返璞歸真 Mere Christianity Book III Lesson 9 愛
Book III Lesson 9
愛
Charity
I said in an earlier chapter that there were four "Cardinal" virtues and three "Theological" virtues. Thethree Theological ones are Faith, Hope, and Charity. Faith is going to be dealt with in the last twochapters. Charity was partly dealt with in Chapter 7, but there I concentrated on that part of Charitywhich is called Forgiveness. I now want to add a little more.
我在前面說過,基督教講的德行有七,其中四個叫做「;德",叄個叫做「聖德"。聖德是信、望、與愛。信德將在最後兩章中討論,愛德已在第七章中講了一半,但重點放在寬恕之愛上,現在我要把他講完。
First, as to the meaning of the word. "Charity" now means simply what used to be called "alms"—thatis, giving to the poor. Originally it had a much wider meaning. (You can see how it got the modernsense. If a man has "charity," giving to the poor is one of the most obvious things he does, and sopeople came to talk as if that were the whole of charity. In the same way, "rhyme" is the most obviousthing about poetry, and so people come to mean by "poetry" simply rhyme and nothing more.) Charitymeans "Love, in the Christian sense." But love, in the Christian sense, does not mean an emotion. It isa state not of the feelings but of the will; that state of the will which we have naturally aboutourselves, and must learn to have about other people.
第一、英文「Charity",指的是「慈善",也就是對窮人的施捨。這個字本來的意義比這廣泛得多。(這個字怎麽會用來指慈善,是因為幫助窮人是善舉中最顯而易見的。就像詩歌最要緊的是押韻〔rhyme〕,所以大家便把「韻"來代表詩或曲)。照基督教的用法, Charity的意思是「愛",但指的不是感情上的那種愛,而是屬乎意志,一種天生便有的愛自己的意願"但必須學慣用這個意願來愛別人。
I pointed out in the chapter on Forgiveness that our love for ourselves does not mean that we likeourselves. It means that we wish our own good. In the same way Christian Love (or Charity) for ourneighbours is quite a different thing from liking or affection. We "like" or are "fond of" some people,and not of others. It is important to understand that this natural "liking" is neither a sin nor a virtue,any more than your likes and dislikes in food are a sin or a virtue. It is just a fact But, of course, whatwe do about it is either sinful or virtuous.
我在講寬恕一章時曾經指出,我們愛自己並不等於說我們「喜歡"自己,只是對自己的一種祝願。基督教講的愛鄰舍的愛,和喜歡或喜好不同。我們可以「喜歡"某些人,而不「喜歡"另一些人。雖然這種天性上的「喜歡"並非罪,也不是什麽德,就像你喜歡或不喜歡食物不是罪也不是德一樣。他是一個事實,但所引發的行為則有好與壞的不同。
Natural liking or affection for people makes it easier to be "charitable" towards them. It is, therefore,normally a duty to encourage our affections—to "like" people as much as we can (just as it is oftenour duty to encourage our liking for exercise or wholesome food)—not because this liking is itself thevirtue of charity, but because it is a help to it On the other hand, it is also necessary to keep a verysharp look-out for fear our liking for some one person makes us uncharitable, or even unfair, tosomeone else.
有了天性上對人的喜歡或喜好,使我們比較容易「愛"他們。因此,在通常情況下,我們有責任發揮我們天性上的喜好去「歡喜"人,就像我們有責任去力促自己「喜歡"運動,「喜歡"健康食物一樣。這不是由於喜好本身屬於愛德,而是可以培養此德。從另一方面看,我們必須份外小心,不可以讓我們對一個人的喜歡變成對另一個人的無愛心,甚至不公平。
There are even cases where our liking conflicts with our charity towards the person we like. Forexample, a doting mother may be tempted by natural affection to "spoil" her child; that is, to gratifyher own affectionate impulses at the expense of the child"s real happiness later on.
在有些情形中,我們的喜好會和我們對一個人的愛衝突:比方說,一個溺愛子女的母親,會因天性上愛子女之心而「慣壞"她的孩子。這就將天性上的喜歡用錯了地方,犧牲了子女將來的幸福;若是真愛子女便不可以溺愛他們。
But though natural likings should normally be encouraged, it would be quite wrong to think that theway to become charitable is to sit trying to manufacture affectionate feelings. Some people are "cold"by temperament; that may be a misfortune for them, but it is no more a sin than having a bad digestionis a sin; and it does not cut them out from the chance, or excuse them from the duty, of learningcharity. The rule for all of us is perfectly simple. Do not waste time bothering whether you "love"your neighbour; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When youare behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.
在通常情況下,天然的愛好應該培養,但若以為坐著不動來培養喜悅人的情感,真愛便會萌生,那便錯了。有的人生性「冷淡""這也許很不幸,但不是罪,就像消化不良不是罪一樣。這種天生性格絲毫不減他學習愛心的機會,當然也不能因此藉口不盡愛人的責任。愛的守則非常簡單:別老問自己有沒有「愛"鄰舍的心,只須認定有並且付諸行動便成了。什麽時候能這樣做,什麽時候便能發現人生的一大秘訣:先認定自己對人有愛心,並且付諸行動,你對他的愛心立即產生。
If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a goodturn, you will find yourself disliking him less. There is, indeed, one exception. If you do him a goodturn, not to please God and obey the law of charity, but to show him what a fine forgiving chap youare, and to put him in your debt, and then sit down to wait for his "gratitude," you will probably bedisappointed. (People are not fools: they have a very quick eye for anything like showing off, orpatronage.) But whenever we do good to another self, just because it is a self, made (like us) by God,and desiring its own happiness as we desire ours, we shall have learned to love it a little more or, atleast, to dislike it less.
如果你本來不喜歡某人,現在又傷害了他,你會越發不喜歡他。如果改變態度,反而對他好,你會覺得沒有以前那麽討厭他。不過,有個例外,你改變態度,開始對他好,若不是為了取悅上帝,遵行他要你愛人的訓誠,而是為了炫耀你如何寬宏大量,如何給了對方一個面子、一個人情,然後坐下等人家來「感激";十有九成,你得到的會是失望。(別人不是傻瓜,一眼就能看出你是真有愛心抑或只是賣弄人情。)要知道我們所以應該對另一個人好,因為他裡頭也有一個像我們一樣由上帝造的自我。這個自我也像我們一樣,渴望得到快樂幸福。我們本來就應該學習多點愛人,或者起碼少點討厭人。
Consequently, though Christian charity sounds a very cold thing to people whose heads are full ofsentimentality, and though it is quite distinct from affection, yet it leads to affection. The differencebetween a Christian and a worldly man is not that the worldly man has only affections or "likings" andthe Christian has only "charity." The worldly man treats certain people kindly because he "likes"them: the Christian, trying to treat every one kindly, finds himself liking more and more people as hegoes on—including people he could not even have imagined himself liking at the beginning.
因此,基督教講求的愛心,對滿腦子都是激情的人來說,好像很不夠溫暖。事實上,這種愛心雖然和感情上的喜歡很不同,卻能引人進入情感上的喜愛中。基督徒與世俗人間之不同,不是世俗人只有情感上的喜愛,基督徒只有「愛心"。世俗人會因為「喜歡"某人便待他好,基督徒則力圖對待人人都好,持久下去,他喜歡的人會越來越多,包括在開頭的時候他連做夢都想不到會去喜歡的人。
This same spiritual law works terribly in the opposite direction. The Germans, perhaps, at first illtreatedthe Jews because they hated them: afterwards they hated them much more because they had illtreatedthem. The more cruel you are, the more you will hate; and the more you hate, the more cruelyou will become—and so on in a vicious circle for ever.
這條屬靈的律在相反的方面也同樣有效。德國人開初可能因為恨猶太人而虐待他們,後來,因為虐待他們,便恨得更厲害。為人越殘酷,仇恨人便會越甚;仇恨人越甚,便會變得越殘忍,惡性循環不息。
Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I makeevery day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategicpoint from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. Anapparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgeheadfrom which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.
善與惡都像複利息一樣會累積,這是為什麽我們平日的一個小決定,會有無盡影響力的道理。今天最微不足道的一點善心,能夠替你佔領一個戰略性的據點,幾個月後,成為你得到空前勝利的墓地。反之,看來毫不重要的一點點怒氣,一點點貪慾,失去的只是一座小山,一條鐵路或者一個橋頭堡,敵人卻可用來大舉進攻。如果你當時未失去,敵人便沒有用武之地。
Some writers use the word charity to describe not only Christian love between human beings, but alsoGod"s love for man and man"s love for God. About the second of these two, people are often worried.They are told they ought to love God. They cannot find any such feeling in themselves. What are theyto do? The answer is the same as before. Act as if you did. Do not sit trying to manufacture feelings.Ask yourself, "If I were sure that I loved God, what would I do?" When you have found the answer,go and do it.
有些作家不只用「愛"這個字來描寫人與人間的基督徒般的愛,也用來說明上帝對人之愛,和人對上帝之愛。人們常常擔心缺乏愛上帝之心,而他們都知道,人應該愛上帝。那怎麽辦呢?答案也像前面說過的一樣,你可以認定自己愛上帝,並且照著去做,不要坐著不動,等那愛上帝之情產生。你可以這樣問自己:「要是我的確愛上帝的話,我現在應該做什麽?"一找到答案,便立刻去行。
On the whole, God"s love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for Him. Nobodycan always have devout feelings: and even if we could, feelings are not what God principally caresabout. Christian Love, either towards God or towards man, is an affair of the will. If we are trying todo His will we are obeying the commandment, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God." He will give usfeelings of love if He pleases. We cannot create them for ourselves, and we must not demand them asa right. But the great thing to remember is that, though our feelings come and go, His love for us doesnot. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore, it is quite relentless in itsdetermination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him.
從全面來說,要得到上帝對我們的愛易,要我們愛上帝便比較難。沒有誰能常保敬虔,即令能,上帝所看重的也不是一個人的外貌。基督徒的愛,無論對上帝或是對人,都屬於意志上的事。我們若著意去實行他的旨意,便是遵行他的「你們應該愛主你的上帝"的命令。他若願意,便會賜給我們愛的感情。這種感情不能自己製造,也不是屬於自己的權利,可以去向上帝要。應記得:人的感情可以生也可以滅,但上帝對我們的愛永存,不會因我們的罪,因我們的冷淡而稍減。因此,上帝願付出一切代價,來醫治人的這些罪。人也須不惜任何代價來接受這大愛,使罪得赦。
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