先日、マタイ福音書勉強会（於ペディラヴィウム会¹）で、マタイ福音書5章1〜16節についての発題を担当しました。わたしの発題では、主にウルリヒ・ルツ著（小河陽訳）の『マタイによる福音書 1-7章（EKK新約聖書註解）』（教文館）の関連箇所を概略的に紹介し、それについてコメントしました。また、それに触発されて、私自身が考えたことを覚書として提示しました。
「山上の説教」に記された厳しい教えは、何を語りかけているのでしょうか。キリスト教神学がしばしば陥ってきた「不可能な倫理」という枠組みを離れ、シモーヌ・ヴェイユの思想、とりわけ attention（配慮と注意の眼差し）を通じた再解釈を試みました。律法や教えの真意は、クリアすべき大変厳しい基準を設定することではなく、むしろ傷つきやすい存在に対して静かに心を傾ける「眼差しのあり方」にあるのではないか——。
『眼差しへの招き：「山上の説教」についての覚書』と題して執筆した日本語の原稿の英訳を以下に掲載します。元の日本語での表現や言葉遣いを適宜修正しつつ、英語に翻訳してみました。
An Invitation to the Gaze: Notes on the Sermon on the Mount
By Shigeo Kawazu
The “Sermon on the Mount” in the Gospel of Matthew is often perceived as a set of rigid rules that human beings are incapable of fully keeping. This tendency can be seen in different forms throughout the history of religious thought. The commandments could come to be understood primarily as rules to be strictly observed, while the radical demands of Christian ethics could, in turn, lead to an emphasis on human inability and on salvation through faith.
Here, however, it seems crucial to re-examine the very framework of evaluating “how well one has followed the rules.” To do so, I would like to draw upon the thought of Simone Weil and her notion of attention—a way of directing a gaze of care toward others.
When God gave the Law to Israel, the weakest of peoples, it was an expression of deep compassion and care for those who were suffering. God wished human beings to turn this “gaze of compassion” toward one another. Yet, since it was difficult to communicate this purely through abstract concepts, it was expressed through concrete “commandments and precepts.”
Later generations attempted to prove their righteousness by strictly obeying these commandments, or, conversely, turned toward inner salvation in response to the sheer impossibility of fulfilling them. However, the radical words Jesus spoke in the Sermon on the Mount were not meant to establish a new and harsher law. Rather, were they not an expression of what lies behind the rules: “how to direct our gaze toward others” and “how to live in a genuine relationship”?
To free ourselves from the precondition of “righteousness through rule-following,” we need the attitude of attention advocated by Simone Weil. This means quieting the noise within ourselves and directing our attention to the suffering and vulnerable beings before us, sustaining that attentive gaze.
Neither the Law of Moses nor the teaching of Jesus was intended as a competition to see how many items one could check off, nor were they merely meant to remind us of our helplessness.
Instead, they seek to remind us of the origin of relationality—of how quietly and earnestly we can direct a gaze of care toward those who stand before us, moving beyond the framework of evaluating whether we are “right or wrong.” When we learn how to direct and sustain this gaze, action arises naturally from it.
Grace means existing as one who is seen by God’s gaze of loving-kindness. Learning to share this mutual gaze is not something to be discussed in terms of whether or not a rule is kept. Yet, from the perspective of what kind of action naturally unfolds where such a gaze exists, we can indeed speak of human action.
If descriptions of such actions appear radical, it is simply to express how profound the gaze behind them truly is.
¹ ペディラヴィウム会とは、神田盾夫ご夫妻の精神を継承・展開することを使命として、催事、教育催事、研究会・学術会議の運営、図書･雑誌の出版などを行なっている一般社団法人です。