5th SUNDAY OF LENT (C) 21 March 2010

依撒意亞先知書 43:16-21 聖保祿宗徒致斐理伯人書 3:8-14 聖若望福音 8:1-11

By the time we get to this fifth Sunday of Lent the liturgy is beginning to focus more on Jesus, and is preparing us for Palm Sunday next week and then for Holy Week. Already in today’s gospel we note the growing tension between Jesus and the religious leaders. They ask him a question in order to try to catch him out. What is shown up in the end is that they miss the whole point of his message. So today we need to sharpen our focus on Jesus and the gospel he preached.

Let’s also remember how we began Lent. When ashes were distributed on Ash Wednesday the words that were spoken were, “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the gospel”. I wonder how we heard those words and interpreted them. It is easy to focus on sin and repentance – and we should do that. But the more important focus is on fidelity to the gospel. In other words Lent is a time to grow stronger in our belief in Jesus and the gospel he preached. Let me illustrate this from today’s gospel.

The scribes and the Pharisees bring a woman to Jesus. It is obvious that she is a sinner. They have only one thing in mind, namely to punish her to the full extent of the Law. In other words, they are focused on her sin, and they have made a judgement about her. Jesus, of course, knows the Law and respects the Law. He knew as well as they did that adulterers were to be punished by stoning. But the gospel account also suggests that he sees her a bit differently than do the scribes and Pharisees. This becomes clear when he asks those who have no sin to cast the first stone. We can see what is going on in his mind. It is as though he is thinking: if they want to focus on the sin then let’s focus on the sin. If you want to label someone as a sinner, then let’s apply the labels to everyone who is a sinner. Once they hear it put this way they quickly realise that none of them is without sin. One by one they leave the scene. Now that Jesus has got rid of the labels he can speak to the woman. He doesn’t address her as a sinner who should be stoned, but as a sinner who can repent. He tells her to go and sin no more.

Here is the big difference between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees. The gospel of Jesus is bigger than the Law. It reminds me of a saying in the Old Testament, where God says, “I desire not the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live”. The solution of the scribes and Pharisees was death, but the offer of Jesus was for a new life. The way of the scribes and Pharisees kept people locked in their destructive way of life. The way of Jesus offered people a way out of that lifestyle that imprisoned them.

This is the importance of the invitation at the beginning of Lent to turn away from sin and be faithful to the gospel. Sin in this case brings death. It is being locked in ways of acting, customs and habits that ultimately take away our freedom. Focusing on sin as the scribes and Pharisees did means that we focus on actions and behaviour, and we focus on ourselves. In the scriptures sin is ultimately a preoccupation with oneself. That is why they can try to deal with it simply by applying the Law. If this is the way we deal with things then conversion ends up being something we do all by ourselves. It is up to us! But if it is all up to us we will fall far short of the sort of conversion that Lent invites us to.

However, if we focus on fidelity to the gospel we are not preoccupied with ourselves and our sin, but rather we meet a person. And that person is Jesus. In today’s gospel the scribes and Pharisees did not meet a person, but were only concerned with a sin. Jesus met a woman who was looking for a new start, looking for life. In her case turning away from sin was not something she could achieve on her own. Conversion and new life are only possible because of what God offers people. They come as God’s gift. Jesus offered her a new way of living. We are not told what she did – whether she accepted this gift or not. She remained totally free. The point of the gospel story is that new life was offered to her freely from Jesus. Being faithful to the gospel makes everything new; it gives us true freedom.

I’m sure that none of us thinks of ourselves as a notorious sinner. So what has our Lent been about? I believe that it is about growing in fidelity to the gospel. This means that as we come to know Jesus a little better and open our hearts to the gift that he offers us we grow in freedom and in the way of life that we were given at our baptism. However, as the next couple of weeks will remind us there is no promise that life won’t have its challenges and difficulties, and that we won’t have to keep professing our faith in difficult circumstances. Jesus has shown us the way. At this stage in Lent we are being invited to walk with him through his Passion and death so that we can rejoice with him in a new, risen life that comes at Easter.

Fr. Gerard Kelly

The Mass 感恩(聖體)聖事

A guided mediatation and reflection by Fr. Hon during a Lent retreat



A talk on Confession and Penance by Fr. Savio Hon



A talk on Eurcharist by Fr. Savio Hon during his visit to Sydney (April 2006)




韓大輝神父在五零年代出生於香港，在六九年代加入慈幼會成為慈幼會士。他在一九八二年晉升為天主教神父，並開始於聖神修院任教神學及哲學。在一九九八年, 韓大輝神父被委任為宗座神學學院院士。在二零零四年，韓大輝神父獲委任為教廷信理部屬下「國際神學委員會」，就重要的神學課題向教宗及信理部提供意見。從二零零一年開始，他更擔任慈幼會中華會省省會長一職，直至二零零六年卸任。現時他繼續於學院任教，以及在其他大學進行課題研究。他還為中文神學教科書籍系列作總編輯的工作。

教宗祈禱意向

總祈禱意向

願世人能按照正義與
公平的原則處理經濟事務，
考慮人的需要，
尤其是最貧窮的族群之需要。

福傳意向

願教會在非洲各地
成為和好與正義的標記及工具。

2nd Sunday of Lent (C)

創世紀 15:5-12,17-18 聖保祿宗徒致斐理伯人書 3:17-4:1 聖路加福音 9:28-36

在大博爾山上，天主的光耀從耶穌身上展現出來，耶穌改變了容貌。跟隨耶穌的三位宗徒伯多祿、雅各伯和若望完全為這光的美麗與閃耀所折服。這不是一件平常的事，它給我們啟示了一條重要真理：耶穌是天主，衪將內在於祂的神性光明展示出來了。

實際上，我們也有內在於我們的神性光明，因為我們是天主按照祂的肖像造成的。因此，我們也會有改變容貌的時候。凡高說過，“最貧窮的樵夫和礦工也會有充滿激情與靈感的時刻，使他們覺到永恒的家鄉離他們並不遙遠”。

一個住在都柏林收容所的窮人講了一個故事。一天，他獨自走在都柏林的一條大街上。突然，他發現自己在一座教堂的外面。後來又莫名其妙地發現自己在聖堂裡面，他也記不清自己是否作過任何祈禱。但是，他的心靈感到充滿了光明。他不再感到沮喪，一下子覺得內心異常平安。他覺得離天主近了，被天主愛著。

這個經驗似乎持續了一段時間，但他卻覺得只有幾分鍾。他說，為了那短暫的時刻，即使要陪上他整個的生命，他也無怨無悔。這個經驗讓他覺得非常奇妙，因為他知道，他根本就沒有作任何事情使他有資格擁有如此際遇。這完全是天主白白恩賜給他的禮物。在那短短的時間內，他嘗到了光榮的滋味。

儘管如此，當這一切結束之後，他發現自己還在大街上，漫無目的的走著。該經驗的效果慢慢淡化了。後來，他又多次回到那個教堂，卻怎麼也找不回當時那種經驗與感受。

這個無家可歸的人想抓住這個經驗不放。他想回到過去，而不是走向未來。實際上，他應該利用那個經驗去照亮生命中的黑暗，帶著希望，懷著鼓勵，大步向前。

伯多祿也犯了同樣的錯誤。他想呆在那座山上，永遠活在那奇妙的恩典中。他再也不想重回日常的繁雜瑣事，而永遠停留在那一瞬間的美好。但是耶穌要求他下山去面對未來。那個奇妙的經驗並不是要讓他逃離前面的困苦艱難，而是幫助他去面對。光明的時刻是為了幫助他去戰勝黑暗的時刻。

很明顯，那天的奇妙經驗一直伴隨著伯多祿，燭照著他的人生，因為很多年以後他寫道：“在那座山上，我們是祂光榮的目擊證人……，一個聲音來到祂身上，說，‘這是我的愛子，我所喜悅的’”。

我們也會經驗到那種極為稀少的光明與歡樂的時刻。在信仰中，我們正走向預許之地，在祂的愛中，天主允許我們在旅途中就預嘗未來的美好。但這一切都是為了給我們力量以應對塵世的俗務，促使我們能夠扛起生活中各種各樣的十字架。這種時刻是天主特別恩賜給我們的，它是將普通的事物加上從未有過的光耀，以激勵我們繼續向前。

祈禱和宗教並不是幫我們逃離生活中的困難與挑戰，而是幫我們更好地去面對，使我們能夠擁抱生命中的歡笑與眼淚，成功與失敗。

Fr. Baiyi Gong (Peter)