我们都在死亡的路上，不是吗？

司祭 劳伦斯·法利神父；Lydiagj译

By Fr Lawrence Farley

“我们都在死亡之路上，不是吗？”这样深邃的话似乎可能出自奥瑞留（Marcus Aurelius）以来任何一位哲人之口，而实际上此言出自玛丽莲·梦露之口，在她最后一部完成的电影中，于1961年11月出品的《怪人》（“The Misfits”）。似巧合又似乎有深意，影片中的另一位明星，克拉克·盖博在电影关机第二天就心脏病发作，十日后去世。而玛丽莲自己也在一年半之后不幸因安眠药过量而去世。

“We’re all dying, aren’t we?” These words could have come from the lips of any thoughtful philosopher from the days of Marcus Aurelius on. In fact they came from the lips of Marilyn Monroe in the last complete film she ever made, “The Misfits”, finished in November 1961. There is a certain poignant irony to this, given that one of the film’s stars, Clark Gable, suffered a heart attack the day after the film wrapped and died about ten days later. Marilyn herself would die of accidental overdose within a year and a half.

影片中玛丽莲饰演新近离婚的罗斯琳，在和艾黎·沃拉克饰演的鳏夫吉多共舞时，玛丽莲/罗斯琳说他舞跳得很好，可惜他妻子从未知道他跳得这么好，而且多么可惜他在妻子死前从没教过她跳舞。“从某种程度上讲，”她说，“也许你们就是陌路人。”看吉多有点生气了，她说，“别发火，我只是说如果你爱她，那你就什么都能教她。”靠在他肩膀上，她低语到，“我们都在死亡的路上，不是吗？我们都没有彼此教给自己懂得的东西。”

In the film Marilyn played a recently divorced Roslyn, and she was dancing with a widower, Guido, played by Eli Wallach. Marilyn/Roslyn comments that he dances very well, and that it was a shame his wife never knew how well he could dance and also that it was a shame he never taught his wife to dance before she died. “To a certain extent,” she said to him, “maybe you were strangers.” When he began to take offence, she said, “Don’t be mad. I only meant that if you loved her, you could have taught her anything.” Hanging on his shoulder she whispered, “We’re all dying, aren’t we? And we’re not teaching each other what we really know.”

这样的感念是跨越时间的。1972年面包乐队一曲“我拥有的一切”，一代之后的麦克与机械师又一曲“活着的岁月”，将这一主题变为永恒。我们经历生活，常把一切不以为然，丧失时机而没有表达需要表达的爱，浑然不知周围的每人每物都是馈赠，由在上的光明之圣父赐予我们。我们经年累月忙忙碌碌，被眼前的琐事占据，眼睛聚光智能手机，完全看不见那真光，映照每一时刻，点亮每张面容。多少次只有在太迟的时候我们才清醒过来，意识到那馈赠何等阔大，而我们又怎样将它丢弃，永久地丧失。

The sentiment is a timeless one, immortalized in ballads such as “Everything I Own” by Bread in 1972 and a generation later in “The Living Years” by Mike and the Mechanics. We go through life taking everything for granted, missing opportunities to express the love that needs to be expressed, not recognizing that everyone and everything around us is a gift, sent down to us from above by the Father of Lights. We rush through the days and months and years, absorbed by the mediocrity of the present moment, our eyes focused on our smartphones, oblivious to the light that shines in every face and illuminates every moment. All too often it is only when it is too late that we awaken to the magnitude of what we have been given and the magnitude of what we have thrown away and lost forever.

我们应该倾听玛丽莲的话。如果真的爱周围的人，真的明白宝贵时光在飞逝，我们的确应该彼此相教，分享爱让爱增倍，并分享痛让痛减半。人所犯的最大的罪之一便是不知感恩，不只是对上帝，并且是对我们的家人亲朋，极易把彼此当作想当然的存在，只关注眼前琐事，从未说过极需表达的话。

We should listen to Marilyn. If we really loved those around us and were sensible of the fleeting gift of time we would indeed teach each other, sharing the love we feel so that the love doubles, and sharing the pain we feel so that the pain is halved. One of the greatest of sins is ingratitude, not just to God, but to our family and friends. We so easily take each other for granted, and focus on the ephemeral, and never say the words which need badly to be said.

然而在基督中有原谅，有治愈，有更新。如果我们在基督中，即便失误、愚蠢、罪孽、对他人所施的伤害，都能在将临之世得痊愈。上主应许要从我们脸上拭去全部眼泪，这也包括我们为丧失的时机而洒下的悔恨之泪，在上帝之国我们会再有时间有地方重述失去的言语，忏悔心灵的刚硬和对飞逝时机的麻木不仁，会再有时间和地方彼此相拥而泣，弥补以往在地上做的的蠢事。

In Christ, though, there is forgiveness and healing and restoration. If we are in Christ, even our mistakes, stupidities, sins, and the hurt we inflict on others can be healed in the age to come. The Lord has promised to wipe away all the tears from our faces, including the tears we shed over lost opportunities, and in the Kingdom we may find time and place to speak the lost words again, to repent of our hardness of heart and our insensibility to fleeting and fleeing opportunities, time and place to embrace and weep, and to make up for our past earthbound folly.

可是将临之世的仁慈并不能抵消或减弱我们在此世的言行之重。保罗清晰地表明，“此刻就是可接受的时间，此刻就是得救之日。”我们哪敢想当然地等第二次机会，亦或临时抱脚。太多的人想临时悔改却被死亡抢了先，或者经年累月拒绝上帝，他们的心已经坚硬，最后的悔改已然不可能了。年轻时候我们给自己制造的众多错觉之一就是不死，一年一年过来觉得自己决不会死。即使年岁增长抹去了这个美丽的错觉，我们仍想着还会活好多年。而事实上死亡时刻在尾随我们每一个人，在任何时刻都有可能将我们带走。雷击电打，交通事故，航空灾难，枪击事件，医生诊断的残酷结果—圣教父们教导我们每日记得自己死亡的时刻，这不是无缘无故的。祈祷书里也有这样清醒的教导，其中在临睡前的祷词这样说：“主耶稣基督啊，挚爱人类者，这床将否是我的坟墓，亦或你将以又一天的光明照亮我可怜的灵魂？看呐，我眼前的坟墓，死亡面对着我。”

But this mercy in the age to come does not obliterate or reduce the importance of our words or actions in this age. Paul was crystal clear: “Now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation”. We dare not presume on second chances, nor plan on an “eleventh hour repentance”. Too many people who plan on such repentance at the eleventh hour die at 10.30—or else find that they have hardened their hearts through long years of refusing God so that no such final repentance is possible. In our youth one of the many illusions we embrace is the illusion of our immortality, and we go through the years thinking we will never die. Even when age at length disabuses us of this happy illusion, we still easily imagine we always have years left. In fact death stalks us all, and could take us at any time. Lightning strike, car accident, plane crash, violent shooting, or doctor’s cruel prognosis—it is not for nothing that the Fathers bid us remember daily the hour of our death. Our prayerbooks give the same sobering counsel, for they contain a final bedtime prayer which says, “O Lord Jesus Christ, lover of mankind, is this bed to be my grave, or will you shine upon my wretched soul with the light of another day? Behold, the grave lies before me and death confronts me”.

当下就是可接受的时间，得救之日。当下就要去悔改，去原谅，去拥抱，让他人知道他们对我们有何等价值。让我们听从圣教父的话，祈祷书的话。让我们甚至倾听亲爱的玛丽莲的话，玛丽莲，那风中之烛。就是说，我们都在死亡之路上，不是吗？

Now indeed is the acceptable time, the day of salvation. Now is the time to repent, to forgive, to embrace, and let others know how much they mean to us. Let us learn from the Fathers, and from our prayerbooks. Let us even learn from dear Marilyn, that candle in the wind. I mean, we’re all dying, aren’t we?

译自 http://blogs.ancientfaith.com/nootherfoundation/were-all-dying-arent-we/

Fr Lawrence Farley, 劳伦斯·法利神父是加拿大圣赫尔曼正教堂的教长，St Herman’s Orthodox Church, Langley, BC. 写有正教圣经导读系列和其它书籍。