2018-4-18

朋友们，若瑟·拉辛格（教宗本笃十六世）说灵魂相当于我们与天主建立关系的能力。我们有着各种各样智力和交际能力，但最重要的是，我们有着认识和热爱天主的能力。因为天主是永恒的，所以这种能力把我们和永恒关联起来，证明了我们不仅仅是受制于时空之中。要是说我们只不过是昙花一现、转瞬即逝的“肉体”，那就是略去我们存在的永恒性层面。相反，我们要论及灵魂以及先人的永恒存在。

 

所以耶稣在今天的福音中欣然提到永生：“因为这是我父的旨意：凡看见子，并信从子的，必获得永生；并且在末日，我要使他复活。”在耶稣生活的时代，犹太人对这个问题有着激烈的辩论。很多犹太人，包括撒杜塞人，都否认来世的概念；但其他人，包括法利塞人，则予之肯定。

 

耶稣显然与后者同一阵线，而祂的死而复活更是无以复加地证实了来生的信念。

 

Friends, Joseph Ratzinger said that the soul corresponds to our capacity for relationship to God. We have a whole range of intellectual and relational powers, but beyond them all, we have the capacity to know and love God. And since God is eternal, this power links us to eternity, proving that we are not simply limited to space and time. To say that we are nothing but “bodies” which flourish briefly and then fade away is to miss this dimension of our existence. Instead, we speak of souls and of the enduring existence of those who have gone before us into death.  

 

This is why Jesus speaks so readily of eternal life in today’s Gospel: “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.” There was a great debate in Jesus’ time within Judaism in regard to this question. Many, including the Sadducees, denied the idea of life after death; but others, including the Pharisees, affirmed it.

 

Jesus clearly sides with those who affirm it, and his own resurrection from the dead demonstrated this belief as emphatically as possible.