主題：度充滿聖神的生活
在禮儀年丙年的主日，教會主要選讀第三部福音。正如今天的開場白所說，路加醫生並不是第一個，或者惟一的一個寫「耶穌傳」的人。他的求真精神，優美的文筆和慈悲的主題，令他的作品得以收錄在新約之中，給予後世的信徒，一本祈禱默想主耶穌基督，如何展現天主聖三慈悲的面貎的福音。有關天主聖父及天主聖子，我們認識的比較多；但有關天主聖神，我們很陌生，對祂的印象很模糊。感激路加醫生，他還寫了【宗徒大事錄】，講述了天主聖神如何在宗徒們和初期教會內，推動他們把得救的福音，開始傳遍普世。經過了二十個世紀，教會傳福音的目標，並未達到。雖然遇上重重艱難迫害，但感謝天主聖神，她仍沒有放棄。
【路加福音】把耶穌基督的言行，緊扣到天主聖神身上。惟獨路加福音記載了「聖母領報」的事蹟，宣示了天主聖子，因聖神降孕於童貞女的奧蹟（路1:35）。懷孕著天主聖子的童貞聖母瑪利亞，充滿的不單是聖寵，更是聖神！她趕往探訪表姐依撒伯爾時，令表姐腹中的洗者若翰雀躍，且令表姐充滿了聖神（1:41）。耶穌基督受洗後，充滿了聖神，由聖神引領他到荒野裡去，憑聖神的力量，四十天功夫受魔鬼的試探（4:1-2）。今天所讀的福音告訴我們，耶穌基督受試探後，充滿聖神的能力，從荒野回到加里肋亞，沿途在會堂施教。祂的名聲傳遍了加里肋亞一帶（4:14-15）。今天的目的地，是自己成長的地方─納匝肋。是衣錦還鄉嗎？絕對不是，耶穌基督的任務，尚未全面開展。祂傳福音的顛峰是五餅二魚神蹟，當時有上萬人聚集，聽祂講道，並且希望得到治療。回到家鄉宣講的目的，借用今天的術語，就是建立「班底」，發表政綱！
耶穌基督的政綱，是以聖神為基礎，將來所要做的一切，是靠聖神完成的。「傅了油」便成為了「默西亞」，「解放者」。不過，耶穌基督不是猶太人所期望的，把他們從羅馬帝國殖民統治解放出來的「默西亞」。耶穌基督要解放的，是所有貧窮的人。既是生活在羅馬帝國下的，也有未來世代，世界各地的窮人。在物質上貧乏的人，比較容易看見；但更多的人是在知識上、關係上及靈性上貧乏的。知識上貧乏的人，未能分辨真偽，明辨是非，尤其是對「真理」缺乏興趣和認識，且看今天在社交媒體上廣大用戶的盲目行為，可見一班。關係上貧乏的人不懂得愛，尤其是不了解對方的真正需要，不懂得尊重對方的尊嚴，把自己的好惡，強加在對方身上。結果夫妻反目，兄弟鬩牆，眾叛親離。靈性上貧乏的人，找不到生命的意義和生存的目的，祇能短視於世俗，未能與超越本性局限的天主建立關係。
耶穌基督要向所有貧窮的人，宣佈天主願意照顧他們一切的需要，在物質上、知識上、關係上和靈性上的所有需要。這不是就是喜訊嗎？耶穌基督怎樣照顧眾人的需要呢？祂承諾賜予他們聖神。這聖神就是真理之神（若16:13），聖神賜予我們「聰敏」，看透世情中隱藏的啟示，保護我們不受世間紛亂的訊息所迷惑；聖神賜予我們「超見」，讓我們能明辨是非，有能力作出正確的抉擇，避免犯罪。聖神這樣保障我們，使我們不會把有限的人生資源，我們的「塔冷通」：健康、金錢、時間和精力，投資在錯誤的「產品」之上，一番心血，付諸流水。這樣，無論在物質上，知識上，關係上和靈性上，我們都成了富有豐盛的。
戰爭歷來是為了爭奪資源，所以戰勝的一方，不會浪費資源，供養沒有生產能力的傷殘老弱；對於有生產能力的，會留下他們做奴隸。耶穌基督要釋放的俘虜，今天多的是。很多人除了糊口之外，追求一個更舒適的生活水準，結果成為了工作的俘虜。除了失去自由之外，更賠上了健康和與家人的關係。有些人為了討好眾人的歡喜，不惜扮演小丑，或者放棄做人處事的原則，甘心成為別人利用的工具，出賣了自己的靈魂；有些人渴求浪漫的愛情生活，結果成了「女神」的俘虜，甘心做女神的觀音兵。有些人追求名譽權勢，卻成了權力鬥爭中的一隻棋子！
耶穌基督所賜予的聖神，給我們「剛毅」，有足夠勇氣，不怕困難迫害；聖神賜我們「明達」，有能力明白耶穌基督的真理及教會的社會訓導，並憑「剛毅」，付諸實踐。聖神賜予「孝愛」，令我們謙遜地信靠耶穌基督和祂的教會。最後，聖神賜我們一顆「敬畏天主」的心，約束自己不任意妄為，以天父的旨意為依歸。「敬畏上主是智慧的肇基。」（箴9:10）祂給予我們「上智」，使我們愛慕天上的事，多於愛慕地上的事，渴望認識天主，認識真理，在天主內找到真正及永恆的滿足。
各位兄弟姊妹，作為教會的成員，耶穌基督奧體的一份子，我們領受了堅振聖事，聖神已為我們傅了油，賜給我們「聖神七恩」，成為了默西亞，解放者。耶穌基督今天在會堂中，選讀了依撒意亞先知書第六十一章，來宣佈祂的政綱；而「聖神七恩」，是出自依撒意亞先知書的第十一章，確是絕非偶然！「聰敏」和「超見」，在理智上，幫助我們找到投資我們「塔冷通」的方向。我們不會貧窮，亦有能力向我們身邊，各式各樣的窮人傳喜訊。「剛毅」與「明達」，在意志上給予我們實踐福音精神和天主教社會訓導的力量，解放社會上各種類型的俘虜。最後，「孝愛」、「敬畏上主」與「上智」，滋養我們靈性的心，使聖神的恩賜，從我們靈魂深處，有如活水，源源不絕。
天主保祐！
Third Ordinary Sunday, Year C
Theme: Lead A Spirit-filled Life
On Sundays in the Liturgical Year C, the Church mainly reads the third gospel. As explained in the Prolog, Luke the Physician was not the first, or the only person to write biographies of Jesus. His meticulousness in searching for the truth, his elegance in writing style and the theme of mercy earn his opus a place in the New Testament, giving believers in subsequent ages a gospel for meditating how Lord Jesus Christ manifests the mercy of the Blessed Trinity. We know more about the Father and the Son. As for the Holy Spirit, we are rather unfamiliar and the impression is hazy. We should be grateful to Luke the Physician for writing the Acts of the Apostles, telling us how the Holy Spirit animated the Apostles and the early Church to start preaching the gospel of salvation to the whole world. After two millennia, the evangelization target of the Church has not yet achieved. Although she meets many difficulties and persecutions, thanks to the Holy Spirit, she has not given up.
The gospel of Luke couples the words and deeds of Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit. Only the gospel of Luke mentions the Annunciation, proclaiming the mystery of Incarnation, how the Son of God was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin (Luke 1:35). Carrying the Son of God in her womb, the Blessed Virgin Mary was not just full of grace, but also the Holy Spirit! She hurried to visit her cousin Elizabeth, making John the Baptist leap in Elizabeth's womb and she was filled with the Holy Spirit (1:41). After baptism, Jesus Christ was filled with the Holy Spirit who led him into the desert. With the strength of the Holy Spirit, for forty days Jesus Christ was tempted by the Devil (4:1-2). The gospel we read today tells us that after the temptation, "Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news of him spread throughout the whole region." (4:14-15) Today, His destination was Nazareth where he had grown up. Did Jesus Christ come back in triumph? No! His ministry had barely started. The zenith of His public ministry was the Five Loaves and Two Fish miracle when more than ten thousand people were gathered around Him, listening to His preaching and anticipating His cures. Using modern jargon, the purpose of returning to Nazareth was to build up His team and read out His King's Speech!
The Agenda of Jesus Christ is based on the Holy Spirit through whom whatever Jesus does in the future is accomplished. Being anointed makes a person the Messiah, the Liberator. But Jesus Christ was not the sort of anticipated Jewish Messiah who would liberate the Jews from the colonial rule of the Romans. Jesus Christ wants to liberate all the poor, those living under the Roman Empire and the poor all over the world in the future generations as well. Material poverty is easier to discover but more people are intellectually, relationally and spiritually poor. For those who are poor in intelligence, they are not able to tell the genuine from the fake, the right from the wrong. Moreover, they lack interest and knowledge of the Truth. Take a look at the behaviour of users of the social media today and you will see. People who are poor in relations do not know love. In particular, they do not understand the other party's needs, do not respect the other party's dignity and impose their own likes and dislikes unpon the others. Consequently, husbands and wives split, siblings kill each other and comrades become rivals. People who are spiritually deficient do not find life meaningful and the purpose of living. They can only set their eyes to the secular world and cannot establish relationship with our transcendental God.
Jesus Christ declares to all the poor that God is willing to provide for all their needs, material, intellectual, relational as well as spiritual. Isn't this a good news? How does Jesus Christ take care of the needs of all the people? He promises them the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth (John 16:13). The Holy Spirit gives us Understanding, to grasp the hidden revelations in worldly events and to protect us from the confusions caused by worldly ideas. The Holy Spirit gives us Counsel to discern the truth and enables us to make the right choices, to evade from sins. In this way, the Holy Spirit prevents us from investing our finite resources, our Talentum: health, money, time and energy in the wrong kind of products and pour our efforts into the sea. In this way, we become rich and abundant in material, in knowledge, in relations and in spirit.
Throughout history, wars are waged to compete for resources. The victorious would not waste resources to feed the unproductive captives, the injured, the aged and the weak. Those productive ones would become slaves. Jesus Christ comes to declare liberty to captives. There are plenty today. Many people seek not just to feed their families but to earn a more comfortable living standard. Consequently, they become captives of work. Besides losing freedom, they pay a huge price with their health and relations with family members. Some people seek to please all so much so that they play clowns or abandon their principles, willing to become expendables and betray their own souls. Some seek romances and become captives of divas. Some seek honour as well as glory and are willing to become pawns in a power game!
The Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ gives us Fortitude which infuses us with courage to confront difficulties and persecutions. The Holy Spirit gives us Knowledge so that we have the capability to know the truth taught by Christ and the Catholic Social Teachings. Together with Fortitude, we can put them into practice. The Holy Spirit gives us Piety to trust humbly in Jesus Christ and His Church. The Holy Spirit gives us the Fear of the Lord to restrain us from doing vainglory but to follow God's will. Lastly, "The beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord." (Proverbs 9:10) The Holy Spirit gives us Wisdom which makes us desire the things above more than secular things, desire to know God and to know the Truth that in God we find genuine and eternal satisfaction.
Brethren, being members of the Church, the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, we have received the Sacrament of Confirmation. The Holy Spirit has anointed us, given us the seven Gifts. We become messiahs and liberators. Today, Jesus Christ delivers His King's Speech, reading from Isaiah 61 in the synagogue. The seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit is found in Isaiah 11. This is no coincidence! Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel help us intellectually find the right path to invest our Talentum. We will no longer be poor and have the ability to preach the good news to all sorts of poor people around us. Fortitude and Knowledge give us the will power to put the spirit of gospel and the Catholic Social Teachings into practice, to liberate captives of all sorts. Lastly, Piety, Fear of the Lord and Wisdom enrich our hearts so that the graces of the Holy Spirit outflow like living waters from the depths of our souls.
God bless!
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