146.7月17日我們在傳揚福音嗎?－白孟德神父（Fr. Charles Belmonte Lopez）語錄-譯者:林豪

God permits, not desires, many religions. The New Testament, tells us that he who rejects Christ’s messengers rejects Christ, and that Christ commissioned the Church to preach the Gospel to the whole world.

天主允許，而不是渴望，有許多宗教。新約告訴我們，拒絕主基督使者的人，就是拒絕主基督，並且主基督委託教會向全世界傳揚福音。

Thus, the ultimate purpose of any Church activity is to propose the Truth and to provide the means of salvation. It is not to get people of all faiths, and of no faith, to feel comfortable with each other.

因此，任何教會活動的最終目的，都是為了宣揚真理，並且是提供救贖的方法。它不是要讓具有各種信仰和沒有信仰的人們，彼此都感到舒適的。

The forced adhesion to a certain religion or culture, of course, must be rejected.

當然，必須拒絕強迫加入某種宗教或文化。

Some elements of our nature (such as “color”, “sex”, and “race”) are received without our consent. But religion is a matter of commitment of mind and will (even if sometimes under compulsion).

我們本性中的某些元素（例如：「膚色」、「性別」和「種族」）是在未經我們同意的情況下，就必須接受的。但是，宗教則是一種思想和意志的承諾（即使有時是被迫的）。

The commitment to a religion is a personal decision, as is to accept a belief system that –in itself– may be true or false, or even good or evil.

對宗教的承諾是個人的決定，就像接受一個信仰體系一樣，這個信仰體系本身可能是真的，或是假的；甚至或是善的，或是邪惡的。

When we say that God “wills” something bad, we mean that He wills it in the sense of permitting it as part of his Providential plan (as is the case with every evil that happens).

當我們說天主「願意」一些壞事存在時，我們的意思是指，天主願意允許它，作為祂寵佑計畫的一部分（就像所有發生的每一項邪惡一樣）。

Or, we may imply that He wills an evil by itself; that He presents an evil as a good which we are to accept and embrace. That is a monstrosity. If not from common sense, then from Divine Revelation, we know that the multiplicity of religions is not actively willed by God as a good, but merely permitted. For we believe that it is only the Divinely-attested revealed religion that God actively wills us to accept.

或者，我們可能影射到，祂本身就是邪惡；祂將邪惡呈現為，我們要接受及擁抱的善，那麼這就是一個怪物。如果不是出於常識，那麼從神聖的啟示中，我們知道宗教的多樣性，不是天主身為一種善，其主動的意願，而只是被允許。因為我們相信，只有天主所證實而啟示的宗教，才是天主主動願意我們要接受的宗教。

The greatest service we can provide for our neighbors is our witness to our following Christ, as exemplified by the corporal works of mercy, but also by the spiritual works.

我們能為鄰人提供的最大服務，就是我們為自己跟隨的主基督作見證，正如肉體的善功和屬靈的善功，作為佐證。

Christ always subordinated everything to the goal of being one with Him in the Father’s love. This cannot be accomplished through a purely humanitarian, solely “socially oriented”, interpretation of the Gospel. Either we are willing to lose our life –our earthly attachments, our personal theories of existence, our desire for worldly peace and security, our enchanting habits and socially comfortable attitudes– in order to receive and give the life that Christ offers…or else, we are simply preaching a very different gospel, a gospel which serves our own prejudices and our own comfort in this world.

主基督總是讓一切都順服在天父的愛中，並與祂合而為一作為目標。這不能藉由純粹的人道主義，純粹「社會導向」的福音解釋來實現。不是我們願意—對塵世的依戀—而失去自己的生命，我們個人的存在理論，我們對世俗的和平與安全的渴望，我們成癮的習慣與社會舒適的態度—為了接受與給予主基督所奉獻的生命……否則，我們只是在傳揚一個非常不同的福音，一個順從我們自己的偏見，與我們自己在這個世界上的舒適感，這樣的福音。

Facing disoriented crowds in the present world, without faith, without Christ, should we limit ourselves to make them “feel good”? Is this really fraternity? Should we proclaim that our purpose is not to get them to know the Truth; that it is rather, to get people of all faiths, and no faith, to feel comfortable with each other? If so, shouldn’t we re-think our answer to our Savior’s question: “What father, when his child hungers for bread, will give him a stone”?

面對當今世人迷失了方向，沒有信仰，沒有主基督，我們是否應該節制自己，為了使他們「感覺舒適」呢？這真的是兄弟情誼嗎？我們是否應該宣稱我們的目的，不是讓他們認識真理；相反地，是讓所有信仰和沒有信仰的人彼此感到舒適呢？如果是這樣，我們難道不應該重新思考一下，我們對救主所提出的問題，所做的回應：「你們中間有那個人，兒子向他求餅，反而給他石頭呢？」（瑪7:9）