2018-5-5

朋友们，今天的福音警醒我们反对天主的社会会给我们带来危险，并以此来平衡复活期的喜乐：“若是你们属于世界，世界必喜爱你们，有如属于自己的人；但因你们不属于世界，而是我从世界上拣选了你们，为此，世界才恨你们。”

 

我们在复活期确实应该庆祝。主复活了；祂的确复活了。耶稣基督是主，天主为王，罪恶和死亡都被击败了。这些都是真的，并在复活期间一直保持重要性。

 

同时，我们必须抵抗认为既然基督复活了就一切皆好的“廉价恩典式”的基督精神诠释。正如诺里奇的朱利安说的：“一切将会好、一切事态将会好转。”注意他说的是将来。决定性的一战已经取胜，但战争仍在持续不断。

 

Friends, today’s Gospel balances our Easter joy with the warning of danger from a society opposed to God: “If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you.”

 

It is altogether appropriate that, during this Easter season, we rejoice. The Lord is risen; he is truly risen. Jesus Christ is Lord, God is King, and sin and death have been defeated. All of that is true and remains centrally important during this season.

 

At the same time, we must not succumb to a “cheap grace” interpretation of Christianity, whereby Christ is risen and all is well. As Julian of Norwich said, “All will be well, all manner of things will be well.” Notice the future tense. The definitive battle has been won, but the war continues. The struggle is ongoing.

 

2018–5-6

朋友们，在今天的福音中，耶稣教我们以天主的爱去爱别人：“你们应存在我的爱内。如果你们遵守我的命令，便存在我的爱内，正如我遵守了我父的命令，而存在祂的爱内一样。”

 

“留存”这个小小的词语非常重要——在希腊语中是menein——这个词在《若望福音》中经常出现。天主把祂的爱作为恩典无条件地给予我们，但我们要留存于祂的爱内确实要遵守某些诫命。

 

天主的爱是这样运作的：我们只有把天主的爱送出去才能真正留得住并且“拥有”这种爱。如果我们抵抗或紧握着这种爱，祂就始终无法进入我们的内心、身体和理智。但我们要是把祂作为一种爱的表现而送出去，我们就会获得更多，进入一股美好的恩典恒流之中。当你把神圣之爱送出去，你就“留存”于这种爱之中。

 

这就是关于恩典的重要的天主教义以及如何与恩典合作。我们不像某些改革者那样把律法与恩典远远区分，而是认为律法和诫命让我们得以参与到天主的爱之中。可以说，这是有条件的爱与无条件的爱之间的博弈。也正因如此，我们才能在爱中不断成长。

 

Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus instructs us in the way of loving others with God’s love: "Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love."

 

Much hinges on that little word "remain"—menein in the Greek—which John uses frequently in his Gospel. God’s love is given unconditionally as a grace, but remaining in that love is indeed a matter of keeping certain commandments.

 

Here is how it works: God’s love can truly dwell in us and become our "possession" only in the measure that we give it away. If we resist it or try to cling to it, it will never work its way into our own hearts, bodies, and minds. But if we give it away as an act of love, then we get more of it, entering into a delightful stream of grace. If you give away the divine love, then it "remains" in you.

 

This is the great Catholic doctrine of grace and the cooperation with grace. We don’t drive a great wedge between law and grace, as some of the Reformers did. Rather, we say that law and commandment allow us to participate in the love that God is. It’s a play, if you want, of both conditional and unconditional love. And it’s precisely why we can grow in love.