正教會今日讀經:
宗/ 徒17:19-28
他們遂帶保祿,領他到了阿勒約帕哥,說:「我們可以知道你所講的這新道理是什麼嗎?我們聽見你說了一些新奇的事,所以我們想知道這到底有什麼意思。」原來所有的雅典人和僑居在那裏的外國人,不管其他的事,只是論談或探聽一些新奇的事。
保祿遂即站在阿勒約帕哥當中說:「眾位雅典人,我看你們在各方面都更敬畏神明,因為我行經各處,細看你們所敬之物,也見到一座祭壇,上面寫著「給未識之神。」現在,我就將你們所敬拜而不認識的這一位,傳告給你們。創造宇宙及其中萬物的天主,既是天地的主宰,就不住人手所建的殿宇,也不受人手的侍候,好像需要什麼似的,而是他將生命、呼吸和一切賞給了眾人。他由一個人造了全人類,使他們住在全地面上,給他們立定了年限,和他們所居處的疆界;如他們尋求天主,或者可以摸索而找到他;其實,他離我們每人並不遠,因為我們生活、行動、存在,都在他內,正如你們的某些詩人說的:「原來我們也是他的子孫。」
They took him and led him to the Areopagus and said, “May we learn what this new teaching is that you speak of? For you bring some strange notions to our ears; we should like to know what these things mean.” Now all the Athenians as well as the foreigners residing there used their time for nothing else but telling or hearing something new.
Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said: “You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious. For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, or is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything. He made from one the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions, so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’ as even some of your poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’
若/ 約12:19-36
於是法利塞人便彼此說:「看,你們一無所成!瞧,全世界都跟他去了。」
在那些上來過節,崇拜天主的人中,有些希臘人。他們來到加里肋亞貝特賽達人斐理伯前,請求他說:「先生!我們願拜見耶穌。」斐理伯就去告訴安德肋,然後安德肋和斐理伯便來告訴耶穌。耶穌開口向他們說:「人子要受光榮的時辰到了。我實實在在告訴你們:一粒麥子如果不落在地裏死了,仍只是一粒;如果死了,才結出許多子粒來。愛惜自己性命的,必要喪失性命;在現世憎恨自己性命的,必要保存性命入於永生。誰若事奉我,就當跟隨我;如此,我在那裡,我的僕人也要在那裡;誰若事奉我,我父必要尊重他。
現在我心神煩亂,我可說什麼呢?我說: 父啊! 救我脫離這時辰罷?但正是為此,我才到了這時辰。父啊! 光榮你的名罷!」當時有聲音來自天上:「我已光榮了我的名,我還要光榮。」在場聽見的群眾,便說:「這是打雷。」另有人說:「是天使同他說話。」耶穌回答說:「這聲音不是為我而來,而是為你們。現在就是這世界應受審判的時候,現在這世界的元首就要被趕出去;至於我,當我從地上被舉起來時,便要吸引眾人來歸向我。」他說這話,是要表明他要以怎樣的死而死。於是群眾回答他說:「我們從法律知道:默西亞要存留到永遠;你怎麼說:人子必須被舉起呢?這個人子是誰?」耶穌遂給他們說:「光在你們中間還有片刻。你們趁著還有光的時候,應該行走,免得黑暗籠罩了你們。那在黑暗中行走的,不知道往那裏去。幾時你們還有光,應當信從光,好成為光明之子。」耶穌講完了這些話,就躲開他們,隱藏去了。
So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the whole world has gone after him.”
Now there were some Greeks among those who had come up to worship at the feast. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.
”I am troubled now. Yet what should I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.” The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder; but others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come for my sake but for yours. Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” He said this indicating the kind of death he would die. So the crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. Then how can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” Jesus said to them, “The light will be among you only a little while. Walk while you have the light, so that darkness may not overcome you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light.” After he had said this, Jesus left and hid from them.