朋友们，在今天的福音中，耶稣来到葛法翁，于安息日进入会堂教训人。然后我们读到“人人都惊奇他的教训，因为他教训他们，正像有权威的，不像经师们一样。”普通经师都会取证于自己的师傅和权威人士，最后引证于梅瑟和《律法书》，因两者均不容置疑。

 

那么人们为什么不说祂是疯子？看下去就知道了。有个“附邪魔”的人冲入会堂。他知道耶稣是谁：“我知道你是谁，你是天主的圣者。”

 

然后耶稣显示祂的权威：“‘不准说话！从他身上出去吧！’邪魔使那人痉挛了一阵，大喊一声，就从他身上出去了。”天主通过显示自己对精神领域的统治地位来表明祂的权威。

 

那么在场的人——以及我们——都得做出抉择。我们是与祂团结一致还是针锋相对？如果祂的说话句句属实、为人表里如一，那么我们就必须把生命交给祂。

 

Friends, in our Gospel Jesus came to Capernaum and entered the synagogue on a Sabbath, where he began to teach. Then it says that the "people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes." The ordinary teachers would have appealed to their own teachers and authorities, and finally to Moses and the Torah, which were unassailable.

 

Now what would prevent the people from saying that he was just crazy? Well, watch what happens next. Into the synagogue there rushed a man with "an unclean spirit." And he knows who Jesus is: "I know who you are—the Holy One of God."

 

But then Jesus demonstrates his authority: "‘Quiet, come out of him!’ And the unclean spirit convulsed him with a loud cry and came out of him." The claim to God’s own authority is now ratified by showing power over the spiritual realm.

 

And now they—and we—have to make a decision. Are we with him or are we against him? If he is who he says he is and who he demonstrates himself to be, then we have to give our lives to him.

 

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朋友们，今天的福音写到耶稣在革辣撒驱魔的故事。我们可以清晰看到耶稣是奇迹制造者。

 

现代思想家对此大多抱着诚惶诚恐的态度。比如托马斯·杰斐逊对福音中但凡沾上超自然的篇章都进行大刀阔斧的删剪，其中包括奇迹、驱魔故事等等。当然，问题是他难免会把《马尔谷福音》弄得一团糟，因为其中充满了超自然的故事。

 

与杰斐逊同时代的伟大现代哲学家大卫·休谟写下了非常有影响力的反奇迹文稿。他认为因为自然法则是固定的，所以严格来说，奇迹是不可能的事。他的结论是奇迹故事不过就是远古人类的思维紊乱和痴心妄想。

 

虽然天主一般来说都会让宇宙按其自然规律和模式来运行发展，但是又有什么可以阻止天主偶尔以神奇的方式来塑造或影响宇宙，以此表明祂的目的和存在呢？

 

Friends, today’s Gospel shows Jesus driving the unclean spirit from the Gerasene demoniac. What we see here on vivid display is Jesus the miracle worker.

 

Modern thinkers tend to be wary of this dimension. For instance, Thomas Jefferson took a straight razor to the pages of the Gospels and cut out everything that smacked of the supernatural—miracles, exorcisms, and so on. The problem, of course, is that he had to make an absolute mess of Mark’s Gospel, which is positively chock-a-block with such things.

 

Jefferson’s contemporary, the great modern philosopher David Hume, wrote a powerfully influential text against miracles. He claimed that since the laws of nature were set, miracles were, strictly speaking, impossible. Accounts of them, he concluded, were the result of the foggy or wishful thinking of primitive people.

 

But though God typically lets the universe run according to its natural rhythms and patterns, what is to prevent God from shaping it and influencing it occasionally in remarkable ways, in order to signal his purpose and presence?