原文|Bishop Barron
翻译|Carrie

朋友们，在今天的福音中，耶稣在海面上步行走向祂的门徒。在夜里最黑暗的时分，当门徒们在危险中孤军作战之际，祂飘然而至。

 

天主驾驭大海是《圣经》中司空见惯的事。《创世纪》中，天主的神在水面上运行；《出谷纪》中，天主把红海一分为二。《依撒意亚》中，天主征服了深海怪兽。

 

水—特别是风暴中的水— 代表了宇宙中所有抵抗天主的力量，所有威胁教会的精神性和实质性的力量，尤其是死亡的力量。通过在水面上步行，耶稣表明了祂是上述所有力量的主宰，祂有着更高的力量和权威。

 

圣保禄说，“因为我深信：无论是死亡，是生活，是天使，是掌权者，是现存的或将来的事物，是有权能者，是崇高或深远的势力，或其他任何受造之物，都不能使我们与天主的爱相隔绝，即是与我们的主基督耶稣之内的爱相隔绝。” 《若望福音》中耶稣说，“我已战胜了世界。”

 

因此，正当教会面临威胁时，耶稣到来了。“看！我同你们天天在一起，直到今世的终结。” 上主来到教会身边，伴随着我们并为我们斩妖除魔。

 

Friends, in today's Gospel Jesus comes to his disciples walking on the sea. And he came at the darkest time of the night when they found themselves isolated and in danger.

 

God's mastery of the sea is a Biblical commonplace. The spirit of the Lord hovered over the surface of the waters in Genesis; in Exodus, God splits the Red Sea in two. In the book of the prophet Isaiah, God is described as having conquered the monsters of the deep.

 

The water—especially the stormy water—represents all of the cosmic powers that oppose themselves to God, all those spiritual and physical forces that threaten the Church, most especially death itself. In walking on the water, Jesus shows that he is the master of all of these forces, that his power and authority are greater.

 

Paul says, "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." John says concerning Christ, "I have conquered the world."

 

And so Jesus comes to his Church precisely when it is threatened. "Behold, I am with you always, even until the close of the age." The Lord accompanies his Church, coming to it and subduing the evil forces that surround it.