原文|Bishop Barron
翻译|Carrie

朋友们，今天的福音纪念耶稣的女门徒。耶稣之教诲的主要标志之一是颠覆社会惯例。祂作出种种乖张的言行是为了成就祂所说的天国，即天主对全人类的安排。

 

而耶稣最突出、最惊人的举动之一就是激进性地接纳女性。祂容许女人加入其社交圈内（对于辣彼来说简直是闻所未闻）。祂公然与撒玛黎雅妇人在泉边对话。祂与客纳罕妇人攀谈。祂宽恕淫妇。还有，耶稣复活的第一批目击者是妇人。

 

讲述这篇福音故事的路加是宗徒保禄的同伴，他的福音书反映了很多保禄的思想主题。保禄的名言说：“不再分犹太人或希腊人，奴隶或自由人，男人或女人，因为你们众人在基督耶稣内已成了一个。”这在当时是非常激进的，因为保禄提到的三个范畴是古代的一些最基本的社会阶层。自由人比奴隶优哉游哉得多，犹太人比希腊人更深具优势，男人比女人有着更高的社会地位。但根据耶稣宣扬的天国，这一切不复存在。

 

Friends, our Gospel today celebrates the female disciples of Jesus. One of the principal marks of Jesus' teaching is the overturning of social conventions. In service of what he calls the Kingdom of God, God's way of ordering the world, he says and does all sorts of outrageous things.

 

And one of the most striking and surprising of Jesus' moves is a radical inclusion of women. He allows women into his inner circle (practically unheard of for a rabbi). He speaks publicly to the woman at the well. He engages the Syro-Phoenician woman. He forgives the woman caught in adultery. Also, the first witnesses of the Resurrection are women.

 

Luke, who told this story, was a companion of Paul, and his Gospel reflects many of Paul's themes. Paul famously says, "in Christ, there is no slave or free, no Jew or Greek, no male or female". This was very radical stuff in those times, for these were some of the most basic social divisions of the ancient world. Free men were a lot better off than slaves, Jews had huge advantages over Greeks, and males were seen as superior to females. But not anymore, not in light of the Kingdom of God that Jesus announces.