原文|Bishop Barron
翻译|Carrie

朋友们，我们今天纪念我们的守护天使。天主为什么要派遣这些灵性使者来帮我们？阿奎那说，由于我们都有容易犯错的本质，所以天主给我们每一个人派来一位天国导师。这只是猜测和臆想吗？

 

关于天使的故事，我的至爱是这个：两个相对来说经验较为不足的飞行员在雾中迷失方向。虽然他们想方设法联系机场，但事与愿违。于是，其中一个飞行员祈祷获得保护。

 

终于，无线电中传来一个声音。说话人表明自己是某小型机场的调度员。通过非常精确的指示，这位调度员引导两个飞行员穿越大雾降落在该机场的着陆带。

 

平安抵达后，他们惊讶地发现该机场处于关闭状态，没有任何值班人员。这是个奇异的巧合？结局圆满的偶然事件？又或者是更接近完美的存在正庇护着我们的证据。如你所知，人们一旦打开话匣子，诸如此类的故事就层出不穷。

 

Friends, today we celebrate the memorial of our Guardian Angels. Why does God send these spiritual messengers to help us? Well, Aquinas says that each of us, due to our fallible nature, have been assigned a heavenly guide. Is all of this just speculation and conjecture?

 

One of my favorite stories about angels this one: two relatively inexperienced pilots found themselves lost on a foggy day. Though they tried desperately to make contact with an airport, they were incapable of doing so. One of them then prayed for protection.

 

In time, a voice crackled onto the radio. The speaker identified himself as a controller from a small airport. Through very precise instructions, he guided the two pilots through the fog to a landing-strip at that airport.

 

Once they had arrived to their astonishment they discovered that the airport was closed and that there was no one on duty. A bizarre coincidence? A happy accident? Or perhaps a sign that we are being protected by powers at a higher pitch of ontological perfection. As you know, stories such as this come out of the woodwork once people are given the opportunity to share them.

 

2017-10-1

朋友们，今天的福音说的是两个儿子的比喻，耶稣以此来批评法利赛人拒绝洗者若翰：“若翰来到你们这里，履行了正义，你们仍不相信他；税吏和娼妓倒相信了”。

 

各种人来问洗者怎样做才能取悦天主。他给他们非常具体的指示。他对税吏说，“不要多征收”。对军人说，“不要勒索人，也不要敲诈;对你们的粮饷应当知足”。对富有的人说，“跟贫困的人分享你们拥有的”。换句话说，他强调基本的正义行为。

 

像他的宗教和哲学同仁那样，洗者认为人类可以凭自身的努力进行道德改革，迈向正义。

 

但当人们提出他作为洗者也许就是默西亚，他着重澄清了事实。这个最后的又是最伟大的先知说，“比我强的一位要来，就是解他的鞋带，我也不配”。

 

Friends, today’s Gospel gives us the parable of the two sons, which Jesus uses as a comment on the Pharisees rejection of John the Baptist: “When John came to you in the way of righteousness, you did not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did”.

 

Various people come to the Baptist and ask what they must do in order to be more pleasing to God. And he gives them very concrete instruction. To tax collectors, he says, “Don’t take more than you should”. To soldiers, he says, “Don’t extort and bully people and don’t expect more in pay than you deserve”. To those who have much, he says, “Share what you have with those who have less”. In other words, he urges the basic works of justice.

 

Like his religious and philosophical colleagues, the Baptist assumes here that this moral reform in the direction of justice can be undertaken through our own efforts.

 

But when people suggest that he, the Baptist, might be the Messiah, he emphatically clarifies the matter. The last and greatest of the prophets says, “There is one coming who is mightier than I. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals”.

 

2017-9-30

朋友们，在今天的福音中，耶稣预言祂将要被交于人的手中，即祂被钉死在十字架上。我想表达的看法如下：我们在耶稣的十字架上要看到的是我们自己的丑恶。是什么把耶稣钉上十字架？愚蠢、愤怒、怀疑、体制不公、背叛、遗弃、不可言喻的残酷、恐惧。圣伯多禄令人不安地一言蔽之：生命的创造者来到，你们却杀死祂。耶稣的十字架把所有卑鄙小人揭露无遗。因此，我们说祂的十字架是天主对全人类的审判。

 

到目前为止一切都糟糕。但此时此刻我们无法不把故事说下去。但丁和其他所有精神大师都知道向上的唯一路径是向下。当我们对自己的罪恶浑然不觉地活着，就永远不会在精神上有所进步。所以我们需要光，无论见光是多么的痛苦。然后我们能够开始上升。一旦但丁深入地狱中心，他突然发现自己正在爬出地狱。

 

在耶稣的十字架上，我们直面自己的罪恶。但我们也遇上神圣的慈悲，祂担负起我们的罪恶，为了使之一笔勾销。

 

Friends, in today's Gospel Jesus predicts his being handed over to men, that is, his crucifixion. Here is the point I want to make: we are meant to see on that cross our own ugliness. What brings Jesus to the cross? Stupidity, anger, mistrust, institutional injustice, betrayal, denial, unspeakable cruelty, fear. St. Peter puts it with disquieting laconicism: the author of Life came and you killed him. In the light of the cross, all of the vermin are revealed. This is why we speak of the cross as God's judgment on the world.

 

So far so awful. But we can't stop telling the story at this point. Dante and every other spiritual master know that the only way up is down. When we live unaware of our sins, we will never make spiritual progress. So we need the light, however painful it is. Then we can begin to rise. Once Dante makes it all the way to the center of Hell, he suddenly finds himself climbing out.

 

On the cross of Jesus, we meet our own sin. But we also meet the divine mercy which has taken that sin upon himself in order to swallow it up.