BishopBarron|于全世界为王，在圣神内分享，到人间来治愈（9-11日合集）
2018-04-12 10:04 阅读量:4064
Bishop Barron
翻译|Carrie
2018-4-9
朋友们，在今天的福音中，我们读到天使给玛利亚的报喜。加俾额尔对这位童贞女如是说：“你将怀孕生子，并要给他起名叫耶稣…上主天主要把他祖先达味的御座赐给他。他要为王统治雅各伯家，直到永远；他的王权没有终结。”
所有公元一世纪的以色列人都会明白这些话的意思：这个孩子将实现天主向达味王许下的承诺。
也就是说，这个孩子事实上就是世界之王，将为世人带来统一和和平。以色列人越来越深信这位神秘的达味后裔将永远统治万国，而不是暂时性和世俗性的。这位最终的犹太王将是全世界之王，也将是我们的王。
Friends, in today’s Gospel of Luke, we find the Annunciation to Mary. Here is what Gabriel said to the Virgin: “Thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus….The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”
No first-century Israelite would have missed the meaning here: this child shall be the fulfillment of the promise made to King David.
And this means that the child is, in fact, the king of the world, the one who would bring unity and peace to the nations. The conviction grew upon Israel that this mysterious descendant of David would be king, not just for a time and not just in an earthly sense, but would rule forever and for all nations. This definitive king of the Jews would be king of the world. He would be our king, as well.
2018-4-10
朋友们，在今天的福音中，耶稣告诉我们必须“由上而生”。祂说：“风随意向那里吹，你听到风的响声，却不知道风从那里来，往那里去；凡由圣神而生的就是这样。”
圣神是圣父与圣子之间的爱；富尔顿·申曾优美地把圣神形容为圣父圣子互相注视时升起的爱的标志。
因为圣父派圣子来到人间、来到我们的失常之中、甚至到达邪恶的极限，所以我们可以进入天主的圣心——并由此把整个世界聚集起来，进入神圣的生命力中。住在基督里的人并不是脱离了天主的请愿者或哀求者，而是在圣神之内作为天主的朋友和分享者。
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that we must be “born from above.” He says: “The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
The Holy Spirit is the love shared by the Father and the Son; he is, in the lovely image proposed by Fulton Sheen, the sign of affection that goes up when the Father looks at the Son and the Son looks back at the Father.
We have access to this holy heart of God because the Father sent the Son into the world, into our dysfunction, even to the limits of godforsakenness—and thereby gathered all of the world into the dynamism of the divine life. Those who live in Christ are not outside of God as petitioners or supplicants; rather they are in God as friends, sharers in the Spirit.
2018-4-11
朋友们，你们或许曾在橄榄球赛或棒球赛中见过非正式的福传者高举写着“若望3:16”的牌子。你们有没有想过那是什么意思？
今天的福音中就有这一圣经金句：“天主竟这样爱了世界，甚至赐下自己的独生子，使凡信他的人不致丧亡，反而获得永生。”
那些举牌的人做得好，因为在许多方面，这句话概括了整个福音，甚至微缩了整个基督传统。所有主教座堂、教堂、诗篇、戏剧、圣人传记——所有这一切的意义都在于此。
基督教主要不在于宣布我们的美德；不在于歌颂天主；不在于为人类文明欢欣鼓舞。基督教宣布的主要就是那句话：虽然我们是罪人——或者可以说尤其是在我们的罪恶中——天主依然爱着我们。那么祂做了什么？祂打开自己的心扉，把自己派到人间来治愈我们并给予我们永生。
Friends, maybe you've seen informal evangelists at football or baseball games holding up a sign: “John 3:16.” Did you ever wonder what that means?
Well, we hear this verse from the Gospel of John in today’s reading: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”
I think it's good that those people hold up that sign, because in many ways that is the whole Gospel, and even the whole Christian tradition, in miniature. Every cathedral, every church, every poem, every drama, the life of every saint—that's what they're all about.
Christianity does not announce, primarily, our virtue; it doesn't sing our praises; it doesn't exult in human civilization. What it primarily does is announce that message: that even in our sin—you might say, especially in our sin—God loved us. And so what did he do? He broke open his own heart and he sent his own self into our humanity to heal us and offer us eternal life.
