原文|Bishop Barron
翻译|Carrie

Today the Church celebrates the feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. Meditating on these angels can tell us a great deal about the priesthood. For they exemplify the three fundamental tasks of the priest: healer, fighter, and evangelizer.

 

Raphael is a healer; consult the book of Tobit for the details. Michael is a fighter. When Satan dares to claim equality with God, Michael speaks his name, Mich-a-el, Who is like God? And this is his victory. And Gabriel is the great messenger angel, the one who announces the Incarnation to a young maiden of Nazareth.

 

Perhaps more than ever today, people are suffering with what the hymn calls "sin-sick souls". The great salve for all of these wounds is Jesus Christ. But who will bring this salve to a hurting world? This is why Christ raises up priests. Just think of the racism, the hatred, and the injustice that reign everywhere. Who will fight? This is why Christ raises up priests, as new Michaels.

 

Finally, Jesus is a preacher. He is, after all, the Word of God made flesh. Therefore, we shouldn't be surprised that the Word comes forth from him with unique power.

 

2017-9-28

朋友们，在今天的福音中，我们看到黑落德对耶稣既感兴趣又犹疑不定。《圣经新约》中的政治统治者给人的印象就是不好。路加讲述耶稣诞生时，凯撒奥古斯都与年幼的基督比较之下显得相形见绌。而那个年幼的孩子，在玛窦的福音书中被黑落德苦苦追杀。后来，黑落德的儿子迫害洗者若翰和耶稣。还有，在四部福音书中，犹太当权者均被视为腐败分子。

 

而般雀比拉多是个典型的罗马统治者：精明能干、关心秩序、冷酷无情。就像当时的其他统治者一样，他恰如其分地把耶稣看作是一种威胁。“那么，你就是君王了？”比拉多问。耶稣说，“我的国不属于这世界。”

 

耶稣的意思不是说祂毫不关心政治现实，也就是有关于“这世界”的正义、和平和良好秩序。当祂说祂的国不属于这“世界”，祂掩盖了这个词的负面内涵。这“世界”是罪恶、自私、仇恨、暴力的领域。祂所说的意思是祂的统治方式不同于比拉多、凯撒和黑落德等等的世俗当权者。
 

Friends, in today's Gospel we see Herod interested in and perplexed by Jesus. Political rulers don't come across well in the New Testament. In Luke's Christmas account, Caesar Augustus is compared very unfavorably to the Christ child. And that child, in Matthew's account is hunted down by the desperate Herod. Later, Herod's son persecutes John the Baptist and Jesus himself. More to it, the Jewish authorities are seen in all of the Gospels as corrupt.

 

And Pontius Pilate is a typical Roman governor: efficient, concerned for order, brutal. Like the other rulers of the time, he perceives Jesus, quite correctly, as a threat. "So you are a king?" Pilate asks. Jesus says, "My kingdom does not belong to this world."

 

This does not mean that Jesus is unconcerned for the realities of politics, with the very "this-worldly" concerns of justice, peace, and right order. When he speaks of his kingdom not belonging to the "world", he shades the negative side of that term. The"world" is the realm of sin, selfishness, hatred, violence. What he is saying is that his way of ordering things is not typical of the worldly powers like Pilate, Caesar, and Herod.