Glimpse of Spirituality（靈修一瞥）58                                                       Fr. Abraham Chiu 趙必成神父

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What is this God to us? Is God a harsh judge like the master in the parable? Is God still merciful and kind if God takes away our belongings even we have not?

The parable talks about the faith of Christians that they should learn from the first and second slaves as to earn a profit. Noteworthy is that the third slave acted differently from the other two. He treated the sum of money as a fixed deposit entrusted to him and he guarded it carefully. He was honest to the money from the master; to be certain was that he did not take away the money for himself. Why did the master, thus, treat him harshly? That brings us to the heart of this parable.

Jesus said, “cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness; there people will weep and gnash their teeth.” The adjective “worthless” (achreion) denotes that the slave was useless and good for nothing. He was condemned as worthless, metaphorically, because of his laziness and coward. This slave told his master: “so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground.” What he was afraid was that he saw the master a person a hard man.

Love is not afraid of risk. In Jesus, the courage of love gives no room to fear before God. It is because we are supported by God’s merciful love in every moment. Thus, we are not afraid to take risk and we do not just bury our talents under the ground and safeguard our own salvation.

What we do at the present will be our own judgment on the last day. Or better, we are our own judges. It is exactly what the example of the third slave means. What gifts we receive from God are for sharing with others in order to follow Jesus’ as a fisher of people.

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天主對我們來說，是什麼？

天主是否如同耶穌所講比喻的主人一樣，是嚴厲判官？正如耶穌在故事裡面說：“凡是有的，還要給他，叫他富裕；那沒有的，連他所有的，也要由他手中奪去。”天主還算慈悲？

比喻談論的，是基督徒的信仰，他們的信仰態度，要跟首兩位僕人學習。值得注意的，第三個僕人把主人給他的錢，當成定期存款一樣小心保管。其實，這僕人並不壞，他誠實保管金錢；那麼，主人為何對他如此苛刻？這關鍵道出比喻核心。

耶穌在比喻結論說：“至於這無用的僕人，你們把他丟在外面的黑暗中，在那裡必有哀號和切齒。”

形容詞“無用”（achreion）表示僕人一無是處，一文不值，這都由於他的懶惰和懦弱。僕人對主人說：“因為我害怕，所以我去把你的塔冷通藏在地下；看！你的仍還給你。”他害怕的是來自主觀認為主人對僕人刻薄。

在愛內沒有害怕。當人活在在耶穌裡，愛的勇氣使人在世界面前無所畏懼，都是天主的愛所支持。因此，基督徒不怕冒險福傳，不會將天主所賜才能埋在地下，來所謂保證自己的救贖。

每人每天的行為，將是末日的自我審判。這正是第三個僕人的結果。

從天主獲得的禮物，目的是為與人分享，好能滿全耶穌召叫：捕人的漁夫。