Fifth Easter Sunday, Year B
Theme: The fruits of the Holy Spirit 聖神的效果
After resurrection, Jesus spent forty days on earth to gather 120 dispersed disciples before He returned to the Father in heaven. During that time, He must have enlightened/opened their minds so that they could more fully understand the scriptures and His messages (Luke 24:45). The Church tries to recreate this experience in choosing the gospel readings during the Easter Season. For example, we read of the metaphor of the Good Shepherd and His sheep (John 10:11-18) last week. Today, we read of the metaphor of the True Vine and its branches (15:1-8). Both of them draw our attention to our needs to establish intimate relationships with the risen Lord. That the Good Shepherd is willing to lay down His life for His sheep signifies a one-off sacrifice to redeem the sheep. The metaphor of the True Vine covers another dimension. It signifies an on-going life supporting system comparable to the relationship between a pregnant woman and the foetus in her womb! It is understandable because Jesus told the disciples this parable of the Vine and its branches during the Last Supper in which He establishes two sacraments for us: the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Orders. The context enriches this powerful parable. There is no lack of plants for Jesus to choose from in order to convey this message of the need of abiding in Him. The choice of vine speaks volumes about the importance of Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist among the sacraments!
Human justice demands “Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot” (Deuteronomy 19:21). In light of Jesus’ revelation of the merciful Father, the commandments in the book of Deuteronomy can at most be a “water-downed” version of God’s justice. God has spoken through the prophets that He does not want to see anyone perish and that He wants to see them repent and live (Ezekiel 18:32). Don’t forget. Among the books of the Pentateuch, Deuteronomy is already a more mature one. Its teachings are closer to those in the New Testament and yet, it still fails to pass the test of “serial killer”. Man can only die once. The life of a serial killer is not able to repay tens or hundreds of people he kills, not to mention thousands and even millions of people a tyrant kills. Thus, it takes the death of the Son of God on the cross to atone for all the sins which all human beings have committed throughout all the ages in the past as well as in the future! The value of Jesus’ death lies in the fact that “No one takes it [Jesus’ life] from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again” (John 10:18). That is why resurrection is the foundation stone of Christianity. Not only does His death uphold the “water-downed” justice of God the Father, but His resurrection also guarantees that the Son of God is the judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42c) and the first born from the dead (Colossians 1:18, Revelation 1:5) and thus the author/source of life. With the resurrection of Lord Jesus Christ, a new day is dawned when death is no longer the annihilation of life but a portal to eternal life.
The most prominent message in this short passage is “to bear fruit” which appears five times within these eight verses! What does Jesus mean by “remaining in Him to bear much fruit”? Naturally, we tend to quantify the message by counting the number of people baptized in a year, or the number of people attending Sunday masses, or the number of seminarians/priests etc. Alas! This is not the modus operandi of God. He does not count the numbers. For example, He chose 300 Israelites out of 32000 (Judges 7:3) in order to defeat 315000 Midianites (8:10), “lest Israel vaunt itself against me and say, ‘My own power saved me.’” (7:2) Obviously, God counts the quality of the hearts instead of the number of the hearts. So, Jesus is not looking for the number of people a Catholic has converted during his or her life time. Indeed, St. Thérèse of Lisieux has never ventured outside her convent and yet, the Church canonized her in 1925 and two years later named her to be the co-patron for missionaries. Therefore, what qualities are Jesus looking for in his disciples?
To look for a clue, let us take a step back. This parable of the True Vine begins with, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower” (John 15:1). We have the Father and the Son. But where is the Holy Spirit? Traditionally, we believe in the Holy Spirit as the love between the Father and the Son. When the Holy Spirit comes to us, He is the Spirit of Truth (14:17, 15:26, 16:13) and the Spirit of Love (Romans 5:5, 15:30). St. Paul teaches that as Christians, we should bear the following characteristics which he calls the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit, viz. love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23a). All these are also characteristics Jesus shows in His ministry. When we are branches which remain in Him, our words and deeds will show characteristics similar to His because the Holy Spirit is also known as the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:7, 1 John 4:3).
Now, we arrive at a deeper understanding of what Jesus means when He conjures up the images of True Vine and its branches. People will easily misunderstand that we will lose our freedom when we are branches that must be attached to the True Vine. Of course, no parable is able to convey Jesus’ teachings without limitations. In fact, not all bonds are visible. For example the bondage of sin. We do not see sinners connected to the Devil in bondage. We only see the dysfunctions and the inability to love among sinners. Then we know that the Devil is controlling them. On the contrary, the Holy Spirit is free like the wind just as Jesus says, “The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (3:8). In this verse, Jesus plays with words where in Greek, “wind” and “spirit” is the same word! Therefore, even when we are branches grafted onto the True Vine, we do not lose our freedom. On the contrary, we become free as the Holy Spirit and love the needy and underprivileged appropriately without restrain.
Beloved brethren. Just as the beloved disciple says, “Let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:18). Jesus Christ Himself is “the way and the true and the life” (John 14:6). Therefore, in the name of Jesus, let us serve the needy, comfort the sorrowful, give hope to those in despair and bear much fruit. Amen.
God bless!
The Fourth Easter Sunday, Year B
Theme: How To Be A Good Shepherd? 如何成為善牧？
In ancient times, social mobility was relatively low. Fathers were mentors and their sons were apprentices who would inherit and succeed the business of their fathers. Thus, the crown prince would inherit his father’s kingdom. The male-offspring of priests would be priests, sons of carpenters carpenters and sons of fishermen fishermen etc. If a man had no male inheritor, he would groom the son of a close relative to be his inheritor or take concubines. Thus, before Isaac, carefully groomed and protected Lot (Genesis 12:4; 14:11-16;18:22-23) and even fathered Ishmael from an Egyptian handmaid Hagar (16:1; 15-16). King Saul fought and died with Jonathan his son (1 Samuel 31:2) in battles against the Philistines. People expected John the son of Zechariah the priest in Judea to be a priest (Luke 1:61) and Simon the son of Jonah (Matthew 16:17) a fisherman and Jesus the son of Joseph the carpenter (John 6:42) to be a carpenter in Nazareth of Galilee etc. However, God has other plans for all of them.
Instead of being the ancestor of the Israelites, Lot became the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites (Genesis 19:37-38). King Saul died with his three sons in battle. So, it was David the shepherd boy who had previously defeated Goliath the giant and subsequently united the 12 tribes of Israel to be the second king of the Kingdom of Israel (2 Samuel 5:1-4). John the son of Zechariah became the Baptist (Mark 1:4). The story of Simon, son of Jonah gives us more information how God gradually reveals His plan for the elected. At first, Jesus called his first disciples to be “fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19, Mark 1:17). It is a mission his fishermen disciples were able to understand and to generalize their skills of catching fish to those of recruiting disciples. However, this generalization of concept might not be good enough. It is because after catching fish, fishermen would select the good ones and throw away the bad ones (Matthew 13:47-48). This practice would contradict the Catholic doctrine of inclusiveness for the Kingdom of Heaven which sanctifies sinners. Therefore, after his resurrection, Jesus turned Peter into a shepherd (John 21:15-17).
Though Jesus Himself began as a carpenter. Early in his life, Jesus already knew where His true mission lay (Luke 2:49). It was revealed to Him gradually through his continuous prayers. In the gospel reading today, Jesus declares twice that He is the Good Shepherd. Firstly, Jesus contrasts the Good Shepherd with hired men whose priority is their own security and pay (John 10:12-13) whereas, “The good shepherd … lays down his life for the sheep” (10:11). In the drama of human history, there have been leaders who lay down their lives for the greater good. But laying down their lives for the followers does not necessarily make them “good shepherds” for two reasons.
Firstly, Jesus further explains what He means by being the Good Shepherd, “I am the good shepherd and I know mine and mine know me” (10:14). As a Jew, Jesus means more than intellectual knowledge when He uses the word “know”. It means building up an intimate relationship like the usage in “Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain” (Genesis 4:1) and “Then said Mary unto the angel, how shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” (Luke 1:34). Thus, being the Good Shepherd, Jesus has intimate relations with His followers and lays down his life for them. Notice that it is not enough for Jesus to love his followers and was crucified on the cross for them once and for all. On the other hand, it takes time for the followers to appreciate this love and love Jesus back in return. Love is in essence reciprocal and mutual. In the end, the followers also lay down their lives to bear witness to this love of the Good Shepherd. So martyrdom is the highest form of witness to this love. In light of this understanding of “know”, we may better understand the next verse Jesus speaks, “Just as the Father knows/loves me and I know/love the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:15). The love between the Creator-Father and the Redeemer-Son of the Blessed Trinity is beyond our creature-wise understanding. But it can be illustrated by Jesus’ laying down His life for His followers on the cross and we are able to understand this love!
Secondly, love alone is unable to distinguish Jesus the Good Shepherd from the martyr-leaders who lay down their lives voluntarily to overthrow tyranny out of patriotism, the love for one’s motherland. It is immortality, which distinguishes the Good Shepherd from all other martyr-leaders. They die. Period. That is the end of their stories. Others may follow their footsteps and they all end up dead. However, the Redeemer-Son is different. He died on the cross but it is the beginning of a new chapter in human history. Jesus says, “No one takes it [his life] from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father” (10:18). In the story of the Samaritan woman, Jesus says, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish His work” (4:34). Food meets the basic physiological needs of men. So when Jesus dies on the cross, He is not being idealistic in sacrificing His life for a greater good like other martyr-leaders. It is His very basic essence! Not only does Jesus love the Father by loving His flock, but He also accomplishes His sole mission on earth by laying down His life for His disciples. In short, the Good Shepherd is the embodiment of DIVINE LOVE, not somebody who heroically dies for the greater good. Furthermore, while all other martyr-leaders die and perish, Jesus is able to take His life up again and comes out of the tomb. He has truly risen because He is the author of life. That is why, in the first reading today, Peter was able to boldly claim before the Sanhedrin that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the world, saying “There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved” (Acts 4:12). Moreover, Jesus is able to give us His flesh and blood to be our food that endures for eternal life (John 6:27, 55). The Good Shepherd feeds His flock by giving them His flesh and blood. Blessed are those whose shepherd is the Good Shepherd!
Can we become good shepherds like Jesus? Of course we can and we should. We can because we are able to unite with Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd through the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. In studying the Bible and in continual praying, we may be able to know the Good Shepherd more intimately and become part of the embodiment of DIVINE LOVE ourselves. We should because we are ambassadors for Christ to reconcile the world to the Father (2 Corinthians 5:18-20). Life as an ambassador/apostle is not an easy one as Simon Peter had amply demonstrated. He dared to risk his life even up to entering the courtyard of the High Priest. But then Peter was overwhelmed by his own fear and denied his master three times. Luckily the Good Shepherd had already prayed for him that his faith might not fail and once he had turned back, he had the duty to strengthen all the others (Luke 22:32). On the other hand, Judas took his own life, hanged himself and denied God the opportunity to forgive him.
Beloved brethren! When we get lost in our life, don’t lose it. The Good Shepherd is there to accompany us to break new ground. One day, we will emerge from the ashes of a carpenter to become a shepherd. Amen.
God bless!
Third Easter Sunday, Year B
Theme: Are We Paying Attention To Jesus? 我們在聆聽耶穌嗎？
The Lectionary takes The Acts for the first readings in the Easter Season instead of books in the Old Testament. However, it does not necessarily follow the chronological order. For example, the first reading today is earlier than that of last Sunday which is the Divine Mercy Sunday because the theme is specific. The context of today’s reading is an immediate follow-up of the first Easter Sunday. It is the second proclamation of the gospel by Peter. Compared with the first one on Pentecost, we are able to see a development in Peter’s message.
Like Jesus and true to being made the rock of the Church, Peter worked many healing miracles in the name of Jesus of Nazareth in Jerusalem. After healing a crippled beggar, Peter proclaimed the gospel again, but the tone was milder than the Pentecost speech in which he called the Jewish authority “lawless” (Acts 2:23). In the Pentecost speech, Peter had to defend the behaviour of the disciples who were manifesting the gift of tongues and speaking in different languages. Some people scoffed that they had had too much new wine (2:13). Peter quoted extensively from the Scriptures to prove that what the crowd witnessed was actually a fulfilment of prophecies and that God had made Jesus of Nazareth both Lord and Messiah (2:36) by raising Him from the dead. Of this, they were all witnesses (2:32). This time, Peter appealed to the crowd as “brothers” and that they acted out of ignorance, just as their leaders did (3:17). Later, he called the crowd “children of the prophets and of the covenant” (3:25). Peter was not confrontational because the Sanhedrin had not yet persecuted or imprisoned the apostles for doing good (4:9).
As for Peter’s message, don’t be offended by his calling Jesus “God’s servant” (3:13) instead of the “Son of God” (Matthew 16:16). We know that there was a development of understanding before the Church could define “the Blessed Trinity” as a Christian dogma. It was also possible that Peter adapted his language to the audience because the crowd was not yet ready to accept a Galilean carpenter to be the second Person of the Blessed Trinity. We are also able to trace a development in Peter’s proclamation. He called Jesus “God’s servant” (Acts 3:13), then the “Holy and Righteous One” (3:14), the “author of life” (3:15) and finally “God’s Messiah” (3:18)! Jesus was innocent but He took up the sins of the world. He defeated death because He is the author of life. God appoints Jesus the Messiah, not only to liberate the Jews from the Romans but all the peoples on earth from the bondage of sin. Unlike the Pentecost speech, Peter quoted the Scriptures only once (3:22-23).
The Lukan narrative of Jesus’ apparition to the apostles on the first Easter Sunday is similar to that of the Johannine. In both narratives, Jesus greeted the apostles with “Peace be with you” (Luke 24:36; John 20:19) and took the initiative to show them the Stigmata (Luke 24:39-40; John 20:20). The similarity stops there. Luke has his own agenda. First of all, he had always been sympathetic towards the failures of the disciples. For example, in the narrative of Jesus’ Agony in the Garden, Mark simply says, “When he [Jesus] returned he found them asleep” (Mark 14:37a) but Luke says, “When he rose from prayer and returned to his disciples, he found them sleeping from grief” (Luke 22:45). Again, when the disciples failed to understand Jesus’ teaching, Mark blamed the disciples for the hardness of their hearts. “He appeared to them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who saw him after he had been raised” (Mark 16:14), whereas in Luke, Jesus was in full control of the disciples’ understanding. The disciples in Emmaus could understand only when Jesus explained the Scriptures (Luke 24:32) or when he opened the minds of those in Jerusalem to understand the Scriptures (24:45). In short, Luke wants to make the readers humble disciples of prayers.
Last week, I was arguing against using the Stigmata as an identification tag for the Risen Lord. Indeed, the fact that the Emmaus disciples were able to recognize Jesus when they saw him take the loaf, give thanks, break it and distribute it (24:31) strongly suggests that we Catholics should actively seek Jesus wherever his words and deeds could be found. The most obvious place that immediately comes to mind is the Liturgy of the Eucharist where the priest consecrates the bread and the wine. Similarly, inspired by the Parable of Sheep and Goats in Matthew 25, the Church chooses to stand by the poor, serving the Christ present among the needy, the disadvantaged and the socially marginalized. But has the Church been successful? If we take a look at the statistics published in the Vatican News for the year 2022, the numbers are not very encouraging1. To be sure, there has been growth, but at a rate varied from continent to continent hoovering below 1%! If we put the blame on COVID, we are not courageous enough to face the truth! Worse still, we witness a decrease in the number of priests and bishops but an increase in the number of permanent deacons. This is not healthy and the Church would become unsustainable.
When Jesus spent three years to coach the apostles as well as the larger community of disciples, their minds were occupied by the anticipation of a Messiah to drive out the Romans. Therefore, they failed to pay attention to Jesus’ words that He spoke while He was still with them that the Torah and the Prophets have foretold the Passion and Resurrection of the Messiah (24:44). Now that Jesus has ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father, have we paid sufficient attention to what Jesus says before His ascension? What were His final words before ascension? And what is occupying our minds such that we miss Jesus’ words? According to Luke, Jesus spent 40 days on earth to gather 120 dispersed disciples after resurrection. He enlightened them on His previous teachings. So, the final words should be the Great Commission recorded in the Matthew, Mark and the Acts. “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them …” (Matthew 28:19); “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized…” (Mark 16:15-26a); “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Simply put, we should evangelize and bear witness to the reconciliation mission of the Son of God.
Beloved brethren. Are you paying attention to Jesus’ Great Commission? Or are you conjuring up futile excuses such as I have no time, I am not eloquent, I know no theology, this is the work of the clergy and nuns etc.? Are you aware that you are meeting Jesus who is present among the people you meet every day? This Jesus you meet, perhaps a little child next door; its single mother doing two jobs to make ends meet in a subdivided flat; or an ageing man and his wife struggling to support him together with their domestic helper; or a disillusioned young man hiding from security police etc., is hungry and thirsty for God’s righteousness, aka His salvation (Matthew 5:6; 25:35)! He is waiting for you to extend a helping hand so that both he and you may be able to reconcile the world to the Father (2 Corinthians 5:20). Beloved brethren! Pay attention to the invitation of Jesus Christ. Amen.
God bless!
Sunday of Divine Mercy, Year B
Theme: Where Comes Our Peace? 何來平安？
The first reading today seems nostalgic and distant. In context, the apostles had undergone the first round of persecutions from the Jewish authority which failed to nip this new Jesus Movement at the bud. Contrary to their intention, the persecution reinforced the conviction of believers who affirmed that they had to be on the right. Otherwise, they would not be attacked by the corrupted establishment! “The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common” (Acts 4:32). This would have turned into a dangerous doomsday mentality, had they not been further persecuted and dispersed. Historically, communism among Christians was confined to the early Church in Jerusalem only and vanished for good when they were dispersed after the death of the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen during the second wave of persecutions. Only the apostles remained in Jerusalem (8:1b). This communism was possible because early Christians expected the ascended Lord to return soon. It was no longer necessary to accumulate wealth for future uses. Therefore, the best way to spend their money was to share it among believers. This practice was both attractive and charitable. Many poor people, in particular widows, joined the expanding Christian community and sharing wealth in common became helping the poor and the needy. Did the early Christians in Jerusalem worry about the sustainability of this practice? No. They were putting Jesus’ teaching into practice. They believed that they were doing God’s will and therefore God would provide (Genesis 22:8).
In reality, the community of believers were not exempted from malicious attacks both from within and from without. Luke was candid and did not portray a rosy picture of the early Church, reporting only good things and evading bad ones. No, he reported the scandal of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 and the neglect of Greek-speaking widows in Act 6. Let’s be realistic. With the incarnation of the Son of God, the Kingdom of Heaven broke into this sins-infested world. The mission of the Church is to reinforce the foothold and extend the reign of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. This mission is a continual struggle until the Kingdom comes into her full actualization at the end of the world. Had Luke painted a perfect society, Christians of latter generations would have had a hard time following it. His candid portrayal gives us encouragement as well as an ideal to pursue. Therefore, Christians cannot afford to be complacent. It is true that Easter is joyful because of the promise of a new life in Christ. Furthermore, the early Church has shown us that Christian communism was possible. What does this message or ideal mean for us in today’s world? Shall we dismiss it as being unrealistic in today’s world? If not, how should we proceed?
I think that it is unrealistic. There were in record 5000 Christians (Acts 4:4) and “Yet more than ever, believers in the Lord, great numbers of men and women, were added to them” (5:14). Luke began to lose count of the population of Christians in Jerusalem. Starting in Acts 6, there arose a new class of ecclesiastics, namely the deacons to take care of the Greek-speaking community. It was similar to the development of the 12 tribes of Israel. When 600,000 Israelites left Egypt, the tribe of Levites were singled out to serve the Lord. This class did not produce. The support of their livelihood was shared among the remaining eleven tribes which took over different regions of Canaan, the Promised Land and grew independently from each other. Even after King David managed to unite the 12 tribes into one kingdom, they did not pool their resources together into one. Therefore, Christian communism is viable only for small communities under, say 10,000 people. Modern communism is capable of putting a population of more than 1.4 billion under control only because it is totalitarian. However, the threat of civil war always remains.
Now, let us turn to the gospel message today. I have spent more than sufficient ink to defend Thomas before. Today in view of the Israel-Hamas conflict and the Russian invasion into Ukraine, I would like to meditate more on the topic of peace. According to John’s record, Jesus says, “Peace be with you” three times in this chapter (John 20:19, 2, 26). So, what is the significance of this greeting?
The apostles had given up their families, their jobs and their peers to follow Jesus for three years. In other words, they had totally forsaken their previous life to start a new way of life which promised them a kingdom of some sorts! At the zenith of their movement, they managed to attract more than 5000 men and many women were following too. After Jesus had entered Jerusalem triumphantly a few days before the feast of Passover, things turned sour rapidly and on the day before Sabbath, Jesus was crucified, died and was buried. The movement He had started looked certain to fail. People expected the Jewish authority to round up the apostles after Passover! They looked like caged birds waiting for the butcher. Fear for life infused their hearts. Some disciples had already started leaving Jerusalem before the Temple guards arrived. As for the apostles, they were totally lost because they had severed all their relationships three years before! To whom could they turn to or where else could they go? Peace of heart was in short supply! Thus when Jesus greeted them peace, what a relief for the apostles! Jesus, who had been the centre of their life for three years, had returned. The apostles were no longer lost anymore. They would follow their master wherever He went! Their master had defeated death as well as the murderous attempts of life from the Jewish authority. Their fears literally vaporised. In short, they were able to continue their previous relationship with Jesus.
However, Jesus did not stop there. He gave the apostles Holy Spirit and told them to forgive sins (20:23). Notice that the apostles had abandoned, had betrayed and had denied Him. In short, they were grave sinners. Besides fear and a sense of loss, all the apostles were carrying a heavy guilty conscience even though Jesus was merciful and did not count their failures. They would never forgive themselves and their failures.
Why then did Jesus give them the faculty to forgive sins? The apostles themselves needed forgiveness badly. By giving them the faculty to forgive sins, Jesus opens up for them an opportunity to forgive themselves. Do you remember the Lord’s Prayer? It says, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). By not forgiving, the handle to control over our debtors remains in our hands. By forgiving, we grant them freedom! Now Jesus returns the ball to our court. By forgiving others, we learn to forgive ourselves. After sufficient practices, we will be more capable of accepting God’s forgiveness!
Beloved brethren! When a guilty conscience, fear and a sense of being lost vaporize, our peace is total. Let us sing praises to the divine mercy of the Lord to restore peace in our hearts and to be able to celebrate genuine freedom with each other. Amen.
God bless!
When we talk about mission, the images of missionary martyrs, like the opening scene of the 1986 movie THE MISSION readily come to mind. In ancient times up to the twentieth century when transportation was still slow and hazardous, the chances of missionaries returning home were extremely slim. Most of them died and were buried abroad. Thus, when priests decided to become missionaries, their departures were literally permanent. On the other hands, migrants and even refugees still cherish the hope of returning home one day. They must leave home for various reasons in order to improve the livelihood of their families. The Holy Family fleeing the murderous attempt on the life of the Messiah was a prime example (Matthew 2:13-15). As for me, my parents were refugees fleeing from the turmoil of the Communist Revolution in 1949. Like many of their kinfolks, my parents would return to mainland China to meet their relatives who were unable to flee and to bring them provisions. I was born here in Hong Kong as a second-generation refugee and she was a British colony before the handover in 1997. I still remember how my parents put layer upon layer of clothes on me to enter mainland China and stripped me nearly naked when we returned to Hong Kong! Poverty was rampant in those early days! Thus my emotional bond with kinfolks in mainland China is weaker because my paternal siblings and I did not grow up together and did not share the same cultural background.
Nowadays, thanks to the convenience of transportation by air, missionaries are able to enjoy their sabbatical leaves at home or, to be buried at their home countries after death. Thus, the boundary between missionaries and migrants blurs. We migrants are also missionaries! What mission do we migrants/refugees have towards the land we have come to live? As for us Chinese refugees in the 1950’s, we are proud of ourselves because we have been able to transform Hong Kong into an international cosmopolitan. Before the British took over Hong Kong as a colony in 1842, she was only a fishing port. In order to open up China to do business, the British government turned Hong Kong into a trading centre. The Communist Revolution closed the China market for some time but a lot of money and labour fled to Hong Kong and transformed Hong Kong into an industrial and financial city. During the Vietnam War in the 1970’s, a lot of Vietnamese refugees arrived in Hong Kong, but their final destination was USA. They were locked up in refugee camps in Tuen Mun and Kai Tak to wait for migration. The Vietnamese refugees failed to contribute and integrate into Hong Kong. After the decade long Cultural Revolution in China, she began to open up. Hong Kong needed to catch up with the economic growth of mainland China. She needed to release the female labour from families. Then you arrived in Hong Kong to help.
As Christian migrants, not only do we contribute to the economic growth of this city, but we also should share our faith with the local people. In other words, we migrants are also missionaries. But we should not be too ambitious. Some of us are only able to stay here for one or two contracts. It seems that there is little we can do within such a short time-span. This mentality is wrong because it underestimates the power of God’s grace. Allow me to share my experience with a missionary who died 47 years ago tomorrow after sustaining fatal injuries in a car crash while looking for activity facilities for the underprivileged! He was Fr. Enea Tapella, PIME, serving in various parishes for a few years each. His dedication to the service of the physically and mentally handicapped children has inspired and planted the seed of diaconate vocation in my classmate and I within the two-year time span he served in the Holy Family Parish of Choi Hung where our alma mater resides. Both of us were ordained permanent deacons separately nine years ago. As for the physically handicapped children we befriended, one of the girls became a member of the Hong Kong Paralympic Table Tennis Team. Another three run their own businesses, yet another one engages in the advocacy for the rights of the disabled etc. Therefore, your two-year contract is good enough for sharing your faith with the people you meet. No doubt, we migrants can be missionaries.
The Catholic faith is very broad. We can only share the most important article of faith with people we meet. Here, I would like to draw your attention to the gospel reading of the coming Sunday, the Divine Mercy Sunday. This is the story of the “Doubting Tom” with which everybody is familiar. To be fair, Thomas was only a more demanding disciple among disciples who easily took things for granted. When Jesus appeared to the ten apostles while Thomas was out, He took the initiative to show them His wounds (John 20:20a). When Thomas returned and the ten testified that they had seen the risen Lord, Thomas rejected the testimony of the ten though for a Jew, two witnesses would be sufficient to establish the truth. Thomas was more demanding in the sense that he wanted to be a witness himself and he wanted hand-on experience! He was left out last time. He did not want to be excluded again. Jesus Christ is a model teacher. He would not disappoint such a demanding and serious disciple (20:27a)! Furthermore, Jesus Christ corrects Thomas’ mistake, “Do not be unbelieving, but believe” (20:27b). However, this teaching is too abstract.
I have a simpler and more concrete question. Why does the almighty Son of God keep the wounds? He is powerful enough to wipe away the scars without leaving a trace. What does He want to teach us with those ugly scars? That Jesus keeps the wounds lest His disciples would not recognize Him is one such possibility but this reason is weak because Jesus is not the only person bearing such wounds. Tens of thousands were crucified by the Romans! Some were known to have cheated death! Moreover, the story of the Emmaus disciples totally refutes this explanation. It is true that at the beginning, the two disciples were unable to recognize Jesus (Luke 24:16) but when they recognized Jesus, it was not because Jesus showed them the wounds, but taking “bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized Him” (24:30b-31a)! Therefore, making use of the wounds as an identification aid is questionable.
What do those wounds mean to believers? They represent the sins of the world and the cruelty of human evils. The Son of God is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29) by taking all of them over and carrying them on His body! His resurrection tells us the mercy and the might of God. God’s love and mercy is more powerful than all evils. The wounds on Jesus, the Stigmata are not the same wounds of all others who were crucified. Like what the penitent thief says, “And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal” (Luke 23:41a), Jesus’ Stigmata are different because they are not His but ours! Paul says, “For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate” (Romans 7:15). As a righteous ex-Pharisee, Paul had to acknowledge the existence of a law of flesh struggling against the power of the Holy Spirit even after conversion (8:1-12). When we fail after baptism, we can look up the Stigmata of Jesus to draw strength and consolation.
What does Jesus want to tell us by keeping the wounds? When Mary anointed Jesus with an expensive ointment, Judas the betrayer complained that it would have been better to spend the money on the poor. Jesus answered, “You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me” (John 12:8). Poverty is only a part of human evils. If poverty is perpetual, human evils will also be perpetual until the end of the world! God’s mercy and love shall sustain until the end when “He will wipe every tear from their eyes …” (Revelation 21:4a). Probably this would be the time for Jesus’ Stigmata to disappear when all evils are consigned to the past! Jesus Christ the King of the Universe would say, “Behold, I make all things new” (21:5b)!
Ladies and Gentlemen! This is our faith, namely that God’s love and mercy is more powerful than all evils. This article of faith is more tangible than the concept of the Blessed Trinity and the dual natures of the Son of God! Let’s be candid. The Son of God does not come to condemn sinners, but to help them reconcile with the Father, not by annihilating Satan but by bearing the sins of the world. So, don’t be too ambitious to eradicate abuses, addictions, exploitations and human trafficking etc. overnight. Instead, let us continue to show the people we meet that God’s mercy and love is more powerful than all evils. Take prison visits as an example. Though my emotional bond with my kinfolks in mainland China is weak, when as a young boy returning to my home country and heard the local dialect for the first time, an inexplicable emotion surged within. Similarly, in the Tai Lam Centre of Women I visited, there were Filipino inmates serving more than twenty years of sentence. When I organized Filipino volunteers to visit them once a month on Sunday, to do bible sharing and hymn singing, all the Filipino inmates were tearful because they would interact freely in their mother tongues! We are unable to reduce their sentences but life in prison would become more bearable when inmates have visitors or pen-pals!
Open our hearts to see the needs of the people we meet, including your bosses. Recently, a woman in her 70’s suffocated her husband of 80’s and later attempted to commit suicide herself. The couple or rather their children are able to employ a domestic helper to take care of them and yet, the old lady saw no future. Perhaps she suffers from depression and worries about her inability to take care of her beloved bed-ridden husband. I would ask where their children were. If the couple had no children, I would ask who should care for the mental conditions of the caretaker! Even if you don’t have the professional qualifications to handle such psychiatric cases, you are still able to pray! Beloved brethren! Prayer is powerful beyond our imagination. We are the first beneficiary because in prayers, we find peace and the will of God. We shall be able to see the impossible become possible (Luke 1:37).
Thank you and God bless!
Video Credit:
The video is an excerpt from Facebook video of CFM Hong Kong at
https://www.facebook.com/cfmhongkong/videos/292159817305649 ; and
https://www.facebook.com/cfmhongkong/videos/761097256090776
Easter Sunday, Year B
Theme: Let’s Be Candid About Resurrection 且讓我們誠實地看待復活
We are historical animals and our understanding evolves with time. It is true in particular for us to fathom the infinite mystery of the Blessed Trinity, the presence of Christ in the Eucharist and that the Church as the Spouse of Christ etc. Therefore, modern Christians should not feel offended when they read of the testimony of Peter in the first reading today. Peter was testifying in the home of Cornelius, a Roman centurion and said; “This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible …” (Acts 10:40). Peter was not denying the divinity of Jesus Christ when he chose the term “This man”. On the contrary, we should not blame Peter for stressing too much about the humanity of Lord Jesus, the Son of God incarnate. It took the Church more than a few centuries to acknowledge the divinity of Jesus. We have our finite languages to blame only. Peter’s proclamation is simple. The God whom Cornelius worships is the God of all peoples. God accepts all who fear Him and act uprightly (10:35). Jesus Christ is the Lord of all (10:36) not just for all peoples on earth but also for all the living and the dead because God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and power (10:38). Though His own disciple betrayed Him and the Romans crucified Him, God raised Him on the third day, thus conquered death. This understanding does not come overnight. It takes time for us to unearth the mystery more deeply. Not only did Peter and John run with different speeds to the empty tomb, but their belief in the Risen Lord also came with different speeds too (John 20:8)!
Sometimes, the wording of Paul’s writings is not easy to follow probably because he was a deep-seated Pharisee before his conversion. We may not be able to appreciate some Jewish thinking that Paul had taken for granted while that Jewish worldview is alien to our cultural background. Take for an example the second reading today. Paul says, “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). What does Paul want to convey with the choice of “hidden”? In context, Paul was talking about baptism as a death of the old self in carnal desires and the birth of a new self in spirit and truth. Thus Paul says, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above” (3:1). One literal meaning of “hidden” would then be “burial”. We bury our old self with Christ in baptismal immersion. On another level, some biblical scholars notice that the word “hidden” could probably a word play on “secret knowledge” which was popular among the Colossians. They were interested in angels, astral powers, cultic practices and ascetical disciplines etc. (2:15-18) Paul emphasizes that Christ alone is the reality and through knowing Christ and befriending Christ, we know the Truth!
However, I sense something else in the word “hidden”! In baptism, not only have we died and been buried with Christ, but we have also clothed ourselves with Christ (Galatians 3:27), “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh” (Romans 13:14)! By clothing ourselves with Christ, we may be energized by Him, like Elisha who received the spirit and power of Elijah by picking up the garment Elijah had left behind for him (2 Kings 2:13-14). Putting on clothes gives us power and authority to serve the needy. Perhaps this is what “putting on Christ” means.
On the other hand, clothes hide our nakedness, frailty and shame, thus giving us dignity. Indeed, this was how the Jews understood the forgiveness of sins by God. They thought of it as a covering of sins probably they believed that what had been done could not be undone. So, they believed that when God forgave, God did not remember and did not see their sins which still remained. For example, when the enemies of Jews mocked them for trying to rebuild the Temple, Nehemiah prayed to God, saying, “Do not hide their crime and do not let their sin be blotted out in your sight, for they insulted the builders to their faces!” (Nehemiah 3:37), “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered” (Psalms 32:1, 85:3; Romans 4:7). Not only Paul but some other authors of the New Testament also talk about covering a multitude of sins (James 5:20, 1 Peter 4:8).
What about the concept of cleansing of sins. In the Old Testament, only three Major Prophets spoke of it (Isaiah 1:16, 4:4; Jeremiah 4:14, Ezekiel 16:9). The NT authors advocate a lot about the cleansing of sins by the blood or the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 6:11; Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 1:2; 1 John 1:7, Revelation 7:14 etc.). Therefore, it really challenges our imagination to read, “…These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress, they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (7:14b). Of course, it is not a chemical trick! We should not read it literally but should understand its symbolism instead. It is actually a fulfilment of the prophecy by Isaiah who says, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18).
We greet each other “Joyous Easter” today. But let’s be candid. Do sins bother us after baptism? How often do you seek help and growth through the Sacrament of Reconciliation? Or do you go into the confessional like going into a washing machine, coming out clean? Regret to say that if we don’t receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we are cheating ourselves. If we go too often, we are denying the saving power of Jesus’ sacrifice or the sanctifying ministry of the Spouse of Christ! It is truly a dilemma! The reality is we are branches in time and Jesus is the True Vine in eternity. It takes time for us to secure an enriching and empowering relation with the Lord. We cannot become a super-hero overnight because our sinfulness remains even after baptism!
Beloved brethren! Perhaps a little imperfection is essential for our growth and failures will synchronize our dancing trots with Christ. Whatever our stations in life, bear in mind that proclaiming the Lord’s Resurrection is our major concern because it shows our love and care for our neighbour. If we do not feel the urge to evangelize, our hope becomes dim and our love shall extinguish soon. Amen!
God bless!
As of this writing, my ex-student is dying of lung cancer. From the family members, I learnt that his organs are failing and the only consciousness available is hearing. The hospital staff encourage visitors to speak as much as possible to him to support his passing away. When the appropriate moment comes, the hospital will switch off the life-supporting system. In my last visit which was also the first, I administered the Holy Communion to him. The readings on the monitors fluctuated so vigorously that the nurse had to increase the amount of cardiac drips lest his heart would be overloaded. Today the readings were steady even when I put the Carmelite scapular I brought from my Church on him and thus his condition was deteriorating.
I sat beside his bed for two hours, watching his rhythmic breathings of concentrated oxygen: two inhaling and one exhaling, like almost involuntarily reflexive. Had he become a comatose, I wondered? I started saying the Sorrowful Mysteries in English. After two Hail Mary’s, I could not maintain my composure. My voice became choky and tears were gushing out. I stopped and started all over again in Latin. Then I was able to finish the Sorrowful Mysteries as well as the Glorious Mysteries slowly and steadily within two hours. I must have drowsed off in the course of recitation.
Like all ordinary men, I evaded pains. Seeing my ex-student undergoing excruciating pains, I would imagine my wife, my children and all my loved ones suffering like him. I think most people prefer suffering pains themselves to seeing their loved ones suffer. Who is able to take total control over his own life? Nobody! Alas, suffering is inevitable. If we cannot withstand it, we will conjure up some defence mechanisms to evade it or repress it. Though both English and Latin are not my mother tongue, I feel less pain when I say the Rosary in Latin.
Today, we celebrate the Lord’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem to kick-off His Passion. St. Paul summarizes it in a broad stroke, “He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). Christ is humble because as a king coming into His own land, He was born in a manger; led the life of a carpenter in a small town and lastly entering the capital, riding on a colt (Mark 11:7). They striped him naked to crucify Him and drew lots to divide his garments (15:24) and in the end, His Pharisee friends buried Him in some other people’s tomb (15:46). He truly humbled Himself and possessed nothing on earth!
Jesus obeyed the Father’s will. During the Agony in the garden of Gethsemane, He begged the Father trice to spare Him of this cup of suffering, but not what He willed but what the Father willed (14:36). During and after His arrest, Jesus had many opportunities to evade condemnation but He did not. During the arrest, He would have walked past the band of soldiers in darkness and in confusion as He had done many times before in broad daylight but He did not. He would have remained silent in the Sanhedrin (14:62) and flatly denied to be the king of the Jews before Pilate (15:2) but He did not. He refused to jump down from the cross, abandoning His last chance to evade the cup of suffering and persevered to the end hanging on the cross for six hours (15:25, 34)! He truly became obedient to death, even death on the cross. Jesus did not evade sufferings but embraced them.
At 9:45 pm, I read the message of his passing away. Allow me to stop to grieve. They have been so endearing to me. Amen.
Photo Credit: Classmates of 5C, 1981. 2021 Reflection
Fifth Lenten Sunday, Year B
Theme: 倘若是莠子，又如何？ What If It Were Weeds?
This is the last Sunday in the Lenten season that began with the covenant between God and Noah, then between God and Abraham. We came to the zenith of the Old Testament, the Sinai Covenant on the third Sunday. God gave the Ten Commandments as a sign to this Old Testament. Last Sunday, we read of how Cyrus the king of Persia released the Israelites from Babylonian Captivity to return home and to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. It shows that the LORD God actively intervenes in human history to honour His pledge to Abraham. Today, we hear how the LORD God declares His intention to establish a new covenant! So, the covenant theme runs through the Lenten season in Year B.
In fact, this so called new covenant is actually a renewal and an improved version of the old covenant. Let’s read what the LORD God says through the prophet, “See, days are coming --- oracle of the LORD --- when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah” (Jeremiah 31:31). How is this new covenant different from the old? “I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (31:33b). So, this new covenant is basically the same as the old, “So that He may establish you today as His people and He may be your God, as He promised you and as He swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (Deuteronomy 29:12). That is why I said earlier that this new covenant was actually a renewal of the previous Sinai Covenant which had been a failure because the Israelites failed to honour their obligations. It was understandable because God put the Law on two stone tablets and people would easily focus on the letters instead of the spirit of the Law. Now in this new covenant, God places the Law in people’s hearts to enhance the tendency to seek the spirit of the Law instead of letters. In order to ensure that the new Israel is able to observe the Law more easily, the Father sent His only begotten Son not to abolish the Law and prophets but to fulfil it (Matthew 5:17). In this way, the new Covenant is an improved version of the old.
However, we should not make the mistake in thinking that the new Covenant has replaced the old and thus, we are free not to observe the old Law. Wrong. Of course, some old practices could not be observed. For example, the second Temple in Jerusalem is destroyed. It is impossible to offer sacrifice in the Jerusalem Temple any more. Furthermore, Jesus foresaw its destruction and taught, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and truth” (John 4:24). If Jesus does not abolish, neither do we. Therefore, we “Christianise” the old practices. We advocate love as the spirit of the Law (Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18); observe the LORD’s Day instead of the Sabbath and offer the non-bloody sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist instead of holocausts etc.
Before we meditate the gospel message today, let us take a look at the context in the gospel of John. Jesus triumphantly entered Jerusalem after raising Lazarus from the dead at Bethany. “So the crowd (from Bethany) that was with him … continued to testify. This was why the crowd (in Jerusalem) went to meet him, because they heard that He had done this sign” (John 12:17-18). Some Greek pilgrims approached Philip to express their wish to see Jesus. Together with Andrew, Philip reported to Jesus who started teaching them an important teaching recorded in all four canonical gospels. The importance of this teaching is on a par with the miracle of feeding the 5000, Passion and Resurrection because all canonical gospels record it. In John’s version, Jesus says, “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life” (12:25; Matthew 16:25; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:24). However, the Synoptic gospels put this teaching after Jesus’ first prediction of His passion and before His Transfiguration, whereas John put it after the Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem. Why does John arrange it this way? I’m still searching for a meaningful answer.
It is worth meditating how Jesus preluded this important teaching in the gospel of John. He says, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit” (John 12:24). I still remember vividly the first time I read this verse during the funeral of Rev. Fr. Enea Tapella, PIME (1929-1977). His noble and heroic life for the service of the physical and mental retarded children has touched the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of people in Hong Kong. Among a group of young secondary school students, I am grateful that we were able to serve the children under his guidance and continued even after his transfer to other parishes. I would say he had planted the seed of diaconate vocation in my heart in those days. Unbeknown to me, my secondary school classmate, Andrew Kung, who had worked with Fr. Tapella earlier and longer was also ordained a permanent deacon in Canada in the same year nine years ago. I pray that we will be able to die and produce much fruit like Fr. Tapella. Interested readers may find more details of the life of this altruistic missionary from the hyperlink below1. The prelude was paraphrased by Tertullian in his apology, saying, “We multiply when you reap us. The blood of Christians is seed” (Apologeticus, L.13) or more popularly further paraphrased into “The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church”. History has proven this right. In fact, it is stupid of worldly powers to persecute Christians as a public spectacle because making them martyrs only helps them evangelize.
I could not resist another teaching of Jesus alluring at the back of my mind, the parable of wheat and weeds. I muse, “What if it is not wheat but weeds? What would Jesus say?” Let’s fire up our imagination and design Jesus’ script. One possible script might be “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of weed falls to the ground and dies, it remains a grain of weed; but if it dies, it produces much weeds!” Are you joking, Deacon? No, I have been troubled by such a possible scenario for quite some time! Don’t we desire to see justice prevail and the wicked perish? I have reservation because I desire to see justice prevail but not at the punishment/death of the wicked. The philosophy of correctional services has changed. Capital punishment of the guilty is ineffective as a deterrence of crimes. People would congratulate each other for a while and they will soon forget. Moreover, the vacancy created by a kingpin would soon be replaced by another and nobody can guarantee that the next chairperson would be a more conscientious one! That is the reason why assassinating a tyrant, such as Qin Shi Huang or Hitler, is always a bad idea! And before the next “king” ascends the throne, a period of warring kingdoms would arise and thus would produce more “weeds” in the future!
Perhaps this may help us understand why God “protected” Cain by putting a mark on him so that no one would kill him at sight (Genesis 4:15b) because seeing the death of one wicked person would inspire more wicked people to come forth to replace the dead one. It also agrees with God’s intention as expressed by another prophet, “I find no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies --- oracle of the LORD God. Turn back and live” (Ezekiel 18:32). The LORD God doesn’t want to see His images, His master-pieces to perish. He reserves vengeance for Himself because He knows how much force to apply but we don’t. Look at the tortures invented throughout the ages in all civilizations and we cannot deny that most of the time, we enjoy overdoing our revenge. Thus, St. Paul reminds believers, “Beloved, do not look for revenge but leave room for the wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the LORD’” (Romans 12:19; Leviticus 19:18a; Deuteronomy32:35a).
Beloved brethren! We are approaching the end of this Lenten season, a period of abundant outpouring graces from the merciful LORD. It is hard but essential to love the unlovable and to pray for the people we hate. Work harder to enter the Kingdom through the narrow gate (Matthew 7:13). Amen.
God bless!
可是，他們對經濟作出貢獻，就真的是無可厚非嗎？且看下文分解。《智慧篇》繼續說：「我們要壓迫窮苦的義人，不必顧惜寡婦，連白髮年高的老人，也不必敬重。我們的勢力，就是正義的法律，因為軟弱祇呈現自己無用」（2:10-11）！原來「世上沒有免費午餐」是人生的定律，否則，天主子也不必降生受難，替世人贖罪了。「享樂主樂」除了有上述的社會代價外，真理被扭曲了，暴力取而代之！當「暴力就是真理Might Is Right」的時候，社會國家便會出現窮富懸殊、弱勢社群遭受剝削、長者受虐待等等…，更嚴重的後果，在靈性上，人的心腸被財富和權勢硬化了，要回頭悔改，歸向天主，就更加困難重重了！
在三部「對觀福音」，耶穌基督會在祂的教訓中，使用「我實在告訴你們…Amen, I say to you …」的句式，叫聽眾特別留心。但《若望福音》卻用「我實實在在告訴你們…Amen, amen, I say to you …」來加重語氣，沒有例外。不但如此，《若望福音》還有另外一種句式，說明事物的緩急先後。耶穌說了「時候〔要/必/來〕到」共6次，是指必定會實現/發生的事情。例如：「女人，妳相信我罷！到了時候，你們將不在這座山…」（若4:21）；「但時候來到，我不再用比喻…」（16:25）。在其中兩次，耶穌再加上「且現在就是」，表示天國已開始出現在這個世界上了。就是：「然而時候要到，且現在就是，那些真正朝拜的人，將以心神以真理朝拜父…」（4:23）和今天的福音「我實實在在告訴你們：時候要到，且現在就是，死者要聽見天主子的聲音，凡聽從的，就必生存」（5:25）。已經開始倒數了！
