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Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament 
Stewards of God’s Gifts 

Glimpse of Spirituality （靈修一瞥）40                                                  Fr. Abraham Chiu 趙必成神父

 

It is so special that even one of the scribes came to Jesus, asking Jesus for becoming his disciple. He said: “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”

Jesus replied the scribe by illustrating the requirement of discipleship, i.e. the wandering life of Jesus: “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.”

 

After hearing this, one of the disciples intended to leave Jesus by saying, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” His father has not yet died. What he meant is that he would leave Jesus now and wait until his father passed away. Jesus   insisted: “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”

 

The verb “follow” (akolouthēsō) is meant that a person attending Jesus’ life and accompanying him to the kingdom of heaven. That is to say, anyone who willingly follows Jesus, s/he must live the life of Jesus, i.e. the cross. This life is too hard to some disciples. They simply opt for their family life rather than Jesus’ unstable life.

 

Jesus required that discipleship should take absolute precedence over everything else. Regarding the burial of parents, Jesus told the disciple to let the dead bury the dead. The meaning must be paradoxical and ironic that it denotes the     spiritual death. So the buriers of the dead are those who have rejected Jesus and his calling. They loved parents more than Jesus (Matt 10:37) and had chosen death instead of the life eternal. In other words, the meaning of Jesus’ statement should be “Let the living dead who are in the world bury those dead in the body.”

 

The disciple is told by Jesus to let the dead bury their own dead. In this way the evangelist informs us that Jesus’ mercy is not emotional. It is life, real life. Jesus freely bestows grace on his disciples but he is not to be presumed upon.

 

Love gives and requires in equal measure.

 

有經師來請求耶穌，要成為他的門徒，說：“師傅，你不論往那裡去，我要跟隨你。”

耶穌隨即說明成為門徒的條件，是跟他一起過居無定所的生活：“狐狸有穴，天上的飛鳥有巢，但是人子卻沒有枕頭的地方。”

聽這話，其中一個門徒打算離開耶穌,說：“主，請許我先去埋葬我的父親。”其實，他的父親還沒去世；只是暗示現在就離開耶穌，等他父親去世後，才來跟隨他。耶穌堅持說：“你跟隨我吧！任憑死人去埋葬他們的死人!”

“跟隨”（akolouthēsō）意指參與耶穌生活，並跟隨他到天國。也就是說，任何願意跟隨耶穌的人，都必須過耶穌的生活，即十字架。十字架的生活，對一些門徒來說，太難了。他們還是選擇穩定生活，而非跟耶穌一樣居無定所。

耶穌培育門徒一切要以天主為先。關於父母葬禮，耶穌告訴門徒讓死人埋葬死人，這句話聽起來匪夷所思，耶穌意指屬靈的死亡。

“死人”指向那些拒絕耶穌和他召叫的人，從靈性生命的角度來看，他們已經死了；他們愛父母勝過愛耶穌（參瑪10:37），因此，實際上是選擇死亡而不是永生。這句話實際意思是“讓世上的活死人去埋葬他們的死人”。耶穌這句神修話，告訴信徒他的慈悲不是一時感動，是生活，真實的生活。

耶穌的慈悲大愛，邀請門徒回應，是愛的圓滿，是活人。

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Welcome

Sacramento Chinese Catholic community was formed with the purpose of establishing a base for Chinese speaking people to come to know God and to worship him. Language barrier and ethnic difference have been keeping a lot of people from the house of God. They couldn't fully participate in the church and didn't have a sense of belonging. Now with our own Chinese speaking priest, the Sacramento Chinese Catholic Community is becoming more and more lively.


We sincerely invite you: if you were a Catholic and were not able to participate in mass or sacraments due to language barrier, this is your home; if you were a Catholic with no language barrier, are you willing to help God build up His church locally for the Chinese speaking people? If you were not a Catholic yet, you will find God here by feeling the love among our members.


Even if you were not one of those above, we still want to invite you to visit us and then you can properly introduce us to your friends who may need a group like this.

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Check us out by coming to our Chinese mass at 2:00pm on a Sunday, or just call one of the contact persons. See you soon!

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CHINESE CATHOLIC MASS 2:00 PM SUNDAYS

Contact Us Today!

Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament
c/o Sacramento Chinese Catholic Community

1017 11th Street
Sacramento, CA 95814


Phone: (916) 583-8306

Email: sccc.contact@gmail.com

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Priest: Fr. Abraham Chiu
(510) 588-0481

President: John Wong
Email: sccc.contact@gmail.com
 

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