关于死亡和灾难
天婴 | 英文翻译：杨光(真理报加西版2005年2月号)
2004年的最后一个夜晚，我独自坐在多伦多的地铁上。对面，驶向市中心方向，准备去City Hall参加新年庆典的人们，欢喜雀跃，洋溢着对2005年的无限期盼。相比之下，驶向市区外的车厢显得格外空旷和冷清，大概连我只有不到十位乘客，每个人都低着头，显得困倦疲惫，心事重重。我丝毫没有要赶去参加除夕聚会的迫不及待，整个脑海里浮现的，来回切换的，是两幅印度洋海啸的悲情画面：一个小女孩，在忙乱的人群中，凌乱的头发让人看不太清她迷茫的脸，她的胸前，“失踪父母” 的字样揪心地诉说着悲凉无助的故事；一支举起，纹着图案的，像健美运动员一样强壮，像希腊雕塑一样完美的手臂，在望不到尽头的棺木行列中有节奏地传送着悲歌......。想着想着，我突然有一种逃离除夕的痛不欲生：2003年12月26日，伊朗大地震，超过4万人的记忆永远停留在2003；2004年12月26日，印度洋海啸，又有超过20万人被尘封在2004。
一位在印度救援的工作人员，问一位在灾难中失去孩子的母亲：“我能为你作什么”，那位母亲回答说：“让我的孩子生还”。面对这样的请求，除了感叹无助和渺小外，还能作什么呢？
灾害是残酷的，死亡是无情的，无论好人坏人，富人穷人，都无法逃脱，就像所罗门王所感叹的一样:“凡临到众人的事，都是一样；义人和恶人都遭遇一样的事；好人，洁净人和不洁净人，献祭的与不献祭的，也是一样”。
灾难的意义是什么？死亡的意义又是什么？灾难是破坏，是对 上帝创造的破坏；死亡是仇敌，是掠夺，使生者和死者隔离。生命是短暂和脆弱的，好象“一片云雾，出现少时就不见了”。如果没有永恒，死亡因生命终止就成为永远的隔离，人生因虚空终结于毫无意义。但是，感谢主，我们的生命有救赎的盼望，不但只是在今生今今世。保罗告诉我们：“我们知道一切受造之物一同叹息、劳苦，直到如今。不但如此，就是我们这有圣灵初结果子的，也是自己心里叹息，等候得着儿子的名分，乃是我们的身体得赎。”（罗马书八章22-23节）
在灾难和死亡面前，人们不禁要问:“为什么”？我也日日茶饭不思地“问天”，我必须承认，我不知道。但是，我想到主，想到主耶稣的受难，想到那个人类历史上最黑暗的时刻，想到十字架的羞辱，想到主耶稣被剥夺，被遗弃，被掩面不看；我也想到新天新地的应许，想到有一天，我们都要站在主的台埃娑怨宓纳笈校幌氲皆谀抢铮辉儆兴劳觯辉儆蟹掷耄辉儆斜矗倚闹械谋弑惚焕醋蕴焐习参克诨３谴又饕盏目嗄芽慈死嗟目嗄眩嗄丫陀涝睹挥写鸢福怀谴又饕盏乃揽瓷死涂喑罘尘捅鹞匏猓怀谴又饕盏母椿羁此溃谰屯耆挥幸庖濉?
灾难和死亡可以夺取我们所爱的，却无法使我们与爱的源头隔绝。海啸使我们学习舍己、分享、分担、援助、爱。我们学习和悲哀的人同哭，学会体贴和饶恕。人活着不是单靠食物，唯有爱可以让人在患难中坚持。我们该如何度余下的年日？当有一天，我们和亲人，朋友别离的时候，除了悲伤，我们是否还有悔恨的泪？我们的邻居，我们的同事，每一位和我们相遇的人，在他们生命的最后一刻，我们的“不小心”是否会成为他人一生的伤害？去了的人， 神已让他们明白了一切；留下的我们，应在悲痛中学习看重“爱的关系”，让我们的生命成为一份祝福的礼物。
死亡不是结束，而是生命的转化，“归于天父”是无比超然的经历。无论我们在地上的日子有多久，如果没有永生，我们所有的年日都是虚空，都是捕风。“若死人不复活，我们就吃吃喝喝吧！因为明天要死了。”（哥林多前书15章32节）感谢主， 神不但赐我们生命的气息，还赐我们不朽坏的、荣耀的、圣洁的、强壮的、永远的、复活的生命。每当想到这莫大的恩典和应许，我的心就不再眼泪，不再恐惧。
愿复活的主安慰在苦难中的人，愿复活的盼望激励痛苦中的人。
Of Death and Destruction
Tianyin | English translation: Linda
On the last night of the year 2004, I was sitting alone in a Toronto metro. Heading for the city centre were revellers planning to attend the New Year festivities at City Hall, all of them filled with the high hopes for 2005. In contrast, the trains heading for the suburbs seemed especially empty and desolate, carrying no more than ten passengers, including me, heads bent with fatigue, preoccupied. I did not have any desire to attend a New Year's Eve gathering. In my mind's eye, two images from the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster flashed alternately through my head. A little girl, standing still amidst a rushing crowd, her rumpled hair is covering her stricken face. A sign of "Missing Parents", hanging in front, suggests a heart-wrenching and helpless story. A tattooed, athletic arm raised up high, like the perfect arm of a Greek statue, pumps in rhythm to a funeral song, the melody passing over an endless line of coffins. Suddenly I wanted to escape the pain of New Year's Eves. On December 26th, 2003, an earthquake in Iraq left the memories of 40 000 people in that year. Exactly one year later, an Indian Ocean tsunami locked nearly 230 000 people within 2004.
A rescue worker from India asked a mother who had lost her child in the disaster, "What can I do for you?" She replied with, "Bring my child back to life." Faced with this impossible request, what can we do aside from feeling useless and small? The disaster was cruel; death is ruthless. No matter good or bad, rich or poor, no one can escape it. Just as King Solomon once expressed, "All share a common destiny-the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not" (Eccl. 9:2).
What is the purpose for disasters? What is the purpose for death?
Disaster is destruction; it is a destruction of God's creation. Death is the enemy, is desolation, the barrier between the living and the dead. Life is short and fragile, like a mist, quickly disappearing. If there isn't eternity, death would be the end of life, the eternal end; life on earth would be empty and meaningless. But, thanks be to the Lord, our lives have the hope of salvation, and not just for this age only. The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8:22-23, "We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies."
In the face of calamity and death, people cannot help but ask "Why?" I, too, ask that question and admit I don't know. But I thought of Jesus, of the sufferings he bore, of the darkest moment in human history, of the shame on the cross, of Jesus stripped, abandoned, and forsaken. I also thought of the promise of a new heaven and earth, of the day when we will stand before the throne of God, facing his fair judgement, of a place where this is no death, no separation, no pain. Then, my heart's agony is assuaged by Heaven's comfort. Unless we look at the suffering of man through the suffering of Jesus, there will never be an answer for it. Unless we look at life through the death of Jesus, it would be meaningless aside from its hardships and sorrows. Unless we look at death through the resurrection of Jesus, it also would be pointless.
Death and destruction can take away what we love, but cannot break our ties with the Source of love. The tsunami taught us to learn to give, share, aid, help, love. We learned to cry with those who are grieving, learned to sympathize and to forgive. People need not only food to survive, but love to remain steadfast through trials. How should we live the rest of our lives? One day, we and our family and friends will be separated. Besides being sorrowful, would we also let fall tears of regret? Our neighbours, our co-workers, everyone whom we've encountered, in the last moments of their lives, would overlooking them cause them a life of pain? God has allowed the dead to understand everything. The rest of us, who are left behind, need to learn this bitter lesson of relating in love, so that our lives can truly be a blessing to others.
Death is not the end; it is a trans????ation. "To be with the Lord" is a supernatural experience. No matter how long our days on earth may be, without eternal life, they would be barren and futile. "If the dead are not raised, 'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die'" (I Cor. 15:32). Praise the Lord that God not only gave us the breath of life, but also gave us an everlasting, glorified, holy, strong, eternal, and revived life. Every time I think of this enormous grace and promise, the tears of my heart are no more; my fears are no more.
May the resurrected Lord comfort those afflicted; may the resurrected hope inspire those in pain.
