教宗: 以忍耐面對痛苦，以愛去戰勝一切

Photo courtesy of Vatican Radio

他說：「受苦就是用力承受困難，不讓困難拖垮我們——這是基督徒的美德。聖保祿曾多次說：忍耐。這就是說不要讓困難壓倒我們。...在困難中，我們一定要祈求這個恩寵。」

教宗提及的另一個恩寵是以愛去戰勝一切。

「要爭取勝利有很多方法，但我們今天求的是以愛去取得勝利。這是不容易的。當我們有外在的敵人令我們受這麼多苦，要以愛得勝毫不容易。我們會渴望報復。...愛，這份耶穌教我們的和善，這就是勝利!...我們的信仰正是這點：我們相信那位教我們和所有人相愛的耶穌。為我們的敵人祈禱就是我們愛的憑據。」

要為敵人祈禱不容易，但如果我們不寬恕敵人，不為他們祈禱，我們就是「被擊敗的基督徒」。

「我們向聖母祈求以忍耐去承受痛苦和以愛去戰勝一切的恩寵。有這麼多人走了這道路!他們那份平安，那份喜樂。他們有一顆忍耐的心，一顆充滿愛的心。他們知道何謂寬恕敵人，何謂為敵人祈禱。」

身為萬民福音部秘書長的韓大輝總主教和一些從中國來的神父和教友都有參與彌撒。在信友禱文完結時，教宗為中國人民祈禱。彌撒以一首中文的聖母聖歌完結。

“To suffer with patience and to overcome external and internal oppression with love.” That was the prayer of Pope Francis today at the Domus Sanctae Martae during Mass on the feast of Mary Help of Christians.

In his homily, Pope Francis requested two graces: “To endure with patience and to overcome with love.” These are “graces proper to a Christian.” “To suffer with patience,” he notes, “is not easy.” “It is not easy, whether the difficulties come from without, or are problems within the heart, the soul, internal problems.” But to suffer, he explained, is not simply to “bear with a difficulty.”:

“To suffer is to take the difficulty and to carry it with strength, so that the difficulty does not drag us down. To carry it with strength: this is a Christian virtue. Saint Paul says several times: Suffer [endure]. This means do not let ourselves be overcome by difficulties. This means that the Christian has the strength not to give up, to carry difficulties with strength. Carry them, but carry them with strength. It is not easy, because discouragement comes, and one has the urge to give up and say, ‘Well, come on, we'll do what we can but no more.' But no, it is a grace to suffer. In difficulties, we must ask for [this grace], in difficulty.”

The other grace the Pope asks for is “to overcome with love”:

“There are many ways to win, but the grace that we request today is the grace of victory with love, through love. And this is not easy. When we have external enemies that make us suffer so much: it is not easy, to win with love. There is the desire to take revenge, to turn another against him ... Love: the meekness that Jesus taught us. And that is the victory! The Apostle John tells us in the first Reading: ‘This is our victory, our faith.' Our faith is precisely this: believing in Jesus who taught us love and taught us to love everyone. And the proof that we are in love is when we pray for our enemies.”

To pray for enemies, for those who make us suffer, the Pope continued, “is not easy.” But we are “defeated Christians” if we do not forgive enemies, and if we do not pray for them. And “we find so many sad, discouraged Christians,” he exclaimed, because “they did not have this grace of enduring with patience and overcoming with love”:

“Therefore, we ask Our Lady to give us the grace to endure with patience and overcome with love. How many people – so many old men and women - have taken this path! And it is beautiful to see them: they have that beautiful countenance, that serene happiness. They do not say much, but have a patient heart, a heart filled with love. They know what forgiveness of enemies is, they know what it is to pray for enemies. So many Christians are like that!”

On the Day of Prayer for the Church in China, Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai, Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, and a group of priests, religious, seminarians and lay people from China also attended the ceremony. At the end of the prayers of the faithful, the Pope prayed: “For the noble Chinese people: May the Lord bless them and Our Lady keep them.” The Mass concluded with a hymn to the Virgin Mary in Chinese.

資料來源 Source:
Pope Francis: Suffering difficulties with patience and overcoming oppression with love