Loving God and Neighbor 爱天主爱近人
The love of God helps us understand where life comes from and where it is going. The love of neighbor turns this understanding into care for the person before us. We invite you to read more in Fr. Joseph's latest bilingual Scripture reflection, included below in Chinese and then in English:
Scripture Reflection in Chinese
常年期第三十主日 （甲年）
今天是常年期第三十主日。今天的读经讲爱天主、爱近人，帮助我们认识信仰的中心，以及基督徒生活应有的样貌。爱天主，使人的生命获得最终的归向；爱近人，使这种认识落实在日常生活中。两条诫命彼此相通，共同指出基督徒生活的方向。今天的福音是从一个关于诫命的问题开始，指引我们进入圣经的核心，也帮助我们思考：一个真正爱天主的人，应当怎样生活？
一位法学士问耶稣：“老师，法律中哪一条诫命是最大的？”当时的犹太信仰生活包含许多具体的诫命，这个问题涉及怎样理解这些诫命，以及怎样把握它们共同的精神。耶稣引用《申命纪》第六章回答：“你应全心、全灵、全意爱你的天主上主。”这条诫命属于以色列人经常诵念的信仰宣认，提醒他们记得自己属于谁，又应当怎样生活。全心、全灵、全意，就是以整个人回应天主，让思想、情感、意愿和行动，都朝着同一个方向。理性寻求真理，良心分辨善恶，意志选择良善，情感学习成熟，这一切都属于爱天主的生活。这样的爱也包含忠信：人在顺境中感恩，在艰难中信赖，在每天的选择中持守与天主的盟约。天主是生命的根源，也是人最终的归向；人越认识他，越能明白自己为何而活，也越懂得怎样运用所领受的自由。
耶稣接着引用《肋未纪》第十九章：“你应当爱人如己。”他特别说：“第二条和它相似。”这句话赋予爱近人极其重要的地位：我们对天主的敬爱，应当在人与人的相处中结出果实。每一个人都从天主领受生命，都有天主赋予的尊严；珍惜他人，就是以实际行动回应天主对人的眷顾。“爱人如己”也给了我们一个切实的尺度：我们怎样认真看待自己的需要，也应当怎样认真看待他人的处境；我们怎样珍惜自己的尊严，也应当怎样维护他人的尊严。耶稣说：“全部法律和先知，都系于这两条诫命。”这里的“系于”，让我们想到支撑与承托：圣经中的各种伦理要求，都从这两条诫命获得方向。公义维护尊严，诚实建立信任，忠信守护承诺，怜悯照顾受苦的人。圣奥思定说：“你若看见爱德，就看见天主圣三。”天父赐下圣子，圣子为我们交付生命，圣神把天主的爱倾注在人心中。人蒙召在恩宠中分享这种爱，学习以基督的心关怀别人，并在实际的付出中逐渐肖似天主。
读经一让我们明白，爱近人怎样落实在生活中。出谷纪提到外侨、寡妇、孤儿与穷人，他们都格外需要社会的保障与他人的照顾。上主对以色列人说：“你们也曾在埃及侨居过。”这句话唤醒他们的历史记忆：他们曾经在异乡生活，经历劳苦，也领受天主的拯救。如今，他们应当记得自己走过的路，以体谅和公道对待寄居在他们中间的人。中国文化讲“饮水思源”，信仰使这种感恩有了更深的意义：我们记得天主怎样扶持自己，也学习怎样扶持别人；我们珍惜所领受的恩典，也愿意让别人经由我们得到帮助。蒙恩的记忆，由此成为承担责任的力量。“推己及人”也有了具体的内容：从自己的经历出发，体会别人的艰难，并以适当的行动回应他们的需要。
读经特别提到穷人抵押的外衣，要求债权人在日落前归还。对债权人来说，外衣是一件抵押品；对穷人来说，它是夜间的铺盖，关系到身体的温暖与安睡。同一件外衣，在两个人的生活中有着如此悬殊的分量，天主要求拥有资源的人认真看待这种差别。债务涉及偿还的责任，借贷也涉及对生命的尊重；公道的安排，应当同时顾及双方的责任与人的基本需要。圣经所讲的公义，因此深入一个人怎样生活、怎样休息、怎样保有尊严这些事情。财物的运用，承载着对人的责任；权利的行使，也应当顾及他人的生存。那件在日落前归还的外衣，说明真正的仁慈需要细心：看见别人今晚的寒冷，理解他眼前的处境，并及时作出回应。
天主也以严厉的审判语言，表达他对受苦者的眷顾，以及对压迫者的追究。他俯听寡妇和孤儿的呼声，要求拥有资源与权力的人为自己的行为负责。经文警告，压迫者的家人也将面对寡居与孤苦，使人认真看待彼此共同的命运：别人的妻儿与自己的妻儿，同样值得珍惜；别人的痛苦与自己的痛苦，同样具有分量。天主的震怒表达他对邪恶的审判，他的俯听表达他对受苦者的怜悯，两者共同表达他对生命的珍视。这样的圣言促使我们省察，自己所拥有的资源，怎样成为他人的帮助；自己所行使的权力，怎样成为弱小者的保障。资源越丰富，服务的责任也越重大；影响越深远，对公义的承担也越需要认真。
读经二进一步指出，这样的生活从皈依天主开始。圣保禄称赞得撒洛尼人，因为他们离开偶像，事奉永生的真天主，并期待复活的基督再临。皈依意味着重新安排人生的轻重次序，让天主居于首位，使世上的事物各得其所。财富成为服务生活的资源，才能成为造福他人的恩赐，成就成为感恩与承担的机会，权力成为服务大众的托付。全心爱天主，使人获得内在的自由，懂得怎样拥有、怎样分享、怎样为他人的益处作出选择。保禄又说，得撒洛尼人在许多苦难中，仍然怀着圣神的喜乐接受圣道。他们的力量来自复活的基督：耶稣已经走过死亡，进入复活的生命，也把跟随他的人引向救恩。期待基督再临，使他们以永恒的眼光看待今天，以忠信的行动履行今天的责任。这样的盼望，使人能在艰难中坚持良善，在付出中持守爱德，在等待中继续履行自己的责任。他们接受的圣道，逐渐成为生活的准则，并经由他们的见证传扬出去。对圣经的理解由此成为生活的智慧，圣道也在人身上结出果实。
加尔各答圣德肋撒修女说过：“信德的果实是爱，爱的果实是服务，服务的果实是平安。”这句话点出了信仰成长的过程：人相信天主的爱，便学习以爱回应；爱进入行动，便成为服务；服务使人得到照顾，也让人与人之间多一份关怀与和睦。祈祷滋养这种爱，服务实践这种爱，二者共同帮助人走向成圣。答唱咏说：“上主，我的力量！我爱慕你。”天主既是我们所爱的主，也是支持我们去爱的力量。我们在祈祷中领受他的恩宠，在生活中运用他的恩赐，又在服务他人的过程中，更深体会他的仁慈。这样的信仰，让我们在日常生活中实践“知行合一”：所认识的真理进入行动，所付出的行动又帮助我们更深认识真理。
爱天主和爱近人，共同指出基督徒生活的方向。爱天主，使人知道生命从哪里来，往哪里去；爱近人，使这种认识化为对眼前之人的珍惜。我们渴望受到尊重，也珍视别人的尊严；我们需要安宁，也顾念别人的劳苦；我们盼望得到体谅，也愿意耐心聆听别人。这种爱从身边开始，进入家庭、工作、经济活动与社会制度，逐渐成为待人处事的准则。它需要真知灼见，也需要身体力行；需要全心归向天主，也需要认真承担对人的责任。出谷纪所说的日落，给这份责任定下了具体的时刻：那件外衣，要在穷人需要它的时候归还。爱也有这样的及时与体贴，愿意为眼前的人作出合宜的行动，让他得到温暖、保有尊严、怀抱希望。当我们以具体的行动照顾他人的需要时，爱天主、爱近人的诫命就在日常生活中结出果实。
Scripture Reflection in English
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time A
Today is the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Today’s readings speak about loving God and loving our neighbor, helping us understand the heart of faith and the way Christians are called to live. Love of God gives our lives their final direction; love of neighbor puts this understanding into daily practice. The two commandments belong together and guide Christian living. Today’s Gospel begins with a question about the commandments, leading us toward the heart of Scripture and inviting us to consider: How should someone who truly loves God live?
A scholar of the law asks Jesus, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Jewish religious life included many specific commandments. His question concerns how to understand them and grasp their shared purpose. Jesus answers by quoting the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This commandment belongs to the profession of faith that the people of Israel regularly recite, reminding them to whom they belong and how they should live. Loving God with heart, soul, and mind means responding with our whole person, bringing thought, affection, intention, and action into a common direction. Reason seeks truth, conscience discerns good and evil, the will chooses goodness, and our affections grow toward maturity. All these belong within a life of love for God. Such love also involves faithfulness: gratitude in prosperity, trust in hardship, and commitment to our covenant with God through everyday choices. God is the source of life and its final fulfillment. As we come to know him more deeply, we understand more clearly what we live for and how to exercise the freedom we have received.
Jesus then quotes the nineteenth chapter of Leviticus: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” He introduces this commandment by saying, “The second is like it.” These words give love of neighbor a place of profound importance: our devotion to God should bear fruit in the way we treat one another. Every person receives life from God and possesses a dignity God has given. Cherishing others is a practical response to God’s care for them. Loving our neighbor as ourselves also gives us a concrete measure: we should take another person’s circumstances as seriously as we take our own needs, and protect another person’s dignity as carefully as we cherish our own. Jesus declares, “The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” The word “depend” suggests support: Scripture’s moral teachings receive their direction from these two commandments. Justice protects dignity, honesty builds trust, faithfulness safeguards promises, and mercy cares for those who suffer. Saint Augustine writes, “If you see charity, you see the Trinity.” The Father gives the Son, the Son offers his life for us, and the Holy Spirit pours God’s love into our hearts. Through grace, we are called to share in this love, learning to care for others with the heart of Christ and growing into God’s likeness through practical generosity.
The first reading shows us how love of neighbor takes shape in daily life. Exodus names immigrants, widows, orphans, and people living in poverty. All have a particular need for the community’s protection and the care of others. God tells the Israelites, “You were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.” These words awaken their historical memory: they experienced life in a foreign land, endured hardship, and received God’s deliverance. They are now called to remember their own journey and treat those living among them with understanding and fairness. A Chinese saying encourages those drinking water to remember its source. Faith gives this gratitude a deeper meaning: remembering how God sustained us teaches us to sustain others; appreciating the grace we have received moves us to share its benefits. The memory of grace becomes a source of responsibility. Taking another person’s circumstances as seriously as our own also becomes practical: we draw upon our experience to understand another’s difficulties and respond appropriately to their needs.
The reading gives particular attention to a poor person’s cloak held as collateral, requiring its return before sunset. For the lender, the cloak provides security for a loan; for the borrower, it provides a covering at night, warmth, and rest. The same cloak carries vastly different weight in these two lives, and God calls the person with resources to take that difference seriously. Debt involves responsibility for repayment, and lending also involves respect for life. A just arrangement attends to the responsibilities of both parties and to basic human needs. Biblical justice thus reaches into the circumstances of daily living: how someone lives, rests, and retains dignity. The use of possessions carries responsibilities toward people; the exercise of rights should also respect another person’s livelihood. The cloak returned before sunset teaches us that genuine compassion requires attentiveness: recognizing someone’s need for warmth tonight, understanding their present circumstances, and responding promptly.
God also speaks through severe language of judgment, expressing his care for those who suffer and holding oppressors accountable. He hears the cries of widows and orphans and requires those with resources and authority to answer for their conduct. The warning that an oppressor’s family will also face widowhood and orphanhood calls attention to our shared humanity: another person’s spouse and children deserve the same care as our own, and another person’s suffering carries the same human weight. God’s anger expresses his judgment upon evil; his attention to the afflicted expresses his mercy. Both express his regard for human life. These words invite us to examine how our resources might help others and how our authority might protect vulnerable people. Greater resources bring greater responsibility to serve; wider influence calls for a deeper commitment to justice.
The second reading further explains that this way of living begins with conversion to God. Saint Paul praises the Thessalonians for turning from idols to serve the living and true God and to await the return of the risen Christ. Conversion means putting our priorities in their proper order, giving God first place and allowing created things to fulfill their proper purpose. Wealth becomes a resource for supporting life, talents become gifts for helping others, achievement becomes an opportunity for gratitude and responsibility, and authority becomes a trust for serving the community. Wholehearted love of God brings inner freedom, teaching us how to possess, how to share, and how to choose what benefits others. Paul also recalls that the Thessalonians received the word amid great affliction with joy from the Holy Spirit. Their strength comes from the risen Christ: Jesus has passed through death into resurrection life and leads his followers toward salvation. Awaiting his return teaches them to view the present in the light of eternity and fulfill today’s responsibilities through faithful action. This hope sustains goodness through hardship, charity through sacrifice, and perseverance in their duties as they wait. The word they received gradually shaped their conduct and spread through their witness. Their understanding of Scripture became wisdom for living, and the word bore fruit in their lives.
Saint Teresa of Calcutta said, “The fruit of faith is love; the fruit of love is service; the fruit of service is peace.” Her words describe how faith grows: believing in God’s love teaches us to respond with love; love expressed through action becomes service; service brings care to people and nurtures greater compassion and harmony among them. Prayer nourishes this love, service puts it into practice, and both help us grow in holiness. The psalm declares, “I love you, Lord, my strength.” God is both the Lord we love and the strength sustaining our love. We receive his grace in prayer, use his gifts in daily life, and discover his mercy more deeply through serving others. This faith helps us practice what Chinese tradition calls “the unity of knowledge and action”: the truth we understand shapes our conduct, and the good we practice deepens our understanding of truth.
Love of God and love of neighbor together guide Christian living. Love of God helps us understand where life comes from and where it is going; love of neighbor turns this understanding into care for the person before us. Our desire for respect teaches us to cherish another’s dignity; our need for peace makes us attentive to another’s weariness; our hope of being understood encourages patient listening. This love begins close to home and enters family life, work, economic activity, and social institutions, gradually becoming a guiding principle for how we treat people and conduct our affairs. It calls for thoughtful understanding and committed action, wholehearted devotion to God and serious responsibility toward others. The sunset mentioned in Exodus gives this responsibility a definite time: the cloak must be returned when the poor person needs it. Love has this same attentiveness and sense of timing. It moves us to respond appropriately to the person before us, offering warmth, protecting dignity, and nurturing hope. When we attend to the needs of others through concrete action, the commandments to love God and love our neighbor bear fruit in daily life.
Fr. (Joseph) Guozhang Ruan was born and ordained in China. After serving in parish ministry in the Diocese of Mindong, Fujian, he pursued advanced studies in moral theology in Rome, earning a doctorate from the Pontifical Lateran University. Since coming to the United States in 2004, he has served in several parishes in the Archdiocese of New York. He is currently the Director of the Chinese Apostolate for the Archdiocese of New York and Parochial Vicar of Holy Rosary Church on Staten Island. His ministry focuses on serving Chinese Catholics, promoting evangelization, and fostering greater understanding between the Church in China and the universal Church.
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