2018-4-23

朋友们，今天的福音基于耶稣为善牧这个恒久亲善的意象之上。耶稣说：“羊听他的声音；他按著名字呼唤自己的羊，并引领出来。”

 

基督教并非一系列的理念，这是多么奇妙又古怪啊！基督教不是哲学或思想体系，而是与可发声的祂之间的关系。首批信徒有幸听到真实耶稣的声音，他们感受得到那种声音的独特的音调和质感。

 

但我们通过各种方式也能听得见祂的声音，特别是当我们在弥撒中听到经文的宣读。要注意的是，我们不单单读《圣经》，还听《圣经》。当主教和教宗说话时，我们也能听见耶稣的声音；我们还能在自己的良心里听见祂的声音，纽曼把这种声音称为“灵魂中固有的基督代牧”；当好教友安慰我们、激励我们、坚持敦促我们向更高的理想迈步、在我们跌倒时鼓励我们的时候，我们可以在他们的话语中听见耶稣的声音。

 

我们聆听耶稣的声音，因为祂引领我们进入与天主一起的焕然一新的生活。

 

Friends, today’s Gospel builds on the enduring and endearing image of Jesus as the good shepherd. Jesus says: "The sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out."

 

How wonderful and strange that Christianity is not a set of ideas. It’s not a philosophy or an ideology. It’s a relationship with someone who has a voice. The first disciples were privileged to hear the voice of the historical Jesus. They heard its very particular tone and texture.

 

But we hear his voice too, in our own way, especially when we hear the Scriptures proclaimed at Mass. Mind you, we don’t just read the Bible; we hear the Bible. We also hear the voice of Jesus when the bishops and the popes speak; we hear it in our conscience, which Newman called "the aboriginal vicar of Christ in the soul"; and we hear it in good spiritual friends, those people who comfort us and challenge us and keep calling us to higher ideals and encourage us when we fall.

 

We listen to the voice of Jesus because he is leading us to a renewed and transformed life with God.

 

2018-4-24

朋友们，在今天的福音中，耶稣解释祂的羊听从祂的原因是祂引领他们走向永生。

 

祂说：“我赐予他们永生，他们永远不会丧亡”。在天堂里，我们永不丧亡、不再受控于死亡和病痛、与天主面对面。

 

天堂和人间在圣经故事中确实总是紧紧相联的。但我们绝不能把天堂降格为人间，仿佛宗教不过就是世俗的伦理道德、社会公义或心理健康。不，基督教信仰是超脱世俗，走向天国的耶路撒冷的旅程。

 

基督教生活中的一切——从道德行为到祈祷、礼拜仪式、正义事业——这一切都是为了这个目标。因此，让我们聆听牧人的声音，无论天涯海角都跟随着祂。

 

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus explains why his sheep listen to him and follow him. They do so because he is leading them to eternal life.

 

He says, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.” The life of heaven, where we “shall never perish,” is that place where death and sickness have no power over us, where we see God face to face.

 

Heaven and earth are always connected in the biblical imagination; that’s true. But heaven should never be reduced to earth, as though religion is just about this-worldly ethics, social justice, or psychological well-being. No; the Christian faith is about a journey beyond this world to the heavenly Jerusalem.

 

Everything in the Christian life—from our ethical behavior, to prayer, to the liturgy, to works of justice—all of it is meant to conduce to that end. So listen to the voice of the shepherd and follow him wherever he goes.