2018-5-20

朋友们，今天的福音选自《若望福音》，耶稣把祂在十字架上的伤痕显示给众门徒看，然后对他们说“shalom”(愿你们平安）。耶稣的伤痕和平安的并列充满力量。若只有伤痕，我们会倍感恐惧，深信自己罪孽深重、无可救药。若只有平安，这种恩典又显得廉价，救赎来得太容易。

 

正因如此，耶稣给众门徒看了伤痕和说了“愿你们平安”之后，立即派他们执行赦免罪过的使命：“就向他们嘘了一口气，说：‘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。’”

 

作为神圣宽恕的载体，教会接受赦免罪过这个基本使命。耶稣委托我们向堕落无望的世界宣讲祂的平安，但我们分享的不是廉价的恩典，我们还身负着把祂的伤痕显示给世人看的使命。教会拒绝为罪恶辩解或找借口或冠以美名。但是伤痕的显示为世人带来平安。

 

Friends, in our Gospel for today, drawn from St. John’s account, Jesus shows his disciples the wounds of his Crucifixion, and then he offers them shalom (peace). It is the juxtaposition of the wounds and the shalom that carries power. The wounds alone would leave us afraid, convinced of our sin but not of a way out. The shalom alone would leave us with cheap grace, a too easy way out.

 

And this is precisely why, immediately after uttering that word and showing those wounds, Jesus sends the disciples on a mission of forgiveness: "Then he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive men’s sins they are forgiven them; if you hold them bound, they are held bound.’"

 

The Church receives its essential mission and identity as the bearer of the divine forgiveness. We have been entrusted with speaking the shalom of Jesus to a fallen and hopeless world. But it’s not cheap grace that we share. We participate in Jesus’ mission of showing his wounds as well. The Church refuses to explain sin away or make excuses for it or call it by another name. But when those wounds are revealed, it offers peace.

 

2018-5-21

朋友们，今天我们庆祝全新的荣福童贞玛利亚、教会之母纪念日。

 

在今天的福音中，耶稣在十字架上奄奄一息时看见自己的母亲和心爱的门徒，于是对玛利亚说：“女人，看，你的儿子！”然后对若望说：“看，你的母亲！”然后我们读到：“就从那时起，那门徒把她接到自己家里。”

 

如果玛利亚是耶稣的亲生母亲、教会确实是基督的奥体，那么她在真实意义上必须是教会的母亲。耶稣正是通过她不断地在信众心中出生。这不是把她混淆为救世主，而是坚称她有着调停者和代祷者的使命。在“圣母经”的结尾，我们天主教徒请求玛利亚“现在和我们临终时，为我们罪人祈求天主。”也就是说，玛利亚在我们整个人生中都是有特殊恩宠的沟通渠道，通过她，基督的恩典得以流入祂的奥体。

 

天主在无比复杂的神圣旨意中欣然使用次要角色，赐予他们与祂及其旨意合作的荣耀。“上主的婢女”，也就是教会之母，是这些谦卑角色中最为谦卑的——因此也是最有效的。

 

Friends, today we celebrate the brand new Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church.

 

We hear in today’s Gospel that, as he was dying on the cross, Jesus looked to his mother and the disciple whom he loved, and he said to Mary, "Woman, behold, your son," and then to John, "Behold, your mother." We are told that "from that hour the disciple took her into his home."

 

If Mary is the one through whom Christ was born, and if the Church is indeed Christ’s mystical body, then she must be, in a very real sense, the mother of the Church. She is the one through whom Jesus continues to be born in the hearts of those who believe. This is not to confuse her with the Savior, but it is to insist on her mission as mediator and intercessor. At the close of the great "Hail Mary" prayer, we Catholics ask Mary to pray for us "now and at the hour of our death," signaling that throughout one’s life Mary is the privileged channel through which the grace of Christ flows into the mystical body.

 

God delights in drawing secondary causes into the dense complexity of his providential plan, granting to them the honor of cooperating with him and his designs. The handmaid of the Lord, who is the mother of the Church, is the humblest of these humble instruments—and therefore the most effective.