原文|Bishop Barron
翻译|Carrie

朋友们，今天的福音讲述了耶稣让纳因寡妇的儿子起死回生。福音的关键真理是耶稣的一言一行无论如何都是祂死而复活的预期，这篇福音就是一个最好的例子。以色列的天主、耶稣基督的天主是生命力的天主、活物的天主。祂厌恶死亡以及死亡的各个方面。

 

失去亲人已经够悲惨的了，今天福音中的死亡更是惨上加惨。在耶稣身处的年代背景，寡妇丧子是一种大不幸。没有社会安全保障、保险、保障性收入。丧了夫，而且重要的是丧了“独生子”，她不知何去何从，除非有能够支援她的善心邻居，所以耶稣特别怜悯她。

 

请注意，旁观者的反应是恐惧。这种恐惧来自尘世的本末倒置，这种反应与在首个复活节早上来到耶稣坟前的妇人作出的反应如出一辙。凡是足够好的福音传道都有点吓人。
 

Friends, our Gospel today gives us Jesus’ raising of the son of the widow of Nain. This is a prime exemplification of the key Gospel truth that everything Jesus said and did, in one way or another, is an anticipation of his resurrection. The God of Israel, the God of Jesus Christ, is a God of life, a God of the living. He hates death and the ways of death.

 

The death in today’s Gospel goes beyond the tragic loss of a loved one, as awful as that is. In the context of Jesus’ time and place this is a disaster for the widow. There is no social safety-net, no insurance, no guaranteed income. Unless she finds kindly neighbors who can support her, she is lost without her husband and, importantly, her “only son”. This is why the heart of Jesus is especially moved with pity.

 

Notice please that the reaction of the bystanders is fear. This is the fear that comes from the turning upside down of a world. This is the reaction of the women at the tomb on Easter Sunday morning. An evangelization that isn’t a little scary is an inadequate evangelization.

 

2017-9-18

Friends, in today's Gospel Jesus is amazed at a Roman centurion's faith: "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith." How often the Bible compels us to meditate on the meaning of faith! We might say that the Scriptures rest upon faith, remain inspired at every turn by the spirit of faith.

 

Faith is an attitude of trust in the presence of God. Faith is openness to what God will reveal, do, and invite. It should be obvious that in dealing with the infinite, all-powerful person who is God, we are never in control.

 

One of the most fundamental statements of faith is this: your life is not about you. You're not in control. This is not your project. Rather, you are part of God's great design. To believe this in your bones and act accordingly is to have faith. When we operate out of this transformed vision, amazing things can happen, for we have surrendered to "a power already at work in us that can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine." Even a tiny bit of faith makes an extraordinary difference.

 

2017-9-17

Friends, today's Gospel gives us the parable of the unforgiving servant. I want to say something about the reason for our inability to forgive.

 

In the deepest sense, we don't belong to ourselves. Everything we have and all that we are comes from God. We are meant, with all of our gifts, to serve God's purposes. Our very existence comes from God, but so does the forgiveness of our sins. If there is one thing that we can each claim of ourselves, it is that we are sinners.

 

How do we go on? We know that we have been forgiven. That through no merit of ours, Christ has died for our sins and offered us the divine mercy. The upshot is this: there is nothing particularly stable about the self, nothing that it can claim for its own. All that it is has been received as a gift.

 

Well, what is at the root of the inability to forgive but this false sense of the substantial self? I have things coming to me; Do you know who I am? Well, you have nothing coming to you. You exist because of God and in order to serve the purposes of God.