2018-12-11

朋友们，今天的福音讲述牧羊人找寻迷失之羊的故事。让我们谈谈迷失的羊。羊比丢了的银币更重要——也就是说，羊有行动力、感觉、饥饿感等等。很多年前，我在阿尔卑斯山的塔米修道院避静时，听到过一只落入深坑的羊的绝望叫声。它整夜不停地叫，因为它知道自己陷入险境，希望有人来救它。

 

有些灵魂就像迷失的羊，他们在精神上受损、完全无力自救，但至少他们知道自己处境一团糟。就像参与匿名戒酒会的人一样，他们承认自己已经跌到谷底，完全无力控制局面，因此他们发出呼救的声音。

 

天主找到他们——当祂找到他们的时候，祂背负他们回家，因为他们无法移动。

 

Friends, today’s Gospel passage recounts the story of the shepherd finding his lost sheep. Let’s look at that lost sheep. A sheep is something more than a lost coin—which is to say, it has mobility, sense, appetites, and so on. Many years ago, when I was on retreat at the Abbey of Tamie in the Alps, I heard the desperate bleating of a sheep who had fallen into a pit. All night he cried, knowing that he was in trouble and hoping that someone would come to save him.

 

There are souls who are like the lost sheep. Spiritually compromised, fundamentally unable to help themselves, they are at least aware that they are in a mess. They are like people who commence the AA process by admitting that they have hit bottom and are out of control. They bleat, they cry for help.

 

And God finds them—and when he finds them, he carries them back, for they are unable to move on their own.