2018-4-6

朋友们，在今天的福音中，复活了的耶稣在提庇黎雅海边显现给七位门徒。耶稣的肉身起死回生。正是这个明显惊人、出人意料的事实引出基督教。我们在《圣经新约》的每一页中都能读到的兴奋情绪正是来自这件新奇事。

 

为什么复活了的耶稣只显现给一小部分人？为什么祂不直接显现给所有想见祂的人？红衣主教纽曼曾提到这一点。如果耶稣公开露面给所有人看，那么复活的影响力就会减弱。有人会相信；有人会不信。有人心领神会；有人嗤之以鼻。有人入迷；有人漠然。

 

相反，祂屈尊降贵地显示给小部分知祂、爱祂、懂祂的虔诚信徒——深信他们能有效地传达祂的旨意。我们现在就是那些在祂复活后与祂同吃共饮的信徒，所以我们身负着传播福音的使命。

 

Friends, in today’s Gospel, the risen Jesus appears to seven disciples on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias. Jesus rose bodily from the dead. This is the fact—eminently surprising and unexpected—that gives birth to Christianity. The excitement that you can sense on every page of the New Testament comes from this novelty.

 

Why did the risen Jesus appear only to a few? Why didn’t he make himself readily apparent to anyone who wanted to see? Cardinal Newman commented on this. If Jesus had appeared publicly and indiscriminately to all, the power of the Resurrection would have been lessened. Some would believe; others wouldn’t. Some would get it; others wouldn’t. Some would be fascinated; others indifferent.

 

Instead, he deigned to appear to a small coterie of dedicated disciples who knew him, loved him, understood him—confident that they would be the effective bearers of his message. We are those now who eat and drink with him after his Resurrection. And so we have a commission to announce this Good News.

 

2018-4-7

朋友们，在今天的福音中，耶稣派遣众门徒“往普天下去，向一切受造的宣传福音。”

 

教会没有使命；教会本身就是使命。激情澎湃的天主教义把人们带到基督面前，就像从屋顶把瘫痪者放下到耶稣面前那四个人一样。传播福音的天主教义在屋顶高声呼喊、抓住人们的衣领、急切而热烈地向他们介绍耶稣。

 

显然，我们传播福音时对人要充满尊敬和爱意；但很多时候，我们社会中的“和睦相处”文化，还有夸张的普世教会主义使我们无法行动。除非我们把别人带到了主面前，否则我们就不是成功的基督徒。“其他人在哪？”

 

Friends, in today’s passage Jesus commissions his disciples to “go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”

 

The Church doesn’t have a mission; the Church is a mission. A passionate Catholicism brings people to Christ, like the four people who lowered the paralytic through the roof to get him to Jesus. An evangelizing Catholicism shouts from the rooftops, grabs people by the lapels, and speaks with urgency and energy about Jesus.

 

Obviously, this has to be done with great respect and love; but very often, obstacles that come from our “get-along” culture, and perhaps from an exaggerated ecumenism, keep it from getting done at all. We have not been successful in our Christianity unless and until we have brought others to the Lord. “Where are the others?”

 

2018-4-8

朋友们，今天的福音精彩地宣布最能体现天主慈悲的就是罪恶得以宽恕。我们仿佛置身于那些曾经否认、背叛、离弃主的门徒之中。耶稣来到他们中间。他们看见祂时肯定是魂飞魄散，以为祂回来报复。

 

相反，祂只简单地说了句：“Shalom”，愿你们平安。祂把手和肋膀指给他们看，让他们铭记世人（以及众门徒）对祂做过的一切，但祂毫不责备和惩罚——只有慈悲。

 

然后祂向他们委以非比寻常的使命：“你们领受圣神罢！你们赦免谁的罪，谁的罪就得赦免；你们保留谁的罪，谁的罪就被保留。”耶稣向众门徒传达了祂的慈悲，然后派他们向世人传达这种慈悲。

 

这就是告解圣事的根据，从耶稣委任门徒的那一刻起一直到今天，告解圣事在教会中向来都是传达天主慈悲的专用工具。

 

Friends, our magnificent Gospel today declares that there is no greater manifestation of the divine mercy than the forgiveness of sins. We are in the upper room with the disciples, those who had denied, betrayed, and abandoned their master. Jesus came and stood in their midst. When they saw him, their fear must have intensified; undoubtedly, he was back for revenge.

 

Instead, he spoke the simple word "Shalom," peace. He showed them his hands and his side, lest they forget what the world (and they) did to him, but he does not follow up with blame or retribution—only a word of mercy.

 

And then the extraordinary commission: "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained." Jesus’ mercy is communicated to his disciples, who in turn are sent to communicate it to the world.

 

This is the foundation for the sacrament of penance, which has existed in the Church from that moment to the present day as the privileged vehicle of the divine mercy.