. Augustine describes sin as the libido dominandi, his Latin for the lust to dominate.
我告诉你们，这种欲望存在于小孩子身上，你能看到，也存在于最高层级的政治人物身上。 And I submit to you, everybody, it's in little kids; you can see it, and it's in the highest figures on the political scene.
那种主宰一切的欲望是非常强大的诱惑。 The lust to dominate is a very powerful temptation.
但你看，也许神呼召你用一种非常卑微、无力的方式去传递他的爱。 But see, maybe God is calling you to be a conduit of His love in a very weak and powerless way.
也许他要你走一条非常谦卑的道路。 Maybe He wants you to take a very humble path.
也许会有各种拥有权力的人在你之上。 Maybe it's all kinds of people that have power over you.
看看主他自己。 Look at the Lord Himself.
在他一生的高潮时刻，他却毫无权力。 At the climax of His life, He has no power whatsoever.
他被交给那些逮捕他的人。 He's handed over to those who arrest Him.
他被交给公会，交给本丢·彼拉多，交给那些最 终把他处死的行刑者，最后被钉在十字架上。 He's handed over to the Sanhedrin, handed over to Pontius Pilate, handed over to the executioners who hand Him over to death at the end, and He's nailed to a cross.
他被剥夺了一切权力，却正走在神所定的道路上。 He's denuded of all power, but He's walking the divine path.
第二个大试探是：我们会不会被各式各样的权力所诱惑？ The second great temptation: Are we lured by power in all of its manifestations?
如果是，你就无法走上神要你走的那条道路。 If you are, you're not going to find the path that God wants you to have.
现在听我说，也许神会让你处在一个有权力的位置上。 Now listen, maybe God will put you in a powerful position.
好，这也不错，只要你是为了神的目的而使用这权力，而不是为了你自己。 Okay, fair enough, as long as now you're using that power for God's purposes, not your own.
你看，这才是关键。 See, that's the key.
注意，当魔鬼对我说：「只要你敬拜我，我就把这些国度都给你。」 Notice when the devil says to me, I'll give you all these kingdoms if you but worship me.
不不，你只能敬拜神。 No, no, you worship God alone.
唯有神才是至高的善。 God alone is the summum bonum.
这才是关键所在。 That's the point.
如果你把权力当成至高善，那么实际上——我这 里拉丁语说得有点多——你就是在敬拜魔鬼。 If you make power the summum bonum, you are ipso facto—I'm speaking a lot of Latin here—worshiping the devil.
我常跟各位说，你所敬拜的，会决定你生命中其他一切。 I've often said to you, you know, what you worship determines everything else in your life.
你是否在敬拜自己的安逸，敬拜自己的权力？ Are you worshiping your own comfort, worshiping your own power?
那你就走在错误的道路上。 Then you're on the wrong path.
好了，最后一个试探：魔鬼带他到了耶路撒冷，让他站在圣殿的垛口，对他说：「如果你 是神的儿子，就从这里跳下去，因为经上记着『他要为你吩咐他的使者来保护你。』」 Okay, last temptation: Then he led Him—he, the devil—led Him to Jerusalem, made Him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to Him, If you're the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it's written, 'He will command His angels to guard you.'
我觉得这个试探很有意思。 Now this one I think is interesting.
某种程度上它更微妙。 It's more subtle in a way.
前两个试探相对比较直白，就是感官享受、安逸 ，以及权力，我们都大致明白那些诱惑的模样。 The first two are kind of straightforward, you know, the sensual pleasure, comfort, and power, and we know what those things are like, those temptations.
那这个试探究竟是什么？ What's this temptation exactly?
其实就是企图利用神来成就你自己的意图。 Well, it's to use God for your own purposes.
看，我现在站在圣殿的垛口。 Here I am on the parapet of the temple.
你知道，我是世界之王。 You know, I'm the King of the world.
我要跳下去，我要逼着神来出手。 I'm going to throw myself down, and I'm going to compel God.
这是想利用并操纵神的行为。 This is someone who's trying to use and manipulate God.
听好，而不是去做神的仆人。 Listen now, rather than becoming the servant of God.
我说它微妙，是因为这是骄傲的罪。 I say it's subtle because this is the sin of pride.
这正是灵修大师们所认定的首要罪。 This is what the spiritual masters recognize as the capital sin.
什么是骄傲？就是把自己当成宇宙的中心。 What's pride but making myself into the center of the universe?
我的自我就像个黑洞，把一切事物、一切光芒都吸进自己，包括神。 My ego becoming a black hole that draws all things and all light into itself, including God.
你可能说，我从来没那样做过啊。 Now you say, Well, I never do that.
可每当你说：「你知道吗，主啊，你为什么不出手帮我？」 Whenever you say, You know, Lord, why aren't you doing things to help me here?
「为什么事情没照我的方法进行？」 Why aren't things working out my way?
「我祷告再祷告，可你就是不照我想的去做。」 I pray and pray and pray, but you don't do what I want.
你看，那其实就是在试探神。 You see, what that is is a temptation of God.
是对神的操纵。 It's a manipulation of God.
不不，我们的目标并不是让神来做我想要的事。 No, no, the game is not getting God to do what I want.
真正的目标是顺服于神的旨意，是的，哪怕我并不完全明白。 The game is surrendering to God's purposes, yes, even when I don't fully understand them.
你若愿意、若敢，就进入耶稣在十字架上处于人性时的 心思，他在说：「神啊，我的神，你为什么离弃我？」 Move, if you will, if you dare, into the human nature of Jesus on the cross in His human mind saying, God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
对，这就是我们所说的那种感受。 Well, that's the feeling we're talking about.
但当然，在耶稣身上我们看到的是什么？ But of course, what do we find in Jesus?
不是想要操纵神，而是顺服神的旨意与计划，而非他自己的想法。 Not a desire to manipulate God, but a surrender to God's purposes and God's will, not His own.
在客西马尼园里，他说：「愿你的旨意成就，而不是我的。」 Your will be done, not mine, He says in the Garden of Gethsemane.
好的，各位，随着四旬期开始，走进旷野般的时刻，那是我们撇 下那些消遣分心之事、不再逃避的时候，要正视这些重大问题。 Okay, so everybody, as Lent commences, the desert, the time when we leave the divertissement aside, the diversions, we come to terms with these great questions.
其中包括：让我远离神的三条典型道路是什么？ And among them are: What are the three classical paths that are leading me away from God?
舒适在我心中达到何种程度才算太过重要？ To what degree has comfort become too important to me?
权力与那统治欲究竟在我身上变得多么重要？ To what degree has power and the libido dominandi become too important for me?
我想让神为我的目的所用，而不是顺服他旨意的程度又有多深？ To what degree am I trying to manipulate God for my purposes rather than surrendering to His purposes?
让我们在接下来的四十天里多多思考并挣扎于这些问题吧，愿神祝福你们。 Let's all spend a lot of these next 40 days wrestling with those questions, and God bless you.