2018-2-9

朋友们，今天的福音说的是耶稣治好了一个又聋又哑的人。一如既往，我们既要表面也要看内在。耶稣行了一个真实可见的奇迹。但我们还应该以象征意义来理解祂的一举一动，从而找出更深一层的灵修意义。

 

那么耶稣在做什么？祂“把手指放进他的耳朵里，并用唾沫，抹他的舌头。”耶稣似乎在通过自己把天主圣父的电流接到这个聋哑人身上。祂几乎从真实意义上把聋哑人插入神圣的电流，迫使他听见圣言。祂说：“厄法达！”，即开了吧。当他的耳朵开了，他立刻就可以说话，能够清晰地说出天主的圣言。

 

因此，这个聋哑人代表了所有听不见圣言、对圣言变得漠不关心的人。这种耳聋的后果是什么？就是成了哑巴。在灵修的意义上，你若不能清楚地听见圣言，也就难以发声。

 

Friends, our Gospel for today has to do with Jesus’ healing of a deaf man with a speech impediment. As always, we have to look at the surface and at the depth. Jesus is performing a physical miracle. But every one of his actions should also be read symbolically, so as to uncover a deeper spiritual meaning.

 

So what does Jesus do? He “put his finger in the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue.” Jesus establishes, as it were, an electrical current, running from God the Father, through him, to this man. He—almost literally—plugs him into the divine current, compelling him to hear the Word. He says “Ephphatha,” be opened. When he does, his speech impediment is immediately overcome. Now he is able to speak the Word of God clearly.

 

So this deaf man stands for all of us who do not hear the word of God, who have grown oblivious to it. And what is the result of this deafness? A speech impediment. At the spiritual level, if you don’t hear the Word of God clearly, then your capacity to speak it is also severely compromised.

 

2018-2-10

朋友们，今天的福音讲述了耶稣以七个饼和几条鱼喂饱了四千余人。

 

很多当代神学家和圣经评注者尝试把耶稣的奇迹解释为精神象征。其中最恶名昭彰的也许就是众多讲道者尝试把增饼解释为施舍的“奇迹”，即当时在场群众各自分享自己仅有的食物。

 

但我认为首批基督徒对耶稣的奇迹极其感兴趣，他们并不把这些奇迹仅仅看作是文学象征，这是难以否认的事实！他们对这些奇迹的真相心领神会：天主的行动在人间乍现。

 

Friends, today’s Gospel tells of Jesus feeding the four thousand with seven loaves and a few fish.

 

An awful lot of contemporary theologians and Bible commentators have tried to explain away the miracles of Jesus as spiritual symbols. Perhaps most notoriously, many preachers tried to explain the multiplication of the loaves and fishes as a "miracle" of charity, with everyone sharing the little that he had.

 

But I think it’s hard to deny that the first Christians were intensely interested in the miracles of Jesus, and that they didn’t see them as mere literary symbols! They saw them for what they really were: actions of God, breaking into our world.