2017-10-26

朋友们，耶稣在今天的福音中说的话令人恐惧：“我来是为把火投在地上，我是多么切望愿它已经燃烧起来。” 祂投下火焰，就像天主消灭索多玛和哈摩辣那样。

 

那么我们应该怎样理解耶稣的话？天使在圣诞日早上不是说耶稣是平安之主吗？耶稣是天主道成人身，天主就是爱，但这种化身发生于堕落罪恶的世界之中，因此显得危险、奇异、令人反感。

 

根据圣经，这个世界是个反常的家庭。当耶稣来到，祂必然打破和平、威胁这个反常的家庭。那么我们就能开始理解耶稣为什么说让三个反对两个、两个反对三个的奇怪言论。

 

所以，耶稣想把火投在地上，祂想烧毁违背天主旨意的一切。祂必须在建造新世界之前清理地表。这个过程是否绝对痛苦？是的！

 

Friends, the statement of Jesus that we have in the Gospel for today is frightening: “I have come to cast a fire upon the earth; how I wish it were already kindled.” He’s throwing fire down, much like the God who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

 

Okay, so how do we make sense of all this? I thought the angels on Christmas morning said that he had come as the Prince of Peace? Jesus is the Incarnation of the God who is nothing but love, but this enfleshment takes place in the midst of a fallen, sinful world. Therefore, it will appear as something threatening, strange, off-putting.

 

The world, on the Biblical reading, is a dysfunctional family. When Jesus comes, he necessarily comes as a breaker of the peace, as a threat to the dysfunctional family. Now we can begin to understand that strange language about setting three against two and two against three.

 

This is why Jesus wants to cast a consuming fire on the earth. He wants to burn away all that is opposed to God’s desire for us. He has to clear the ground before something new can be built. Is this utterly painful? YES!