111. 6月12日天主恩賜的禮物－自由－白孟德神父（Fr. Charles Belmonte Lopez）語錄-譯者:林豪

“God’s love is a jealous love. He is not satisfied if we come with conditions. He longs for us to give ourselves completely, without keeping dark corners in our heart, where the joy and happiness of grace and the supernatural gifts cannot reach. Perhaps you are thinking, ‘If I say “yes” to this exclusive Love, might I not lose my freedom?

「天主的愛是善嫉的，祂不喜歡我們去見祂時，附帶著條件，或在內心深處有些私人的角落，不讓恩寵的喜樂達到。或者你會想：『如果要我向這種排他的大愛說：『是』，我豈不喪失了自由嗎？』

“Each one of us has at some time or other experienced that serving Christ our Lord involves suffering and hardship; to deny this would imply that we had not yet found God. A soul in love knows, however, that when such suffering comes it is only a fleeting impression; the soul soon finds that the yoke is easy and the burden light, because Jesus is carrying it upon his shoulders as he embraced the wood of the Cross when our eternal happiness was at stake.

我們都必曾經歷，因侍主而遭到痛苦與困難，但是，如果我們拒絕這些困難，那我們根本就未曾找到天主！沐浴在愛裏的靈魂，深知這些痛苦只不過是些瞬間即逝的印象，立刻靈魂就會覺得軛是柔和，擔子是輕鬆的（參閱瑪11：30），因為主耶穌在我們永生福樂產生危機時，就為我們肩負了重擔。

“But there are people who do not understand. They rebel against the Creator, in a sad, petty, impotent rebellion, and they blindly repeat the futile complaint recorded in the Psalms: Let us break away from their bondage, rid ourselves of their toils.

但是，有些人卻不明白，他們反抗造物主，作些令人慨嘆無效的反抗，盲目地重複在聖詠中記載的，那些無效的埋怨：「我們掙斷他們的綑綁，我們擺脫他們的繩索！」（詠2：3）

“They shrink from the hardship of fulfilling their daily task with heroic silence and naturalness, without show or complaint. They have not realized that even when God’s Will seems painful and its demands wounding, it coincides perfectly with our freedom, which is only to be found in God and his plans.” St Josemaría

他們逃避每天該保持英雄式的沉默、不誇張、不抱怨而盡的責任，逃避遇到的困難，而且逃避得那麼自如，不吭一聲。他們不明白天主的旨意，好像使人痛苦受傷，但是，其實卻和我們的自由完成配合，而我們的自由，只能在天主和祂的計畫內找到。」（聖施禮華，天主之友，28）