Bishop Barron

2018-10-31

朋友们，今天福音的重点在于一个人们从古至今一直在追问的问题：“主，是不是只有少数人获救？”天堂、地狱、救赎、打入地狱，谁得救？谁受罚？亘古以来，我们对这些问题始终很着迷。

 

我认为我们应该这样看待这个问题：关于地狱的教义必然引出两个基本的真理，即天主就是爱以及我们是自由的。爱（甘愿为他人的利益着想）是天主的性质。祂不会在爱与不爱之间游移；祂不会变心；祂不会只偏爱某些人。用耶稣的话说，天主确实就像太阳那样，既照耀好人，也照耀坏人。

 

无论如何，我们都无法制止天主对我们的爱。就这一点而言，祂就像最好的父亲。然而，我们是自由的。我们不是天主的牵线木偶，因此我们可以接受或者拒绝祂的爱。我们若接受祂的爱，就会像向日葵般绽放；我们若拒绝，就会被晒焦。

 

Friends, our Gospel for today features a question that people have been asking from time immemorial and that they still ask today: "Lord, will only a few people be saved?" Heaven, hell, salvation, damnation, who will be in and who will be out? We have remained fascinated with these questions for a long time.

 

Here’s how I would recommend we approach this issue. The doctrine concerning hell is a corollary of two more fundamental truths—namely, that God is love and that we are free. Love (willing the good of the other) is all that God is. He doesn’t go in and out of love; he doesn’t change his mind; he’s not loving to some and not to others. He is indeed like the sun that shines on the good and bad alike, in the words of Jesus.

 

No act of ours can possibly make him stop loving us. In this regard, he is like the best of parents. However, we are free. We are not God’s marionettes, and hence we can say yes or we can say no to his love. If we turn toward it, we open like a sunflower; if we turn from it, we get burned.