智慧人生篇章 第40期:爱是良药

 　　It was the late 70s and we thought him almost a god, my school friends Helen and Anne and I. An actor-director undergraduate, impossibly tall, dark and drop dead gorgeous, he co-hosted a party every summer for which all the guests had to dress in white. Everything he did was cool and desirable. Until, in the 80s, a killer¹ disease from America swept through the beautiful people like a scythe², and left him a wasted skeleton in a hospital bed. Anne managed to visit him and I meant to, really I did. But I couldn't quite believe there wasn't plenty of time. You see he seemed incapable³, but incapable, of doing anything disagreeable.We need to be "more Christian⁴ to one another" over AIDS, Elton John said yesterday. An interesting phrase, given Mr John's introduction to this once devastating⁵ scourge⁶.

　　他那时是演员兼导演专业的学生，皮肤黝黑、英俊高大。每年夏天他都会联合举办一次社交聚会，到场的来宾都必须身着白色衣服。他做的每一件事都十分出色、令人满意。直到八十年代，一种致命的疾病如镰刀般击倒了这位完美的人，他躺在医院的病床上，被病痛折磨成了一个骨瘦如柴的废人。安妮去看望了他，尽管我也十分想去，但我无法接受他将不久于人世。你也许觉得他看上去什么事也做不了，但他不会去做令人生厌的事。昨日，艾尔顿·约翰说在艾滋病的问题上，我们必须“像基督徒一样更加仁慈对待彼此”。考虑到约翰初次接触这一度被视为是毁灭性的灾难时的情形，他这样的表述十分有意思。

　　In 1985 he first read about and then met a brave young haemophiliac, Ryan White. When a journalist revealed that Ryan was dying of AIDS, not only was he banned from school and a judicial⁷ restraining order put on him to the cheers of neighbours, but his own church required him to sit in a separate pew, and on Easter Day no one in the congregation would shake his hand as a sign of peace. If this is the behaviour of the church, why should we want to be more "Christian" towards one another? We hardly have an impeccable record, do we? Once when we had reached a very low ebb⁸ as a family, I asked my husband, in despair, "Why should we go on believing, when God doesn't answer prayer and Christians⁹ can behave worse than anybody?" All he said in reply was this. "Look at the character of Jesus. Who else do you think He could have been?" Not "Christian" theology. Far less the behaviour of "Christian" sinners like ourselves. But the character of Christ.

　　1985年，约翰读到关于血友病患者瑞安·怀特的报道，并和他见面。当记者透露瑞安死于艾滋病时，约翰不仅被学校拒之门外，还收到了法律禁令，他的邻居都为此欣喜不已，就连他所在的教堂都要求他坐在单独的长椅上。到了复活节，会众中没有一个人跟他握手言和。如果这就是教堂的所作所为，为何我们要更“像基督徒”那样对待彼此呢？人无完人，不是吗？家庭遇到困境时，我曾绝望地问丈夫“既然上帝都不去回应人们的祷告，基督徒可以比任何人都要无情，为什么还要继续我们的信仰呢？”他的回答是：“看看耶稣的品格，你觉得除了他还有谁可以是上帝？”使他成为上帝的不是基督教所信仰的理论，更不是我们这有罪过的基督教徒的言行，而是基督的品格。

　　My godmother gave me a Bible, in red tooled leather, which I had throughout my childhood and have still. At that moment I thought of its garish¹⁰, dated children's pictures, a shepherd with long hair and a lamb across His shoulders. Who else could He have been? It's true, He could be angry. He was capable of condemning¹¹. He even talked of Judgement. But it's not for this that we remember Him. We remember a Man who loved a sex worker for indecently wiping His feet with her loose hair, who publicly befriended a fraudster worse than any recently discredited¹² banker, who cured those whose illnesses made them even more untouchable than Ryan, ostracised by his society. Elton John's book is provocatively¹³ entitled, Love is the Cure. Not medicine, or science, or technology, it is love for which this God is known above all, extending an invitation into His kingdom to a terrorist hanging by His side. As Elton John said, Jesus, like Ryan who followed Him, "loved and forgave unconditionally¹⁴ and died for the sake of others." A death even more disagreeable than my friend's all those years ago.

　　我的教母曾给了我一本红色书皮的圣经，我从儿时一直保存到现在。我想到书中艳丽、陈旧的儿童图画，上面画着长发的牧羊人，肩上坐着一只羊羔。除了他谁还能是上帝？的确，他可以发怒。他能做出审判。他甚至提到过裁决。但我们不是因此才纪念他。我们纪念的是一个男人：当性工作者不雅地用蓬乱的头发擦试他双脚时，他给予她爱；遇到名声比任何名誉扫地的银行家都要恶劣的诈骗犯时，他公然和他成为朋友；有人因疾病受到比瑞安更甚的排斥，他为他们治疗。艾尔顿·约翰为他的书起了一个有争议性的标题，《爱是良药》。并非药物，并非科学技术，而是爱让上帝为世人所知晓，让他邀请被绞死在他身侧的恐怖分子来到他的国度。正如艾尔顿·约翰所说，瑞安所追随的耶稣“无条件的热爱并宽恕着人们，为他人献身”，这样的死亡比数年前朋友去世更令人难受。

1 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

2 scythe   

n. 长柄的大镰刀，战车镰； v. 以大镰刀割

参考例句：

• He's cutting grass with a scythe.他正在用一把大镰刀割草。
• Two men were attempting to scythe the long grass.两个人正试图割掉疯长的草。

3 incapable   

adj.无能力的，不能做某事的

参考例句：

• He would be incapable of committing such a cruel deed.他不会做出这么残忍的事。
• Computers are incapable of creative thought.计算机不会创造性地思维。

4 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

5 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

6 scourge   

n.灾难，祸害；v.蹂躏

参考例句：

• Smallpox was once the scourge of the world.天花曾是世界的大患。
• The new boss was the scourge of the inefficient.新老板来了以后，不称职的人就遭殃了。

7 judicial   

adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的

参考例句：

• He is a man with a judicial mind.他是个公正的人。
• Tom takes judicial proceedings against his father.汤姆对他的父亲正式提出诉讼。

8 ebb   

vi.衰退，减退；n.处于低潮，处于衰退状态

参考例句：

• The flood and ebb tides alternates with each other.涨潮和落潮交替更迭。
• They swam till the tide began to ebb.他们一直游到开始退潮。

9 Christians   

n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
• His novel about Jesus caused a furore among Christians. 他关于耶稣的小说激起了基督教徒的公愤。

10 garish   

adj.华丽而俗气的，华而不实的

参考例句：

• This colour is bright but not garish.这颜色艳而不俗。
• They climbed the garish purple-carpeted stairs.他们登上铺着俗艳的紫色地毯的楼梯。

11 condemning   

v.（通常因道义上的原因而）谴责( condemn的现在分词 )；宣判；宣布…不能使用；迫使…陷于不幸的境地

参考例句：

• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。
• I concur with the speaker in condemning what has been done. 我同意发言者对所做的事加以谴责。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

12 discredited   

不足信的，不名誉的

参考例句：

• The reactionary authorities are between two fires and have been discredited. 反动当局弄得进退维谷，不得人心。
• Her honour was discredited in the newspapers. 她的名声被报纸败坏了。

13 provocatively   

参考例句：

• Democracy or dictatorship, the golden ships still hung in the sky and shone provocatively. 民主也好，独裁也罢，那些金晃晃的飞船依然高悬天际，闪熠发光，向我们挑衅。 来自英汉非文学 - 科幻

14 unconditionally   

adv.无条件地

参考例句：

• All foreign troops must be withdrawn immediately and unconditionally. 所有外国军队必须立即无条件地撤出。
• It makes things very awkward to have your girls going back unconditionally just now! 你们现在是无条件上工，真糟糕！ 来自子夜部分